Page 20 of Dusk & Desire

I turn around to be greeted by a shotgun. I’m getting mighty tired of having those aimed at me. Moreover, I’m really fucking not feeling having one aimed at my girl. This time, the gun is in the hands of a wide-eyed older man. A woman, probably his wife, cowers behind him, peeking over his shaking shoulder. We raise our hands in unison and I see Linda’s gun isn’t in hers.

“We don’t want any trouble,” I tell the couple. “We were just looking for somewhere to rest before heading to Eglin like the radio said.”

The man and woman exchange glances. The woman’s lower lip trembles before she opens her mouth to speak. “Do you have any food?”

“Harriet!” the man admonishes. “They could be hooligans. Look at all the tattoos on those two. Some are probably gang signs.”

Axel scoffs. “We’re not in a gang.” He tilts his head at Linda. “Does she look like a killer?”

I start coughing, drawing the couple’s gaze. “Sorry,” I say. “We’ve been walking in the sun, my throat’s dry.”

“Oh, put the gun down, Jack,” Harriet says. “They’re nice young people, I can tell.”

Her husband glares at her. “A few minutes ago, you were saying they could be here to sacrifice us to the aliens.”

A blush shows easily through Harriet’s thinning skin. “Well, that was before.”

“Yeah, before you wanted their food,” Jack grumbles, but puts the shotgun down nonetheless.

I breathe a sigh of relief and lower my hands.

“Well, come inside before those zombies show up,” Jack says, then turns his back on us like we’re no threat at all.

“Wait, did you say zombies?” Linda squeaks.

Harriet blinks at us. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?” Axel growls.

The couple exchanges another look, communicating without words.

“You really ought to come inside, dears,” Harriet says.

***

Harriet and Jack stayed behind when everyone else went to the Air Force base because ‘they came here to die in peace and they will doggone die in peace’. They’ve been rationing their food and going through the other apartments when the power was on – their neighbors entrusted them with the keys before they left – and when they weren’t afraid offucking zombies.

Turns out the guy who attacked us in Freeport wasn’t a tweaker. The aliens are somehow making humans lose all their common sense, attacking the same sex and aggressively trying to procreate with the opposite one. As if penises didn’t skeeve me out already, they’re now weaponized by aliens.

“Do you know why our people are bombing cities?” Linda asks, her voice hushed. Jack steeples his fingers, his elbows resting atop their dining table.

“My guess is because they’re being overrun by these… things.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know if zombies is the right word or how they’re infected, or even if it’s an infection or something else. All I know is that it’s happening and it spreads.”

“I can’t believe we could have been bitten by fucking zombies,” Axel says, scratching at the beard growth on his chin.

“Language, young man,” Harriet complains.

“Sorry, ma’am.” Axel sounds chagrined and I can’t help but smile. We never had a grandmother figure in our lives and a part of me wishes we had met Harriet when Axel was still a teen.

As if reading my mind, Harriet speaks up again, timidly. “You know, there’s plenty of room in this building. We could give you a key. You could bring us food.”

Her husband snorts and pats her delicate hand. “And when the aliens come, they’ll die here with us,” he chastises. “They ought to be in the base where they can do some good for this world.”

Harriet shrugs her shoulder in an it-was-worth-the-try way and I smile at the sly cat. She’d make a great grifter.

“We’ll come back and check on you after I try to reach my parents in California,” Linda says, surprising me. I figured she’d never want to leave the safety of the base’s walls once we got there.

The couple gives her that smile that people give the best-behaved children and I suppress the urge to roll my eyes. I wonder what they’d think if they knew I plan on teaching the sweet blonde how to suck on my clit under this very roof tonight?

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