Free Allison Hewitt Is Trapped by Madeleine Roux Page A

look at Ted. D is where we found the man in the rocking chair.
    “So why are you in here then?” I ask.
    “I couldn’t … I couldn’t stay there! Not after—”
    “They got your brother-in-law,” I finish for him. He squints at me, tilting his head to the side. I can hear Phil squishing around on the carpet behind me, fidgeting. Through the hole in the wall I can hear Dapper yowling. I don’t want the others to know about the man in the rocking chair. It won’t help anything to put them in a panic.
    “Can you stand?”
    Zack nods slowly and then digs his heel into the carpet, lifting himself to his feet with one strong push. He stands and looks around at all of us, his eyebrows meeting over his anxious gaze.
    “I guess we can’t kick you out, seeing as how you live here and all.”
    “Um, Allison, could I have a word?”
    “Sure, Ted.”
    He hands the golf club to Phil wordlessly. I follow him to the master bedroom and he shuts the door. His hair is getting in his eyes again so he pushes it away and glares at me.
    “What?”
    “You know what. We can’t take him in. It’s out of the question.”
    “Really? And why is that?”
    “We don’t know anything about him. For all we know he could’ve killed that guy!”
    “His own brother-in-law? And why would he stick around? Murderers generally don’t hang around after they kill somebody. I mean, serial killers like the attention and stuff but that’s totally different. Not to mention, he was hiding in the linen closet. If he was gutsy enough to slit someone’s throat, why would he hide from us?”
    “Because he’s outnumbered? Because we have a dog? Any number of reasons!”
    “It just … It just doesn’t seem right to kick him out. How can we do that? You know as well as I do that he’d probably die out there on his own,” I explain. “And besides, do you really want to make enemies?”
    “We know there are other people out there. We know that now, you said it yourself. Those people, whoever, on your, whatever…”
    “Blog?”
    “Yes. Look, if we didn’t know there were other survivors then maybe it would be different, but the way things are … I just think it’s a bad call.”
    “Our food supply is better, we have room. I can’t in good conscience send someone out to their death,” I say. I lean forward and grab Ted around the collar and yank him toward the window. The chintz curtains are closed so I push them back. “Look. Look at it down there. There’s nothing left. Where would he go? We can’t be barbarians, Ted, we just can’t. What if it was you hiding in that closet? Or my mom? When things get back to normal little acts of kindness will add up.”
    “Jesus, you sound like my girlfriend.”
    “Is that such a bad thing?” I shout. I’m losing my temper; I try to breathe. Just a few deep breaths and everything will be easier to handle …
    “You just want him around because he’s good-looking.”
    “I— what ? Are you completely insane? What does that have to do with anything?” The deep breaths aren’t working now, nothing is working …
    “Well if it turns out we need to repopulate the Earth he’s a big upgrade from Phil.”
    I don’t mean to, I don’t think I even wanted to, but I slap Ted, hard, right across the face. He reels back, holding his cheek, his glasses askew.
    “When have I ever made a decision out of purely selfish motives, Ted? Do you think that by only considering myself we would be where we are now? Do you? Answer me. ”
    “It was a stupid thing to say. I’m sorry.”
    “He stays. Get it? He just … He just fucking stays.”
    I leave Ted behind, letting him hold where it smarts. There’s something ugly inside of me, it’s not just my temper. It’s something worse. I can feel all of the questions, all of the doubts, swirling into one terrible mass of anger. It’s too much to handle, too much for one person. And it’s worse because I know if my mom were here she could help. She