ZAHMBIES: A novella: Part I: CH 14-21

14) The Jail


Her head was pounding before she even opened her eyes. Her ears, temples and neck throbbed with the pain of her own heart beat.
She opened her eyes and found herself lying on her back on the hard, concrete floor. It took her a few minutes, but she managed to sit up, and blink a few times. Her vision was a little blurry at first but a few blinks cleared away the fuzziness and she saw that she was in a small room, maybe 5ft by 5ft total, and one wall was completely made of bars from the floor to the ceiling. A jail cell.
She stood up and looked around for her friends but she was the only on in her cell it seemed. The lights were out in the hallways except for the emergency lights casting shadows everywhere.

"Axel?" she tried to say, her throat was so dry it barely functioned, "Corey? Christy?"

Nobody answered her.
"COREY?! AX?!," Ellie yelled, "CHRIISTY!?"

Her voice still went unanswered and for the first time since the entire nightmare had begun, she could feel true panic rising up from her stomach and tingling in her limbs. How did she get in here and where were her friends?!

"Ah, I see you are awake Missy," said a gravelly voice in the darkness. It sounded like D.D

"Where are my friends!?"

"Cool your heels Missy," he drawled, "They're alright."

Ellie heard someone walking down the hallway and the lights came on with a flash bringing instant pain and blindness to her head.
When she could stand to reopen her eyes D.D was standing in front of her cell with his hands in his pockets and a cigarette between his lips.

"See now, they're alright."

He gestured to the, now visible adjacent cell, and saw Axel unconscious on the floor, the cell next to his she could see the top of Corey's head on the floor and hear his snores.

"You were the first one out," D.D said casually, "Your friends are fine they'll wake up like you did. A little head ache but otherwise unharmed."

"What did you do to us? And why did you lock us up?" Ellie asked hoarsely.

"See now, there they are," D.D said, as if nothing was the matter, "I just gave you a little something to make you sleep. See, When the town when to hell, everyone went crazy, the people who didn’t get sick came here, but started arguing with themselves. That argument went violent...

His voice wavered for a moment and he swallowed hard.

"You cant just keep us here!" Ellie cried, "I have to find my mom! "

D.D took the last long drag on his cigarette and dropped the butt onto the floor where he crushed it with the heel of his boot."You all aren’t gonna find your folks, they're dead and gone if they were out there on the highway when the evacuation hit. Its better you stay here. I can protect you all here, sweet cheeks."

Ellie scowled at the man. "Let me out of here!"

"You'll get used to it," D.D said, "I'll bring you some food in a little while and some Tylenol too. "

With that, he disappeared. Ellie grabbed the barred door and shook it hard as she could. "I HAVE TO FIND MY MOM!"
Her cries were ignored and she fell to her knees, fighting back tears. What were they going to do? How could they escape this disturbed man and have any hope of finding Corey's family or her mom? If D.D got hurt or died, or even turned into one of the crazies...they were all dead too, locked in a cell to waste away until they starved to death or worse.  How could it be any worse?
Ellie looked around her cell and felt the hopelessness press in on her and she then she knew she was never going to see her mom again.



15) The Shot

Ellie wasn’t sure how long it took for the others to wake up. An hour? Two? Time had no meaning in a cell. They did come around slowly,  and achingly. Corey was the first to twitch, his own snores waking him up. Next Christy, who moaned in the cell next to hers. Finally Axel stirred and joined the land of consciousness.

They were all confused and with extreme headaches, but not for long. Ellie told them what had happened. How D.D had drugged them, locked them in there for their "own good."

"SON OF A BITCH!" Corey said as he kicked the metal doors of his cells, "Axel this is all your fucking fault! We should have stayed the hell away from here!"

Axel growled in frustration. "I was trying to help!"

"Yeah well your help got us in even deeper shit!" Corey yelled.

"I DIDNT SEE YOU COMING UP WITH ANY IDEAS COREY!"
Axel was pacing his cell, fuming and Ellie could hear Christy begin to cry.

"I DID HAVE AN IDEA! GO TO THE FARM HOUSE! BUT NOBODY LISTENED TO ME! DID THEY? NOW WE'RE STUCK IN THIS FUCKING HELL HOLE!"

Christy gave a loud, pathetic cry.

"STOP!" Ellie bellowed over them finally, "BOTH OF YOU STOP!"

The two boys did silence themselves and look over her way.
"It doesn’t matter who got us here," Ellie said, "because we ARE here now and we have to find a way out. I'd rather spend my time figuring a way out than arguing like you just were."

Axel sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair, "El, you're right. I know. We have to just figure it out Corey."

"Whatever." was his resounding reply.

"Maybe we could convince him to let us go?" Axel suggested.

Corey snorted sarcastically and Ellie shook her head.

"No, I tried to," Ellie said, "But I think, whatever happened here broke him. Made him go off the deep end. He thinks he is keeping us safe."

"Well, sounds like he won’t give up without a fight," Corey said as he took off his boot, "I'll use this on him when he comes by."

He pulled his hidden pocket knife from his boot and opened it with a flick.

"But Corey, you didn’t want to kill the man in the ditch'.."

"I won’t kill D.D but it might catch him off guard enough to just scratch him and snag the keys or something."
They continued talking over different plan ideas for escaping but none were particularly good. Ellie listened to them throw out ideas and tried to the think of a few of her own with no luck.

Corey tried picking his lock with the knife but only ended up cutting his finger and cursing for ten minutes.
D.D came later bearing lunch trays of food with bacon, eggs and a fruit cup for each of them.

"Here you go, kids," he said, “Figured you guys were getting kind of hungry."
Axel watched D.D with intense eyes behind his bars.
"
You have to let us go," Axel said,

"I don’t have to do diddly squat, son," he sad through the cigarette in his teeth, "but I'm doin you folks a favor. Nothing is getting in here to eat us. When it looks like all of those creatures have died off, we can all start over together."
Ellie didn’t like how he said his last statement and she knew, without a doubt he wasn’t going to let them go.  Corey was staring at D.D. murderously.

"I'll come back and give you some dinner later tonight," D.D said.

"Can we at least have some pillows," Ellie called to him as he walked away.
D.D stopped and turned to look at her.

"Please," she said, "If we are going to stay here, lock- I mean safe- a pillow would be nice."

"Well, missy I think I can manage that," he drawled, "since you asked so nicely."

D.D disappeared, and Ellie held out her hands between the bars, to Corey.  "Can you toss me the knife?"

"Yeah, but what for?" Corey grumbled.

"Just trust me," Ellie said, "Unless you want to spend the rest of your life stuck in that  4x4."
Corey stood up and pulled the knife out of his pocket. "Can you catch it?"

"Yeah, just toss it," Ellie urged him ,"Before he comes back."

Corey tossed it over to her with a flick of his wrist and she caught it with ease.

It wasn’t long before the heavy boot falls of D.D came strolling down the hallway and his face appeared in her cell doors.
"Here you go sweet cheeks," he said as he held up a feather pillow, "I'll try to find the rest of you some when daylight comes again."

"Aw, thanks," Ellie said, "You could probably just slide it through the bars."

D.D nodded and started pushing the feathered pillow through her bars but was having difficulty.

"Here, let me try it from this side," she said, as nice as she could.
She grabbed the pillow and tried to wiggle it through. When it seemed like the pillow was at its plumpest point, trying to pass through, Ellie gave it a quick and thorough jerk and his arm came through the bars with the pillow. Trapped in the bars past his elbow, he bellowed in surprise and yelped as Ellie twisted his arm around, forcing him to turn his back to the bars. Before she could even think, she whipped out the knife with her other hand and held it to his throat.

"Bitch!" he growled.

"SHUT UP!" Ellie yelled at him, "If you want to live, you will unclip those keys and kick them to my friend over there."

"STUPID BITCH-"

Ellie tightened her grip and the knife cut into his skin a little. "If you don’t do what I said, the monsters outside won’t have a chance to kill you because I will do it first. I swear I will!"

D.D gave raspy choking sound and unclipped the  key ring on his waist obediently.

"Now kick it over to him," Ellie order breathlessly, "Do it now!"

He dropped the kicks and gave them a solid kick with his boot which sent them sliding over to Axel's reach.
Axel snatched them up immediately and unlocked himself from the cell. Then, he unlocked Corey's and Christy's door too. Then the boys disappeared for a moment and then returned with their weapons point right at D.D.

"Alright, D.D," Corey said, " She is going to let you go but one wrong move and I am gonna blow a hole right in your stomach. If you let us go, we'll leave you with your life.

"You won’t last a day out there by yourselves, " D.D laughed, " You aint going to find your family either. They're zombie food or zombies themselves by now."

"Shut the hell up," Ellie said angrily as she let the knife dig in a little deeper.

"Ellie," Axel said slowly, "Let him go now. It’s okay."

Ellie swallowed a hard lump in her throat and then moved her trembling hand from D.D's throat.  D.D slumped to the ground grasping his throat in relief.

"I’ve got him covered," Corey said to Axel, "Get Ellie out of there."

Axel kept his eye on D.D and his weapon raised until he got close enough to unlock the barred door. Ellie was out as soon as her cell door slid open. Corey tossed her the faithful shotgun she had become accustomed to and she pointed it at D.D.

"I'm sorry about your son. But what you did is wrong. You are not going to keep me from finding my mom. I know she is still alive and I have to find her. I am warning you once and only once; Dont follow us," Ellie said, "Or I'll shoot you without a second thought."
D.D who was still catching his breath managed to look up at her.

"You're smart girl," he breathed, "but there is no hope. We are all going to die. It’s just a matter of how and when."

He launched himself off the floor at Ellie. She had a moment of hesitation at the trigger and he came down on top of her flailing madly like a wild animal. She struggled under the weight of him as heavy fists came crashing down all over. Axel and Corey were yelling somewhere beyond the mass that had over taken her. Punching and trying to pull D.D off of her.

"ELLIE! ELLIE! ELLIE!"
With a kick, she managed to put D.D off to the side of her and she gulped in air. The boys started to try to hold him back but he tried again to launch himself at her. This time there was no hesitation. She pulled the trigger and the buckshot exploded from the end of her shotgun, shredding the torso of D.D like cheese.

The man was dead before his body thumped to the floor and Ellie sat there staring at the gory mess she had created.
"Ellie.... Ellie...Ellie?"

Axel's voice seemed far away. Corey pulled Ellie to her feet but she did not feel his hands under her arms or hear him ask if she was okay to walk. She did not realize  that she shook her head yes to the question asked.

"Lets get out of here."

Ellie understood the words and started walking with Corey by her side. She did not feel the ground under her feet or her eyes blinking, or the kick back of the shot gun as they entered the infested night and climbed into their armored car. She did feel the strange lightness of being empty. Devoid of all emotion as adrenaline fueled her enough to escape the damned place.



16)The Flare

The blocked road and number of creatures chasing the truck was enormous. Ellie didn’t know  where they could all have come from but they poured from every crevice of the night as Axel sped through the town. 
A large amount of fuming, undead was running towards them.

"HANG ON!"

Axel hit the gas even harder and tried to plough through them but the bodies got stuck under the wheels causing the truck to veer out of control.  They all screamed as the truck sped into a wild turn and directly into a lamp post.

"GET OUT NOW!" Corey screamed.

Corey grabbed Christy by the nape of the neck and dragged her out of the truck. Ellie grabbed a half conscious Axel by his shirt and pulled him out of the driver’s seat into the back of the truck. She could hear the wails of the incoming monsters, surrounding the truck and she could hear Corey and Christy yelling but could not locate them.

"Axel! Ax! C'MON! Wake up!"
His eye lids fluttered as he roamed in and out of consciousness. There was another gash on his forehead from hitting the dash board.
Ellie looked around, desperate for any ideas of escape. She remembered the road flares in the dash. She dove into the passenger seat, clawed open the dash, and pulled out the long, sparkler flares. Matches, now she needed matches!
She pulled Axel to his feet. He felt limp like a wet noodle as he leaned against her.

"Axel," Ellie said, trying to get him to wake up, "I need you to tell me where the matches you have are. Please!"

A slight recognition flashed across his face and he fumbled his left hand against his jean pocket. Ellie dug into his front jean pocket thoughtlessly and ripped the match book out. 
She struck up a watch and lit a flare. It sparkles red and white into the inky blackness. She could see the grotesque and rotten faces of the monsters at the end of the truck where the doors stood wide open. Ellie propped Axel against her, over her shoulders as he was much taller than she was, and held out the flare.  The creatures hissed and flinched away from the light.

She walked forward slowly as the flare burned and the creatures stayed back out of the aura of the light. With slow deliberate movements she stepped out of the back of the truck and into the street with the monsters surrounding them in a perfect circle. They stayed just on the edge of the light where she could see their shadows stalking her, ready for the moment the wretched light would recede and they could  feed.

"COREY!?" she called as she hobbled down the street, "CHRISTY?!"
Nobody answered her and she felt her stomach drop like lead. She had to find a place to hide them both before she ran out of flares. She struggled along under Axel's weight until a 4 story hotel caught her eye. How many zombies would be in there? There wasn’t any other place to go though.

She made a break for it, inching along as fast as she could. Her muscles burned with the effort of carrying them both and she was down to her last flare as she reached the lobby door. The lobby door had been glass and was now smashed everywhere. A few glowing eyes stared at her hungrily as she passed through the lobby but stayed away from the burning flare in her hand. She saw the elevator and managed to get inside and shut the door. She pressed the 4 button and the elevator started it slow movement upward. Thank god there was still power going here.

The 4th floor seemed deserted. There were maid carts strewn down the halls and some of the room doors were open. Ellie peeked inside an open room. It appeared empty so she dragged Axel inside, and shut the door. She placed Axel in the floor by the  door and held out the flare and gun to check the bathroom.
It was empty. She locked the door behind her and managed to put Axel on the King sized bed in the room before collapsing into the chair and releasing herself to unconsciousness.




17) The Hotel

Axel woke up and immediately wished he hadn’t. His body ached from head to toe and it took him nearly two minutes to realize he was lying on a soft, fresh bed. He felt his head with his fingers and realized there was something strange above his eye. It almost felt like stitches.
He sat up slowly and the reality he was sitting in a nice hotel room with no memory of how he got there and that there were the sounds of someone taking a shower coming from the bathroom.

Ellie had never been so glad to take a shower in her life. After venturing out when daylight came and trying to find Corey and Christy and coming back unsuccessful, she stopped by a Walgreens and got stitches from the emergency pharmacy and some antibiotics. It finally paid off to have a nurse for a mother. She also grabbed them both new clothes. She had stitched up Axel's head and given him a shot of antibiotics, hoping he didn’t get any sort of infection and then climbed into the shower. The water was so hot she could barely stand it and she had been in there for over 45 minutes. As much as she scrubbed, she didn’t feel clean enough. If she stayed in there much longer would probably scald herself. Giving up her quest for feeling clean, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.

She grabbed her new jeans, socks, and shirt and put them on slowly. She had peeled off her blood stained, muck caked old clothing, showered and now she had on nice clean clothes, but she felt disgusting. Staring at her reflection, she saw scratches on her face, her arms, and bags under her eyes behind the veil of her wet hair. Her mind though, felt like it was the worse for wear. Her brain felt bloody with images of splattering gore, shots ringing, the raspy voice of D.D and her mother laying in a ditch, infected, half-dead and beyond all help or hope.

She glanced down and realized she had begun to wash her hands in hot, steaming water. The burning had not registered to her, but the repetitive motion of her hands rubbing over each other finally made her see what she was doing. As she dried off her hands there was a soft knock at the door, making her jump.

She opened the door cautiously until she saw Axel standing in the door way. He was bleary eyed, and his mouth was drawn tight in pain. Ellie thought about getting pain killers. Why hadn’t she remembered those?

"You should be lying down," Ellie said firmly, "C'mon."
She clutched his arm and led him back over to the bed. He went willingly and sat back down on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, "I forgot to get you pain killers. When I go back out, I'll get you some."

"I feel like shit," he said in earnest, "But I also have this feeling I would be dead if you hadn't done whatever you did."

"Do you remember anything?" she said.

"I remember the pole," he said as he looked at the ceiling, "I remember the light pole but, nothing afterward. I hit my head?"

"Yes," Ellie replied as she stared at Axel, "You should rest while I go out and get you some pain killers and some food. You don’t feel dizzy or anything do you?"

"No, my head is just pounding," he said, "Maybe Corey or I should go with you?"

Her throat tightened and her eyes burned. Where was this coming from? She had been so under control, keeping calm, doing what she needed to do but everything had been so out of control and now, now it was crashing down on her. She was losing her own control; it was being crushed under the weight of their reality. The screams of Corey and Christy filled her ears, her fingers twitched with the guilt of the life she had taken and her chest heaved with the sickness of knowing it was her fault.

"What is it Ellie?" Axel said as he sat up with concern.

"I-I-I lost them," Ellie mumbled thickly, "When we crashed Corey tried to save your sister and I grabbed you. We got separated and I used the flares to keep the things back and got us here.... I couldn’t find them...I called and called and  I looked all morning."

. Whatever had been holding back her emotions shattered her defenses and tears came thundering down. Ellie hid her face in her hands and cried. "I  cant find them. I'm sorry Ax. Its my fault."

She cried until she gasped for air. The hot tears burned with guilt and shame and outright heart break.
"Ellie...Ellie...Ellie.."

He was saying her name but the tears kept coming. A warm hand came over her shoulder, then it slid across, making room for a broad arm which pulled her forward until she met with something solid and warm.

"It’s not your fault. I’m alive because of you, Ellie, I'm not angry with you. We'll find them," he said to her.

She cried into the dirty shirt he wore until she couldn’t cry anymore. Somehow she felt cleaner after smudging her face with his mud spattered shirt. Axel let her cry as long as she wanted and let her pull away when she was ready, for which she was thankful. When she finally did pull away,  he was looking down at her strangely.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a moment.

Ellie laughed. There was absolutely nothing funny about their situation and yett the small little thing had escaped her. "You're the one with the head injury and your asking me if IM okay?"
He laughed and hugged her back close to him. "You are something else."

Ellie was relieved, shaky, and puffy- eyed. But she was hungry too.

"I'll go out and get some food and Tylenol," she said as she pulled away from him, "You stay here."

"You shouldn’t go out by yourself," Axel argued, "I’m going with you."

"No. You need to rest. I don’t want to move you until I know you are going to be okay. If you get dizzy and fall out. I dont know how far I could carry you again. Last night was blind adrenaline and I almost didn’t make it."

Axel ground his teeth together, knowing she had a point. "Fine. But if you aren't back in an hour I’m coming to look for you."

"I'll be back," Ellie said firmly, "I promise."




18) The Confession


Ellie wandered down the street in the golden afternoon sunlight. The sun was beautiful, warm and constant and she wondered how something so simple as feeling it on her skin could make everything that had happened feel manageable.

She had already visited the Walgreens and snagged a bottle of Tylenol from the shelves along with some cans of spaghetti O's and TV dinners for food that night. Now, she was searching the little strip of a town for any sign of Corey or Christy. She visited the wreckage of their armored truck to look for any ideas or possible directions they could have run too. She even checked in some of the safer looking shops for clues but found no trace of them. She didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. There was no evidence to say they were alive, but no evidence to the contrary either.

It was getting later in the afternoon, so she returned to the hotel with her supplies. She found Axel asleep and shirtless on his side in the bed. He had apparently managed to get a shower and find most of his new clothing she had brought. She watched the steady chest falls of his breathing for a moment and decided not to wake him up until it was time to eat.

As the sun faded to a purple hued evening, Ellie played with the television by checking all the channels to see if there were any news broadcasts out there. She only found one which was on repeat somehow and it was on telemundo and completely spoken in spanish. The only words she understood with absolute certainty was 'sangre' (blood) 'muerto' (dead) and 'aqui' (here). She wondered if the U.S hadn’t been the only place hit. Could this have been a global attack?

A moan came from behind her and she felt the bed shift as Axel rolled over on his back. "When did you make it back?" He sounded groggy and in pain.

"About an hour ago," Ellie said quietly as she turned off the TV, "You were sleeping well enough I didn’t want to wake you up."

"I wished you would have," he said as he sat up slowly, "I was worried when you stayed out there a little longer."

"I’m sorry. I was looking for any signs of Corey or Christy."

"Didn’t see anything?" Axel asked but sounding as though he already knew the answer.

"Now, that I would have woken you up for, if I'd found anything. But no, no traces," she replied with a heavy chest.

"Well, that could mean they could be alive," Axel said, trying to lighten the mood, "Ii mean you know Corey. He won’t let Christy cry all the time, and he has probably cussed enough to make the devil himself blush by now, but he can take care of her and himself."

Despite it all, Ellie felt herself smiling as she imagined Corey going into one of his ridiculous cussing rages.

"So what’s for dinner, Chef? Axel asked, "I hate to complain, but I’m starving."

"Hope you like Spaghetti O's," Ellie told him as she pulled out the poptop cans, "I have  Franks, Meatballs and regular."

Axel eyed the cans hungrily. "Franks are the best. I'll take your finest can."

Ellie made a face. "I didn’t know you liked the Frank spaghetti O's. Gross. Meatball is where it’s at. Best kind."

Axel took the can from her and opened the top without even bothering to warm it up.

"That’s disgusting. You don’t even know what those meatballs are made of. Its mystery meat!"

"And what do you think Franks are," Ellie said flatly.

"But see with the Franks, at least it’s a well known and appreciated mystery meat," Axel countered, "With those meatballs, it just makes the whole mystery meat even more wrong."

"Well, if meat balls are wrong," Ellie replied precociously, "then I don’t want to be right."

Before they knew it the both of them were laughing and talking as it were any other normal day. As if nothing had ever happened and their world had not been blown to bits. Ellie couldn’t help but notice how he was looking at her now. It was the same stranger look he had given her yesterday. It looked like he was studying her face, taking in every freckle and eyelash. The look made her cheeks turn pink and she wasn’t sure why. They ate their spaghetti O's and talked about anything and everything besides the last week.

The sun gave its last bit of light, and Ellie turned on the lamps hoping to keep the creatures at bay or at least away from the hotel. She could hear them at moment, howling into the black night. The sounds made her uneasy.

"Do you think they will bother us?" Ellie asked Axel.

"Not with the lights on," Axel said, "But if they do make it up to the fourth floor, I’m pretty sure they won’t make it through the door, and if they manage that...well...I'm ready."

He patted his gun which was sitting on the floor by the bed. "I think the best thing we can do is get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll get a vehicle from the streets and give a last sweep of the place before we move out."

"What about Corey and Christy?"

Axel swallowed a little of his water and looked at her in the eyes. "We have to assume, if we don’t find any evidence of their deaths tomorrow, that they are alive and have moved on to meet us at the farmhouse."

His plan made sense and Ellie nodded in agreement. She yawned and suddenly felt worn down. It had been the least eventful day since the attack and yet she felt most exhausted now. She imagined the adrenaline she had been running on was finally tapped out and it was time to crash. It was not until she took off her boots and coat that she realized she would be sharing a bed with Axel.

The epiphany made her stop at the foot of the bed and stare wide-eyed at Axel.
"What? He asked her.

Desperately fighting to keep her cheeks from turning pink, she replied, "Nothing, I was just thinking I should probably sleep in that desk chair again tonight."

Axel gave her a raised eye brow. "Why? You won’t get any good rest like that."

"Well, then I'll just keep watch."

Ellie started to pick up her gun but Axel grabbed her hand first.

"No, we'll be fine," he said, "The door is locked and we braced it with the chest of drawers. We both need some real rest. We haven’t had any in nearly a week. This is a big bed. We'll just stick a pillow between us and it will be fine okay?"

Ellie's face betrayed her and turned a rosy pink before she pulled away from him.

"It would also help me sleep better," he insisted, "because I know you won’t be up when I should be."

Ellie gave in finally and crawled onto the bed, making sure to leave a good 6 inches between his side and hers. Axel used the decoration pillow to wedge between them.

"See? This is much better than that chair."

Ellie giggled a little because as much as she hated to admit it, he was right. The bed was soft and warm. She sank in it just enough to be cozy. She wondered if this would one of the last times she slept in such a nice bed, or ate Spaghetti O's or laughed with her friend.
She had grown quiet since laying down, but now she felt the  urge to break the silence.

"Ax?"

"hmm yeah?"

"Nothing is going to be the same anymore is it?"

Axel didn’t reply for a moment. Ellie rolled over on her side and moved the pillow to look at him. Had he fallen asleep and forgotten to answer?
To her surprise, his eyes were open and he was looking directly at her with an intense gaze.

"No," he said quietly, " I don’t think it is."

Ellie nodded and felt more tears coming on. When had she suddenly become a waterworks show? She cried yesterday too and she knew she should not have. She should have been stronger and sucked it up, but the idea that there would be no more late night movies with her mom, no more camping trips with her friends, no more track meets, and as stupid as it sounded no more colleges or homework, made her upset. She was going to miss it all.

"Ellie..."

Before she could even register how it had happened, she found herself against him, even closer than before, sniffling into his neck.

"I’m sorry," she whispered, "It’s stupid of me to cry."

His tight arms came around her and hugged every portion of her to him. "It’s not stupid. I’ve thought about it too, and now, with my sister missing I know how you feel. The future and what we are going up against is really freaking scary. And I don’t know if things will ever go back to the way they were.”

Ellie nodded in his chest and breathed as his hand rubbed her back. When had they been on cuddling terms?

"I know one thing that has been the same for a long time" he whispered into her hair, "And it’s never going to change."
The whispered tickled her and made her want to get even closer to him even though she was pressed against him as tightly as physics would allow.

"What?" she asked, her voice muffled through his chest.

"That I have pretty much been in love with you for awhile. I figured you should know in case we die."

And there it was.  Ellie pushed back from his chest to look him in the eye. In her world, you didn’t simply say I love you. Those words could hurt as easily as they could mend. But when she looked into his eyes that were staring down at her, the same look he had been sneaking at her for years, the same she had somehow just now begun to notice, was there.

"Sorry, my timing isn’t so great. I’ve been wanting...trying...to tell you for a long time and so many times I almost said it, but then I would chicken out."

She stared at him, taking in every long black eye lash and fleck of gold in his brown eyes. Why did she want believe his statement more than any other boy that had said it before?

She felt his warm hands supporting her back and his gaze on her cheeks, his chest rising and his heart beating and she knew it was not the right time for this. The world was completely insane and survival was the focus, not romance.

"Well, could you say something so I know you don’t hate me," he said with a nervous chuckle.

Ellie blinked and started to pull away from, sitting up. “Axel…I’m..”

She flew in quickly to his mouth and kissed him, forgetting all of the reasons why she shouldn’t.
She had never kissed anyone quite like she kissed Axel before. Sure, she'd had her first kiss, but this wasn’t limp –lipped- larry she was kissing. Quite the opposite. He pulled her up, his mouth working with and in hers. His kisses felt hot but all she wanted was to burn anyways. He was the flame and she the kindling. Ellie found herself gasping when their mouths broke apart and his kissed her neck and collarbone gently. His nibbles and a thought made her laugh a little.

"Yes?" Axel said curiously as he teased her neckline.

"I can’t believe you were chicken over me," she laughed, "Am I really all that scary?"

Axel looked up at her and smiled the first real, unfettered smile she had seen from him in a week. "Oh you are terrifying."



19) The Sign


Ellie rubbed her eyes as she sped down the highway. Axel was stretched out and asleep in the passenger seat of the van they had picked up off the vacant streets of Carrollton. He had been asleep for a long time, and all the while he was muttering in his sleep, sometimes even saying his friend’s name. She had wondered if she should wake him up, but every time she started to, when his dreams seemed to get really intense, she stopped. She was worried he wouldn’t go back to sleep and insist on driving.

The morning had been the best one in a long time for Ellie. She woke up next to Axel, who had kept her warm all night, and saw that he had already been awake. He had simply been waiting for her to wake up, and greeted her with a smile. They had both put their clothes back on, and went to work getting ready to leave the massacred town behind. They found the 8 seater van in good condition, having just been fixed in the local repair shop. They gassed it up, and grabbed a breakfast of Honey Buns and Slurpees from the otherwise empty gas station and hit the road.

Axel had wanted to drive, but Ellie refused to hand over the keys considering he still had a head injury. Thus, she had spent the rest of the day driving and avoiding abandoned cars which slowed their progress immensely. Luckily they had only come across one or two zombies which the van ploughed over with surprising ease. Once Axel had relaxed enough to fall asleep in the passenger seat with the air going full blast Ellie had time to think about the night before.

She knew there was no going back, whether the timing was good or not. He was the first she had ever trusted enough to be that close. What time they weren’t roaming each other’s bodies, he was holding her close, as if she would disappear if he didn’t. She loved being so close with him, but they both knew their main priority was survival and finding their families. When she thought of their odds, and hoping against hope, her new found relationship seemed much more complicated.

She glanced over at Axel who had just muttered his sister’s name as if he were worried, or something was happening to her. When she brought her attention back to the road, the van was passing a billboard that immediately caught her attention. She slammed on the breaks and Axel snapped to attention.

“Ax! Ax!”

“WHAT?!”

“LOOK AT THE SIGN!” LOOK!”

She pointed at the tall billboard they were just underneath and smiled.

The sign was advertisement for CHICK FIL A , but over that in black spray paint read:
WENT ON TO HOUSE. FIND US THERE. C&C

They were okay! They had escaped and with any more luck they would be waiting at Axel’s farm house for them. Axel smiled and laughed.

“Leave it to Corey to leave a billboard reminder.”

“They made it,” Ellie sighed with relief, “How far away are we from your house now?”

“15 minutes tops,” Axel said excitedly, “C’mon lets hurry and find them.”




20) The Reunion

They pulled into the gravel drive of the large Wheatman Farmhouse with excitement. Ellie felt a million times better now that she knew her other friends were safe. And her mom would be there waiting too!

Corey came out of the front door of the house with his rifle raised at first, until her saw Axel sitting in the passenger seat. His gun lowered and he bolted to the van.

“COREY!” Ellie cried as she leapt from the van and bound him in a hug, “We were so worried!”

Christy came running out of the house and nearly knocked her brother over as she tackled him around the middle. “Axel!” she cried, “I thought you had been…well…I’m so glad you’re okay!”

She was wiping away tears as she pulled away from her brother and hugged Ellie tightly. Ellie noticed her friend seemed like she was doing better now. Christy definitely wasn’t the quivering pile of tears Ellie had last seen her in.

“What the hell happened to you guys?” Corey asked, “We were thinking the when we couldn’t find you.”

“Same here,” Ellie said, “I was afraid you had gotten killed in the mob after the wreck. I couldn’t find you anywhere. Where are our parents?
Are they inside.”

“Let’s go in,” Corey said quickly, “It’s starting to get dark.”

Ellie frowned. “Corey. They are here right? Our parents?”

“Where are they?” Ellie said with her throat tightening.

“Come on in to the living room,” he replied quietly, “There is something you need to see.





21) The Note

They all sat down in the chairs around the hot fire place and Corey pulled a wrinkled, folded piece of note book paper from his back pocket.
“We found this on the kitchen table when we got here yesterday,” Corey said, “I read it already, but I’ll read it to you guys.”
Corey unfolded the paper and focused his eyes.

“Dear kids,
We know if you are reading this you are safe, for now, at the farm house. We are so worried about you, and we wanted to wait for you here, Mr. and Mrs. Fray insisted that we bring along their friend Dr. Longsteen along the way who said he and the Fray’s have access to a safe place in Cinco, Arizona set up by the government. He said that if we were with him, we wouldn’t have any problems getting into it, you four included. We waited for days and started to think the worst. Our only hope is that if you are alive and have arrived at the farmhouse after we have left, that you can follow us and we can be reunited at Cinco, Arizona. We have already lost one of our group…”
Corey paused for a moment and gripped the paper tightly. “ Follow us to Arizona as soon as you get this letter. Don’t delay. We love you.
Love,
Momma and Poppa Fray
Mama and Paw Wheatman.
And Momma Joy Dalton


Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. 

Corey shifted uncomfortably and drew from his pocket 4 white cards with different looking stripes at the sides. “They left us these. I’m guessin’ these are the keys to get into that safe zone. One of them has my name on them and the anagram NWOC. The rest of the passes are blank except for the mag-strip.  I don’t really know what it means. It’s not anything I’m familiar with. Personally, I think it’s fishy that the government seemed to have these cards and a “safe zone” that nobody really heard about.”

“But that’s where our families went,” Christy said, “So, we have to go.”

“Right,” Corey nodded in agreement, “We also heard another little snippet on the radio last night. All the tv is out but the radio catches random bits of people still broadcasting. We keep hearing broadcasts in a million different languages but they all sound pretty much the same. Like this was a worldwide attack or something.”

“I heard something like that the other day,” Ellie said quietly, “There was a Telemundo channel saying stuff about death and blood and something else.”

“Shit man, if this is a worldwide thing; it makes me wonder who the hell attacked us. Aliens?”

“I don’t know,” Axel said as he stared into the fire, “Whoever they were, I think they may have done their job a little too well. Too many people are gone now. But we aren’t going to be with them. Let’s start planning.”


END OF PART 1