Chapter 12 - Dream

Sitting against a tall oak tree, Tamsin had her machete in its sheath and placed on her thighs. Her right hand loosely held the hilt, and with her left she unconsciously pulled the dry grass beside her.

The entire world seemed to have fallen asleep. Even the crackles from the fire she had started became so incredibly soft and quiet.

She pushed some firewood into the fire pit, and stared at the flames. She told herself to stay vigilant and focused, but the burning flames wouldn't allow her. It was like they weren't just emitting heat or light, but also some sort of hypnotizing power. The longer she stared at it, the heavier her eyelids became.

Slowly, she closed her eyes. Her hand slipped away from her weapon and her head sank to one side. Right before her whole body lost balance, she jolted awake at a crisp sound. She gasped and grabbed her machete, her eyes shot open.

She looked for the source of the sound, but it seemed to have disappeared. Everything around her seemed so peaceful, so quiet.

The silence of the night eventually consumed her again. She dozed off, but was again awakened by something.

Was it a loud crackle from the fire? Was it a bird taking off? Was it a leaf falling? Or was it a crunch from a twig that had been crushed by someone's foot?

Tamsin scanned the surroundings quickly while slowly withdrawing her legs. She folded them under butt, quietly raised herself on her knees before standing up carefully.

Tucking herself behind the bushes right in front of the trailer home, she inhaled the air.

It was cool and dry. A blend of mud, rotten foliage, pine trees and fire. A smell of the forest in the late Fall, with no signs of rotten flesh of zombies.

Tamsin tucked her left hand into her jacket and pulled out an old revolver. It was Acacia's backup weapon stored in the bunker. She equipped it since she had lost hers to the earthquake.

She made sure that it was loaded. Slowly she let out a deep breath.

She waited for that sound to either come again or go away. The dead silence almost made her believe that she had been too paranoid, until she heard a soft crack coming from the woods.

This time, she was certain that it was dry leaves being crushed and crumbled because someone was treading towards the camp. She raised her revolver and aimed at where the sound was coming from.

She closed her eyes and focused on that sound, feeling a little relieved that she only heard one person's footstep.

Soon, someone walked into the camp. Someone in a long, baggy dress that looked it was made from hide. Someone who had been walking on barefoot.

When she turned her face to Tamsin, the blonde was beyond shocked to recognize her as Bo.

Feeling her heart suddenly losing control, Tamsin squeezed the grip of her gun. She stumbled out from behind the bushes, staring at the brunette's face the entire time.

It was indeed Bo, the same person who had been haunting her dreams ever since the earthquake. Those warm, brown eyes were now staring right back at her. With the reflection of the moon in them, they looked so deep and bright. Those soft hair locks that were hugging her beautiful cheeks fluttered in the night wind. Those lips, they curled into a subtle smile.

All of a sudden, everything seemed to have seized to exist. And Tamsin's crazy, loud heartbeat had reduced into a soft buzz in her ears, clouding everything.

"Bo…?" She called in a shaking whisper as she reached for the brunette eagerly. "Is that...really you?" She asked, frowning at Bo's weird looking dress.

It was then she realized that something might be off. It must be. The heavy pulse in her blood told her so. The voice in the very back of her exploded mind told her so. The foul smell that had suddenly triggered the sensors in her nose told her so. Her hunch told her so.

Or, did she even have to use her hunch? Was there anything that was not weird? Bo appearing in front of her all of a sudden? The fact that she was dressed in something that belonged to a museum? The fact that she had been travelling through the woods at night without wearing any shoes but somehow still managed to keep her feet absolutely clean?

"You are not Bo," Tamsin hissed as she raised her gun at the other woman. "You-she died."

She had never said that out loud, like if she kept it as a secret, she'd see Bo again someday. It was something that she refused to believe even though she knew she was being dumb. And now, when she had finally admitted it, agony exploded in her chest.

Swallowing her bitterness back, she she pressed her index finger against the trigger. "Who are you?" She growled at the other woman.

The brunette seemed to have been in a trance, though. She didn't answer Tamsin's question. Instead, she just stood there and looked into the blonde's eyes for a second or two. The look in those brown eyes made Tamsin feel both in peace and alarmed.

The night wind came, sounding like a low, deep wail. All the leaves fluttered in it with soft whimpers. Bo suddenly turned away, as if the wind was some sort of signal, an order, a sign.

She raised her right arm and pointed at the night sky. The full moon that had been there was gone. Something brighter was there. Something that was falling down.

Too shocked by what she was seeing, Tamsin took quite a while to figure out that it was possibly a meteor and it was about to hit the earth.

It came fast, its flames consuming everything. The night sky was lit as if it was daytime, and there was nowhere for them to run.

Tamsin took the brunette into her arms and threw both of them to the side. She knew nothing she did right now would matter, but what else could she do?

She hit the ground, but it felt like she was being thrown into a soft bed. She didn't feel the impact, nor did she feel any pain. The bright light wiped everything afterwards.

With a loud gasp, Tamsin opened her eyes. She waved her arms back and forth, searching for Bo. It took her a long time to realize that she was in fact lying in her slab bed down in the bunker.

She lolled as she realized that it was just a dream. It felt so real, though. She thought she actually had Bo in her arms for a few seconds. She thought she had inhaled her scent. Her heat, it was still dancing on her fingertips.

Letting out a deep sigh, she closed her eyes in frustration. She lay there and listened to the ventilation fan running for a long time, before she had finally given up on going back to sleep and decided to get herself some water.

When she sat up, she noticed that Kenzi was sitting in the other bed. The petite woman was staring at the ceiling.

Tamsin reached for the machete she had placed under her pillow, before she turned on the light. "You alright?" She asked Kenzi.

The petite woman immediately shielded her own eyes from the light. She cleared her throat and muttered, "yeah, yeah I'm fine, just...I think I just…."

She trailed off as she looked around, with a surprised look on her face, as if it was hard for her to believe that she was in the bunker.

"I guess I had a dream," she murmured, frowning. "I thought-Bo was in it."

"Really?" Tamsin asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Mhm," Kenzi hummed. She took a deep breath as she looked at the floor. "Sorry. I guess I just...miss her."

Tamsin swallowed hard, feeling the pain seeping through the scar on her heart now. I miss her too. She thought, fisting her hands so hard that she had her fingernails digging into her own palm.

"Do you think maybe...she could still be alive?" Kenzi asked. "Like...I mean, you hear that shit all the time. Woman got pulled out under rubbles days after the hurricane or whatever. I think once I even heard some pig got buried for a month and was still alive before it was rescued."

Tamsin huffed out a soft snort and shook her head. "Just go back to sleep, okay?" She told the other woman as she turned off the light. "We got a long way to go tomorrow."

"Okay," Kenzi replied as she lay back into her bed in the darkness. "What's our plan again?" She murmured, her voice weak as if she had been drained by whatever she had seen in her dream.

"Creeksville for scavenger hunting. That old house you and...Bo shared. Then, Brazenwood," Tamsin said.

She got no reply from Kenzi, though. The other woman seemed to have fallen asleep already.

Tamsin let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes again as she waited for the dawn.


Lauren checked the heartbeat of the unknown female patient first. Then she removed the earpiece from her ears and let the stethoscope hang on her neck. "How's she doing today, Lisa?" She asked the nurse while writing on her clipboard with her head lowered.

"The same as-" the nurse stuttered. "Oh my God, doctor Lewis!" She suddenly exclaimed and slapped Lauren hard on her arm. "She's awake! She's awake! Our sleeping beauty is awake!"

Lauren raised to look at the nurse with a frown. Then she turned to the patient. When she saw that the patient's eyes were wide open, she was so shocked that she dropped her clipboard. How is this possible? She asked herself. I have just examined her, and there were no signs of her waking up any time soon!

She cleared her throat and quickly checked the woman's vitals. After seeing nothing unusual, she looked at the woman, still frowning. "Can you...hear me?" She asked hesitantly.

The woman looked back at her, but was too confused, or too absent minded maybe, to answer her question at first. After staring at Lauren's face for a while, a mumble bubbled through her lips, something neither Lauren nor Lisa could understand.

The woman cleared her throat and tried again, but her voice was too hoarse. She eventually gave Lauren a nod.

"Don't worry. You are in a hospital. Everything's gonna be fine," Lauren told her. "Lisa here-" she pointed at the nurse, "-is going to collect some blood samples from you, okay?"

The woman nodded again. She swallowed for a few times, and then cleared her throat again. "I'm...in a hospital?" She asked as she looked at everything in the room.

"Yes, you are in a hospital. You are in good hands," Lisa replied softly as she drew her blood. "This is a government settlement. You are safe here."

"A government settlement?" The patient frowned. She seemed to have a hard time believing so until she saw the borderless government logo on her blankets. "How-how did I get here?"

"Our hunting squad found you unconscious by the creek not far away from here. They brought you back," Lisa explained as she put one full vial away and switched to an empty one.

"Someone found me by a creek?" The patient murmured, frowning hard. "I don't-I don't remember any creek. I mean, I thought I was in a cave under the canyon when...everything just started to shake and fall-"

"It was an earthquake, and you survived. Don't worry, okay? We'll take good care of ya," Lisa singsonged as she tapped the patient's hand gently. She pulled the needle out and put a bandage on the woman's arm.

Then, she put the sticker labels on each vial. When she was about to write down the patient's name on the labels, she paused. "Can I have your name, sweetheart?"

The woman nodded. "It's Bo," she said softly.

Both her and Lisa was beyond surprised when they heard Lauren mumble the same time at the same time.

"Do I...know you?" Bo frowned at the doctor as she read her badge. "Dr...Lewis?"

"No," Lauren shook her head with a relieved smile. "That was just a...lucky guess."

Lisa shrugged it off with a chuckle. Before she wrote Bo's name on the labels, Lauren stopped her.

"Let's just be consistent and continue label her samples as Patient Unknown 203, okay?" The doctor said. "That way we won't...we'll know it's her."

"Sure," Lisa nodded as she followed Lauren's order. Before she left the room with the blood samples, she told Bo, "I'll check back on you later, okay, Patient Unknown 203?"

Bo chuckled and thanked her. After the nurse closed the door behind her, Bo turned to Lauren and asked, "ummm...there were supposed to-I mean, I was with someone when the earthquake happened. Are they...here?"

Before Lauren answered her question, Bo let out a light laugh and explained, "one of them is a tall blonde. Her name is Tamsin. The other one is petite, raven hair. Her name is-"

"-Kenzi."

"That's why you know my name. They are here! Are they here?" Bo struggled to sit up and looked around. All she saw, though, were empty patient beds in the room.

"They were here," Lauren said.

"Were?" Bo repeated, unable to hold the weight that had suddenly been dropped on her heart now.

"Several weeks ago, they were rescued from the rubbles. They both recovered well. Then, they left."

"They left? Why? And you said they both recovered well? So they were okay? They were okay, right?"

"They were both perfectly healthy when they left. Well, your friend Kenzi was a bit weak, but...everything was fine," Lauren explained.

"Why did they leave? Where did they go?"

Lauren shrugged and shook her head. "I have no idea. They didn't tell anyone. One night, they were just gone."

Bo nodded, beyond relieved that both Tamsin and Kenzi were fine but a little disappointed that she had missed them. Then, she frowned as something occurred to her. "You said that they were rescued several weeks ago...what-I mean, the earthquake happened several weeks ago?"

"It was almost two months ago," Lauren replied as she looked at Bo closely.

"And I was-when did your hunting squad find me again?" Bo asked as she realized that she had lost two months of time without even knowing.

"A couple of days ago," Lauren told her.

"And where was I before they found me?"

"I have no idea," Lauren said. "You don't remember anything?"

Bo shook her head. "Am I okay? I don't have an amputated leg or anything, do I?" She joked as she quickly lifted the blanket and took a peek.

"No, you are fine. Everything's fine. In fact, you look too healthy for someone who has been..." Lauren trailed off. She hesitantly pulled a chair over and sat down beside Bo's bed. "Your friend, Tamsin, told me that you two were looking for Kenzi, and that you found her under a canyon?"

"Yeah," Bo nodded. "We found her down there and carried her out. I left my bag in the cave so I went down to grab it. That was when the earthquake happened. Whoa, can't believe I'm still alive…."

"You were really lucky," Lauren agreed.

"How did I even survive? I mean, I thought for sure I'd die when the cave collapsed. And it's been nearly two months?" Bo murmured.

"What do you remember?"

The brunette frowned. "Just...everything shook and fell, and I think I fell into that creek in the cave or something...there was definitely water. I was definitely in the water before I passed out."

Lauren nodded. "Well..." she said. "They found you by the creek. It seemed that the water had washed you to the bank...that canyon area has a lot of underground rivers so my best guess would be... somehow a river brought you all the way out."

Bo nodded. Then she shrugged. "Oh well, as long as I'm alive, it doesn't matter."

"The earthquake aside," Lauren said hesitantly. "Do you remember anything else down in the canyon? Like...anything unusual?"

Bo shook her head. "The only unusual thing would be Kenzi. Her heartbeat was really slow. I thought she was dead, you know."

"Mhm," Lauren nodded as she stared at Bo, "but other than that, you don't remember anything abnormal?"

"No, not really. Why?"

"When the hunting squad found you, they thought you were dead too. Your heart rate was extremely low," Lauren explained. "You barely had a pulse and you weren't even breathing."

"Really?" Bo frowned, "You mean...I was like Kenzi when they found me?"

"Yeah," the doctor nodded. "Have you experienced similar things before?"

"No," Bo shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"Your friend, Kenzi. Has she experienced anything like that before?"

"No, I don't think so. If she had, she'd have told me. Why? Is there something wrong with us?"

"No," Lauren quickly denied. Then she pursed her lips and corrected herself, "well, I don't think there is, but I'd like to run some tests to make sure. It could be some sort of dormancy. A certain environmental trigger might be the cause, or..."

After pondering with mumbles for a while, she asked Bo, "you really don't remember anything else?"

Bo bit her bottom lip. "I remember...feeling cold, like...really, really cold. And I remember this-this bright light, like an explosion maybe?" She murmured, and quickly gave the other woman an embarrassed smile. "It's probably a dream."

Lauren nodded. "Just let me know if you remember anything, okay?"

Bo nodded back with a smile on her face.

"Why don't you get some rest?" Lauren suggested as she stood up. "I'm gonna go run those tests now. If you need anything, just tell Lisa, okay?"

"Sure," Bo murmured. She tucked herself under the blankets after Lauren left.

Whoa. She thought. Did I really just survived an earthquake? That's rad. And the dormancy shit? Is that even real?

The whole thing about the dormancy quickly left her her mind, since it wasn't something nearly important as Tamsin and Kenzi.

She couldn't be more relieved to hear that both of them were still alive and well. It was such a disappointment, though, to have missed them.

Bo wondered why they had left, and where they had gone. She knew if it had been Kenzi alone, she'd have gone back to that old house they had lived for sure. It had always been their rally point. Even if Kenzi wouldn't stay there for long, she'd leave her a message there at least.

But, would Tamsin go there with her too? Or would she wander along on her own?

Bo's heart fluttered as she thought about the blonde. She wondered if she'd ever see her again, and that thought made her heart heavy.

She wondered where Tamsin might be, if she wasn't with Kenzi. All she remembered was that Tamsin had come to Creeksville scavenging for records and documents of zombie outbreak. She also remembered that the blonde mentioned once that she was living in Brazenwood, a place that was considered hell by most settlement residents.

Would she return to Brazenwood at some point? Could she find her there?

Bo hadn't realized how badly she wanted to find Tamsin again until now. The thought of finding her seemed almost natural to her, as if there wasn't a second choice, as if it was the only possible way of living her life.

She had to find her. She just had to. She couldn't bear the thought of not being able to see her again. She wanted to see her again, to hold her again, to listen to her strong heartbeat and her vulnerable whispers, to be with her.

It all seemed like yesterday, when they smiled at each other, held each other's hand and kissed each other. Her heart still pounded hard at the heat of Tamsin's soft lips. She had to find her.

Rest, recover, old house, Brazenwood. Bo told herself as she slowly slipped into her dreams.


Lauren examined the blood sample she had taken from Bo under her microscope. She pondered at it for a long time, before she went to grab a file folder from the cabinet.

She pulled out a sheet of printouts, and compared it with what she was seeing under the microscope. She hesitated for a while, before she moved her chair towards the small fridge beside her desk.

She was about to open it, when she heard high heels click-clacking down along the hallway towards her office.

She barely got enough time to tuck the printout back into the folder before Evony opened the door to her office and invited herself in.

Lauren gave her a smile and a nod as she stood up and pulled off her gloves.

"Oh, please, Lauren," Evony said with a soft voice. "You don't have to pause those brilliant things you do just for me."

"Well, then maybe you should do less surprise visit," Lauren said. It was meant to be a tease, but she knew she had made it too dry.

"This is not a surprise visit," Evony waved her hand. "I am in the building so I decided to drop by and check out what you are up to..." she drawled as she opened the file folder on the desk without asking for permission.

Lauren didn't make any comment this time. She just quietly tossed her gloves into a red bucket labeled as "biohazard".

Evony went through a few pages in the folder before she lost interest in all the medical terms and codes. She decided to take a peek through the microscope instead. "What's this?"

"A sample from the-" Lauren replied as she pointed at the morgue beside her office. There were a few headless zombies on the dissecting table.

"Oh," Evony raised her eyebrows as she took a glance at the body. Then she turned back to look at the sample vials stored in the fridge. "Patient Unknown 158, 171, 202 and 203?" She read the label, emphasizing the word "patient". "Please."

"They were once humans, Evony," Lauren told her. "And I think they should be considered as patients, since I'm looking for a cure for them. A cure that could turn them back to humans."

"Fine," Evony drawled as she closed the fridge. "Since we are at it, what's the status on finding a cure, doctor?"

"Well, I'm still trying to figure out the cause," Lauren told her. "I've ruled out bacterias and fungi. It's most likely something caused by a virus. Something that-"

"Doctor, stop," Evony cut Lauren off by waving her hand at her lazily. "I am not here for a lecture."

Lauren huffed out a light laugh, as if she was saying "of course".

The governor huffed out a soft yet cold scoff as she entered the morgue. After looking at all the zombie bodies in there, she gave Lauren an exaggerated pout.

Lauren turned away, starting to organize her desk even though everything was already in place. Having noticed Evony's stabbing stare, she cleared her throat and said, "it's not something that I can control. You will have to be patient."

"Oh relax, Lauren. I'm not mad at you or anything. I was just...a little disappointed. That's all," Evony said softly, though her voice sounded like a hiss from a snake. "I will be patient. Just don't forget about our agreement, okay?"

Lauren shook her head and sighed. "How could I forget?" She said bitterly.

Evony scanned the room for the last time, before she headed to the door. "Alright, you are busy. I'm gonna leave you alone. It's just...it would be nice if you'd have something for me next time. That way, you, me and our little Princess Aurora will all be very happy."

With that, she left. The sound of the door closing behind her seemed to have drained every bit of energy from Lauren. The doctor lolled in her chair and let out a deep, heavy sigh.