LEFT BEHIND FOR DEAD - Zombie Outbreak Read online

  She blew at the candles over and over, laughing the whole time, and I joined her, laughing, happy to see someone happy for a change.

  When the candles finally gave out and didn't light again, she plucked them one by one from the cake, licking the candle bottoms of icing. She handed one to me and we ate like children. Like children at a birthday party.

  She loved the airplane. She twirled the propeller and made engine sounds, dipping the toy through the air beneath the thorny tree, and I fell in love with her. Fell so hard it was like hitting the bottom of a deep well, splat!

  When we made love that night, I held her tight to me afterward. In her hand she kept hold of the toy airplane as if it were a talisman.

  * * *

  Maddy gave the airplane to Zed. We found him wandering down the highway, his sneakers blown out and flapping, his head hanging, his breath coming in gasps from dehydration.

  “Why are you traveling alone?” I asked, while he drank from our water supply. We sat on the edge of the road, the morning bright and moving toward a clear noon. We were still in Texas and I guess we would be for days more. It was like crossing a continent.

  The boy wasn't even a teen yet. I judged him to be eleven or twelve.

  “My folks got et,” he said when he finished drinking. “Three days ago. We got caught at night and they tried to...they fought...but...”

  I put a hand on the boy's shoulder. “You can come with us.”

  It looked like I was gathering my own family. I missed Sherill and Kevin and Marcus, I'd always miss them, but my life was turning into something else now and that was all right too.

  The three of us continued forward. I told Zed we were going to the mountains, the big mountains, and we hoped to hide out there until the infection died out. He was welcome to come with us.

  “I guess so,” he said.

  Maddy gave him the little airplane and I looked over his head at her, winking. He took it and behind the grime on his face I saw the shadow of a smile. That's all we needed really, a little hope, whether it was a small inappropriate birthday gift or a life-saving swallow of water.

  We came to a town and had to barter for more food. A farmer was in town with a wagon of onions and cauliflower and broccoli. We gave him an extra knife Maddy carried and got a bagful of the vegetables. We went by a burned out dump and found a metal pot we cleaned out in a little stream that ran beside the road. We sat beneath a mighty oak, feeling the cooling breeze, as we waited for the chopped vegetables to cook together in a thick stew. It wasn't meat, but it would make us strong nevertheless. Even Zed didn't complain and ate his fill.

  That night we sleep three in a row with Maddy and me holding hands and Zed lying next to my other side.

  Before dawn we were fighting for our lives. They had come creeping to the stream, thinking to catch us unawares. I slept lightly and had ever since I'd embraced the Walking life. Any sound, rustle, creak, crack and I came wide awake. Luckily I did this night too. I saw them, hunched over on their hands and knees, coming across the ground like hedgehogs.

  I got Maddy and Zed awake. Zed ran toward the road to wait and Maddy got out her sledge hammer to stand with me. I slashed and she knocked them into tomorrow, smashing their heads like ripe watermelons. It was a bloody fight, but it didn't last long. There were only five of them. The sun rose too bright, showing the guts and brains on the ground, the sprawled rank corpses of those who should have stayed dead and never stood up to walk again. I turned away, disgusted.

  We washed ourselves in the stream, took up the pot, washed it too, and Maddy put it into her backpack. We met with Zed on the road and began our day's journey.

  “They almost got us,” he said in a shaky voice. “That's how they got my mom and pop. That's how they et them.”

  I let the boy talk and even Maddy kept her silence. We knew you had to get out all the bad stuff inside if you expected to go on every day. All the bad stuff had to get out in the open.

  When he finished and stood weeping, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably, we stopped in the road and between us, Maddy and I hugged the boy, a circle of love and of understanding.

  We were making a promise without words. Unlike my childhood friends, Maddy and I wouldn't give up on one another while we still had breath to breathe. We had made our unspoken pact. We'd keep Zed safe if it killed us. We'd never walk away from one another, no matter what happened.

  We were a family and one day we'd make it to Colorado. That's exactly what we'd do, come hell or come high water or come the zombie horde. We'd make it...

  THE END

  Thanks for reading. Look for Part 2 of the Zombie Outbreak coming soon to Kindle. Follow the trek this threesome makes to the mountains and see what they find when they get there.