Free The Rabid: Fall by J.V. Roberts Page B

shut-eye?”
    Katia drops her head against my shoulder. “I’ll keep you company for a bit, not quite ready to sleep.”
    Martha is stacking the last of the dirty bowls and utensils.
    “You want us to stick around and give you a hand?”
    “Oh, no, definitely not. Don’t you worry about me.”
    I stand and pop my back, rotating left and right. Pain shoots through my arm and I bring a hand up to my bandaged shoulder.
    “I still feel downright awful about that.” Martha frowns.
    “Don’t.” Katia steals my hat and sets it on her head. She’s been doing that a lot lately. “Tim needed a swift kick in the pants. He’s got a thing for playing the cowboy. No matter how much I tell him he needs to pull back on the reins, he insists on charging forward. Hopefully that buckshot puts a little stutter in his step.”
    “Listen to your girl, Tim. She’s shooting you straight. There’s no more room for heroes in this world, only survivors.”
    “I don’t know.” I try to steal the hat back from Katia, but she twirls up to her feet and shuffles backwards. I lack the energy to get up and chase her. “If everyone thought like that, we’d be plum out of luck. The heroes are the ones that pulled people out of the fire, the ones that got folks up on their feet and moving. I’m here because of a hero. His name was Bo, biggest asshole I’ve ever met, but he was a cowboy through and through, a genuine hero.”
    “And where’s he at now?” Martha asks.
    “He died saving me and my family.”
    “Exactly, they die. And you know what happens to the folks they save? They usually end up dying too. Folks that need rescuing don’t know how to survive to begin with and that’s why they need a hero. So when the hero is no more, they’re no more.”
    “You’re wrong, I’m still here.”
    “Something tells me you were surviving long before Bo ever showed up.”
    I think of Momma and Bethany, both of them now dead. Had they ever really learned to survive? Was I their hero? The only thing keeping them afloat? If I had been there beside them during the attack, would they still be alive?
    Martha is standing behind me now. She gives me a pat on the back. “Looks like your girl is making off with your hat.”
    Katia is standing at the top of the stairs, tipping the hat in my direction, fingers pinching the brim.
    “You better catch her. I’m gonna retire for the evening.”
    I jump up from my seat and Katia squeals, disappearing down the steps.
    “Y’all light any fires, make sure to keep the glow low!” Martha calls after me.
     
    ***
     
    Katia and I sit in the parking lot, surrounded by crucified Rabid. We tend a small fire of embers, following Martha’s instructions to keep the glow low .
    “I’m conflicted.”
    “About what?” Katia stirs the embers and sends a shower of sparks darting towards the sky.
    “About this whole thing with the refugee camp…or settlement, or whatever it is.”
    “You don’t wanna go?”
    I shake my head. “It’s not that at all. I want to go. It’s the best shot we’ve got at finding your brother and getting at the sonsofbitches behind all this, the sonsofbitches responsible for the death of my mom and sister. It’s more about what do we do when we get there?”
    “But you already said, we—”
    “I know what I said; strike the roots. That’s not what I’m talking about.”
    “Then what?”
    “Do we really want to tear it down? If Martha is right and people are flowing in there, if this place is offering food, shelter, and security to so many survivors, who are we to take that away? Like I said, they’re not going to want to have their boat rocked. What gives us the right to rock it? Because we’ve got a personal problem with the captain?”
    She pulls the stick out of the fire. The end is now a deep, brilliant orange. She holds it in front of her face, turning it slowly. “It’s the Star Trek dilemma.”
    “What is?”
    She drops the stick back in the fire and brushes