by Kate L. Mary
“What about the lady in the office?” I asked, turning my back on the injured people so I could look up at him. “Is she better?”
While Tessa and I had headed off to shower, and Rick had gone to do his own thing, Logan had stuck with Lori. I didn’t know him well enough to know if it was an innate need to know what was going on, or if he was just the type of person that liked to be useful, though. Maybe it was a little of both.
“No change.” Logan shrugged and shook his head at the same time like he wasn’t sure how to respond. “She’s still banging against the door.”
“Does Lori have any idea what’s wrong with her?” Tessa asked.
She was still facing the people who had been attacked, but I didn’t miss how her gaze moved around the room as if searching for something. Rick, maybe? It was very likely, but at the moment I wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing that my sister and her ex seemed to be on the cusp of rekindling their romance.
“Lori doesn’t have a clue and right now no one is willing to risk going in there.” Logan’s shoulders jumped up and he once again shook his head. “Not when the lady is still banging against the door like a maniac.”
“Maybe she’s delirious from a fever or something,” Tessa said. “Or maybe she took some bad drugs.”
“Either way, going in there is too risky. She tore a big chunk out of that guy.” I nodded to the injured man, and the sight of him taking a bite of a granola bar helped ease a little more of my earlier tension. “Who knows what she’d try to do if someone went in there right now?”
“I agree,” Logan said, his voice grave.
Tessa’s gaze moved back across the room, but it never quite made it to the man and woman. Instead, she was focused on something behind me, and when I turned I found Rick heading our way. His blond hair was wet and disheveled, and he’d changed his clothes.
“I guess we aren’t the only ones who showered,” I said.
Logan frowned, then made a big show of lifting up his arm so he could sniff his pit. “Not a bad idea.”
Tessa rolled her eyes, but she was still focused on Rick when she said, “We were just talking about how you needed to take a shower.”
“Were you now?” Logan’s eyebrows jumped up, and he grinned my way, suddenly reminding me how flirty he’d been the night we first met. “Fantasizing about me getting naked, huh?”
Heat licked at my cheeks but I rolled my eyes, mimicking my sister. “In your dreams.”
Logan only chuckled. It was nice and deep, and more relaxing than anything that had happened in weeks. God, there was something so spectacular about laughter. I’d taken it for granted, only I hadn’t realized it until this moment. Never again would I forget to appreciate something simple like having something to laugh at.
Rick finally reached us, stopping at Tessa’s side. “They look better,” he said, nodding to the man and woman.
“Thankfully,” I said, while Logan nodded.
Tessa didn’t respond, but instead stared up at Rick. She looked thoughtful. Almost determined.
“Want to go for a walk?” she said, drawing her ex-fiancé’s gaze her way.
“Sure.” Rick tilted his head to the side, studying her, but he looked uncertain. “As long as you’re okay with it.”
Tessa nodded, and her still drying blond hair flopped over her eyes. She shoved it aside and smiled up at Rick. “I am.”
Rick hesitated for just a moment before holding his hand out to her, and Tessa took it. I watched in silence as they headed out of the room, not saying a word. My sister stared down at their entwined hands like she wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong. That made two of us. If none of this had happened, I never would have supported her giving Rick a second chance. Not after what he’d done. But this Rick was different, and I couldn’t deny that having most of the world disappear had put things into perspective for me. Maybe it had done the same for Rick.
“They’ll be okay,” Logan said.
I turned to face him, finding his gaze on me, and so intent that it made the hair on my scalp prickle.
“Even before everything got bad Rick seemed different.” He shook his head. “I can’t explain it, I just know that he’s missed Tessa and he really wants to make it right. He won’t hurt her.”
“He’s your best friend,” I pointed out. “You aren’t exactly objective in this situation.”
“Maybe.” Logan shrugged, and then grinned. “And maybe I’m just glad to have a chance to be alone with you.”
It was my turn to smile. “You’re not thinking about that shower, are you?”
Logan threw his head back and laughed, causing people to turn our way and my cheeks to heat up.
He was still chuckling when he said, “I wasn’t, but if you’re interested…”
I shoved him playfully. “I think you should take this opportunity to get clean, not dirtier.”
“But getting dirty is so much more fun,” he whispered in a low voice, causing a tingle to run down my spine.
I looked around the room to see if anyone was paying attention to us, feeling suddenly very naughty. Like a child getting caught telling a dirty joke in church. This was wrong, talking about stuff like this when the dust had barely settled, but I couldn’t deny that the distraction was nice. Not that I was thinking of taking him up on the offer or anything. Well, not thinking about it seriously, anyway. Thankfully, no one was really paying attention to us.
I focused on Logan and smiled sweetly. “Why don’t you get clean first, and then maybe we can see what happens?”
Logan chuckled again, and the sound shot through me like an electric shock, making my toes curl.
“I’ll do that,” he said, taking a step backward, toward the door. His eyes still on me. “Of course, it’s going to be awfully lonely in there.”
“You’ll survive,” I said.
He laughed again before turning away. I watched as he moved through the door and out of the room, still thinking about the offer. Still considering accepting it. Tessa would have done it. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she and Rick were off somewhere right now, naked. It seemed like her.
It also seemed like a great distraction, but it just wasn’t me. I wasn’t the post-apocalyptic-sex kind of girl. I was the wait-until-everything-settles-down-and-then-we-can-see-where-this-is-going kind of girl. It would happen. I knew it. One day things would be closer to normal and I would finally be able to explore my feelings for Logan without the guilt. I just had to hold on and wait.
Chapter 8
I JERKED AWAKE TO FIND THE ROOM STILL dark. My heart was pounding twice as hard as usual and my skin was slick with sweat, but it took me a moment to remember why. The nightmare. God, what a crazy dream. I had been with Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon—maybe nightmare wasn’t the right word for it? No, it definitely was, because there had been zombies all around us. Surrounding us with no way to escape. Even now a shiver shook my body from the sheer terror I’d felt.
The darkness, silence, and utter nothingness that seemed to surround me made the feeling worse. And totally alone. I turned so I was facing Tessa’s cot only to find it empty. I blinked, thinking the combination of the darkness and the dream were playing tricks with my mind, but the image didn’t change. The cot was vacant. Where the hell had she gone?
I pushed myself up on one elbow and looked around the room like someone would have the answer, but the lumps on the other cots were still and silent. The sound of heavy breathing was the only noise in the room, and the only light was the faint glow that streamed in through the cracked door. Tessa must have gone to the bathroom. Or maybe she had snuck off with Rick. They’d spent hours together who knew where, only returning to the common room where Logan and I sat playing cards when dinner was served. Apparently, though, she hadn’t gotten her fill of him.
I let out a sigh and plopped back on the bed, mumbling to myself, “Figures.”
My heart was still pounding and I knew I wouldn’t be able to calm d
own enough to go back to sleep. Especially when I had no idea where Tessa was. She wasn’t in danger, of that I was sure, because there was no real danger to be found. Whatever had happened with the insane lady was an isolated incident. Everyone else was just trying to survive.
Still, I didn’t like the idea of wandering the building late at night, so I laid back down. This time facing the door so I was sure to see Tessa when she finally came back. Even though I was slightly annoyed with her, I had to admit that the thought of watching my little sister do a post-apocalyptic walk of shame made me smile.
Time passed and my heart rate returned to normal, and with it I felt the gentle tugging of sleep as it begged for me to return. I was still trying to wait up for Tessa though, and every time my lids began to grow heavy, I forced them open. She would be back any minute. I just had to wait it out.
The groan of the door opening jerked me awake a second time. I was positive only a couple minutes had passed since my eyelids won the war we’d been fighting, and when I saw the figure moving slowly through the dark room, I was relieved. Tessa had returned. Now I would be able to relax and get some real rest.
Through the darkness only the outline of my sister was distinguishable. She was walking slowly, like she was afraid she would wake everyone in the room if her steps were too heavy. Except she wasn’t quite tiptoeing. No, it was more of a stagger. Had Tessa been drinking? It wouldn’t really have surprised me, but at the same time I couldn’t imagine even Tessa being that irresponsible. A booty call with her ex was one thing, but not even she would get trashed at the refugee center in an apocalypse. Would she?
I pushed myself up so I was sitting, no longer even a little sleepy, and on the other side of the room Tessa stopped moving. Even through the darkness I could tell she was looking at me, but something about it made my heart beat faster. The moan that followed a second later caused it to skip a beat, and then nearly stop altogether.
The figure moved, faster this time, weaving between the cots and headed my way. This wasn’t my sister. No, this thing, whatever it was, wasn’t even human. Of that I was certain. Either it was the woman we’d locked in the office or someone else like her, because it continued to growl as it moved. It reached out for me too, trying to grab me from across the room, and when it got closer, I could make out the way it chomped at the air. Just like that woman had chomped at the man earlier today.
There were still two rows of cots separating us I when I got to my feet. I backed away as fast as I could, but found it impossible to take my gaze off the thing in front of me long enough to actually turn and run. I stumbled over something on the floor and felt myself falling back. My arms went behind me on instinct as I tried to brace myself, and when I landed, my elbow jammed right into the soft body of the person sleeping on the cot.
“Ooaf,” came from the woman I’d fallen on.
She shoved me aside and I ended up on the floor. Right on my ass. I was stuck between her cot and the one next to her, but still I couldn’t take my eyes off the advancing thing as it made its way toward me.
“What the hell are you doing?” the woman I’d landed on growled.
She was up, towering over me, but I still couldn’t look at her. Then the gaze of the advancing thing moved from me to this other person. I opened my mouth to warn the lady towering over me, ready to scream at her to run. My hand was out like if I could just grab her I could snatch her away from danger. But it was too late. The thing was there. It grabbed her, it pulled her closer, and it sank its teeth into her neck.
A blood-curdling scream ripped its way from the woman and all around the room people stirred and began to move. The creature—zombie, I knew now that’s what it was—released the person in her grasp and turned on another woman, and a second later another scream ripped through the air. People panicked, yelled and ran. They jumped over me in an attempt to get away, and I ducked down, covering my head with my arms to protect myself. I was still lodged between the cots, still too shaken to force my legs to work, but I seemed to be the only one.
More cries rang through the air. I wasn’t sure if the thing that had stumbled into the room was attacking or if people were trampling one another in an attempt to get away, and when I managed to lift my head so I could look around, nothing I saw told which it was. The door was wide open now, but the faint light from the hallway wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the room completely, and the people running scared were still nothing more than dark shapes. I couldn’t tell which one was the zombie, or even if there was more than one.
What if this was the woman from the office? Did that mean the two people she’d bitten were zombies now too? They’d seemed fine, but I was by no means an expert on fictional zombie outbreaks, and this was real. This could be exactly the same as what we’d seen in the movies or totally different. It was impossible to say.
“Melanie! Melanie! Where are you?”
Logan’s voice boomed through the room, audible even over the panicked cries of the fleeing women. I pushed myself up so I was standing on shaky legs, searching for him as I did, and a second later he materialized from the crowd.
He caught sight of me and pushed his way further into the room, weaving through the people and cots. That’s when I saw it. The thing that had taken a bite out of the woman only moments ago. It was one row away from Logan.
“Stop!” I called as I stumbled forward, suddenly finding the ability to make my legs work. “Logan, stop! It’s a zombie!”
Despite what I had seen with my own two eyes, saying the word out loud made me feel like a fool.
Logan froze. His eyes were big and he was staring at me like he couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. I was sure he couldn’t, and I couldn’t blame him either because it defied all logic. But it was true and the thing that had already bitten at least one person was headed his way.
Now that I was closer to it, I could tell that it was in fact the woman who’d been bitten earlier. The bandage Lori had wrapped around her hand was still in place, and she wore the same bloodstained shirt. Only now there was more blood. So much more. Had she killed the person she’d bitten? Probably, the bite had been in the neck. There had been blood everywhere and enough time had passed that if the wound was deep enough, the person could have bled out.
Did that mean there was another zombie behind me?
I glanced over my shoulder but found nothing moving in the dark recesses of the room, and so I turned my attention back on Logan and the zombie that was still headed his way. If not for the belongings that had been thrown everywhere when people fled their cots, she would have made it to him by now, but at the moment she was stumbling every other step. Nearly tripping over book bags and shoes that littered the floor.
“Run, Logan,” I said as I moved faster. “Run!”
My coordination was better than the zombie’s, meaning I was able to climb over the debris littering the room and hop over cots when necessary.
When I reached Logan, he still hadn’t moved. He was staring at the zombie with his mouth hanging open, barely noticing when I grabbed his arm. I tugged on him when I headed for the door, and as if in a trance, he followed, but one look at him told me his focus was still on the zombie.
We stumbled out into the lobby, which was total chaos, and I paused to look around. There were no weapons in the building, I knew because we’d been told when we arrived that they were prohibited, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be able to find something to use to defend myself with.
“That was a zombie,” Logan said.
His words reminded me that the thing was probably right behind me, so I started moving again. I was still gripping his arm, and I pulled him with me as I shoved my way through the people scrambling through the lobby. They seemed to be running in all directions, and I couldn’t figure out why until I noticed the man who had been bitten. He was at the far end of the lobby, and just like the woman it was obvious that he was no longer human. His face was streaked in blood, his neck too, and he lung
ed at anyone who got too close.
“Shit,” I said.
Then a pang more intense than the stab of a knife shot through me, and I dropped Logan’s arm. I spun around, searching the crowd for the familiar face of my little sister, but only strangers surrounded me.
“Tessa!” I screamed as I turned in circles. “Tess!”
Logan started shouting for Rick, and side-by-side we pushed our way through the crowd, away from the zombie man and the room we had just fled. It was our only choice, and I prayed that we were going the right way. That I would be able to find Tessa in this disaster. She had to be here. She couldn’t have gone far.
Only I had no idea where to look.
Behind me someone screamed, and I spun around. The zombie had finally emerged from the ballroom and was now attacking a small girl while her mother fought to save her. Behind her, another figure dragged itself through the door, but I had no idea where it had come from. How many zombies were there? Had there already been some in this building when we took shelter here? Had we doomed ourselves and not even known it?
I turned away from the sight and kept moving, pushing through the crowd. Only we didn’t get far before I spotted more zombies in the distance. Two of them, and they were both snacking on people who not that long ago had been sleeping peacefully.
“Melanie,” Logan said, grabbing my arm. “We have to go! We’re surrounded and if we stick around much longer we’re going to be in trouble.”
I nodded even as tears filled my eyes, knowing that he was right but hating that I had to leave my sister. Still, I didn’t give in right away, but instead spun in a circle and scanned the chaos, praying that Tessa was somewhere in the madness. The tears blurred my vision, so I swiped them away and gave the room a second look. There was blood everywhere, and screaming people, but no Tessa. No Rick.
Logan grabbed my hand and began running, pulling me with him. I didn’t resist because I didn’t know what else to do, and so together we wove our way through the crowd. There was so much blood, and people were on the floor. Crying. Sobbing. Calling for help. Some looked like they had superficial wounds thanks to the chaos, but others were holding limbs or sides that I could tell had been bitten into, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they turned just like the others. Staying here was too dangerous. We were in the middle of a zombie outbreak, only no one had known it until it was too late.
