Andrea told her later that Caleb slept through every shot that echoed from every round. She thought he probably knew something wasn’t right with his aunt/mother. Eve was sure in his own way that he wanted it also.
Andrea jumped at the first shot and came running out the back door. Kyle stopped her when she hit the porch. Interfering with Eve’s vengeance, he knew, would be fatal to all those involved.
When the chambers were all empty, she continued to stand there. Gun hanging down to her side. Staring at nothing and everything. Andrea and Kyle had come to the gate, her conscious mind knew it, she had heard their footsteps, but she never acknowledged them. After a lifetime of standing, her insides began to tremble. Her legs shook so hard that she dropped to the ground as if she had fallen out of midair. That was the point that Kyle came to her. He held her until she had stopped shaking enough for him to pull her into his lap. Then she cried for real. Large tears. Loud sobs. Screams. Curses.
They spent the rest of the day in the family room doing family stuff. No one mentioned the wedding until they sat down for dinner that night. And Andrea only brought it up then to relieve the tension in the air and to break the deafening silence.
“So what do you have planned so far?” Andrea asked to no one in particular.
“Plans?” Eve asked honestly confused.
“For your wedding.”
“Does it look like I have had any time to make plans?” Eve asked, trying to not sound annoyed and failing miserably.
“We haven’t talked about it,” Kyle told her.
“Well, we need to start making some, missy. Where’s a notebook?” Andrea shot back. She got up from the table and went rummaging throughout the house looking for something to write on.
“I think there is one upstairs in your grandfather’s office. I will go up and get it.” Kyle said, leaping up from the table as well. What he really wanted was a reason to escape an overly excited Andrea. He was back with a notebook and ink pen by the time Andrea and Eve were going through some of their more sappy romantic girly movies.
“What are you two doing?” he asked terrified and frozen in the doorway.
“Trying to find a good wedding movie to watch to get some ideas,” Andrea said in a teasing tone. She enjoyed making him suffer.
“Oh.” Eve could see the horror written all over his face. “I…um…I’m going to pull a typical guy move and say I have something really important to do. Upstairs. It will take hours to finish.” He hurried toward the stairwell before either woman could stop him.
“You are going to play video games aren’t you?” Eve asked him before he hit the first step.
“No…Yeah.” He laughed.
“You sure you don’t want to stick around for this?” Eve asked jokingly as she got up off the floor and walked over to him, finally showing some real romantic emotion toward him.
“No, thank you. You make all the decisions, and just tell me what I have to say and where I have to be to say it.”
He kissed her on the forehead before going upstairs. The kiss was light and somewhere between a quick peck and slow lingering one. Eve closed her eyes relishing in the feel and cursing Andrea for being in the room. She was sure if the other woman hadn’t been their he might have actually kissed her on the lips. Kyle was a private, quiet person like herself. And having an audience for their first kiss did not appeal to him, she knew.
Once they heard his bedroom door close, Andrea started with the questions and ideas. “First thing we need is a dress for the bride, for me, a suit for Caleb and Kyle.” Eve listened with a laugh as she leaned over from her spot on the floor in front of the DVD case and popped in one of the many girly wedding movies she has collected over the years. Andrea confessed that she had always loved Bella’s dress.
“Um… Andrea I don’t think I will be having a wedding party.” Eve didn’t want to offend the woman, but she didn’t feel comfortable having such a big event in the midst of what was going on around them.
“I know, but someone has to look good holding Caleb. Next is a bouquet. Do you think you need a bouquet?”
“No, and I don’t want a garter thingy either. I want small, simple, and as little audience participation as possible. And Andrea, thanks. Thanks for everything.”
Andrea smiled and nodded at her, then asked, “Where at in the house do you want to do this?”
“I think the backyard.”
“Let’s go out back and see if we are inspired by anything.”
Eve laughed at her joy as she grabbed Caleb and followed her out to the backyard. They quickly forgot the movie for the time being as Andrea’s ADD-ridden mind shifted from one element of the wedding to the next.
Eve’s mother and grandmother were big into gardening. The backyard would have normally looked so beautiful this time of year, but no one had bothered to do much with it over the last few months. They talked about flowers, table arrangements, food, and music. Andrea danced around the backyard pointing in this direction and that, telling and asking Eve what should go where and why.
Andrea was more excited about the wedding than Eve was. It wasn’t that Eve didn’t want to marry Kyle, she did. She loved him. Not the way she had loved Doyle. No, her love for him was different. She was a different person. She was no longer the partying, college co-ed she had once been. This was a different world from the one she had shared with Doyle.
As she watched Andrea’s excited movements, Eve felt a little sorry for her. She wondered if it was appropriate to be doing all of this with her, knowing that Andrea would probably be dead before she, herself, ever got married. The thought made her sad, but she forced herself not to dwell on it. A wedding in the middle of the apocalypse was probably highly distasteful, yet she found that she truly wanted to marry Kyle before the end finally came.
X – The Event
On Saturday, Eve and Andrea made plans to visit all of the dress shops and assorted other places they needed to go to begin the scavenger hunt for wedding supplies. Kyle told Eve that he didn’t want to wear a tuxedo, suit, or anything else that resembled such an outfit, and begged her to let him dress himself.
“I’ll end up looking more like a penguin than James Bond. Why don’t I take Caleb shopping with me? Maybe we can find a couple of pairs of khakis and some white polo shirts. Would that be all right with you?”
Eve was a little panicky at the idea of Caleb being so far away from her, but she nodded in agreement with his idea of a more casual look for the wedding. Knowing what he wanted to wear would make it easier for her to pick out her own dress.
“I don’t know about this,” she said, handing the baby over to him. “What if someone tries to take him, again? Or worse. What if he cries the whole time? Do you think you could handle that?”
“Everything will be all right. Here, take this.” He handed her a small, black walkie-talkie. “You can talk to me every minute we are apart. The thing is already set to the right channel, and the moment anything goes wrong I will call you.”
She kissed Caleb a thousand times before Kyle pulled him out of her arms. Caleb didn’t argue or cry. Eve wasn’t sure how she felt about this reaction. If he had cried, she could have made an excuse not to let him go, but he hadn’t made so much as a peep. This meant that he had grown to love Kyle, which she was grateful for, but it also meant that she was no longer his entire world, and this made her sad and a tiny bit jealous.
-----
The first place Eve and Andrea stopped was The Village Square. At one time, The Village Square sold the most expensive formal and dress wear in the city. At Eve’s senior prom, over half of the girls in her class lied about their dresses coming from The Square, as they called it. Eve was one of the few girls whose dress had actually come from the little shop. This was only because her sister-in-law had worked there, and she got an employee discount. The discount was only twenty percent, but when the dress was a three hundred dollar dress, it saved a great deal of money.
Eve’s sister Jayna
was mad and jealous when she found out where Eve would be getting her dress. Their mom and dad had gotten Jayna’s dress at some shop in the mall, five years before, and it had only cost them around a hundred and fifty dollars, shoes and accessories included. Jayna had always complained that Eve received special attention because she was the baby.
Eve wondered as she browsed the racks thinking back to the day she had come in here with her mother to pick out a prom dress, if she should feel special now, being the only one in the family, aside from Caleb, that was special enough to still be alive.
Finding the dresses they wanted didn’t take her or Andrea long. Eve’s was a simple, yet elegant, double layered silk and lace. It hung to just below her knees and came up to wrap around her neck in a V. The dress Andrea picked out was black with thin straps and an off-white sash that wrapped around her middle.
When they left The Square, they went to Victoria’s Secret to find something for Eve to wear for her wedding night. After that, they were off to find decorations. Fortunately, they didn’t have to bother with the food because Eve had sent that list with Kyle.
“I’m a little nervous about tomorrow night,” Eve admitted, combing through corset sets that she didn’t care for.
“You two haven’t…?” Andrea asked, bringing her a white lacy teddy.
“No...We haven’t even kissed.” She shook her head at the teddy Andrea held up for her to look at.
“Really?” Andrea’s voice echoed in amazement, as she walked back to where she had gotten the outfit.
“Really, Caleb cried the moment I said yes. Then all that other stuff happened yesterday. And, well, today has been crazy.”
“I think it will be so romantic if he waits until your ‘I dos’.”
“He will have to. He is adamant about us not seeing each other again until we meet at the altar. He is going to drop the food off at the house and leave Caleb with you.”
“It’s like a love story,” Andrea smiled, but as quickly as the smile came so did the silent tears. It really wasn’t much like a love story at all, Eve thought.
“What’s wrong?” Eve rushed over to her, wrapping her arms around her as she cried.
“I can’t help but think that one of us could die in the night and…”
“It’ll be all right.”
“You cannot say that. Not anymore. Not in this world.”
Andrea cried for a long time after that. When she didn’t begin to cry with her, Eve realized that she had run out of tears. She felt the pain but couldn’t express the emotion. They sat on the floor surrounded by underwear, both of them lost in their own memories.
--------------------
Captain Ryherd gave everyone that wanted to help with the wedding Saturday off. Kyle radioed Eve as they were headed home, saying that there was a house full of people waiting to help. And there had been. It was long past getting dark before people started to leave. Everything was so beautiful, and aside from a few minor things, everything was pretty much done before she went to bed that night.
The wedding commenced without a problem. Andrea and Eve woke up early Sunday to finish decorating. At eleven, when Kyle showed up, Eve was already upstairs getting ready. Most of the people they worked with came. It felt weird for Eve to look out her bedroom window and actually see people wandering around the neighborhood.
Kyle kept his word. Eve didn’t see him again until she was walking out of the backdoor, stepping away from the threshold of her home and onto a thick, soft, white stretch of carpet that extended from the back door, down the few steps leading off of the porch, curving away from the stone walkway, and ending at a cherry wood gazebo in the far left hand corner of the yard.
Andrea was waiting for her right outside the back door with Caleb in her arms. When Eve had placed both of her feet on the carpet and taken in a long, nervous breath, she reached out for him, her escort and the man in her life that would be giving her to Kyle. With Andrea following close behind, she walked slowly to Kyle to the tune of the traditional bridal march.
Eve only panicked once, when Captain Ryherd asked about the rings. She had completely forgotten about having to have rings. Looking nervously from Kyle to Andrea, she began to tremble. Kyle let her suffer for only a second, though, before producing two small boxes, one of them was the one he had had when he proposed, but had somehow, in all of the confusion from that day, never given to her. The other must be his, she had thought, sighing with relief. She smiled shyly, thanking him with her eyes for not forgetting.
The ceremony was small, quick, and simple. Eve had been nervous when Captain Ryherd told Kyle that he could kiss the bride. And that was their first. She was afraid that it would be awkward as most first kisses were. Thankfully, it was not. The kiss was absolutely perfect.
The party afterwards continued well into the night. Two ladies that Eve hadn’t really known made them a three-layer cake, with each layer held up by little plastic columns. White roses ornamented the edges of each cake.
The group that had gathered the day before had also helped with the food, but it seemed as if everyone that came brought something, even if it was something as simple as cheese spray and slightly stale crackers. They requested no gifts thinking that it would be tacky to assume that someone would bring them one; although, someone had brought a card and had everyone sign it.
That night Eve and Kyle stayed at one of the nearby five star hotels. Kyle had gotten a few other people to go there the day before and turn on the utilities, bring in food, wine, and all kinds of other things, to decorate one of the honeymoon suites for them.
He even had them bring in a baby bed so they could keep Caleb in the room that adjoined theirs. Under normal circumstances, she would have left him with someone for the night, but Kyle knew she was too paranoid for that. He told her that if paranoia and over protection were the only psychoses she got from all that had happened then he could live with Caleb attached to her hip. The rest of the events that followed are their own private business, as Eve was fond of saying.
Eve wasn’t a prudish woman, and she did eventually tell the story of that night, but the night wasn’t any different from any other normal honeymoon. They took a long soak in the hot tub, drank a little too much wine, and spent as much time, as Caleb would allow them, in bed.
They spent the next day in much the same way.
When they got home, Andrea gave them their one and only wedding gift. She had taken all of the pictures she had managed to take to the photo center at Wal-Mart and printed them. Then she searched a number of different stores, gathering all of the pre-made scrapbooks she could find and put all of the best pictures in them.
“I remember you telling me how much you used to love to scrapbook. These were premade, so all I had to do is place your pictures in the slots and label who is in the picture. Now, all you have to do is journal,” Andrea had informed her.
“Thank you so much.” Eve hugged her tightly. “You really didn’t have to do all of this for me.”
“Yeah, thanks for doing this Andrea, it was real nice of you.” Kyle hugged her this time, showing as much emotion as his testosterone would allow him.
----------
Tuesday when they went back to work, Kyle received some bad news, which he told Eve about when they got home that night. One of the girls they had worked with had hung herself Sunday night. She was Eve’s age, but Eve hadn’t talked to her that much. Kyle also admitted that there was a rumor going around about the suicide letter the girl had left. Whoever found the letter was said to have destroyed it before too many people had had a chance to read it. Those that claim to have read it refused to reveal much about what she wrote. So many people speculated that she wrote something about Eve in it.
Eve was sorry that she hadn’t spent time with the girl, and she prayed that she had had nothing to do with the girl’s decision to do what she did, but she refused to let any of it make her feel bad about marrying Kyle. Andrea told Eve that she thought the letter and suicide
had more to do with Caleb and Kyle than with Eve personally.
“I’m sorry about that, but I know I’m not the only one who is in a relationship amongst this mess. Ty and Ella are doing something, I’m not sure what, but I’m sure it is something. You’re always talking to or about the new guy on our team, Austin.”
“I’m not,” she gasped, blushing brightly because Kyle had come into the room.
“You are. Anyway, Kyle and I are just the only ones crazy enough to get married in the middle of the apocalypse.”
“Apocalypse?” Andrea questioned.
“Nothing on this large of a scale could be anything less,” he said.
“Well, it isn’t the Christian apocalypse I’ve heard about in church. God didn’t do this,” Eve said.
“How do you know?” Andrea asked.
“Did you have the same president I’ve had these last eight years?”
“Yes,” Kyle answered. “Maybe he was the antichrist. You can call it whatever you want, but it’s still the end of the world as we know it. I can count the number of live beings, human or otherwise, in the tri-cities, on both my fingers and toes. When is the last time we have heard even the hint of someone else from the outside world?”
Eve knew it was true that this thing was very apocalyptic. Their numbers kept dwindling. Soon they were going to be living off Ramen noodles and canned or boxed food because food was running scarce and they hadn’t had any outside deliveries in over a month. Even the livestock were slowly beginning to fade away, albeit a bit slower than the humans were, but fading nonetheless. Kyle told Eve that Captain Ryherd hadn’t heard from any of his superior officers for weeks.
“Then why are we still doing all of this? Well, besides the obvious. Why bother collecting IDs? Why fill out all of the paperwork?” Andrea asked. The paperwork had been a big part of the job that annoyed her to no end because she hated searching the bodies.
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