Mark Tufo - The End Has Come and Gone

“Got anything else on you?” I asked him softly, pretty much just kidding.

When he smiled at me diffidently, I didn’t even want to know where that one might be hidden, best not to think of things like that.

“I will give you some time to say your prayers to your false God,” Eliza said as she strode back through the roof door, her entourage of zombies on her heels.

“That’s not like her,” BT mused, coming up beside me.

“I agree but there’s no sense in trying to figure it out. A normal woman’s motives would be impossible to figure out.”

“And she’s not normal,” BT concluded.

“Let’s start working on some contingency plans while we have a chance,” I said, getting the group into a circle, except for April who had not yet decided to stop napping.

“What if Durgan beats you?” Perla asked.

“He won’t,” Tracy said.

“Okay, but what if he does?” Perla asked again, “We can’t just leave our fates up to her.”

“Personally, I’d rather let the zombies eat me,” Cindy said.

That’s how you know Eliza is one mean mother, when people would rather get eaten alive than spend any time with her.

“Could we survive a jump off the roof?” Joann asked, “I mean, we’d land on all those zombies below us.”

“And then what?” BT asked peering over the edge. “Even if you didn’t so much as bruise a muscle from the forty foot drop you’d still have to make it through close to a hundred feet of zombies.”

“Plus I’ve got a feeling that we won’t be anywhere near the edge,” Mad Jack said, “Eliza’ll have us surrounded.”

“Okay, who’s got what?” I asked the group as I pulled out a Glock 26 from a concealed holster.

BT hoisted out a seven inch barrel .357 Magnum. Erin had a stubby .22. Travis had a small .32 revolver, and Justin produced a sling shot. Hey it was a weapon, not a great one, but just ask Goliath how effective they could be.

“Sorry man,” Brian said. “All I had was that rifle. We won’t be able to put up much of a fight with these anyway,” he said, getting depressed at the notion.

Mrs. Deneaux came into the center of the circle, a small Derringer in her hand. “It’s not for them, sweetie,” she said, placing the barrel up against April’s head and her still prone body.

“That’s even worse,” Cindy said.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Mad Jack said.

“What will God think if we take our own lives? That is a mortal sin!” Perla was nearly crying again.

“The sin would be to allow Eliza to possess us,” Marta said resignedly.

“Agreed,” Paul said.

“You’d better beat him,” Marta told me.

I’d bested him twice, but once was with a rifle and the other was while he was recovering from the first injury, not exactly a hand on hand combat situation. Sure, I had trained for this in the Corps but that was a LONG time ago. My philosophy was and still is that carrying more ammunition is your best bet.

The door to the roof opened slowly. All of our weapons raised. We tipped our hand; did this make the deal a no go? It was Tomas. I dropped my weapon down to my side but no one else followed suit.

“Mr. T, there is no time for this. Tell them to put their weapons down so that I may approach,” Tomas said.

“Tommy?” I asked, hoping beyond hope.

“No,” he shook his head. “I thought it would be easier for you to accept me if I reverted back to how he sounded.”

“Put your guns down,” I told them.

Tomas approached. “Eliza is enhancing Durgan. You will not be able to defeat him with his new powers.”

“Enhancing how?” I asked. The question wasn’t fully out of my mouth before I stumbled upon the answer myself. “She’s turning him into one of her, into one of you.”

“Not quite, that would take too long and she doesn’t want him to share her blood.”

“Then how?” Gary asked.

“The same way she accelerated his healing and the same way I survived all these years, a half-bite.”

“Like a nibble,” Eddy said.

Tomas nearly smiled. I don’t think that Tommy was as far gone as Tomas believed him to be.

“What does this do for Durgan?” Tracy asked.

“He’ll be faster, stronger.”

“Great, like he didn’t already have that going for him,” BT said.

“BT, I’m right here man,” I said.

“Sorry man, I’m just saying. It’s not like you didn’t already know that.”

“Yeah, I guess I just didn’t need it vocalized from my own camp.”

“My mom used to say the truth hurts,” Eddy said.

I laughed. “Great, out of the mouths of babes.”

“Why are you here Tomm… Tomas?” Tracy asked, “Is it just to tell us this?”

“I’ve come to give Michael the same opportunity that Durgan is receiving.”

“Wait, you want to turn me into a half-vamp? I can’t,” I was panicking on the inside.

“It’s the only way,” Tomas said.

“Hear him out,” Mad Jack said.

“And then after today? Then what? I watch as my family and my friends die. I watch as my children catch up to me in age and eventually die? I won’t, I can’t watch that, I can’t be a part of that.”

“Stop being a pansy,” Mrs. Deneaux said. “Today is the only day that any of us has guaranteed. If it becomes too much of a burden then you can always fall on your sword. Of course it would have to be made of wood,” she cackled.

“I thought you were relatively cool when you pulled that gun out. Now we’re back to square one and I can’t stand you.”

She cackled louder.

“Every second we waste in discussion will be that much more time you will have to stay alive waiting for your own powers to increase,” Tomas said.

“How much of a head start does Durgan have?” Justin asked. I was still pretty lost in my own thoughts to make any coherent cognitive thoughts.

“Five minutes,” Tomas answered his old friend.

“Why bother at all,” Mrs. Deneaux said. “He couldn’t survive five minutes against the old Durgan, now with the new and improved model? Pah, we should have kept more guns.”

“You should see if that gun has any rounds in it and hold it up to your eye. I’ll pull the trigger for you,” Alex said.

She “pahed” again.

“What of my soul?” I asked Tomas.

He shook his head in negation.

“I can never go to Heaven?”

“Only to the gates.”

“I’ve been there,” I said, burying my head in my hands. “It’s a beautiful place, lonely but beautiful.”

“Oh Mike,” Tracy said, draping her body across mine like a shield against the worst of what the world had to offer.

“I’m not strong enough for this,” I said as my body heaved.

“Our lives are not worth eternity,” BT said as he wrapped Tracy and myself up in his own embrace.

“Eliza will discard all of your souls before she is done,” Tomas said.

“Why are you doing this?” Meredith asked, “You play on the other team now, what do you care what happens to us?”

“I have my reasons,” Tomas said evenly.

I looked around at the faces surrounding me, searching for an answer that only I could produce. It was Travis and Justin that solved my dilemma. Watching them die today was infinitely worse than watching them die at some mythical point in the future.