Resistance by John Birmingham

Author:John Birmingham
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Thrillers, General, Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9781743518229
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2015-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

13

‘Oh Hell no,’ said Zach Allen. ‘Zombies? No way. I hate those guys!’

‘Talking zombies,’ said Dave, shaking his head, almost grinning at the madness of it all. ‘I forgot about them, or, you know, Urgon never had reason to think of ’em.’

‘Tell me this isn’t going to get any weirder,’ said Igor as he spooned up a plate of meatloaf with mac and cheese. It was splattered with red tabasco sauce which he’d produced from one of his pockets.

‘This could work for us, Dave,’ said Boylan. ‘Zombies are hot right now. The project Brad Pitt is putting on hold to do your film? Unless we give it to Bay, of course, it’s his zombie sequel! Coincidence? I think not. Walking Dead is still coining it for AMC. Again, zombies! I’m excited by this, Dave. Very excited. Numb with terror and horrified too, naturally, but very excited.’

Dave pushed away the empty platter that had held his Cracker Barrel sampler, a generous pile-up of chicken-n-dumplings, meatloaf, and sugar-cured ham. He pulled the plate of chicken-fried chicken toward him, much to Zach Allen’s disgust.

‘Couldn’t you at least try a salad?’ Zach asked, working on his own chef’s salad and pinto beans.

‘And they’re not really zombies,’ said Dave, ignoring the chief petty officer’s dietary advice. ‘More like meat puppets. Tümorum on the other hand . . .’

‘Meat puppets?’ asked Emmeline.

‘Yeah, that works,’ said Dave as he loaded up on fat and protein, feeling strangely content. Even Lucille was humming softly as though she’d eaten her fill of Cracker Barrel’s ‘fancy fixin’s’. Cracker Barrel was Dave’s sort of place. Partly because Annie hated everything about it. Half of the building was set up like a general store which sold bric-a-brac, trinkets and souvenirs, the sort of crap that caused children to howl if they didn’t get their way. Annie resented the temptation of soda pops and candy, preferring the boys to snack on a wholesome avocado half or an apple, but even more than that she resented Dave undermining her, getting the boys a chocolate bar for the road or a Coke to ‘top up the ol’ tank’. He supposed he’d been a bit of a jerk, but on the other hand . . . avocado? Seriously?

The reduced Super Friends team – both SEALs, Emmeline and Boylan – sat in the dining hall, which could easily have done duty as a medieval dining hall. Behind them a stone fireplace lay unlit and cold due to the late September warmth. Dead fireplaces always struck Dave as looking colder than they actually were. Heath had remained in the tent to talk to the generals about important soldier stuff, with some important neckbeard input from Compton. Emmeline had stalked out with Dave, who’d announced he needed to do some important superhero stuff because he was hungry. He found he could get out of anything by saying he was hungry.

‘You said something about meat puppets,’ Emmeline reminded him, ‘before you put half a chicken in your face. What did you mean?’

He swallowed the food and took a mouthful of black coffee with it.

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