ZPD 8.16

 "Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit." 
— Aristotle (4th century B.C.)

I remember this one time, my parents had brought home a toy airplane.  I was fascinated by airplanes, as most young ones are around that age.  I was maybe 9 or 10.  I played with it for the whole weekend, and on the Monday I decided I’d take it with me to school.  I was sneaky about it.  I remember thinking that everybody was going to love my airplane.  Through it, I would be the most popular kid in school that day.  Things just don’t always turn out like you expect.  Turns out Biggie used to have a plane just like it.  His real name was Eli, but he didn’t like his name.  He was also 50 lbs bigger than everybody else.  Big E.  Anyways, I guess his parents had a garage sale or something and didn’t tell him they sold it.  I was showing it to him like some big surprise.  "Look what I got Biggie!  You’re gonna love this!"  Biggie didn’t love that.  He punched me in the face and stepped on the plane, breaking its wings.  He got in trouble and all, but I was the one with the swollen eyes.  It was quite the shock.  Tripper must have felt the same way.

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Steven Tripp stood above me with his hands on his hips and a smile wiped across his face.  He thought he was some bloody hero.  I didn’t.  From my back on the floor, I kept my gun leveled.  His man kept Guy’s shotgun trained on me.  The third, laid still unconscious.  Guy too laid still, though she seemed awake.

"Gavin, it’s alright.  You can put the gun down now." He said.

"Not yet."

"Come on, you know me!  I know you.  I’m not one of ‘them’.  What happened to you?  Why are you here?"

"Why did you attack us?"

"Ahh, that.  Well we weren’t attacking you so much.  Least, we didn’t think we were.  I’m still tryin to figure out how you got in here."

He put his hand out to pick me up.  I didn’t take it, but I lowered the gun for a second to pick myself up.  When the gun was taken away, the man behind Tripper made a coughing noise to get his attention.  He motioned with the shotgun to Guy, and Tripper nodded his head.  The shotgun swung around toward Guy, but before he could pull the trigger I had him up against the wall with the pistol pressed up against his adams apple.

"Son, that’s the wrong move.  We’re here to help you." Tripper said to me.

"Looks like he was about to shoot her."

He nodded his head.  "Yep.  He sure was.  Son, you have no idea what she is.  I’m sure she’s been very sweet, but she’s the devil.  She will bring the devil out in you, and after that only God could save you."

"What are you talking about?"

"She’s one of them.  You just don’t know it yet because she’s not frothing at the mouth."

"No.  She’s not one of them.  We’ve been with her for almost two days.  She’s fought them just as hard as we have.  I’ve been asleep beside her, and I’ve been safe."

"You slept with her?" Trippers voice seemed unsure then.

"Once beside her in a tent, and once in the jeep while she kept watch.  If she was a psychopath, she would have killed us both already."

"Hmm." He looked hard at me, and at Guy.

"Drop the gun" I told the man I was holding.  He did.

"Gavin, I need you to be honest with me.  Has she made any advances on you?"

"You’re a pig." Guy said from the floor.  She was starting to get lucid.

"No." I told him.

"Be sure about this.  It’s important.  Females don’t show the same symptoms as men.  How many females have outright attacked you?"

I wasn’t sure.  The first night with Pete had been so dark.  The first attack had been from men on the way to school, then my father.  I didn’t remember seeing any female attackers at the Walmart.  Even Pete’s story of survival lacked any female attackers or survivors.  Guy, Evelyn, Penny, and Pearl were the only girls we had even seen.

"Has she tried to make a move on you?  Sexually?"

I thought about it hard.  The first night together, we had been so tired.  We fell asleep in that tent, and… she had put her arm on me.  That was it.  That was all she did.  When we were in the Jeep, she told me she was a-sexual.  She didn’t have to tell me that.

"No.  She hasn’t."

"A pure female?" the man against the wall spoke.

"We can’t know that.  Not right away." Tripper said.

"I know it.  You’re not killing her." I told him.

"No, we’re not killing her.  We’re not going to be stupid and give her a gun either.  Let him go now."

I let the man go, and Guy got up at the same time.  I tried to read her expression, but it wasn’t one I was used to.  She looked scared for the first time.  From the beginning, she had been strong.  Now, she was in a situation almost as dangerous as before we met.

"We can trust her.  If you can trust me, you can trust her."  I told him.

"That’s just it kid.  I’m not trusting you either.  You were holed up in a whole hive of em.  I’m not completely sure of what’s happening here, but it has something to do with these women."

The third man, still passed out on the floor was beginning to stir.  Then once again, hell broke loose.  There was a crash downstairs, and a man screamed out in pain.  Tripper ran out of the room, and I followed him close behind.  Trippers friend whispered at the top of the stairs, "Sounds like Jesse".

Tripper only nodded, and moved silently step by step down the stairway.  From my perch upstairs, I watched as a man came backing out of the dining room into the foyer.  His right arm hung limp at an odd angle.  Jesse looked to be in some pain, but suddenly threw himself to the ground.  An aluminum bat swung where his head had been half a second before, and smashed into the door frame.

"Pete!  Hold on!" I shouted.

Pete walked into the doorway, and looked up.  Tripper aimed his gun at him, and Pete retreated again into the dining room.

"Don’t shoot him!" I yelled, as I raced down the stairway.

Pete had retreated all the way into the kitchen, and was lifting Penny up onto the counter.  He had opened a window, and seemed to be trying to help her escape.  Penny wasn’t moving though.  As Pete turned to face us coming in the door, she had wrapped her arms around his neck.  Pete held his baseball bat up high in a batters stance.  If anyone came close enough, they’d lose their head.

Tripper was still taking aim, but was holding his fire for the time being.  Pete recogn

ized me, but he still wasn’t moving.  He had good instincts.  He was worried for Penny, and I had to consider Trippers intentions for the girl.

"You’re not going to harm the girl are you Tripp?" I asked.

"She’s one of them.  She was in this house.  She’s one of them."

"She’s a kid.  I was in this house.  I’m not one of them.  Pete’s not one of them.  Guy’s not one of them.  Put down the gun.  She’s a kid."

"For the love of all that is sacred! Gavin, we can’t save every girl just because they look so innocent."

"She hasn’t been proven guilty yet.  We came to a compromise before.  Guy’s not carrying a gun.  Penny won’t carry a gun.  Let’s just put all the guns down for a bit."

Tripper cursed under his breath, and lowered his rifle.  The same big cannon he had taken from his house.  Pete stood still.  He didn’t lower his bat.  Not right away at least.  Tripper shook his head and turned to me.

"Anybody else in this house we need to know about?"

"…Pearl"

"Let me guess.  She’s safe too."

It hit me then.  The shakes.  The memory of Pearl kissing me as I fell asleep came flooding back before my eyes, and my heart seized.  She had held my hand.  She had made the first move.  She had stopped Evelyn from shooting us, but had taken no time in trying to seduce me.

"No." I said, sitting down hard on the spot.  "I don’t think she is."

Tripper and his boys searched the house, but they didn’t find a trace of her.  Somehow she had slipped away.