Zombie 2.0 1/2

Dean was still in shock about his car, and the fact they had totally forgotten about Norman (he said the shock of seeing his ‘baby’ like that made him forget he was even on planet earth) when he put the truck in park.

Banana climbed out, Norman behind her and they headed to the kitchen.

Dean jumped in the back of the truck and leaned up against the back window. Shortly after Rev came hobbling out with beers.

“Heard about your car.” He said handing him a beer.

“Yeah? Banana run her big mouth already?” He didn’t say it with a mean tone. He was joking.

“Kind of. I asked her where you were and she said, and I quote ‘crying outside somewhere over his naked car’. I didn’t know what that meant, so I asked. She said your car got stripped. How the hell does that happen? Do you think the zombies needed spare parts?”

Dean smiled weakly and shook his head. “If they did why didn’t they just rob an auto parts store? It’s not like anyone would have stopped them.” He said.

Rev put down the tailgate and carefully hopped up on it. Dean took a seat next to him.

“So… Ever wonder why we’re here Rev?” Dean asked.

Rev looked at him and stopped mid drink on his beer. He looked at him. “Isn’t that…my line?”

“It used to be but I borrowed it.”

Rev laughed. “Alright fine you can have it. But don’t over use it.”

“I promise I’ll take good care of it.” He said and took another drink of beer.

After awhile Deci came out with more beer. She offered it to them and then joined them.

“I thought you could use these.” She said. “I heard about your car. I figured it was like losing a best friend so. Drink up. Pilot understands too. He said you could keep the truck. It’s all yours.”

“Really? He just gave it to me like that? He said he didn’t even show us he had any because he wasn’t sure he could trust us and now he’s just giving me the truck? That’s awesome.” Dean’s face lit up a little more with the combination of a new ride and the amount of alcohol he had in his system.

“Yeah he said something about losing a super..bee? Or something like that. I’m not big on cars, although I like my old school cars. And this I take it is an old school car.”

“It is. Sad though he lost it those are hard to come by.”

“Probably not any more. You know, if someone hasn’t stripped it for parts that is.” Rev said taking another sip of beer.

The three of them sat on the tail gate and talked about old cars until Ivan wandered out and asked if they were hungry.

“I’m always hungry.” Rev said and hopped down. When he did he yelled in pain.

“You know just because it’s been awhile doesn’t mean you’re healed. Maybe you should sit your ass down somewhere and rest. Seeming as how that is the reason we are still here.” Dean said.

“You’d think. But I however don’t like to sit still.”

Dean shrugged. Deci however wasn’t convinced that he should just be wandering about.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea that you do much drinking either. I’m not being the mean nagging lady I just am concerned about you.” She said walking beside him.

Dean and Ivan were trailing behind trying to stay out of the naggy conversation.

“Listen, you’re not the little Mrs. Yet! You can’t just boss me around woman.”

“Oh, don’t woman me.”

When they reached the makeshift mess hall they all sat down and piled the food on paper plates. Even in the world of the undead Pilot wanted to be green friendly.

“So we have to start thinking about where this is going.” Dean said finally.

“What do you mean?” Deci asked.

“As much as I like staying here with all the good food and beer and nice people, I think we need to start unfolding our plan. Rev will only be messed up for so long…” His sentence trailed off as he looked at Rev who was staring at him with his fork halfway to his mouth.

“I can’t only be messed up for so long. I am messed up in general. This isn’t just going to… go away you know?”

“I’m aware of that.” Dean said and grinned.

“Alright, so are we still aiming for the mountain?” Banana asked.

“It sounds like a really good idea.”

“I don’t see why you guys can’t just stay here.” Ivan said a little saddened.

“What if this place should be over run? I mean sure you guys have it under control now, but what if they start over powering the place? We won’t have any option, at least up at the mountain, well we hope anyhow, that when we get there they won’t be able to get to us because the terrain and shit is so out of their league. And maybe even if they did we wouldn’t be over run, because it’s a god damn mountain.” Dean said.

“You know he does make an excellent point.” Pilot said.

Everyone looked at him.

“What do you mean?” Norman asked.

“Let’s just say, what if we ARE over run? What if something does happen, like those sons-of-bitches that tried to kidnap Deci and kill everyone else come back here and try to stir shit up? What if one zombie gets smart enough to dig a hole and he gets through? And we can’t find that hole? Maybe it is better for us to go there and be more prepared.”

Norman and Ivan were staring at Pilot as if he had finally lost his mind. Everyone else nodded thinking it was a wise move.

“What is… this?” Norman asked standing up.

“Norman, please just think about it son. We would have more coverage and if anything happened to me-.”

“But nothing is gonna happen to you! Not a thing, it can’t you’re the glue. And glue can’t die.”

Everyone was now staring at him as if he had lost HIS mind.

“Look son, if you think that we’re better off here we can stay here. I’m not recommending it though. These young people have the right idea.”

Dean exchanged looks with Banana and then Rev and Deci. They all continued to look at each other confused until finally Ivan said something.

“You refused to leave here before. You refused to even help these guys… and now you want us to just follow them off in to the sunset?”

“Ivan, you have to understand I am only looking out for your wellbeing. This isn’t safe. We aren’t safe, things can go bad.”

“Things can go bad? Things… can… go bad?” Norman looked frantic.

“Norman calm down-.”

“Nah things can go bad! Why should I be calm? Ugh, fuck you guys look around us!” He threw his hands up in the air. “Things have gone bad. Why do you want to get out of here so bad Pilot…Unless.” But he stopped.

“Unless?” Ivan asked.

But Norman’s reaction changed and he shook his head. “Never mind. Pilot’s right.” He said quietly. “We should go to the mountain and fight from there. We’d have a better chance.”

Everyone now was completely stumped and just looked at each other.

“Someone should explain to me what’s going on. My meds must be making me stupider than usual.” Rev said taking another bite of his food.

“It’s nothing. Pilot’s right. He always is. We should get packing Ivan. Come on.”

“It can wait until after dinner.” Pilot said.

“No sir. It can’t.”

They left and then everyone who was still sitting there turned to Pilot.

“He just had the common sense train hit him in the head full blast.” He offered as an explanation.

“Maybe, but we haven’t so you mind speeding things up a bit?” Dean asked.

“Perhaps later.”

“Look, I don’t mean any disrespect, but if there’s something we should know about here… You didn’t seem like you wanted to leave this place and now all the sudden you think it’s the best idea that you’ve heard? I don’t get it.”

“Dean I assure you. I just needed time to process what this plan would end up like. And I’m sorry to say but it’s better than harboring a bunch of young kids in a place trying to protect them. I can’t save you all forever. Not that you can’t handle it yourself, but I can’t make sure you’ll all be safe at all times. There are flaws here. Lots of them and it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out these flaws. Whether it be zombies or those guys who are trying to kill all the survivors. Something will happen and with the mountain it’d be a hell of a lot harder to wreck that plan.”

Deci looked at Banana and she shrugged. There was something going on, someone couldn’t just abandon their beliefs that way, but it was Pilot and no one questioned him.

“Why don’t we all just relax until we set out? Rev still needs at least a week to heal fully before I would let him even hold a gun. We can hold out that long but I suggest we don’t go any further than that.”

“Well I won’t argue, but if there’s something going on…”

“You have nothing to worry about. If you needed to know anything I would tell you.”

Dean nodded and excused himself, and Banana followed. They were going to go investigate what Ivan and Norman were doing and to see if they needed any help.

When it was just Rev and Deci and Pilot, an awkward silence began to fill the air. Rev excused himself to the bathroom, he didn’t feel well, and Deci didn’t bother to go with him. If he didn’t return in a considerable amount of time, she’d go after him.

“Can I ask you something?” Deci asked.

“Sure. I can’t promise I will give you an answer you want, or what you’re looking for.”

“I don’t need a promise, just a general statement.”

“Alright.”

“What is the deal? I know what Norman was thinking. He thinks you don’t want him and Ivan around. Like it’s a way out, you could see that in his eyes. Being a military man I’m sure you could pretty much almost read his mind. So, you’re letting him think that you don’t want them around now, and that you’re going to go off on your own, maybe on one last final battle…. See what I find funny about that is, why are you treating it like this is your last battle? I mean you were so intent on living before. The only thing I can draw from this, since I’m an outsider and wouldn’t take that much offense to this sudden choice change, is that something is up. Something that you’re hiding from all of us mostly them, and I wonder… what could there be that you’re hiding? Since this is such an open world after all. You’re dying aren’t you?”

Pilot let what she said soak in for a moment and then leaned forward and sighed. “You know minds like yours would have been appreciated in my time. You piece things together very quickly don’t you?”

“People used to tell me that. But don’t change the subject old man.”

“Old man?” He laughed.

“Yes. Old man. Don’t mess around with me. Do you know how much bullshit I go through every day? I know when each and every one of my friend are lying to me. I usually know what they’re covering up. I’m the glue. To my group anyhow. I mean Banana would kill Rev and Dean. She would. And then she’d sit in a corner and take a nap and probably never wake up from it. Dean and Rev would last without me, but I don’t think it’d be the same. They’d end up getting careless thinking they could handle whatever…ugh, the point is, not for me to talk about us and what would happen here, the point is, I know you’re lying so just tell me.”

“I just don’t want the boys to be left alone. That’s all. If something should happen to me they would only have each other. They need more glue, so to speak as that’s how this metaphor has come to be, and I can’t give them that from beyond.”

“Why do you think something is going to happen to you? You’re pretty sure for an off chance with a zombie.”

“That’s because it’s not zombies that are killing me.”

Deci sighed. “So what, you’re dying? Is that it? Instead of holding out and fighting you’re just pushing these guys away?”

“That’s an unfair assumption. I’m not pushing them away. I’m trying to set them up with a different life, so that when I’m gone they won’t be half as lost. Those boys mean well and are good boys, but they can’t survive on their own. Physically sure, but mentally? No.”

Deci scratched her forehead. “So, you’re not going to just up and ditch them?”

“No, I don’t plan on it. I just want them to be with someone else for when I do go. I know it won’t be zombies if we wait it out here. Then I’ll die suddenly and they won’t have a clue. Maybe I can cover this up with a zombie thing, make it look like a horrible accident, because that would be more honorable than just sitting back and waiting to die, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t understand much about honor, honestly. I’m almost 24 I don’t know about all the sacrifice and honor that you’re talking about. I’ve never been in a war, this is the only war I’ve ever seen any action of. The only time I’ve ever held a gun and ya know what? Honestly, if I had a choice, I’d go out with a bang too. But I would be honest about why I wanted to go that far.”

Pilot was silent.

“Don’t lie to them all the way till the end. They deserve you being honest with them.”

Rev came back in to the room just then talking about how he couldn’t eat anymore food that started with a b, and then sat down at the table and looked back and forth to Pilot and Deci.

“So…Did I interrupt something?” He asked.

“No, she was just giving me good advice. One bottle of glue to another.”

Rev raised an eye brow and then looked at them both.

“You guys haven’t been sniffing paint have you?” he asked.

Pilot shook his head amused with Rev and then got up and left them alone.

Norman and Ivan’s bunker…

“I don’t get what is going on here, but if I did…I wouldn’t be as mad.” Ivan said packing some things.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what’s going on here Russia.” Norman said looking at his friend. “Pilot is getting sick of us. He was a solo man, he told us that from the beginning. Now that we are friends with these guys, and comfortable with them and happy… He thinks that he can just kick us to the curb and we’ll be alright!”

“Guys, are you sure that’s what is going on here? I don’t think randomly-.”

“Don’t bother defending the guy Dean. You don’t know him and what he was like before you came along. He wasn’t all for helping people like he seems to be now. He didn’t want us hanging out…”

“But yet here you are.” Banana said.

“That don’t mean nothing. Snake’s skin eventually always comes off.” Norman muttered.

“Okay first off I’m not really sure what that’s supposed to mean and second, I don’t think he’s doing this just because he wants some sort of vacation from you or something.” Banana said.

“He’s doing it because he knows that we’ll be alright with you guys. And we ain’t his burden anymore.”

“You sound like a little kid. Who is taking everything going on the wrong way. Why don’t you just talk to him?” Dean asked.

“Because I saw the way his face looked when I realized what was going on. He knows that I know, and we just have to deal with it. Well, I guess it’s the best thing that coulda happened to us, cuz at least we’re with your clan now. We can all be one big ol’ happy fucking family now.”

Norman was quite bitter and upset by the current events and Banana on one hand felt very bad. On the other though, she wanted to slap some sense in to him.

“You guys are taking this all wrong. I don’t think he doesn’t want to be around you guys anymore, but you may be on to something about him having you go with us. Maybe he’s just looking out for you, he didn’t say he wasn’t going with us either.”

“He won’t. I know him. He’ll make it look like he’s doing us all a favor, then he’ll just go off and be the old bastard he was meant to be.”

Ivan looked truly disturbed by all this and sat down on his bed and sighed. “This is the only family I got, why is it falling all apart?”

“Because, this isn’t a fairy tale, shit it’s not even a remotely interesting story if you ask me.” Banana said, “But it’s not always gonna end up the way you want. Or hope for. Real life is the shit out version of a happy movie. It’s always either way harder to achieve happiness than it is in a movie, or you just never get to the happiness because it’s too hard.”

“Aren’t you just a cheery little person.” Dean said putting his arm around her and giving her a noogie.

“I can be very pleasant.”

“I know.” Dean smiled at her.

“Maybe you’re right. But I’m sorry to point this out, zombies were in the movies. They were only make believe. People just thought they were paranoid for believing in them, and other people thought the people who believed were also paranoid. No one ever really thought about it. And you can’t tell me a scientist four or five months ago would have looked at you and said that ‘oh yeah this is possible.’ No, that’s bullshit. Everything is bullshit.” Norman kicked over a suit case.

“You’re right man. Everything is bullshit. But we have to deal with it otherwise we will be dead. And I prefer to wade in shit then float face down in it.” Dean said.