The Regulators - 02 by Michael Clary Page B

quality control. Shall I go on ?”
    He’s an asshole sometimes.
    “ He told me that you’d
say that. He also told me to start off my interview by mentioning your quality
control problems. He thought it might help you focus .”
    Well I guess when we are all finished here I’ll have a few
things to bring up with him.
    “ He said you would go
there as well. Would you like to hear his response ?”
    He actually took a
moment to think about his options before he decided to ignore my question
completely and changed the subject .
    So what did you want to ask me?
    “ I’ve been speaking
with Dudley; he took me all the way to the moment he met up with you at
Georgie’s house. Do you think you could lead me up to that moment as well ?”
    Did he tell you how I pegged Georgie in the head with the
beer bottle?
    “ Yes, he did .”
    That was pretty fucking funny. I didn’t mean to actually hit
the dumbass, but it was still pretty funny.
    “ So what were you
doing in El Paso ? I understand that
you don’t actually live there .”
    I went to visit a friend of mine.
    “ I’m curious as to why
Jaxon didn’t come and rescue you like he rescued Tito from his apartment .”
    That would be because I don’t need someone to come and
rescue me, and also because none of them even knew I was in town. I was
visiting a lady friend.
    “ Did she make it out ?”
    No clue, I really don’t know her that well.
    “ I see .”
    No, no, don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I ditched
her or anything. She went to work the day things started to go bad. I was in my
motel room because she didn’t want her husband or kids to find out about me.
Whatever. The point is, I was nowhere near her. If she had been with me when
the shamblers came, I would have protected her. Unless she slowed me down, then
I would have just pillow snuffed her.
    I was completely
floored that he actually admitted that and said it so casually.
    He started laughing at
the expression on my face .
    Gotcha.
    “ You were making fun
of me ?”
    I was. The reason I did that is because after talking to
Jaxon you have some preconceived notion that I’m this dumb asshole. I could
tell by the looks you were giving me, and I don’t think that’s very fair. I may
be rough around the edges, and I may have some personality conflicts with
certain people, but I’m still a Regulator. I still go out and save people with
the rest of the team. Besides that, have you ever even seen Jaxon in polite
society? He’s rude. He’s like the rudest person I’ve ever met. I’m at least
nice to people when I meet them. All in all, I’m a pretty good guy.
    I was a little shocked
by all that he said. I was indeed thinking of him as a sort of dumb brute. It
was surprising that he seemed rather intelligent .
    “ You’re right; I
wasn’t being very fair to you. Let’s start over please .”
    Much better. Now what kind of panties are you wearing and
how do I get them off?
    Once again, I was
completely floored and speechless .
    So anyway, I was in my motel room when the fucking zombies
came. I was staying at the Camino Real. Jaxon would probably call that
pretentious, but I like to stay in nice places. If he wants to slum it, he’s
more than welcome.
    It’s a pretty tall building. I forget what floor I was on,
but I was up there pretty high and I was able to see all the mayhem on the
streets below from my window when it finally came my way. It wasn’t a pretty
sight. It wasn’t a pretty sight at all. People were attacking and eating other
people.
    The idea of fighting back didn’t even cross my mind. I was
concerned with self-preservation. At that moment, nobody was thinking about
fighting back. Everyone was running. They were even trampling each other in
their haste to get away.
    I was safe in my room when it started, but I knew I wouldn’t
be able to stay there forever. I ran into the hallway towards the vending
machine. I used a well placed kick to break the glass and snagged every