by Lake, D. K
“Oh, yeah it's cold!” he said, laughing.
“Shut up,” I said, wrapping the towel around myself, turning away so Lane could get dressed. I spent a few minutes trying to dry myself the best I could without letting the towel slip. “You know, I was done five minutes ago.” Lane said, walking over to me. “Alex, get dressed you'll freeze. I promise I won't look.”
I gave him a pointed look.
“I already saw your titties,” he grinned. “Can I borrow that razor now?”
“In my bag with the shaving foam.”
“Shaving foam? You really do come prepared.”
“I just take whatever I can carry.” I said, carefully pulling on clean underwear underneath the towel. Lane was still searching in my bag so I squatted down to help him.
He pulled out a few pieces of clothing I had stashed in there.
“You have lots of spare socks... don't suppose...”
“Yes you can have a pair, I'm sure you can squeeze them on.”
“What's this?”
“Err.. nothing.” I said, trying to pull it away from him, but he moved it out of my reach and looked at it.
He unfolded the T-shirt and looked at me.
“This is my T-shirt.” he said.
“Was. You said I could have it, remember?”
“And you still have it?”
“I must have forgotten it was in there,” I said, lifting it out of his hand and pushing it back into the bag and pulling out a different vest top I wanted to wear.
“I somehow doubt you forgot it was in there.” he said.
“Razor and shaving foam,” I said, pushing the items into his hand. “Go and shave, you look like a gorilla.”
He stood up and I searched around for my bra.
“Where's my...” Something landed on my head.
I reached up to grab it and my towel slipped at the front and I flashed everything to Lane. Lane laughed and I quickly pulled the towel higher. At least, I had located my bra. “Nice rack!” Lane said, squatting beside the river.
I ignored him and finished getting dressed. When I was done I joined him by the riverside and knelt down beside him as he dried his face.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think you cut yourself shaving,” I said, touching a spot of blood on his chin.
I realized he was watching me and my fingers were still touching his face.
“Looks better,” I said, moving away and rinsing my dirty underwear out.
I looked sideways at Lane, almost forgetting he was beside me, watching me while I scrubbed my dirty undies. “Did you put your dirty underwear back on?” I asked, pulling a disgusted face. “No, they're here,” he said, picking up a pair of navy boxer shorts from beside him. “I'm going commando for the day.” he said.
“Just so we're clear, I'm not washing your underwear.”
He laughed and borrowed some body wash, which was what I was currently using to wash my dirty clothes with.
Afterwards, I rolled them in the towel as much as possible and hung them up to air dry while we shared a few crackers and some of my water, then I used a mouthful of water to brush my teeth. Lane watched me as though he'd never seen a toothbrush before.
“Don't even think about it. You can have a little toothpaste on your finger, but I draw the line at sharing my toothbrush with you.”
Lane stuck his finger out to me and I squeezed some toothpaste onto it. I laughed as he brushed his teeth with his finger.
He spat on the ground and rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I thought you said you wanted to get out of here after you'd had your bath?”
“I did, but my legs are a bit sore from walking, oh, and I fell out of a tree which didn't help.” It was a lie, my legs were only sore from walking.
“You're still mad at me?”
“What do you think?”
After a couple of hours rest and when our clothes were dry-ish, I decided it was time to hit the road again. My stomach was rumbling loudly, bringing me back to reality, we needed to get back on the road to find more food. That was my life, walking, sleeping, and finding food... and killing zombies. We gathered our things and made our way back to the road.
Lane hadn't said much since we had left the river, I think he knew I was still annoyed with him. “How can I make it up to you?”
“Huh?” I was completely lost in my own thoughts.
“You're still pissed at me,”
“No shit.”
“Is this because I stole your towel?”
“No, Lane, this is because you nearly got me killed last night.”
“You still hung up on that?”
I bit back what I really wanted to say and thought of something that didn't involve me shouting obscenities at him.
“You know how you can make it better? How about the next zombie we run into, you can kill it.” “If anything happens to me you'll feel really bad about it. You're the zombie killer. I'm not good at it.”
“Well, you need to get good at it, I won't always be around to save you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What do you think it means? This isn't a game. If you get killed you don't get another go at it, you get one chance and one chance only. If you're going to follow me then I need to know you've got my back, otherwise there's no point in me keeping you around. I might as well just shoot you to save you from getting bitten and turning into a flesh-eater.”
I didn't think he liked what I had said as he didn't say anything. Instead, he took a step closer to me, then another and another, until we were inches apart.
“What?”
“You're so tetchy, is it that time of the month?” he asked, looking down at me.
“Go away!” I groaned, pushing him sideways, and quickening my pace to get away from him. After a few more steps of neither one of us speaking, Lane joined my side again. “I thought I told you to go away?”
“Okay, you win, Alex.”
He didn't say anything else and turned around and started walking back the other way. I watched him as he walked off, kicking a stone away.
“What, no goodbye?” I called, trying to keep my voice quiet.
“Goodbye, Alex. Look after yourself.” he said, waving his hand in the air, not bothering to turn around and look at me.
“I will,” I said, stubbornly turning my back on him and walking the other way.
Was he being serious? Was he really leaving?
I walked a few more steps. Lane could hardly look after himself, he was barely surviving until he found me.
I stopped walking.
What was I doing? I rubbed my face trying to sort my head out. If I stayed with Lane I would probably wind up dead, if I never saw him again... I would probably end up dead sooner or later anyway.
Fuck!
I spun around expecting to see him in the distance... only he was gone.
There was no sign of him.
The road was straight, where had he gone? Had he walked into the trees? Had he been dragged into the trees by a group of hungry zombies? No, I would have heard them.
I found myself walking the way I had last seen Lane walking. After awhile I stopped, completely stumped, and stood staring down the road not sure what to do.
“Lane?” I called, not wanting to shout because it would draw attention to me.
Then I did my best bird calling noise. I was so distracted wondering where he was and getting upset over it, thinking I would never see him again... I didn't notice the tall figure creeping up behind me. It grabbed me from behind and I squealed, flinching away from the arms.
I spun around swinging my weapon in its direction... narrowly missing Lane.
“Lane! What the hell!”
“Miss me?”
My lips twitched.
“Was that a smile?”
“No, there was no smile.”
“I think there was.”
“Well, you're imagining it.�
��
“Okay, if you say so.” he smiled.
“Is everything a game to you?” I asked, walking around him. “I've been standing here for ten minutes wondering where you went.”
“I know. I was watching from over there while I had a smoke,” he said, trailing behind me. I slowed down and turned around to talk to him, but he was looking down at the ground and walked straight into me. I put my hands on his chest and gently pushed him back a step. “I don't want to die. I've survived for too long, and I'm not gonna risk my life for you again, just so we're clear on that.”
“You've made yourself perfectly clear Alex, and I'm not asking you to do anything else for me. I'm just asking to be your friend.”
I realized I still had his hoodie bunched up in my hands, and so had he. He looked down at my hands, which were at present reluctant to let go of him. He reached up to touch one of my hands, but I quickly dropped them and stepped back.
“I don't want any friends, they only end up dead. I don't want to get attached to you.” Lane raised an eyebrow at me, I quickly looked away from him and started walking again. “Oh, and Alex,”
“What is it now?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the road ahead.
“I happen to be walking the same way as you,” he said. “and possibly sleeping in the same tree as you.”
“You better not snore tonight.”
Lane chuckled. “See you're already warming up to me.”
We walked for a little while beside each other, in step, in silence. I glanced sideways and found Lane looking back at me, this went on for awhile.
“Stop doing that!” I said.
“Doing what?”
“You know what. It's what you used to do for the whole of Calculus class.”
He laughed. “You noticed.”
“Yes, I noticed.”
“But you ignored me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because you were you.”
“I don't understand.”
“You're Lane Walker. The Lane Walker, everyone knew what you were like when it came to girls. Why would you ever think I'd be interested in someone like that?”
“People change, Alex.”
“Yes, they do... into zombies.”
“That's not what I meant.”
“It doesn't matter, anyhow, that was, like, a million years ago, let's not go there again, okay?” “Okay... Alex?”
“What is it now?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask me anything, it doesn't mean I'm going to answer it, though.”
“What happens if one of us gets bitten?”
I stopped. It was the one question I thought about every single day.
“Let's make a deal, if I get bitten you can shoot me in the head and if you get bitten I'll shoot you in the head. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good to me,” he said.
Chapter 7
Oregon - Two Months Later.
“We should have risked it,” Lane said.
“No! Will you stop already? That town was like zombie city, we don't have a vehicle, we would have never made it back out alive.”
“We have no food and hardly any water left.”
“Don't you think I don't know that? That's why we need to keep moving, there's bound to be a house or a service station or something.”
“Or... just more fucking trees.”
We kept walking and we eventually saw a sign in the distance. I jogged the rest of the way, happy to put some distance between me and the last town. The sight of zombies walking aimlessly in groups around every corner. Zombies eating other zombies. A zombie chasing a dog. Ugh! I shuddered. That town was my worst nightmare.
I slowed down to look at the sign. Lakewell Science Laboratories
“And what do you think you're going to find in there? A mutated mouse?” Lane said. “I don't know until I get there.”
“I think we should go back.”
“You can go back if you want. I'm going to keep walking.”
“Toward certain death.”
“Nope, I'm sure certain death was back that way.”
“There's not much else in front... starvation, dehydration.”
“Wow, I'm amazed you can actually say dehydration.”
“Alex,”
“No, Lane, we're walking this way.”
“Why do you always get to make all the decisions?” he asked.
“Because I'm two months older than you and I didn't spend my adolescence smoking weed.” “We don't even know how far away that place is?”
“Then we better start moving.”
After a few more grunts and grumbles Lane finally gave up on the idea of going back to the town. We walked for another two hours and I had nearly given up on the idea of finding the Lab before dark.
“What's that Alex, are you.. are you lost?”
“The sign said it was this way, that's why we're walking this way, and if you hadn't set fire to our map we would know where we're going.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“You're like a toddler, I can't leave you alone by a campfire for more than two minutes without you setting something on fire. I'm starting to think you've got pyromania.”
“I was bored! It was an accident.”
“Just don't, I don't want to talk about it anymore.”
“It's starting to get dark,” Lane said. “Do you see that SUV up ahead?”
“Of course, I'm not blind. You don't have to narrate everything.”
“Well, I'm bored. Can we play-”
“No! No more I spy or truth or dare games.”
I lifted my hood up over my head and pulled it as far over as it would go, trying to block him out for five minutes. Some days we drove each other mad with our constant bickering. I was amazed I hadn't shot him already.
Lane dragged his shovel along the road and it grated loudly.
“Lane! Seriously!”
He huffed and rested it over his shoulder, and overtook me.
When I reached the SUV, Lane already had most of the doors open checking it out. As I got closer I had to cover my nose.
“What's that smell?” I asked.
Lane pulled out a plastic bag and held it out at arms length, still trying to look inside it. “It's this, yeah, I don't think there's anything edible in there anymore.”
“Get rid of it, as far away as possible.”
Lane walked away with the bag and I searched the backseats. The backseat was like a rummage sale, full of boxes and clothes. As I dug through the clothes I noticed over the seats in the back there was bedding.
“Anything good?” Lane said, jumping into the front seat.
“Clothes, clothes, and more clothes and a box of teapots. I think whoever owned this previously brought their whole closet and all of their beloved possessions with them. There's even a photo album back here.”
“No keys,” Lane grumbled.
“Did you really expect there to be keys? Every vehicle we check never has keys. I don't get it. If the car doesn't work, why take the keys? Seems pointless.”
Then I remembered Lane still kept his house keys in his bag.
“The hood isn't down properly.”
“Probably because they tried to fix it but gave up and left when they realized it had had it.” Lane ignored me and climbed back out, leaving me to search through the stuff, I was pleased to find a few useful items. A few minutes later Lane filled the door and hung inside.
“The battery is gone.”
“They took the battery?”
“No, I think the car broke down and the previous owners left, then someone else came along and took the battery and a couple of other items from under the hood.”
“So it's not drivable,” I said. “but we can still stay in here tonight. I mean, once the smell has aired out, we can leave the doors open until it's dark.”
Lane leaned in further to look in the back.
> “You think we'll be safe in here?” he asked.
“The windows are all tinted, so the zombies won't see us. They don't chase what they can't see.” Lane nodded and leaned over me to snout in a box. I moved aside for him and climbed into the back to inspect the bedroom area. It all looked spotless. As I searched around the pillows my hand found something hidden inside the pillowcase.
I held it up and waved it in the air to get Lane's attention. “Hey, Lane, look, I found dinner!” “Is that a Snickers bar?”
“Yep, I think someone was being greedy and hid it inside their pillow, then they forgot about it.” Lane rummaged through the boxes. It was a mixture of both male and female, youngish-style clothes, with a few pieces of older-style clothing. We both found clean underwear and clean jeans to replace the ones we wore every day, that were... well, disgusting.
I was lucky enough to find a box of Tampax as well, not that I told Lane. There were a few things we still kept to ourselves.
We sat on the roof of the SUV with our legs dangling over the side, still waiting for the smell to air out. I browsed through the photo album while I ate my half of the chocolate bar. The previous owners had been a couple and his mother by the looks of it.
“I don't get why they left behind a bag of food.” I said.
“Maybe they were in a hurry, or maybe they took all they could carry.”
“Maybe,”
“They're probably dead,” he said bluntly.
I laughed.
“You're starting to sound like me,” I said, smiling, looking sideways at him.
“Well, what do you expect? I'm with you 24/7 you're bound to rub off on me.”
Lane's eyes lingered on my lips and I looked away, shutting the photo album. After spending two months with Lane, I could read him like a book. He touched my hand, I moved it away, and he sighed.
“No attachments.” he muttered, jumping down from the roof.
“It's for the best, Lane,” I said.
“Whatever!” he said, picking up his shovel and chucking it into the SUV. “C'mon get in,” he said. I jumped down and put the photo album back, then I walked around to the front of the SUV to use the bathroom. Lane did the same at the other end of the vehicle.
I climbed into the back and Lane walked around the SUV closing all the doors quietly. It still stank inside.