“I don’t want to go in the basement,” Alice admitted. She wasn’t an expert on horror movies, but she’d seen enough to know that going into the basement at night was a horrible idea. She knew wandering into the library was bad enough on its own. What if other survivors had the same idea and were just waiting in closets or in dark corners to get them? It sounded crazy, but the world had gone to shit. Everything was different now.
Nothing was safe anymore.
Nothing was okay anymore.
“There’s no reason to,” Mark said. She let out a sigh of relief. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath.
“Calm down,” Kyle said, laughing. “I wouldn’t go down there, either.” He shook his head and stared at the door to the basement. “No good can come from wandering down there.”
“Upstairs is better,” Mark agreed. “And I’m guessing it’s cozier up there.” He opened the door that led to the staircase and the three of them walked cautiously upstairs. She gripped the railing, as though it was the only thing keeping her upright. Somehow, walking seemed difficult. Somehow, it seemed almost impossible.
Her backpack wasn’t that heavy, but Alice had the weight of the world on her shoulders these days, and she just wanted some rest. She was ready for a reprieve from her life, from the horrors that lurked outside, and she hoped she would find it in the library.
Still, despite the anxiety and the depression sinking her, Alice found it ironic they were seeking asylum in a library. They were seeking safety in a place she’d always considered a second home. No matter what she was going through, she could always find solace in the library.
It was nice that despite everything else changing, that hadn’t.
Whenever she’d felt lost or lonely as a kid, she’d go to the library and lose herself in a book. Timothy had been the same way. The two of them would have reading competitions to see who could read the most books by a single author or who could finish a series first. They loved sharing stories together. They loved exploring other worlds.
Now Alice was exploring her own other world and she was doing it without her best friend by her side. She bit her lip as they walked up the stairs, trying not to let anyone know how close she was to crying again. She didn’t need to be crying again.
The guys had enough to deal with today. They didn’t need to be wasting any more energy on Alice and her tears. They didn’t need to waste energy on the girl of the group who couldn’t quite hold herself together. She should be stronger than that.
They reached the top of the stairs. There was a door at the top and Mark hesitated for just a second, then turned the knob. Once more, nothing jumped out. This was turning into a pattern and one Alice was happy about.
Twice now they had opened doors without getting jumped.
Twice they had opened doors without being mauled by Infected.
If this kept up, they’d be able to go anywhere in the library, and wouldn’t that be nice?
The first thing Alice noticed was that this room had windows. There were only a few, but they meant the last fading streaks of daylight were streaming into the room and they could see without the flashlights.
“Damn,” Kyle said, smiling. He walked into the room and dropped his backpack on the carpet. Mark closed the door behind them and locked it, but even he couldn’t be too upset with what they’d found.
This room was some sort of teen hangout or community event room. There were two couches and a large table with chairs all around it. Two computers were at desks toward the back of the room and there was another bathroom up here as well. There was even a miniature kitchen, and although they wouldn’t be able to use the fridge or the stove, Alice was happy there would at least be snacks up here.
There would be something new she could try. She wouldn’t have to eat cereal again for the millionth time in a row. How was she going to survive the apocalypse if they weren’t even a week in and she was already tired of dried foods?
She hadn’t had much of an appetite since the outbreak began. Blame stress or anxiety or the fact they’d been on the run, but nothing had sounded good. Now, her stomach suddenly rumbled, and Alice eyed the cupboards in the little kitchen. Maybe there would be brownies or cookies. Hell, maybe she’d find some granola bars.
Yeah, this place was going to be just fine.
Kyle started settling in. He had a book he’d found earlier and he set it down on the table, then he began sorting through items in his backpack. He didn’t seem to need his inhaler today, which was a good thing. Alice didn’t want to mother him and pester him about his lungs, but she worried about her friend.
She could eat something, then go to sleep, but Alice was antsy. She joined Mark at the back windows and looked outside. The windows overlooked open space and trees. Maybe there was some sort of park out there or a playground. She couldn’t quite tell. It was empty, though. There were no houses on that side of town, as far as she could tell.
After a few minutes of silence, they switched to the other side of the room and looked out the front windows. There were curtains and Mark closed them almost completely, leaving only a thin sliver of space to peer through. They got closer to each other and peered out into the fading light.
The front of the building overlooked the area with official-looking buildings. Maybe that was a courthouse across the road. There were houses, too. Lots and lots of houses. She wondered how many survivors were in those houses. Were there any people left in this town? Had everyone died? Had they all escaped?
Were they all just waiting for some schmucks like Alice and her friends to stumble into town so they could hurt them?
Or were the only people in this town the wandering dead?
“They’re looking for us,” Mark said quietly, and jerked his head down to the street where the zombies wandered below. There were more than there had been earlier, and Alice didn’t want to think about what that meant.
She knew she’d been too loud today. She’d messed up. She shouldn’t have lost her cool, shouldn’t have thrown that rock, but she was so tired of the way things were going. She was tired of how her life was going. She’d completely lost it and now there were Infected outside.
She had no one to blame but herself for that.
“What are we going to do, Mark?” Her voice sounded whiny, even to her. She cringed, remembering his many stories about his ex-wife and how needy she had been. Alice didn’t want to be needy. Alice wanted to be brave, to be bold. Alice wanted to hold her own. She wanted to be the type of woman people would say was cool and strong: not the type of woman who freaked out over a couple of corpses.
“First,” he said slowly, turning to her. “We’re going to eat. You’re hungry and your sugar levels are low. Everything seems worse when you’re hungry.”
Food.
First, they would have food. She could handle that.
“Then, we’re going to get some sleep. When we wake up, we’ll deal with what’s outside. We can’t do anything about them tonight. There are a lot, yeah, but I’m guessing a lot of them will go away on their own when they don’t find us. A lot of them are wanderers, Alice. They’re looking for something, but they don’t know what.”
She looked up at Mark. His eyes were stony, unreadable.
“Will they know when they find it?” She asked.
He nodded.
“And what if they don’t?”
“Then they’ll never stop searching.”
Chapter 8
Kyle kicked his shoes off and settled in on one of the couches. There was a little bit of daylight left and he wanted to spend it reading. He held the paperback he’d taken from the house that morning and ran his hands over the cover. They were in a library full of books, yeah, but he wanted to read this book, and he wanted to read it now.
The single room they were in didn’t afford them much privacy. That was fine. He had a feeling they’d all be spending a lot of time together over the coming weeks and they’d need to learn how to deal with
being around each other. For now, he was going to ignore Alice and Mark and hope they did the same for him.
His breathing was fine. That was good. That gave him a little bit of hope, a little bit of relief. He didn’t need the stress of his asthma to ruin this book for him. He just wanted a little fucking peace and quiet and silence. He thought maybe they wanted the same, which was good. It was good to be on the same level as your peers.
Kyle wiggled back on the couch and tried to get comfortable. He opened his book, then read the first line on the first page. Only, he didn’t get lost in the novel the way he wanted to. He wanted to jet away to a mythical land where everything was different and fine and fun. He wanted to disappear into a place where the world wasn’t so terrible. He wanted to throw himself into a universe where good always won and evil was defeated when you just believed hard enough.
There was just one problem: he didn’t believe what he was reading. He read that first line again and again and it didn’t even matter.
He was stuck.
He couldn’t hop into the story.
Real life had often been shitty to Kyle, but this was something else entirely. He didn’t want to think about the darkness slowly creeping into the building or the way it made him feel. He didn’t want to think about his parents hiding in their mountain house, wondering if he was all right. He didn’t want to think about anything.
He just wanted to sleep.
He wanted to bury himself at the bottom of a bottle.
He wanted to forget and most of all, he wanted to not care.
“Mark!” He said finally. He couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to go crazy and going crazy in a small, enclosed space with two people who were counting on you, more or less, was never a good thing.
Mark turned from where he was standing by the window. “You okay, man?”
“You have anything hidden in that bag of yours?” He jerked his head toward Mark’s backpack. He hadn’t seen Mark grab any more alcohol at the houses they’d stayed at. As far as he knew, they’d finished the liquor at lunch, but Mark was a sneaky son-of-a-bitch. He probably had a grenade launcher and twenty grand hidden away in his backpack. Kyle wouldn’t even be surprised.
Mark leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his broad chest. He smirked knowingly.
“Pick your poison.”
“Give me whiskey.”
“As you wish.”
Mark produced a bottle of Crown and handed it over.
“Don’t you want a mixer?” Alice asked.
“I’m disappointed in you, Alice,” Kyle said. “I thought we trained you better than that.” He winked at her and took a long swig of the liquor. “You don’t mix Crown.”
“Ever,” Mark added.
“Ever.” Kyle repeated.
“You can totally mix Crown,” she said.
“Just stop,” Mark said. “Before I throw you out with the zombies.”
She frowned, but took the bottle when Kyle offered it and began to sip. She shuddered, but took another sip of the whiskey before passing it along to Mark. He chugged it the way only a soldier could, then set the bottle down.
“Fucking zombies,” he said. Then Mark went back to the window.
Alice went over to Kyle and sat down on the floor in front of the couch. She crossed her legs and leaned her head back against his chest.
“You doing okay?” She asked.
“No flare-ups, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, as if she was cold. Kyle knew she was just nervous. It was getting dark and none of them liked the dark anymore. Soon it would be pitch black except for the flashlights.
“I mean…” Her voice trailed off like she was searching for the right words. Alice wouldn’t want to stress him out. She was a loose cannon lately, from what he could tell, but she was still the same old Alice. She was still sweet, thoughtful. She still cared about taking care of him and Mark. She still looked after her friends. “This isn’t something any of us know how to deal with. If you want to talk about it…”
“Not really.”
“Okay.”
They sat together for awhile. Then Mark came over and pulled some of the back couch cushions off the other sofa. He arranged them on the floor and lay down on them.
“You can have the couch,” Alice said.
“Don’t be stupid,” he told her. It was gruff, but Kyle knew Mark meant well. They were all tense, all tired.
“I just want you to be comfortable,” she said.
“It’s fine,” Mark’s voice softened. “You take it, okay? I can sleep on it tomorrow.” They all knew Mark had no intention of sleeping on the couch the next day. Mark had been a soldier far too long. He’d been a gentleman even longer than that. Mark talked a big game, but at the end of the day, he was one of those good ol’ boys who still believed in chivalry.
Kyle liked that about Mark.
He liked knowing that he had a friend who would treat women with respect, who would treat him with respect. He liked having a guy around who wasn’t an asshole, who wasn’t always looking out for number one.
After a minute, Alice got up and went to the couch.
“Goodnight,” she whispered. Kyle and Mark mumbled in response, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. Soon, Kyle could hear the gentle snores coming from Alice and he realized she must be dog-tired. She never snored. Ever.
He stared at the ceiling in the darkness. He couldn’t see it. It was pitch-black in the room, but he had to stare at something to keep from going crazy. They could hear the Infected outside the building wandering the streets. The groans were low and steady. Every so often, there would be a louder one followed by lots of footsteps.
“Are they running?” He finally whispered.
“Fucking sounds like it,” Mark said. “Fuck.”
Neither one of them got up. Neither one of them wanted to plaster their faces to the window to peek outside.
Neither one of them wanted to admit they were sitting ducks here in the library.
Neither one of them wanted to admit they would probably die before the week was up.
Chapter 9
Mark struggled to get comfortable on the couch cushions he’d spread out on the floor. Every time he turned, they seemed to move. He’d end up with a leg on the hard carpet or an elbow or his back. Finally, he managed to find a position that didn’t involve any impossible gymnastics, and he fell asleep.
The dreams came faster than usual, harder. He shouldn’t have expected anything different. Despite the whiskey before bed, he found himself locked in a nightmare he’d dreamed many times before.
He was locked in a nightmare he’d lived before.
He woke up in a sweat and started to get up, but Alice was already there. She reached for him and tugged on his arm. She started to pull him up on the couch with her.
“No,” he said, and started to pull back. She would think he was taking advantage of her. She would think he wanted something from her, and he didn’t. He didn’t want anything from her. Not now. Not like this. He cared about Alice enough that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt or betray her. If she thought he was some loser who was trying to put some half-ass moves on her, it would kill him.
“Shut up,” she said. She pulled him up on the couch and wrapped her arms around him. They were lying face-to-face now, and she never opened her eyes. He wasn’t even sure if she really woke up all the way.
Mark didn’t move. He was afraid that if he moved, if he pulled back, she would wake up for real and then he’d be fucked. He didn’t want to go back on the floor. He didn’t want to feel weakness wash through his body.
He hated that his time in the Army had messed him up so bad. He should be able to handle this. He should be more of a man. He knew it was stupid. He knew other soldiers dealt with the same shit, the same baggage that he did. He knew it didn’t really m
ake him weak.
He still felt alone almost all of the time.
He still felt different, crazy.
He still felt broken.
Sometimes, though, when Alice and Kyle were around, he didn’t feel quite so alone. They might never understand him. They might never understand what he went through. They weren’t going to leave him, though. They weren’t going to abandon him. They would be there for him and they wouldn’t expect anything in return. They were friends. They were the realest friends he’d ever had.
Now, as he lay on the edge of the couch, he tried not to think about how good Alice smelled. It was unfair, really. She still smelled like flowers and fucking rainbows. He probably smelled like dead bodies. Tomorrow, he’d need to figure out a way for them to take showers. He’d at least need to find some fucking deodorant. He needed it. Kyle did, too. For a scrawny kid, he was stinky.
Mark tried not fall asleep. He didn’t want to forget this moment. After a terrible weekend and a terrible week, he wanted something good to hold onto. He wanted a positive memory he could cling to when things got difficult. He forced his eyes to stay open and hoped it would force his body to stay away, but it seemed impossible. He could feel the fatigue starting to wash over him already, but he didn’t pass out again. Not just yet.
The Infected were still wandering the roads outside. He could hear them, and he shivered. He focused on listening to the sounds they made. Fuck, he hated them. It was weird, the way they walked the streets like they owned them. It was weird and they were terrible creatures.
He’d never been one for ghost stories or scary tales. That was never his thing. Real life on deployment had been bad enough. Seeing his buddies die, that had been bad. Coming home to their widows had been worse. Knowing their kids weren’t going to have dads, that had been shit.
No, Mark didn’t have time for stupid campfire tales.
Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse (Episode 3) Page 5