“He’s my brother.”
I rolled my eyes. “Go fuck yourselves.”
I walked away. Away from Josh. Away from Dave. Away from Allison. I started in the direction I needed to be headed. Talking time was over.
I thought.
Josh fell in step beside me. “My brother, Dave. He is special. Fell when he was young. Our father dropped him in the driveway when he was a baby. His brain swelled. Had part of his skull cut away. It all healed, but he’s never been the same. He’s not like retarded, but he is special. His mind works a little different. He has trouble figuring out things, or behaving properly. It isn’t his fault. So I just wanted to apologize for the things he’s said so far. He was out of line, but he doesn’t know it. And I don’t hold it against you for not wanting us to join the two of you. I respect that. But before we parted, go our separate ways, I just wanted to apologize.”
I stood there. Chewed on my lips. Contemplated everything this stranger just said to me. Maybe because I didn’t move, Josh felt encouraged to continue. I let him, half listening while I let stuff just sink in. Not just what was being said, but everything. Was like when I closed my eyes and Dave insulted me, only my eyes were open, and I couldn’t hear Dave talking.
“Anyway, thanks for picking us up back there. Good luck finding your kids.” Josh held his hand out.
“I know where they are.”
“Okay.” Josh pulled his hand away. “Take care.”
Josh walked toward his brother. “We ready?”
Dave showed his palms, raised his shoulders. “What? We ain’t going with them?”
“Not this time, Dave.”
“So where we going? I mean, what are we supposed to do now? I dropped my bat somewhere. I think when we crashed. I don’t even have my bat.” Dave walked around in circles, head down, perhaps searching for his lost baseball bat.
I pressed my thumbs against my temples.
“You’re sending them away?” Allison stood beside me.
“Sending them away? They’re free to do whatever they want. This is ridiculous.” I huffed, actually huffed, and through my hands up in surrender. “Alley.”
“Chase.”
My shoulders deflated. “Josh, wait. Wait up.”
The brothers stopped walking. They didn’t turn. They didn’t start back.
I looked at Allison. “I’m not begging them.”
Allison crossed her arms over her chest.
“Really? This falls on me?”
She arched an eyebrow.
“Josh,” I said, wasn’t yelling. If he didn’t hear me, then at least I tried. Alley couldn’t be upset with me for trying. “Why don’t you guys hang out with us for a while?”
Chapter Nineteen
Didn’t take long for the four of us to become thieves.
Traveling close to houses, we kept to the shadows, and at one point, stumbled upon an armory of yard tools. I gave up the hockey stick for a wood handled shovel. Allison stuck the flashlight through a belt loop and retrieved hedge clippers. Josh tucked a hand shovel into each pocket, and carried a hoe like he was an Amazon native armed with a spear. Thing resembled a fireman's halligan bar. Dave went all old school with a four-tined pitchfork.
There was no denying it, try as I might. It did feel safer with the four of us. Perhaps it was the additional weapons. More than likely, it was the two extra men, and Dave being a brick wall at that. It wasn’t that Allison couldn’t handle herself. She was still alive and had proven to me that she could. She’d destroyed the fat zombie that had attacked her from out of the bathroom. No, this was something different. Maybe it was because these two guys didn’t mean as much to me. Didn’t mean I didn’t care, or wouldn’t have their back. Just meant, with Alley, it was different. I was too close.
We didn’t move house to house, hiding behind bushes. Could have. Instead, we stayed close to houses, and walked across yards. Four wide, instead of one behind the other. We started that way. Taking cover behind anything and everything we could find to take cover behind. When we went ten minutes without seeing a single zombie, we got lax. I knew we’d be using our new garden tools soon. Just wasn’t sure when. And relaxed or not, the knot in the pit of my stomach was tied, tight.
My cell phone rang.
We all stopped. I dug it out of my pocket. Hands fumbling. It wasn’t just that I was anxious to answer, the ringing sounded like the Liberty Bell tolling in the silence that enveloped the area.
“Chase, the fuck, man?”
I shot Dave a look that should have said, shut your fucking mouth or I’ll use the blade on this shovel to slice your head off your body and bury it deep up your ass. Must have worked, because he broke eye contact and settled for looking down at the pavement.
It was my daughter. “Char? Charlene?”
“We left the house, Daddy. We had to. Mom, and Donald--they’re sick. They tried to attack us.”
“Where is Cash?”
“Here. He’s with me.” She was sobbing. Her words difficult to understand. The next few words though, I didn’t catch them.
“Honey, what? What was that? Where are you?”
“We hid in the garage. Don came out there,” she said. “He looked crazy. I told him to stay away. I put Cash behind me. I was protecting him.”
“You’re an awesome sister, Char.”
“But he wouldn’t stop. He kept coming at us. I hurt him,” she said.
Can’t deny it. A bit of pride swelled inside me. Think my chest protruded some to show it, too. “It’s okay, honey. These things -- they aren’t human. Not anymore. Where are you guys now?”
“I chopped off his hand, Daddy. I used an ax. It was his. It was leaning against the wall. I used it to chop off his hand.”
I couldn’t imagine. It had to have been a nightmare. She was a kid. Fourteen. Chopping off a hand would disturb me, and I’m as fucked up as they come. “You had to, Charlene. To protect yourself. It’s okay. Are you okay?”
A few seconds of sniffling. “I’m--”
The line went dead. “Charlene? Charlene?”
I looked at the phone. Call was dropped. Towers are either working quadruple time or sporadically. And the green bar at the top of the display let me know the phone was not going to last much longer. I should have stopped home; at least I could have thrown some things, including my charger into a backpack.
I redialed her number. Fast busy signal. I disconnected the call. Tried again. Fast busy. I almost threw my phone. Took tons of strength not to. It was the only means of contact with my kids at this point. That single thought kept me from smashing the palm-sized piece of plastic onto the pavement.
Allison had a hand on my shoulder. Might have been there the whole time. “They’re not there?”
“They ran. Char and Cash took off. My fucking ex and her husband attacked them.” I shook my head. I thought it would be easy to say, that the pride I’d felt would make me want to tell everyone, but the words were trapped in my throat, and sobs of my own sat on top of them. “She used an ax on the guy. Cut off his hand.”
“Where did they go?”
“She didn’t get to tell me,” I said. I swallowed it. All of it. There’d be a time for it, later. Now was not that time. “We’re still going to the house. I need to see what’s happened.”
“You think that’s best? We know they are not there.” Allison’s eyes stared into mine, like she was trying to figure out my motivation for still going to my ex’s if the kids were no longer there.
“We’re not going anywhere right now, guys.” Josh stared straight ahead. A motley crue looking group, a gang of people, filled the streets down near Maiden Lane. It intersected Mt. Read. A gas station, a vacant gas station, a Rite Aid and a small Greek restaurant occupied the four corners. “They’re coming this way.”
“Slow, jagged movement,” Allison said. “Zombies.”