Z14 (Zombie Rules) (30 page)

             
“I guess I’ve got to speak to him sooner or later, may as well be now.” We went inside and I sat in front of the radio.

             
“Go ahead, Captain.” I said into the microphone.

             
“Well, there you are. Is there a reason why you’ve been avoiding me Zach? Perhaps you’ve done something wrong toward me?” His tone was unfriendly, condescending.

             
“On the contrary, it is you who has done me a terrible wrong. Quite frankly, I have nothing to say to you, nor do I care to speak to you anymore.”

             
“You killed two of my men you fucking ungrateful punk.” He growled.

             
“They were planning to ambush me, you pompous ass.” I responded.

             
“I had nothing to do with that.”

             
“Your men, your responsibility.” I said curtly. He didn’t quite know how to respond to my assertion, so he changed the subject.

             
“Where’s Andie?” He demanded.

             
“Wherever she wants to be. For your information, she’s nobody’s slave, especially not yours.”

             
“You listen to me close, boy. You owe me for the deaths of two of my soldiers and you better tell Andie if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll get her ass back home.”

             
“And you listen to me, Captain.” I said in a low tone. “You owe me for your boys murdering Macie.” There was a long moment of silence before he responded.

             
“You’re lying.” He waited. When I didn’t respond, he continued. “I didn’t authorize them to kill anyone.”

             
“It sounds to me like you don’t have very good command of your boys.” I said. “They were planning on ambushing me when I was supposed to meet with Andie. Out of respect for you, I sent Julie and Macie to meet with her instead.” Okay, the respect part was a small lie, but he had no way of knowing it.

             
“So, Macie and Julie meet with Andie instead of me. Your boys see the two girls,
my
two girls, and they attempted to kidnap them. Macie was shot and murdered by your boy, Barry. Because of that, they paid the price,
Captain.
They were under your command, and therefore their actions are a reflection of you. You’re responsible.”

             
“You should have reported this to me rather than taking the law into your own hands.” He said evenly.

             
“And in the meantime let them do God knows what to Julie? You must be out of your fucking mind.” I looked at the radio for a moment before continuing. “Captain, I want no further contact with you. I know where you live now and I give you my word I will not trespass. But know this, if I see any of you or any of your boys anywhere near my property, I’ll consider it a hostile act and kill them on sight. This conversation is over.” I turned the radio off while he was ranting. I felt Julie’s hand on my shoulder and realized I was shaking. I looked up at her.

             
“Well that went well.” I tried to smile but didn’t do a good job of it.

             
Later, the four of us ate dinner in an uneasy silence. Finally, Rowdy spoke.

             
“Zach, I get the impression this is not good?”

             
“Yeah, you could say that.” I played with my food a minute before continuing. “This Captain, he’s got a severe ego, a lot of weapons, and they outnumber us. He’s going to take this as a personal affront. I don’t think it’s over, but I’m not sure what our alternatives are.” I ate a bite and noticed Andie looking at me.

             
“Andie, the Captain wants you back. It’s your choice. Do you want to go back?” I asked. She stared at me somberly and slowly shook her head. Julie grabbed her hand and squeezed, then looked at me and nodded. I nodded back.

             
I put my hand on top of theirs. “Then that’s good enough for Julie and me. This is your home now, Andrea.” I said. Rowdy added his hand to the group.

             
“That’s good enough for me too.” He said and smiled as he gently squeezed. Andie looked at him deeply. Already I could see the beginning of an attraction. Rowdy responded with a flirtatious smile of his own, and then looked over at me.

             
“I sure do like this democratic process we have here, but what now?” He asked.

             
“For now, we have to be on constant guard. We don’t do anything alone. All of us will be armed with a full load of ammo at all times. Andie knows every one of the Captain’s group. If we spot any of them, we consider them hostile. I can only hope he chooses to go his own way, but I highly doubt it.”

             
“Why’s that?” Rowdy asked.

             
“It’s his ego. He won’t be able to let it go. The logical part of his brain is telling him to move on, but this type of man is driven by his ego.” I said. Rowdy looked at Andie, who nodded in agreement.

             
I thought for a minute and looked at Rowdy. “If you stick with us, there may be trouble. I don’t blame you if you want to get in your bus and ride on. Maybe Andie will go with you.”

             
Andie shook her head. “I want to stay here.” She said.

             
Rowdy looked at her a long moment, maybe hoping she’d change her mind. Finally, he spoke.

             
“Guys, I’ll be honest. I can’t be alone anymore. The thought of it scares the dog shit out of me. I’d like to stick around too if you don’t mind.” He looked at the three of us expectantly.

             
“Welcome aboard then.” I said. I tried to put some warmth in my welcome, but quite frankly, I was too worried about what the Captain may do next.

              After supper, Rowdy retrieved his guitar and a bottle from the bus. We sat in the den and listened to him play. He was actually quite good and had a pleasant tenor voice with a hint of a southern twang. We cheered and applauded after each song. Rowdy would smile with pride and take a sip from his bottle. I believe it was Patron tequila tonight. He offered Andie the bottle, who took a large swallow and nearly coughed it all back up. We laughed as tequila ran down her chin.

             
After a while, I felt Julie nodding off beside me. I was tired as well.

             
“Okay you two, we’re going to bed.” I said. “If y’all are going to stay up, please go to the barn or the bus. Be mindful of your noise.”

             
Rowdy looked over at Andie. “Well what do you say darlin’? You wanna head to the bus and I’ll sing you a few of the songs I wrote while I was in purgatory?” Andie readily agreed.

             
“You kids have fun.” I said lightheartedly. Andie smiled at us as they exited the door.

             
“Well, that didn’t take long.” Julie said. I gave her a kiss and we went arm in arm to the bedroom.

             
The next morning, Andie quietly entered the front door as I was getting breakfast prepared. She seemed surprised I was awake and looked at me sheepishly.

             
“Are you hungry?” I asked. She nodded. “Get the table set and I’ll see about getting something ready.” Julie came in a minute later, ordered me to sit down, and took over.

             
“We didn’t fuck.” Andie said suddenly. Julie and I looked at her and exchanged a glance.

             
“Andie, it’s none of our business.” Julie said.

             
“No, it is, I think.” She blew some hair out of her face. “He passed out after the second kiss, and then he snored and farted all night.”

             
Julie burst out in laughter. I had to admit it was funny. We were still chuckling when there was a knock on the door. Rowdy came in and headed straight to the bathroom. A few minutes went by before he made his way to the kitchen.

             
“Good morning all.” He said as he sat down. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and made a motion to straighten his beard. “God almighty you people get up early.”

             
I looked at Julie as she served breakfast. She eyed me, started grinning, and burst out laughing again. It had a snowball effect. Andie and I were soon laughing as well. Rowdy looked at us as if we’d gone crazy. When we finally settled down, we ate our breakfast contentedly.

             
“What’s on the agenda today, Zach?” Rowdy asked.

             
“Morning chores, and then I think you and I are going to do some scavenging.”

             
“We want to go too!” Julie chimed in. “You said we all need to stick together, remember?” I saw the stubbornness in her stare. I knew the look well, so I did what a real man would do, I held my hands up in surrender. I had many other things planned for her and Andie, but I knew it’d be a losing argument trying to convince them to stay. We were on the road two hours later, riding in Rick’s dually, loaded with our usual equipment and several gas cans in the bed.

             
“What’s with the gas cans, Zach?” Rowdy asked. “I thought you had plenty of fuel.”

             
I glanced over at him and nodded as I drove. “We do, but you don’t. And the way you’re running the bus engine every night, you’ll be out within a day or two. So, you’re going to be scavenging for your own diesel. I’m not giving you anymore.”

             
Julie giggled.

             
“Oh, and I have a list of other things we could use.” I looked back at Julie and she handed a notepad to Rowdy. Rowdy scanned it over and looked at me.

             
“You seem to have a penchant for writing everything down.” He said. Andie leaned forward and nudged Rowdy. He handed the notepad to her. I watched her in the rearview mirror as she went through several other pages, seemingly absorbed in everything I had written.

             
“Where are we going?” She asked a moment later.

             
“Cool Springs area. The first stop is Home Depot. If you notice, I have some out of the ordinary things, like driveway sealer. I’m betting nobody bothered taking anything like that. But, if you see other things on the list, you know what to do, and remember the golden rule: If we can eat it, we take it.” I said. I thought for a moment and spoke again.

             
“You two haven’t practiced with us in the dynamics of clearing a building, so I want you two to standby outside until we give the all clear.” I said.

             
Rowdy cleared his throat. “Hoss, I don’t mean to be arrogant, but my daddy taught me how to shoot guns when I was just a snot-nosed kid.”

             
“I’ve no doubt Rowdy, and I’m betting Andie is a pretty good shot too. But, Julie and I have trained together. We use hand signals, signals with our flashlights, code words, entry procedures, and assigned sectors of fire. We’ve been doing this together so long we practically read each other’s minds.”

             
Rowdy nodded. “Well, I can certainly believe that. You two are peas in a pod.” Andie laughed.

             
“Okay Hoss, pretty little Andie here will help me watch out. I’m guessing you’ll give the word when it’s okay to come inside?” I nodded. “Okay, I’m good with that, but one day you two are going to have to teach us some of those signals.”

             
“Trust me; he’ll have us practicing together so much you’ll want to shoot him yourself.” Julie said. I looked at her in the mirror with mock sadness. She stuck her tongue out and licked her lips provocatively. I concentrated on the road so I wouldn’t become aroused.

             
The windows of the Home Depot had all been broken out, which seemed unnecessary for whoever felt the need to do it, but it worked out well for us. I drove by the front and revved the engine several times. We were rewarded with two of them slowly trudging their way out.

             
Andie bounced in the back seat. “I want to kill one!” She said. I looked at Rowdy.

             
“There’s one for each of you.” I said. They got out of the truck and the two of them took up positions on each end of the truck. I watched as Rowdy took aim and scored a headshot within a second. Andie followed a second later. I glanced at Julie.

             
“Not bad.” She said. I agreed.

“
Good shooting.” I said to them when we got out. “Something you two may or may not have seen, even when you score a headshot, they don’t always instantly drop dead. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, so be careful. You might assume the threat is eliminated and just before they drop dead they’ll get one final bite in.” They nodded. I looked around and saw no other zombies.