Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 285: She Did Nothing

I shook my head and looked at the man sympathetically. "Not only are you deaf, but you have lost your memory. I am so sorry for you," I sighed. "Not to mention you are stuck with this woman and kid. I really, really feel bad for you. I wish I could help, but I have no idea who you are."

The man looked at me, his face studying mine as if he was trying to figure out how my brain worked. Good luck, buddy; I didn’t know how it worked either.

"You are right," said the man, his voice calm and reasonable. However, it was interesting... the calmer he was, the more the warning bells were going off in my head.

His wife opened her mouth to interrupt, but he simply shut her up with a single hand.

"I normally am," I agreed. "But what am I right about this time?"

"There is a price for everything. And there is a price for crossing someone who shouldn’t be," he explained as he lowered his hand and adjusted his cuff. The line in front of us moved, and we moved with it.

"I am so glad that we agree," I nodded. "So, you and yours are going to forget about me and mine, and if we ever see each other in the Sanctuary, we both agree to go our separate ways... yes?"

"See, I would love to do that, but then that very idea sticks in my throat and threatens to choke me. Instead, you are going to give my son your sucker, and I am going to forget about making the rest of your life miserable. You see, I am not someone you want to fuck with," said the man, his voice remaining the same even as he stared down at me like he could already see me dead at his feet.

"Dustin?" called out a voice behind me, but neither me nor Dustin was willing to look away.

The line moved forward, and we all moved with it.

"Are you really going to throw down for a lollypop?" continued the man as he wrapped an arm around my waist. I bit the inside of my cheek to suppress the shudder of someone touching me who wasn’t my man.

Tank was practically vibrating in anger, but he didn’t move. Huh, I thought for sure he would have ripped off this guy’s hand.

"Eric, what are you doing here?" grunted Dustin, his eyes narrowing on where his ’friend’s’ hand was on my hip. "Who is she?"

"My wife," replied Eric with a bright smile as he kissed my temple. "Sorry I’m late, honey; it was hard to find you amongst all these people."

Humming, I played along. "It’s okay," I replied, looking up at the man who had stepped in. "Tank was with me," I continued, tilting my head down at my dog. "No one was touching me."

"Dustin is one of my longtime friends," he explained, the smile still on his face. However, it wasn’t until this moment that I noticed it was absent from his eyes. He definitely didn’t look impressed. "I’m sure whatever you are arguing over, he’ll give me some face and back down."

Dustin snorted, even as his wife interjected. "He doesn’t need to back down. This bitch just needs to hand over her candy, and everything will be settled."

"And I told you, I had no problem giving you my lollypop if you’ll give me your son’s head. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, right? You want something of mine, so you pay the price."

Once again, the line moved, and we moved with the line.

"She has a point," smirked Eric as he looked Dustin in the eyes. "After all, why should she be expected to share when you never do. Or have you changed in the past few years?"

"I don’t share," snapped Dustin, cutting down the conversation.

"And neither does my wife. So, maybe you should take this as a teaching opportunity and teach your son that he can’t just cry and demand things. For fuck sake, he’s almost ten and still being carried by your wife," sighed Eric.

"It’s your wife who is being unreasonable," snapped the wife, and I had had enough of the entire conversation.

"Fine," I said, holding up my candy. "When I give this to your son, it’s all over and done with, right?"

The wife snorted while Dustin nodded his head. "If you were going to be reasonable, then you should have done it sooner."

Nodding my head in agreement, I handed over the lollypop to the kid. He sneered at me with a very adult look on his face like he knew exactly what he was doing. Eric was about to open his mouth to say something, but I shook my head.

I would never go back on my word; it’s not my fault that nobody listened to me.

The moment the lollypop passed through that kid’s lips, and he tasted the overly sweet artificial cherry flavoring, his head dropped off his shoulders and landed on the ground.

Time seemed to freeze as Dustin and his wife’s eyes went wide as they stared at their son’s headless body. His arms, which were clinging to his mother for dear life, now hung limply as his body slumped against hers.

Looking down at the ground, the kid was still wearing the self-satisfied smirk on his face, the stick of the lolly pop sticking out of his mouth.

"What did you do?" demanded Dustin as his wife dropped to her knees, holding the body of her son closer to her chest as she reached out for his head.

"I didn’t do anything," I scoffed at him.

"You had to have," he spat at me before turning to Eric. "What did your wife do?!?"

Eric studied my face for a moment, and I almost felt bad for him. Then again, it wasn’t like I had asked for his help; maybe losing this friend was the price he paid for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.

"She did nothing," murmured Eric, a look of astonishment on his face as his eyes never left me. "She doesn’t have a single drop of blood on her, her dog is still at her side, and she has no weapons. There is no way on Earth you can connect her to your son’s death."