“What are you doing?” Nathan shouted up at me.
“I thought I’d just hang around,” I grunted, stabbing the undead in the arm.
It didn’t wince. It didn’t loosen its grip on me. It kept trying to pull me up to eat me.
How can it be so strong? How is it holding me here?
Panic set in. We were so close to our fortified city, yet here I was hanging. I wasn’t ready to die. At least not like that. I couldn’t let Meaghan and Nathan watch me be turned into chow.
“Get out of here,” I said, choking back tears.
“What?” Liz called up.
I glanced down at her. She was hunched over holding her stomach.
“Go. I’ll catch up to you guys,” I called out.
“Catch up? What the fuck, Emma!” Nathan screamed.
“Please, go.”
“I’m not leaving you!” he yelled.
“You guys need to leave! Now! Get back to the city!”
“Damnit, Emma. I’m not leaving.”
I slapped at the zombie’s face as it got close to my arm again. The rotting teeth snapped at my hand, narrowly missing my finger.
“Well it won’t let me go.”
“Stab it,” Meaghan said.
“I’ve been trying.”
“Try again,” he stressed.
“Stabbing doesn’t seem to be doing much.”
“Why won’t you try again?”
“I’m getting tired, Nathan.”
“Emma, do it again!”
“Fine!” I shouted, frustrated they just wouldn’t go.
I grasped the knife tight enough my knuckles turned white and waited. The zombie lowered its head to my arm again and I struck. I swung my arm up and sliced off its head. Black blood oozed out of the neck hole while the head plopped to the ground below. It bounced down the stairs and thudded against the wall. I’d never decapitated a zombie before. It was really nasty. The grip on my wrist loosened, and I was falling to the cement stairs below me.
Chapter Twenty-five
Waking Up to the Man You Love but DENYING it!
I woke up in a mild state of confusion. I knew I was in my bed, but someone’s arms were wrapped around my body. After a few terror filled moments, I remembered. It was Nathan.
He tightened his hold on me and breathed into my hair.
“Good morning,” he whispered.
“Is it morning?” I asked.
He looked out the window that was across from the bed. “Yes, just really early.”
I stretched and curled up in a ball. “Nobody will be awake yet.”
“Then stay here with me.”
“We should get up,” I said, pushing the blankets off.
“Why?”
“Did you forget what’s happening out there?” I walked to my dresser.
He sighed heavily.
“I’m getting a shower. I’ll find you something to wear.”
“From where?” he asked. “Your dad’s stuff will probably be too big.”
“Becca’s boyfriend always leaves, left, his stuff here. You’re about his size,” I said quietly.
I stood in my sister’s room looking at the chaotic mess she always left it in when we’d leave to go back to our dorm. Her unmade bed looked as though she just rolled out of it. Her hiking boots were still caked in mud and the shorts she wore were tossed on the back of a chair. I sat on her bed, picked up her pillow, and took a deep breath. It smelled like her lavender shampoo.
“Oh, Becca,” I cried into her pillow.
“What are you doing?” a voice asked from the doorway.
“Finding something for Nathan to wear,” I said, looking up at Meaghan.
“By sniffing Becca’s pillow?”
“I miss my sister. Okay?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s just hard to believe she’s gone. She’ll never complain about having to clean her room again. She’ll never barge into my room to take my clothes again. I’ll never hear her laugh like an idiot while she watches stupid videos on the internet.”
“I’m sorry, Emma,” she said, sitting next to me.
“It’s alright.” I wiped my eyes while digging around in the basket of folded clothes near her dresser.
I pulled out a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt. They looked like Nathan’s size. I hoped they would fit, otherwise he was stuck in blood stained scrubs.
“So that Nathan. He’s cute.”
“No, Meaghan.”
“No what?” she asked innocently.
“I’m not going to get involved with someone at the start of the zombie apocalypse. It’s the end of the world as we know it. What if something were to happen to him after I let my emotions get involved?”
“I think you already did,” she said, holding one of Becca’s shirts.
“No.”
“Where did he sleep last night?” She arched her brows at me.
“He went through the same thing I did yesterday. I wasn’t about to let him sleep on a floor somewhere. I need to get in the shower.” I stood holding the small pile of folded clothes.
I took one last look at the room before returning to my own. Nathan sat on the bed staring out the window. It was a grey, foggy morning.
“Do you think the electric fences will work?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, handing him the clothes.
“What will happen when they go out?”
“I guess we find another safe place. If there is one.” I paused at the doorway to the bathroom. “Nathan?”
“What, Emma?”
I bit my lip before looking up at him. “Will you stay?”
“Stay where?”
“With me even if we have to leave here. Will you stay with me?”
“Of course.”
I nodded my head and walked into the bathroom. I quickly undressed and climbed in. The water was hot and felt good. My legs and shoulders ached from the daring escape from the hospital. Half of the stuff I did the day before, I didn’t even know I could do.
“Emma?”
I pulled the curtain back a bit and looked out at my mom. “What?”
“Don’t be long.”
“I won’t. I just need to wash,” I mumbled, putting the curtain back and squeezing some of Becca’s shampoo onto my head.
My heart felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and was going to fall to the pit of my stomach.
As I finished up I grabbed a towel and hurried to my bedroom. Nathan still sat in the same spot, staring out the window.
“Shower’s free,” I said, drying my body.
“Do you think it’s spreading?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, sitting next to him.
“When do you think they’ll get here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is there anywhere else we can go that’s safe?” Nathan asked.
“No. This is the safest place around for now. I’m sure someone will set up a refugee camp or something eventually.”
He reached out and grabbed my hand. My heart skipped a beat, and I could feel my cheeks flush.
Damn it!
“I know you don’t want to let me in because you’re afraid of losing me, but Emma I’m falling for you.”
“You barely know me,” I whispered, leaving my hand in his.
“I know that you’re a loving, caring, smart, and resourceful woman. It seems we have nothing but time now. If we’re going to be here together until, well until whatever this is, is over, why not get to know each other better?”
“Because, Nathan. There’s so much going on in my mind. I’ve lost my sister. There are zombies walking around. I have no idea if any of my other friends or family is alive. Then you just jump into my life and stir up these feelings that I don’t want to feel right now. I shouldn’t be thrilled to have you touch me. I shouldn’t be excited to see you. I should feel scared, terrified, worried, sorrow. I should feel everything that I’m not.” I squeezed his han
d.
“Perhaps with the way things are turning, feeling excitement and thrill is what you’ll need. There’s no way to know what will happen tomorrow. Live in the moment for now.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about anyone else dying. I can’t deal with that.” I didn’t resist when he pulled me close to his body.
He wrapped his arms around me and stroked my hair. “At the present moment I think death is to be expected. There’s no way to get around it. This is something nobody has a cure for. Don’t dwell on the what if’s. What if an asteroid would smash into the planet tomorrow nullifying the virus anyway? Just open yourself up.”
“Oh, Nathan.” My heart skipped a beat again. I felt so conflicted. My heart wanted to go along with it but my mind said no.
He leaned down, closing his eyes, and let his soft lips rest on mine.
Zombiepocalypse? What zombiepocalypse?
Chapter Twenty-six
Holy Shit, We Escaped!
“Emma!” Nathan screamed.
The world slowed down in those few seconds that I fell. I looked down and saw Nathan running to me. Meaghan had a look of absolute horror on her face while Taz seemed be frozen in place. Liz squeezed her eyes shut, probably to not see me splat on the ground.
Is this how I go?
I squeezed my eyes shut as the cement stairs grew closer. I didn’t land on them though. I landed on something somewhat softer and not stable.
“Oh God,” I heard the soft thing under me groan.
“Nathan?” I looked at him in confusion.
“I wasn’t about to let you go splat.” He smiled weakly.
“You could have killed yourself!” I yelled, punching him in the shoulder.
“Nah, but I’m pretty sure I broke a rib or two.”
“Why did you do something so stupid?”
“I’m sorry for saving your life. Would you rather have died?” he asked.
“I may have survived,” I mumbled.
“Doubt it, and if you did you’d be pretty much immobilized. Meaghan and I would never have been able to get you back.”
“You could have left me,” I said, standing.
“Really, Emma? You think either of us would have just left you here?”
“I’d have left you,” I mumbled.
“No you wouldn’t.” Meaghan helped me stand.
“I know. Well, now that we’re all partially broken let’s get out of here.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Nathan led the way up the stairs.
The main hall was free of the undead for now. I knew we had to hurry if we wanted to get out unscathed. I was always so anxious to get to the hockey arena; this was the first time I couldn’t wait to get out.
“Are you going to leave them like that?” Taz asked, looking at the zombie hockey players in the center of the rink.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why not? They aren’t hurting anyone.”
“Why won’t you just put them down?”
“One of my favorite players is out there,” I said.
“He’s not a person anymore,” Liz said.
“So? They’re not going anywhere or hurting anyone.”
“Alright, if you say so.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“I do. Now can we please leave?” I asked.
I pushed past him and headed for the front door. Outside the large glass doors the streets were clear. I pushed them open and escaped into the even cooler air. I took a deep breath, looking up to the hazy morning sky. Sunlight was beginning to peak over the horizon, trying to push through the clouds hanging over the city. Winter would be early. I zipped up my jacket being careful not to squish the kitten still more than happy to snuggle against my stomach. I was amazed that she had not been squished or smashed in the time she spent there. Straight ahead, only a few blocks away, the blockaded city was nothing more than a shadow of its former glory. The tall wooden fence was higher than the court house and there were sporadic guard towers with armed men on them at all times.
“Almost home,” I whispered to the kitten who purred as she slept.
“Why can’t there be a gate here?” Meaghan whined.
“It won’t take us long to walk around,” Nathan muttered.
“Long enough,” I said.
“I don’t think I would ever be so happy to see that run-down city,” Liz mumbled.
“It’s not so bad,” Taz replied.
We walked along the fence keeping an eye on the overgrown city. Tree roots shot up through cement sidewalks, weeds grew wildly in the cracks, and the buildings were crumbling from abandonment. At one time it was a bustling city. It evolved from a steel town to the home of a leading healthcare industry and amazing sports teams. I loved the city. I loved the world as it was. My heart felt heavy as we walked along the city blocks heading toward the front gate. We no longer saw lawyers and business men emerging from the skyscrapers, now we saw well-dressed zombies. The realization that nobody was immune hit hard as the rich and powerful fell at the beginning. When Washington was overrun and the government fell all hell broke loose. Food supplies waned, people were scared, and there was no stability.
“Can we please never do this again?” Meaghan asked.
“I’m going to go back,” Nathan said quietly.
“You’re going to what?” Liz whirled on her heels, the flames of hell seemed to shoot from her eyes.
At least they would if they could.
“We don’t have very many supplies. We’re going to need more.”
“We’ll make do with what we have,” I snapped.
“There is no making do when there is nothing!” he shouted.
“Keep your voice down. Otherwise we’re going to end up as chow right outside the gates!” I shouted back.
“They do say that you are likely to end up in an accident within three miles of your home,” Meaghan chimed in.
Nathan and I turned to look at her. She shrugged her shoulders and kept on walking.
“I don’t understand why you want to risk it again, man. It’s not easy getting to that hospital and back. It’s just not worth it. Ask for more supplies to be sent.” Taz folded his arms.
His face was covered in dirt and grime.
“It’s not as easy as just asking for more supplies. That’s why I went out. The last shipment that was sent to us had nothing. Meaning that the CDC and government are out or almost out.”
I shook my head and continued on.
“Why are the five of you on that side of the fence?” a deep voice called from above.
“Thought we’d just go for an afternoon stroll, George,” I yelled at the man.
“Why?”
I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes. “We had to go rescue Nathan from the hospital.”
“Why were you at the hospital?” he asked.
“Supplies, George,” he said then lowered his voice. “Do they really give that imbecile a loaded weapon?”
“I don’t know. I hope not.”
“Well yinz gone be comin back in?” he shouted down to us.
“If we are not bitten first. Can you keep it down?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry ‘bout that,” he shouted.
“Really?” I asked quietly.
I shook my head and continued down the block hoping to get away from him. Unfortunately all the shouting drew out the crowds. As we passed by the steel tower I saw them.
“Oh come on!” I yelled, breaking out in a run.
“What?” Meaghan asked.
“That!” I pointed toward the revolving doors.
“Seriously? Why can’t we catch a break” she yelled, running after me.
“George, have them open the front gates!” I hollered up at the portly man.
“But the undead are there,” he replied.
“Yeah and if those fucking gates aren’t open we’re going to be joining them,” I yelled, pulling an arrow from my quiver. “I don’t have many arr
ows left.”
“I only have half of the magazine left in my gun. We need to hurry,” Meaghan said, pulling the handgun from the holster.
“I have knives,” Taz said, pulling his machetes from the sheath.
“I have six rounds in this one and looks like four in this one.” Liz held up her two guns.
“I have a knife,” Nathan yelled running as fast as he could toward the gates. “So stop complaining.”
“The gates aren’t open!” Meaghan screamed in a panic.
“Rodger!” I shouted up to the man who was standing at the front gates.
He peered over the top of the fence at us in confusion. “You been bit?”
“God damnit, Rodger! No! Open the fucking gates!” Nathan shouted.
“How do I know you haven’t been bitten?” he asked.
“I’m going to bite you if you don’t open these gates! Now!”
“But what if you were bit?” the man asked.
“It doesn’t matter! We’re going into isolation when we come in any way!”
“Hurry!” Meaghan screamed as the undead seemed to reproduce in the middle of the street.
“They’re close!” Liz sounded panicked. For the first time in days, she panicked.
The big man disappeared and within seconds the gate began to open. Liz was small enough to fit through as the gate first opened. Taz shoved her through and pulled himself on the gate to get inside. Nathan squeezed through and I followed. Halfway through I stopped when Meaghan began to scream. I looked behind me and saw a zombie grab her ponytail.
My heart sank.
Her terror filled eyes pleaded with me for help.
“Come on, Emma,” Nathan said, grabbing my hand.
“I can’t.” I squeezed back out the gate. “I can’t leave Meaghan.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
Someone’s Not Going Back Into the City
“Emma! Don’t!” Nathan screamed.
“I’m sorry. I love you, Nathan.” I pulled out of his grip and ran to Meaghan’s aide.
The Last Alive Page 15
