Kyle and Jessi travelled primarily at night because they could see perfectly well in moonlight. It was the main reason they rarely saw anyone but not the only one. They could also hear heartbeats of people nearby and they generally avoided the less pleasant sounds. It was true they could have handled or rescued a large number of people on their way here, but there would also have been countless followers to feed and clothe and defend. They could take care of themselves but no one else yet.
It was on their to-do list.
The first objective was to remain safe and together. Together they could handle just about anything. Only a large gun toting band of scavengers and looters, perhaps 50 or more, could really be a match for them. Those were the figures when they were out in the open, with little cover. If they were indoors in a defendable position, they felt they could handle 500 in relative ease. It would take planning and the interior would have to be designed properly to ensure they had the advantage, but it was reasonable.
Looking around, Kyle knew there were no groups anywhere near that large. The moon was bright, casting everything with a soft silver glow. If only they had time to enjoy the stars overhead too; their numbers had grown exponentially since power had failed across much of the continent two weeks ago. There were still a few lights here and there, and there was plenty of fire too – torches and braziers – depicting either a safe haven for people trying to survive together or those cretins banding together to drive humanity to extinction.
He and Jessi knew exactly how many of these cretins they'd killed. They named them zombies even though they were most certainly alive and in full capacity of their minds. Because they had lost hope they were worse than undead monsters; they were actual humans who took whatever they wanted only because they could. They completely ruined the areas where they lived and killed whoever opposed them, people like Amanda. Had she not been there and made it look like they were dying, he knew Jessi would likely have been at least raped and captured, and probably killed anyway.
These people, these zombies, had no right to even call themselves human. They were the worst kind of animal.
He couldn't suppress the tiniest growl from escaping his throat. Jessi turned to him in the dark and looked him in the eyes. She mouthed the words because it was very easy for them to read lips, and it was safer when traveling. "Thinking of zombies again?"
He smiled sheepishly at her, at the last person who mattered to him. Knowing and instantly regretting that he'd not said it in a little over six hours, he mouthed, "I love you Jessi." It made her smile from ear to ear, and she squeezed his hand. If they didn't need all their attention on their surroundings they might even have kissed, right there.
When a large number of lights suddenly came into view from behind a large building, they instantly flattened themselves to the ground. It seemed a little strange but it looked like an entire block of buildings still had power here, against all odds. The lights were muted behind dark paint but with their enhanced vision it had appeared a lot brighter. They relaxed when they neither saw nor heard anyone outside.
Jessi turned to him and mouthed, "Let's run." She pointed to the north-west. He agreed.
They ran at a comfortable pace, like they'd done for many hours down south when they'd tried to get to the CDC buildings in Atlanta. It had been foolish of him to believe they'd be unoccupied, but believe he had.
He knew that even the Canadian high security lab might be occupied, but this time they were prepared. He only hoped there weren't too many of them. He didn't relish killing, and he knew neither did Jessi. It was nonetheless a matter of survival and it was for that reason specifically that Jessi had convinced him to stock up on handguns and ammunition. Between them they carried eight guns, all with their safeties on, and at last count 394 bullets. Thinking briefly through the day's travel, 394 was still the number of bullets as they hadn't fired any.
He was thankful Canada had a much smaller population than the United States.
They could run fast like deer and as quiet as their footwear allowed. His shoes were starting to wear thin but Jessi's barely made a sound. Even so, there could be camouflaged hunters sitting out here with a rifle in hand, waiting for their next meal to come. The fact that 80% of wildlife had also died from the ravenous disease was a terrible blow to humanity's chances of survival.
Even flies, he thought soberly. They really had to hurry to get their plans started or everyone was likely to die.
Their only defence against snipers and hunters would be their heartbeats. As they ran they both catalogued the various sounds they heard and placed them on mental maps. If anything was suspicious they either ran faster or walked very slowly without any sound. They did this with very little conscious thought anymore, though at first it had been difficult for both of them. Constant practice made their technique perfect.
Thankfully they didn't encounter anyone outside on this night. While they primarily avoided the towns and cities they did occasionally have to raid them for fresh water and foodstuffs like canned beans. They often ate wild hare and edible leaves and grasses. Although they could drink straight from rivers, they found there were a lot of pollutants. Whenever it rained the runoff that got into streams and rivers made them deadly. They would survive but it would sap their strength rather than give any.
All the corpses weren't decomposing half as fast as they would have if only humans had been affected by the disease so they expected the conditions to remain for a few months at least. As dawn approached they found a new enemy: frost. It was forming fast, their breaths visible for only the second straight night. What Kyle liked least about frost was their passing would be clear to just about anyone, until the sun warmed it away.
Just then Jessi stopped and he took only one additional step, stopping almost as quickly. He turned to her, finally noticing why she'd stopped. He'd been so absorbed in his thoughts about frost and rivers and decaying corpses that he hadn't noticed that dawn was still three hours away. A forest fire was to their west, a big one. There currently was no wind but a forest fire would rage out of control for hundreds if not thousands of miles, consuming everything in its path, even the few survivors left in cities.
He exhaled noisily. They had enough trouble as it was; now they'd have to find a sufficiently large lake to hide in. They could handle a house fire for a few minutes but definitely not a forest fire. He looked around; all he saw were trees. They weren't packed too closely together so maybe a fire would advance here only slowly but the shrubbery, leaves, and moss at their feet would still burn just as readily. If the weather could cooperate and get really cold for a week or rain heavily for a few days, maybe some of the forest would be spared. There was nothing they could do against that.
Jessi turned to him and mouthed, "We have to angle back north east." Maybe the town they'd just avoided was only a village? They didn't know because they were now in the blacked out region in the maps they'd recorded just prior to the power failing. They had the majority of North America in their heads with the exception of primarily military installations.
Every now and then he really berated himself for not letting Jessi hack into the US government's intelligence files when they'd had the chance. It would have made this work a lot simpler. What if they'd already passed the place?
Jessi must have guessed what he was thinking, because she said in the smallest whisper, since he wasn't looking at her just then, "We haven't seen any fences or roads for a while now. Let's go this way; if we cross any roads we'll check them out."
He turned to her and nodded his approval. "What would I do without you Jessi," he asked. It wasn't the first time he'd asked her since the whole journey started. He probably would have become a vigilante, trying to protect the few from the gangs of rogues until he was overwhelmed.
She exhaled heavily. "I would have killed zombies till they finally got me." This was new to him; she'd never said anything previously and only held him when he had said the question.
He nodded; he could easily imagine her lasting somewhat longer than him alone. She wouldn't have hesitated to use any means necessary to protect herself while he would have. He shook the thoughts away; now wasn't the time anyway, not with a fire already visible in the west.
A picture suddenly came to mind, a picture of Jessi sporting a red bandana and wearing nothing but tattered black clothing, hefting a massive machine gun or a grenade launcher. Why, he asked, why had the last movie he'd watched been about one similarly clothed guy taking on an army complete with army helicopters and winning? He wanted to forget that movie, because it fit in too well with the mentality of the zombies.
The corner of his mouth rose in a smile despite his best efforts to extinguish it. Seeing Jessi in tattered clothes would be welcome though, as long as she was healthy of course.
Jessi tapped him on the shoulder, popping him back to reality. She saw his expression, smiled, and said, "What?"
He blushed in the dark but she saw him plain as day and her smile grew. He replied, "My hormones gave me an inappropriately timed image."
"Don't let it bother you Kyle. Mine have been doing that for almost two weeks." With that she started running. As he ran to catch up to her, he idly pondered her words. Well, maybe they were still young, but what if it was more than that? Some primal urge to mate when faced with extinction? They didn't have time for that!
He was biting his lower lip raw when they suddenly came to a clearing. A fifteen foot high barbed wire topped fence surrounded a small white building. There were signs every few feet declaring the fence was electrified. Tuning his ears up further, yes, it still was, even though the guard post was vacant on the north side of the clearing.
If this wasn't the lab, he wouldn't know what might be. It certainly fit his imagination. He hugged Jessi strongly but refrained from kissing her since they were out in the open. She tugged him back into the trees.
When they were safely hidden again, she mouthed to him, "It looks like it might survive a forest fire." He saw there was no grass anywhere in the clearing, only bare earth. Almost out of sight to the left of the building was a little shed with a bulldozer which was probably used to till the ground regularly to keep out plant life. There was also a large pipe to the right of the building; it looked like an exhaust system.
She glanced at his mouth and her breathing relaxed. Her heart on the other hand…
She said, "You wanted to kiss me earlier, here." The kiss was quick but to the point. She did it to simultaneously satisfy and frustrate their hormones. It was true their minds could render them completely emotionless and therefore prevent the attraction that was growing by the day. They both refused that course when they'd recovered from the disease. He pushed away the regret and anger that threatened to spoil his mood at the thought of Amanda. And yet it was necessary for them to keep their emotions because it made them human.
He kissed her right back, and told her of the image he'd seen. She nearly burst out laughing. She shared her image of him and it made him blush from head to toe. She had an active imagination.
If they lost their emotions, they'd be zombies too. The world would be doomed. That was always a sobering thought, which was another reason they kissed passionately for every zombie they killed.
"Do we go in," she asked.
With the fire very likely less than a day away, there was little choice. He would have liked to get organized here and then visit the hidden lights in the town nearby, maybe salvage and collaborate with them for survival, but it seemed nature had a different plan.
"Take off your safeties," he said.
She lifted her shirt only slightly, showing the Kevlar vest underneath. "I don't think it wise to take off my vest, do you?" She sighed when he looked at her. He knew she was joking, or more accurately teasing him now that she knew what he'd visualized of her.
He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If you want to take those safeties off, we have to be in a secure location. What if I promise you'll be able to take them off tonight?
"Sounds good to me," she replied with a twinkle. "A shower would be good too."
He agreed. "A shower," with you he added with a thought, "would be heaven." He somehow thought she'd added the same in her statement because they were both smiling broadly and blushing.
No, he thought resolutely, there's no chance we could relinquish our emotions, our feelings for each other. No chance.