"Things have a habit of not goin' right back here when you go along on runs," Alex said as he watched Gareth load up a case of firecrackers into the back of a red station wagon.
"As long as they don't throw any parties, then they'll be fine. Mom knows what she's doing," Gareth said as he shut the rear hatch.
Gareth crossed his arms and leaned against the vehicle. "So, Theresa still wanted to go even after she found out Martin was going too?"
"She said she wants to watch him make eyes at you." Alex grinned cheekily.
"Ugh, I'm gonna have to file a complaint with H.R. if this keeps up." Gareth brought himself forward and patted Alex's shoulder as he passed him to meet Theresa and Kaylee who had arrived from inside the complex.
Gareth had developed an attraction to Martin, which he hated to admit. He was bitter that of all the people at Terminus, his desire had singled in on Martin. Gareth thought one of the new arrivals, Hayley, was cute. She had waist-length brown hair that she kept in a high ponytail, and a mole above her right eyebrow. He had conversed with her quite a bit, hoping some sort of attraction would occur, but none did. In fact, Gareth found her dull as a brick. Gareth even thought Gavin was okay-looking, but he bored him almost as much as Hayley did.
Gareth was unsure what he was going to do about his predicament. He figured Martin would be the kind of guy he could hook-up with once and he would never speak of it again. That appealed to Gareth, he knew he'd never find his against-all-odds post-apocalyptic love story like Alex and Theresa. And Alex had earlier informed him that most people thought that he and Martin were already fooling around.
Well, why not just go ahead and make it true? Gareth had considered.
"You do nothing but perpetuate stereotypes about Asian drivers, Kaylee," Theresa said as she and Kaylee strolled over to meet Gareth and Alex.
Kaylee's beautiful, why not her? Gareth thought.
"It's just my eyesight. No contacts anymore," Kaylee teased back as she lowered the duffel bag she carried around her shoulder and headed for the passenger's door.
I like her pixie cut, Gareth thought fondly of Kaylee's messy, short hair. But he knew his appreciation of her appearance was purely aesthetic.
"Shotgun!" Martin appeared from behind the two women, raising a green backpack in the air as he passed in between them.
Of course he'd want to sit next to me, Gareth thought.
"Sorry Kaylee, you'll have to sit next to Ross and Rachel," Martin said as he pulled open the passenger's side door, tossed the backpack on the floor and proceeded to sit down.
"'Ross and Rachel?'" Theresa mumbled and shook her head.
Kaylee sighed softly and moved over to the backseat behind Gareth, intending to allow Alex his desired place on the right.
The remaining four of them took their places in the vehicle, buckled-up and circled around to the exit as two people opened and closed the gates to allow their departure. Ever since Theresa and Cynthia's ordeal with Riley, Terminus had come to the decision that least four people would need to comprise the party for each run.
"Man, could you not put your seat back so far?" Alex complained while he struggled for leg room behind Martin.
"Ugh," Martin griped as he reluctantly turned the switch that elevated his seat.
Gareth had been slightly annoyed on Alex's behalf that Martin had brushed off Alex's attempts at befriending him after he joined. Alex was the sole reason Martin was given a chance in the first place and not turned into a long pig version of oxtail soup. Gareth added that to his mental list of things he found irritating about Martin.
After roughly thirty minutes of travel, which included Gareth's attempt to thoroughly explain to Kaylee what computer information science was, they neared their destination of a small assortment of stores near a suburban neighborhood on the edge of a small town.
"See, I suck at math. I'm not a total stereotype, like Martin," Kaylee said.
"What? How am I a stereotype?" Martin jerked his head around to Kaylee as she giggled at his reaction.
"Oh, the horde was right up here last time we were through." Kaylee turned serious as they cruised a stretch of rural road encased by woodlands.
Gareth slowed the car's speed slightly. "You said it was small, right?"
"Yeah, we can probably plow through them," she replied confidently.
As they advanced over a tall, debris-littered hill, they spotted a gang of at least fifty walkers both on and off the road, more than Kaylee had seen the first time.
"Oh, shit." Gareth exclaimed, bringing the wagon to a halt.
"That's too many to run down," Martin said.
"Set off some of the firecrackers south east and west of them? That's why we brought them," Theresa said.
"Alright, Martin, Kaylee, you go. Theresa, stand watch outside," Gareth commanded.
Gareth reversed the car back down to the bottom of the hill, out of the sight from the undead. Kaylee and Martin hopped out and retrieved two firecrackers each from the back and headed off in opposite directions into the woods. Theresa exited her middle seat and stood on lookout for possible walkers.
"Come on, come on," Gareth muttered as he tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.
The sound of two firecrackers erupted from either side of them at nearly the same time, then once more a minute later from farther away.
After a few minutes, Kaylee arrived sprinting from the woods as she and Theresa returned to their original seats.
"Where the hell is Martin?" Gareth asked as he leaned over and peered out the passenger's side window.
"I'll go," Kaylee said grudgingly.
"Alex, you go too," Gareth said.
"What? Why?" Alex asked.
"Because we shouldn't have sent just one of them out there in the first place." Gareth regretted his snap decision.
Alex sighed and departed from the car with Kaylee, both headed to the western section of the woods.
Gareth didn't know for sure, but he had an inkling that Martin had yet again strayed from his orders. Martin followed commands well enough to be compatible with Terminus, but he was impulsive enough while executing said commands that he occasionally gave Gareth headaches.
The sudden sound of shot fired from the west caught Gareth and Theresa's ears.
"Shit," Gareth said through gritted teeth.
"Gareth, go. The walkers probably dispersed enough up there to get through. And they'll meet with us further up the road, they'll be able to hear us and they're armed," Theresa said.
Gareth bit his cheek, pulled the car out of park and accelerated up the hill. Most of the walkers had lumbered off toward the direction the firecrackers were ignited, creating what looked like half a triangle in the middle of the road. Gareth hit some of them, staining the front and hood of the car with blood and body spatter. He swerved to avoid as many of them as possible then stopped thirty yards past the horde and waited for Martin, Alex, and Kaylee to appear.
Before they could react, a black sedan skidded around the station wagon and sped off full throttle ahead.
"What the f-" Gareth began before he was cut off by the sound of Alex climbing into the back seat behind him.
"Go after them! They got Martin and Kaylee! Go, go, go!" Alex shouted and pounded his hand on the back of Gareth's seat. Gareth quickly pulled the car into gear and set off after them.
"What the hell happened!?" Theresa asked.
"I ran after Kaylee when she heard that shot and I found her tryin' to help Martin walk with a fuckin' snare around his leg. So I helped 'em get back to where we were parked, but you were gone. And then these people just pull up outta nowhere and try to grab us and push us in the car, but I hit this one guy in the nose and he let me go. But they got Martin and Kaylee and then they took off and it just happened so fast I don't..." Alex's words ran into each other.
Gareth slowed the wagon enough to hope the drivers in front of them wouldn't notice they were being followed. "Why would someone just take them?"
Alex shrugged. "I don't know, maybe they thought they were helping?"
"Well they have to stop eventually. How many did you see?" Gareth knew a long ordeal was in store for them. He assumed they we going to have to kill whichever strangers had abducted their people.
"At least two. A woman drivin' I think and a man in the back, the one I hit. They were dressed like cops."
"You think we're far enough away?" Theresa narrowed her eyes at the vehicle ahead.
"I hope so. I'd say aim for their tires, but since they have our precious cargo that might be a bad idea," Gareth said.
They continued to follow the black sedan, remaining as far away as possible without losing track of them, nearly stopping at some intervals to avoid detection. After many minutes of travel, they'd realized the vehicle's destination was much farther than they'd anticipated. People at Terminus would be expecting them back at about that time.
"You think we can still hear Camille's broadcast all the way out here?" Gareth said as he reached for the radio dial.
"Gareth, we're almost to Atlanta," Alex said, diverting Gareth's attention.
Theresa, who had been hunched forward attentively watching the vehicle they followed, fell back at the realization of where they were going. Atlanta was where she had lost her family to walkers. She knew their bodies would still be rotting in the city, rather they be turned or unturned. Alex, who she assumed sensed her apprehension, reached over with his right hand and placed it over Theresa's left which rested on her thigh.
She accepted his hand and entwined her fingers with his. Theresa loved Alex's gentle and affectionate nature despite not having much of one herself. Alex had always had the ability to shed light on people's softer sides and Theresa was no exception.
Theresa didn't feel the urge to do things like give the new guy at the gates a chance when they weren't considering new people yet, or place the locket that contained a photo of an unfamiliar child on a departed mother's grave, but she admired that Alex did. She thought it was more than commendable that doing what they do, he still retained a shake of compassion.
"Then apparently, we're going to Atlanta," Gareth said.
Oh, fuck. This isn't gonna be fun, Gareth thought.
"They're probably worried about us," Alex said as he released Theresa's hand and leaned forward to look at his brother.
Gareth glanced over his shoulder. "Then they'll have to be worried. We'll get Martin and Kaylee and go home and then they won't be worried anymore. It'll be okay, we'll get our people."
"Think we'll have to kill some kidnappers?" Theresa interjected.
"Probably," Gareth exhaled.
They cleared the woodlands and set sights on the dilapidated Atlanta city skyline. The former traffic jam of panicked people attempting to flee the city had become like a statue, frozen in time. The once frantic, rapid beating pulse of a civilization steeped in excess, now collected dust like a broken doll left in a pile of wreckage by a small child in the midst of a nuclear disaster.
It was hard to imagine the universe in which this city had existed, when people had time enough to construct something as outlandish and ridiculous as skyscrapers. When they bustled around without any idea or suspicion that a dead man may soon wake from his grave and seek to kill. When the act of eating another person was tucked away in whispered tales of the depravity of man, never thought to come to light.
Gareth wondered what such a world would be like before he remembered that he'd lived most of his life in it.
As they neared the end of the interstate into the city, they saw a hand slip out from the back left passenger's window of the black sedan and release a small, dark object.
"Oh no," Gareth mouthed. They'd finally been spotted.
The object sprang forward and rolled under the front left tire, puncturing a hole in it. The car lurched and screeched as they veered out of control. Gareth jammed his foot to the brake as they nearly plowed into a busted-out pick-up truck.
"You guys okay?" Gareth leaned around to the back seat. Alex and Theresa nodded.
"What the hell did they throw?" Theresa said.
"I think it was a hunk of metal," Gareth said, he honestly didn't care what it had been.
Gareth turned back around and rested his palms firmly on his knees, thinking of a plan. "We get our stuff, we head east, that's where we saw them go. That car had a cross on the back, that's not gonna be a coincidence. This city's not as big as it used to be."
Theresa wrapped Kaylee's duffel bag around her shoulder and stuffed as many extra supplies as she could into it. Alex affixed Martin's backpack and Gareth secured his satchel as well as slung his rife over his shoulder.
"It'll be sundown in about an hour," Alex commented after they'd begun their official journey east into the blackened former metropolis.
"Then we'll have to set-up somewhere," Gareth said, much to his distaste.
"That much of a drive, they knew what they were doing," Theresa said.
"They're experienced, so they'll be held up somewhere big," Gareth said.
Theresa rolled her eyes. "Wearing identifiable uniforms and driving an identifiable car is kinda stupid."
Gareth smirked. "Lucky for us."
Gareth and Theresa kept their eyes dead-ahead, trying to ignore the unsettling stillness of the tomb they waded through. Alex couldn't help glancing around, recalling when each building brimmed with bright, colorful life. Despair washed over him as the tall lifeless, buildings seemed less like offices and apartment complexes and more like enormous gravestones. He hoped he wouldn't need to speak anytime soon as he was afraid he wouldn't be able to form words.
"Horde," Gareth said, spotting a swarm of at least fifty walkers as they turned the corner of a ruined bar.
They instantly whirled around, hoping the walkers hadn't spotted before they did them. Both luckily and unluckily, the wide open spaces of large urban areas tend to draw many walkers to group en mass, rather than spread out and pepper the landscape like they often do rural settings.
"So, you think they're still alive?" Alex asked. The adrenaline that had coursed through him at the sight of the mob of walkers had perked him up enough to feel he could speak again.
"Yeah, I do actually. Unless they..." Gareth had always pondered the possibility of running into other cannibals.
Alex furrowed his brow. "Unless they?"
"Unless they're hunters," Gareth said. He didn't think they were, but the possibility both intrigued and worried him.
"Then why would they being playing dress-up as cops?" Theresa said.
"Like I said, they probably thought they were helpin' 'cause Martin had a snare wrapped around his leg and was slung around Kaylee." Alex stated.
"Or they were weak prey," Theresa remarked.
"Nah, they're not hunters," Gareth assured.
Gareth thought of Martin, who he hoped was being treated well by the do-gooders for the trap that had bitten into his leg. He envisioned Martin's future reaction to having been rescued by he, Alex and Theresa being somewhere along the lines of 'alright cool, let's go home.'
What an annoying, ungrateful, selfish, obnoxious redneck. Gareth thought before he inevitably imagined what it would be like to sink into Martin's flesh for a night. Gareth wondered if Martin pleasured himself thinking of him, he assumed he did. The imagined image of which had unintentionally entered Gareth's mind the night before as he had lain nestled in his bed and stroked himself. The thought had brought him to climax sooner than he had intended while inadvertently staining his sheets.
"Yo, law dog mobile." Alex pointed at a wrecked deputy's vehicle surrounded by an assortment of unmoving corpses.
"That's been there too long, not one of theirs. But let's look in it anyway on the off chance there's a grenade launcher or blunderbuss in it." Gareth said. "No, wait. Those might be lurkers." He added as he held his hand up to halt Alex and Theresa.
Alex leaned down and picked up a brick that lay by his feet and tossed in into the crowd of bodies, hitting one of the dead in the shoulder. It flinched upon the impact and began to hiss, as then did several more around it.
Alex and Theresa unsheathed their blades and entered the field of walkers, all but playing hopscotch while trying to knife each one of them without error. Gareth took out his rifle and watched for any of them to attack unexpectedly. None did.
"Thanks for the help, man," Alex said sarcastically as he flicked the collected blood and brain matter from his blade.
"Someone had to stand back and watch for any rogue movement," Gareth said.
"No, you didn't, you just didn't feel like doin' what we did," Alex retorted.
"They're all dead, what the hell does it matter now?" Gareth snapped.
"Guys!" Theresa broke through. They both turned to her as she stood in front of the pile of dead walkers.
"Really?" She shot them an annoyed and weary look. Gareth and Alex quieted and stepped over the corpses to search the deputy's vehicle.
"Waste of time," Theresa said as they found nothing of interest.
"It's gonna get dark soon, we should stop dilly-dallying and head inside somewhere," Gareth said. He still did not want to stop and waste a whole night, but they couldn't track these people in the dark.
The question then entered his mind of what were they going to eat. The backpack Alex carried contained only four nectarines, hardly a meal. They hadn't packed more because they had expected to be home for dinner.
"I know a place about three blocks from here where a friend of mine rented a small apartment. We could try there," Theresa suggested.
"Peachy," Gareth agreed.
The apartment complex Theresa had spoken of was small, but not overly run-down. They entered to find an array of walkers trudging around that they killed with their knives and then with their guns when they came too close for comfort.
Theresa led them up a flight of stairs to the third floor where her old friend's home was located. They noticed it appeared that someone had been living there not too long before, but not recently enough to expect they'd be getting company soon. They cleared every room as well as the residences next door, finding nothing of considerable interest and so far, nothing to eat.
The small apartment comprised of a kitchen that joined with what could just barely be considered an actual living room. The living room contained a medium-sized window that overlooked the desolate street below, while the bedroom had been ransacked and the twin mattress that remained had only grimy white sheets remaining.
"Who was this friend of yours?" Gareth asked Theresa as he stood by the window.
"I used the term 'friend' very loosely. She was more of an unfortunate acquaintance," Theresa replied as she made her way over to the residence's kitchen.
"Unfortunate how?" Alex asked from beside the counter.
"In a nutshell, she was a raging bitch and I was a raging bitch. The usual."
Gareth and Alex chuckled at her reply.
"Huzzah, I got baking soda," Theresa said sarcastically as she pulled a crinkled orange box from the kitchen cabinet and placed it on the counter below. "And rosemary." She tossed a plastic bag filled with the dried herb alongside the container.
"Whoa, jackpot," Alex said as he held up two gallons of water he'd retrieved from under the sink.
Theresa moved over to the stove and turned the knob, a fire erupted from the pilots. "We got fire."
"And vegetarian chili?" Alex made a disgusted face as he held out two unopened cans he'd found next to the water.
"It'll have to do," Gareth said as he stared out the living room window. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." He motioned for Alex and Theresa to come to the window. They spotted a middle-aged man in a police uniform shuffling around on the street below.
"We got a lead. And maybe a better dinner." Gareth smiled as his mood lifted.
"What do we do?" Alex asked.
"Well, I don't think I can open this window without-" Gareth tugged at the bottom of the fixture, it was apparent that it wouldn't open without a deal of force which he assumed would be too loud. "-making too much noise. We're gonna have to go down there, or one of us." Gareth turned to look at Theresa.
"Me?" Theresa said.
"Damsel in distress never fails," Gareth said with a cocky smile.
Alex became alarmed. "What? No, Tess, you don't have to go."
"I'll be fine, Alex," Theresa assured.
"Okay, take out your weapons, put on your best sad face and go down there and cry that you need help. We could go down there and try and take him by force, but there could be more nearby and we'd have to lug him up a flight of stairs. Ask him where he came from, he'll be more likely to give information to a weeping girl in need. And try to get his attention well enough to where we can open that window and lock a gun on him just in case." Gareth said.
"Her weapons? Gareth, no!" Alex exclaimed.
"Alex, shut up," Gareth said while keeping his eyes on Theresa. Theresa turned her gaze to Alex and mouthed the words 'it's okay.'
"And-" Gareth glanced out the window and saw the man heading toward the entrance to the building across the street, "-hurry," He said as Theresa unsheathed her knife and gun and handed them to Gareth. She then turned and hurried out the door before Alex could protest again.
"She knows what she's doing," Gareth said.
"He's in there now, we can probably budge open the window." Alex ignored Gareth's reassurance.
Gareth and Alex pulled up on the window's edge with both hands until it screeched and nudged ajar just enough to slip the end of a gun through. Gareth took the rifle he'd leaned up against the wall beside the window and stuck the nozzle through the open space, positioning his eye over the scope.
"Let me do it," Alex said.
Gareth looked up. "Are you sure?"
Alex nodded. Gareth handed him the rifle and backed out of the way as Alex took his place.
"You remember how to reload in a pinch?" Gareth asked.
"I've touched a rifle before," Alex said, annoyed.
"Sorry." Gareth made the word sound more like a question that a apology.
"'Tess' huh? I thought she hated nicknames." Gareth changed the subject.
A small smile touched Alex's lips. "She likes it when I call her Tess."
Theresa appeared on the street below as Alex tightened his grip of the rifle and stared down the scope to watch her more closely. She walked at a steady pace and disappeared into the building the policeman had entered before her.
"Speaking of nicknames, remember when you were five and you called me 'Gare-Bear?' You even named your teddy bear Gare-Bear. You copied everything I did, even the way I ate my cereal. Pink marshmallows first, then green, then blue." Gareth smiled fondly.
Alex bowed down his head and laughed a thoroughly unamused laugh. Gareth rarely put his foot in his mouth, but as soon as he'd finished his sentence, he knew he'd said the wrong thing.
Alex turned his vision to Gareth. "Is that what you think this is? I'm tryin' to be like my big brother by blowin' away whoever comes outta there?"
"Alex, I-"
"Couldn't be that I wanted to be the one to whack the guy if I gotta because I wanna do the boyfriend thing and protect Theresa."
"That's not what I meant."
Alex turned back and stared down the rifle's scope at the door to the neighboring building. "That's exactly what you meant."
"I thought we were past this, come on."
"Man, I was gettin' past it but I can't really do that now knowin' you're not. Just fuck you."
"God damnit Alex, don't do this now." Gareth raised his voice.
"Just shut the fuck the up."
"You're twenty-six years-old stop having tantrums like you did when you were fucking five!"
Alex raised his head and turned his body to face Gareth.
"You're supposed to be on watch, you said you wanted to 'do the boyfriend thing.'" Gareth yanked the rifle from Alex's hand and assumed his former position.
"You're a better shot, remember? I don't even know how to reload." Alex mocked ignorance and backed up several steps.
"Yeah, because you can't hold your fucking focus! I don't know why I ever ask you to do anything that requires any god damn concentration."
"Thank you so much for showing your true colors for once. God, you know I literally, from the bottom of my heart, fucking hate you sometimes," Alex said through clenched teeth.
Motherfucking ungrateful son of a bitch, Gareth thought as he clutched the weapon so tight his fingers quaked from pain. He wanted to turn to Alex and hurl more insults at him, but he knew Alex's eyes would contain tears as he was an angry crier. Despite how Gareth wished he could shove Alex from the window, he didn't want to have to see tears that his words had caused his brother to shed. He swallowed his words, kept his eye on the scope and waited for Theresa and the policeman.
Theresa exited the building and Alex approached the window to get a better view as Gareth edged as far away from Alex as he could. Gareth focused his target on the policeman's head as Theresa led him to their apartment of current residence.
After Theresa had entered their building, Gareth turned and held the rifle at the door and Alex picked up Theresa's discarded handgun and held it at the door as well. They exchanged no words or glances.
After a minute or so of waiting, the door creaked opened as Theresa stepped in with a faux expression of distress.
"They're in here," she said before her face turned to smugness when she saw Alex and Gareth with their raised weapons.
The policeman froze as he entered behind Theresa. "What the hell is this!?" he exclaimed.
"I may have lied a little," Theresa said as she stood to the side of Gareth and Alex.
"Put your weapons on the floor," Gareth ordered. The man did nothing. "Do it!" he ordered again.
The man slowly reached for the sheathed handgun in his belt holster as Alex fixed his aim on the man's hand. The policeman lifted the gun out of the holster and placed it on the ground by his right foot.
"Kick it over," Gareth said.
He kicked the gun forward and it slid to beside Alex's left foot. The man put his hands up as Theresa moved over and frisked him. She pulled out a knife, pepper spray and a walky-talky. She popped the batteries out of walky-talky in case the man's corespondent phoned-in and the man shouted that he was in distress. She then set the items on the sofa, picked up the gun that rest by Alex's foot and aimed it at the man along with Alex and Gareth.
"What do you people want? Weapons? You already got 'em," The man said.
"What's your name?" Gareth said.
"What?"
"Your name."
"Geoff?"
"Spelled like 'Jeff' or 'gee-off?'" Gareth asked.
"W-what? The second one."
"Alright Gee-Off, kneel."
Geoff complied.
"I told Gee-Off that I had a kid and sister in here who'd been shot and he told me he was gonna take them to Grady Memorial hospital where he and some other people were set-up," Theresa explained.
"Grady Memorial, huh?" Gareth said.
Alex narrowed his eyes. "So you take people you think are hurt and take 'em there?"
"We take people who need helpin'."
Gareth turned and leaned his rifle below the window, then walked over and knelt in front of Geoff, meeting him at eye level. Alex repositioned himself to realign his aim as not to hit Gareth if he had to fire.
"Why?" Gareth asked.
"For the greater good."
"The what?"
Geoff glared at Gareth.
"You know, that actually sounds familiar. I used to believe in a 'greater good.' Now look at me."
"Well, sorry about your sad life," Geoff insulted.
Gareth breathed out a sardonic laugh. "You wouldn't by chance have taken in a guy with a snare around his leg and a youngish, Asian woman today would you?" He saw Geoff's eyes reflect inward, indicating to him that he had.
"So you have." Gareth nodded.
"I didn't say anything!"
"You must have come from Grady pretty recently because those two must be new arrivals."
Gareth looked over to Alex and gave him a small nod. Alex handed his gun to Theresa, then disappeared into the bedroom momentarily and reappeared with various computer cables and knelt down behind Geoff.
"Hands down," Alex ordered.
Geoff obeyed and brought his hands behind his back which Alex promptly pushed together and wrapped the cables around, twisting them into repeated and impossible knots. Alex then moved to stand by Theresa and re-accepted his weapon.
"So how are we gonna do this? We want our people back." Gareth shrugged.
"You won't get 'em back."
Gareth inhaled and exhaled deeply and looked down at the faded green and brown rug in the space between he and Geoff. "I really don't like people telling me what I will and won't be able to do. You're going to tell me how to get them back."
Theresa stepped forward. "Let's make him a bargaining chip."
Gareth made a contemplative face. "Hm, what do you say, Geoff?"
Geoff shook his head. "You got one of hers and she's got two of yours, not a fair trade."
"Then we'll get another one of hers."
"You guys ain't from here, I'm guessin' you three are all the people you have. You're obviously not livin' in this place. We have way more people than you." Geoff gained a degree of confidence at his own words.
"Geoff, all you have to do is break them out and you're off scot-free and we won't hurt you. In fact, we know a place that's much nicer than that depressing old hospital. You might like it."
"There's no breakin' people out of there without consequences. And like I'm gonna trust you to take me someplace nicer," Geoff scoffed.
"So no deal? Even if I pressed that knife of yours through your eye?"
"No deal, man." Geoff's stubbornness surprised Gareth.
Gareth knew they couldn't force Geoff to go back to the hospital and break Martin and Kaylee out. He knew it was a long shot anyway and even if he agreed; Geoff would likely disappear inside and never come back out again.
"Alright, fine. I have another idea then." Gareth stood up and retrieved the rifle from the window, sending a flash of fear across Geoff's face. Gareth stepped behind him, then swiftly hit him in the back of the head with the rear end of the weapon, causing Geoff to slump to the right and fall unconscious.
"You want me?" Theresa said. Gareth nodded as Theresa had shown excellent butchery skills the night they took back Terminus. Gareth would allow Alex to be the cook, they did have rosemary after all.
Alex moved to the kitchen area, as if he'd read Gareth's mind, and pulled out the large cooking pot he'd spotted under the sink along with the gallons of water and cans of chili. "I hate boiled meat," He muttered.
Theresa took the knife Geoff had been wielding from the sofa and knelt down, repositioning him so that he lay flat on his back.
"Alex, go get those sheets," Gareth said.
Alex retrieved the tarnished top bed sheet from the bedroom and placed it underneath Geoff's leg, wadding them up slightly below the place that was to be lacerated.
Gareth held Geoff's right leg still as Theresa made a light, straight line with her knife just below the knee and around the leg, indicating where to cut. The incision bled and ran down in several vertical uniform lines. She cut, chopped and sawed until the leg was amputated. Alex moved in and wrapped the sheet around the stump of Geoff's leg to stop the bleeding, keeping pressure on it. None of them uttered a word throughout the process.
"The men just don't taste as good as the women do," Gareth said as he chewed on a piece of meat at the bar stool in front of the kitchen island.
They'd boiled cut-off hunks of meat using nearly a gallon of the drinking water, seasoning it with rosemary and slight sprinkles of baking soda to salt it. Geoff had been moved, still unconscious, to the bathroom and shut in.
"No... they don't. I thought I was the only one who thought that." Theresa bit into her piece as she lounged next to Alex in one of the two wicker chairs by the window.
"Yeah, me too," Alex said with empty hands, he'd been the hungriest of the three.
"I was talking about it with Gavin the other day on the killing floor. He said they look spongier inside too." Gareth swallowed.
"Well... women have a higher body fat percentage for child-bearing, right? I mean, even that skinny girl last week was better than that dude that I don't know how stayed so fat in all this," Alex mused.
"That's a good theory, Alex. Can't believe I hadn't thought of that," Gareth said as he pointed his finger at his brother.
Despite the meat not being their preferred gender or been prepared using their preferred method, it tasted delectable and did more than fill their stomachs. The nectarines and chili could have sated their hunger, but not their appetite. It couldn't have satisfied the need for something tougher, something fattier, something fresher and something that was recently living. It wasn't like eating the best sirloin at a five-star steakhouse, it had become much more than that. It was like consuming the fuel for life itself. And the taste and rich texture of it so far away from Terminus made them feel like they now carried a piece of home with them.
"Think we should wake sleeping beauty?" Theresa questioned.
"Alex, go for it. You're done eating," Gareth said.
"What? No, talkin' to the meat's your thing."
"I'm busy, so is she. And you know the plan," Gareth said with a full mouth.
You fucking asshole, Alex thought. He knew Gareth was doing this to get back at him for earlier.
Alex hated talking to their meat after they'd discovered their fate. It wasn't just him, Cynthia had the same problem. She sputtered and felt intense discomfort, unsure of what she could possibly say to the doomed souls. The previous week, Alex had been sent to the killing floor just before three were to be bled out. One of the three people, a young red-headed man, had locked his eyes on Alex as he'd walked across the room.
"How you doin'?" Alex had said as he'd given a polite nod to the utterly horrified and trembling man. Alex instantly regretted his words and was mortified that he'd just asked a man about to have his throat slit how he was doing.
Theresa flashed Alex a warm smile. "It's alright, Alex. You can do it."
Alex wiped his hands on a dish towel and trudged over to the bathroom, cursing out Gareth in his head. He opened the bathroom door to see Geoff's head nodding around. Alex squatted down and snapped his fingers in front of Geoff's face. Geoff began to come to, finally opening his eyes and resting them on Alex's face.
"What the hell..." Geoff said groggily.
"Really sorry about this." Alex tried to think of what to say next. He knew the pitch, the things Gareth would say, but he didn't want to say what Gareth would say. He wanted to say what he wanted to say.
"We had to... we took your leg. And if you do what we say, we won't take the other one." Alex focused on Geoff's rousing expression.
"You... what?" Geoff looked down and saw bloody sheet wrapped around the stump of his right knee.
Geoff's eyes bugged out. "Oh.. oh my-"
"If you play along, your people are gonna think you got bit and we heroically amputated your leg to save your life. Then hopefully, they'll give us our people back," Alex said flatly.
Geoff looked over what remained of his limb and fidgeted his bound arms behind his back. "What? Wh-"
"Come on, just listen."
"The fuck!?" Geoff's voice rose to panic when he'd fully realized that the bottom half of his right leg was gone.
"Man, if you just stay calm we can work through this." Alex raised his voice in attempt to be firm, but it quaked as he spoke the last words.
"Jesus fucking christ, man!" Geoff yelled.
"We got a problem, Geoff?" Gareth said as he stepped into the room. Alex felt relief as he stood up and stepped to the side, allowing Gareth to assume his previous position.
"Oh my god, get away from me!" Geoff cried.
"Geoff come on, screaming isn't going to get you anywhere. We're not gonna kill you, not if you don't make us," Gareth said sternly.
"Get the fuck away from me!" Geoff bellowed.
"What the hell, shut him up!" Theresa shouted as she burst into the room.
"Geoff, don't-" Gareth began before Alex stepped over and kicked Geoff in the side of his head, knocking him out again.
Gareth flung his gaze to his brother, eyes wide with anger. "Alex!"
"What? He wasn't gonna shut up." Alex turned and exited the bathroom.
"Theresa, go talk to Alex. I'll sit here with him." Gareth waved her off. He was very irritated at Alex for knocking him out and would have said so if Theresa hadn't been in the room. There was no way Gareth wanted to bring Theresa into he and Alex's quarrel. She was very protective of those she cared about and Gareth didn't feel like being called a 'cock-sucking motherfucker' again.
The first time being before the Siege when they had been on perimeter patrol outside the fence. Gareth had taken a break when a group of eleven walkers showed up that Theresa had to kill all on her own. Theresa had radioed in for Gareth during the attack, but he had turned his walky-talky off.
Gareth crossed his legs and sat by Geoff, waiting for him to wake again as Theresa and Alex stood by the door, occasionally whispering to one another.
"Hey, Geoff," Gareth said as Geoff finally woke. "You know, I've been unbelievably rude. I realized that I hadn't offered you anything to drink." He held up the plastic jug containing the remaining bit of water that hadn't been used to boil Geoff's leg.
"I don't give a fuck, man," Geoff slurred.
"That's not a nice way to talk to someone who could kill you at any moment." Gareth set down the carton and raised his eyebrows.
"Whatever, just kill me already. Ain't no way I'm lettin' you get your people back now."
Gareth squinted. "'Now?' You said you weren't letting us get them before, either."
"What? I don't know, I..." Geoff squirmed slightly.
"Well, despite your wobbly story, we're gonna give you another chance, Geoff. We'll take you up there and say we took off your leg because you were bit and that you told us to bring you to Grady Memorial. And then you'll ask, no, beg them to thank us nice people by giving us Martin and Kaylee back."
"Who?"
"Our people. The little Asian woman and the white guy in the hat? The ones that at first your mouth said no, no they weren't there, but you eyes said yes, yes they were."
Geoff scoffed, thoroughly unamused by Gareth's wry humor. "You don't get it, that's not how it works up there."
"Then how does it work?"
"Not like that, asshole."
"It's as good of a deal as you're gonna get, I suggest you take it."
"They won't believe you."
"Are you that bad an actor? The girl who led you here could give you pointers."
"I ain't no good without a leg, I can't serve anyone and or anything now. Fuckin' useless." Geoff looked down sadly at the stump of his limb.
"What if we took the other leg?"
Geoff was silent.
"So here it is: Alive, you help us, one leg. Or, alive, you help us, no legs. Or, you don't help us, dead, one leg."
"Just kill him." Theresa appeared in the doorway.
Gareth turned his head. "We have to give him a choice."
"You already did, even if he says yes, he won't live up to it. Or if he does, he'll tell all his buddies the truth and we got a target on our backs. We got the info we need, now end it."
Gareth knew Theresa was right. They couldn't get Martin and Kaylee back then drop him off and hope he wouldn't try and get his people to retaliate, even if he didn't know their names or where they came from. They could leave him there, but with no way to walk and a city full of walkers, Gareth thought that would be cruel. Especially since Geoff hadn't inflicted one single scratch on them. In fact, he thought he was coming to aid a woman's sister and child. And if they left him and he somehow got back to Grady Memorial, the risk still ran of he and his people retaliating. They could keep him alive to have fresh meat in the morning, but the nectarines and chili would suffice for the next day assuming they successfully rescued Martin and Kaylee.
The only logical option was to kill him, Gareth concluded.
"Well, unfortunately, she's right. And since you're gonna die, you should at least know our names. I'm Gareth, the guy who kicked you is named Alex and that's Theresa behind me."
Geoff closed his eyes, trying to hold back tears.
"So, how do you want this happen? Gunshot? Knife? Could kick you again and we'd do it afterwards. We'll make it as humane as possible, we always do," Gareth said.
"Let me do it." Alex passed by Theresa in the doorway as he clutched Geoff's knife in his hand.
"What?" Theresa said.
"Move, Gareth. I'll knock him out first, just like always," Alex proclaimed. Gareth didn't speak, but he stood up and backed out of the way. Alex stood in front of Geoff and looked down at his trembling jaw before kicking him the same place he had before, rendering him unconscious.
Alex leaned down and did what Gareth and Mary and Theresa and practically everyone else at Terminus said to do, not think. He drove the knife into the top center Geoff's head, feeling the cracking sound it made when it penetrated the skull and the soft squish when it pushed through the brain. As he attempted to pull it out, he found it had gotten stuck. It reminded him of his first walker kill.
When he got the blade unstuck, he had to swallow roughly to prevent himself from once again mouthing the word 'sorry' as he did to the undead. This felt different to him than eating the people Gavin and David had killed and chopped up. It was reminiscent of the way he and many others had felt about eating animals that were killed at slaughterhouses before the turn.
It's horrible, but I'm not the one doing it, I just want to eat.
"There, all done," Alex said before stuffing his emotions, turning and exiting the room, Theresa promptly followed.
"Alex?" Theresa said as she sped up her pace to block him. She circled around to step in front of him as he neared the window.
"Why did you want to do that?" she said.
"I didn't want to," Alex said lowly. They heard Gareth exit the bathroom and enter the bedroom, no doubt to retrieve the twin bed's bottom sheet to wrap Geoff's body.
"Well, none of us wanted to, but why did you volunteer?"
"'Cause I'm never the one that does the dirty jobs. Figured I should change that."
Theresa's face fell at the realization that Alex's state was probably Gareth-related. "Is this about Gareth? Did something happen while I was out there?"
"As usual," Alex replied.
Gareth's footsteps sounded as he made his way back into the bathroom with the dingy sheet.
"Well, you want me to kick his ass?" Theresa made no attempt to quiet her words as to slip under Gareth's hearing range.
Alex smiled softly at her. "As much as I'd love to see that, nah, it'll be alright. But no, I... I needed to do that. For me, not for him."
"Guys? Little help?" Gareth yelled.
Alex and Theresa reentered the bathroom and assisted in wrapping Geoff's body in the sheet. They then proceeded to lug him into the apartment next door and place him onto the middle of its dusty wooden floor.
"Tomorrow, we take him and burn him down there in the lobby where the fire won't catch," Alex said after they'd set the body down.
Gareth began to protest until he saw the look on Alex's face. The one that said 'I'm doing this whether you like it or not.' Gareth knew Alex was trying to continue their practice of burning the unusable parts of their meat. Even though the reason they incinerated the bodies at Terminus was proper disposal and this was not their home and they didn't need to worry about trash service. He supposed Alex saw it as some sort of twisted way to pay homage to them.
It had already passed dark, the building was warm enough to not need blankets, but cool enough to not be stuffy. The candles the previous resident had left behind had burned out shortly after they were lit, leaving the smell of sweet smoke to linger in the moonlit room.
They spoke more of their plan for the next day, travel to the hospital, asses it from the outside, and attempt to find a way in.
Alex sat on the sofa where Theresa had fallen asleep on her side with her head resting on a throw pillow that lay in his lap.
"You gonna stay like that all night?" Gareth sat across from them on the wicker chair furthest away.
"She'll move eventually," Alex replied.
"About earlier," Gareth began, knowing Alex wouldn't yell at him or leave being that Theresa was asleep in his lap, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed that you're still a five year-old kid trying to emulate his big brother. It's just, the other night when you and mom were in my room, I thought we'd connected again."
Alex remained silent with his eyes fixed on the floor.
"Alex, talk to me. You can't run away this time." Gareth leaned forward on his seat and rested his wrists on his knees.
"We did," Alex said as he began petting Theresa's hair, "it was 'cause of mom." He looked up to make eye contact with his brother.
"Because of mom?"
"Let's face it, Gareth. We were never best friends. It was havin' her and havin' dad that made us get along when we did. I mean come on, Tess leaves for ten minutes and look what happens."
"Like when they left us on our own for the first time and I was supposed to be in charge and you hated that. The second they were gone we didn't have anyone to be a buffer between us."
"Yeah, you made a schedule for me because you thought it would 'help' but it just pissed me off."
"God, the story of the sibling over an under-achiever is so old it's almost boring."
"That's still how it is. One day I'll be gone and it'll be 'at least it was Alex and not Gareth who bit it."
Gareth felt a stab of anguish at Alex's words. "Alex, no."
"Man, don't try and pretend it won't be like that." Alex's voice began to rise as he ceased stroking Theresa's head and brought his arm to his side.
"I'll never let it be like that."
"Old you wouldn't, yeah. The guy who's in front of me right now, he would. You seemed to have gotten over dad pretty quick."
Gareth felt a nerve be struck. "Who says I'm over dad? I think about him every day. I visit the church every day. I look at the list of the names in the reception hall and I remember every day. Don't say I'm over it, we all have our jobs and mine requires a lot of public face. Dad knew that, he had a public face too. He-" Gareth was cut off.
"No, you need to shut up for once and listen to me. Did you know I'm afraid of you sometimes? No, actually, most times. We do the kinds of things that are the stuff of nightmares and we've been through hell and back. And it's not like I'm not the same as everyone there I mean, I eat it. And if me before all this saw me now, I'd be terrified of myself. I am a little, actually. But Gareth, you..." Alex's voice was high and his heart pounded in his chest.
"Go on." Gareth's voice was soft.
"I've felt a lot of things about you, but I never thought I'd be afraid of you. Just bein' around you sometimes, it's like it's not you anymore. It's the same way you feel when meet a stranger. Like you just don't know what they're capable of and you tense up and you feel like you just wanna get away. I see you come back every now and then, like the other night. And I didn't feel afraid then, you were so... you. And that you could be a dick to me but he was... Now most of the time you're just the guy who doesn't even look up when Gavin or David cut the throats of our meat. And the guy who talks to people like you did Geoff as if it's the easiest thing in the world. Can you tell me you wouldn't be afraid of someone you grew up with who you thought of as..." Alex's voice cracked on the last few words as he felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead.
"I have to be that guy, I don't have a choice. I know we do the kind of things that are the stuff of nightmares but we can't go back. We tried," Gareth said solemnly.
"I know we can't go back, that's why I wanted to see those first two girls we caught and killed. And why I wanted to be the one to take out Geoff. Because I have to be able to do these things and I can. I thought I'd proven that. You know, Theresa isn't like me. She doesn't have what you call a 'bleeding heart.' But she doesn't see it as something that needs fixin' because she knows when it boils down to it, I'll do whatever it takes to stay alive. I thought that's all you wanted, Gareth." Alex's throat had begun to ache from having spoken so much and for long.
"It is what I want. That's why I try and push you." Gareth saw Theresa's eyes flutter open for a brief second, indicating she was awake. He assumed she'd probably been awake for most of their conversation.
"Push me, huh? Like some kid who can't ride their tricycle without someone pushin' 'em?" Alex's words became laced with offense.
"That's not what I meant."
"It's never 'what you meant', man." Alex shook his head and glanced out the moon-kissed window.
"So, how does this conversation end?" Gareth clasped his hands together.
"It ends when the world goes back to bein' the way it was. 'Cause nothing's gonna change. Nothing can. Maybe you can stop you snide-ass remarks but other than that, everything will stay the same. It has to. You said it yourself, we can't go back."
Gareth wished he could argue his brother's words, tell him he's going to try to make it up to him and repair their relationship. Gareth had previously believed the trouble with he and Alex in this world had been Alex. That Alex was only willing to do the bare minimum to survive and that he secretly judged and resented him for being the catalyst in the turn to cannibalism. He felt that Alex he didn't appreciate what he had done for him, their mother and for Terminus. But Gareth realized tonight that Alex wasn't entirely at fault, that he had every right to be afraid of the person he'd become.
"I should probably go to sleep," Gareth said after a considerable length of silence. "You sure you're both okay on the couch?" he said after he stood up.
"It's a lot softer than that mattress."
Gareth turned and proceeded to the bedroom where he lay down flat on the bare mattress without bothering to shed any of his clothes. He covered himself using a dark blue quilt they'd retrieved from a linen closet in the bathroom and laid his head on the flat pillow at the headboard. He didn't feel sleepy at all despite the grueling day he'd had, but he shut his eyes and forced himself to stay still.
Hours later, Alex spooned Theresa from behind on the sofa while enmeshed in a baby blue top sheet they'd found alongside the darker blue quilt in the linen closet. They only wore their shirts and underwear as they had means to cover themselves with.
"You think in some other life, this could've been our apartment?" Alex whispered.
"That my friend got us a good deal on when she moved out," Theresa replied as she stared at the wicker chair that Gareth had sat in when she overheard he and Alex's conversation. She hadn't mentioned that she'd been awake for most of it, wanting to spare Alex the headache of talking about it again.
"And there'd be a dog next door that always started barkin' at 2AM that we'd already made at least three complaints about." Alex stroked the back of Theresa's hand with his index finger.
"Nah, I think we'd have the dog that woke everyone up." Theresa smiled sweetly at the thought of some fairytale, boring life with Alex in the city. She imagined that people would probably talk about their relationship being that she was six years older than him. She knew her parents would say that he was too young for her and that she should be with someone who also worked in the accounting field. Theresa never thought she'd miss her mother and father's exasperating lectures, but she did now.
She turned over to look Alex in the eyes, her face not even an inch away from his.
Alex pressed his lips against hers softly and she leaned in to return the kiss, licking the part in his mouth. Alex placed his hand on the dip of her waist and nipped down her neck as she ran her hand up and down Alex's chest through the small amount of space that separated their bodies. Theresa realized once she'd begun kissing along his jaw that she could feel something stirring.
Oh no. Not here, she thought.
"Alex, Gareth," she whispered.
"We can be quiet, he's probably already asleep," Alex said into her ear.
"We don't have any-"
"There are other, un-Christian ways," he interrupted. Theresa giggled lightly.
Alex wanted to forget about how much he hated Gareth at that moment and how much he wished he were home. He wanted to forget that he, Theresa, and Gareth had to risk their lives the next day. And he wanted to pretend that this was his and Theresa's new apartment, and they were christening it by fooling around in every room.
Before they continued, Theresa reached down beside the couch and dug out a washcloth from the backpack, intending to use it to keep her dry when the time came.
Alex climbed ontop her, pulling her into a deep kiss. He pushed her sleeve over and down as he then kissed and licked at her neck and shoulder. She reveled in the feeling of his warm, wet mouth and the scratch of his unshaven face on her skin. Theresa let her desire take over and pressed her body harder against his. Alex's hands traveled across her while he moaned faintly onto the damp skin on her neck.
Theresa did all she could to keep her sounds to low panting when she wanted nothing more to yell Alex's name. The man was a giving lover and always insisted on her pleasure first, much to her delight.
Alex had spent so much time wanting her from afar ever since she'd arrived at Terminus. He never thought she'd feel the same way until that fateful night in the church where it felt like his dreams had come true. And no matter how many times he'd kissed her and touched her and made love to her, he never took it for granted. Each time she allowed him to do these things again he felt like he'd been given a gift.
Alex hummed onto Theresa's soft lips and she gripped the fabric of his shirt before letting go letting out shaky breaths. Still feeling dazed, Theresa started on Alex. Her eyes stayed open, watching what little she could see of his face in the darkness, feeling as if she were aglow from making him come apart from her touch.
Alex let out a whine and touched their foreheads together as she massaged the hair at the nape of his neck. Arching forward, Alex stilled a moment before sighing with relief. They cleaned up and Alex planted a series of gentle kisses on Theresa's lips as they beamed and giggled over their preceding activity, being as Gareth slept down the hall with an open door.
"What if Gareth wants to use this rag?" Theresa said.
"Just stick it in between the cushions," Alex replied.
Theresa took the damp cloth and stuffed it behind the cushion at the back of the sofa.
The two turned over to their former positions as Alex buried his face in Theresa's hair and grasped her hand with his. Neither of them really wanted to fall asleep despite their exhaustion from the day's events and their post-sex afterglow. They knew their fantasies never lasted and that the real world would come snarling back once again when they awoke.