Age of Z: A Tale of Survival

by T. S. Frost

  She looked up, gave LS an apologetic look. “The military saved a lot of people, though. They held off a swarm long enough to get half of Philadelphia evacuated.” Of course most of those people died later, Alexa thought to herself, but she wasn't going to share that part.

  LS was silent for a long time, staring at the ground. Alexa began to wonder if he'd gone into shock again. She hadn't done much to help him so far–just deconstructed every aspect of the world he thought he understood, broken it into bitty pieces and scattered them.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, and then added, “I understand. It's–”

  “How could you possibly understand?” he snarled at her suddenly, looking angry. “You don't understand anything! To learn everything you've been made for, that you looked up to, is just gone like that and you never even had the chance t–”

  “My grandpa was in the army,” Alexa blurted out abruptly, cutting him off. LS was stunned into silence, and Alexa continued, “I didn't want to believe it happened, for a long time. I always wanted to pretend the he was off somewhere fighting zombies and he made it through okay and one day he'd be back to save everyone. I still wanted–want–to believe that...”

  She didn't have to finish. He got it.

  “Surprise,” Alexa finished lamely. She couldn't quite hide the bitter edge in her voice.

  More silence. LS looked uncomfortable, like he wasn't quite sure what to do now, but after a moment he said awkwardly, “Sorry. About... yelling.”

  “S'okay,” Alexa said. “I'm sorry too. I should've explained better.”

  The air was too heavy and depressing by now, and Alexa was starting to hate the tenseness of it all. She wasn't one to wallow in self-pity and misery; the fact that she was still alive now, three years later, and optimistically searching for the rest of her family was proof enough of that.

  “Look,” she said, tentatively at first, “We should be celebrating! We got out of there alive. That's big. And we've still got our original plan in front of us, too! Nothing's changed. We just gotta get up to that settlement and talk to my buddy. Hopefully we can figure out all these answers and then you can decide what you want to do with your life, without anybody telling you or ordering you or creating you for things. Right?”

  LS fixed her with a dull look, but after a moment the weak smile, a little bitter but at least trying, ghosted onto his face. “Right,” he repeated. “Yeah. I'd like that. A choice... my own life.”

  “There you go,” Alexa said encouragingly. “Don't worry. We'll get through this. I promise.”

  And she was going to do her best to ensure they did.

  Chapter 4

  The next month was devoted entirely to trying to figure each other out as they made their way northeast, up the Coast.

  Alexa spent most of her time teaching her new surrogate sibling as they traveled on foot. In Alexa's not-so-humble opinion, LS couldn't have had a better teacher; she considered herself to be an apocalyptic expert by this point.

  Most people traveling outside of safe zones did so only long enough to reach a settlement and join it, and the truly adventurous ones would venture out for brief periods to go on scavenging trips. Alexa had made a living out of existing outside the settlements, meaning she had a lot more experience than most people staying alive in zombie-infested territories.

  She was happy to share her survival tips with LS now. And he was a pretty fast learner, she discovered, once Alexa got it through his head that he was not, in fact, invincible.

  He picked up on foraging and hunting quickly, learning how to identify, collect, and properly store edible plants and animals for later. He was also far less squeamish than Alexa about hunting, accepting it as a simple necessity, which was good. Alexa had felt guilty for a week the first time she caught and killed a rabbit, and had to force the meat down her throat. The memory still made her feel ill years later.

  When they hit larger towns and city outskirts, he also learned how to scavenge for canned goods, water, and other immediate necessities pretty fast. Alexa taught him how to keep an eye on expiration dates and how to determine if foods and medicine were safe to consume, because food poisoning or bad drugs could be a death sentence out here.

  Alexa also taught him how to scavenge for other things, outlining a list of which goods were useful for trade and acted as the best forms of modern currency, and with his enhanced strength the number of things they could safely carry away increased.

  Most importantly, she stressed repeatedly the necessity of keeping themselves safe at all times. This was the hardest lesson for her to get across to LS, who was still prone to wanting to fight, and disliked being forced to restrain himself. But gradually Alexa started to get across the dire nature of the situation to him, and when she did he took to these lessons, too, with intelligence and skill.

  Alexa taught him the basics of zombie avoidance, how to never approach them if it could be avoided and to always traverse silently in any place where zombies might be likely to congregate. A general rule of thumb, she explained, was that wherever high densities of humans could be found–cities, for example, or fairly populated towns and suburbs–equally high densities of zombies would likely reside now.

  Traversing these areas could be particularly dangerous, which was why if they could be circled around it was better to do so–unless, of course, you were desperate for the supplies, or couldn't afford to waste the extra time circumventing the area.

  Of course, wilderness travel had its own dangers, which she was careful to outline. There would usually be smaller numbers of zoms, maybe only in groups of one or two, but they could also be hidden almost anywhere without being spotted. Trees and bushes could conceal zombies far too easily, after all.

  Alexa had even once seen a legless zombie catch a man by surprise when he came across it in tall grass without seeing it. Worst of all was water–Alexa stressed time and time again to never approach open sources of water that didn't have a strong current, like ponds and lakes, without taking extreme caution and having a weapon at the ready. Zombies didn't drown, and the unwary could easily be dragged under and never seen again.

  LS took it all in stride, and if the frequently grim lessons disturbed him he didn't show it–just kept the frown that Alexa learned was his permanent default expression on his face. Which was good, she hoped. It meant her friend was taking this seriously. Plenty of people thought they could handle wilderness travel, only to discover after a few days of continually watching their back that they couldn't hack it, and that didn't end well.

  In addition to explaining all the dangerous places, Alexa gave him a quick rundown of safe places as well, and told him how to determine if a chosen campsite was good or not. Height was usually the most important factor: zombies couldn't climb, although they could sometimes crawl up stairs depending on how steep they were.

  Second and third stories of buildings, preferably with lockable doors, were the best. Roofs were also good if they weren't too sloped, although it was hard to hide from the elements in the event of a storm, and trees could be okay too if you were careful about how you slept in them.

  Stores, homes, schools, and business buildings were typically okay, if you were careful, but hospitals were to be avoided at all costs as resting places and were only to be entered at all if you were desperate to find medication. When the outbreak first happened, thousands of infected victims were rushed to the hospitals, only to die and spread the condition even further, making most facilities a hotbed for zoms.

  LS listened very carefully to each and every explanation, and recited everything back to Alexa dutifully whenever prompted. Alexa made him recite this particular list often, while they were moving–in the event that they got split up, which Alexa hoped wouldn't happen but could never be guaranteed in this day and age. She wanted to make sure he didn't inadvertently get himself killed by choosing a poor shelter.

  Of course, there were the lessons in zombie fighting, when necessary. LS seemed particularly intrigue
d by these lessons, which didn't surprise Alexa in the least. She stressed the importance of always picking flight over fight if given the chance, until he actually started rolling his eyes and saying the warning right along with her.

  She also repeatedly stressed how important it was not to get bitten, because once you were, it was over–you were infected, and soon after you'd be trying to munch on your friend's brains.

  “Don't make me have to crowbar you,” Alexa told him grimly, once, when he seemed to not be taking the 'don't fight' warnings seriously. “It'll kill me to have to do it, but if you get turned into a zombie and come after me I won't have a choice. So be careful and don't get bitten. And I'll do the same so you won't have to actually punch my face in this time.”

  LS was noticeably more subdued during the fighting lectures after that, which was good. Nobody should be excited about fighting zombies, not unless they were crazy or had nothing left to lose. Alexa went into detail on how to fight zombies properly–the only way to beat them was to kill them, and the only way to do that was by destroying the brain. Once the brain was damaged, whatever force was controlling the bodies just stopped.

  “Other people think fire is a good idea,” she told him once, “but don't believe them. You can eventually burn a zombie to death by reducing the brain–and everything else–to ash. But remember, they don't feel pain, and it takes a while for a corpse to burn. Until then you have a zombie that's on fire attacking you, which is just all kinds of bad. So don't do it.”

  LS actually grimaced at that one, which was a sign of just how gruesome life had gotten, and how desensitized to it Alexa was getting. If the world ever went right again she wondered if she'd actually be okay in it. She really wasn't sure.

  During other points in their travel, Alexa filled in the blank spots for LS's non-existent memories of the last three years. She gave him brief history lessons on what she remembered going on before Z-day hit, and how everything had gone downhill after that. Most of the information for the past two years or so came from rumors and hearsay, and originated only from the areas of the country she'd been to.

  “International communications sort of died,” Alexa explained, at LS's confusion. “I haven't heard anything about outside the US. Not much of a way to stay in contact with other countries. Things could be completely fine over there and we'd never know. Only the military-operated settlements have any degree of consistent communications and they don't really have much to say to the civilian-controlled refuge areas.” Alexa's disgust was only barely controlled on that last line.

  LS frowned. “You're not fond of the military.”

  “Not really. They sort of screwed things up a lot. The government and the military spent so much time throwing fits over who should have command and the best course of action that by the time they realized they were all being idiots, it was too late.”

  She shrugged. “The outbreak was beyond control. So then they started this terrible campaign over on the western side of the country, trying to use the mountain range there as a natural barrier, and basically threw the entirety of central and eastern U.S. to the wolves.”

  LS's frown grew noticeably deeper, and he did not seem particularly pleased at this show of cowardice or weakness. But all he said was, “But we're on the East Coast, and there are still settlements here.”

  Alexa grinned. “I told you, people are survivors! There's about eight or nine major hubs of safety on our side of the boundary line that are run by some very innovative former civilians. They figured out ways to keep people alive and kept doing it. Plus there's hundreds of smaller areas scattered around, where little groups and family units and trading posts and stuff manage to hold out.”

  LS seemed impressed. Although it was clear he wasn't entirely comfortable with the way the entire world had changed on him seemingly overnight, it was clear he was starting to adapt to it.

  LS, for his part, adapted rather well to the apocalyptic era in more than one way. Now that he was familiar with the sounds of zombies and the way they hunted, it was easy for him to identify approaching zoms with his hearing long before they were in visual range, meaning the two of them could break camp and bolt for it before things really became dangerous.

  His strength was an enormous asset as well. He could easily shift aside obstacles blocking their path, tear his way into blocked or locked buildings for shelter, or even smash stairwells, with effort, to prevent any particularly determined zombies from reaching them.

  In the rare event that they were forced to fight for their lives, he had a bad habit of breaking most of the makeshift weapons they came across–golf clubs, baseball bats, and even pipes and two-by-fours frequently fell victim to his overpowered swings. But that became sort of negligible when he could also pick up entire motorcycles,and fling them at the walking dead from a safe distance, knocking down entire groups of zoms in one shot.

  The first time he'd done that had actually been pretty epic. Enough so for Alexa to give him ten minutes of smug satisfaction before reaming him out for staying to fight instead of running like he was supposed to.

  Traveling with LS definitely made things a lot safer, and that wasn't even taking into account the added benefits of having a traveling partner in general. Sure, it was a little harder to feed themselves, with two mouths and not one to look after, and they had to spend a lot more than Alexa was used to hunting or foraging for food.

  It dragged out her usually three-week trip along this route to a full month, and some of the longer stretches they were forced to take when they couldn't find enough supplies were... uncomfortable.

  But mostly the benefits were worth it. With two people, they had two sets of eyes and ears keeping watch for danger and supplies and safe campsites. They could help each other with hunting, foraging, and scavenging, or one of them could keep up a careful guard while the other could focus one hundred percent of their attention on a task.

  Best of all, they could take watch shifts at night, meaning hours of real rest without having to stay partly awake the whole time, listening for tell-tale moans or other signs of danger.

  Alexa trusted LS to watch her back, and she was pretty sure he trusted her the same way, which was depressingly uncommon in this day and age.

  Survival was all that mattered, the world was dog-eat-dog, and it was rare to find a traveling companion that you could actually trust to not stab you in your sleep and run off with your supplies. But they didn't have to worry about that with each other, and between Alexa's knowledge and LS's abilities they made a very impressive and efficient traveling team.

  And because of that ease and efficiency, and the month-long journey, Alexa had plenty of time to start getting to know her friend on a more personal level.

  It was gradual, and difficult to manage at first, because initially LS didn't have much of a personal level. Alexa had long since determined he was intended as either some sort of super-soldier, or a weapon for something more sinister, and it was fairly obvious the more time she spent with the clone that LS had been allowed to know of and think of nothing outside of what was necessary for that job.

  It meant he had no favorites, no personality quirks, and no notable character traits to define himself as, well, himself. Even his language at first had been exquisitely precise, like somebody had dumped half a dozen advanced-level English textbooks into his head but forgot to make note of colloquialisms or cultural impacts.

  But eventually as the days passed, Alexa was intrigued to see more of a person forming, as the robotic biological weapon facade gradually faded away.

  At first it was noticeable with LS's speech, in the way he started using contractions with less studied precision and more growing casualness, and adopted Alexa's slang. Then with personality, as he started forming his own interests and quirks, became less and less a cloned weapon and more and more a person.

  He was overconfident and aggressive and enjoyed fighting, but less because he felt he had to and more because he liked to. He didn't like a
dmitting to having any form of weakness, often denying being tired or hungry after a particularly large expenditure of his stamina on given days, hinting at a great deal of pride.

  He also hated failing at anything, and in what Alexa suspected was a related issue, he was oddly, tentatively responsive to praise when he did something particularly well–like he was never entirely sure how to take it, but found he sort of enjoyed it.

  He enjoyed the taste of rabbit and the wild apples they'd occasionally found in overgrown orchards, but disliked venison and some of the more bitter edible plants they came across. He also had a fondness for animals, though he tried hard to hide it; Alexa often noted with amusement the way he'd watch feral dogs and cats in the cities, or deer and foxes in the wilderness.

  LS was surprisingly smart, too, once Alexa managed to get him into a conversation. The teenager spent the first few days of their travel picking the clone's brain, trying to figure out how far his understanding of the world had gone before Z-day.