Mark Tufo - 'Til Death Do Us Part

The zombies moved out of the way of the team as if they were repelled. Eliza was psychically pushing them away with her mind. The path she cut ahead of them closed neatly as they passed by, they were but a schooner in a sea of death.

CHAPTER FORTY

Mike Journal Entry 17

It took about an hour to make the basement somewhat presentable, although it would take a strong imagination to NOT see what had happened there.

“Need any help?” Gary asked, opening the basement door, I was three steps from the top.

“I think we’re good,” I told him.

BT was coming up the stairs slowly, his previous injury making his leg stiff from the awkward position he had been in while helping me clean.

“Sucks getting old,” I told him from the top of the stairs.

“I hope I have the opportunity to find out, at least I have you to live vicariously through.” He grabbed the handrail to help pull himself up.

“Great, I was going to help you the rest of the way up,” I told him as I walked away, letting the basement door shut in his face.

“Anything?” I asked Travis going to the back of the house and talking through the window.

He was behind the protective metal barrier. He shook his head so that he wouldn’t give his position away.

I walked across the house. “Anything, Dad?”

“Nothing. I’d be surprised if they tried that again.”

“Probably right,” I told him.

Mad Jack’s box was still keeping the zombies at bay and I had to think Eliza was rethinking her strategy. We could possibly have a small lull.

The household was somewhat subdued. We were in the midst of a siege, and when nothing was happening, generally boredom became the biggest problem. Fear was too strong of an emotion to sustain for long periods of time. Everybody more or less was doing what I expected them to be doing: either busy work or lying about. I tracked back across the room. There was one notable exception to my previous statement. Justin looked like he was alternating between seeking comfort and finding some deep dark place to hide.

“Justin?” I asked, approaching him. He immediately shied away. I felt her the moment I pulled my hat off and placed it on his head. A genuine look of confusion, then elation spread across his features.

“This really works?” he asked incredulously.

I would have answered him but I ran out to the deck. Eliza might as well have had a stage light on her the way she stuck out from the crowd of zombies. She looked up immediately as she saw me. I had left my rifle in the living room; the only weapon I had was a 9 mm, and at fifty yards I’d have a better chance of throwing rocks at her. I did the next best thing—I flipped her the finger. I could hear and see Tomas laughing from here.

It was all fun and games until the two men leading the crusade started to open fire, then it got serious real quick.

At first I was outgunned two to none, within thirty seconds, I had Travis, Justin and my dad. I had run back in to snag my rifle. We got a few shots off, but Eliza and company had not advanced any further and the zombies had closed in around them like a protective barrier. I may have winged one of the men she was with…or he could have been dusting a fly off of himself. I ran to the kitchen and hastily fashioned my own hat, it wasn’t done with the same level of expertise as Trip’s but it did the job.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Eliza

“That’s him.” Kong told Eliza as Michael came out onto the deck.

She nodded imperceptibly, her lips tightening at the sight of her adversary.

“Didn’t seem like much when he said his name was Buker and doesn’t seem like much now,” he said a moment before Mike flipped Eliza off. Kong was both amused at the gesture and awed that someone had enough balls to do something like that to her.

Tomas burst out laughing, Kong had wanted to join him, but he didn’t have a familiar relationship to fall back on like the boy did. He was certain she would cut his throat and let him bleed out where they were.

“Kill him,” Eliza told her escort.

They hastily left the area as their firepower gave way to that of the defenders.

“Should we try a different approach?” Kong asked Eliza once they were in a safer area.

“No, I have found out what I need to know,” she replied. “It is not Michael that keeps my zombies at bay.”

“The trench then?” Kong asked, seeking clarification.

Eliza walked away looking more pissed then usual which Kong found hard to believe. He turned to Tomas.

“They are broadcasting a signal that interferes with the physiology of the zombies.”

“Like the vials?” he asked.

“No, better,” Tomas said with a hint of a smile.

“That’s fucking brilliant,” Kong said, turning back to the house he could no longer see due to the density of the woods. He wondered what other surprises they had in store. “You obviously care for your sister, I can see that, but you cannot hide the fact that you also care for the well-being of the Talbots. What’s your story?” Kong asked.

“I do not think that either of us has enough life left in us for me to recount that,” Tomas said sadly and walked to catch up with his sister.

Kong had two vampires, if he was to believe what Eliza told him—and he had no reason not to—around seventy men, and close to fifteen thousand zombies on his side against one house full of mostly women and children, and he thought that he had chosen poorly. “Well it’s a shitty bed, but I made it. Might as well lie in it.”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Mike Journal Entry 18

“She’s getting bold,” BT said as I came back in the door.

“Our little girl is growing up,” I told him, wiping a mock tear away from my eye.

“Should have put her over my knee a few more times,” he said, following me into the room. “What’s she doing?”

“I’m thinking trying to figure out why her zombies aren’t eating us yet,” I told him.

“I didn’t know she cared.”

“Don’t worry, she doesn’t.”

“Any ideas?”

“Really?” Tracy asked BT. “You really want an unsolicited idea from Mike?”

“At least it’s entertaining,” BT told her.

I wanted to join in the reverie, but I could feel time slipping through our fingers. “She has us pretty buttoned up here with the zombies and the guards, but she’s not going to wait us out. Eliza isn’t much on patience.”

“What are you thinking?” my dad asked.

“She has every tactical advantage right now. She’s going to try and find a tank or rocket launchers or a damn Harrier Jet. We’ve got to stop her before that happens.”

“You’re kidding, right?” BT asked. “I merely asked you for an idea…not an overabundance of ways to get killed.”

“BT, you should know better, man. All of my ideas are laced with an overabundance of ways to die.”

“I know,” he said, sitting down heavily. “When do we go?”

“Are you serious? Are you that devoid of short-term memory that you cannot remember what happened the last time you went on the offensive against Eliza?” Tracy was shrieking.

If I thought Eliza was mad at me when I had given her the finger, I had yet to see Tracy’s ire when I told her of my next great adventure. She definitely raised the anger bar. I think I was going to get my slogan trademarked: Michael Talbot, bringing hate and discontent to women everywhere for forty-plus years.