Free Zombie Rules (Book 3): ZFINITY by David Achord

he responded.
    Mac erupted with one of her belly laughs and grabbed Benny in a bear hug. “I like you already!”
    The rest of them started exiting their vehicles now and gathered around us. Some of them were armed with handguns, but they all had them tucked in their waistbands.
    Andie walked up and stood beside Julie and me. “Terry is going to have a fit with these chuckleheads not using holsters,” she commented quietly. I nodded in agreement as a couple of men made their way toward us. There were two them, one black and one white, kind of effeminate looking and appeared to be in their fifties. They were wearing dirty oversized matching cardigans and baggy jeans with lots of stains on them. They probably had not bathed in a few days, but otherwise, seemed no worse for wear.
    “Hi, kids, I’m Marc and this is my partner, Ward.”
    “Hello,” I responded and introduced ourselves.
    “Are your parents around?” Marc asked.
    “No, Marc, they aren’t,” I answered. They looked at us expectantly, as if awaiting an explanation. Andie stared at them silently.
    “Oh,” he said, “well, I guess what we want to know is, who is in charge around here?”
    “Zach is,” Andie said, somewhat defiantly. Mac chuckled.
    The two old queens looked at Andie somewhat in exasperation and glanced over at me. I tried to explain.
    “I wouldn’t exactly say I’m in charge,” I said. “We have a loose but unified structure. Everyone has their strengths.” They looked at me and nodded in apparent understanding, but I could also see a questioning expression, as if they did not really quite understand where I fit in.
    “We operate in much the same manner,” Benny said.
    “Who would you consider to be in charge of your group?” I asked. Benny held his hands up and started to speak, but stopped when I suddenly ducked and pulled my handgun out. Benny froze in place.
    “Mister Zach, have I done something wrong?” he asked shakily. I looked around wildly. Everyone was looking at me in alarm. Andie had followed my cue and brought up her M4. She scanned the group but was also looking puzzled, wondering what I was doing.
    “Why did you put your hands up, Benny?” I asked warily.
    “Uh, I was about to respond to your question with a witty remark, something like, guilty as charged, I surrender, or something like that. It kind of seemed funny when it was in my head, maybe not so funny now,” he continued looking at me worriedly as I looked over his group closely. Everyone had frozen in place and had concerned, even frightened expressions. Realizing I overreacted, I sighed and holstered my handgun.
    “Mister Zach, would it be okay if I put my hands down?” he asked tentatively. I looked around again.
    “Sorry, Benny, I wasn’t sure what you were up to,” I responded without further explanation, and nodded to Andie, who stopped pointing her assault rifle at the new arrivals. I then gave the all safe hand signal and looked at the group with what I hoped was an apologizing smile. The three men looked at each other in concern, as if they were tacitly saying, should we keep driving?
    “Where are y’all from?” I asked, trying to alleviate the tense situation I caused.
    Benny retrieved a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the perspiration off his brow before responding. “Most of us are from the Huntsville, Alabama area. We had carved out a niche for ourselves and were living a mostly peaceful life in a gated community. Everything was going nicely, considering the circumstances, and then a rather unpleasant event occurred with a nearby nuclear power plant.”
    “Brown’s Ferry?” I asked.
    Benny’s expression of concern changed to curiosity. “Yes, my wife and I worked there. Do you know anything about nuclear power plants?” He asked.
    “A little bit,” I responded. Andie chortled.
    “Well, very briefly, there was a fire and explosion which released a large amount of radiation,” he said while continuing to look at