Sentients by Camille Picott

Author:Camille Picott [Picott, Camille]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-13T05:00:00+00:00

No one could stay in the room after Conaway died. They moved to an adjoining theater. The poster outside the door said The Goonies was the last movie to play here.

Jennifer lay in the dark with Mikhail beside her. Koz slept on Mikhail’s other side, snoring loudly. Normally, the snoring would have annoyed her and kept her awake, but tonight, she couldn’t have slept even if she wanted to.

She watched Milo, who sat on the raised platform beneath the movie screen. He rocked back and forth, periodically shoving popcorn into his mouth. Half of it ended up on the floor.

A bit lost. That’s what Conaway had said. Milo had lost his family in the invasion—and part of his sanity, too. His daughter was a mutant zombie. He kept her and his friends sated by feeding them Russians. She had the impression Conaway had been the last piece of stability in Milo’s life.

And Conaway had tied the man to Leo. Why? With the vain hope of keeping him alive? Or did he truly think Milo would return to himself if given enough time?

A memory surfaced from her cheerleading days. One of the girls—Jennifer couldn’t remember her name, but she was one of those girls who went to church and helped at the soup kitchen on the weekends—had a favorite saying: There, but by the grace of God, go I. She said it anytime she saw something sad, like a cat run over on the side of the road or a homeless person.

There, but by the grace of God, go I.

Looking at Milo, Jennifer understood what those words meant on the deepest level.

If Cassie had somehow survived her zombie bite—if any part of her had remained, the way Milo’s daughter remained—she would have gone to any length to protect her. She would have hunted Russians and brought them back to Cassie for dinner.

She’d be just like Milo. She would have no problem keeping a stash of dead Soviets around if Cassie had to eat brains.

It was a chilling realization.

Jennifer knew she balanced on a knife’s edge. The shit her dad had done had messed her up forever. She knew first hand what it was like to be fucked up.

I could end up just like him, she thought. So could Mikhail. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name.

She felt more alone and more scared than ever before.

Mikhail’s chest rose and fell in steady breaths. She inched a little closer to him. Curling up on her side, she let the tip of her forehead barely touch his shoulder.

“We’re not going to turn out like him,” she whispered into the dark. “I promise you, Mikhail. I’m not going to let us turn out like him.”

She fell asleep to the sounds of snoring and crunching popcorn.

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