smirked at Bernice through the rear-view. “He’s had a rough day. Bad enough we have to shock him every ten minutes —”
“More like five,” Bob noted.
“— whatever.” Trip snorted. “I’m just saying, he probably doesn’t appreciate all the questions.”
“It’s okay,” Bob said. “It’s nice just talking, again. We mostly communicate non-verbally. But truth is, I don’t know.”
“What does it matter?” Trip lit a cigarette. Not that many left in the tin, he noted with a sour frown. “It’s here, it’s not bothering anybody.”
“Except the people it turns into zombies,” Bernice said.
Bob shook his head. “Not bothering us, either. It’s saving us. Before I walked in, I had nothing —”
“Wait a second.” Rudy wiped beer from his lips with the back of his hand and handed the jug back to Bernice. “You walked in? Voluntarily?”
“Yeah. And it was the best decision we ever made.”
“We?” Rudy asked.
Bob looked out the window at the shelves flashing by. “There were about two dozen of us at the end — all that was left after our town got taken over by a WOLFpack. We’d been doing the nomad thing for a while, but it was hard. Real hard. The things we did for food and shelter... I don’t like remembering. And that was when we could find either. We never knew when one of us might go missing in the middle of the night — kidnapped by raiders or dragged off by an animal. But then we came across the All-Mart. We’d heard the stories about being turned into zombies, but at that point, we were desperate. We figured it was better being a zombie than what we were.”
Bernice took a slug of beer. “I’d rather be dead in the wasteland than a zombie in here.”
Bob turned away from the window towards her. “You say that, but you don’t know. I mean, my old life, it seems unreal, and right now, I feel okay — but unnatural. Like I’m dreaming — more like I’m having a nightmare. I can’t wait to wake up and be myself again.”
Bernice smirked. “My friends didn’t ask to be zombies. They aren’t better off.”
“I’m just speaking for myself,” Bob said. “I’m part of something. I’ve got a job, a reason to exist. Plus, I eat regular. And I’m safe. My family’s safe. Hell, if it wasn’t for the All-Mart, I wouldn’t have met my wife.”
“You met her in here?” Rudy asked.
“Yeah, of course. She’s security. She was working Tween board games, same as I was, and we hit it off just about instantly over a game of ‘Sparkly Mystery Dude.’ Nine months later, we had Ty.”
“A zombie baby?” Trip asked.
Bob smiled proudly. “He’s gonna be an associate, just like his dad. His little sister, Denise, we won’t know for another year when the specialization kicks in, but her mom’s already hoping for security. Made her a little badge and everything.”
“Weird.” Bernice took another sip of beer.
“What’s so weird about it?” Bob asked. “We have lives here. Good lives. We don’t get sick. We live practically forever... and the All-Mart provides everything we need.”
“See, there you go.” Trip raised an eyebrow at Bernice through the rear view. “However this thing ended up being here — let’s just say it sprang up spontaneously from the desert — it’s a good thing. And if any one individual played a minor and quite accidental part in it, they should probably get a medal or something.”
Bernice scowled at him. “Or a good punch in the temple. With brass knuckles. Or one of those spikey things.”
Rudy shot Trip a sideways glance, and Trip cleared his throat, tapped on the GameGear display. The wireframe showed miles of shelves around them, with a few dozen blue dots scattered around. “Anybody else thinkin’ it’s odd we haven’t seen any security? Zombie — you weren’t kidding about the Voice knowing we’re here, right?”
“The Voice knows everything,” Bob said. “Because we tell her everything.”
Trip twisted around, put his arm up on the back of the front seat, and smirked at Bob. “So why hasn’t it sent somebody to convert us? Or fetch us like it did Roxanne? “
“In all my time here, the Voice has never asked that anyone be brought to it before today. Your friend must be special.”
“Special how?”
“The Voice didn’t say. Only that it wanted her.”
“And it didn’t want us?” Rudy asked.
Bob shook his head at Rudy. “It didn’t say anything about you — but that’s normally how it works. The Voice doesn’t get involved. Us associates are