Little things reminded me of Jackie everyday. Though I missed her terribly all the time, I was getting better at living with the constant ache in my heart.
After a wonderful month of a normal life, things turned. Lasa and I were sitting at the table coloring books when the sirens went off, warning that something had gone wrong.
Vanetta came into the room. Her face was the picture of panic. She was almost hyperventilating.
“Upstairs Lasa,” she said.
“But mom.”
“Now!” Vanetta commanded.
Lasa was pouting but did as her mother said. When she was no longer in the room, I spoke.
“What is it?”
“They said they would only put on the sirens if security was breached by those things. Cal’s at the post.”
“He’ll be alright.” I said though I had a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I made Vanetta some tea to calm her nerves. She sat at the table biting her nails. It was hard to see this pillar of strength so scared. It unnerved me.
I handed her the tea and told her I would check on Lasa. The siren hadn’t stopped yet.
I went up the stairs to Lasa’s room but she wasn’t there. I walked out and looked down the hall to see her in the guest room. She was holding Jackie’s stuffed animal while she sat on the bed.
“Hey,” I said. “You okay?”
She nodded then shrugged, “yeah sort of. I’m just scared.”
“Me too sweetie.”
She looked at me, “adults shouldn’t tell kids they’re scared. It makes them more scared.”
I laughed and walked in the room, taking a seat next to her.
“But it’s okay to be scared. Just because we’re both scared isn’t a bad thing, it just means we have to be brave.”
“Brave?”
“Yeah, being scared isn’t bad; it’s how you handle being scared. Right now, what we have to do is be brave.”
She nodded, “I can be brave.”
“I know you can.”
I heard the front door open and it took a minute or two before it shut. Then I heard a loud ear piercing scream. It was a scream that I had heard before in recent memory and the result was not good.
I had grabbed my gun from its hiding place just in case.
Lasa had terror in her eyes now. I told her to stay put. I went out of the room and shut the door behind me.
I walked cautiously down the stairs. I saw no sign of anyone in the front room. I continued on into the kitchen slowly. That’s where I found them.
A reanimated Cal sat lifeless against the cabinets. He had black liquid coming out of the side of his head, where he had been stabbed.
I looked and my heart broke when I saw Vanetta. She was sitting against the opposite cabinet and the bloody knife in hand. It wasn’t easy to miss the bite mark on her shoulder. There was a huge chunk of skin missing and blood was pouring out of the wound.
I put my gun down and walked over to her. I knelt by her side.
She smiled weakly, “how long do I have?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anyone change.”
She closed her eyes. Tears crept down her face.
“You have to go,” she said.
“I can’t leave you like this,” I protested.
“Shelly, what good will staying do? You can’t help or change what’s going to happen.”
I knew that she was right but I felt awful. I was just going to leave her to die all alone.
“Take care of Lasa. She’ll be in good hands with you.”
“I will,” I said fighting back the tears.
She touched my face lightly, “thank you.”
I took her hand and kissed it, “bye.”
Her eyes shut then. She was gone and it wouldn’t be long before she turned into one of those things. I took the knife with the blood and put it through the side of her head.
I dropped the knife on the floor and began to cry harder. I didn’t indulge myself for long. I needed to get Lasa out of there.
I wiped my tears and grabbed my gun off the counter.
I went back upstairs to the room. Lasa was still on the bed squeezing the stuffed animal.
Cal and Vanetta had said they kept bags ready to go just in case in their closet. They had mentioned that there was one for Lasa in there as well, so I knew at least I didn’t have to pack.
“Lasa, sweetie. We need to leave,” I stated calmly.
She looked at me, tears in her big brown eyes.
“Where are mommy and daddy?”
“They can’t come with us,” I said.
“Are they like Bambi’s mom?” she asked.
I nodded. “They’re like Bambi’s mom.”
She buried her face into the stuffed animal and held it tighter.
“I really hate that movie,” she stated.
“I’m sorry sweetie but we need to go.”
I grabbed my stuff and got Lasa’s out of the closet. We walked down the stairs together. I didn’t let go of her hand. I didn’t want her to go in the kitchen and see her parents. She was too young.
I grabbed their keys from the hook by the front door. I opened the door to see zombies making their way down the street.
Lasa opened her mouth to scream but I managed to cover her mouth with my hand before a peep came out.
“Lasa the main thing right now is not bringing attention to ourselves. We’ve got to try to get to the Jeep as quietly as possible. Okay?”
Her eyes were about twice their normal size but she nodded.
“Alright, let’s go.”
I went out the door with Lasa behind me. We walked slowly to the Jeep which was 10 feet away. It felt like it took an eternity to get to it. The zombies kept walking forward without looking our direction.
I opened the door for Lasa to get in. I put our bags in next to her and shut the door as quietly as I could.
We almost made it but I dropped the keys. I picked them up quickly but I hit the little red button as grabbed them.
The horn screamed into the air, asking, begging to be listened to. The panic button had caused a new panic in me.
I hit the button to cut it off but the three seconds it was going off was all it took.
The zombies had turned their attention to the Jeep and where I stood. They were moving slowly but fast enough to be a problem.
I opened the front door and hopped in. I locked the doors. I dropped the keys on the floor trying to get them in the ignition.
I knew I needed to calm down. I took a deep breath and grabbed the keys. I managed to get the car started this time.
Lasa was sitting in the floor board between the seats. Her eyes were shut tight and she was squeezing the stuffed animal.
All I saw in the rearview were dead faces coming at us. They were coming towards the driver side of the car as well. The only clear path was to the right.
There was an empty field there and just across it, the road was clear.
I thanked God we were in a Jeep. I turned the wheel hard and drove fast through the field.
I saw the zombies in the rearview try and turn their bodies quickly in the new direction of their food. Some of them fell trying to turn that quickly.
I managed to put a good amount of distance between the Jeep and the herd.
I got onto the road which wasn’t as clear as it had appeared at first. Still with a little bit of daylight left, I didn’t have to turn on the headlights and that saved a bit of notice.
I managed to get to the gate without too much difficulty. There was no one there now. There were a few dead bodies as we exited the base. There were also body parts strewn about and zombies feeding on the bodies. I felt even sicker than I had been the last few days but ignored the chunk rising in my throat.
We had to find a place before night fall. That was the mission. The further we got from the base, the less dense the herd of zombies had become. After a while, I managed to find a good area with a few trees
to pull over at. There were no zombies around.
Lasa was still in the floorboard with her eyes shut tight. Tears were streaming down her face.
“Lasa,” I said gently.
She looked at me and sniffled, “I want my mom.”
I touched the top of her head, “I know sweetie, I’m sorry.”
“Are we staying here?”
“For the night. We’ll move on in the morning.”
She nodded and said nothing more. Poor child had lost her whole world. We were in a similar boat but I wasn’t the five year old whose world had been pulled out from under her. I hoped I could take care of her. Maybe we’d help heal each other. It was a long shot dream but if nothing else maybe we’d be a comfort to each other in this mess.
I got her Jackie’s blanket I’d taken from my car and wrapped her up in it. I was surprised by how quickly she fell asleep.
I didn’t sleep at all. I had to protect Lasa from any zombies. I didn’t even feel tired because for the first time in a month I felt like I had a purpose. I wasn’t just surviving.
Epilogue
The time passed slowly that night. My senses were heightened and I felt electric and alive. I felt alive for the first time in a very long time.
No zombies came near the vehicle during the night. I couldn’t even hear them in the distance which felt strange and made me paranoid.
Lasa woke up shortly after the sun came up. She yawned and stretched her arms. It was a few moments before the reality set in. I could tell by the way her face changed.
“Morning,” I said softly. “You hungry?”
She nodded. “And I really need to pee.”
I got my gun and got out of the car. I led her to an area where there were a few bushes. I made sure the area was secure before she did her business. After she was done, we walked back to the Jeep.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
I shrugged, “I don’t know. Let’s just worry about breakfast right now.”
We both climbed back into the back seat. I gave Lasa some hand sanitizer. I dug in my bag for the breakfast bars I had taken before leaving the other house. I hadn’t touched any of them. Staying with the Browns meant I had plenty of food to eat so I left them in my bag just in case. I was glad I did.
I handed a bar to Lasa.
“Apple, I love the apple ones.” She said and peeled off the wrapper.
I dug my hand in again to get one for myself and instead grabbed a piece of paper. I took it out to look at it. It had a badly drawn map on it. Though it was terribly drawn I knew what it was and I could follow it.
I smiled when I saw it.
“What?” Lasa asked.
I shook my head a little, “I just came up with a place for us to go.”
“Is it safe?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that truly. We should’ve been safe where we had been. I didn’t know if safe was an option in this world.
“I think we’ll be safe.”
She nodded, “if that’s the best you can do.”
I laughed a little. I ate my breakfast bar. We both drank a little bit of water.
I climbed over the seat into the front.
“You ready?” I asked.
Lasa nodded, “yeah. Do you think I’ll like it there?”
I looked at Lasa’s face in the rearview, “I think we’ll both like it there.”
I kicked the engine into life and put her in gear. I turned around and headed west following Daniel’s map.
I was feeling hopeful that we were headed to someplace we could call home. I had watched so much loss, so much death. It would be foolish to believe that there would be none in the future. Yet, I had hope. That Cate was alive somewhere in Arizona, that Daniel and I would maybe be able to start something worth fighting for, and that Lasa would have a future of more than just zombie attacks and heartache. I hoped that life would endure the plague of the dead, that we would all find a way to rebuild.
Plague of the Dead (Book 1) Page 9