by Max Lockwood
He could see Pip prancing through the store, leaping over fallen objects and dead bodies, clearly excited about her haul. In her haste, she looked straight down at the floor instead of out the open door.
Pip didn’t seem to notice the frail woman standing around the door, clutching a shiny dagger in her spindly fingers. At first glance, Matthew thought she was a zombie because of her slight frame. At the very least, she looked like she was in the beginning stages of being turned.
“Pip, no!” Matthew shouted one last time, trying to keep her from running into the arms of a madwoman. But his words fell on deaf ears. Pip didn’t want to take orders from Matthew. She didn’t want to be told that her choices of supplies were wrong. She’d already promised to do more work and return for a second load. She needed everyone to get off her back so she could get the things she needed to stay sane. Pip was fully aware that it was rude to ignore Matthew’s commands, but she was an independent woman. She had to look out for herself too.
“Damn it, Pip,” Matthew roared. “Stop!”
There was nothing more he could do to keep Pip from getting in trouble. She was a reckless soul with little worry about future consequences. Matthew watched helplessly as the sun reflected off the stranger’s knife, threatening to harm his new partner.
16
Without thinking, Matthew’s body launched forward, hurdling fallen objects. He scrambled forward on his hands and feet, bounding like a jaguar. He had gone into autopilot, his skeletal system taking orders from his instinct. He couldn’t explain how these things worked, but it was as if his senses didn’t bother to consult with his brain about what his body was about to do.
If he’d had time to think about the implications for what Pip was about to do, his mind would have become so overwhelmed that his body would have frozen in place.
Explaining to the others what had happened to Pip would be an absolute nightmare. Her brother would lose his last living relative. Jennifer would lose a best friend, and while Matthew hadn’t sorted out Pip’s relation to Sergio, he knew that Sergio would be gutted by her loss.
The others would have to come to terms with the fact that the powerful little fighter lost her life to a crazed lunatic who stabbed her with a dagger. Matthew would have to explain why Pip wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. Even worse, he would have to explain why he didn’t do anything to save her.
As for Matthew, he would fall into a deeper depression, having lost yet another woman in his midst. He would certainly take full responsibility for her passing, and her last moments would haunt his memory. Yes, Pip’s passing would tear him apart. There would be no coming back from it.
These thoughts hit him all at once as he flew through the air, arms outstretched, as to take the full brunt of the attack. In his mind, he could take the pointed blade of the weapon better than Pip could. It was an absurd thought, and he had already gotten himself in trouble for doubting her hardiness, but he truly believed he would survive.
But the attack never came. He fell to the ground between the spot where he saw the woman and Pip. He rolled into Pip, pinning her feet to the ground. As his body turned, the force knocked Pip onto her backside on the sidewalk.
“What the hell, man?” she exclaimed. She opened her bag and checked the contents. Everything seemed to be in place.
Matthew ignored her. He saw the woman reappear from behind the door as she darted away. He jumped to his feet and grabbed onto her shoulder, spinning her around to face him.
“Oh,” he gasped as he got a good look at the trembling woman. She clutched the dagger in one hand but used the other to cradle the head of a baby tightly fastened to her chest.
Tears trickled out of the woman’s eyes as she faced Matthew. He immediately dropped her shoulder and took a step back, not knowing what to do. He was fully prepared to use force against the woman if she proved to be a threat. Now, there was no way he could hurt her, and he was horrified that he was seconds away from taking his baseball bat to her body.
The woman frantically looked around for help, her long, bushy hair sweeping over her infant’s head as it slept in its carrier. Her bottom lip was quivering and she looked like she was on the verge of a complete breakdown.
“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you if you won’t hurt us,” Matthew said, slowly setting his bat on the ground next to Pip. He extended his empty hands toward her to prove his point.
“I’m scared,” she whimpered.
“I know,” Matthew said gently.
Upon closer inspection, the woman looked to be in her mid-twenties. Though she dressed conservatively in a long skirt and a blouse buttoned to her neck, she had the youthful face of a college girl.
Lucas came running outside at all the commotion and skidded to a stop once he saw the interaction.
“Who—” he started.
“We saw her outside the store,” Matthew said calmly. “She’s not going to hurt us. Isn’t that right?”
She nodded, her head bobbing on a tiny neck.
“Good. You haven’t been infected, right?” he asked. He raised his voice so the others would be able to respond accordingly to her answer.
“No, I haven’t been touched. I’m so scared of those things,” she cried.
“I know. We are too. Now, is there somewhere you can put that knife? It’s making us a little nervous.”
Hesitantly, the woman tucked the blade through the loops on her skirt. Then, she wrapped both hands around her baby, holding it closer.
“What’s your name?” Pip asked.
“Sally,” she stuttered.
“Hi, Sally. I’m Matthew.”
“Are you okay?” Lucas muttered out of the side of his mouth.
“It’s fine,” Matthew replied. “I can handle it. If you want to, you can get started at the pharmacy. Yell if you need help.”
He nodded and made his way to the other store. The streets were still clear, but there was no telling how much time they had left before a new wave of zombies came through.
“You grabbed me,” the woman whimpered. “How do I know you aren’t going to hurt me and my baby? There are a lot of bad people out there.”
Matthew sighed. He realized that it wasn’t a good look for him to be grabbing at strangers, then to turn around and convince them of his good character.
He shrugged. “I guess you’ll just have to have a little faith.”
She scoffed. “Oh, I have faith. I just don’t have faith in anything on this Earth.”
Pip frowned, but Matthew understood what she meant. While he didn’t share the same sentiment, he could see why someone would say that. The world had become a cruel place for people to live.
But that didn’t keep Matthew from seeing the good left in everyday life. Though Pip was being a pain the ass, she was still a good fighter and made their job a lot easier. She clearly had her issues, but overall, she was an asset.
Similarly, there were times where Ellie and Genevieve may have held Matthew back, but they were nice to have around. They were kind women who always wanted to help. They could have become cold and bitter because of their past, but they were a friendly face in a dark world.
“Again, I’m sorry I scared you,” Matthew said, trying to convince the woman that he was not going to hurt her. “I saw you standing at the door with that knife and I thought you were going to try to hurt my friend. I didn’t know you, and I thought Pip was in danger. Wouldn’t you do anything to protect your little one?”
Pip scrunched up her face at his comparing her to an infant. She would have smacked him across the head if that wouldn’t cause more problems.
“I would. That’s why I had the knife. I thought you might be zombies. I was ready to defend my child if I had to. But I don’t know if I could. That’s why I hid. I just didn’t think I could go through with it.”
It seemed as though the woman was sending mixed messages. Though she clutched a knife in her hand and stood outside the store, waiting for the inhabitants to emer
ge, she claimed she didn’t want to take lives. While Matthew understood if she didn’t want to kill healthy humans, it would be virtually impossible not to kill zombies. Even Ellie and Genevieve had made several kills, though they were clearly unequipped to do so. But the clean blade on the dagger helped her argument. Plus, it couldn’t be an easy feat to make a kill with a baby strapped to one’s chest.
“Are you sure she’s not a zombie?” Pip hissed in Matthew’s ear. “Just look at her. She’s like a skeleton.”
That meant a lot coming from Pip, whose limbs were like twigs. But she was right. The woman’s face looked like a skull with a thin layer of skin pulled taut. Blue veins looked like rivers wherever her skin was exposed.
“I haven’t eaten much lately,” the woman said, glaring at Pip. “It’s hard to stop to eat when you’re traveling nonstop. I hardly have enough milk to feed my baby.”
“You’ve been on foot this whole time?” Matthew asked, surprised.
“Yes,” she replied shortly. “I haven’t stopped moving for the past forty-eight hours or so. I’ve walked through the night to find help.”
Matthew looked back at Pip. Sally was the exact person he had in mind when it came to rescuing displaced travelers. She was a young woman with an infant and there was no one to protect them. She needed food and water and a warm place to sleep. Matthew could give her all of those things.
Pip shrugged. She didn’t seem thrilled with the idea of associating with this woman at all, let alone letting her join their ranks. As far as she knew, Sally had nothing of use to offer the group. Instead, she and her baby would use up their resources and put a damper on any fun they might have.
“What are you thinking?” Matthew asked Pip, still trying to figure out her facial expressions and body language.
“I don’t know,” she said coldly, looking at the ground. It wasn’t an affirmative response, but it wasn’t really a response at all. If his decision came back to bite him in the butt, he could always say that Pip didn’t give him an answer when she was called upon. She would be complicit.
“We’ve been living in that building across the street,” Matthew told Sally, pointing to the high-rise. “It’s perfectly safe and we have plenty of supplies. If you need a safe place to rest, why don’t you go over there and relax?”
A light shone in Sally’s dark green eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Why not? We have a ton of space. You’re more than welcome to stay as long as you need.”
Sally kissed her child on the head and let a tear roll down her cheek. Matthew was worried that he had somehow offended her with his offer.
“Thank you,” she cried, bouncing the baby up and down. “God bless you for helping me. I’m so tired and hungry.”
“I know.” Matthew smiled. “I hope this helps.”
“Matthew,” Pip grumbled. “We’ve been standing out here in the open for a long time. Don’t you think we should move before we get caught up in an attack?”
Pip was holding her book bag as if it were her own child. She was eager to return to the office, perhaps more so than Sally.
“You’re probably right. Take Sally with you and get her set up. Find her somewhere comfortable to rest and make sure she has all the food and water she needs. Maybe she’d like to rest on the couch in the break room. Let the others know that she’s okay and we’re going to let her stay with us for as long as she needs.”
Pip frowned. “I don’t know about this. I want to come back and get more goods.”
“We have it covered,” Matthew said, looking back at the drugstore. Lucas seemed to be carrying on just fine, but Matthew wanted to join him. “Just go.”
Pip opened her mouth to argue but snapped it shut again. Pouting, she stomped across the street, then took off in a run toward the office building, leaving the new mother in the dust. Sally jogged behind her, trying to catch up.
Not completely trusting Pip to play nice, he watched as Ellie opened the door. Pip went straight inside, not stopping to look back at Sally. Ellie was a far kinder soul, ushering Sally inside after hearing Pip’s replay of the events. Once the door closed with everyone inside, Matthew turned toward the drugstore.
Feeling like he was making a difference, he jogged into the store, feeling another weight being lifted off his chest. Perhaps through good deeds, he would be able to reduce the guilt he felt for not saving more lives.
Not long before he met Genevieve and Ellie, Matthew had spent a little time traveling with a middle-aged woman named Margaret. She was in her fifties but active for her age. She had stopped by the side of the road to help Matthew change his tire. He had flattened both the front and rear tires on the driver’s side when he accidentally drove over broken glass. Once they realized that the car was not going to be able to continue on the journey, she offered to drive him wherever he wanted to go.
Not wanting to put her out, he simply asked to find a tire store to get replacements. She obliged, turning her car around to find the nearest auto parts store. When they got there, she insisted on going into the store with him just in case something went wrong. While Matthew was looking through the selection in the back of the store, a zombie sneaked up on Margaret and bit her. She managed to fight off the zombie, but the damage was already done.
Knowing that there wouldn’t be much time before she was overtaken by the disease, she begged Matthew to kill her. He refused at first, but she kept fighting him on the subject, telling him that he would be responsible for more deaths if he weren’t quick about it. In the end, she won the battle, and Matthew ended her life with a tire iron.
That death wouldn’t be absolved by taking in one woman and child, but it might make a small dent in his guilt. However, he often felt like he would have to fill every floor of the skyscraper to make things right.
Matthew entered the pharmacy to see Lucas sifting through medical supplies and pill bottles. As he browsed, he munched on potato chips that he had apparently found in the store.
“Sorry,” Lucas said, his eyes wide when Matthew entered the store. “I got hungry.”
He dropped the bag to the ground, scattering chips on the ground.
“It’s fine,” Matthew said, tossing a new bag to him. “You might as well get your fill now—we’ve added to our group.”
Lucas nodded and ripped open the new packet, stuffing handfuls of snacks into his mouth. “Cool. So, what do you know about girl stuff?” he asked, nudging a box of feminine hygiene products with his foot. “Jennifer told me to pick some up and I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
Matthew chuckled and tossed him a box to add to his supplies. “I’m sure these will suffice.”
“Cool,” Lucas said. “Oh, that reminds me, Carl said that if we pick up a lot of prescription drugs, you should hold onto them. He doesn’t think that the rest of the group should be aware of the fact that we have narcotics.”
“Me?” Matthew asked. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he thinks you’re the most trustworthy. Anyway, I thought I’d let you know.”
Matthew masked a smile. He didn’t know what he did to deserve anyone’s trust, but he felt honored that Carl thought of him as someone who could make good decisions.
“What do you know about pharmaceuticals?” Matthew asked.
“I know the name of a few medications,” he said.
“See what you can find,” Matthew said. “Take a good supply, then trash the rest.”
“Got it,” Lucas said. He didn’t seem to question Matthew’s orders, though Matthew himself wasn’t confident with that choice.
“I’ll be there in a second,” Matthew called to him as he searched through the aisles. “I’m going to grab a few things first.”
Matthew paused when he found the aisle with baby supplies. He sighed, overwhelmed with all the choices. He was completely out of his depth, having zero experience with children. But he hoped that whatever he could bring back, Sally would be appreciative of his attempt.
17
“I think I missed your conversation that that lady,” Lucas called from the store room. “What did she want?”
“She just needed a place to crash,” Matthew replied as he cluelessly searched through diapers. He had no idea how old the baby was or what size diapers it would need. He stuck a pack underneath his arm. “I figured she could stay with us. She’s got a small baby with her. Neither of them will last the week without some food and water.”
“Cool,” he said. “You know, that’s really cool of you to invite them to your place.”
“It’s not really my place,” Matthew replied. “We all live there. It’s more like a hotel or a commune, or something.”
“Yeah, but if it was up to the other guys, they might have some concerns. I’m with you—a new mother should always have a place to stay. It would be cruel to turn her away.”
“I thought so. Pip didn’t look very happy about it.”
“Those guys can be kind of weird about that kind of stuff. I know they are just really protective of each other, though. If I didn’t look like this, I don’t know if they would have picked me up. I’m pretty harmless looking. I could see why she wasn’t so sure about that woman.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think she could have done much harm,” Matthew said as he put a pacifier into the small side compartment of his bag. “Besides, she was carrying a baby.”
“She did have a knife. I don’t know what it was about her, but I got a weird vibe from her. She seemed . . . I don’t know. She was different.”
Matthew understood what he meant. Carl and Pip and the others looked like the popular kids in school. This girl dressed like an old woman and was really skittish. To be honest, when he first saw her, Matthew mistook her for a homeless old woman.
“Yeah, I guess. I want to give her a chance. I think she’s okay.”
Matthew grabbed a few cans of powdered baby formula and a bottle. He didn’t know what kind the baby would like, so he picked a variety. He was running out of room in his bag and he was worried that the baby wouldn’t have enough stuff.