We had to constantly keep moving. To stand still was to die.
Even
if we found a safe place we couldn’t stay for long, and anyway it was a
daydream no place stayed safe for long.
The
safest plan was to keep moving, keep finding food, and keep finding shelter.
That’s all you thought about, food, shelter, stay alive.
We
tried to stick to suburban areas.
Rural was ideal for seclusion but suburban would have the most supplies
that we could carry and take along with us. We never went near the city…for obvious reasons.
For
the first time in a long time our group had maintained its number, the five of
us, John, Nancy, Maggie (our sort of leader), her son Ted and myself. We had been together for about 3 weeks
now. A world record by everyone’s standards.
Nancy
was our newest addition. We had
found her wandering out on her own.
She had done a fairly decent job of surviving for being all by herself. She was in her late 40’s; lean and tall
with short chin length black hair that she parted down the middle. She was
probably very pretty once, back when things like that mattered.
We
had found some strength in our consistent number but their was also the
beginning of tension in the group, namely between Maggie and Nancy.
We
were in Nancy’s home suburb, which proved to be extremely helpful, as she had
kept her house in running condition as much as she possibly could. She had lots of stored water and
nonperishable foods and she was willing to allow us to stay with her.
But
around this third week Maggie said it was time we packed up and move on. She told Nancy that she was welcome to
come with, it would be safer for her and the group would appreciate the company. But Nancy refused much to Maggie
chagrin. Nancy then explained why
she was still here.
Before
the outbreak of zombies began she had lived here with her husband now that
their two children were grown and in college out on their own. Her husband had been bitten in one of
the first out breaks. No one fully
understood what was going on in the beginning so they had no idea how to handle
it properly and as things got worse they both knew it was not going to end
well.
Her
husband had forced her to lock him in the garage so that he could be no danger
to her and when he became what they both knew he inevitably would she was to
take his hunting rifle from their shed and end it. But once that time came and Nancy had the rifle in her
hand she found that she couldn’t do it.
Her hand shook too much, her vision blurred with tears and she simply
opened the garage door from inside the house and let him go.
She
was determined not to falter when the next time came. And she would not leave this house before she accomplished
this task.
Maggie
tried to explain to her that it was a bad idea, that he could be miles away by
now, or someone else could have already taken care of him, but Nancy refused to
listen. She said she knew he was
still around…she could feel it. I thought she was crazy, but Maggie seemed to
give up convincing her after that.
We
waited around for another week in hopes of convincing Nancy to come with us,
till one night we didn’t have to wait anymore.
We
all slept together on the living room floor, it was safer to stay together in
groups, and have two take watch. But none of us slept very soundly any more so when the garage door went
up we all heard it. Maggie slowly sat up and looked around. We all had the same thought Nancy
wasn’t here.
We
moved silently through the house our weapons at the ready. We tiptoed through the kitchen to the
door that led through to the garage.
The
door to the outside was coming down now and we saw two figures in the
garage. Nancy with her rifle, and
what could only be assumed was Nancy’s husband.
We
all stood in silence waiting for what was going to come next our hearts beating
in our throats. We all knew this
was Nancy’s fight not ours so we waited and watched glad we didn’t have to be
in her shoes.
He
began his labored uneven walk to her, arms outstretched and terrible gurgling
noises coming from his unhinged jaw, eye’s milky white and dead.
Nancy
held the rifle at the ready with a sure arm tears streaking down her
cheeks.
And
then it happened.
She
lowered the rifle when he was only arms length away. Someone make a squeaking
noise in alarm but Maggie held up her arm to stop anyone moving in on the two.
It
all happened at once. Nancy whispered something none of us heard as her eyes
glazed over not seeing the monster but the man she had loved. His hands came around her shoulders and
she looked up into his face as if she were expecting a kiss, the gun discarded
and forgotten on the floor. She
smiled and gave a drunken laugh and then his mouth bit deep into her cheek
still holding her up right.
Then
there was a gunshot. Maggie had one arm outstretched, pistol in hand smoking.
“It was never going to happen any other way. She made her choice a long time ago.”
Nancy
had dropped to the ground along with her husband but unlike his motionless
corpse, she was twitching and writhing on the ground, blood gurgling from the
mouth making the most terrible noises I had ever heard in my life. A large pool
of blood was beginning to form around her head and neck.
There
was another shot from the pistol and she was motionless. The dark garage was silent. Then Maggie said, “Gather what you can,
I want to be out of here in an hour.
The sound of the gun will have attracted visitors.” She turned away from the garage without
a second glance.
The
pool of blood from Nancy’s head was still growing as I looked away. My entire body felt numb and I began
packing without really thinking about my actions.
Our
party was down to four, again.
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