by Bale, Sarah
Daisy asked, “Was he glad you took it down?”
“When he saw the mess on the porch, he puked his guts out.” I smiled, shaking my head. “Thought for sure I was going to have to carry his ass inside.”
He’d gone back inside, leaving me to pull the body from the porch. I drug our neighbor to the pasture and buried him. When I was done, I went to the kitchen to wash the blood from my hands and threw away my shoes. Harry stood there while I cleaned up, not saying a word.
“The crazy thing is Harry acted like I’d done something wrong after that. He looked at me like a stranger. Maybe I was.”
When I went to the living room, he wouldn’t meet my gaze. By the time we went to bed, he hadn’t said a single word to me. It hurt. So much. We were partners, but he treated me like he didn’t even know me. Maybe I didn’t know him, either.
“I tried talking to him, but he wouldn’t listen. He kept saying that I’d killed a man, even though the last news airing we’d saw had urged everyone to do the same. To strike the infected through the head, injuring the brain.” I paused. “Maybe if I tried harder to get through to Harry-”
Daisy shook her head. “You can’t think like that.”
“I know that now, but I still wonder sometimes. What if I’d made him go out there with me to kill the biter? Would he still have taken that walk by himself?”
Three days after I killed the biter, things hadn’t gotten any better between me and Harry. He started sleeping in the living room and it made me so angry. Why was he acting that way toward me? I had shown our neighbor mercy by taking him down. But Harry didn’t see it that way.
On that fateful third day, I went into the living room to see what he wanted for dinner. He wasn’t there, so I checked the other rooms. When I was in the office, I saw the top of his head in the distance, heading toward the wooded area behind our house. In my gut I knew he was about to do something awful.
“I ran outside, trying to get him to turn around. I could see the biters in the woods, but wasn’t sure if he saw them.” My eyes misted over. “He walked right up to one and held out his arm, not breaking eye contact with me the entire time.”
I ran as fast as I could from the house, trying to get to him, but the biter latched onto his arm. When the second biter attacked him, his cries filled the air. I thought I heard him crying out my name, but it might have been my imagination or wishful thinking. By the time I got close enough to help him, a third biter had bit him in the neck, tearing flesh and tendons. Blood gushed into the air and Harry gurgled as he tried to breathe.
“I’ll never forget the look he gave me right before he fell. He looked so peaceful. I’ve never seen a person look that way as they were being torn apart.”
The biters feasted on him while I stood there, screaming and sobbing. I grabbed a shovel and killed the biters. When I got to my sweet Harry, I couldn’t bring myself to end him. But, when he raised his hand, looking at me with milky white eyes, I knew I had to do it.
That was the moment I knew nothing would ever be the same again.
Daisy said, “Kat, I’m so sorry. No one should have to see a loved one like that.”
I replied, “I spent years after that building up a wall around myself. Not letting people get too close. Never entertaining the possibility of love. Until that man of mine came waltzing into my life.”
Daisy smiled at that. “I’m sure he left you little choice in the matter.”
Grey had surprised me by letting me set the pace. I determined what happened even to this day. I struck gold when I met that man, to say the least.
I shook my head and turned to Nikki. “What about you? Where were you when it all began?”
Nikki smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Me? I was at my wedding.”
7
Nikki
Kat’s eyes widened in surprise. “Your wedding? Are you shitting me?”
“Sadly, I’m not.”
I could still see my god-awful wedding dress when I closed my eyes. My fiancé’s mother had picked it out and paid for it, not caring that it was hideous. In fact, I think that was a selling factor for her. She never liked me. And I tried so hard to make friends with her. Ironically, she was one of the first people I saw turn into a biter.
I said, “That wedding was doomed before it began. I found out my fiancé cheated on me a few weeks before and it all just spiraled after that. My best friend, Skeeter, tried to talk me out of the wedding, but I was a fixer and thought I could make things right.”
Daisy nodded. “I was the same way. Before the apocalypse, I had a hard time saying no to people.”
“That’s how I was, too.” I went on, “I made it all the way to the altar. My fiancé was next to me, sweating bullets, and it wasn’t nerves.”
“Was he bitten?” Kat asked.
“Not at that point. When his mistress stormed into the chapel with the same symptoms, I became suspicious. Then all the phones started going off.”
My best friend had pulled her phone from her dress and told me what the warning was. It just didn’t seem possible, though. People fled the church, wanting to get somewhere safe. When the mistress passed out, my fiancé went to check her pulse. I should have run then.
“His mistress passed out and then suddenly made this weird sound and sat up, biting my fiancé’s mom on the neck. That’s when everything became pure chaos.” I shook my head. “His mom turned and bit the preacher. Then the mistress took my fiancé down, biting him.”
Daisy asked, “Did he turn?”
I nodded as I remembered. “Yes. He lunged for me while the mistress went after my best friend. Skeeter didn’t make it. Hell, the only reason I didn’t die that day was because of Dave.”
“Dave?” Kat raised an eyebrow. “You met him when the outbreak began?”
“Dave came storming into the church, shooting anything that wasn’t alive.”
As much as I hated it, he had also shot Skeeter. She was dying and he’d shown her mercy. It was a lot to take in, though. Up to that point no one had even heard of real-life zombies.
I went on, “I was going into shock, so he dragged me behind him. When we got outside it was like walking into a nightmare. The world had gone mad.”
Daisy rubbed her arms. “I know that feeling all too well.”
“Dave took me to the hotel where he and the other guys were staying. His plan was to take me to the base and drop me off, but obviously that never happened.”
Daisy asked, “Why not?”
“We met three brothers who worked at the hotel. They agreed to let us have canned food if we took them to the base with us, where it would be safe. We didn’t understand then that nowhere was safe.”
“They died?”
“We drove into a horde crossing the road. They all died.” I sighed. “The thing that bothers me the most is that all they wanted was to see if their older brother was okay.”
Daisy asked, “Where was he?”
“We never found out. All we knew was his name and that he was a chef, too.” I smiled. “The brother’s names were Avery, Joey, and Joseph. Their brother’s name was Juan.”
Daisy froze. “Juan? Are you sure?”
“Yes. Why?”
Daisy and Kat exchanged a glance.
“It’s probably nothing,” Daisy said. “But, the chef that worked at the hospital and saved Elijah was named Juan.”
By the time she finished describing him, I was certain it was the same person.
Daisy said, “Elijah would know for sure if he had brothers.”
I couldn’t wait to find out if Elijah knew more information about Juan.
“Isn’t it crazy how the world is still so small, even in the apocalypse?” Kat said with a snort.
I replied, “I think that’s something that will never change.”
Daisy said, “So, I have to know. Why did you decide to go through with your wedding after your fiancé cheated on you?”
“I guess I was just hoping th
ings would work out. It wouldn’t have. I know that now.”
Daisy replied, “You had faith in him. I get that.”
“I should have listened to Skeeter. She told me over and over that I was making a mistake. That I deserved better. Sometimes I wished I’d listened to her.”
“I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.”
“After Skeeter died, it was hard to see that reason.” I frowned. “I mean, my best friend died because of me.”
If I had listened to her, we would have been at her house or mine when the outbreak began. Things might have worked out differently.
“It’s strange. When Dave saved me, he couldn’t believe that I had no idea what was happening. But, I was oblivious.”
I hadn’t been watching the news, but even the weeks leading up to the outbreak were a blur. There was nothing that happened that made me think the world was about to end.
Kat said, “Looking back, I wonder how we all missed what was happening.”
“I think we were all used to the way things were and just accepted the bad things as the new normal. Animals going extinct. Climate change. Unusual weather. Mass shootings. The unsteady political environment around the world.” Daisy shook her head. “My parents used to watch the evening news each night and things just seemed to be getting worse. Of course, they were god-fearing people, and thought it meant the rapture was about to happen.”
Kat nodded. “Grey has a theory. He thinks the earth was tired of humans shitting all over it, so it released the virus to reset things. Sometimes I think he’s right.”
Grey’s theory actually made a lot of sense.
Daisy stood and got another flare. “I’ll be right back.”
Kat replied, “Be careful. They might be closer now.”
When she was gone, I asked, “Do you think this is going to work?”
“I hope for the sake of my baby that it does.”
Daisy came back a few moments later. “They’re still out there and they’ve set up tents. Apparently, they’re going to wait us out.”
I said, “Then we should get some sleep.”
Because there was nothing else that could be done tonight.
Daisy
I awoke the next morning, forgetting where I was. An airport sign hanging on the wall quickly reminded me. Sitting up, I felt a rush of nausea. I inhaled through my nose until the feeling passed.
Kat, who was awake, asked, “You okay over there?”
“Dinner didn’t set very well, I guess.”
She snorted. “That can we had last night expired two years ago. I’m surprised we’re not all barfing up our guts.”
My stomach rolled after she mentioned vomiting and I had to take another deep breath.
“Have you looked outside?”
“They’re still out there and there’s more of them.” She frowned. “Getting out of here is going to be tricky. I’m not sure Marshall will be able to come for us.”
I replied, “We’ll figure it out.”
Nikki asked, “Have we heard anything from Marshall?”
Kat shook her head. “No. No news is good news, though. They won’t come over the radio unless they have to.”
I looked at my watch. “Marshall is supposed to come for us around noon. It’s still early. Maybe we should look around and see if there’s another way out?”
Kat nodded. “I like that idea.”
We put out the fire and gathered our things.
“I think we should set off one more flare,” Nikki said.
“I don’t. We might need it, later.”
We went to the hole. There were more men on the runway and next to our car in the front of the building.
Kat said, “We need to stick to the shadows. We don’t want them to know we’re moving around.”
I asked, “Do you know much about this airport? How many hangers are there? Is there an underground area?”
Kat’s eyes lit up. “There’s an underground tunnel that used to go to the parking garage and to the car rental area. Come on.”
She led the way around the hole in the building toward the other side. We hadn’t explored this area very much yesterday and it made me uneasy.
Kat said, “There’s an escalator ahead.”
When we got to the escalator, we all stopped. The underground area was completely dark.
My pulse pounded in my ears. “Are we sure it’s smart to go down there?”
Because it kind of looked like everything from my childhood nightmares.
Kat pulled out a flashlight. “I’ll go first.”
Nikki and I exchanged a look as Kat walked down the stairs. Sighing, I followed. When we reached the bottom, I froze. I didn’t want to leave the safety of the stairs.
Kat said, “Come on. It’s this way.”
Something moved ahead, making a sound. Kat moved the flashlight, but there wasn’t anything there.
“Probably just rats,” Kat said.
I wasn’t so sure. There was another sound, this time closer. My hands trembled.
I whispered, “Kat-”
Nikki reached for my hand. Her skin was ice cold.
“It’s nothing. Come on.”
Kat moved the flashlight around and then let out a scream as several biters made their way toward us.
“Fuck! Get the fuck out of here!”
Her panicked voice woke more biters. She moved the flashlight around and we saw what we had walked in to. There were hundreds down here.
Nikki spun and went up the stairs. I was right behind her. When I reached the top, Kat was right behind me. The moans of the biters got louder as they got closer to the escalator.
“They can’t climb, right? Like we know this for a fact?” Nikki asked.
In theory, the biters couldn’t climb, but I watched in horror as one stumbled forward onto the stairs, falling. Another one behind it did the same, but made a bridge for the third to get higher.
“Fuck! If they keep on going, they’ll get up here.” I looked around. “Is there another way down there?”
Kat nodded. “On the other side of the terminal.”
I grabbed a flare. “We need to drop a flare down there, so they’ll go toward it and not us.”
My stomach churned and I felt like I was going to be sick again. We shouldn’t have gone down there! Running, I crossed the terminal. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but it sounded like the biters were getting louder. Closer.
Nikki said, “Let me go down there. You don’t look so hot.”
I shook my head. “No. I’ll be fine. You just hold the flashlight and make sure nothing is coming.”
She turned the flashlight on and I made my way down the stairs. The scent of death filled the air and I gagged. Moving as quietly as I could, I stepped into the underground tunnel. The biters were still distracted at the other stairs. Inhaling, I knew what I had to do.
“Hey, you dumb fuckers!”
The Dead turned to face me at the same time, as if they were one unit. My breath caught in my throat for a moment, but then I moved into action.
I lit the flare and waved it. “That’s right. Come over here, you smelly fuckers.”
They moved, almost as if one unit. My chest felt tight as a wave of dizziness took over.
“Daisy! What in the fuck are you doing?”
Kat’s voice snapped me into action. I threw the flare away from me and went back to the stairs, climbing as fast as I could. When I reached the top, my stomach heaved right before I vomited everywhere.
Kat said dryly, “Well, at least it worked.”
Wiping my mouth, I replied, “Let’s just hope Marshall shows up on time.”
8
Elijah
I waited in my room until I couldn’t stand it any longer. When I got to the lobby, Grey was there with a frown on his face.
“Are they gone?”
He nodded. “I still don’t like this.”
I knew how he felt.
&nb
sp; Jo and Marianne came inside. Jo held baby Hilly in her arms.
Jo said, “They just drove through the first gates.”
Grey took Hilly and kissed the top of her red head. “Let’s go cuddle before Papa has to go, baby girl.”
He walked away murmuring sweet nothings to his daughter.
When he was gone, Jo said, “I think Daisy, Kat, and Nikki are really brave for going.”
“I just hope this works.”
She touched my arm. “It will.”
She left, leaving Marianne and I alone.
Marianne said, “Jo’s feeling guilty for not going.”
“Why would she feel guilty?”
“She thinks she’s pregnant, but isn’t sure yet. It’s still too soon.”
I nodded. “Norm hinted as much. Can’t say that I blame her. If Daisy were in a similar situation I wouldn’t want her to go out there.”
“But she would still go. You know that, right? That’s who Daisy is.” She smiled, shaking her head. “You never did see what was right in front of your face, Boss.”
She left me to my thoughts. Before I could dwell on her words too much, Dave and his men came into the lobby.
Dave said, “I need you to settle this. How many of my guys do you want to come with us?”
Jeff, Noah, and Harper all looked like they were about to bite each other’s heads off.
Rocco, who was getting around better, grumbled, “I’m still pissed I wasn’t even asked if I wanted to go.”
“Dude. You were shot. Give yourself time to heal,” Dave replied.
Rocco flipped Dave off. I liked him even more.
I said, “Well, the truck we’re taking holds four. Five, if you want to sit on top of each other.”
They were muscular men, so it really would be cramped with more than four of us.
Dave said, “I’m not going to let one of you fools sit on my lap. Only one of you can come.” He glanced at his watch. “And we’re leaving in ten.”
Noah, Harper, and Jeff began to bicker.
