“You miss them, huh?” Mark didn’t have a family to miss him. He didn’t have anyone to care that he was trying his best to survive with Alice and Kyle. He didn’t have anyone to worry about what was going to happen to him. He was all alone. His brothers and sisters from his military days might think of him, but he wouldn’t be missed. Not the way Kyle was missing his family. Not the way you’d miss someone you grew up with.
His ex-wife certainly wasn’t off pining for him.
“Sometimes,” Kyle said.
“Not always?”
“There’s a reason I left home,” Kyle said, but he let the words hang in the air. Mark understood better than Kyle might think. Sometimes leaving home is the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do, but it changes you. It frees you sometimes. It gives you the ability to go be who you want to be.
You aren’t tied to anyone’s idea of what you should be because everyone you meet is new, so no one can compare you to who you were as a teenager or who your parents are now. No one is thinking about the tantrum you threw at your fifth birthday party or the way you were an asshole when you were going through puberty. There’s nothing to compare you to. There’s no baggage.
When you move away and someone meets you for the first time, you’re just…you.
They heard some more noise and looked up. Alice was at it again. This time, there were two Infected fighting her. One of them was actually fighting, trying its best to get her. The other one didn’t seem to know what was going on. It mostly seemed to want to avoid being hit.
Kyle started to jump up, but Mark grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down.
“Just let her,” he said gruffly. “She needs this.”
Mark had his gun ready and he saw Kyle move his hand to his waistband even as he sat back down. They needed to let her do this, but they would still keep her safe. They would keep her as safe as they could.
Alice needed some way to move on from the past that haunted her. If taking out that aggression on Z’s what was got her through the day, then so be it. He wasn’t about to let her die, though. He watched carefully to make sure no Infected even had a chance at getting close to her, but he let her fight.
And Alice, it seemed, was quite the little fighter.
She didn’t just use the crowbar, though she did favor it. She used her entire body to twist and turn and kick. When she started to tire, she used the crowbar more. She’d knock them down, and they’d slowly get back up. It was just her and the two zombies. It was Alice against the world.
He watched the exhilaration flow through her as she finally finished playing with her toys and killed them both. She was becoming quite efficient with her death hits, and Mark knew exactly what she was thinking.
He saw the way she smiled at the bodies just before she dropped the crowbar and climbed back on the top of the car.
He saw the way she liked doing it.
And Mark saw the way Alice wondered if anyone else knew her secret.
***
They finished eating and Mark and Kyle dragged the bodies out of the road.
“You need to change,” Mark told Alice, but she shook her head.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re covered in blood. You’re going to get it all over the damn car.”
“We’re going to have to ditch it soon, anyway,” she said. “It’s almost out of gas.”
“She’s right,” Kyle said. “Sorry, man,” he shrugged when Mark gave him a glare. “It’s just a car. Just let her be.”
Alice didn’t seem to be happy to have won the argument. For some reason, Kyle agreeing with her pissed her off. She quickly stripped off her jeans and tank top and shoved them in the trunk. She pulled out a baggy t-shirt of Mark’s and yanked it on.
“No pants?” Kyle asked.
“I’m out of clean pants.”
“We’ll try to find a place we can wash our stuff,” Kyle said.
“Or we’ll just get some new pants,” Mark said. “I’m not doing laundry every time we fight a Z. It’s not like there’s a 24-hour Laundromat around.”
He got in the car and waited for Kyle to get settled, then took off down the road. It was paved, which was a nice change from the gravel, and twisted and turned as it neared the town.
“No matter what happens,” Mark said. “Just follow my lead.”
“What do you think we’re going to find?” Alice’s voice wavered. Mark tried not to think of how sweet she looked in his shirt. He tried not to think of the way her legs seemed to never end. This was the end of the world: not some touching romance story.
“I’m going to go with more Infected. Maybe a lot.”
“Think there will be survivors?” Kyle asked from the backseat.
“Probably not as many as you’d expect. It’s a pretty gun-positive area, but people were caught off guard. None of us saw this thing coming. People react strangely and unpredictably when they’re scared. They do crazy shit when they don’t know what else to do.”
“Should we try to find a place to stay here?” Alice asked.
“Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know what I want.”
“Let’s just see what we find,” Mark said.
He drove slowly. They passed the large sign welcoming them to the remains of the city. Population: 2,500. By his count, that meant there would be about 2,490 Infected walking around and about 10 survivors holed up in a church somewhere, but who was he to judge?
Mark hadn’t been the best soldier. He hadn’t been the best leader, the best friend, or the best husband. Certainly, not the best husband. Still, he was good at reading people, and he thought that their first instinct was to panic.
It didn’t matter that this was a small town. People would run to their friends and their family members. They would try to make one last trip to the store. They’d try anything if it meant getting away from the panic they were facing.
They’d do anything to survive.
They were driving down Main Street and it seemed to be mostly empty. There were a few stray Infected wandering around, but no one loud or crazy. There were no humans. There were no survivors.
Brick buildings lined the street. He carefully dodged potholes as he looked at the broken glass storefronts. Just a few days ago, this had probably been a quaint little town. It had probably looked like the front of a postcard, but now? Now it was nothing.
Now it was destroyed.
Now it was broken, just like them.
“Store,” Alice pointed to a small shop at the end of a row. “Let’s go to that store.”
“Why?” Mark asked. It didn’t look like anything special.
“No pants, Mark. No pants.” She motioned to her legs and he wished he hadn’t looked. It was wrong to be noticing her legs when they were just trying to make it through the day.
“Fine,” he pulled into a parking spot out front and got out of the car. “You want anything?” He asked Kyle.
“I’m good, man,” Kyle chuckled, obviously enjoying Mark’s discomfort at having to take Alice pants shopping. Whatever. Mark slammed the car door harder than he should have. It rattled the car, and Kyle quieted instantly.
Fuck.
The sound rang out down the street, but none of the Infected seemed to be paying them much mind. There were only a few on this road, so if they hurried, they could get out before they drew the attention of any more.
The glass window that showed off the front of the store was completely destroyed. Whether it had been the work of Infected or the work of humans freaking out, Mark couldn’t be sure. Still, they were cautious as they stepped over the glass into the tiny store.
“Grab what you want,” Mark said. “And don’t wander out of my sight.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Okay.”
Alice headed straight for a shelf of jeans and began checking the sizes on pants. She didn’t need to bother. She’d look good in anything. Fuck, she could wear a damn paper bag and look better than a princess.
Not that it mattered.
Not that anything would ever happen between the two of them.
He looked at the toppled clothing racks and the register on top of the counter. Just a few days ago, this place had probably been bustling. Some college student trying to make extra cash would run the register, or maybe a middle-aged mother trying to get back into the workforce. Students would come here on the weekends to spend their allowance, to buy new clothes to impress the people they liked.
It was normal.
It was all so normal.
And now it wasn’t.
Alice was squeezing into a pair of jeans, but Mark barely noticed as he continued walking around the shop. He ran his hands over clothes and eyed the back storage area, but he didn’t really think about anything except how strange this all was.
He couldn’t let his mind quiet too much or he’d start thinking it was surreal. He couldn’t stop focusing on keeping Alice and Kyle safe or he’d start thinking about how fake everything felt. He’d think about how he thought he was dreaming, how none of this seemed possible. He needed to stay focused so he couldn’t think so damn much.
“Are you done?” He asked.
“Yeah. What do you think?” Alice turned around in a circle and even Mark couldn’t help but smile. She had a new pair of jeans on and a red tank top. It made her pale skin look soft and delicate. It brought out her smile.
He didn’t say that to her, though.
He didn’t tell her she looked beautiful, that she was the one good thing left in the world.
“Fits like a glove,” he said instead. “Let’s go.”
They headed back out of the shop and walked toward the car, but as soon as Alice and Mark saw inside the vehicle, they realized something was wrong.
Kyle was gone, and neither one of them had seen him leave.
Chapter 4
It was a stupid thing, wandering off when your friends were shopping, but Alice thought she might understand. She hadn’t been herself lately. She hadn’t been herself and maybe Kyle hadn’t been himself, either. It was hard to feel like you were still “you” when there was nothing but death around you.
“Let’s go look for him,” she said, but Mark just shook his head.
“We can’t, baby.”
He looked like he was going to say Kyle was dead.
And Kyle wasn’t dead.
They’d only been inside for a short while. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t. They would have heard something if he had been. They would have known. Alice wasn’t about to accept that. Not now and not ever. They were a team now. They might not have started out that way, but they were now.
It was all or nothing now.
“We need to find him,” she said. “Maybe he just went for a walk while I got my clothes.” There was a logical explanation. There had to be. She wasn’t about to cry out his name. She wasn’t about to scream for Kyle, but maybe she should. She had fought off zombies earlier. She had fought and she had been strong. She could do it again.
She could call for him and maybe he would come back.
Maybe zombies would come, but she would be okay.
She still had the crowbar.
It was stupid, she knew. Even as she thought it, she knew it would be suicide, but she was tired and she was worn down and she wanted her friend back. They couldn’t leave without him.
“Or maybe he wandered off on purpose to leave us. Maybe he thought he’d do better on his own, Alice. Maybe he went for a walk and he got killed. Maybe he wanted to explore and he plans to come back. I don’t know. Neither one of us knows, but the best thing we can do is to stay here. He’ll come back if he wants to.”
“How long do we wait for him?” She asked. She wanted to look for him. She didn’t like sitting still, didn’t like holding herself in one place.
Mark was patient. He’d been a soldier. Maybe he’d sat still for long periods of time. Maybe he’d learned to be patient and follow orders, but Alice hadn’t.
She wasn’t good at silence, at waiting.
Alice looked up at the sky. It was clear, but the days were getting shorter. They needed to find somewhere to stay for the night. They needed to find a place they could be safe. They needed to find somewhere they could belong.
They needed to get anywhere.
Mark sighed. Then he yanked open the driver’s side door and sat in the car. Alice got in, too. She left the door open and kept one foot outside of the vehicle, ready to run at a moment’s notice, ready to run for Kyle.
Ready to save him.
Mark hit the steering wheel. This had to be hard for him, too. He was used to being in control, used to things being orderly and precise. Mark was a soldier through-and-through. It didn’t matter how long he’d been out of the Army. He’d always have a part of him that was always on-task, always prepared, always ready. There would always be a part of him that could take on anything.
He’d take on the world if it meant saving his friends.
Alice and Kyle both knew it.
She sat there for a second, staring at Mark. Even now, he was handsome. He was strong. He was brave. He looked like he had his act together and she wished she had that confidence.
“How long, Mark?” She asked again. How long would they give their friend to come back? How long would they sit around, fiddling their thumbs, hoping Kyle would return?
She looked at the buildings, at the few wandering zombies. The town was really dead, and not just in the physically-dead way. It was empty. It was isolated. Maybe they should find a place here to stay, to settle down for awhile. It didn’t have to be forever. They could just find a building and ride out the storm.
Eventually, things would get back to normal. Eventually, the power would come back on and there would be mass communication and there would be a vaccine. There would be a savior.
Eventually, if they could just hold on long enough, they could be saved.
“We wait until he comes back or until darkness falls.”
She was his face, then, and Alice was surprised. Mark looked like he didn’t know what they should do, either, and Alice realized he was just as lost as she was. They could all fake it as much as they wanted, but none of them had ever gone through this shit before. None of them had ever done this. None of them had ever survived the end of the world before.
“I can’t,” she said, “Sorry,” and she hopped out of the car. Alice slammed the door behind herself, cringing at the sound. Fuck. Had she always closed doors so loudly, or was it just today? She felt weird standing in the open air without a gun.
Anything could happen.
It was her against the world now.
She should be more scared than she was, but killing earlier today had given her a strange sort of self awareness. She was more confident, yes, but there was more to it than that. She felt more self-assured. She felt like she could handle herself, and it wasn’t about being cocky. It was about the fact that Alice was clever, and she was quick, and she was smart.
She could be smart.
She had spent too many years questioning herself. How much time had she wasted wondering if she was good enough? How long had she felt like she wasn’t brave or strong or worth anything?
Too fucking long.
Her parents had really messed her up and she was just now learning to deal with it. Usually, she pushed her pain to the back of her mind. In college, she had taken extra classes to fill her time. At work, she was constantly begging for extra projects. Anytime someone didn’t show up for work or called in sick, she’d cover for them because it gave her something to do, something to focus on.
Alice didn’t care how tired she was if it meant she didn’t have to think about how her world had been crushed.
Only now, the dead had risen. Now, there was no television to get lost in. There was no work to keep her busy. There was no homework to wear her out. Now, Alice had nothing but time, and it was driving her mad.
She shoved her hands in her jean poc
kets and started walking down the road. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to be anywhere. She picked up a rock and threw it at a store window that was still intact. Not anymore. The glass shattered and fell everywhere. It was loud and noisy and she didn’t care.
Where was Kyle?
Why had he left her, too?
She went to pick up another rock, but when she pulled her arm back, she felt someone’s hand wrap around her wrist.
“Stop,” Mark said. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her back against himself. She struggled and tried to throw the rock, but he held her firmly still.
“Let me go,” she said.
“Stop. Alice. Stop.”
She didn’t want to stop. She wanted to throw the rock. She wanted to break something, anything, everything. She wanted to destroy the windows because the windows to her soul had been broken. Everything inside of Alice hurt, and she felt alone.
“Alice, you’re safe,” Mark said. “I’m right here with you and everything is going to be okay.”
It sounded like a line. It felt like a line. It sounded fake and it sounded like something he was saying just to get her to stop, but Alice wanted to believe that Mark was right. She wanted to believe what he was saying was true. She wanted to believe that beyond a shadow of a doubt, Mark was going to be there for her, with her.
He was going to make sure she got through this okay.
He was going to take care of her.
She relaxed against him, and she closed her eyes.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured, and it made her happier than it should have.
Chapter 5
Kyle shouldn’t have left the car in the first place, but he had to pee and didn’t feel like doing it within earshot of his buddies. He’d been without much privacy the last few days, and sometimes, a guy just needed to take a piss in peace.
He didn’t think that was too much to ask.
Kyle walked around the corner of one of the old brick buildings. The style reminded him of a classic movie. There were shops on the first level of each building with apartments upstairs.
Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse (Episode 3) Page 3
