“Is not.” John frowned.
“Is too. ‘Oh no. The zombies are coming to get us. We could easily outrun them, but somehow we run in circles and can’t outwit lobotomized humans. Oh no! I’ve been infected. But I won’t tell my group because I’ll be different…’” John and Wick didn’t look impressed. Maybe I overdid it with the theatrical hand gestures and fake damsel in distress fainting.
“So you don’t like zombie movies?” Jess asked with a dry voice.
“No.” My hands went to my hips on reflex. “If there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, I’m going to hole up somewhere with my guns and knives and stay away from all the dumbasses.”
“And these dumbasses would be?” Jess asked.
“Uh, weren’t you listening? Everyone else!”
“A bit of an exaggeration.” John’s voice pinched the air as he crossed his arms.
“Say what you want, but there appears to be something about zombie apocalypses that renders the non-infected terminally stupid,” I said. John looked about to say something, but I overrode him. “Case and point!” I pointed my damning finger at the television screen and waved it around a little.
One of the female actors pulled back her sleeve to look at a zombie inflicted wound, before covering it back up and glancing back and forth to see if anyone saw. Dramatic music followed and then the show cut to commercial.
No one spoke. Everyone looked at either me or John.
“Okay. Maybe you have a point,” John conceded. “But before you start doing your happy dance, know that your attempt to ruin this show for me failed. I’ll still watch it.” He popped a chip in his mouth. “And I’ll love it even more knowing it pisses you off.”
“Ugh.” Though tempting to tell him to chew with his mouth closed, it would come across as petty. I’d already won the argument.
“What’s everyone else’s motive?”
“Same as John’s,” Ryan quipped. He looked away immediately to avoid contact. A dig, but given that he voluntarily spoke in my direction for the first time, I took it as progress.
Jess shrugged. “I’m outnumbered.”
“I like that they have guns and shoot stuff. There tends to be a lot of things blown up, too. That’s good.” Wick smiled. “Besides, it makes me want to smash things. It’s perfect motivation before a raid.”
“Are you a seven-year-old boy trapped in a man's body?” Did they take nothing serious?
John laughed along with Wick. “We’re all seven-year-old boys at heart.”
The door slammed and by the time I turned around, Steve ran around the corner into the living room. He carried a case of beer in one hand and cradled four bags of chips with his other arm. “Did I miss anything?”
“No…” Jess’s lie stank up the room. She looked away.
Steve halted. “Oh man! You started without me?”
“Relax bud.” John relieved him of the case of beer. “It’s saved. We’ll start at the beginning.”
The groan escaped my mouth before I could clamp it shut.
Steve eyed me suspiciously.
“Don’t,” John warned, shaking his head at his packmate.
Steve turned to John. “Zombie hater?”
John nodded and they both shot me disgusted looks.
I held their stares. “I feel like I’ve justified my stance on this matter.” Looking at the couches, I considered my options. “Think I might join you.”
John groaned. “You can’t stay if all you’re going to do is sit there and make bitchy comments.”
No point denying I intended to do exactly what he accused me of. I turned to everyone else and gave them a sympathetic look. “Fine, then. I’m going to do a little reading, to improve my mind.”
“Good luck with that,” Steve shot as he opened a bag of chips. He misjudged his strength and ripped the bag open, sending chips flying across the room and eliciting a string of curses and barbs from the others. He shrugged, picked some off the coffee table and popped them in his mouth.
Frowning, I considered how at home Steve seemed with Wick’s inner circle, yet the first time I met him, he’d been at that awful gas station. The words escaped before I could filter. “How come you weren’t around when Wick first imprisoned me in this house and now you’re here all the time?”
Steve turned to me with a mouth full of potato chips. He started to speak and then, realizing exactly how full his mouth was, thought better of it.
Wick placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Steve is one of my enforcers. He was out of town on pack business during your…confinement.”