Only Love Survives (Love and Zombies) (2 page)

“Megan.” She held on to the handle overhead and put a foot up on the dash to keep her fanny in the seat.

“What?” He let his eyes leave the road for a split second to glance at her, then back to the road. “Damn.”

He swerved to stay out of a swamp that had once been somebody’s swimming pool. Megan ducked as he crashed through another fence, then swerved again to miss one last zombie before he straightened out on an empty street.

“Why did you avoid that one?” She didn’t bother to look back.

“If I hit it, there’s a chance it’ll get stuck. Then we’re dragging a corpse with us. Not a good idea if you ever intend to get out of the car. What are you doing so close to a quarantined town?”

“I didn’t see a sign…any fences. I thought they were putting fences around the towns this infested.”

“I think they gave up on that a couple of months ago.” He glanced over his shoulder, then turned forward again.

Megan watched the color return to his fingers as he loosened his grip on the wheel a bit. “I was searching for food. What are you doing here?”

“Searching for gas, which I’m not gonna find here with that swarm on the hunt. What did you say your name was?” He let off the gas and drove like a sane person.

“Megan. Thanks for saving my butter back there.” She let her foot slide from the dash back to the floorboard.

“Butter?” He relaxed back into the seat. “Who talks like that?”

“Teachers who don’t swear in front of their students say all sorts of weird things.”

“But…butter?”

“Okay, this is where you say your name. That’s how polite people introduce themselves.” She turned in the seat and faced him.

“Sam Woods.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Woods.”

“Call me Sam. I think the way polite people do things is a moot point these days. Are you alone out here?”

Megan adjusted the oversized watch on her wrist. “Yep.”

“How long?”

“Since month four of the epidemic.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “You?”

“I held out in Seattle until month three. Then I went to my fishing cabin and managed for a while. But now I’m headed south looking for someone.”

“Family?” She played with the frayed strings that hung off her pack.

“My sister. Last I talked to her, she was planning to meet me at the cabin. I waited, but she didn’t show. Now I’ve got to find her.”

“Where was she?”

“School. UCI in Southern California. She’s on the rowing team… Was on the rowing team.”

“Where are you planning to look?” Megan couldn’t look at him. He had to know how slim the odds were of finding the girl.

“South.”

His jaw twitched, and Megan decided it was best to leave it alone.

The world broke down so slowly, it was almost easy to pretend things had not changed at first. Her cell phone worked until she couldn’t find a place with electricity to charge it. As her friends and family died, or un-died, so to speak, she ran out of people to talk to. So, it was no great loss when she dumped the phone. Megan hoped he found his sister, despite her doubts. But as she used to tell her students, wanting and wishing didn’t make things happen…action did. He was taking action; she had to respect that, no matter how futile.

Megan scanned the car for a clue about the guy. Relatively clean, its most notable feature was the stockpile of weapons in the seat behind them. Not so long ago that would have freaked her out. Now, not so much. Although she didn’t personally carry a gun, she had not met too many people who didn’t. “This your car?”

“It is now. You’ve been on your own three months?” Sam took his shades off and pierced her with the most amazing blue eyes she’d seen in…well…at least three months.

“Yep.”

Three months
. A rift of loneliness tore at her insides, but she shook it off. There was a reason she chose to be alone. And if she truly did carry the future of mankind in her blood stream, she’d darn near risked it all to save a cat. Why? To feel normal again? Prove she was still human?

The sooner she made it to Vegas, the better off the rest of the planet would be.

Chapter Two

While Sam drove toward the highway, Megan watched the empty houses go by. Some stood gaping, full of broken windows and open doors. Others hid behind scrap wood and broken furniture. Were they boarded up to keep looters from getting in, or the zombies out?

“Do you think there’s anyone living in these houses?”

“No. They are either long gone, or part of the mob that tried to have you for lunch.”

“Maybe.” Megan had a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that no one was left. Cars still sat in the driveways with doors wide open, waiting for the driver and passengers to return. Overgrown hedges and lawns of the once manicured yards resembled suburban jungles that threatened to swallow any discarded toy abandoned within its reach. Everything frozen in that moment before the world went mad. A living snap shot of the end of the world.

She relaxed a little as he pulled onto the highway and the horror of suburbia gave way to scattered country buildings and forest.

“Think about it. Even if they stuck it out the first few months, which judging by the boarded up windows, some did, they would have eventually had to move on. The only thing left to eat around here would have been each other.”

As if on cue, Megan’s stomach growled so loud Sam raised his eyebrows. A smile spread across his face that could have lit up the sky.
Wow
. He was gorgeous. Even in his torn jeans and ghost of a beard.

“I’ve got meat in a cooler in the back. Don’t ask what kind, or you won’t eat it. It’s fresh though, I killed it yesterday.”

She grappled for the right words, but it had to be asked. The last couple of months led her to some strange tables, one of which offered the remnants of a fallen comrade. “Is it…human?”

Sam’s smile faded and he slammed on the brakes. The car shuddered to a stop right there in the middle of the road while the tires screeched in protest. Megan grabbed the door handle prepared to run.

“I am not one of those monsters. Understand?” He turned to her and through clenched teeth told her how things were before she had a chance to pull the door open.

All she could do was nod.

“I used to run a multi-million dollar business that I built from nothing. I saved worldwide corporations from failing and turned them into moneymaking ventures. I ate caviar and lobster. I do not eat people.” He must have realized he was freaking her out because his shoulders relaxed. “Sorry. I just…” Sam turned and faced the windshield, but didn’t put the Suburban in gear.

Megan took a deep breath and forced herself to let go of the door. He sounded as lost as she felt. “Sorry, I’ve met a few weirdos. I had to ask.”

Sam leaned his head back against the seat and turned toward her. “I bet you have.”

Megan contemplated telling him about the mother she saw feed her youngest child to three others after he died in an effort to keep them alive. It wasn’t a choice Megan ever wanted to face. If he’d not yet seen that particular horror in person, there was no need for her to share. Chances were, he’d seen his share of revulsion.

He shrugged and smiled again. “It’s raccoon. Almost as bad, but it’ll fill your belly. Let’s find a safe place to stop and eat.” Sam finally put the vehicle in gear, and Megan relaxed a little as he started back down the road.

“You’re going to share your food with me?”

“That’s how polite people do it.” He threw her own words back at her, and for the first time in a long time Megan smiled.

“Do you prefer four walls, or being out in the open?”

“There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. They either find you, or they don’t.”

“Personally, I like a wall at my back. Can you hold out until we find shelter?”

Megan nodded. If it meant a decent meal, she would wait all night if need be.

Unlike the freeways back in the city choked in gridlock from residents fleeing all at once, the highway stretched ahead of them mostly abandoned. A wayward car littered the shoulder here and there, but for the most part you could forget the devastation and watch the scenery pass. Megan rested her head back against the seat.

Almost forget.

When it all first began and people became sick, the news crews filmed every zombie attack they could catch on camera. The decline of society had been chronicled on a series of breaking news events. That lasted about two weeks. Then the broadcasts announced the hospitals had begun to turn people away. That’s when things got really bad.

People abandoned their posts. The newscasts stopped. Megan’s doctor quit answering her calls. And when the power went out, no one came to repair it.

Some of her neighbors ran, and some holed up where they were. That lasted about another two weeks. Once the food ran out, families had no choice but to leave their homes.

You could measure the gradual progression of the disease as you moved away from the city. At the core, Zombies roamed in hordes. Around the edges, clusters of overloaded vehicles told a story of people trying to escape with everything they could pack. The fact that those vehicles now stood abandoned told of the owners’ final attempt to escape with their lives and little else. Megan liked to pretend those people were on foot like her, alive, surviving, but blood stains on the sides of the cars often spoke of a different reality.

Here on this highway, there were few reminders. The thick green forest stretched around them. Were it not for roaming man-eaters, Megan would have rolled down her window and let the wind tear her hair out of its tie. But the threat persisted, and she was still alive seven months later, because she never let her guard down.
Never
. Well, except apparently to save a cat from time to time.

Twenty minutes passed and at least as many miles, before he pointed at a minimart alongside the road with a small house attached in back. “That one will do.”

An abandoned car sat with its hood up next to one of the gas pumps, but nothing stirred.

The sun sat low in the sky and gravel crunched under the tires as Sam pulled off the two-lane highway. The tips of the trees took on a golden-green hue that heralded summer was near the end, but Megan didn’t dare stop to enjoy what used to be her favorite season. She hummed with the anticipation of battle mixed with the desperation of hunger.

The car ground to a stop on loose gravel as Megan unfastened her seatbelt and slipped on her trusty pack. She’d learned a while back not to leave it behind. Often enough, once you started to run, whatever got left behind stayed behind. Lessons hard learned on the road. Sam grabbed a gun as he climbed out of the car, and Megan could only imagine what kind of lessons he’d learned.

“See that?” He pointed at the big white holding tank a few yards away from the building. “That’s a propane tank. I bet there’s a gas stove in there somewhere.” He circled around to the back of the Suburban and rummaged for a minute, then returned with a package of meat wrapped in newspaper.

Her stomach growled again and all of a sudden raccoon sounded like a delicacy.

He laughed. “Come on. Let’s see if we can’t quiet you down before you manage to tell every zombie within a mile where we are.”

Sam handed her the meat, then took the lead into the building with his gun raised to his chin. Megan followed.

They walked up the middle aisle. The store shelves sat nearly empty.

“We’ll come back after we eat, and see if there’s anything we can salvage.” He moved cautiously toward the door at the rear of the building.

She nodded, afraid to speak and quite content to be behind him and his gun.

The last group of people she hooked up with, the guy in front just tromped on through wherever he went, and it eventually got most of their group killed. The idiot led them right into a nest of zombies. Only four of them made it out. The other three eventually came down with fevers and turned, leaving Megan on her own again. Sam seemed much more vigilant. It made her feel safe. Almost safe.

He turned the knob, and let the door swing free while he lifted the gun back up to his chin. Megan peeked around him. The doorway opened to a cozy living quarters where handmade quilts covered the seats and a porcelain bear collection cluttered the flat surfaces.

“Stay here.” He crept across the room toward the next door. She stayed right at his back. He shook his head, but kept moving.

The door swung open to a small bedroom. Another colorful quilt donned the bed and on the other side, a doorway framed a clear view of the bathroom beyond. This time when he walked in the bathroom, she hung back by the door. He looked at the shower and tilted his head.

“Ah, what the hell.” Sam shifted the gun in his hand, and turned the knob. Nothing happened. “Damn electric pumps.”

“It was worth a try.” The luxury of a hot shower seemed unimaginable. He looked so disappointed, she added, “It’s always worth a try.”

Megan meandered back over to the kitchenette. Maybe a hot shower was out of the question, but it looked like a hot meal was plausible. The stove had four burners, one of which clicked when she turned it, and rewarded her with the hiss of gas. But there wasn’t a match to be had.

Sam slid up behind her, reached over and lit it with his lighter. She ignored the warmth of his body. “Handy.”