The way her voice
wavered made his stomach flip. He hated to leave her alone. She was
still pretty shaken up about what happened with his dad. And could he
blame her?
But this house was the
safest place for her right now. She would be fine as long as she
remembered to board the door back up by the time it got dark out.
“Yeah, we’ll
be back,” he said, wanting to comfort her. “Just if, for
whatever reason, we can’t make it back in time, you’ve
got to remember to put the boards back up and lock the door, okay?”
She nodded and stepped
toward the banister as if she wanted to say something else.
“Would you rather
just come with us?”
Beside him, Parrish
groaned. He didn’t really want to take Karmen, either. She’d
do nothing but complain the whole time and would probably slow them
down, but she seemed so scared.
“No,” she
said, shaking her head. “I’ll be fine, are you kidding?
Some time alone sounds great right now. I’ll probably just take
a nap or something.”
She did a good job
pretending not to care, but he knew it was all an act. Underneath her
fake confidence, she was terrified of being left completely alone.
“We’ll be
back,” he said again.
She shrugged. “No
problem. See you guys later.”
Her voice caught on the
words slightly, as if she were holding back tears. She turned and
went back into the bedroom. He kind of wanted to go up and check on
her. To make sure she was really okay. And more importantly, to make
double sure she understood what to do if they didn’t come home.
But they were already
getting a later start than he’d hoped. They needed to get
going. With the evacuation tomorrow, today would be their only chance
to gather up supplies for the road.
He grabbed a second
shotgun from the living room. He stuffed two boxes of shells into his
backpack, then handed Parrish an empty backpack filled with old
grocery bags.
“I thought we’d
go by Karmen’s first,” he said, organizing his own bag
then hefting it onto his shoulders. “There’s no way to
know if her brother is still hanging around inside, so we’ll
have to be extra careful.
Parrish situated her
own bag on her back. She picked up the sword she’d brought over
with her and threaded it through the straps on her back. She’d
spent a few afternoons sharpening it with her dad’s sharpening
stone and it shined brighter than ever. “Sounds good,”
she said. “I have Karmen’s wish list.”
Taking her cue, Noah
added his bat to his bag, too. Guns were great at long distances, but
if they got into an enclosed area, the bat might be better.
They walked to the
kitchen and he carefully pried the wood off the door until he could
push it open. He and Parrish climbed out, leaving as many of the
original boards in place as they could.
The sun was shining
today, but there was a slight breeze that made the heat more
tolerable. It was the kind of summer morning everyone would have
loved. There should have been a dozen kids playing in their yards
today. People should have been out jogging or walking their dog. Cars
should be packed up for a day at the park or on the lake. Noah could
picture it so clearly in his mind.
But in reality, the
street looked like a wasteland. Trash bags were piled up in front of
houses. Some had ripped open, their contents spilling into the
streets and fluttering on the overgrown grass. The flyers that had
been dropped from the helicopters were still scattered along the
sidewalk and in the yards.
Several of the houses
were boarded up just like his, but he had no idea if anyone was still
alive inside or not.
From somewhere on the
next street, the smell of fire and ash floated on the breeze.
Noah wondered how many
people were alive in the neighborhood, hiding out in their houses
like they were? How many were left in the world at this point?
Parrish stood near the
middle of the road looking toward her house. In the bright sunlight,
her hair was shiny and black. She’d pulled it up into two
pigtails, almost like a little girl. At the same time, though, she
looked strong.
“You ready?”
he asked.
She nodded and started
off toward Karmen’s house across the street.
The door stood wide
open. Had he left it like that the day he came over here to find her?
He couldn’t remember. Either way, if the door had been open for
the past few days, they might find more rotters inside than just
Todd. Or what used to be Todd.
Parrish walked through
the door, fearless. She had one hand on the hilt of her sword. Her
other hand held one of the large flashlights she’d grabbed from
his house. He took the smaller one out of his pocket and swept its
light around the entrance area.
Noah wished the power
was still on. At least then they’d be able to see what they
were dealing with.
Inside, the house was
hot and muggy. He stepped around Parrish to open the blinds on either
side of the entryway. Light streamed in and most of the stairway came
into view. “Karmen’s stuff should be upstairs, mostly.
What all is on her list?”
Parrish pulled a piece
of paper from the top of her boot. “Her makeup bag. Surprise.”
Her tone was laced with disdain. “Hair brush. Deodorant. Razor.
Cell phone and charger. Clothes. Basic Karmen stuff.”
“Yeah, that
should all be in her room, I’d think. Do you know which one is
hers?”
Parrish nodded.
“Unfortunately, yes I do.”
Noah let her lead the
way up the stairs. Just in case, he pulled his gun from his bag and
flicked the safety off. As they passed doors to some of the bedrooms,
he closed them off, not wanting anyone—or anything—to
sneak up behind them in the dark. He wasn’t sure those things
could even open doors on their own. So far, they didn’t seem to
be very intelligent. They were more like animals than people, really.
“Her room is the
last one here at the end of the hall,” she said, shining the
flashlight on the closed door.
The deeper they got in
the darkness of the enclosed hallway, the more fear began to play
with his head. With no power on, there was almost no noise at all.
Just the thumping of his heart against his ribs.
He kept looking behind
him, to be sure no one was back there.
Parrish reached out and
turned the knob on Karmen’s bedroom door. She pushed the door
open, then stepped back, her hand moving back up to her sword. Noah
pointed his gun straight inside the room, half expecting Karmen’s
brother to come lumbering out at them, teeth ready for chomping.
But a quick sweep of
the flashlight inside the room showed no hungry zombies.
Noah relaxed his
shoulders and stepped past Parrish into the room. Karmen’s
suitcases were already laid out on the bed. She must have been
working on getting some of her things packed last time she’d
come in here. She hadn’t gotten much done, though.
“Did she have a
list of clothes she wanted? Or just random clothes?”
“Oh there’s
a list,” Parrish said, handing it to him. “I’ll go
get the stuff from the bathroom and leave you here to try to figure
out where she keeps her thongs.”
Noah laughed. “Thanks,”
he said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
Parrish disappeared
into the bathroom and the two of them worked on getting Karmen’s
belongings packed into some of the small plastic grocery bags they’d
brought.
Noah did his best to
get the specific things Karmen listed, but some of these things he
had no idea what they even were. What was the difference between a
sports bra and a racerback? Or were they the same thing? He shook his
head and grabbed a couple different bras from the pile in her drawer.
She listed black yoga pants and black capri pants, but he wasn’t
even sure what a capri was. He laid a couple options out on the bed
and went in to ask Parrish for help.
In the bathroom, she
was just finishing up. She had two large bags full of hair bows and
makeup and brushes and things.
“I think I’m
done,” she said. “What do you want to bet she’s not
going to be able to use half this stuff once she gets there? I mean,
do you really think they’re going to have a curling iron
station in a refugee camp?”
Noah took the bags she
handed out and stuffed them into his backpack. “Hey, if it
makes her feel better to have them, let her believe that she’s
going back to some kind of normal life,” he said. “But
you’re probably right. There’s no way to really know what
to expect, but I doubt it’s going to be a life of luxury.”
He swallowed, then
looked up at her in the half-darkness. He wanted to talk to her some
more about what they were going to do. Did she really want to go to
New York? Did she even want him to go? There was a moment before
Karmen interrupted them that he thought she wanted to kiss him as
badly as he wanted it, but now he couldn’t be sure. She’d
closed herself off just as fast as she’d opened up. He never
felt like he really knew where he stood when it came to Parrish.
All he knew was that he
liked her more than ever.
“We should get
going,” she said. “I’m hoping we’ll have time
left to go through a few of the neighbors houses after we get done
with mine.”
He stood and followed
her back into the bedroom. “Why?”
Parrish stopped
suddenly and Noah nearly tripped over her. She put her hand out to
the side to steady herself, then froze. In the dim light of his
flashlight, he could see the fear in her eyes.
He followed her gaze
toward the door of the bedroom where a tall man stood, his eyes
locked on the two of them.
Todd.
He’d been years
ahead of them in school. Noah was pretty sure he graduated about
seven or eight years ago, and he’d only seen him a handful of
times since. But even with a large piece of his face missing, Noah
still recognized Karmen’s brother.
He swallowed hard, then
reached for his gun.
But it wasn’t
there.
Shit. He’d left
it on the bed when he was packing up. The bat was there too. He tried
to calculate how long it would take him to get to it in comparison to
how fast Todd might be able to sink his teeth into one of their
necks.
Beside him, Parrish
made micro-movements. The fabric on her backpack hissed as she pulled
the sword out with a slow, steady motion. Her eyes didn’t move
from the zombie’s face.
The creature growled,
then took a step toward them.
As soon as he moved,
Noah dove toward the bed. He landed right on top of his gun, grabbing
it up and twisting around, hoping to get a clear shot off before the
zombie reached them.
But by the time he
turned around, Parrish was already in mid-air, her body twirling
around as her sword danced through the darkness with fierce accuracy
and speed.
The zombie’s head
tilted to the side, then toppled to the floor, sliced clean off. His
body followed soon after, falling with an awful thud on the carpet.
Noah gripped his
shotgun in his hands, his jaw open.
He was breathless.
Trembling. He thought of the day he’d seen her in the alley,
beating up those bullies to save that geeky transfer kid. This was
like that, only…more. More graceful. More precise. More
deadly.
“How did you do
that?” he asked.
Parrish wiped both
sides of the sword against the comforter on Karmen’s bed,
leaving streaks of blackish blood behind.
She shook her head and
met his questioning gaze. She raised one eyebrow. “Are we still
being honest?”
“Of course.”
She sighed and placed
the sword back through the straps of her backpack.
“I have no
freaking clue.”
“What do you
mean?” Noah asked her once they were out of the house and back
in the safety of the bright light of day. “You just woke up one
day knowing how to behead zombies with a ninja sword?”
Parrish shrugged. She
knew it sounded crazy, but yeah, that was the basic truth of it.
“So you’re
telling me you’ve never taken any kind of self-defense class or
martial arts or anything like that?”
“No, nothing,”
she said.
“You made it look
easy, but decapitating a full-grown man with a big sword like that is
not something a girl your size can just do on a whim,” he said.
He paused and Parrish
stopped and turned around. He was chewing on his bottom lip, his hand
raised up as if he was thinking something through.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“It’s too crazy, forget it.”
He started walking
again, but now she was too curious. She put her hand on his arm and
he glanced down at it, then at her.
“What?” she
asked again.
He turned. They had
made it to the front of her house and were standing very close to the
spot where they had sat, listening to Zoe’s violin concert. The
night the virus interrupted their lives. It seemed like a lifetime
ago now.
“In the past
couple of weeks, have you felt…different?” He scrunched
his eyes together. “I can’t think of the best way to
describe it, and I know how crazy it sounds, but—”
“At this point,
do you really think anything is crazy?” she asked with a
half-smile.
“So does that
mean you’re saying yes?”
Parrish took in a
deliberate breath. How could she deny it? Yes, she’d thought
she was crazy too, at first, but after today, she knew he was right.
Something was definitely different.
“Yes.”
Noah’s shoulders
relaxed and he took a deep breath in and out of his nose. “I’m
glad it’s not just me,” he said. “But I don’t
really understand it. What’s it like for you? Just the ninja
sword stuff? Or is there more to it?”
She walked over and sat
down on the steps in front of her house. Something she’d done a
thousand times before, but never once because she was terrified to go
inside.