Well Fed - 05 Read Online Free

though it took enough lead to make the body look like a salt shaker. A shitload of duct tape holds it together now. Plastic instead of a windshield. Damn thing flutters when––”
    “ All right ,” Gus erupted. “All right. I got it. Stop rubbing it in. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry . You want me to get you a new car?”
    “Nah. Only bringin’ that up to illustrate my point on assholes. See, I thought you were an asshole, right? One puckered-up, burnt-out, brown-eyed asshole. But I went back, and when I found you in the middle of the road, ripped up like you’d been sucked up by a snow blower and shot screaming into a wood chipper… well, shit chute or not, I couldn’t leave you there. You understand what I’m saying?”
    Gus did but shied away from admitting it.
    “I gave you a second chance, man. Shit. I had to. You were a person , lying facedown in the middle of dead territory. A piece of work who’d broken both arms and pissed and shit himself, no less.”
    “Please tell me you kept that part to yourself.”
    “Which part?”
    Gus twirled a finger. “The parts about the shitting and the pissing.”
    “Ah, hell, whattaya think I am? Sure, I kept quiet about that. Sure enough. Even an asshole has some measure of dignity. No need to bring shit like that up. No, sir.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Can’t say the same for Maggie, though.”
    Gus lowered his head into a hand.
    “Well, she did do the majority of the repairs on you,” Adam carried on. “Including the cleanup. And I know she talks to Thelma. What can you do? She’s the doc around here. Got us by the chicken necks and giblets. Anyway, point is, I thought you were an asshole, but you really weren’t. Not at all. Now, look at you. You’re the sheriff around here. Wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t take the chance. You see what I’m sayin’? Talbert. Sure, the man’s a dick. Can’t say I haven’t had my times with him ’cause I have. He’s another gut-clenched, rug-burned asshole, but there’s another side to him too. He and the others go out there and bring back things we need here. See? They risk their lives to improve ours. What does that tell you? You’ve seen him go out there. He’s not all bad. You just haven’t, well, discovered the good side yet.”
    “Yeah,” Gus breathed out, unconvinced but understanding the reasoning.
    “Anyway, Maggie and I figured that it might be an idea for you to go look for ’em.”
    That widened Gus’s eyes harder than a finger probing for his prostate. “You’re fuckin’ kidding me.”
    But Adam wasn’t. Gus saw it on the old guy’s face.
    “I can’t go out there ! Who’ll protect the farm?”
    “We’ve done okay when you weren’t here. And the zombies haven’t been around like before. Like you said, they’re thinning out. Might be, one day, we can go back to the way things were. Minus the creature comforts. We’ll do shifts like before…”
    Gus barely heard the details. Adam’s request flickered across his mind like a short-circuiting neon sign. Go out there and look for Talbert? Look for a guy he secretly hoped became a deadhead, just so he could cave in his skull?
    Jesus H. Christ .
    “Anything else I could do?” Gus pleaded, very much willing to bargain.
    “Nope,” Adam chuckled, thinking he was joking. “Just do that. Anita knows how you can get there. She’ll give you directions.”
    “Maybe she should go.”
    Another giggle. “You’re on fire today, ain’tcha? That would be a sight to see. Anita cruising on down the highway, on the prowl.”
    At sixty-eight, Anita Little was the oldest in the group.
    “Adam?” a little voice squeaked, and both men turned to see Becky and Chad standing just a few steps away. Both were seven years old, their cheeks wind kissed and ruddy from running about. Chad’s blond hair was buzzed short while Becky’s hung down to her waist in a straight cascade of brown. Four brown eyes the size of eggs peeped at Gus, melting any