Novel Hearts

by Rebecca Boucher

  She made her way back up the spiral staircase, holding onto the railing with one hand and the precious box of delicacies in the other. She was sweating by the time she reached the top and her bouncy curls were now plastered to her forehead. She was surprised to see her temple bathed in moonlight and the stars twinkled rapidly, as if trying to tell her something. She couldn’t believe it was nighttime already. She put the box down and went over to her washbasin to freshen up. As the flowing waters cooled her tired hands, she gazed up to check the calendar. Could it really be February 13?

  Aphrodite groaned as she realized she had been down in the chocolate vault for almost two weeks. This was the longest time she had ever spent there, and she didn’t eat anything! Then she gasped. Two weeks? The perfect mortal man must have surely forgotten about her by now. She silently cursed her weakness for chocolate and vowed to sell her entire collection to Artemis in the morning. Artemis was always hunting and could certainly use the energy and caffeine fix. She could also feed her silly deer the chocolate if she wanted. Aphrodite really didn’t care.

  Although it was clearly the middle of the night, she leaned over the windowsill, hoping to catch a glimpse of her precious mortal, but she couldn’t see a thing. Aphrodite fought one last urge to eat the entire box of chocolates, then remembered the awful sugar crash from the last time and decided against it. She would deliver the chocolates personally in the morning after a good night’s sleep. She was so tired she didn’t even bother with her beauty creams, and she was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

  ***

  The next morning was filled with abundant sunshine and fresh breezes. Aphrodite hummed a tune as she dressed. She highlighted her hair in soft shades of gold and butter cream, and let it flow loosely down her back. Her eyes shone as blue as the sky, and her lips were frosted in pink and silver. She chose her favorite dress—a pastel pink confection that hugged her curves in all the right places. Then, she decorated her arms with silver bangles and bands, and shimmering pink teardrop earrings dangled from her ears. She smiled at herself in the mirror. She was gorgeous.

  She picked up the box of chocolates and glanced at the calendar. February 14. Then she hurried out of her temple and down the mountain, grabbing a single red rose from her garden as an afterthought.

  Aphrodite reached the house and suddenly was very nervous. What if he didn’t like chocolate? What if he didn’t like her dress? What if he found someone else in the two weeks she was stuck in the chocolate vault? She chided herself for being so silly. After all, she was Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. There should be no question that any man, immortal or mortal, should not immediately fall in love with her! Still, she had never felt like this before about anyone; not even that pumped up Ares. Then, she peered around the corner and saw him. Her breath caught in her throat and a thin sheen of sweat formed on her brow. He truly was perfect.

  She gingerly stepped onto the balcony and waited for him to notice her. She saw that the vase of petals was still on the table and she breathed a sigh of relief. He was standing against the balcony wall, leisurely studying the foamy waves of the sea stretched out before him. The blue-green water churned and rolled, creating a mesmerizing show. Aphrodite silently cursed Poseidon for sidetracking her perfect mortal man today. She wasn’t in the mood for the sea god’s tricks. Her feet hurt and the box of chocolates was getting heavy.

  “A-hem,” she said, clearing her throat.

  The perfect mortal man turned around at the sound of her voice and stared at her, squinting in the bright sun. For a split second, Aphrodite thought she totally blew it and wanted to just sink into the stone wall behind her. He looked at the vase of petals, then back at Aphrodite, and his smile grew warm and inviting as he opened his arms wide.

  “I’ve been waiting for you,” he murmured.

  Aphrodite slowly walked across the balcony, as her mind raced, trying to think of the perfect thing to say in return. All of a sudden a thought came to her that she didn’t quite understand, but she knew it was right. It was also important, and would immortalize her and her actions for thousands of years to come.

  “Happy Valentine’s Day,” she purred, as she fell into his arms, still holding the box of chocolates and a single red rose.

  fin

  Hungry

  By: Amber White

  The characters in this story are based on the book

  Tonight the World Dies

  By: Amber White

  The gun felt heavy in her palm. She was terrified.

  Why is this happening? she thought. Why now? Why us? And where is he? Is he safe? Oh, God why? It became a chant, barely escaping her lips. “Why? Why? Why?”

  Gravel shifted to her right, making her jump. People were walking closer. They were careful, not like the shuffling steps of them.

  “We’ve got a survivor!” someone said. It was a male voice. He sounded urgent.

  She cowered lower into the wreckage of the car.

  “Ma’am?” The person knelt down a few feet away.

  She gripped the pistol tightly in both hands, aiming wildly at the figure.

  A rustling noise resounded around her, the sound of several guns being cocked and leveled at her hiding place.

  “Don’t come any closer. I’ll shoot!” she cried.

  The figure swatted it away easily. “Don’t worry, we’re here to help,” he said.

  “Help?”

  “Yes, but you need to put your weapon down.”

  Suddenly, a flashlight beam illuminated the figure from behind. She gasped at the sudden brightness, shielding her eyes as she peeked out at him. He was in his mid-thirties, wearing camouflage pants and a matching long sleeved shirt under a heavy looking vest, pant legs tucked into light brown boots and his hair was hidden beneath a helmet. He was laden with guns and canisters.

  She threw her pistol down, letting him slide it away from her. Then, he checked it before handing it to someone behind him.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Special Forces, Ma’am,” he said.

  “Like the military?”

  He nodded. “You want to climb out of there?”

  She slid out from under the twisted metal, looking around nervously. There seemed to be a whole team of them, but no sign of him.

  “Do you need medical attention?” the man asked, helping her to her feet.

  She shook her head, still searching. “Did you find anyone else?”

  The men looked behind them at a body strewn across the pavement.

  “Link!” She wailed, running to him.

  She elbowed her way past the soldiers trying to stop her. Falling to her knees, she clung to the unmoving body of her boyfriend. She sobbed, holding tightly to him, praying he was all right.

  “He’s gone,” One of the men growled, trying to pull her away, but she held on, unwilling to accept what she knew was true. It was too late. Lincoln had died saving her. She kissed his lips softly. They were cold. It took three soldiers to pry her from him.

  “Was there anyone else here with you?” the first soldier asked.

  “It was just us. Then those … people came. He tried to fight them off while I hid.”

  “Did they look sick?” The soldier who first tried to pull her away from Link asked, intense, with his eyes narrowed.

  She nodded meekly.

  “Were you bitten or scratched? Did you come in contact with their blood?” His fist tightened around the grip of his assault rifle.

  “No,” she squeaked.

  “Sir, we need to keep moving. There’s a safe location up ahead,” another soldier said.

  The first one seemed to be in charge, because when he motioned once with one hand, the others fell into formation.

  “Stick close to me,” he said, catching her gaze.

  They moved with starling precision, rapidly covering the distance between where they found her and the cement building half a mile away, checking every corner and every car along the way.<
br />
  People were already inside the building, which turned out to be an old gas station. The military guard entered through the rear, which was locked and sealed behind them. The soldiers spoke briefly with a few people in a circle, then left through the front door, ordering her to stay behind.

  They kept her gun; not that she wanted it. Link had pulled it from one of their attackers and forced her to take it. She hid with it while he used another gun to fight them off.

  Rural America, where everyone has a gun, she mused. At least it’s not like the city, where it’s mostly gangsters and criminals.

  “Are you okay?” someone asked.

  She jumped with a start, looking around to see who had spoken to her. It was a woman, slightly older than she.

  “I’m … fine,” she said.

  “I’m Jean,” the woman said.

  “I’m Steph,” she said, smiling slightly.

  Jean returned the smile. “Come sit with me. Here. Take some potato chips. We can talk,” she said, offering her a bag of chips.

  Steph followed her to the side of the room, where they sat in small fold out lawn chairs in front of the freezer.

  “I’m staying away from the beer,” Jean said. “It’s safer.”

  “I don’t know. People can get pretty rabid about their ice cream,” Steph replied, pointing her thumb at the shelves of ice cream behind them.

  “That’s exactly why I picked out this spot,” Jean said, smiled brightly. “So why don’t you tell me what happened to you out there? You look like hell, and I know I’d want to talk about it if it were me. Help to make sense of it all.”

  Steph looked down at her hands. They were scratched and bloody, resting on top of her bleeding legs. Tears welled up in her eyes.

  “I was with my boyfriend. Link was taking me to this little romantic place by the lake. He’s good to me like that. Or, he was.” She paused and Jean patted her arm. “We hadn’t been listening to the radio until we saw all the traffic. It was too late to turn back, but he saw a side road and we went for it. He really wanted us to have that vacation. Anyway, another car came out of nowhere and hit us. We flipped over. I was so scarred. We both got out and went to check on the other car and then they attacked us,” she explained, trembling.

  “But you made it out okay,” Jean said.

  “Link fought off the guy that was grabbing him. He saw a gun and shot him in the leg, but the guy didn’t stop. He sounded like a hungry animal. Link shot the arm off the man grabbing me and he let go and I ran around the car to get behind Link. Oh God, they chased us! He shot them so many times, but they kept attacking until he hit them in the head. He pulled another gun away from the dead passenger and shoved it into my hands. When other people started coming toward us, we knew they were going to kill us. He ordered me to hide in our car and I did. That was the last time I saw him alive,” Steph said, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Jean pulled her into a hug. “You’re not alone,” she whispered. “Most of us have lost someone to this already.”

  “But what is it? Why did they attack us like that? Why didn’t shooting them stop them?” Sheph asked, sniffing back tears.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows.”

  “Is this why the military is here?”

  “Yes. They were sent here to protect us,” Jean answered, trying to sound comforting.

  “Then they must have some idea what this is,” Steph reasoned.

  “If they do, they aren’t telling. It wouldn’t help knowing now, though.”

  “You’re right.”

  Jean hugged her again. “But everyone in that whole Special Forces team was cute, weren’t they?” she asked with a wink.

  Steph couldn’t help herself. She laughed, but the reality of just losing the love of her life was too much, stifling the humor.

  And all this time, with the soldiers, with Jean holding her hand, no one noticed the blood on her lips, or her increasingly bad cough.

  ***

  It had been hours since she said good-bye to him, but she could still taste him on her lips. Not even her violent scrubbing in the bathroom could remove his blood, or the blood on her wounds—blood that wasn’t altogether hers. It was already in her, already flowing through her veins and mouth, spreading.

  The pain wasn’t bad at first; she hardly noticed it, but soon it was worse than anything she could have imagined. She writhed, screaming, on the floor, as the people around her edged back in fear, contemplating running.

  “What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.

  “Oh God, she’s sick!” someone else shrieked.

  Those two small words started a stampede. People bolted for the door. An employee locked himself in the break room behind the counter.

  Steph stopped moving and fell silent as her vision went black.

  Everything was different. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t in pain anymore. She couldn’t feel anything at all, not even the broken bottle she accidently cut her hand open on when she got up. The shards dug deeply into her palm and fingers, but she didn’t feel it. She didn’t feel her fingers grasp the pieces as she pulled them out.

  “Hello?” she tried to call out, but it came out a short moan. Where is everyone? Steph wondered.

  She shuffled to the door, unsure of her feet which were completely numb. She stumbled a few times, catching herself on the shelves, scattering food everywhere.

  When was the last time I ate? she asked herself.

  She was hungry, but the food around her looked and smelled disgusting. She wanted something else. She wanted meat … raw meat.

  Steph made her way out the front door, as her instincts told her to head right, away from her overturned car. There were more cars facing her to the right … and all were full of meat, but they weren’t. They were mostly empty. She had walked for a long time and she was starving. She had almost given up hope when she saw someone quivering in the back seat of a car.

  Yes. Meat, she thought.

  Without thinking, she fumbled with the handle. The door was locked.

  Meat.

  She slammed her fist through the window as the person inside shrieked as she grabbed her with both hands, dragging them out and onto the pavement. They caught briefly on the window frame, but Steph quickly pulled them free. She didn’t care if it was a man, woman, or child. She just wanted to eat.

  When they had stopped kicking and screaming and when she had had her fill, she staggered to her feet and walked on. She didn’t know what she was looking for; she just knew she had to keep moving. It was out there.

  Soon she was hungry again, so she searched more cars. The people she found inside were already dead. They wouldn’t taste right.

  So hungry, she thought as she shuffled down the street. Then, she tripped, landing face first on the asphalt, but when she looked back to see what she had tripped over, she did a double take.

  “Link?” She said, sounding more like a word than anything she’d tried to say since she woke.

  “Steph?” he asked. It sounded more like a groan, but was clear enough to understand.

  It was him. It was really him.

  “I thought you were dead,” she said, touching his face.

  “I thought you were, too. I woke up and I couldn’t find you.” He pulled her into a hug over the half eaten body lying in front of him. “Eat,” he said when he caught her staring down at the body in front of them.

  So, so hungry, she thought. A part of her wondered why she was eating human flesh, but she was too hungry to care. Lincoln was alive, and they were back together. That’s what really mattered.

  As they devoured what was left of the body in front of them, Steph couldn’t help sneaking glances at Link. He was really there. He was alive!

  “We should walk up there,” he said, pointing up a small side road when they finished.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “It’s right,” he said.

  Steph shrugged and followed
. His logic was as good as hers.

  “You and me, Steph. Just you and me,” he said, throwing an arm around her.

  “You’re so romantic. Candlelight, a bear skin rug, ‘Oh darling, could you pass the legs?’” she laughed.

  He kissed her. It was the first time they had kissed and not felt something, anything. There was no heat, no passion, no little sparks. They just felt … cold.

  ***

  It was morning when they reached a cabin. Steph hung back, chasing after a squirrel while Link ate his squirrel in full view of the windows. There might be meat in that cabin, but they couldn’t wait that long. They were hungry. Once Link finished his food, he walked up to a back window.

  “Is anyone in there?” he asked in his groaning voice, tapping on the glass.

  “Maybe they can’t understand you,” Steph said quietly.

  He acknowledged her comment, and moved on to another side of the cabin, his hand trailing along the wood.

  “Hello?” he called.

  Steph followed him from the trees. If the people inside were other zombies, she didn’t want to get close.