by Lake, D. K.
"Why do I get the girlie bag?" I frowned, looking at the pastel pink nightmare that he had dumped in my lap, and eyeing the black backpack he was holding open to show me his slippers.
"Because you woke up last, lazy bones."
"Lazybones my ass." I muttered, looking at the backpack.
The pink would stand out a mile and the flowers made me want to take it outside and drag it through the mud just to make it look better. Ugh. I was not a girlie girl.
"I'll trade you." I asked hopefully.
"You have nothing I want." Nick said, sitting on the couch next to me and shoving the crossword puzzle books inside his backpack.
"Oh, I dunno, I only have the cure for mankind." I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Sorry, Alex, you're stuck with the pink one."
"Can I burn it?"
"It's your bag, do what you want with it. Ohh, is that scented?" Nick picked up a candle and sniffed it.
"Mmm, coconut and vanilla." Nick said before shoving it into his bag.
"I think you'd be better off packing the kitchen knives."
"Candles are always useful, especially in a world with hardly any electricity."
"Whatever." I stood up.
"I packed a few toiletries from the bathroom already." Nick told me as I left the room and wandered around the house. Upstairs was bright and breezy, and there was a cool breeze coming through an open window. I packed a few towels, rolling them up as small as possible. In the bathroom, I found some minty body wash, and a deodorant which I packed. In the mirror cabinet above the sink, I found more Band-Aids, some smelly perfume that had gone off and smelled more like chemicals and I realized this after I had sprayed it all over myself. I also found some floss which was a bonus. I coughed on the perfume fumes as I bent over and checked the cupboard under the sink and found a sealed toothbrush.
Bingo. I wanted to freshen up and have a wash now but there wasn't any water. I hoped we would find running water soon so I could wash up. I hated feeling gross and sweaty. It was like my permanent default setting right now. Even if the world had gone to shit and there were crazy deadbies trying to eat me I still didn't want to stink of body odor and have hair so greasy it squeaked like I've got a family of mice buried up there.
I tied my hair up with the only elastic I had on my wrist, I didn't even have a hairbrush. I checked the bedrooms and found some baggy tops that looked like something from an old peoples catalog, one was lavender and one was lemon. I found lots of dresses hung up in the closet but they were no good to me, and about a hundred blouses that were all terrible, all flowers and shit, and I would never be seen dead in them. I searched all the drawers and found spare socks, they smelled musty but at least they had been washed once, and I found some ridiculously large granny panties. I held them up and looked at them and considered taking them for a moment but realistically they were seriously too big for me and they would be falling down my legs. I would just have to manage in the one pair I was wearing. Ugh. Or just not wear any which I had done before. I found a more practical blanket hidden at the bottom of the closet, better than the knitted ones with all the decorative holes in them.
My bag was already full when I went downstairs, but I found an anorak and a mini umbrella in the cupboard under the stairs that I managed to cram into my bag, and there was a tiny space at the bottom for a saucepan that I wrapped in the towels, and I picked out enough forks and spoons for all of us because you never knew what you might find along the way. I found Drew and Lane standing around outside the back door that was wide open.
"Did you find anything to drink?" I asked hopefully.
"Nope." Lane's shoulders sagged.
"It's okay, we just need to find a stream and we can boil some water to take. Nick found some empty bottles in the recyclables so we can use them. Did you get a pot to boil it in?" Drew asked, coming over and yanking my backpack off my arms. "Nice bag." he teased, unzipping it.
I let him get on with it and crossed my arms.
"Of course I did. I haven't completely forgotten how to do this."
"Towels, blanket. Oh, you found floss. Nice."
Lane watched us with this odd look on his face as Drew rummaged through my stuff. "Didn't take the granny panties?" Drew teased.
"No, I didn't." I answered, slightly embarrassed.
I guessed Drew had been over the whole house from top to bottom but he didn't have a bag or anything other than his crossbow in his hands. He handed me back my pack. I noticed Lane still had his machete, Drew had his crossbow and Nick was now wielding a gardening rake but I still had nothing.
"Uh...I need a-" Drew handed me a frying pan. "Weapon." I finished, holding the pan. "Is this a joke, what do you expect me to do with this? Cook breakfast?"
Drew was trying not to laugh. "Just kidding." Drew said with a stupid grin on his face and reached behind me and picked up a hockey stick that was leaning against the house.
"That's more like it." I took the hockey stick and threw the frying pan over my shoulder. "Why do they even have this?" I asked, referring to the hockey stick.
"They had a box of sports stuff but I didn't think you'd want the tennis racket." Drew replied, popping a piece of gum into his mouth and offering me some.
"What's the time?" I asked, taking a piece of gum.
"Just gone eight. We've got a long walk ahead of us and you've been asleep for half the morning." Drew said, walking off.
Lane and I shared a look, here we go again and started to follow Drew. Nick positioned himself between Lane and me as we trailed along the dirt road, trampling back over the weeds from last night. Drew came to a stop when we got to the road and I stayed back with the other two while Drew got his bearings and crossed the road. I kept my eyes peeled as I followed Drew and headed into the trees and we followed the direction of the road but stayed hidden in the trees. We decided to walk until lunchtime and then stop for food, that was if we found water. We couldn't eat our noodles dry out the pack, and by noon we would all be desperate for a drink. I wanted one as soon as I woke up like most people, but I tried not to think about it.
"So how far is it to D.C. from here?" Nick asked.
"A long way." I answered, smiling over my shoulder.
"That's very helpful, Alex." Nick said, dragging a tangled vine out of his path using his rake.
"I think you got it, we're not here to do the gardening." I laughed, watching him fight with the vine and he got all caught up in it and Lane had to help him unravel it from the rake.
It took me a moment to realize there was a figure standing next to me. My heart jumped into my mouth for a second until my brain registered the green hair belonged to Drew.
"Don't do that!" I glared at him and shoved him away.
"I just came back to see what the holdup was."
"Nick got caught in the vines." I told him.
"Ross made a chart of how long it would take to travel there using a car, helicopter, walking, biking." Lane said.
"So how long on foot?" Nick asked, stepping out of the tangled mess.
"Five weeks give or take." Lane shrugged.
"What?!" Nick exclaimed.
"Five years if we have to wait for these two." Drew muttered and walked off again.
"Five weeks!" Nick fretted, pushing his black frames up his nose and swatting away a fly.
"Yup, but we might find a car that works. I wouldn't worry about it, it could be shorter." Lane said as though it was no big deal. "Or it could be longer." he added.
I turned around and started walking as they carried on their conversation.
"Where do you wash? How do we find food? What about the night time, where will we sleep?" Nick asked.
Poor Nick, he sounded just like Lane when I first found him in Oregon.
"I dunno, we just manage." Lane responded in the most casual way possible which made Nick fret even more.
I thought he would have thought about this before now.
"Nick, it's okay, we'll be okay as
long as we stay together. I lived out here for years, remember?" I reminded him.
I had told Nick many stories of my time on the outside. Nick's eyes wandered back to the trees and he walked a little quicker.
It was going to be a long day.
We followed the road, walking around seven or eight miles, during this time Drew wandered off on his own for a while and when he came back he wanted us to follow him into the woods where he had found a stream and we stopped for lunch around midday. I was desperate for a drink when we arrived at the stream but I still wanted to be safe and boil the water. Drew and Lane started collecting firewood and Drew arranged them how he wanted and positioned some rocks in the fire for me to sit my pot on so the water could warm up properly without holding it over the fire which I used to do until Drew taught me how to do this. Nick marched over to the water and got down on his knees and scooped up the water and I was about to tell him to stop when he splashed it on his face to cool off. I helped Drew get the fire started while Lane walked off behind a tree to take a leak.
Nick sighed. "How do you do this all day? I'm dying for a cup of tea." He plonked himself on the ground near the fire and took off his backpack, pulled out a tea bag and a cup he had taken from the house, and sat waiting for me to get the pot out to boil the water, giving me this look to hurry up the whole time.
I took the pan and trudged over to the narrow stream and scooped up as much as I could fit in the pot without it bubbling over the edge and carefully carried it back to the fire where Drew took it out of my hands and wedged it on the rocks.
"Now we wait." I said to Nick who was flapping his tea bag around impatiently.
Drew stayed standing and leaned against a tree with his crossbow in his hand. Lane sat down next to his brother with his legs crossed and yawned, and we sat around waiting for the water to boil.
"I'm just gonna go and use the bathroom." I said, standing up. I left my bag next to Nick and walked far enough away so Drew couldn't see me as I knew he was watching me the whole time. I hid behind a tree and pulled my jeans and underwear down together and waited for my bladder to empty but it was like it had stage fright all of a sudden and a weed tickled my leg which made it worse and I thought it was an animal or something. I ignored the ferns in front as they quietly rustled. It's just a rabbit. I had left my hockey stick back at the fire, stupid!
I looked at the sky, willing my bladder to hurry up. I started going, watching a bird swoop through the trees. I had nearly finished going when someone jumped out of the ferns. I screamed and stood up, yanking my panties up my legs but my jeans got stuck and I panicked and was about to just run back to the camp with my jeans halfway up my legs when I recognized the person that had jumped out of the ferns like some creep.
"Ugh. I just pissed on my leg." I groaned, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I hate you." I said, sliding my jeans up all the way and doing up my zipper.
Drew came running over and swung around the tree and stopped when he saw who it was.
"Hey, man." Josh greeted Drew then looked back at me, trying not to laugh.
"It's not funny. What are you doing creeping around in the bushes? And what are you wearing?" I asked.
"Camouflage." Josh said, lifting his arms up.
He was wearing a pair of camouflage jeans with a dark green jacket but he had covered himself in some kind of net which had leaves and ferns sticking out of it.
"I um...met up with one of those outsiders back at the university and he let me borrow it."
"He let you borrow it?" I queried.
"Well, he was dead so he didn't really mind." Josh smirked.
Lane came dashing around the tree three hours too late.
"Josh? How'd you find us?" Lane asked, looking at Josh's appearance with a funny look on his face.
"Hey, enough of the funny looks, this outfit is really popular in the zombie apocalypse."
"You look like an idiot and you're rustling." I laughed.
Josh shook his arm and the net rustled. Drew shook his head and wandered back to the fire. Nick was still hiding behind a different tree, waiting for the all-clear to come out.
"Drew taught me how to track when we were back at the mall and had nothing to do, pretty impressive, right?" Josh wiggled his eyebrows at me.
"Well, you found us, and I was worried you were dead."
"I saw you guys take off without me but I couldn't have gotten over to you in time anyhow, and then I saw the helicopter go down and I thought you were all goners."
"We lost Robin before we even got in the helicopter, and then we lost Zoe and Ross in the wreck." I informed him. He didn't seem too worried about losing everyone but they weren't really his friends and he hadn't even met Robin until five minutes before it all went crazy.
"I tagged along with those crazy people to the crash but they soon got bored and went back but I spotted some blood on the ground and knew at least one of you had survived the crash. I couldn't really follow you in the dark so I climbed up a tree, Alex-style and waited until morning and then I saw the weeds trampled on that dirt track and I think I missed you by like thirty minutes or something. I figured you'd be looking for water and Drew taught me to head downhill which is where I'm more likely to find water and then I found the stream, but I think we overlapped and I just caught a glimpse of Alex walking behind a tree. Sorry, I didn't know you were peeing."
"I'm glad you're ok." I smiled and Josh came over to hug me but I shook my head and held up my hand.
"No, you're covered in leaves and shit, you're probably full of bugs." I said as he scratched his head.
I smiled at him and walked back to the fire. Josh and Nick exchanged hellos, and everyone sat down around the fire.
"What's cookin'?" Josh asked, looking into the pot.
"Oh, nothing yet, we're boiling water to take but we do have these." I pointed over at Nick's feet where the two packets of noodles were.
"I'm starving!" Josh said.
"We all are, but after this, we don't have anything so enjoy it and don't complain."
"What flavors?" Josh asked.
"Um, bacon and the other one is beef."
"I call dibs on the beef." Lane piped in.
"I don't like bacon." Nick said.
"Fine, then you two can have the beef. Josh, bacon or beef?"
"I guess I'll have a little from both then you and Drew can share most of the bacon."
"Cool." I said, taking my sweatshirt off and using it to lift the pot off the water, and Nick held one of the bottles for me as I tried to pour in as much of the water into the bottle without spilling too much, then I mixed the beef noodles with the rest of the water and set it back over the fire to cook. Nick poured some of the water over his teabag and held on to his cup and passed the water bottle around and we each took turns to have a drink, it was hot but we were thirsty.
Once the noodles were ready I lifted the pot off and set it on the ground to cool and was about to pull out my cutlery for them to use when Nick produced three bowls and a handful of cutlery from his backpack. The bowls were all different colors and plastic and I would have packed them myself if I had seen them first.
I divided the noodles up and the three of them got stuck in while I washed out the pot in the stream and boiled another pot of water.
"Have you seen any out here?" Josh asked.
"Nope." I said, my eyes scanning the trees again. I wasn't sure whether it was luck or whether this part of Colorado was just quiet and the deadbies had moved on. Generally, the woods seemed to be quieter which is why I always preferred being out in the wild because most deadbies got lost and fell down dirt holes, some were picked off by bears or hungry wolves, and some fell into the rivers.
"I ran into a couple but I was like now you see me, now you don't, they got really confused when I was pretending to be a bush, and then I just left. Let's hope we don't run into any unexpected groups."
We all looked up at Josh, and I think all of us apart from Nick were thinking bac
k to that time when we came across that horde in the woods when we still had Luke with us. Josh's face fell like he just remembered. I shivered and looked over my shoulder. I didn't think I'd ever forget that day no matter how long I lived for.
Nick helped me pour the next lot of water into the other bottle and I left some water at the bottom for the noodles. I heated the bacon flavored noodles up and hugged my legs while I waited. Drew was up and down a lot, wandering around the trees while we talked quietly among ourselves.
"So what happens now you've lost all your research? Are we still going?" Josh asked, holding up a bowl as I divided the noodles into it for him. Drew came back over and I sat the pot on top of my sweatshirt on my lap and he sat down next to me and pinched one of the forks and we ate out of the pot together. It was weird to be sharing anything with anyone. After I got infected I couldn't share anything and now I was scrapping the bottom of the pot and Drew was playfully trying to knock my fork out of the way. I caught Lane watching us, but I thought nothing of it, Drew could be playful when he wanted to be it was just a rare thing.
"I have most of my research memorized up here." Nick tapped his head.
"And Alex can't die because her blood holds the cure." Lane added.
"No pressure, then." I mumbled and Drew smirked.
"What?" Josh said confused.
Nick and Lane filled Josh in on why I was so important, and they discussed our plan of action to get to D.C. which wasn't really anything specific, mainly trying not to die. Nick helped me wash everything up in the stream, and we boiled some more water to top up the bottles. Josh agreed that we needed to teach Nick how to fight so after lunch that's what we did.
Chapter 13
I got comfortable leaning against a tree and the rest of the afternoon was spent teaching Nick how to fight and self-defense. We had a long journey ahead of us but we needed to be prepared and at the moment the only thing Nick knew what to do to survive was to run away. Josh and Lane were training Nick using his rake but Josh had snapped off the end and was twirling it around like a baton and not much training was actually happening.
