7. Outfitting Daria
Robert knocked on Daria's door at 7 a.m. and she opened her eyes. Shit. I didn't sleep worth a damn.
He knocked again and she called out, "I'm awake! I'm awake!"
"I'm sorry to get you up so early," he said through the door, "but we have work to do."
"What do you mean we?" she said quickly and put her hand on her forehead. Oh, that was smooth, Daria. Nice way to treat the man who saved your life.
The tone of his voice didn't change, however. "I need to get you outfitted in chain mail and get you some weapons. The earlier we do this, the better off we will be, and the readier we will be when that 'transporter' or whatever it is, is used again."
Daria sat up and got out of bed. "I'll be out in a minute," she called out as she changed out of her nightshirt and into her clothes.
"I'll be in the dining room with our breakfast," he said and walked off
oooooooooo
Daria sat at the table as Robert laid out toaster pastries still in their Mylar wrappers. Next to them, he sat out two apple juice boxes and a butterscotch pudding pack. "What flavor are these?" she asked as she picked up the pastries.
"Frosted strawberry," he said and gave her a weak smile. "You don't look like you slept very well."
"I had a bad nightmare," she said and laid her forehead on the table.
He nodded in understanding. "I've had quite a few of them myself. Not as many as I did when it first happened."
"Robert?"
"Yes?"
Daria lifted her head and looked at him over the tops of her glasses. "Did you ever watch MTV?"
He looked surprised at the question and said, "Some, but not much. I quit watching it after Maggie got mad at me for watching The Real World."
"Why would she get mad over that? What was wrong with it?"
"They were in Jamaica and the girls were swimming topless. I was upset because MTV blacked out the girls'...uh...relevant parts."
She blinked and stared at him. "What?"
He shook his head at the memory. "Maggie almost made me black out. She wanted to know why I was into dysfunctional college-aged girls."
I'm almost college-aged, she thought. Will you want to see my 'relevant parts'? "Did you watch any of their cartoons?"
A smile crossed his face and he laughed briefly. "Now that you mention it, I did. I used to watch a cartoon about two stupid teens, called Beavis and Butt-Head."
Daria felt her mouth dry up and she forced herself to breathe.
"It was dumb fun, and even Maggie laughed at their antics. Didn't you ever see them?"
More than I ever want to admit, she thought and said, "No."
"Oh? Didn't your MTV carry it?"
She shook her head. "The only cartoon I remember from them was The Maxx."
"I saw that one a couple of times." He opened his pastry wrapper. "Never did understand it. Why do you ask about it?" He bit into one pastry.
"I'm just curious." She also opened her wrapper and started her breakfast as well.
Robert looked at her silently for a few seconds, then turned his attention to his juice box.
oooooooooo
"You need to tell me where each dial is set," Dr. Stone said from the floor of the van.
Jane grabbed the box and held it on her lap. She looked at the setting knobs and asked, "What is this? It looks like you used knobs off of old machinery. Where's the digital stuff?"
Stone looked at her and rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I am an inventor and scientist, girl, and let's just say that this is my Beta version. The 'digital stuff', as you call it, comes later with the better funding."
"You have to learn a regular guitar before you move on to electric ones, Janey," Trent said from the driver's seat.
"Precisely!" Stone said. "If you would untie me, I could do this much better and much faster."
Jane looked at Trent, her eyebrows raised. "Let me know when you learn to play the guitar, Trent, and I'll believe that one." To Stone, she said, "Do I have the word 'stupid' written on my forehead? I give you this box and you'd have Trent and me wherever you sent Daria in no time flat."
Stone saw the girl's determination in her features, as well as the mistrust in her eyes and sighed. "Very well. Start from the first dial and tell me the numbers, one by one."
Jane started reading the numbers to him.
oooooooooo
After breakfast, Robert took Daria into a first floor conference room, and used a Coleman lantern for the light.
Table after table in the room was covered with rifles, shotguns, and pistols, as well as ammunition and accessories for them. Daria blinked as she looked over the tables in amazement. "Do you think you have enough guns?" she asked and looked at him.
"With zombies, there are never too many guns," he said simply. "Thirteen months ago, all I had were two shotguns and a pistol. Lauren, Janelle and I gathered all this before they left." He laughed briefly and set the lantern on one table. "They took half of what we gathered with them."
"It looks like you're ready to fight a war," she said. "When did you find the time to get all of this? When did you even get the chance?"
"A lot of it we took off of zombies we eliminated," he said. "We also raided a few pawnshops and gun stores, not to mention the homes of known, but dead, gun nuts. Or, at least the ones that Janelle knew, since she was one of them." He motioned towards one table. "Let's start with the pistols. You'll need one, but I recommend three. How much experience do you have with firearms?"
"None."
"I'll start you with revolvers, then," he said and led her to a table covered with revolvers. "Don't bother with the ones on the right."
"Oh? Why not?"
"They're .22s and .38s. They don't work on zombies that well - unless you're lucky."
Daria looked at the other pistols and picked up one. "I'll use this one," she said.
Robert looked at the pistol she chose and nodded. "Colt Python - a .357 Magnum. Nice weapon." He glanced at her. "My backup is a Colt Anaconda. Any reason you chose the Python?"
She thought about it, blinked and shrugged. "No. It just seems right to me."
He picked up a holster and handed it to her. "Put this on."
"Over my skirt?" He nodded and she put on the holster. It hung loose on her.
"O.K., give it back to me." She took it off and handed it to him. He slung it over his left shoulder and said, "I'll hammer in a couple more holes later on so that you can wear it. Choose a second and third pistol and you can try them out next."
Daria picked up a .45-caliber revolver and a second .357 Magnum, then followed Robert into the next room.
"This room was sound-proofed back when the world was...normal," he said and held up the lantern. "Must have been used for band practice or lessons or something like that. It makes a good gun practice room." He set lit candles on the floor at the end of the room, which illuminated a target resembling a man. The target had circles on the chest and head areas.
For the next several minutes, Robert showed Daria how to open the cylinder, load bullets and pull out empty shells. Finally, he had her stand near a strip of duct tape placed on the floor. "Now to fire," he said, "you aim ahead of you, pull back the hammer and then pull the trigger."
"I can go ahead and shoot?" she asked and glanced at him.
"I've done it many times myself," he said. "Janelle fixed the room up as an indoor shooting range. Go ahead and aim."
Daria lifted the pistol and aimed it ahead of her.
Robert moved behind her, reached ahead and adjusted the pistol in her hands. "Don't be so tense, Daria. This is a powerful weapon. It can hurt you - even kill you - if you use it wrong."
She bit her lower lip due to his closeness and fought the urge to cry out. If you wanted me, I couldn't stop you, she thought. Talk to him, dammit! Tell him that he's freaking you out!
"Now pull the trigger," he said. "But don't jerk it. Just pull it gently."
Daria pulled the trigger and the pistol roared; the flash lit the room and she winced as she felt the powder burn her hands.
"That's good," Robert said and moved his hands to her arms. "Shoot it again."
Daria looked at his hands, blinked and pulled the trigger again.
He moved his hands to her hips. "Again."
She closed her eyes, suppressed a sob and obeyed.
Then he moved his hands to the bottom of her pullover, lifted it up slightly and moved his hands inside it. He also kissed her right ear and the side of her neck. "Again."
"Don't!" she said loudly. "Please! Don't do this to me!"
oooooooooo
"Daria! What do you mean 'Don't do this to me?' What are you talking about?"
The teen blinked and looked to her right. Robert stood beside her, confusion on his face. She looked down. Her blouse was still in place, his hands were at his sides and she felt her face heat up. "I...I'm sorry."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "O.K. Let's have it out right now. I want to know just what the hell is going through your mind. Several times since I brought you here, I've had the feeling that you're scared, afraid of me. I told you that I'm not going to hurt you. What are you thinking about?"
Daria wanted to bolt from the room, but she knew that he'd follow her and push her to tell him. She felt as if she wanted to die, but she swallowed and said, "I'm scared of you! I'm sorry, Robert, but I'm scared! I'm scared of being eaten alive, but I'm also scared of being raped by you! You carried me and ran across town with me as if I was some small child's toy! If you wanted to do that to me, I couldn't stop you."
Robert sighed and covered his eyes with his right hand. "Daria..." he said.
"If you want to do that, just don't hurt me! I...I don't want to die! I just want to go home! What if I can't get home? What do 'we' do then?"
"Stop it!" he said loudly and uncovered his eyes. "Just stop it!" When he had her attention, he continued, "I told you yesterday that I never had to rape anyone. When I have sex with a woman, it's because she wants it just as much as I want it. I wouldn't have it any other way." He smiled slightly. "I wouldn't have it any other way. Do I stare at you? It's been several months since I've been with an uninjured, normal person, especially a young and pretty girl. If I've stared at you, I apologize. Have I done anything else to make you uncomfortable? I know I touched your thigh, but I explained that one and apologized for it. Have I done something else?"
"No," she said, looked away and slightly cowered.
"Stand up straight and face me. Do. Not. Be. Afraid. Of. Me. There's something you should know. Remember when I told you that I got tired because I wasn't as well fed as I used to be?"
She nodded and swallowed again.
"Well, my sex drive isn't what it used to be, either. Most of my energy has been focused on staying alive." He smiled. "You're a cute kid, you really are. But you're still a kid and I don't make moves on school kids."
Daria gave him a weak smile in return. "You're probably old enough to be my dad, anyway," she said.
"How old do you think I am?" he asked, a wry smile on his face.
"Forty or forty-five."
Robert sighed and laughed briefly. "I turn thirty-two in a few weeks, Daria. Fighting zombies ages you."
"Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." He picked up the lantern, then walked down and checked out the target. "You got a chest shot and a neck shot. Good start. If you want we can try again later - if you're not already home by then." He blew out the candles near the target. "Let's go back upstairs and I'll work on your holster belt."
As they walked up to the second floor, Daria looked at him. "Robert?"
"Yes?"
"I apologize for all of that."
"It's O.K. I understand."
She cleared her throat. "I have a question."
"Yes?"
She looked down briefly, then back up at his face. "You told me yesterday that after he died, you shot Billy in the head twice. Those zombies you shot yesterday, you shot them at least twice, except the ones you got with the shotgun. Is there a reason for the two shots?"
Robert looked at her, his expression surprised. He smiled and nodded. "You're very perceptive and you pay attention," he said. "That's good."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Most teenagers don't. I didn't when I was that age. Maggie did pay attention, but she was also a very smart girl...and woman." He sighed and motioned her to follow him.
They went back to the armory, where he picked up a rifle. "Follow me," he said.
Robert led Daria upstairs to the building's roof and they walked outside into the sunlight.
Instantly, she frowned, coughed and said, "It stinks out here!"
"The dead," he said and glanced at her. "That's what it smells like - when the wind stops. Fortunately, we're close enough to Lake Erie to have a fairly constant wind." They walked to near the building's edge and he pointed ahead. "See that zombie over there? Two blocks away. The one in the red shirt?"
She squinted and looked ahead. "Yeah."
"Watch him. I'm going to give him one right through the forehead."
Daria looked at Robert in amazement. "What?"
"Keep your eyes on the zombie! This is an important lesson here."
She looked back at the dead man as Robert shouldered the rifle, aimed and cocked it.
"This is a .22-caliber rifle," he said. "It uses the long rifle shells. Keep watching him, even after I shoot him." He pulled the trigger.
The sound of the shot wasn't very loud, but the bullet hit the zombie's forehead dead center. Daria winced at the spray of blood and watched the dead man fall onto his back. For almost three minutes, he laid there. "What am I watching him for?" she asked.
"Wait for it."
Suddenly, the zombie sat up and got to his feet. It looked around in confusion, then walked off.
Daria exhaled loudly and whispered, "Hell."
"Yes. Hell." He saw her stare at him and he continued, "At least three of those zombies I shot yesterday are already back on their feet and are very mobile. Not to mention just as hungry as they were before."
"But I thought...I thought that when a zombie was shot through the head, it was really killed then."
He smiled patiently at her. "Where did you get your info on that one? Do you have zombies in your universe?"
She blinked. "Only in the movies and horror novels. Plus a few websites dedicated to those movies and that genre."
"It was the same way here," Robert said. "Did George A. Romero make the zombie movies in your universe? The major ones, that is?"
"Yes."
"That was our only guideline to go by, Daria. That's part of the reason things fell apart so fast. We went by what Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead showed us. Head shots are effective - if you do damage to the right part of the brain." He tapped the back of his head near the brain stem and the top of the cervical section of his backbone. "If you don't decapitate them, you have to damage this area badly enough so that the remaining brain tissue can't reanimate them." The girl still had a shocked expression on her face and he gently patted her left arm. "Let's go back inside and look over the chain mail."
They went back into the building and shut the door.
oooooooooo
"This is heavy!" Daria said as she looked over herself in the mirror. "You made it look easy the way you ran and carried me."
"I was a football player through middle and high school, Daria," Robert said. "Coach Howard, God bless his soul, was a retired Marine and put us through Marine PT every chance he got. By the time I graduated from high school, I could run ten miles with an eighty-pound pack on my back." He took a drink of water and laughed gently.
"What are you laughing at?" she asked, obviously irked.
"Your expression. It's priceless. Keep it on for now. Get used to the feel, because when we go over to where you first showed up, you'll have to have it on."
She groaned and shook her head. "This sucks!"
oooooooooo
At nearly two-thirty, Robert and Daria left the shelter from the roof. But getting started wasn't as easy for the teen as she might have thought.
"This part is tricky," he said. "I'll go first and be ready to catch you in case you slip and fall." He climbed over the ledge and dropped onto a fire escape. "O.K., now you climb over and join me."
She swallowed nervously as she looked down at him. She glanced around, but none of the nearby zombies noticed them - yet. "I'm not sure I can do it," she said.
"Yes, you can," he said calmly. "You can do this. You have to do this, if you want to go home."
"I'll fall," she said quickly. "The fire escape won't be able to hold both of us."
Robert smiled and said, "Yes, it will, Daria. If you fall, I'll catch you. Don't worry. If you feel yourself slip, just stay calm and I'll be there for you. I promise."
When he said that, she stared at him, her mouth open.
"Just trust me and don't cry out if you do slip," he said. "Now, climb over."
Daria climbed over the ledge and lowered herself towards him and the fire escape, then stopped. She hung still and clamped her eyes shut.
Robert was there and wrapped his arms around her thighs. "I've got you, Daria," he said. "Let go and trust me."
She released the ledge and he moved her slightly to his right, then set her upon her feet. She opened her eyes, looked down at the alley behind the building, then at him. "Thank you."
"No problem," he said. "Here's what we have to deal with. We can go the whole distance and not run into one zombie. That does happen sometimes. Or we may see a group of them on every street corner. There's really no way to tell. We'll talk low, like we did yesterday."
"What happens if there are too many out?" she asked.
"We'll come back here - quickly." He shrugged. "If we have to run, expect to be on my left shoulder again. Apologies again for holding your thighs - and if I have to do it again."
"I understand."
Robert cleared his throat and moved to the stairs. "This is important. Whatever you do, if you see something shocking - don't scream! You handled yourself pretty good yesterday, but we really didn't run into too many of those things, either. Got it?"
Daria nodded.
"Let's go, then." They climbed down to the lowest level of the fire escape and he looked at the girl. "I'll go down first. The last ladder swings down and when you step off, it swings back up - loudly. Make sure I'm holding it before you let go of it."
The ladder went down with Robert's weight and he climbed down to the street. He looked around cautiously and motioned for Daria to follow him.
She climbed down to his level and after she made sure that he had a hold of the ladder, she stepped off. He carefully guided it back up and it only made a small metallic clang. "What keeps them from pulling it down and climbing up on it?" she asked.
"They don't know how - yet," he said. "That's why I lock and block the door to the roof."
She looked over the obvious weapons he carried. The top of a crowbar hung out from his left shoulder and a rifle was slung over his right shoulder. That didn't even count the revolver in his right hand.
As they walked down the street, they looked around carefully. "What about the front door?" she asked. "I saw you seal it off yesterday."
"I took care of it right after lunch," he said. "I do this all the time, Daria. If I happen to forget to unseal the door, well, I have a grappling hook and rope and can climb."
"I can't, especially not in this!" She held her pistol in her right hand as well. "Why do you tie your pistols down like that?"
"That way I can let go of them and not have to worry about them."
Buster popped his head out of Robert's chain mail neck hole and whined.
"Get back in there, boy, at least until the Meclizine kicks in."
"Why did you give him a motion sickness pill?" she asked.
"It's the only thing I know of to sedate him with. If you can make it back, he's going with you. Get him back to his owner."
She looked at him. "I know Mr. DeMartino. He's my history teacher. But shouldn't we have brought some of the other stuff with us? From the other Lawndale people?"
For several seconds, Robert said nothing. Finally, he sighed. "No. I don't know how it is in your universe, Daria, but here, before things fell apart, many states didn't need a corpse to make a murder charge stick. Too chancy. You're just going to have to remain quiet about it...for the rest of your life."
She glanced at him and said nothing more.
oooooooooo
They reached the spot where Robert had rescued her at five after three. The bodies of four zombies laid on the ground. "See what I mean?" he asked, his voice lower than it was earlier. "Which way do we go?"
She pointed to where she saw the wrecked cars down the street. "That way."
When they reached the cars, she nodded towards the side street and said, "We go left here."
As they walked down, a zombie hobbled out from the side of a house. It had once been an old man and was clad in pajamas and a soiled green robe that hung open. Robert grabbed the crowbar, whipped it out and ran up to it. Without a word, he clubbed the elderly zombie onto the ground and walked back to Daria, who stood still and shocked.
"Shit!" she spat out. "I'll never get used to that!"
He glanced at her briefly and said, "If we're lucky, you won't be here long enough to get used to it."
A few minutes later, Daria stopped him in front of the white house and said, "It was right here. Now, how long do we wait?"
"Until four. None of that...stuff happened after four." He pointed at the enclosed porch and said, "We should wait there. It'll keep us out of sight until we leave again."
"What if there are some of those...zombies...in the house?" she asked as they walked up the sidewalk slowly.
He held up the crowbar as he scanned the area. "Then, they'll get a big headache."
Daria looked over the chain mail she wore and the weapons she carried. "What about all this?" she asked. "Do I take it with me?"
He nodded. "You probably won't have much time. Consider them gifts from me."
They waited on the porch in silence. Daria sat on an old love seat, while Robert waited near the front door. Occasionally, he looked inside the one window to the house, but there was nothing inside that moved.
Four o'clock came and passed and nothing happened. They waited until four-thirty, then left. The only sound beside their footsteps was the light snoring of the beagle inside Robert's chain mail.
Daria looked ahead and not at Robert as they walked. A tear ran down her left cheek, but she didn't cry.
