I didn’t understand her system. Her inventory was a joke and it took me a few days to get my own system. However, the counts seemed low to me. I counted several times and made sure I wasn’t missing anything.
I was in the process of writing down my findings when I heard a knock at the entry. I looked to see Holland in the doorway.
“Hey,” he said and lifted his hand showing a bag full of stuff. “Found these on a run,” he said.
I was going to tell him to set them down on the counter when he proceeded to place them on the counter next to food I had out and managed to knock everything over. There was a loud clanging as cans hit the floor and rolled in every direction.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said but his tone indicated he was not sorry in the slightest.
“It’s fine,” I lied. I was more than a little irritated by him knocking over everything, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.
“Let me help,” he said.
I had begun to pick up the cans, which wasn’t easy with the baby growing inside me, but I wasn’t far enough along for it to be completely impossible.
“I got it,” I said.
“Oh, no, you shouldn’t be doing that by yourself,” he said sickeningly as he grabbed me tightly by the wrist. “You’re pregnant. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to Daniel’s love or precious offspring.”
“Let me go now!”
“Or what?”
I pulled my knife out of my holster and put it to his throat. Which made him laugh but he let my wrist go. He stood up and walked a few feet away.
“You know, Shelly, I can’t help but like you. You’re feisty as hell and don’t know when to back off even when it would be good for you. I can see what Daniel sees in you. Hell, in another world I might have been chasing you myself.”
“I’m already nauseated Holland could you please keep from using words that will make me throw up?”
He laughed again. “See, that’s what I mean, feisty.”
He headed out the door with a weird smile on his face.
I was so disgusted, I ended up losing the little bit of food I had managed to eat.
Chapter 6
As I was cleaning up, Phoebe walked in.
“Everything alright?” she asked looking around the room.
“Not really. Holland came in and knocked over the cans messing up my system and then told me how he liked how feisty I was. Then I lost my lunch.”
Phoebe looked at me a long moment. “You want me to kill him?”
I laughed, “No, thank you.”
She helped me get up. After looking at me a long moment, she asked “Is something else wrong?”
I sighed looking at the inventory on the counter. “It’s just, something is wrong with the counts. I don’t understand. We seem to be awfully low on food. Has Laura said anything about being low on food before?”
Phoebe shook her head, “Not that I’ve heard.”
I sighed, “I feel awful. Maybe I’m too out of it for this.”
“Let’s go for a walk. You could use the fresh air and I need to check the perimeter.”
I reluctantly agreed and headed out with Phoebe. We made our way to the outside of the car wall.
"Hey oh," Kent said from on top of an F-150. He was on lookout. He was rarely assigned anything else due to his request.
He was young, early 20's, possibly late teens. He had no family with him. He was a sweetheart and I really liked him even though I never saw him much since I was rarely on lookout. I was mostly assigned to supply runs.
He shared a shack with Daniel, Gerald, and Holland. At least until Daniel moved into the shack with me and Lasa. Phoebe had moved in with Laura, Diana, and Molly. We didn’t ask her to leave but she said we should be building our family and living like one.
Besides my group and Dr. Cole and his son Brian, no one else had a previous connection to the others in our camp. Everyone seemed to end up here after losing someone or someone’s. They all had no one left. Now though, they had us. We had each other. And we had to look out and take care of each other.
"Hey," Phoebe called back to Kent. "Anything unusual?"
Kent shook his head, "Nope, boring out here. Which is good, I guess. But still hot and boring."
"Boring is always good in these times," Phoebe said and we walked on.
I pulled out my phone. Which, I honestly didn't notice. It was a habit more than anything else. The battery was dead, so I put it back in my pocket.
"You'll see her again," Phoebe said.
"How do you know?" I asked.
We stopped standing by a little beat up Honda, Phoebe leaned against it.
"I don't know, it's just a feeling I get," She said.
"Yeah, well..."
Phoebe's scream stopped me mid thought. She fell to the ground, kicking away the thing that had caused her to scream.
I had a hard time bending and had to crutch on my hands and knees to see it. A decaying face looked at me, snarling under the car. It still had a bit of Phoebe's ankle in its mouth.
I put my knife through the skull of the zombie under the car.
I looked to see Phoebe putting a cloth around her ankle as blood was gushing out. The fabric was instantly soaked crimson.
Kent, Gerald, and Daniel all came rushing over as they had heard Phoebe's screams.
"What happened?" Daniel asked. The look on his face was one of pure horror. His best friend, the only person he had left from life before this nightmare was taken down.
"She's bitten," Gerald said sullenly.
"There's only one thing to do," Phoebe said.
"No," I screamed.
"Shelly, we have to," she said to me softly.
"No. Not yet."
"What are you going to do? Wait for her to turn?" Kent asked me.
I glared at him, "I'll take her somewhere where she can't get to you precious," I said angry but immediately regretted the outburst.
He recoiled from my statement and may have tried to apologize but I couldn’t hear him through my own veil of terror. I was too busy helping Phoebe stand up.
"Shelly," Daniel started.
I looked at him expecting he would tell me not to do it. That it would be best to get it over with. His eyes were full of concern and heartache.
"Be careful," he said, surprising me. "I'll take care of Lasa."
I nodded.
"This is silly," Phoebe said. "You should just put a knife through my head."
"Not unless I have too," I replied.
"You will have too," she stated giving me a ‘you know I’m right’ look.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
I went to the Jeep, putting Phoebe in the back. I made my way to the front and cracked the windows.
"Shelly," she said, "If I turn, I can easily get to you still."
I didn't respond to her. I was too freaked out to say anything.
We couldn't cut off her leg or foot. That did no good. Once the zombie had bitten you, the virus was in your blood stream. It was pumping through your veins faster than a missile.
Luther had told us that. Though he would not say how he learned that exactly. I wanted to assume it was something he learned from being a doctor and not something else.
"Shelly,” Phoebe began again.
"Shut up," I said, "I'm pregnant so you have to do what I want."
She sighed, giving up her argument.
It was quiet in the Jeep for a bit.
"It's like that zombie was just hiding out, waiting. I thought these things were dumb. That was almost calculating," Phoebe said seeming to think out loud.
"Maybe he was just hanging out there."
"How did he get there? Shelly, the perimeter has been clear forever. It was like we were drawn into a false sense of safety."
I looked at her, knowing what she was getting at but not wanting to dwell on it. Not wanting to give power or truth to it.
"It was a coincidence,"
I stated.
She shook her head but made no reply.
The heat was beating down on the car, so I turned on the vehicle for a while. Daniel came to check on us more than once. I could tell by his creased brow, his frowning lips that he disapproved of what I was doing but he didn't talk me out of it.
I got out of the car for a bit when he brought Lasa, along with water and canned pasta.
“Is Aunt Phoebe okay?” Lasa asked me, holding tight to Chippy.
“We’ll see baby. Just pray for right now okay?”
She nodded and gave me a hug and a kiss.
Daniel did the same.
“Be careful,” he said.
“Always,” I replied and gave him the most convincing smile I could.
I got back in the car with Phoebe. She declined the food and the water. She had also grown pale. I was worried she was about to turn.
She was quiet and wouldn't talk. Eventually, I fell asleep. It wasn't a smart thing to do but my energy was already on low due to the baby and the sun had drained what little I had left.
I woke up to a growling noise. A familiar and disturbing growling noise. One I was a bit too used to despite not hearing it that often in the past few months.
It took me a moment to gain my bearings of where I was. I remembered after a few disorienting seconds.
I realized the grave mistake I had made. I looked for Phoebe above me but didn't see her in the moonlight.
I looked to see the growling was coming from the driver side door. A zombie stood by the cracked window, barring its grayish teeth at me, and trying to stick its hand through the small gap.
I ignored it, knowing I was not in immediate danger from the creature. I looked back to see where Phoebe was, but she was not visible.
I knew I couldn't climb over the front seat due to my growing belly. I would have to go out the door to get into the backseat.
The zombie continued to growl. I pulled out a knife and scooted closer to the door. The zombie began to chomp its teeth excitedly due to the new promise of food being within its grasp.
I opened the window a smidge more. It was just enough to stick the knife through the roof of its mouth when it opened it.
The zombie stopped moving and growling. It dropped to the ground after I pulled my knife from its brain.
I looked out and saw no other dangers lurking. I unlocked the doors and moved as quickly as I could. I exited the front driver side door and slipped into the back. I quickly locked the doors back with the key fob.
I looked over the backseat into the cargo compartment of the Jeep. Phoebe was curled up in a ball fast asleep.
I thought it was weird. She looked almost okay. But the light was not good, and I knew it was probably my own wishful thinking. It was me seeing what I wanted to see.
There was a loud bang against the window, and I jumped back and hit my head against the top of the car. The pain on the top of my head blurred my vision and I couldn't see anything but stars.
Chapter 7
I felt a hand touch my arm and I let out a scream, pulling out my knife.
“Whoa, it’s okay,” Phoebe said trying to calm me down.
I was confused that Phoebe was talking to me. I rubbed my head where I had hit it on the ceiling of the Jeep. I had seen something undead out the window, but it appeared to be gone now. What didn’t make sense was how Phoebe wasn’t also undead.
“Why are we here?” Phoebe asked looking around the Jeep.
“What?” I asked trying to regain composure.
I was more than a little disorientated. I was a bit worried that I had hit my head harder than I thought. Or I was hallucinating due to the heat but honestly, I didn’t feel even a bit dehydrated. My mouth wasn’t even dry, still I took another sip of water.
“Why are we in the Jeep?” She asked still looking around confused.
I looked at her a long moment trying to figure out what was going on.
“You don’t remember?” I finally asked.
“I remember going to check the perimeter with you. That’s it,” She stated with a shrug.
I couldn’t believe it. How could she forget being bit? That didn’t make sense. Though the fact that we were having a conversation at all didn’t make any sense either. She should have turned or be near turned by now.
“You were bit. I took you here.” I said feeling more than a little lost.
She looked at me a long moment as if thinking over the words I had said. Her eyes left me and went to her ankle.
“On my ankle?” She finally asked.
I nodded feeling relieved she was remembering but was surprised when she said, “That’s why it hurts?”
She pulled out a flashlight and removed her bandages. She shined the light on the wound.
The bite wasn’t as deep as it seemed. The zombie had just bit off the surface of her skin. It wasn’t pretty and it desperately needed cleaning. The strange part was it didn’t look like a normal zombie bite. The bites I had seen the skin around it died first. Quickly decaying around the wound before the rest of you became undead with it.
Phoebe’s wound however looked like it was trying to heal. It was like a nasty dog or some other animal bite. But not a zombie bite.
I felt Phoebe’s head. She was warm but not feverish.
“How do you feel?” I asked her.
She shrugged, “Other than confused, fine. I feel like I lost a big chuck of time that I can’t remember but other than that, I’m okay.”
“You don’t feel like you’re about to turn?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not really sure what that would feel like, but I don’t have any desire to tear your flesh from your bones if that’s what you mean.”
I snorted out a laugh, “Well, thank God for that.”
She laughed a little and rubbed her head. I handed her a water.
“Thanks,” She said and seemed to down half the bottle in one sip. “I think I need to sleep,” She said and handed the rest of the bottle back to me.
I watched as she laid down in the back and turned away from me preparing to drift off to sleep.
I sat there a long time watching her. I was half scared she was going to pop up and bite off my skin anyway, despite what she had said. It didn’t make sense. I needed to discuss it with someone. It all seemed so crazy.
The only thing that we knew for sure about the disease is that if you got bit, that was it. You were done. You were one of them. Assuming they just took one bite out of you that wasn’t in the location of a major artery or they didn’t just finish eating you in one setting.
That was the thing we all understood about the plague. That was the given. Avoid getting bit at all costs. Keep the ones you love from getting bit at all costs.
Of course, I wanted Phoebe to be okay, but it didn’t make sense how she could be okay. A zombie was under that car. It had definitely bit her. Though how it got there had seemed weird at first, given that we had not had a perimeter break in ages. But being out here and seeing the zombies near the other cars, it was becoming clear I had let myself believe that we were safer than we probably were. I had lulled myself into believing in a false sense of security. Perhaps it was easier for me to believe that, so I didn’t stay in a constant state of panic.
Still, I couldn’t understand what was happening to Phoebe. I needed Luther or Daniel to help me figure this out because it just didn’t make any sense. I didn’t know if they would have a clearer idea than I did but maybe talking it out would shed some light on some answers.
I considered going to get one of them at that moment as the questions were just bursting me at the seams. However, there was a pounding at the door, and I looked to see the zombie from earlier had returned. I sighed; it wasn’t safe to go out yet. It would have to wait until morning.
Chapter 8
I fell asleep in the backseat as the night went on. I woke up due to the sun beating down on me. The zombie that was outside the car during the night seemed to have given up.
I peered over the seat to see Phoebe sound sleep. She was still Phoebe, still not some undead thing. By some miracle, she still hadn’t turned. I had honestly thought I had dreamed our conversation in the middle of the night, but it seemed to be true. She, unlike everyone else, didn’t succumb to the plague of the dead after being bit. I wanted to know how in the world that was even possible. It didn’t make sense.
There was a knock on the window taking me out of my thoughts. I turned to see Daniel standing outside the Jeep.
The knock caused Phoebe to stir but she didn’t wake up.
I got out of the car.
“Why didn’t you come back to camp?” He asked, looking a cross between panicked and relieved.
“Phoebe didn’t turn,” was all I managed to say.
“What? How? She was bit.” Daniel said. His face showing the confusion that was consuming me.
“Which she oddly doesn’t remember happening. But she’s also fine.”
I pointed to the back of the Jeep. Daniel looked at me skeptically and then peered in to see Phoebe asleep.
“The zombie did bite her right?” He asked mirroring my own thoughts.
I nodded, “Yeah. The wound is not even decaying like normal. I don’t know why she is reacting differently than other people.”
“I’ll go get Luther,” Daniel said.
While Daniel was gone, Phoebe awoke. I opened the back door to the cargo area so she could get out and gave her some water.
Luther and Daniel appeared quickly enough.
“How you feeling?” Luther asked.
“Groggy and thirsty,” she replied taking another sip of water.
“Don’t have a desire to rip off our flesh with your teeth?” He asked half-jokingly and half serious.
“Not presently,” she said.
Luther took her temperature.
“You’re running a slight fever but nothing like what the virus typically causes.”
“So what?” Phoebe asked, “I’m just not going to turn into a zombie. I was bit. That doesn’t make sense.”
Plague of the Dead | Book 3 | Plague of the Island Page 3