Becca

by Taylor, Jennie

  “I don’t mean to say this makes up for everything, or... or that I deserve you or anything.”

  “Becca, it’s okay, I know what you meant.”

  “I just mean... if I could give you up, as much as it would hurt, I’d do it if I could change things. I’d do anything if I could undo all of this.”

  “Yeah, angel, I know.”

  “Slow down a little.”

  She slowed the car and we moved forward, past the fifty or sixty dead bodies that were piled at the edge of the road for some reason. She had to swerve into the other lane to miss part of them. There was... I mean... eww. One of the infected ones was... eating parts of the others. He didn’t even look up when we went past.

  “I guess we know how they’re surviving now.” Tasha whispered.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  When we got to the edge of the city the roads were clear. We drove several blocks in before leaving the car. Several blocks away we came to a Walmart. It seemed like a good place to find the camp stove.

  “I want to grab some shampoo while we’re here.” she said.

  “Dad needs some shaving cream.”

  “We should get something nice for everyone else. Hey, we could grab a couple of board games. Like Monopoly or something.”

  “Bridget is fierce at that game. She’s cutthroat. She’ll kill us.”

  “We should get something Amber likes. I feel bad for her. She can’t accept that you chose me over her.”

  “It wasn’t even a choice. And even if I weren’t with you, I wouldn’t be with her.”

  “She worships you, Becca. It’s hard to watch.”

  “I don’t know what to do about it, though. I wish she didn’t.”

  “Just have to live through it.”

  “So um,” I paused and shot one of the infected people that was coming up the aisle toward us. “How long do you think these supplies in stores will last? How long will they be good?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I just shot that guy and didn’t even stop my conversation. What does that say about me? Am I becoming so used to this killing people that it doesn’t even faze me? I don’t want to be that person who isn’t affected by killing someone.

  “We should load up with lots of chocolate.” Tasha said.

  “Dad likes Mounds. Remind me to get some. Where do you think the camping stoves will be?”

  “Back with the fishing stuff, I guess.”

  We took that load back to the car, then went further into town to find more food. We found a big grocery store. Inside we filled bags with canned goods and headed toward the front of the store. There were at least a dozen of the infected people crammed into the space between the outer doors and the inner doors. There was green pus oozing out of their skin, leaving disgusting smears as they rubbed and shuffled against the glass.

  “Now what?” Tasha asked.

  “We can’t kill them all.”

  “Well we can’t just stand here all day deciding!” She shouted.

  “Did you see another exit?”

  “No. But there has to be a fire exit somewhere.”

  “Let’s find that.” One of them bumped against a door and it opened a little, but then it swung back closed. “Fast.”

  We crossed the store, looking around for a fire exit. We finally found it, and ran toward it. I gripped the gun in my hand and pushed the door open. There were dozens of those things meandering around the outside of the store.

  “Becca!” Tasha shouted, as one of those things bit down on my left arm. I dropped the bag I was holding and fell back against her. “Oh no. Baby, no.” she said. She shot the one who had bitten me.

  “Behind...” I was saying. The one behind her clawed at her neck, leaving bloody scratches.

  She spun and shot that one too, then pulled me to my feet and we ran. We had to shove several others aside, and we both wound up with more cuts and scrapes along the way. Luckily most were more of the stumbling kind, not the ones who seem stronger and more aware. We hurried through a set of doors in the back of the store, into the storage area.

  “Oh shit.” I mumbled. She has deep scrapes on her neck, rips in her shirt, and I think that’s a bite mark on her arm, too. Tasha is going to die. She’s going to be one of those inhuman things. “Oh Tasha.” I said, wrapping her in my arms. I began to sob. “I shouldn’t have brought you. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.”

  “We don’t have time for this. We have to find some place safe.”

  “What’s the point, Tasha? We’re going to die.”

  “You don’t know that.” she said. She pulled away from me and looked into my face. “Don’t you give up on me, Becca. Now come on, we’re finding some place safe.”

  We stumbled around in the dark back area. At one point we ended up in a bathroom, and Tasha grabbed a first aid kit that was hanging on the wall. And then we found some stairs leading to the roof. There was a wedge, apparently used to keep the door open, but we shoved it into the door after closing it, hoping it would make it more difficult to open from the inside.

  We walked around the edge of the roof, looking down. There were hundreds of those things surrounding the building. Most were walking in random directions, bumping into each other. Did they hear the gunfire and come? The moaning sounds some were making just made me wish I were deaf.

  “Let’s take care of these cuts now.” Tasha said. She sat down and opened up first aid kit.

  “What’s the point? We’re going to be just like them.” My Tasha is going to die.

  “Stop talking like that.”

  “I don’t want to be like that, Tasha. We should just... um...” I held the gun up. “Ya know.”

  “Stop being melodramatic.”

  “We’re dying!”

  “Well giving up isn’t helping, is it?” She opened a tube of antibiotic cream. “Sit down so I can do something with your cuts.”

  “What’s the point?”

  “Becca, if we do nothing we could die from infection or blood loss or something. If we at least treat the wounds...”

  “We turn into one of those things.”

  “Maybe not. You survived before, so maybe we will this time.”

  “I... I...” I nodded. “Okay. Yeah, sure.”

  I sat and watched and prayed as she cleaned and treated my wounds. It hurt like hell, but I was mentally checked out anyway. I let them get Tasha. I can’t believe I was so stupid. If she gets sick I have to kill her to keep her from becoming one of them. I don’t know if I can do that. And even if I do, I’m going with her. Even if I’m not sick.

  “I’m so sorry, Tasha.” I said. I was cleaning her bite.

  “It has to be cleaned, you can’t help that.” she said, wincing as I wiped at her wound.

  “Not about that. About getting you hurt. About bringing you here.”

  “It’s not your fault, honey.”

  “If I start to... um, turn into one of those things, I want you to shoot me.”

  “Becca, it’s not going to happen.”

  “If it does, promise me. Please.”

  “I’m not making that promise.”

  “Tasha,”

  “No! I’m not doing it, Becca. Stop asking.”

  I finished cleaning and treating her wounds. We took another trip around the edge of the building. Great, there are even more of them now.

  “So we just sit here and wait to get eaten.” I said.

  “We’re not going to be. We’ll figure something out. Maybe they’ll get bored and go away.”

  “Maybe they’ll figure out how to get up here and get us sooner.”

  “Stop being so pessimistic.”

  “I’m sorry. I just... I got you killed.”

  “You didn’t.”

  We sat there, in the middle of the roof, sort of just staring at each other. I wonder what she’s thinking. Maybe she’s trying to decide how to keep from blaming me. She has to be figuring out that this is all my fault.

 
; “This might be our last date.” she said softly.

  “I thought you weren’t giving up?”

  “I’m not. I’m just saying...” She shrugged and actually smiled. “I’m not driving right now.” she said, referring to what I asked earlier.

  “So, um, we’re sitting here, surrounded by people that want to eat us, we may be dying, and you want to... I mean, like, just strip down right now and...”

  “If they do kill us, or we do become infected, this could be our last chance to make love.”

  “Right here on the roof?” I asked. I actually laughed.

  “Gotta do something to kill time while we wait for them to leave.”

  We found a relatively smooth place on the roof. A concrete slab that looked like it was designed for something huge, like an air conditioner or something, to sit on. It felt weird taking my clothes off outside.

  “I don’t deserve someone as great as you.” I told her, and I kissed her neck, right next to her ear.

  “I’m the lucky one. Now stop talking and start... doing.”

  Friday, May 13th

  I woke in the early hours, well before dawn, and I laid there on our clothing, still naked

  and cold, staring up at the stars. At least I got to make love to her before dying. I spent a couple of hours just thinking about the things we did the night before.

  “It’s beautiful.” Tasha mumbled. She was staring to the east, at the sun rising.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  We sat up and stared at the east, watching the sun until it was full in the sky. Just sitting there snuggling against her was one of the best moments of my life.

  “We’re still alive.” she said softly.

  “Yeah.”

  “If we were going to get sick we would have by now, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know.” I sighed. “Probably.”

  “Maybe we’re immune. Maybe that’s why we weren’t ever infected in the first place.”

  “Maybe. That would be nice.” I stood and slid my shirt on. “I wonder how the crowd looks this morning.”

  We walked around the building after getting dressed. Still a huge crowd. Maybe a few less, but still a lot. I wonder why they just wait there. Do they smell us, or hear us, or what?

  “How do we get out of this?” she mumbled.

  “Obviously we aren’t just waiting them out. And nobody knows where we’re at, so hoping for a rescue is silly.”

  “So we just fight our way through? If we’re immune then we could be okay.”

  “Maybe we won’t get infected, but they still can hurt us really bad, Tasha.”

  “I know. I just want out of here. But whatever you want to do, angel, I’m with you.”

  We walked around the building again. I was looking for some way that we could get down from here without just jumping into a pile of them. There weren’t a lot of options.

  “Our best bet is over there.” I said, pointing toward a covered entryway that led into the back of the store. “We can hop down to that roof, and then to the ground. There’s only a few of them there right now, if we hurry.”

  “That’s like ten foot to that roof, then ten foot to the ground.”

  “I know. We can hang off the edge of the roof by our hands for the first drop, so that’ll shorten it a lot. But if we hang off for the second it’s going to put our feet down where those things could get them.”

  “Do we shoot those things first, then drop?”

  “Maybe. If there still is only a few there before we drop. I don’t even want to go over there until we’re ready, though. I don’t want to draw attention to that spot.”

  “Let’s just do it, Becca. It’s our best chance.”

  “Okay.” I leaned in and kissed her. “I love you so much, Tasha.”

  “I love you.”

  We went over to the place by the awning and hung off, then dropped to the awning. It sort of wobbled under our weight. It would be great if this thing collapsed with us on it, wouldn’t it?

  I pulled my gun out and fired at three of the infected ones below us. Tasha took out two others. And then we hung our feet over the edge and jumped down to the ground. Tasha let out a yelp and grabbed at her ankle after she landed, but she jumped up and was taking aim at the next infected immediately.

  We ran past most of them, Tasha shooting two of them as we went. And then we were out on the street. There were several more of them, but they were more spaced out and we were able to hurry past.

  We got to the car and jumped inside. There were four of those things right there, and they were banging against the windows as Tasha pulled away. She ran over two of them at the edge of town.

  “Did you get any more wounds?” I asked.

  “No. You?”

  “No.” I started laughing. “I can’t believe that worked!”

  “It had to work.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Because if it didn’t we wouldn’t get to complete my dreams for us, angel.”

  “Oh yeah? What dreams?”

  “The works. Marriage, a family, our own home.”

  “Typical American dream.” I said, smiling at her optimism.

  “Except America doesn’t exist anymore.”

  “The ideas behind it still exist, though.”

  “Yeah.” She reached over and grabbed my hand. “Did you miss the part where I said we would get married?”

  “I didn’t miss it.”

  “So how do we accomplish this? There’s no judge or preachers or anything to do it.”

  “When the time comes we’ll figure it out.” I said. I love her so much.

  “What if the time is now?” she asked.

  “I... I... um... huh?”

  “We should just do it, Becca. Because I’m ready to be with you forever.”

  “Wow. Just... wow. We’ve been together exactly one month today, Tasha.”

  “Happy one month anniversary.”

  “Aren’t you the one who said we should take it slow?”

  “I changed my mind. We don’t have time to take it slow. The world is screwed up, Becca. I just want a commitment. Like, some sign that we’re together always and forever.”

  “We don’t need to get married for that. I love you, I’m never leaving you.”

  “I know. I don’t need it for me, I need it as a sign to everyone else.”

  “So you’re asking me to marry you?”

  “Yes.”

  She wants to marry me. Amazing. Unbelievable! I don’t deserve to be this happy. I just don’t. It’s just unreal. We’ll have to have our parents sign off on it, though, for it to be legal. What the heck am I thinking, of course we don’t need that. There is no law anymore. We can decide for ourselves.

  “I want to wait.” I said. It hurt to say it.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because we didn’t get any rings.”

  “We could turn around and go back.” she suggested.

  “I need to figure out how to tell my parents anyway.”

  “One week, Becca. That’s the longest I’m waiting, honey.”

  “Oh my gosh, we’re engaged!”

  “I wish my Mom were around so I could tell her.” Tasha said. “She’d be so happy.”

  “Really? You think she’d be okay with this? I mean with it being me?”

  “My mom loved you. She used to tell me I better never screw up our friendship or she was kicking me out and inviting you to stay with them.”

  “I hope they’re okay somewhere.”

  We pulled into the drive and there was a man sitting on the porch. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t figure out who he looked like. We walked up the steps with the sacks in our hands, and he stared at us all the way up. He never moved to help, didn’t open the door, just sat there.

  “Becca!” Bridget shouted. She knocked the sack from my hand as she hugged me.

  “Be careful, there’re propane bottles in there.” I said.

  “You look ho
rrible.” David said. He was looking at Tasha.

  “We were attacked.” she told him.

  “Where have you been, young lady?” Dad asked me.

  There’s a man sitting on the sofa. Two men, actually, but one of them I recognize. One of them I saw carrying a huge gun and shoving women around.

  “We were surrounded. We had to hide out on a roof over night.”

  “Is that a bite?” Amber asked.

  “Yeah, we got attacked by a bunch of them.”

  “Are you okay?” Her eyes filled with tears. “Are you going to get sick?”

  “It was yesterday. We would have been sick by now if we were going to be.” Tasha told her.

  “Who’s this?” I asked Dad.

  “Oh, this is Ken and Loren.” Dad said. “They were just passing by and saw us.”

  “They want to stay a couple of nights.” Bridget said. She looked uneasy about it, too.

  “We’re out of bedrooms.” I said, directing it toward Ken.

  “I told them we could probably set them up here in the living room.” Dad said.

  “We don’t have the room.” I said.

  “I thought we could lay some blankets out for them. Maybe spare a couple of pillows.”

  “Sorry, we just can’t do it.”

  “Don’t be rude, Rebecca.”

  “Dad, we aren’t letting a bunch of strangers stay here.”

  “That’s not really your call there, little girl.” Ken said. He had a crooked smile on his face, but his eyes were full of hatred.