Chapter Four- I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire
"Make sure to be asleep before I check on you alright? We're starting early tomorrow" the wolf said like he was his mother, Catherine expressed this comparison with a bit of bitterness in her voice as she obliged "sure" she said, making Wolford nod and gently close the door behind him.
Observing her surroundings once more, there was a neatly kept bed in the center of the back wall, its blankets consisted of one quilt and two smaller blankets with four pillows ruffled and piled up on each other, two desks with one on either side. The bed was surprisingly well kept, much more than expected from a walking corpse, the sheets seemed to be spotless and contrary to her belief, without any sign of rotting flesh, on one of the desks laid a picture frame and in that was a picture of a family of arctic wolves next to another frame with two pictures of two wolves, presumably Wolford and another.
Dressed in a fancy tuxedo suit with a bow tie and dress shoes, and next to a female wolf in a white wedding dress, whom was lifted in his arms and appeared to be laughing, she immediately figured it was the zombie's beloved wife. The other picture appeared to be him in a military uniform, standing straight and with his arm around the female wolves head and paw rested on her shoulder, his army cap in his other paw and pinned against his waist, revealing a crew cut, from these pictures it was obvious that the zombie in question was definitely a gentleman, family mammal, army mammal and a long wedded husband, along with a prideful military man as shown by his smile.
Inspecting the photo further she found a date and much to her sadness, it read "8/25/15". He was not wedded very long before the infection started, only two months in fact, by the loneliness of the building and the lack of mentioning his wife it appeared that she wasn't very lucky.
When she looked at the picture again she seemed to not be able to pry her eyes off him, even if he was a zombie and seemingly way out of her league, she had to admit that he looked like a good husband and by his caring treatment of her, a respectable man and though his current looks did make her physically recoil if he got too close, she could see that he was at least somewhat attracted to her and she couldn't deny that he was her type of man, even if he was apparently older than her.
Still she was fascinated by the white wolf. She herself was a Red Wolf, it was a recessive gene carried in her family and was very very rare, and it's a fairly attractive trait as well.
Red fur has been seen as a symbol of beauty and class by canines since as far back as the Middle Ages, particularly among wolves, and is almost exclusively inherited in females, it's very rare for a male to inherit the gene, let alone for the gene to reveal itself to begin with.
Though her mother was not red and neither was her father, being a doctor herself, Catherine knew that her mother and her father must've been carriers of the gene. After all, it was no coincidence that she had more than a plethora of boyfriends during her time in college. It had herself denying and declining date offers almost constantly during her school education.
But she did have to admit, it was a fairly nice thing to have, not only because of the gene's beauty but also because of just how rare it was. She didn't know the exact probability or percentage off the top of her head, but there was an incredibly low chance of inheriting the trait. After dwelling on it for a bit, she remembered it had to be somewhere around one in several hundred thousand, of course that was very vague, but the probability was around there, which definitely made her unique in more than one way.
Yet, the way Wolford would look hadn't he been dead and decaying was almost like a daydream to her. In that case she insulted herself for trying much too hard to find "the perfect match" for herself, it was funny in one sense but absolutely pathetic in another.
Though she didn't want to keep herself awake, after all, the wolf could change his mind at any time and send her off by herself or go with her and then leave when they got to their destination which was something she didn't want at all, after seeming to find a comfortable place, Catherine laid there and slowly fell asleep.
. . .
As that happened, Wolford only sat there on the couch, staring into the blank tv as his feet dangled above the floor, he was very confused as it was unknown to his guest that he had some kind of feelings for his new 'partner'.
She was supposed to be a partner right? Having only been married for two months of his life, he was fairly determined to not let any feelings get to him because his love for his deceased wife was supposed to be eternal . . . It seemed to him that everything was supposed to be something forever, their love was supposed to be forever, isn't that what the priest said at the altar?
So many questions phased his mind as he sat there pondering life's biggest questions of both ethics and morals, he was lost. The sudden death of his newly wedded wife shook him to the core 8 years ago, now only being in his early thirties he was confident that engaging with a wolf as young looking as his guest would be frowned upon.
However just by looking at her he could definitely see that Catherine was at least in her late twenties, his guess being 27 or 28, being only 31 himself, it would be perfectly okay to remarry but the thought of forgetting all of those cherished memories with his one true love was almost like betrayal to him . . . A misdeed to the dead. He hadn't put it in the past yet considering that through the eight years he's been in the burrows, getting another education and degree he always had the thought of her in the back of his head, hoping it was all just some unending nightmare and wishing that his wife would wake him up in bed.
Though as much as he could wish and hope, it was clear that this was indeed reality. His feelings for his guest now were very subtle but were guaranteed to get bigger and a part of him wanted that to happen, he was arguing with himself constantly since these questions popped up, causing his awkward silences as he spoke with her. Perhaps if he kept his mind off of it he would simply forget and maybe when they get to the burrows he could . . . Well he didn't get very far in that aspect . . . What would he do when he got there? Other than terrify everyone, he knows that they have been trying to find a cure for this infection for years and they have been making some groundbreaking advancements but he wasn't fond of participating in any tests that harm him in any way, let alone kill him, if it were possible he wanted to reunite with his wife more than anything and at any cost.
The wolf got up and only continued his long, dead stare, this time at the wide array of the decaying and derelict cityscape, then, he knew that somewhere in that city was his wife and he could only hope that someone, somewhere, would come up with a cure.
His thoughts drifted from favoring his guest and the other, though most seemed to rest on Catherine and because of that, he snapped out of his gaze. Turning his head suddenly and looking at what was supposed to be the sunset but it was clearly the beginning of dusk again, he had been thinking, arguing with himself for the entire night, even if that was scary he chose to ignore it.
For the time being, he couldn't help but to tap his foot to a beat in his head, turning into quiet whistling of a song from the 50's. He only knew a few lines which were "I'm in love with a wonderful guy!" though he knew the beat by memory.
He was quite fond of the music from that era, there was just something about the jumpy swing music of the early Cold War, he thought it fit in given his current position in a zombie apocalypse, to him those types of songs have a strange sense of melancholy to them.
As numerous songs played in his head he began packing all of the essentials, for him at least, a very old IPaw with many of those same songs on it, the pot from last night, pictures of his younger self, his sidearms and rifles, at the moment he seemed quite content of himself, seemingly prancing around the room grabbing everything he thought he'd need on the road and eventually when he got to his true home, bunny burrows.
As he was fairly distracted by the music now playing aloud thanks to an old record player, he was rudely interrupted by his guest "ever think of wearing clothes?" He looked at her and held in a smile "well I think it's kind of uncanny for a zombie to dress himself like he was going somewhere, and plus it's not like I have anything" she gestured to the array of music records on the counter next to the record player.
"Am I interrupting your nostalgia trip or something?" The wolf backed up and stopped the song mid sentence, walking over to her and replying with a tremulous voice "yes, as a matter a fact, you are" the red wolf walked over to the records and laughed, turning around with one of the records in her paw "you listen to 50's music?" She asked almost mockingly, the wolf raised his non-existent brow "yes, yes I do" Catherine looked impressed, replying with an elongated "ooooh, classy" this made the wolf laugh, not sure if it was a compliment or not "classy?" He asked in a rather high pitched voice which she replied in a higher tone "yeah, I've never heard of a guy who likes the old stuff" she admitted as he walked past her.
"Well . . . Now you know" he said as he looked out the window toward their destination "that's a long way away isn't it?" Catherine described "hm, not very long if we take the train" "the train?" She laughed "you can't be serious" she said with further disbelief.
Wolford turned around "I am serious, c'mon let's get a head start" the red wolf put her paw pad up "what about the other walkers? They usually go there, right?" She questioned the wolf as he walked to the door with a large pack on his back "true but we'll fit in if we're careful, just be ready to blow some brains" he said opening said door and wasting no time waiting outside, " . . . I'll blow your brains out" she grumbled as she caught up with him on the second floor.
AN: So! There's a bit of character development for Wolford and Catherine, hopefully I hit a nail there with the descriptions and wording and all that. This chapter is definitely one of my personal faves from this story, I hope y'all are liking it so far too! If you want ya can always leave a review, it's very much appreciated and I love hearing what y'all think! But that's enough from me for now, so until next time, caio.
A Laughing Wolf
