The Last Alive

by H. L. Wampler

  “I love you, too.”

  “Let’s get married!” he exclaimed excitedly.

  “What?” I asked incredulously.

  “Yeah, before we leave we should get married.”

  “Nathan…”

  “What, Emma?”

  “Don’t you think we’re moving a little fast?”

  “No. I think we’ve been moving really fucking slow. Why did it take us four years to announce to the world we are in love when the world already knew it?”

  “A wedding!” Meaghan squealed.

  “You don’t fall in love during the zombie apocalypse.”

  “Your parents seem to be doing fine.”

  “Well they were already married,” I protested.

  “And they’re both still alive.”

  “Shouldn’t you be more focused on creating that vaccine?”

  “I can do that too.” He winked.

  “Before we leave?”

  “Yes. The day before.”

  “Alright. Let me know what day that will be and I’ll work something out.”

  “Really, Emma?”

  “Yes.”

  He picked me up and spun me around. As he placed me on the floor he kissed me gently, I hoped I wasn’t making a mistake. I loved Nathan dearly, but was it wise to take such a huge step while fighting off the undead? Of course with a vaccine being made it would make for the perfect opportunity to start over.

  Nathan and I were left alone for the remainder of the day. I was shocked. I figured curious townsfolk would want to stop in and see the girl who didn’t change. Unless they figured I did and Nathan was wracked with so much grief he was hiding his zombie girlfriend. I’d eventually put them straight that I was in fact alive.

  In the remaining hours of the day, I sat near Nathan’s work station as he combined this and that. My blood had turned so many different colors as he tried to create something that would work.

  Yelling, he grabbed the latest tube of orange liquid and threw it across the room. “This is so frustrating!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t get anything to bond properly with your blood and the infection ends up being able to take control. It’s like diluting your blood ruins it.”

  “Then don’t?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Don’t dilute it.”

  “I don’t know if just a shot of your blood will work though. What if peoples’ bodies reject it?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. When it came to anything medical I was useless. I knew how to put a Band-Aid on.

  “I might need to go back to the hospital,” he said looking up at me.

  “Are you fucking nuts?” I asked.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Who Uses Themselves as a Guinea Pig? Nathan Does, That’s Who.

  I managed to talk Nathan out of going back to the hospital. We barely made back in one piece the last time; we weren’t going out again. The days slipped into weeks as Nathan tried over and over again to perfect the serum that would eventually be a vaccine.

  “I got it!” he shouted one lazy afternoon.

  I put down a book I had read about three hundred times and looked through the living room to his lab.

  “Got what?” I asked.

  “The vaccine! I think I got it right!” he exclaimed, holding up a tube of reddish liquid.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  “There’s only one way to know,” he replied.

  “And how’s that?”

  “Test it.”

  “Who are you going to get to volunteer for that?” I asked skeptically.

  He pursed his lips and stared at me for a long moment.

  “If you mean you’re testing it on yourself you’ve lost your mind.”

  “Why not me? Nobody is going to volunteer for this. What if it’s not right? They’ll die.”

  “Okay, so it makes sense to test it on yourself? Think about that logic for a second, Nathan.”

  “I’m positive that it’s right,” he said, pulling a syringe from a drawer.

  “Then why did you say what if? Don’t say what if if you’re sure! I hate what if’s!”

  “Relax, Emma,” he replied while injecting the liquid into his arm.

  “I don’t like this, Nathan.”

  “It’s going to be fine.”

  “What’s the plan? How are you going to do this? Just walk out there and wait for one to bite you? What if it eats your throat? Or your heart?”

  “You really over think things,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I think you under think,” I shouted, slamming my book down.

  “Stop.”

  “Fine. How are you feeling?” I asked.

  “I feel fine. No adverse reactions yet.”

  “Yet,” I echoed while rolling my eyes.

  “Emma.”

  “Nathan.”

  “Chill. I’m going to give it twenty-four hours then I’ll go out and do a controlled bite.”

  “A controlled bite? What exactly is a controlled bite?” I asked.

  “We’ll catch one, restrain it, and let it quickly bite down on my arm before shooting it.”

  “That really is the plan? Just go out and let one bite you?”

  “What would you suggest?” he asked.

  “Um let me think for a second, not doing it. That’s a good plan.”

  “I’m doing it, Emma.”

  “And what if you turn? What is going to happen to the city? You are the only doctor! How will we survive without a doctor?”

  “Nothing is going to happen.”

  “Holy fuck, Nathan! You’re so dam stubborn!” I threw my hands up in the air and stormed out of the apartment.

  “Emma! Come on, Emma!” he called after me.

  “Nope, not going back.” I pushed the door to the stairwell open as hard as I could making sure the bang of it hitting the wall echoed down to the apartment.

  I inhaled the cool autumn air deeply. It felt good against my hot skin. I was mad and irritated.

  How can he expect me to be okay with this? He’s so damn frustrating and infuriating!

  I walked down the block searching for Meaghan. She will not believe this. I found her sitting in a small make-shift park. I slid onto the bench beside her and stared at the one tree that inhabited the space. It really wasn’t much of a park. Nothing more than a small patch of grass and the tree. But it would make due to bring kids to sit and play, or to take off your shoes and just rub your toes on the grass. I sighed heavily and put my head on her shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.

  “Nathan is going to test his serum on himself,” I replied.

  “What?” She turned to look at me.

  “Yeah. He injected it into his body, he’s waiting twenty-four hours, and then he’s going out into the wild and letting one of those things bite him. I’m sorry it’s going to be a controlled bite in the name of science,” I said in my best Nathan mocking voice.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked, looking back at the tree.

  “I guess the only thing I can do; be there to put him down if he turns.”

  “Do you think he will?”

  “I don’t know, Meaghan.”

  “He’s been working on it for a few months. I guess he could have it finished. He never injected himself before.”

  “Why did he do it on himself instead of finding someone else to test it on?” she inquired.

  “He didn’t want to risk someone else’s life.”

  “I see.”

  She sighed heavily and looked down at her hands. I sat up and stared at her for a bit. A tear slid down her cheek and a small sob escaped her mouth.

  “What’s wrong, Meaghan?”

  “I’ve gotten myself into a lot of trouble, Emma.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked as she flung herself into my arms.

  “I do
n’t know what I’m going to do,” she sobbed.

  “I can’t give you advice unless you tell me what you did.”

  “I don’t know how I’m going to tell my parents.”

  “Meaghan, please tell me you didn’t go beyond the borders again!”

  She tried to talk between her sobs but it came out a muddled mess.

  “Stop crying. You need to calm down and tell me what’s wrong. Were you bit?”

  “No!” she wailed.

  I sighed with relief and hugged her. “Then it’s not that bad.”

  “Yes it is!”

  “Meg, you’re alive. Your parents are alive. There may be a vaccine to this infection. I don’t know what could be so bad that you are sobbing like this.”

  “I’ve done something awful.” She continued crying into my lap.

  “Did you kill someone?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Did you maim someone?”

  “No.”

  “I’m running out of ideas about what terrible thing you could have possibly done, Meaghan.”

  “Have you ever seen the lead singer, Ethan, for Imaginary Dragon Questers?”

  “Oh lord, that awful band that plays at Bill’s on the weekends?”

  “They’re not awful, and yes that’s them.”

  “I think I’ve seen him around. Why?”

  “We’ve been seeing each other,” she said slowly, almost as though she were picking out the right words to use.

  “Since when?” I asked in surprise.

  “It’s been kind of a secret.”

  “You’ve kept a secret from me?”

  “That’s beside the point, Emma.”

  “Okay, so why are you sitting here sobbing while staring at a tree?”

  “I, um, I’m pregnant.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you right. Did you say you’re pregnant?”

  “Yes,” Meaghan wailed, letting her head fall into her hands.

  I sat there with my hand on her shoulder in shocked silence. I didn’t know what to say to her. The one thing everybody in our little city managed not to do she did. Was the world ready for children?

  Chapter Thirty-five

  A Gas Station, Missing Keys, and Getting to the City

  I couldn’t help but think about when things started again.

  How many people could have been saved if we’d known I was the cure all those years ago?

  *Five years ago*

  “That language is awful, Dad,” I said, nocking an arrow.

  “Just shoot the damn things,” he grunted.

  We managed to clear the entire lot in a relatively short amount of time. I stood amongst the zombie carnage looking at the still corpses. Their dark, thick blood poured out of their bodies and it smelled awful.

  “That’s gross,” Meaghan said, putting her hand to her nose.

  “Dead bodies. Dead blood,” I muttered.

  “But why do they smell so horrible!”

  “Decay,” Nathan muttered, walking toward the gas station.

  “Are there any in there?” Bob asked.

  “Looks like a few.”

  “Who goes in first?”

  “I have the bow so I’ll go.”

  I opened the door slowly and looked around the enormous building. Shelves were knocked over and the place had been pretty well looted already.

  “Wow, people don’t waste time do they,” I mumbled to myself.

  I took a few steps into the building and noticed a leg sticking out from under one of the collapsed shelves. I poked it with the end of my bow and waited for someone to call out or it to move. Beyond the counter three zombies stood there moaning and staring at me. I grabbed an arrow and sent it flying through the air. It went through the monsters eye socket sending a spurt of blood spraying on the wall behind it.

  Nasty.

  “Hello?” I called out still kneeling.

  Silence.

  “Is anyone there?”

  It was an eerie silence. Death hung in the air, and I was alone. I stood slowly and walked to the door.

  “Well?” Dad asked.

  “It’s clear. We should probably remove the bodies before they come in,” I said nodding toward the cars.

  “How many are there?” Nathan asked.

  “One was already dead and three zombies.”

  “What are we going to with them?” Meaghan asked.

  “Just get them out of the building.”

  “I’m not touching them,” Meaghan replied crinkling her nose up.

  “I’m sure there are gloves in the grill area.”

  “Is there food?” Bob asked.

  “Some but the place was pretty well looted already,” I told him.

  “I’ll tell the moms and others that it’s alright to come out so they can at least stretch their legs,” Nathan said walking across the parking lot.

  “Let’s get to clearing the place out.”

  “We are leaving first thing in the morning,” Dad mentioned casually.

  “Good,” Bob replied.

  I slung the bow over my shoulder and went back inside. I searched around the small kitchen for gloves and managed to find food; actual food. Not just junk food.

  Dinner. Yum. I thought to myself peering into the containers of meat. I wasn’t even sure what exactly it was.

  A box of gloves lay on its side on the floor. I grabbed it and tossed it to the others.

  “Oh my God it’s squishy!” Meaghan squealed while grabbing the ankles of one of the corpses. “She smells so bad.”

  “She’s dead and decaying. Death doesn’t smell good,” I replied, stooping down to grab her wrists.

  I shrugged. “Maybe one day.”

  We slept huddled together in what I could only assume was the employees lounge. The door was barricaded shut and a narrow window was opened. We had a rather unhealthy dinner of gas station steak fajitas, some weird chip, and soda. While we tried to fall asleep the sounds of the undead drifted in to us. I didn’t cry though. I didn’t make a sound. None of us did. Eventually we all drifted off to sleep. Well some form of sleep. My dreams were invaded by the undead. They felt so real. A few times I had to check my body to make sure it really was a dream. Sunlight streamed in through the window, but no birds sang. No cars drove up. No horns honked. It was that same eerie silence when I first came in. I clung to Nathan and buried my face in his chest.

  “You alright?” he asked sleepily.

  “Yeah, just wishing this was all a nightmare.”

  “I didn’t think I was so horrible to sleep against,” he replied.

  “Not you. Just the entire situation. I really miss Becca.”

  He gave me a tight squeeze. “I know.”

  “When does the pain stop?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  “Are you going to go back to your grandmother now?” I asked.

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Wake up!” dad bellowed as he stretched.

  “We are up,” I said.

  “Everyone else get up, up, up!”

  “Let’s go,” Bob yawned.

  It didn’t take everyone long to abandon the gutted gas station. We walked wearily to the cars and waited for dad to start the SUV.

  “What’s wrong?” Mom asked watching dad search his pockets frantically.

  “I can’t find my keys.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “My keys are gone!”

  “How can they be gone?” Judith yelled.

  “I don’t know, but they are.”

  “What do we do?” Lillian squeaked out.

  “There’s a car lot over there.” I pointed to the opposite hill top.

  “We can’t steal a car!”

  “Mom, I don’t think anyone is going to care.”

  “I guess it’s the best bet,” dad said getting out of the SUV.

  “Are you going alone?”

  “Of course he’s not, Judith. I
’m going with him,” I said grabbing my bow and arrows and climbing out the back.

  “Why do you always have to go? Can’t you be a normal girl and be scared?” mom asked staring out the windshield.

  “Because I’m not a normal girl, mom. I’m absolutely terrified but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit around and do nothing.”

  “Just be careful.”

  “I always am.”

  Dad, Nathan, and I ran across the parking lot and down the hill. We crouched behind a flipped over truck and watched for movement.

  “All clear,” Dad called quietly.

  The three of us ran from the truck to a car a few feet away.

  “Two over by the Dodge dealership,” I said, watching the two in overalls walk around the cars.

  “They’re far enough away that they shouldn’t bother us,” Dad replied.

  “Shouldn’t we still take them down?” Nathan asked.

  “Are you going to go up and stab them?” Dad asked.

  One of my arrows sailed through the air and caught one in the temple, “No, but I do have a bow and arrows.”

  Dad shrugged his shoulders, “If you can take out the other one go for it.”

  I nocked the arrow and drew the string back. A thwap of the string and it zipped across the street and through the parking lot. The arrow made contact with the target. The zombie was knocked backwards and things were all clear again. We ran up the hill to the dealership. Cars covered the parking lot and went up another smaller hill. Two huge buildings lay in front of us.

  “No doubt the keys are in one of those,” Dad said, breathing heavily.

  “No doubt there are zombies somewhere.”

  “Don’t be loud,” Nathan said, walking toward the front door of the first building.

  “Do we split up?” I asked.

  “Not this time,” Dad said.

  “It’d be faster if we did,” I told him.

  “And more dangerous. Someone will end up alone. I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

  “I suppose not.” I agreed.

  The three of us went into the silent, empty building and fanned out a bit. I wouldn’t let either man out of my sight. My heart pounded in my chest and I could feel the blood rush to my head. I was absolutely terrified.

  “Find anything?” dad asked.

  “No,” I called out peeking into an office.

  “Not a thing. Not even a zombie,” Nathan said standing at the top of a small flight of stairs that lead to an open space above us.