“But they’re dangerous,” Mary yammered.
Gary stole a quick glance out the window, looking at us to maybe see if we had sprouted wings or maybe horns. “They don’t look any more dangerous than they usually do,” he said, pulling away from the window.
Mary looked out the window, I think to her, we had sprouted those things. “How can you say that? One is part vampire and the other is part zombie! What could possibly be more dangerous?”
“Mike’s plans,” Gary shot out without missing a beat.
“I heard that,” I told him.
“Sorry, it was the first thing out of my mouth, I didn’t even need to think about it.”
“Mom, we can’t leave them out there.”
“We most certainly can,” she answered him.
“She’s right, Josh. You guys don’t really know us and you certainly don’t owe us anything. Could you please just send out a few first aid supplies with Gary so I can field dress my friend’s wound?” I asked Mary.
“I’ll do it,” Mary agreed.
I didn’t know at the time she was talking about cleaning the wound herself, not just sending the stuff out.
We walked over to the front door, I expected to be greeted by Gary. Mary was looking around the front screen security door; and when she was satisfied there were no other boogey men besides BT and me present, she motioned for us to come in.
“You sure?” I asked her.
“No, so get in before I change my mind.”
BT brushed past me. Mary almost got her neck stuck craning it high enough to look at BT’s face this close.
BT sat calmly as Mary scrubbed, cleaned and disinfected his bite and a dozen or so other various scrapes and bruises.
“You don’t take very good care of yourself,” Mary chided him.
BT was in the middle of eating a Beef Stroganoff MRE packet. He didn’t really know what to say to her comment, so he just kept eating, but he did send me a knowing glance like “What the hell is she talking about? Doesn’t she know there’s a zombie apocalypse going on right now?” Or it might have just been indigestion. I’m not sure. I wasn’t paying him so much attention as I was one of the things inside of him.
“Man, it’s creeping me out the way you’re looking at me, and I’m trying to eat too,” BT said.
“Sorry man, I’m just…”
“I don’t want to know,” he said, cutting me off as he dug deeper into his foil food packet.
I could link with what I’d come to know as the Hugh-Mann’s, according to my great grandfather’s research. I read most of his findings while someone else had been driving. Contrary to popular belief, I can read; it’s writing that most seem to think I have a problem with. I could sense them and they were dormant for the moment, kind of like the stasis we had seen from other zombies, but if BT was to stray more than thirty feet or more, I lost concentration. Then any influence I had would be gone and the process would continue. Right now, I could keep him from becoming a zombie, but if he were to turn, there would be nothing I could do. That would be the point of no return.
Mary had seemed particularly nervous when she first started working on BT, but the more she got into the routine of her profession, the more she loosened up. And there was just something about the big man. If you were not on the opposing side, he made you feel safe.
“Is Mike still looking at me?” BT asked as he dived into a tuna casserole packet.
Mary looked up from a cut on his leg she was actually stitching up. “Yes,” she answered turning back towards her work.
“This food would be much more pleasurable if you weren’t looking at me, man,” BT said, never looking up. “And you too, little man.”
Josh was sitting at the table and looking at BT, slack-jawed. “Are you a wrestler?” Josh asked.
“Josh, that’s rude!” Mary said. BT umphed as she pulled a stitch too tight. “Sorry.”
BT nodded curtly.
“Competitive ballet dancer,” I told Josh.
“What?” BT and Josh both looked at me. Gary just shook his head as he came in from the living room.
“Sorry, it popped in my head.”
“It’s still all clear out there,” Gary said.
“We’ve got plenty of moonlight. When BT is all fixed up, we should probably get going,” I said. “Although the sun will be coming up soon,” I added as the sky to the east was already beginning to lighten up.
Mary’s shoulders slumped. We might not be her primary choice for guests, but we were company and at least one of us was comforting to her.
“I sure wish we could go with you guys,” Josh said. “But if my dad came home, and we weren’t here, he wouldn’t know what to do.”
“Are you sure you won’t spend the night and get a fresh start in the morning?” Mary asked.
“There are three more of us out there, and I have no idea where they are or if anything has happened to them and they’ll only wait so long if they’re already at the rendezvous point. On top of that, I’m really late checking in with my brother. If I don’t check in with him soon, he might get a crazy idea to launch a rescue,” I said.
“Alright, let me just finish cleaning BT up,” Mary said, standing so she could go into the other room and get some more supplies. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to drag this out as long as possible. She might even scratch him a few more times so she’d have something else to put some Bacitracin on. I was going to keep an eye on her. BT wasn’t going to notice shit if she kept stuffing different MREs in front of his face.
“How many of those things you going to eat?” I asked him.