Part Seven

Six months later…

Robin raised the wooden spoon to sip from the broth before she settled the lid on the crock pot. Reaching out for a small plastic cup on the counter, she spit into it, a habit she had developed to let her taste the food she was cooking. Though she never got to fully enjoy the end results, the rest of her family did, and that was good enough for her.

She heard the front door open and checked the clock on the wall, expecting Scott to wander in for a snack. With predictable timing, he stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and sniffed the air. “Is that pot roast?”

“Yes, and I’ve got potatoes and carrots in with the broth.” Robin smiled. “I made brownies as well.”

“Ooh… and, am I allowed to sample these now?”

“You may have one, just like the other kids.”

“Yes, mother,” Scott whined and crossed the kitchen to open a cabinet.

“No, the left side.”

“I had an insane day at school. The power went out right in the middle of an exam, and the teacher thought it was another brownout. So he had us sit in the classroom for an hour before finally sending us on to our next classes. All of the building were of course off, and they stayed that way for another half hour.”

“What happened?”

“Nobody is quite sure, but I expect Gordon will have a story about some kind of bomb or downed power lines.” Scott bit into the brownie and hummed his approval before he continued talking around the mouthful of food. “Last week someone chopped down a set of power poles, and the campus police caught them.”

Robin’s face tightened in a grimace. “Did they make it to court?”

“No, I heard they were ‘accidentally’ pushed off the top of the sciences building.”

Robin shook her head, but she didn’t bother to comment on the revelation. It was nothing new, nor would the problems with vigilante justice be going away any time soon. With the population of most major cities in the state decimated, many institutions had opted to skip background check on their employees. The result was a number of security outfits who called themselves police, but were little more than armed lynch mobs. Efforts were being made to shut down the groups, but the legitimate police forces not only had to deal with the hired militias, but also with the looters and the pockets of crazies who had taken it upon themselves to revive the ‘spirit of the old west’.

Scott noticed Robin’s expression becoming anxious, and he raised his hand to pat her shoulder. “Hey, don’t sweat it too much. We survived a zombie horde, so a tiny group of human loonies should be easy, right?”

“Sometime I wish we could have just moved back out to the house and stayed there. Every day it seems like more of the wrong kind of people show up in Austin. It just seems to me Jamal’s plan took out a lot more of the good guys than it did the bad.”

Scott shrugged while he leaned against the counter. “It will even out eventually, but most of the bad guys in the major cities were like rats on a sinking ship. Now that the crisis is over, they’ll end up scurrying back first to try and take advantage of whoever they can. Still it’s not like there aren’t good people showing up. Most of the hospitals are staffed again, and of course you have to hand credit to all the teachers who flooded in from out of state to help fill the gaps in the education system. If you try not to think about the reasons why, Texas has become something of a booming economy over the new demand for workers.”

“That’s not exactly looking for a silver lining is it?”

“No, not really.”

***

Gordon walked in and shut the door before he slipped off his jacket. The smell of pot roast and cooking vegetables was strong in the front hallway of the house, and Gordon’s mouth was already watering. He was looking forward to the meal even more because he knew it was Scott’s turn to feed Robin.

He had barely completed the thought when Robin walked out of the kitchen and through the hall to take Gordon’s jacket and hug him. “Welcome home.”

Gordon sighed as he returned the hug. “It’s good to be back.”

“Did you catch any bad guys today?” Robin asked as she moved to hang his jacket up in the closet by the front door.

“Yes, four to be exact.” Gordon shook his head and crossed the hallway into the kitchen to take a beer from the refrigerator. “The problem is, we missed a pair of jokers who planted a bomb at a power substation. Another group decided to burn down a set of power lines on the UT campus, and the campus is begging us to let their own private police handle the investigation.” Gordon twisted open the beer and took a long drink from it. “The way some of these people act, you’d think Jamal invented a time machine and sent us all back to the days of the wild west.”
“I hate to spring this on you with your other problems, but I have some bad news to report. I got a call from Fred’s teacher today.”

Gordon sighed. “Again?”

“He’s failed another math test, and he got into a fight with some other boy. Fred claims he called me ‘milk mom’. Personally, I don’t see why it’s such a big deal, but he gets upset over every little thing.”

“Right, I’ll go talk to him.”

“Just… well, try not to make it sound like a lecture, okay?”

Gordon smiled at Robin. “You’re too gentle with the boy, dear.” He chuckled and walked up the hallway toward the stairs. He was on the first step when the doorbell rang.

The man standing at the door seemed vaguely familiar, but Gordon dealt with so many agents with similar suits every day that they all began to blur in his mind. The man seemed to read Gordon’s expression perfectly. “You probably don’t remember me.”

“Nope, I’ve got nothing.” Gordon’s attention moved to the black SUV parked in the driveway. Three more men dressed in matching black suits stared back at him, but he recognized none of them either. “Your friends don’t want to come inside?”

“They’re my security escort, but I don’t think-“

“Jake Milton,” Gordon interrupted him.

Jake nodded, his smile growing wider. “You do remember me.”

“You were at both the meetings we had with the president. I’ve been seeing you on TV around here recently. It just took me a moment to put the two memories together.” Gordon offered his hand to Jake then stepped back. “It has been a long day for me. Please, come in.”

“Thank you. The president would liked to have come personally, but I’m sure you understand he’s been very busy with the efforts of  rebuilding the state.” Jake followed Gordon into the drably furnished living room, taking a seat on the couch. He smiled at Robin as she walked in, immediately rising to offer his hand to her. “Miss Thomas, the very person I’m here to see.”

Robin shook his hand, her lips pulling up in a perplexed smile. “Why? Has the president decided to give me another medal or award?”

“Not exactly. You may not be aware of this, but we were able to take control of most of Jamal’s other equipment to study it.” Jake held up his hand when he saw Robin frown. “Relax. We meant to study the organism to find ways to render it inactive.

“One of teams has been studying the synthetic digestive fluid the zombies used for their bottled meals. It isn’t a living organism like the zombie blood, but more a group of engineered enzymes. The president was reading a report about it, and he mentioned that some of the findings might be helpful to you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Supposing you tried to drink a vial of this fluid to help you digest food, it would end up eating a hole though you.”

“I’m still not sure what you mean. Were you trying to give me some way to eat normally again?”

“Not trying, Miss Thomas; we’ve been able to reduce the synthetic enzymes into a powdered form, allowing us to stabilize it and create a pill. If we’ve got the dosage right, you could take one pill with a large glass of water before each meal, and the enzyme will activate and start the digestion process sometime after you finish eating.”

“Sometime?” Robin repeated.

“It varies with the dosage, but we tested the doses on normal human cadavers’ stomachs, and your stomach may be slightly stronger.”

“And…” Gordon paused, wondering if he wanted to look for problems. “Why are you here to deliver this? Isn’t the task somewhat below you?”

Jake laughed and shook his head. “It might have been if I were still working in Washington, but I was already in the city. I just picked up the overnight package to deliver it to you. The president also wanted me to convey the message that if this first test doesn’t work, he will keep a group working to find a way to help you.”

Robin smiled. “You’ve got good timing.
“Why is that?”
“Because dinner is almost ready.” Robin laughed as she crossed the living room. “I’ll go and tell Scott he doesn’t need to feed me tonight.”

***

Robin sat back and covered her mouth as a tiny burp escaped her. Gordon frowned, but she waved a hand at him. “I think I’m okay. I’m not turning green yet, so that’s a positive sign.”

“You haven’t sprouted any leaks either.” Scott’s expression of relief was somewhat theatrical, and he only added to the effect by clasping his hands against the side of his cheek. “With god as my witness, I’ll never chuck meals again.”

Gordon smirked and shook his head. “Let’s see if she makes it through the next ten minutes before we celebrate.”

“No, let’s celebrate now with some brownies,” Robin said and got up to pull the plate down from the cabinet and pull off the layer a plastic wrap covering them. She picked one up and bit into it, moaning happily as she closed her eyes. “Oh lord, if this is a dream… oh wait, I don’t sleep.”

Claire reached across the table to grab a brownie. “These would be better with ice cream.”

Robin  nodded as she went to the freezer. “Claire, that’s why I love you. You’re a genius.”

Gordon got up to pull bowls down from the cabinet. “Try not to overdo it, though.”

“I’m not, but I am going to indulge just a little. If you’d had to live on barf for a few months, you’d want your first normal meal to be something special.”

“Yeah, but instead you had pot roast,” Scott said.

“Hey, I thought it was great.” Robin feigned a hurt expression. “You didn’t like the cooking?”

Scott held up his hands. “Have I ever complained? I’m just saying the government should have called ahead so you could celebrate with something proper, like a double pepperoni pizza and a gallon of Yoo-Hoo.”

“You’re gross,” Claire said.

“Thank you.” Scott noticed Fred pouting. “Oh cheer up, Fred. We’re getting brownies a la mode.” The boy shrugged, and Scott patted his shoulder. “You can talk to us, you know.”

“I know, but… it’s just not the same thing,” Fred said. “I miss my family, and I miss my home. I know it isn’t your fault, but I hate this place, and… I just want things to go back the way they were.”

Robin set down the ice cream and walked over to stand beside Fred’s chair. “All of us wish for that, Fred, but it won’t help. If you aren’t happy here, maybe we could try to locate some of your relatives in another state-”

“No. I don’t… I don’t mean that I don’t like you.”

“I know what you meant, and it’s okay. None of us is happy with life in this city right now. But it will get better if we hang tough and keep working.” Robin patted his shoulder. “Just give it time, and the future will look wide open all over again.”

The End