by A. Giacomi
“Sort of, Cam. Now don’t look at me like that, I’m not their sex slave or anything. Sure they’ve gotten out of hand and tried to kiss me a few times, but when I tell them to stop, they stop.”
Anger fills my veins. “What if they don’t stop one day? There’s two of them and one of you. What then?”
She fidgets with her apron nervously. “I try not to think about that,” she says looking into my eyes with all the strength she can muster. She was clearly a survivor, but one that wasn’t free.
“I guess that kiss was a one-time deal huh? Now you’re asking me to stay away from you aren’t you?”
She nods.
“Just tell me why, Rachel, what will happen if we’re together? Help me understand.”
She bites her lip and looks away.
“Tell me!” I say grabbing her shoulders.
“Nothing good! Ok!” she spits back at me, breaking free from me and leaving the room.
I guess that was as good an answer as I was going to get. Something told me that I wasn’t the first person she’d kissed and lost, and where were those others now? Something was wrong with Jim and James, other than being misogynistic pigs. I didn’t know what Rachel feared about them, but I was going to find out.
***
In the days that passed, Rachel grew more and more distant. I resented the way she was able to detach herself from me with such ease. For some reason, I couldn’t do the same. I found myself watching her whenever she was near, and even more closely whenever she was near Jim or James. If they harmed her in any way I couldn’t be sure that I would leave them alive.
It was difficult going on supply runs with Jim or James. Pretending to be “friends” proved to be difficult. Instead, they began eyeing me with suspicion, I could feel it. They both agreed that our next run would require the three of us. This made me uneasy; I would have to be careful around them.
Our next run was to a town the twins claimed hadn’t been visited since the outbreak first began. It was too dangerous due to the amount of zombies in the area, but they were willing to try again since supplies were running low everywhere else. Eventually it always became necessary to venture further out as resources depleted.
“Cam, be on your guard today, kid. When we say a shit-ton of zombies, we mean it! This place nearly got us killed last time we visited! So stay close and we’ll be in and out ok?” Jim says reassuringly.
“Sure thing,” I say as I ready my weapons.
When we arrive, the town is in worse shape than any of the others we’d visited. Buildings are stained with dry blood, garbage crowds the streets, windows are broken, and the smell, the smell was enough to make you vomit. We tie bandanas around out nose and mouths to try and filter out the rotting air. It was clear many had died here, and perhaps some of them were still lurking.
Every building we ventured into had me leading the way. Jim and James insisted that I had the better reflexes, but really I just felt they were keeping an eye on me. They didn’t want me standing behind them while I had a gun at my disposal. We didn’t find anything in the first few homes. Fridges full of rotting food, cupboards empty, and even some rotting corpses. The stench was so bad it made it difficult to continue through some of the homes.
The next house seemed promising. It seemed better preserved than many others on the street. Doors and windows still intact meant the possibility of belongings still remaining in the house, but it also meant that people might be guarding it. I tell Jim and James that we need to split up. Take different entrances into the house just to be safe. We didn’t want to walk into a trap altogether and the front door always seemed liked the obvious choice. Jim takes the back door, James takes the side door, and I decide to climb up to one of the windows.
Once on the roof I try to lift the first window, but it’s clearly locked. I try the next one over, and although it’s unlocked, it seems jammed. This was an older house, and evidently someone hadn’t been willing to spring for some new windows. I try to get a few fingers under the frame and pull up, it wriggles up only slightly, leaving enough room for a hand and nothing else. While I struggle to pull it up further I notice a dark figure cross the window rapidly. It causes me to fly backward and nearly fly off the roof. “What the hell was that?” I mumble under my breath. Trying to compose myself I slowly approach the window again. As I peer through I don’t see anything in the room, or should I say nursery. A crib appears in the corner of the lilac room. Some toys are scattered about, but most of the room seems untouched, still serenely beautiful and reminiscent of a time when humans could live their lives and make plans for a future. If you thought about this too much it became overwhelming, our futures had been taken from us, or at least put on hold because of these “things”.
I decide I had just been seeing things and try to wrestle with the window some more. The next windows seemed too difficult to get to without falling to my death, so one way or another it had to be this one! When I can’t lift it any further I decide to use the butt end of my gun to smash it. Sure this would make a bit of noise and draw attention, but a gunshot would be worse. Shielding my eyes with my free hand, I smash the gun into the window pane once and all the glass shatters immediately. I guess that was one good thing about old windows.
After brushing most of the small shards of glass away, I crawl into the room slowly, keeping my eyes on every corner. Nothing moves, I check the closet to be sure, but nothing lurks there either. Exiting the room I hear a scraping noise. It’s coming from down the hall. When I don’t see or hear Jim and James, I decide to explore the room at the far end of the hall. Pressing my ear to it the scraping grows louder, something was definitely in there. Crouching to the ground I peek through the small crack beneath the door, I see nothing at first, but then red eyes greet me and the scraping sound grows louder. This was definitely a zombie, I jump to my feet, unsure if it could free itself from the room. After a few moments, I realize this zombie can’t work a doorknob to save its life. I decide to leave it in there and explore the house further. Where the heck are Jim and James?
Slowly heading down the stairs, I try not to make a single step creak. I didn’t want to alert any other zombies that may be in the house. Heading through the living room, I notice a bowl of candies laying around and quickly shove them into my pack, the kids back in town would appreciate that. I continue walking until I reach the kitchen. The fridge was always my first stop. As I open the fridge doors a strange feeling comes over me, I feel as though someone is watching me. When I quickly spin around, I find Jim and James pointing their guns at me.
“Oh shit!” I say placing my gun free hand over my heart. “I thought you were one of those things. There’s one upstairs locked in a bedroom. There could be more.” My relief in seeing them is soon abandoned when I realize their guns are still locked on me.
“Guys? What gives?” I say putting my hands in the air.
“Sit down,” Jim says while pointing to the kitchen table with his gun.
James takes my gun once I’m seated at the table, both men continue to hold their guns at the ready as they begin to ask me questions.
Jim starts, “We’ve noticed you’ve been acting a little weird lately, Cam, did you get any of your memories back? Because if you did, we need to know about it.”
So that’s what this was all about, but why were they so afraid of my memories returning? Was there something I was meant to forget or information they needed from me?
I reassure them that nothing has come back, but Jim doesn’t believe me.
“Cam look, I’m going to give you three minutes to tell me what’s been going on with you, and if you don’t I’m going to blow your head off…understand?”
Feeling my eyes grow wide as I glance back and forth from Jim to James, I try to think of something to say. It’s clear they wanted some information from me, but I didn’t have any, and telling them that I’d kissed Rach
el seemed like a guaranteed way to get me killed.
“Honestly guys, I don’t remember a thing. I mean I’ve been having nightmares about zombies, but that’s got to be normal after what we’ve seen?”
I see something bolt behind Jim, it seemed like the shadow I had noticed before. I don’t mention it to either of them, they might view it as me stalling.
Jim comes closer to me, placing the gun against my temple. I can see James in uncomfortable with this, but he doesn’t stop him either.
“And what exactly is going on with Rachel? She’s been acting different too…”
Jim lets that linger in the air a bit, waiting for my confession. He knew, but how? Had she told him? Or was he guessing?
“Did you touch her, Cam? Did you?” Jim spits at me angrily, almost psychotically. “No one touches our Rachel, I didn’t think that I needed to make that clear. I thought it was very obvious that she belongs to James and me.”
Closing my eyes as the gun presses harder to my temple I beg Jim to let me go. “I swear, I didn’t touch her, Jim,” I lie.
Jim backs away from me, I open my eyes to try and figure out why the sudden change of heart. When I look in Jim’s eyes I see fear as his gun moves from each corner of the room, his hands shake. “What the hell is that James?” he asks his equally afraid brother.
It must be that shadow I noticed, I guess we weren’t alone here, and I wasn’t seeing things. Whatever it was, wasn’t human, but it wasn’t quite zombie. It was fast and stealthy and it was clearly thinking about its next move carefully.
Red eyes glow in the darkness behind Jim. Part of me wants to warn him, but if I saved him, I’m not sure he’d return the favor. Jim catches my eyes staring at something behind him, he turns around and aims his gun, but it’s too late. The creature has his teeth in him and is tearing him apart right in front of us. I had never seen such gore in my entire life. I stand and retreat next to James, who looks on horrified as his brother is mutilated. James aims at the beast and shoots it in the shoulder, causing it to look up from his meal and narrow his eyes at James. With that, James takes to running and the beast takes off after him. I grab my gun back, maybe I could save James. He didn’t seem as bad a guy as Jim, and this whole kill Cam thing didn’t seem like his idea.
When I find James the monster has him pinned, he’s salivating over James as the saliva drips onto his face. I believe James is crying. Trying to think fast, I grab a large sculpture off a shelf and race toward the beast slamming the sculpture into the back of its head. It doesn’t smash its’ skull, but it does stop it. The monster lies motionless atop of James who quickly slides out from under him.
“Holy shit! You saved my life! Why did you do that?” he huffs.
“You and your brother might have tried to kill me, but I don’t think anyone deserves to die like that!”
James nods gratefully; I could tell he was ashamed of his whole participation in this.
He heads toward the kitchen next to observe what was left of his brother, which was not much. The bottom half of his torso was untouched, but his chest had been split open as if he had eaten a grenade and half his face was gone. James sobs next to him, but not for long, the body begins to twitch and reanimate, trying to snap at James with a vicious hunger. James bolts to his feet.
“I guess that thing was a zombie?” James utters.
“I guess so,” I say as I ready my gun. “You know what I have to do right?”
James nods and looks away. “Go ahead,” he says through tears.
The shot rings out and Jim is still once more.
“We’ll have to go quickly, James. The shot could attract more of them. What do you want to do with Jim’s body, and what do you want to do with that thing in the living room?” I asking pointing to the unconscious zombie.
James tries to compose himself for a moment and faces me. “We’ll take back what’s left of my brother and bury him properly. As for that thing, we’re taking it back to town, we’ll lock it up, study it, I’ve never seen anything like that before. I need to understand what it is, so I can hunt it, and kill anything and everything like it.”
James’ eyes narrow into an evil glare. This was clearly the end of the James I knew, he was ready for a war, but a war against these things seemed futile. Somehow I knew deep down that there was a part of him that was just like Jim, lurking, waiting to come out and play, and it was here now, now that he was all alone, now that he was the town’s sole leader. I feared him a little bit because dumb men were dangerous, but dumb men with a side of vengeance? Now that was something catastrophic.
CHAPTER SEVEN
VINCENT
That was the last and final time I listened to Eve, and possibly the last time I ever try and save that asshat, Cameron. Mind you, he didn’t know who I was, but you think the bastard would be grateful that I tried to save him from a couple of psychopaths. No, of course not, instead I get a good clunk to the head and wind up in some sort of chicken coop as a prisoner. The soft metal of my cage was latched shut, and I could probably break out easily, but I needed to scope the place out a bit longer and speak to Cam. We had been watching him for a few days now; Eve had mentioned that he seemed “odd” during her observations. Well hanging out with some of these townspeople might do it, they all seemed a little “odd,” like they were hiding something, some big secret.
About an hour goes by before anyone comes to check on me, and luckily my visitor is Cam. Just the man I wanted to see. He approaches my cage slowly. I let him speak first.
“Why did you attack those men back there?” he says with a scowl.
“I suppose you are too dim to realize when people are about to kill you? Those two men were going to take your life. I wanted to help you, Cameron Jackson.”
“Well they were the leaders of this town, and I’m not sure the town is going to let you off the hook for saving my sorry ass, I mean you killed one of them…wait…how do you know my name? Is that my full name?”
Confusion sets in; I suppose Eve read him right, something “odd” had happened to Cameron.
“Do you not remember yourself, Cameron?” I ask aghast.
“Well no,” he sighs while scratching his head, “but you sure seem to know me, so talk!” he asks in a desperate fashion.
“I think I’ll leave this to her,” I say pointing to a figure lurking behind Cameron.
Cameron turns around so quickly I fear he might snap his neck. His back rests against my cage and if I had been any other zombie, he might not have lived to see who lurked in the shadows, but luckily I still had some of my wits about me…some.
“Hi Cam,” she says softly.
I can tell he doesn’t recognize her. He doesn’t show affection or anger, instead, there is a genuine fear. He just saw her as one of those dead things that destroy everything in their path.
“Who are you two? What do you want with me?” he pleads.
Eve stares at me and shrugs. “What’s going on, Vincent, what’s wrong with him?”
“Well it has nothing to do with me, I assure you, Eve. I didn’t touch him. I do find him rather ungrateful though and wouldn’t mind bashing his head in.”
Cam ignores my insult, he straightens up and looks more carefully at Eve.
“You said her name is Eve? That’s Eve?” he says pointing at her with a look of insanity on his face.
“Yes, that’s my name, Cam. You’ve known it for a very long time. Why are you acting so weird? Please tell me what’s going on. Vincent and I are here to help you.”
Cameron shakes his head. “How can I believe you? You’re one of those things. Look at you both. With your fiery eyes and your blue tinted skin. You’ll eat everyone in this town. You’re just trying to fool me into helping you. Well, I won’t! So kill me now if you’re going to!”
Cam crosses his arms and stands there. I can’t help laugh
ing at his stupidity, but my laughter gets me quite the evil glare from Eve so I decide to muffle it.
“Boy, did you bump your head or something?” I say in a final chuckle.
He spins around all defensive. “Yes actually, hit by a car and bumped it really good. Now I can’t remember myself, but apparently, I know her because I say her name in my sleep!” he says as he points at Eve. “So who the hell is she, and why…why is she dead?”
Although he was a man, I couldn’t help thinking, “poor boy,” he would always be one to suffer. He was marked that way. You could see the pain in his eyes, even though he couldn’t remember why he felt it, it was always there.
I decide to change my tone, what he needed was comfort. “Cameron, listen to me. We’re both dead, but we’re fighting it. We’ve come all this way for you, to save you! There is something more evil than you can imagine coming for you, and if we don’t leave soon, none of it will matter. You will be dead, we will be dead, and so will everyone else.”
His eyes look on in disbelief. “If I’m so important, why did anyone ever let me out of their sight?”
“It’s much more complicated than that,” Eve assures him as she gently strokes his arm.
He pulls it away so quickly with a look of disgust. “Don’t touch me, monster!”
“His memories are gone, Eve, he doesn’t know what he’s saying. Cameron is gone,” I say as gently as I can.
“That won’t stop them from coming for him, Vincent! He’ll still die if he doesn’t come with us!” Eve shouts angrily.
Cameron looks at both of us, he didn’t believe us, he wasn’t ready to, but he was at least smart enough to know that we had answers he didn’t. Cam unlocks my cage door and lets me out. “You two better get going, I know what they do to your kind here, and clearly you’re different. When you leave, I want you to forget me. This is my home now.”
He stands firm, there would be no other way to take him but against his will and I knew Eve wouldn’t be willing to do that. So we leave him.
