by Alex Apostol
Dan Anderson leaned back on his elbows on a thin bedding of dry leaves and stretched his legs out toward the pathetic fire. The back and forth of Gale and Lonnie had become a comfort, something constant he could always count on in an inconstant world. He pulled out a crumpled cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a small plastic lighter.
“I don’t know why ya’ll worry about settling down somewhere when you don’t even seem care about the big picture here,” Lonnie said as he always did when he wanted to end the bickering.
Gale rolled her eyes. She knew where he was going.
“Well, I’m not going to make babies with you,” Gale said with a wrinkled nose. “And if you go anywhere near Gretchen, I’ll kill you.”
“Gee, thanks for the love,” Carolyn Bock said, but no one paid her any attention.
Lonnie laughed fully with his head thrown back. “Oh yeah, Big Bertha? What are you going to do? Sit on my face?”
“You wish, asshole.”
Lonnie stuck out his tongue and faked a dry heave.
Gale stuck up her middle finger. She violently and repeatedly thrust it up into the air.
Rowan Brady sat with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together as he leaned in for warmth from the fire. He looked into Lonnie’s face, the orange flames dancing devilishly in front of him. Even though Lonnie was laughing there was still something off about him, something careless and alarming, something that made Rowan want to throw in the towel, switch teams, and find permanent shelter. “Maybe finding somewhere to settle wouldn’t be the worst idea. We find shelter first and then we can think about the future.”
“There is no future if everyone dies,” Lonnie retorted. “There’s no point in continuing at all. We might as well just kill ourselves now.” He looked at Dan. “And if we try to make our home in an empty apartment that’s already proven to be a death trap, then we’re all dead. If apartments were safe, then people would already be living in them. Come on now. Use your noggins here people.”
Dan ignored Lonnie and leaned over to Lee. He hit the Irishman in his large arm with the back of his slim black hand. “Hey, man, you want one?” He held out a bent menthol.
Lee shook his head and turned away. Dan shrugged his shoulders and stuffed the cigarette back into his pocket for later.
Gretchen, who was sitting on Dan’s other side, leaned in close to him. “I don’t want a whole one, but do you mind if we share?”
Dan grinned and leaned her way, their foreheads almost touching together. He handed her the one from between his lips. She took a long drag and blew the smoke upward. “God, that’s good,” she sighed.
“Maybe the only good thing left.” He took it from her fingers and sucked on it hard.
Lonnie threw the stick he’d been sharpening. It cracked against a tree trunk and fell nosily onto a pile of crunchy red and orange leaves. He stood up and stomped off into the darkness of the woods. “Fucking dyke…stupid-ass… fucking fag….” He grumbled to himself as he left.
“I’m not gay,” Dan spoke up even though no one asked. “I just…always enjoyed the company of women better than men. Find their friendship more comforting.”
Gretchen smiled and placed a hand on his knee. “And we’ve found your company extremely comforting as well. You’ve really come a long way since we found you.”
“It’s weird, you know, on Halloween I used to go to the clubs and DJ dressed up like one of these…zombies. And this year I’m sitting on the ground, freezing my ass off, hoping one of them doesn’t eat me alive,” Dan laughed to himself.
“Is it really Halloween?” Gretchen’s eyes lit up for a moment, but then the light faded again when she remembered that it didn’t matter what day it was. Holidays were meaningless. There was nothing left to celebrate except making it to see another day.
“Um, yeah. I’m pretty sure,” Dan said as he pulled out a small notebook from his pocket. He opened it up to reveal a two year calendar. “I…I think it’s important, y’know? It’s important to remember something like the date or the holidays. If we lose sight of everything completely then we might never get it back.”
Gretchen stared at the crackling fire as it sank lower below the feeble sticks. She wrapped the oversized black leather jacket she’d found in a Target tighter around her as a shiver trickled down her spine. “Maybe it’s already lost,” she said. “And things will never be the same again.”
Dan closed his calendar and put it back in the pocket of his loose jeans. “If that’s the case, I’ll stop after the two years are up.”
Gretchen wondered if he was talking about the calendar or life. She didn’t dare ask him. She didn’t want to know. She let it go and changed the subject. “When you said you dressed up like a zombie,” she started to say while still staring into the fire. “Do you think that would work?”
Dan sat upright and looked at her with a furrowed brow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if we dressed up like the dead, do you think they’d, I don’t know, ignore us?”
He sat in silence as he thought hard about it.
Gale snorted. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not smearing guts and blood all over myself for the rest of my miserable life, wandering around these goddamn woods like one of those goddamn zombie pricks. No thanks.”
“I don’t think it would work anyway,” Dan finally answered. He threw the sticks he found on the ground into the dying fire, causing it to pop and grow. “We’re alive. Blood flows through our veins. That’s why they want us. We’re fresh meat. Whether we disguise ourselves or not, I think they’ll still be able to detect that in us.”
Gretchen lost herself in the orange flames and wood, what little hope she had burning up with it.
A scream came from the darkness behind them. A slew of curses carried through the cool breeze and became clearer as Lonnie approached. Everyone jumped to their feet within seconds, their weapons gripped tightly in their hands.
Lonnie Lands reappeared from the trees with a girl stumbling behind him. He dragged her by her long, brown hair as she cussed him out with every horrible word known to man and a few she invented. When he tossed her to the ground at his feet, her hardened face was illuminated by the fire.
Gretchen stared with her mouth open. Gale lowered her fists. Mitchel gave a long exhale as he let his shotgun rest at his side. Dan fumbled in his pocket for the crumpled cigarette. Rowan patted his hip for the small nine-millimeter pistol he usually kept holstered on him at all times, but it wasn’t there. He’d given it to Lonnie to clean and he got it back. Lee was the only one who hadn’t bothered to stand, still sitting on the ground with his back against the tree.
“Found this one skulking right outside our camp, casing the place.”
The girl looked up at Lonnie. Her hands rubbed the back of her head where he had tugged on her hair. “No! I wasn’t!” she yelled.
“Shut up!” Lonnie growled. There was a rustling in a nearby bush. Everyone snapped to look. Seconds went by without another sound and the focus slowly shifted back to the teenage girl. “She was probably gonna run back to her own group and tell ‘em about us so they could come and take everything we have.”
Gale chuckled and lowered herself back down on the log. “Like what? We don’t have anything.”
“And that’s somehow my fucking fault, right?” Lonnie boomed. His voice bounced off the trees and back to the group staring at him.
“Would you shut up?” Gretchen hissed. “They’re going to come if you keep it up.”
Lonnie took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he stared straight into the teenage girl’s scrunched, red face. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
She continued to look around without answering. Her eyes met Gretchen’s and they burned with searing hatred.
Gretchen took a step back and felt compelled to look away.
“What do we do with her?” Rowan asked from across the fire.
“
I can think of a few things.” Lonnie walked over to her and pulled her up by the arm. He leaned in close to her neck and smelled her hair, rubbing it between his fingers. “What do you say, sweetheart? Want to save mankind tonight?” He laughed and looked to Rowan, who chuckled weakly.
She clamped her mouth shut and clenched her jaw as she turned away from him.
“Knock it off,” Gale said casually with a wave of her hand. Lonnie was all talk and no follow through, and everyone knew it.
“Leave the poor girl alone. It looks like she’s been through enough,” Gretchen added.
“You had your chance,” Lonnie as he pointed at her.
The barrel of a small, black gun stared Gretchen in the face. She shut her mouth and balled her fists at her side. A shiver ran down her spine and into her loins as she fought the urge to pee.
Lonnie turned back to the girl and ran the side of the gun down her bronzed cheek. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Let her go,” a low, voice growled from the outer edges of the camp.
Lonnie looked up from the girl’s bare neck to see Lee standing, his fists clenched. He loosened his grip on her arm, but didn’t back away. The small chuckles that escaped his lips filled the formidable silence. “Yeah?” Lonnie waved the gun around in front of him. “And what are you going to do about it, Nurse Lee?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Lee advanced on Lonnie with the determined glide of a quarterback. Lonnie pushed the girl at him, but the hulking man sidestepped with ease as she fell to the ground.
Lonnie had his hands raised by the time Lee reached him, but they did nothing to help him. A hard fist drove into the side of Lonnie’s wide head, knocking him to the ground. He was out cold.
With a bull-like snort, Lee stomped back to the tree he’d been leaning against and plopped back down on the dirt.
The young girl pushed herself off the ground and brushed the dirt from her hands and burgundy track pants. She turned to scan the group and stopped when she saw the tall, muscular man who’d saved her.
“Lee?” she called softly. “Lee Hickey?”
He didn’t say anything.
She ran to him and threw herself into his lap, burring her face in his neck as she squeezed him to her. She was sobbing and laughing, which unnerved everyone who stood and watched in confused silence.
The girl pulled away and gazed at him. Her swirling brown eyes swam with tears, her freckled face was smooth and tanned, and her straight brown hair fell down to the middle of her back. “Do you remember me? From the ER?”
He continued to look into her eyes without saying a word.
“Olivia Darling,” she said.
The slightest twitch in the corners of his eyes gave him away as they glossed over.
She threw herself onto him again and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I can’t believe it’s really you!”
II.
Lonnie Lands groaned on the ground as he held his head. He threw his arms in a fit around him and rolled onto all fours before he pushed himself up. “You’re going to regret that, you stupid Irish fuck!” He marched with heavy footsteps over the where Lee and the girl sat. “She’s mine! I found her!”
Before Lonnie knew what happened he was down on the ground again, this time with his arm pinned behind his back and a heavy weight resting on his spine, ready to snap it in two.
“What the fuck?” he spattered, trying to turn over to see who was on him. “Get the fuck off me!” With enough wriggling he was able to catch a quick glimpse of his assailant. “I said get the fuck off me, Big Bertha, you bitch!”
Gale tightened the grip on his arm and pulled it back even further, causing him to scream and writhe in pain. “You might want to keep quiet unless you want me to feed you to one of those dead things walking around out there. Don’t think I won’t.” Her voice was quiet, calm, and terrifying. “I’d be more than happy to do it. And it’s Colonel Big Bertha bitch of the United States Marine Corp, you stupid prick.”
Everyone stared in awe across the smoldering fire. They had never seen Gale move so fast before. There hadn’t been a single day where she hadn’t waddled behind everyone, complaining about her swollen ankles, aching back, and anything else she could come up with. None of those things seemed to bother her as she sat on Lonnie’s back, pinning him down with the ease of a well-trained Marine.
“Yeah, right,” Lonnie said, but was cut off when she twisted his arm again. He howled, but quickly clamped his mouth shut when he remembered her threat. His nostrils flared as he tried to breathe through the pain.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.” She jumped up and stood with her fists raised. “Come on.”
Lonnie staggered to his feet as he cradled his sore arm. If it’d been bent back any further, his shoulder would have dislocated. He glared at Gale who beckoned him forward with her hands.
“Let’s go, baby boot camper. Let’s see if your eight weeks of training is any match for my twenty-five years.”
Lonnie tried to stand up straight, but his body ached too much to allow it. Heat rose and flushed his rounded face. He wanted to attack with everything he had. How did she know he’d only just graduated from Army boot camp before everything went down?
“I don’t need this,” he said, wiping the blood off his lips, where it had scraped the hard dirt on his way down. “I don’t need any of you.” He turned and took a few steps away from the light of the fire and then turned back around. “Come on, Mitch. Let’s go.”
Mitchell Barnes looked to the group with large eyes. He didn’t move his feet. “Why me?” he asked as he clutched his shotgun in both hands.
“I’m going to show you how a real man takes care of things and survives.”
Mitchell’s dark eyes drifted around questioningly. What did Lonnie mean by that? Was he going to finally find them someplace safe for them to live with more food, water, and supplies? His body swayed towards Lonnie and then away as he considered his options.
“Are you coming or not?” The stocky blond didn’t wait for an answer before he stalked off into the trees.
Gretchen placed a hand on Mitchell’s shoulder. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. You don’t owe him anything.”
“I know. But I should go…try to talk him into coming back before he gets too far.”
“Good riddance,” Gale snorted. She lowered herself back down onto the wood log by the fire. There was a new air about her as she sat with both legs bent at the knee and her back stiffened straight. She rested both her hands down on the rough bark and cocked her head to the side, relaxed and grinning.
Gretchen looked back to Mitchell, but it was clear his mind was made up to go with Lonnie. Her stomach sank into a massive pit that made her want to scream some sense into the boy, but she held her tongue as tears gathered. Mitchell was only nineteen. Gretchen had grown to see him as a younger brother, sharing the same defiance against Lonnie and the same level-headed way of thinking that kept them from being killed. But his history caught up with him and now he was a bullied kid who had finally been picked first for the team.
“Just because he’s an asshole to all of us doesn’t mean he deserves to die out there alone. I’d never forgive myself if one of us didn’t try to stop him.”
Gretchen’s chin trembled as she removed her hand and watched Mitchell run off after Lonnie into the night. His tightly curled, brown hair bounced as he disappeared altogether.
III.
Anita ran full speed away from the faction she’d been following, watching them from behind one of the trees lining their camp. Lonnie had walked right past without seeing her. Mitchell ran by a few seconds later, but she was already gone. Her cold, bare feet barely made a sound as they gracefully touched the dying grass and leaves. She only stopped when she was at the edge of the tree line, looking out at the black, still water of Lake Michigan.
Her head swept from left to right like a watchful owl. “We can do this, dad,” she whispered, breathin
g in and out. “We’ve done it a million times before.” She didn’t wait for her father’s voice to answer inside her head. She knew what he would say.
“Go get ‘em, kid.”
Anita pumped her arms as she ran through the cool sand towards the water. She breathed in through her mouth and out through her nose steadily. By the time the bright white lights of the surrounding houses turned on to illuminate their intruder, the only clue to her existence was a growing ripple in the placid water. Shots were fired regardless. They hit the water and sent little geysers shooting up where they hit.
“You can’t catch me,” she sang in a whisper. “I’m the gingerbread man!” She chuckled as she watched from the buoy.
She held on and hid behind it as the cold water seeped into her clothes and chilled her to the bones until she shivered uncontrollably. She lowered her head under the water to cover her lips, and let the cool liquid wash over her tongue and throat. Taking in as much as she could, she waited behind the buoy until the shots ceased and the lights shut off, encasing her in darkness once again.
She thought about the movie Jaws and pictured a massive shark swimming underneath her kicking legs as she hugged the bobbing object. It was uncanny to the beginning of the flick that gave her nightmares as a child. “There’s no sharks in lakes. There’s no sharks lakes.”
“That’s not true,” she heard her father’s voice ring from the back of her mind. “Remember that episode of Shark Week we watched where they found one swimming up the fresh water river. It attacked someone once it found its way to the lake?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Thanks, dad,” she said and sank back below the water.
She dove under and didn’t stop until she felt the bottom. With a quick jerk, she pulled up on the slimy water weeds stuck between the rocks. As she reemerged, she threw her head back so her hair slapped the water and stuffed the wet greens into her mouth. She chewed and chewed and chewed some more. “Mm,” she moaned as she let the mashed up bits slide down her throat. “Not bad.” She sank back under the water to grab more.