“You’ve got to go,” Beck said emphatically.
“You’re not infected yet,” I said. I did not want to leave him, and I wasn’t even sure that I could.
“Go. ” His eyes were moist. “You don’t have any more time if you want to make it out alive, and Max needs you. ”
I nodded, unable to think of something to say. I knew this would be the last time I’d ever speak to him, but I had nothing. I just turned and pushed open the shattered doors.
His gun started blasting, and I couldn’t look back. I ran as fast as my legs would move.
Mangled fencing and barbwire bent all over the ground at the edge of the lawn. I stumbled on it, but I caught myself before I fell. Tears threatened my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Zombies growled behind me, and I didn’t have any time to waste on emotions.
The school lay on the edge of town, and nothing but desert stretched out before us. My feet pounded on the dirt, and my legs burned from running. A pain shot down my side, and I felt like throwing up.
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I didn’t stop until I heard Harlow yelling my name. Even then, I only slowed down.
“Remy!” Harlow yelled. “Remy! Wait!”
Reluctantly, I stopped and turned around. I gasped for breath, but I liked that better. I liked it when my body hurt so bad I couldn’t feel anything else. It was almost freeing.
In the moonlight, I saw Harlow and Sommer trailing behind. Way off in the distance, I could see the quarantine. I’d run much farther than I thought.
The only reason I could still see the school was because it was on fire. To contain the infection, theyd burned it to the ground, and burned up any survivors who might still be in there.
I was so mesmerized by the fire and trying not to think about Beck that I didn’t notice the shadow creeping up behind Harlow and Sommer. We were all breathing too loud to hear anything.
I didn’t see anything until the zombie dove at Sommer, and she started to scream.
– 2 –
By the time I raised my gun, he was already on her.
Sommer tumbled to the ground with the monster clinging to her back. His claws raked down her arms, and his frothy drool spilled over her. Just before his teeth sunk into the soft flesh of her neck, I fired at him.
Gelatinous blood sprayed out from the wound, and his head tilted back. He slumped down, drooling and bleeding all over Sommer’s fresh cuts. She was still screaming when she scrambled out from underneath him.
But it was already too late.
“Sommer, you’re okay!” Harlow ran to her aide.
Harlow’d been standing off to the side, stricken and shocked while the zombie attacked, with her gun forgotten in her hand. As soon as my gun had gone off, she burst into motion. She dropped her gun and rushed over to Sommer.
Harlow put her hands on her shoulders, mindful of the scratches, and tried to snap Sommer out of it. When Sommer finally stopped screaming, she just stared vacantly, and I’m not sure how much better that was.
The zombie made a hollow breathing sound, so I walked over to make sure it was dead. I had blown off half its face, thanks to the close range, and it stood no chance of getting up again. It kept breathing. Part of me really wanted to shoot it again, but I couldn’t waste the bullets.
I stepped back and scanned the darkness. The land around us was barren, save a few shrubs and rocks. The whole world felt more deserted than ever before, and the vegetation seemed happy to accommodate.
The flames from the quarantine billowed higher, making it easier to see that nothing was coming. Most of the zombies had been in a hurry to get there. The one that had gone after Sommer had been a straggler, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
“Are more coming?” Sommer asked.
“I think they’re all at the barbecue,” I said and lowered my gun.
Harlow had let go of Sommer, and she wiped her hands on her skirt, getting the blood off. Sommer looked around to make sure we weren’t surrounded. She didn’t realize the bigger issue at hand.
“Do you have any cuts on your hands?” I asked Harlow quietly. It occurred to her what I was asking, so she started wiping her hands more roughly.
“No, I don’t,” she shook her head but kept her eyes locked on Sommer, the sadness setting in.
“Come on. We have to keep moving. ” I started walking away. Harlow shot a confused look between me and Sommer, then picked up the revolver and followed me.
“Where are we going?” Sommer jogged after us, but I stopped. Swallowing, I turned back to face her.
“No,” I said softly. “You can’t come with us. ”
I motioned to the scratches on her arm. The way the zombie had drooled and bled all over her, she had to be infected.
“What?” Sommer didn’t understand at first, then frantically wiped at her arm, as if she could clean out the infection. “No. It’s just a scratch. I’ll be fine. ”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I can’t take the risk. ”
“You can’t just leave me out in the middle of the desert!” Sommer cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She was a small, fragile girl, and she’d just been injured. I didn’t want to leave her out here, but I had only two options in this situation, and she would like the second one even less.
“I’m sorry. ” I turned away from her, but she kept following us.
“What if more zombies come?” Sommer asked.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. Fighting back tears, I kept my voice even. I still had the shotgun in my hand, and when she kept approaching, I aimed at her. “You can’t come with us. ”
“But what if I’m not infected?” Sommer pled with me, and I felt Harlow watching me.
“I have to get to my brother, and I can’t do that if you turn into a zombie and kill us. I don’t want to kill you, so I’d rather leave you here now, with a chance of survival. ”
“But…” Sommer didn’t have an argument for that, and her whole body slacked.
She stared helplessly at me, and I wished I had something better to offer her. I knew she wouldn’t try to follow us this time, so I turned my back on her and kept walking north.
“I’m sorry, Sommer,” Harlow said, waiting behind me a moment longer. “I’ll never forget you. ”
Sommer didn’t say anything, but I don’t know how anybody could respond to that. We’d just left her in the desert to die.
I’d just created another vessel to spread the damn virus. I made the zombie problem worse, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. Not when she was still a person, with rational thought and emotions. I wouldn’t hesitate once she was a zombie, though, and I hoped I didn’t run into her then.
Harlow hurried to meet my pace, and neither of us said anything for a while. I glanced over at her, and I could see the moon glinting off her silent tears. I tried to think of something comforting to say, but I had nothing.
I hadn’t even shed a tear over Beck, and as soon as I realized that, I pushed it from my mind. I didn’t want to cry for him or anyone else.
“Maybe I should’ve left her my gun,” Harlow said at length. She still held it, so I took it from her and clicked on the safety. The last thing I needed was for her to shoot off her foot or something.
“You need it more,” I reminded her. I handed the gun back to her. Harlow shoved it in the waist of her skirt, and it looked weird and bulky in her outfit.
Harlow wore a lace trimmed skirt and a matching camisole, with a loose cardigan hanging over it. She had a messenger bag covered in glitter, overflowing with her belongings.
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Her long blond curls framed her face, speckled with blood, and a gold cross hung around her neck on a chain. To top off the ensemble, she had on black combat boots that were at least a size too big. With th gun shoved in her skirt, she was the poster child for post-apocalyptic fashion.
I clicked the safety on my o
wn gun and wedged it between the strap of my messenger bag and my back, so I wouldn’t have to carry it. The farther we walked, the quieter it got, and I would be able to hear a zombie coming from a mile away.
“What if she doesn’t turn into one of those zombies?” Harlow asked.
“They all do. ”
“Why didn’t you say anything to her?” she asked.
“Like what? That I’d never forget her?” I shook my head. “I hope I do forget her. I don’t want to remember every person who died. That’s far too many people. ”
“What about that soldier? Beck?” Harlow asked. I swallowed hard and quickened my pace. “Was he your boyfriend?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “He taught me how to shoot. ”
When Beck had found my brother and me, it was a miracle we were still alive. I didn’t know anything about survival or fighting off zombies, and Beck taught me everything I know. Without him, I’d never have been able to make it through the last few months.
“Were you in love with him?” Harlow asked, matching my pace.
“I don’t wanna talk about it. ”
“Sorry,” she said, but she wasn’t easily deterred. Within a minute of falling silent, she started asking me questions again. “Where are we going?”
“North. Another quarantine. ”
“Why?” Harlow asked.
“To find my brother. ” I glanced down at her. “Weren’t you listening when I was talking to Beck?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t really understand. He said something about them evacuating your brother. Why would they do that?”
“Because the quarantine was compromised. ”
“Why didn’t they evacuate all of us?” Harlow asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not in charge of the army. ”
“But he was sick, right? That’s why he didn’t live with us?” She had asked me about him before when we were living in the quarantine. I hadn’t said much then, and I didn’t want to say much now.
“Right,” I sighed.
“With what?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“But that’s weird that they would evacuate a sick kid, but not a bunch of healthy people. ” She talked more to herself than to me, so I didn’t feel the need to respond. “When you think about how low the population is, it’s even weirder that they’d prioritize one sick kid over all of the healthy people they left on the second floor. ”
I ignored her and walked even faster. By now, I was almost jogging, but she somehow kept with me, even though she was shorter than I was.
“How old is he?” Harlow asked.
“He’s eight. ”
“How old are you?” Harlow cocked her head at me, speculating.
“Nineteen. ”
“What’s his name?”
“Max,” I sighed and slowed down. I couldn’t waste all my energy trying to hurry her into dropping the subject. “His sign is Pisces, his favorite color is green, his eyes are blue, and he loves spaghetti but hates meatballs. Is there anything else you’d like to know about him?”
“No,” Harlow sounded a little dejected. “Sorry. ” She had gotten quieter, so I glanced over at her. She stared down at the ground and fiddled with her cross necklace. “I just wanted to talk so I wouldn’t have to think about everything that happened at the quarantine. I actually felt safe there, for the first time since before my mom died. ”
I exhaled and guilt crept in. I was one of the very lucky few who still had a surviving family member. Max and I were orphans, but we had each other. The only thing Harlow had was… well, me.
“I’m sorry,” I softened. “I know how rough this is. I try not to think about any of it, ever. ”
“I know. Me too. ” Harlow kept fidgeting with her cross necklace, but she looked up as we walked. “It is weird what happened back there, right?”
“Weird is kind of a relative term,” I said. “It wasn’t that long ago when zombies would’ve been defined as weird. ”
“Yeah,” Harlow smiled at that. “I meant the way they were all together. I’d never seen so many of them all at once. Usually it’s like five or maybe ten. There had to be hundreds back there, to take out that many soldiers. ”
“There weren’t that many soldiers,” I said, deflecting the point she made. “There were only about fifty soldiers, and two hundred or so of us. ”
“But they were working together,” Harlow pressed on. “Didn’t it seem that way? That the zombies had planned the attack?”
“Zombies can’t plan anything. ” I shook my head. “If they were capable of rational thought, then they’d be people. The infection eats at their brain, stripping away all the things that make us human. ”
“I know that’s what they told us,” Harlow said. “But how much do they really even know about the virus? It hasn’t even been a year since the outbreak started, and then once it started spreading, everything pretty much shut down. Nobody is an expert on it. ”
“All I know is that if you shoot them, they die. If you get their blood or saliva in your blood or saliva, you die,” I said. “That’s all I need to know. ”
“I just think this whole thing is weird,” she muttered.
“Yeah, this whole thing is weird,” I agreed. “Don’t try to make sense of it because you can’t. Everything is just really, really messed up. ”
“If you really believe that, then why are you trying so hard to find your brother?” Harlow asked.
“Because. He’s my little brother. If the world is gonna end, I’d like to be with him. ”
“And you don’t know where he is?”
“I’ll find him. ” I was surprised by my own conviction, but I knew that I could. I’d made it through everything with him. Finding him at a government quarantine couldn’t be that hard.
We were somewhere in the desert in the South Western United States, but I didn’t know exactly where. Max and I lived in Iowa before all this happened, and then we started running. We kept moving until Beck found us and shipped us out here.
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City and state delineations didn’t matter as much as they used to. Everything was an abandoned waste land anyway.
When the sun started rising to my right, I knew I really was heading north. I tried to navigate by the night sky, but other than Orion, constellations remained a mystery to me.
If we ever found a city, I’d have to look for a compass. And maybe a map. As it was, I hadn’t seen any roads or signs. We were wandering blind in the desert, the sun was coming up, and we didn’t have any water.
We approached a hill, covered in dry brush and loose sand. I climbed up, my feet slipping on the ground, but Harlow lagged behind me.
“I’m tired,” Harlow had been quiet for a long time, and her voice pierced through the silence. It didn’t help that I was getting tired, too. “And thirsty. ”
“If you see a drinking fountain and a bed, feel free to stop. ”
“Can’t we take a break at least?” Harlow asked. “There aren’t any zombies around. ”
“We’re not stopping until we find some place to stop at. We need to cover as much ground as we can during the daylight. ”
Harlow opened her mouth to say something else, but I shushed her. I heard something.
I’d scrambled to the top of the hill and knelt down, so I was mostly hidden. I squinted and made out shapes on the horizon. It sounded like a death groan, but there was something else. Almost like a grunt and a growl. I couldn’t place it, but I didn’t think it was zombie.
We could turn and go in the other direction and completely avoid them, and that might be the smart thing to do. But I didn’t want to veer off course. It would be hard enough for me to stay on course without any detours.
Besides, after watching everyone I know get killed by zombies last night, it might feel good taking some of them out.
Harlow had climbed up nex
t to me. I showed her how to click off her safety, and I took out my shotgun. There were definitely zombies, I could see them, but something else made a strange guttural roar. It didn’t really make sense.
Then I finally put it together, and I stopped and stared.
– 3 –
“Is that… a lion?” Harlow asked, sounding just as shocked as I felt.
A truck had been tipped on its side, and attached to the truck bed with a logging chain appeared to be a lion. It didn’t have a mane, but it was pretty big, so I’m guessing it was a lioness. Surrounding her were several corpses, and a semi-circle of living zombies.
She paced back and forth, and the zombies kept trying to eat her or stop her or whatever it was they wanted to do with a lion. But she swatted at with them her giant paw. While we watched, she got one of the zombie’s legs and completely tore it off.
I crouched down on the ground, and Harlow did the same behind me. The zombies were too focused on the lion to notice us, so we could get around them without any problems. But the lion kept making that weird low growling sound, as if she was sad.
“Stay here,” I said, getting to my feet.
“What are you doing?” Harlow sounded scared, but I didn’t answer her.
I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I had to do something. Animals were immune to the virus, and the lion would be the first thing I’d helped in months that could actually live if I intervened. I could save her.
If I left her chained to the truck, she would die. If I let her go, she might kill Harlow and me. But since somebody had chained her up in the first place, I assumed she was at least partially tame.
When the lion spotted me, she stopped. Her tail twitched and one of her ears bent back, but she didn’t growl.
Unfortunately, the zombies noticed me at the same time. A fat, dirty zombie started charging towards me. I could shoot him, but I was afraid a gunshot would startle the lion.
I pulled my gun out, holding it by the muzzle. When the zombie got close enough, I swung it like a baseball bat. My shoulders jerked on impact, and it made a loud crack as the head smashed in.
That one summer I spent playing T-ball had finally paid off.
Another zombie charged towards me, but this one was much taller. I couldn’t knock his head off. I bent down and swung the gun across its ankles, taking his feet out from under him so he collapsed back on the ground. Before he could stand up, I ran to his head and slammed the butt of my gun down on his skull.
Crushing a skull is not as easy as it sounds. The first blow stunned him, but I had to slam it down twice more before it finally smashed into his brain, and he stopped moving.
Even though I knew they were zombies, that they weren’t people anymore, the sound of breaking bone always made me sick. The sight of their splattered blood on my clothes didn’t help either, but I didn’t even have time to worry about it before another one raced at me.
I rammed the gun forward, using it like a sword to impale the zombie in the stomach. She’d had the virus for a while, so she’d started to decompose, and her body felt like Jell-O when I stabbed her with the gun.
It wasn’t until then that I realized she was a kid. I hated kid zombies.
She stopped moving, but only because the gun didn’t let her go farther forward. She reached her short, pudgy arms out at me, and I jerked back, taking the gun with me.