Undead Love: A Post-Apocalyptic Romance

by Silvia Rojas

  June screamed in mortification and swung her staff around, in one fell swoop bashing the heads of all the 5 Zombies that had come for her. Her screech had instead gathered the attention of the Zombies in the kitchen, which they strangely seemed to be locked inside. Apparently, there was a try to fight but none of them could live on. Borton cursed from outside.

  There were some other Zombies that had heard the scream. He looked at June, his eyes shining in desperation.

  “June! Come on! We need to go!” Jumping on his motorbike, he didn’t waste time in turning it on and getting it ready to run. “Come on! We need to get out of here!”

  June didn’t respond, only stood horrified at what she had done. She looked at the corpse of her mother, her mother that had turned into a Zombie. Her mother that she had killed herself and almost collapsed if not for a bike suddenly coming to a stand beside her and grabbing her. Lifelessly she sat down beside Borton and didn’t even care as he zoomed off away from the area. She had killed her mother, she had killed the one that she loved the most in the world. She was now truly all alone, without anyone to call her won.

  “Home,” June whispered under her breath. “Please, take me home.”

  Borton grunted, turning towards the sign which read ‘Maplewood Street’ and into the large street that held the houses. If he remembered, his home was numbered 8th. Steering to the side, he noticed the numbers of the house. They started from 48th. So the 8th home was far away and if there were 48 homes on either side of the road then there were a total of 96 homes in the street. Impressive.

  Finally, they came to a fairly big house, 8th Maplewood Street, with the post-box reading Hearts outside.

  “Here we go,” Borton softly said, looking at her home. “Your home. Should we go in?”

  “Yes,” June whispered back, getting off and using her key to open the gates. “Come in, don’t go. Inside the compound, you can park your bike in the garage.”

  “Borton nodded, looking up at the now darkened clouds. They looked ready to spill at any moments. Not even waiting for much more, instead, he simply drove inside of the open gates and right into the open garage. There were no cars in the garage and she had come in behind him, closing the garage shutter behind her. There was a door that led inside of her house and Borton didn’t comment much, instead just ignored everything and walked in behind her. He knew she was mourning and he wasn’t about to say anything that would only ruin the mood further. Instead, he gave her the silence she needed as she crashed down onto the sofa, finally, her emotions giving away, her head buried in the side-rest as her sobs rose.

  “Why?” she cried. “Why? Why did this happen? Why can’t there be just peace and quiet in this world? Why did there have to be Zombies? Why did I have to meet you? Why is there a war? Why?”

  Borton didn’t know what to say, so he simply sat down beside her, patting her on the shoulder. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but couldn’t respond so closed it again. Finally, he started to speak.

  “You know..... life is not fair,” Borton said, not knowing what to do to placate the young girl. “Life isn’t something that can be just enjoyed without the sacrifices and the hardships. Life isn’t something which can be just enjoyed without the sacrifices you must give. I understand, I lost my own parents today and I really hope that they didn’t turn into one of them, but..... I can’t do anything about it, can I?”

  “That doesn’t mean I had to kill her.” She cried, not looking at him. This was not the strong girl that he’d collided against. Instead, this was the weak, vulnerable young woman that needed a hand of comfort. Her position was also awkward, so his pat on her shoulder went to her thigh instead. “That didn’t mean that my mother deserved such a death!”

  “No, no she did not.” Borton shook his head. “She deserved much, much better. She deserved to die in a warm bed, surrounded by her children and her grandchildren, smiling and making last jokes with them and sharing her last stories. No one deserved to die today, it is all the fault of the countries that have a problem with us. It is all due to the nuclear fallout and it is all due to the rising of the Zombies.”

  June sniffled, crying once again. Borton’s attention instantly snapped to a door which suddenly closed and footsteps that were heard, along with taps, as if a cane was colliding against the floor. Borton gulped, getting his gun out but was surprised to see an old woman standing in the hallway, looking confused.

  “June?” The old woman asked after staring at him for a while. “Is that you June? I don’t know if you recognize me or not but I’m the old lady that stays in the 7th.”

  June looked up at the unfamiliar voice and looked at the old lady, her eyes red with crying. She tried to remember her but nothing came up. The woman only walked towards the main room and sat on the couch.

  “There were those abominations that broke into my house, so I instead had to come over here,” the woman said softly. “I am sorry if I caused an interruption, June, I hope you understand.”

  “It’s alright.” Wiping away her tears, June looked at the woman and smiled. “I remember you now, you used to look after me when I was young.”

  “Oh, how long it has been since then. You didn’t even speak much during that time.” The old woman giggled. “I presume by your reaction that your parents didn’t make it out?”

  “No.” June sighed, shaking her head. “Dad died due to glass shards penetrating him, mom was turned into one of them. I had to K kill her.”

  “No, you didn’t kill her,” The old woman replied, looking at June calmly and smiling at the young girl. “You only saved her.”

  “How did I save her?” June asked, looking at her as if she had gone senile. “Didn’t you hear me? I Killed her! I mashed her head in with my stuff!”

  “No, you did not,” the woman replied calmly. Borton got the impression that the woman was an expert in dealing with impatient and stubborn people, especially the ones like June. If she took care of the little girl when she was young, then there was no doubt the woman, whom he was going to name Mrs. 6 for the moment, knew how to deal with her. “You saved her, and all the others you killed. Tell me, June, did they want to be like that? The people that you killed, the people that you saved, did they all want to be like that? Did they want to be turned into mindless abominations? Did they and to hunt down all signs of life and turn them? Do you really think that is what they wanted?”

  June didn’t reply, but she did keep on defiantly staring at the elder woman. Mrs. 6 sighed and rubbed her forehead.

  “You’re 19 now and you’re still the stubborn and most pigheaded girl that I have ever known.” The woman said. That did cause June to blush slightly and look away, but she still didn’t reply. “June, as the young man here said, life is not fair. I myself lost my parents when I was 8 and was raised by my grandparents, and I was lucky to even have them. So many people out there lose their parents when they’re young, so many. They lose everyone, their own lives, their loves, their hearts, everything, but do they ever blame themselves when it is not on themselves to put the blame on? No, June, they don’t. You see, you are thinking along the lines of you could be able to save her, but the moment the undead struck, we knew that the world was going to end.”

  “That damned bomb ruined everything,” Borton bitterly agreed. At June’s strange look, he sighed. “Currently, there is no possible proof that Zombie’s existed until this happened. The only thing in the world that I know is powerful enough to change the humans and turn them into these undead monsters is Radiation and Radioactivity. When the Bomb exploded, it would have shot out such radioactivity that it actually made a dead person come back to life as a mutant.”

  “The technology of today’s world to destroy them never managed to surprise me.” Mrs. 6 replied, snorting. “But, if it is any clues to your investigation on how this happened, I wish to say the Zombies, I believe, started to appear 2 hours before the bomb impacted.”

  “Really?” June looked up at her, sur
prised. “But how?”

  “No one knows the answer to that,” Mrs 6 replied, shaking her head. “All I know is that everyone on the TV was covering the Zombie threats and so on. This is not only situated in our country but the entire world in general if you know what I am saying.”

  “Damn,” Borton muttered. “This means we can’t just escape the country and into a different one. Every single city is going to be like this, we need a giant van full of supplies and head to an isolated area where we can live peacefully, or that is my plan.”

  “For someone as young as you, it is still possible.” The old lady nodded, looking at June right in the eyes. She then looked at Borton, and then back at June. Then she smiled. “You should go with him, June.”

  “But....” June looked at the old lady, and then at Borton. She gulped and shook her head. “No, I can’t. He’ll not take me either way. I said some...... pretty bad things to him when we met.”

  “I don’t care about them.” Borton shook his hand in a ‘worry not’ gesture. “I hear them all the time. If I am able to ignore all the members of my family, all my friends and everyone else, then I can ignore shit that you spout as well. Don’t worry about it Ms. Heart.”

  “Just call me June, Damn it!” June muttered, looking away from the irritating man. “Alright, even if I come with you but Mrs. 6 will not be able to come with us!”

  “Oh, don’t worry about me, dear girl.” The woman shook her head. “Your parents have enough supplies here to last for a year, and I have a car as well. I am sure I can whip out my old shot-gun from the garage if the need arises, and then get out. Don’t worry about me. You two should go and stick together, it will be better that way.”

  “Why?” Borton asked, an eyebrow raising. “I don’t mean any offenses, but if June wants to stay somewhere she likes and leave me she can do so.”

  “Oh no, it’s just, the bond between the two of you is a bond formed in peril and battle,” Mrs 6 said, her smile widening. “You two are destined for great things, really great things, especially with the tides that slowly continue on turning darker and darker. Please, for this old woman, stick together.”

  Borton sighed but nodded, looking at June. June looked at the old woman in slight surprise, and then back at Borton.

  “It seems, June, that you must endure my presence from now on.” Borton grinned cheekily. He got a pillow in the face in return. “Ouch!”

  “Shut up.” She muttered, getting up. “I’ll be in my room. Is it going to rain outside?”

  “I believe the 2 of you should rest for the night and leave tomorrow morning.” The Old Woman smiled. “I will prepare some nice dinner for us to eat.”

  “But won’t they smell it?” June asked, stopping right in front of the stairs that led upstairs to her room. She looked at her, worried. “Won’t they be able to smell the food?”

  “No.” Borton interrupted her thoughts. “No, they won’t. All theories state that Zombies only have the sense of sound and that only because apparently in the state of ‘undead’, yes, that is what it was termed as their skins are super hypersensitive and can sense the sound that is made all around. The reason why the Zombies are attracted to loud sounds and noise, in general, is because they don’t like the sound.”

  “.... Are you always so nerdy?” June asked finally. This time it was Borton’s turn to slam a pillow on June’s face. “Ouch! That hurt!”

  “Serves you right,” Borton muttered. Mrs. 6 only giggled and the man secretly smiled as he saw the girl huff and turn around, walking away with a slight smile on her lips. At least she wasn’t depressed anymore, for some reason he found himself unable to look at her when she was depressed. Borton sighed and looked at Mrs.6 “So what is your name, Ma’am?”

  “Melinda,” the woman said, her eyes twinkling as she got up, her cane in her hands. “Melinda Johnson. Remember it, young man, perhaps it might come in handy one day.”

  She then turned around and walked towards the kitchens, leaving Borton alone. Borton sighed at the mysteriousness of it all and instead only went to look around the house. It was impressive, really impressive in general, but right now he only needed to know if there was anything quick to eat, so he could go to sleep. It turned out that the old lady was already preparing some noodles for them to eat and after having a large bowl of noodles, June lazily pointed him to a guest room, one of the 2 guest rooms that they had along with her parent’s room in the house, for him to sleep. She herself was out like a light before she could even hit the bed properly.

  Outside, the clouds finally erupted, letting their uncontrollable and deadly tears down onto the ground as finally, the world’s descent took a stable curve, downwards.

  Chapter 3- Dual Debts.

  Borton, for the first time since the bomb exploded, found himself happy, or content. His head was laid down on one of the softest pillows that he could hope to find, and his body was covered in a warm blanket that reminded himself of home. But he knew that this wasn’t his own blanket, nor his own bed because he still had this one feeling to be alert at all times. If this was his home, he wouldn’t have been in this light, Zen-like sleeping state but in a deep, heavy sleep. He was mentally exhausted and needed some rest before he could use his brain again and felt like he had given a very difficult maths exam.

  ‘Hmm..... the chances of the planet to be destroyed at less than the chances of penguins suddenly walking up to the center of the city and giving a press conference on why was the neighborhood seagull in a random coastal country suddenly turning towards animals that lived on the beach rather than in the sea.’ Borton though, his sleep induced brain giving him some ridiculous examples to concentrate on. There was a bedside clock beside his bed reading 01:20 AM. The night had already come upon them, and luckily the rain had stopped. He remembered it being around 05:45 when they had come into June’s home and he had gone to sleep exactly at 06:50. ‘I need more sleep, damn it!’

  Borton sighed and turned so he could lean on his left and found his face buried in the softest body-pillow he had ever felt. He sighed and buried his face further into the body-pillow, wondering what kind of a body-pillow it was. Then he remembered that there was no body-pillow when he had gone to sleep, and body-pillows won’t be warm, skinny and have clothes on them. Neither would they have arms.

  His eyes opened and he was face to face with June’s cleavage. His face was buried in between her breasts while she slept, on the same bed as he was, wearing only a very skimpy top and mini-shorts.

  ‘Alright. What in the hell?’ Borton thought to himself as he slowly extracted his face from her bust. He looked up at June’s face and froze, gulping.

  June looked beautiful, especially when she was asleep. Her perfect nose was pointing towards him, soft sounds of breaths dominating his ears. Her full lips parted every couple of seconds while she breathed with her nose, and her tanned skin only made her look all the more beautiful, especially her lips. They were so full, so thick that he wished to actually lean up and press his own lips to hers, but he couldn’t.

  “Just stop gawking and go to sleep, Borton,” the girl whispered, her tired brown eyes opening up. “Or don’t you like a beautiful woman in your arms, with your face stuck in said beautiful woman’s breasts?”

  “I will be honest and say I really do,” Borton agreed, looking at her face for a particular emotion which had led her to sleep in the same bed with him. He found none and wasn’t surprised. “But.... what exactly are you doing in my bed?”

  “Couldn’t sleep alone,” June said, pulling his head closer to her bust. “And needed some company. Then I was reminded of the comfort I felt when I was riding with you and the warmth you seemed to emit, so I took a chance and crawled in. Can’t say I regret it, Mrs. 6 is going to give me hell for it later on though, and she won’t stop teasing me.”

  Borton snorted and instead just wrapped his arms around her waist, where they were, so he could hold her close. He would allow it, for now, and make sure hands didn’t ro
am. If they did then he would think about acting himself. For now, he was content, as content as a daisy but he did have to wonder what caused a change in her heart about him.

  “You know, the more I think about you, the more I get annoyed,” June said, her voice still soft and holding fatigue, but she needed to get this out. “I want to think of you as a useless, weak, peace-loving male that doesn’t go outside and is a lazy, disgusting pig. But the more time I spend with you, especially in this past day, I’ve realized you’re much more than that.”

  “I know, I am. I am awesome,” Borton said proudly but sobered up. “I can say that you’re not the person I thought you were as well.”

  “Oh, what did you think I was?” June asked, curious herself. “Did you think I was one of those ‘bitches’ that are shown up everywhere? A bully?”

  “Nope,” Borton quipped. “No, I did not. I honestly thought that you were a beautiful girl that didn’t belong in the school in such a troublesome situation. Then I thought of you as someone who read the book only if they liked the cover. But I found out that even if you’re immensely strong and provocative, you’re also a young 19 year old in the head and will need areas where she needs to rest properly and open up. And Mrs. Johnson seemed to be able to do that.”

  “Humph, so it seems I don’t need to get rid of you yet,” the girl said haughtily. “Good, continue on letting your opinions on me be that way and I’ll continue on making sure that you get to have your way with me more and more.”