I guess it's not really so much a long story as it is a complicated one," Kurt began.
"Now there's a shock," muttered Cally.
"I mean, there're certain things I just can't tell you about..."
"Why don't you just start at the beginning, like when and where you met David and just go from there," she suggested.
"David and I first met a few years before he actually introduced us. I was contracted to retrieve some information from his boss's office, so it I figured it would be the most logical step to put myself into his path, gain his trust, and get the access I needed……"
"Wait, hold up. Do you think you could slow that down a little and speak some English?"
"Sorry," he grinned, showing that he really wasn't. "Like I said, I was under contract to retrieve some data from David's boss."
"By retrieve I'm going to assume you mean steal," Cally translated. "And when exactly was this? David hasn't worked in an office since he was working for Professor…."
"Back at the university," he finished for her. "Before he wised up and realized that he didn't really want to be buried in the bowels of academia and found his true calling working on cars."
"That was more than seven years ago and he didn't 'wise up' as you so eloquently put it."
"That's right, it was. And he really did wise up."
Ignoring what he had to say Cally continued, "So you ruined his life, and what, two years later he's introducing you to the rest of us?"
"Correct again, I always knew you were the smart one," he said with a wink. It totally caught her off guard, the idea that he could flirt with her at a time like this when the world was crumbling around them and she was just generally pissed off.
"Let's agree to disagree on this, but I wouldn't exactly say I ruined his life. David was never cut out for life in academia," he continued. "He's a mechanic at heart, I knew it the first time we worked on my old '69 Camaro. He would have just dried up and wasted away if he'd been buried away in a research lab somewhere."
"He was forced to leave the doctoral program and accused of stealing intellectual property, and you're saying you didn't ruin his life because you had it all figured out that deep down inside he wanted to play with cars!"
"That's right," Kurt grinned again.
"You're insane! I hope for your sake that there're still a few psychiatrists out there that haven't been eaten by those things because you really could benefit from some serious therapy. Or maybe just some nice mood altering drugs, those would probably do you a world of good too."
"Maybe. And maybe we could all benefit from those things. In a situation like this it's perfectly normal for us all to feel a little insane," he answered blithely. "Even me."
Cally couldn't stop a surprised laugh from escaping over his words, they were just so bizarre. "Okay, let's get back to the subject here. Who the hell do you work for?"
"I like to think of myself as being sort of…..freelance. My loyalties go to the highest bidder."
She groaned. Of course he couldn't make this easy on her. Who he worked for wasn't really important right now though, there'd be plenty of time to get that information out of him later, or at least she hoped there would be. For now she just wanted to know how the hell he'd come to be in their lives. "So you just used David so you could get into the professor's office and take what you wanted, is that right?"
"While I was researching my mark I found out that the only person other than the professor that had access to the information I needed was your brother."
"What sort of information could they have possibly had access to that you would want to steal?"
"I didn't want to steal it, my employer did."
"Why?"
"I imagine they had their reasons," he responded cryptically.
"Well what was it that they wanted you to steal then?"
"I'm afraid that's classified," he grinned, beginning to load the tools into the bag once more. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Or if you're feeling really daring you can try to seduce it out of me," he teased jokingly. At the sound of her frustrated moan his grin became a full blown smile.
Seeing it, Cally decided it would be more prudent to try a different tactic since she wasn't getting any information out of him this way. The end of the world and he was trying to get in her pants, unbelievable.
"So why is it that 7 years later I'm here talking to you?" she asked. "Don't people like you disappear off into the sunset after using people and ruining their lives?"
"People like me?"
"Criminals."
"That's a little harsh, Cal."
"But I notice you're not denying it?"
He smiled, but ignored her implication. "I could have just walked away, once I had what I needed, but I didn't. Kind of took me by surprise, but I actually liked David. He was a really good friend….."
"Cally! Kurt!" Jessie's voice called out excitedly from outside the boat house, breaking the mood within. "There're people out on the lake!"
"What?"
"People on the lake?"
The two didn't hesitate, they dashed for the door, startling Jessie as they came bursting out.
"Where are they?" Kurt demanded.
"Look out there, near the center," Jessie pointed. "There's a pontoon boat out there, and something's moving on it."
"Binoculars?" Kurt asked, looking questioningly at Cally.
"I'm on it," she called, dashing back into the boat house. In what felt like an eternity, but was actually only a few short minutes she reappeared, binoculars in hand. Kurt reached for them, but she shrugged him off, raising them to her own eyes.
"There's definitely people out there…..and they look…..I think they look okay," she murmured. Kurt reached for the binoculars again and this time she relinquished them.
"What do you think?" she asked breathlessly, before he'd even had a chance to look.
The others had gathered anxiously around him, Mark trying to grab the binoculars himself, the rest just waiting for confirmation that they really weren't the last people alive around there.
"She's right," he said at last. "At least 5 of them, maybe more."
"What are they doing out there? Shouldn't we help them?" Shelly asked.
"Help them how?" Jessie retorted sarcastically. "Should we just walk on water and say 'Hey dudes 'sup?' Or are we just going to send up smoke signals and invite them over for a little barbecue?"
Shelly glared at her, "Let me think here, oh look, we're standing next to a boat house. Who knows, maybe it got its name because people keep boats inside them? You think?"
"Well no shit, a boat house with boats in it? I'm amazed. Really. And that's totally not sarcasm you're hearing in my voice right now."
"Ladies, can we stop the fighting?" Kurt cut in. "I think before we invite anyone over we should take care of some business first."
"Like what?"
"Getting that gun safe open for starters. That's my top priority right now."
"But there's other people out there," Shelly protested.
"Maybe. They look okay from here and all, but do we know for sure? Besides that, if we can see them then they should be able to see us, stands to reason they'll be making their way here soon enough."
"But…"
"Damn girl, are you gonna argue with everything I say?"
"But.."
"Look, do what you want. There's the boathouse like you said, go find a boat and do what you want."
With those final words Kurt walked off towards the boathouse himself, just long enough to retrieve the bag of tools. He stalked by them on his way back to the house without even a word. Cally moved to follow him.
"So you don't want to help them either?" Jessie called out to her.
Cally paused, turning back to answer, "There's a board in the kitchen that's got keys to the boat and the jet skis, help yourselves." With that, she hurried off after Kurt who was just disappearing through the French doors that lead into the den.
"Well I for one am not going to leave those people stranded out there," Shelly announced. "Are you guys with me?"
"Are you really that eager to play heroine that you're gonna let those two get their hands on all the guns?" Mark asked, jerking his thumb towards where Kurt and Cally had disappeared inside the house.
"What does it matter, Mark? I've never even held a fucking gun much less fired one," Shelly retorted, the anger becoming slowly evident in her voice. "You haven't either, if memory serves."
"But if you let Kurt…"
"Mark, this whole alpha male, leader of the pack thing you two've got going really needs to stop," Jessie said angrily. "I mean, we're all freaked out about what's going on, but having you two prancing around worried about who's got the biggest gun totally isn't helping."
Shelly let out a startled chuckle before agreeing.
"I'm not being all 'alpha male'!" he protested. "I'm just saying, we've known that guy for a few years now and we're just now finding out about his whole safe cracking thing. And what about the way he's been tossing around that gun all day? Obviously he's had some practice at waving those things around. Now, am I the only one here who sees something wrong with that?"
"Ummm….I don't know, I mean, in all those years did you ever ask him about whether or not he knew how to handle guns or break into safes?" Shelly asked.
"It's not really something that came up in casual conversation," he replied sarcastically.
"Really? And here I thought you guys always stood around at the urinals comparing your guns."
"Real nice, we've got a fucking comedian here and we didn't even know it," he shot back.
"Look, alls I'm saying is just because he never said anything about it doesn't necessarily mean we should be weirded out by it. I mean, other than fighting with that psycho cop with the rain fixation, who fell out of the truck while you were fighting with him I might add, Kurt's pretty much helped cover our asses since he sobered up this morning. You're just still feeling pissy because he thought of grabbing the gun first and doesn't seem to want to share his toy. Now, I'm asking again. Are you guys with me?"
Jessie nodded and looked at Mark expectantly. Inwardly he groaned. He knew that look she was giving him. It was the one that said, 'You'll never get in my pants again if you say no.' He really hated that look. "Let's go find the keys," he muttered.
The keys had been easier to find than any of them had anticipated, which just aggravated Mark even more. He was in no mood to go trying to rescue a boatload of people that, for all they knew, didn't even need to be rescued. And he wasn't even convinced that they were really people. Besides that, he really wanted to get his hands on some of those guns Cally had talked about. He decided there was one more tactic to try.
"I, uh, don't suppose either of you know how to drive a boat," he said as they returned to the boathouse.
"How hard can it be?" Shelly asked. She was completely caught off guard by the question, being something she had never even thought about when she decided that rescuing those people was a must.
"Nice try honey," Jessie retorted, shaking her head. "I guess you forgot about my parents' boat. Weren't we both driving it Memorial Day weekend?"
Damn. She would have to rub that in his face. "Let's go," he sighed.
It didn't take them long before they were speeding across the lake towards the pontoon boat. "Tell me again that you're sure those are live people," Mark hollered at Shelly over the noise of the engines.
"I'm sure. Look, you can see them now. Would you slow down!"
He grinned as he held the boat on a steady course, cutting the throttle at the last possible moment as he looped once around the pontoon boat which was now rocking from the waves the speedboat had created. He brought the boat in as close as he dared noting that the name of the big hotel was emblazoned on the side of the boat.
"Oh thank God!" one of the women on board the pontoon cried out, falling to her knees.
"Is everyone okay?" Shelly asked, rushing to the side of the boat closest to them. They could see 5 people on board.
An older man, probably in his late 50's answered. "Most of us are okay, Linda's hurt, but otherwise we're all okay."
"Hurt how? What happened to you all? Why are you drifting out in the middle of the lake?" Mark questioned. He didn't want someone who was going to turn into one of those things coming back to the house with them.
"We all came out on the lake last night to see the meteor shower," the man explained. "Some of those meteors looked like they were actually landing pretty close; a few of them even came down in the lake. We saw one hit up by the beach behind the hotel, there was some kind of party going on….anyways, there were screams and we decided to head back, some of our group decided to stay at the party instead of going on a midnight pontoon ride around the lake…"
"Yeah, that's all very interesting," Mark interrupted, "But do you think you could just cut to the chase here?"
Shelly elbowed him in his side and glared at him. "Just ignore him, sir; he's inflicted with a terminal case of being an asshole."
Her words brought a surprised chuckle from the older man, who pretended he was just clearing his throat before continuing on with his story.
"When we heard the screams we headed back and all hell was breaking loose. People were covered in blood, attacking each other; others were panicking and trying to run…. It was horrible. We turned the boat around and headed back out onto the lake."
"We thought we could wait it out," a younger man spoke up. "Until the police came, you know. But they never showed up. We waited out the night here on the boat, freezing our asses off. First thing in the morning we headed back for the beach. We didn't see anyone at first, not until we got closer."
"You saw someone?" Jessie asked in amazement. They hadn't seen any sign of life when they'd passed through the town, not unless you included those dead people trying to attack them that is.
"I'm not really sure what we saw," the older man spoke again. "It looked like a person that had been mauled by a tiger or something, just all torn to pieces."
"And then more of them started pouring out onto the beach," the younger guy added. "All of them looking like mangled, walking corpses. So we headed back out onto the lake to try and figure out what to do."
"You still got gas left in that thing?" Mark asked.
"A little."
"Then fire it up, you can follow us back to a safe house."
The two men nodded, turning to move back to the wheel, but Shelly stopped them.
"Wait, you said this Linda person was hurt, what happened to her?"
"It was the damnedest thing," the older man replied. "She was soaking her feet in the lake this afternoon and these fish just sort of…attacked. One of them bit her toe clean off before she could get her feet out of the water. Zack here," he nodded towards the younger man, "He told her they must have been zombie fish or something." He chuckled, making the others laugh too. Zombie fish. Who'd ever heard of such a thing?
With that, they fired up the boats and headed back for the house.