When Daniel and Robby arrived back at the mansion Johnny was sat in the kitchen, wearing a greying bathrobe, looking like he'd just crawled out of bed after a 3 day bender.
"Robby," he said, climbing off his stool.
Robby stopped in his tracks and turned to Daniel. "I don't want to talk to him."
"What?" Daniel asked.
"I told you, I was coming back with you because you have food," Robby said. "I don't want to speak to him."
Daniel stood for a second, then said, "Please, Robby, ju-"
"Take me back to North Hills," he interrupted.
"Daniel," Johnny said. "It's OK."
"But he's your son," Daniel said, wondering what the hell was going on. "You can't just live in the same house and not speak to each other."
"Robby, if you don't want to see me, that's fine," Johnny said. "Just... don't leave, OK? It's safe here. All I've ever wanted was for you be safe."
Robby turned back to Daniel. "Where am I sleeping?"
Daniel looked between Johnny and Robby, wondering what had happened in the past, and if perhaps he had underestimated the seriousness of the issues between them. This obviously wasn't something that could be fixed right now over a cup of coffee, so Daniel said, "I'll show you to a room."
Over the next few days it didn't get any better. Robby kept to himself, staying in his room most of the time, and only came down for meals, which he took back upstairs. Every time he left the kitchen carrying his plate Daniel felt a little more defeated, but when he turned to Johnny he could see the hurt in his face as he watched his son leave without speaking to him.
"We can't carry on like this," Daniel said as his frustration at the tension boiled over. "He can't just sit in his room all day. He needs to come mix with the other kids. He needs to talk to you."
"No," Johnny said, shaking his head. "Maybe you should go talk to him, and I'll just keep out of his way. If he wants to come out and hang with you and the others, I can go out or stay in the garage."
Daniel stared at Johnny in disbelief. He'd seen the man practically fight his way through an army of the dead to find his son, and since they'd been together Johnny had never once wavered in his belief that Robby was alive.
And he'd been right. Against all the odds Robby had survived for months, living among the dead when everyone around him died. The boy was clearly as tenacious as his father, and yet here they were, giving up on each other.
"Why are you giving up so easily?" Daniel asked. "Why aren't you still fighting for him like you fought to find him?"
"He hates me, Daniel," Johnny said. "To be honest I don't blame him. I abandoned him from the day he was born, so this is what I deserve. I want to make it up to him, I honestly do, but it's too late."
"It's never too late until we're dead," Daniel said, as he pulled him into a hug.
Daniel was in the kitchen alone when Robby appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking around warily, checking who was in the room before he entered.
He caught sight of Daniel, then moved towards one of the bookcases and started reading the titles on the side of the books, pulling out the ones that sparked his interest and putting them on the table.
Daniel moved over towards him and said, "You know, when we moved here those shelves were just for decoration. The books on them were all wrapped in off white paper to make them look nice. Most of them weren't even in English. Some of them were about tax law."
"So where did these come from?" Robby asked, turning over a battered paperback copy of Rumblefish in his hands.
"Your dad brought them all back from the houses around here," Daniel said. "I happen to know he likes that one. He's read it twice."
Robby looked down at the book, then put it on his pile on the coffee table. He turned back, looking through the large window as Miguel lead a Kata session in the courtyard. He nodded towards them, and asked, "Those kids, who are they?"
"They were all alone, just like you," Daniel said. "We found them and brought them here so they'd be safe."
"What's that they're doing?"
"Karate," Daniel replied.
Robby looked perplexed for a second, his brow wrinkling as he watched them. "It doesn't look like karate."
"All Karate can be found in that Kata," Daniel said with a smile, watching as Miguel lead the familiar moves. "It was taught to me by my Sensei Mr. Miyagi."
Robby was still looking through the window, seemingly fascinated, and Daniel asked, "Would you be interested in learning?"
"Does my dad teach them?"
"He does, but he didn't teach them that," Daniel said. "Your dad is Cobra Kai, and that's Miyagi-Do Karate. That's the Karate I learned."
"OK," Robby said, looking back at Daniel, and letting himself smile slightly for the first time since he'd arrived at the house. "Yeah, I'd like to learn."
"I was talking to Robby today," Daniel said as they lay in bed, and as soon as he said Robby's name he felt Johnny tense against his side. "It's nothing bad, don't worry."
"Oh, yeah?" Johnny asked, still sounding like he was about to receive the worst news in the world.
"He wants to learn Miyagi-Do karate," Daniel replied.
Johnny paused, then asked, "He wants to learn Karate from you?"
"I think I can get through to him, Johnny," Daniel said. "If I take him to Miyagi-Do and train him he'll have to talk to me. Maybe I can make him realise just how much you actually care about him."
Johnny was quiet, then he nodded. "OK. Yeah."
"Hopefully the place hasn't burnt down," Daniel said, as he pressed himself to Johnny's side, and wrapped an arm around his stomach. He laughed and added, "If it hasn't I'm pretty sure it'll need a lick of paint."
The drive over to Miyagi-Do had taken a couple of hours as they had to backtrack several times to find their way around collapsed buildings, but as they pulled up outside the wooden fence Daniel was thrilled to see that it was intact. He felt a burst of excitement, and his instinct was to jump out of the car and run through the gate, but instead he turned to Robby.
"OK, so you made it this far on your own, so I assume you've killed Zombies before?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, I have," Robby replied.
"I'm just asking because we don't know what's on the other side of that fence, and if there's any inside we'll have to kill them," Daniel said.
"No, that's fine, I can handle myself," Robby said.
Daniel opened the car door, then closed it quietly behind himself. Robby followed his actions then asked, "Don't you need a gun or something?"
"A gun?" Daniel asked.
"I only ever used a bat, but I figured you'd have guns," Robby said.
"Oh, we don't kill Zombies with guns," Daniel said with a grin, as he walked through the open gate into the parking lot.
There was a single zombie wandering between the old cars and Daniel clapped his hands loudly.
"What are you doing?" Robby asked, backing away, as the zombie let out a moan and started shambling towards them.
Daniel waited as the Zombie walked forward, hearing Robby starting to panic beside him. When it was within reach he leapt into the air and caught it under the chin with his foot, sending the head flying out over the fence and into the scrubland beyond.
"What the hell!" Robby exclaimed, as he looked down at the lifeless corpse. "How did you do that?"
"You like that move, eh?" he asked. Robby nodded enthusiastically, and Daniel continued, "Yeah, I learned that from your dad."
Daniel started walking towards the house, and Robby trotted alongside him, and asked, "Can you teach me that?"
"I will," Daniel said, "But first I'm going to teach you the style of Karate that was taught to me."
"How did it go today?" Johnny asked, as Daniel settled into the couch next to him.
"Well," Daniel said, blowing on his coffee. "Really well actually."
Daniel hadn't realised how much he'd missed being out of the house. Lately they'd settled into a pattern where only Johnny went out, sometimes taking Miguel and Eli with him, as they were the two most advanced fighters. His only trip out recently was the day they went to the garden centre, and that was a one off because only Daniel knew what he needed.
It was Daniel who'd pointed out that maybe they shouldn't go out together, just in case there was problems. Ever since he'd heard that Aisha's parents had gone out together and left her alone, he was always worried that something would happen outside the walls of the house, and the kids would be left alone with no adults, just like she was.
"It was good being out," Daniel said, then he let out a laugh, and said, "I think I've become a bit like a 1950s housewife lately."
Johnny let out a chuckle. "So I'm the breadwinner?"
"Maybe if you could find me some flour that wasn't full of weevils we could actually have bread," Daniel said with a laugh, then he let out a hum. "Imagine that. Bread. Actual bread. We could have toast. Toast and sandwiches."
"Demetri said it's safe to eat the weevils," Johnny pointed out. "He said they're just extra protein."
"I thought you ignored everything Demetri said?" Daniel asked, as he lay back and put his feet on the coffee table.
Johnny shrugged his shoulders. "Kid knows a lot of shit.
"He does, he does," Daniel said fondly, as he looked out through the large windows, watching the kids sitting in the evening sunshine reading books, sitting on the whicker furniture. "Robby should be out there with them."
"Hopefully it won't be too long till he is," Johnny said. "What did you get you get up to today with him?"
"I found two tins of paint in the shed," Daniel said. "He's been painting the house all day."
"Painting the house?" Johnny asked. "You've got him doing the chores that your Sensei made you do?"
"Once he's painted the house, the fence, sanded the floor and waxed the cars I think he'll be ready," Daniel said with a soft smile.
"Ready to kill you?" Johnny asked.
"That's when the big revelation happens," Daniel mused. "Right when you're ready to storm out and quit, that's when you find out you've been learning Karate all along. God, I love this part."
"This is bullshit!" Robby inevitably shouted, as he threw the cloth and wax on the ground. "You've just got me cleaning the place up for you so you don't have to."
Daniel stood in front of him and said, "Show me sand the floor."
Over the next week or so Robby progressed quickly, once he finally realised that he wasn't actually just doing chores. Daniel showed him the Miyagi-Do kata, he taught him how to punch and kick. He told him the history Mr. Miyagi had taught him all those years ago, and every time they entered the dojo it was like the outside world and all its worries melted away.
It was peaceful, and calm, and every time he set foot in there Daniel could almost pretend that the world was as it always was, or he could, until Robby asked, "When are you going to teach me to fight zombies?"
"You want to learn about them?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, I do," Robby nodded.
"OK, so the first thing you need to know is that in a one on one fight a human will always have the upper hand because zombies are basically dumb," Daniel said.
Robby looked at him quizzically for a second. "OK, that doesn't sound like it came from Okinawa."
"That's because it's not," Daniel said with a shrug. "The style of Karate used to kill zombies is Cobra Kai, and I've heard Johnny give that lesson so many times it kinda stuck in my head."
"OK, so why can't you use Miyagi-Do Karate to fight them?"
"Miyagi-Do is all about defence," Daniel said. "That won't work with zombies, because Johnny said they have no sense of self preservation. If you block a zombie it's just going to keep on attacking. They need a more aggressive style, and that's Cobra Kai."
"So you trust what my dad said?" Robby asked, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know he isn't just making it up?"
"Because your dad knows literally everything there is to know about zombies and how to beat them," Daniel replied.
"Oh, yeah?" Robby asked, incredulously. "You know, he may say that, but he's full of shit."
"I know it's true because," Daniel paused. He wondered how this was going to sound, because even in his own head he knew it made it sound like Johnny was crazy. He continued, "I know it's true because he lived with a zombie for a while."
"What?" Robby asked. "He lived with a zombie?"
"Yeah, I know, crazy as it sounds, but he had a zombie in a cage in the garage for a long time, and that's how he knows so much about them."
"Why would he do that?" Robby asked. "That's literally the most insane thing I've ever heard."
Daniel shrugged his shoulders. "He didn't want to be alone."
"He... he didn't want to be alone?" Robby asked. "So why didn't he come find me? I was only a few miles away, and I was alone too."
Daniel looked at Robby for a moment. He wanted to tell him just how desperate Johnny had been to find him, how it had driven him to the edge, how he'd chosen death over carrying on without him, but he knew no child should hear that their parent had come that close to suicide. No, that was Johnny's story to tell, if he ever wanted to share it.
"Did Johnny ever tell you about his old sensei, Kreese?" Daniel asked instead.
"Oh yeah, I heard about him," Robby said. "I could never quite figure out if my dad thought he was his hero or a complete asshole."
Daniel let out a chuckle. "Yeah, that's it exactly." He thought back to the story Johnny had told him, about the first day the zombies attacked. He knew that Johnny wouldn't be alive if Kreese hadn't been there, but he had so much to answer for.
"It's complicated." Daniel said. "He was obsessed with Johnny, and he was the one who tried to stop him finding you. Your dad wanted to go looking for you as soon as the zombies first appeared, but Kreese stopped him."
"OK," Robby said dismissively. "What does this have to do with my dad and the zombie in the garage?"
"Because that zombie was Kreese," Daniel said. "Kreese wanted Johnny to himself, and tried to stop him finding you, but he got infected. Kinda backfired on him."
"My dad kept him in a cage?" Robby asked.
"Yeah, he did," Daniel said. "And I know it sounds crazy, but I honestly think that's why Johnny understands them so well. He watched Kreese from the moment he came back to life. He spent so much time with him that he just has this instinctual understanding of them I think."
"You really care about him," Robby said.
"Johnny?" Daniel asked, and Robby nodded. Daniel smiled, and said, "Yeah, I do. He cares about me too. He cares about all of us, and you too."
"OK," Robby said. "Yeah, I get it."
"Come on, we need to start heading home," Daniel said, standing up. "The sun will be setting in an hour or two, and we need to be home before dark."
"Wait," Robby said. "Do zombies have night vision? Is that rumour true that they can see in the dark better than we can? Is that why we need to get home?"
"No, that's not true," Daniel said. "Zombies don't have any abilities that a human doesn't have. In fact their vision is worse because they don't blink, so their corneas get abraded by dust and dirt."
"Is that another thing my dad told you?" Robby asked.
"Yeah, it is," Daniel said, as he picked up his bag. "Well, Johnny's exact words were 'They don't blink so their eyes turn to shit' but it's basically the same thing."
Robby let out a small laugh, and Daniel said, "Come on, let's get home."