All That I See - 02 (27 page)

I was still unarmed, so I wasn’t going in there yet. I would deliver the medicine then see what I could do to help the person or persons inside. I reasoned that there must have been at least one woman in there.

There was a thump against my window. I looked over, and an infected man was pressing his face against it, leaving a wet smear. Another joined him. Others walked past the truck on their way to the stopped car ahead, briefl
y illuminated as they walked in
then out, of my headlight beams. I continued on down the ramp then north to the deliver the medicine.

When I pulled up, I was surprised to see
Ellen
standing outside the door smoking. She stepped on her cigarette and pointed her shotgun at me until I turned out
t
he head
lights and she was sure it was me
.

“You’re a brave woman,” I said when I got out. “Aren’t you concerned about one of them things sneaking up on you out here in the dark?”

“We’ve got a moon tonight,” she said. “I can see.”

“I got the medicine,” I said. “Where is Dr. Barr?”

“In there with the councilman,” she said.

“Did the garlic work at all?” I asked as I stepped past her to the door to the apartment.

“He hasn’t gotten any worse,” she said, “but he hasn’t gotten any better either.”

I went in and found Dr. Barr changing the bandage on Mr. Somerville’s shoulder.

“I got what you wanted,” I said. “I found it on the pediatric floor. Will that be okay?”

“It’ll be fine,” he said. “I’m guessing the antibiotic is in powdered form?”

“One of them is,” I said.

“Children have trouble swallowing pills, so the pharmacist will mix the powder in liquid. It might be better for him that way. Did you get more I.V. bags?”

“Yeah,” I said, “and tubing, needles, bandages…all of it.”

“Good. Any trouble? You were gone a while.”

“No more than usual.”

He took the purse and started pulling out the items.

“I need a gun,” I said.

“I’ve already told you—“

“There is someone trapped in a car on the parkway,” I said. “I don’t want to leave them there surrounded like that.”

“Surrounded?”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” he said, “if they are surrounded, I can’t see how a gun and a few bullets will do much good.”

“I’m going back to help them,” I said.

He sighed, “When I cut you loo
se, it was with the understanding that you would help me.”

“But you’re a doctor,” I said. “Don’t you feel the need to help them?”

“Don’t try to guilt me into anything,” he said. “I seem to recall you refusing to help people and then outright hurting others, even taking lives.”

“I think it’s a woman, if that makes a difference to you,” I said.

“You think?”

“I’ve never seen zombies surround men like this. I think it has to do with their menstrual cycle…pheromones and all that.”

“Hmm. Interesting theory. I hadn’t noticed anything like that,” he said obviously intrigued.

“I know your group has been searching for young women,” I said. “I know you wanted Jen, and I know that is why you almost killed me trying to get Sara—“

“I had no part in that,” he said, raising a finger.

“I think you did,” I said. “Maybe not directly, but you had a part.”

He frowned at me, “Are you questioning my ethics?”

“Your motives are what they are,” I said. “But let
’
s not lie to ourselves, okay? You say I’m a killer, and you’re right. I have killed. I felt justified at the time, but I’m not going to say I’m innocent. I don’t know your reasons for searching out young women, but I wasn’t born yesterday…I can guess.”

“They are our only hope of survival as a species,” he said.

“Whatever,” I said. “I don’t care what your reasons are, I just need a gun to go help one of them.”

He sighed again, lo
oked down at the floor a moment
then looked up at me.

“You bring her here,” he said. “I should examine her anyway…just in case. But understand me: she’ll be mine.”

“Sorry? Yours?”

He came in close. “Of the two of us, I am obviously best suited, genetically speaking, to impregnate her.”

I was speechless.

“I mean no disrespect to you,” he said. “You are obviously a smart man, and you’ve been able to survive all this time on your own, but…look at me and look at you.”

I still didn’t know what to say.

“If the new woman suits me, I might be willing to share
Ellen
with you. She’s been good to have around to take the edge off, and I’m sure she’ll help in other ways, but she’s well past her prime.”

“And if I don’t bring her back here?”

“The councilman might not survive without my care,” he said. “He’s sort of a burden now, anyway. I could refuse to treat him. Besides, you owe me.”

I stared at him.

“Take
Ellen
’s gun,” he said.

I stared at him a little longer then turned and walked out. I ran into
Ellen
. She’d been standing in the living room area out of view listening to our conversation. She and I made eye contact in the candlelight. She pulled her shoulders back and stood tall. She looked proud and angry and hurt all at the same time. She presented me with the shotgun, and I took it. We didn’t say a word.

“Send
Ellen
in here on your way out,” Dr. Barr called out from the other room. “Tell her I said to give you the shotgun.”

Ellen
raised a finger to her mouth to tell me not to speak. I nodded and stepped past her to the door. I looked back and she was still standing in the same spot. I went outside to the truck. I put the shotgun inside, and I was about to get in myself, when I heard the door to the apartment open.
Ellen
followed me out. I pause before climbing in to see what she had to say. She stopped by the front bumper.

“You keep trying to tell me that you aren’t the man they say you are.”

I didn’t reply. What more could I say on the subject? The only way she would know who I was would be to spend time with me.

“If there is a woman in that car
,
don’t bring her back here,” she said.

“But Mr. Somerville—“

“The councilman will be fine,” she said. “I’ll make sure of that.”

“If I come back empty-handed—“

“Don’t come back at all.”

I stepped around the door to come closer to her. She took a step back.

“I’m not property,” she said. “I’ll not be shared and passed around anymore. As much as I would love a reprieve, I don’t want to see it happen to someone else either. So, with or without her, don’t come back.”

“
Ellen
, I’m not like that.“

“I don’t care,” she said.

“Okay,” I agreed. “But don’t let him hurt Mr. Somerville.”

“Travis is a wuss,” she said. “He’s not going to do anything.”

“In that case, why not come with me?”

She gave me a derisive laugh, “Why the hell would I want to do that? No. As soon as I’m in a position to do so, I’m going off on my own. I’m done with all of you.”

I stared at her a moment.

“Okay,” I said. “If you change your mind, find a phone book and look up the address for Lassiter Stables. We stay there sometimes.” 

“I won’t change my mind,” she said.

I climbed in the truck.

“By the way,” she said before going inside. “That shotgun only has one shell. Better make it count.”

Chapter 32

I thought about the whole situation as I drove back toward the parkway. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Somerville there by himself, but I knew I didn’t want to bring anyone else back there either. Really, all I wanted to do was find Sara. I planned to drive out to the stables, and I hoped I would find her waiting for me there.

But first there was the matter of the surrounded car.

I pulled up the off ramp heading the wrong way again. The car was over in the far lane around a quarter of a mile up the road, and there were two more lanes and a median between us. There were so many creatures around the car, there would be no way to just go in like I was. I would need to do something similar to Willy Rupe’s group and go in with a bulldozer or something big like that.

I sighed and looked at my wrist. At one time, a watch had been there. I laughed a little when I saw the bracelet from the handcuffs. I was hungry and thirsty. So I decided to get something to eat and think about my next course of action.

I did a U-turn and got back on the highway. There was a gas station up the road, and I thought I could find myself a snack. Pulling up close to the front of the building so my headlights would shine in, I left the engine running, and went inside.

The place had already been looted, but as in most lootings, they didn’t take everything. I got a can of Coke, two packages of those little powdered donut gems (one of them had been stepped on), and
a
snack-sized bag of peanuts. I got a couple of those small key-chain flashlights. I took it out to the truck to eat.

The Coke was warm and the donuts were stale. Only one of the flashlights worked.

I looked back toward the parkway as I licked the crumbs out of the donut package. I would have plenty of energy very soon, as soon as all the sugar and caffeine kicked in, but I still didn’t know what I would do to make use of it.

I opened my package of peanuts. Then I nearly jumped out of
my
skin when someone slapped the passenger side window. I looked over, expecting it to be an infected person, and saw a healthy woman standing there.

“Let me in!” she yelled through the glass.

I flipped the switch on my door and the door lock went up. She opened the door and climbed in. She was holding a pistol, and she pointed it at me.

“Sorry about the gun, but I don’t know you,” she said, out of breath.

She was in her early to mid-twenties. She was
homely-looking
and
obese
. Her clothes—a yellow sweatshirt and jeans—were dirty and torn. It looked like she’d cut her own
greasy, brown hair recently; it
was uneven. She was wearing glasses but the lens was missing from the right eye.

“I don’t mind you having it, just don’t point it at me,” I said.

“I need your help,” she said. “My friends are trapped in a car over there and—“

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s why I’m here, but I’m not really sure how I can help.”

“They’ve been in there since this morning,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”

“How did you manage to get out?”

“I had to pee,” she said. “That’s why we stopped. Then I had to run to get away from one, and then Shawn tried to help me, and they got him, and I tried to help him, but I couldn’t, and--”

“How many are in there?”

“
Cassy and Rodney are left in there.”

“Do they have weapons?”

She held up the pistol, “This is it.”

She started crying and made no pretense to be doing anything else. Her face screwed up and the tears and snot flowed. I’d never seen an adult blubber like that so openly, except maybe Lucille Ball in those old
I Love Lucy
episodes—certainly no one in real life. She looked me square in the face while snot bubbles popped in her nostrils and was more like a toddler than a fully grown woman. I didn’t know what to do. I would look away, but every time I looked back, she was still staring at me bawling.

“It’s…It’s going to be okay,” I said, reaching over to pat her arm.

“Don’t you touch me!” she yelled, her expression instantly switching to anger.

I pulled my hand away. The tears stopped for a moment as she regarded me in silence. Then she came at me, scooting across the seat. I was unprepared for it and jerked back in surprise. She put her head on my chest, and the bawling started up again. I froze there looking down at the top of her head. Her hair smelled soured. Hesitantly, I put my hand
on
her back and gently patted her.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Bern,” she said through her wailing.

“Did you say Fern?”

She stopped crying and raised up to look me in the face.

“Bern. It’s short for Bernie and that’s short for Bernice. It was my grandmother’s name—my maternal grandmother. My dad called me Bernie, but my friends call me Bern. My friend Jason used to call me B.B.
,
but that’s a long story.”

“Bern,” I repeated.

She sniffed then wiped her nose on her sleeve.