They huddled in Bunny’s basement, the safest place they could think of. With the addition of Star and Javier, their group numbered eight. It was dark down there, and Pill wouldn’t let them turn on any lights. Instead, he held a flashlight over the pages of the book in his lap. Around him, the group sat in silence.
He began to read, the flashlight in his hand making a circle on the words upon the page and then bouncing back from them to light his face. He looked like a ghost already, Riley thought. If this was their only hope for salvation, they were in a world of hurt.
But despite his appearance, the old man’s voice came out loud and strong, and the group around him remained silent, bowing their heads to listen. As the screams outside grew louder, closer, Pill raised his voice to match and then overpower them.
“ ‘I’m writing this to tell you about the Feeders. But I don’t want to start there. I want to start somewhere nice. Before that happened. I want to start with Jimmy…. ’ ”
It wasn’t until Pill came to the end of his wife’s journal that Riley really started listening. He didn’t give a shit about the girl’s sad story or the boy she’d loved. But after Pill read through all that bullshit, he’d gotten to the only part that really mattered. He’d read off a checklist that Jessi had provided of ways to spot a Feeder. Immediately, Riley snapped to attention, beginning to run through the list in his mind, committing it to memory.
First, Jessi wrote that a person had to consume the flesh of somebody already infected, but that didn’t help him much. Anybody could eat something one of the fuckers had hidden a hair in, or a fingernail, or even spit in. What else? She’d also said that the creatures would be both marked in some unusual manner and bleed black when you cut them. The bleeding didn’t help, but the mark might. Finally, the journal suggested that the Feeders were scared of dogs. That dogs were pure of spirit or some shit like that. He didn’t know and didn’t really care what the reasoning was behind any of it, but at least it was information he could use. Riley wasn’t going to take any chances. He would, just as Jessi Verrity had suggested, kill each and every one of them.
So who in the room fit? Who might be a Feeder, might be a danger to Izzy?
“Are they like zombies, then, or some shit?” asked Javier, as Pill shut the journal. Javier had his own flashlight on now, but it was pointed out toward the group, leaving him in shadows.
“Not that I know anything about zombies, son, but no. I would say not. Zombies can’t think, isn’t that how it is?”
“Yes.”
“Feeders can. They can do anything humans can. They are humans. They just don’t got a soul.”
Riley didn’t waste any time not believing what Pill had to say. It wasn’t his way. He needed to trust his gut. He’d learned that the hard way on the job, and he meant to make use of the lesson to save himself and his daughter.
A marking. Who had a marking? Who was afraid of dogs, or had been acting strangely?
Izzy squirmed on his lap, her tiny thumb in her mouth. She was asleep.
“We’ve got to get help!” Aunt Bunny stood up from where she’d been seated on the couch and primly smoothed her dress. Same old Bunny, worried about how she looked even in a crisis…He stopped.
No, in fact it was not the same old Bunny. She’d always been neat—tidy, even—but she’d still never looked very good. She just hadn’t had the sense of style, the panache to pull it off. But now…He watched her as she smoothed down her hair and noticed the bright red lipstick she was wearing. His aunt had never worn lipstick. Not as long as he’d known her, she hadn’t.
“Look, I know you said communication is down,” said Bunny—she spoke with authority, her voice betraying no emotion whatsoever—“but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to get help.”
“You don’t understand,” said Erma. “If what Pill says is true, and I think it is—” Erma stopped and turned around and met Riley’s eyes. “Do you think it’s true? Do the rest of you?”
“It’d be fucking hard not to,” said Javier. He sat with his back against the wall and the girl, Star, crouched beside him. She watched him like he was the only person in the room.
“I agree with the boy,” said Bunny, turning toward him and trying to catch his eye. Javier ignored her.
“I believe it’s true,” said John, “but I don’t understand why we can’t call for help. There’s got to be some way. Pill, I know your CB is too far away, but there must be another one in town.”
“Even if we reached someone, they wouldn’t believe us,” said Erma. “Am I right, Pill?”
The old man nodded. “Not a chance.”
“Then we’ll make something up!” said John. “Tell them there’s a gunman, or…a tornado, for God’s sake. A terrorist. Christ, who cares? We just need to get someone here!”
“I agree,” said Bunny. “That makes perfect sense.”
Where, Riley wondered, was his uncle?
“We can’t do that!” said Erma. “Aren’t you listening? Just imagine they did come. Imagine Billings, or the FBI, sent people in here. Imagine, even, that they got here before we’re dead, which I think is pretty fucking unlikely—what would happen?”
“They’d be eaten,” Star said. She leaned against Javier in the shadows and spoke with her eyes closed.
“Worse,” said Pill. “They’d be forced to eat.”
“Those people, the law officers or whoever, have guns!” said John. “They can die, can’t they, the Feeders?”
“They can die all right,” said Pill. “But if they were allowed to infect even one person, one single person from the outside, then imagine what would happen.”
“Who’s to say they haven’t already?” said John.
Riley could see that John’s resolve was weakening. A coward, that man. Not him, though. He was going to do whatever it took.
“There’s no one to say,” said Pill. “We can only pray. Hope it’s like before when they try to turn the entire town first and then move on.”
“Who’s to say there isn’t someone in here who’s one of them?” asked Riley.
“Patrick!” said Bunny. “How can you even suggest that?”
“Where’s Uncle Bob, Aunt Bunny?”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, where’s Uncle Bob?”
“He…He’s not here, Patrick. Why are you asking me that?”
On the opposite side of the room from his aunt, Riley saw Erma and John’s dog, crouched beside Pill and seemingly asleep. Riley whistled, and the dog’s head sprung up.
“What are you doing?” Bunny asked. Her face wrinkled in dismay. “Patrick, stop that!”
Riley whistled again, and the dog came toward him, lunging past Bunny as it did so. The woman pulled into herself and gave a short burst of a scream. The dog stopped, confused, and then turned tail, heading back to its masters. Riley could feel the tension in the room building, the faces around the circle tightening. Gently, he deposited his sleeping daughter onto the floor beside him and stood, walking across the room to Bunny.
“Riley,” Erma said, looking at him with the beginnings of understanding in her eyes. “Riley, no. Don’t.” She started toward him, but John came up behind her. He wrapped his arms tightly around his wife, keeping her from moving.
Well, maybe he wasn’t as stupid as he looked.
“You think she’s one of them?” Javier asked, keeping his voice low. It didn’t matter, though. In this small of a room, sound carried, and Riley heard his aunt gasp.
“Patrick, no!” she screamed. “How can you even think that?”
“I don’t know,” Riley said, turning to Javier, not bothering to keep his voice down any longer. “Maybe so, maybe not. But I think we should check. Use the information from Pill’s old lady’s story. See if Aunt Bunny has a mark, that sort of thing.”
Javier nodded. “I’ll hold her,” he said. He stepped ahead of Riley and grabbed Bunny. The old woman sank against him, as if at his touch all the strength had been sucked out of her. Javier patted her up and down, first the back and then the front.
“This is ridiculous!” Erma called, pushing against her husband. “Riley! Stop it!”
In the corner, Pill sat with the flashlight on his lap, watching.
“I don’t feel anything,” Javier said, finishing patting up the front of the woman.
“Lift her shirt,” Riley commanded, swinging his flashlight on the pair.
Javier did as he was commanded, and Riley felt a pang of guilt as he saw the terror in his aunt’s eyes. She flinched as the flashlight hit them and Riley lowered it some.
“Riley,” she looked at him, not yelling. “Please stop. I know what you think, but—”
“There!” Javier pointed at Bunny’s exposed belly with his own flashlight. A giant red rash ran from Bunny’s belly button down to where the edge of her panty hose peeked above her skirt.
“It’s not what you think,” Bunny whispered again.
His poor aunt. Riley pulled the gun from out of his sock and raised it. He’d always loved her, almost like a mother he’d loved her. Behind him, he felt Izzy’s presence. She’d fallen asleep curled beside him during the story, but she’d been so close to the woman. So close. Anything could have happened. He couldn’t take that chance again.
“Shoot her,” Javier said, pinning the woman’s arms behind her back. “Shoot the fucking bitch!”
“Shoot her.” Star’s whisper came from the corner.
“Riley, no!” Erma yelled, struggling against her husband’s hold. Across the room, Pill, too, was standing, the book forgotten as it fell from his lap. Maxie began to bark, her ears pinned back to her head as she ran in circles. Finally, Erma broke free, coming toward them.
Too late, though. He’d do what it took. Whatever it took to keep his daughter safe. There were only two bullets left in his gun. Riley planned on only having to use one.
If he could have known Bunny’s thoughts right then he would have heard the whir of her confusion, known the fear and pleasure and the hate as the boy whom she’d wanted and watched for such a long time finally touched her, touched her and let his sweet hands trail over her old skin, skin that she’d worked so hard to keep free from redness where it would show by keeping it away from that stupid dog, the skin on her stomach one that she had never thought would be exposed this early, this openly to the boy she’d craved and now, here, her follies were revealed her stupid thought of baring herself of the sad gray hairs below her waistband, and now he could see it, see it all, see her for the dumb old woman she really was, and him so bright and so beautiful, and the heat from his hands was just as she’d expected only full of hate and not that other thing, that unnamable heat that burns out in passion, and she could not stand it, could not stand it, and his eyes were so full of disgust…
But Riley knew none of this.
And so he steadied the gun and squeezed, forcing the trigger to release its deadly accurate bullet. As he did so, Riley caught the face of his daughter from the corner of his eye, lit by the candle. She was no longer asleep. She was watching him. And she was smiling.
Bunny’s head exploded.