Note from the author: Hello all! This is my second story and was an entry to the Day of the Dead contest hosted by the Area 5 Bloody Pen group. I tied for first place and I was beyond excited. There will be another 2 parts to this story. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think.
Happy halloween
Annalise
Rated M
Present day
"NO" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Johnny had raised his machete above his head while Frank was holding my arm out with his free hand. I kept on yelling to stop, that I was not infected, that it was not their choice to make. Johnny had closed his eyes repeating to himself mentally to do it. I knew he was trying to find the courage he needed to chop my forearm off.
"Please," I begged, "You don't know what one bite will do. I am sure I can fight it, just watch me, you will see! " I exclaimed still crying from the stress and the fear that I was about to lose my arm and then I would have to face the 50/ 50 chance odds that I will either live to tell my story or get an infection and die anyways. "Give me a fucking chance!" I yelled in desperation.
"Sookie! No one is immune! You don't understand. You don't know what happens when you get bit. The bacteria, it will eat you up until you die and you open your eyes again" Frank said while holding me a bit tighter. "This is giving you a chance!" he added putting an emphasis on the word "is".
Johnny took a deep breath; I closed my eyes and I screamed everything I had in me as the blade descended upon my arm.
Day Z – (minus) 14 days
It seems the attack originated from within the hospital. Two Caucasian males attacked staff members before making their way to the street where the rampage continued. Preliminary reports indicate they were infected with the rabies virus that has mutated to infect humans. Authorities demand that the public stay away from New York until the situation is contained.
Sam clicked on the remote and the TV turned off. I frowned at him, he might have been done with the news but I wasn't.
"I was watching that" I said to him.
"Yeah well I am done with the same reports over and over about these drug addicts gone wild!" he replied dryly.
"They say it is a virus not drugs"
"Who cares?"
"You should Sam, what if it leaves New York?" I said to him finding him quite unbelievable.
Sam and I were married for a whole year before things started to fall apart. I am not sure when it started. It is one of those things that creep up on you until one day you wake up and realized you are not okay. It starts with little feelings, like when he comes home from work you are not happy to see him or when he crawls to your side of the bed, you shiver in a bit of disgust and shake your head, 'not freakin' again'.
You wonder what is going on, why do you feel this way. You are confused and the sadness takes over. The little things that were bothering you become much bigger. Your nerves are raw, everything irritates you. Work seems like such a chore instead of having ownership pride. Simple things like making dinner seem unbearable. Bigger than they are and you drown under the weight of your own unhappiness.
Until you realize what is actually wrong with you. It is not your companion; it's not your house, your work or your life. No, all those things are fixable with efforts, you could feel better but no. It's more complicated than that.
It's the giant hole in your heart that someone has left behind. No matter how much you try to fill it, it stays empty and engulfs your entire being over time only for you to notice when it is already too late.
No matter what you try, nothing feels the same. You don't smile, you don't do any of the activities you used to enjoy and then one day you wake up drained having no energy to exist. You sit down staring into nothingness, tired and lonely. You stop showering, too weak to care. You are wasted to nothing, with rumbles of yourself as you hope for something, someone you cannot have. You quite simply watch yourself die longing for that whole to be filled again.
I was broken. It wasn't that I missed Eric. I needed Eric. I needed him in order to be whole again. It is not that I couldn't exist without him or breathe. It had nothing to do with being a kept woman or my own person. It had everything to do with a simple fact; when you truly love someone, you give them a part of yourself that will never be yours again. When that person is not with you, that part is gone and when you simply cannot be together, you just have to learn to live knowing you will never be whole again.
That harsh reality, I did not want to accept. Acceptance meant moving on and I simply couldn't do it. Not now, it was too soon.
I rushed to my conclusions as the world became unstable but what better excuse to change yourself and your life around?
I had not heard from Eric since our last encounter and he had left to live with Freyda. I spent countless hours trying to figure out what had happened between us and how I got myself where I was now but no matter how many times I played through my thoughts, it was always the same ending. I was miserable and I missed him.
I had chosen mind over heart and now I was paying the price. I was living with a person I did not care for anymore, and let's be honest; a part of me hated Sam for not being Eric. It was silly borderline crazy but I couldn't help it, as if it was somehow his fault.
The fact that Sam was a jerk didn't help anything. I don't know why he had become such an emotionless person but I always had my doubts that it was due to the use of the cluviel dor. Most the time I didn't dare venturing into his thoughts not because of privacy but because it was dark in there. Some of the things he thought just didn't even sound like the Sam I used to know. There was no way for me to know what costs there would be for him to come back from death but a part of me was not convinced the man sitting beside me was actually Sam.
Yet, despite having the best excuse and the best reasons, something was stopping me; the uncertainty that in the event I made it back to Eric, he may not want me anymore. That simple thought, crushed me every single time.
"It won't Sook', stop worrying about it." Sam replied and I was taken away from my thoughts.
Day Z – (minus) 10 days
"Turn that up Crazy!" a patron yelled at me as I was pouring him a drink. He was pointing at the TV where a reporter was showing an airplane behind her.
All flights in and out of the country are now cancelled since the incident at JFK where a mob took over a plane and killed every passenger and crew member. It is too early to tell whether it is related to the raging mob currently walking New York but it is safe to say everyone should stay home and lock their doors.
Movement behind her caught my eyes. As she spoke to the camera, several men and women were running out of the plane in their direction. It was blurry; making it hard to see exactly what was going on but while they approached the reporter at a fast pace, several patrons yelled at the TV to turn around and to get a grip. The camera was no longer steady, slowly backing up and shaking back slightly as if the one holding it was no longer paying attention. With every step they took, I kept thinking she needed to turn around, to look. Something was wrong!
Furthermore, aaaaah, oh my god what is that? Aaaaah
They had reached her. She was screaming and yelling as her microphone and the camera fell to the ground. We could only see parts of legs as three men were grabbing her. There was blood gushing off the camera lens. Another man, who I guess was the cameraman, tried to intervene but was taken over by two ladies that had joined the group of attackers. The cameraman and the reporter were quickly over run and fell to the ground while they bit their arms, neck and anything else they could get a hold of. The reporter had lifted her skinless arm in self defense as she cried for someone to help her but they continue eating her alive unphased by her plea, I couldn't watch anymore, she was dying and there was nothing we could do. The terrible sound that flesh makes when it is ripped apart turned my stomach. After a few minutes, the camera was still running but the reporter and her crew were completely silent leaving behind footage of their sinister deaths.
Something was bothering me though, once you look passed the gore, the blood and the violence. They were wearing flight crew uniforms. Either her earlier reports of their deaths were false or something else was going on. The channel went dark and I looked around the bar. Everyone was staring at the TV in disbelief and no one dared say anything. I had to steady myself to ensure my shields were up; I had no desire to hear what they were thinking.
Day Z-(minus) 7 days
"I am fucking leaving and there is nothing you can do." I yelled at Sam.
"The fuck you are!" he screamed back as he grabbed my arm and twisted it.
Tears were flowing down my cheeks, I felt trapped but deep down I knew it was time to leave; it was time for me to take control of my life and find what I wanted.
I couldn't be sure Eric would want me, I couldn't be certain I could sneak around Freyda's guards enough to not get captured and killed. There was absolutely no certainty in anything I was about to do. The world was unstable, an infection quickly spreading through the United States. However, the media wasn't telling us everything, the military was invading city after city and no one was telling us what was actually going on.
Contact with New York,-ground zero was what they called it-, had been lost for at least three days now. Vampires had somehow, vanished, most staying out of the public eye. Why?
We were told to stay put, stay in our houses, in our towns but the reality was that we had so little information; most of us did not just want to wait it out. At first, people were confused, followed orders, we did not question anything, but now. Many believe it was every man for themselves. Grocery stores, drugstores and firearm stores had all been raided, people were stocking up, bracing for some kind of biological war.
But I was not doing any of it. I did not care. Call me suicidal, this past year alongside Sam was just not want I wanted. Not what I had hoped for. So here I was, awoken in the wake of a war; ready to fight for what I believed in.
I was in love with Eric, and no matter what had happened or would happen it had never been clearer that I had to be with him or die trying.
I reached down to my pocket. I had nothing to lose anymore. I was unhappy, angry, hurt and annoyed. I had a death wish, but a quest before it, and Sam was standing in the way.
I grabbed the revolver without him really noticing and as I brought it to his head, he released my arm.
"I will kill you Sam Merlotte, let me leave"
"Sookie do you realize what you are doing?"
"I don't care! The world is going to shit and I won't stand by and watch it burn as I stay with a person I hate."
"You hate me?" he said surprised, maybe a bit hurt too. "It's him isn't it?" he added angrily.
"It will always be him." I replied coldly before grabbing my bag on the floor while still pointing the revolver in his direction. "I left you the shotgun, you never know."
I grabbed my backpack and lifted it off to one shoulder. I slowly backed to the main door and when I felt it was time, I stopped pointing the revolver at Sam.
"I won't see you again." I declared and left him to his sad and hurt thoughts that I was leaving and there was nothing he could do.
Day Z – (minus) 6 days
This was the third gas station I had stopped in only to find out it was dry. I was growing weary that I might run out of gas. I mean, I didn't know much about survival but driving a car was a lot safer and faster than being on foot. I had limited supplies with me, enough water and food for maybe a couple days, so I had to make sure I had enough energy to make it to Oklahoma. I wasn't that far from the border but on foot, I was days away.
I kicked the pump and sighed heavily. Stupid ghost town, stupid virus or whatever it was! I headed inside the station to find it empty like the rest of the town.
Many folks had decided to head south to the Mexican border. As far as we could tell from the reports on TV, they, the infected, were contained to the United States, the northern part of it any way so it made sense to go as south as possible. But of course being in Louisiana and going to Oklahoma meant I was going the complete opposite direction of most crowds. I had past countless groups on my way, many travelling by car or bus. It was like watching a major exodus and I was going the wrong way. Of course, that wasn't a bad thing for me. I avoided most traffic jams going in the opposite direction, because believe me, when the whole country decided to go south, it takes a long time and a lot of resources to get there. Except for Dallas, it was only a couple hours away from Shreveport but it had taken me at least 4 hours within the city to find my way out. I had therefore decided last night, to stay somewhere until the morning.
Some highways were jammed up for days. I even heard some folks chatting in the previous town saying you had to lock your doors because some people would try to steal your gas and food while waiting for the traffic to move forward.
The town I had stopped in couldn't contain more than two hundred people yet I had not seen any of them since I had arrived. As days passed and the more north I was heading, the less people I came across.
The door closed behind me making the bell sound again. The gas station was pretty typical; it had your snacks and essentials on one side and your counter on the other. The lights were off, but it was quite obvious someone had left in a hurry. I looked around the snacks section and picked up the few bags of chips, protein bars and jerky that had been left behind but it was evident someone had been here before me and had grabbed the good stuff including water. I placed everything in a large bag that I had taken from the previous town and then turned my attention to the counter.
All the cigarettes and alcohol had been raided which made me chuckled. I mean I don't smoke and drinking is far from being a priority but it was interesting to see what people considered important when they leave in a hurry. The cash register was open and emptied of course. I reached in my pocket and placed a 20 dollar bill to pay for the stuff I had just placed in my bag.
As I placed the money in the cash register and closed it, I noticed a small TV beside the lottery machine. I reached over and turned it on.
The population is asked to stay put; Mexico has closed its border and is pressuring the American government to help in getting them organized. There are no reasons to panic, the infection has been contained to states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina..
The list was so long, it gave me chills every time the anchor added on a state. The lady reporter was talking directly to the camera while in the background, there was military personnel getting ready in jeeps and tanks. According to the banner at the bottom of the screen, she was reporting live from Washington, DC.
Some footage was now playing on a loop and I turned the volume higher. It was images of mobs taking over vehicles, stores, schools and heck even houses. The footage was from various major cities and the devastation it portrayed was chilling. There was so much blood, so much violence, it was hard to watch. How could you tell if someone was infected? Did you have to wait until they attacked you?
Some of the attackers looked just like me! I looked closer trying to focus despite the images passing by so fast. As much as some of them looked perfectly fine, others looked as if they were decomposing, fresh corpses walking around. Death and decomposing, like 'de los muertos' death.
It was disgusting and after watching it for a while, I had enough and turned it off. I did not want to see the carnage and the massacre that would be coming. All I wanted to know is how far away the infection was from my location and judging by this report it was a state away; Mississippi.
I decided it would be wise to go to the washroom before I took to the road again; I wanted to get to the main part of the village quickly since the gas station was located at the entrance of the town. As I approach the door, I heard a noise coming from within. Was someone here? I knocked gently but no answer came. I tried the nob and found that it wasn't locked. It opened with a long creaking noise that seemed so out of place, the silence surrounding me was deafening.
"Hello?"
No answer.
It was dark in the bathroom having no windows around to illuminate it. I searched for the light switched and when I reached it I flicked it on.
I heard a cat hiss and before I could move, it jumped on me and dug its claws into my arm. I screamed at the top of my lungs as it tore into my flesh, I was surprised and shocked at the same time.
"What the fuck!" is all I said before grabbing it by its neck skin and throwing it as far as I could.
It scattered out meowing its disapproval. Stupid animals! It had clawed my arm pretty badly and the blood made it hard to see how deep the wound was. Judging by the burning sensation and the amount of it though, I would say it was pretty deep.
I searched the convenience part of the gas station in search of rubbing alcohol or anything that I could use to disinfect it as well as band aids. I wasn't lucky in the disinfectant quest but found an emergency first aid kit behind the cash register. I took it with me and headed to my car where I felt safer away from the stupid animal.
I sat behind the wheel and held my arm with my other one. I could use some of my water to clean the wound but what was more important? I had chances to find alcohol in town and since my supply of water was limited, I decided to simply bandage up my wounds and started to drive.
It was one of those towns with only two main streets that met right in the middle. I bet one was called main but I didn't look to confirm my suspicions. I reached the one and only intersection. On one corner there was a restaurant, on the other, a general store. Both had their doors wide open and windows broken.
There was no one left in this town, I was the only living soul but what was the most unsettling wasn't the paper scattered everywhere or the broken down cars around the street. It wasn't for the obvious looting on the main buildings or heck the lack of human beings being around. The most disturbing thing was the silence. It wasn't the absence of actual sounds, there was plenty of creaking and cracking, it was the absence of life, its noises and sounds.
It was all gone.
I parked my car on the side of the street mainly out of habit and peeked through the restaurant's broken windows. As I expected, it was empty and completed trashed. I quickly walked through it searching for anything I could take with me but did not find anything, not even in the kitchen.
I headed to the general store, hoping to have better luck. The television had been left on and all I could see was colored bars on the screen and a humming beep sound coming from it. The channel it was on, was no longer working. I flipped through many channels with the exact same screen, sometimes snow sometimes black until I got the news channel that had a message displaying in red.
Please standby.
Okay? I sighed as I continued my search. Most of the shelves had been either kicked or pushed to the ground with the exception of one, where several porcelain dolls were on display. Some of them read Welcome to Sanger and I assumed it was the name of the town I was in. I could not be that far off from Oklahoma since the boarder was only an hour away from Dallas. You see, Louisiana is southeast of Oklahoma but it doesn't touch its borders, you have to either go to Arkansas or Texas and I chose the latter because I know highway 20 is a lot better than anything in Arkansas and it's also a lot faster, well when there is no traffic and you have enough gas that is.
I looked at the clock and realized it was going to be dark soon. I could hurry and find gas to take the road over night or I could find shelter and wait for the morning. I did not mind driving at night so I hurried up and grabbed the two plastic pipes that were on the ground, they were probably from the general store's hardware section. I also noticed a small bottle of vodka and some bandages. Taking a few minutes to disinfect my wound, I then bandaged it up and continued to look around the store. I finally found the last piece I needed; an empty gas can and headed outside where some cars were parked on the side of the road.
Sure siphoning gas from cars was illegal and considered theft, but no one was here to mind and I was in dire need of it. I tried a few modern cars only to find when they are locked, so is the gas panel access. One of the car alarm systems started blaring and I almost had a heart attack. Shit. I looked around as if I had just been caught red handed only to be reminded that there was no one in this town to give a shit.
I headed to an older pickup truck hoping I wouldn't have the same problem. I did not, and the panel opened up. I pushed the longest pipe into the tank and placed the other end into my container. I then pushed the other pipe in and began blowing air into the tank until the pressure was too high and the gas started flowing into my container. I know there are other ways to do this but I had two pipes at my disposal and this was the easiest way without swallowing gas. When it stopped flowing, I grabbed the container and headed to my car as I was eager to take to the road again.
As I poured the gas, I looked up the side of the general store and noticed there were apartments above it. It would be a good idea to head upstairs and scavenge before I took to the road. The sun was already going down and I was pretty sure I did not have a full tank of gas which meant I would not make it to Oklahoma yet. I also needed blankets to spend the night in the car wherever I would choose to stop again, so I climbed the stairs that lead up to the apartment doors and started scavenging apartment after apartment; grabbing food, water and blankets. There was not much left and most apartments appeared to have been trashed already.
I looked through the window of one of the apartments and noticed that the car alarm had stopped. Maybe the battery had died? As I gathered my supplies, something caught my eye in the living room of the third apartment. It was a shoe lying right at the corner of the couch. I approached it with caution only to find out that it was attached to a foot, a body lying in the middle of the floor. The person had her eyes opened and it was evident she was dead. Half her face was missing; her jaw had been ripped from it. Her tongue lay on the floor as she stared at nothing. I brought my arm to my mouth thinking I was going to vomit. The smell was horrendous and as I stared at the corpse I kept telling myself to get a grip and move on. I mean a part of me was sad to see another human being like this. What was her story? What had happened? While the other part of me was worried about my own security. I thought I was alone, what if I wasn't?
I looked around the fireplace and grabbed one of the pictures that were on display. The woman was holding a man tightly smiling at the camera. It must have been her boyfriend or maybe a husband. A scratching noise took me away from the picture. It was coming from the other room. It sounded like an animal was at the door or something. After arming myself with a kitchen knife, I headed to the door where it was coming from. The closer I got from it the smellier it got. It was as if the stench from the woman had been amplified 10 folds. The door had been blocked by a chair to keep something in the room. I backed off immediately. I did not want to know what or who had been trapped there but then I heard a moan and I was faced with a terrible decision. Should I leave and not look back, not knowing whether someone needed my help in there? Or should I open the door and disregard my own instincts that chair had been there for a reason? I instinctively dropped my shields in hopes of scanning the other room. There was nothing. No thoughts, no signature.
After having an internal debate between the two options I opted for opening the door. It wasn't safe, but I didn't think I could live with myself if I didn't, at least to check whether someone was in fact in there and whether I could help. There were no thoughts for sure but it was possible they were unconscious?
I removed the chair slowly and placed my ear onto the door. The moaning had stopped and instead I could hear someone getting up.
"Hello? Are you okay in there?" I said but instantly regretted my words when the door started to shake under the constant pounding.
I took a few steps back as the door quickly gave in to whoever was smashing it. The man came out of it running, he took just a few seconds to look around once out and to see where I was before lunging at me. I didn't have time to assess the situation; I turned around and headed to the door as fast as I could. He followed me running as well based on the footsteps I heard behind me. I did not dare to turn around. There was no need. I climbed down the steps, probably skipping a couple while I ran to my car. It was now dark outside but I knew the way to my car despite the lack of a streetlight. This town must have done what most towns did to conserve energy, shut down any unnecessary lighting.
As I ran to my car, it just seemed further and further away. I was not looking where I was going and missed the giant pot hole on the ground, when my foot fell into it, I did hear the inevitable crack my foot made as I broke it. I yelped in pain and fell to the ground. Shit!
When I heard the apartment door open, I ducked behind a parked car and slipped under it. There was not enough time to get to my car, not with a busted foot so all I could do now was hide. Because of the obscurity, I figured I had a chance to not be found. The man had stopped running probably because he did not know where I was. He took a few steps in front of him, each one with a loud clicking noise as if his bones were touching. I was pretty far back and maybe a yard away from my car. I held my breath as the man took a couple steps in my direction.
I silently prayed to the lord to spare my life, his steps were getting closer. I placed my hand in front of my mouth to ensure no noises were coming out and as I shook completely frozen in fear, I heard another set of footstep coming from another building. Was there more than one man?
The truth crawled into my brain and I shivered in desperation, the first man was locked in the room when I found the girl which meant, he could have not possibly killed her. The second man was slowly walking in my direction but something was off in his steps. When he stood beside the car I realized he was missing a foot and was stepping on his stump as if he could not feel the pain. They did not talk, just moaned and grumbled.
I held my breath as long as I could until they finally walked away to a different part of the street. I could try to sneak to my car but I couldn't be sure how far they were so I decided to stay here for as long as I needed to, to make sure they were no longer there even if it meant to wait until the morning.
Were they infected? It was impossible; the reporter had not mentioned this state.
Day Z – (minus) 2 days
I had run out of gas about 20 miles from the border. I guess it was lucky for me that my broken foot was the left and not the right one but without gas, I was very slow. I had used the back roads as much as I could since the more I approached Oklahoma the more evident the truth was. The infected were everywhere; the media were the ones pushing people to go south. I don't know why the media was not telling the truth, whether it was the fact that they simply did not know or they had been told to give a false report but the reality is that it was costing people their lives and now I knew more than them, it made me question everything I was hearing on my small radio.
I had picked it up in Sanger, it was tiny but the battery was solar powered which made it invaluable. Around noon, I turned it on to hear the latest news. I couldn't trust it but I had to hear it. The thing was, I no longer visited cities or even town. The reporter had been wrong, the plague was here, lurking, waiting. The few towns I had visited after Sanger were all infected finding more and more bodies and ghost towns left behind by people too in a hurry to grab the necessities of survival.
The situation reported was never better. Most news reports were now saying that it was some kind of bacteria that was infecting people and anti-biotics were ineffective. The death count was higher and higher every day and all I could hear was the many politicians,-probably in a protective bunker now-, telling us to not worry. Not worry? What the fuck?
Vampires were nowhere to be found and the bacterium was reported to affect most supernatural beings. I couldn't help but wonder where the vampires went? Why were they hiding while this bacterium was taking over? Were they hiding like they did during the plagues that graced Europe all those years ago.
Was Eric one of them? Would I be able to find him? I knew I had to try but the desperation at times made me doubt myself.
Sometimes the news report was cut short with a large beep sound taking over. At first I thought maybe it was because I was losing signal or something but now I was starting to think the problem was on their end as I never heard from the same reporters again.
I was nowhere near a town and had to resort to walking. Now if it wasn't for my busted leg, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, just a hike or something, but I was slow, vulnerable and scared. I had grabbed a huge backpack in my scavenging efforts so I packed it as much as I could before beginning my journey on foot. It was heavy but my survival depended on it.
I couldn't be certain about my exact location but I knew I was heading in the right direction and that eventually I would hit Oklahoma and then Oklahoma City.
I looked up at the sky to see where the sun was. I knew it was late in the day so I would have to find shelter for the night. Walking in the woods with no flashlight and a broken foot is just not an option. I found a bush against a big rock and decided that was where I was going to hide for the night. After putting my stuff on the side, I sat down with a bottle of water and drank a bit from it. I was so tired, it was at the times where I sat that I felt it the most. My muscles were aching, my foot throbbing with pain while I was constantly out of breathe.
I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep. The thing was, it wasn't a real sleep it was one of those sleeps where you have one ear that is always listening. Just like dogs, one small tiny noise would cause my eyes to fly open and for me to be on alert. But it was the only sleep I could afford myself alone in the woods and when I reopened my eyes slightly, I noticed it was now dark out.
I am not sure why I opened my eyes, but they were now open and I was listening. The dead silence was creepier than the normal bird and animals sounds you hear in the forest. I had not spent a whole lot of time in the woods but when it was dead silent, it was never a good sign.
I did not move, confident I would have more luck in the shadows, hidden, then moving and looking for something. Sure enough, after a few minutes, I heard leaves under someone's foot and when I scanned the area, I could hear thoughts…The absence of groaning and moaning were reassuring in a way, I was pretty sure whomever was here with me was not infected. Then I heard a crack, from a completely different direction and the panic settle back in. I wasn't alone with someone else, we were at least three. I had not seen a human being in days; I wasn't even sure how to socialize anymore. And what if they were not friendly? I mean I was a woman, I am not stupid. I was vulnerable to their pity and their kindness which I wasn't convinced still existed in today's world. It felt more like every man for themselves. Their thoughts were focused on where they were setting down their feet and where the noise they had heard earlier came from. I guess they were on to me.
What do they want? Maybe it was just a coincidence and they did not even know I was here? Was that wishful thinking?
Yes.
One of them was beside me and I could tell he was looking right in my bush. He was thinking that I was sleeping and he could use that to his advantage to take me by surprise. I had no reason to think they were not hostiles; they were sneaking around me and not identifying themselves. If I was approaching someone I did not know and was friendly, would you not say hi? Establish human freaking grounds rules?
He reached into the bush with a knife in his hand but I was quicker and I had grabbed a rock which I smashed onto his forearm causing him to drop the knife.
"Fuck!" he yelled. "She is hostile, Frank! Shoot her!"
I heard the cocking of a gun and I froze. I am hostile? What? He shot in my direction but I heard it ricochet onto the rock behind me. I shrieked in shock.
"Stop!" I yelled and I did not hear the gun again.
"You are not dead?" one of them said.
"No you missed" I replied.
"No I mean you are not infected?"
"No I am not; I am broken but not infected." I quickly answered while one of them turned a flashlight on.
After shining it on me from top to bottom, he brought it again to my bandaged arm.
"Were you bitten?"
"No a cat scratched me" I replied frowning. Why the fuck does it matter?
He brought the flashlight back to his face and extended his bloody arm and hand.
"I am Johnny and this is Frank. Sorry about that we didn't know."
"You could have just asked!" I exclaimed while Johnny helped me to my feet.
"Yeah so you know where we were and jumped on us to eat us the first chance you got."
Well I guess they did not know I could hear their thoughts but I wasn't about to tell them that.
"I guess it's hard to tell the difference between infected and normal." I said sarcastically.
"You mean between the living, the dead and the undead?" Frank asked and I frowned.
"I don't understand what you mean"
"Those things are not just infected ma'am, they are dead."
Day Z – Day of the Dead
"Why would you leave Bon Temps? Sounds like it was a great little place you could have hid." Johnny asked me as he wrapped my foot as tight as he could.
Since the night I had met him and his brother, my chances of finding Eric had increased tremendously. They were part of some convoy with four other people and had made it their mission to find other humans and to just survive until the government and the military took care of the problem.
The group had a school bus they had converted into a temporary mobile home. They had lots of supplies and everything I needed for my broken foot. Johnny was a doctor, he told me without an x-ray, he would not know how to treat my broken bone but he mobilized it and every 12 hours he changed the bandages. He was afraid of bacteria and infection, and who could blame him?
"There was nothing for me left in Bon Temps." I replied watching him as he took care of my foot.
"So where are you heading then? Because the only thing you tell us is north, when all the media says it is the worst way to go. I have no problem to head up North for you. I mean we don't really have a direction we were heading and while we wait for the government to get their shit together we need something to do, but I do hope you tell me why you want to go north?" he explained as he put back on my shoe.
I had no reason to lie to him, but a part of me knew how silly it was to give up everything just for a slight possibility of seeing someone again. Did I want to look silly to them…borderline suicidal? Truth be told, I couldn't care less.
"Because that is where I will find Eric." I said simply knowing more questions were coming.
He didn't ask me to continue but he looked up and stared at me clearly waiting for the rest of the story.
"He is my husband."
It was a lie, I mean Eric and I were divorced but I did not want to get in to the details of our love story and our failed attempt to be together. I did not wish to hash out what I did wrong and why he was in Oklahoma. And let's not forget I certainly did not want to share the part where he was a vampire. Most humans disliked them during times such as these. Where were they? We could use their help. They were stronger and faster than any of us.
"Was he travelling for work or something?"
"No, it is a long story but we were separated for a while."
"I see" he said before thinking "other woman".
"It is not what you think" I replied defensively.
"Does it matter what I think? I will get us to go to Oklahoma City, it's not far from here and it gives us a purpose but just know that you might not find what you are looking for there." He said sadly and I did not respond. Somehow I knew there was more to the story but now was not the time to talk about it.
"GUYS! Come on", Vanessa screamed from the bus and we both looked in her direction. She was in charge of listening to radio chatter, Medias and governmental announcements.
"It's the president! He is dead! Everyone is dead. There are no governments." She yelled and we both ran to the bus.
There were scattered images of the white house on fire, the dead president, and the military shooting at each other. It seemed as if the dead's were everywhere, taking down cities and life as we know it. As I watched these images, I felt completely and utterly numb unable to connect with it. It looked surreal as if I was watching a movie not reality. Very few reporters were still doing their jobs but the more they talked the more evident it became they were more busy with surviving than actual reporting. The cameras were a secondary thought; something that just happens to be there, their minds just let it roll.
We were no longer told to stay put. Most channels were silent and instead had the same images playing on a loop. It seemed as if we humans had no longer a purpose, it was a free for all. I looked around our little group. Their faces said it all. Sadness, disbelief and horror was all we could feel as we all came to the realization that our government had fallen and that the help we thought would eventually come and fix this shit, was never going to come.
One by one the channels stopped working and went dark. Within 30 minutes of the first presidential death coverage, the images disappeared leaving only a loud beeping noise and some colourful rectangles behind. There were no longer any chatter, any images, nothing. Not even the radio could pick up anything.
I was terrified and deep down I was freaking out. What were we going to do? There was no help, no light at the end of the tunnel. The devastation I felt, I knew I shared with all of them. What are we without hope?
And when we thought it couldn't get worst, well it did.
The power went out and somehow we knew it wasn't coming back.
October 31, 2015. Day Z, the day the dead walked the United States, and the country ceased to exist.
Day Z + 2 days present
I don't think any of us cared what day it was anymore. Ever since losing contact with the rest of the world, they had lost their purpose, their reward. They all thought eventually the government would take control of the situation, the dead would be put to rest and civilization would be restored.
But how can you do that when you do not know when someone will turn on you, become one of them instead of one of us? We had seen the army turning on each other; we had seen the white house burn and the dead president. How do you defeat something you cannot possibly understand? It's too early; heck 2 weeks ago we thought it was a virus! How can you save a nation when you cannot even save yourself? The government had been overrun by these creatures; the president of the United States was freaking dead! Maybe he was even walking amongst them.
The group was crushed, tired and depressed. Their thoughts involved only on what to do now, and whether living was even worth it.
But not me.
I still had a purpose, the same purpose I had days ago. I still had the same energy and the same determination. A part of me knew Eric was once again saving me but this time it wasn't in the literal sense of it. He was saving me from depression, from having no purpose and I was extremely thankful.
I had passed down this purpose to the rest of the group, some of them did not care what we did, while others were opposed to it but were outnumbered. Johnny was their leader and he too believed the group needed a purpose. Mine was easy, close to our reach already, it made sense he made it theirs.
We had made it to Oklahoma City within the day. We had been only hours away from it and, contrary to me, they had gas and a bus so I did not need to walk.
Once we had arrived, they had turned to me and asked me where to next but the truth was that I had no idea. I did not know where she lived but I couldn't tell them that. What was I to do anyway? It was possible I had never anticipated to actually make it here and had never taken the time to think about what I would do once I did get here to the city.
"All I know is that they live in the northern part." I said and Johnny nodded.
It wasn't true, I had no idea but we were on the south end so we would have to go through it to get to the downtown part and then the north. That was 3 sectors we would cover and hopefully I would get a sign or something. I don't know what I was hoping for but no one had seen vampires since the infection started. Absolutely no one.
"You guys don't have to come with me you know. You have already helped so much; I can take it from here. I don't want you guys to put your life in danger."
We did not know how many infected there were out there. We were all under the impression that it would only get worst.
"You cannot even walk Sookie." Johnny replied and of course he had a good point. I did not know what he was thinking but I was trying my best to keep my shields up. I did not like snooping in their minds especially Johnny's. I had a hard time understanding him and some of his thoughts were so personal.
I agreed with him that I was pretty useless at the moment in terms of searching but at the same time, I guess I just did not want to deal with the guilt if anyone was to get hurt while we were on our quest. Especially since they did not know all the details, like Eric being a vampire; I felt like I was cheating them from valuable information.
"What is your husband's name anyway?" he said as he signaled to Cara, the bus driver, to head downtown.
"Eric", I said and I took a deep breath. I was relieved that they would help me find him but of course I wasn't stupid. I knew my chances were slim.
Johnny walked over through the middle aisle and took a seat beside me. I watched him and offered a smile when he looked at me. I don't know if it was because of old habits but I always seemed to want to comfort people even if a smile was not good enough for such a difficult job.
I got a glimpse of a thought, about me, and I looked away. I was so tired; my shields were failing me at times. He was comparing me to his wife.
"What did you mean the other day when you said I might not find what I am looking for? Eric is not with another woman by choice you know." I said to him in an effort to shift his thoughts.
It was the truth and even though I couldn't be sure that he would want anything to do with me, one thing I knew was that he surely did not want to be there either.
"You think I meant he might want to stay with the other woman?" he said amused but then quickly lost his smile as if he remembered something. "That is not what I meant." I saw images of her smiling at him. He was so sad, it was evident something had happened to her.
I stayed silent waiting for him to continue but he did not. Instead he got up again and went in the front to speak with Cara. I closed my eyes and focused on my shields again.
I did not go after him. I respected he did not wish to speak about her. I turned to the window where countless empty streets flashed before my eyes at every corner. It was so strange to see them void of any life. It had stopped, everything was frozen in time.
"He was referring to his wife", I heard Frank say to me from the back of the bus.
I turned my head in his direction intrigued but also scared to hear what he had to say.
"We came from New York City." He said to me plainly but it explained everything. How was it possible? How did they escape the quarantine, the infected, and the government! "We have seen a lot more than any of you." He whispered to me when he took the seat on the exact spot Johnny had been minutes earlier. I guess he did not want the others to know what we were talking about.
"We escaped. She was on a business trip in Illinois. So we went there to get her. We had time on our side; we knew the army was containing the outbreak to New York. Well we were wrong. When we got there, she was really sick. In her bed. She told us she had been bit. Within 4 hours, she died and there was nothing we could do."
"I am so sorry" I replied to him.
"I am too. The thing is, she didn't really die, and she was infected. Her heart was no longer beating, her eyes were vacant but she was walking, running and she tried to kill us. I had to cut her head off." He said with such coldness. It is not that Frank was a sociopath but when you live a trauma, sometimes the only way to accept it is to detach yourself emotionally from it. I did not want to think about what cutting someone's head off entailed.
"Eric is alive, I am sure of it." I said as a sole response, my only hope. Sure it sounded as if I was trying to convince myself of the fact but what else could I do. I couldn't imagine a world without him, no matter how broken it already was.
Day Z + 3 days, present day
"What the fuck is that?" I said hearing the howling, the screams, and the moans coming from what it seems was far away.
"They are here." Johnny replied as he stared into my eyes. "Sookie, we need to leave the city before it is too late. Eric isn't here. We would have seen him, heard him."
"I am not leaving without him."
"Why can't you see that he has clearly left!" he said angrily his mind begging me to just follow him.
"Leave if you want, get yourselves to safety but I am staying." I said as I slammed the door to the house we had been staying in since the night before.
We had gone through the empty downtown and the north side of Oklahoma City. We had called his name, searched for any signs of life but all in vain. When the sun had started coming down, we had found refuge in a house where we had parked the bus in the drive way. Most of them could not leave their new home; the bus. They spent the night there while Johnny, Frank and Cara stayed in the house with me. We were looking for some kind of comfort, a reminder of home.
"Sookie, there will be thousands of them. They travel together. I don't know how or why, but you need to fucking get out of here." He said through the door which he kicked in without much trouble when he saw I was no longer responding.
"I will take my chances." I said stubbornly taking a few step back.
"Fine." He said and without much thought he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Let me go."
"No", is all he said but his mind was promising he would save me no matter how I felt about it. He couldn't bare the idea that I would stay behind and I felt terrible. A part of me knew Johnny cared for me in a different way than he did for the others but I was always in denial. I loved Eric, no one else. He knew that so why? I chased the thoughts away and tried to break free but he was really strong and I had no energy. My foot was still broken, I had not eaten since the night before and I was lacking in minerals and everything else I used to watch because I cared about my health.
He brought me to the bus as the mumbling and the groaning was increasing in volume. I guess that is what happened when you do not have any other noise or anything in the way. Sound travels, amplifies and we are left terrified of what it is bringing with it.
"What the hell is going on?", Cara asked and I gave her one of those murderous looks.
"Sookie is suicidal and wants to stay here."
I was done talking, what else could I say to convince them to leave me behind? The truth? That Eric was a vampire and probably had disappeared with the lot of them? It would just aggravate them, giving them ammunition to their suicidal theory.
He sat me down at the back of the bus as it started moving towards downtown. I heard them have a conversation about heading south, about migrations and how these things were now on to us but I didn't care, he wasn't here and I was lost.
I considered a life without him when I had said yes to Sam but where it had lead me was just not where I wanted to be. Yet, here I was, at the back of a bus, in the middle of an empty city; without him. And while I wondered if it was even worth my energy, my fight, these people were driving me to safety because they cared about me when the only reason why they were not safe was because of me.
The irony.
I am not sure how long they drove before we were in the middle of a downtown's empty street. No one was talking anymore, we were all listening. I couldn't say to what exactly but the screaming and the moaning seemed to be louder than before as if instead of going away from them we were going to it.
"I don't like this" Cara whispered as she slowed the bus down.
It was night time, we could barely see, she had turned the lights off the bus as to not attract unwanted attention so the only light we could rely on was the day headlights. I had this sinking gut feeling that told me something was wrong. Actually, everything felt wrong. I looked through the window and as we slowly passed a street, I saw glimmers of shadows nearby.
"Shit" I heard Cara say a bit louder. The bus had stopped.
"Go!" I heard Frank yelled at her but although she was pressing the gas, we barely moved.
"There are too many of them Frank!" she screamed and I hopped to the front of the bus.
There were no longer any daylights; they were obstructed by the dead bodies of hundreds of infected screaming at us. Their faces were distorted with rage and violence I had rarely seen. Some were now on the roof quickly taking over the bus. The banging on the door and the windows was loud, just not enough to muffle their voices.
The quick footsteps on the roof told me there were at least 5 or 6 of them up there. Everyone had retreated to the back of the bus, staring at the door as our only hope in surviving this. But of course, as soon as we directed the flashlight in that direction, we saw the bloody faces of more infected who immediately started pounding on the emergency exit door.
"What are we going to do? They are everywhere." Cara yelled as she shook uncontrollably.
I don't know what we could do. There was too many of them. Where could we hide? Or could we run away. Both options seemed futile.
Johnny had been silent, probably calculating our best options. As I silently continued to freak out, he headed to the driver seat.
"Frank and Sookie take the shot guns and get ready. We will kick the windshield off, you will shoot them and I will drive to the building on the right until we are close enough that we can slip through and have a chance in escaping." He said calmly which took me by surprise.
We all blinked at each other but a plan was what we needed and after the initial shock, we all nodded our heads and got ready. That is all we needed a plan and as suicidal as it sounded, it was our only hope.
I grabbed a shotgun and stood between Frank and Johnny. When everyone was at their post, Johnny gave the okay and Frank kicked the windshield off. It took several minutes, it wasn't an easy job, and with my broken foot I could barely help. When the windshield finally gave in, we proceeded in shooting the infected closest to the bus. Johnny was pressing the gas as much as he could and the bus slowly got moving, crushing the bodies under its weight.
Frank and I had to venture outside the bus to continue our shooting. I was lying down on my stomach through the windshield when I felt a body fall beside me. Frank yelled "watch out" so I closed my eyes and protected my face. He shot the infected who then tripped on my body and fell off the bus.
Johnny was yelling to hold on and within a minute or two we were crashing into the front window of a small store.
"Let's go," he said, "hurry."
Frank was the first one to exit. He entered the room and immediately proceeded in blocking some of the space between the bus and the outside so no infected could come in. He used furniture and anything he could find in the small store. We all knew it would not hold forever but it was enough for now.
Everyone exited the bus as Johnny reached for me so I could get back out through the windshield again and exit through the buses door. I am sure my foot was hurting a lot but I couldn't feel it at all. Now was not the time.
"Fucking hurry!" Frank yelled as I heard a large crash.
Johnny yanked on my arm which propelled me outside the bus into his arms. The infected were coming in from the other side of the bus and soon would be between us and the rest of the group whom had already moved into the staircase that was heading to the upstairs of the building.
I wanted to yell at him to let me go, I was just slowing him down but there was no time. He grabbed my arm and strongly pulled me towards the doorframe but I felt another hand clawing me in the leg while another one grabbed my free arm. I knew the infected were here and as one took a giant bite out of my forearm, I let go of Johnny and used that arm to punch it in the face. I shoved it back resulting in it yelling at me as I saw the chunk of my flesh hanging in its mouth.
I guess Johnny had grabbed the shotgun or something, but he shot that thing right in the face, and then grabbed me again before more could reach me. As soon as we were passed the doorframe, Frank closed the door behind us and pulled a giant desk with the others help to block the door.
We immediately proceeded in climbing the stairs as high as we could. Eight flights later, I had taken off my shirt and wrapped my arm with it. It was bleeding profusely; I could tell the energy was slowly leaving my body. We reached the roof in no time. The thing was the door was design to keep people from going outside from the inside. Once we were out, how were we to block it?
The group quickly produced different objects until Cara came back with a large crate she could barely move herself. I stumbled away, trying to get my head focused and cleared. My shirt was soaked, barely stopping the bleeding. I sat down and tried to close my eyes so the roof would stop spinning.
Eventually the pounding started on the door, but nobody cared. They were all standing around me with that look of pity on their face.
"What?" I said but no one answered.
Johnny crouched beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"We need to act quickly before the infection spreads.
"What? I don't understand." I said to him as I watch him look at the floor.
"I am sorry Sookie." He said and signaled to Frank to come closer. He grabbed my arm and I frowned.
"What are you doing?" I demanded as he unwrapped my shirt bandage and took a look at the bite. It wasn't a pretty sight at all. There was so much blood pooling. But I saw it, I saw the black around the skin's edge. What the fuck?
"If we do not remove it, it will spread and kill you", Johnny said as tears rolled down his cheek.
"No, no, no. You can't do that. I will heal." I said to him reaching with my good arm to his face.
"Johnny, listen to me. We can watch it, make sure it heals." I said to him but Frank grabbed my waste as he kneeled behind me. He was holding me in place with one arm. He was so strong, or maybe I was the one weak?
"NO", I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Johnny had raised his machete above his head while Frank was holding my arm out with his free hand. I kept on yelling to stop, that I was not infected, that it was not their choice to make. Johnny had closed his eyes; repeating to himself mentally to do it. I knew he was trying to find the courage he needed to chop my forearm off.
"Please," I begged, "You don't know what one bite will do. I am sure I can fight it, just watch me, you will see! " I exclaimed still crying from the stress and the fear that I was about to lose my arm and then I would have to face the 50/ 50 chance odds that I will either live to tell my story or get an infection and die anyways. "Give me a fucking chance!" I yelled in desperation.
"Sookie! No one is immune! You don't understand. You don't know what happens when you get bit. The bacteria, it will eat you up until you die and you open your eyes again", Frank said while holding me a bit tighter. "This is giving you a chance!" he added putting an emphasis on the word "is".
Johnny took a deep breath; I closed my eyes and I screamed with everything I had in me as the blade descended upon my arm.
I thought I would feel an insane amount of pain, but there was nothing. No bang, no blood, no pain. I was in shock, I couldn't hear well either. I risked an eye in Johnny's direction. He wasn't there anymore. Heck Frank wasn't holding me anymore. I turned around quickly; he was backing up to the edge of the building. I looked in Johnny's direction. He was no longer on his feet. Instead, someone was holding him up in the air, strangling the life out of him.
I gasped in horror, unable to process what I was seeing. My vision was blurry, my heart was pounding. I felt sick. I held my bloody arm to myself as I tried to get up on my feet but instead just stumbled awkwardly to Johnny who was extending his hand to me.
I reached for it but lost my footing and ending up catching myself on the man who was holding him. I held onto him tightly, desperate for him to stop. Was he an infected? Maybe he would turn on me. I mean I was kinda dead anyways…
Johnny was fading, I could tell because his hand was no longer extended to me and his thoughts were desperate. He was making horrible gurgling sounds as he was choking. No one was helping him and here I was clutching his aggressor, pleading to let him go. I might have said so, I couldn't tell, but I used all the force I had left to pound on the man's chest. I was slipping, no longer having any energy to hold on.
The man swiftly threw Johnny towards the others before he grabbed me. I was finished, dead and somehow, I was not afraid. Living in a world without Eric was living in no world at all. I could not stand watching myself fade anymore and become only a shell of myself. I was ready to embrace death, to wait for the other side to end my suffering. There was nothing left for me here.
It took me a few seconds to realize he was holding me tightly against his chest. He wasn't hurting me, he was hugging me. How could this be? His smell, his tenure, how could it be him? I had accepted I would never see him again that I would never hold him against me and tell him how much I loved him. I had accepted I was going to be empty forever, I had accepted death!
I gasped for air, trying to push him away just enough so I could see his face. Is it him, is it really him? I am pretty sure my heart skipped a beat when I heard him call my name.
"Lover."
We will always find each other.