Gary Brandner - Walkers

"And I can tell you they're strong," Glen said. "Stronger than normal people. The one who broke in here Sunday threw me around like I was stuffed with feathers."

Strength.

"And I can add that they retain the power of speech," Hovde said, "even though the personality dies. The husband of the woman in the car said she talked to him lucidly for several hours after her apparent death. The man Ed Frankovich works for-he was the one here Sunday-also said he spoke."

Speech.

"What about the girl on the beach?" Glen asked.

"I didn't hear her speak," Joana said, "but she was terribly strong. I was lucky to get away from her."

"Have they found her body?" Glen asked.

"Not yet," said Hovde. "The currents are strong off the point where she fell in, and the body could have been carried miles up the shoreline. I've asked a friend at the hospital to call me when they find her."

Joana grew thoughtful. "Warren, you talked to the husband of one of these walkers and the employer of another. What kind of people were they, anyway? I mean when they were alive."

"Ordinary," said Hovde. "That's the only word I can think of to describe them. Yvonne Carlson was an average middle-aged housewife, from all evidence loving to her husband and content with her life. Ed Frankovich was something of a loner, but apparently a quiet, gentle man. There seems to be no connection between what these people were in life and what they became. They retain a few of the surface traits of the living person, but essentially the walkers are machines of destruction that exist entirely apart from the people who occupied the bodies."

"Another thing you can add to the list is that they're hard to kill," Glen said. "Or destroy, or whatever the word should be."

"That is the truth," Joana said with feeling. "I watched you hit that creature over and over again, and it just kept coming."

"That's an important point," said Dr. Hovde. "What does it take to stop the walkers? The woman in the car, for instance."

"She just got out and collapsed on the ground," Joana said. "Nobody laid a hand on her, and I'm sure she couldn't have been hurt in the car. It simply ran into a bush and stalled."

Hovde nodded. "The only marks on the body were from the electrocution the night before. Nothing from that afternoon."

"And the one who was in here," Glen said, "as hard and as often as I hit him, it didn't even slow him down. He was on his feet and still trying to get at Joana until the other people came running up. That's when he finally dropped."

"There was a crowd around the woman too when she collapsed, wasn't there, Joana?"

"Yes. They ran up to where the car came to a stop, and were standing there when she got out."

"Maybe," the doctor said thoughtfully, "when the walkers are surrounded, and because of the sheer odds against them can't finish their task, they just… quit."

"That's quite a jump in logic," Glen said.

"Maybe it is, but it's a possibility to consider. What about the girl on the beach, Joana?"

"It fits. It was not until Glen and the other people from the restaurant got close to us that she went over the edge. I can't swear that's why it happened-she had ripped away a piece of my blouse and lost her balance."

Glen frowned. "Even if this is true, even if the walkers self-destruct when a crowd surrounds them, what good will it do us?"

"The more we know about them, the better prepared we'll be," Joana said.

"To me it's one more reason why you shouldn't be left alone."

"Glen, are you going to start the big-man-must-protect-little-girl business all over again?"

"Damn it, this is no time for a consciousness-raising session."

Dr. Hovde spoke up. "Glen, Joana, we've got to work together now, or all the knowledge we've gained is useless."

"I know," Joana said more quietly. "Believe me, Glen, I appreciate what you've done for me, what you're doing. It's just that I hate to feel like some helpless creature who can do nothing but hide in the corner while the men go off to battle."

"That's not the way it is," Glen said. "You know that."

"Yes, I know it. All the same, it bothers me."

"You'll have plenty of time to hash all this out after Monday," Dr. Hovde said.

"In the meantime," said Glen, "you do agree that it's best to stay with me until this is over?"

"I'll stay with you," Joana said, "and I'll love it. But let's make it here at my house instead of your apartment."

"What difference does it make?"

"If I'm in my own house it will feel less like I'm running away, that's all."

"Fair enough," Glen said. "Starting tonight, I'm your constant companion until this nightmare is over."

"What about your job?"

"No problem. I'll take tomorrow and Monday off. They can get along without me that long."

Joana started to protest, then relaxed and smiled. "All right, Glen. Thanks."

Dr. Hovde ran over the list he had made, reading the notations aloud as he ticked them off.

"It's not a whole lot, is it?" Glen said.

"No, but it's better than nothing. We have some guidelines now, so we're not battling shadows." He consulted his watch. "It's time for me to be going. If anything comes up, day or night, you have the phone numbers where you can reach me."

Joana walked with him to the door. "Thank you, Warren, for everything you've done."

"Forget it."

"No, I mean it. You didn't have to get mixed up in this."

"Yes I did," he said. "I was floating along in kind of an isolated, self-pitying void. This ugly business has forced me to take a look at my own life. I've been staying apart and uninvolved from too many things for far too long. No man is an island, right?"

"Right." Joana squeezed the doctor's hand and watched him walk away on the curving path through the bushes toward the street. When she turned back Glen was standing behind her.

He opened his arms to her and Joana stepped eagerly into their embrace. Her body was acutely alive to his. She felt the heat of him as intensely as though they were both naked. He kissed her long and deep, and when they broke apart, both were breathing hard.

"This seems like a crazy time for it," she said, "but I want you to make love to me, Glen. I want it so bad my teeth ache."

He kissed her again. "You're right, it is a crazy time, but I'm damned if I don't want you too. Very, very much."

"Do you suppose danger has some sort of weird aphrodisiac effect?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, let's not waste it."

A long time later they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Friday morning it was hot. Joana and Glen awoke in her bed covered only by a sheet, which they quickly threw off. At the window a curtain billowed inward, and a dry, scorching wind blew into the bedroom. The Santa Ana wind. Several times a year, without pattern and without warning, it blew in off the desert and turned Los Angeles into an oven.

Glen groaned and rolled over on his stomach. "Going to be a hot sonofabitch today."

"Unusual for June," Joana said, then giggled at the triteness of their conversation. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Surprise me."

Joana kissed him and got out of bed. She pulled on a light lacy robe and went out into the kitchen. She looked through the refrigerator and selected a cantaloupe, which she sliced down the middle. She lay two thick pieces of ham in a frying pan and carefully broke four eggs into a bowl. She heard the bathroom door open and close.

"Over easy?" She called in the direction of the bathroom.

'Terrific," he called back, but his voice lacked enthusiasm.

"Anything wrong?"

"I need a shave."

"Don't worry about it," she told him, "we'll rough it."

The shower hissed, and she went back into the kitchen to get everything ready. In ten minutes Glen padded out wearing a towel around his waist. He rubbed a hand across his chin.