I shook my head. “No. Sad to say, but without me administering iodized salt to you and without you administering iodized salt to me, both of us will be . . .” I pointed to the newly arrived zombies, the groaning once again starting up all around us. “Just like them.” I dropped my hand and turned his way. “I love her. She is my life, which is really saying something these days. Out of all humanity, out of every zombie on this God-forsaken planet, billions and billions of them, she’s the one I brought back. And, though you don’t have a choice to at least stick with me, I’d like it if you wanted to stick with me, that you wanted to help.”
He sighed, a real honest to goodness sigh, which, as it’s been said, doesn’t come at all easy to our kind. “What sort of music did you lip-synch to back in the day, Creature?”
I grinned. “Mostly Britney Spears.”
The sigh repeated. “You’re not making it easy on me, are you?”
“Sometimes Cher.”
And then he grinned. “Better. And, yes, I want to help you. I just haven’t a clue how. I mean, there’s two of us and, at the very least, a couple of dozen of them.”
“Judging by the number of fire torches that rained down on us, way more than that.”
He shook his head. “You’re not very good at instilling confidence, are you, Creature?”
“Sorry.”
He patted my shoulder. “That’s okay. It’s been a trying day.”
“A trying few centuries, actually.” I stared down the street that Blondella had disappeared into. “And I wonder what she’s been doing that whole time? Not to mention how she went from being human to zombie, which, as far as I’m aware, is technically impossible.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“All the zombies became zombies, you and me included, when the sun went haywire, a giant solar flare wiping out every living thing that wasn’t miraculously behind a great deal of metal at the time. The ensuing radiation kick-started all the dead humans into what you see today, all of us operating on radiation power alone. Blondella, plus my friends, Destiny and Kit, they were in a converted meat locker at the time of the blast, and so they survived.”
“Meaning, she was human the last time you saw her?”
I nodded. “And humans don’t turn zombie, which she clearly is now. Mainly because only zombies can live three hundred plus years.”
“And look that God-awful.”
I shrugged and pursed my lips. “Well, she was never all that pretty to begin with.” I looked from the street and back to him. “In any case, there’s some sort of cover-up back on the island. There has to be. Someone then or now, or both, knew that Blondella wasn’t killed in a zombie attack three centuries ago, despite the pretense that she was, despite being worshipped for being a martyr during said attack.”
Strangely, he was smiling. Or at least seemed like he was. With zombies, it’s awfully hard to tell. “All of which adds to that growing list of mysteries you mentioned.”
“None of which we’re any closer to finding the answers to.”
Surprisingly, he lifted his bony index finger into he air. “Ah, maybe one we’re closer to finding the answer to.”
“Really?” I asked, eyes suddenly a tad wider. “Which one.”
“I think I know why I followed her and why I didn’t follow you. Why I’m this crumb you guys—um, girls—spoke of.”
“Really?” I repeated.
“Really,” he replied. “You ever work on a farm, Creature.”
Those wide eyes of mine turned squint. “Really, Ricky?”
“Just checking,” he said. “Anyway, my parents had a small farm, a second home when we were growing up. Just some chickens and goats, a handful of geese in the pond, a vegetable garden we all tended to.”
“And?”
“And the geese, the chickens, even the goats, I remember how when they were born they always followed their mother, always knew the sound of their mother’s voice apart from all the many and various other sounds surrounding them.”
A spark lit within me, spreading just the slightest bit of warmth through my otherwise frigid body. “Imprinting. Of course.” I slapped his back. “Brilliant!”
He blushed. Though that was probably my stellar imagination playing tricks on me. “Thanks.”
“Just instilling confidence, Ricky.”
“Touché,” he volleyed back.
“Anyway,” I said. “That explains why the zombies have always followed me. Among all the beings on this planet, I alone was unique. I was the first zombie brought back, making me the mother goose, as it were. The zombies follow me like a baby follows its mother and continue to do so even if commanded by another zombie. All the other zombies that have been turned have either been turned by me or after me. Those other zombies aren’t unique, not mothers.”
“All save one.”
I grimaced. “Blondella.” Damn, it sure would’ve been nice to be able to snap at a moment like that.
“Blondella, yes. When she spoke to me, commanded me, it was like I was a baby hearing its mother for the first time. Something in me snapped, latched onto her, followed her. Imprinting, just like you said.” He looked my way. “And she’s as unique as you are, Creature, a second mother in the roost. After all, she was human and then became zombie, and did so after the sun went all fucked-up on everyone.”