by Davis, J. Q.
Besides missing home, my life at the facility wasn’t all that bad. I started taking classes to finish up the rest of my senior year. Classes were every day and taught by two different professors, both of whom had general knowledge in pretty much everything. According to V (I decided V suited him better than Vito) there were more professors at one point. But since the “incident” that resulted in moving most of the Zombrid population to East Cocos, there was no use for that many at the moment.
Mr. Hernandez and Ms. Price lived on the second floor of El Matador. Other than seeing them in class and sometimes in the courtyard, they pretty much steered clear of the rest of the compound. Destiny mentioned that they traveled quite a bit to Costa Rica to volunteer and do other types of work. I was leaning more toward them just not wanting to be around a bunch of starving, skin-eating Zombrids. I wasn’t even completely sure if they knew what we were.
There was apparently going to be a graduation ceremony for those who finished school, which was only Destiny and I. She missed a ton of school on account of her drug addiction and homelessness. Maddi was still in grade school. Charlie had already graduated and earned some sort of hairstyling certificate in her past life. She was more or less the resident hairstylist…and a kind of stepmother to Maddi. I wasn’t completely sure why (we were still not on a friendly level due to her aversion to me), but she was all about Maddi. Which, I guess, was a nice thing. Having a mother-figure wasn’t at all a terrible thing when you are going through such changes in your life.
Ian finished his college classes about a year ago, but he still took some classes here and there. I guess for something to do. As a matter of fact, he and Destiny both decided to take advantage of my gift from Dr. Roberson. Every Tuesday and Thursday a professional makeup artist would come to teach us all about the world of movie makeup.
It was beyond what I ever imagined I would be doing. Learning how to apply prosthetics and blending and making plaster molds was amazing. Not to mention, the three of us had a blast doing it together.
I wanted so badly to tell Tristen all about the class. Evidently, it would seem that he didn’t care anymore. Just all of the sudden. Out of the blue.
It bugged the crap out of me till no end! Not knowing what the hell I did wrong or what his problem was with me ate me up inside more than my growing hunger.
Over the months I decided that he left not only because his parents wanted him to, but because he wanted to. I read his letter a million and one times, trying to somehow understand why he chose that method of communication to break up with me. And then lie about contacting me once he got back.
Thankfully, between classes and hanging out at the beach and learning about my hut-mates and eating, there was a slight lessening of the whys? in my head. But just a smidge.
Destiny and Ian did help to relieve some of the stress regarding Tristen. They were both funny and fun to be around; Destiny with her witty yet slightly-creepy-cause-of-all-the-goth banter and Ian with his goofiness. They were both naturally amusing, but both not afraid to tell it like it is. I liked that about them very much, but actually felt closer to Ian than I did Destiny. He was silly and laid back and just went with the flow of things. He seemed as though he didn’t have a care or worry in the world. Maybe it wasn’t that I felt close to him. Maybe it was that I wanted to be like him.
There was certainly NO love blossoming there, though. While Ian was smooth and sexy and had a smile that could melt your heart (you know, the one where the top lip kind of curls and you either want to pinch it, kiss it, or bite it), I wasn’t looking for any kind of romance. Tristen was still heavily on my mind and to be honest…I missed him.
But with Ian’s alluring accent and hot, everything, he was certainly on my list of guys I would so date.
There was a rumor, well…I didn’t know if you would call it a rumor per se. Destiny seemed to be the gossip queen in the group and since the group was really small, I kind of believed it. Anyway, the rumor was that Charlie and Ian hooked up at some point. The way they carried on as friends didn’t necessarily prove that to be true, however according to the Goth Princess, they were only friends with benefits, if you know what I mean.
True or not, that alone encouraged me to stay away from flirting or doing anything even close to that with Ian. If we were speaking technically, I did steal Tristen away from Sonny. Add in the hatred that Charlie already felt for me (for reasons that were not my fault), flirting with her ex-beau would only be a motive for a physical altercation. I had enough drama between Sonny and me. Not that Charlie was anything like Sonny, personality wise. She was smart and tough and drop dead gorgeous. And I was not trying to say Sonny was none of the above.
Sonny was more or less the typical blond bombshell and socialite of our town. I could see Charlie as more of the sexy badass leader of an all-women’s motorcycle gang, which is the main reason why I wouldn’t want to piss her off. Although, biting probably wouldn’t be involved if we did get into a fight. But I don’t know, would we try to eat our own kind?
Speaking of eating, that was no longer a problem. Well, the act of eating was never a problem, just the stupid passing out and all those fantastic effects from not eating. I kept true to my food intake schedule by dining on five meals and at least two snacks a day. It turned out Estelle was on this schedule too, and we had our very own special menu. I thanked God for this, because I certainly worried about the others feeling like I got special treatment. Plus, it helped Estelle and I develop a nice friendship. We usually met up in Newport to have our meals together.
She was such a fascinating woman! After that moment of silence happened while we demolished the delicious grub on our plates, we tended to sit and talk for hours every single day. Actually she would talk, I would listen. A person has not truly lived unless they’ve been alive for one hundred and fourteen years.
I listened attentively while she narrated the story of her life. She was born near the beginning of the 1900s, and had seen everything from the Great Depression to the Age of Radios to war. She was there when Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream and she was there to watch the first non-silent movie. She was involved in the Harlem Renaissance, performing in all-black plays as a singer and a dancer. She flew planes and drove boats, even rode elephants while on safari in Africa. And traveling was an understatement. She has literally been to the ends of the earth and back, traveling to almost every part of every continent. Not to mention, she still had time in between to meet a dashing Navy man during Fleet Week, marry him, and have six children, all of which are grandparents themselves.
This was why I completely understood her desire to…die. It justified the reasoning behind why I didn’t agree with immortality. There will come a time when an immortal has done everything there is to do.
Estelle’s exact words were, “I’m ready to take a long, long, nap.”
I tried to not think about being immortal. Besides that and Tristen, there wasn’t much to complain about at this moment in my life. I was feeling good and healthy. I was making friends with some very interesting people. And Everlasting Paradise was indeed a…paradise.
There was a knock at my door. I got up from my computer, grabbing my bottle of red liquid goodness. I did miss Mom’s famous pomegranate juice (which turned out to contain human blood too), but this was better. Drinking pure blood straight out of a bottle took some getting used to, except it didn’t really take that long. It was sort of like an energy drink for us Zombrids. Ian coined it “Z juice”.
“You ready?”
“Yup.”
Ian and I walked out into the courtyard to wait for everyone else at one of the picnic tables. It was Maddi’s birthday and we decided to celebrate with presents and cake. There wasn’t a mall or a store available where we could just go and buy whatever we wanted, but there was Amazon and they delivered to the facility, believe it or not. I think Dr. Roberson made some kind of deal with the company.
I learned that Dr. Roberson had more money than he
could ever count. Apparently he was a doctor, bestselling author, philanthropist, and founder of a few charities. He was also already wealthy from the beginning, having come from a very successful family.
He definitely was not afraid to spend his money either. He made sure that every one of us had everything we would need on an island in the middle of nowhere. We had cell phone service, an internet and cable provider, the best technology gadgets, and all of the essentials to make it feel like we weren’t miles and miles away on a remote island.
We each had our own money too. I had money that was put into my bank account by my mother every few weeks, but for the people who didn’t have parents or family that could do that, Dr. Roberson would give them a sort of allowance. Did they have to work for it? Nope. Being here was more than enough reason to earn an allowance, according to Dr. Roberson.
Since we did have money, Estelle, Destiny, Ian, Charlie and I decided to surprise Maddi with a glass display cabinet for her seashell collection. Not something someone would normally buy a girl turning twelve years old, but we knew she would cherish it just as much as her shells.
We also threw in some other gifts like clothes and toys to mix it up a bit.
“Hey, when is your birthday?” Ian asked while we waited for the rest of the gang to join us.
“It’s June 10th. You?”
“April 14th.”
“How old are you?” I asked curiously. He had to be in his early twenties.
“How old do I look?”
I sighed. “Really? Estelle is over one hundred years old and I would have never guessed that if I didn’t know. I have no idea! You could be two hundred. I’m not even sure how this whole birthday thing works anymore.”
Ian tried to contain his laugh, but failed. “What do you mean? They work like any other birthday.”
“Well, yeah. But do we age or are we like…vampires? Will I always be seventeen?” It may have sounded like it wasn’t a serious question, but it was. First of all, I really had no clue what the serum could have done to my aging process. Although she turned at an already old age, Estelle did look a whole lot younger than she was. Did it stop us from growing older? Did it reverse the aging process?
And second, I honestly didn’t know if we could be compared to vampires or not. My mentioning of vampires was actually an attempt to get some kind of conformation of whether or not vampires were even real. Apparently we lived in a world where zombies were real, so…
Ian turned his body toward me before he began his explanation. “Okay, so vampires aren’t real. Let’s just get that out of the way first. And no, you will not be seventeen forever. You will still have birthdays. We grow older to a certain age, which is when we hit adulthood. After that, as long as we get the food we need, we’ll look that way forever.”
“So, Maddi won’t look like she’s twelve forever,” I stated.
“No. She will get to her adult age, and then stay there. Estelle was already much older when she got the Z. But because she eats what she’s supposed to, her body is in great shape and looks it too.”
I suppose that made sense. Essentially, we were half dead. If we didn’t get what our bodies needed, we would just…die. Well, without actually dying. Deteriorate. Decompose.
“Do you understand now?”
“I think so. This is all still just so surreal. It’s hard to keep up with everything sometimes,” I admitted.
“I know. It’s gets easier.”
At that moment, the rest of the Zombrid crew came out to meet us at the picnic table. Maddi was all smiles as she came to sit next to her pile of presents. But her eyes were set on the big one, the display cabinet. It was wrapped, so I was positive she was dying to tear it open to find out what it was.
“Are we ready to sing Happy Birthday so Maddi can finally open her gifts? I think she might explode!” Ian said.
“Yeah, come on. Everyone’s here. I’m dying for her to open our present. Well, I’m already dead, but you know what I mean.” Destiny laughed at her own joke.
I glanced over at Laguna for a moment and saw V standing on the porch. His hands were crossed over his groin and it looked like he was staring straight ahead, but I wasn’t completely sure because he was wearing sunglasses. A part of me wondered if he was watching us and it made my heart hurt a little. He should be over here. He may have been my bodyguard, but he had also become my friend.
I motioned for him to come over, but he didn’t budge.
Ugh. I would just have to go get him.
I ran over to him. “Hey. Come over and join the party.”
“No, thank you. I’ll just stand here and watch.”
“But why? It’s not like they aren’t your friends too. I mean, you may not talk to them all the time, but you live here with them. Come on! I’m sure Maddi wouldn’t mind one more person at her party,” I pleaded.
I grabbed his hand and pulled, surprising myself when I managed to get a few steps forward out of him. It was probably the Z juice. Zombrids got pretty strong when they have had what their bodies need. I learned that the other day when we were playing volleyball on the beach after lunch one day, and I served the ball clear over everyone’s head. It landed about seventy-five yards behind them in the sand. Ian was so impressed, that he had to measure how far it went. According to him, that was further than most quarterbacks threw a football.
V resisted at first, but quickly gave in and allowed me to link my arm with his. He walked with me like a gentleman. An image of V walking me down the aisle to give me away to my husband-to-be flashed in my mind.
I looked up at him right as he looked down at me, and there was a smile. A small, tiny, minute smile…but it was still a smile.
He was the closest thing to a father I’ve had in a long, long time.
“I make you do these things because I care, V.”
“I know.”
We got back to the table and sang Happy Birthday to Maddi. After all the clapping, Estelle cut the birthday cake and handed out slices while Charlie prepared the presents for Maddi to unwrap.
A piece of cake was handed to me, and I turned to hand it to V.
“Um…no, thank you. I’m fine.”
It took me a moment to understand why V was refusing a slice of the decadent dessert. Then I finally realized that it wasn’t made with the normal ingredients regular people used.
“Oh God! I’m sorry. I totally forget sometimes that you aren’t a Zombrid.”
“It’s okay.
I licked icing off my finger. “What do you think about us anyway? I’ve never asked you that before.” I spoke low and in his direction. I didn’t want the group to listen in and put V in the spotlight.
“Uh, nothing really. You all are just people that needed medical help,” he said blatantly.
“Yeah but, aren’t you a little freaked that we are Zombrids?”
He squinted his eyes as if to ponder on that question before answering, or maybe he was giving me crazy eyes. “No. You’re still human. You’re still you, just with a medical condition. And I’m paid to watch over you, no matter what you are.”
That probably would have hurt my feelings if it weren’t for that fact that over the past few months, V and I had grown quite fond of each other. He did his job, which was watching my every move to make sure I was safe and fed, and I made sure to make him feel included when the group did things like this. I learned that because my Zombrid blood was the oldest on the island, it was practically sacred. Dr. Roberson used my blood as a sort of footprint for his research. Apparently blood was taken from me after I turned as a kid and kept in some freezer over the years, but they were running low, so my decision to come here was just in time. This was why V protected me.
But our friendship had grown. Even if I was alone, I would invite him for a walk on the beach or to sit and help me with homework.
Although V had a tough exterior, he was a gentle man on the inside. He was an intelligent person who missed his family dearly. And I didn’t ca
re how much he pretended to only be interested in doing his job. Everyone needed someone.
I often tried to convince him to speak to Robin, the receptionist on the first floor of the Z lab. V was intimidating and closed off, but he was still an attractive man. And from seeing Robin’s reaction every time she laid eyes on him, I just knew that there was an attraction there. He never mentioned anything about being with other women after his wife passed, but it’s been five years. I knew he needed a companion. No one could go that long without one.
Besides the constant refusal to ask Robin out on a date, he didn’t like to talk much about himself. So really, I did all the talking when we were together. I even put him through hours of venting about Tristen, which worked out in the end when he unexpectedly gave me advice: Grace, you have too much to look forward to be hung up on one guy. If it was meant to be, it will be. But you should really focus on what you have now.
It was the easier-said-than-done type of advice, but I appreciated that he was even listening enough to offer some guidance.
“I think you like me more than you want to admit.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you’re more of a pain in the ass than anything,” he said, showing that tiny little smile again. One day, I will get him to show his teeth.
“Oh my gosh! I love it!” Maddi had apparently opened her gift from the group. She stood next to it, smiling as wide as her face would let her.
“You can display your seashells now. And it even has a light bulb inside so they will light up.” Charlie was just as excited as she was.
“Or we can display Destiny’s big ass in there,” Ian added.
Destiny slapped Ian on the back. “How about I chop off your balls and—”
“Okay! Why don’t we watch Maddi open the rest of her presents?” I raised my voice over Destiny’s.
After Maddi tore open her other gifts, V and Ian helped carry the display case back to Maddi’s room. Charlie followed and stayed with Maddi to help her get her seashells in place. Estelle went back to her room to relax. I briefly wondered if maybe that meant she was going to pray for a miracle death to happen.
