God, what a night.
Leah pulled the car into the garage with a sigh. She would have to bitch out half the staff when this lockdown business ended. Sure, everyone had been forced to leave before closing, but that didn’t mean that standards could get dropped. If she hadn’t gone through and sterilized the place herself, the city would never let them reopen, and then someone at corporate would definitely have cleaned house. It wasn’t just the dust or grime. There was moldy food everywhere!
She coughed back the chemical smell of cleaning supplies that’d gotten into her clothes. Hope everyone else is having a good time. As she went for the door, she knew what’d come next. The second she hit the couch, they’d all watch some mindless romantic comedy and nothing else. There’d be no debate tonight.
But her plans got thrown out the window the moment she got inside. Greg! He was lying on the floor, with blood all around, and Ricardo and Lucy huddled above. They were pressing towels against his neck, but the blood was still coming. So much!
Ricardo froze, his arms locked in place. “Leah…”
She wanted to open her mouth and speak, but the words wouldn’t come. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t see straight. This wasn’t real. There was so much blood!
The keys fell from her hands, and she stumbled ahead. One step at a time, her body afraid to go closer, yet powerless to be away from her true love. If only Leah could get over there, she could at least be with him again.
Then she was knocked to the ground.
“What the hell, Shannon!?” Lucy shrieked.
There her best friend stood, her scalp drenched in sweat and shotgun in hand. She stared down all with this feverish gaze as she waved the gun about.
“Get away from him!” Shannon ordered.
Everyone stared, dumbstruck.
“I mean it,” she roared. “We have to tie Greg up, right the fuck now.”
Lucy flinched. “What are you talking about? His carotid artery’s been punctured. We can’t move him or he’ll die!”
“We don’t have time for this. It’s too late. He’s been bit.”
Ricardo jumped to his feet, hands in the air. “Shannon, you have to put that gun down right this second.”
She twisted his way. “Not until you tie him up.”
“Do you even know how to use that?” He inched a step closer.
Plaster exploded from the ceiling above as Shannon suddenly fired a shot. The group recoiled, but before anyone could react, she had already withdrawn a step and pointed back down. Her eyes were ablaze. “Anyone else want to fuck with me!?”
Only then could Leah find her voice. “Shannon, are you out of your fucking mind!?”
But her best friend waved the shotgun at her as though Leah was about to attack. “You don’t get it. None of you get it. I just put a hole in your neighbor’s chest and he didn’t go down. A fucking hole right where his heart was supposed to be, and he didn’t stay down.”
Leah gasped. “You shot someone!?”
“I didn’t have a fucking choice! He was a zombie and he tried to bite me.” She flicked the shotgun at Ricardo again. “Stay the fuck back!”
A zombie…? Leah stared at Shannon with fresh eyes, and her heart sank further. The sweatiness, the jerky movements, that fever in her eyes. This was beyond the pale. A nightmare. But she might still be able to pull her best friend out of this before someone else got hurt.
Leah stood up. “Shannon, what did you take?”
She retreated a step, the shotgun pointed back her way. “Are you shitting me?”
“Shannon, you’re fucked up right now, and not thinking straight. Just take a deep breath and tell me what you’re on.”
“Nothing. I haven’t done shit!”
Leah waved a hand. “It’s going to be okay, Shannon. I’m not mad, but I have to know what you did.”
Her eyes watered. “So that’s how it’s gonna be, Leah? I tell you the cold fucking truth and you don’t believe me.” A tear sprang free. “You think I’d lie to you? About this!? I’m not a monster!”
Ricardo started to inch back over.
If I can just keep her busy. “Let’s take a second and talk about this, okay? Just, please, put down the gun. I trust you to talk this through, Shannon, I really do.”
“No, you don’t! You still look at me like everyone else. Like some fucking junkie who’d get high and kill your boyfriend. I’d never lie about this! This is serious!” She sobbed. “Please, listen to me!”
Leah started to tear up herself. Seeing Shannon losing her mind like this was too much, but Greg was still hurt, and someone had to stop her before it was too late. She stared her deep in the eyes as Ricardo took another step in her blindspot.
“Shannon, look at me. It’s going to be okay.”
It was then that Shannon realized the trap, her eyes twisting back to violence, and another explosion went off as Ricardo grabbed the shotgun, this time shattering part of the wall behind. Leah lunged forth before he could lose control, and the two grappled against her. Shannon screamed as they wrestled the gun away, and she wasn’t alone. Everyone was shouting and clambering and trying to get control!
But then a shriek suddenly eclipsed them all.
Lucy had cried out in pain. Greg was attacking her! He’d pinned her to the ground, both hands squeezing into her chest, and teeth clattering as they bit into her face. Blood sprouted free as Lucy’s flesh got torn!
Leah was no longer fighting Shannon. She couldn’t move. Shannon’s arms wrapped around her as the two hugged against the incomprehensible unfolding in front of them.
Only Ricardo had his wits. He sprung to his feet and rushed across the room. Greg moaned as he got tackled to the floor, but that did little to slow him down. A moment later, he was back on his feet, his eyes white and empty. More blood leaked from his neck, though he didn’t seem to care. His arms were raised like a demon possessed, and he again went for Lucy. But before he reached her, Ricardo grabbed him from behind and threw him into the bathroom. The door shut with a slam. Knocks came seconds later as Greg pounded against the door, but Ricardo quickly shoved the table against it’s frame. He fell back to the ground and breathed deep.
It took an impossibly long time for Leah to register everything that’d just happened. She got back to her feet and wandered over to Lucy. Her face was torn to pieces, and her neck was gushing blood. Her eyes stared straight up, but nothing was in them. Was she dead?
Ricardo rubbed the tears from his eyes, his hands still bloody. He stared at his wife with that same desperate look that Leah knew she had.
And Greg still bashed against the bathroom door, ready to do the same to them all.
Leah and Ricardo looked back to Shannon. There she stood again, shotgun in hand, with another pistol tucked into her waist, and bullets bulging from her pockets. She watched them both, no longer frenzied or paranoid, but concerned and knowing. Leah knew what she was thinking, and she knew what they were thinking.
This nightmare was only beginning.
* * *
Nothing.
That was all Shannon felt as she stared into the apocalypse. Even from this far away, she could see the helicopters swarming overhead, watch the glow of fires sprouting up downtown, and feel the collected screams flowing out of the city.
The end had come, and Shannon still felt nothing.
Her gaze broke as their car sped between some cliffs.
“Maybe we should try cutting through Lemmon,” Leah suggested, her hands on the wheel.
Shannon stared on. “You heard what they said at the last checkpoint. The whole valley’s blocked off.”
“What about Sparks? There’s supposed to be a field hospital there.”
“If you say so.”
She grimaced. “What do you want from me!? You’re the one who said we had to leave.”
What do you want from me? “Just keep driving.”
They’d left the house after Lucy turned. It was indisputable now that the zombie apocalypse had come, and they couldn’t stay, not with both of them there. Greg might have been locked in the bathroom, and Lucy was restrained in the basement, but there was no telling how long before either broke free. They weren’t prepared for this type of shit, and no one had it in them to put a bullet in those two.
“Oh, God,” Ricardo sobbed from the backseat. “Pull over. I can’t take it anymore! I can feel it happening to me too.”
Leah frowned. “You’re not sick, Ricardo. You’re just in shock. Please close your eyes and rest if off.”
“Why do I keep forgetting things then!? Shit… I can’t remember what Lucy looks like anymore! It keeps happening, I’m telling you!”
“It’s okay, you weren’t bit,” Shannon explained. “That’s how it spreads.”
“Based on what?”
“Every zombie movie, ever.”
He broke into another coughing fit. “Fucking movie logic? Seriously?”
She sighed. “Trust me.”
His coughs turned back into sobs, and he fell into the seat.
This was getting rough. Ricardo had done a good job back at the house. When the shouting and the shock and the fear died down, and they could all think clearly again, he’d been the one to take care of Greg and Lucy. He’d gone out of his way to tie her up before she could turn, and he’d reinforced the bathroom door so that Greg stayed locked inside. Both Shannon and Leah had kept their distance when the truth became apparent, but he’d marched right in.
But between handling all the blood and facing his dead wife resurrected, something inside Ricardo had snapped. He kept saying that he was becoming like them. That he could feel his mind going away and hollowing from the inside out. It wasn’t on him. To have gone through that with his wife and best friend, both at the same time. That was too much for anyone.
Meanwhile, Leah was on the other end of the spectrum, sucking the denial pipe hard. She kept saying that it would all work out. They hadn’t become zombies, they were just sick. Like rabies or something. As soon as they found a doctor, they’d go back and get help. The government had said it was treatable. They wouldn’t lie. Not about that. So long as the three of them kept their heads together, they’d make it through this okay.
And Shannon still felt nothing.
She couldn’t be bothered to talk sense into her best friend. She couldn’t raise a finger to help Ricardo get through this. None of it felt like it was worth the slightest bit of effort, even now.
Man, I’m fucked up. A shrink had once suggested that this was her defense mechanism against trauma. Against strong emotions. The moment someone or something got too close to her heart, she’d shut down and stop feeling anything. Build a big fucking wall to keep the problems of the world out, and then use drugs and sex to fill the void left behind.
Shannon rubbed the pain from her scalp. She could really use some drugs right about now.
More floodlights sprang up ahead. Another roadblock. Where the hell did these things keep coming from?
Their car slowed into a crawl, and then a stop behind a couple other vehicles.
“Turn around and go back to your homes or we will open fire!” someone shouted from behind a megaphone.
Before Leah had the chance, a dozen more vehicles closed into them, with a RV practically kissing their bumper. The guy with the megaphone shouted again and again, but these people didn’t seem to get the memo.
“Shit,” Leah exhaled. “What now?”
Shannon instinctively pulled up her face mask and locked the doors to the front and back. “I say we look for an opening and drive through.”
“They have guns.” The shadow of a soldier passed in front of a floodlight, as if to highlight the point.
Fuck this. “So do we.” She leaned the shotgun between her knees, quickly unlocked the safety of her pistol, and wrapped her finger around the trigger.
Leah’s eyes widened above her scarf. “Are you insane?”
“We can’t keep driving in circles.”
“You’ll get us killed.” She turned around. “Ricardo, back me up.”
There was no response, and Shannon glanced into the mirror. “I think he passed out.”
Leah crinkled her hands against the wheel. “Where did you even learn to shoot?”
Shannon remembered all too well. It was back with her step father before she’d gotten too old and he started doing the shit he’d done. She watched the soldiers and thought long and hard about what she’d do if he was here right now.
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll waste these guys if I have to.” She stared Leah in the eyes to let her know that she was dead fucking serious.
Shannon was never good at a lot of things. She wasn’t smart. She couldn’t hold a job to save her life. No one had ever used her shoulder to cry upon, except maybe Leah. As Greg had said, Shannon never did good deeds for anyone. The only person she’d ever tried to help was herself. Her hard life had made sure that no one else was worth the risk.
But this… Staring down some assholes in uniform and pulling the trigger? She could do it. Shoot them before they could shoot her, so that Leah wouldn’t have to live with it. Shannon would survive through it. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. And this might be the closest thing she had in her to doing that good deed.
Her finger tightened around the trigger as a floodlight passed in front.
Only for someone else to beat them to the punch. Their car quaked as another vehicle scraped by, aiming to drive around the blockade. The fuckers rammed another car right into a ditch before losing control and falling off themselves. Soldiers sprinted their way, guns raised.
Another pickup truck got the same bright idea and went through the hole that’d just been made, but these guys tried to take the concrete divider head-on. Sparks flew out from the hood, and the truck was locked in place.
A crack pierced the stillness of the night as a warning shot went off, but that didn’t stop people from getting out of their vehicles, and taking their chances on foot. Shouting grew as a crowd formed, only to get drowned out as the megaphone blared.
Giving them the perfect chance.
“Drive!” Shannon ordered.
Leah blinked. “Where!?”
“Anywhere. Just go!”
Another gunshot went off, followed by another after that. Shannon and Leah stared powerlessly as the soldiers fired into the crowd.
Shannon grit her teeth. “For fuck’s sake, Leah. Get us ou–”
Bullets cut through the windshield before she could finish the thought.
The two shrieked and dove down, but more kept coming. Padding burst from the seats where the gunfire tore through.
“Bail!” Leah shouted before diving out the door.
Shannon nearly lost the shotgun completely as she fell out her side. More bullets came. She scrambled for cover and threw her back against the door. The pistol shook in her hands and she blinked back tears.
Shannon hadn’t signed up for this shit. Soldiers were shooting and people were shouting and it was all happening too fast! She just needed a fucking second to think!
A hand grabbed her shoulder. Her heart nearly burst out from her chest.
“We need to go,” Leah said. “Where’s Ricardo?”
Shannon stared dully, but no words came. Still in the car, passed out in the back, right where we left him. It had never occurred to her to get him out, or to even unlock the door to the back.
Leah’s eyes flicked around. “Shit.” She raised her head an inch and knocked on the window. “Ricardo, wake up. Ricardo!”
His face smashed against the window, and the two lurched back into the pavement. Ricardo scraped against the glass, his mouth clattering. Shannon and Leah sat and gaped, eyes bulged as the impossible stared back at them.
His eyes were transformed. They had gone white. Empty.
Zombified.
* * *
Leah gasped for air, her legs almost dead from the run. “How is that even possible? You said you have to get bit for it to spread, right?”
“Maybe he was,” Shannon said, leaning against the shotgun she’d stolen like it was a walking stick.
“What are you talking about? We were with him the whole time.”
“That’s how it always works.” She shrugged and breathed deep. “I don’t know.”
Leah buried her face in her scarf and wiped the sweat away. Of course Shannon had no idea what she was talking about. She wasn’t a doctor, or a scientist, or had ever so much as picked up a medical journal. What the fuck had compelled Leah to trust her?
How long had they been wandering around now? It had to have been half an hour before they’d taken the slightest bit of a break. All that time running away, no idea where or why, other than to escape as far from any soldier as humanly possible.
Everywhere outside Reno looked the same. Hill after hill after hill. None of them were ever steep or distinct enough to give the slightest bit of difference. Only by chance had the two wandered onto one of the taller ones, where they could see the lights of downtown off in the distance, though Leah had learned after living here for so long that seeing lights at night meant civilization was anywhere from a half mile away, to over a dozen. No one could ever tell.
She stared into the lights and thought of everything that’d be going on there. Greg… Lucy… Ricardo… It was only just now catching up to her. Leah had left them behind, not thinking it through, and trusting in Shannon’s judgment alone. What else was she supposed to have done after they tried to attack them like that? But Shannon was as clueless as everyone else, and Greg was stuck at home, locked in the bathroom with no one to help. And here Leah was, watching Reno burn as she ran away, as if none of that mattered.
“Wait, where are you going?” Shannon asked as Leah started to walk towards the lights.
“Back.”
“Leah, no. We have to get out of here.”
“You can leave if you want, Shannon, but I’m going back.”
She scoffed. “So what then, you want to get us both killed?”
Leah kept walking. “Don’t come if you don’t want.”
The dust crunched under her feet as she descended the hill. God, she hoped Shannon fell for her bluff. Leah was playing tough, but she really, really couldn’t bear being alone right now. This nightmare was spiraling more out of control by the second, and the only way to save herself was to latch onto what she still had. That meant Greg, but it also meant Shannon too. Leah couldn’t survive this mess with one and not the other.
For a moment, Leah started to fear the worst too, but then dirt crunched behind, and Shannon was again by her side. She let out a breath of relief and kept moving.
Leah watched her best friend in the light of the moon. Shannon looked so different than from just a few days ago. Her straight black hair was tied in a bun, she was wearing jeans and a tan T-shirt instead of all black, and her eyes weren’t shrouded in heavy mascara.
Only her disposition remained the same. She still had that blasé, uninterested glaze over her eyes. Even with a shotgun and pistol in hand like a vigilante sent to take on the world, Shannon still stared on like this disaster was nothing more than a chore that had ruined her day.
Leah averted her gaze. Everyone had their own ways of coping, and Shannon was no exception.
At least, that’s what she told herself.
* * *
It was over an hour before they found another path, and another hour after that before they reached civilization. They’d found themselves in a national park, with only the ranger’s path as their guide. It eventually led them to a main road, which cut straight into town. Even then, Leah took ages before she finally had her bearings.
The revelation came as they reached an intersection, and Shannon collapsed into a streetlight to get some air.
Leah grunted. “We’re off by further than I thought.”
“What do you mean?” Shannon asked between breaths.
“This is Sparks, not Reno. I remember this McDonald’s. I used to stop here after work.” She grit her teeth as it all came together. “How the hell did we end up east of the city?”
“No way…” She groaned. “How fucking far are we now?”
Leah tried to do the math, but came up short. Her legs ached. “Too far.”
“So what now?”
“I don’t know. Let’s find help.”
Shannon glanced up and down the street, staring through the endless sea of asphalt. “What help? The dead are rising around us, soldiers are gunning everyone down, and you still think someone will save the day?”
Here she goes again. “For fuck’s sake, let it go already. There’s no such thing as zombies, okay? This is some bloodborne shit like ebola or something. Why else do you think Ricardo got sick even though they hadn’t attacked him? If it’s something that gets in your blood, then it’s got to be treatable. We just have to hunker down and find the right people.”
“Oh, so now you’re a doctor, huh?”
Her cheeks reddened. “No, but I don’t base every fucking thought I have off some movie I saw. Seriously, Shannon. You were wrong about how it spreads, and you’re wrong about this.”
Shannon glared, and Leah had a feeling that she had something truly awful at the tip of her tongue, but then she shrugged her shoulders and yawned. “Whatever, Leah. You got any bright ideas as to where to go next?”
She did. “The restaurant. It’s the safest place we can hide.”
“You work at a Chili’s.”
“The doors are thick, there’s plenty of food, and with Eric out of state, I’m the only one who has keys to get in.” The pause lingered a moment, and Leah pressed her confidence. “I cleaned it too. There’s nowhere more sterile for us to go where we know we won’t get sick. Trust me, this’ll work.”
Leah had another reason, but one she didn’t want to share. She’d never been good with change. Her whole life, any time something massive came her way, she’d fall down and fold into a ball. Her parents’ divorce, moving to a different state during her senior year, dropping out of college because her grades were shit. Every step of the way, she got worse and worse and worse at dealing with it, until the only thing that could save her was a needle in the arm. Only Shannon had been able to keep her from falling off the edge, but she’d had her own host of problems too.
But then Greg came into her life. He was a smart guy. A decent guy. One who could see the real her. Where everyone else thought that Leah was some rich airhead turned junkie, he knew how much good she could do, so long as she had some basic fucking stability in her life. He became her bedrock, and pulled her from the brink, inch by inch.
That was why she couldn’t leave him behind. She couldn’t accept what Shannon thought. Without Greg being there, who was left for her? Who would be there to save her from herself?
Leah turned back to Shannon, who continued to lay where she’d fallen. They’d been resting for a while now, and she still seemed on the verge of passing out.
Her spider senses started tingling. “You doing alright, Shannon?”
“Other than the end of the world? Yeah, just peachy.”
But Leah was getting a better look at her now that there were streetlights nearby, and could see the pale, sickly hue her skin had gotten, along with the sheer exhaustion in her eyes.
“Shannon, are you feeling sick?” Leah whispered.
She turned away. “Fuck off, I’m fine.”
“I don’t want to alarm you, but you don’t look so good. If you think you might be feeling off… If you think you might’ve touched someone or something, maybe at Henry’s house…”
“I’m not becoming a zombie.”
She cringed. “I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying you don’t look so good. So if there’s any doubt in your mind, I have to know right now.”
“Well, it’s not that.”
“How do you know? You’re barely keeping it together.”
“Because I know what’s wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “Remember before how you thought I was on drugs, and I told you that I wasn’t?” Shannon stared her in the eyes. “Well, I wasn’t lying, and that’s the problem. Okay?”
It took a second for Leah to catch her meaning. She grimaced. Withdrawal was a beast she’d fought against more times than she could count.
“What was it, and how long ago since you stopped?” Leah asked.
Shannon averted her gaze. “Crystal. It’s been three days.”
Leah could’ve scolded her for bringing that shit into her home. She could have bitched her out for being so selfish, or for not saying a word until now. She could have rightfully called her out for being an idiot by not coming to her first. With the way Shannon was shying away, she no doubt thought any of that was about to come her way.
But Leah knew better. She wasn’t the only one without stability in her life right now.
“It’s okay, Shannon,” Leah said, wrapping her arms tight around her best friend. “We’re gonna get through this.”
Shannon didn’t move. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t make the slightest bit of motion as Leah hugged her tight. But the sudden sniffle between breaths let her know that Shannon was still there. Still thinking. Still feeling. Just as shocked and terrified and lost as everyone else. No matter how hard and how high Shannon could build her mental wall, Leah still knew how to get through, and be there with her.
“This isn’t how this ends,” Leah said with a stroke of her matted, black hair. “We’ll make it. Together.”
And fuck, did she mean it.
