Mark Clodi - Discovery

“Holy shit! This is really bad.” Max flashed his headlights at Stewart and stopped the car in the middle of the road, the passengers bailed out of the minivan, except for Kenny who just looked at everyone.

Stewart backed up her car and rolled her window down, “What is it?”

“We may have found a way to kill all of the zombies.” Max said. A second later Jessica giggled and even Cory smiled.

“What? How?”

Max looked at where his van was parked, noted the slight breeze carrying the sour foot odor towards them and said, “Just wait for it…”

Stewart wrinkled her nose in disgust, “What the fuck is that? Is that…did he shit his pants in there?”

“No! No pooping except in a bathroom and always wipe clean after! I didn't poop myself!”

“He took his shoes off.” said Amelia.

“Oh God that is..ugh! I am moving the car out of the way!”

Stewart backed up more until she was no longer downwind of the van's open doors and windows. By then Seth was yelling out of the cruiser window for Kenny to put his shoes back on.

“You can't take your shoes off outside of the house!” the boy called. Riley, upset by the commotion started barking non-stop.

Sighing Stewart opened her door and stepped out to lean against the hood. “Biting dogs, kids yelling in my ears, toxic foot odor. Geezus to think two days ago I thought I had it bad with just the flesh eating zombies.”

Seth continued his tirade against Kenny while Max and Stewart stood looking at each other. Slowly Max grinned and then Steward started to laugh. Tom, opened the door on the other side of the cruiser and stood up, keeping one leg inside.

“What is it?” he asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.

Max shook his head slowly and tried to stop laughing. Amelia stepped over to them, “Are you going to let them argue like that?”

This caused Max to laugh harder, but Stewart just reached in and unlocked the rear doors to the cruiser. Quick as a shot Seth was out and yelling at his brother about the rules. Amelia turned to go intervene and Stewart stopped her, “Hold up honey, let them work this one out.”

The other kids, not used to adults standing by and watching a yelling match, looked ill at ease and nervous, except for Cory who walked, barefoot, over to the cruiser and hopped up onto its hood, where he continued to play his video game and ignore the world.

Seth was shouting up at his brother and eventually the inevitable happened, Kenny swung one arm up and over his head and pounded a fist down on Seth's head, the younger boy ended up on his butt in the middle of the road, crying. Kenny had not hit his younger brother with anything near full force, the adults who were watching had noticed how slow his hand moved. The dog was confused by this fighting and took shelter, of all places, behind Stewart's legs, where it growled out at everyone. Stewart turned to Max with a look of 'just my fucking luck' on her face which set him off laughing again, even Tom let out an involuntary chuckle as the scene continued to unfold.

Amelia stormed over to stand between the boys and yelled at them both, “Stop it you two! Stop it right now! Kenny apologize for hitting your brother!”

Kenny looked down at his stocking feet, shuffled around a little and said, “Not going to, he was mean and yelling and Max said the rules changed.”

“The rules did not change! They never change!” screamed Seth from a prone position on the road.

“The rules say to listen to adults and do what they say. Unless they want to touch you in the bathing suit area or want you to touch them there. Then you have to scream and run away. I listened to the rules, and Max changed the rules. He can change the rules because he is an adult and he wasn't trying to touch my bathing suit area.”

“He is not the adult who changes the rules, only mom and dad can change the rules! That is what they meant!”

Kenny shook his head, “No. That is not what they said. Remember when I hit that ball in Mrs. Peterson's yard and she said I couldn't just come and get it? She said to stay out of her yard and mom and dad said to listen to her, because she was an adult and I had to do what she said. So is Max. And Amelia.”

“Amelia just told you to say 'sorry' to me! You didn't do that!” Seth rose to his feet behind Amelia.

“A bigger rule is not to lie. I am not sorry. I am telling the truth. I am not going to lie. You should say sorry for hurting my feelings!”

“What?! No!” Seth flung himself at his brother and started kicking and punching him. Kenny stoically took the blows the nine year old dished out, until a high kick caught him in the testicles and caused him to double over. Seth pulled his foot back to deliver a kick to the young man's face when he was pushed aside by Amelia, who looked over at the trio of adults still standing by the car doing nothing.

“Really, a little help here? It isn't too much to ask, is it?”

“I don't have kids. Max?” said Stewart.

Sighing, Max brushed the tears of laughter from his eyes and went over to where the brothers were arguing. Using a daddy voice he had developed over the course of ten years with his older son he said, “Seth, Kenny, stop this right now.”

“You're not my dad!” Seth screamed, trying to break out of Amelia's grasp.

“You okay Kenny?”

“My jewels hurt. He kicked 'em real good, like squashed 'em flat. I think he got both of them.” Kenny said, still bent over.

“Seth you need to calm down. Amelia take him over to the squad car for a timeout. Stop fighting and go with her. I will be over there to talk to you in a minute.”

Amelia took Seth over to the car, he struggled until Stewart threatened him using her much more impressive 'police officer' voice, then he silently sobbed and got into the back of the car. Stewart locked the doors so he couldn't get out. The three adults moved away from the vehicle to give him a chance to calm down.

“Why did you let him out?” Amelia asked, “He could have just stayed there yelling, and things wouldn't have gotten physical.”

“You have an older brother?”

Amelia nodded.

“Would you have yelled at him like that?”

Amelia shook her head, “No, I liked my older brother. But if I had he would have pounded me flat too.”

“I think this little fight of theirs had been a long time coming, the stress of this situation just made it happen now. I thought I should facilitate it and get it over with before we moved through a zombie infested town.”

“Or we could have all sat down and talked about it a little.”

“That might have worked, this was quicker. I pretty much guarantee Seth isn't going to yell at his brother like that anymore once he calms down and thinks about things. The guy has a hundred pounds and ten years on him, no way a shrimp like Seth is going to beat him down. That kick in the balls, that was his last gasp, Kenny won't fall for it twice, even if he is retarded.”

“Developmentally disabled.”

“That too.” Stewart agreed, “Call it what you want, I like the shorter words. The thing is, I have been watching and 'ole Seth here is not the biggest toe on the foot in terms of brains either.”

Amelia nodded, “I can see that. You think he is a special needs kid too?”

“A bit touched to put it nicely. Borderline autistic. With all the rules he seems to be able to quote from I think that is it. I'm no doctor, so I don't l know for sure. I don't even know how to proceed. I think the boys will be okay, but it is a lot for them to assimilate. From what I do know autistic people and change don't mix real well.”

“So you think his, their, parent's left them because of it?”

“I suspect that. They are a handful.”