Infection Z

by Beswick, Rebecca L.

  We walk in silence with occasional small talk, as we walk further and further away from our home town the sky begins to darken above us, thunder crackles making us all jump, a flood of rain follows soon after we all groan in annoyance becoming uncomfortable from our clothes clinging to us making us cold, I spot a seemingly abandoned building and point to out, “we can hide there for now!” I yell over the thundering storm above, we begin running through the rain until we reach the building, I grab my torch from my bag and lead the way through the building, “we should probably do a quick sweep to make sure we really are alone" I whisper, we split off to search the place that seems empty and hasn’t been lived in since the virus started.

  “Oh my gosh!” Sam announces, I run towards the sound of her voice “Sam!’ I yell in panic, she is crouched with her back towards me, “Sam are you okay?!” I ask out of breath and panicked, she turns with a big grin “look how cute is he?!” she squeals in excitement and produces a kitten that is ginger with white specs, it produces a small meow and rubs its face on mine.

  I sigh in relief “that’s what the commotion was about?” she giggles in response, “sorry didn’t mean to scare you, we can keep him right?” she asks making her eyes wide and pleading, “I don’t know" I frown unsure if adding another member to our group is really the best idea, “why?” she asks, “well it’s another mouth to feed, it’s not exactly quiet" I cross my arms refusing to give into her cute act, “aww please it’s a little kitty it doesn’t eat a lot, like fish and cat food, and he’s not that loud please!” she pleads, I sigh deeply closing my eyes, “fine" I agree knowing I’ll regret that decision.

  April approaches us, “this place seems abandoned" she states, “okay we'll stay here tonight but once the weather’s clear again we have to keep moving", we all pull out our blankets and use our bags as pillows, we all huddle in a circle and get some sleep, the kitten begins purring as he settles with us, I look over at Sam who is smiling at the small furry ball, I watch her for a moment admiring her whilst she can’t see me.

  She lifts her eyes to me and I know I’ve been caught, “Damon?” she asks, “sorry I didn’t mean-" I move my eyes from hers, she smiles “can I ask you something?” she asks, I nod in response having trouble making eye contact with her again, “if the whole zombie thing didn’t happen what would you have done?” I look to her again, “what do you mean?” I ask, “after high school, where would you have gone to college, do you want to get married, like future stuff" she shrugs, “well after finishing high school I would go to a nearby college so I could still help my mum, I wanted to study medicine and eventually become a doctor, I hope I would’ve met someone, got engaged...” I trail off, “you’ve really thought about it, I didn’t think guys thought about getting married and future things" she says quietly as to not wake April, “what would you have done?” I ask, “I would have another year of high school so I haven’t one hundred percent worked out what I wanted to do, but maybe in the future studied fashion design, and eventually created my own brand of clothing, but I don’t know" she laughs, “that sounds cool and what about getting married?” I ask, she becomes quiet for a moment “I want to date someone, get engaged and married, and honestly I was hoping that would be you" she says shyly, she speaks so quietly I almost don’t hear her, “what?” I murmur, she shakes her head becoming red in the face “that was stupid, ignore me I’m being weird" she laughs nervously, she turns, and I know she’s going to sleep.

  Sam’s POV

  I turn away from Damon feeling embarrassed from what I’ve just admitted, I hope he didn’t hear me, I close my eyes but struggle to sleep from the awkwardness I feel, “I wanted to marry you too" Damon quietly admits, my eyes widen in surprise, I pretend to sleep knowing if I turn he'll take it back.

  “I know you’re sleeping so you won’t hear this but I just want to say it out loud, since the apocalypse I’ve struggled to adjust but with you around you’ve just made it much more manageable, especially after my mum died you’ve been there for me, you’ve brightened each day and made me laugh more than I ever had before, I noticed you before the apocalypse I saw you at school, I liked watching how concentrated you were on school projects and laughing with April, I think I’m falling for you and I don’t know what to do" he becomes quiet, I stay still unsure what to do or say, I’m shocked but happy at his secret revelation, but would it be wrong to feel the same? Would it be betraying my friendship to April?

  Chapter 4

  I awake the next morning to the sun shining through the boarded up gaps of the window, the kitten meows happily at me and purrs as I stroke its fur, I lay quietly waiting for the others to wake up and keep replaying Damon’s words last night in my head trying to make sense of his confession, it seems so sudden and bad timing with everything going on, as far as he knows I was asleep so there’s no pressure to talk about it at least, but now he definitely likes me I feel a little shy, but I couldn’t do anything because of hazel anyway, she would feel betrayed and if we ever broke up it would make a weird situation.

  Soon enough Damon and April greet me with tired good mornings, we pack up our stuff once again and decide to head out, “we should be okay, the zombies seem to come out more later in the day" Damon states, the ground has dried up from yesterday’s rain and for once the sun makes an appearance making me smile, I always feel happier for some reason when there’s a sun in the sky, “I think today will be a good day!” I announce, April rolls her eyes “there aren’t any good days anymore" Damon nudges her with a frown, “don’t listen to miss moody over there, I’m sure today will be a good day, we might find somewhere to stay for a while and I’m sure we will find more food, it’s good to keep things positive" Damon smiles cheerfully, I smile back shyly enjoying how much more positive he’s becoming lately, ‘perhaps I’ve rubbed off on him' I think smugly to myself.

  The kitten starts hissing aggressively with its fur spiked up, we all stop in our tracks confused as to its sudden change in behaviour, but our confusion is cut short when we hear a moaning sound followed by quick but heavy feet, we look ahead to find a zombie and can’t help but stand frozen, any other zombie would have been no issue, but this particular zombie stops us from moving a muscle, “mum?” April whispers out, “what should we do?” I ask Damon just above a whisper not wanting to draw attention to ourselves, “what do you mean? That’s our mum" April says angrily her hands balled up in fists by her sides, “not anymore, she’s just a zombie now" Damon mutters, April turns to him unsure what to say, she glances back between him and their mother, they both watch her unmoving, time seems to slow down while the zombie drags herself past us, “I guess she didn’t see us" I say quietly, no one speaks for a moment.

  “Damon?” I ask quietly reaching towards him, “we should keep moving” he says and continues walking once again like the last few minutes hadn’t even happened, April doesn’t move staring at the floor, I grab her hand and give her a small smile, she returns it and we walk hand in hand together, the journey is quiet now none of us sure how to start a conversation, the sun has hidden behind the clouds making the sky as dark as our moods, I quietly hope for something good to happen, I can handle people crying that’s simple, but when someone is just quiet and angry I’m not sure what to do, all I want is to help but I can’t and it frustrates me.

  The quiet is short lived and suddenly we are surrounded by zombies, they’ve noticed us and they’re groaning and stumbling towards us, I shakily grab my weapon, we all stand back to back ready for the attack, we swing and hit taking out a number of the zombies, but soon our weapons seem useless as they close in deeper around us, we all glance at each other with worry, Damon grabs my hand and nods, I stare at him in confusion but from his expression soon understand we can’t do anything, we must simply stand together and stop fighting and allow the zombies to close in on us, I grab April’s hand and smile sadly, we all close our eyes waiting.

  Just as the zombies groan down our ears, and we feel their stagnant breath
s on our faces, a loud crash captures the zombies attention taking them from us, the outer zombies disappear in thin air until all the zombies fly through the air, a horn blares bringing us back to reality, “get in" a voice says from the car that trampled the zombies, we glance at each other in confusion “now!” the voice urges, we all scramble into the car just as more zombies emerge and begin chasing us, we all catch our breaths still unsure what truly happened, “we’re dead aren’t we?” I breath out, “not dead but it was close, why did you guys just stand there?” the person asks, “there were too many of them, it was no use we just accepted our fate" Damon answers, “it seems more like you made the decision for everyone" the voice remarks, “you were watching us?” April asks, “oh sure I wanted to see how you handled yourselves, you did good until you just gave up" Damon huffs, “we didn’t have much of a choice", the person laughs humourlessly “there’s always a choice, always choose to go out fighting, giving up is just stupid" after that none of us are sure what to say, “who are you, where are we going?” I ask cutting through the silence, “that will be revealed soon, but I can say we’re going somewhere safe, I know we just met but you’re just going to have to trust me, I mean what choice do you have?” I can’t see their face but I’m sure our saviour is smirking, they are dressed in dark clothes with a hood pulled low on their head and a dark mask covering most of their face, there is a small gap for their eyes, which seem to be a dark colour.

  “Cute cat by the way" the person remarks, the cat meows in response, “we found it in a house we spent the night at" I smile, “have you chosen a name for it?” the person asks, “I don’t know I think Finnian it means warrior, he didn’t run from the zombies he stood to protect and warn us", “it suits him" the person responds using their spare hand to stroke the cat.

  Eventually we reach the safe place the stranger mentioned, we are shocked to see such a place, there are high fences and gates surrounding the area, the stranger leaves the car and presses a buzzer, “Noah?” the voice asks, “no it’s your mother” the stranger laughs, they finally pull their hood back “of course it’s me, let me in" the buzzer buzzes once again and the gates open with a creak, the stranger now known as Noah drives inside his hair stands up from being covered by his hood, he pulls over again and the gates close once again, we all leave the car with our belongings, “welcome to the safe place!” Noah announces, he pulls back his mask to reveal a big grin and an incredibly handsome face that I have to pull my eyes away as to not be rude, his skin is olive and almost seems to glow, we take a look at where we’ve been brought, there is a large lush garden that seems to go on for miles, beautiful flowers and trees grow from the ground, with pebble covered paths weaving in between, up ahead is a large house that could be called a mansion it is so large, I admire my surroundings in amazement “are you sure we didn’t die?” I laugh, “this isn’t heaven darling, but it’s probably the next best thing" Noah smiles and extends his hand for me to take, I accept it gladly and he leads us towards the house where a group of people are waiting.

  The group seems very diverse, a mix of men and women of very different nationalities, “you’re back!” exclaims the girl, “did you get anything?” a boy asks “a few things but we’ll have to change course next time as there’s no more on the west side" Noah replies, “Noah introduce us don’t be rude" an older kind looking woman scolds, “ah yes my apologies, I actually didn’t ask your names did I?” he says awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, “I’m Sam" I smile, “Damon" Damon nods with his arms crossed, “I’m April" April smiles as friendly as she can, “I'm Sarah" smiles the older woman, “I'm Valerie” smiles the girls with thick ginger curls, “Michael” says a boy with dark skin in a quiet tone, “well come inside and we’ll show you around" Noah beckons, we all follow behind the new group of people, my wrist is grabbed suddenly “Sam I know this might look like a paradise but we should be careful, we don’t know these people" Damon warns wearing a frown, “don’t be so quick to judge, Noah saved us we should be open to meeting new people" I encourage, the look on his face doesn’t change “I don’t like that guy, something seems off he’s too perfect, and I don’t like how he’s all over you" I giggle, “oh Damon don’t be jealous he’s just being friendly, you’re the only one for me" I wink I link his arm with mine as we walk further into the large house together.

  We’re led into a long hall with many doors on each side, the first door we enter is a large kitchen with marble counter tops, a large fridge and freezer, as well as cupboards filled with various cutlery and food, “as you can see this is the kitchen, Sarah is our cook but she also allows the rest of us to help with bigger meals" he motions to the older looking woman from earlier, her hair is blonde and sat just above her shoulders in a long bob, she smiles brightly “I’m always happy for help in the kitchen” she replies in a friendly tone, I notice April stare at her for a while with a warm expression, my heart aches realising she must remind her of their late mother, we move to the next door which reveals a large living room and flat screen adjacent to sofas and cushioned seats.

  “This is the living room; we mostly use this for general relaxing and watching movies" Noah explains “won’t that attract the zombies?” Damon asks with scowl on his face, Noah smiles “we’re quite far from civilisation so zombies aren’t really a concern here, but yes you make a good point, we make sure the television isn’t too loud and if we ever are faced with unwanted visitors we are prepared for that, we’ll get into that soon", he then motions to a clear see-through door “and through here is the dining room" the room has a small chandelier attached to the ceiling, a long table surrounded with chairs and China plates and cutlery in the cabinets at the opposite end of the room, and beside another cabinet of various glasses, I try to withhold my excitement of staying at a place so luxurious that has withstood the zombie pandemic that has affected every other part of the world.

  We next move on to another room that is filled with shelves upon shelves of books, “wow!” April exclaims and I smile at her enthusiasm, “beautiful isn’t it?” Noah asks, “this is our library, we have millions of books from fiction to non-fiction, poetry to biographies, most likely everything you’ve ever wanted to read is here, and a few desks I used to use for studying, and my father used for writing” Noah says and seems to smile at a distant memory of his time in this room, “was your father an author?” April asks, “yes he wrote many fiction novels before his death, he used that world to escape to and hoped many could do the same" Noah sighs, “I’m so sorry how did he die? If you don’t mind me asking?” I ask feeling awful for him, “suicide, he fought his demons for many years but they eventually won, it wrecked my mother and me, but she couldn’t handle the grief and became too unwell to function, she was taken to a psychiatric hospital and I haven’t seen her since" he says sadly, “how awful and you’ve been here alone ever since?” I ask hoping I'm not prying too much, “not quite, I had my aunt Sarah who you've met and once this pandemic happened I found the other people you have seen here, we have all banded together to survive” he explains and wears a warm expression as he looks to his friends, I smile in return amazed at how strong and at peace he seems despite the ordeal he has experienced.

  “Moving on from my past, let’s go to the next room, you’ll love this" he guides us to another room, we are all amazed at this large room, in the centre sits a pool table, a ping pong table, an air hockey table and a Foosball table, on one wall a few televisions are mounted with various consoles connected to them, and many other various gaming machines reminding me of the arcades we used to visit before the zombie pandemic, “maybe this place isn’t all bad" Damon mumbled to me his eyes lit up like a child’s on Christmas, “you are all welcome to visit this room and the various others any time you wish" Noah announces with a large grin from seeing our reactions to this game room.

  “Now follow me upstairs" the other people stay behind and only myself, Damon and April follow Noah up the long staircase, “as you can see most of th
e rooms are labelled with everyone’s name, there are still a few rooms vacant, each room has a personal bathroom with a shower so no one has to fight for the room, we have access to fresh water and electricity, we have generators and backup generators that are filled in an eco-friendly way with wind and sunshine, so there’s never a worry of running out, I’m sure you guys are all tired so pick a room with no label and get some rest, we serve dinner in 3 hours so we’ll come and get you then, for now rest, unpack and we’ll talk more at dinner" Noah leaves us to explore our own rooms, we each depart and choose our own rooms, ‘this is like a very expensive hotel’ I think to myself still amazed I have had the pleasure to even see inside such an amazing place, let alone staying here.

  I close the door behind myself and my mouth opens at the vast space, a king sized bed, large wardrobe and draws, drawn curtains hiding a large window that looks out at the beautiful garden and beyond the mansion, I notice there is also a balcony and decide I will sit out there later, I place my bag on the floor and look around the room, I find a door leading to a large personal bathroom, a large shower with multiple shower heads towers over me, the bathroom also features a toilet, sink and cupboards filled with Male and female products and perfumes, it seems to have every Hygiene product imaginable, I sigh a breath of relief that there is no worry to access feminine products during my time of the month which is due to come around again soon.