The biscuits looked and smelled amazing.

My plate contained fluffy scrambled eggs, strips of bacon and toast. I could not pass on the biscuits though.  Figured, we might not be here long, so I might as well fill my belly. Could be a while before we eat like this again, if ever.

With a glance around the table, it seemed like I wasn’t the only one thinking this way, with the exception of the Terrigino brothers. They didn’t pile food onto their plates. They knew where the next meal was coming from. It was right in the fridge in the next room.

“I’d be happy to give you a hand, replenishing the food we’ve eaten,” Spade said.

“Thank you,” Jason said. “Someone like you, I doubt it would take very long. Jeremy will accompany you.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s something I can do on my own. We owe you that much. I’m sure your brother has more important things to do if I handle the hunting.”

“Like what?” Jason said. It was the first time I’d seen him snap, losing his cool host-like composure.

“I’m sorry?” Spade said. It wasn’t an apology, as much as a who-the-fuck-do-you-think-you’re-talking-to implication.

“No, I’m sorry.” Jason forked his eggs around on his plate before lifting a mouthful and taking a bite. He chewed slowly, his eyes never leaving Spade. “I just meant, like what is it you think there is for my brother to do? We’re up in the mountains, in the woods, while the world below us is suffering a worse hemorrhage than the black plague.”

Spade pushed back from the table. “I saw stacks of wood. Might need more chopped? Winters must be brutal up here.”

Using the tip of his tongue to pick at food in the front of his teeth, Jason again smiled, or tried to. “That is excellent. We do spend a lot of time chopping wood. The supply dwindles faster than one might think. We have a pretty efficient wood burning stove, but you are correct. Chopping wood is a daily chore. I am sorry if I sounded . . . rude. It’s just this, everything going on, it gets to me.”

“We’ve spent nearly a month watching the military prepare that camp down there. Setting up tents and cleaning the apartments inside. They made repairs to the fence, and were always coming and going. Those loud vehicles of theirs. No respect for nature, really,” Jeremy said. “We had no clue what was going on. We kept our distance, but never stopped watching them.”

“And what did you discover?”

Jason shrugged. “Only that they were expecting to lock a lot of people up inside the razor-wire compound. Of course, we didn’t know why, or what the military was preparing for. All the shit going on in nearly every third-world country, and some not-so-third-world, figured a war was coming. We didn’t take it lightly, Jeremy and me. We chopped our wood, stocked our freezers, and made sure we had a solid stack of supplies. And then we saw them. . .”

“Them?” Palmeri said.

“Those things. The zombies. They brought a few in strapped to gurneys, flown in on that helicopter of theirs.”

“Helicopter?” I said.

“Over by their little landing strip,” Jason said, pointing to nowhere in particular. “We thought for sure a new plague hit. That all these infected people were going to be quarantined in our hills. Our hills. That wasn’t going to work. Our father, he’d never have stood for it. The American military just moving in with diseased people, destroying our home.”

I put a hand on my stomach. Wasn’t sure I was going to like the rest of the story.

“What did you do? What did you and your brother do?” Spade said.

“We did nothing. We watched them. We watched the sick they brought in. Had them in collars and kept them tied to posts like dogs. Jeremy said they looked like zombies,” he said.

“I did. I knew it,” Jeremy said.

“He knew it alright. Then, a few days ago, some of those . . . zombies were outside the fence. Don’t think they were the same ones the military delivered to the camp,” Jason said.

“I was sure it was Mr. Robinson, guy who ran the little grocery store along the main road,” Jeremy said. “And then there was Loretta Breeze, she was in her night gown and just growling and moaning and wandering around aimlessly.”

“Military shot them. Put bullets into their heads. Just, killed them. You don’t shoot sick people,” Jason said.

“And again, I said, they’re zombies. Like in the movies.”

“More came out of the woods. Started sniffing their way around here. We were left with no choice. We had to shoot them. If the military was that out of sorts to the point they were shooting ‘em, it only made sense we should shoot them, too.”

“It’s the military, or I guess, the government’s fault. They brought those things up here,” Jeremy said, as he used a knife to slice open a biscuit. “So all we did was cut a hole in their fence. Gave some of the local dead a chance to enter the compound. That’s all. Served them right. That’s how we see it.”

Spade shook his head. “That’s how you see it?”

“You see it differently, soldier?” Jason tipped his head to one side. It was confrontational.

“That camp was a mobile research facility. They were going to be studying the creatures, trying to find a cure. They were looking for a way to fix the mess,” Spade said.

“A mess they caused,” Jason said.

“Dammit, you had no right. Do you know how many people were in there? How many you killed?”

“We didn’t kill a single one of them.”

“No, but you wanted them gone. Away from your precious land.”

“That so wrong? We built this land. This has been with our family for generations, soldier. Generations. It is ours. My brothers and mine. Military has no right infecting the area with their mistakes. None!” Jason slammed a first on the table. Silverware rattled.

“Our father would have done the same,” Jeremy said. “We just did what he would have done.”

“Then your father was crazy like his boys. Is that what you’re telling me?”

Jeremy jumped to his feet. “You take that back, right now. Take it back!”

Spade shook his head. “Not a fucking chance. I had brothers inside that camp, my family. They’re all dead because of the stupidity of the two of you. Did you ever think to just go and talk with someone at the camp? Ask a few questions before sabotaging their safety?”

“You think we could just stroll up there and introduce ourselves and ask questions, and they’d be all like, come on in, have some coffee and cookies and we’ll give you all the answers you want?” Jason said. “You’re a soldier, yes. But you’re not a robot, are you? You ever know your military to be upfront and honest about anything?”

“Would have been worth a try, first,” Palmeri said.

“A try? A try? I know the soldiers there did a survey of the area. I don’t think they knew we lived so close. They never came around to talk to the neighbors, let me tell you. Not once. So either they knew we were there and didn’t care to introduce themselves, or they didn’t know. I wasn’t going to risk what might happen if they found us.”

“So you killed them all,” Spade said.

Now Jason got to his feet. “We didn’t kill any of them!”

“We’re leaving,” Spade said.

I wanted to bury my son. I took Allison’s hand, giving it a quick squeeze. Things were not going well. We were all on alert. I know I was. I wanted to be sure everyone else was, too.

“Leaving? Going where? You’re in the middle of nowhere, soldier. This place, our home, it’s your best chance to last through the winter. We’ve got everything you could want. Leaving would be foolish. An argument, no, a simple disagreement and you’re just going to up and leave? That’s ridiculous,” Jason said, and sat back down. He motioned for Jeremy to do the same.

“I still want an apology for what you said about our father,” Jeremy said.

“Well, you’re not getting one, fuckface,” Spade said.

“Name calling, really? Is that what we’re resorting to, name calling?” Jason said. “Jeremy, sit down. We need to work past this. Everyone is tense. It’s okay. It’s expected.”