Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 2): Substation (The Last Stand of Gary Sykes) by Philip A. McClimon

said.
    Beverly looked chagrined at the bathroom door, still held closed with the other mop handle.
    “Huh…” she said.
    Gary rolled off the couch and stood, dusting himself off.  Beverly was all action. 
    “Alright, Gary.  Let’s get the hell out of here,” she said, gathering her things and heading for the door.
    She stopped and turned when she noticed Gary had not moved.  He stood in the center of the room.
    “What are you doing, Gary?  You need to get out of here before the meat-heads come back and lock you up again,” she said.
    Gary tried to smile reassuringly at Beverly but his inner turmoil betrayed him.  Beverly looked sideways at Gary then took a step closer.
    “It’s the zombie apocalypse, Bev.  I know that sounds crazy, but look around, the news, I mean the Undead are trying to eat people!” Gary said.
    Beverly clutched her things tighter.  “So what are you thinking, Gary?  What does that mean?” she asked.
    “It has already spread to a lot of states, including ours.  In a situation like this, Homeland Security should have been here pronto to secure the infrastructure.  The fact that they’re not means they have their hands full… or… If this thing plays out like all the literature says, the country is gonna fall, Bev.  There won’t be anyone left except a lucky few and life is going to be very hard… like stone age hard,” Gary said.
    Beverly did not take the time to question what Gary meant by zombie literature as she looked pleadingly at him.
    “I’ve got to get home, Gary.  I’ve got to be with my family… You understand that, right?  You should get out of here too.  If things are as bad as you say, there is nothing you can do to make it better,” She said.
     Gary stared at Beverly in pregnant silence for several seconds. 
    “Bev, I’m just a Momma’s boy Nerd…”
    Beverly looked at him and he knew she was about to reprimand him for running himself down.  It was the other thing he really liked about her.  She respected him and demanded that he respect himself.  Even when all she could think about was getting home to make sure her loved ones were safe, she wasn’t going to let him get away with succumbing to the low opinions of troglodytes.  He held up his hands, forestalling her need to prop him up.  
    “It’s okay, I love my momma, and Nerds rule,” he said. 
    Beverly relented as Gary continued.
    “One thing Nerds do is spend a lot of time thinking and debating, and planning on things that the cool kids don’t think twice about.  I know the news said this thing probably started in Colorado and has shown up in surrounding states, but… it’s not going to stop, Bev. It’s going to ravish the whole country.  It will spread to the rest of the world, if it hasn’t already.  There’s not going to be a lot of survivors, Bev, and those that do survive are going to be outnumbered ten thousand- No, a Hundred Thousand to one by those… Zombies when the dust settles,” he said.
    Beverly’s face revealed her shock.  What Gary was saying washed over her and left her cold.  She had the irresistible desire to run for the door.
    “A lot of things must have failed somewhere to allow whatever this is to get out.  A lot more things are going to fail, Bev.  The grid is going to fail.  It’ll be bad enough that those left behind will have to fight to survive, they will have to do it in the dark and the cold because there will be no power.  There’s no way I can prevent the grid from failing forever, but I can maybe prop it up… maybe give the handful left one less thing to worry about for awhile.  Mr. Johnson was kind of a dick, but he was right, what we do here ain’t like a regular job, ya know?  The Power is life,” Gary said.
    Beverly was in torment.  She felt the pull of what Gary was taking on, but there was only one priority for her, only one thing she could think of that demanded her vigilance and that was her husband and