I sidestepped around the door, holding it open, wanting desperately to shut it and get out of here.
Lane was beating the crap out of another newbie, shouting at Thom to get in the van. Then my eyes
landed on Thom, he was dragging Crystal along the ground. The original zombie I had left was
pulling itself along the ground trying to catch up to Crystal's feet as Thom dragged her away.
I stepped back, horrified at the scene before me. I covered my mouth, resisting the urge to slam the
doors and tell Thom there was no way Crystal was going back inside the van, but I stumbled
backward leaving the doors open for him. I felt this morning's breakfast trying to make a
reappearance. I swallowed, watching as Thom dragged a floppy looking Crystal along by her wrists,
leaving dark smears of blood along the ground. Lane kicked the crawling zombie in its side, then
cracked the golf club on its head, and ran over to us. I was still watching in horror, not able to tear
my eyes away as Thom heaved Crystal into the van.
I felt numb, I couldn't move, my whole body felt as though it was going into shutdown... or I was
going to throw up.
I retched, but hardly anything came up, water, chunks of cookie... I retched some more, bringing up
bile from my stomach. Lane slammed the doors and half dragged, half lifted, me around the van. He
shoved me inside and pushed me across the seat, climbed in and closed the door. I still had the bat
in my hand, I dropped it onto the floor and started rolling the window down.
“Wait until we're out of here.” Lane said, turning the key.
I wasn't really listening, I was trying to breathe.
The van surged forward and I took deep breaths holding onto the edge of the window.
“Alex,” Lane was tapping my arm.
Thom was shouting obscenities in-between crying, and Ozma was squealing.
I rubbed my temples, trying to function, focusing on what to do next. The sight of Crystal had
overwhelmed me, it reminded me of what had happened to my mom. The thought made me sick to
my stomach. I clutched my stomach, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth.
“Alex?”
I looked sideways at him, he looked concerned.
He grabbed my chin with one hand and moved it around roughly, then he ran his hand down my
arm, checking for injuries.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
I shook my head.
Thom cried out in the back and it brought me back to reality. They were both in the back of the van
with
Ozma
.
“Stop the van!”
Lane looked at me confused.
“Stop the fucking van, Lane.”
Lane braked and I braced myself, holding onto the dash.
“Get out,” I said.
“Alex, what...”
I was already out and walking around to the back of the van. I opened the doors, and Lane skidded
to a stop next to me.
Inside Thom sat clutching Crystal to his chest. The last zombie that I hadn't seen had made a meal
out of Crystal... literally.
It had gone straight for her jugular. She had pieces of flesh missing from her arms, I think the
crawler had also got to her. She was gone. And she was now bleeding out all over the bedding. I felt
Lane tense beside me. It was bad. I was having flashbacks to the
Serene Oaks Spa
where we had
found the half eaten human torso.
Ozma continued to scream in the corner getting herself worked up even more.
“Thom... Thom!” I yelled, trying to get him to hear me.
He looked up at us with teary eyes.
“Can you come here... please.” I said, trying to coax him out from the van.
“Thom, please, you're scaring Ozma.”
Thom sniffed, then wiped his nose with the back of his blood smeared hand and looked over at
Ozma.
“Thom. Get out of the van! It's not safe, Crystal could be infected.” I snapped, getting impatient
with him.
Crystal was infected. There was no doubt about it.
Thom looked her differently, he hadn't even thought about her being infected.
He laid her back down on the mattress. I wanted to tell him not to lay her there, but obviously I
couldn't, he was a state. He kissed her lips and I had to bit my tongue to stop from shouting at him.
This was beyond idiotic. Thom knelt up and went to reach for Ozma.
“Leave her!” I said.
He looked over his shoulder and frowned at me.
“You're covered in blood. If you get out we can get you cleaned up, then you can hold her, okay?”
Thom nodded, and Ozma made an attempt to crawl to him, but he stood up and stepped away. I kept
my eyes on Ozma, not wanting her to touch Crystal.
I pushed Lane aside, making way for Thom. I could feel Lane's eyes on me, watching my every
move, wondering what I was doing.
I glanced at him and his expression was a mixture of uncertainty and confusion. I knew he wasn't
going to like what I did next, but it had to be done.
Ozma quietened down and picked up a candle to play with. Once I was happy she was content and
not going to crawl all over Crystal I pushed the door slightly closed, shielding her from view. Thom
rubbed his face with his bloodstained hands, spreading it everywhere. I waited for him to look
away, he looked at Lane and Lane looked back at him full of sympathy. I reached around to my
back and swiftly pulled out my gun, and pointed it at the back of Thom's head.
Lane suddenly caught on to what I was doing, he stepped forward, I wasn't sure what he was going
to do exactly, but it was too late, I'd already released the safety and pulled the trigger.
Thom dropped to the road in a heap.
“Fuck! Alex! You could have warned me.” Lane yelled.
I tucked the gun back under my hoodie and opened the van door, pleased to see Ozma a safe
distance away, she was back to crying again. I wasn't surprised, she must be terrified right now.
“Grab her.” I ordered.
“What? Why? What are you going to do to her?”
Lane looked at me like I had gone crazy.
“Because I don't want her to get infected, pick her up and put her in the front so she doesn't touch
Crystal. I'm covered in zombie blood splatters, I don't want to touch her.”
Lane's clothes looked spotless compared to mine.
“Oh, right,” Lane said, realizing why I wanted him to get her.
He removed his hoodie just to be on the safe side, then he climbed inside, picked her up and carried
her out.
I grabbed Thom's legs and dragged him to the side of the road.
Then I stood at the end of the van staring at Crystal's lifeless body that was bleeding all over the
blankets and bedding. I climbed into the van and covered her over with a blanket, the one she had
already bled all over. Lane reappeared, and I could hear Ozma in the front crying again.
“Grab her feet. Careful of your hand, and don't get any blood on you.”
Lane flexed his hand, he hadn't even noticed he had a cut on it.
Lane lifted her feet while I held the blanket up, supporting her head as we tried to carefully
maneuver her out of the van, it didn't work and her head knocked against the end of the van.
Lane cringed.
“She's dead. She can't feel it.” I said, stripping off my hoodie and discarding it.
Lane continued to drag Crystal to the edge of the road beside Thom.
“Should we bury them?” Lane called back to me.
“With what?” I said, wiping my hands over with a baby wipe.
I chucked the pack to Lane and he did the same, cleaning away traces of blood.
Ozma was still screaming in the front seat. I looked across the open field in front and the trees
behind us, checking there were no zombies within hearing distance on their way over. Lane was still
staring at the dead bodies as I discarded blood-soaked towels and pieces of stained bedding,
chucking them out of the van. Ozma's crying was getting to me, I quickly dug around in Crystal's
bag and pulled out a bottle. But my hands still felt dirty. I grabbed a water bottle and tipped clean
water over my hands and used one of the clean towels to dry them on. Then I made a sugar water
for Ozma and handed it to Lane.
“Go give this to her.”
Lane looked at the bottle, then back at me confused.
“Lane, c'mon, go give it to Ozma.”
He blinked and refocused, looking at the bottle as though it had grown legs, he'd probably never
held a baby's bottle before.
“Give me ten minutes to clean this back area down, then we'll get out of here.” I said to the back of
him.
I was still wiping the inside of the van down when Lane opened the hatch and rested his arm on the
edge.
“You going to shoot me like that one day?”
“I dunno, that depends if you start drooling and trying to bite me.”
“Alex!” Lane scolded.
“He had cuts and open wounds all over his hands and arms, he would have been infected for sure. I
didn't want him infecting us.”
“How do you know he was infected? He might have been fine, like that time you thought you got
zombie blood in your foot.”
“I wasn't going to take the risk. Why are you getting so upset over this? What did you want me to
do, warn him I was about to shoot him?
“No, I just..”
“Just what?”
“You just shot him. You didn't even think about it, as soon as you
thought
he was infected that was
it, he was already dead in your eyes, and for all we know he may not have been infected.”
I collected the last of the dirty rags and wipes and dumped them outside the van. I closed the doors
and climbed in the front. Lane had Ozma on his lap with his arm protectively around her.
“So if I get bitten or scratched are you going to stick a bullet in the back of my head when I'm not
looking?” he asked.
“What?”
“What if you get bitten, are you going to shoot yourself in the head?”
I shook my head. “I don't know.”
He stared out the window and I watched Ozma as she rested her head against Lane's chest, holding
her bottle between her tiny hands.
“Lane... I don't know. I don't know because it hasn't happened
yet.
I'm trying to keep us alive, I
never asked them to tag along, I didn't want them to, and then this happened. I did what I thought
was best. What I always do for us, I make decisions on what's best for us. Thom was infected the
moment he picked her up. All it takes is a tiny bit of zombie saliva to get into your system, and I'm
sure there would have been more than that on Crystal seeing as they turned her into the main
course. Thom had open wounds, Lane.”
“You should have helped them.” Lane said.
“No, I shouldn't have. You already had your hands full killing one zombie and there were two more
approaching you, and you hadn't even seen them. If I hadn't of helped you, they would have both
dived on you and bitten you. When I left Thom he was taking care of a zombie with a sturdy
branch. I didn't know there was another newbie back at the van.”
“
Sturdy branch
?” he said, turning to look at me.
“He was dealing with it fine when I came to help you.”
“You should have used your gun... before.”
“No. The gun is for emergencies.”
“And that wasn't an emergency?”
“No, an emergency is when I have zombies crawling up my legs and I have no other weapon. I had
a weapon, you had a weapon, and Thom had one, he just wasn't very good with it.”
Lane sighed and I leaned back against the seat, taking a moment to clear my head.
“Shit!”
“What now?” Lane asked.
“Ozma needs milk. Crystal had been introducing her to solids, but the majority of Ozma's diet was
Crystal's breast milk.”
Lane looked down at the child on his lap, concern filled his eyes.
“Powdered milk,” I said. “when we were inside the gas station, I remember seeing powdered milk,
and Crystal said they didn't need it because Ozma was drinking from her.”
“Are you telling me we have to go back?”
“There were two tubs of the stuff, I remember seeing it myself.”
Lane moaned. “Take this,” he said, passing Ozma over to me.
“Her name is Ozma.” I said as he started the engine.
“Well, Ozma may very well get us killed going back to fetch her dinner.”
“Nice, Lane. Real Nice.”
“Me! You're the one referring to Crystal as a main course.”
“I think we killed all of them. I doubt there were any more, there weren't that many places to hide.”
Lane looked sideways at me and gave me a
yeah right
look.
He turned the van around and pressed the gas pedal down, speeding back along the way we'd just
come. He was careful to stay away from the side of the road where Crystal and Thom were. I felt
kind of bad leaving them there like that.
“Maybe we should burn them or something?” I said.
Lane looked at me and frowned.
“Zombies will feed off them if they find them.”
Lane ran a hand down his face, thinking about it.
“On the way back. Let's get this done first then we'll stop on the way back.”
I nodded and looked back at the road. A sign for a mental hospital came into view and we both
looked at each other, not saying anything. That explained the hospital gowns.
When we were nearly at the gas station, I placed Ozma on the seat between us, hoping she wouldn't
fall off, and picked up the bat.
“I'll be real quick. In and out. Two tubs then I'm gone, they won't even know I'm in there.”
Outside the gas station was quiet, even the ankle biter had dragged itself away somewhere, and I
could still see all of the dead zombies lying on the ground.
Lane came to a stop, braking hard, right outside the doors. I held onto Ozma with my spare arm to
stop her from sliding off the seat. Lane then snatched the bat from my hand and was already out of
the door before I could stop him.
“Keep the engine running, get behind the wheel and be ready.” he ordered, then ran around the front
of the van.
Damn Lane.
Ozma was happily chewing on her bottle teat, she didn't even know her mom and dad were dead. I
knew she was young, but she wasn't even looking for them. I realized that was a good thing. We
didn't need a whiny baby crying for her parents, as horrible as that sounded. I climbed around her
and got behind the wheel, my foot near the gas, watching the windows. Lane suddenly rushed out of
the gas station, skidding on broken glass, then he raced over and threw the van door open, he
dumped the tubs on the floor and I pushed my foot on the gas as two zombies ran out the front door.
The zombies clawed at the side window near Lane and disappeared behind the van. I swung the van
around and floored it back onto the road, I could see the zombies in the side mirror, chasing us,
trying to catch the van. The van was faster, and they soon disappeared from sight. I stopped further
down the road and we switched seats.
I slammed my door and glared at him.
“What?” he said, grabbing a packet of cookies from the glove-box.
“Don't do that again.”
“Alex, I'm quicker than you. Good thing as well, those two newbies came out of nowhere. Want
one?” he asked, holding the cookies out to me.
I shook my head and Ozma reached for the packet and Lane gave her one.
“Wait, is she allowed that?” Lane asked, watching as she stuck the cookie in her mouth.
“How should I know, I'm not her mother and I'm not an expert on babies.” I sighed. “She should be
fine with it, Crystal had been introducing her to solids.”
“Solids?”
“Cookies, only the soft ones so they can dissolve easier in her mouth and we can mash other foods
for her.”
“I don't think we can mash granola bars and cereal.”
“We'll think of something, and we've got this for now.” I said, looking at the instructions on the
powdered milk. “As long as we've got clean water she can survive on this and the sugar water, and
we'll keep introducing her to new foods to wean her off.”
“What's that smell?” Lane asked.
“Well, don't look at me.”
“Why couldn't we have gotten a dog.” Lane grumbled looking at Ozma.