"What's that?" Gary asked.

"Mike would have somehow convinced them to come with us."

Gary winced at the name of his brother in the past tense. "You're probably right. I'll talk to her one last time, but I think we should get going while the getting is good," Gary said even as he realized the futility of his words falling on Mary's deaf ears.

BT saw the cherry of the cigarette glow before he realized that Deneaux was standing at the far side of the room. It startled him for a moment because he thought it to be half of a pair of glowing evil eyes.

"Weren't planning on sneaking out in the middle of the night and leaving us here, were you?" Mrs. Deneaux asked as she took another drag. A small raspy cough following her words.

"Any chance that's lung cancer?" BT asked Deneaux as he sat up rubbing his eyes raw. The smoke from the burning town was making its way into the house. It was subtle at the moment, but soon it would be impossible to take a breath that did not result in a coughing fit, and that would be followed soon by asphyxiation.

"You're sounding more like him every minute," Mrs. Deneaux replied dryly.

"From anyone else I would consider that a compliment," BT said as he stood. He walked over to the window and confirmed what Gary had already told him, the zombies had taken a break and were out getting some lunch...most likely fast food. BT's mood soured at his poor joke.

"Mary do you have a minute?" Gary asked as he walked into her room.

She had ten candles burning as she tried to keep the dark at bay and was sitting up in her bed. Josh was asleep with his head in her lap while she was absently stroking his hair as she looked at the window across the room. Her gaze slowly swiveled towards him as she came back from whichever distant world she had traveled. "We're all dead." She said with conviction.

"Even Josh?" Gary asked striking out as hard as he dared, she flinched from his words.

Her eyes were vacant as she turned back towards the blackened window.

"You have a real chance if you come with us," Gary nearly begged.

A flicker of anger stretched across her features. "Your brother was a half-vampire, former Marine survivalist, and he fell. What chance do I and Josh have?"

Gary couldn't tell if she had given up or was looking for a real answer from him. Gary could only respond with a lame sounding, "You can't stay here."

He wished he could bolster her argument above and beyond their food stores, but maybe she did have it right. They were alive after so many countless billions had perished; she'd done something right to keep them safe so far. And just because Mike was dead, Gary didn't think Eliza was done with the Talbot clan by any stretch of the imagination.

"We're leaving within the hour." Gary said before he turned to walk out the door. He watched as she blanched from his words. "I hope you come, but I'll understand if you don't."

"Just make sure you lock the door on your way out." And with those words Mary completely shut the door on the topic.

BT lifted his chin to Gary as Gary walked in the room, as if to ask 'Well?'

Gary shook his head side to side and looked down.

"We're going to need wheels soon," BT said, trying to plan out there escape.

"Mary has a car in the detached garage," Mrs. Deneaux said. "We could take that."

"No," Gary said forcibly. "She'll need it eventually."

"She's not going anywhere. Poor d.a.m.n thing has lost her marbles," she said as she spun her cigarette laden hand around the right side of her head, the cherry leaving tracers in the murkiness.

"What is wrong with you?" BT asked. "Gary's right. At some point she's going to realize she needs to get out of here. Her maternal instinct will kick in eventually."

"Let's hope it isn't like that poor la.s.s that lined up her children against the truck like they were targets. That was horrible," she added at the end like an afterthought.

BT shook his head. "I'd trade a thousand of you for Mike."

"But yet here I am," she smiled.

"I'd leave you here to fester in your own corroded soul, but that wouldn't be fair to Mary," BT said. "Ten minutes and we're leaving."

Gary started grabbing their meager possessions and loading the guns. Deneaux continued smoking.

BT kept staring out the window. It was still night time, but the sky was lit up from the blaze of at least a hundred houses. Smoke was drifting lazily across the front lawn.

"Yeah...that's not too f.u.c.king eerie," BT said as he watched the swirls of smoke pa.s.s by. "A thousand zombies could be hiding on the other side of that mist."

"You say something?" Gary asked as he tried to jam a sixth bullet into a five-bullet cartridge.

"You were the fastest sperm?" Deneaux questioned Gary. "Must not have been much to choose from," she laughed.

Gary stood. "I rue the day I ever met you," he said as he put the backpack Josh had given him on. He strode over to BT to see outside. "Wow, the city is burning."

"Rue?" BT asked as an aside.

"It's all I could come up with."

"I guess it works. You alright?" BT asked seriously.

"No, I've now had two brothers die, neither of which I was able to bury. My father expected me to bring Mike back and I failed."

BT placed his arm around Gary's shoulder. He knew Anthony Talbot had actually demanded that Mike bring Gary back, but he wasn't going to correct him...not now...not ever.

"This is war, Gary. There aren't promises you can always keep. People are going to die, good men are going to die," he added for emphasis.

Gary broke down for a moment, silent tears dropped from his face as his throat constricted.

"Don't you say a f.u.c.king word!" BT said, pointing a meaty finger at Mrs. Deneaux.

She placed her hands up as if to say 'I'm innocent.'

Mary was standing where Mrs. Deneaux had been moments earlier.

Gary turned to see her; his heart momentarily lifted when he thought she may have changed her mind.

"My neighbor across the street left his second car. He gave me the keys when he left, said I could have it if I wanted. They're hanging on the peg in the kitchen."

"Mrs. Deneaux said you had a car," BT said.

"I do, but it doesn't run and he knew it," she said.

"You keep it, Mary. I'll give you my father's address, come up there when you have to," Gary said.

"I've already told you we're not leaving. We're never leaving."

BT shivered at her use of the word never, it left very little room for doubt.

"You don't know that," Gary intoned. "Things change."

"It's too late anyway," she said in that far away voice.

"Too late for what?" Gary asked as alarm began to spread throughout his body.

"The whelp," Mrs. Deneaux said blandly.

"What did you do?" BT asked. Gary was already heading up the stairs. BT was following.

"Too late," she repeated as she sat down heavily on the couch.

"Josh!" Gary yelled. "Josh!" he yelled again as he ran into Mary's room. The boy was in virtually the same position he had been when he first came up to ask Mary to leave with them. Gary took in the whole scene before him, an open bottle of pills and an empty gla.s.s of what appeared to have contained chocolate milk judging by the residue around the lip.

"Josh!" Gary said running to the side of the bed and grabbing the boy.

"What happened?" BT yelled.

"Pills," Gary said, feeling the boy's neck for a pulse. "BT, I can't feel anything." Gary was panicking.

"I know CPR, put him on the floor."

Gary quickly did as BT said. BT had been around enough death to know when the Angel of Darkness had already come and gone. Josh had departed long moments previous, but he still tried for fifteen minutes before his arms and lungs burned from the effort.

"I'll try now! Just show me what to do," Gary pleaded as BT sat up against the wall, his hands tightly clasped together to keep them from shaking.

"It's too late, Gary, he's gone," BT said while lightly smacking the back of his head against the wall.

"What? He can't be. That's impossible. Just show me what to do!" Gary yelled.

Gary started pressing on the boy's chest, mimicking BT's earlier efforts.

"Gary stop," BT said calmly. "Put him on the bed, let him rest in peace."

Mary had at some point come back upstairs and was leaning up against the door frame; heavy tears were dropping. "Don't you see it's for the best," she was telling them.

"You're insane!" Gary said, advancing on the woman who was shrinking back. BT stood quickly and grabbed Gary. "He's the future!" he spat.

"There is no future," she sobbed quietly.

Gary shrugged away from BT who cautiously let him go. Gary brushed past Mary without glancing at her. "I've got to get out of here," he said as he headed down the stairs.

"It's better this way," Mary said pleading her case with BT.

"I'll never agree with you, Mary. You just killed something beautiful in this world. I hope your G.o.d forgives you, because I won't," BT said as he left the room, Mary was still sobbing on the hallway floor when the trio departed.

"Do you think Mike will show him the way?" Gary asked as they quickly crossed the street to get to Mary's neighbor's garage.

"What makes you think Mike knows the way?" Mrs. Deneaux asked. "It was a joke," she said when both Gary and BT looked at her crossly.

"Good thing you didn't have to survive on your comedic talents, good looks, or disposition," BT said.

"Done?" she asked.

"Shhh," Gary said, holding his hand up. "I thought I heard something." He was pointing into the smoke-enshrouded street. Sounds were simultaneously dampened and enhanced in the density of the choking smog. It was becoming more difficult to pinpoint what they were hearing or where it was coming from.

Gary was having difficulty breathing through the waves of smoke and haze; his eyes beginning to water under the a.s.sault. Mrs. Deneaux seemed unfazed as she plowed through another coffin nail. It seemed they had at least protected her from this toxic soup.

She pulled the hammer back on her revolver and spun. She had no sooner brought the barrel up when she let loose a shot. A zombie dropped no more than two feet from where they stood.

"Move!" BT yelled. "I think we're surrounded!"

Another shot rang out from Deneaux's pistol and another zombie fell with a crisp, clean hole drilled through its skull. Gary had his rifle up but hadn't found a target yet.

Deneaux seemed almost precognizant with her shots, Gary was wondering if it was because, with her advanced age, she was so close to death herself, that she could sense its approach.

"Try to act more like your brother and shoot something," Mrs. Deneaux said to Gary as she was shuffling along while dropping the spent sh.e.l.ls out of her gun and reloading.

Gary wanted to shoot her to start with but she seemed to be the only one that could spot the zombies around them.

"I can barely tell if I'm going the right way," BT said as he kept them close. The smoke was rolling in like high tide. Mary's neighbor's house was merely an object that appeared somewhat more solid than the surrounding gray smoke.

A small wind kicked up from the super-heated air of the burning town. It was just enough for Gary to catch the nightmare heading their way.

"We need to move faster," Gary said. His eyes, which had seconds earlier been squinting, where now nearly bugging out of his head. Hundreds of zombies were advancing down the street towards them. He didn't get the feeling they had been spotted, but they'd be found just by the sheer number of invaders.

"We go any faster and we'll miss the garage." BT kept his attention focused to the front.

"Any slower and we'll be food," Gary said.

BT turned to look as the small clearing in the smoke rapidly closed. "s.h.i.t."

"Back to Mary's?" Deneaux asked.

This was the most scared Gary thought he'd ever seen her, it almost made her seem human, but even reptiles have a strong will to live.

"Closer going forward," BT said, urging them along quicker; the threat of tripping and falling rising with their increase in speed.

"There'll be nothing left here in an hour anyway," Gary said, the loss of Josh affecting him deeply. "I couldn't go back there anyway," he said softly.