The End Has Come and Gone

“If you should somehow best my champion,” Eliza said mockingly, “I will allow everyone you are with to walk away from this site unharmed.”

“I wouldn’t trust her,” Meredith whispered next to me.

“Will you allow them to live out their lives without your interference?” I asked.

“No,” she answered.

“Most likely the first honest thing she’s said,” Alex said.

“I understand that you humans like to confer on matters of importance. I will give you one hour and then you will give me your decision,” Eliza said. I could hear her entourage heading back down the stairs, her zombies following suit.

“Clearly the answer is no,” Mrs. Deneaux was the first to pipe up.

“I’d really like to thank you, but I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with my personal safety,” I told her.

Mrs. Deneaux smirked at me.

“Should we take a vote?” I asked the group.

Deneaux shrugged.

“No,” Tracy said.

“No,” Justin echoed his mother. I looked at him sternly but the vote was already cast.

“Yes,” Travis said. Tracy looked at him with a smoldering gaze that said that she was going to ground him for damn near forever.

“I don’t see what choice we have. I say yes,” Brian said. I nodded to him and received the same back.

“If Brian thinks it’s a good idea than so do I,” Cindy said firmly.

Perla was not dealing well with the whole proposal. Cindy went over to her and attempted to calm her down. “NO!” Perla shouted. “I am sick of seeing people die!”

I turned to Deneaux who had walked away to light another cigarette. “You already got my answer,” she said, never turning back lest the oncoming breeze put out her lighter’s flame.

“I will not place the fate of my children in the hands of him,” Marta spat.

“Does that count as three votes?” Meredith asked the group.

I shook my head no.

Gary walked up and looked me in the eyes for a lot longer than I felt comfortable with. “I think he can do it. I vote yes.”

“That was strange, but thanks for the vote of confidence… I think,” I told him.

“Oh, I didn’t see anything,” Gary said. “I was just trying to instill some confidence in you.”

“Again thanks, and don’t tell me any more.”

“Mike, I’ll vote however you want me to,” Paul said, coming up to me.

“I can’t tell you how to vote. It’s your lives on the line,” I told him.

“I trust you like no other,” Paul told me. “I vote yes.”

Erin placed her arm around Paul’s waist. “As do I,” she said.

“Do you people not understand what you’re doing?” Tracy screamed, “You are sentencing him to a certain death. Whether by Durgan or Eliza, Mike will not survive this!”

She was pissed. I briefly thought about going over to calm her down, but she’d just as likely pitch me over the side.

“We should all be fighting as one,” she continued adamantly.

“Tracy, there won’t be a fight,” Alex said to her pacifying her a bit. “Eliza will merely burn this place down. I would think that Mike would be honored that some of us survive rather than all of us perish. I vote yes.”

“You’ve all lost your minds,” Tracy said bitterly before storming off.

“I agree with her Mike,” BT said. “I say no.”

April, who looked like a jackrabbit getting ready to bolt, slid a few inches behind Mad Jack. “No,” she said meekly.

“Do I get a vote?” Eddy asked Joann.

She was about to say no. I stopped her. “It’s his life too, he should have a say.”

“Yes,” Eddy said beaming. “The crazy man can beat anyone.”

“Then I say no,” Joann said, not looking as Eddy scowled at her.

I looked to a staunch ally, Meredith. She shook her head and ran to catch up to her aunt.

“Interesting,” Mad Jack said. “I either decide the vote or tie it up.”

“Really?” I asked. “I didn’t think it was that close.”

“Nine ‘no’s’ and eight ‘yes’s’”.

“Damn, I had no clue,” I told him truthfully.

“Then how do you vote?” BT asked, rejoining the group.

“There is only one choice,” Mad Jack said. “Logically speaking, Mike’s willingness to fight Durgan is our only chance of escape. Albeit it sounds like it might be a slim one, it is a chance none the less.”

“Don’t shower all the confidence on me at one time,” I told him. Mad Jack looked at me with a blank stare, he didn’t get it.

“I vote yes,” Mad Jack said.

“You’re kidding me? So it’s a tie?” I asked.

Mad Jack nodded in the affirmative.

“It looks like the decision is yours, Talbot. What will you do?” Tracy asked with a sheen of tears in her eyes. She already knew my answer.

“I will fight, because that is what I do,” I told the group.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE - Tracy’s Journal Entry 1

I cannot believe the pig-headed stubborn man that I married. My mother was right when she told me not to marry a Marine. ‘Marry a Navy man,’ she told me, ‘they’re much more pliable.’ He’s been huddled up with BT going over strategy on how to fight that steroid induced crazy bastard Durgan. He’s barely even looked over at me. Good, I hope he knows I’m mad at him for what he’s doing. I have absolutely no doubt that my husband will kill Durgan, but what good does that do his family, I ask you. Either way he dies. I’d rather burn with him, but not my babies, no, not that.

Eliza’s coming!

CHAPTER THIRTY – Talbot Journal Entry 15

“What have you decided, Michael?” came Eliza’s question. Her tone betrayed nothing of which way she wanted me to answer.

“My only condition as it has always been Eliza, is that if I agree to fight, when I win you honor your end,” I told her.

“Will you believe what I have to say?” Eliza asked. That she had a small measure of mischief in her words was not in doubt.

“There is the locket,” Tomas said.

“What locket?” Eliza and BT asked at the same time.

“The Blood Locket that Mr. T holds,” Tomas answered.

Eliza’s gasp of surprise was amplified in the small space she now inhabited.

“What do you have?” BT turned to me.

“My brother gave this to me before I left the house, he said he had no idea what it was for but that I might need it,” I said as I pulled out a large white gold locket with a rose and a blood red jewel on its face.

“You possess the Blood Locket?” Eliza asked. It was the first time anyone had heard a tremor in her voice.

“It looks that way,” I said, turning the locket over in my hands. I pulled away quickly as something snagged my finger. A fat bead of blood welled on my thumb, “Damn, again?” I questioned, sucking the wound. The locket opened to reveal an ancient picture of Eliza.

“You will give it to me now or die!” Eliza fairly shrieked.

“It looks like I’m going to do that anyway. So I don’t necessarily see the reason to relinquish this,” I said, thrilled that I had set Eliza back on her heels. “What does this locket do?” I asked the question of Eliza, but it was Tomas that had an answer forthcoming.

“She is bound to the locket…” Tomas started.

“Tomas, you are walking down a dangerous path,” Eliza growled.

“No, Sister, you started down this path when you decided to open up your world to me.”

“You will not betray me, Brother.”

“I will do as I wish, Sister.”

It was unclear what was happening behind the closed door, but it was Tomas who spoke next.

“Do not think that I cannot wrest control of these zombies from you Eliza.”

A muffled thud and cry of pain carried through the steel door.

“Eliza, help me,” a pain tinged plea came from Durgan.

“Fool!” she spat. “I did not tell you to attack him. I would always take side with a wayward brother over that of a slave.”

“I was only and always trying to help Mistress,” Durgan begged.

The door to the roof crashed open. Eliza strode through, Tomas right behind her. In the darkness of the hallway was the huddled form of Durgan.

“Michael, I will honor our arrangement,” Eliza said with a rage fueled voice as she approached us.

BT discreetly grabbed the locket from my hand which had gone slack at the sight of Eliza. He clutched it close to his chest. I knew vamps had many more powers than mere humans. I hoped her sight wasn’t too enhanced as I grabbed the truck keys in my pocket; this might work, they were sort of goldish.

“That’s far enough, Eliza,” I told her. Any closer and Mr. Magoo would have caught my ruse. Eliza did not stop her forward progress. It had been a long time since she had taken any orders from anyone, least of all a sworn enemy. “Travis, give me your shotgun.” Travis did not hesitate as he handed over his weapon. I dropped the locket (keys, careful to place my body and my foot in a way that made her viewing difficult, if she got a good look we were screwed) onto the roof and pointed the shotgun straight at the piece of jewelry. I had no idea if this ploy would work until Eliza stopped in mid-step.

“Will she die, Tomas, if I destroy this locket?” I asked. (Oh pretty please!)

“She will not be the same,” Tomas answered.

I could tell Tomas was watching in amusement as the white around my knuckle spread with the incremental amounts of pressure I applied to the trigger. The inner debate waged within me.

It was Tomas’ next words that stopped me from blowing that ‘locket’ to hell where it belonged. “I do not, however, think that you will like the outcome.”

“What would that be?” I asked, never looking up.

“I would be in charge,” Tomas told me solemnly.

“You’re much more powerful, aren’t you Tommy,” I asked, but it was more of a statement.

“Yes.”

“Is there anything of Tommy left in you?” I asked as a solitary tear was migrating down my cheek.

“No.”

Eliza appeared to have missed the entire conversation; her complete attention was focused on the golden locket lying on the tarred roof. Durgan dizzily made his way onto the crowding roof as zombies began to pour through the opening. Eliza or Tomas still controlled them as they did not attack but made a ring around us, the stranded humans.

Eliza snapped out of her trance. “Do not be so confident, Tomas,” she said to her brother. “Now Michael, I believe you have what is rightfully mine.”

“I do, but I have decided on another set of terms,” I told her.

“I grow weary of this,” Eliza said. A cheetah would have been amazed at her speed as she grabbed the locket and was back in her original spot just as I blew a hole in the surface of the roof, damn near taking my foot off.

“I was expecting that. I just didn’t think it would happen so fast.”

“Kill them,” Eliza said before she looked the piece of jewelry over.

The zombies began to close the circle up, hunger intensifying their movements. April fainted outright. It was Mrs. Deneaux that was the first to fire. The front line of zombies dropped quickly as the rest of the group took to arms. Rifle fire crackled, smoke rose into the air, human shaped monsters dropped by the dozens. Missed shots from fifteen feet were a rare occurrence, and then the zombies were eighteen feet away and then twenty. I held up my hand for a cease fire. It wasn’t that the zombies were retreating, they just weren’t advancing anymore.

“Clever Michael,” Eliza said coolly.

“I watched Interview with a Vampire,” I told her. “You vamps move pretty fast.”

“Where is my locket?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I can still kill all of you now and then sort out the pieces later,” she told me ominously.

“Do you really want to look through zombie offal for something you obviously value so much?” I asked her. Can a vampire be a germ-a-phobe? I mean I doubt it, they suck the blood out of people. Who’s to say where that neck has been, or what disease is running rampant through that person’s veins. “And it might not even be on us,” I threw in for good measure.

“You lie, I can smell it on you,” Eliza said.

“The lie or the locket?” I asked.

“Both. But you are right, I would rather you hand me the locket on your knees rather than search among these diseased vermin.”

“Well at least we agree about the vermin part,” I told her. “Let’s make a straight up trade, all of us leave here and you get your locket.”

“Where is the fun in that?” Eliza asked me.

“I think it sounds like a lot of fun,” Mad Jack piped up.

“Me too actually,” BT added.

Gary raised his hand in acknowledgement also.

“Enough!” Eliza said forcibly. “That is not an acceptable bargain. Someone must die here today.”

“There’s always you,” Justin said a little louder than he intended.

“Oh my pet,” Eliza said turning her head to face him. “You do not know what you have thrown asunder. I could have brought you on an incredible journey. You could have danced across the graves of everyone who has ever wronged you.” Justin pulled his gaze from Eliza. She laughed. “Silly boy, it is a shame you will never see the dawn of a new day.”

“I will fight Durgan,” I said.

“No Talbot,” Tracy said obstinately.

“Hush,” I said, putting my finger to her lips and hoping she wouldn’t bite it off. “I will fight Durgan but when I kill that asshole, we ALL leave unharmed and unpursued.” (Now that I said and wrote that word I’m not sure if it’s actually a Webster’s Dictionary approved word. Oh well, it’s not like anyone besides me will ever see this.)

“Those were not our original terms,” Eliza said.

“It’s called leverage Eliza. I have a little bit and I plan on using it.”

“If anyone on your side should step in and alter the outcome, our agreement will be null,” Eliza said, speaking directly to BT.

“No one will,” I said turning to face my friend.

“What? I haven’t even done anything,” BT said guiltily.

“And you won’t, right?” I asked him.

“But what if he’s beating the crap out of you, can’t I at least kill him before they get us?” BT asked. I gave him the sternest look I could muster, but it didn’t do much considering it was aimed at his sternum. “Alright, I won’t do anything even if your spindly ass is getting spanked and or demolished,” he grudgingly conceded.

“Thanks man,” I said sarcastically. “Eliza, do you agree to this?”

“I will let everyone including yourself leave here unharmed, IF you kill him.”

“What about not pursuing us?”

“That will be my leverage Michael. You can all leave here and I will let you go, but not forever.”

“Don’t take the deal, Dad,” Travis entreated.

“I welcome the opportunity to put a spike through your chest, Eliza,” I told her. Eliza sneered. “Swear it, Eliza.”

“I swear it on the Blood Locket, Michael.”

“Tomas?” I asked.

“She is bound,” Tomas said.

I pulled the locket from the barrel of the shotgun where I had stowed it once the zombies stopped approaching. Eliza gasped.

“It would have been the first thing destroyed,” I told her.

Eliza walked purposefully over to me and took the locket from my extended arm, making certain that her ice cold touch came in contact with my hand.

“We could still have some fun,” Eliza told me as she kept her hand wrapped around my wrist.

“I’ve already dated enough cold heartless bitches in my lifetime, thank you very much,” I said, trying to control the fear that was threatening to run away with my nerve.

“Very well. It is a beautiful day to die,” she said as she released her grip.

“I’d actually prefer a good rainstorm, maybe some hail and a crap load of lightning. It’s that whole flair for the dramatic,” I told her.

“Even at the end, you jest. You are a unique individual, Michael. I will almost miss you.”

“My mother told me that once.” It was the first thing I could think of.

“Dude?” Paul said.

“Too far?” I asked him.

“A little bit.”

“You will surrender your weapons now,” Eliza said as she stepped back next to Tomas.

“Whoa, that wasn’t part of the agreement,” I told her.

“Yes, as a matter of fact it was. When you die, the rest of your group will surrender to me. With their weapons they will not be so willing to follow through.”

“I say we just go out fighting now Mike,” Brian said.

A few others thought the same.

“We voted on this already, either we’re all in or we’re all out. I’m prepared to fight to the end by myself or with all of you by my side.”

More zombies began to funnel through the breech point in response to Brian’s call to arms.

“We’ve voted,” Alex said. “With Mike we have a chance. I’ve said my piece and I am at peace with the decision. I am prepared to meet my Maker.”

“I’m not sure if I should be honored or not with that comment Alex.”

Alex shrugged his shoulders.

“Well at least you clarified that, buddy,” I told him.

The small pile of rifles and pistols we produced could have kept a guerilla unit in Southern Peru stocked for a few years. I honestly don’t know how we could have carried all this armament and still move effectively. Now I know why the ladder bowed so much under BT. Sure, a good part of it was his bulk, the rest had to do with the two rifles and three pistols he contributed to the pile, plus the five hundred or so rounds he had stashed on him at various locations on his body.

“Got anything else on you?” I asked him softly, pretty much just kidding.

When he smiled at me diffidently, I didn’t even want to know where that one might be hidden, best not to think of things like that.

“I will give you some time to say your prayers to your false God,” Eliza said as she strode back through the roof door, her entourage of zombies on her heels.

“That’s not like her,” BT mused, coming up beside me.

“I agree but there’s no sense in trying to figure it out. A normal woman’s motives would be impossible to figure out.”

“And she’s not normal,” BT concluded.

“Let’s start working on some contingency plans while we have a chance,” I said, getting the group into a circle, except for April who had not yet decided to stop napping.

“What if Durgan beats you?” Perla asked.

“He won’t,” Tracy said.

“Okay, but what if he does?” Perla asked again, “We can’t just leave our fates up to her.”

“Personally, I’d rather let the zombies eat me,” Cindy said.

That’s how you know Eliza is one mean mother, when people would rather get eaten alive than spend any time with her.

“Could we survive a jump off the roof?” Joann asked, “I mean, we’d land on all those zombies below us.”

“And then what?” BT asked peering over the edge. “Even if you didn’t so much as bruise a muscle from the forty foot drop you’d still have to make it through close to a hundred feet of zombies.”

“Plus I’ve got a feeling that we won’t be anywhere near the edge,” Mad Jack said, “Eliza’ll have us surrounded.”

“Okay, who’s got what?” I asked the group as I pulled out a Glock 26 from a concealed holster.

BT hoisted out a seven inch barrel .357 Magnum. Erin had a stubby .22. Travis had a small .32 revolver, and Justin produced a sling shot. Hey it was a weapon, not a great one, but just ask Goliath how effective they could be.

“Sorry man,” Brian said. “All I had was that rifle. We won’t be able to put up much of a fight with these anyway,” he said, getting depressed at the notion.

Mrs. Deneaux came into the center of the circle, a small Derringer in her hand. “It’s not for them, sweetie,” she said, placing the barrel up against April’s head and her still prone body.

“That’s even worse,” Cindy said.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Mad Jack said.

“What will God think if we take our own lives? That is a mortal sin!” Perla was nearly crying again.

“The sin would be to allow Eliza to possess us,” Marta said resignedly.

“Agreed,” Paul said.

“You’d better beat him,” Marta told me.

I’d bested him twice, but once was with a rifle and the other was while he was recovering from the first injury, not exactly a hand on hand combat situation. Sure, I had trained for this in the Corps but that was a LONG time ago. My philosophy was and still is that carrying more ammunition is your best bet.

The door to the roof opened slowly. All of our weapons raised. We tipped our hand; did this make the deal a no go? It was Tomas. I dropped my weapon down to my side but no one else followed suit.

“Mr. T, there is no time for this. Tell them to put their weapons down so that I may approach,” Tomas said.

“Tommy?” I asked, hoping beyond hope.

“No,” he shook his head. “I thought it would be easier for you to accept me if I reverted back to how he sounded.”

“Put your guns down,” I told them.

Tomas approached. “Eliza is enhancing Durgan. You will not be able to defeat him with his new powers.”

“Enhancing how?” I asked. The question wasn’t fully out of my mouth before I stumbled upon the answer myself. “She’s turning him into one of her, into one of you.”

“Not quite, that would take too long and she doesn’t want him to share her blood.”

“Then how?” Gary asked.

“The same way she accelerated his healing and the same way I survived all these years, a half-bite.”

“Like a nibble,” Eddy said.

Tomas nearly smiled. I don’t think that Tommy was as far gone as Tomas believed him to be.

“What does this do for Durgan?” Tracy asked.

“He’ll be faster, stronger.”

“Great, like he didn’t already have that going for him,” BT said.

“BT, I’m right here man,” I said.

“Sorry man, I’m just saying. It’s not like you didn’t already know that.”

“Yeah, I guess I just didn’t need it vocalized from my own camp.”

“My mom used to say the truth hurts,” Eddy said.

I laughed. “Great, out of the mouths of babes.”

“Why are you here Tomm… Tomas?” Tracy asked, “Is it just to tell us this?”

“I’ve come to give Michael the same opportunity that Durgan is receiving.”

“Wait, you want to turn me into a half-vamp? I can’t,” I was panicking on the inside.

“It’s the only way,” Tomas said.

“Hear him out,” Mad Jack said.

“And then after today? Then what? I watch as my family and my friends die. I watch as my children catch up to me in age and eventually die? I won’t, I can’t watch that, I can’t be a part of that.”

“Stop being a pansy,” Mrs. Deneaux said. “Today is the only day that any of us has guaranteed. If it becomes too much of a burden then you can always fall on your sword. Of course it would have to be made of wood,” she cackled.

“I thought you were relatively cool when you pulled that gun out. Now we’re back to square one and I can’t stand you.”

She cackled louder.

“Every second we waste in discussion will be that much more time you will have to stay alive waiting for your own powers to increase,” Tomas said.

“How much of a head start does Durgan have?” Justin asked. I was still pretty lost in my own thoughts to make any coherent cognitive thoughts.

“Five minutes,” Tomas answered his old friend.

“Why bother at all,” Mrs. Deneaux said. “He couldn’t survive five minutes against the old Durgan, now with the new and improved model? Pah, we should have kept more guns.”

“You should see if that gun has any rounds in it and hold it up to your eye. I’ll pull the trigger for you,” Alex said.

She “pahed” again.

“What of my soul?” I asked Tomas.

He shook his head in negation.

“I can never go to Heaven?”

“Only to the gates.”

“I’ve been there,” I said, burying my head in my hands. “It’s a beautiful place, lonely but beautiful.”

“Oh Mike,” Tracy said, draping her body across mine like a shield against the worst of what the world had to offer.

“I’m not strong enough for this,” I said as my body heaved.

“Our lives are not worth eternity,” BT said as he wrapped Tracy and myself up in his own embrace.

“Eliza will discard all of your souls before she is done,” Tomas said.

“Why are you doing this?” Meredith asked, “You play on the other team now, what do you care what happens to us?”

“I have my reasons,” Tomas said evenly.

I looked around at the faces surrounding me, searching for an answer that only I could produce. It was Travis and Justin that solved my dilemma. Watching them die today was infinitely worse than watching them die at some mythical point in the future.

“Do it.”

“Talbot! NO!” Tracy yelled.

“You sure man?” BT asked in disbelief.

“Do I look sure?” I asked him, my eyes red-rimmed.

“I don’t think so,” Gary said. “What? He asked!” Gary replied when BT looked at him sideways.

“Damn, I thought the whole Captain Obvious was my strong point,” Justin said. “It must run deeper in the family than we thought.”

Tomas came up beside me, “You will want to lie down.”

“Is this going to hurt him?” Meredith asked.

“Extremely.”

“Wicked pissah,” I said.

Tracy walked away, her arms folded across her chest. I couldn’t be sure from my position, but it looked like her shoulders were shaking with sobs.

I lay down, saying the Lord’s Prayer in one last vain attempt to possibly keep a dialog open with the Big Guy.

BT held my hand tight. “Let’s just go out guns blazing, Mike.”

I looked over to my sons’ very concerned faces. “I would if we were alone my friend.”

“I get it, I do. I’m sorry it came to this, buddy,” BT added.

Paul and Alex stood guard over my prone body as Tomas leaned in. It was Henry that almost stopped everything. Where he had been and what he had been doing I’m not sure, probably basking in the sun and sending out his own ozone melting flatulence.

He jumped across my chest, his back legs by my left arm pit and his front paws down by my right side. Froth formed on his muzzle as he barked and growled incessantly as Tomas approached.

“I will kill him if you do not remove him,” Tomas said, stopping his progress.

“You kill him and I will drill you in the eye with my Ka-Bar, Tomas,” I told him.

“Perhaps you would Michael. Now move the dog so that we can get to the business at hand,” Tomas said, still not moving, maybe because he was fearful of the dog or me.

Justin grabbed the big Bully and hefted him back. Travis stepped in to assist and still they almost lost control of Henry.

“Put this in your mouth,” Tomas said as he handed me a piece of rubber roughly the size and shape of a cigar. “And do not concern yourself where it has been, germs will no longer be a problem of yours.”

That almost made this whole scenario a worthwhile endeavor.

Tomas moved down to my neck. I had an instant of paranoia thinking that he merely wanted to get this close so that he could rip my throat out. And then he did, at least that’s what it felt like. Sparks of pain ignited in my throat like my veins were igniter cables and the fuse had been lit. Fire spread through every portion of my body. I arched so hard only the heels of my feet and the back of my head still made contact with the roof.

So this is how your soul was removed, it was burned out. I could smell burning cordite as my teeth struggled to cut through the guard. Muscles spasmed with a force that put my body into contortions that must not have been anything near to normal. I couldn’t register it then, but even BT was looking away, not able to stand what I was going through. Although I’ll give him this, his hand never left mine and I know I must have put enough force on it to crush a normal man’s.

“Th..th..thisss thu..thucks,” I chattered to BT.

He squeezed my hand tighter. “It’s no bargain on this side my friend,” he said, still not looking down.

Tomas had strode away at some point, could have been five minutes or five hours. Having your soul seared kind of takes your mind off of time.

“Dad?” Travis asked.

I gave him a nod but there was no guarantee that I pulled it off. My muscles were firing independent of any messages I was sending them. For all I knew, I could have stuck my tongue out at him.

“You stupid, stupid bastard,” Tracy said, cradling my head gently.

“Is it over?” I asked.

“You passed out a few minutes ago buddy,” Paul said.

“You said “goodbye” right before you went under. We were scared,” Alex said. “Do you know what you were referring to? Did you have a vision?”

I shook my head no, but I did know what I was referring to. It was the loss of my humanity, my mortality, my personage, my soul. I was less of a man now and more of a demon. And I had never felt weaker in my life.

“We need to clean his neck and stand him up before Eliza gets here,” Paul said looking nervously towards the door. “Tomas said this would look too suspicious if you were on the ground,” he said, looking at my confused face.

“I’m… I’m not sure I can stand yet, at least on my own,” I said. I don’t think I could have held up Eddy’s slight frame in this condition.

“Just lean on me,” BT said, picking me up like a rag doll.

“I think she will know something is up,” Mrs. Deneaux said, “with you carrying him around like a ventriloquist’s dummy.”

BT had one arm wrapped around my waist and had me pulled into his side, this I could tell because my head, which seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, was pointed straight down. Like a new born baby I couldn’t even hold my head up.

“At least I’ll be able to see Durgan’s boots as he kicks me with them,” I said. Gallow’s humor.

“Not funny man,” BT said as he dragged me around the roof. I’m not sure what he was trying to achieve but he kept doing it. Pretty soon he was going to scrape the tips of my hiking boots clean off.

“I’m not a junkie. I don’t think walking me around in circles making sure I stay awake is going to work in this situation,” I said, still looking down at the rooftop.

“Can’t think of anything else to do man, and I’m nervous as hell, so you get to go for a ride.”

“Wheee,” I said cheerlessly. “How much more time do you think we have?”

“Never enough,” he answered.

I was able to finally move my head upwards by degrees as we heard Eliza coming up the stairs.

“I’m in trouble,” I said, almost able to pull my head into a horizontal viewing position.

“If you’re in trouble, we all are,” BT said grimly.

“If I can’t stand by the time she comes for me, make sure you save one of those bullets for me.”

“Will that work? I mean now?” BT asked me.

“I think if an overzealous horsefly came right now, he could finish me off.”

“Mike, you’re not instilling me with confidence in our group decision.”

“You think?”

“So you lose your soul but not your sarcasm?”

“That might have hurt if I could muster up the strength to care.”

“Do you think this was a trick?” Gary asked.

I hadn’t known it before but he was walking behind us the whole time.

“I mean, maybe he just weakened you so that you had absolutely no chance. I mean, it seemed like he set his sister up, maybe he did the same to you,” Gary finished.

“Well, you’re just full of good cheer,” I told him. “Maybe he even injected me with a little zombie plague for shits and giggles.”

“It’s possible Mike,” BT added.

“Nobody thought to voice these friggen’ concerns before I let Bat Boy bite me?”

BT shrugged his shoulders but since I was attached to his hip my feet now dangled four inches off the ground as he made the gesture.

“Michael?” Eliza asked almost sweetly.

“Mike’s not here!” Gary yelled.

I could feel BT’s head turning around. “You kidding me?” he asked Gary.

“I mean, he’s sleeping!” Gary told Eliza.

“Get him!” Eliza said with not a hint of her earlier merriment.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Gary said.

“Don’t they have medication for what ails you Talbots?” BT asked.

“I’m still looking!” Gary yelled in a different direction to make it sound like he had moved.

“One minute, Michael, or the deal is off,” Eliza said furiously.

“I’m here,” I rasped.

“Has the shroud of death settled over you yet? It is a cold cloak, wet with the tears of mourning loved ones and broken dreams,” Eliza asked.

“They don’t make one in his size, bitch!” BT roared. “You should know that by now!”

“Durgan will be ready in ten minutes, will you?” Eliza laughed as her voice trailed behind her descent back down the stairs.

“I don’t like her very much,” BT said.

I would have agreed but I was in the midst of passing out again.

‘Michael, I have stalled as long as I possibly can, you need to get up.’

‘Tomas? Oh no, you’re in my head again.’

‘My sister and Durgan will be on the roof in less than five minutes.’

‘Was this a trick?’

‘Get up!’ Tomas shouted in my head.

Can someone go deaf from shouting WITHIN their head? ‘I’m up!’ I shouted back, but the connection was broken.

“Michael, there are no surprises waiting for us are there?” Eliza asked suspiciously.

“I’m up!” I shouted again, this time vocally. “Sorry,” I said to those around me as I sat up.

“Well, that’s an improvement,” BT said, “Can you do any better than that though? Unless of course Durgan wants to thumb wrestle you to death.”

“Don’t you have some nails you can chew or something?” I asked him. “Help me stand.”

“Michael?” Eliza asked again.

“What?” I said testily. “Oh. No, there are no surprises, our original agreement is in effect.”

“You won’t mind then if I send some of my army in to verify that?” she asked.

“You sound awfully frightened for being the Lord of All You Survey,” I rang out.

Mrs. Deneaux got a good chuckle out of that one. She tipped her cigarette to me.

“Go ahead, send in your smelly minions!” Gary yelled.

“You felt the need to invite them, did you?” Tracy asked him.

“No more than a hundred,” I said to Eliza.

‘Why?’ BT mouthed.

“I’m hoping by having to count them it’ll take longer,” I told him.

“Michael, what trick are you trying to play?” Eliza asked, her dark eyes narrowing.

“No trick, I just want the fighting ring to be as big as possible,” I told her.

“It’s so the little faggot can run away like a screaming little bitch!” Durgan yelled.

“Someone got their ‘roid injection today,” BT said.

“Three hundred, Michael,” Eliza said.

“Fine,” I told her. “Even better,” I said to BT. It would take longer.

After a few minutes of zombies filing in like students into an auditorium, Durgan pushed his way through the throng. Two of them fell on their faces, and he smashed his heel down onto one of the fallen zombie’s temple. The sound was much like that of a large beetle being squished, it was not pleasant.

“That’s going to mess up your count,” I said, taunting him.

“Don’t care, there’s more of them, there’s always more of them.”

I could only agree.

“But me,” he said, pointing to his chest, “there’s only one of me.”

“Thank the God above for that,” BT said.

Again, I could only agree.

“You stay out of this, black man. I came here to kill Talbot.”

“Damn Mike! Durgan has gone all PC on us,” BT said admiringly.

“Must be the anger management classes,” I said, holding on to BT’s side, trying my best to make it look like that wasn’t what I was doing.

“I’m going to make this slow, Talbot,” Durgan said while grinding his fist into his palm.

“The slower the better,” I told him.

“You’re fucking nuts!” he yelled to me, clearly confused at my answer.

“Nucking futs,” I said.

“What is wrong with him?” Durgan asked BT as if he was going to get a valid response.

“Hopped up on bath salts,” BT said.

“What are you talking about?” Durgan asked. These were not the responses he was expecting to receive and it was throwing him off his game.

“Bath salts,” Gary said. “They’re all the rage in Paris, haven’t you ever tried them?”

“Paris is gone you idiots!” Durgan screamed.

“Oh, my poor pet,” Eliza said coming up behind Durgan. “So strong in body, yet not in mind.”

Durgan’s rage subsided as Eliza stroked his face.

“Are you about ready for the void of life?” Eliza asked me impatiently.

“A cigarette?” I asked Eliza. She looked like she was about to respond in the negative.

“Come, Sister,” Tomas said, stepping onto the roof. “We must be cultured, all condemned men are granted their final wish.”

“Wait, then I would like to change my request.”

“A cigarette then,” Eliza said.

Mrs. Deneaux was a good ten feet away. I was positive I couldn’t make it on my own and it wouldn’t look good if BT dragged me over there.

“Mrs. Deneaux, would you do the honors?” BT asked, over-exaggerating with his head a ‘come hither’ motion.

At least she was quick on the uptake, and for once she didn’t have anything snide to say as she came over and (thankfully) placed the cigarette in my mouth and lit it. I barely had enough steam to inhale and luckily none at all to cough.

“This is ridiculous!” Durgan cried. “How long can it take to smoke a cigarette? You have to finish that damn thing eventually and I’m going to make you pay for delaying the inevitable.”

“Worse than death? You twit,” Mrs. Deneaux said.

“I’ll kill you just for fun you old hag,” Durgan said to her, pointing his finger.

Never skipping a beat Deneaux answered. “Worse than you have tried. Give it your best shot.”

“All of a sudden I like you,” I told Mrs. Deneaux as I gingerly crushed the cigarette under foot. If it had offered even the least resistance I would have toppled over.

“Michael, you don’t look well,” Tomas said.

‘Thanks!’ I wanted to yell at him.

“Nothing a case of the deads won’t cure,” Durgan said.

“The deads?” I asked.

“Make the black man move,” Durgan said as he approached steadily, fists clenched by his sides.

Halfway to me and BT had not yet let go. I could feel him fighting within himself to throw me to the side and fight Durgan. It would be an awesome spectacle, just like when I was ten and my friend and I would watch Creature Double Feature on the UHF channel (if you don’t know what UHF is, it’s a dark time in our planet’s history, when we only had about five or six channels to choose from; it was hideous. No 24/7 cartoons, sports or comedy. I shudder to remember the days.) Godzilla versus King Kong, it would have been awesome.

“Michael, if BT does not move, we are done here,” Eliza said evenly.

“BT,” I said.

“I can’t man, he’s going to kill you.”

“What about that whole thing about death not having the right size for me and all.”

“Oh, I was just saying that.”

“You really suck man, now let me go.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.” ‘No.’

“This is going to hurt you way more than me.” Durgan said smiling.

“How are you walking so well?” I asked truly wondering not just stalling this time.

“I’m cured man!” Durgan shouted.

“How do you get ‘cured’ from an amputated leg?” Now I was really curious.

“Eliza…” Durgan was cut short as Eliza yelled at him to finish me.

Well that one name pretty much answered my question irregardless that it was a cut short answer.

For each step back that BT took, Durgan took two forward. I swayed back and forth like a tall reed in a soft summer breeze. The best thing that I could ask to happen was that I would be on the back bend when Durgan swung. The audible crack as my jaw burst echoed throughout my skull, the reverberations finally ending in my left pinkie toe, and no I do not know why.

I could vaguely hear Durgan screaming at me to get up so that he could finish me off. It was much more comfortable where I was. I could hear Tracy and Gary, pretty much everyone urging me up, their urgent cries ringing in my ears. But I was falling deeper; the red of pain was rapidly becoming the black of unconsciousness.

It was them that I held on for. Durgan would only wait so long to get from me what he felt I owed him. If I were to pass out, he would still finish me off, most likely starting with a few rib crushing kicks followed by some face pummeling blows, capped off with my head in his hands as he cracked my neck. I might not experience any of the pain involved, but my family and friends surely would.

My jaw rattled in my head, teeth grinding against teeth as I turned over trying to get leverage with arms that couldn’t support Gumby. A fresh wave of nausea and pinpointing blackness threatened to thwart my best efforts as my arms gave. I collapsed, jaw first, onto the tarred roof.

“That’s right, you piece of dung. Get up!” Durgan yelled, “What? No witty comeback you shithead?” His spittle rained down on me.

The thought of uttering anything more than a throaty moan made me wish for my mother, and I hadn’t done that since I was six.

“If you don’t get up in the next minute I’m going to start teaching your wife what it means to be with a real man,” Durgan boasted.

“You even look at her funny and you’ll be licking your own asshole!” BT yelled.

“You’re welcome,” BT said as I gave him the thumbs up sign, my face still buried in the roof.

Henry charged at Durgan. If I could have screamed at him to stop, I would have. Not that he would have listened. That’s the sort of relationship we have, I give him cookies, he does as he pleases. Henry wrapped his muzzle around Durgan’s lower leg. He must have put all his strength into it because Durgan screamed to the heavens, although they would have turned a blind eye to him as they had to me. He shook his leg violently and swatted Henry away. Henry yelped as he went tumbling twenty feet away. I was thankful to whatever was watching over me now that Durgan was only able to land a glancing blow. Henry came to a stop by the edge of the roof. I could tell his head was reeling as he looked up, eyes not focused on anything, but he’d be all right. More than I could say for me.

The pain in my jaw had begun to ebb. I attributed it to the high octane adrenaline injection from Durgan’s threat. To threaten me was one thing, my family? Well, that takes on a whole new level, and to top it off the asshole hurt my dog!

“You don’t understand now, Lawrence,” Durgan sneered. “I can kill you too, just as easily as I can kill him,” he said pointing over to my mostly prone body.

“He’s not quite dead yet,” Gary said, quoting Monty Python as I struggled to gain vertical-ability.

“Did you really just do that Uncle Gary?” Travis asked.

Gary smiled diffidently.

Durgan turned to see me. I was now resting on my knees. I probably could have stood at this point, but I was busy listening to the knitting of the bones in my mouth. It was disturbing. The grinding as molar scraped across canine was akin to biting down hard on fork tines.

Durgan looked at me in alarm as color began to wash back into my face, from winter pale to spring hale. He gave a quick glance to Eliza as if expecting direction, but none was forthcoming.

I put my left foot under me and stood up shakily. I wouldn’t be scaring a Girl Scout, but Durgan looked like he was having second thoughts.

“I broke your jaw, Talbot. Now I’m going to break your spine,” he said as he advanced again.

It hurt like hell to say it but it was worth every snap and pop as I moved my still healing facial bones. “Bring it,” I said as I put my hands up in the old school boxing fashion, fists upside down and all.

I tried to dance around like Muhammad Ali, but I think I looked more like Whitney Houston (you know… can’t dance).

Durgan bull rushed me. I was still operating on something close to seventy-five percent of the old Talbot, but it was way more than he was expecting. So when I side stepped his advance and put everything I could muster into his kidney, his heavy expulsion of air was all I needed to know that I had surprised him and potentially inflicted an iota of damage.

“You should have just stayed down,” Durgan said as he turned. His eyes glowed with a festering heat of hatred and contempt. “I might have made it relatively painless,” he said, advancing but much more slowly and warily.

And without warning he struck, like a cat let loose from a tight trash bag. I didn’t think anything that big could move that fast. His ham-sized fist slammed into my temple. If it hadn’t first caught my upraised fist he would have killed me. Upgrade or not, he would have caved my skull. For the second time I went down, this one with more force than the first. My jaw dislocated as the side of my face bounced from the impact.

“Fuck you Talbot!” Durgan shrieked, standing over my body with his fists by his side, veins bulging out on his neck, his arms throbbing with power.

The pain was intense, but something was happening within me. What started as a ten on the pain index and should have taken days and heavy doses of opiates to alleviate rapidly began to climb down the pain-o-meter. Ten became an eight, which in turn became a five, and then a distant memory at a one or a two.

“And to think I once thought you might be a tough opponent. You ain’t shit!” he screamed.

“You talk too much,” I said as I got my feet back up under me.

If Durgan’s neurons would have just fired a little quicker and he never gave me the chance to get up, then my family would have been doomed. But he just kept watching in amazement as I got completely up onto my feet.

“You should be dead!” he yelled.

“But yet here I am,” I said softly, trying my best to not engage my jaw. A lot easier written than said.

“This can’t be. I’m five times the man I was. You should be dead!” he screamed in consternation, “Eliza, it’s not working. I hit him with everything I had, you promised!”

Eliza looked over to Tomas who never betrayed anything, but the proof was in my unwillingness to die.

“I fear, my pet, that the rules to the game have been changed,” Eliza said.

“What does that mean?” he asked her.

“It means that Michael has cheated and as such our agreement is void,” Eliza said.

“Not true, Eliza,” I said to her. “You said I could not accept help from anyone on this side. You said absolutely nothing about help from your side.”

Eliza was trying to find a loophole in her agreement. I could see the machinations working behind her black eyes. “Very well,” was her grudging response.

Durgan was being unbelievably slow on the uptake of this new information. He could take as long as he desired. I wasn’t waiting for him to figure it out. I swung a roundhouse that started somewhere south of Detroit and struck him flush in the nose. Blood blew in a circle away from the impact. His eyes immediately flooded with tears as he dropped down to his knees.

“Yeah!” BT shouted.

With my other arm I hooked an uppercut that shattered all of Durgan’s front teeth, pieces of which intermingled with the growing puddle of blood pooling on the roof. Durgan began to sag forward. I kneed him in his already destroyed nose; shards of bone drilled into my knee as the impact also drove pieces up into his brain casing.

“Ris ran’t ree happenin,” Durgan said through a jumble of broken teeth.

“Oh, I assure you it is,” I said, punching him in the back of the head as he began to pitch forward.

Durgan was face first on the ground, his ass still up in the air. It was a comical pose but it contained no humor in it.

“This is for Jed,” I said as I reared back and kicked him square in the ribs. At least two snapped as he fell onto his side. “This is for shooting me!” as I kicked him flush in the stomach. The force of the strike rolled him over onto his back, a gale of wind fused with blood expelled from his mouth. “This is for Jen!” I said kicking him in his junk. I thought Jen would appreciate that, being the man hater that she was. I got a sick sort of satisfaction out of that.

“This is for the little kids at Carol’s house!” I cried, bringing my heel up.

“Talbot!” my wife yelled.

I wavered in midair.

“That’s enough! He’s done.”

He should have been dead, he really should have, but we weren’t playing by the same rules any more. As if to prove my point, Durgan began to stir. In a few more minutes he’d probably be fine and I wouldn’t be able to surprise him twice.

“He’s got no choice,” BT told Tracy as she turned her back on the horrific scenario.

I brought the heel of my boot down on the bridge of Durgan’s nose. His skull snapped like a fragile egg, blood and brain matter splayed out across the ground.

“You’re next Eliza!” I yelled, grinding my gore soaked boot even deeper into the recess of what once housed Durgan’s mad melon.

At some point during the fracas, Eliza had left the rooftop unnoticed, taking her zombies with her.

Eliza and Tomas - Interlude

“You play a dangerous game Tomas,” Eliza said, her anger running deep through her blackened vitality.

“I did nothing more than make an even fight,” Tomas said.

“With our sworn enemy!” Eliza shrieked.

“No Sister, he is your sworn enemy,” Tomas said evenly.

Eliza took a step back and took a moment to compose herself, even more angered that she had allowed her emotions to show. Emotions were for the weak-willed humans, not for her!

“To what end, Tomas, did you empower Michael?”

“I have my reasons, Eliza. It is not all a loss Sister, you have the Blood Locket in your possession now.”

“Yes, there is that,” she said, fingering the pendant that she now had safely tucked in her bodice. “We will not stray far from each other come the future. I do not trust what reasons you possess. I do not believe that we are walking the same pathways,”

Tomas smiled and walked away.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE – Talbot Journal Entry 16