Chapter Three
After breakfast, I left to find Brian and his survivor group. I ran past all the zombies searching the streets.
"This whole planet has got to be mostly zombies now," I thought.
It was easy to find the east bridge Brian was talking about. It was so obvious. Brian was there to greet me.
"Hello Phoebe. It appears you have remembered yesterday," he said.
"Yes," I answered.
Brian half-smiled.
"Follow me. You must meet the others," he said.
I followed him into a hole under the bridge.
"Wow," I said.
I was amazed by how such a horrible place was turned into a sweet hang out for the remaining humans.
"Zach! Tania! Nellie!" yelled Brian.
A saw a girl about my age run down a spiral staircase. She was tan and her black hair was tied up in a hair tie. Her eyes were brown and her clothes were casual T-Shirt and jeans.
"Hello," she said.
She had a Hispanic accent.
"Hi," I replied.
Then I saw another girl walk up behind her.
"Hey watch it Mexican. I always talk to newcomers first," said the girl.
The Hispanic - who I suspected was Tania, rolled her eyes and the other girl looked over at me, holding out her hand.
"Name's Nellie. What's your name, kid?" she asked.
Obviously she was a few years older than me. She had blonde hair that she had in a hair tie. She also wore some kind of headband around her forehead. Her white T-Shirt was stained with mud and her pants were green Capri's. She didn't wear any shoes but she did have a backpack that seemed to be filled with junk.
"I'm Phoebe," I answered.
"Nice meetin' ya kid. Welcome to the anti-zombie group. Do you know anything of how it all started? Folks been sayin' it all started at a high school 'round here. You seem to be in high school. You know anything?" she asked.
"Yes. It did start at my school here in Orange County. I was sitting in my biology class and I saw a mosquito. The mosquito seemed to have buzzed over to Shelly Smith and bit her or something and that was the first zombie I saw. Then the same mosquito landed on me and nothing happened. See? I'm still human. It didn't sting me. It's as if….It didn't want to sting me," I explained.
Brian's eyes widened.
"So it is true. Maybe you can communicate with the mosquitoes. You can be very helpful to our team Miss Morado," said Brian.
"Morado?" questioned Nellie. "Isn't that your last name?"
"Yes. She was my little brother's fiancé," said Brian.
"Was." I thought. "I am still his fiancée. He is still my fiancé,"
"I think there's something goin' on. Think about it. Brian's not dead. Phoebe's not dead. They're both related to Kyle," said Nellie.
"It's probably just a coincidence my friend," said a new voice.
I looked to see who it was.
The person seemed to be some hippie guy. He wore a shirt with flowers and his hair was up in a hair tie. He really needed some anti-wrinkle cream. He wasn't aging very well.
"Dude, back off Zach," said Nellie to the hippie.
"Alright. Keep the peace, man," said Zach.
"Well Nellie does have a point. Maybe the mosquitoes have something against Brian and I. Maybe it is something to do with us being related to Kyle. But what about Steven?" I asked.
Brian looked down at his feet.
The room was silent for a few minutes.
"Steven was the youngest of us all. He died at age fourteen a few weeks ago. He was taken by a stranger after school one day and his body was found buried two miles away from the school under a tree," said Brian, sadly.
My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe that such a thing happened to my brother-in-law.
"I….I'm sorry to hear that," I said.
My voice crackled and my eyes started to water.
Brian looked at me.
"You didn't even know him. Why are you sad?" he asked me.
"Well he was my brother-in-law. I can't believe that would've happened. Why?" I asked.
"Our parents were very bad people. The murdered several people and have been arrested several times in their lives. We boys had to teach ourselves how to stay alive. Never have we even thought about being together with a girl. Kyle got lucky. Well anyways, people hated the three of us. A few months after Steven was born, our parents were both killed. We were never told how or what happened. We were just told that they died. Somehow we managed to get this far. People were angry at us because of our parents. Someone killed Steven because of their hatred. Kyle was fighting some dumb punks and got himself killed as you know. I'm lucky to be alive. It isn't fair to have all the blame on you when you never did a thing. Life just sucks," explained Brian.
I thought I was going to cry.
"Well now it's either life or death. I'll do the best I can to save us all but there are no guarantees. Besides, sometimes we all wish to join Kyle don't we?" asked Brian.
"Yes," I answered.
I did wonder about me joining Kyle someplace happy, but knowing him, I didn't really think he made it to happiness. I hoped that he did but I highly doubted it. I sill love him though no matter what. I'll join him no matter where he is.