“No. He wasn’t.”
Well that explains nothing. I have to come out and ask him. “Are you?”
“Yes. He married my mom and had me and my sister, Reanna. He was beating my mom and sister. I came home and she was lying on the floor with my father standing over her with a knife. My sister came in and saw it too. He killed her and blamed the double homicide on me. I spent time in Jail for it. Most of my life people didn’t trust me. After I got out I learned that he created a kidnapping organization. He got his buddies to kidnap girls and they would sell them for money or kill them for a thrill. He wasn’t right. There was a girl he kidnapped. That time he messed up. The police followed a trail and found him. He spent years in jail for kidnapping but there was no evidence of murder on him.”
He was living with me, in my house. I can’t get over that fact. He was a monster. If It’s in the past, why does it feel like he is still betraying me with secrets that I am learning?
The teens are sitting at the table talking. Sarah made a cake with the mix that Xavier brought. The kids frosted and decorated it. They were overjoyed with making it. It’s sitting on the counter half eaten. The kids devoured their slices faster than the teens sitting at the table.
The kids are running in circles around the table yelling, hyper from the sugar they consumed. Sarah tells them to stop but they don’t listen.
“Our family dynamic is pretty screwed up. Let’s try to make the best of our situation. I want to get to know you,” he says.
“What do you want to know?” I ask.
“Who’s your favorite singer?” he shrugs.
I tell him no one. I like country music and alternative. He tells me he likes rock and heavy metal music.
I learn that he is twenty-three years old. He seems nice. We’ll see how this goes. Once I reach a point when I think I know enough about him I’ll decide whether he stays or not.
I excuse myself from my conversation with Blake. I join the others at the table sitting next to Xavier. Dave and him came back a little while ago. Oakland went to his mom’s house to collect her stockpile. He said he didn’t want to go there, he didn’t even want to talk about his mom. Dave brought back a family from Pahrump that is setting up in a house.
Blake sits next to me. Dave is standing in the archway of the hallway. He is studying my stepbrother. Like he recognizes him.
“Your dad’s name is Fred, right?” Dave asks.
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Blake replies with a confused look.
“Rain kicked ass today. She saved me. She popped a zombie’s eye out,” I overhear Alex say to the people at the table.
I had to wash the blood off me ASAP. “It was really gross,” I say.
There is a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it!” Adelynn runs to the door.
When she opens it a woman with short blonde hair is there. A young man is standing beside her. He is really short and has the same blonde hair.
“You’re not Oakland,” Adelyn says.
“No. I’m not. I’m Sierra,” She kneels down, “This is Oliver. We showed up at the gate together by coincidence. Can you let us in?” Adelyn nods. The strangers come in. It’s obvious she doesn’t want us to think they are together.
“I saw how big this place is, can we stay here?” The woman clasps her hands.
Dave looks at her. “Pick a house. We’ll get a generator set up soon.”
“Awesome.” She plops down on a couch like this is her own house. Oliver sits on the other couch. He is wearing a black leather hoodie with the hood up, jeans and converse shoes. He has a backpack on his shoulders. He must be pretty young. I’d say my age or maybe a few years older.
He stares at the cake. “Can I have some?” he asks, revealing he has a British accent. Sarah gets him a piece. He digs into it.
“Do you know what caused this?” Sierra asks standing up.
“Nope. We’re as clueless as you two are,” I say.
“I was a doctor. I studied diseases and how they are spread. I am completely clueless about this whole situation. If you want I could study them. I could find the cause of this,” she says.
“What do you mean by studying them?” Dave asks folding his arms.
She shifts her weight to her other foot. “We could hold them in a house, examine them and figure this out.”
“No. It would be too dangerous to hold those things in house,” Dave says.
“I think we should,” I say.
Dave shifts his weight to the other foot. “We can think about it. No further than considering it.” He gives a stern look telling her he means business.
I get the harm that could be done. I also get that this disease is harmful, knowing what we can is a good idea. I’m with Sierra on this one. Those zombies took my mom from me, with my stepfather’s help, but they still killed her too. We could learn how they act, think, we could get valuable information.
The teens talk amongst themselves for hours. To an outsider it would appear that they’ve all been friends for years. They talk about normal things that used to go on in life. It’s their way of staying sane. I can’t pretend that things are fine. Mom used to say that I had a more mature attitude about life, the loss I have experienced plays a part in my attitude definitely.
Oakland shows up at eight with everything you can imagine for the Apocalypse. At 9 o’clock it is basically time for bed. The kids refuse to go to sleep until Sarah yells at them for the third time, loudly. They flinch at her angry voice. Sarah’s eyes soften completely when they step back with tears in their eyes. I swear Sarah is going to start crying. Their parents yelled at them a lot, that’s why they did that. I feel sorry for them. Sarah apologizes for being mean. The kids agree to go to bed. My normal bedtime in my normal life was past ten. I would stay up late a lot. I don’t want to stay up late now. I want to sleep to get away from the zombies.
I settle in, sleeping in my clothes I had on today. I lay there listening to the roaring wind outside. I hear voices out there too. I sit on the couch listening to people talking. I whisper to Nya telling her to wake up she is on the couch opposite me.
“Come on, we need one,” someone says. I go outside catching Sierra and Oliver by the gate. There is a zombie with his arms through the gate. Sierra throws the gate open and pushes the zombie to the ground. Oliver ties the chain on the gate. Sierra takes a cord from her pocket and ties his hands so he can’t grab her.
“What are you doing?” I ask making them both jump.
“Don’t rat on us please. Kid, we can make a cure if we just study them, their behavior. You sided with me in the house. You want to help. Will you help us?” Sierra asks.
I want to. Gavin grounded me big time for not telling him that I was going with Nya. He is just protecting me. I’m not doing anything wrong, the zombie will be locked up. No harm done. I’m not sure if he would allow this. I would be grounded even more doing this. Then again, how would he ground me? I’m not allowed to go on runs for a while. He can’t take more away from me than these zombies have. “You’ll keep it locked away?” I ask.
“Yes. I’ll keep it locked away.”
“Okay. I’ll help,” I say.
She sighs, “You made the right choice.”
I hope so.
She drags it to Sarah’s mom’s house a couple doors down from the one I’m sleeping in. Oliver follows. Before I go in I make sure the chain is locked with a pad lock, like it was. The lock is missing.
“Oliver, did you lose the lock for the gate?” I ask him.
“No, there wasn’t one when we came here.”
I feel stupid for not thinking about how they got through a locked gate. Oakland must have lost it. I know Dave didn’t. The chain is fine for now. I have a suspicion that the new people took it. They show up and the lock is magically missing. It doesn’t sound right. What are they hiding other than the zombie?
I go back in the house to find Xavier sitting on the couch.
“Where we
re you?” he asks.
“I needed air.” I couldn’t tell him there was a zombie next door being experimented on. He would tell people in a second. Dave would be mad that we disobeyed him. He is basically the leader now.
“Rough day,” he says.
I nod.
Xavier pats the couch for me to sit. I sit. I kiss him. He’s surprised by it. That was our first kiss. We both lie down. I hold on to him. We stay there in silence. For the first time in days I can actually sleep.
I wake up at six o’clock with Xavier sleeping next to me. He is so cute when he is sleeping. If anyone can get me through each day now, it’s him.
Alex walks in the kitchen and starts cooking. I sit at the table.
I didn’t want to think about May. I know we have to find her, I was afraid to mention her, I was afraid if we started looking for her we wouldn’t find her. I’m making a decision; we have to help them. I want to drive to New Jersey. As suicidal as it sounds, we have to do it. I can’t abandon her. I’m ashamed of thinking the way I did but I completely forgot about her and Kevin in the hospital. I’m her niece, she needs me and my cousin and we’re not even talking about rescuing her.
Why hasn’t Gavin brought up rescuing her? That’s his mom, he should be as worried as I am. Those are his parents. He seems like he doesn’t even care.
Gavin sits at the table wearing pajamas. He reads my expression. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
“I want to find aunt May and uncle Kevin.”
His happy smile disappears. He folds his hands. “All right, I didn’t want to upset you after everything, Mom texted me telling me she would find us. A drive from New Jersey takes three days. I don’t want to assume the worst but I think they’re…”
“Dead. You don’t know that,” I say.
“Rain...”
“You don’t. They’re not dead,” I reply. There is no way that I can forget finding them. Them being dead could be a possibility, that doesn’t mean we can’t look for them.
“It’s too dangerous to look for them. We need to either wait or be prepared for them not coming.” He is so calm. If it were my parents I would be looking at this moment.
Before I say another sentence Oliver interrupts. I didn’t even hear him come in. “Rain, let me show you something.” He doesn’t have to tell me that it pertains to the zombie. I can tell by his tone of voice.
I get up and Gavin grabs my arm. “Let me come with you,” he says.
I shake my head. “No. I’ll be fine,” I say.
He glances at me then Oliver. “I’ll watch you from the doorway.”
He lets go of my arm. We both walk to Sierra’s house. I look over my shoulder to make sure that Gavin is watching not following which he is.
“What is it?” I ask in a whisper.
“Sierra noticed something. She’ll explain,” he whispers back.
“Mind if I ask why you’re helping?” I ask.
He puts his hand on the door knob. “I like her.”
“Your too young for her. She’s twenty something and your…” I trail off letting him answer.
“Twenty-one,” he says.
“Really? You don’t look it.”
He opens the door. “Thanks.”
The table has microscopes and slides and all kinds of medical stuff on it. Sierra is looking in the microscope.
“You wanted to see me?” I ask.
She lifts her head to face me. “Yes. I found out that this zombie had eaten fish when he was alive. I looked in here and found that a package of tilapia fillets in the freezer had been opened. I put the samples under a microscope. It was exposed to radiation. The radiation is what’s turning them originally. No one in the community should eat fish. Can you make sure they don’t?” she asks.
“Tell them you have a zombie in here then I will. I mean how am I going to explain your conclusion to them if you didn’t study a zombie?” I hear the zombie banging against the bedroom door.
“They’ll make me stop. I can’t.” She’s determined, I can see it.
“Okay. How did the fish get radiation then?” I ask.
She looks puzzled. “Radioactive waste was dumped in the ocean probably. That’s the only way logically.”
Oliver steps in front of me. “Wasn’t there a nuclear power plant off the beach somewhere? In California, maybe. It exploded or something maybe that’s how radiation got in the water. It exploded two weeks ago.”
“You’re right. That’s the cause then. It happened a week before this. The military tried to contain it and it got out. That would also explain why on the news they talked about the tighter security on the border,” Sierra says.
“Can you cure it. The bites at least?” I ask.
This is a hell of a eureka moment. Having the medicine to cure it would be awesome. We would probably be invincible if we had that. We could go anywhere without having to worry. I could find my aunt and uncle using the cure.
She shakes her head. “Yes and no, it would take specific medicines not to mention a variety of them. A faster way would be to take blood from someone immune to the virus. I would need a volunteer. We are going to have to tell them now.”
I don’t want them to get in trouble. They were only trying to help by keeping this a secret. Dave would probably be displeased with the fact that we have to inject someone with a virus. I don’t want to take a chance of him shutting this down. Aside how he would feel, who would want to volunteer?
I want to help. Me. I’m considering being that volunteer. I would be glad if I can save people’s lives. I’m taking a risk, but aren’t we all taking risks? “Can I volunteer?” I ask.
They share a look. Oliver puts his hands up going to protest. He lowers them. “She could…”
“We would have to inject you with it and see if there is no reaction to be sure your immune.” Sierra shakes her head like she shouldn’t be doing this.
Maybe the Rain in the past would object but I’ve changed. This is important. I’m concerned about the kids, my boyfriend and my cousin. What if I could save them from a future zombie bite? “I want to do it. You’re not forcing me. I’m willing to do it. I know it’s a risk but I want to take it so no one else will have to die,” I insist.
She shakes her head with a sigh. She beckons for me to come over. I sit at the end of the table. She takes a needle and taps the inside of my elbow. She ties a blue plastic thing around my vein that I have seen doctor’s use before they give you shots. She looks at me.
“You’re sure?” she asks.
“Yes.” I don’t know why my personality changed so much. I was never the risk taker. I don’t know if I’m braver now or stupid for doing this. Maybe I changed due to the shock of having to kill my stepfather along with my mother’s death.
She injects the needle. It pinches. She pushes the contents in. Oliver is shaking his head.
“You do realize you could die?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“This is bloody insane.”
I tell them I’m going to eat breakfast. They mutter goodbyes. They think they made a mistake. I sit at the table. No one is up yet except Xavier sitting at the table. I hug him. It could be the last time I see him. He’s surprised by it. He smiles.
Just then Adelyn comes out. I tell her good morning. She tells me good morning with a smile. Gavin walks out too. I hug him and tell him good morning. After Alex cooks breakfast we sit at the table.
My stepbrother sits at the table and starts eating. He tells a few jokes and makes people laugh. I am sitting here listening, eating bacon. Far away from my chair, deep into thought.
I’m fine now but will I turn into one of the dead later?
Alex starts talking about how we should name the zombies something.
“They should be called Diners,” says Alex.
“Crunchers,” Xavier suggests with a laugh.
The smell of food makes me sick now. There are butterflies in my stomach. I swallow my bacon with trouble. “Excuse me.
” I bolt up and run in the bathroom. I kneel on the floor over the toilet. I throw up.
I’m sweating and I have a fever. How could it kill me so fast? I don’t want to die. I thought I would be immune to this. This was a mistake. What did I do?
I hear Oliver’s voice. He opens the bathroom door and finds me over the toilet.
“Jesus Christ, it happened that fast!” he says in a whisper.
A blood drop falls on the toilet seat. I put my hand to my nose and it’s bleeding. I grab a washcloth off the counter and hold it up to my nose. Gavin comes in.
“What the hell?” he says seeing my nose bleeding.
“Gavin…” I begin. My vision is blurry and I fall on the floor.
The next thing I see is Sierra standing over me. She waves her hand in my face.
“Are you awake?” She asks.
I nod.
“She’s up,” she says to everyone in a circle around me.
I’m on the couch in Sarah’s mom’s house. Xavier, Gavin, Sarah and Blake are standing by me. Xavier kneels “Hey, you feel okay?”
I nod. I feel better. “How long have I been passed out,” I ask him.
“Five hours. Sierra told us what you volunteered to do.”
“It was stupid. Do you want to die?” Gavin says.
“I wanted to make a cure,” I say.
He gives me a look. “You went behind my back for an even worse cause this time. What do you want me to say? You can’t keep doing this, being reckless.”
“Reckless? Come on. You know what, I did it to save people. I couldn’t save Mom or Dad. There is a level of importance on certain things in this world. It was either die eventually from a bite or give yourself up to save others. I was thinking about humanity.
“You might see me as a reckless teenager who doesn’t care, but I do care. I care about my new friends here and them not dying. Their lives were more important than one. Having this advantage was important. I chose humanity. I would do this again.”
“You would do this again? Why do I try to protect you? You don’t care. You weren’t thinking about anyone except yourself.” He turns to leave.
We Are The Survivors Page 10
