the same as him and mourning the world of hot tubs, saunas, and spas. A five-minute warm, but not hot, shower wasn’t the same.
“So, are you doing to teach me how to make a bomb?” he asked.
“Patience, my budding bomber. Explosives are not to be messed with lightly. You must first learn to respect them and their power.”
“And then you must learn how to stick a detonator in them and blow shit up.”
“There’s that too, certainly.”
“What do you do with them anyway?” Cal had been wondering this. Tossing grenades at zombies, he could see that.
“Loads of uses. If we’re ashore and have to camp for a night, we create a minefield round the camp. Trip-wire-based usually. And then there’s getting into places.”
“What, bank vaults?” He grinned.
“Not much point to that. Paper money is only good for wiping your ass with now, and you can’t eat gold.”
“I’ve seen broken-into banks all over the place, though,” Cal said. “I guess some people take a while to grasp reality.”
“Yeah,” she said. “The ones who won’t accept it’s really happening and are still waiting for someone to come rescue them.”
“I think you’ve done some rescuing, though, you and Mitch?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We didn’t really start out intending to do that. But it just sort of escalated.”
Cal sipped his coffee, not looking at her, trying to sound casual. Like he wasn’t that bothered. “How’d you meet him?”
“It was a month after everything collapsed. No more government, no more army. I knew my folks and brothers were gone.” Her face showed pain briefly, quickly covered. “I was holed up in a supply store in a small deserted town, trying to figure out what the hell to do next. One day this guy gets out of a car and comes into the store, goes straight for the ammo section. Most of the time when someone came in, I lay low. But something about Mitch. He looked like a guy who could handle himself, you know. So I went and introduced myself.”
She was smirking as she said it. Cal bit. “When you say ‘introduced’…”
“Well, obviously the first thing I did was point a gun at his head.”
Cal laughed. He could just imagine it. He poured himself more coffee.
“Anyway,” she went on. “We talked, ate, and then teamed up. I already had an idea about getting to somewhere like a ship or an island or…” She waved a hand. “An oil rig. I knew I couldn’t stay where I was forever, but it was too dangerous to travel alone. Gotta be able to sleep sometimes. I don’t know how you traveled around by yourself with nobody to watch your back.”
“Just used to it, I guess. Only person I trusted to take care of me was me.”
“Maybe it’s me being army, then. I was always used to having buddies to watch my back. So we headed for the coast, me and Mitch, but along the way we started to run into other people, and some joined us. And Mitch especially, being a cop, couldn’t keep from interfering if we ran into someone in a bad situation. Which was mostly women being held prisoner by men. He insisted we had to help them.”
She claimed it was Mitch, but the fierce look in her eyes suggested she was no more inclined to leave people in danger than he was.
“Was it only women who joined you?” Cal asked.
“No. There were guys too. They’re…not here anymore.”
“Yeah, Mitch told me you threw out the ones who didn’t leave or get killed fighting zombies. They were that much trouble?”
“I guess. I mean, I could handle it personally, and the girls I was training up to fight, they could too. But most of them didn’t bother us—they bothered the ones who couldn’t see them off as easily.” She shrugged. “Mitch thought it was best. I guess he knows what he’s doing.”
“Most of them?” Implied there were some who still had the stupidity to mess with Bren or her soldiers.
“Yeah. Most.” Nothing more forthcoming. She drank the last dregs of her coffee. “And they’d
“So, are you doing to teach me how to make a bomb?” he asked.
“Patience, my budding bomber. Explosives are not to be messed with lightly. You must first learn to respect them and their power.”
“And then you must learn how to stick a detonator in them and blow shit up.”
“There’s that too, certainly.”
“What do you do with them anyway?” Cal had been wondering this. Tossing grenades at zombies, he could see that.
“Loads of uses. If we’re ashore and have to camp for a night, we create a minefield round the camp. Trip-wire-based usually. And then there’s getting into places.”
“What, bank vaults?” He grinned.
“Not much point to that. Paper money is only good for wiping your ass with now, and you can’t eat gold.”
“I’ve seen broken-into banks all over the place, though,” Cal said. “I guess some people take a while to grasp reality.”
“Yeah,” she said. “The ones who won’t accept it’s really happening and are still waiting for someone to come rescue them.”
“I think you’ve done some rescuing, though, you and Mitch?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We didn’t really start out intending to do that. But it just sort of escalated.”
Cal sipped his coffee, not looking at her, trying to sound casual. Like he wasn’t that bothered. “How’d you meet him?”
“It was a month after everything collapsed. No more government, no more army. I knew my folks and brothers were gone.” Her face showed pain briefly, quickly covered. “I was holed up in a supply store in a small deserted town, trying to figure out what the hell to do next. One day this guy gets out of a car and comes into the store, goes straight for the ammo section. Most of the time when someone came in, I lay low. But something about Mitch. He looked like a guy who could handle himself, you know. So I went and introduced myself.”
She was smirking as she said it. Cal bit. “When you say ‘introduced’…”
“Well, obviously the first thing I did was point a gun at his head.”
Cal laughed. He could just imagine it. He poured himself more coffee.
“Anyway,” she went on. “We talked, ate, and then teamed up. I already had an idea about getting to somewhere like a ship or an island or…” She waved a hand. “An oil rig. I knew I couldn’t stay where I was forever, but it was too dangerous to travel alone. Gotta be able to sleep sometimes. I don’t know how you traveled around by yourself with nobody to watch your back.”
“Just used to it, I guess. Only person I trusted to take care of me was me.”
“Maybe it’s me being army, then. I was always used to having buddies to watch my back. So we headed for the coast, me and Mitch, but along the way we started to run into other people, and some joined us. And Mitch especially, being a cop, couldn’t keep from interfering if we ran into someone in a bad situation. Which was mostly women being held prisoner by men. He insisted we had to help them.”
She claimed it was Mitch, but the fierce look in her eyes suggested she was no more inclined to leave people in danger than he was.
“Was it only women who joined you?” Cal asked.
“No. There were guys too. They’re…not here anymore.”
“Yeah, Mitch told me you threw out the ones who didn’t leave or get killed fighting zombies. They were that much trouble?”
“I guess. I mean, I could handle it personally, and the girls I was training up to fight, they could too. But most of them didn’t bother us—they bothered the ones who couldn’t see them off as easily.” She shrugged. “Mitch thought it was best. I guess he knows what he’s doing.”
“Most of them?” Implied there were some who still had the stupidity to mess with Bren or her soldiers.
“Yeah. Most.” Nothing more forthcoming. She drank the last dregs of her coffee. “And they’d
Similar Books
