04/08/21: Hey if you're reading this for the billionth time, and you're like "idr this story starting this way", you're right! Ch1 as finally been remastered after several years of me saying I would do it. In the end, I determined the old original chapter wasn't worth preserving in its current state, and I wanna think the remaster has vastly improved it. Like, the original word count of 3,496 has been bumped up to 7,444, vastly improved.
If you're joining us for the first time, you can just disregard most of this, but just be warned that the next ten or so chapters won't exactly match this one for a while.
Either way, thanks for reading, it's super appreciated! Happy 10 years of the Survivor's Guide!
Two weeks after first Infection
Traversing the city late at night has always been risky business, especially for young women. God only knew what could happen to them, a plethora of things you never wanted to be on the receiving end of. But ever since the Infection hit? Well, shit, honestly what was the difference at this point?
Knowing that zombies were actually, legit a real thing was a mixed bag of emotions. Sure, Divine and her friends had joked about this before… In middle school, when you think you're strong and tough and can do anything. So, it was kinda cool to be like "aha I knew it!" at long last. But after about three days, it was less "this is cool", and more "this fucking sucks".
The first day it was like, oh whatever, a viral outbreak, big deal. By day two, it looked like things were going crazy, with the way people were acting. And by day three, it had turned into a goddamn horror movie. Which sucked cause damn… She really liked horror movies. And those were fun when the monsters on the screen weren't also sitting in the room with you.
So, she did what any sensible, reasonable, twenty-something year old would do; stayed the fuck home. As a kid, it was easy to say "Oh I'm gonna get my dad's gun and start blasting zombies and make a fort for myself". But living on your own, out of state, with no access to any help? Yeah no, that was uhhh-
Not great!
It made her think in ways she never needed to before. From careful observations through her windows, Divine determined the rapidly turning population was very much attracted to noise. Okay easy enough, don't make noise! What would be a few weeks without the TV, right? Easy enough, especially after a few days, the signal went out, so boom, problem solved. And the internet went out with it, and that was a little bit harder, not having any way to get any information about the quickly evolving situation, but whatever…
Cooking became an issue right quick. It was a bit of a toss up of what she could and couldn't cook without attracting much attention. She'd keep the doors and windows sealed, yes, but sometimes that didn't seem to be enough. So Divine had to play it by ear, or eyes, determining how many gray shamblers were down below before turning the stove on.
And then that was over rather quickly, when she ran out of things to eat. Like, overall. And she was already a broke student surviving off sleeves of crackers and loaves of bread to make it through the day as it was. So, a girl had to do what a girl had to do.
Divine packed the last of her provisions, filled two bottles of water, grabbed her safety bat and a frying pan… And stepped out into the world of the zombie apocalypse.
x-X-x-X-x
So no amount of books, or movie, or even video games could have properly prepared for her what was going on out here. The trip down the stairs went without incident, but as soon as she got into the lobby and opened the door...
It looked like she had missed a blood bath. There were bodies, everywhere. A lot of them on the ground, in varying states of… Wholeness. And then some of them were very much stumbling around on two feet. They didn't react right away to her presence, and Divine thought for a moment, well, if she moved slowly, perhaps she could t-rex them in broad daylight…
Of course, movie logic only worked in movies, and it, infact, didn't work. The infected saw her almost right away, and came charging over with guttural screams. And Divine did what she never actually really hoped to ever do- She killed someone. Her frying pan, heavy and slow, managed to cave in the wild man's head, and he dropped to the ground instantly. But he was quickly replaced by an ashen faced woman, and wabam, went the pan again, and she killed another person.
It was only after she had a small pile of bodies around her, and she managed to run down the alley did the full weight of actions set in. But Divine had no time to stop and think. Every moment exposed was another moment she was about to get jumped. And wow, there were a lot of moments to get jumped.
A white house, spray painted onto a wall, with an arrow beneath it, was her first encounter with the concept of saferooms. Turn a corner, down another alley, and there it was, just waiting for her. A steel red door that sat beneath a single light. The survivor stepped toward it, but from another door on her left, she heard it-
Crying. Loud, devastated crying.
"Hello?" Divine asked out loud. The crying continued. "Hello, is anyone there?"
The doorway was dark and shadowy, so she missed the fact that the door was no longer on its hinges. Nor did she notice the bodies littered on the ground around it. But deeper into the room, under a window, illuminated by intruding light, she could see a single body rocking back and forth. The crying emanated from it.
"Ooh-hooo-ouuuhhh."
"Ma'am? Miss, hey," Divine tried to greet her assuringly. "Hey it's okay, I'm here, you don't have to-"
Her foot found a stray limb, and it cracked under her weight. The crying immediately ceased, replaced with shaky breathing from the cowering woman. At once, all of Divine's senses were telling her to run, go, leave. But her legs wouldn't move, despite the quaking in her knees. Her hand shook as she reached to her belt to off a meager, pocket sized flashlight. She turned it on with a click, and the small beam shone on the floor. Slowly, Divine moved the beam from the ground, toward the other woman…
There was blood everywhere. And long, wicked nails, dyed a deep maroon. And then the growling started, and the woman began to rise to her feet. Divine dropped the flashlight, which landed with a clack, but also dropped her frying pan, which landed with a loud clanging, and ran. She heard a horrifying wail behind her, but she dared not look back.
The survivor went back the way she came, skidding along the concrete as she beelined for the red door. The other woman still ran and screamed behind her like a thousand banshees. Thankfully, oh thank god, the red door wasn't locked, and Divine breezed through it easily.
She quickly slammed the door shut, and searched for the lock when she was nearly blown back aside when the other woman bashed into it. A small tug of war ensued, as Divine kept trying to push the door fully closed, and the other was trying to break it open. On one such push close, Divine was able to engage the lock, and she sprung away from it.
The thumping against the door continued, and the woman outside screamed and screamed… Until it suddenly stopped. Divine backed away and away until she tripped backwards over a small crate, but didn't stop backing away until her back hit a wall.
The loudest thing in the room was her own breathing, and her heart hammering against her chest. After a full, agonizing minute, she could hear the woman on the other side start to sob again. Divine pulled her legs up to her chest, buried her face in her knees, and also started to sob.
And that was her first encounter with what she would later come to know, as the Special Infected.
x-X-x-X-x
The saferoom, as she found out, was a little more than just "barricaded room". It was more like a safe hallway, with two door at either end. And in between, there was a variety of supplies. Rolled up sleeping bags, a small crate of canned foods and bottled waters. A first aid kit, which she happily swiped out of a cabinet. A table with guns strewn across it, with a pile of ammo to go with.
Divine had only been to the practice range, once, and thus had only ever fired a gun once, in her whole life. But that was in a controlled environment where she could freely pick up and put down the gun at will.
'I've played shooters though,' she thought. 'I know what guns are.'
As if that meant anything. She had her bat still strapped to her back, which she knew she was devastating with. After all, she came from a family of baseball players, and growing up, people were terrified of her swings at pinatas during birthday parties. But a bat could only get her so far…
With a lot of hesitance, Divine slowly picked up a gun. The first thing she knew what to do was not keep her finger on the trigger, that was only for when she intended to shoot. Judging by the size of the stock and barrel, she knew she had a rifle in her hands. She held it up to her shoulder and looked down the sights. She felt like a total badass holding it like this. It would have to do then.
The survivor spent an ample amount of time picking out the ammo, and learning to carefully load and reload her rifle. They never really showed this in the games, the player character typically ripped the magazine out and jammed a new one in and boom- Gun reloaded. Obviously, it wasn't that simple, and Divine knew that from the get-go. And no one was helpful enough to leave behind a guide on how to do it either.
Actually, there wasn't much in the way of a guide to anything, other than to "Wash your hands", and "Call CEDA". The only sort of other written descriptions she could find were various messages scribbled on the wall in marker. They weren't all that helpful, mainly spelling out doom and gloom to all who passed. A few sarcastic remarks. Notes to loved ones in the event that they passed by. She looked high and low for the pen everyone was writing with, but couldn't turn it up.
So, that was cool.
Divine debated on what to do next. She couldn't go back the way she came, she could still hear that woman outside crying (and boy that was chillingly annoying). So the only out was through the other door. Clearly she couldn't stay here forever. There wasn't a bed, or even a bathroom. Not exactly the best place to make a living. And a message on the wall threatened everyone with "take only what you need". So, she definitely didn't want to be that asshole. A camping asshole…
In the end, Divine drank some water, ate a light snack, took a quick nap, and once she had awoken, laced up her sneakers and headed out the other door. Before she left, she went back to the first door to unlock it, just the way she found it. The crying woman couldn't be heard any longer. She hoped it stayed that way for the next survivor coming through.
x-X-x-X-x
Her nap had lasted a little too long, and night was falling across the city. But she had to keep moving. She stuck close to walls, trying to keep buildings between her and the infected. It seemed like everywhere she went, there they were, ready to attack at a moment's notice. And she quickly learned that attack could come from anywhere.
Divine was navigating a pothole ridden street when she heard it- A spine tingling cry. It sounded like someone was imitating a coyote howl, but with far too much growl in it. And it sounded like it came from… Above her.
She caught her reflection in a puddle of water at the last second- And the shape that came flying towards her. She panicked, and swung around with the rifle like a club. The hooded figure that had been hurtling towards her let out a shocked, garbled sound as it fell to the ground. It shrieked as Divine flipped the rifle around and unloaded her clip into it.
Divine kept her finger on the trigger until the rifle clicked, signaling she was out of ammo. But the figure had stopped moving, and was reduced to a crumpled, bleeding mess on the ground. Her whole body shook, a funny sensation that tingled in her arms especially. Divine had always been a petite thing, and strenuous motor like movements always shook her the fuck out. Literally.
The survivor finally came to her senses, and she sped off, realizing she was exposed out on the street with an empty gun. She ducked into the nearest alley, and huddled under a fire escape for cover. Divine quickly dug through her bag for the extra clip of ammo she had stashed in it earlier.
Somewhere from above, she once again heard a sound- A loud, wet scream. She dug through her bag faster, panicking now. The last thing she needed was whatever that was jumping down at her like the last guy…
Aha! Clip found! She hurried ripped the old clip out of the rifle and jammed in the new one, then raced to zip her bag back up and sling it back on, alongside her bat. There was a horrific coughing above her. Like, right above her. Almost on top of her-
Divine raised her gun and jumped out. She could see a swaying body at the top of the fire escape. Without waiting, she fired off a few rounds. The body up top let out a pained cry as it recoiled, and she watched a cloud of smoke rise as it hurried away. Divine already knew there wasn't going to be a second time though.
She ran- Barely. Her only warning was a wet schloop, and suddenly something heavy wrapped itself around her, and pulled. Divine gasped for air. It felt like a boa constrictor had suddenly jumped out and grabbed her. And it was doing its job just fine. Her arms were pinned to her sides, her rifle clattered to the ground. Her legs flailed around in the air helplessly.
'Nonononononono,' she thought frantically. It couldn't end like this. The thing holding her together moved, and then hit her in the face. It was… Wet and slimy. She gagged over it, which didn't make things better. Shit, shit, shit- Oooh, wait! Figuring it had to be a part of something living, she bit it. Her teeth pierced the flesh easily, a little too easily. Rancid blood filled her mouth, but with what felt like her dying breaths, Divine bit and bit, until finally she met air-
Lots of air.
There was a frustrated cry, and the thing around her suddenly loosened and fell off her. And then she was falling, only a few feet back to the ground, but she landed hard. Divine gasped harshly, clinging to her bruised sides as she spat blood out of her mouth. Green blood. What the…
She rolled over and caught sight of what had held her captive- A pale colored… Tentacle? It was long, really long, and dripped more green blood where she had messily ripped through it. Had the thing on the fire escape caught her… With that? She couldn't hear it above her at the moment, but she was sure it wasn't going to stop now. Still wheezing, Divine grabbed her gun, and limped away to find safety.
x-X-x-X-x
The first night out was spent inside an abandoned camping trailer. The door had been left open, and she just jumped inside. Thankfully, it was unoccupied, and she closed and locked the door behind her. Divine kept low, not daring to turn on her light, and used the meager streetlamp light that filtered in through the windows to navigate. None of the windows were broken, luckily.
She crawled through, found the bed, and flopped on top of it. But that didn't really do much for her. She had been too amped up, and eventually took to laying down on the floor between the bed and the camper wall with her bat in hand. All night long, she listened to the sound of the infected ambling by, groaning and whimpering.
Sleep completely evaded her, too scared to let it take hold, less she be left vulnerable. Could the infected tear open the wall of the trailer and attack her? Who knew. Divine wasn't taking that chance. Images of the hooded jumper, and the roof grabber dwelled in the corners of her mind's eye. And the screaming woman, her howls echoed in Divine's ears, the flashing of her claws-
She was not a praying girl, had never been a big church fan. But this was one of her moments, where perhaps there had been a little bit of godly intervention in allowing her to be alive as long as she was in the midst of all this. Just a little bit of divinity that was keeping her going.
'Well if I die,' she thought to herself. 'It better be cool.'
Really cool, dying… By fighting and killing other dead people… Great.
x-X-x-X-x
She creeped out of the trailer at the first sign of light. The number of infected hadn't changed much, but she felt way better about walking around when she could see more than a foot in front of her. Somehow, everything felt more… Gruesome in the sunlight. Like the bodies, shuffling around and slumped unmoving on the ground felt more real. Like this wasn't a bad dream, this was all happening. Because if the monsters could exist in broad daylight, then was she ever really safe?
Divine moved on, the only thing she could do. She creeped, and ran, and ducked, and covered as much as she could. One eye on the ground in front of her, and one eye up along the roofline. The last thing she wanted was to get jumped a third time. Best hope? The really nasty ones were nocturnal. For her sake, they needed to be.
Breakfast, and later on lunch, were taken the same way; on the move, with one hand, while the other kept her bat swinging. Over the course of the day, her bat cracked open numerous skulls, shattered arms, and bashed in uncountable ribs. Her gun was used sparingly, only when she felt particularly overwhelmed, and when the risk of the noise was lesser than the need to survive.
The whole time, she looked for any sign of another safehouse. It felt like the further she went, the number of infected grew. Hell, at this point, she was probably lost anyway. Divine had only lived in the city for a few months, so she was still super unfamiliar with, uh, everything. She couldn't even imagine where any evac zones were at this point. The last she had heard was the hospital, but the helicopter doing that had stopped coming days ago, so there went that…
At one point, she did need to stop. Except there was no place to really do that, and think, so she ducked into the first place she saw, one with a quick and easy way out. And thankfully, a construction site porta potty did the trick. Somehow, the stench of old piss was more welcome than the stench of blood, and it grounded her for a moment.
Put things into perspective a little. Like, here she was, hiding in a porta potty, because there were zombies outside. In all her years of living, Divine never would have imagined things would end up like this. And somehow, every little bad thing in her life before this, was actually marginally better. Break down crying at a piano recital because she forgot the notes to the song? This was better. Read poetry in her sixth grade English class that she thought was great but everyone laughed at? This was much better. Accidentally headbutt a cute guy while picking up his pencil at the same time as him? Wow, the piss stench was just so extremely better it wasn't even funny.
"I can do this," Divine said aloud to herself. "I think I'm gonna be okay."
She took a deep breath, gagged over the smell, and then opened the door and stepped back outside. Whatever was going to happen, would happen. And she'd face it. Like a champ. Because that's what winners did in the "not dead yet" lottery.
The survivor turned the corner, and came face to face with-
It was like the smell in the porta potty came to life, became person shaped, and then kept growing. And it gurgled and groaned at her, bloodshot eyes locked onto her intently. Before she even had a chance to react-
And it puked on her. Reared back, and then lunged forward, and a spew of green and yellow bile came flying at her with deadly accuracy. She squeezed her eyes shut as the bile splashed across her front side. From head to toe, covered in nauseous, sizzling goo. She opened her eyes, and her mouth, and gagged more than she had inside the porta potty.
Her "attacker" gurgled victoriously as he waddled away. And then a second later, howls echoed up and down the street. Divine took a shaky breath, then started off running as the horde came flying out of the woodworks to chase after her. She caught up with the puker, and slammed her bat into his fat as she ran past, but otherwise didn't stop. The puker only let out a cry of surprise as she did, but didn't give chase- Everyone else was doing that just fucking fine.
x-X-x-X-x
The sun was falling by the time she spotted another safehouse sign. Divine limped along, using the alleyway wall as support. Her clothes were caked in blood and puke, her hands red and bruised. Everything felt bruised. She lost her bat at one point, it simply wasn't built to shatter bones forever. Her rifle sat in the crook of her arm, but it was pretty useless, she had used up all the ammo. Every bullet in every clip she had, gone. If anything, she could use it as a club. If not, then maybe a cane once her knee gave out on her.
Her resolve to not die had been paid off, because she won. Boy howdy, did she win, with a lot spite and determination. Mainly spite. And her efforts had rewarded her with sweet, sweet shelter. She was dreaming of semi-cleaner clothes and a sleeping bag. Maybe some snacks. Ammo. And you know what would be nice? An attached bathroom. Maybe this one would have a shower. Wow, that would just be something, wouldn't it? It could be cold water for all she cared, she just wanted one.
Divine inched forward, grasping at the corner of a building to her pull herself around it, and onto the home stretch-
Her foot hit something and it rattled. She looked down, and saw a small metal spike with a chain attached to it. And it led right to...A bear trap. Shiny and sleek, just sitting right there for anyone to step in on. Wow. She had never seen any of these in person before. Crazy, haha…
Then she looked up and between her and the door, were about a dozen or so more. Most were empty. Only a few had a dead body still trapped in it. Wow, what a way to go. And now she had to get past all of it.
Not great!
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…" Divine muttered under her breath as she inched past. Every muscle in her body was screaming at her, but she had no choice. She gingerly navigated through the invisible maze, trying to picture herself as a little mouse weaving through a field of mouse traps. It always worked out fine for the mouse in the movies, she could do the same here, right? Sure, yeah. Totally.
When she got the first body, she had to carefully pick her way over them without setting any of her feet down in the middle of a trap. And she did the same with the second body, grimacing at their untimely demise. And then the third one-
Well…
Served it right.
It was another leaper, dressed the same as the last one. Duct tape holding the cuffs of his sleeves down, and all along his pants. A dirty sweater with a hoodie pulled up over his head. This one though, had a faded white "Z" sewn into the hood. Well, that was one way of identifying yourself after death.
"Rest easy, sucker," she saluted, and picked her way over him. Idiot probably tried to jump an unsuspecting chump like her, and didn't recognize what was on the ground. His leg was ensnared in the trap, the teeth clamped firmly into his flesh. It honestly looked pretty nasty.
Both feet had made it over him, and she was about to take her next step when he moved. She nearly screamed, hands flying up to cover her mouth, and her rifle clattered to the ground. Nothing went off, but her heart pounded against her chest, and she slowly turned around…
He had lifted his head up, and he panted heavily. He worked an arm under him to try and sit up, but he hissed in pain as he did. Slowly, he looked up towards her. Between the fading sunlight, and the light from the lamp above the saferoom door.. Divine determined that he couldn't see her. There were just two dark holes in his face where eyeballs used to be, further evident by the still healing gouges in his face.
It was recent, sure, but when had that happened? Had another zombie come along and tore his face open? Or… Was it something he did himself? Judging by the wicked looking nails on his hands, the latter was pretty possible.
Without a word, Divine backed up, only sparing glances over shoulder to avoid sharing his fate. And yet, as she made her escape, she could still somehow feel him staring at her. One of her feet hit the stake of a trap, and the connecting chain rattled loudly.
And then he rattled out a growl, making Divine think it was about to be all over for her-
But he didn't move. He couldn't, after all. He was trapped, like the unsavvy house mouse that didn't have human level of intelligence, and was caught trying to get his cheese. The farther away she got, the longer he stared. Finally, she was free from the field of traps, and it was just flat ground between her and the door.
"Sorry about your life, have a good one," Divine said over her shoulder as she wrenched the door free and disappeared inside. She slammed the door shut and locked it up, and once the last bolt clicked into place, she put her back to the door, slid down it, and sat there on the floor.
Exhaustion crashed over her, eyelids feeling heavy. She didn't know if her saferoom was really safe at all, but it didn't matter. The door was closed, safe enough for her. Tiredly, Divine took her bag off and tossed it down. She just… Just needed a minute… Yeah, just to rest her eyes and then… She'd be okay.
Everything… Was fine now… Just needed… That minute…
"Awwwwooohhhhhh."
Divine startled back into alertness, automatically reaching for a weapon that wasn't on her person.
"Ah… Ahhwwooohhhh."
The wail was mournful and sad, and it reminded her of the coyotes back home. But it wasn't a coyote. It was… The leaper? No fucking way.
Maybe it was the exhaustion talking, the sleep deprivation, the hunger, the everything from the last twenty-four hours. But Divine reached up to slowly undo the locks. And when that was done, she carefully cracked the door open. The wail came again, louder now, and there was no denying the source.
The leaper was just a huddled up bundle on the ground, ruined face lifted towards the sky as he cried. Who was he crying for? Help? Or just crying at the hopelessness of his situation. Would he bleed to death? Or would he starve? Did the infected need to eat anymore? Either way, it seemed like the inevitable had dawned on him, and for that, he cried. It sounded so animal, and yet, still so human. Human enough that her heart shattered.
And… Maybe she wanted to cry too. Cry with the zombie, at all that had been lost, and how their lives were changed because of it, and his was coming to an end all too soon. It was utterly tragic.
Divine glanced around the saferoom. From a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, she could see bright red first aid kits sitting on a shelf. And then she peered back outside at the crying leaper.
Call it whatever, but she made a decision right then there. After a long day of taking lives, Divine decided to save one. She hoisted herself to her feet despite every muscle and joint protesting in response. The survivor opened the door, and hobbled her way back out to the leaper. His cries ceased, and he looked at her… And started whimpering. Maybe he couldn't tell that nothing was in her hand, but he probably feared her all the same. That perhaps she was coming out here to finish the job.
Along the way, she picked up her dropped rifle. Now what would this do without any ammo? She wasn't sure. She was just winging it right now. The leaper's whimpers got louder as she approached, and he was visibly shaking.
"Hey hey, it's ok," she assured him as she kneeled down beside him. "I'm… Against my better judgement… I'm going to help you. You understand me? Help you."
His ruined face turned towards her, and it was twisted in fear and pain.
"Okay, lemme look at this," she said, and examined his leg. Now that Divine had a better look at it, she could see the extent of the damage. Thankfully, it looked worse than it actually was. Most of the teeth were tangled in the fabric of his pants, and while there was blood, it hopefully was only surface level. She ran a gentle hand along the trap itself, trying to determine where it might open up from.
These were spring traps, press down in the middle, and snap it went. Okay, figured that out just fine. So now how to unspring the trap…
He whimpered, and growled, as she worked. He feared her. He was trusting her. It was a bad idea all around. Divine, perhaps using a little bit of that godly luck she had been running around with, fanangled her way into opening the trap enough to wedge the rifle's barrel between the teeth and his leg.
And after a little bit more of fanangling… The trap sprung open just long enough for the leaper to wrench his leg free, and then it snapped back shut over the rifle. She lost the gun, but he was free, and that was all that mattered.
They sat there, panting, looking at each other in bewilderment. How she managed that was beyond her, but she was thankful it worked all the same.
"You're uh… You're gonna need something for that leg," Divine commented. "Lemme uh… Lemme get uh… Something for that."
She got back to her feet, huffing and puffing as she went back across the trap field, again, to reach the door. She heard him whimper behind her, and as she pushed the door open, she looked over at him-
And fell backwards through it, right onto her ass as the leaper took a- Well- Flying leap through the air and crashed into her. Judging from his equally startled yelp, he had miscalculated the distance, and put too much effort into reaching the other side without getting caught again.
"You could have waited!" Divine cried. "Jesus Christ, okay fine, I guess this works better."
At this point, she was done getting up and sitting back down, so she settled for awkwardly crawling along the floor, only half getting up to reach the first aid kit. That alone winded her, and she leaned against the wall to catch her breath. Maybe the leaper was curious, or was impatient, but she watched him scuttle across the floor awkwardly on over to her.
"I can't even complain anymore," she sighed, exasperated. "Alright give me your leg."
His head twisted slightly, like a stupid but curious puppy.
"Leg," she repeated, and pointed to his. "That one, with the blood."
He looked down at the leg he held close to himself. And then after a moment… He seemed to figure it out. He plopped down on his butt and stuck his leg out. And then looked back at her, expectantly.
"This is really weird, I hope you know," Divine said, unzipping the kit open. "I've had a long day… A few days… A few long weeks, really. I'm an English major, ya know? I write about world ending disasters, not star in them… God this is all so fucked up. Not as fucked up as you are, I guess though."
She pulled out the neosporin, gave it a shake, and then sprayed it on his leg between the tatters of his pants. He snarled at her. She didn't care.
"I mean, you're a zombie. And you lost your eyes. That's really rough," Divine continued, setting the spray away and pulling out the bandage roll. "And now you're like this. And I'm having to fix you. Also I'm so sorry? I've never done this before. This is gonna suck."
She couldn't roll the pantsleg up- Because it was duct taped into place. So she opted for just grabbing the fabric around it, and pulling. It ripped apart with a satisfying noise. He growled at her warily. She wouldn't appreciate it if some strange college bitch ripped her clothes off either. It was whatever though right now.
"All I'm saying is, things are weird right now," Divine sighed as she wound the bandages around his wound. "I'm probably not even doing this right. If you get, I dunno, gangrene from this and die for that, instead of the Green Flu, I'm super extra doubly sorry."
She tied the bandages in the world's worst knot, but it was a knot and it would hold, hopefully. Her hands dropped away, and she sat there, and he sat there, and they stared at each other, unwavering. She thought about how she couldn't stay right there forever, that the door needed reclosing and relocking, and she needed to change her clothes, and roll out something to sleep on, and all these things to do… And there was a zombie here. Great.
"Well glad I could help, Z-Hood Dude," she said. "But that's it, can't do anything more. Have a good rest of your short life. Bye."
He didn't move. His head just kept tilting sideways, but he made no other move.
"Look, you can't stay here, okay? You're the zombie- It's over for you. These are for the same healthy people, like me. Get outta here."
Divine weakly shooed him away. He made a small noise in the back of his throat. But nothing happened.
"Listen guy, I ain't about to become your next meal. So shove off. There's guns in here ya know. I could get one and kill you, for reals. And that'd be a real damn shame after all the effort I just put into saving ya. So like, beat it. Go."
He sighed, a tired sounding one. Hesitantly, he began to rise, immediately trying to test if he could put weight on his leg, but that only had him hissing again. He stood up enough to hobble on three of his four limbs… And hobbled over to the opposite wall and flopped down, curling into a ball.
"You gotta be shitting me dude! No! Not! For! You!"
The leaper grumbled and pulled his hood down over his face. Holy shit, there was no way. This really couldn't be happening. Fuck, fuuuck, fuuuuuuuck-
"Fine! Fine, just fucking fine! I'm gonna become leaper chow! This is great! This is just wonderful!"
She ranted and raved as she hauled herself up to limp around the room, closing the door, re-engaging the locks, and kicking open a sleeping bag. Fuck the clothes, fuck good, fuck the shower. What would it matter when she'd wake up to her guts decorating the room? No good deed goes unpunished, or some shit like that.
Divine flopped down onto the sleeping bag, and she felt every bone and muscle in her body suddenly decompress. Her thoughts drifted to her shoes, but she wasn't sure if she could move anymore at this point. Her stinky feet would just have to wait. And then her thoughts drifted over to her "house guest", his stark white Z sticking out like a sore thumb in the semi darkness.
"What does that even mean?" she asked, tiredly. "Is it a logo? A brand? What does it stand for… What does anything mean anymore?"
She yawned, tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. She felt beat up. She probably was. She'd wake to a million new bruises, for sure. If she lived through the night. Divine wanted to fight it, just a moment, to make sure the leaper didn't get any bright ideas. But the darkness was crashing in, and her vision was blurring, and sleep took hold of her because she could do anything else.
x-X-x-X-x
Some uncountable number of hours later, Divine's eyes snapped open. She couldn't tell if it was still night, or if the day had broken, but she was awake. She had fallen asleep staring at the spot where the leaper had been. But he wasn't there anymore. And for a moment, she chalked it up to having a really crazy dream. And that would have been okay.
But then she heard a snore from behind her, and she realized something was pressed into her backside. Divine slowly rolled over enough to look over her shoulder… And saw a solid wall of mass against her. It was the leaper. She rolled back over, and stared at the wall, contemplating her life, as one did first thing in the morning.
Good news, she wasn't dead. She hoped. Bad news, it wasn't a dream, she had a flesh eating zombie sleeping next to her. That had all really happened. Okay.
Slowly, Divine rose, not because of any sense of safety, because her body was hilariously sore. It felt like every fiber keeping her together was on fire. Is this what it felt like to be an old lady? Constantly aching and on the verge of falling apart at any moment? God, and she thought turning twenty-five had been bad enough.
Hunched over, and in need of a cane, Divine somehow found the strength to fully get up, and shakily make her way around the room. An unopened bottle of water was quickly ripped open, and she guzzled half of it down. A former closet had been converted into a small restroom, and thankfully the bucket was… Empty inside, and someone had put on a portable toilet seat across it. Not the best way to take care of her business. At least there was toilet paper and a packet of wet wipes. Sometimes, you just had to appreciate the little things.
The leaper was alert by the time she exited the closet. He was sitting up on his elbows, mouth stretched wide open in a leisurely yawn. Normally flat teeth had turned sharp and dagger like, and it was terrifying, but also kinda cool in the sense of how the fuck does a flu do that?
"Hey Z-Man, we did it, we didn't die in our sleep," Divine greeted him as she walked past. He made a sleepy sounding noise. "I dunno about you… Or your eating habits, but I think I'm hungry. Brekkie's always good. Does your head hurt? My head kinda hurts still, let's have brekkie."
She hummed to herself as she looked around for something of any sustenance. A wooden crate in the corner revealed MREs. Wow! She had never seen these in real life before. Okay, well that was something, right?
"I've only seen these in movies," Divine said as she picked one up and sat down on the floor with it. "Okay, this can't be too hard, right? Look, it even comes with instructions. We're gonna figure this shit out together."
Her particular meal ended up being mac n cheese, trail mix, meatloaf (maybe), and bready type snack thing, and was that powdered green tea? Not the meal she would have chosen normally, but she'd take it. The meatloaf (maybe) she laid out for the leaper to eat, she figured he'd prefer it better. And thankfully, he wasn't picky. He gave it a few sniffs, but scarfed it down fairly quickly. Divine ate more slowly, not for the sake of savoring anything, but she was just tired, and had a lot on her mind.
Like, how things had somehow gotten worse than she anticipated. Just how rapidly the world had changed in such a short time, going from "uh oh disease outbreak" to "uh oh everyone's a zombie". Which then had turned into "uh oh some people are worse zombies than others". How? Why? Who let this happen?
And then there was this guy, who sat comfortably next to her, his back pressed to hers, stretched out like a content cat. That wasn't normal in the slightest. Things were crazy. Way crazy.
"Nothing makes sense anymore, ya know?" she mused between a handful of trail mix. She glanced down at him, not expecting a response, and wasn't surprised when he didn't give her one other than a long sigh.
"Ya don't talk much, do ya?" she asked. "Your friend from a few days ago, man, he was a growler. But not you. You're just sitting here cool as a cucumber, Z-Man. Whatever that Z means. You're not gonna tell me, huh?"
He lifted his hand to carefully scratch at his chin.
"Well anyhow, I can't think of any brands or logos that look like yours, so I'm gonna take a wild guess that it stands for your name. Are you from around here? Pennsylvania has the Amish, right? You don't look very Amishy, buuut you wouldn't happened to be named… Uh… Zedediah?"
No response there.
"Okay well, you look like the alternative type so maybe uhhhh… Zeke? Zeke's a cool guy name."
He made a low whine as he rolled onto his back and stretched his legs out.
"Well aren't you just comfortable."
He turned his head slightly in her direction, probably just because he could hear her talking. Divine huffed in exasperation. She felt like he was making this difficult on purpose.
"Okay then, how about… The only real name people give their kids that begin with the letter Z- I hope, uhhhh, you're just names… Zach maybe? Like Zachary?"
The leaper suddenly sat up with a curious "mrrrp" sound, and he leaned in close to her. Divine froze at first, out of shock that he seemed to be responding, but then out of shock that he responded at all.
"What was that? Did I ask if your name was… Zachary?" she repeated. The leaper made the same noise again excitedly.
Holy shit.
"Do you also go by, if I call you it, Zach?" she asked. The tip of his tongue peeked out from between his lips as he beeped again.
Ahhhh!
"You still know your name," she whispered warmly, smiling slowly. "Wow."
Zach let out another beep, and then he curled back up into a ball, still remaining by her side. Divine hesitantly lifted her hand… And placed it on his back just below the shoulder, and started rubbing. He rumbled appreciatively at her, and sighed contently.
"This is crazy," she commented. "This is real crazy… Well, I guess we're in this crazy bullshit together now, huh? What do you say Zach, you and me against the world?"
"Brrshr," he grumbled, and Divine froze again because, for a moment, that sounded… A lot like… "Sure" but… Okay, haha, that would have been too crazy. The infected couldn't talk anymore, haha…
Right?