2

Not Alone

Alicia shuddered, lost for a moment in her memories. Last night... Had it only been last night? She wondered to herself. It seemed like a lifetime ago... Last night she had awoken from an uneasy sleep to the creaking of floorboards. Terrified, she had strained her ears, her eyes struggling to make sense of the darkness. She could hear the soft, rhythmic breathing of the sleeping bodies piled around her in the unfamiliar living room, her mother, her brother, and the strange makeshift family she had somehow become a part of. After a moment, she had shifted her weight on the leather sofa, convinced she had imagined the creaking floorboards, and was about to settle back into sleep when she had heard it... The soft but distinct jingle of keys, the creak and thud of a door slowly opened and closed. It was not the sound of the infected breaking in, but rather of someone sneaking out.

Quickly, quietly, Alicia had risen to her feet and slipped from the room, stepping out into the cool night air, smelling of salt and ocean. It had been a cloudy night, and with the city lights forever out, the unfamiliar darkness around her was unsettling. Growing up in L.A., she had never known true darkness until now. Nor had she ever known quiet. There was no familiar rumble of passing cars, no honking, no indistinct droning of the neighbor's TV sets, no faceless drunks laughing or shouting, no dogs calling to each other in the night. There was only the distant sound of the ocean meeting the shore.

Then there was the rumble of an engine and the taillights of Travis's truck glowing in the night. Alicia could see Nick's silhouette behind the wheel, already popping the clutch into first gear. She didn't have time to stop him. She didn't have time to climb into the passenger seat. She only had time to grab onto the tailgate as Nick pulled the truck out of the mansion's driveway. Alicia had heaved herself into the bed of the truck only to be tossed back and forth as Nick pulled wildly onto the main road. By the time she had managed to clamber up and smack her palms on the cab's glass, they were well on their way towards the heart of the city.

Nick had slammed on the brakes, throwing Alicia against the cab with a thud. Her thud was followed by a loud clang as one of Travis's baseball bats bounced off her leg and slammed against the side of the truck bed. Nick opened the tiny window behind him and turned in his seat.

"What the hell are you doing?" He had asked Alicia.

"What the hell am I doing?" She had replied. "What the hell are you doing, Nick?"

Nick had dropped his gaze, looking ashamed, and Alicia already knew the answer... He was looking for a fix.

"There's a pharmacy not far into town." He had answered.

"We can't go into town, Nick!" Alicia had replied, her voice rising. "There will be infected everywhere."

"I need it, Alicia." Nick had answered, pathetically. "You know I can't get on that boat without it. I need it. I can't... survive... without it."

Alicia had bit her lip, pissed, but conflicted. She knew he was right. They had run out of pills days ago and Nick had been sick since... puking, shaking, sweating uncontrollably. Her mother had refused to let anyone go into the city in search of drugs, arguing that it wasn't safe and that they just needed to give Nick's system time to detoxify itself. But Nick wasn't getting better and she could see his desperation in his wild eyes.

"Please..." he had begged. "Its not far. I'll run in, get what I need, and be back out before anyone even knows we are gone. I'll just get enough to wean myself off slowly. No one needs to know."

Alicia had looked at her brother, his hands shaking, his face covered in a sheen of sweat despite the cool night air. "No." She had answered. "Give me the keys."

Nick's face had dropped, then tightened in anger, but before he could respond, she had cut him off. "I'm driving." She said, her voice firm and final. "I'll run inside. Your ass is staying in the car."

Nick had look resigned and sheepish, but pleased. He pulled the keys from the ignition with a nod and reached through the window. But before Alicia could snatch the keys from his hand, she had heard it... The distinct guttural wheezing, snarling, moaning of the infected. In the red glow of the taillights she saw them... Not one, not two, but an entire group of infected stumbling their way through the darkness towards her.

"Shit!" She had shouted. "Go, Nick. Go!"

Nick had fumbled clumsily with the keys, panic flooding his wild eyes. By the time he got the right key wedged in the ignition, the first of the infected were upon them, groping at the sides of the truck. Alicia had grabbed the baseball bat and stood, taking a swing at the closest one. She could feel the vibration stinging her fingers as the bat met skull with a "crack." She had tightened her grip and reared back for another swing, fighting to keep her balance as Nick threw the truck into gear.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" She heard Nick echoing her as he revved the engine, switching into second. "They're everywhere!"

Nick was right. The infected were everywhere. They were surrounded. Where the hell had they all come from? Alicia had wondered as they wove down the street, weaving in and out of the infected. She watched one, a teenage boy in a backwards baseball cap and a bloodstained Lakers jersey, struggling to hold onto the side of the truck's bed as Nick sped through the street. She had reared back and swung, sending the boy's cap flying through the darkness. The boy had fallen, his body twisting under the truck's back tire just as Nick made a quick swerve to the left, and all of the sudden Alicia had found herself spiraling through the night air. Before she could even process what was happening, the pavement had slammed into her like a linebacker, tearing the air from her lungs and sending her rolling across the ground in a tumbling heap of arms and legs. Alicia had coughed, struggling for breath, disoriented, shaking her head and pushing her aching body onto her hands and knees. But she didn't have long to recover. She could hear them all around her, breathing, moaning.

She had grabbed the baseball bat from where it had rolled up against the curb, and risen to her feet, watching the taillights of Travis's truck disappear down the street. Clearly Nick had not realized she had fallen. She didn't have time to wait for him to notice her absence. She didn't have time to wait for him to come back for her. She had only one option... Run.

Alicia had quickly surveyed her surroundings. She had landed on the corner of an intersection between a Chevron and a 7-11. To the left was a Safeway, to her right a rundown laundromat and a Chinese restaurant with a sign spelling "Happy Good Fourtune." Both directions were blocked by a crowd of staggering infected. The clearest route had been behind her, a dark side street leading into houses. She sprinted down the street, pausing only twice to take swings at two infected blocking her way: a fat, bald man in a dirty suit, blood speckling his checkered tie, and an old wrinkled black woman with gaps in her bared teeth.

Her adrenaline had carried her a good four blocks through the quiet neighborhood before she had realized none of the infected were still following her. She slowed to a walk, trying to catch her breath, trying to figure out how she had suddenly gone from sleeping on an Italian leather sofa, surrounded by family and friends (or if not friends... At least allies) in the comfort of an ocean-front mansion, to wandering an abandoned neighborhood alone in the middle of the night with nothing but a baseball bat and the clothes on her back.

She had waited out the rest of the darkness in an abandoned house. For a while she had tried sleeping, curled up in a stranger's bed. But she had ended up staring instead at the bedside table where there was a happy photo of a man dangling a laughing child by her ankles, a worn leather Bible, a half empty glass of water, a bookmark with "Happy Mother's Day" and a heart scribbled on it in pink marker. This room was full of someone else's memories and she was an intruder. She knew sleep would never come to her here, so she had risen from the bed and instead spent the hours sitting propped against the bedroom door, her baseball bat draped across her knees, rubbing her tired eyes and waiting for the sunrise. It had been the longest, loneliest night of her life.

...

But she wasn't alone anymore. Elyza had paused from slurping her peach slices and was staring at her, waiting for her to elaborate. Alicia wondered how much she should share, how much she could share. She didn't want to think about last night. She didn't want to think about where Nick might be now. She had spent the day carefully walking the neighborhood streets in the direction she guessed, hoped, prayed, was the way back towards the mansion, towards her family, all the while searching for a glimpse of Travis's truck, the sound of an engine. She had dared hope that Nick had made it back to the mansion safely, that her family would be driving the streets in search of her. But the morning had faded into afternoon without Alicia spotting a single human being, a single living human being, that is.

The neighborhood streets had been mostly empty, silent, still. The quiet was not peaceful. It was eerie, and Alicia wondered if she would ever get used to the stillness of this new world. But as the neighborhood streets led her further into city, she had spotted more and more infected wandering ahead, blocking her route. After changing directions a few times to avoid the infected, Alicia, now officially exhausted and disoriented, had wandered across the elementary school with its high fence and ugly cement walls colored here and there by children's drawings in pastel chalk. The grounds seemed empty. Alicia figured the school had been emptied and closed early on in the initial stages of the citywide panic. So, she had slipped through a small opening in the fence, broken a window, and climbed into the school seeking refuge, seeking rest, and finding a pile of moon pies.

"Uhhhh..." Elyza's awkward throat clearing brought Alicia back to the present. "You wanna talk about it, or what?" Elyza asked bluntly.

"No..." Alicia answered. "Not really. I just... I got separated. But I'm not alone. My family..." She paused, swallowing hard, daring to hope. "My family is looking for me right now, I'm sure. They will find me. They will come back for me... I'm not alone." She repeated, as if saying it again and again might make it true.

Elyza just stared at her, her deep blue eyes impossible to read. Alicia could feel herself blushing again under this girl's intense gaze. The way the girl stared, unblinking, unabashedly and unapologetically... It made Alicia feel vulnerable, seen, known. As if those blue eyes were staring through her and into her very yet, there was no longer anything threatening about the girl's gaze, as fierce as it was.

Just as Alicia was about to drop her eyes, unable to hold Elyza's gaze any longer, Elyza finally spoke. "No... You are not alone." She said simply, firmly.

Alicia didn't know how to respond. The girl's tone was clear. She was offering Alicia her company, her protection. Alicia had not asked for either. She did not like admitting that she was in need of either. But here was this strange young woman offering both freely. And Alicia was surprised at the rush of relief and gratitude she felt at the girl's words. Surprised, and confused. Because the girl was still staring and Alicia didn't know what to say. And suddenly Alicia's heart was racing and her palms were sweating and the peas in her stomach were turning, and there was no explaining the strange effect this girl had on her.

Finally, she dropped her gaze, absentmindedly spinning the empty tuna can like a top on the rug to break the tension. "What about you?" She asked. "Why are you all alone? Do you have a group?"

Elyza leaned back casually on her elbows and began unwrapping her precious Mars Bar. "Yeah. I got a crew." She answered lazily. "Some mates from school, my mum and her man-friend, others that joined us along the way." She paused to take a bite of her chocolate. "I would do anything for them." She stated, staring into the candle flame and chewing thoughtfully.

Though Elyza tried to hide it, Alicia could detect the darkness in her tone. She wondered what Elyza had already done for the sake of her group. "But," She added, her tone light again as she tore her gaze from the candle and looked at Alicia. "Sometimes I just gotta get away for a while... You know? Get some fresh air. Smell the flowers... Or the rotting carcasses." she laughed.

"Where is your group?" Alicia asked. "Are they close by? Why are you spending the night here, if you have a safe place with them?"

"Like I said... I needed some space." Elyza answered with a laugh. Then she studied Alicia as if considering how much to tell her. "I usually don't give out information to strangers about our whereabouts. Sorry... Its just safer that way."

Alicia just shrugged. "Yeah, I get it. We just met. You have no reason to trust me. My group's in a house by the ocean. We were going to get on a boat today. We were going to leave L.A. behind. Take to sea and find somewhere safer. That was the plan anyway."

"Sounds like a ripper plan." Answered Elyza. "Except for one flaw. There is no finding somewhere safer. Its not just L.A. that's gone to shit. Its happening everywhere. You can head north. You can head south. You can head west all the way to the bloody Hawaiian islands. Wherever you dock, there the dead will be, waiting for you."

"You don't know that for sure." Alicia argued, not wanting to believe, not wanting to give up hope, but fearing that Elyza was right. "How could you know that for sure?"

Elyza ignored the question. "Where's your crew's house by the ocean? How far is it from here?"

"I don't know exactly." Alicia answered. "It was dark when I got separated. And I got all turned around today. I don't even know if I was going in the right direction. I know it's not far... If you had a car. But walking, with all the infected wandering around..."

"Walking?" Elyza laughed, shaking her head. "You've been walking around with nothing but a bodgy baseball bat? God, it's a miracle that you are still alive, Lil Coon. Tell you what... Get through tonight without doing anything stupid and getting yourself eaten, and I'll give you a lift back to your group tomorrow."

"A lift?" Asked Alicia, the excitement and hope inside of her growing enough that she wasn't even offended by Elyza's criticism and laughter. "You have a car?"

"A car?" Elyza repeated with a look of disgust. "Of course not. Cars are clunky, dodgy, take way too much petrol. Plus, look at me..." She gave a smirk, unzipping her leather jacket to reveal a tight tank beneath it. Alicia was not surprised that it, too, was black. "I'm way too badass to drive a lame ass car around. I have a Harley, of course."

"Of course." Alicia answered with her own smirk. "My bad... I should have figured as much from your biker get up. I just figured you had a thing for black leather. I mean, how many cows did you have to kill for those pants?"

"Not a single one." Answered Elyza, cooly. "How many lesbians did you have to kill for that god-awful flannel?" She retorted with a wink and a knowing smirk.

Alicia frowned down at her filthy blue flannel, confused, but Elyza just laughed. She took a last bite of her candy bar before tossing the remaining half into Alicia's lap. Then she sat up, pulled off her jacket, and started rummaging through her rucksack again.

"You're just damn lucky your tinny arse stumbled into me, Alicia Clark." She said, drawing out the name as if savoring its taste on her tongue. She pulled out a wadded lump of clothes and tossed it at Alicia. "It's not flannel." She laughed. "But its a hell of a lot cleaner than what you're wearing, ya dirty grub."

"Thanks." Alicia replied, unballing the wad of clothes to reveal a light-weight black jacket and a fitted white tee with what appeared to be a massive kangaroo jump-kicking Donald Trump in the face. Trump's obnoxious orange hair was flopping up in its full glory at the impact.

"Wow..." Alicia commented, trying hard not to laugh. "It's uh... It's"

"Clean?" Elyza offered.

"Yeah." Alicia chuckled. "Clean. So... Your accent... You're Australian?"

"Crikeys! Well spotted, Mate!" Elyza laughed sarcastically, putting on an exaggerated Crocodile Dundee accent and rolling her beautiful blue eyes. "Yeah, I'm a dinky-di, ridgy-didge, true blue, fair dinkum deadset Aussie. What gave it away?"

Alicia held the tank out with her eyebrows raised, figuring it didn't require a verbal explanation.

"You like that?" Elyza laughed. "You should see the matching grundies. They say No Donald the Donger Down Under in bright orange across the arse."

Alicia figured "grundies" must be "undies." But she had no clue what a "donger" was, and when she asked, Elyza broke into a fit of giggles and gave her another knowing smirk. "I daresay it's nothing you'll ever need to worry about, Lil' Coon. Least not if you stick with me." She winked and laughed even harder at the confused look on Alicia's face.

Still smiling smugly at her own joke, Elyza reached back into her sack and pulled out a roll of athletic tape and a tube of neosporin. She began fumbling clumsily with the dirty bandage on her hand. Alicia could hear her mumbling curses under her breath as she tried and failed to get a grip on the tape's edge. Alicia held in her laughter, thoroughly enjoying watching her struggle. Finally, when Elyza raised her hand to her mouth to use her teeth, Alicia spoke up.

"Here." She said, scooting closer to Elyza. "Let me help you change that."

"You a quack?" Elyza replied sarcastically.

"A what?" Alicia replied, hoping Elyza wouldn't burst into another fit of giggles at the question.

"A doctor." Elyza answered simply.

"Oh... No." Alicia answered. "But I do have two fully functional hands. I mean... You could let me help you. Or... You could put that nastiness in your mouth and try to do it yourself. Your mouth... Your choice."

"Alright." Elyza replied, extending her hand to rest on Alicia's knee. "Go for it, doc."

Alicia found the tape's edge and pried it back as gently as she could, exposing an angry red gash across Elyza's palm. Elyza watched in silence, not flinching a single bit as Alicia spread ointment across the wound and covered it with a fresh layer of tape.

"Thanks." Elyza said, dragging her hand across Alicia's knee. Their fingertips brushed lightly as Alicia released her hand and Alicia shivered involuntarily at the touch, her stomach flipping inside her again.

"Yeah.. Uh.. No.. No problem." Alicia stuttered, her face growing hot again. What the hell is wrong with you? She wondered at herself again. Elyza didn't seem to notice. She was busy digging though her sack again. This time she pulled another wad of clothes from it. Then, without any warning, she deftly pulled her tank over her head and tossed it aside. Alicia, now blushing fiercely, turned away from her as Elyza casually reached behind her back to unfasten her bra. Alicia stared down at her hands awkwardly, fixing her gaze on Trump and the massive kangaroo, terrified to look anywhere else. If Elyza noticed her discomfort, she certainly didn't acknowledge it. Alicia could hear the thumps of her boots against the linoleum as she tossed them aside, followed by the clank of her belt buckle and the zipper of her pants.

When Alicia was finally sure it was safe to look up again, Elyza was staring down at her, now wearing a loose black shirt with a skull and crossbones above the phrase "Ride or Die," very short fuzzy polka-dotted shorts, and that same knowing smirk.

"I'm going to go take a piss, Lil' Coon." She announced, tucking her glock into the waistband of her shorty shorts. "Dunny's right down the hall. Thunder boxes don't flush anymore of course, but it still beats pissing in the corner. Try not to kark it while I'm gone. And don't fuckin' touch my Sun Chips." She laughed, closing the door behind her.