by RWK Clark
∞
While I wasn’t hungry, I prepared two bologna and cheese sandwiches and gave Jace a bowl of cottage cheese with his. My appetite just wasn’t what it used to be. Was I turning?
“I’m almost too excited to eat, but I know I need my strength.” The look on his faced changed to one of concern when he looked over at me. I had begun to pick my sandwich apart, but I had yet to take a bite. “Alicia, you have to eat.”
“I’m just not very hungry, ever…,” I said, my voice trailing off. “I’m worried, Jace. Do you think I’m turning?”
“No! There is no way. You haven’t drank bad water. You haven’t been attacked. There is no way. We have been here for more than a month and a half. Think about what you’re saying in comparison to what science says.”
He was right. Whatever was wrong with me, it had nothing to do with my becoming a gray-face. A cold, maybe? The flu?
Suddenly Jace brought up a valid point. “You know, we stay here in the house, and all we do is research bacteria and screw. When was your last period, Alicia? I’m asking because you haven’t had one since we’ve been here, as far as I’m aware.”
It was like he hit me in the chest. Did I really miss something as vital as the fact that I hadn’t had a period in nearly eight weeks? How could I overlook such a thing? I know that anxiety could distract, but this was ridiculous.
“Since before the zombies, Jace…”
He smiled. His thoughts were almost audible. I was pale, had no energy, and my appetite was almost non-existent. All we did was have sex and conduct research. Hell, I was pregnant. Suddenly there was absolutely no doubt in my mind as to why I had felt so… off.
“Jace, we cannot bring a child into this!” A stricken look came over his face, a look akin to panic.
“Whatever you are thinking you will put out of your mind immediately. For all we know we are all that is left to get things started again. There is no better time to kick things off than the present, wouldn’t you say?” The joy had left his eyes. He had become enraged at the thought of terminating a pregnancy for any reason, even one like the state of the world. “I’ll get you a pregnancy test from the city tonight. I’ll also grab some iron pills and vitamin supplements… and more dehydrated milk. Might as well get ready to be a mom. I have a feeling it’s a done deal.” He stood and left the room without finishing his food.
I looked down at my own plate, guilt washing over me. Had I really just toyed with the thought of killing my own baby? He was right. This child was a new beginning, if indeed I was pregnant. I knew it was true deep inside, and I was ashamed at the level of selfishness I had just displayed. I stood and dumped my sandwich into the garbage. I needed to go find out if Jace and I were on the right track.
Especially now.
CHAPTER 17
I walked into the back room to find Jace kicking back in the chair at the card table, a self-satisfied look glued to his face. “It maintained, Alicia. It maintained.”
I smiled broadly. It looked like we had come up with the beginning of a solution. Now to determine, and take, the next step that would bring our world back around.
“Do you have any theories as to what should be next?” I was very eager to hear what had been rattling around in Jace’s mind in the last few minutes.
He continued to smile. “Yep. Sure do.” He got up and went out of the room. I sat in the wood chair and waited for his return. Soon, he was back with a water bottle which contained contaminated water. It was one of many we had taken from the river so we could conduct our research conveniently. He sat at the desk and took one last look at the slide in the microscope. He smiled again, satisfied, before cleaning the slide with disinfectant. Next he took a clean dropper and drew a bit of the contaminated water from the bottle. He prepared it on a slide and took a look. It must have been bad, because he cringed visibly.
“Take a look,” he said as he rose from his chair to make room for me.
I positioned myself before the microscope and, taking a deep breath, looked at the sample. While the water looked to the naked eye the microscope told another story: It was as rancid as it smelled.
“Bad,” was the only word I could manage to say. Just looking at it made me want to vomit in response to my retching belly.
He nodded. “So, now that we have verified that the entire contents of this bottle, which is sixteen fluid ounces, is terribly contaminated, I will introduce the antibiotic/chemical mix. I will start with one drop.”
Once he had administered the drop we let it sit for a moment, not saying a word to each other. Jace set a kitchen timer we had found in the other room for two minutes. His foot tapped anxiously while we waited for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally the buzzer went off. We both jumped even though we expected it. Jace stopped the noise and grabbed a clean dropper from a box that held around a dozen of them. He drew some of the water and placed a drop on a clean slide he had ready and waiting. Next, he placed it under the microscope and took a look. I was holding my breath as I stared at him, waiting to see the look on his face.
He turned to me slowly. “Alicia, it shows a dramatic difference…”
I jumped up and took a look for myself. The sample was half as nasty as the first.
“Let’s give it two more minutes and see what happens,” I suggested. He nodded in agreement and set the timer.
This time we were ready when the timer buzzed, both of us pacing in circles in the small room. “You do the honors,” Jace said to me, smiling.
I leaned over and took a look. It appeared to be worse.
“The bacteria is reproducing, Jace. Let’s start from scratch and introduce two drops of water. Trial and error, right?” He took a look for himself, nodded, and began to clean droppers and slides with disinfectant.
Two drops did significantly more damage to the bacteria in a new bottle of contaminated water, but we ended up scrapping that one as well. The third sixteen ounce bottle got four drops, just to be safe. After the two minute timer went off we both took a good gander.
The water was spotlessly clean!
“Woo-hoo!” Jace yelled. He jumped around, and I couldn’t help but join him. We danced, we cried, we held hands, and we held each other. It looked like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Jace stopped and held me at arm’s length. “Okay, Leesh, this is the plan. Tonight I go into the city to get the things we discussed. If you are pregnant we need to take care of your needs in accordance with that.” He waited to get my agreement. “Okay, now that we’re on the same page in that book, I will then spend my evening doing some heavy duty math and preparing enough of this chemical to introduce into the local bodies of water. The zombies are already dying rapidly; we need them gone altogether.”
I sighed with relief and looked at the clock. It was 3:17 in the afternoon. Jace wouldn’t leave until nightfall. “I say we have sex,” I told him.
He burst out laughing before taking me in his arms and giving me a big hug. He then took me by the hand and led me into the next room onto the double bed. I slowly took my clothing off, looking him square in the eye and smiling the entire time. His excitement grew more and more obvious. He tried to touch me numerous times, but I stopped him time and again.
Finally he gently overpowered me, and lowering me to the bed he planted kisses all over my body. I moaned softly, over and over, as he got closer and closer to the spot I really wanted him to kiss, and when he arrived, kiss it he did. He brought me to climax again and again. I held the pillow over my face to keep from crying out, but I did not stop him.
Finally it was my chance to return the favor, and I took him into my mouth hungrily. It didn’t take long for his back to arch and his body to stiffen, and I took great pleasure the fact that I had put him in this vulnerable state.
We lay spent on the mattress, both of us dozing in and out, until finally I was dreaming. I woke to his gentle shake and soft kisses. Oh, Jace…
“Get up, Leesh. W
e need to eat, and then I’m going into town. It’s after seven.” Upon hearing the time I became fully awake. I put my feet on the floor and gathered my clothing together to dress. In no time I caught up to him in the kitchen, where he was preheating the oven to bake one of several frozen pizzas which he had brought back from town a few days ago.
We were giddy like school kids while we ate, sitting next to each other and holding hands while we chewed. The end was in sight, I just knew it. There was no need to fear that this house would be our final resting place. We had done the right thing, taken the right steps each and every time a step was called for, and finally it was paying off. We were going to see the end of this mess, and we were going to see it soon.
I disposed of our paper plates, a resource we had begun to use to save on our water supply. Jace packed some things into a backpack and made a list of what he wanted to get while in the city. Before letting him out the back door he gave me a passionate kiss, one that gave of his entire being. I responded in kind. He then grabbed his bat, propped it on his shoulder, and smiled at me.
“I’ll be back soon. Lock up and barricade, babe.”
I smiled back. “You’ve got it. Hurry home.” I then let him out and locked and covered the door.
Soon we would be free.
CHAPTER 18
Jace had left, and I decided that I would try to flip through the television channels. Maybe I could find something that was pre-taped and put on the air to appease the public. It was my honest hope that CNN would be broadcasting an update regarding the state of the ‘zombie affairs’. I didn’t let my hopes get too high, however. I figured most everyone was dead or wandering around close to it.
I flipped through the channels one at a time, each displaying an “off the air” message. A couple of the nationwide networks were running loops of reruns; how they had the aforethought to set that up, I will never know. When I arrived at CNN the same newsman was sitting at a desk, his skin pale and his eyes sporting matching luggage.
“From Tulsa, Oklahoma, breaking news... existing federal authorities have reported to the CNN newsroom that there are no survivors in the area… we repeat… Tulsa has no known survivors in the worldwide crisis which is currently taken place. John Thomas takes us live to the scene to discuss the outlook in that city.”
I had stiffened up entirely before the newscaster had even made his way through the first sentence. As soon as I heard ‘Tulsa’ I froze. This is what I had been waiting to hear, and now what I heard was heartbreaking. They, so far, had found no one alive in the entire area? Couldn’t people be holed up in their homes?
The fact of the matter was that no one saw this coming. How could my parents have known, just getting off a plane from their vacation? There was no way. In second’s time I considered my dad and mom. I was pregnant, and I knew it. I so badly wanted my mother to be alive, to run to Tulsa and to fetch her, to have her guidance and her help. This was nothing but a pipe dream. I knew this now.
My mind was filled with memories all at once. At the park with my mom as a small child. My father swinging me in large circles by my arms until I thought I would either die laughing or puke. The way my parents comforted me and made me laugh, caring for me fully the time I broke my arm in gymnastics, or anytime I was sick or hurting. I jerked my mind from the memories in an effort to stop the tears from falling down my face. I wanted to scream, but I was afraid to do that. Instead I buried my face in a throw pillow I held in my lap and sobbed until there were no more tears to be cried.
The news continued with its horrid relay, elaborating on the grim situation in my hometown. They showed news reels of the area; the streets were filled with nothing but shuffling dead people. I thought of the life that may be growing inside me, and I had to jump up and run to the bathroom. What little dinner I had left in my stomach was emptied into the toilet like so much waste. I began to cry again. I didn’t know how to be a mother. Hell, I still cried for my own mother! I curled up on the floor and cried until I was virtually spent. I didn’t know what to do or who to turn to. Aside from Jace I had absolutely no one.
My heart was broken in my chest; I knew with certainty that my parents, and more than likely the rest of my family, were all but gone. I pulled myself together and went back to the living room to face the truth, occasional sobs escaping from my lips. I sat in the chair and turned the set up a bit louder.
“As you can see by the scene behind me, there is no one except myself and my crew who are normal in all of Tulsa. The CDC reports that, while they are steadily searching for answers and a solid solution to this epidemic, they have made very little progress to date. The changes which have taken place in people all over the world have continued to perpetuate, and many of these… zombies… have turned from violence on each other to violence on normal, healthy humans. Government officials highly recommend that you stay indoors at all costs, and if you are confronted by one of these sick individuals try to avoid any contact. If contact is inevitable the only way to escape harm and save yourself is by striking them about the head. Other reports state…” I could listen to no more. I turned the television off with the remote and broke down again.
∞
By the time I had pulled myself together I realized it was a little after ten. Where was Jace? I could picture every horrible scenario under the sun, and wound up sitting on the floor by the front window so I could peek out the blinds and search for his headlights. We were so far from the city, or so it seemed, that I didn’t see any signs of life for the first twenty minutes that I sat there. Suddenly there was obvious movement at the tree by the driveway entrance. I stared hard, wondering if I was seeing things. Nothing. I continued to strain my eyes, to no avail, and had begun to believe I had fallen asleep slightly and that the movement was nothing more than a bit of a dream. Suddenly I saw it again, but this time the movement was followed by a figure staggering from the trunk of the tree. Jace?
My heart began thumping hard as I struggled to make the figure out in the darkness. How I wish something was lighting the yard area! Just then the moon hit the figure’s head, and for a split second I got a clear view: A gray-face was lurching toward the house, full of hunger and purpose.
Confusion overtook me for a moment. Why would it come here? There were absolutely no lights on, and the television was off. What was attracting its interest? Could these things actually smell the living? The thought was almost too much to bear. It stole any hope of hiding safely from these lifeless creatures. What was the zombie doing here of all places?
I let go of the blind and crouched lower against the wall by the window, peeling my ears, trying to hear anything I could. It was only a minute or so before I could hear the gravelly grunts which came from his body because of the effort he had to put into walking. Shortly after the pounding and yelling began.
I was terrified. I crawled across the floor to the kitchen, where my bat stood by the back door. I wrapped my hand around the bat’s grip and turned it right-side up, drawing it close to me. The barricade at the front door shook slightly with each slam of the monster’s fists, and with each failed attempt to break the door in he got angrier and angrier, his screams becoming more and more enraged and loud. I began to shake and cry, my sobs stifled by my own left hand. I could taste bile rising in my throat, and I thought I would surely be sick right there on the spot.
Suddenly the lower left part of the living room window was struck… hard. Again, this time cracking the glass. This zombie was weak. He was very likely near the end of his rope or the window would have been gone in one fell swoop. Now I bit my lips to hold the vomit in, which permitted me to take my bat in both hands. His groans and screams became increasingly louder as he recognized that the strikes he administered to the window were actually beginning to get the job done. If there were any other gray-faces nearby they would surely hear him and join the party. Jace, where the hell are you?
Right then I saw the headlights of Belinda Smythe’s car turn into the drive, bouncing
off the wall. Right then the zombie’s fist came through the crack, shattering the lower part of that particular window section. The hand groped in the darkness as the zombie sputtered loudly, frustrated that his meal was not within his reach.
I heard the car door shut and suddenly the hand disappeared from the broken window. I jumped up and, bat in hand, made my way over. Jace was approaching the zombie with his bat ready to go. The sluggish monster lurched toward him, arms swinging with each step, loud, hungry grunts spewing from his decaying head. Just like a major league player Jace took a powerful swing at the zombie’s head, connecting with full force. Rather than hearing a thud, a thick ‘squish’ resonated from the zombie’s body. He fell to his knees, but still clawed at the air in Jace’s direction. With his eyes glued to the monster Jace walked to his right side, took aim, and splattered him once and for all. He was batting a thousand, and he must’ve enjoyed it, because he was smiling with satisfaction.
Jace put the bat on the ground and looked around. He then grabbed the gray-face by the feet and dragged him across the road. While I couldn’t clearly see, it appeared that Jace put his body in the culvert alongside the road. He came back and fetched the thing’s mangled skull, tossing it in with the body like he was making a free throw. He then pulled the car into the garage, and I went to the kitchen to move the china hutch and let him into the house.
As soon as the door was blocked again Jace put the things in his arms down on the table and turned to me. Seeing his eyes was all it took; I collapsed into his arms, gasping sobs emitted from me, and the tears I thought were long drained dry poured from my eyes. My entire body convulsed with emotion, and he held me tightly.
“It’s okay, Leesh, he’s gone, he’s dead,” Jace said with confidence. He thought I was crying about the zombie, and while the stress of that situation may have spurned more tears, the only thing on my mind was my family, or what use to be of them.
