by Marie Lanza
“You guys sure you’re OK with just the two of you?” Jason asked.
“It’s better this way. You get jammed up with too many people,” Nic winked.
“I’m gonna get out of these clothes.” Beck stood up and made his way over to the pile Mike collected.
“Hey, save me some clean underwear, would ya?” Mike joked.
“Joe,” Beck tossed him some clothing to change into.
Joe caught them and disappeared to change.
Mike and Nic collected their weapons and headed out.
Melody didn’t want to worry, but she was hit with an anxious stomach of butterflies before the front door even closed behind them.
Beck reappeared, but still in the same dirty clothes, “Hey, Doc, I could use your help for a minute.”
“Everything alright?” Melody was concerned from the expression of worry written over Beck’s face.
“Yeah, it’s fine, just this old wound nagging at me.”
Jason got to his feet and walked over to Beck. “Sure, let’s go take a look at it.”
Jason followed Beck to the first-floor bathroom through the family room and closed the door behind them.
“It feels as bad as it looks.” Beck lifted his shirt revealing the still-bandaged bite wound he received on the ship. Blood had soaked through, and the bandage was soggy, covered in filth.
“Alright, let me see what we got here.” Jason leaned in and pulled the tape around the skin, releasing the bandages. Several stitches had popped, showing the muscle and tissue beneath. The torn skin around the wound clearly dying from, what Jason assumed, bacterial infection, leaving the surrounding area inflamed.
“I’ll be right back.” Jason didn’t say anything else and left the room.
Beck stood there, staring at his reflection in the mirror. He leaned in, opening his eyes a little wider, placed his hand on his forehead, feeling for a temperature. Beck knew he was allowing himself to get in his own head again with worry over possibly being infected. He thought about how many days it had been. Before he could upset himself any further, Jason reappeared in the bathroom with the plastic bottle of whiskey and a small medical kit.
“Drink this.” Jason handed him the bottle of whiskey and took a seat on the toilet, placing the kit on the counter. He took another look at the bite wound, then up to Beck. “You have some necrotic tissue, but I’m not too concerned about it right now, and I’m going to have to put a few more stitches in you. We just need to keep it well dressed and watch it.”
“Whatever you say, Doc.” Beck took a big gulp of whiskey and watched Jason as he continued to poke around the tissue, then took another gulp. His skin burned and ached with every move Jason made.
Jason dug around in the medical kit, pulling out sutures, gauze, and more tape. “Are you ready?”
“As much as I’ll ever be…”
Melody sat in the living room watching Aubrey eat the rest of her meal, every once in a while offering her a bite. She wondered what Beck had needed of Jason that was taking so long, but hesitated to interrupt them. She figured she would give them a few more minutes and then maybe check in. Her body began to get heavy as she sat and let exhaustion settle in. Her eyes began those slow blinks, where she’d hope at the moment her eyes closed she would get a few seconds to a minute of a power nap, but with no luck, she only grew more tired. She shook her head to keep herself awake, then decided it was better to be on her feet and force it.
Jason and Beck finally entered the living room, Beck heading straight for the couch, and Jason for the chair.
“Everything OK?” Melody saw the medical kit Jason was carrying. “Jason, is everything OK?” she asked with a mixture of curiosity and concern.
“Yes, everything is fine.” He gave a smile letting her know in their own way he would explain later.
Melody took it as a signal everything was truly fine.
Beck uncapped the bottle of whiskey and took another sip. They sat together in a strange, but luckily not awkward, silence. Beck offered the liquor to Jason, but he raised his hand with a ‘no thanks’ gesture. Beck turned to Melody but she too passed.
Aubrey handed Melody her plate when she was done.
“Good job, honey,” Melody praised her for this simple action and took the paper plate.
“Your parents, did they always live up in Summer Springs?” Beck asked.
“No, they retired there a few years ago.” Jason settled back in the chair, lifting Aubrey to his lap. “We last spoke to them when the phones were still working.”
“And your sister, Mel… I, I really hope you both reunite with your family.”
Melody thought Beck was letting the whiskey talk as his words seemed a bit too nostalgia for his personality. “Thank you,” Melody said.
“What about you, Beck? Do you have family out there?” Jason asked.
The question silenced Beck, as he looked in the whiskey bottle almost as if he would rather drink away his memories instead of discussing them. “My parents long passed. But I also had a sister…”
Melody instantly picked up the sad words in past tense. Neither she nor Jason responded.
“Before the outbreak made national news, I warned my sister to keep her family locked down. We knew it was going to be bad if we couldn’t get ahead of it, and as you can tell, we didn’t get ahead of this. My first stop was my sister’s house to pick up her and her family. I knew it was off the mission, but my boys weren’t gonna tell me no.” Beck set down the bottle of whiskey. “We got there and I found them. My sister, her husband, and their two children. I saw my brother-in-law first, dead on the floor, most of his face was missing… I could only hope my sister and the kids had locked themselves in one of the bedrooms. And that’s when I found my sister in her children’s’ room, crouched over them… She was eating them.”
Melody’s heart broke for Beck, but it also tore apart thinking of his sister eating her own children. She didn’t want to think about it. Another image she would never be able to get out of her head. Melody glanced at Aubrey, then Jason. Hers stomach twisted at the thought.
“Jesus,” Jason whispered under his breath.
The not so awkward silence from before was quickly uncomfortable and somber.
“I’m so sorry, Beck.” Melody had no other words. She was immediately aware of the loss everyone was experiencing. Melody was feeling selfishly focused on finding her family, she failed to remember, everyone had someone they were looking for or they already lost. Their reality was dark, but she needed to focus on the one light they had left, they had a plan to meet at Summer Springs.
“I hadn’t thought about that day since it happened. It was something no one should have to witness… But it’s also what told me there’s nothing human left in those things out there. We’re not killing anything alive anyway…” Beck stood to his feet. “I’m talking too much. I’m gonna try to get some shut eye until Mike and Nic get back.” He didn’t wait for any responses. Beck left the room and headed towards the TV room where there was another couch.
“Do you think they’re still out there?” Melody asked Jason. “Your parents, Harmony and Dan… Do you think we’ll ever see them again?
“We can only hope for the best right now. Hope that Mom and Dad locked themselves down in the house, and hope Harmony and Dan are doing everything they can to get there.” It was an honest answer and the only answer Jason was willing to give. He didn’t want to fill Melody with only words she wanted to hear. He couldn’t protect her from the world’s ugly reality and knew they needed to face the tough road ahead.
Melody laid her head on Jason’s lap, and Aubrey sweetly pet her hair. She thought if she let herself, she could easily fall asleep. Her mind wandered to everything they had faced so far and would face on the way to Summer Springs. “When you sent that guy over the container. You knew it would kill him?” Melody asked as her mind felt as though it was vomiting flashbacks.
“Yes,” Jason said plainly.
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nbsp; “It was like you were someone else. It seemed like there wasn’t an ounce of you bothered by it.”
“What makes you think I wasn’t bothered?” Jason asked.
Melody lifted her head from Jason’s lap and looked up at him, “Honey, I’ve seen you intense at work, or when you’re upset about something at home. But, in that moment, it didn’t even look like my husband. Your eyes were blank. There were no emotions from you in that action.”
Jason didn’t immediately respond. He looked at Aubrey, then back to Melody. “It was a threat that needed to be removed from the situation. That’s all. I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m sorry Aubrey had to see that. Never forget my job is to keep both of you safe, no matter who’s standing in the way.”
“Are you scared?”
“Yes… I just hide it really well.”
CHAPTER 6
Melody woke up to pitch black. She knew she was tired, but it felt like she had been asleep for a day. She felt lost waking up in the darkness, sitting for a moment to gather her bearings. Melody had fallen asleep laying her head in Jason’s lap, while he and Aubrey were snuggled in the chair. Melody allowed her eyes to adjust and listened to hear if maybe anyone else was awake. She was quickly consumed by the feeling something was terribly wrong – Mike and Nic had never returned. Melody didn’t want to wake Jason until she confirmed.
Maybe they snuck in, not wanting to wake anyone.
Seemed probable.
Melody walked through the living room, into the foyer where the moonlight cast its light through the front door windows. She walked into the next room where she found Beck lightly snoring on the couch. She was surprised at how soundly the house seemed to be sleeping.
There were no signs of Mike or Nic downstairs.
Melody made her way back to the front door and stared out the window. She could feel the chill from the night air coming through the glass. Her mind guided her back to the family room where Beck was resting and found his pile of dirty clothes discarded on the floor. Her movements were slow as she quietly picked up his pants, then patted them down until she found what she was looking for – a large knife. Melody looked it quickly over and thought, it will do, although she hadn’t really thought what it was for. She hadn’t really thought about any of her actions, allowing only her body to guide her back to the front door, and open it.
The front door didn’t make a sound, not even a tiny squeak when Melody opened it, and before she knew it, her feet had taken her onto the front porch, closing the door softly behind her.
The air was dead. There were no sounds of birds or squirrels rustling in the trees, no crickets chirping to the stars – just silence.
Melody began to hate the night. Before the outbreak, she looked forward to the evenings – the quiet moments with her family, dinnertime, getting ready for bed, and the simple pleasure of cuddling on the couch with her family. Now, the nights seemed longer, it was uncomfortable, and it brought the chills of darkness down her spine.
There were no sounds but the silence.
It was a strange feeling not to hear typical street noise of a car driving by or someone walking their dog, even stranger to have the night lit up only by the moon and stars, instead of streetlights.
Melody walked down the driveway with every leaf that had fallen from the trees above cracking under her feet. She paused with each step, carefully trying to avoid the little noisemakers.
The property wall definitely gave Melody a sense of security from the infected, leaving the iron entry gate the only place for the infected to make contact with them. It seemed as though the infected from earlier had disappeared. As Melody approached the fence, she slowed her pace – stepping and listening, stepping and listening.
The sound was faint at first, the leaves shuffling on the ground. Melody froze. She stood there, just a few feet from the iron-gate and listened. The rustling of the leaves brushing across wasn’t from the wind. It was then she heard the raspy breath of what she recognized as an infected. Melody turned around checking her surroundings, confident it wasn’t coming from inside the walls, but still her instincts signaled the reaction to look over her shoulder.
Melody stepped closer, just a short arm reach from the fence, when the infected stepped around the corner, growling at the sight of her. Melody gasped a silent breath. It was a woman, too deteriorated to tell how old. Melody had never seen one in such horrible shape. One of her hands was missing most of her fingers, her skin was rotten, her eyes sunken in with the usual white film over them leaving the entry to her soul, blank. The infected reached her arms through the fence, clawing her grimy fingernails towards Melody.
Standing there, in the still of the night, Melody just stared, watching the infected’s every move. She wanted to feel sorry for this woman, but she only felt anger. Anger at what the world had done to her. What the world had done to itself. Melody stepped in, closing the gap between herself and the infected’s grasp. With only the iron fence separating them, Melody watched as the infected struggled.
Melody thought about Harmony and Dan, she thought about Jason’s parents, then she thought about her precious little girl soundly asleep inside the house. The infected didn’t care about precious things anymore; they no longer held memories, or thoughts. They were mere shells of human remains that fed off flesh. Melody stepped in closer, feeling the very end of the infected’s fingertips grazing her shirt. The infected pressed with all its strength against the bars, so close to getting its hands on her, so close to grabbing her, and pulling her in to get that bite of flesh it so longed for.
Melody felt that anger again, the anger she felt when Vic threatened Aubrey’s life. This monster was threatening their lives, the people she loved most. Melody decided in this still moment between her and the infected, she would not let them take from her anymore.
Then, with a swift movement, Melody grabbed the arms of the woman, slamming them down against the gate, lifting the knife and thrusted it into the infected’s face, straight through its eye. The death was instant. The body fell with a thud as it hit the ground.
Melody had never killed anything before; she had barely even held a gun. There would be no victory in this moment as she now stared at the lifeless body of the woman, leaning against the fence. It had to be done, and it had to be done by her. She needed this first kill, she needed to feel and hear what it would be like. Melody didn’t think about the blood that would come along with this action. As she looked down at her hands, there was blood everywhere. The infected’s blood had sprayed up her arms and its skin was under Melody’s fingernails from gripping it with all her strength.
Melody turned around and made her way back to the house. She took two steps up to the porch, and instead of making it inside, she turned back around and sat down on the stairs. Melody stared at the knife in her hands, and the blood staining her skin.
The front door opened.
“Mel? Honey?”
Melody didn’t turn around to me meet Jason’s voice, as though she didn’t hear his call.
Jason walked across the porch, “Melody, everything…” he stopped. As walked closer to her, he was able to see over her shoulder. Jason was able to see the knife she held in her lap, and he was able to see all the blood covering her hands. “Mel!” He jumped down the stairs in one leap, grabbing her.
Melody looked at him as though she was in complete shock as to why he was holding her.
“Melody, honey, look at me!”
“What happened?” Beck asked concerned from the front door.
“Mel, what happened?” Jason pressed.
“It’s not mine,” Melody said plainly. “Jason, it’s not mine.”
“Then whose is it?” He was desperate for an answer.
Beck had quickly made his way down the porch stairs, now standing next to Jason, also concerned something fatal had happened to Melody.
“I just needed to know what it was like.” Melody held back a sob she so badly wanted to let out.
&n
bsp; “Know what it’s like? Mel, what are you talking about?”
“I needed to know what it’s like to kill them,” Melody said as though it made perfect sense and she wasn’t sure why Jason didn’t understand that. “Where’s Aubrey?”
“What? Aubrey? She’s inside asleep. You should be inside, asleep.”
“Come on, there’s some water jugs in the truck, we need to wash this off of you,” Beck said as he and Jason assisted Melody to her feet.
Beck opened the tail of the truck bed, pulling out a plastic gallon of water. As Melody held her hands out, Beck slowly poured it over them, “This is for drinking by the way.”
Melody pulled her hands away and wiped the rest of the mess on her pants. “Then let’s save it for drinking.”
“You could have been seriously hurt. What were you thinking?” Beck asked.
“I was thinking, I would be seriously hurt, if I don’t learn how to defend myself from those things.”
“You’re right,” Jason said, matter-of-factly.
Beck and Melody looked to him, Beck mostly surprised.
“You’re absolutely right. You need to know. I may not always be there to protect you from those things. But seriously, Mel, next time let me be with you. Don’t do this to me again.”
“I didn’t get enough sleep for this.” Beck closed the jug and placed it back in the truck.
“Let’s go back inside and get you changed…again.” Jason smirked.
“Wait. I came outside because I was looking for Nic and Mike. They didn’t come back.”
Beck’s eyes roamed around the property. “Shit.”
“Let’s not get too worried. Maybe they locked down for the night somewhere,” Jason suggested.
“Sun up, I’m sure they’ll show up,” Beck agreed.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Melody leaned in against Jason and he gave her a tight squeeze.
Back inside, the house was still sleeping.
“I’ll sit down here with Aubrey.” Beck headed back into the living room.
“Thanks.” Jason nodded.
