by Tahnee Fritz
We rush down the stairs in the hotel and make it to the lobby. Sherry’s father, Jim, and her cousin, Dillon are leaning against the wall next to the door. I don’t see Sherry anywhere and it doesn’t appear they do either. I kind of don’t want to leave without them coming with us. They are trying to find a safe place just as much as we are and it would make much more sense if we all traveled together, going against my father’s rule of always keeping our group small. Despite what he thought, more people means more protection for everyone.
I approach Jim and he forces a smile to his face, “Where’s Sherry?” I ask.
He shrugs, “She should be on her way here. We were going to meet up and go get supplies. We plan on leaving in the morning.” His eyes catch my bag, “What are you doing?”
“I think we should leave now. Something seems off about this place.” I say.
“I think I know what you mean.” He says. “Their little army only worries about the zombies, never the vamps. It’s like they are hiding something and I think Sherry might have found out what.”
I raise an eyebrow and realize I never gave her the chance to tell me what she had to say. I either interrupted her with my own thing or she became too distracted with everything else.
“I think she did too. She was trying to tell me something, but I never let her.” I say.
I turn to Ryder and grab his arm and pull him away from Jim and Dillon.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“I don’t want to leave without them, without Sherry. I know it sounds silly, but other than you, she’s the only friend I’ve ever been able to make since the cure failed five years ago.” I say.
He shakes his head, “It doesn’t sound silly. If I had a friend like you have with her, I wouldn’t want to leave without them either.”
I glance back to Jim, his eyes glued to the glass door leading outside. He’s nervous and keeps a tight grip on Dillon. I move my eyes around the rest of the lobby and realize we are the only few people in the entire room. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen another soul come into this place, other than Nick when he showed us to our room. There are plenty of rooms available for people to live in or rest for a few days. Why would this city let them sit empty just like the houses across town? Why wouldn’t they help people survive and offer them a home?
“Do you find it odd that we haven’t seen any other person come in or out of this place since we got here?” I ask.
Ryder nods, “A little bit. I expected to see other travelers like us, but there’s no one.”
“Makes you wonder why, doesn’t it?”
Another nod, “Maybe whatever your friend found out and needed to tell you has something to do with it. Maybe she found out this place’s secret.”
I run my fingers through my hair and really start to hate myself for not letting her tell me what she knew. It could have been something horrible about this place and I’ll never know unless she walks through those doors right now. And, of course, that doesn’t happen. In the movies, nothing ever happens when you want it to and it seems that way in real life as well. At least those people got that part of life right.
“What should we do?” I ask Ryder. “I don’t want to stay here, but I don’t want to leave without Sherry and her family.”
He shrugs, “I don’t know. I guess we just wait.”
“But, what if she never comes back? What if something bad happened to her? What if that same bad thing is the reason why we are in this hotel alone?”
He puts his hands on my shoulders in an attempt to calm my nervous heart. I stare into his eyes and can feel tears coming to my own.
“Hey,” he says, “nothing bad is going to happen to us. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I won’t let anything like that happen. We will wait one more night and if she’s not here in the morning and if her family can’t find her, we’ll figure out what to do then. I know you don’t want to leave without your friend, but if something bad has happened to her and if that same thing could come upon us, then it isn’t safe for us to be here. We’ll have to leave if that time comes. I know you understand that.”
I nod, “Unfortunately I do.”
He leans closer to me and kisses my forehead, then says, “So, why don’t we go get some food and whatever we’ll need so we can leave soon. Then we’ll go back to the room and play the most annoying game in the world.”
“What game is that?”
He smiles, “The waiting game.”
We spend an hour going through the town getting things we’ll need. Food, a small case of bullets for my gun and my dad’s, a sharper knife for Ryder, and a few other things that might come in handy. No one is friendly or nice to us at all and a few shops even turned us away. The few that were nice enough to let us get a few things, seemed strange to me. They were friendly and nice, yet appeared to be distraught and upset at the same time. It’s like the second they knew we were travelers and plan on leaving soon, they felt bad and a real solemn look came across many of their faces. Maybe it has something to do with the secret Sherry found out.
Jim and Dillon are still waiting in the lobby when we get back to the hotel, still no sign of Sherry. Jim said they are going to wait all night if they have to. He’s exactly like my dad. He won’t give up until he knows his daughter is safe and sound or at least when he finds out what’s happened to her.
We go back to our room and set our bags on the floor next to the bed. Ryder locks the door and makes sure the balcony door is locked as well. Not that someone couldn’t break the glass if they wanted to, but the lock still gives us a small peace of mind.
He got us a pack of playing cards so we have something to pass the time a little more quickly. Unfortunately, the only card game I’ve ever known how to play is “Go Fish”. Ryder, on the other hand, spent a lot of time with kids after school who really enjoyed this kind of thing. He knows poker, gin, 21, and a lot of others that I’ve never heard of. A good majority of the evening flew by with him trying to teach me how to play a different card game. The game of war seemed to stick in my mind and that was the one that seemed to take the longest.
“Doesn’t this game ever end?” I ask.
Ryder smiles and places another card down, “It does when someone has all the cards. It just takes a really long time to get there.”
I sigh, “Well, it’s boring and you keep stealing all of my cards.”
“Yeah, that’s the point of the game.” He says.
I roll my eyes and listen to his laughter. I glance out the window, the sun has already set and the sky is dark. At least it’s not raining and the stars seem to be shining for once. With this new world, it seems to rain quite a bit, especially when bad things happen. So, it’s a relief to know that if we need to make a quick getaway, we won’t get soaked in the process.
“Hey, what time is it?” Ryder asks.
I set another card down and look at my watch, “Almost ten. Why? Do you have a hot date tonight?”
He smiles, “I think you’re the hottest date I could ever have.”
“Awe, so corny.” I reply.
He places another card on top of mine, he takes them both away since his card was higher than mine. He’s been doing that all night and just when I think I’m getting a break, it goes right back to him winning again. This game serves absolutely no point and seems to go on forever. I only have a few cards left, like four of them in my hand, and I’ve reached my limit of doing something so boring. I toss the cards on the bed and let out an annoyed sigh.
“Okay, you win. Can we please do something else now?” I beg.
He laughs as he gathers the cards and stacks them together, “Fine. What do you want to do?”
“Anything other than play another boring card game.”
“What did you do when you were a kid if you didn’t play cards? Don’t tell me you were one of those computer, gaming types?” he asks.
I scrunch up my nose and shake my head, “Hell no. I hated video games and the only ti
me I was ever on the computer was when I needed to do research or write a paper for school. I spent a lot of my time outside. My brother was trying to get a baseball scholarship so we were always in the backyard so he could practice. I had pretty good aim with a baseball, so Charlie let me pitch a lot.”
“That must be why you are so good at killing zombies.” He says.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“The vamps you still need to work on though.” He says, mockingly.
“Hey, I still killed the one in that house earlier. I might’ve hesitated for a moment, but the job was still done.” I argue.
“How many have you killed though?”
“Compared to zombies, not a whole lot. My dad normally took care of them.” I say. “How many have you killed?”
He smirks, “A few, but I try to avoid those things whenever I can.”
“Then it’s a good thing you met me. To have someone to cover your ass when you need it.”
He nods his head in agreement, “That’s not the only good thing about us meeting.”
He leans across the bed and puts his hand on the back of my neck. His lips press against mine and I reach my hands up, caressing his face. I run my fingers through his hair and close my eyes letting this fantastic moment flood my mind. This evening went from boring to amazing in about a second.
Crazy what love does to the human mind.
Ryder moves his hands up and down my spine, sending shivers throughout my body. I can feel his fingers gradually go under my shirt. I wonder if he can feel the goose bumps on my skin. He grabs the hem of my shirt and pulls it up over my back. He breaks our kiss only so he can take my shirt completely off. I do the same with his, then we fall back on the bed with our lips locked together.
This might not be the ideal time for making love, or whatever people are calling it nowadays. My friend is still out there somewhere, either in danger or hiding in a safe place somewhere. But, being with Ryder makes things better. He makes the bad things disappear from my head and I’m able to forget what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. I can forget all about waiting for Sherry and hoping she’s okay. I can forget that our lives could very well be in danger and I can forget that this world has gone to hell and will probably never come back.
Amazing how one young man is capable of making someone forget so many bad things for a small amount of time.
I’m not going to make him stop kissing me just so we can go on with worrying about everything else out there. I don’t want him to stop kissing me. I want to feel his fingertips on my body. Feel his heart beating against my own. I love feeling the warmth of his skin as I run my hands down the length of his torso. It’s the one, true thing that lets me know he’s alive and that he’s all mine.
I pull my lips away from his for a few seconds and look into his eyes. They are smiling at me and I know the feelings I have for him are more than sincere.
“You know how you said the other day that you think you could fall in love with me.” I say.
He nods, “I remember.”
I swallow hard, feeling the nerves rise in my heart, “I think I could see myself falling in love with you too. I think I really want that.”
He smiles, “So do I.”
“Is it weird that after only a few days of knowing each other for us to feel this way?”
He shakes his head, “It’s only weird when those feelings aren’t real. I know that whatever we have going on between us is one hundred percent real. I can feel it in my heart every time I touch you or hold your hand. Every time I look at you, I can feel it.”
“Then never stop looking at me.” I say, then steal another long kiss from him.
He puts his hand on the small of my back and pulls me closer. The desire radiates between us, I never want it to stop. I can’t believe I’ve gone so long and wasted so much time in my life never knowing how amazing this whole love feeling is. Not the kind of love you have for you family, but the kind meant only for your perfect other half. Deep in my heart, I know Ryder is my perfect other half.
Sometime after our intense moments, we found a way to fall asleep. Ryder wrapped his arms around me and I closed my eyes. I love feeling his warm body against my back. I love knowing how safe I feel with him right here next to me. And I love knowing that I am capable of loving a someone like him. Ryder has one hundred percent stolen my heart and I am beginning to find it very hard to imagine going on any road in this world without him. I want him by my side every time we come across a horde of zombies or vampires. I want him there with me, holding my hand during the moments when we’re so close to death we can taste it and we can find a way to cheat death one more time. I never want to go without him.
Knowing there’s a part of my heart that could fall in love with Ryder, really brings out the mushy, gushy girl part of me. I remind myself of my sister. She was always into those amazingly wonderful romantic moments. The kind of love where the man sweeps the girl off her feet and they ride off into the sunset together. This might not be the kind of love story Maggie was dreaming about all her life, but I hope she’s up there smiling down at me for getting as close to romance as possible. If there is a heaven up there somewhere, I hope they’re all smiling down at me for finding a way to move on with this life and doing the one thing that was stolen from them.
Living.
I feel Ryder moving around in the bed and it stirs me awake. My eyes are still closed and heavy, but I’m conscious enough to know he’s awake. He holds me tighter against him as he leans over me to plant a kiss on my cheek. A smile crosses my face after that.
“I’ll be right back.” He says.
“Where are you going?” I say with a yawn.
“The water bottle is empty and I’m parched. Just gonna go refill it.” He slides out of bed and I can hear him stepping into his jeans and putting his shoes on.
“Don’t take too long.” I say, then hug my pillow tighter.
“It’ll just be a couple minutes. I promise.” He says.
I hear him walking across the room and I open my eyes a sliver just as he reaches the door. I wonder if he knows how good he looks without a shirt on. He closes the door, quietly and I hear his footsteps gradually getting quieter as he walks down the hall. I squeeze the pillow and stretch my legs along the bed. The cotton of the sheets is smooth against my bare skin, almost like silk. I close my eyes and try to fall asleep again.
I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m alone in this room or that Ryder isn’t lying next to me anymore as to why I’m finding it really hard to drift off into dreamland again. There have been plenty of times during my life when I can fall back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night. Normally I have a legitimate reason, there are monsters coming after me or a storm is right outside the spot we chose to spend the night. This time, there aren’t any monsters or bad guys chasing after me. The only thing keeping me awake is the thought that I can’t wait for Ryder to come back and hold me again. I roll onto my back and open my eyes wide, staring up at the dull ceiling. We left two candles lit giving off just enough light so we can see our way around the room.
I rub my eyes and smooth the hair out of my face. I’m tired. I can feel my eyes wanting to stay shut, but my mind is refusing to let them. It’s like something is going on in my head that has completely turned off my ability to sleep without Ryder by my side.
“What is going on with me?” I think out loud.
I sit up in the bed, holding onto the sheets to cover myself. I glance at my watch, just past midnight. Then, I move to the edge of the bed and put my feet on the floor. My clothes are folded neatly on top of my backpack and I reach for my bra and panties. I set the rest of my clothes on the bed next to me and grab my bag. I unzip the main part and start sifting through the contents. It’s the same few things I’ve had with me for a while now. Nothing new to report. My hand hits the photo album and I stop for a moment. I haven’t opened that book since the day my brother died. I found it too hard and pa
inful to look at the pictures of him and refused to touch the book sometimes. No one else could bear to look at it either, but I could never bring myself to toss it in the fire with some of my families personal possessions we couldn’t take with us anymore.
I pull the album out of my bag and place it on my lap. The black leather is cracked and worn, even a little damaged from rain water. After going five years of traveling in a backpack, I think I’d be a little worn out as well. It still held together, though, like my family tried to do.
My fingers grip the bottom of the cover and I close my eyes as they lift it open. I know exactly what the picture is on the first page. It was my mother’s favorite, which is why it’s the first one you see when you open the book. I take a deep breath and let it out as I open my eyes and stare down at the photo.
All five of us are standing outside of an old amusement park. I think I was six or seven when the picture was taken and I can’t remember which park we were at. I can see the huge Ferris Wheel in the background and a roller coaster peaks in on the edge of the picture. Mom and dad stand behind us three kids and we all have the biggest, cheesiest grins on our faces. I’m standing next to my brother and his hand is resting on my head. Maggie stands in front of mom, ducked down a bit because they were the same height. We looked ridiculous, but it’s because of that ridiculousness why mom loved this picture the most.
I swallow the lump in my throat and turn the page. School pictures of Charlie, Maggie, and myself are placed neatly on the next few pages. Mom organized them starting from when we were in Kindergarten all the way up to the last year we had school pictures taken. Mine stopped my sophomore year of high school while Maggie and Charlie’s stopped when they were wearing their cap and gown at graduation. They were so happy when they walked across the stage to get their diploma and I couldn’t wait to get mine. To have that feeling of accomplishment, knowing my whole family is proud of me.
I’ll never get that now. The cure took it all away from me. The cure took a lot away from me.
