Thanks to all who read and reviewed. This chapter is up much more quickly than I would've ever guessed but this story is pretty fun to write. Unfortunately another main character is about to take a turn for the worse. Can anyone guess who will be left at the end? There's also a Palex like line, points to anyone who can guess it. Review and let me know what you think .
"Fuck no one is answering their phones." Katie said throwing her cell to the other side of the couch.
"What'd you suppose that means?" Emily asked.
"Nothing good." Katie answered quietly.
"Don't say that. We don't know what happened so we can't assume anything." Naomi explained.
Effy stood at one window peaking out. The girls couldn't find anything solid to block them with so they had nailed blankets across them in hopes the zombies wouldn't realize anyone was inside. The street was alive crawling with undead creatures. She didn't see anyone who was alive.
"We were lucky." She stated flatly and sat down next to Katie.
The four of them sat there not saying a word staring off into space. All of a sudden there was a knocking at the door. It was more like someone was banging his or her fists against it begging to be let in. They heard someone yell, "Please let me in. I'll die out here."
Emily jumped up ready to admit the stranger.
"Wait." Katie said when she saw Emily move.
"What for? Zombies don't talk or knock. He's just a guy." Emily defended.
"What if he's infected with the virus or whatever?"
"What if he's not? We can't leave him to die." Emily went over to the door and opened it. On the other side stood a man. He looked to be in his early twenties with dark green eyes. He had to be at least 1.8 meters. He had a military haircut and a gash on his head that was bleeding slightly. As soon as she opened the door he lunged inside and slammed it and locked it behind him. Emily jumped back shocked and Naomi ran to her side.
"What the hell?" Naomi asked.
"I'm sorry but I can't risk you turning me away. If you sent me out there it would be a death sentence."
"She was going to let you in." Naomi argued.
"It doesn't hurt to be sure."
"Sit down. Let me get the first-aid kit for your head." Emily said and left the room.
"What happened to it?" Naomi asked the stranger.
"Car accident. One of those things jumped at my car and I swerved and hit a lamppost. Banged my head pretty well against the wheel. Then I get out to see if the guy is okay because at the time I didn't realize he was one of them and the wanker grabs me and bites my arm." At this point the man rolled up his sleeve to reveal a bite mark on his arm. "Bastard took a good chunk out of it." Emily returned and starting cleaning the blood off the guy's head before attempting to stop the bleeding from his arm.
"Thanks love." He smiled at her.
"So what did you say your name was?" Naomi asked slightly jealous of the way this man was looking at Emily.
"I didn't," He smiled at Naomi this time trying to be charming, "It's Jason and how lucky am I to be in a house with four fit birds."
"Four fit birds who are in relationships with each other." Katie said.
"I'm sorry what?" Jason asked not sure if he heard correctly.
"I'm Effy and this is my girlfriend Katie," Effy said matter of factly entwining her hand with Katie's, "and that is Naomi and her girlfriend Emily."
Jason sat there slack-jawed for a few seconds trying to comprehend what he just heard.
"Unbelievable. There are fucking zombies walking around outside and he's in shock over lesbians. Tosser." Naomi whispered to Emily.
"That's so hot. Either of you couples ever want to spice up your sex lives with a third party?" He winked.
"Ugh no thanks." Katie answered for all of them.
"Well if you ever decide you want to since now we're roommates."
The five of them spent the rest of the day watching various news channels for updates. Jason went upstairs complaining that he was feeling light-headed and needed to lie down. "Probably just shook up from the accident." He said.
At around five Naomi and Emily went into the kitchen to make something for dinner.
"How much food do we have?" Naomi asked.
"Enough for a few days I suppose."
Naomi opened the refrigerator. She pulled out a pizza box. "Is this good?"
"It's from two days ago so yeah?"
"Let's eat it then. We should eat the stuff that'll go bad first."
When the four of them decided to go to bed they walked up the stairs to the twins' room and found Jason fast asleep in Emily's bed.
"I guess we'll be in the guest room." Naomi said.
Naomi and Emily lay side-by-side in the full sized guest bed both staring up at the ceiling so close that Naomi's whole right side was in contact with Emily's whole left side.
"Naoms…" Emily whispered into the darkness, "What's going to happen to us?"
"I don't know Ems. We'll stay here for as long as we can, which judging by the food will probably be a week or two. By then I bet the whole thing will be over. I mean they have the bloody army on the case. They get shit done right?"
Emily giggled at that last line. "You really believe that?"
Naomi propped herself up on her elbow so she could look at Emily.
"I don't know." She answered honestly. "I really don't know how this is going to turn out but I do know I'm going to try my hardest to keep us safe."
Emily smiled at this notion but couldn't help but wonder, "What about everyone else? The gang?"
"I can't worry about them right now. They're not here so we can't help them. I know that sounds horrible but if you think about them all it'll drive you crazy."
"What if we hadn't been together when this happened? What if you had been at your house?" Emily asked but Naomi heard the underlying question 'Would you try not to think about me? Would you forget?'
"If we hadn't been together then I would've run out of my house so fast, god help the zombies that got in my way. Nothing could keep me away from you."
Emily leaned up and kissed Naomi's lips softly. "I love you."
"I love you too." Naomi said as she lay back on her back. Emily took advantage of this and straddled Naomi's waist with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Since we don't know how much time we have left, we should make every minute count."
Down the hall Effy and Katie lay in bed watching Jason toss and turn.
"I don't trust him." Katie said.
"Because he made that lewd comment about a three-way?" Effy asked semi-sarcastically.
"No not entirely. Because he wasn't feeling well. What if he has what Cook had? He'll turn into one of them. Then what'll happen to us?" Just as Katie said this Jason bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Katie and Effy followed right behind and saw him vomiting in the toilet.
"I'm going to get Emily and Naomi." Katie said as she ran down the hall leaving Effy to watch Jason. She burst through the door and saw a very naked Naomi and Emily getting hot and heavy. She yelled, "Jesus," and immediately closed the door. Emily and Naomi got out of bed and searched for their clothes to put on.
"Ever heard of knocking?" Emily yelled through the door.
"Just call it payback, bitch, besides at least I had the courtesy to close the door and not stand there gawking."
Emily opened the door when she and Naomi were dressed. "What do you want, Katie?" She asked.
"Jason's sick. I think he has what Cook had. Now come on. I left Effy alone with him."
Naomi and Emily exchanged worried glances and followed Katie down the hall.
When they got back to the twins' room they saw Effy had managed to get Jason back onto Emily's bed and had found a bucket to give him in case he felt ill again.
"What do we do with him?" Effy asked.
"What are you talking about? I'm just a little sick. No need to be alarmed." Jason said slightly panicked.
"You see there is need for alarm because this is how it starts. In a few hours you'll be one of them." Katie said and she got a reproaching look from Naomi. "What? No need to beat around the bush. It's just fact. We need to get him out of the house."
"No. I'm not going back out there. I'm fine. I just need rest." Jason said trying to convince them as he scratched at the bite mark on his arm. As he did a huge piece of his skin fell off. He tried to hide this from the girls.
The four girls stepped into the hallway to discuss their next move.
"We can't let him stay not if we want to live." Katie said.
"How do we get him out of here?" Effy asked.
"He's pretty weak right now. The four of us could probably move him without much of a struggle." Naomi suggested.
"Are you guys serious? We can't leave him outside to die." Emily said.
"He'll either die in here or die out there. The only difference is that if he dies in here we'll die too and I don't know about you Emsy but I don't want to die." Katie said.
"It just seems so…" Emily was cut off by a huge thud that sounded from inside the twins' room. The four girls froze in place scared of what this noise meant. They listened for any other sounds but when they didn't hear any they decided to go in and check it out. Katie opened the door and led the way. When they entered the room they saw Jason on the floor. He had fallen off the bed.
"Jason? Are you okay?" Naomi asked. She tentatively inched forward and slowly grabbed his arm. She searched for a pulse on his wrist and found none. She then tried finding one on his neck but still nothing. "He's dead." She concluded.
"How long before he comes back to life?" Effy asked.
"I don't know but we should move quickly." Naomi said as she went over to grab one of his legs. Katie, Effy, and Emily followed suit and Emily grabbed his other leg and Katie and Effy grabbed him at the shoulders. It was a struggle but the four of them managed to lift him. They made it down the stairs and were heading towards the front door when he began to twitch so violently that they dropped him. The girls fell down from the shock and crawled away from the twitching body on the floor.
"Jason?" Emily called out to him.
He stopped twitching and slowly sat up and groaned. He made an ouhhh noise and got to his feet. He seemed disorientated. "Jason?" Emily called out again. Upon hearing his name he turned towards the girls and they got a look at his eyes. They were pure white all around with a tiny pinprick of dark blue in the center for the iris. He looked almost normal except for the gash on his head wasn't healing and was still slightly bleeding and the bite mark on his arm looked red and inflamed. They noticed that on that arm patches of skin were missing in various places. When he saw them he let out a growl and bared his teeth. He lunged towards them and the girls scrambled to their feet screaming. Katie and Effy went one way and Naomi and Emily went the other. Effy and Katie ran into the kitchen and tried to circle back around to the front door while Naomi and Emily took a more direct route and made it outside. Zombie Jason had decided to follow Katie and Effy. He didn't move as fast as they did but he stayed pretty close on their heels. In the kitchen Effy grabbed her car keys that she had thrown on the counter the night before. As they were running through the hallway towards the front door Effy tripped over a table and hit the ground. She was surprised by the fall and stayed down longer than she should have. Jason grabbed her by her hair and attempted to use her hair to pull her face close to his mouth to bite but luckily Katie hadn't been too far ahead of Effy and had heard the fall. Effy struggled and squirmed to try to get out of Jason's grasp but couldn't escape. Katie looked around frantically and spotted a flowerpot on a nearby table. She grabbed it and smashed it over Jason's head. Dirt rained down on him and Effy and he let go of her hair. Katie grabbed her arm and they sprinted out of the front door. They met Naomi and Emily who had been crouched hiding behind Effy's car. Effy handed Naomi the keys because she was too shook up to drive and they all climbed in. Naomi backed out of the Fitch driveway running over a zombie that had been lying there. She started driving down the road.
After a while of taking random streets Naomi said, "I don't know where to go and we can't drive forever." They couldn't stop either. Everywhere they looked there were zombies walking around. When they heard the car, they attempted to run after it. They had been listening to the radio and all roads out of Bristol had been blocked off by the military. No one could enter the city and no one could leave. It was part of the quarantine.
"We have to think. Where would we be safe?" Effy said. They all sat there while Naomi continued to aimlessly drive around. Before anyone could answer they found themselves on JJ's street. "Do you think he's there?"
"Do you think he's alive?" Katie voiced the question no one else wanted to say out loud.
"If anyone one of us were to survive a zombie outbreak, I think it would be JJ. He's clever that way." Emily reassured everyone.
There weren't that many zombies on JJ's street, just a few stragglers walking around. They were far enough away from the car to not notice it. Naomi pulled into JJ's driveway. The girls exited the vehicle and very cautiously and with ever shifting eyes surveying their surroundings from every direction they made their way towards JJ's front door. They were discouraged when they found it broken off its hinges. Now on high alert they moved into the house. It appeared empty no people and no zombies. They found a baseball bat and some butcher knives in the kitchen for weapons just in case. After thoroughly searching the house and finding nothing Effy saw that the door to the basement was locked.
"You suppose they have a sort of safe house down there?" Katie asked.
Effy knocked lightly on the door and called, "JJ." There was no answer. The second time she knocked much louder and was answered with a couple of groans that came from the basement.
"There are zombies down there. How did zombies get locked down there?" Katie asked.
Effy knocked even louder and yelled out, "JJ." The groans became louder but the girls also heard a pair of feet running up the stairs and then the door was jerked open by none other than a disheveled looking JJ. It was completely out of character for JJ but he hugged all four of his friends.
"I'm so glad you guys are okay…wait…none of you were bit or scratched were you?" JJ asked and his eyes began roaming around the exposed skin of his friends.
"No. Why?" Naomi asked.
"That's how the virus is transmitted through bites or scratches. I didn't know what Cook had so I didn't know how it was transmitted but then when they discovered it was zombies it was simple. The baby bird essentially bit Cook who in turn bit Arsia, which is how the whole thing started. I can only imagine the chaos that broke out after we left the hospital when Cook changed. I'm glad we didn't stay there or who knows."
"Is there a cure?" Katie asked the encyclopedia that was JJ.
"Different movies present different cures in different ways but there is no definite way to cure it that I can think of considering it began in such a random and ambiguous way."
"How do you kill them?" Naomi decided this was a much more important question.
"Have you people really never watched a zombie movie? To kill a zombie you must stop the little brain activity that is going on. This means cut of their heads, shoot them in the head, crush their skulls, or any strong enough blow to the head that destroys the brain. You can shoot them anywhere else, stomach or heart, it won't matter. They will continue to move. It is only when you sever the brain activity that they are truly dead."
"We need guns." Naomi realized.
"I have some. Downstairs." JJ said and four pairs of eyes looked at him with the same question in them.
"Part of our survival room. There is food down there, batteries, flashlights, first aid kits, guns, and various other things one might need. My parents like me anticipated the end of the world in some way or other and we made sure we were prepared." JJ admitted.
"What was with the groaning coming from down there?" Effy asked.
"It's…" JJ stopped. He was never at a loss for words.
"Out with it Jay." Naomi commanded.
"Freddie." JJ said and scurried back down the stairs.
"Freddie?" Effy asked aloud more to herself than anyone else. When the word sunk in, the four girls ran down the stairs to see what JJ was talking about. They were not prepared for what they saw.
It was Freddie chained to one of the basement walls. He looked…dead. His skin was no longer the beautiful tan hue but grey and sallow looking. His clothes were torn and bloody. There were bite-marks on his neck and arms. His t-shirt had been ripped open, as had his stomach. Part of his intestines could be seen poking through the skin.
"Freddie…" Effy took a step toward him and Katie grabbed her arm to stop her. Even though Freddie and Effy's relationship had been toxic and destructive for the both of them, they both still had a soft spot in their hearts for each other. He did because he was still in love with her and she did because he was the first person she allowed to get close enough to her to allow her to love someone else. For her, Effy believed, this helped her allow Katie to get close and for that she had to thank Freddie for helping her to take the first step to finding the person she was meant to be with. Freddie and Effy when together went over the edge with drugs and alcohol. Effy went mad and being constantly stoned didn't help either one of them. Katie drew the line for Effy and helped her not to cross it. She showed Effy what it was like to be high without doing drugs, drunk without drinking. Still she cared about Freddie and it was painful to see him like this for the others too.
"We didn't hear the news report until it was too late. My father left the house to go to work but there were zombies in the street. They attacked him and my mother rushed to see what the commotion was. Freddie had stayed overnight. We were both shook up over Cook. A three musketeer had fallen. We remaining two had to stick together. Upon hearing my mother's screams he ran and I went to get a gun from this basement. By the time I got there they were dead. Zombies feasting on their flesh." JJ paused at this point to try and collect himself. "I realized in that moment that it was in fact zombies we were dealing with. I don't know what possessed me…science? But I grabbed Freddie's body and locked the front door. I dragged him down here quickly before he was reanimated and chained him to the wall. I locked the basement door and it wasn't long after I heard them break down the front door. When they found no people they must have went in search somewhere else. I wanted to see if I could satisfy the zombies' cravings. I fed him all the emergency food that was down here. Alas nothing seemed to stop him from trying to get at me like he's trying to get at us now." JJ finished.
Freddie was pulling his chains taut and stretching towards the five people standing across from him. Their eyes never left Freddie during JJ's story.
"So we can't stay here then?" Naomi asked.
"No, I wasted all the food. I was just down here watching him. I couldn't make much of a plan on my own." JJ answered sadly.
"Let's go then back to Effy's car. We'll have to think of somewhere safe to go."
"What do we do about…?" Effy asked pointing to Freddie.
"Leave him? He's dead but I can't bring myself to shoot him. He's not hurting anyone. I don't see any harm in leaving him chained here." JJ suggested.
"But it's so horrible. Shouldn't we put him out of his misery?" Effy asked. Everyone looked down at the ground not wanting to be the one to put him out of his misery. They couldn't imagine shooting their friend even if it wasn't really him anymore.
"It should be me. I'll do it." Effy decided.
"Are you sure?" Katie asked grabbing her hand.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." She offered Katie a weak smile and squeezed her hand. "Can you guys go upstairs? I want to be alone when I do it."
JJ gave Effy one of the handguns and passed one to each of the other girls. He grabbed the rest of the guns and the bags of extra ammunition to take with them. Naomi helped him carry it all. She took one last look at Freddie. "Bye Freds." She said and went up the stairs. Emily, Katie, and JJ echoed her 'Bye Freds' and followed her upstairs. JJ was the last and stopped on the bottom step. He turned to look at Freddie one last time. "Three musketeers." He said and climbed the stairs.
Effy stood there looking at Freddie trying to get at her. "You may not know this, Freds, but you did really help me. You made me realize it was worth letting people get close. I know things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to. I know you still love me and I still love you too but we were no good for each other. Apart from drugs there was nothing we had in common. I'm in love with Katie and I know if you had been given the time and chance you would've found the girl that you would've fallen in love with. I'm really sorry you won't get that opportunity. I'm really sorry ten years down the road we won't be able to have a drink at Keith's pub and talk about the good old days. I'll miss you Freds." Tears had been filling Effy's eyes as she tried to get her closure and now they silently made their way down her cheeks. She picked up the gun and pointed it at Freddie's head. Upstairs the three girls and JJ sat in the living room. Emily had her arm around JJ's shoulders comforting him. They heard one shot go off and then footsteps coming up the stairs.
"We have to go." Effy said when she emerged through the door her voice strangled from crying. Katie went over and put an arm around her waist.
"How did it go?" JJ asked wanting to know what happened down there.
"I couldn't do it. I shot the wall. I couldn't shoot Freds even if it's not Freds. I couldn't do it." The gang nodded silently knowing none of them could do it either. "We have to go." Effy repeated.
The five of them piled into Effy's car and she drove off. All of them still unsure where to go.