ZPD 8.9

 "Who are you guys anyways?"  A fair question.  Most girls in those days were taught by their mothers never to get into a car with strange men.  That was before the days of tweakers.  2 strange men with a car trumps a gang of horny sociopaths any day.

"Let us ask the questions for a bit." Paul started.

"When we first see you, you’re trying to take some guys fat head off.  Maybe it’s for the best, but for all we know you’re just another tweaker."

"Tweaker?"

"Twitchy freak." I said, "It’s what me and Pete call em"

"Pete is it?" she said, looking at him.  "And when was the last conversation you’ve had with these animals?"

Pete stayed silent, though I think he started driving a little faster.

"Who are you?" she pressed.

"My name is Pete.  It’s very lovely to make your acquaintance."  They were lovely words spoken through clenched teeth.

"I’m Gavin" I chirped in.

"Yes I know your name Gavin.  My name is Guy, we’ve been through introductions."

"Yeesh", I said out loud. "Why do you keep asking who we are then?  We’re the guys that just saved your miserable life.  We’re the guys that got you in a car, and are driving away from that little hell.  I taped up your shirt dammit!"

"I guess you’re also the genius firing his gun off and attracting every one of those maniacs in the entire neighborhood?"

"Yeah… you’re welcome."

"Shut up!" Pete shouted above us.  Just as well.  I didn’t feel like arguing with the girl.  She could have been cute if she wasn’t so annoying.  That was always my problem with girls.  Girls can look about as gorgeous as the moon, but unless they’re as quiet, they drive me up the wall.  I honestly don’t know how studs like Pete ever got along.  One girl here, another there… unsanitary to begin with, but when you add up all the emotional baggage, it could drive a man crazy.  

The windows were fogging in a bit on the inside of the car, and Pete let his window down.  I tried drawing shapes in the fog of the rear window.  I’m absolutely crap at drawing, but it’s a good diversion when you’re trying to avoid a tense conversation.  Tense is not a good mood for people in a car with no music.

"Just explain one thing." She started again. "Why aren’t you like the others?"

"Well, I’m a virgin, and apparently Pete’s great in bed." I stated matter of fact.  She gave me a terrified look, and Pete started laughing pretty hard.  She actually made an attempt to open the door before Pete grabbed her arm.

"Whoa… whoa… settle down."  He said between laughter. "What Gavin means to say is, we think this is all related to sex.  Specifically, the red pill.  All my team mates were on it, and they all went batshit.  Gavin’s a virgin, and I never took the pill.  How about you?"

She didn’t look like she wanted to answer us.  She still looked pretty freaked out.  Slowly she removed her arm from Pete’s hand, and gave us an answer.

"I’m a virgin."

"Bull" said Pete.  I thought that was weird.

"It’s true!"

"I don’t buy it" he said.  "How old are you?  17? 18?  Guys like Gavin might get out of highschool as virgins, but girls like you sure don’t."

"WHAT?" We both reacted at the same time.

It’s here that we pulled into the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart.  People like to hate Wal-Mart, but I’ll say this for them.  If you’re ever facing a crisis of human race threatening proportion, cross your fingers that there’s a Wal-Mart around.  Their superstore locations have everything from food, clothing, and make shift shelters, to guns, drugs, and video games.  Okay, so video games aren’t very handy in a survival situation, but you just try looting a Wal-Mart and see if it doesn’t cross your mind.

Pete parked us by the door, and hopped out.  He had his bat with him, and you could see him trying to look through the dark.  I had a small flashlight in one of the packs.  I couldn’t hold it and my rifle at the same time though, so I gave the light to Guy.

"Bring the light to the door" Pete told her.

She shined it through, and we all took a look inside.  Everything was a mess.  There were bodies in the entranceway.  Looked like a man and a woman.  Beyond that we could see some of the shelves had come off the wall, and there was stuff all over the floor.

"I don’t like the looks of this" Guy said.

"Looks fine to me.  I don’t see anything moving in there." Pete held up the bat to take a swing at the glass door before I stopped him.

"Hold on", I said checking the door.  "If the closing shift is all dead, they probably didn’t lock the door."  Sure enough, the door swung wide with a tug.

"Nice" said Guy as she walked past.

Pete held her up.  He wanted to go first.  We weren’t very organized then, and we made a lot of noise.

"Hey! Let me go. If you want to go first, just say so."

"Well I was trying to be quiet!" The flashlight wasn’t pointed at his face, but I was pretty sure he was clenching his teeth again.  Girl could really get under your skin.

"Quiet uh?  Thought this place looked alright to you." CLICK

Guy had found the switchboard for the lights.  What was a messy room lit by security lighting, turned into a disaster in full view.  There were a few more bodies littered about, and lots of blood.  The smell wasn’t as bad as Pete’s old house though.  The big store must have had an air filtration system.

"Okay, grab a pack, and start packing." Pete said, as he took his pack and walked off toward the food.

"Shouldn’t we stick together?" I asked, but he ignored me.

"What about me?" asked Guy.  I hadn’t planned a pack for her.

"Come on." I said, "There’s got to be something in the outdoors department."

We found her a suitable pack.  Very suitable actually. I was tempted to trade in my own.  I went straight to the gun counter after that.  There was a dead man behind the counter with an empty shotgun.  He must have been trying to get bullets when they killed him.  His key was still in the cabinet.  I opened it up, and set off an alarm in the process.  The counter starting chirping like mad, and I had to reach around desperately to find the sensor and switch it off.

"What the hell was that?" Guy asked as she came up to the counter.

"Just a little alarm.  Can you shoot?"

"Just pull the trigger thingy right?"

"No.  Forget it." I said, but she wasn’t listening.  She was opening up the gun cabinet.

"Hey", I said. "Guns are

n’t toys."

"So I hear" she said as she picked up the shotgun.

"What are you doing?"

"This one holds eight rounds.  Yours holds one." She was loading it up.  "If you’re going to carry that stupid rifle around, and you’re going to shoot at everything that moves, then you’ll attract more of those tweakers as you call them.  If that happens, I want to carry a bigger gun than you."  BOOM!

As if to punctuate her thought, she fired her gun into the high ceiling.

"What the hell?"

"There could be more around.  Don’t you feel safe behind the gun counter?"

"Sure, I feel great.  Me, you, and my dead buddy here.  Have you met?"

"Don’t be such a pussy"

"Stop being such a dick"  I was actually mad, but that made her smile.  I liked Guy.  I just couldn’t stand her is all.