It had all been different when she first arrived. Robert still remembered that day. He had driven back with her holding on for dear life the whole way. As soon as he got back, he set to adding the tanker to his fortifications. After lining it up, he jumped down from the cab to see what adjustments needed to be made. At the same time, he saw that Britney had climbed along the top of the truck.
She had no idea what distance they had covered, but the journey had been a full day. Britney was relieved he had stopped after the first four hours, which gave her time to climb the ladder and hold tight to the top of the truck for the remaining four-hour drive to his compound. It was secure, flatter and a lot less strain on her muscles. Now as she finally came out of hiding, her legs and arms trembled as she lowered herself down each rung of the ladder.
Coming out from behind the truck, she saw Robert checking that the front of the new truck was pressed up against the rear of the truck in front.
“I'm not dangerous and I'm not one of them,” she greeted.
“Oh, you decided to come down. Good. I wasn’t sure you would be able to hang on the whole way, but you did a mighty fine job.” He went back to aligning the truck. He had been raised with good manners and taught to treat women with respect, but times were different now. Still, this girl did not set off his alarms. He'd seen women with guns and vulgar language ransacking the supermarket and even looting the service station. She was not one of those woman.
Slowly, he walked toward her.
“You knew I was up there! Well why didn’t you stop and let me sit inside! That was eight hours…I could have been killed!”
“Well, maybe I wanted to be sure you were a survivor.”
She just looked at him, holding her ground and unsure of what to say next.
“So, if you don’t mind my asking, what exactly can I do for you, miss?”
“I've seen you at the service station the last few days. We were there when it happened. I mean we were staying there. People came and went, and when my brother tried to defend our position, maintain what few supplies we had...well, almost everyone got violent.”
Britney sensed that Robert was listening keenly to her. She kept talking calmly and clearly.
“We watched you, and well, we can’t stay there forever, and you seemed somehow, nice, or maybe strong. We don’t know where to go and so, well… I thought you might help us.”
By the age of fifty-two, Robert considered himself someone who got an accurate picture of a person from first impressions. The girl wasn't a liar.
“Why didn't you approach me at the service station? It's an eight-hour drive here.”
“My brother and I couldn't agree on whether or not to ask you for help. You look like a good man to me,” Britney said it aloud and prayed her assessment of Robert was right. “Rather than argue with my brother, I hitched a ride so he couldn't stop me.”
“That brave,” drawled Robert, “and kind of stupid.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” admitted Britney, shrugging.
Robert smiled. The folly of youth. She was young, perhaps even younger than his youngest son. She was sweet and open and honest.
“So, like I said, what exactly do you want from me?”
“I hadn't really thought that far ahead.”
“You want to come in for something to eat and drink? You must be shattered after riding on the top of the truck for eight hours.”
“I can trust you?”
“It's a bit late to worry about that,” laughed Robert.
Britney had a healthy appetite and was good company. In just a few hours, Robert realized just how much he missed interacting with other people. His house was huge and even if his son did arrive, the size of the house would comfortably accommodate Britney's small family of three. She had finally told him of her grandma as well.
Plus, with another man to help out, Robert could reduce the number of trips remaining to collect the final two trucks to close off the farmland area. He’d scouted the remaining vehicles on the motorcycle so he knew what needed to be obtained, and from where.
Arrangements made, they left early the next morning to ensure they were at the service station by dusk to drive back through the night.
Britney ran to Liam upon arrival. With pallid skin and raspy breathing, he reined in his usually sharp tongue and permitted a minor display of gruff affection toward her.
“Thought I'd lost you,” he said. “I was going to be super pissed if your grandmother was my first meal as a zombie.”
“You don't know if you'll turn,” encouraged Britney. “You've lasted this long, and your body is fighting the infection. We really don’t know how this whole zombie thing works anyhow. Maybe you’ll get better. Stay strong, and your next meal will be meat and fresh vegetables like I was treated to last night.”
“Doesn't matter. I've got a three-course meal waiting for me when I zombify now that you've recruited this old dude.”
“He's not that old. He's mum and dad's age.”
“And look how they fared,” sneered Liam. “Maybe it was crazy of them to end it the way they did, but at least we know what happened. Your crazy mother convinced my dad to blow his brains out.”
“Probably,” agreed Britney placidly, “but I'm here, and I'm telling you to fight. I'm not her.”
“No. You're not,” said Liam quietly, kissing Britney’s forehead.
“Can you drive a truck back to my land?” asked Robert after being introduced to Britney's brother.
Britney caught Liam's eye. “He doesn’t have a license,” she answered on his behalf. “I do, though. I'll drive it and Liam can keep me company.”
“Sounds good,” agreed Liam gratefully.
It didn't sound as good to Robert. Britney was preferable company to the ninety-two year old woman who seemed to think her husband was away at war fighting the Japanese. She'd spent her time lambasting him for not joining up and evading being drafted. Eight hours of her incessant babble would have him wishing he were a zombie too.
And he had to admit that he even though Britney could have easily been his daughter, it was hard not to look at her and think some pretty impure thoughts.
It wasn't until they reached the ranch that Robert realized Liam was ill. He apologized profusely to the youth. It was at that point that he realized why Liam hadn't been able to drive and why Britney had been so solicitous of his condition. What he didn't know was the nature of Liam's illness. The kid remained alive for only forty-eight hours before the night Robert heard him weeping and wailing. Britney had been caring for him herself, saying she did not want Robert to be bothered by the situation.
Robert entered the bedroom to see a near skeletal version of the boy he'd taken in. His skin was a dark green color, similar to seaweed.
“It's going to happen, it's going to happen,” he was mumbling over and over as Britney comforted him.
“He's been bit?”
Liam nodded and Britney cried. She cried for her brother, and she cried for omitting the truth from Robert who'd opened his home to them.
Robert beckoned Britney out of the bedroom as he went to get his 45-caliber.
“He has to go. He's a danger to me and your gran and you. I’ll do it tonight when he is asleep, if he doesn’t turn sooner.”
Britney had refused point blank. She begged and pleaded and finally convinced Robert that Liam could serve as a means of protecting the ranch from other zombies. She was so adamant with the plan that they'd finally gone out and collected more zombies to tether to the ground at random spots around the outskirts of the perimeter to the property. If you were careful and dealt with them one at a time, it was safe enough to handle the dead.
In the end, they'd compromised and Liam had been placed in the barn until he turned fully. His mind was already gone and so they had attached the rope to his leg so they lead him outside to spend eternity guarding their property when the time came. It was a sad day. It was even harder because Britney's grandmother was just as gone in her own world, so Brittany was left to grieve without any family.
He could hardly blame her for being upset. She had no one left from her old life. He knew what that was like. He had been lonely and by himself for a long time before she showed up, and now it was just the two of them. Sure, her grandma was still alive, but in some ways she was like a zombie herself. This hardly seemed the time, but for some reason, he suddenly felt free to see her as a sexual being. With her brother around, Robert had still felt governed by the old ways. It would have felt weird coming onto a girl like her with her brother right there, seeing the whole thing. But now that he was gone, he realized it was just the two of them and that all the old societal norms were gone. It was almost like they were back two hundred years when marriages of convenience were the norm. He also had to admit, now that he really let himself look, she was hot as hell.
He had heard that in times of death, people were inclined to have sex to celebrate the fact they were still alive. He felt a little ashamed to be thinking along these lines now, but he was a man, after all. He couldn’t help it.
But then he vividly remembered his wife's funeral and suddenly the last thing on his mind was sex. The grief had been overwhelming. Britney appeared awash with the same remorse and pain that Robert felt back then with his wife, and maybe that was why he felt obligated to stay by her side. Maybe somehow by helping her through this time, he was able to heal his own heart. So, for whatever reason, he sat with her as the hours passed. It was somewhere in that time, during the few days that it took her to let go of her brother, that Robert realized his love for her.