Gore dripped off of Edens arms as she finished clearing the small pharmacy. The place was entirely unlooted and the parking lot full of dead men. It had taken hours to dodge and put down the small hoard, but the prize was worth it. After a quick check through the store, Eden spent the next hour getting the large man into the small storage room. The room was dark and cramped, but it was safe.
The store itself was like a oasis, the shelves knocked over but full of useful items and the pharmacy in back was untouched except for the lone dead woman Eden put down. Exhausted and sore Eden went shopping, a huge smile on her face. It was only when she got back did she realise that the man needed to be cleaned. His body having released itself in his weakened state.
"Hey, fella." Eden called, shaking the warm man. "I need you to get up and wash yourself for me." Edens face scrunched up at the thought of having to wipe a grown man's ass. "Come on. Man."
With a sigh of defeat Eden started at the top of the man and gave him an apologetic look. Quickly, she washed the man down with the mountain of baby wipes trying her best not to oogle at what she saw. She had always been attracted to older men, the strength they seemed to posses. Eden quickly looked away; she felt horrible for lusting after him when he was unable to do anything about it. Setting back to her task, she cleaned the man up and rewrapped his wounds.
Eden watched the man for a long time. Just content in knowing she wasn't alone anymore. She took the time cleaning herself up, in no rush to get done with the task. It felt like a spa, putting the baby lotion on her skin.
"Do you use lotion?" She asked the man, pumping more into her hand. "Maybe it will help hydrate you?" Eden laughed to herself as she rubbed the Apple Honey scented baby lotion into his skin; something about the man told her he was the farthest thing from a baby lotion user as there was.
After gorging herself on protein bars and enough water to drown a horse, Eden slowly fed the man applesauce. She learned quickly that she had to prop him up for him to be able to eat or drink anything. Something Eden felt like a complete idiot for not already realising. The man sweat constantly, something which worried her. She had mixed a paste of assorted medications before they ate and tried her best to get them in him in time but the more he groaned in pain the more her anxiety spiked.
Mixing a bit of the liquid codeine with apple sauce, causing the stuff to turn a weird purple color, she continued feeding the man, his pained whimpers soon falling silent. Eden sat back on her heels and cried, she had no clue what she was doing, had no idea if the medication she was mixing would save this man's life or kill him. She prayed that she was saving his life, that he was a good man. That she wouldn't be alone anymore.
It was time consuming, crying and feeding him, once she was satisfied that she had done all she could, she left the small closet and locked the door behind her. He would be safe here until morning, if he made it. If he didn't, at least his body wouldn't be able to get her. Edens nerves were already on end, and there was no way she was sleeping anytime soon. Instead she unwrapped the plastic poncho she had found earlier and threw another pair of gloves on.
It was dusk and quiet and Eden relaxed at the sound of crickets. The world always seemed to quiet once the dead were near, as if they too were hiding. Eden wrapped her scarf tighter around her face as she propped open the stores front door. Slowly she started emptying the store, taking everything useful and packing it into the back of the furniture truck before driving it behind the building and into the dense trees.
Adjusting her plastic poncho Eden got to work dragging the twelve corpses into the store. Taking a deep breath she gutted the largest of the group and started smearing its innards along the windows and door. It was a trick Aaron and herself would play. No one wanted to go inside a room full of blood and the dead. She spent the rest of the night chewing alert tablets and taking precautions.
Around 3am Eden looked on at her creation with morbid glee. The sight hypnotic and grotesque reminding her of the Raiders from one of her old video games, but it would do. The horrible smell would keep the dead away and the look would run off anyone trying to loot.
Eden lit another of the cookie scented candle and hid inside of the large fort she made. She had completely blocked every exit and set bells on every door. The only way in or out was up the ladder behind her and onto the roof. She was safe for the night, and more comfortable that she had been in months amongst the bedding and pillows. It took only moments for her exhausted body to give in.
Eden woke three hours later, her head heavy and her body felt like she would never be able to move it again. Stiffly she made her way out of her fort and knocked twice on the door she left the man behind and listened for any indication that he had died the night before. Opening the door, she checked over the man. His fever had gone down and he wasn't sweating any longer. After quickly giving him a dose of her medical paste and a bit more purple apple sauce she set to work doing the only thing she could think to do.
Prepare
The man surviving the night meant a lot of things to Eden, but the most important thing was he wasn't infected. She had assumed he had gotten bit and had cut his hand off to stop the infection; either it had worked or something else happened to him. Either way it was going to take some time for him to be back to being 100% himself. Which meant that they could be here for weeks at most. Hope bubbled dangerously in Edens chest as she went to work clearing out the small room. Pushing the man one way or another was the hard part, to room was big enough for them both to stretch out and then some, but with him and the shelves it left little room for anything. After clearing the toppled shelves she nearly fainted in joy at what she found. Last night she had to use the bathroom on the roof, something that sounded fun in theory but was pretty gross; here the whole time was a bathroom, tucked away.
"Dude, you have no idea how much my ass has missed toilet paper." She laughed over her shoulder before going off to have the best shit of her life. Completely missing the fluttering behind the man's eyes.
Eden spent the next three days tending to the man and scavenging a couple of the stores a few miles down the road. The storage room she had stuffed the man in now had a pretty damn comfortable makeshift bed. They had enough food to last them weeks on the road, they were swimming in loot. So much so that Eden took it upon herself to pack them both bags and hid them a few miles out, just in case. To much of a good thing was bound to bring them some kind of bad luck.
She had gotten use to talking to the man, blabbering on about anything and everything as she cleaned him. She had moved out of her fort and into the room with him after the second night. Without the threat of him turning, she figured there wasn't any use in locking him in every night.
After using the bathroom, checking the barricaded doors and scanning the woods and road for any sign of life she tucked herself into the corner on top of the shelves she had pushed together. It was a climb, something Eden was use to, but once she was up there it was just as uncomfortable as she thought it would be. Still she fell asleep quickly listening to the sound of the man's breathing, thankful she was no longer alone.
Eden was running, her chest heaving. Blood covering her head to toe. The blood from her taxi driver, causing her once baby blue t'shirt to stick to her skin. It happened so fast, the radio broadcast; the wreck; waking up to the old taxi driver who once had such kind brown eyes, chewing on her leather jacket. The force of his teeth trying to break through her skin had caused her to scream. No amount of reasoning would get him off of her. So she did what she could, she slammed his head into the roof of the overturned taxi until he stopped moving. Until she couldn't breathe.
The glass cut into the palms of her hands and the jeans on her knees as she crawled out. There were screams echoing all around her, complete chaos right in front of her. Before she knew it she was being chased by the neighbors she had once loved, the children she had babysat, and the Mrs. Pauline who would bake her family a pumpkin pie every Christmas.
"I'm so sorry Mrs. Slight." Eden thought as she lowered her shoulder and rammed her body into a growling old woman. Sending her flying into the white picket fence, impaling her on its jagged edges.
Rounding the edge of the street Eden could see her house just feet in front of her. The old minivan still parked out front. 'They are still home!' Running through the front door Eden gave a sigh of relief. The familiar atmosphere bringing a sense of calm over her hammering heart.
"Mom, Aaron, David? Come on! We got to go, the whole neighborhood has gone to he…." Eden stopped outside her parent's living room. The color red covered almost every visible surface. She looked down to find she was standing in a puddle that she knew for a fact to be blood. "M…mommy?" Eden choked following the large dark pool around the edge of the couch. The sight before her would always be burned into her mind.
David her stepfather, the man who loved her mother more than anyone she had ever known, was crouched over her mother, his face buried into her side. Her mother's eyes met her own, full of pain. His blood covered face jerking towards her. A piece of her mother's flesh slinging from his lips and onto Eden's shoe. David stood to make his way towards her, no doubt to start on his next meal. When all of a sudden he fell to the floor. Her mother climbing over him, pressing his thrashing body into the floor.
"RUN EDEN BABY! THE TREE HOUSE! GET TO THE TREE HOUSE!" Her mothers once honey smooth voice now sounded like she was drowning, her once rosy cheeks now pale and covered in her own blood.
"Mom, come with me! We can get to the hospital! We can save you!" Eden yelled watching as he mothers light started to fade from her eyes, her hold on her husband loosening.
"My brave little girl… So big now. I love you so much baby. My sunshine…" Edens mother went slack against David's back a small smile playing against her lips. Choking back her tears Eden ran to the back of the house, and out the door leading to the fenced in back yard and up the ladder to the tree house Aaron and David had built the summer before.
Closing the small hatch behind her Eden pressed herself flat against the wooden floor. Her sobs racking through her whole body. Not caring about how loud she was being Eden cried her soul out.
"E…Eden?" A small voice came from the dark corner two small feet poking out from under the mass blankets piled up. "Eden that you?"
"Aaron? Oh God Aaron!" Eden cried crawling over to the small bundle holding him as the both cried for the loss of their family.
Eden jerked awake, sweat sticking her clothes to her skin. Her mouth was dry and the blankets had wrapped themselves uncomfortably around her legs. She couldn't shake the aching feeling in her chest. Climbing off of her hiding place, she checked over the sleeping man. His temperature was going down and the heat hadn't returned to his stump. Eden went to the roof to check the perimeter one more time before sucking it up and going back to sleep.
Raising her hand as a single for Aaron to stop, Eden waited and listened. The edge of the city had held only a few walkers so far, hopefully, today luck would be on their side. With a quick whistle Eden pointed to the far building where she spotted a lone dead woman trying to reach a couple birds perched on the fire escape. With a skill that made Eden's chest ache Aaron quickly and quietly took the woman out while Eden kept watch. The click of his tongue signaling the all clear had Eden running up beside the boy and around the mini marts northern side.
Cautiously they crept around the dumpster their silent footsteps swift and precise around the front of the minimart and into the unlocked front door. Sliding through the small opening Aaron created, Eden dropped her duffle bag to the ground and waited for Aaron to zip-tie the front door. His brilliant idea, one that had saved their asses a time or two. With a quick nod Eden pulled out another of Aaron's ideas. I small Mason Jar filled with metal odds and ends. Rolling it down one of the middle aisle of the store, Eden and Aaron waited. Without disappointment 3 of the dead, wearing Peggy's Minimart aprons, shuffled and grabbed for small jar. Pointing to the two she would be taking out Eden and Aaron advanced on the temporarily distracted employees. Eden raised her gun and took aim, and using the small knife Aaron attached to the side took out the first through its rotten temple using its head as a silencer she shot the second where it stood. Looking over in time to watch Aaron stab his walker through the top of its decayed skull, with his vicious looking hunting knife before shaking his head at the mess she had made of herself, bits of walker hanging off her shirt.
With a shrug of her shoulders she picked up the noisemaker, placed it in her duffel bag, and proceeded down the aisles grabbing can after can and quickly tossed them through the opening. Going past the bread aisle completely Eden came up on the pharmacy looking relatively untouched. Pointing to the door she waited for Aaron to open it so she could maneuver in and survey the area, something they had once saw in a police drama that surprisingly went well. It seemed that they hit a jackpot. Until they heard a car alarm going off and splintering through the quiet.
Eden and Aaron raced out of the door and sank back into the shadows, rounding the corner coming face to face with a blonde hair little girl in a flower sundress. One of her bright yellow dress shoes were missing and her foot bent at an awkward ankle. The slight breeze making her two pigtails float in the wind, a breeze that sent Eden and Aarons fresh scent into the air, and directly into the small girl's face. With a jerk of her head the small girl leapt to Eden her flesh the only thing on her mind.
Eden thought for sure this was it, she was going to get bit and have to leave Aaron all alone in the world. In that very moment Eden expected to feel the rotten teeth rip into her skin, instead she felt Aarons small arms wrap around her and turn her around so he instead took the bite. He was the one who would be leaving her alone.
Merle didn't know how long he was out of it, where he was or who the soft voice belonged to but it was always there. Everytime he could drag himself out of the endless darkness and forced himself to the edge of consciousness, she was there. A cold towel on his head and cold liquid going down his throat. He could never open his eyes, never reach out; and every time he tried he was drug back under.
Maybe his prayers had been answered. Maybe he was finally dying.
He had known he was getting sick, that his arm was infected. The heaviness in his body was so painful that he had prayed for salvation ..or death. He asked God on that roof to help him off, asked and begged the man to save him. In the end he wasn't there; he spoke to the man once more on the road for help and again nothing came for him. Now, Merle had thrown in the towel on the big man in the sky. He hadn't ever been there for him anyway.
This time when he woke up the world was less blurry, and his body less heavy. The soft voice that had been at his side constantly wasn't there, and as he looked around the small room, no bigger than a pantry, he had no clue where he was or how he got there. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, taking in stacks of food and water along the far wall. Moving his hands under him to brace his weight he fell painfully back against the mass of blankets under him and clutched his wrist against his chest. He had forgotten about his damned hand. Merle couldn't see in the dim light, but the stump where his hand use to be wasn't as painful as it had been the last time he was awake.
Merle tried moving again, his body feeling weak and it was hard to get it to obey him but once he was sitting up he found that he was only wearing a pair of loose boxers. The more the haze clouding his mind lifted the more he started to notice. His skin was clean, his face was shaven, and there was a pleasant high going through his system. He didn't know where he was or how he had gotten there, but he wasn't chained to nothing and he wasn't lacking in food or water.
No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get up on his own, and he wasn't dumb enough to start yelling for help and potentially get eaten. So he sat and listened for what felt like hours but he couldn't hear a single thing.
Beep Beep
Merles eyes went to the dark corner, the quiet beeping almost impossible to hear but it was there. There was movement in the top of the dark corner, that had Merle's eyes bulging out of his head. A dark figure slithered down the shelf and moved around in the dark, slowly coming closer to him. Once again Merle tried moving but it was like the more he moved the faster the thing came at him. A blinding light flashed in his eyes before a woman with a kind smile came into view, her hazel eyes seemed to smile with her. Merle looked behind her to try and get a look at the monster from the corner but nothing was there.
"Can you speak?" Her voice was smooth and quiet, her hands bringing a bottle of water to his lips.
"Who the fuck are you?"