Mort

Turned out I had a daily routine.

I’d never been a morning person, and usually barely made it to school on time. It had gotten so bad mom had written me a note so that I wouldn’t be counted as tardy all the time.

But now… now that I didn’t really sleep that much, and there wasn’t much to do first thing in the morning—not even school—I’d fallen into a routine.

I got up out of my doggie bed. I helped pull the boards off the doors. And then I went on a quick stroll of the neighborhood. I told myself I was canvasing the neighborhood for security reasons: like scanning for threats, things that were suddenly different, and cloak-wearing villains showing up at our doorstep.

But mostly I was avoiding seeing my friends make and eat breakfast. I also took a similar stroll in the evening, while they ate dinner.

I always helped with the clean up after meals, but it really bothered me to watch my friends eat. It reminded me, over and over and over again, that I couldn’t eat.

I couldn’t smell.

I couldn’t taste.

Hell, I didn’t even have a hole where my mouth was.

And I wasn’t human. Not even a little bit.

I didn’t take a long walk. Just about ten, fifteen minutes. And then I’d sit down on the wooden crate that had always sat by the back door to the pizzeria. That’s where the owner, Mr. Panucci, and his oldest employee, Cheryl, had gone to smoke their cigarettes. I’d stowed their favorite ashtray under the crate and started using it for my spot to sit and think.

Plus, I could hear when my friends were done eating and had started to gather the dishes for washing. Then I’d hop off the crate and head back on in.

So, today was like any other day. I got up and helped pull the boards off the door again. I set off to walk the perimeter of the block, checking for anything unusual—which turned out to be a couple cats huddled on old-lady Bannon’s back porch, which was all that was left of old-lady Bannon’s house. They were sitting side by side on the porch railing, their heads turned toward each other as if they were…

The freaking cats were talking to each other!

“Trudy is a total Purina hog,” one cat said. “Always has been.”

Holy fucking shitballs…

“You should see her with Temptations.” The other cat groused. “She almost took my eye out over some crunchy shrimp treats.”

“That bitch,” the other cat replied.

They laughed in unison.

I walked silently away, putting the talking cats on my mental list of things to report when I saw the gang in a few minutes.

When I got back to the pizzeria I headed on back to my crate, and popped myself up onto it with a satisfying hop.

And then BANG!!!

The bang came immediately, and so did the feeling of being flung up into the air. I had a beat to realize I really was flying upwards, right before I felt myself start to fall back down.

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I screamed like the total scaredy-cat nerd I was, and then fell unceremoniously back down, landing not ten feet away from the back steps of the pizzeria.

That actually hurt, and I was indented in the ground far enough that I had to push myself out of it, and then pull myself up off the grass.

By then Teddy, Wood and Ellie had come running out of the pizzeria, and Oz had materialized from wherever he was lurking or hunting, or whatever.

“What the hell just happened?” Ellie said, anger making her voice harsh.

Teddy turned on his brother, his eyes burning with malice. “You didn’t?”

Everyone’s eyes went to Wood.

“Did what?” Ellie asked, walking closer to Wood and Teddy.

Teddy threw a punch at Wood—which Wood ducked with practiced ease. “The asshole just tested his new bomb on Mort!” He threw another punch, and Wood blocked it.

Wood had a broad smile on his face. “And it worked. Didn’t go off until it was triggered.”

Teddy went to punch at his brother again, but Ellie moved between the two. “You tested a bomb on one of us?” Her eyes bore into Wood. “Are you kidding me?”

Wood shrugged, but his smile dimmed a bit. “He’s practically indestructible. We’ve all seen him smashed into the ground by thousand-pound bug monsters, and he hasn’t gotten a scratch.”

Ellie thrust her finger into Wood’s chest “We don’t hurt each other. Ever.” She stared up into his eyes. “Got that, dumbass?”

That’s when Wood flinched back as if she’d slapped him.

Ellie’s face even turned red, she was so angry. “We have enough shit trying to kill us. We don’t need our own friends betraying us.”

Wood’s face lost all its color, and his mouth fell open.

He took a breath and tried to speak, but his words died on his tongue.

Ellie shook her head, pulled her hand back, and then walked past Wood, bumping into him with her shoulder.

Wood turned to watch Ellie walk off towards her house. Oz stalked off after her. When he turned back to his brother, Teddy tipped his head up, his chin jutting out. “Dick,” he said as he headed off to the front of the pizzeria.

Wood stood there, his face still pale, his expression slack.

I don’t know why the hell I said it. Maybe it was a knee-jerk reaction. Me trying to smooth things over.

Whatever…

What I said was: “At least you know it will work… on our enemies.”

Something flickered behind his eyes, and he looked at me.

That was my cue to leave. And I did.

***

Ellie was ignoring Wood. Teddy wouldn’t even stay in the same room as his brother. And me, well, I kept thinking that I needed to eradicate any habitual actions or routines from now on. Just because he’d tried to blow me up once (and pissed off everyone close to him in the process) didn’t mean he’d gotten it out of his system.

Even Oz had given the man a hard stare as he passed by the pizzeria, Ellie walking out to meet him, still giving Wood the cold shoulder.

Teddy and I decided to go out grinding. That way we could work on leveling up, maybe even work off some of our frustrations, while still ignoring Wood.

When Wood saw us heading off toward the uptown district of Mars, he came running out of the pizzeria, looking oddly desperate. That was strange. Wood wasn’t much of a joiner.

But, since he was giving his brother so much eye-contact, it was obvious that he was missing his brother already. Plus, this was the apocalypse—what if we didn’t come back?

He stopped, brought to a screeching halt by Teddy’s angry stare. His mouth was open, as if he was about to say something.

I felt for the guy.

That’s when I noticed that Wood’s expression changed. The edge of anxiety changed, and his open mouth snapped shut, his eyes narrowed, and his mouth turned into a grim line on his face. He gestured with his chin for us to look in the opposite direction we were facing.

I turned, pulling my frying pan out of my inventory, and then I saw a group of six teenagers trudging toward the pizzeria. I didn’t really recognize them. But from the shell-shocked looks on their faces, and that they were all splattered with blood and had injuries of some sort, I gathered that they were what was left of Jesse’s little army.

Six out of over twenty. Things hadn’t turned out well for them. I didn’t see Zack or Sara, so I guess they died fighting the Big Heads.

I turned to Teddy. “Find Oz and Ellie. We need some pizza.”

I nodded to Wood. “Me and your brother will find them a couple houses on the block with running water.

Teddy looked as if he was about to say something. I knew what he was going to say.

“I know,” I said. “I’ll put them as far away from Oz as I can.”

He nodded, and then turned to take off in the direction we’d last seen Oz and Ellie heading in.

I looked up at Wood, and he nodded back to me. Then we met the rag-tag group of survivors as they crossed the patch of lawn with the spaceship on it. They didn’t pay it any attention, they just kept walking toward us.

There was so much blood covering them.