Unfortunately, I knew what I had to do. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want this for you. It should be me.” I was holding both her hands now, and tears were running down my cheeks.
Claire tried to smile, but she was crying as well. “Shh …Don’t talk like that. You know what you have to do. Don’t let me be one of those things for more than a few seconds, okay?”
I nodded. “I …I don’t think I can do it.” The thought of shooting her made me sick to my stomach.
Claire painfully picked her head up to look me in the eyes. “You promised, remember? Back when we first met. You promised to take care of me. Please don’t let me become one of those things.”
I nodded weakly. “I remember. You don’t have to worry. I’ll take care of you.”
Claire laid her head back down on the floor. “Thank you, Tiger.” She paused for a minute, then said, “You’ve been a really good friend. You and I have become sort of a family, you know.” She started squeezing my hands till they were almost breaking. “I’m really glad we found each other. It was fun.” Claire paused to touch my face. “I love you, John,” she said through her tears. She lay back and closed her eyes. “Okay. I’m ready. Just make it quick”
I looked down at her for a moment. There was nothing I could do or say to ease her pain. Once you’re bitten, it’s all over. I could only do what she wanted, and not let her join the other undead. I brushed aside some pink-highlighted auburn hair, and kissed her on the forehead.
I drew my gun, and sat down beside her in the dark store. I sat beside her and waited.
I waited for Claire to turn.
Chapter 21
Back Among the Dead
I pulled the trigger on the old rifle and expected it to kick me in the shoulder as it fired. Nothing happened. Instead, my fruitless trigger-pulling resulted in silence. I had to take it apart again to check the mechanism for more damage, and more clean-up. This was going to be the fourth time the rifle had been apart. The task of trying to get the freaking thing to work had taken at least three weeks.
I found it in one of the buildings while I was doing some scrounging for supplies. I tripped over the damn thing, and almost split my skull open when I fell. It was a simple hunting rifle with a broken scope, but I thought it might come in handy. I also found a box and a half a box of ammo in an old backpack nearby on the floor. I took the ammo, but left the backpack. There was too much personal stuff inside from the previous owner.
Other buildings around my sanctuary/gas station yielded more supplies. I found a few unopened bottles of water and juice along with a little canned food. I also found some preserved food in glass jars. It was mostly peaches, green beans, and a little okra. That’s what the menu has been for the last month.
I was really sick of green beans. The peaches were nice, though.
The rifle was a no-go. A lot of the parts were just too old and worn out. I assembled it the best I could, put it aside, and decided to take a break. I stood up from the old picnic table where I had been working, and tried to stretch. My scooter accident injuries had mostly healed, but it had been an uphill battle. My back was still a little stiff, but it would probably be okay. I guess when you get old you heal a lot slower.
I walked around my picnic/work table a little bit. It had been a pretty peaceful month. Once in a while, a few Yellow-Eyes would stumble past the parking lot, but so far none had stopped to pay a visit. The bigger problem was the Red-Eyes. They came out at night, and sometimes got pretty close. Eventually, they were going to figure out a plan and overwhelm the store. It was time to move on, I guess.
As I stood there, staring off into space, a cool breeze picked up from the south. The mostly bare trees rattled their branches in the swirling wind. The weather lately had been a little weird. I’ve kind of lost track of the days, but I think it must be December by now. So far, it had been very mild. We’ve had some cold nights and mornings, but the afternoons were pleasant, with temperatures in the fifties. Some days I didn’t even start a fire. I heard something stirring in the doorway.
“So, what’s the plan Tiger?”
I looked up to see Claire standing in the doorway of the gas station. She was grinning, and rubbing her injured hip. It was good to see her up on her feet again. For the last month, she had been recovering from her terrible scooter injuries. Thanks to a great attitude and a strong, young body, her recovery had been surprisingly swift. Her hip was the last thing to heal, and it was coming along nicely.
Claire’s zombie-dog bite had healed as well.
In the end, she didn’t turn. Don’t ask me why, as the dog had definitely bitten her. I waited that whole first night for Claire to turn, but it didn’t happen. There had been no fever, no sickness, no convulsions, and no screams of agony. In the morning, her eyes were still their beautiful blue, with no yellow or red tinge. When dawn broke, she was still Claire. Neither of us could figure out why she didn’t turn, so we decided not to think about it. Maybe dog bites didn’t work on humans, or maybe someone up there really does like us.
We could be damn lucky, as well.
I returned her smile. “Well, kiddo, that’s up to you. How do you feel?”
Claire gave me a little hug. She had been hugging me a lot lately. “I feel okay. My hip hurts a little, but I think it’s better. I guess we’ll have to move on soon, huh?”
”Yeah, I think so. The Red-Eyes around here are getting too smart.” I started to walk inside. “Come on, let’s go inside, and we’ll talk about it over some green beans and peaches.”
She made a face. “God, I’m really sick of green beans.”
We stayed another day at the gas station while Claire continued to heal up, and I tried to get my new problem-child rifle to work. After about a dozen tries, I decided the rifle was too far gone to rescue, so I left it in the store with a “broken” note taped to the stock. We packed up our meager possessions, got as much food and water as we could, and hit the road after a hearty breakfast. We stood for a minute at the road, looking back at what had been our sanctuary for the last month. Funny thing is, I think Claire and I are going to miss our little gas station. After all, it had saved our lives. Maybe someone else will come along and stay here for a while.
They can have the green beans. We left them behind.
We turned and started walking. The general direction was west, the direction we had been somewhat traveling all along. The morning was a little cold, so Claire and I could see our breath as we exhaled. The afternoon would be warmer.
Claire and I walked in silence for a little bit, then she started to chit-chat. “So, let me get this straight,” she said in that sing-song voice that usually meant she was about to tease me about something. “The scooter is wrecked, so we have to walk. You lost the semi-automatic rifle to the Highwaymen, I lost my gun, we only have about two to three weeks of food and water, it’s cold, and we’re surrounded by undead in all directions.”
I looked down at her smiling face. “Yep, that’s the situation.”
“Just checking, Tiger. So it’s like normal then, huh?” she said, her smile growing bigger.
“Yeah. Just like normal.”
We walked for a few more miles till we hit a small industrial area. The road we were on passed behind a few small steel buildings with fences. Claire’s hip hurt a little, so we decided to take a break in the shade of a big oak tree. I stood guard as she tried to flex her hip a little so it would loosen up.
I heard a familiar noise from the side of the road. I looked up to see two Yellow-Eyes trapped in a chain-link enclosure surrounding a paint and body shop. They were in pretty bad shape from what I could see. They moaned and pawed at the fence, trying to get at us.
We stood for a minute staring at the two poor devils trapped behind the fence. They had been secured for a long time, and looked famished. Claire got a devilish look in her eye. “Hey John. Watch this!” Despite her injured hip, she jogged over to the enclosure, drew her bat, and ran it along the fence in front of
the zombies. They started moaning louder, and pushed at the fence, trying to get to her.
She ran back to the oak tree with a pleased look on her face. I could only shake my head, and say, “Don’t tease the zombies, Claire. They don’t like that.”
She started to giggle, and it turned into a hearty laugh. It echoed off the walls and swirled back at me from all directions. I hadn’t heard Claire laugh in a long time. It was a great sound, full of youthful exuberance and hope for the future. Her wonderful, youthful laugh made me feel that, despite the hell all around us, Claire and I would eventually find our way out of this mess. I was really glad she was with me.
We started walking again, leaving the two trapped zombies behind to their ultimate fate. Claire’s laughter was still ringing in my ears.
I had really missed hearing her laugh.
Sometimes We Ran (Book 1) Page 19