by A. Giacomi
Our stay at the cottage had changed our relationship. We were no longer at each other’s throats, mainly because Janna was altogether more pleasant than she used to be. It was odd at first, hearing her speak respectfully, but she had been through so much in a short time that she had been forced out of her teen years and into adulthood. There would be no cattiness now, our focus was on survival. Most of that survival was centered around food, and thankfully there was still plenty of it in the cottage.
This morning Janna stumbled upon some rather sugary cereal that had been hidden away in the pantry and although the milk had run out, we were still eager to crack the box open and savour it. The treat had been part of our Saturday morning routine along with a full line-up of cartoons when we were kids. Janna held the box of cereal above her head as if it were Simba, the precious cub from The Lion King. I chuckle and then quickly snag the box away from her and tear it open. She chases me around the house trying to get the first bite, but I’m too quick for her and come up with a fistful of colourful puffs that I greedily stuff in my mouth.
“Oh my god these are delicious! Jan, you really gotta try some,” I say with a full mouth while rolling my eyes in ecstasy.
“That’s what I’m trying to do, you big hog. Now hand them over!” Janna giggles.
I let her steal the cereal box away from me and I watch her expression mirror mine. The sugar rush brought back memories of a simpler time and for a little while, we enjoyed every crunch and forgot about the world around us.
I thought back to when Janna was about five years old, I was her world then. She thought I was a superhero or superstar, she idolized me, and all I did was push her away. It wasn’t cool to love your little sister, or play dollhouse with her when your friends were over. The moment I revisited in my mind felt so real that I began to cry. It’s amazing how one can time travel within their own mind and get so lost.
“What’s wrong?” Janna asks as she puts down the cereal box.
I wipe my tears away. “It’s really nothing, Janna. I just got to thinking about when we were kids and how I wish I would have treated you differently. I know we were just being kids, but I just wanted to let you know that I never meant to leave you out, it was a mistake. I should have made your games priority. Who even knows what it was that I found more important…”
I laugh awkwardly through my tears since I was only rambling now. All I really meant to say was I love her.
“Al, don’t kick yourself. You’re a good big sis. You put up with all my crap and maybe it was a good thing you wouldn’t let me be all obsessed with you.”
She smiles at me and gives me a big hug which startles me slightly. We weren’t big huggers in our family, but it was definitely time to change all that. I absorb Janna’s warmth and embrace her tightly.
“I love you, little sis.”
“I love you too,” Janna replies. “Now can we stop being all sappy? I’m going to lose my mind.” She giggles pulling at her hair mockingly.
“Sure, what do you want to do, Janna?”
She looks at me thoughtfully. “Well, I have some questions if you don’t mind…”
I’m curious, so I say, “Shoot!”
“Did you love Cam? Is that why you don’t care about finding Eve?”
My mouth hangs open. “How could you say that?” I gasp.
“Well is it true? I’m sorry, I just want to know what’s going on in your head, if it’s not true I’ll shut up about it I swear!” Janna pleads.
“It’s absolutely NOT true, Janna!” I scream.
“Which part?” Janna chuckles.
I sigh, she wasn’t going to let up until I gave her something.
“Look, I think about Eve and Cam every single day. I miss them so bad it hurts…but I don’t know where they are or how to even begin looking for them, and besides, I’m not going to put you in danger! Mom and Dad would have wanted me to look after you.”
She nods her head, but I could tell she wanted to say something else. “Did you love him, though? Just tell me.”
I think about it for a moment, what was the point in lying now? “Yes, I wanted it to be more, but he doesn’t feel the same way. Doesn’t mean I hate him or hate Eve. They’re both my best friends. I just wish this could have all been different you know?”
Janna shrugs. “I don’t know anything actually. I don’t really have any best friends, and I’ve never had a boyfriend…so yeah I have no idea how lucky you are.” She winks and then hugs me again.
“Well, maybe you would have had some better luck with friends and boyfriends if you weren’t such a douche canoe all the time,” I say trying to lighten the mood.
Janna bursts out laughing. “An entire canoe of douche? I guess I deserve that.”
We continue to laugh until our sides hurt.
***
The next morning I awaken to silence in the house. Not odd for two people hiding out in the middle of nowhere, but what was odd is that I didn’t see Janna. She was usually hovering about in the morning out of boredom and she was usually the first thing to wake me up before the sun rose.
I get off the living room couch where Janna and I have recently been sleeping. It felt better to sleep somewhere where our parents hadn’t been slaughtered. When I look out the window I notice an unfamiliar luxury car parked outside. “Shit!” I throw the blanket off of me realizing we have company. I begin to scream around the cottage for Janna, but there is no reply.
As I continue my search I hear a door creaking just off from the kitchen. I follow the sound until it leads me to the side door. The door is slightly ajar. I look around the mudroom for a weapon, but all I find is an umbrella, that would have to do. I slowly creep toward the door, the umbrella trembling within my grasp. Peering through the small crack in the door something whooshes past. I don’t scream, but fly backward onto my ass praying that they hadn’t noticed me. I’m about to turn and run, but then I realize that it could have been Janna tiptoeing about out there. I summon my bravery and approach the door once more armed with my polka dot umbrella. This time, I shove the door open rapidly in the hopes that my sister would be waiting for me, but no one awaits me, just the wind.
“Janna,” I call out into the trees, and although it echoes, there is no reply.
Janna where are you, I think to myself. She wouldn’t go off looking for trouble and if she had seen the car out front she would have come to get me. I decide it’s time to circle around the cottage and check out the car. If someone had Janna they might try to take off with her. The ground is squishy and moist from the recent rain, making it near impossible to move silently around the perimeter of the cottage. If someone was out here, they would have noticed me by now. When the car is in sight, I notice that it is empty, whoever drove it here was either in the forest or in the house, but not gone. I hurry toward the car and search for footprints in the mud. You couldn’t conceal your prints in this mucky weather and I quickly find a set of rather large prints in the muck. I was guessing a male and that male’s prints led right toward the house. I track the prints toward the garage, something a cottage shouldn’t even have, but when you’re rich cottage just means other house on nicer property. The prints stop at the garage and that’s when I realize that our visitor was no visitor at all. The garage needed a passcode and the only one who would know it would be the very owner of this cottage. I feel a sense of relief; my dad had always spoken highly of his boss, that he was rich but kind, big ego, but a big heart. This man wasn’t a threat to us.
I head back into the house almost laughing at myself for jumping to such insane conclusions. Who else would even know there is a house up here besides the owners? I push the front door open grinning, but that grin quickly fades when I find a tall man in a tattered business suit hovering over my sister with a knife.
Janna’s cheeks are streaked with tears, she is bound and gagged. Only muffled cries
escape. I put down my poor excuse for a weapon and hold my hands in the air.
“Hey...hey…calm down…we’re not here to cause any trouble.”
The man had wild eyes, he was hearing me, but he had clearly been through so much that his mind was racing.
“We are Arthur and Dina’s kids…we haven’t met, but…our dad worked for you. He took us here thinking we’d be safe. That’s all. We’re not here to steal anything or hurt you. We’re just hiding.”
The man nods, “Arthur’s kids, yes Arthur…where is he?”
“He’s gone,” is all I can say.
“How?” the man asks, looking terrified once more.
“Those monsters got him, and my mother.”
He nods again. “Yes, something similar happened to my wife kids on the way up. You see we were heading up this way so we could be…safe.” He lingers on that word awhile, like it had lost all meaning to him. “We were supposed to come here and hide, but some scared-looking teenagers jumped in front of the car asking for help. We stopped for them and then…”
His hands begin to shake. “And then they attacked us. They started eating us…”
The man’s eyes grew wide as he recalls the memories in his head. “They looked so normal. We didn’t think they were zombies. They spoke, they moved normally, no one told us that they would seem so…human.”
In my head I was thinking, yes, those are movie zombies you’re thinking of, they don’t exist, but why would I bother trying to argue this point at a time like this? Instead, I try to move closer to him and comfort him.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. You can stay with us. I’m Alexandra and this is my little sister Janna. What’s your name?”
I had only ever heard him referred to as “my boss” or “Arthur’s boss” I never really knew his name, I guess I had never cared to know it; it hadn’t dawned on me that we’d ever actually meet.
“I’m Rey,” he says without looking up at me.
Feeling like we had made some progress I offer him my hand to shake. He glares at my outstretched hand and in a moment of sheer insanity swipes at it with his blade. I launch myself backward, escaping serious injury, only a slight slash appears on my arm.
“What are you doing?” I yell.
He hovers over Janna once more. “I can’t trust either of you, you look like those things. I can’t trust anyone. It’s safer if I kill you both... I kill you or you’ll kill me.”
The next thing that happens baffles me. There is something lurking behind Rey. It seems there was something by the side door earlier, it just hadn’t been Rey. I try not to bring any attention to the creature mere moments away from its next meal. Janna remains still as well, this was our ticket to freedom, but I had to keep Rey talking and distracted.
“Rey you don’t need to do this, we can work together here. We’re not those monsters that took your family. We’re just as scared as you are.” I hold my hands up pleading with him, trying not to look over at the creature that silently stretches his bony decaying hands toward him. My mouth parts as if to mimic that of the approaching zombie. Strands of saliva form as he readies his teeth to plunge into Rey.
Rey notices my odd expression and distracted gaze. He turns to see what I’m looking at and screams. It’s too late to run. The zombie tears into Rey’s arm, splattering blood into the air. Some of it lands on Janna. I sprint toward her and drag her bound body toward the kitchen. The zombie is much too distracted to notice our departure. I grab a knife out of one of the drawers and free Janna. She rubs her wrists and ankles, thanking me with a nod.
Rey’s screams fill the house.
Janna almost ventures back into the living room. “Janna, don’t look.” I grab her and pull her into my arms, hugging her tighter as the screaming becomes piercing.
I would tend to the zombie after he was finished with his meal. After all, animals didn’t like to be interrupted whilst eating, that would be like begging to be bitten.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EVE
For the past few months, I had been poked, prodded, put to sleep, rudely awakened and tortured by my new Doctor. He loved my tears, he loved my discomfort. He couldn’t cause a dead girl much physical pain, but he reminded me at every opportunity that everyone I loved was dead, and that it was all my fault.
He was simply voicing everything that was going on in my head anyway. Some days I wondered if my own guilt had forced me to imagine him saying these things.
The one thing they had not done yet was feed me. I felt myself dying, it wasn’t painful, it simply felt like drifting away. From what I saw in movies, zombies didn’t really die, but this wasn’t a movie and zombies weren’t even supposed to be real. None of this was supposed to be real.
I think back to my first day at Guelph University, how beautiful the campus was, how amazingly friendly the people were, and how bright the future ahead seemed. That felt light-years behind me now.
My next thought goes back to Egypt and the bite that took my existence away from me. I scream as I recollect the tearing of flesh from my arm. I remembered pain, although I could no longer feel it. There was a numbness coursing through me now, part of it was that I had given up.
The Doctor’s hand finds my cheek and the slap is so loud and hard that it feels as though my head turned completely around. Luckily the metal slab under me prevented my head from swinging much further away from its original position.
“Shut up!” he screams as he glares at me. “Don’t you have any idea how delicate my work is at the moment? Any sudden movement will ruin it!”
I want to ask what exactly that work is, but perhaps it was better not to know. I know it involved a saw, some knives, thread, and scissors. If I didn’t know any better I would think he was either making me a wooden sculpture or a new dress. I really wanted to believe the latter, but my instincts told me that parts of me were being torn away, inspected, and kept in glass jars. From time to time, I would see a new jar on the shelf with a questionable piece of something. Was it a piece of me?
I could constantly feel a draft in my lower abdomen, it felt like an open door. The more I thought about it, the more I had to force the tears away. The Doctor liked them too much, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Instead, I forced myself to think about ripping him to shreds, ingesting his organs, and dancing around in a puddle of his blood. It brought a grin to my face, so much so that he had to ask what I was smiling about.
“What exactly could be so funny at a time like this?” he huffs.
My grin grows larger. “You…dying.” I begin to chuckle. I can’t help it, I’ve clearly become delirious.
“Stop laughing!” he screams, “You don’t understand, you can’t move right now. Hold still dammit.”
But I can’t stop, I laugh harder and harder until I hear a tear.
“Now you’ve done it!” he shouts as he throws some medical equipment to the ground.
I don’t know what tore, but the look on the Doctor’s face was enough to keep me smiling. Good, I think, I’m glad I fucked up his experiment. It made my day. It was the little things now, they were all I could depend on to get me through each day.
Just as the Doctor begins to pace, someone enters the room.
“Agent Williams, I have had enough already! She doesn’t cooperate, I can usually do this procedure in a few days, I’ve nearly been at this two weeks! Do you understand how frustrating that is?”
Agent Williams puts a finger to his lips and tells him, “Shhh.” I hated the man, but it was fun watching him belittle that dick of a Doctor.
“Now, now, Eve will cooperate don’t you worry. I have something to motivate her.”
I couldn’t see his grin, but I could feel it.
I used to hate that grin, then I had grown to understand and love it, and now I simply felt disgusted. I had slept with that monst
er, how could I have had such poor taste? How had I not known what lurked on the inside? I guess in my new state I had become a poor judge of character. That or my vulnerability made me so stupid that I couldn’t see what was clearly there all along.
He walks over to me and pulls a blanket up to my chin lovingly. He looks down at me and his face was still handsome even though his eyes are red like mine. We are the same species, but that is where the similarities end.
Agent Williams continues to look down at me. There was no smirk, only sorrow. I didn’t know what it meant until he began to stroke my hair. The son of a bitch still loved me! He comes closer to my face and kisses my lips gently. I do not reciprocate, I simply glare and spit.
“Eve, honestly, you need to relax. I know it’s hard to believe, but the Doctor here is trying to make your life better. I will agree that his methods are questionable…but he’s the best of the best.”
“I’ve been on this damn table for weeks and weeks! Tell me how that’s better? What do you want from me! Let me go, you’ve already taken enough, haven’t you?” I try to sound strong, but most of my words come out in a whimper.
Agent Williams looks wounded. “Look, Eve, I’m not trying to hurt you. I’ve come here to help. You need to let the Doctor finish his work, and your reward is you can get off this damn table and out of this damn room, and you’ll get some damn food. Now doesn’t that sound lovely?”
He grins with so much sincerity that I almost want to believe him, and food sounded so good right now.
Agent Williams kisses my forehead and leaves the room. The next face I see is the Doctor’s. “Can we please just get this over with, Eve? I am nearly done. Please shut up for the next couple of days and I can fix this.”
I didn’t mean to say it, but the impulse was a hard thing to kill. “Fix what exactly?”
He glares at me and another needle appears. “Lights out?” I ask unimpressed.
