CHAPTER 11
My grumbling stomach in the morning made a trip into town for food my first priority. For some reason, Nathan insisted on checking out the shed first. It wasn’t big enough to fit a car inside its walls, so I wasn’t interested in the least. I followed anyway, prepared to be the nagging thorn in his rear if he dallied too long.
Or to rescue him if the thing caved in on him. The stained wood siding was splintered in places, and I swore the walls swayed in the light breeze. Its squeaky hatch lifted like a small garage door, and I took a step back, fanning the particles of dust and wood chips that were launched in the air.
“Bingo,” Nathan said as he darted inside.
I wondered what he was so excited about…until I saw the array of weapons in front of me. That explained it, I thought as I followed him inside. He was such a Rambo kind of guy, I should have expected this.
Hand-crafted wooden counters had been built along two walls inside the shed. Every inch was covered with an assortment of guns, knives, and other weapons I had no name for. Nathan reminded me of a kid in a candy store as he inspected the collection.
I ran my hand over a few knives on the counter closest to the door. Most of them looked like normal knives of varying sizes and shapes, but one of them stood apart from the others. I held it up in the sun and turned it side to side as I admired it. The blade sparkled in the light.
“So, this is your stash?” I asked Nathan.
“Mine and a few others.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Oh hey, be careful with that one.” He crossed the room and gingerly took the knife from my hands. “This one has been cast in diamond. It’s the deadliest kind of weapon to my kind.”
I stared at the sparkling flecks on the blade. Tiny diamonds. “What makes it so deadly?”
“Not sure. Someone at one point figured out that diamond can kill our…non-human part. We have been coating weapons with it ever since. These weapons are very rare and much desired.”
“Your knife is coated too, isn’t it?”
He looked surprised I had noticed that, and nodded his head. “I’ve had it for a long time.”
“Is that what makes the bodies vaporize?”
“Vaporize?” He sounded amused by my word choice. “Yes, the only weapons that can dissipate our souls are the coated ones. Anything coated in diamond will work.”
Dissipate our souls? Sounded heavy.
I eyed the knife as Nathan set it on the counter with the others. “Can non-coated weapons kill you?” I asked.
“Yes, but it’s harder. Our bodies heal faster and are more resilient than human bodies. It’s possible to kill us if you do enough damage, but the body won’t vaporize unless diamond is used. Diamond is preferred because it’s easier, there’s no cleanup, and it’s a guaranteed kill. Even if all you do is wound us, we’ll die later, even from a superficial scrape.”
I snapped my hand back, eyes wide as I looked at Nathan. “Can it hurt me?”
“No, only those of us that aren’t entirely human.” He glanced at me warily as he turned away. “So don’t come anywhere near me with that thing.”
I smiled at his retreating back. He didn’t need to worry. I had no plans to touch anything diamond again. Its safety record with humans was not something I wanted to test.
“Maybe I’ll teach you how to use a few weapons while we’re hiding out here,” Nathan said offhandedly as he surveyed the rest of the shed.
I was about to tell him how bad of an idea that was when he spotted what he was looking for, and crossed to the corner with an excited whoop. He lifted a dusty black sheet from a large oddly shaped object to reveal a motorcycle that had seen better days. It was one of those sleek crotch rocket types, with chipped red paint, a rusty tail pipe, and a flat tire, but Nathan was very excited to see it.
“Old friend of yours?” I asked as I approached for a better look.
“Very old friend,” he said as he circled the machine, rubbing his hand over the seat.
“Yeah no kidding,” I scoffed, but he didn’t notice.
I recognized the look in his eyes. He was in man-on-a-mission mode. “Where would I have put the key?” he muttered under his breath as he crossed to the nearest counter. “Ah-ha!” He snatched a set from a hook on the wall and jingled them as he turned.
“Uh…” I pointed out the rear flat tire before he got too excited.
He frowned and dropped to his knees to inspect it. “It doesn’t look punctured or anything,” he observed, and swept his gaze around the shed. “I have a pump around here somewhere.”
“It looks like you have a variety of everything in here. You know, there are reality shows for people like you. There’s also places you could get help for your...uh, problem. ”
He squinted at me. “I’m prepared.”
“Yeah.” I surveyed the weapons cache. “To take on the Zombie Apocalypse single-handedly.”
I knew I was being bitchy, but come on, I was hungry. There was no way that motorcycle would make it out of the shed, let alone down the mountain to civilization and food. I wanted to tell him to stop wasting time playing with the worthless piece of junk, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t have heard it as the friendly inspiration I intended it to be.
At least he picked up on the hint that I wanted nothing to do with motorcycles and weapons. He sighed as he approached me. “Alright, come on.”
Back in the cabin, he rummaged through the drawers in the kitchen and produced a notepad and a small mini-golf pencil. He handed them to me with instructions to jot down things that we would need to stay there for a few more days.
“What are you going to do?” I asked when he turned to leave.
He paused in the doorway. “Getting our ride into town ready. Unless you’d rather walk?”
He darted outside without waiting for a response. Not that I had one. I wasn’t about to tell him he was wasting his time. If there was one thing I had learned about Nathan the past few days, it was to never, ever challenge him. I decided to let him figure it out on his own that even he had limits. Then I would stand back and enjoy the fallout.
Even more enticing than watching Nathan fail at something was the idea of food, and I had a shopping list to make.
The cabinets were mostly empty. There were a few plates, cups, and some silver ware, but no food, aside from a few packets of hot chocolate and a bottle of creamer that was cemented into one hard lump. Food topped the list. I added shampoo, soap, and toilet paper. There was no washer, and I wondered how we would wash our dirty clothes. Maybe we would just buy new? I wrote down laundry detergent or new clothes with a question mark. I would have to ask Nathan about that one.
Satisfied with my list, I headed outside to see if he had given up yet. Half way to the shed, I heard an engine roar to life and quickened my pace. I found him inside, straddling a completely different motorcycle, with fully inflated tires and a polished tailpipe.
I leaned against the wall, secretly impressed, and observed Nathan’s excitement. Boys and their toys, I thought, and my grin widened. It was nice to see him acting his age for once. Odd, but nice. And, well, he looked mighty fine on a motorcycle.
I waved when he spotted me over his shoulder. With visible reluctance, he killed the engine.
“You did it,” I said cheerily. “Now we go shopping?”
“Not quite.” He grimaced as he stepped off the bike. “You have one more job to do first.”