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Chapter 23
“We found a few cans of food down stairs and managed to secure this place,” Jessell said as soon as Ridec and Rea walked into the main room.
“That’s good news,” Ridec admitted not looking directly at Jessell. He was finding it difficult to look into her eyes knowing that Rea had kissed him; he couldn’t get over the overwhelming guilt he was feeling.
“There are also some fruit trees outside,” Kyle pointed out. “Didn’t go too far because of the ‘neighbors’ but it really looks like we can live here safely for quite a while.”
Mary grinned broadly and pulled Pete towards her.
“Finally a home.”
Pete was smiling too.
“And with the well outside we can have water as well.”
“A home for how long?” Jessell put in. “Until one of the other doors give way or until someone goes outside to catch water and a few of those things get in? A home is supposed to be someplace safe where you can relax and feel at peace.”
She was staring at Ridec as she spoke but he looked away hurriedly.
“This isn’t my home.”
“I don’t know what planet you dropped in from but this is the only home we have,” Rea said glaring at Jessell angrily.
“I don’t recall calling your name,” Jessell responded.
“I don’t recall calling your name either,” Rea shot back.
“Yeah, real mature.”
Jessell turned away and faced Ridec who immediately stared down at his shoe.
“This is not our home Ridec, we don’t need to be getting comfortable here. Here is just the place we rest until we can make a plan to get home.”
“You don’t talk for him,” Rea pushed in stepping forward just enough that her shoulder brushed Jessell’s back.
Jessell spun about so quickly with the back of her hand raised and it caught Rea against the cheek sending her sprawling onto the floor.
“You didn’t!” Rea screamed jumping to her feet and diving forward towards Jessell but not fast enough because Kyle had managed to get in between the two women and was knocked to the floor instead by the sheer thrust of Rea’s body.
“Relax,” Kyle coaxed gripping Rea’s arms as she struggled to get off of him and go after Jessell.
“Let her go, I’d have a hell of a time kicking her scrawny butt,” Jessell taunted which caused Rea to fight Kyle even more furiously to be free.
“Jessell,” Ridec said. “Surely you don’t intend to fight her, she’s one of us; the true enemy is outside of these doors.”
“The true enemy is anyone and anything that attacks me or you,” Jessell pointed out.
“Just calm down Rea,” Kyle was insisting still seeming to have a difficult time controlling the girl. “You can’t beat her, so don’t give her the chance to humiliate you. That’s all she wants.”
That line of reasoning seemed to resonate with Rea because she reduced her struggling immediately.
“She doesn’t have the right to treat people however she wants to,” Rea said angrily using her now free hand to rub a tear from her face.
“Of course she doesn’t, just try not to jump for every bit of bait she throws out there,” Kyle advised.
“But Ridec has the right to stay here with us if he wants to, she can’t make him leave. I need him,” Rea explained.
“Need him?” Kyle was hoisting himself from the ground and helping Rea to her feet as he spoke.
“I think there is hope for the earth, I believe this disease can be cured,” Ridec put in quickly by way of explanation and everyone stared at him.
“Believe…now that’s an interesting word, not nearly as confident as the word ‘know’,” Jessell pointed out.
“I just need to do more tests,” Ridec explained.
“More tests while zombies keep running at us and trying to eat our faces? I don’t think so,”
Jessell said.
“You could cure me?” Kent asked.
“No he can’t,” Jessell countered. “He can’t cure anybody he’s just too big hearted to admit it!”
“He can do it, I believe in him,” Rea said coming to stand right up close to Ridec with her bust brushing just lightly against his arm, Jessell shucked her away.
“All I need are like five zombies at various stages of decomposition or disease,” Ridec explained.
“All you need?” Jessell repeated incredulously. “Should we just go outside and say ‘hey Mr. Zombie would you be willing to sign up for a brand new test my fiancée is doing?’
“I’m your fiancée?” A huge smile spread across Ridec’s face.
“Why now?” Linda cut in. “Why have you suddenly decided you can find a cure for this disease that has been ravishing the earth for hundreds of years?”
“Yeah,” Mary wanted to know. “You just wake up one morning and decide you can do it after all these years?”
Kent look discouraged as if recognizing the truthfulness of their words, this boy was just giving false hope.
“It’s not like that,” Ridec said hurriedly. “I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide I could do something. I never even knew about these creatures until a few days ago.”
“What?” The word was chorused by Rea and Kyle.
“Where the hell have you been that you wouldn’t know about these zombies?” Mary demanded.
“What’s with the million questions?” Jessell cut in after sparing Ridec an angry look. “We live far from here, near the sea. Ridec here got lost and washed up on the sea and I came to find him.”
“You live on a boat?” Pete wanted to know.
“I…” Ridec started to say.
“Something like that,” Jessell cut in.
“We did find him near the sea,” Mary said thoughtfully. “Can your boat fit us all?”
“I don’t think so,” Jessell said with just a hint of sadness in her voice.
“Don’t believe her,” Rea screamed. “She just doesn’t care about us; she only cares about her own safety.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Kent said. “Living on boats has been proven to be dangerous. Boats have to come back to shore for food, water and maintenance and when they do there are usually lots of zombies on the shoreline waiting for the people.”
“Yeah, stories have been told about people starving to death at sea, dying of dehydration or coming to shore with nowhere to go and being attacked by zombies,” Linda said.
“But you survived,” Pete said.
“Our boat can’t hold any more people,” Jessell said firmly.
“She probably doesn’t really have a boat at all,” Rea suggested. “She’s just a big fat liar.”
“That’s right,” Jessell muttered walking away. “I am a liar.”
“So our best bet is to stay here and try to get that cure,” Rea said.
“All we need are five zombies,” Ridec said. “Once I do some tests on them I should be able to make an informed diagnosis.”
“I’m not going out there to hunt zombies,” Jessell said sinking onto the ground and running her hands through her waist length shiny black hair.
“You’re sure you can find a cure?” Kent asked staring directly at Ridec.
“I’m almost sure,” Ridec admitted.
“That’s good enough for me,” Linda said hurriedly. “Imagine being a clean again? That would mean I wouldn’t have to go on any more of these stupid missions for the council.”
“It could be worth even more than that,” Kent said.
“I’m in,” Rea said.
“You’re not an unclean,” Linda pointed out.
“We’ll need all hands on deck if we’re going to capture five of those things.”
“You can count me in as well,” Mary said.
“Me too,” Kyle piped out. “Maybe Pete and I can act as bait or something.”
“What about you Jessell?” Ridec asked still refusing to turn around to face Jessell.
“We don’t need her Ridec, you don’t need her,” Rea said hurriedly.
“Jessell…” Ridec started to say.
“I’m not going Ridec and neither are you.”
There was silence in the room for a while as Ridec bit down hard on his lip.
“Fine.”
“We don’t need Ridec or the kid to come with us, they’ll probably only slow us down anyway,” Kent said. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning. Rea can make sure she gets full details on exactly what we’re looking for.”
“She just totally pisses me off,” Rea grumbled as Ridec walked off to a corner of the room and sat down.
“You have to stand up to her sometime,” Kyle said following Ridec across the room and sliding to the floor beside him.
“You don’t understand.”
“I might be old but I think I can recognize hopelessly in love when I see it.”
Ridec smiled and then scrunched up his face.
“If you all knew Jessell the way I do you’d all love her as much as I do,” Ridec said.
“I don’t think that’s possible kid,” Kyle said with a chuckle and Ridec laughed.
“Okay, maybe not as much as I do but you’d love her.”
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” Kyle muttered pressing his hand against the floor and preparing to raise himself up.
“Wait, can I ask you something?”
“Sure?” Kyle slid back onto the ground with a little difficulty.
“If someone did something wrong would you prefer them to tell you even if it might upset you or keep it to themselves?”
“That’s a pretty difficult question,” Kyle looked thoughtful. “I guess it would depend on what it was they did. If it was something that my not knowing could hurt me then I’d want to find out.”
Ridec looked thoughtful for a moment.
“That didn’t really help?” Kyle offered.
“It’s complicated.”
“You’re in love with Rea also?” Kyle asked and Ridec shook his head immediately.
“I like her but I’m not in love with her. I could never love anyone the way I love Jessell. I’ve loved her all my life; I’ve never wanted anyone else but her.”
Kyle chuckled.
“That’s pretty obvious to everyone, except possibly Rea. So what’s the problem?” Kyle asked.
“Well,” Ridec looked hesitant. “I…I sort of let Rea kiss me…I mean I didn’t let her, I tried to stop her but maybe I didn’t really try hard enough.”
“Hmmmphhh.”
Ridec looked miserable.
“Jessell is going to kill me if she finds out.”
“I guess the real question isn’t what Jessell will do, it’s why you didn’t try very hard to stop her,” Kyle suggested.
Ridec scrunched up his face again as Kyle pressed his hand against the ground and hoisted himself to his feet.
“You’re a bright boy Ridec, once you can figure that out I imagine that you’ll figure out whether or not you need to tell Jessell.”
Ridec inhaled a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. He already knew that he needed to tell Jessell, he just didn’t know if he was ready to deal with the consequences that would follow from her knowing.