He looked at me in horror, like I had just said his mom had a big ass or something.
“Follow me,” he ordered.
So I did. Picking up the rifle, I followed him into Target. He’d taken over the customer service desk for what looked like a major gun-cleaning operation. The counter was covered with a white towel and on the towel were various brushes, rags, and bottles of some kind of oil. Next to the brushes was a loose piece of paper with what looked like a checklist neatly printed in black marker. The page had been laminated and, judging by the curling edges, it had been around the block.
I sat down across from him and watched him meticulously realign everything. “So, Puri,” I started.
“Call me Seth.”
“Okay, Seth. What do I need to do?” Looking back, I would regret that question.
He proceeded to hold up his sixteen item checklist and provided me with a detailed explanation of each step. After he demonstrated how to field strip the rifle, I had to repeat the process back to him three times before he was satisfied. At least he didn’t time me or ask me to do it blindfolded. I noticed he kept winding his watch. In fact, even when he wasn’t winding it, his thumb absentmindedly stroked the face.
“That’s a nice watch.” I gestured at the timepiece. The design was simple, but elegant. A shiny steel band encircled his wrist, looking as flawless as the day it was purchased. Its black dial stood out against the band, and the face housed three smaller dials. The glass was clean and free of scratches. By the pristine condition of the item, it was clear it was more than just a watch to Seth.
“Yeah,” he sighed, “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.” His eyes fell on the watch, and he got this far away look in his eyes. There was an awkward few seconds of silence before he shook his head a little bit and came back to the present.
“It’s an Omega Speedmaster. My dad got it in the sixties when he was in the Navy, and I inherited it when he passed a few years back.” He let the statement hang in the air for a few seconds before motioning for me to continue stripping the rifle.
For three hours we sat there stripping, cleaning, and reassembling the weapon before he was confident I could do it on my own. A few times the conversation steered into the danger zone of loved ones and he would abruptly change the subject. I decided I liked him. His rank was Chief Warrant Officer W-5, which didn’t mean a damn thing to me. The only thing I needed to know was that he was able to fly the helicopter.
Chapter 15
This is Jeopardy
Nursing a sore shoulder, I sat on the patch of grass next to the card table and began to think about Jake again. The wandering corpses had begun to thin out and I wondered if they were migrating elsewhere or if someone else was killing them. I knew they hadn’t begun dying off from decay because the ones that wandered into our vicinity looked like they had gone through a meat grinder. The air had a constant rancid odor that I suspected would only get worse as the days passed. Through my rifle’s scope, I got an up close and personal view of the maggot riddled corpses. What I first thought to be the heat creating a rippling effect in the air turned out to be millions of maggots infesting the undead. They writhed in open wounds and fell out in clumps as the zombies moved.
They were still slow and shambling, but their movements had taken on a stiff appearance. We had learned about the rate of decay in nursing school. There were two distinct steps in the process: Autolysis and Putrefaction. In Autolysis, the body’s enzymes start to digest themselves. Extreme temperatures affected this stage. In our situation, the heat would be speeding this up.
Putrefaction was the gross part. Bacteria from the intestinal tract is released and starts liquefying the body. It was easy to distinguish newly reanimated from the original bunch if you knew what to look for. Newer zombies were bloated and their skin took on a green complexion. Their eyes bulged and tongues protruded from the buildup of gas.
Corpses more than a few days old, however, showed significantly more decomposition. Their skin became marbled and blistered. Hair began to fall out. As the putrefaction continued, a greenish-black liquid oozed from their mouth and nose and any other orifice. The pressure of the gas would cause eruptions in the skin to create another opening for the liquid to escape. The science geek in me knew that the brain would eventually liquefy. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how long that would take or if it would even solve our zombie problem.
The depths of random stuff I thought about to take my mind off Jake’s absence never ceased to amaze me. I bet I could make a killing on Jeopardy, assuming Alex Trebek wasn’t roaming the streets as a mindless shuffler. There’s got to be some irony in there. I may never be on Jeopardy, but I definitely spent a lot of time in jeopardy.
Adam brought lunch out to me and I picked at it. I had no appetite and my stomach was in knots. Gabby had taken Daphne into the store and was no doubt chasing her around and giving her a good workout. “He’ll be okay, Emma. He’s got a good team at his back.”
“I know. It’s just that… I’ve been beyond the walls. It was bad out there. I know I don’t need to tell you that.”
He got a far off look in his eye, no doubt remembering his own personal experience of the outbreak. “You just need to find something to take your mind off it. A watched pot never boils, and all that shit.”
I feel bad for what I did next. I set him up and knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of it. “Are you willing to help me find something to take my mind off of it?”
“Anything, just name it.” Poor guy had no idea what was coming. I couldn’t turn back now.
And then I dropped the bomb. “Tell me about Janelle, and what happened during the first days of the outbreak.”
The mere mention of her name made him shudder. I knew he had been suppressing his feelings, still in denial about his family. The far off look returned and he began reciting his story. “I met Lany when I was twenty-three. We had moved in together after a month and were married after three. A year later, Janelle was born. Lany got really depressed after that. I didn’t realize how far apart we grew until she left for grocery shopping and never came back. Janelle was only a year old. Divorce papers were delivered a week later. At least I knew she was still alive.
“My neighbor, Sadie, watched Janelle at night so I could work. By the time my shift ended, I worked nights doing security for the Baker Museum in Naples, this thing was already out of control. It took me three hours to get home. Alive and dead people were all over the streets. Had it not been for the brute force of my truck, I wouldn’t have gotten out of a few nasty run-ins. I tried calling Sadie over and over, but it just went to voice mail. My condo complex was infested with them. It’s the first time I ever used my gun on anything but paper targets.”
He took a deep breath, stealing himself to utter what came next. I put my hand over his for support and waited until he was ready to begin.
“When I got to my neighbor’s door it was open, hanging from its hinges like someone had kicked it in. Bloody hand-prints smeared the white door and hallway leading into the living room. The unit was empty except for more blood than I had ever seen. It trailed through the apartment like someone had been dragged, or had been dragging themselves, all the way to the back door that faced the courtyard. The back door stood open too, and I could see my neighbor’s half eaten body as she propelled herself with her arms away from me. I looked down and saw a tiny figure in the pool. I knew right away that it was Janelle. Her favorite teddy bear was floating next to her. She was still wearing her Barney nightgown, and she was floating face down in the water.