Questions
The better part of the Crossroads Mall group had gathered around a large table that they pulled out of a furniture store. The table had been pulled out to sit near the Hollowed Grounds, their primary gathering place. The table itself had a large, red tablecloth that covered it completely and several candles on top of that. The group had just finished a meal that had been prepared by Ana, Nicole, and Monica. Spaghetti, hamburgers, and mash patatoes with a side of coffee.
With the exception of a few, the whole group was there and plenty full from the well-enjoyed meal. The sun had just begun its decent towards the horizon when they finished eating and their bodies were still wired from the excess of coffee running through their blood.
"Well, what do you guys wanna do?" Michael sat at the head of the table. In the face of danger, leaders aren't usually chosen or elected. A good leader will emerge from the crowd and take the position before he or she even realizes it. Sitting in the seat that he was and looking at all the faces that were looking back at him, he realized that he had become the leader of the group. The thought alone scared him.
"Truth or dare!" Nicole shouted without thinking. Monica's eyes quickly shifted over to Nicole and her expression said it all. He glare in her squinted eyes, her upper lip rising slightly, her eyebrows cocking back just a bit, she showed everyone what she thought of Nicole without ever saying a word.
Michael chuckled a bit at the youthful comment and then he added his own suggestion. "Well, I don't know about truth or dare, but how about truth?" All eyes turned to him again, sending a chill down his spine that left the hairs on his arms standing up.
"What an action packed game." Steve never missed a beat. Monica was the only one that snickered at the sarcasm but it was enough to stroke Steve's ego.
"Well, I was just thinking that if we all went around and asked each other questions that we were compelled to answer honestly, we might get to know each other better. I could go first if you wanted me to." Michael didn't really feel that he had to justify his idea because no body really took Steve seriously. He'd been dieing to learn about his comrades and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
"All right, go Michael", Ana said it with a smile on her face. She sat two seats down from Michael but she felt closer to him than ever.
He looked down at the table with a look of deep concentration written all over his face. Suddenly, as soon as a light comes on, his face changed from curious to decision made. He looked up at Kenneth, who had been quiet the entire night, and pointed at him. "I got one for you, Kenneth."
Kenneth had been the second biggest outsider of the whole group next to Andre. Michael had a suspicion that there was more than met the eye to Kenneth. Like a book that you shouldn't judge by the cover because he could be completely deceiving.
Kenneth's eyes looked up from his plate that had been licked clean with the exception of a few spots of tomato sauce. His face stayed expressionless as he met Michael eye to eye.
"What did you do before you were a police officer? I mean, you have to be twenty-one to be a cop, so what did you do in the mean time?"
The question caught Kenneth off guard and his face told the whole story. He blinked a few times, trying to shake the look of surprise off his face. He looked back up at Michael and one word summed it all up. "Army", he said.
Everyone nodded at the answer and smiled. It was always a pleasure to hear Kenneth speak because it happened very seldom. Most of the conversations that he had were with a man that lived across the street, Andy, and they couldn't even speak to communicate.
"I've got one", Ana said. "This one is for Nicole. All of those pictures down in the basement, you seem like you are an artist. Was that a hobby or something?" Her question was more to get other people to join in than it was to find out the answer.
"Oh, well, yeah. I loved art before all of this happened and I had a full ride to UNT, it's and art college in Texas. My father had been a freelance artist when all of this happened, but he told me that I was going places with my talent." She wore an unfaltering smile the entire time that she spoke. In the beginning her father's death had really gotten to her but once she found Terry it seemed to fade away a bit.
"I've got one for our nurse", Steve said with his index finger pointed at Ana. "I noticed your wedding band on your finger when we first got here and then I noticed that it just disappeared one day. What is that all about?"
Ana had to struggle to fight the tears that had started to form just below her eyes. She didn't want anyone to know that Steve had finally struck a nerve and so she raised her hand up very slowly and extended her middle finger. Steve put his hands up to his heart like he'd been hurt but his face wore a smirk. "We all lost loved ones here now didn't we Steve? Well, I take that back. You'd have to have had someone love you for you to lose loved ones. That kinda takes you out of the running now doesn't it?" This brought laughs from most of the people at the table. For the first time since they'd gotten to the mall, Steve actually looked beaten.
"My turn", Monica said trying to take the attention away from Steve. "Mine is for Terry." Everyone knew that the question was going to be for Terry but directed for Nicole. Ana actually squinted her eyes the way you would do if you know that a loud sound was approaching.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea", Michael tried to undo what he'd done, but it was too late.
"Terry, I was wondering, who was the last person that you fucked?" She licked her luscious red lips as she said it. Kenneth coughed into his cup of coffee as she said the question. Everyone was taken by surprise because it was blunt, even for Monica.
All faces turned to Terry, including the very curious eyes of Nicole. Terry's face turned very cautious and he returned Nicole's look. They stared into each other's eyes for a few heartbeats before Nicole turned back to Monica. "I was."
A large gasp hit the whole table and everyone seemed even more shocked by the answer than by the question. Kenneth grew a little smirk, which was very uncommon. Michael flat out smiled at Monica as her face turned to anger and frustration. Ana, who was sitting next to Nicole on the opposite side that Terry was sitting, put her hand on Nicole's knee. Their eyes met and Ana lipped out "way to go".
Ana wanted to ask Nicole if her answer with the truth or if she just wanted to pull the anger out of Monica. Either way, the answer couldn't have been chosen better. Monica's face became flush with a red anger that rode up her cheeks.
"I've got one", Kenneth's voice broke the snickers and giggles. Shocked eyes turned to the new speaker of the table and everyone was anxious to hear what he had to ask. "Everyone, what were you doing when this all happened? What brought us all together here?"
"Good question." Ana stood up. "I was still in bed when it all happened. I had come in late from work. My husband and me slept in together." She enunciated the word husband and looked at Steve as she did so.
Michael stood up and looked at Ana. "I was on my way to a job interview. I was going to try and get a job at a CVS distribution center. I was stuck in a traffic jam on the highway when everything went wrong. That was when I met Andre and his wife. They were on the way to the OBGYN."
Nicole stood up with Terry. "My father and me were going to the lake for the weekend. We used to go there every summer and go fishing. It was going to be the first time in three years that we were going to go together."
"I came into work at five o'clock in the morning. I didn't notice anything strange until C.J., Bart, and I watched a little TV. That was when we realized that something was wrong."
C.J. stood up after Terry and adjusted his hat just a bit. He hadn't talked much the entire night, but unlike Kenneth, he wasn't a puzzle. "I was with Terry. I always got here first and when I turned on the TV they were talking about something that had gone wrong the night before. I shrugged it off and called my mother to make sure she was okay. That was the last time I ever spoke to her." A new glance into C.J.'s life that no one had expected.
Kenneth stood up. "I was on duty and the reports on the radio just kept comin' and comin'. I'm surprised that I didn't get hurt at all the scenes I went to that night and morning. I lost my partner that day. We'd been together for three years. He tried to render aid to a lady that had been bitten." His words trailed off.
Monica stood up, still showing red in the face, and opened her mouth just enough to speak. "I was out with three guys, skinny-dipping. That's pretty much where I was." Everyone laughed except for Monica.
Steve stood up. "I was skinny dipping with Monica", he said.
"Wait, you two knew each other before all of this?" Ana asked. She'd always been under the impression that they'd just met.
"Well, we met that night." Steve grinned wide enough to show his bleached white teeth. The look on his face showed that he'd had sex with Monica that night and given the fact that there were two other guys there that night, he probably hadn't been the only one either.
The whole table got suddenly quiet and the mood dropped suddenly. The coffee had long left their systems and there was nothing left but the down time that follows caffeine high. Michael had got his wish and he'd gotten to know each of his comrades better than before. It was a mixed blessing that he'd wished he'd never initiated. There weren't any other words spoken as they headed off to their own sleeping places.
The better part of the Crossroads Mall group had gathered around a large table that they pulled out of a furniture store. The table had been pulled out to sit near the Hollowed Grounds, their primary gathering place. The table itself had a large, red tablecloth that covered it completely and several candles on top of that. The group had just finished a meal that had been prepared by Ana, Nicole, and Monica. Spaghetti, hamburgers, and mash patatoes with a side of coffee.
With the exception of a few, the whole group was there and plenty full from the well-enjoyed meal. The sun had just begun its decent towards the horizon when they finished eating and their bodies were still wired from the excess of coffee running through their blood.
"Well, what do you guys wanna do?" Michael sat at the head of the table. In the face of danger, leaders aren't usually chosen or elected. A good leader will emerge from the crowd and take the position before he or she even realizes it. Sitting in the seat that he was and looking at all the faces that were looking back at him, he realized that he had become the leader of the group. The thought alone scared him.
"Truth or dare!" Nicole shouted without thinking. Monica's eyes quickly shifted over to Nicole and her expression said it all. He glare in her squinted eyes, her upper lip rising slightly, her eyebrows cocking back just a bit, she showed everyone what she thought of Nicole without ever saying a word.
Michael chuckled a bit at the youthful comment and then he added his own suggestion. "Well, I don't know about truth or dare, but how about truth?" All eyes turned to him again, sending a chill down his spine that left the hairs on his arms standing up.
"What an action packed game." Steve never missed a beat. Monica was the only one that snickered at the sarcasm but it was enough to stroke Steve's ego.
"Well, I was just thinking that if we all went around and asked each other questions that we were compelled to answer honestly, we might get to know each other better. I could go first if you wanted me to." Michael didn't really feel that he had to justify his idea because no body really took Steve seriously. He'd been dieing to learn about his comrades and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
"All right, go Michael", Ana said it with a smile on her face. She sat two seats down from Michael but she felt closer to him than ever.
He looked down at the table with a look of deep concentration written all over his face. Suddenly, as soon as a light comes on, his face changed from curious to decision made. He looked up at Kenneth, who had been quiet the entire night, and pointed at him. "I got one for you, Kenneth."
Kenneth had been the second biggest outsider of the whole group next to Andre. Michael had a suspicion that there was more than met the eye to Kenneth. Like a book that you shouldn't judge by the cover because he could be completely deceiving.
Kenneth's eyes looked up from his plate that had been licked clean with the exception of a few spots of tomato sauce. His face stayed expressionless as he met Michael eye to eye.
"What did you do before you were a police officer? I mean, you have to be twenty-one to be a cop, so what did you do in the mean time?"
The question caught Kenneth off guard and his face told the whole story. He blinked a few times, trying to shake the look of surprise off his face. He looked back up at Michael and one word summed it all up. "Army", he said.
Everyone nodded at the answer and smiled. It was always a pleasure to hear Kenneth speak because it happened very seldom. Most of the conversations that he had were with a man that lived across the street, Andy, and they couldn't even speak to communicate.
"I've got one", Ana said. "This one is for Nicole. All of those pictures down in the basement, you seem like you are an artist. Was that a hobby or something?" Her question was more to get other people to join in than it was to find out the answer.
"Oh, well, yeah. I loved art before all of this happened and I had a full ride to UNT, it's and art college in Texas. My father had been a freelance artist when all of this happened, but he told me that I was going places with my talent." She wore an unfaltering smile the entire time that she spoke. In the beginning her father's death had really gotten to her but once she found Terry it seemed to fade away a bit.
"I've got one for our nurse", Steve said with his index finger pointed at Ana. "I noticed your wedding band on your finger when we first got here and then I noticed that it just disappeared one day. What is that all about?"
Ana had to struggle to fight the tears that had started to form just below her eyes. She didn't want anyone to know that Steve had finally struck a nerve and so she raised her hand up very slowly and extended her middle finger. Steve put his hands up to his heart like he'd been hurt but his face wore a smirk. "We all lost loved ones here now didn't we Steve? Well, I take that back. You'd have to have had someone love you for you to lose loved ones. That kinda takes you out of the running now doesn't it?" This brought laughs from most of the people at the table. For the first time since they'd gotten to the mall, Steve actually looked beaten.
"My turn", Monica said trying to take the attention away from Steve. "Mine is for Terry." Everyone knew that the question was going to be for Terry but directed for Nicole. Ana actually squinted her eyes the way you would do if you know that a loud sound was approaching.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea", Michael tried to undo what he'd done, but it was too late.
"Terry, I was wondering, who was the last person that you fucked?" She licked her luscious red lips as she said it. Kenneth coughed into his cup of coffee as she said the question. Everyone was taken by surprise because it was blunt, even for Monica.
All faces turned to Terry, including the very curious eyes of Nicole. Terry's face turned very cautious and he returned Nicole's look. They stared into each other's eyes for a few heartbeats before Nicole turned back to Monica. "I was."
A large gasp hit the whole table and everyone seemed even more shocked by the answer than by the question. Kenneth grew a little smirk, which was very uncommon. Michael flat out smiled at Monica as her face turned to anger and frustration. Ana, who was sitting next to Nicole on the opposite side that Terry was sitting, put her hand on Nicole's knee. Their eyes met and Ana lipped out "way to go".
Ana wanted to ask Nicole if her answer with the truth or if she just wanted to pull the anger out of Monica. Either way, the answer couldn't have been chosen better. Monica's face became flush with a red anger that rode up her cheeks.
"I've got one", Kenneth's voice broke the snickers and giggles. Shocked eyes turned to the new speaker of the table and everyone was anxious to hear what he had to ask. "Everyone, what were you doing when this all happened? What brought us all together here?"
"Good question." Ana stood up. "I was still in bed when it all happened. I had come in late from work. My husband and me slept in together." She enunciated the word husband and looked at Steve as she did so.
Michael stood up and looked at Ana. "I was on my way to a job interview. I was going to try and get a job at a CVS distribution center. I was stuck in a traffic jam on the highway when everything went wrong. That was when I met Andre and his wife. They were on the way to the OBGYN."
Nicole stood up with Terry. "My father and me were going to the lake for the weekend. We used to go there every summer and go fishing. It was going to be the first time in three years that we were going to go together."
"I came into work at five o'clock in the morning. I didn't notice anything strange until C.J., Bart, and I watched a little TV. That was when we realized that something was wrong."
C.J. stood up after Terry and adjusted his hat just a bit. He hadn't talked much the entire night, but unlike Kenneth, he wasn't a puzzle. "I was with Terry. I always got here first and when I turned on the TV they were talking about something that had gone wrong the night before. I shrugged it off and called my mother to make sure she was okay. That was the last time I ever spoke to her." A new glance into C.J.'s life that no one had expected.
Kenneth stood up. "I was on duty and the reports on the radio just kept comin' and comin'. I'm surprised that I didn't get hurt at all the scenes I went to that night and morning. I lost my partner that day. We'd been together for three years. He tried to render aid to a lady that had been bitten." His words trailed off.
Monica stood up, still showing red in the face, and opened her mouth just enough to speak. "I was out with three guys, skinny-dipping. That's pretty much where I was." Everyone laughed except for Monica.
Steve stood up. "I was skinny dipping with Monica", he said.
"Wait, you two knew each other before all of this?" Ana asked. She'd always been under the impression that they'd just met.
"Well, we met that night." Steve grinned wide enough to show his bleached white teeth. The look on his face showed that he'd had sex with Monica that night and given the fact that there were two other guys there that night, he probably hadn't been the only one either.
The whole table got suddenly quiet and the mood dropped suddenly. The coffee had long left their systems and there was nothing left but the down time that follows caffeine high. Michael had got his wish and he'd gotten to know each of his comrades better than before. It was a mixed blessing that he'd wished he'd never initiated. There weren't any other words spoken as they headed off to their own sleeping places.