It had been his for what seemed like an eternity. It hadn’t been that long, though. He’d learned since the start of the apocalypse that time passed more slowly than people could ever possibly imagine.
When you didn’t have television or music or parties to fill your time, and when you didn’t have access to your favorite hobbies or pastimes, the passage of time was monotonous and dull.
The passage of time was something that most people couldn’t possibly imagine would affect them.
But it did.
It affected all of them.
The world as they knew it was gone. It had died a long time ago, and with it, hope had passed away, as well.
Winchester didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want to tell anyone – not even Grey – just how alone he felt sometimes.
It was like when the zombies came, they’d chipped away a bit of his humanity. They’d taken a little bit of what made him him, and they’d forced Winchester to become something different.
Something a little less human.
Something a little more fierce.
He could hear Grey in the next apartment. Grey’s quarters were directly next to Winchester’s, which meant the two of them could hear each other easily. It was good, he supposed. If there was any sort of break-in, he’d be quick to know that Grey was in trouble.
Sometimes it was nice to know that he wasn’t alone even when he felt like he was.
Winchester stared at the wall ahead of him. It was filled with paintings. Some of them were big and some of them were small, but every single one of those paintings had one thing in common: none of them were painted by him.
Winchester had given up art when the zombies had come. He’d given up a little bit of himself because he’d needed to focus on staying safe. By the time things had changed, and by the time the world had seemed to settle a little bit, it had been too late.
He’d lost that part of himself, and he wasn’t really sure if he was ever going to get it back.
He heard a slight scuffle in the next apartment. What was Grey doing? Grey cursed, swearing about something Winchester couldn’t understand, and a moment later, Grey knocked on his door.
“Come in,” Winchester called out, and Grey stepped into the room. There was something in his hands.
“What the hell?”
Was it a rat?
Only, as Grey dropped the creature on the carpet and it scampered forward and under the couch, Winchester knew that it wasn’t a rat.
“It’s a cat,” Winchester said. He was curious about that: amused, too.
“It’s a cat,” Grey repeated.
“How’d you get a cat?”
“It’s not my cat.”
“Still,” Winchester scratched his chin. He needed to shave. Even though the world had basically gone to shit, he still liked to stay clean and tidy, especially when it came to his facial hair. He didn’t much care what other men did when it came to their appearances, but he liked to be shaved.
“Still, it’s not my cat,” Grey put his hands on his hips. “I think it’s the one Velvet’s been looking for.”
“Velvet?”
“Yeah, she said she had a cat. Said she lost it,” Grey reminded him.
So, she had. Velvet and Eshe were off in one of the other apartments. Winchester knew that Velvet was staying on the same floor as Eshe, but he didn’t know if they were bunking together, and he didn’t plan on asking. That really wasn’t any of his business, and he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to know, anyway.
“Maybe we should go get her.” Winchester stood and squatted down in front of the couch, peering under it. “Kitty?”
The cat blinked at him from the hiding place beneath the couch but didn’t come out. Not at first. Timid little thing, wasn’t it?
“What did Velvet say her cat’s name was?”
“Um, David, I think. It was a human name.”
“No, that’s not quite right.”
“Dillon?”
“No.”
Winchester couldn’t quite remember, but then it hit him.
“Ah, Dennis... That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Dennis? Yeah, yeah, I think you’re right.”
“Dennis, come here, boy. Come here.”
Both men positioned themselves in front of the couch and tried to lure the cat out. They did their best to get it to come to them, but the little kitty didn’t move. Instead, he stayed where he was: timid and afraid.
Winchester knew that feeling.
He didn’t like to think of himself as the kind of man who was afraid. Who did? He didn’t want to think of himself as the kind of person who was always scared or worried. There were too many good things in life to be worried all of the time. At least, there had been, once upon a time.
“Well, I guess the cat lives under the couch now,” Winchester said.
Grey snorted.
“Guess so. Going to keep it?”
“No,” Winchester was sure. “If it’s Velvet’s cat, she’ll want it back.”
Besides, Winchester didn’t need a cat.
Did he?
He didn’t.
He didn’t need anything that required attention or care. He had far too many things to do to worry about all of that. What he needed right now was something else. He didn’t know what, but he needed something that would spark his interest in living again.
Things had felt so dull lately.
It was like everything had lost its color, and everything had become monotonous and lame. Winchester had spent far too much time sitting around their apartment building and not enough time out in the world.
He’d made it a personal goal to clear the undead from Fossilwood Grove, but that goal seemed to be one he was falling short of.
It didn’t matter, though.
Tomorrow was a new day, and tomorrow, he could try again.
“Let’s go find Velvet,” he said to Grey. “And then let’s go fuck up some zombies.”
Grey nodded.
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
The story continues in book two: The Way We Were.
Author
L.C. Mortimer likes zombies, video games, collecting books, and traveling the world. When she’s not writing zombie stories, she can be found reading them. Her work includes academy, women’s paranormal fiction, horror, and romance. L.C. enjoys stories where the heroines save themselves and where even the biggest predicaments are solvable before the book ends. Her favorite authors are Alice Sebold and Neil Gaiman.
Please connect with LC on Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorlcmortimer
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Did you love The Chasing of Zombies? Then you should read Beyond Rainbows: A Zombie Novel by L.C. Mortimer!
The end of the world came and went, and with it, our hope died.Tiffany Erickson is nobody special.She's just an ordinary person trying to live an ordinary life, but that's nearly impossible when you live in a world ravaged by the undead. She roams through the free realms, hiding and living in the shadows of the impossible cities, until one day, everything changes.A lost child.An unimaginable note.A plea for help.Tiffany has a choice to make, but no matter what she chooses, she's about to discover that she can no longer stay hidden in the shadows as the world rots away.She has to fight, but it could cost her everything.
Also by L.C. Mortimer
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The Chasing of Zombies
The Way We Were (Coming Soon)
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Hybrid Academy: Year One
Hybrid Academy: Year Two
Hybrid Academy: Year Three
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Lost Undead
Wild Undead
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A Hex A Day
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The Lost Fallen
Outbreak: A Zombie Novel
Hybrid Academy: The Complete Collection
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Shifter Falls Academy: Year One
Shifter Falls Academy: Year Two
Shifter Falls Academy: Year Three
Beyond Rainbows: A Zombie Novel
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Outcasts
Beautifully Undead | Book 1 | The Chasing of Zombies Page 11