Zombie Island

by Samantha Hoffman

  From my place on the end of the dock, I can clearly see three zombies. They’re wandering around aimlessly, and they don’t look like any threat to us, but I keep a careful watch on them anyways. They’re bloated from a mixture of decay and sun exposure, and they look mostly harmless.

  One of them is closer than the others, and I consider killing him just to put him out of his misery, but I don’t want the noise from the gun to attract the attention of the others. Ryder hands me the hunting knife from his belt, and I grip it tightly in my hands. The zombie is only a dozen or so yards away, and I sneak up behind it.

  Just as it turns, I reach out, and stab the knife right through the zombie’s soft head. It makes a wet, squishing sound as the zombie drops to the ground, and I pull the knife away. I wipe the infected blood off on my jeans, and head back to the group. Ryder’s watching me with a strange grin on his face, and I frown. “What?”

  “Nothing. You’ve just changed since we met.”

  “So have you,” I counter. “You’re a lot nicer to me now, and less sarcastic.” Tobe walks over to where we’re standing, and I smile at her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better,” she slowly says. “I’m not sure why, but this morning when I woke up, I realize something. I’m still alive. I shouldn’t be, after everything I’ve gone through, yet here I am, right now, still with the three people that rescued me. I owe you so much.”

  Ryder shakes his head. “You don’t owe us anything, Tobe.”

  “I do,” she insists. “I owe you guys so much. You’ve saved me from the Warriors twice, and you’ve saved me from a ton of angry, flesh-eating zombies. When all this first started happening, I never would have thought I’d survive this long, let alone with good people.”

  “Tobe, good people have to stick together.”

  She nods. “I know. I’m glad you guys stopped for me that day in town. A lot of people wouldn’t have, but you didn’t stop to think about the risk to your own lives,” she says, biting her lip. She’s starting to cry, and I reach over and put my arm around her shoulder.

  “Tobe, don’t cry.”

  “Yes, please don’t,” Ryder says seriously. “I hate it when women cry. It scares me.”

  Tobe and I just stare at him. Both of us are amazed. “You’re an ex-Marine that kills Warriors, zombies, and survives a gunshot to the chest, and women crying is what scares you?”

  He shrugs with his good shoulder. “What can I say? Some people are scared of spiders, others have snakes, and I have crying women. Plus, there’s just something about a beautiful woman crying that really gets to me.”

  Tobe and I shake our heads, and I go back to watching the dock. The sound of an engine draws my attention to our left, and our jeep speeds into view. Reese parks it just ahead of us, and we spend the next ten minutes loading up all of our supplies. We have plenty of food thanks to the prepackaged meals, but I’m more worried about our water supply than anything.

  We have about twelve bottles left, and I’m not sure how long that will last the six of us. I just hope we get wherever we’re going soon, or we won’t be in any shape to fortify our new home when we find it. It’s already going to be hard enough with Ryder unable to do much work, and it’ll be even harder if we’re dehydrated and slow.

  When the jeep is loaded up, we all climb in. Reese drives, and Ryder sits up front with him. Tobe, Melissa, Naomi and I squeeze into the back and, even though we don’t have enough seatbelts, we make do. When we’re finally pulling away from the marina, I start to relax, and I get a good feeling.

  We’re leaving behind the Warriors, and this time we’re not leaving any evidence as to where we’re going. They’ll never find us again, and we’ll be able to live out the remainder of our lives in peace, quiet, and solitude. We’ll be safe.

  Naomi and Tobe talk about anything they can think of: favorite movies, favorite fashion designers, and favorite sports. It turns out that Tobe was a cheerleader when she was in school, which doesn’t surprise me since she’s so gorgeous, and Naomi did cheer for a couple of years before joining the cross country team.

  They spend the next hour talking about famous cheerleaders that I’ve never heard of, and I try to tune them out. I have a couple of books in the back, and I turn around and start digging for one. I decided I needed something to keep me occupied from now on, and I start to read about vampires and witches. It’s not really what I like to read, but it kills the time enough so that I’m not constantly bored.

  Reese stops the car when it gets dark, and the six of us get out to set up a makeshift camp for the night. We have blankets and Reese and Ryder have their sleeping bags. We divide everything between the members of our group, and come up a little short. I’m left without a blanket, and Ryder sighs, before handing me his sleeping bag. “You can take this. I’ll be fine.”

  “We could share,” I offer. It sounds innocent, and like I’m just trying to solve our bedding situation, but Ryder and I both seem to take it differently. His cheeks turn slightly red, and I duck my head so he won’t see how embarrassed I am. I can’t believe I just suggested that…

  He clears his throat. “Alright. That wouldn’t be so bad, I guess.”

  Everyone sets up, and Tobe divides out some food. She opens a can of Vienna sausages, a can of spam, and a can of spaghettio’s. We use plastic spoons and just dig into the cans, not caring that our spaghettio’s gets on our spam, or that everything tastes very bad after days of amazing prepackaged meals.

  Tobe disposes of the food, and I Naomi and I find bushes to take care of some necessary business before turning in for the night. At first, I’m a little nervous to be crawling into a sleeping bag with Ryder, and it’s for two reasons. The first is that he’s still injured, and this sleeping bag is very small; I don’t want to hurt him in the middle of the night.

  The second reason is that it’s Ryder I’m sharing with, and other than a few kisses, we haven’t really spent much time together as anything other than group members. We haven’t really talked about what we are, just how we feel about one another. I’m not sure if this makes him as nervous as it does me, but there isn’t much choice.

  When I’m tucked securely into the sleeping bag, Ryder zips it up with his good arm, and I curl up against his good side. It’s a tight fit in the bag, but our combined body heat will keep us both warm throughout the night. When Ryder gets situated, he wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer.

  I rest my head on his good shoulder, and he smiles down at me. “Comfy?”

  I nod. “Yeah, I am.”

  “Good. Now get some rest.”

  I close my eyes, and it takes me almost an hour to fall sleep. But when I do, I have no nightmares of anything, just empty dreams that I know I won’t remember later.

  In the morning, Tobe and I hand out breakfast while Reese and Naomi pack up our supplies. The two of them are tired and slow, and I feel bad that they both took turns keeping watch while I was curled up with Ryder all night. I should be doing more for our group. Tomorrow night I’ll stay up, and Reese can get some rest.

  Ryder is still not well-enough to do much on his own, but he doesn’t seem to be in as much pain today. He allowed Reese to give him a couple of Tylenol, but I’m not sure if that really helps a gunshot much. His right arm has a limited range of motion, and I know by watching him that he won’t be able to lift his arm above his head anytime soon, if ever again.

  When breakfast is finished, we all get into the jeep and Tobe drives while Reese climbs in back to get some shuteye. He and Naomi fall asleep pretty quickly, and I pass the time in the car by trading discreet glances with Ryder in the rearview mirror. Finally, Tobe can’t take it anymore. “Will you two just stop with the lover’s stares? You’re really starting to creep me out.”

  “Why?” I ask, fighting the blush I know is rising in my cheeks.

  “Ryder is a tough, badass, former Marine, and now he’s acting like a whipped little puppy dog.”

  “Hey, I am not. I’m
just…happy…for the first time in a long time.”

  “How long has it been since you’ve gotten laid?” Tobe asks.

  “Tobe!”

  She chuckles. “It’s a perfectly valid question. Ryder is a grown man, and grown men need sex. And sex is a perfectly natural part of any relationship. Come on, Ryder. When was the last time you were with someone?”

  He shrugs. “Does it matter?”

  He doesn’t wanna answer with me in the car. That doesn’t sound good. That probably means he was with someone recently, like right before the infection spread. Is he on the rebound?

  Strangely, the thought of Ryder having a girlfriend before all of this never even crossed my mind. Now I’m curious, and I need to know why he doesn’t want to answer.

  “Come on, Ryder. Just tell us.”

  He sighs. “Alright, fine. It’s been a while. I was living with a woman named Stephanie about a year and a half ago. We broke up about four months before the infection spread. I haven’t been with her for almost ten and a half months. There, are you happy?”

  So, he’s been single for ten months. Is that long enough to get over one person and start to fall in love with another one?

  He turns around and looks at me. “Hey, I know what you’re thinking, and don’t. Stephanie and I should have broken up long before we did. She wanted to keep trying to fix us, but I knew we couldn’t work things out, so I broke it off.”

  I nod my head, slightly relieved. Part of me is still worried, because he didn’t mention how long they were together, but I don’t feel so paranoid now that he’s on the rebound. Can you even be on the rebound during the zombie apocalypse?

  I want to ask Ryder more about his ex, but now doesn’t seem like the time. He’s injured, we’re on the open road, and we have no idea if we’ll be safe by nightfall. So, I keep my mouth shut, and study the view out my window. We pass a sign on the road, welcoming us to Washington, Iowa, and Tobe keeps going. A little red light shines, and Tobe sighs. “We need gas. Keep an eye out for gas stations that look empty.”

  Reese wakes up, and he helps us look. Just as I’m starting to worry about the car stopping, Tobe spots a gas station just up the road. Our jeep makes it to the station in one piece, but just barely. Everyone piles out to stretch their legs, and I stick close to Ryder. The fresh air seems to do him good, and he even gets a little color back in his face.

  Reese checks the pumps for available gas, and starts to fill up the car. Melissa sniffles once, wipes her nose, and walks off. “Melissa, stay close,” Naomi orders. Melissa ignores her, and just keeps walking. Naomi sighs, but doesn’t go after her. “If she wants to be stupid, she can be stupid. I’m not going to stop her.”

  After Reese is finished filling up the gas tank, he takes the red gas can from the back and starts to fill it up. When he’s done, he caps it off, sets it in the back, and looks at me. “We’re ready to go. Where’s Melissa?”

  Naomi and I look at each other and sigh. Aside from Reese, we’re the only two with guns right now. Ryder can’t lift one, and Tobe refuses to touch them. We’re the only ones that can go semi-safely looking for her.

  She nods to me, and the two of us set off at a jog. The gas station isn’t huge, so Naomi and I both decide to stay together and search. We circle around the pumps, and head around to the front of the station. The door is propped open with a rotting body, and I try not to look at its face as we step over it.

  Naomi and I walk up and down the aisles, looking or Melissa and any supplies we might need. She grabs a thing of toilet paper, since we’re running low, and looks at me. “I’m gonna take this back to the jeep. Are you ok to check the back yourself?”

  I nod, and start to make my way to the back door. “If I find anything, I’ll yell, and you come running.”

  “You got it,” she says, disappearing from view.

  The back door appears, and I inch slowly toward it. It’s closed right now, but it’s the only place Melissa could have gone. I crack the door open an inch and call out for her, “Melissa. Are you there?”

  No answer. But I hadn’t really expected one. I don’t think she’s spoken since she was rescued from the Warriors, and I doubt she’s going to start now. So I nudge the door open with my boot, and raise my gun, quickly scanning the area around me.

  There isn’t much out here other than empty boxes, wooden pallets, and unpacked food that is now completely rotten. A box falls to the ground to my left, and I spin, and my gun comes up again. Melissa lifts her hands, her eyes widening in fear and surprise.

  I sigh, and lower my gun. “Jeez, Melissa. What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?”

  She shrugs, but doesn’t answer. She just walks toward me with a depressed, hopeless look on her face. When she’s about a stone’s throw away from me, I notice movement behind a stack of boxes. Too late I realize what it is.

  “Melissa, look out!”

  The zombie emerges from in-between two stacks of boxes and tackles her to the ground. She screams once before the zombie sinks its teeth into her forearm. She shrieks harder, and starts to kick and thrash. I couldn’t make the shot if she was perfectly still, and I certainly can’t do it now. So I drop the gun, take out my knife, and rush forward.

  I grab a fistful of the zombie’s curly, light hair, and yank its head back. He’s still latched onto Melissa’s arm, and he comes away with a strip of her flesh locked between his jaws. Melissa backs away, cradling her injured arm, and I shove the knife hilt-deep into the zombie’s head.

  He stops struggling and goes still. I drop him to the ground and back away, trying not to gag. I’ve killed zombies before, recently too, but never like this. Not with someone I know lying injured and infected nearby. She’s looking at me with a mixture of horror, pain, and understanding. She knows that she’s infected, and she knows what has to come next, but she won’t accept it.

  The back door bursts open, and Reese and Naomi are standing there with guns raised. One look at Melissa and Naomi’s features crumple, and she looks away so nobody sees her cry. She spent quite a bit of time tied up with Melissa, and of all of us, she liked her the most. Reese looks from Melissa to me and frowns. “Are you alright?”

  I nod. “But she’s not,” I say, looking at the bite mark on her arm. It’s wide, gaping, and bleeding heavily. “What are we gonna do? We can’t just leave her here to die.”

  “We can’t just bring her with us and wait for her to turn into one of those things while she’s sitting next to us in the car. What do you want us to do, Sam?”

  “I heard rumors that some people might be immune to the infection. If she’s one of those people and we leave her here and she dies, we’ll be murderers. I think we should find a place to stay for a couple of days, just until we know for sure. We can lock her in a room if we have to, but we can’t just kill her or leave her.”

  Reese sighs, and rubs his forehead. “God I hate being in charge. I don’t know how Ryder did it for so long.”

  “Is he alright?” I ask, just now noticing that everyone except for Ryder and Tobe are here. “Neither of them can defend themselves. Should we just leave them alone like this?”

  “They’ll be fine. Come on. We passed a house about a quarter of a mile back. The ground-floor windows were all boarded up, and the neighborhood looked relatively deserted. We can stay there for two days, not a moment longer? If she shows symptoms of turning, we have to kill her and leave, do you understand?”

  I nod. “Yes. Let’s go.”

  Reese and Naomi load Melissa into the back with our supplies, and Ryder pulls me in for a hug. “I was so worried. I heard someone scream, and I just hoped you were alright.” His arm is almost painful it’s so tight, and I pull away. “I couldn’t do anything except sit here and wait for you to hopefully come back. God, I hate being useless!”

  “Ryder, I’m alright. Listen, Melissa’s been infected. We’re heading to a relatively safe house, and we’re gonna give her a few days to see if she might be immune.
”

  “That’s not a good idea, and you know it,” he accuses. “If she turns, which she most likely will, she might infect or kill more of us. We can’t take that kind of risk. Not when we’re so close to where we’re going.”

  “Everything will be fine, Ryder, I promise.”

  He shakes his head and climbs into the front seat beside his brother. I climb in back with Tobe and Naomi, and try to always keep one eye on Melissa. She doesn’t speak the whole trip to the safe house, and just keeps her head down and cries. Right now, she looks much younger than fourteen, and I can’t believe she’s going to die sometime in the next day or two.

  Chapter Twenty

  The house is mostly destroyed on the inside, and it’s so dark it’s impossible to move around in without flashlights. Whoever boarded up the windows did an amazing job, because absolutely no light gets through to the first floor. The darkness makes it impossible to see the blood soaked into the entryway carpet, or the bloody smears along the walls.

  Ryder, Tobe, and I stay downstairs with Melissa while Reese and Naomi check the upstairs. Naomi comes back down with a handful of long, thin candles, and she distributes them to us. “Alright, how are we doing this?” she asks once the candles are lit. “Are we going to take turns guarding her?”

  “I think we should lock her in the upstairs bedroom, and just check on her periodically,” Reese says.

  “I agree,” Tobe says, startling me. She sees me watching her and shrugs, managing to look both proud and ashamed at the same time. “I’ve survived this long, Sam, and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to risk my life now. She needs to be quarantined so she can’t hurt any of us.”

  Ryder nods. “I agree, too. Put her in the upstairs bedroom, and we’ll have take shifts guarding the door. If she needs to use the bathroom, she can just knock twice on the door, and we’ll escort her there and back.”