Read Zombies! (Episode 7): Conflicts of Interest for Free Online Page A

Martin's attempts at conversation with grunts or absent nods. Only when she started giving Sammy the same treatment, did Martin say something.
     
     
    "We should go out tomorrow night," he said. "We'll take Sammy somewhere fun and behave as a family for a change. All of this economy and zombie shit has us behaving like we're under siege. I won't have it anymore." He said it all with a tone of mock firmness.
     
     
    It was wasted on Abby. "I have to go out tomorrow night."
     
     
    "That's what I said," Martin answered, though the cheerfulness had gone from his voice.
     
     
    "You know what I mean."
     
     
    He glanced once at Sammy and saw that the boy was well occupied with a chicken nugget. "Where are you going?"
     
     
    Abby looked up at her husband and knew what she had to do. "I'm meeting with Peter."
     
     
    Slamming his hand on the table, Martin startled Sammy. "I knew it!" he shouted. "That's where you were last week, also. Weren't you?"
     
     
    Head down, she nodded.
     
     
    "God damn it, Abby, are you trying to get yourself killed? I saw the news the next morning. They said there were zombies in that burning building and I thought, God but I hope Abby wasn't there . But I knew better, didn't I?"
     
     
    "I'm sorry, Martin. I couldn't just sit by…"
     
     
    He glared at her. "So you burned down a building?"
     
     
    She shook her head. "No. God, no, Martin. All we did was post some fliers. I don't know who set the fire."
     
     
    "But you think it's unrelated?"
     
     
    "I don't know," she said, exasperated. Sammy looked up at them. "It's just so hard, Martin. The nightmares…"
     
     
    "It's no excuse, Abby. It's bad enough that you lied to me, but a man is dead because of what you did that night."
     
     
    "We didn't set any fire. We were just warning people."
     
     
    "And giving them an excuse to be destructive. Don't you think Peter was watching that news report with a smile on his face? There are consequences for everything, Abby. We have police for a reason."
     
     
    "I can't just do nothing, Martin. Those things will kill us all."
     
     
    "They're not going to kill us all. I understand what you went through, but…"
     
     
    "You don't understand!" She cried at him. "You weren't there, Martin. I know you were worried about me and you were worried about Sammy, but you weren't there . You can't know. Karl was eating that nurse and she was eating that doctor. Then they ate that security guard and, oh God, Martin, what happened to Dr. Leke… We were so helpless. That feeling, the helplessness, it doesn't just go away. I have to face it. I have to fight back."
     
     
    Martin had nothing to say to that. Perhaps she was right. He didn't understand her pain. But that didn't excuse her actions. It didn't bring the dead firefighter back to life.
     
     
    He turned his head away. "What shall we do, then, Abby? Will you keep carrying on with Peter?"
     
     
    "I don't know," she said, standing up. She went over to Sammy and kissed him on the forehead. Then she went into the bathroom and cried in the shower.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    FRIDAY passed in the blink of an eye.
     
     
    Abby and Martin said nothing to each other as they each prepared for work and helped to prepare Sammy for his day at daycare. When she left, she didn't kiss him goodbye. He asked if she would be home so that they could go out and she said no. She apologized for it, but no it remained.
     
     
    John Arrick, feeling less and less like himself and more and more like an empty shell, taught his classes mechanically and spent his off periods staring blankly at the walls. It was fight night and he would have to go to the arena straight from work to prepare the zombies for combat. Marcus anticipated a sell-out crowd.
     
     
    Anthony Heron left his house early in the morning vowing that he would join his wife and daughter for dinner and a movie that night. He waited all day for Captain Naughton to return to his office with the court order that