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been anything special, right? So, with just a few ordinary people she’s accomplished wonders.” She gently reached out and stroked my face. “You did the same thing, you know. Back when everyone was still alive, you all accomplished a hell of a lot.”
    She gazed at me with her dark sultry eyes. I felt my blood pressure rising as I pulled the blanket off of me and stood, feeling the sudden need to do something. I grabbed the poker and jabbed it at the burning logs. A spray of sparks erupted. Kelly stood and put the screen back in place before an ember set our blankets on fire. I put the poker back in the rack and placed both my hands on the mantel. The fire was warm against my torso. She pressed her body against my back and wrapped her arms around me.
    “What’s troubling you?” she asked quietly. I sighed heavily.
    “We lost, Kelly. Everybody in our group is dead and my kids are God only knows where. We lost.” I continued gripping the mantel tightly. “For all I know, when Colonel Coltrane had me locked up in that shitty little room, my kids were probably at the end of the hallway in another shitty little room and not only was I totally oblivious, I was powerless to do anything.”
    “But, it wasn’t your fault.”
    “Yes, it was,” I responded gruffly and turned around to face her. She tried to draw me close, but I held her at arm’s length. “But you don’t understand.”
    “Explain it to me then.”
    “Alright, it’s very simple really. I was arrogant, a know-it-all, and that arrogance blinded me. I did it with Andie’s uncle. I did it with the colonel and my supposed best friend, Felix. That’s a bad record if you ask me. Now, it’s over. This isn’t some kind of damn zombie movie where the plot ends with everyone living happily ever after. Our plight has taken its course. The only thing we have left is to try and survive for a few more years and not die a horrible death. Don’t you get it? The only thing we’re doing these days is existing, we’re not living. What is our endgame, have you ever asked yourself that?” Kelly stared at me in silence.
    “I can answer for you, there is no endgame. There is no win. There’s nothing for us. One day, you may start having a pain that just won’t go away. Eventually, you’ll figure out its cancer. One day, I’ll have a farming accident, or I’ll be ambushed, or maybe while I’m tending to the crops the zombies will get me.
    “We’re living under a fallacy, a mistaken belief that there is a happy place awaiting us. A light at the end of the tunnel and all that bullshit. It doesn’t exist.”
    “Wow,” Kelly said quietly. I turned back toward the fire. After a minute, Kelly pressed herself against me again. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right. Henry Ford said that, I think.” She continued holding me and we stood like that for several minutes. In spite of myself, I chuckled.
    “You amaze me sometimes with your insight.” She responded with a tighter squeeze and I sighed again.
    “I can’t help but think you’d be happier living back at the school.”
    “You’d be wrong,” she replied. “Besides, you need me.”
    “Yes I do,” I admitted quietly. “We need each other.”

Chapter 7 – Unexpected Visitors
     
    After my blowup the previous night, Kelly calmed me down with her tender ministrations and I ended up promising her I’d do everything I could to carve out a happy life for ourselves, which meant she won the argument.I grunted to myself thinking that one over and started sorting out the electrical equipment.
    As I laid everything out, I was trying to plan out how I was going to upgrade our solar power grid, but I was distracted. By Kelly, of course. I remembered an episode of one of those scripted reality shows, the one with the ducks and all of the men with their long beards. There was a scene with the patriarch of the family in which he said all women have quirks and if you could