Free Zombie Fallout 4: The End Has Come and Gone by Mark Tufo Page B

Ron’s.
     

    CHAPTER ELEVEN – Talbot Journal Entry 7
    We had been on the road for an hour or two. I was feeling much more subdued than I had been in a long while. We were now a lean band of four, a high powered fire team. I mostly had what I wanted, my wife, daughter and Henry were safe. That stupid adage, be careful what you wish for, came to mind. The dramatist within me always thought Tracy would be stroking my head as I lay dying on the battlefield. Strange thought, obviously, I just figured that would be the way it would play out. The thought of Gary filling in for Tracy just didn’t have the same dramatic effect.
    “Dad, I really have to piss,” Travis said from the back seat.
    “How many Dews did you have?” Justin asked his brother.
    “Three maybe. I was VERY thirsty,” Travis told him.
    “Alright,” I said noncommittally. I should have just pulled over, there wasn’t another car for days and there were plenty of trees. But old habits don’t die easily, especially when you aren’t paying any attention to them. I drove another five miles to the next rest stop.
    Travis nearly popped the hinges off his door in his haste to relieve his floating bladder. Gary got out of the passenger seat. There was an audible ‘pop’ from his back as he stretched.
    “Getting old, huh?” I asked him.
    “Why Mom didn’t put you up for adoption when she had the chance, I’ll never know,” he said as he walked away to investigate our surroundings.
    “That’s not funny,” I said to his back.
    “Wasn’t trying to be,” he retorted as he made his weapon ready.
    “Nothing quite like family to put you in your place,” Justin said humorously, noting our exchange.
    “Go keep an eye on your brother before I kick your ass,” I said good naturedly.
    “DAD!!!” Travis screamed.
    Justin and I paused for a second to look at each other before we bolted in the direction of the cry. Gary was already at full tilt. I flipped the safety and placed my finger outside the trigger guard. Something was about to die in a most unnatural way.
    My gut was sinking as I ran. I had not heard Travis scream like that… ever. Two football seasons ago he broke his collar bone and fractured his nose all in one play. Blood had streamed from his face and the bone in his collar had been protruding outwards once his shoulder pads had been removed. I had waited by the sidelines, anxious as any parent that watches their child injured on the field. The team trainer had brought out the dreaded golf cart to bring my son to the sidelines to be worked on further.
    Travis had shook his head in the negative when they tried to get him to sit on the cart. He walked off the field in an ovation to the injured. His first question to me while we were in the car driving to the hospital was how many games did I think he was going to miss. The bulge in his collar told me the rest of the season, but I let the doctor break the news to him since I had still been within arm’s reach of his unbroken side. Even with the broken nose, the broken collarbone and the heartbreak of his season coming to a crash, he hadn’t so much as shed a tear. I knew he was bummed by the way he threw his cleats across the waiting room once his x-rays came back, but other than that he took two Advil a day until the pain went away.
    Gary was first on the scene. I saw him grab Travis by the shoulder and physically pull him out from the entrance to the small gas station.
    “ Oh boy ,” he said as Justin and I met him there.
    That I was breathing hard was really bad, the smell that emanated from that open door was a physical assault upon my senses. Why Gary hadn’t toppled over I don’t know. I veered away before I took in one more pull of the obnoxious odor. The one guy that had survived Armageddon and who arguably had the weakest belly stood there, mouth wide open to the scene laid out before him, and he wasn’t puking. Travis walked past me possibly in shock. His face was pale and I