Alive?

by Melissa Woods

  Matt shook his head, immediately. “No.”

  “But I eat people. Regular food has no taste, and the blood… It makes me so strong—”

  “But you’re not rotting,” Matt argued. “You’re still breathing.”

  “Maybe that’s habit. Those things breathe, too.”

  Matt took hold of her hand, felt her wrist. “You have a pulse.”

  “Maybe they do, too.”

  Matt shook his head. “They’re dead. You know they are. They might breathe, but they don’t need to. I’ve seen them walking around with limbs hanging off. And you can still eat our food. Do you drink water? Does it stop you from feeling thirsty?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you get tired when you run?”

  “Literally all the time, I’m super unfit.”

  Matt grinned. “See, you’re not like them. They never get tired. Plus, they still chase you. They still want to eat you. They don’t do that to each other.”

  Violet got up, pacing again. “So what am I? Why am I like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Matt admitted. “Maybe whatever turned them into those things didn’t work fully on you? Maybe you’ve got some kind of immunity?”

  “But I’ve turned people before,” Violet admitted, finally saying the words aloud. “The first person I killed; he came back, and so did Daniel”

  Matt seemed to be taking that in, saying nothing.

  Violet continued. “If I’m not completely like the biters, why can I do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Matt repeated. He got to his feet, moving closer and taking her hands in his. “But we’ll find out.”

  “How?”

  He bit his lip. “Okay, we might not find out. But I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

  Violet wasn’t so sure. “I should leave. You’d all be so much safer without me around.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, our own personal zombie bodyguard might come in handy.”

  She pulled away and shoved him. Matt held his hands up, huffing out a laugh. “I’m kidding! Whatever this is, we’ll deal with it. Together. All of us, I mean.”

  Violet cocked her head, still not sure she could believe how relaxed he was about the whole thing. Even Amy had looked at her differently when she found out, but Matt was so calm.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I just don’t get it. Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

  Matt shrugged. “I’ll be honest, I’m more afraid of having to sleep in the same bed as Tom tonight.” He pulled a disgusted face.

  Violet rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”

  Matt winked, getting up and moving toward the door. She called him back. “Wait.”

  “What is it?”

  “Do you think I should tell the others?”

  Matt raised an eyebrow. “That’s up to you.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think…I think we’ve all been through a lot. Maybe telling them now would add stress we don’t need.”

  “But if something happens, if someone gets cut—”

  “I’ll keep you away from anything like that. Don’t worry.” His smile was reassuring, and Violet knew he meant it. He was going to try to keep her from hurting anyone.

  She just wished she could believe it would work.

  It walks through the hallway, stumbling aimlessly. It doesn’t have a destination, it just walks. It doesn’t look at the pictures on the walls or the things on the shelves. Those things don’t matter to it. All it cares about is feeding.

  There’s an open door at the end of the hall, and it can hear sounds from inside. They are in there. It walks a little faster, and it finds them sleeping. Two in the bed, three on the floor.

  Don’t hurt them!

  It moves closer, smelling the air. It can smell them. It knows what it must do.

  Stop! They’re my friends!

  It can see one of them stirring. That one sits up in the bed, looks at it with a smile. Then the smile disappears as it jumps and begins to feed.

  Stop! Stop! Leave him alone!

  Delicious blood, hot and thick, smearing around its mouth. Then the flesh, juicy and tender. The others are waking. They’re making noises, and it forgets its meal. Fresher is better. It runs for the next one. This one is stronger, fights harder, but it always gets what it wants, and soon it is feeding again. The other ones are screaming, throwing things at it. The screaming is louder, more painful. It hurts its throat. Is it the one screaming?

  “Violet! Violet, it’s me!”

  Someone clapped hands over her mouth, and the screaming stopped. As the room came into focus, Violet realized it had only been a dream. She let out a single sob, feeling like a weight had been lifted off her chest, and threw her arms around whoever had silenced her. It was Matt, and he let her hold onto him. She was afraid at any moment she would slip back into the dream again.

  The door to the bedroom burst open, and Joe and Sam appeared. Sam was holding one of the guns. Joe was wearing a T-shirt and no underwear.

  Who sleeps like that?

  “We heard screaming,” Sam said, his eyes scanning the room.

  “I…I had a bad dream,” Violet choked, her mouth dry.

  Sam looked like he didn’t altogether believe her. She wondered again just how loudly she had been yelling, but he nodded anyway.

  “Sorry,” she whispered.

  “It’s okay,” Sam replied. “I’ll go check the windows, make sure none of the dead heard it.” He left the room. Joe stayed, regarding Violet with a concerned expression.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked.

  Violet nodded, starting to feel a little calmer, and still not altogether sure why Joe had no pants on.

  “You look really pale, Vi,” he added.

  Matt held up a hand to shield his eyes. “Joe, I’m going to need you to put on some underwear before we continue this conversation.”

  Joe glanced down, as if realizing for the first time that he was naked from the waist down. He covered himself up. “Oh, sorry. This is just how I sleep.” He grinned sheepishly, though he still didn’t leave.

  “You want me to stay with you?” he asked Violet. “Obviously, boxers would be put on before I made any attempt to approach you.”

  Violet smiled, but shook her head. Matt squeezed her hand. “I’ll stay with her.”

  Joe nodded, then sidestepped out of the room. As he walked down the hallway, they heard Tom’s voice.

  “For Christ’s sake, Joe, cover yourself up!”

  “My half of the bed, my rules.”

  “I’m sleeping on the floor with Zack and the kid.”

  Violet slumped back, realizing for the first time that she was drenched with sweat.

  “Bad?” Matt asked.

  She nodded.

  “It was just a dream.”

  “It felt so real.”

  “The worst ones always do.” Matt shifted a little so he was beside her. “I’ll stay here; you go back to sleep. I’ll wake you if it looks like you’re having another nightmare.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep again.”

  “Just try.”

  So she did what he said, laying back down. As if her waking moments weren’t bad enough, now she had to be scared to go to sleep, too?

  Violet woke up late the next day. Matt was gone, but he had done his job. After she fell asleep, she had begun to dream of that dark hallway again, but just as she was stepping into the room containing her sleeping friends, Matt had shaken her awake. He said she’d been whimpering. After that, she dreamed of nothing.

  Violet dressed quickly, grateful to finally be in her own clothes and not a random assortment from the school. She headed downstairs to find everyone busy. Joe, Toby, and Tom were leaning over some paper in the dining room, talking in hushed voices about something. As she approached, Violet realized they were drawing a map of the town. Toby was talking them through it based on his time outside.

  “We t
hought it would be useful,” Joe explained. “It’s good to know what’s out there. We can never be sure about the biters, but Toby knows where the roads are blocked, which buildings we can get into without the dead knowing, places that still have supplies…”

  Violet nodded. As much as she could see herself settling back at home, she knew they couldn’t stay indefinitely. When it came down to it, they had to get out of town. She followed the route they had begun to mark out. Last night, the group had decided on a destination—Matt’s grandparents’ house. They lived out in the country, and it seemed at least a good place to start. Violet pointed to part of the route, her brow furrowing.

  “Why are we going along the highway? Isn’t it too open?” They had agreed to stick to small roads; places where there was as much cover as possible. The highway was wide and offered no concealment from the biters.

  Toby shook his head. “It’s deserted. My friends and I went out there to get supplies from some of the cars. There’s the odd monster, but not many.”

  “You think they went toward town?” Joe asked.

  “That’s where the food is,” Toby said.

  “Thanks for that,” Joe replied sarcastically. “Anyway, Toby says it’s safe, and it’s the quickest route out of here, so we should try it.”

  That made sense at least. Tom, however, was scowling at the map.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Don’t get him started—” Joe tried to begin, but Tom interrupted.

  “They won’t listen to me. I’m trying to help, but they won’t let me.”

  “That’s because you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joe replied, not unkindly. “Toby’s been out there this whole time, and you’ve been locked in with us. What could you know about the town that he doesn’t?”

  “I just don’t think we should rule out South road. It’s really wide. It can’t be completely blocked.”

  Toby and Joe just stared at Tom blankly, before Toby said, “Well…it is.”

  But Tom clearly wasn’t ready to give in yet. “What if we cut through the ‘Save and Buy’? That would give us a chance to get some supplies on the way.”

  Joe shook his head. “No, that would… Wait, what did you call it?”

  “The ‘Save and Buy’?”

  “It’s the ‘Buy and Save’.”

  Tom shook his head, as if Joe had just said the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “No, it’s not.”

  “Yes, it is,” Toby said.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “It is,” Violet added.

  “It’s not!” Tom’s face was becoming red with anger.

  Joe held up his hands in exasperation. “Your name makes no sense at all! The idea is that if you buy your stuff there, you save money. Not that you have to save up to buy—that’s ridiculous.”

  Tom stared them both down, and Violet felt the air get a little frostier.

  “Okay, well, have fun,” she muttered before making a hasty getaway. No way was she going to get involved in that pointless argument.

  Even though Tom was completely wrong.

  In the living room, Sam and Zack were examining the guns. On the table in front of them were eight shiny metal bullets. “That’s it?” Violet asked, disappointed. She’d hoped for more

  “Yeah, but it’s better than nothing.” Sam sighed.

  “Do you have any experience with guns?”

  He shrugged. “What you saw at the school was the extent of it.”

  When she swung her gaze to Zack, he shook his head. “John and the others didn’t really let me shoot…”

  “Why did you have a gun back at the school?” Violet asked.

  “I just happened to grab it before Edd.”

  “Okay.” Violet bit her lip. “We don’t want to waste our bullets, or risk any of us getting hurt. I say we only shoot if we have no other choice; otherwise, we use knives and stuff.”

  Sam gestured toward the kitchen. “I think Matt’s working on the weapon situation now.”

  Violet went into the other room where Matt had laid out an assortment of weapons on the table. Alongside her knife, there were three others, as well as a shovel and a garden fork. “You went into the garage?” Violet asked.

  Matt nodded. “Early this morning. There were no biters, and I was fast.”

  “You should’ve told me, I would’ve come with you.”

  “You were sleeping. You needed it.”

  Violet looked at the stuff on the table. “We don’t have much.”

  “I’ll keep searching. I’m resourceful.” Matt winked. Maggie appeared from the other room with a couple of backpacks. She began filling them with anything in the cupboards they might be able to use: soup, chips, chocolate bars, cereal bars, and a couple of boxes of cookies.

  “Not exactly a great selection,” Violet murmured, immediately feeling embarrassed about what her home had to offer. “If I’d have known about the zombie apocalypse, I’d have stocked up.”

  Maggie smiled. “You’ll know for next time.” She headed back into the other room.

  “Did she make a joke?” Matt asked.

  “I think so.”

  “That’s new.” Matt grinned. “See, things are looking up!”

  Violet awoke early the next morning to the sound of screaming, only this time it wasn’t her who was doing it. She sat bolt upright, listening again for the sound. It sounded like it was coming from close by. She jumped out of bed and ran to the hallway, then into her parent’s room, where the others were already getting up and heading to the window. Sunlight was beginning to trickle through the gap in the curtains, and Violet cautiously pulled them aside to see what was happening.

  There was a man in overalls not far from the house. There was also a woman in a yellow dress. Both were running from the biters—at least seven or eight of them. It was hard to tell how many. They were moving too fast, and the hedge out front kept blocking them from view. The man had a gun, and the woman had a hammer. Another man appeared holding a crowbar.

  “Wait a minute,” Matt began, standing at Violet’s side. Suddenly, she knew what he was about to say. The group in the house watched helplessly as the man used the crowbar to break into their car. He climbed inside and disappeared while the other two continued to fight off the dead. Seconds later, the engine roared to life.

  “He’s hotwired it,” Joe exclaimed. The other two members of the group got in, and the car sped away. A few of the biters ran after the vehicle, but the rest remained.

  “Oh good, they left their friends behind.” Joe groaned, stepping away from the window and throwing the shirt he’d had balled up in his hands onto the bed. Violet was grateful he at least had underwear on today.

  “What do we do now?” Zack asked.

  Sam ran his fingers through his hair, something he did when he was stressed. He seemed to be doing a lot more of it recently. When he faced the others, his expression was set. “We stick to the plan. We need to get out of this town, with or without a car. We leave tomorrow.”

  The group got up early to go over the plans again. Violet thought they probably talked them through more times than was necessary, probably because none of her friends were overly eager to leave the house, but eventually they had to go. They had a long walk ahead of them. They had initially thought of breaking into one of the other cars in the neighborhood, but still knew nothing about jacking cars. Sam continued to try and open each vehicle they passed, hopeful that someone might’ve left their keys inside, but they were out of luck.

  Violet was grateful they had a plan. Matt’s grandparents’ house was the best option, yet somehow, she still didn’t feel good about it. Yes, they lived in the middle of nowhere, so were less likely to have been overrun by the biters, and yes, they grew a lot of their own food, so would have been able to remain relatively self-sufficient. But did that mean they were safe? In this new world, Violet wasn’t sure she held out a lot of hope for two old people. Still, it wasn’t like she could say any of this.
How would that sound?

  “Hey Matt, thanks for telling us about your grandparents’ house. By the way, what shall we plan to do with their corpses?” No, she knew they’d just have to deal with events as they unfolded.

  As they stepped out into the cold morning air, Violet took one last glance at her house. She had the very real feeling that she would never see it again.

  They moved together as a group; Sam and Joe at the front, Tom behind, then Matt and Violet, Maggie, Zack, and Toby behind them. Ben walked at Violet’s side, sniffing the air cautiously, ears pricked up. They moved silently, each carrying a weapon of sorts. Sam had a gun, Zack had the other, as well as the shovel, Violet, Maggie, Toby and Tom had knives, Matt had the garden fork, and Joe had a wooden table leg. He hadn’t exactly been thrilled with it, but unfortunately, he’d gotten to the offerings last.

  The birds were still singing, which didn’t exactly feel right. Violet didn’t like hearing such a cheerful sound as they passed each corpse lying in the road. She shivered, trying not to look, but found herself doing it anyway. The bodies were all different; some more decomposed than others, some half-eaten. They each told a different story; the woman who’d died early on from a bite to the neck, but cracked her skull on the pavement as she went down; the boy who’d probably died a week ago, whose entire stomach was ripped open; the man who’d died recently from a shot to the head, who didn’t seem to have been bitten at all. Violet tried not to think about how easily she could’ve been one of those bodies.

  They passed a crashed car, with other cars parked around it. It appeared as though they had stopped to check that the driver was okay, so it must’ve happened early on. There were bits of those good Samaritans littered around the open door of the crashed car. The driver was nowhere to be seen.

  “Are you all right?” Matt asked quietly. Violet nodded, then shook her head, then shrugged. What answer could she really give? She was still breathing, so that was good enough for now.

  Sam and Joe continued to lead the group through countless alleyways and back roads. So far, they seemed to have luck on their side. Though they had passed countless corpses on the ground, they’d yet to encounter a walking one.