Not Dead Enough to Stay Down Chapter 6

“Told you,” I squeezed my eyes shut and flinched. “Ok, um, how bout we trade supplies. It’s better than Emily’s ‘smart’ plan of stealing.”
“Fair enough!” the boy put the gun down and smiled at us. “I’m Michael.”
“I’m Rose and this is Emily,” I said awkwardly to him. All the boys at my high school were shorter than me; somehow all of those boys were less than 5”11, so meeting a person of the male gender who was actually an inch or two taller than me was weird.
“Those are very pretty names,” he winked at us.
“Excuse me?” Emily gave me the WTF look as she back away a little.
“Let’s see… We have 5 bottles of water each, some canned soup, canned meat, eeww canned asparagus, a few bottles of Pepsi Max, and some candy bars,” I finished looking through our packs and shrugged at him.
“How many candy bars exactly?” Michael’s completely serious look of interest seemed to confuse Emily even more.
“About 6,” I answered. “Why? This stuff isn’t exactly life sav-“
“I will take all 6 for 1 jug of water!” he looked like a little boy with the wonder in his face.
“Seriously? Like, a gallon jug? For only 6 candy bars?” Emily looked astonished at me.
“They are king-sized,” I almost laughed. “Wha’d you have Sugar Boy?”
“A whole mess of canned soups, vegetables, meat and other stuff; and pain killers, aspirin, sleeping pills, vitamins, the chewy vitamins, some weed, and some lollipops,” he replied.
“Whoa! You smoke WEED?” Emily’s astonishment continued to grow.
“No, actually weeds,” he pulled some dandelions and other weeds from his pack. “If I feel like midnight snacking I just chew on these.”
I raised my eyebrows at both of them and generally laughed, Michael reminded me of a friend I had in middle school, always obsessed with weird stuff.
“I have a question…” he looked at us with pure question for a moment, then broke out laughing.
“That could mean a few things. Ask away Wonder Boy,” Emily crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“May I accompany you ladies for a while? Being alone is boring,” he gave us an awkward smile and rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m cool,” I looked at Emily and she hesitantly nodded.
“Awesome!” he squealed, sounding like an excited girl from the ages of 7-12.
“How long have you stayed here Mike?” Emily asked, curiosity burning in her sapphire eyes.
“Well, I was on a camping trip with my science class. We were staying near Fresno. I went out to the near-by town with my friend Joey to get some candy and when we came back those things were everywhere, gnawing and tearing and… Anyway, we ran as far as we could to somewhere in Monterey I think. We were so panicky; a walker grabbed Joey and started eating him. I just ran away. Then I found myself in, San Mateo I think. Met some people and they robbed me. And my story up until now ends with about a month ago finding myself here, wherever this is,” he sighed.
“All on foot? Why haven’t you just taken a car? I saw one in the garage, couldn’t you have just taken that?” Emily looked astonished.
“Yeah, we would’ve taken a car if we had the keys or could hotwire it. Why didn’t you?” I looked puzzled at him.
“Well, the fact of my food galore means I don’t have to leave. Also…” he mumbled this next part very quietly. “I can’t drive…”
Emily burst out laughing and he just looked ashamed. Even I had learned to drive after the outbreak,so it was hard not to laugh considering Michael looked at least a year older than me.
“Do you want every walker in this whole damn town to come hobbling up our door step?!” I scowled at Emily. “You have the keys to that car?”
“Yeah, they’re still in the thing,” he answered trying not to look embarrassed.
“The ignition,” Emily corrected smugly.
“Awesome, just in case Em’s boat plan doesn’t work out,” I looked triumphed, happy to finally have a Plan B.
“Boat?!” now it was Michael’s turn to laugh. “Is that why you came here? There’s not a boat left in this place! Better luck next time ladies, but every boat I this whole city has either been taken or broken.”
“What…?” Emily looked astonished, completely shattered. “Th-there has to be one.”
“Sorry Sally.”
“Emily,” I corrected. “So this just means slight alteration to our plan.”
“Like what?” Emily questioned.
“We go out into the city to siphon gas for our car and take supplies. Then we get out of here, driving along the coast so we can find a boat and head to Hawaii. Fair enough?” I suggested.
“Hawaii? Sorry to rain on your parade Rose, but it’s no time for a vaca-“
“Mike, Hawaii’s zombie-free. Before the phones went down, my friend there told about how they have military people there who VERY thoroughly check you for bites, and if you don’t have them you can live in peace,” Emily countered.
“Fair enough. You girls ready to get this show on the road?” Mike asked.
“Oh yeah.”