CHAPTER 14: GUN SHY
September 4th
Anthony was the first one awake, startled by Carr standing a foot away. His yelp woke up the rest of the Delgado family.
"Sleepy," Junior was a man of few words, but when he spoke, people listened.
"I know mijo, I know." She held her son close before cleaning up their impromptu campsite. Harlan playfully slapped Anthony's arm for waking him up.
"What? She scared me." Carr just smirked and returned to her post, peering through the trees. She was nothing like the woman Harlan knew in high school. Meek, mild, golden blonde hair always in an up-do with a silver pin. Now, she was hard as ice. Her usual smile now a distant memory, it would take an archeological expedition to unearth Harlan's 3rd period teacher.
After collecting themselves the group began trekking through the woods. Harlan held up a bit to catch up with his sister.
"So, who's the dad?"
She huffed, out of breath already.
"You don't know him."
"Do you?"
Hilda didn't hesitate to smack him in the head.
"The fuck was that for?"
"For calling me a whore in front of my child!"
"So you don't know his name Hildy!" Harlan danced out of her reach. He looked back, catching a glimpse of his nephew, and immediately felt bad.
"Don't try me, Harley." The trio walked behind Carr and Anthony for another minute before Harlan spoke up again.
"But seriously, what did I miss?"
With a sigh, Hilda began.
"After you left, you remember that guy I was seeing? Rodrigo? He left me for your friend Jenny."
"No shit."
"Yeah, it didn't last long though. Boy must've been a frog with how badly he had to keep his-" she stopped, minding her language, "thing, wet."
"Gross."
"Anyway, a couple years later I started seeing uh, Danny Crist, I know you-"
"Wow."
"Yeah, I know."
"No Hilda, I really mean wow." Harlan spat on the ground.
"I know he was horrible to you in high school but he changed! He was a nice guy!"
"Yeah, I hope he changed, into one of those fucking monsters."
"That's a bad word." Harlan's nephew piped up from behind the two.
"Si mijo, it is a bad word."
"What's gay mean?" Hilda raised her eyebrows at Harlan as they trudged deeper into the woods. Harlan bit his lips and leaned his head back, as if an answer would fall from the sky.
"Wanna take that one, mister New York?"
"Okay, uh," how to boil it down for a child, "Being gay is when-"
"It's when you go out every night but still come home alone!" Anthony hollered back at the trio, eliciting a one-finger salute from Harlan.
"Don't listen to him, being gay is when-"
"I heard it means happy." Junior offered.
"Yes, it does mean that, but it also means-" He was cut off by Carr's signal to stop walking. They hunched down behind the former English teacher.
"Walkers, dead ahead. I spy… a half dozen." True to life, through the trees they could spot a few vertical figures stomping through the woods. Harlan crawled up next to Carr.
"How do we wanna do this, draw them apart or go in head-first?"
"And what did you call them?" Anthony chimed. Carr didn't acknowledge him.
"Divide and conquer." Harlan nodded, and the two sprung forward, whizzing past trees and making enough of a ruckus to draw the dead. They split apart, coating around either side of the group and started heckling.
"Hey hot stuff, can I get your number?" Harlan shouted, swinging his axe clean through one of their skulls, lodging it in a nearby tree. He stepped back and pulled a hammer from his belt as another came close.
Across the clearing, Carr pulled a machete from her bag and banged it against her metal canteen. One slice, two slices, three slices, and another one hit the ground.
Anthony was late to the party, coming in the middle, and knocking one of the deadheads over onto the ground before going postal with his bat. Now it was three on three, and-
BANG BANG BANG
The zombie coming for Harlan fell onto the dead grass before him.
"HILDA!"
Smoke trailed up from the barrel of her pistol.
"What?"
Harlan huffed as he tore his axe from the tree, brandishing it as Anthony lured it closer to him.
"Are you trying to kill me?! Don't shoot at me!"
"I was shooting at-"
"Oh for Christ's sake shut UP you children!" Ah, there was the Carr Harlan remembered.
Her machete connected to another deadhead's skull, putting it out of its misery. Harlan's axe made quick work of the last one coming for them. He stomped over to Hilda, fuming.
"Harley, I'm sorry!"
"You never point a gun at anyone missy, ever." Harlan snatched it out of her hands.
"I need that!"
"Anyone else packing heat?" Harlan looked at Carr and Anthony, he knew Anthony was unarmed. Carr raised her hand and Harlan handed her the pistol.
"When we get some time, teach her. Please. She could kill someone." Hilda watched, mouth agape.
"Un-fucking-believable." She sneered.
"Mami, that's a bad word." Wise as ever, Junior.
She rolled her eyes and pulled him forward. After some more woods, they hit pavement. To the west was Rosewood, to the east was nothing but a wide open road. After some deliberation and a few more bad words sprinkled in, the group decided it would be best to head north until they hit another town. Harlan updated the women on the state of Fallas Lake, now most likely a smoldering crater of torched ethanol and charred flesh.
However, there was another destination in the same corner of the state, tucked along the grand Ohio River, someplace Harlan and Jenny used to joke was a dead town of stuffy WASPs with nothing better to do than mummify themselves with poolside martinis.
Riverside, Kentucky.