Later the two women came downstairs together, not quite at peace, but to Mike's eye they had settled something between themselves. Paige was not so pissy about everything and even laughed while Dora made them all coffee. Looking through the refrigerator Paige said, "Dora you don't have much to eat in here." Grabbing some yogurt at random she looked at it and said, "And it looks like a lot of it has expired."
"I don't cook much. Usually I eat out."
"I thought you said you had food?"
"I believe I said I had wine and organic eggs. The eggs are good, I had one this morning. Plus the tortillas and cheese are probably safe. Leave the other stuff there in case we get so hungry we want to eat it anyway. I could order in."
Mike and Paige just looked at her and laughed, "Yeah right!"
"What? Oh this problem going on out there? I wouldn't worry about it, people still want to make money and I know this fabulous Chinese place that delivers, they will bring us food if I ask, it's less than a mile away."
Shaking her head Paige said, "We'll see, but I bet you find out that no money in the world will bring them here today."
"It's a bet then, let's see shall we bet Mike's virtue on it?"
Mike and Paige both said, "No!" in unison, but only Mike blushed.
"What? What happened, Mike? You seemed pretty keen before the shower. Oh, the shower? You had some 'gentleman' time didn't you? Nothing to be ashamed of, but still you should be recovered by tonight."
"Could we talk about…and bet, something else?" said Paige with a warning tone to her voice.
Sighing wearily Dora said with ill grace, "Oh alright! How about five hundred on the delivery?"
"We don't have that much and you know it!" said Paige, "We work at McDonalds."
"You said they won't deliver, don't you believe that? If you believe what you said it's easy money for you. Plus if I win I will just take it out in work. You can be my cook Paige and I will keep Mike around as my pool boy. Oh yes that would work out just fine." said Dora with an evil glint in her eye.
"You have a pool?" asked Mike.
"Of course, open the blinds and take a look. So do we have a bet or not?" Dora held out her hand to shake on it. With some reluctance the other two shook her hand one at a time. Mike went to the blinds shutting out the light from outside and looked out.
"I don't see a pool, just a deck and built in grill. It's like looking into another room with that overhang and stuff out there."
"Well come on then, let me give you the grand tour of Roger's folly!"
"Roger, your husband, right? Why'd you call it that? His folly?" asked Mike.
"This place is semi-awesome I admit, but between the cost for the house and the cost for the community dues we've had to cut back on things. You know, going places and stuff. I thought his salary could cover everything, and he has money from his parents, but Roger likes to live within his means, so his inheritance accumulates interest and we make do with what he brings home. My allowance is a pittance of what it was before we moved in here. Of course, before we were living in the sticks in a crappy four bedroom without a pool and no boat or suburban."
Mike and Paige glanced at each other as they followed Dora out the back door. The wealthy woman showed them around the spacious back yard, the house was built on about half an acre of land and had an eight foot tall privacy wall to keep out the neighbors on either side and at the back. The trees and shrubs planted around the edges were only partially grown, only about twenty feet high, however the flowers were in full bloom.
The deck stepped gracefully down on to a patio, and the built in grill Mike had seen from the window was brick and boasted as much cooking space as the main kitchen. The pool had an additional fence around it, not fully enclosed, just to keep any neighbors who looked out from their second story windows from seeing anyone lying about the edges of the pool. There was a changing room with showers and a bathroom on one side as well. Next to it was a half constructed building that Dora pointed to.
"That's where the sauna is supposed to go. Now I doubt it will get done by the party in September. Maybe it will, if the world isn't truly ending anyway. And no hot tub, isn't that awful?"
The pool was huge and rounded, with a slope that went from zero inches to a depth of three feet about a quarter of the way down. The pool maxed out at nine feet deep at one end with a diving board and water slide.
"We bought this place because Roger had grand dreams of throwing huge parties with his friends and coworkers. You know how many we have had in the two years we lived here? One. Just your run of the mill house warming party. Everyone got to see our place, kick the tires and puke on our lawn. It was a good party." Dora's eyes grew distant as she thought about it.
"So when can we swim?" asked Mike.
"Go for it. Just us friends here." said Dora.
Mike looked hesitant, then mumbled, "Maybe later. You don't have any swimsuits do you?"
"Mike I find the one God provided me with to be sufficient." Dora paused, a moment later she broke out laughing, "God! You are so funny you two! Of course I have swim suits, I am not some naked heathen! If you want to go now I can scrounge up some loaners we have just for that reason."
They all looked at each other for a minute then Paige nodded and pointed at yet another television mounted off the bar near the grill, "That work?"
"Of course darling!"
"Good we can keep up with the news. Let's swim before it gets too hot."
Dora went inside after pointing out the location of the remotes to Mike, she returned minutes later with a couple bottles of wine, glasses and their swimsuits. "Here we are! Now Paige don't look at me like that! I promised you wine and here it is. I have a nice light white here from…Summerset in Iowa, just the thing for a hot day, and you will love what it is called."
"I hate to even ask." said Paige.
"Oh don't be like that! It's called 'Kiss Me', isn't that lovely? It is good too, I think I am right in assuming you two haven't drank much wine?"
They both nodded and took a look at the swimsuits she had brought out with her.
"Then this is the perfect light wine for you to try. I shall expand your palate! Give you an introduction to the find art of wine drinking. Here Paige, wear this one." Dora handed her a black one piece.
Paige looked at it and nodded her thanks before moving off to the pool room to change. Dora looked at Mike and said, "You can change on the deck behind the bar, I promise I will stay here."
"What if I don't want you to stay here?" Mike asked sheepishly, turning a little pink.
"Why Michael! That is just lovely, but Paige told me to mind my manners and I shall do so, for today. Tonight it may be different, so don't despair."
Mike went around the bar with hardly a shrug and was changed and wading into the pool by the time Paige came out. She glanced at the two of them and Dora shook her head slightly and then exclaimed, "See Paige? It fits perfectly! And you look lovely; a little white around the edges, so you better load up on the sunscreen, but a day of lying around here will solve that. Now scoot while I go change. You two stay out of trouble while I am gone."
Dora disappeared into the changing room leaving Mike and Paige to look at each other.
"She is like, insane." Mike said.
"Maybe, she seems lonely to me, almost desperate. I think we might be the best friends she has and she just met us."
"Maybe. This is better than being at home with my dad."
"Yeah, for me too. My roommates weren't home. I guess being here with you is better than being alone. Not much food though. A lot of cheese. Probably goes with the wine. You better not drink much, you know, in case more of them show up."
Mike's face looked around at the walls, then back at Paige, "We seem pretty safe in here, don't you think?"
Paige shook her head, "Those aren't prison walls, I mean it's better than wood, and higher, but I don't know if they will keep the zombie-guys out."
"Better than wood?"
"Shut up! Is that all you think about?"
Mike's face got serious, "No, I think about video games a lot too."
Dora came out of the changing room in a two piece suit and she looked stunning. Her skin was tanned, but not dark, and she dove into the deep end without saying anything to them. Paige had sat on the edge of the pool with her feet in the water and Dora emerged close to her.
"Perfect. You were so right Paige, the temperature is just perfect right now. This afternoon it is supposed to get up to a hundred and ten. We would have felt like we were boiling out here in the water."
"Yeah, it gets too hot in July, I should move north."
"To where? Canada? You don't strike me as a Canuck love."
"Well I was thinking more like South Dakota."
"Really? Why? I mean I know Kansas City isn't Denver or New York, but it still boasts a lot of culture."
"I don't know I guess I just like smaller towns."
Mike was busy at the shallow end of the pool watching the television. He had set the remote down along the side and was flipping from channel to channel, finally settling on a major national news network.
"Hey guys! Look at this!"
"What is going on Mike?" Paige asked as they both swam over.
"Some network got some footage of Denver, it's pretty far away, but it looks like it is burning."
The poor quality image on the television screen showed a billowing tower of debris and the announcer was talking about how what they were looking at was the Denver International Airport, right along the major highway interstate seventy six. The camera panned down further to the highway and everyone could see a mob of people crowding it, heading out along the highway, filling all four lanes of it. The announcer said they were heading north east into the suburbs around the airport and that the entire mob was infected or 'zombies'. As they watched a wall of them paraded up an off ramp and into a gas station parking lot, where they pulled a family out of a parked car and tore them apart.
Dora said quietly, "I think I am going to be sick dears." She turned away from the television.
They were all silent for a while with Mike and Paige continuing to watch the coverage until the helicopter flew away from the scene and back towards Kansas, along interstate highway seventy. The mobs there were only slightly smaller than the ones along the other highway and the first of them was a good fifty miles from Denver and heading their way.
The announcer stopped relaying the film from the helicopter and went back to the news desk where they switched to scenes from California, which made Denver look like a walk in the park. The newscaster did warn them about the disturbing scenes before he started relaying them and Dora had time to turn away before they were shown. Paige couldn't help but watch out of the corner of her eye and Mike just ground his teeth and viewed them head on.
After a while he turned the television back to the local channel, which had picked up the film from the national news about Denver and was replaying it with the more gruesome parts blurred out. The newsmen Jim and Diane were looking harried, like they hadn't had a break since that morning, which they probably hadn't. They had lost touch with Ned and their remote news van and were filling the airwaves with warnings from the local government for people to stay in their homes, arm themselves and kill any slow moving person who would not respond to verbal warnings. They also conveyed that the zombies needed to be damaged in the head to stop them completely, but that severing their spines could make them into 'twitchers', zombies that would have a hard time following people who were running away.
"I don't have anything to damage their heads. I mean it was all just a joke before right, the paint ball gun, I mean. But it's not a joke is it, things are really over." Dora was crying, which seemed to embarrass Mike.
"No it's not a joke, but we should be safe here, right? You have walls and stuff and it is a gated community."
"The walls don't even go around the whole place, they are not built yet. People can get in here if they want to. Our gate has a good lock." Dora sighed and continued, "I guess the sauna will never be done."
"Who needs a sauna in Kansas?" asked Paige quietly.
"Yeah it was a stupid idea, it's not like we would actually use it in the winter either. What are we going to do?"
Neither Paige nor Mike had an answer to Dora's question.