Chapter Eight

Lost the groooove

Seattle, Washington - September 2022

"What was I supposed to do?" Mark paced up and down the length of the bar, the cow tied on her leash to a leg of the pool table. He was talking directly to the cow as he clasped his hands around his head and held himself firmly before thinking through his frustration. It'd all been going so well, so well, for a week. He'd met everyone, introduced himself, found himself a nice little apartment next to Cristina and his new neighbours were nice. He was back within the confines of civilisation. His last two years seemed like a daydream, a lonely nightmare.

Mark Sloan was a lawyer, in another life; in his working day he spent his time in court, wearing a neat suit - top button undone - and defending the worst criminals. He actually specialised in divorces, defending the cheating wives and the wives that cried about 'the children' and the ones who brough their dogs in with them as carryon. Then at night he would sit in a bar and drink scotch, and whiskey and all manner of expensive liquor, and he would wait. He seduced women like a siren, only the male variety, he would never forget their names. That was one thing he promised the people of the world - the women. And he never forgot, he had a list of them somewhere, somewhere deep in his journal of thoughts.

Mark had been sitting in his office counting files for some time when news that the government had all put perished, in fact they were quick to go, having all those important meetings stuffed up in a large board room. He was sitting in his office when his PA came in and announced he was taking off around the country, that him and his wife decided to move out west because there were rumours the virus hadn't reached the desert. Mark wished him well, and sent him on his way with a bonus, thinking back now he didn't know what happened to that guy. There were many people he didn't know the fate of. New York seemed a million miles away from hiding out in an abandoned bar with a cow, but then again, he had a track record with women and bars.

On first glances, stealing the cow was maybe not the best idea, but he had no idea what else to do - he was going crazy. There were two women left on the face of the planet, TWO! And they were both in relationships, one was married, and they were both happy. Somehow when there had been no one around it'd been hopeless, but not the promise of society came with women he couldn't have. How was that fair?!

So he took the cow. Unwrapped her from her post and stowed her away to the bar. He was planning on returning her in a few hours just after everybody started looking. He thought he could claim the glory, it sounded like a stupid childish game but it felt like an acceptable option. Now he was regretting it.

"Fine! I'll take you back." He called out, lunching back towards the cow when the doors suddenly swung open.

"Mark?" Derek questioned, this was his bar first after all. He'd just decided to come by for a quick drink, he didn't even know the cow was missing until ten minutes before. Meredith walkied him from across the town saying he should keep a look out. Him and Mark were new to their friendship, and thus far it hadn't been tested, their empty pasts didn't help much in building trust. The virus had taken that away.

"Derek, it's not what you think." Mark tried to explain, but Derek's face had fallen. He reached out his hands and waved them around in a mad panic.

Derek decided the others had to deliberate on this, so he towed the cow back to the house and called a group meeting. They stood in pairs around Owen's trailer, he had some chairs set outside for the evenings, it was becoming a trailer park kind of look, but him and Cristina had found themselves out there on several occasions sipping beers and watching the sun go down.

Now there they stood, Mark on the other side of the rest, standing like an outsider. The cow was nesting back at her perch with a bucket of grass she was nuzzling gently. "I'm sorry." Mark said, but they didn't let him explain.

"How could you Mark?" Meredith said, "after everything we've all been through, you tried to take away something that is going to help us in our future." She continued, her voice high and tears sprang up in her eyes. Derek laid a hand on her shoulder as she tried to cry. He knew this upset her, but the reason for her sincerity, how serious she was taking this alarmed him.

"No, I am not sorry. I am alone, you have each other, and I have nobody. How is that fair?! I miss life, I was good at it, I am a Sloan. I need to sleep with women." Mark demanded, then he took one solitary look at the group and started to run.

He took off for the road, in a state and not sure where he was going. He would find a truck abandoned at a gas station somewhere, and he didn't have anything sentimental. He saw an animatronic version of himself barred in jail, his mini me crying through the metal gaps. He stood in the road for hours, walking up and down the tarmac, the dark falling upon him.

"What am I doing?" He asked himself, and then looked up to the sky, "what are you looking at?" He cried out to God, not something he'd ever really believed in, but now it seemed there was no one to shout at. "Why would you send me to a place like that? Then make me leave it. Those were people, I haven't seen people for years. And now it's all gone. Would they take me back? I just wish I could have a do-over."

Then he saw the lights, the two headlights shining in the distance, so he covered his eyes. A hand trying to protect him from the car approaching. Him with his black t-shirt, and his jeans and as the rain began to fall down upon him. As the sheets of wet dotted his clothes, he saw something new.