And This Too: A Modern Fable (7 page)

             
“What in the hell?” Harley asked the sky.

             
Allie unsheathed her katana, a Japanese fighting sword, from its place on her back. She hollered as she ran at the nearest walker.

             
Kurt pointed his gun and pulled the trigger. Zombie mush was left where a head once was. Harley grabbed the handgun from the dash and opened the door, not bothering to close it. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. The girl boldly walked up to the nearest zombie, put the muzzle to its head and shot.

             
Allie was slashing at the fiends as Kurt blew heads off, and Harley blindly shot into the crowd.

             
Seven down, three to go. That’s when a certain feline decided that he needed to be a part of the action and hopped into the street. Harley turned, looking for the next zombie to go down and saw Pix run across the pavement.

             
“Pix?”

             
The cat stopped, looked at Harley, and meowed questioningly.

             
“Pixel,” Harley whimpered, stepping closer to the cat. “Come here baby.”

             
The cat stretched and yawned before heading towards the undeads.

             
All killing had come to a stop, the infected were still wobbling around Main Street, but no one made a move to shoot anything.

             
Pixel kept continued strolling in the opposite direction.

             
“Pixel!”

             
Harley started to chase after the cat, but that only steered him closer to the remaining walkers. The girl froze in place. Allie turned and stabbed a nearby forehead.

             
“Do they eat cats?” Kurt asked Allie from across the street.

             
Allie shrugged her shoulders, eyes wide in anticipation.

             
“Pixel,” Harley moaned as a couple of tears ran down her face, “no baby, come here.”

             
The three of them watched in astonishment as the cat curiously went up to one of the walkers who was standing in place wavering back and forth, and sniffed the infected man's leg. The cat wrinkled his nose at the smell of decay and began to trot away when the infected man snatched Pixel up with surprising speed and shoved the unsuspecting feline in his mouth.

             
“
NO!
” Harley cried, dropping to her knees.

             
The stand still was over, Kurt shot the remaining infected Sandy's Beach Bodies as Allie ran over to Harley and tried to help her stand up. It took both Kurt and Allie to get Harley up to their third floor apartment.

*****

Washington D.C.

             
President Abernathy paced in his chambers. He was almost relieved to be president and single. He was young, barely thirty seven and had once told the press when they questioned his love life, “I don’t need a woman; I am married to my country.” The comment had completely squelched the rumors of him being untrustworthy or distracted by the lures of single life. But, now he faced the troubling knowledge of having been lied to by the government that he was supposed to be running.

             
He paused in front of a gold framed mirror and looked himself in the eye.

             
“William Abernathy, what the hell is going on here?” he demanded from the mirror before pacing some more. “The country lies in ruins, and it’s entirely my fault,” he muttered. He stopped and looked at the open door. People would think him crazy if the press caught wind of President Abernathy talking to himself. The thought made him laugh out loud.

    “What
press
?” he chortled, continuing to pace.

             
“It wasn’t your fault, Billy.”

             
President Abernathy turned and looked at the door. There she was his beautiful Vice President, Linda Marilyn Marx. They had been best friends since high school, when she was the captain of the debate team and he on the honor roll and taking mostly business classes, even as a sophomore. Linda was leaning on the doorframe, looking at him. Her dark skin was set off by a white T-shirt and complemented by her dark blue jeans.

             
“What wasn’t my fault?” Bill asked, pretending not to know.

             
“The Save-a-Con project mishap.”

             
“You-you knew too?” he stuttered, feeling his heart break for a second time that day.

             
“Not until today,” she replied, stepping into the presidential chambers. “Not until I overheard you reaming those goons. I asked that scumbag Melbourne what happened. I know you too well to think that you didn’t have a reason for trying to throw out those hooligans...although a few of them haven't left yet.”

             
President Abernathy hung his head, shaking it a little. “You know how I found out?”             

             
“Craving for chocolate lava cake?”

             
The broken man glanced up at the beauty before him.

             
Linda smiled. “I know you too well, don’t I?” She cooed.

             
Bill nodded.

             
“Chef Dubois is making some right now. Come share with me?”

             
The two walked down the hallway, feeling as if the world wasn't falling apart. Why would they? There was top notch security, and all the people that they cared most about were with them. Bill’s mother, father, and twin older brothers shared one wing of the White House. The President and his family had been the only ones living in the White House until very recently. The VP and other government officials were asked to move in after the outbreak. President Abernathy felt that it was important to keep his friends close during this trying time. Linda had her aunt Katy, Uncle Marvin, and their daughter, Nina, living in the same wing as herself. The other rooms were occupied by the other government employees like Mike Ward, the treasurer, and Donald Zor, the head of national security.

             
President Abernathy, walking with the one woman whom made him truly happy, ceased pondering about the troubled existence outside. He had cake to eat.

*****

              As Linda and Bill chased their cake with glasses of milk, Bill began to wonder something.

             
“You promise me you didn’t know?”

             
“Didn’t know what, Bill?”

             
“About the Save-a-Convict scam.”

             
“Yes, Bill, I promise you that I didn’t know. I would never have let a scandal like
that
go on behind your back.” She replied, taking another slice of cake.

             
President Abernathy felt as though a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

             
“What we need to do,” Linda said, swallowing her cake, “is make a plan to save this shit-hole that we are supposed to be running.”

             
President Abernathy eagerly nodded in agreement. “But how Linda?” He pondered. “We don’t even know if there are any survivors.”

             
“What we need, is a police radio, a plan and some hope.”

Six

Harley sobbed upstairs in the comfort of the apartment as Allie made breakfast.

              “My poor, poor ba
by
!” She howled. “Pixel was all I had.”

             
“You have
us
now,” Kurt responded, trying to put a consoling arm around her shoulder.

             
Harley shrugged away the boy's rogue limb, stood and went to the window. “Yeah,” she whispered, looking at the spot where her cat had been devoured.

             
“We need to get your car started again,” Allie said quietly. “Do you have any more gas?”

             
“Tons,” Harley replied bleakly. “I just couldn’t get out to refill my tank yesterday.”

             
Allie snorted. She was cooking over an improvised barbeque made from a large coffee tin and a cooling rack.

             
“Smells good,” Harley sighed.

             
Kurt crossed to the wall where his katana was leaning. In a bout of nervous anticipation, the boy began to sharpen the blade.

             
Harley sighed again before looking in Allie’s direction sarcastically mumbling, “Curiosity killed the cat…”

             
Allie looked up from roasting canned wieners. “Harles,” She started gently, trying to think of the right words to say. “I know it sounds harsh, but you can’t let it get to you.”

             
“Can’t let it get to me?!” Harley shouted, glaring at Allie. “
Can’t
let it
get
to me!”

             
“Harl-”

             
“What would you do if one of them ate
Kurt
?” The girl spat, taking a step forward. “What would you do if my guts were stewing in the belly of some… some
monster
? Would you fuckin’ be okay with it?
Would you!?
”

             
Allie lowered her gaze to the sausages. Kurt stepped forward and tried to grab Harley by the waist.

             
“I'm sorry Harles.” Allie muttered.

             
Harley’s knees gave way and she fell into Kurt’s chest, sobbing. The boy’s heart rate began to rise. “C’mon,” he whispered, leading her back to the couch. “Why don’t you lie down?”

             
The distraught girl turned away from Kurt and began wailing into a pillow.

             
“Look Harles,” he said gently, wondering whether or not he could get away with stroking her hair. “What Aunt Allie
meant
was that we have to keep on chugging. We have to make a plan and find someplace where we can be safe.” He paused before adding, “A place where silly girls won’t go makin’ a bunch of noise, driving their stolen cars all over zombies.”

             
Harley tried to chuckle, and soon they were all laughing, even though the journey ahead would be bleak.

*****

Derby, Oregon

             
The infestation wasn’t getting any worse, but it wasn’t getting any better either. Fehny and Martin were comfortable in their house, despite their dwindling food supply, and they worried about their ‘baby’ constantly. The nights were taking a toll on their health; it seemed like it had been much longer than three days since the infection had crippled their state. No one had warned them that the tireless moans of the Derby Deads would wear on a person’s spirit the way long fingernails on an old chalkboard wear on the nerves.

             
Martin wrapped his arm around Fehny’s shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

             
“What are you thinking about?” He asked quietly.

             
“Harley.” Fehny stared at the boarded up window. “What if she didn’t make it to Sandy’s Beach?” She thought out loud, trying not to imagine her daughter falling prey to the infected. “What if she ran out of ammunition?” Fehny blinked and turned her gaze to Martin. “What if we never see her again?”

             
Martin sighed. The possibilities that this New World “Order” posed scared him so much that he hadn't had a decent sleep in days. “Our Harles, if we raised her the way we assume we did, will do just fine,” he replied. “Don’t worry about that
now
, Fehn-fehn. Let’s just make sure that we survive the Derby Deads; Harley can take care of herself.”

             
“I really hope so.” Then she paused and shivered with worry, “What about Tsgumi?”

*****

              Harley was sleeping in the back seat as Allie drove. Kurt was caressing one of his revolvers.

             
“Why do you do that, kiddo?” Allie asked, glancing at him, concern veiling her face.

             
“Because these tools are the only protection we have,” Kurt grumbled.

             
The three of them had packed up the portable items from the apartment and went on a small looting excursion at
The Reel Deel: Fishing and Hunting Accessories
, before leaving Sandy’s Beach behind. They had enough ammunition to carry them past Derby.