That night at the campfire, Lawrence and Marie wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t pass me a beer, wouldn’t take the cigarettes I offered, nothing.

“It’s not my fault,” I said. “Shane’s an asshole, you saw it.”

But they picked up talking about the zombie apocalypse like I wasn’t even there.

“Fire might be the best way,” Marie said. “Thorough.”

“Like a Molotov cocktail?” Lawrence said. “Way too dangerous. End up blowing yourself up instead of the zombies.”

“Haven’t you heard of delayed ignition?” Marie said.

“I don’t trust it,” said Lawrence.

“If you pour brake fluid over swimming pool cleaner, the mix ignites after fifteen minutes,” Marie said. “That’s plenty of getaway time.”

“And if Jay were here, he’d say, where’d you so conveniently come across that swimming pool cleaner?” Lawrence said.

“Add it to the kit,” Marie said.

“Right next to the quick rice and the potato,” Lawrence said. They bumped cans. I sucked on my cigarette.

“Fuck it,” Marie said. “What I really want to do is to take a crossbow, stand way up on a hilltop overlooking one of these sites, and shoot flaming arrows. One. Two. Three. Four. Down into gas tanks, one after another, right where it counts. Watch the whole fleet go up in flames. Beautiful.”

“Score one for humanity,” Lawrence said.

“Zombies zero,” Marie said.

Me, I was no zombie, but I didn’t quite feel like part of humanity, either. When I stumbled to bed, too many beers, not enough conversation, I was more wretched than a ghost, but I was a ghost.

But what did it matter? I stayed on the job. I stayed while March turned to April. I stayed while Marie and Lawrence continued to drive me to work but ignored me as neatly as slicing off dead skin. I stayed while every day Cameron ran the excavator and Marie and Lawrence worked on the ground. I stayed while every morning Cameron propositioned Marie, saying, I’d make your knees knock, Tiger Lily, and Marie saying, Fuck off, douchebag, and Lawrence saying, You heard her, you need to stop, and Cameron saying, Hey, can’t blame a guy for trying, and me saying, Okay, people, let’s get back to work. I ate lunch alone. I watched the computer map. I watched the green line go red. I hid in my trailer and I watched the crew on the monitoring screen and tried to imagine I was far away from it all, that everything happening out in the yard was of only abstract interest to me. I was making money. I’d made almost enough. I’d spend the bus ride home figuring out what to say to Lily and, most of all, what to say to Perley when I saw him again. My mission was almost complete.