I heard Natalie swallow hard, “That’s really awful.”
“I have a feeling when this is all over; everyone is going to have their share of awful stories to tell.”
Natalie nodded in agreement. “Most likely. Who knows if we’ll ever be able to really live after this.”
“Well, I know one thing for sure. If the world is ever normal again, I’m never working at a damn call center again. That’s more soul crushing then living through a zombie apocalypse.”
Natalie laughed, “My cousin used to work at one of those. She hated it.”
“Where is she?” I asked.
“New Mexico. She moved there three years ago. My aunt and uncle lived in Prescott. I wanted to try and go there to them but I don’t know if it would end up being worth it.”
“We could go,” I said.
“Yeah?”
I nodded, “Yeah, why not? It gives us a destination. A goal to work towards.”
She smiled, “Nice. Hopefully they stayed there. Seems no one stayed at their home.”
“Nope. They really didn’t.”
“So, how did you end up at the complex?”
I thought back to when everything started. Emma and I had been sharing a place not far from there and left to head to California. Our car broke down not even a mile from our old place. I was working on the engine when we were attacked by a pack of zombies. We were able to fight them off but Emma fell and sprained her ankle. Aaron and Ian were out on a run and stopped to help, inviting us to stay with them for a while. By the time Emma’s ankle healed I was helping Ian with the runs and Emma didn’t want to leave.
I explained all this to Natalie. “How’d they make it safe?”
I Shrugged, “I never asked. I think the place was empty honestly. It’s the only scenario that makes sense to me.”
We sat in silence for a long time. The sun was shining and had been for about an hour. I wished I could help Natalie through her pain. I said a prayer for Shelly and hoped that she was safe and that she didn’t come across people like Natalie spoke of or like Aaron. I hoped and prayed there was still good in the world. After all, if there was ever a cure, humanity would have to be restored. It would probably take much therapy to move forward if a cure was ever found.
“Are you sure you want to take the first watch?” I asked.
She nodded, “Yes, I’m good.”
I got up and patted Natalie on the shoulder as I passed by.
I was suddenly very tired. I was emotionally drained after everything that night and just wanted to sleep. When I lay down on the bed next to Milo, I was out in no time. Amazingly I didn’t dream at all.
I don’t know how long I was asleep for. Natalie shook me awake and when I looked up at her she had her finger to her lips telling me to be quiet. Milo had his head perked up like he was listening hard to something.
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
“There are these two guys outside. I’m not sure what they’re up too.”
“Where?” I asked.
She pointed indicating that they were outside on the passenger side.
I crawled across the bed and separated the curtains slightly to peak out. I saw two men in the parking lot about five feet from the van. They seemed to be arguing about something. I could hear them shouting but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“What do you think they want?” Natalie asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You think they’ll try to take the van?”
“It’s possible. But we’ll be ready. Right now, let’s not draw attention to ourselves and maybe they’ll go away.”
Natalie nodded in understanding. We sat on the bed listening to the shouting outside.
“They’re going to draw zombies,” Natalie pointed out.
I sighed, “Most likely but if they get attacked by zombies we’ll make a break for it.”
The arguing stopped. Then there was a loud bang. What sounded like a gun shot rang out in the air and loudly in the van. Milo stood up. Natalie looked scared.
I took a peak outside and saw that it wasn’t a gun shot, their POS car back fired when they drove off.
I began laughing.
“What is funny at a time like this?” Natalie asked.
“The car back fired, they’re gone.”
Natalie began to laugh too when I told her.
“You should get some sleep,” I said. “I’m going to take Milo for a walk.”
Natalie nodded, “Okay. But you won’t go far?”
I shook my head, “No, I’ll stay close to the van. He just is probably about to pop a gut at this point.”
I got changed out of my pj’s and into normal clothes. Natalie was a sleep by the time I got my gun and knife and Milo leashed and ready. We hopped out of the van and I locked it behind me.
There was a small grassy area next to an old cart return that Milo and I walked over too. I was right, he needed to go. I was surprised that there weren’t more zombies around after the car backfiring but maybe there weren’t any close by.
I set up a chair outside the van and sat with Milo. It was nice outside. I wasn’t sure of the exact date but I knew that it had to be getting towards the end of October. I got Milo some water in a bowl and enjoyed the weather. I did have a few zombies to contend with but not many.
I couldn’t remember the last time I just sat and enjoyed being outside. Being able to just relax hadn’t been something I had been able to do since before the whole mess had begun. I had to always be on guard of the dead and of the living. No wonder I stayed tired most of the time.
In all truth I wasn’t really relaxing given that I still had to be on guard and keep Milo safe.
Though he could probably take care of himself, I would’ve rather not have him bite one of those undead things. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how the disease worked. Yes, a bite from a zombie turned you if they didn’t continue to eat you after that first bite. A scratch also turned you. But would biting one or ingesting their blood turn you? I didn’t know and I’d rather not find out by having a zombified dog on my hands. I knew he could also get bit by one of those creatures and I could never live with myself if I let that happen.
I heard the door open behind me and Natalie came out of the van yawning.
“It’s quiet out here,” She stated.
I nodded, “It’s a nice change of pace.”
She knelt down and petted Milo.
“So what’s the plan?” She asked.
“I think we should move on at least a little ways. Put as much distance between us and the safe haven as possible.”
Natalie agreed. She took Milo for a quick walk while I packed up his bowl and the chair I was sitting in.
“How far are we going to go?” She asked.
“Not crazy far, just a little ways. Want to move while the sun is out so we can scope the place out better.”
Natalie nodded and asked, “Are we always going to be on the move?”
I shrugged and sighed, “I hope not. I hope we find a place that’s safe that we can stay at for a while. Maybe we’ll try Prescott but we got to come up with a plan, course of action. Just not right now.”
“Do you think anything these days is going to go according to your plan?” She asked with a smirk.
I gave out a little chuckle. “Probably not but one should never be unprepared.”
“True,” She said. “Cate, do you think this is forever?”
I sighed, “I have no idea. We just have to take it one day at a time and hope there’s an answer on the way.”
“Why do you think this happened?”
I shrugged, “Just bad luck I guess.”
She made a face of exasperation. I gave her a hug. It was a hard world we were living in. It made the stuff we used to go through seem so easy. I remember when I used to worry about things that were trivial and had no real bearing on my life.
We got in the van and headed on west. We didn’t dri
ve for very long. It wasn’t my intention to go that far, I just wanted a little more distance between me and where we had been. No one knew the van. Ian and I never discussed it with anyone else. I never even told Emma. I mentioned maybe leaving the safe haven mostly to feel her out but never mentioned the van because she never sounded like she would be willing to go. And in the back of my mind I always thought she would tell Aaron.
A part of me wondered if she knew what Aaron was planning. I hope she wouldn’t do that to me but truth was none of us were who we once were. Everyone had changed, hardened. Survival had become priority number one and sometimes that threw loyalty, morals, and humanity to the way side. I hoped that wasn’t me. I hoped I would never be that far gone but it’s hard to say what you will and won’t do to survive until you’re facing the barrel of the gun or the zombies decaying teeth as it were.
We pulled into another deserted parking lot. This one was a little less deserted. There were a few zombies hanging around an old burger joint at the end of the strip mall area. They seemed to pay no mind to the van so Natalie and I agreed it would be fine to stay. Trying to find a place completely deserted of zombies was next to impossible, we got lucky the night before. I didn’t even hope to get that lucky again.
Natalie and I made work of covering the van windows. We took turns taking restroom breaks and I took Milo for one last walk before it got dark.
I dug through the food stash and gave Natalie a can of Vienna sausages and a pudding cup. I decided on some canned spaghetti and meatballs and a fruit cup that’s juice got all over my hands when I opened it. There was dry dog food that I fed to Milo and we all had a little bit of water but we were conservative on drinking it since there wasn’t a ton in our supply.
We ate in silence. I was hungry as I’m sure Natalie was as well. Neither of us had eaten anything since we left the safe haven. I didn’t even think of food the entire time and besides, I was hungry all the time anyway. It was nothing new to feel that way. I didn’t think I’d ever know what being full would feel like again. I missed Thanksgiving dinners when I’d be so full at the end and felt like I didn’t want to eat again for a whole year but then would have a slice of pie anyway. Those were days of the past. Food was scarce and had to be preserved. It would probably never be a luxury again. I felt bad that there were people who went through this struggle before the dead walked among us. I wished I had done more to help people in that situation. If the world ever went back to normal I would be sure to help the hungry. I had a feeling that the memory of this kind of hunger would never go away, not entirely. I think my stomach would always feel the pangs in its memory, assuming stomachs have memories.
After Natalie finished her pudding she asked, “So where were you when all this started?”
“Home. I was supposed to be at work but I called in that day,” I stated.
“You were sick?” She asked.
I shook my head, “No, I hated my job and used one of my sick days. I don’t think anyone in the office made it out that day though.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “I got a text from my boyfriend…”
She cut me off, “Boyfriend?”
I closed my eyes and sighed, “Yeah. We’d only been dating maybe five months. He was a manager there so no one knew about it because he would’ve gotten fired. I wanted to quit but he encouraged me to stay there. I hadn’t even told my sister about my relationship with him. That there should’ve told me the relationship was doomed.”
“Is that why you wouldn’t pursue your feelings for Ian?”
“There’s a lot of reasons I wouldn’t but that was a big one. I didn’t talk about that relationship with Ian and I felt like it would’ve been a betrayal somehow. Plus, I didn’t want to go through it again but I did anyway.”
“What was his name?”
“Justin. Justin Clark.”
“What did he text you?”
“He asked me my symptoms. Which I thought at first meant he knew I was faking. I didn’t realize that people were showing symptoms before turning because I didn’t know so I lied and told him I had some bad pork from the grocery store and had food poisoning. He then text me not to go anywhere for any reason. That’s when I turned on the news and saw what was happening before they lost coverage. After I talked to Shelly on my cell, I called Justin on his hard phone at work because the landlines were still working but I didn’t talk to him very long. I heard him get attacked by a zombie. I knew he was gone.”
“I’m sorry,” She said.
“Me too,” I said.
In all honesty, I hadn’t thought about that day in the six months since it happened. I never let myself grieve. After that phone call, I went on a crazy mission that I didn’t fully understand. I was obsessed with Shelly still being alive because I knew Justin wasn’t. Though I never dealt with my feelings, Justin was a ghost over my head that kept me from moving forward. I didn’t really want to move forward though; I truly believed that love didn’t have a place in the world as it was. Maybe that was heartbreak, maybe just a means of protecting myself but whatever it was, I didn’t want love in the world like it was.
I took the first watch as Natalie slept. When we switched, I wasn’t really able to sleep with Justin on my mind. I’d worked so hard to keep him from my thoughts. It sounds messed up but it was the only way I knew how to deal with what had happened. Emma never brought him up. I’d like to think it’s because she knew me well enough that there was some unspoken thing between us but I really think it was because she just didn’t really care.
Justin was a gorgeous man with brown eyes and brown hair with a light sprinkle of freckles across his nose. He was just under six feet tall. We really weren’t supposed to be dating like I told Natalie; he was a manager though not my direct supervisor, it was still frowned upon. It wasn’t sleazy though, he didn’t spend his time flirting with me and he never once came on to me at work.
We started seeing each other after I ran into him at a Cult Classic screening of the movie Evil Dead 2. I was with my friend Suzy who didn’t work with us and moved back to Oklahoma a month before the zombies started walking the earth. He was by himself because he came to Arizona because of the job and really didn’t know very many people. We ran into him in line and Suzy invited him to sit with us. He hesitated but agreed. He and I began talking before the movie began and it was the first time we really got to know each other. By the end of the night, Suzy was convinced that he and I were made for each other. I didn’t think that but I knew I liked him as a friend and that’s how it started. We hung out a lot after that. We weren’t even supposed to be hanging out as friends but neither of us cared about that. There was nothing inappropriate about our relationship at that point.
Then one day Justin was over to play board games with Emma, Suzy, and I and things shifted between us. He kissed me that night on our balcony and immediately apologized because he said he crossed a line. I told him I didn’t mind it being crossed and kissed him again and that was it. We were together.
I loved him and even though it was only five months, it was the best relationship I had ever been in. A part of me wonders if I won’t spend the rest of my life comparing men to him if I ever get to the point to give it a try again but the truth is I don’t want to know. I don’t think I ever want to feel like that again. Be that open again. I had perfect once; I don’t expect to find it again. And even though I cared and loved Ian in a way, I hated myself for those feelings. I felt like I was betraying Justin somehow. It’s a cruel fate to lose the person you love more than anything else, to live without them because all you ever want is that person back in your life.
I was up with the sun since I never really went to sleep. I took Milo out for a quick walk as Natalie made us some oatmeal for breakfast. On my way back to the van I heard a growling. I looked behind me and there was a throng of zombies in the parking lot heading towards the van. There was another group coming from the other side as well.
“Shit,�
� I said under my breath and ran back to the van with Milo.
Natalie had the side door open and threw me one of the shot guns. She got out of the van as Milo got in. I closed the door after he was safely inside.
“We can’t drive off can we?” Natalie asked.
I looked around. We were surrounded. There was no way out but by fighting.
I sighed, “No, I don’t think we can.”
The first zombie lunged and I put a knife through its skull. I was able to take out three more before I had to switch to the gun.
“Are you alright?” I called to Natalie.
“I’ve been better,” She said as she shot another zombie.
We seemed to be doing alright but were running low on Ammo and I knew we couldn’t get to the other guns in the van. I felt ashamed; I should’ve been more prepared for this. It had been so clear though. No zombies in sight. Where the hell did these guys come from? It was like someone opened up the mall doors on black Friday and we were the store having the best deals. The crowd was coming for us.
We continued to fight on but it began to look like we hadn’t even made a dent in the oncoming storm. I felt like we weren’t going to make it. A zombie got its teeth very close to my throat before I was able to get my knife in its skull.
I tried to look to see how Natalie was doing but if I took my eyes off the zombies, I would’ve been a goner. I couldn’t look away. I called out to her and she didn’t answer.
“Shit,” I said again.
“I’m fine,” She said out of breath and I heard the sound of a knife slicing through the skull of one of the monsters.
“Not doing so hot over here,” She said.
“Me either,” I called out.
We weren’t doing well at all. It was just the two of us; there was no way we were going to be able to stop this amount of zombies on our own I thought. Though I hoped I was wrong.
I heard Milo barking in the van. He must’ve been looking out the window and could see us being attacked. He wanted to help us, I could tell.
Chapter 8
I felt like the walls were closing in. All I could see were gray decaying faces that were hungry for our flesh. They were surrounding us. I couldn’t see a way out of this one. I’d been in many seemingly impossible situations before with the undead but this was by far the worst. There were so many.
Plague of the Dead (Book 2): Plague of the Desert Page 8
