The adults were silent.
“He’s my dad!” she said again, eyes blazing with fury and leftover tears. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been in on this since day one. I helped you,” she pointed at her uncle, “and you.” Now, she pointed a finger at Mike. “I may be fourteen, but I’ve held up pretty well, I’ve thought straight, done research for you, done everything I could. And now you want me to go to the fucking zoo while you kill my father? No!”
She felt a little satisfaction in silencing them all. She had never before used the F-word among so-called grownups. “I’ve got news for you,” she added. “I’m not going anywhere. I can take it.”
“Calm down,” Joe pleaded. Anna nodded. She took Jared’s hand. No one but Jared knew how hard she held on.
“Okay, this is getting us nowhere,” Carla said impatiently. She needed some shut-eye. Then she needed to get back to work. Now that Joe was here—and normal—maybe he could take over. When it was done.
A big it.
A very, very big it.
She took a deep breath. “Anna, I know you’re upset. But just shut up for one minute out of your life and let us talk.” She didn’t wait to see Anna’s jaw drop or Jared hold back a smile. “Joe, Mike. He’s coherent. He’s thinking again. He’s powerful. How with it is he?”
“He’s extremely with it right now,” Mike told her. “He will try to be as truthful as he can without letting on that he probably still wants to...” he couldn’t say it in front of Anna. “If he’s like we were, he wants to be good, but he’s not quite sure he can.”
“Right,” Joe echoed. “When you and Jack asked me if I was okay, I didn’t tell the whole truth. And Mike and I felt a sort of bond. We could almost read each other’s minds.”
“Because you were both infected?” asked Carla.
“Maybe,” said Joe.
“Probably,” added Mike.
Carla said, “And then you two planned together how to escape.”
“Right. I told Mike I was a pretty good lock-picker. We talked about it, planned it, and waited for you and Jack to leave. All premeditated. And it worked.”
“And,” Mike said, “if Joe and I could feel that bond, I’m pretty sure that Jack senses the change in Joe.”
“That Joe is normal?” said Carla.
“That’s right,” said Mike. “He knows who is ‘human’ and who isn’t. Which is why I stayed hidden.”
“A good idea,” said Joe. “But I’d be willing to bet he still knows you’re here.”
Mike nodded. “And probably not too happy about it.”
“You did try to kill Anna.”
“I was also out of my mind.”
“Try explaining that to him now,” said Joe.
They all knew, of course, there was no reasoning with Jack. There was only curing him, if possible.
Joe looked at Carla, then Anna. “You two can’t trust what he says. Believe me. I know you care about him but he’s just not right in the head.”
Carla shook her head. It was so much. Was it just a couple of nights ago that she was falling in love with him? She still was. She had to remind herself who the real Jack Carter was. Kind, handsome, and a sense of humor. She’d never met a single father who cared for his child the way Jack did. It was one of the traits that attracted her to him. But for now, she had to stay focused. “We were talking about the cure when he went berserk.”
“I had just mentioned the idea about water,” Anna put in.
Carla nodded, recalling her input. She looked at Joe and Mike. “Do you two think he remembers that conversation?”
Mike thought a moment. “I’m not sure, really. He was pretty far gone, but for myself, I do remember some things about that stage.”
“I do, too, but there’s no way to tell for sure. If we ask him, he might lie,” Joe reasoned.
“We have to decide two things,” Carla said. “One, do we tell him? And two, how are we going to do this?”
* * *
In the end, and with great protest from Anna, which Carla and then her uncle overruled, they decided not to inform Jack of their plan.
Knowledge is power, after all. Jack was in a state of hyper-awareness and considered himself invincible. Both Joe’s and Mike’s experiences were that they had no intention of going back to “normal.” When Jack realized what was about to happen to him, he would become violent, if not deadly. The instinct for self-preservation was undeniable, in humans and zombies.
They had no way of knowing that Jack did remember, and that he was already planning a counter-attack whenever they came for him.
Carla, exhausted as she was, realized she was the only legal person of the three adults to go out in public. They had decided to buy two large buckets for water, the kind that held about twenty gallons of water. If Jack fought his way out of one, they would have a backup ready. While she was at the hardware store, she decided to pick up three pairs of the thickest gloves they had. She had no idea if the guys could be re-infected, but she had seen enough of this crap to not take any chances. She certainly didn’t want to go through this infection herself.
Driving back to the Los Feliz home, she turned on the radio. Not the police radio. She thought a little music would help but when she heard “Sympathy for the Devil,” she snapped it off.
Can’t catch a break, she thought.
She thought grimly that the Stones couldn’t have possibly had this scenario in mind, but it was ironic nonetheless.
Just hang on, girl, she told herself as she pulled into the driveway. Just a little longer and this will all be over.
She couldn’t have been more wrong about anything in her entire life.
Chapter Seventeen
I was Jack Carter, park ranger, lover of wildlife, great father and friend to my community, but I sat chained in my own cellar and tried to think of a plan. I had time, but just a couple of hours, at the most.
I looked around. They’d learned to clear everything out of the way. No more bobby pins...not so much as a piece of string within reach.
They’re coming, I thought. Soon.
Joe had come down eventually to give me some water. No food. I realized they didn’t need to think that far in advance. They would “cure” me, and I was far from happy with the method. Sure, I would fight them. Even hand-cuffed to the strongest beam supporting the house, I would lure them in with smiles and cooperative conversation, but I would fight for my new life. I felt powerful and I liked it.