Zombie Country (Zombie Apocalypse #2)

by Hoffman, Samantha

  Our group wastes no time in gathering our things and getting down carefully from the deck. I shoulder my backpack full of food and we all take off at a sprint, hoping to get as far away from the house as we can. This time, Todd and I run in the back of the pack, keeping watch over the others while Aaron leads us out of this neighborhood. In front of us, Levi and Felicia are holding hands and running so hard both of them are gasping for air like fish out of water.

  When we reach the end of the street, there’s a scream of agony, and we all stop to listen. Rachel’s shrieks carry easily throughout the desolate city, and just as soon as the screaming starts, it stops, leaving the city in silence once more. None of us wants to think about what that silence means, so we all start running, and we don’t look back.

  Chapter Ten

  We walk for the rest of the day, stopping only to take quick rests. Finally, just before dark, the city gradually fades and it gives way to a wide section of trees that should offer us some cover from any rain. Aaron and Michael take their weapons and scout the area while the rest of us set up our little makeshift camp. Todd goes out to gather firewood while I take out our remaining food from both backpacks.

  We open up the can of peaches, two of the bags of trail mix, and we finish off the rest of the peanut butter. It’s more than we had for breakfast, but since we didn’t stop to eat lunch, it doesn’t seem to fill our stomachs. All of us could probably eat much more, but if we’re going to survive in the long run, we have to stick to our rations and not binge.

  Aaron and Michael come back and wolf down their food without a word. Aaron finishes first, and he takes both Gatorade bottles and both now empty pop bottles, and he wanders off, mumbling something about a stream nearby. He passes Todd on his way out of camp, and I notice with just a hint of glee that Todd makes sure to carefully skirt around Aaron, avoiding any kind of confrontation.

  Todd drops his bundle of firewood and plops to the ground beside me. “I hope one of you has matches, because I don’t know the first thing about starting a fire.”

  “Why does that not surprise me,” I mutter, arranging a small pile of sticks in our hastily dug out fire pit. Michael tosses me a box of matches and a crumpled up piece of newspaper that he was smart enough to swipe from our shelter last night. I strike the match against the side of the box, light the paper, and shove it under the pile of sticks.

  It starts after a minute of all of us holding our breaths, and it grows into a small, manageable fire. Daisy, Felicia, and Levi scoot closer, warming their hands. The warm glow casts shadows around our small clearing of trees, and it unfortunately highlights the weariness on everyone’s faces. Daisy and Levi look the worst—almost like they’ve given up hope of ever being happy again—but Felicia just looks uncomfortable. I inch over closer to her and she rests her head on my shoulder, taking a deep breath.

  “Hey, what did Rachel say to you?”

  She sighs and snuggles closer to me—for warmth or comfort I’m not sure. “She told me that even with her gone, I still had a sister to look out for me,” she says, giving me a very pointed look. “She said you were the closest thing I have left to a family, and I shouldn’t forget that you’re here for me.”

  Oh.

  “You are here for me, right?”

  “Of course,” I say, shocked she could think I wasn’t. “After the zombies got into the school, I knew I had to get out of there, but I knew I couldn’t leave without you. I went back for you, Felicia. I went back for you because you’re important to me.”

  She sighs again and closes her eyes. “I’ll never be able to repay you for coming back for me.”

  “You don’t have to repay me,” I say, smoothing the hair out of her face. Her breathing evens out and she falls asleep against my shoulder. I just watch her breathe for a minute, incredibly thankful that she’s still with me. When I look up, I’m surprised to find Todd watching me with an odd expression on his face. “What are you staring at me for?” I ask quietly, trying not to wake up Felicia.

  “No reason,” he says lightly.

  Before I can snap at him, Aaron comes back with the filled water bottles. He sips from one of the coca-cola bottles, and as he does, I realize just how tired he looks. There are dark circles under his eyes and his chin is covered in thick stubble. “Aaron, are you okay?”

  He shrugs. “I’ll be alright. Why don’t you guys get some rest? Michael and I can keep watch.”

  “No. You and Michael have been up taking care of us for too long. You need to rest and recharge before you fall apart at the seams. I’ll keep watch.”

  He hesitates, torn between wanting to let me get my rest and getting some rest himself. He must be more tired than I think, because he actually relents. “Alright. But take someone else with you.” His eyes circle our group, which is nothing more than two tired soldiers, a punk with dyed hair, and a handful of women and scared children. Finally, he gaze settles on Todd. “Take him with you. Keep each other awake, and make sure to wake me in a few hours.”

  He tosses Todd a bottle of water and then finds a nice, semi-comfortable place to lie down for the night. As soon as his head hits the makeshift pillow made from his sweater, his eyes close and he’s out for the night. I disentangle myself from Felicia’s grip, and Levi takes her from me, keeping her comfortable and warm while I head out into the woods to keep watch with Todd.

  We move far enough away from camp so we’ll be able to talk to one another without waking anyone, but we stay close enough to be able to see everyone in our group. We find a rotting log and we each sit on an end, staring at the crackling fire nearby. We sit quietly for a few minutes, but the absolute silence of the woods is overwhelming, and I can feel myself start to get anxious and antsy as the last couple of days begin to replay over and over again in my mind.

  I think about the fear I felt when I saw the soldiers dying on our supply run, and about the pain I felt during the beating Wilkinson gave me, and about the worry I felt while watching Aaron administer Wilkinson’s sickening punishment. I think about the blood and the gore as the zombies worked their way through everyone in the school, and I think about the girls in Felicia’s room that I left to their own grizzly fates. And finally, I think about losing Rachel.

  Suddenly, the silence becomes too much. “Todd, will you talk about something?” I ask. “Please?”

  “What should we talk about?” he asks snidely. “The newest movie releases? How about my favorite show? I mean, the actors on it are all probably long dead, but we can still—”

  “Todd, please don’t,” I plead gently. “Just…talk to me. About anything.”

  He looks over at me. “Are you alright?”

  “No, I’m not. Just say something. Anything. This silence is suffocating me.”

  He takes a deep breath. “Alright. Well, I was born and raised in New York City. I had an okay childhood, but both of my parents thought I was a royal screw-up. Apparently I had a bit of an attitude, and I disliked being told what to do, so I was getting punished all throughout my teen years. But my parents quickly figured out that if I was punished, I would just sneak out and get into more trouble. So eventually they just stopped trying and they let me do whatever I wanted.”

  “What did you do in your spare time?”

  “I hung out with the wrong crowd. I started drinking a bit, and I refused to get a job. I spent my days laying around my room, smoking weed and painting my fingernails,” he says with a hint of a smile. “I was big into that “non-conformity” scene. I pierced my eyebrow, got a stupid tattoo of a dragon across half my back, spent my nights at wild parties in the city, and I went through girls like nobody’s business. It was like that for years. Eventually I got a job at McDonald’s making minimum wage, but that just made me more miserable.”

  “What did you wanna do with your life?”

  He shrugs and kicks at a pebble near his feet. “I wasn’t sure. It felt like all my life, people were telling me I would never amount to anything, no matter how ha
rd I tried. So I kind of just figured I’d do nothing. I mean, why should I try if nobody believed in me? But if I could go back and do things differently, I think I would have done more. Instead, I feel like I kind of wasted my life.”

  I look around our little section of woods, and I come away with the same feeling as him. Todd’s not the only one that wasted his life. All I got to do was one year of college. One extra year spent sitting in a classroom relearning shit I’d already learned in high school. I could have spent that year traveling the world and meeting new people. But now the world is over, and I’ll never get to do those things. I wasted my life, too.

  “What about you? Tell me about yourself,” Todd says, actually sounding mildly interested. “I’m curious to know more about you.”

  “What would you like to know?”

  “Did you have family before the end of the world? Did you have a boyfriend? Career plans? Where did you grow up? I don’t really care what you say, just tell me something. You’re not the only one that dislikes silence.”

  I take a deep breath before beginning. “I was born and raised in Kentucky—that’s where most of my family is from. I was one of the only ones that got out and wanted to live my life, so I moved out to New York City for college, just to be able to say that I was on my own. My grandparents died before the infection started, and my parents didn’t last long. The only other family I had were an aunt and uncle that still lived in Kentucky, along with my cousin, Samantha. Growing up, the two of us were like sisters. She was so upset when I left for school.”

  “Do you think she might still be alive?” Todd asks, though he sounds like he thinks it’s a long shot.

  “I’m not sure. I mean, she’s smart and resourceful, and I think if it came down to it, she could do anything necessary to survive. But this world is so dangerous—anything can happen at anytime. Part of me hopes that she’s found some safe place to hole up until the world can maybe fix itself, but a bigger part of me hopes she went peacefully so she doesn’t have to deal with this world anymore. Does that make me a bad person?”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. Even though my parents and I didn’t exactly get along, I wish they hadn’t suffered as much as they did. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to end the suffering of someone you love. But enough about that sad stuff—it won’t help to reminisce about depressing things. What else can you tell me about yourself?”

  “I had a boyfriend named Brad,” I say, surprised by how easily his name rolls off my tongue. I’ve purposely avoided thinking of him since he died. “He and I had been dating for about three months before things went to hell. He died though, shortly after the infection started. I haven’t really thought about him much since then.”

  “Did you love him?”

  I shrug. “Our relationship was mostly physical. That was all we needed from each other—I don’t think we were looking for anything else at the moment. I was pretty sure that he wasn’t long-term.”

  Todd’s lips tilt up in a tiny smile. “Wow. I never thought I’d meet a girl that was just in it for the sex.”

  “I didn’t say that,” I say sternly, even though I’m almost smiling now, too. “I liked Brad—he was a nice guy. He and I had a bit in common, but he and I just weren’t that serious about each other. And you know what? Women have needs too, Todd. And personally, I enjoy feeling desired and powerful and sexy. Is that a bad thing?”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. Actually, it’s kind of hot. I knew a lot of girls that were always kind of prissy when it came to sex. And it certainly never came without strings attached. Too bad I didn’t know you before the end of the world.”

  “You think I’d sleep with you?”

  He scoots closer and leans in. “I think you would, if given the chance. I saw the way you looked at Aaron back at the school before everything imploded. You were flirting with him to release some built up tension—both of you were. But I’m still not sure what he got out of it since you aren’t exactly his type.”

  I frown. “You know that he’s—”

  “Gay? Yeah, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. I might have noticed him admiring a shirtless soldier once or twice in the short time I was there.”

  “Does that bother you?”

  He shrugs. “It’s not really my thing, but I never had a problem with it. And I look at it differently now, too. The way I see it, he’s less competition for repopulating the world,” Todd says, waggling his eyebrows suggestively to me.

  I laugh, and shove him away from me. He scoots back down the log, and the two of us take a quick second to scan the woods again. Even though we’re not exactly still in the city, we’re close enough that I would expect there to be plenty of zombies in the area. However, our group is still alone out here in the wilderness, and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

  Todd and I sit in the dark, much more comfortable than we were earlier. Now, the silence isn’t so bad, and I kind of enjoy the tranquil peace the empty woods have to offer. There are no loud cars or shouting or fighting. There’s just the sound of nothing but the wilderness, and it’s oddly comforting.

  Todd nudges me with his elbow. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll wake you if anything happens.”

  I’m sorely tempted to take him up on his offer, but that doesn’t seem fair to Todd—not to mention it leaves our group less protected. So even though I want nothing more than to take a quick nap after an exhausting day, I shake my head. “Nah. I’m good for now. Besides, two pairs of eyes are better than one.”

  Todd looks away again, but not before I catch what might be the hint of a smile on his lips. Seeing that smile makes me feel proud…almost like I just passed some kind of test. It’s such a small thing, but it makes me almost happy. So I can’t help the smile that slowly creeps onto my face as I stare out at nothing, and even though I can’t see his face, I get the feeling that Todd is smiling, too.

  *****

  In the morning, our group eats a small, hurried breakfast of cold spam and trail mix. After such a meager breakfast, coupled with half a bottle of water, my stomach should feel empty, but it doesn’t. After months of near starvation and such small meals, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that my stomach had shrunken to half its original size. The others probably feel the same way as I do.

  We pack up our remaining food, which isn’t going to last us much longer. While the rest of us catch a quick second of rest before we set out for the day, Aaron heads off to refill the water bottles from the stream he found last night. We definitely took advantage of having a source of clean water nearby, and all of us drank as much as we could without making ourselves sick, just in case we have to go without in the near future.

  “So, what’s the plan?” I ask when Aaron comes back.

  He hands me a Gatorade bottle of water to share with both Levi and Felicia. “I think our best bet will be to find a working vehicle. It won’t be anything fabulous—especially since we have to fit eight people in it—but if we all squeeze together, it should be doable. We’ll hit up a hardware store and find a hose that we can use to siphon gas from abandoned cars as we go. There’s a dealership about three miles from here. We’ll see if we can find something that works.”

  I take a quick sip from the water bottle and tuck it into my sweater pocket for safekeeping. Instead of walking single file like the day before, we all walk together as one large group. The plan is that if we can stay closer together, we’ll all be easier to protect, and nobody will get hurt like Rachel. So even though Felicia and I drift towards the back of the pack with Todd, we don’t have to worry much because everyone is still around to protect us.

  Felicia walks so close to me that her arm occasionally brushes against mine, and I get the feeling she wants to talk to me about something. And after watching her and Levi interact together yesterday, I think I know what it might be.

  “Felicia, is something bothering you?” I ask. You know, other than the fact that we’re running for our lives, living day to
day trying not to get eaten by flesh-craving monsters, and the fact that we could very well be dead in the near future from any number of things, including thirst, starvation, bandits, or the elements.

  “I wanted to talk to Rachel about this, but she’s not here anymore,” she whispers softly, trying to avoid being overheard this close to the others.

  “I know that I’m not Rachel, but I am your sister,” I say, smiling at the look of delight on her face. “If you’re worried about something, you know it’s my duty to listen without passing judgment.”

  She takes a deep breath before starting. “Well, before the school burned down, Levi and I had started kind of hanging out during our free time. We didn’t have much time to get to know each other, but from what I do know, he’s a really nice guy, and he’s brave for trying to take care of Lucy. And I think he likes me.”

  “So what’s the problem? Don’t you like him, too? I mean, from the look of you two cuddling up together by the fire last night, I thought it would be obvious you have feelings for him. What’s wrong with going for it?”

  Her cheeks turn bright red and she ducks her head from embarrassment. “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right, Madison. We’ll never be safe again, no matter what happens. We’ll always be looking over our shoulders, and it’s so easy to lose someone you care about. After losing my entire family, it doesn’t seem fair to try…” She trails off, as if she’s unsure how to finish that sentence.

  “It doesn’t seem fair to try to be happy?” I ask. “Felicia, I don’t want to scare you or anything, but there is a very real chance that you could be dead tomorrow. Hell, you could even be dead in the next hour! But for right now, you’re alive, and you should try to live every day to the fullest. I know that might sound cliché, but it’s true.”