“Hello, my name is Matt Comer. That guy over there is Frank Osal. We’re here to help you. You can trust us.”
Frank moved up close alongside Matt and waited for a reply. The woman could only cry and shake all over.
“She’s in shock, Matt.”
“Maybe I should go over and give her a hug and help calm her down some?”
“She’s already crying. You don’t need to go over there and make it worse,” said Frank, looking at him.
The woman slowed in her crying and let out a giggle at his comment. Matt took this as a good sign and offered to help her up and into a chair. She took his hand.
Her hand was soft to the touch; Matt wished it could last forever, just her holding his hand. But she made it to the couch and let go. Matt looked around the room and found a box of tissues on the ground. Pulling out the first two, he tossed them away. Frank looked at him as he did so.
“You never know they could have a small trace of zombie blood on them.”
Frank agreed, and Matt handed her the box. She blew her nose and dabbed her eyes some to dry the tears away. Frank walked to the window and pulled the curtain back so he could see more of the room. The woman ducked her face once again.
“Drop it, Frank. Damn.”
Frank let go and looked back angry. He didn’t like being cursed at; his father did it enough when he lived at home.
“She’s been in the dark for a long time. She needs time to let her eyes refocus. If you keep doing that, you could make her go blind.”
Frank lost all anger and stared at her and looked back toward the room she came out of. It was pitch-black in there. He had no ideas how long she was in there, and the last thing he wanted to do was make her unable to see.
They set there for a minute or two while she collected herself. Once she was done crying, she let out a long sigh and looked up at them both. Her eyes seemed to be as dark as the room right now. But to Matt they were as bright as the morning sun coming off the endless sea.
“Thank you for letting me out of there,” the woman said.
“It is a pleasure, ma’am,” Frank said, standing behind the desk.
The woman smiled at him at being called ma’am. It had been a long time since anyone showed her any manners.
“I’ve been in there for weeks now. The dark was all I could see. Sometimes I thought about kicking the door open and letting that thing eat me. But I had hope one day someone would find me, and here you are.”
Matt smiled at her and leaned in and took her hand. “The place is clear. We killed them all.” The woman looked up at him in shock.
“That is good news, Matt, isn’t it?” Matt nodded his head yes to her question. “My name is Kimberly Locks. My friends call me Kim. Well the ones I did have did before I lost everyone,” she said, looking into her lap.
Matt released her hand and stood up and looked back at Frank. Frank looked rather sad himself. Unlike him Frank didn’t have many friends to begin with. Now with this zombie apocalypse going on, he had only one he knew of, and that was Matt.
Matt stood up and walked to the dark room from which Kimberly came out of and looked inside. He was unable to see well, so he looked around the room for something to help him. On a shelf on the other side was a nice mirror that had fell over on its side. If he hadn’t been looking for it or something like it, he would never had seen it.
The mirror was medium sized but good enough to help catch the light from the window and shine it into the room. Giving it to Frank he told him what was to do with it, and he went to the room to wait. Frank pulled the curtain back enough to give light on him and the mirror alone, careful not to let more pass into the room and have it fall on Kimberly. Frank stood there holding the mirror and aimed it into the room.
The sun’s beams hit the reflective surface and bounced into the room. Matt held up a thumb and told him to hold it just like that and went in. The room was rather empty, but there were bags of things still inside.
The room held a sack of potatoes and some corn. There were a ton of canned foods still and bags of rice. There had to be gallons and gallons of water inside as well. There was also this big bucket at the back of the room with a box over it. Matt moved to it and heaved the box up just enough to catch a smell and slammed it back down. Holding his breath he came running out of the room gasping for air.
“What’s up. What did you find?” asked Frank, laying the mirror down.
Matt couldn’t speak of it. He just looked up at Kimberly with a “Why?” look on his face.
Kimberly turned red in the face and looked down at the ground. She knew what he had found and was too ashamed to say anything. Frank looked at the both of them and asked the question again. This time Matt had his voice back and was able to answer.
“It’s nothing really; I think I just found her bathroom is all.”
Frank stood there silent for a second or two and then cracked a smile and started laughing.
“Well, she has been in there a long time. Did you expect her to hold it this whole time?”
Matt didn’t have the words to say and only just shrugged and went back to the kitchen area alone.
“I’m sorry,” said Kimberly
“No need to be sorry. He just overexaggerates things sometimes. Besides, it’s true. You have been in there a long time. And when you need to go, you need to go.”
Kimberly gave him a smile and heard footsteps coming back to the room. She looked back to see Matt returning with two backpacks in his hand.
Telling Frank to hold up his light source again, he went in and took as much items as he could and pushed the poop bucket out of sight in the corner. Once he was done he closed the door tight and went to the desk. Grabbing a piece of paper out of the notebook the preacher had, he wrote on it.
“Food is inside. Take what you need. Make sure to leave some for others who are in need of it as well.”
With that done he went back to the door, opened it a little, slid the paper in, and closed it back.
“You really think people will abide by your writing and not take it all?” asked Frank.
“Most likely not, but doesn’t hurt from trying to help others, right? It’s what you’re doing with this whole quest we’re on,” replied Matt.
Frank gave him a look and saw him shoot a look back at the girl, and it then clicked in his head. He was doing this for the girl, not his own conscience. Before he could say anything else, a shadow passed by the doorway, and the room went quiet. Frank went to look up to see what made the shadow when Kimberly screamed out loud. Matt dropped the bags he had filled and spun around to see a zombie in the doorway looking at all three of them. Frank was quicker to react and grabbed his weapon and ran across the room. Kimberly was closer to the door, so the zombie went for her first. It could have been all the screaming she was doing, and it was just pissing him off. But he seemed to really want her bad.
Kimberly didn’t try to get away or even lean away from it. She only set there and screamed to the high heavens. Frank ran over and embedded his blade in its skull as it leaned for the kill and a meal.
Matt weapon in hand ran over to Kimberly and grabbed her arms and told her it was OK. It was dead. She jumped forward and gave him a big hug and squeezed tight. Matt stood up with her and patted her on the back. Frank looked away because he heard the sounds of metal hitting something and knew there must be more making their way inside from the front doors being open still.
“There are more incoming. We will have company here soon,” said Frank, looking back at them both like one person.
Kimberly started crying again and squeezed tighter. Matt grunted from the sudden pressure and looked up at Frank. Giving him a smile he lowered his hand down and pretended to squeeze her butt. Frank looked away from him and shook his head.
“This woman will be a blessing or a curse on us. Only time will tell,” said Frank to himself.
End of Book 1
; Lilly,Shawn L., Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes
Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes Page 19
