Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [47]
She nodded. “Yeah, I just hope he is.”
“Why?” Dave asked as he looked off toward our friend and our unwanted guest. They were talking as they flipped through the cards together.
She blinked and I was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “Josh had a little boy. A bit younger than your kid, but…”
I flinched as her sentence trailed off. There was only one ending to it. “I had no idea.”
“It’s okay.” Drea shrugged. “It just kind of hits him sometimes.”
I nodded. We all had our moments.
Dave shifted in discomfort since there wasn’t exactly anything you could say to make the situation better. “So what are you guys doing here?”
Drea stopped staring off into the distance and smiled as she swiped at her tears. “Doing a little research on chemical grenades. They might be good for distance fighting and clearing buildings that are already useless for anything else.”
My eyes went wide at the idea. “Chemical grenades? Isn’t that super dangerous?”
Drea nodded. “Yup.”
Before we could press her further, Josh and The Kid came back with a card in hand.
“Pretty fucking dangerous,” Josh interjected as he ruffled The Kid’s hair. “But don’t worry. I was almost Dr. Josh before the plague struck. I know what I’m doing.”
“You’re a chemist?” The Kid asked with wide eyes.
Josh nodded. “Or I would have been, anyway, if everything hadn’t gotten all fucked up. But hey, I wanted to take a sabbatical anyway, so I guess this has been it.”
Dave chuckled. “Huh, I like that. We’ve all just been on sabbatical.”
“What’s a sabbatical?” The Kid asked, his brow wrinkling.
“A vacation.” Drea sighed as if the idea was heavenly. And it totally was.
The Kid shook his head as he started off toward the library entrance. “You guys are weird.”
I couldn’t help but laugh and so did the rest of them.
“I guess that’s our cue to leave,” Dave said as he saluted our friends briefly.
“Yeah.” Josh looked after The Kid for a minute. “Take care of him.”
“We will,” I said softly.
“Bye!” The Kid said as he turned with a smile for our friends.
We said some brief good-byes to the pair and then followed The Kid. We found him waiting near the checkout desk, watching Josh and Drea head into the stacks.
“What’s up with them?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Just good people, trying to make it out of a bad situation. Like the rest of us.”
“If he’s a chemist, maybe he could help us,” The Kid said softly.
Dave shook his head. “Well, I don’t know about that. There’s no reason to tell our business to the world.”
“At least not yet,” I said as I steered our little group toward the doors that led to the library foyer. “But maybe in the future.”
Dave nodded and as we exchanged a look I could tell we were on the same page. Nice since we hadn’t been the past few days.
“Yeah, I could definitely see turning to them in the future,” he said.
I shook my head. Right now the only future I could think about was the one that involved a new toy.
I grinned at the very thought. I’d always liked toys. “Let’s get out of here and get to the hardware store. If we can get this gun built today, we could have a new zombie by tomorrow midday!”
Dave opened his mouth as if to say more, but then shut it again. I was almost glad. We’d been bickering way too much lately and I really didn’t want to start round three with a library full of strangers and a child who was likely to blurt out that I had a secret boyfriend to my surprisingly jealous husband. Or a stolen book to what could quickly turn into a mob.
I led the way out of the building and into the desert sun. As soon as we were out the door, though, we were greeted by not only the late morning heat and the sparkling blue sky, but a collection of three zombies pacing around our van across the small parking lot.
The area around the library was known to be a “no shooting” zone. It wasn’t mandatory or anything, I mean there weren’t exactly cops or anyone to police that, but it was a matter of common sense.
Shooting a zombie was the easiest and fastest way to kill it, of course, but it was also the loudest. Shooting often brought more of the living