The First 30 Days: A Zombie Apocalypse Novel

by Powell, Lora

  The room quickly became crowded with all of the people trying to fit inside at once.

  “You two don’t need to be quarantined again. Why don’t you let Colton show you some place you can rest? You look dead on your feet. We will take care of your friends.” When she noticed my reluctance to go, Maggie added, “It’s too crowded in here. We need room to be able to treat their injuries. And it won’t do anyone any good to be cramped for the next twelve hours.”

  “Bri, that makes sense. Let’s get some rest. We can come check on them in a few hours.” In the end, it was Shawn who convinced me to be led out from the group. The others were so busy drinking water while watching the guy who must be the nurse checking over Bill, that they paid no attention as we left the room.

  Back out in the main dark area of the store, we passed at least a dozen new faces who watched us go with varying degrees of friendliness. I was too tired at that point to really care or do more than half-heartedly respond to anyone who greeted us. The shelving in the store was like a maze as we followed Colton into the interior.

  “This will be your area,” he indicated a cleared out space with four cots standing inside. “I’ll send someone by with some basic supplies for you. When you’re ready, I’ll take you around and you can pick up anything else you need. All of these beds are empty so feel free to take your pick.” Reaching down, he turned on a battery-powered lantern and handed it to Shawn. “Get some sleep, guys.” Colton turned and disappeared back into the dark store.

  The bed closest to me was calling my name. I’d never been so tired in my entire life; I was actually feeling physically ill. I was that exhausted. Without a backward glance, I took the two steps needed to get close enough and collapsed facedown on the cot.

  FIFTY

  DAY 24

  A low murmur of voices was what finally woke me up. Blinking my eyes open, all I saw was black. In my disorientation, it took several seconds for me to figure out where I was: in Maggie’s group’s safe haven, on a cot and apparently under a blanket that I didn’t remember covering myself with. With a groan, I pulled the blanket off of my face.

  The area around me was illuminated softly by the lantern. Now that I wasn’t nearly dead on my feet with exhaustion, I was able to look around and actually see.

  The space was slightly rectangular, with just enough room for the four cots lined up in it. The walls had been made from the store’s shelves. Though most of them were empty, one shelf had a few items on it. The trusty backpack that had saved me in more ways than one lay on the floor at the foot of my bed.

  I had tumbled onto the cot on the far left of the space. The one right next to mine had a rumpled blanket on it, but whoever had slept there was no longer on the cot.

  Swinging my feet to the floor, I stood up. Stuck in the perpetual darkness of the converted store, it was difficult to tell exactly how much time had passed, but it felt like I had been asleep for a long time. Right now, all I wanted was to find the rest of my group and check that they were doing ok.

  Moving to the doorway, I peered out into the mazelike walkway. Lanterns lit up the space well enough. I could see that more cubicle type spaces had been formed along the hall. Not knowing which direction to try, I took a guess and turned to my left. I silently kicked myself for not paying better attention when Colton first led us to our space.

  As I passed the doorways to other rooms, it was obvious that a few of them had been home to someone for a while. Belongings lined the shelves. A few cots had someone sleeping in them. I continued down the dark walkway.

  Ahead, the path split. I stopped, looking both ways. The path to the right was dark and quiet. The one to the left had a light showing at the end, and I was pretty sure that the voices I heard were coming from that direction. I walked toward the light.

  The narrow path opened up, and I was relieved to have run into people. I hadn’t noticed just how tense I was at being alone and in the dark until I wasn’t anymore. Even better, I recognized Shawn’s back as he bent over the struggling dog, trying to briskly dry him with a towel. Two more people, one of them slightly familiar, were talking together to the side. They waved a greeting when they saw me.

  Catching sight of me, Rex doubled his efforts to escape and managed to pull free. Flashing a toothy canine smile, the dog bounded across the open space and leaped up on me.

  “Hey, buddy.” I rubbed the dog’s wet ears. He smelled like wet dog, which was a marked improvement from smelling like a rotten zombie. “You got a bath.”

  “Yeah, I thought everyone would be happier if he weren’t covered in zombie.” Shawn tossed the damp towel over one shoulder as he reached us. “Speaking of being covered in zombie…” he reached out and pinched a piece of my filthy hair between two fingers.

  I grimaced. “Getting clean would be good, yeah.”

  “You are not going to believe it, but they have showers here.”

  I felt my eyes lit up. I never thought I would see anything like a shower again. “Lead the way.”

  Bumping my shoulder good-naturedly with his, Shawn turned and started in a direction I hadn’t been yet. “I managed to convince Maya to take a break. She’s in there now. I think Fallon, too.”

  Startled, I looked at him. “Maya and Fallon are out of quarantine? How long did I sleep?”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “A day. Both of us. I haven’t been up for too long, either.”

  I fell silent as I thought that over. I had never slept for so long before. But then I’d never been so desperately tired before, either.

  “So, Bill’s doing ok? He must be if Maya left his side.”

  “Yeah. He’s awake. He’s not moving around much, yet, but he’s talking. Now that they’ve got the dehydration under control, he’s making sense again.”

  A weight lifted off of my shoulders, but Bill wasn’t the only one who had been in bad shape. “And how’s Devon’s leg?”

  Shawn stopped to turn my way. “That’s not going as well.” He frowned. “The nurse is doing everything he can. He says the infection is spreading.”

  That had been my fear ever since the first time I saw the cut on Devon’s leg. It had been bad from the start, and we had been on the move through wet, filthy conditions almost nonstop. The look on my face must have matched the stricken feelings I was having because Shawn pulled me close for a hug.

  “They are doing the best they can. It’s not over yet.”

  “I knew this was a possibility.”

  “We all did. Bri, you have kept all of us alive in more ways than one. We would all have been gone a long time ago without you. Don’t you blame yourself, no matter what happens.”

  I let myself relax into the hug, needing the comfort. I knew that he was right, but a part of me couldn’t help but think that I could have done more. That there was always more that could be done, no matter what.

  “Alright, no offense, but you need that shower.” He eased back and smiled at me.

  I sighed and smiled back. I did stink.

  Shawn led me through a back hallway that seemed to connect this store to the rest of them in the mall. We passed a few doors before he gestured to an open one.

  I stepped inside and was surprised to find myself in a gym. Amazingly, there were actually a couple of people there using the weight machines. The highest windows had been left uncovered, and the light felt bright after the darkness of the store I had woke up in.

  “It’s this way.” Shawn led me toward the locker rooms. Water was dripping from inside the girl’s room. “I’ll wait out here if you want me to.”

  “Yeah, that’d be good. Thanks.” I wasn’t super excited about walking back to the main store through the dark alone.

  Rex balked at following me into the locker room. He was probably afraid I’d give him another bath, so I entered the room alone. It looked just like any other gym locker room, except lanterns provided the light. The whole effect was kind of creepy, so I hurried to get clean and get out of there.

 
; I immediately heard the sound of water coming from the shower room. When I peered around the corner, I found Maya with a towel wrapped around her. She looked tired but better than the last time I saw her. Fallon was at the far wall, rinsing her hair under a bucket looking contraption.

  “Hi, guys,” I announced my presence.

  “Bri!” they greeted me at the same time.

  “This place is great!” Fallon gushed.

  I smiled at her exuberance. It was the most animated she had been in a while. “It kinda is, isn’t it?”

  Maya startled me when she hugged me suddenly, uncaring that she was clean and I was far from it. “Thank you,” the raw emotion in her voice brought an answering lump to my own throat.

  I squeezed her back.

  Clearing her throat, she backed up. “I need to get back to Bill. I don’t want to leave him alone for too long.”

  “I’ll stop by to see him once I’m cleaned up.”

  “He’d like that.” She smiled at me and disappeared around the corner.

  “Well, the water’s cold, but it’s a shower. Want me to show you how this thing works?” Fallon chirped from where she was using a towel to dry her hair.

  “That would be great.”

  FIFTY-ONE

  DAY 24

  I managed to find a pair of jeans and a shirt that almost fit me in the pile of clean clothes that had been left in the locker room for that purpose. Dressing quickly, I did the best I could to get the tangles out of my hair and got out of there. Once Fallon and Maya had left the locker room, my earlier feelings that the room was too creepy had returned with a vengeance.

  Back out in the gym, I found Shawn talking to one of the men who had gone with us to rescue our friends the day before.

  “Bri, this is Mark.”

  I said hello and waited while the two guys went back to talking about whatever they had been talking about. Although I didn’t understand everything—working out had never been even a blip on my radar—but I was easily able to tell that they were talking about—the gym. It reminded me that Shawn had liked to go to the gym regularly before the zombies ended the world.

  I looked around the open room with a little more interest. Being in the gym, in the middle of the night, was probably what had saved Shawn during the initial outbreak. And if it hadn’t been for my roommate, trapping me in our bathroom, I would have probably been dead too.

  The testosterone-fueled manly bonding session seemed to be winding down. Mark invited Shawn to use the gym whenever he wanted, and Shawn turned to me. “Ready?”

  I nodded and waved goodbye to Mark. The walk back to the main area was every bit as creepy as the first time—maybe worse. My eyes had adjusted to having more light while standing in the gym. I was definitely glad that I had asked Shawn to wait for me. Walking beside him—and Rex on the other side—helped. The zombie apocalypse seemed to be making me more scared of the dark than I had been as a kid.

  Back in the main store, we twisted and turned our way through the dark walkways. Whoever had been responsible for moving things around in here, deserved some sort of award. I was lost, but luckily, my companion seemed to have it figured out. Somehow, we emerged right next to the front door, in the large open space there.

  “Hey, guys. I see you found the showers.” Colton nodded to the guy he had been talking to and walked our way, pushing slightly too long hair out of his face.

  “Yeah. I ran into Charlie earlier, and she told me how to find them,” Shawn answered.

  “Good. Has anyone given you the tour yet?”

  “Not yet. I did explore on my own a bit. Bri hasn’t seen anything but the showers yet.”

  Colton grinned at us. “I have about an hour until I need to take my shift on watch. Why don’t I show you around?”

  “That would be great,” I chimed in. I didn’t like feeling so disoriented. Hopefully, a tour would solve that problem. And maybe we would find something to eat. Now that I was wide awake, I was starving.

  I discovered really quickly that the layout inside the store wasn’t too confusing once it was explained. Along with the open area near the door, the quarantine room, and the bunch of cubicle-like sleeping spaces, there was an even larger open area at the center of the store. There, everyone tended to gather whenever they weren’t sleeping or carrying out their assigned jobs.

  There were about a dozen people hanging around when we arrived, and I was pleased to notice that most of them were starting to look familiar. Likewise, they seemed to be getting used to us, and a variety of greetings came our way.

  Colton was just starting to tell us the schedule to come get something to eat, when a girly squeal pierced through the silence.

  “Doggie!” A little girl with tangled hair darted towards us.

  Tensing up, I tried to step in between her and Rex. I had no idea how he would react to an overzealous kid, but I did know that he took some time to warm up to strangers. To my dismay, Rex had wandered further into the space than we had, and there was no way I would reach the dog before the kid did.

  The girl launched herself at him and wrapped thin arms around his neck, burying her face in his fur. Rex’s tail began to wag.

  I reached him a second later, but by then, I could already see that I needn’t have worried. I wasn’t great at guessing people’s age, but my guess was this girl could be five or six years old.

  Happily, she tugged the dog closer. The lantern light wasn’t bright, but it gleamed off of her hair, highlighting her red curls. Pulling slightly away from Rex, the girl smiled up at me with a face full of freckles.

  “What’s your dog’s name?”

  “Luna, you know better than to run up to a strange animal,” Colton lightly chided her, interrupting me before I could answer.

  When I realized that the quiet conversations around us had gone silent, I looked up. Every adult present was watching the little girl hug the big dog with concern. I couldn’t blame them, but I did find it strange that no one seemed to be stepping forward to take charge of the kid.

  Colton answered my unasked question, “Bri and Shawn, this is Luna. She’s the only kid we have living here with us. We found her hiding in her school in the first week, and we all watch out for her now.”

  “Mommy didn’t make it to my school to pick me up, but that’s ok because I’m just going to wait here for her.” She gripped the dog’s fur tighter and looked up at me with an almost defiant expression.

  I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for someone so young to comprehend just what had happened. I sank down to her level and reached out to pet Rex with her. “That sounds like a good plan.” Her riot of red hair and demeanor reminded me so much of Evie that I had to clear my throat before I could continue. “This is Rex. Is it ok if he and I, and our friends, stay here too?”

  When she realized that I wasn’t going to challenge her statement, the tension left her small shoulders. Smiling at me with a missing tooth, she answered, “Yep. But only if I get to pet Rex sometimes.”

  “Deal.”

  I stood back up. Enough time had passed that I was sure Colton would have to go soon. I was hoping that he could direct me to wherever the rest of my friends were staying. I had a promised visit to keep.

  “Colton, can you tell me where I will find Bill and Devon? I’d like to check up on them.”

  “Sure, follow me.” He turned to walk back into the sleeping area. “We cleared out a space next to where Alex sleeps. He’s our nurse here. The rest of your group is probably all there.”

  FIFTY-TWO

  DAY 24

  The guy who I assumed was the resident nurse was standing in the walkway, talking quietly with Maggie. He had a faint accent, almost nonexistent, that reminded me of a woman I used to work with. That woman was likely dead by now. I wondered—not for the first time—if there was anyone left alive from my old life. Colton waved a greeting to the pair and then sauntered off into the darkness, leaving Shawn and I standing there somewhat awkwardly.
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br />   “Hey.” I attempted to cover up the feeling.

  “Bri, Shawn, this is Alex. He’s been working around the clock to try to help your friends.”

  I managed a half smile at Maggie before turning to Alex. “How are they doing?”

  “I was just telling Maggie here that there’s good news and bad. Bill is already recovering remarkably well. I hear he has you to thank for that.”

  I shrugged, uncomfortable with the attention.

  Alex rubbed his eyes that were so bleary I could see just how bloodshot they were even in the low light, and continued, “I could sometimes really use some help around here. I’d appreciate it if you’d consider being my backup.” When I nodded reluctantly, he went on, “Bill’s healing, there’s no sign of infection, and he’s already asking when he can get out of bed. As long as nothing unexpected happens, I expect him to be back on his feet in another day or two.”

  When he stopped there, I shifted from one foot to the other. I was glad to hear that Bill was going to be ok, but from what I had heard, Devon was the one in trouble at the moment. Alex’s pause seemed to confirm that. Shawn had shuffled closer while we listened to the nurse talking, and I leaned lightly back into the warmth of his chest, seeking some sort of shield against the bad news.

  Alex sighed. “Devon is the one I’m worried about. That wound has been infected for days, and the infection is spreading. I’ve been giving him the best antibiotics that we have, but it is getting worse. I’m not sure what exactly to do.”