Chapter 27

I sat at the table holding Sarah, and thinking about the conversation I had just had with the men I was close to. Sarah and I talked a little more and I learned more about her, and I truthfully answered her questions about me. She dozed off as I talked to some of the other people who came over and introduced themselves. I only heard a couple of complaints which surprised me, considering all the different personalities that had been thrown together because of all that had happened. Hell, even Daryl came over and thanked me, which really surprised me. Actually, all I was doing was holding Sarah and listening to her as she breathed, and thinking about my own daughter and wondering if she was ok. I hadn't realized so much time had passed until my stomach started growling. It woke Sarah who immediately rubbed it, giggling at all the noise it was making.

"Thom, is it ok if I call you Pops like Shelly does? I kinda like the nickname since I don't feel comfortable calling you Thom."

"Are you sure you're only five and a half?"

This started her giggling which I immediately added to by tickling her. Of course her laughter had Shelly at our table in short order.

"Is he being mean to you Sarah?" she asked with a big grin.

"No, but if he doesn't quit we will both be soaked."

Well, I can take a hint, so I quit tickling her and she immediately hopped off my lap headed for the bathroom. Shelly was grinning at her as she walked away.

"Pops, I like her. She sure is mature with all she's been through. She told me how you rescued her and I think you did a great job doing it. Now, if I can figure out a way to make us sisters, we both can spend our playtime picking on you."

"Well, Flycatcher, I appreciate your vote of confidence, but how soon is supper gonna be served. I am starving."

"My name is not Flycatcher, and as far as I am concerned you can go hungry."

With that she flounced off, went about ten feet, turned and stuck her tongue out at me, gave me a big grin, and headed for the back. I heard laughter behind me and looked around to see BK, Barry, the Chief and Zeke all sitting at the table behind me, laughing up a storm. I quickly looked around before giving them the bird which just made them laugh harder. A man just can't have any privacy, I thought. Then I realized I was sitting in the middle of the dining hall, with about fifty people sitting at different tables and all of them were looking at me, grinning at the byplay. Damn, I felt like shrinking into the floor to escape the grins. Luckily dinner was being set up at the steam tables at the end on my side, so I hopped up to be first in line. I was and stood there with all the women grinning at me until I could get my food and sit down again. Of course I was joined a little later by the men and Sarah and Shelly. Both girls would look at me and just giggle as they ate. I decided to finish, grab a cup of coffee and go outside for a smoke. Well that lasted about fifteen minutes before I was joined by Barry, Zeke and BK.

I was already puffing on my pipe and to my surprise Zeke lit up a stogie that was almost as big around as a baseball bat.

"Where in the hell did you find that thing, Zeke?"

"Well, I have them shipped in from Mexico. They are listed as novelty items but they are pure Havana Tobacco. I have about four boxes of them left and I guess I won't be getting any more after all of this happened. I thought about rerolling them, but it just wouldn't be the same."

I looked at him holding that thing in both hands and couldn't help myself as I cracked up laughing. Barry and BK both did the same a short minute after I did. When the Chief walked out, this was how he found us. He looked at all of us laughing, then at Zeke and his cigar before saying anything.

"Ahh, I see you found the Havana order site like I did. You do know you could have ordered them in smaller sizes?"

The look on Zeke's face at this news was, as they say, 'priceless', and we were all laughing so hard I almost missed the frantic motioning of the radio man waving us inside. I stood up and moved inside, dropping my pipe in my pocket as I went. I felt rather than saw the rest following me in. When we got in the radio room it was crowded. We all watched as he flipped a couple of switches, letting us listen to a prerecorded message.

"This is the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. This message was recorded to play on the Ham Bands as a warning for all of you still alive and monitoring the radios. These things for lack of a better name do, I repeat, do have very sharp residual memories. They are able to do regular jobs they were trained for in their everyday lives before they became infected. Although it may take them days to figure it out and do what they know, they CAN do it. As of nine pm eastern time, we as the CDC in Atlanta no longer exist. We were overrun just as I finished recording this message. The only thing that seems to stop them is either a bullet in the head or fire. People, there are millions of them roaming all the bigger cities and they are starting to migrate outwards. If you have somewhere to hide, we suggest you get in it and spray a fifty percent mix of bleach or ammonia behind you as that is the only thing we have found that seems to affect them. The smell of it seems to scramble their thought processes for an hour or so. We never found out why, but it works. We heard what sounded like screams in the background before the message started playing again."