Rotten (30 page)

“Shameful,” one of the plastic women said with a stern expression.  “And at a memorial.”  She crossed her legs, which seemed to glisten under the lights, and her short skirt shifted higher.  “Just shameful.” 

“Well, in other news,” the camera focused on the face of a man with a wide jaw and unnaturally white teeth, “a sink hole opened last night in a little burg in South Carolina outside of the Blacksport area that had that horrible earthquake two weeks ago.”

“Yes,” the camera shifted to the other woman, a brunette with a widow’s peak and way too much make-up, “that was so tragic.  Was that only two weeks ago?  It seems so long ago, so much has happened.”

“I know what you mean,” the camera moved back to the man, “but yes, it was eleven days ago.  An estimated one hundred thousand passed in the disaster.  The experts have been warning that the ground isn’t stable there, and just last night they had another earthquake and this sinkhole opened up in a farmer’s field.  Just look at that thing.”  The footage showed a completely circular hole in the middle of a fenced field, the sides were smooth and it looked like a machine had bored it out, and I guess, given the circumstance of what came out of the hole, some type of machine had bored it.  “So law enforcement is warning once again to stay out of the Blacksport and Freemont area.”

The camera shifted back to the shameful blonde in the short skirt.  “Next up is the viral footage of a cat chasing off a bear in an Atlanta neighborhood and we will have some experts really dig into what caused Miranda Yule and Kenston Blair to go at it on the red carpet.”

“And in the next hour,” the camera shifted to the widow’s peak, “we’ll be cooking and teaching you how to make the perfect Christmas cookie.” 

“Fade and drug commercial,” Rotten said.

“Do you not feel as young as you used to?”  An announcer man said and a sad man appeared on the screen.

Rotten picked up the remote and clicked it off just as the announcer was telling us to ask our doctor about a new pill.  “Same as it ever was.” 

“How are we supposed to live now?”  Princess walked over to the glass, stared out at the water for a moment, and then turned to us.  “How are we supposed to be normal?  I wasn’t normal before this and I’m far from that small balance I used to maintain.  How am I supposed to go out in the world never knowing if I am talking to a robot or a zombie might appear at any second?  How can we go back to our lives when there are alien undead zombie fucking gods in giant spaceships turning people into monsters?  How am I supposed to carry on a conversation with someone about anything when I know it’s all fake and all a lie?” 

“I saw a lady yesterday in one of those towns we passed through and she was walking across a parking lot in high heels and all I could think was, oh my god, she can’t run in those things, she’s going to die,” I said. 

“This whole experience has changed us, there is no doubting that.”  Mrs. Williams lifted the coffee cup to her lips and took a sip.  “And it’s even hard for me to see the bright side of things.  Twice this morning I panicked because I wasn’t wearing my holster.”

“It’s a mind-fuck, sorry kids, sorry Mrs. Williams, Connie, but I can’t think of a more appropriate word, our minds have been broken.”  Moonshine walked to the glass and looked out at the beach.  “There’re people out there, just walking like it’s the safest place in the world, and for all we know it may be, the problem is none of us are ever going to feel safe again.”

“I keep finding myself wondering if it really happened or if it was some group hallucination.  I know it happened, mind you, but part of my mind wants to push it all away and forget.”  Sully poured a shot of whiskey in his coffee.

“I know it happened, I shot our parents, that’s not something you can pretend didn’t happen.  No disrespect, Sully,” Rebekah said, “but I don’t want to forget, I want to hunt down the men in black and kill them and their alien gods.”

“Me, too,” Will said.  “They lined us up like a bunch of dogs and shot us.  It was a miracle I survived and no one will ever know what happened.  No one will go to prison for killing my dad or any of those other people, and what’s to stop them from doing it again or coming after us?”  Will looked at Rebekah and Sarah sitting beside him on the couch.  “We’re all orphans now because of this thing.  What are we supposed to do?  Go out in the world and turn ourselves over to an orphanage?  Let them find us new parents?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Princess said.  “I would never let that happen to you.” 

“She’s right, Will,” Mrs. Williams said.  “You’re staying with us, no matter what.”

“And how are we going to do that in this world?  Is Highland going to turn us all into new people and get us new names?  I’m with Princess, I don’t know how we’re supposed to live out there like normal people.”

“Well, we don’t have to make a decision now.  I have found when I encounter a huge problem it is important to focus on the little things and the most immediate needs.”  Mrs. William drained the coffee cup, set it on the table, and stood.  “We need to go shopping.  We need food, we all need clothes, and no matter what else is going on right now, acquiring food and clothes is a necessity.  I also think it will be good for us to go back out in the world, be with normal people, doing normal things before we decide we can never be like them.  Who would like to help?”

“I want to go shopping,” Sarah said.

“I’ll go, sounds like just what we need.”  Connie forced a smile.

“I’ll go.” Rebekah pulled her sister from the couch. 

Princess and I looked at each other.  “We’ll go.”

“Come on, Moon Man, come with us,” she said.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll go,” he said.

“Anyone else?”  Mrs. Williams picked up a list from the counter and handed it to Princess.  “If you’ll shop for the groceries, we’ll get the clothes.  I’ll need everyone’s sizes.” 

The others chose to stay at the house and said they’d wait for our report.  Princess, Moonshine, and I took the sedan to the closest grocery store that we found on the maps left in the rental and pulled into the full parking lot. The grocery store was your typical corporate monstrosity located in a large strip mall that blended both well-known big box names, with independent surf shops and gifts stores, and as there were just three days until Christmas it seemed every person in a fifty mile radius was completing their lists.

“This will be like shock therapy for being normal again.”  Princess grabbed a cart from the corral as we passed.  “Grab another,” she said over her shoulder. 

Moonshine pulled out a cart.  “So a blonde, an Asian, and a black walk into a store,” he said, as we followed her toward the automatic doors. 

I literally jumped when the doors swept open and Moonshine looked down at me.  “Robots,” I explained. “Automatic anything is never going to be the same again.”

He nodded.

A big blast of warm air flowed over us as we moved from the one door, across the area where the shopping carts were stored and kids cried in front of metal machinery holding gumballs, candy, toys, and temporary tattoos, and through the next automatic door into the store.  “I never knew it could be so stressful walking in a grocery store,” Moonshine said. 

“I thought about tearing the list in half and splitting up, but I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Princess said, heading toward the produce section, avoiding oncoming traffic, and looking at the list.  “Okay, we need apples, potatoes, onions, broccoli, celery, cranberries, spinach, and green beans.”  She grabbed a bag of apples, Moonshine went for the potatoes, and I headed to a mound of green beans. 

As I was stuffing the beans in a bag I felt I was being watched and glanced over to see that an older lady had stopped, blocking the flow of shoppers, and was staring at me with her mouth slack.  I smiled and nodded as you do when encountering strangers in stores during the Christmas season, and she did not respond.  She neither smiled, nor averted her eyes and continued to glare.  I turned, finished my task, and glanced back at her.  She was still gawking.  I pushed the cart forward, grabbed a couple bunches of broccoli, and when I glanced back the ogling woman had moved on.  I breathed a sigh of relief and caught up with Moonshine and Princess.

“Meat,” Princess said over her shoulder, as we moved our carts forward in a single file line.  “Two turkeys, pork chops, ground beef, chicken breasts, and a couple roasts.” 

“I’ll get the turkeys.”  Moonshine wandered off into the crowd.

I grabbed several packs of pork chops and ten pounds of ground beef, and then Moonshine returned with the turkeys, dropping them in my cart.  “Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose?”

I looked up at him and shook my head.

“Do I look funny somehow?”

“No, why?”

“Dude was staring at me like he’d never seen anything like me, with his mouth open and this blank expression.”  He shook his head.

“I had a lady doing the same to me, weird.”  I was ready to go and we’d only just started on the long list. 

We worked our way through the store and I noticed a couple other people who just stopped what they were doing and gawked at us.  I looked us over, we appeared normal, and there was no blood, guts, or zombie juice dripping off of us.  We’d left our duct tape super hero costumes at the cabin, and were not carrying any weapons.  We were all dressed similarly in sweaters, flannel, and jeans, just like most of the shoppers we encountered, and as far as I could tell there was no reason that we should draw such strange attention.  Not all customers looked at us or acknowledged us in any way, though, and most seemed preoccupied with whatever was on the screen of their cell phones or keeping up with their children. 

We reached the end of the store where the dairy products were kept, and I was staring in the freezer with the door open trying to decide between chocolate chip and cookie dough ice cream, and finally deciding on both I shut the door and nearly jumped out of my skin.  A woman was standing on the other side of the frosted glass with her mouth open and expression blank.  “Excuse me,” I said and tried to get around her, but she didn’t move, it was almost as if she was in a trance.  I was wedged in as another customer was trying to pass, and the woman continued to glare, and for a moment I felt like the fifty deadheads back on the street in Arlington were surrounding me. 

Finally, whatever held the woman captive, let go, and she went back to her shopping as though nothing had happened.  I glanced over at Princess and Moonshine and knew that they had witnessed the event.  “Is that everything?”

“Yeah, lets get out of here.” Moonshine grabbed my cart and began pushing it quickly to the checkout.  While waiting impatiently for the cashier to ring up two full carts it happened a couple more times, a woman at the next lane over stopped mid swipe with her credit card in her hand, and a bag boy froze as he was handing groceries to a customer.  The customer didn’t really seem to notice the lag time and took the bag without a second glance.  By the time we made it out into the busy parking lot, and then nearly got hit by a car, we were in survival mode. 

“What the hell was that all about?”  Princess pushed the cart aggressively toward the sedan parked in the far lot.  “I’m used to people looking at me funny, hell, the dreads got stares all the time, but I have never experienced anything like that except this last week in Arlington.”  She stopped abruptly three cars away from ours.  “Are they zombies?  Are they about to zombie out?” 

“Come on.”  Moon took the buggy and finished the distance to the car.  He opened the trunk and began tossing things in haphazardly and Princess grabbed the eggs before he tossed them.  “Let’s move.”

We left the carts in the lot, and although I thought about returning them to the handy corral, all I could think of was how far the walk was and how exposed and unprepared we were for an attack.   With audible sighs of relief we climbed in the car and locked the doors. 

“Did they see something in us?  We’ve been talking about how we have been changed, have we changed so much that other people see it in us?”  He backed out of the space, pulling through the lot as quickly as he could without causing an accident.  We rushed home hoping to share our experience with the others, but everyone was gone except Sully who sat on the deck wearing a coat against the chill and reading a book, a bottle of whiskey on the table beside him.