Chapter 11 – Jeremy
I woke up that morning feeling something I haven’t felt in a long time……..hope. All this time we have been surviving we have had courage, resiliency, and determination…….but it only felt as if we were delaying the inevitable. Now we actually had a reason to keep fighting, to keep trudging on. We may very well have the saving grace of the human race in our possession. We can’t get our hopes too high, however. This combination of gems has the same likelihood to release huge amounts of carbon monoxide and kill us in our sleep. However, it is the biggest shot we’ve got, so we basically have no choice. I looked to my left to see Wilson still passed out, when he woke up it would be his turn to drive. I stood up and went back into the living quarters. Zach was still passed out on the couch and Weir was in the booth reading a book. I walked over to the booth and sat down opposite him.
“What’s up man?” I asked. He promptly put down the book.
“Hey Jeremy, wassup?” he responded.
“Kinda crazy isn’t it? Going from friends over the internet to each other’s life preservers. I want to thank you Andy for being here, helping us.” I told him. Weir and I really haven’t sat down to talk man-to-man since the outbreak started, it’s kinda nice to have this time with him.
“It’s no problem dude, you guys are my friends, I’ll have your backs no matter what and I know you guys have mine. Hell, you’ve already saved my ass a million times.” He reminded me. Weir and I always had something similar about one another, but we could never figure out what. Now I’m starting to realize that it is more so our selflessness, courage, and determination.
“you’ve saved my ass quite a few times too bud, remember Texas?” I asked.
“Of course I remember Texas! The only time I got to shoot a horde with a minigun.” He said, chuckling. Back in the first weeks of the outbreak, we were driving through Texas to try to find Weir’s stash of weapons that he hid in case of emergency. The trip ended up with me in the middle of a horde about to be killed, when Weir shot the horde with a minigun we found at a broken down army base. On the other hand, there was the apartment complex where I saved Weir from falling to his death or serious injury. “Hey Jeremy” I had forgotten Weir was sitting in front of me, I was so immersed in the flashbacks I was having. “I want you to have this.” He slid a pocket knife across the table. Engraved in the handle were the letters ‘AW’, Weir’s initials. As well, on the blade there was a blood stain, Weir told me that he marked his favorite knife with a stain of his blood to prove his connection to the blade.
“You want me to have Atom Splitter?” Atom Splitter was what he named the knife, Weir was very fond of science before the outbreak.
“Yeah man, you’re one of my closest friends.” He responded. We shook each other’s hands and clasped our other hands over the connected hands, a mutual sign of respect.
“Awww, Weir and Jeremy are holding hands.” Came a voice from the other side of the room. Zach was still laying on the couch, but his eyes were open.
“Shut up Zach” Weir and I both said in unison. Almost immediately, the three of us started laughing. At that, Ashley walked in from the master bedroom and looked confused. Then, me and Weir held each others hand and announced
“Ooops! We’re holding hands again Zach!” In a playful tone. The three of us laughed even harder at our little inside joke, while Ashley looked all the more confused. It was good that we were unwinding, for the past 3 months everything had been serious and all tense. Now, we were getting a chance to be ourselves. After a little bit, I noticed the confused look on Ashley’s face turned into a smile. For some reason, seeing Ashley smile was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. She stepped over between Weir and I & Zach and cupped her hand over mine and Weir’s connected hands. She then pulled Weir’s away, but kept mine in hers. She slowly sat down next to me, and we stared into each other’s eyes. Everything in my sight went dark, except for her glowing face. The only thing I wanted to think about was her. The only thing I wanted to see was her. Suddenly, I saw her face getting closer and closer to me. My brain had so many thoughts processing at the same time, that I had no idea how to react. I just sat there like an idiot and closed my eyes. I felt her lips press against mine and her arms wrap around me as she embraced me in her warmth. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my lips on hers. We pulled away and I opened my eyes. Just as I opened mine, she opened hers. We stared into each other’s eyes and blushed. I looked around and saw Zach and Weir were both staring at us. I looked back at Ashley and she was smiling. I took her hand in mine and kept it there. I turned to Weir and asked
“So, how’s the junk collection coming?” I was referring to Weir’s collection of items that he claims would be useful in building a secret weapon.
“Going good” he responded hesitantly “I got about half of the stuff I need.”
“Cool, can you still not tell me what it is?” I asked. He shook his head.
“No can do bud, you know it’s nothing personal, I just don’t want us to rely too heavily on it.” He continued. I looked over to Zach and found that he was still staring at me and Ashley.
“Look Zach, I know I’m pretty sexy, but you’re gonna have to quit staring. Plus, I’m taken now.” I said, smugly. Ashley had the biggest smile on her face that I have ever seen. Zach chuckled and smiled as well. At that, Wilson came in from the cockpit and looked at us.
“So, where are we headed now?” He asked
“Well, that doctor lives in Colorado Springs, so I guess we should head there and see if those gems Zach found are credible, then I guess we can wing it from there.” I responded.
“I agree” came a voice from the back of the RV. It was Haley, who had just woken up and come into the living quarters. “We need to find this Richard Morgan if we can and question him about these gems.” We all nodded in agreement, and Wilson went back into the cockpit. The RV started up and we pulled out of the storage unit area’s lot. Haley sat down beside Weir and opposite Ashley, while Zach pulled up a folding chair and stuck it on the side of the table no one was at, opposite the window. I looked out the window and saw the Colorado mountainside in the distance. It’s funny, but ever since this living hell began, I found myself finding more and more beautiful. It might be that I’ve found to appreciate the smaller things in life, or it may be because these things represent the world before the outbreak, and the memories of what once was. I looked back at the group and they were all looking out the window as well. I cant speak for them, but they may have been thinking the exact same thing as I was. I realized Ryan had joined us as well. He had pulled up a chair next to Zach and was watching the passing mountainside too. For the first time since the outbreak, everything was looking up. A few hours passed, and suddenly me and Ashley were the only ones left in the booth. I felt as if I could stay this way forever, looking out into the beautiful Colorado mountainside with Ashley’s head on my shoulder.
“Hey Haley.” Ryan called from the back.
“How much longer ‘till we get to Colorado Springs?” It was Haley’s turn to drive, so naturally she was in the cockpit driving.
“A---bout another half ho-----ur babe” she called back. There were sudden pauses in her speech that weren’t there before that you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t listening very closely. Something seemed sort of different with Haley lately, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Ever since the storage unit incident, she’s seemed just…….off. I decided to ignore it for now in order to focus my attention on the more important matter at hand, finding Morgan. I shuffled through our stockpile of city maps, but didn’t find a Colorado Springs map. The best thing we had towards info on Colorado Springs was a Colorado State map. We had no idea what we were doing, we were going in basically blind. We had to be prepared for anything and everything. I went to th
e armory and organized the weapons I thought would best suit the occasion. I gathered up mid to long range weapons with some detonation charges and smoke grenades. This is when I realized our ammo and equipment were running low. Each of our guns only had about a clip and a half left, we had 3 smoke grenades, 4 frags, and only 2 detonation charges left. This was bad. I grabbed the guns and handed one to each person except myself.
“Alright everyone, this is a balls to the wall situation. This is all the ammo we have. If we can find a gun shop in this city, then great. They probably won’t have ammo for the AK’s, so when you run out of ammo if you have an AK, use it as a melee weapon. For those of you with MP5’s, you don’t have a lot of ammo, but if we can find a gun shop they will definitely have ammo for you. Those of you with frags and smokes, use them wisely. Those of you with C4, use them even wiser. Ashley, how are you at shooting?” I spoke. She shrugged her shoulders and told me she had never fired a gun before. This could be a problem, considering Colorado Springs was a relatively big city.
“Ash you can do it, Just look at this thing on the top and shoot using it.” I explained. She nodded as if she understood, but I knew she didn’t. Things were looking bleak for us, we had entered Colorado Springs and realized that there were more zombies than we had anticipated.
“Stop the RV Haley, there are too many.” I said to her as I walked into the cockpit. The horde ahead of us was so thick that if we tried to plow through them with the RV, it would probably break down. The 3 months of brutal wear and tear of the RV due to the zombies, hits, and explosions it had taken, I wasn’t sure it could take much more. Haley still hadn’t stopped, we were speeding toward the thick horde of at least a thousand.
“Haley, stop the RV!” she didn’t budge. I grabbed her and she looked at me with a blank expression. Her pupils were pure white and her face was chalky. She wasn’t turning into one of them was she? I grabbed her by the leg and the arm and tried to pull her out of the driver’s seat, but she decked me in the face. I went sprawling back into the passenger seat. I looked up over the dash and saw the horde coming ever closer by the second. Whatever was happening to Haley, it was something bad and something none of us had ever seen before. I got on all fours and crawled over to the pedals. I slammed the brake down with my hand and hit Haley’s foot off the gas. I could feel the RV slamming to a halt, while Haley was fighting with me. Between her kicks, I managed to get out from under her and stand up. I grabbed her again and lifted her out of the seat. I heard her mumbling some random gibberish, which made me even more concerned.
“Ryan! I need you to search Haley for any bites, I have no idea what is going on with her!” I called Ryan for help. I gave Haley to Ryan and let him take her into the master bedroom. I looked back out of the windshield. The huge horde of a thousand must’ve heard the breaks slam. They were heading straight toward us.
Kinemortophobia (The Fear Of The Undead) Book 1 Page 11