CHAPTER 21
A smoking heap of mutated, lime green flesh lied behind Jake, who was still frozen in shock and awe. Jake was absolutely positive that he was going to be decidedly executed by Gavin for his admittedly brash behavior, when in fact, Gavin had saved his life. The barrels of his shotgun were smoking, and he wore a sneakily blank expression.
Jake slowly spun around to see the smoking corpse that lie face up, bearing it's animalistic and and decayed face. But somehow; through all the discrepancies, Jake could still see the forgotten humanity in the undead creature's face. Gavin could clearly see it too, judging by the saddened expression he desperately tried to conceal behind a neutral, uncaring, and false expression.
Jake cleared his throat, his back to Gavin as he continued to look down on the zombie, "So it really is the zombie apocalypse..." As if in response; the zombie on the ground reopened it's eyes of vibrant crimson red and groaned. The groan seemed to croak and crack as if flailed it's legs wildly at Jake. Jake stepped back a couple of steps; leaving tracks in the twinkling snow, the sun peeked over a grey cloud in an equally grey sky.
Jake drew his handgun form his hip holster. He pulled back the slide and pointed the barrel down at the zombie's head as it gasped for air with long, drawn out raspy inhalations that whistled through it's hole filled and rotting throat. The zombie moaned and shook with every quivering breath. It rose it's head and blinked it's entirely bloodshot eyes as if it was begging for mercy. Jake shook any feelings of remorse and care that it was still obviously a living being, telling himself that it was all in his head. He steadied his aim and quickly put two bullets into its head. It groaned one last time, but it digressed into a short and tough breath, it's body fell limp.
"Guess we need to learn to double tap then." he said, turning to face Gavin. Who had recognized Jake's reference to Jesse Eisenberg's rules to surviving the zombie apocalypse Jake holstered his gun, clicking close the strap that held the gun in it's holster. Jake raised his arms, from his sides, exposing his body submissively, as if to say he had given up. Surrendered. "Well, Gavin. If you got a live one in there," he pointed his chin towards the shotgun in Gavin's hands that he held at hip level, the barrel pointed at Jake. "with my name on it, now's the time you... introduce myself." Jake closed his eyes in defeat, leaving his hands in the air.
Gavin shook his head, in a way that suggested he was either ashamed or scared of himself or both, Jake couldn't tell. Gavin slung the shotgun back over his back. "No. I see our point. If I shot you now, it'd be like bathing in honey. Useless." Jake looked confused; he'd never heard that expression before.
Jake lowered his hands back to his sides before crossing them across his chest, he cocked an eyebrow and chuckled. "You sure 'bout that?"
"Yes, Completely. Absolutely, positively, sure." Gavin returned the playful chuckle. "Plus, if this is the zombie apocalypse, I wouldn't want to burn potential emergency rations. I take my meat raw." Jake couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but continued to smile. Gavin started towards the house, he stopped and looked back at Jake over his shoulder. "You comin'? I'm going to tell the others." Jake grinned and nodded, following Gavin.
Gavin held the door for Jake before going in himself and letting the door fall to a close behind him. The cabin was booming with energetic pop music and multiple overlapping conversations. Red and green Christmas lights with spherical bulbs that intertwined with the railings, and with the decorative beams that were placed across the very high ceiling. The can lights on the ceiling were dimmed, giving the room a warm glow.
After Gavin and Jake strode into the cabin coolly; the state of the art speaker system switched form the great spirited "Four five seconds" by Rihanna to a considerably more intense and vivacious "Panda" by Desiigner.
"Turn it down!" yelled Gavin at the top of his lungs, no one heard him. The bass rattled his teeth and vibrated the essence of his body down to it's very core. Even his heart wasn't safe. If his heart was a beast, and the ribcage was it's cage, his beast was going balls off the wall, ballistic, apeshit.
In frustration, Gavin hopped onto the couch, "Turn it down!" he shouted again with his hands cupped around his mouth to amplify his voice. The group collectively turned their heads and Jimmy walked over to a stereo system installed into the wall adjacent to the kitchen, turning the knob to turn down the volume to a reasonable volume.
As "Panda" quietly played in the background, Jimmy approached the couch. "Come on man, get off. Chill." Jimmy was visibly annoyed, he pointed a finger at Gavin and swept it down to the floor, motioning for him to get off of his couch.
Gavin hopped over the back and stood in front of Jimmy. They glared into each others eyes, disgusted, in a way that only arch rivals would. They looked at each other with a disdain both of them refused to announce, but they clearly didn't fool anyone. Gavin easily towered over Jimmy with a tall and lean build, but Jimmy countered it with a slightly shorter but much more muscular build. Plus, he had a steel will that was proven unbeatable and a burning stare that was as unconquerable as it was unbeatable. Jimmy and Gavin hardly ever agreed on anything, much less got along. Jimmy despised Gavin's by the books attitude and Boy Scout personality, he thought it got in the way of getting things done. Many compared the rivalry to those of Mayweather versus Pacquiao, Ali versus Frasier, or even Chuck Norris versus Bruce Lee. (Jimmy's favorite comparison of them all.)
Jimmy stared at Gavin, waiting for him to say something that he expected to be impeccably stupid. "Well? Huh? What's so important you got to stop the good times?" Jimmy got in Gavin's face, and he whispered without malice, "These people, my people, have gone through a lot. Just let it wait, ok?" without receiving a response, Jimmy angrily backed off. That was the warning shot, and so the cruel words started. "Well, can't say I'm surprised. It's typical for an eagle humping Boy Scout such as yourself." Jimmy said loudly for everyone to hear. Shots fired, these were mere bullets, and it got real messy when he ordered volleys of verbal cannon fire. Jimmy was notorious for taking things too far, or "to the next level" as Jimmy put it, in his defense. He was very much a daredevil, almost putting Evel Knievel to shame.
Gavin said nothing. Instead he pursed his lips, balled his hands into fists so that veins popped out of the back of his hands and up his forearms, he stood stiff as a board, his eyes bulged forward in a stern stare directed at his rival's face, and the steam coming out of his ears was nearly visible to the spectating crowd. The room fell silent.
"Hold on," said Jimmy, holding up a solitary finger, he swiveled around and waltzed over to the small table in front of the stereo system. Still dancing to the tune of "Panda". Jimmy grabbed a glass of red liquor, it had a stir stick in it with a black olive skewered on it. He turned around, swishing the liquid in the glass whilst glaring at Gavin. Jimmy strode back and the chorus of the song began.
Jimmy reached Gavin and ate the olive off the skewer. the chorus was still playing, accelerating. Jimmy swished the liquor around, and at the sound of the bass drop, he splashed the liquor into Gavin's face. Jimmy sure was one for theatrics.
"Spit it out! C'mon big guy! Ain't so tough now is ya?" taunted Jimmy, backing off.
"Okay! Geez... you's lucky I don't pummel the grease outta you're dumb hair." retorted Gavin angrily, wiping the alcohol from his face. He was really playing with fire now. He spoke negatively about Jimmy's hair.
"It's pomade... anyway the hell's you trying to say, punk?" Jimmy seemed momentarily hurt by that comment. He took great pride and care of his hair, and yes, he did style it the way a modern day greaser would.
"We gotta go. Pack your stuff into the escalade." said Gavin quickly.
"What? Now? Why?" asked Jimmy, baffled.
"Because, Jimmy, we may have some chilling leads to this whole, uh, situation.."
A sudden realization of fear swept over Jimmy like a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier. "What do you mean?"
"I'm just saying, why would they take the baby... and just kill Tracy?" he asked, not expecting Jimmy to answer. Jake looked like he was made uncomfortable by the question.
"Who's Tracy?" asked Jimmy, confused.
"A friend, look... I'll explain later." I'm just here thinking of something real bad is happening here and we have the power to stop it. And, Jimmy, if we don't, what does that make us?"
Jimmy's lawyer side showed itself, when he grimly said, "Accomplices. Ok, let's go. But what's going on Gavin? The truth, please."
Gavin leaned in closer, to dramatic affect, "I think someone's behind all this. And I know what direction they went."
