Chapter 3: Stories

I slept free of dreams. When I woke up, I was on a cot. Charlotte was sleeping on the cot next to me, and Riley was on my other side, sleeping on the floor. I yawned and sat up. My head still throbbed a little from the wanderer's blow, but not as much as it had yesterday. Outside the cave, the sun was just rising over the trees. A finger of sunlight touched Riley's face. He blinked and yawned, stretching. When his eyes met my face, He quickly sat up and took both of my hands in his.

"Good morning Sleeping Beauty." I said, "You're eager." He smiled sheepishly and answered,

"I thought it was a dream." I pecked his cheek and laughed.

"I'm flattered. Should we make breakfast? Charlotte will be up soon." After we got a fire going and made breakfast Charlotte woke up. I spooned some of the homemade oatmeal into a bowl and put it on the floor next to her cot. Riley and I sat down and started eating.

There turned out to be a lot to do in this little cave. We had to go look for food and firewood often, and we also needed to boil water from a nearby stream to make it clean enough to drink. Our days passed in much the same manner, working by day and talking to Riley at night. He and I were always touching, holding hands as we walked to get water or wood and leaning on each other while we ate. The only time we were separated was when Riley went out to hunt for rabbits or birds.

Riley had said that we could stay here for a while before we had to move again. We were too far out in the mountains, he'd said, for anything to find us here. Our little forest became home. I never thought it would change. Here we were, living past the end of the earth, and we were living better than ever. Going without society had its advantages. Then, about a week later, the change came.

*******

We were all sitting around the fire, eating the rabbit Riley had caught earlier, when there was a shuffle in the woods. We all froze, food halfway to our mouths. I slowly lowered the piece I was about to eat back to my bowl. Riley was wrong, I thought, they found us. Charlotte let out a whimper of fear I turned to Riley and mouthed, "Gun."

He nodded and walked over to the back corner of the cave to get the gun with that same crease between his eyes, trying not to make any sound. Not that it would matter, with the zombie's enhanced hearing. I followed him, our arms intertwined, as did Charlotte, her hazel eyes wide with fear. The thought ran through my head that we would have to leave our cave now that it had been discovered.

Riley released the safety and aimed the gun towards the cave entrance, moving so that he was in front of Charlotte and I. There was another movement in the bushes, closer this time. Riley held his breath and bent his knees ever so slightly to steady himself. With one hand I hugged Charlotte to my side. The other was on Riley's waist. Then another, even closer shuffle came from the bushes. Charlotte whimpered again. I stroked her hair in an effort to calm her and closed my eyes, waiting to see the thing until I absolutely had to. The shuffling grew closer, a few branches snapping. This was it.

I could tell when something had happened, but I did not expect Riley's response. There was a gasp across the cave and a clatter as Riley dropped the gun. No! Don't drop the gun! I thought. I felt Riley straighten under my hand. What was he doing? Charlotte tugged on my arm, and my eyes flew open. Now it was my turn to gasp.

The thing standing in the entrance was not an old, animated corpse. It was a… a human. My jaw dropped open. But… but… but we were the last people on earth! This couldn't be possible! But there he was, standing right in front of us.

"Impossible," I breathed. He looked somewhere near thirty years old. He was about six feet tall, with short brown hair and dark brown eyes. His skin was suntanned and dirty. Right now, his face was twisted into an expression of bewildered shock. I imagined our faces wore a similar expression. We all stood there for a while, too shocked to speak, until Charlotte tugged my arm again.

"Berba, he's real." She said. Riley let out a breath I hadn't realized he was holding.

"Thank God for that," he said, taking my hand again. I smiled, realizing that we wouldn't have to leave after all. Riley walked up to the man, bringing me along with him, and held out the hand I wasn't holding.

"Hi, I'm Riley," he said. "It's good to finally see another guy." The man shook his hand.

"I'm Joseph. You have no idea how good it feels to see another human being." His eyes flickered to me, then to Riley's and my entwined hands. Riley cleared his throat and said,

"It looks like we have some stories to share." As it turned out, we did. We all took our seats by the fire. Riley and I sat next to each other, his arm around my shoulder and mine around his waist. Charlotte was sitting on the farthest cot finishing her dinner. The sun was just setting below the skyline of trees.

"You first," Riley said. Joseph smiled, his teeth blindingly white against his tanned skin.

"It's a long story, but I guess you have time." He glanced behind himself at the setting sun before continuing.

"I lived in Pennsylvania before the disease. My fiancée was pregnant, and we were going to get married a few months after the baby was due. I had a steady job at the walk- in dentist's office down the street from our apartment. My life was perfect. Then, DC got hit. Jamie was in Philadelphia at the time, getting little Evelyn checked out- she was at the eight month mark. I couldn't go. I had to work, and my cousin was visiting from Georgia.

That night, Philly was taken over. I woke up in the morning with a message on my phone from Jamie. She was crying, saying that she was too late, and that she loved me, that Evelyn loved me…" His voice broke at that.

"I didn't realize what had happened until my cousin told me about Philly. I showed him the message, and we ran that morning. We stayed in a pocket of undeveloped hills for a while, living off the land there. You can't imagine… you can't imagine how hard that was for me, leaving her there…" he stopped, unable to continue. After a second, though, he started to talk again.

"After about a month, we met one of them." He shuddered. "To make a long story short, I was the only one left standing. Since then, I haven't stayed in one place long enough to meet another one." He gazed into the blazing fire, engulfed in his story.

I could see his side perfectly; He didn't only lose everything and everyone he'd loved. He'd had the perfect life ahead of him, had worked so hard to get there, only to lose all hope of having his little American dream. I looked over at Charlotte, who was now asleep, and realized what we must look like to him. We were the family he never had.

"Your turn," Joe said with a grin, snapping out of his reverie.

"Of course," I said. "Riley and I had been dating for a while before the epidemic. We're both from Connecticut. Charlotte is my niece." Riley picked up where I left off without skipping a beat.

"Amber's mom had been in Chicago when… well, yeah… and her brother was in Denver… anyways, we took that as a sign. We saved Charlotte and ran for it right before DC. About a week and a half ago, we met a few stragglers. Charlotte's arm was injured, and Amber was knocked unconscious. Since then, we've been going about life as normal."

Joseph whistled softly when he finished. I laughed.

"As normal as it can get," I corrected. Riley started playing with a lock of my straight brown hair, distracting me. Joseph shook his head.

"You thought I was one of them, didn't you?" he asked. I laughed again.

"And what did you think we were? I could tell from your face that you didn't exactly expect some company." Joe smiled.

"I guess the only thing you can predict from life is that it will be… unpredictable." He answered, standing up. "Now, I haven't cleaned up in a while, and I saw a steam on my way here." He said. Riley nodded and said,

"It's all yours." The second Joseph was away from the cave, Riley pulled me up to him and kissed me. Through his lips, I could feel how amazed he was that Joe had found us. I was amazed, too, but that was lost sometime around when our lips connected. We kissed for a few seconds, then broke apart, breathing heavily. I rested my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Between finding Joe and the kiss, my head was spinning.

"What if there are more?" I breathed. Riley stroked my hair and said,

"I'm not leaving you or Charlotte for one second to find out." That wasn't what I had meant, but it caught my attention.

"It looks like we've found someone who might," I argued, always stubborn. Riley wrapped both arms around my waist and whispered in my ear,

"From what I've heard, Joseph won't be leaving civilization for a while." I sighed, but didn't press my case. I didn't want to fight with Riley tonight. Instead, I changed the subject.

"Where will I sleep tonight?" I asked. Riley frowned.

"On the cot, where you always do," he answered, his tone confused. I looked at him stubbornly, trying to be stern. Apparently, I wouldn't be able to avoid a fight.

"Riley," I said, looking him straight in the eyes, "I sleep on the cot every night. You and Joseph deserve a turn. I feel guilty for making you sleep on the ground. And I'll bet Joseph hasn't slept on something soft in forever." After a pause, Riley sighed.

"I'd feel guilty sleeping on something soft while you're left on the ground. Its just not right." He said.

"What if we both slept on the floor?" I mumbled, looking up at his face. For a moment, his face lit up in thought. I could tell he was picturing the same thing I was; slipping into sub-consciousness with his arms around me, then waking up to each other's touch. His expression quickly hardened though, becoming as stubborn as mine.

"I'm not letting some stranger steal my girlfriend's bed." He said, finalizing the subject. The corner of my mouth twitched up in a smile.

"What?" he asked, monitoring my expression.

"You haven't called me your girlfriend since before the disease," I explained playfully. He smiled too and said,

"That's because you've been so much more than that since we've been out here. To simply call you my girlfriend would be an understatement."

"I know," I sighed. I didn't think of Riley as simply my boyfriend now either. He was more like my other half, my soul mate, my destiny. But those sounded a little cheesy and obsessive when used in casual conversation.

There was a rustling in the bushes. I froze, but then I remembered Joseph. It was uncanny how quickly I'd forgotten about him, here with Riley when we were alone. Riley and I shifted into a more appropriate position for company, sitting cross-legged and facing each other. It felt so odd, with Charlotte asleep, to not be cradled in Riley's arms. Even with the generous alone time Joseph had given us, we had only kissed once, and we were barely touching now. Not that that kiss hadn't been… passionate… but if I had my way we would still be kissing. At that moment, Joseph entered the cave, looking a bit less scruffy.

"I feel much better now," he said, stretching his back. He took a deep breath and said, after a pause, "Look, I don't want to be a burden. There are a few more caves around this clearing. I can go find one of them to sleep in. when I wake up, I'll just come back here. It's no big deal." He smiled when he was done. I was taken off guard. I had not expected the conversation to take this particular turn. Riley recovered before I did.

"Alright," he said, "If you want that. But please, try to make yourself at home here. I would hate for you to feel… excluded. Yeah, I thought, heaven forbid any of us feel cut off from the rest of the world.

Joseph yawned, which had both of us yawning too (don't tell me you didn't just yawn). He chuckled.

"I guess I'll see you in the morning then." he said, turning with a wave to walk out the entrance.

"G'night," I mumbled, a second too late. I yawned again. Even though it seemed like eons ago, today's work hauling water from the stream had been tough. For a second I wondered what Joseph would think of our working schedule. Would he be appalled at the rigorous tasks we had set up to occupy ourselves? Would he refuse to do them? Or would he accept them without comment? I guessed I would find out tomorrow.

"Lets call it a night," Riley said after Joseph had left, taking my hand. Just this simple gesture of his palm on mine soothed me. I nodded.

"We'll certainly have plenty to sleep on," I mumbled. Riley laughed and scooped me up in his arms, kissing my forehead. His quiet humming filled the cave. I layed down on the cot and nestled in for the night. The last thought that ran through my head was, again, the thought of others…