I shook my head, wondering how in the world I was going to keep my distance from that? Not when it wasn’t just good looks and sex appeal, but chivalry and goodness and charm.
We were silent as we abandoned the trailer, leaving it empty and in disarray just like the previous owners. We walked quietly until we found the rest of our group, all huddled around a wood paneled, rusted out minivan.
“Does it run?” Hendrix asked with careful control, cautious not to show any hope.
Vaughan nodded, “And it has a full tank of gas.”
Vaughan’s eyes darted between Hendrix and me in a look of narrowed distrust. When our gazes caught and tangled together something flashed behind his shuttered expression. He held my stare for a few charged moments and then cleared his throat and looked away.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Hendrix asked.
“Nothing,” Vaughan shook his head. “You guys.”
My eyes found Haley’s through the crowd and I smiled at her wet head and rosy blush. She was avoiding Nelson like the Zombie-plague and I was so itching to talk to her about everything. Instead, I climbed in behind her, and sunk down into the dusty seat. We reached for each other’s hands and she laid her head on my shoulder.
“Get clean?” She asked quietly while Page climbed into the back with us.
King was shoved back here too so we were squished and sitting on top of each other, but it was worth it to have actual transportation after more than a week of walking.
“Yep,” I sighed. “You?”
“Yep.” She echoed. “We need to talk.”
“No kidding,” I laughed.
And then we fell silent as Nelson and Harrison loaded our packs in the trunk and then filed into the captain chairs in front of us. Vaughan slid into the driver’s seat and Hendrix road shotgun like usual.
Then we were off, pulling out of the trailer park and headed south on the highway again.
Hendrix was right when he called this an adventure, and not just one of survival. We were fighting for our lives yes, but we were experiencing life in a way I didn’t know existed.
There was danger at every turn, pain and difficulty. But there was community too, and hope and love.
We’d accidentally crossed paths with the Parkers, but because of them we had a quality of life that hadn’t been there before- even before the Zombies. They added a layer to our lives that resounded with happiness and friendship.
And maybe, between one of them….. something more.
I didn’t know for sure yet. And I probably wouldn’t know for a while. But while we fought through this world of death and decay I was willing to find out.
I was willing to put down my walls and let something like love in- even if it wasn’t love yet.
Episode Four
Chapter One
681 Days after initial infection
Haley
My feet hurt. My back hurt. My brain hurt.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
We’ve been with the Parker brothers for over a month. Each day passes and we breathe a little easier around each other, a little more familiarly. And Reagan and I relax just a smidge more with each hour we’re not fighting tooth and nail for our lives alone.
The last two years have been intense- to put it mildly. And I think mental stamina was wearing thin on both of us.
There’s only so much two girls can take of the killing, the hunting, the foraging, and the not-dying. It was a lot.
And it wasn’t like someone prepared us to go through this. Our parents died, the same week all our friends died- or worse- and we went on the homeless-vagabond-murdering-anything-in-our-paths run.
Not ideally how twenty year old girls typically spend their time.
Well, twenty year old girls before the infection. Now, it was the norm; and if not that norm than the norm that included feasting on flesh or being feasted upon.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
I pushed a hand to my temple and stifled a wince. This pain in my brain was not physical per say, but it still hurt, drove me crazy with constant irritation. It was like a perpetual migraine without the bodily symptoms. Which made no sense to anyone, except me.
I needed music.
How could anyone live in a world without music? This was like my private hell- purgatory specialized to throw every personalized worst case scenario my way. There wasn’t a radio, electricity for my iPod, or even instruments for people to serenade me with. There was just…. silence.
An occasional dog bark. The distant squawking of unhappy birds. The unsettling sound of Zombie moans as they tried to eat my face. This was the soundtrack to my life- and it was miserable.
I needed to occupy my brain- or as my dad used to say, exercise it. If he were alive today, he would be absolutely crazy with the stagnancy of his mind. Of course, if my dad were alive, he probably would have already found some kind of safe faction for us to live with and developed a cure for the whole thing. Maybe that was assigning his genius too much credit, but he was dead, so I was allowed to put him on a pedestal.