Chapter Twelve

The door opens. Three people are standing in my hallway, all in total shock. The moment I realized they were going to be good on their word, all the butterflies in my stomach disappeared and I changed to feel instead like the patient with the embarrassing medical condition confronting her family. I can't blame them for being unable to say a thing. They look like totally uninfected, clean (apparently immune) human beings, two women and one man. The African-American woman who looks to be the same age as me must be Ann. The other woman is much older, in her sixties or maybe even seventies, though she looks physically fit, like she jogs around the block a dozen times every morning. The male voice belongs to a guy who (I was right) is a teenager, most likely in high school before the infection hit. He's slightly chubby, with scruffy red hair and a T-shirt from some anime.

It must have only been a handful of seconds that passed in silence, but they were long seconds. The three of them are literally speechless. I almost crack a smile at the strange power I currently hold over them.

Our silence is interrupted. "Hey, are you all okay?" A man in a button-down dress shirt and slacks holding an automatic rifle turns into the hallway. "Oh, you went silent all of a sudden. I had to check- WHOA!" He spots me, and raises his gun, and the halogen light fills my eyes.

"NO! Turn off that light!" My god the light! My vision is gone, replaced with white pain. I shriek and stumble back into my room onto the floor. Who made that fucking light? It burns my eyes, sending flares of pain through my head with every heart beat.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" the other three shout.

"But that was a witch, wasn't it?" the new person responds. I push the backs of my hands into my closed eyelids.

"Yes… she is…" I hear Ann mumble. "Here, are you…" her voice trails off. I'm not listening to them. I can't. The throbbing in my head is too intense. I can't concentrate on anything else. I feel the sensation of touch on my shoulder, and in a reflex I cringe from it. It happens again, muddled. I think I'm… I'm losing…

I wake up. Wait, what? Did I pass out? I slowly open my eyes. I'm in my room still, sitting up against my dresser. I can hear chatting in the distance. Then, "Hey. You awake?" I turn to see the woman, Ann, sitting on my bed.

"I… I uh… yes."

Silence. She doesn't say anything. She only stares at me. It feels embarrassing. I can't meet her eye-to-eye. Is she frightened by the way I look? Is she entranced? Am I a spectacle? This is unnerving; I want to know.

"W-What?" I mumble, turning a shoulder to her.

She snaps out of her daze with an "Oh!" and fiddles with her hair absentmindedly. Now she looks like the embarrassed one. Another silence. I need to be the one to break it.

"Um," I begin, "your name is Ann, right?"

"Y-Yes…" she stutters. She looks scared half to death. It's not a look I'm used to seeing in an adult. I should say something. But what?

"I guess I must look pretty freaky." I crack the most sincere smile I can.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She interjects. "I… should be nicer, but this is just...." She stands up. "Do you mind if I open up the curtains? The light won't hurt you, will it?"

"What? No, it's fine." As she tears the curtains open, sunlight pours into the room, revealing all the dust floating about. I guess it's just artificial light that freaks me out. I wish I knew why. A new reflex of sorts? "I can't believe I fainted like that." I murmur.

"What?"

"N-Nothing. How long was I out for?"

She sits back on the bed. "Just a few minutes. If weren't standing in between you all, Jim probably would've shot you into Swiss cheese."

"Jim, is he…?"

"Speak of the devil." She points to my doorway, where the man who almost shot me is standing. He stands about the same height I did before I shrunk; about 5 feet 6 inches or so. He's of Asian descent, and because I'm a white girl from the suburbs I can't tell if he's Chinese, Korean, or what. He's dressed neatly, dress shirt and slacks, business casual, as though he were about to head to work (minus the blood splatters staining his clothes here and there). Behind him is the redheaded kid in the anime t-shirt. They both are sweating profusely. A fearful sweat, I imagine. Neither of them are holding a weapon, though the man Jim has a sidearm holstered. It can't be that hot in here.

I let another brief awkward silence pass, in the hopes one of them will say something. They don't. It's making me nervous. "So…" I say, "don't everyone speak up at once." Please say something, anyone! I do stupid things when I'm nervous!

The kid is the one with the courage to say something. It always seems to be that way – the younger someone is, the farther away they are from death, and less threatening of a thing it seems to be. Not that I see myself as some avatar of death or something. Quite the contrary, really; I have trouble squishing bugs. "So, you're really okay then?"

I arch an eyebrow at him. "As okay as living in the apocalypse, sure."

He cuts in "I-I mean… like… you're um… all still there in the head, right? You're not going to attack us?"

Thank you! I've been waiting for someone to ask that. "No, I'm not. Of course not! Attack you, that is. I'm not like the other infected. I know that much." They don't all show it as opaque, but I can tell they all breathe a sigh of relief hearing me say that. "Like you said, I'm still talking to you… right? I mean, not only that but I haven't seen any other infected that look like this." I lift up my hands and wiggle my fingers around to show them what I'm talking about. Ann and the kid flinch.

Jim stays a bit calmer. "In fact, we have." He says.

I stand up immediately. "No shit!" I exclaim. Are they serious? "You saw someone that looked just like this… just like me? Creepy long fingers and all?"

"Two, actually."

"What did they say? Wait, did they say anything?" I ask them.

It's the kid's turn to reply. "I wish. They just cried, instead."

The kid gets another eyebrow arched at him. "Cried?"

"Well, I dunno. It just sounded like it. The first one we thought was a little- er… a girl crying so we followed the sound until we saw her sitting down on a sidewalk. Ann said something to it… uh, her- sorry. Ann said something to her, which that and our flashlights kinda got her attention and pissed her off, apparently. She came running at us full speed. Scared the living shit out of us! Probably would've killed us if we didn't all have a full clip-"

"Magazine." corrects Ann.

"-magazine, whatever. A full magazine ready to unload on her." I wince a bit. How can he talk about something like that so nonchalantly?

"What about the second one? You mentioned another." I say.

"We went out of our way to avoid her, that's what. Turned off our lights and snuck past. Never even bothered us. Weird, huh?" Very.

Ann stands up. She seems angry, or disturbed. Is she not as willing to accept the situation as the others? "I'm getting something to eat from my pack." She says, and walks past Jim and the kid.

I feel my stomach growl. "I should eat something as well. Can I… get through?" I inch towards the two guys at my door, still being extremely careful not to startle either of them. I'm not out of danger yet, I tell myself. I never will be.

"You eat?" Jim asks.

I pause, unsure of how to respond to that. "Increasingly." I tell him. They make more than enough room for me to pass by. That's fine. I don't let it bug me. If I were in their situation I wouldn't want to be anywhere near me either. The hallway is slightly dark. The red tint of night creeps back into my eyes for just a moment, before I reach the kitchen, where windows let light into the house.

Tearing open the pantry, I am reminded of the reason this strange encounter occurred in the first place. "Right." I groan. "I had gone to Kroger. Damn it." There isn't much left in here at all, except for miniscule things such as spices. I wonder how long I can live off that. I spy a tomato soup can hiding in the back I missed before. Reaching back, I puncture the top with a finger and drag it out.

"You're just going to eat it like that?" Ann asks. I wheel around to find her looking my way from a corner of the room, by the back door. Before I can respond, she turns her head back towards the window, to stare off into space.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" I take a moment to listen for the others. They're having a slow conversation by the front door. It sounds like the older woman is with them as well. "I'm kinda running low on food here. You all caught me running back from the grocery store."

"Where's the food then?" She asks.

"I uh… I dropped it. I lost it running from a mob at the McDonalds."

"They attack you?"

"They didn't use to." Her glance shot back my way immediately at this. "This was the first time one did, and-"

"Any idea why?" She interrupts. She seems genuinely interested in this. Well, I guess that makes sense.

"Not a clue." I pause. "I haven't had a chance to think about it."

"What if you had to guess?"

"If I had to guess… I guess… I was acting too uninfected. You know, carrying bags of groceries." Wait, that's not right. "No, that wouldn't make sense!" I rub my forehead in thought "I've laughed at infecteds' faces, I've read books sitting next to them… I don't know. I haven't a clue." We both sigh at the same time. I cut open the rest of the soup can's lid, and carefully drink the tomato goop, wincing at the taste.