Chapter 6 - Outbreak Day
Tamsin grabbed her hoodie from the couch and put it on. While pulling the hem, she went to the window to check the weather outside.
Rain drops fell from the lead-gray sky. It was wet everywhere. Water came down from the gutter, pooling under the stairs of the back porch.
Tamsin shrugged, and started to look for her umbrella, however after having gone through all the cabinets, she found none.
"Mom!" She yelled at the master bedroom. "Where is my umbrella?"
Her mother came out from the bedroom, adjusting her earrings before tying up her hair. "It's here somewhere."
"Yeah, like where?" Tamsin mumbled as she pointed at the umbrella bucket on the back porch. There were a big black one, a small one with Avengers on it, and a medium one with a vibrant orange color. None of them were hers.
Her mother pursed her lips, pondering the question while picking up a kid toy from the floor. She threw it into a toy basket in the corner of the room, before she answered, "why don't you just take your dad's? He's not gonna use it today."
"Fine," Tamsin replied with an eye roll. She grabbed the big umbrella, and sat down beside the door to the back porch, looking for her rainboots. "What do you need from the store again?"
"Butter, tomatoes, trash bags, and shampoo," her 9 year old sister told her before her mother did. The little girl let those words pop out from her mouth in a bland tone, while texting on her phone avidly.
"And chocolate," Tamsin's 4 year old brother added while sitting at the dining table to eat his breakfast. A green cereal fruit loop was stuck on his face, and milk dribbled down along his chin.
"No, honey, no chocolate," their mother said as she shook her head at Tamsin with a serious look.
"Okay, no chocolate, gotcha," Tamsin replied as she pulled up her rainboots. She stood up, opened the door and stepped out.
She squinted her right eye at her brother before she took off, and the little boy giggled, almost knocking off his cereal bowl.
Tamsin hummed her favorite song while walking briskly towards the grocery store that was 5 blocks away from her home.
The cool, misty breeze embraced her, and she inhaled the mid fall season. The fresh scent of the rain, the dying grass, and the color changing trees.
After a while, she tuned everything out, most of her mind thinking about which movie she should go see with her friends this weekend, her best friend's coming birthday party, and the coming fall break next week.
As the idea of the coming fall break came to her, it made her heart flutter in joy, but at the same time, making her nervous. She realized that the finals wouldn't be too far away. However, she shrugged and told herself that they were still a month and half away. Why should she worry now? Why couldn't she enjoy her life for another couple of weeks?
Arriving at the store, she closed her umbrella and put it in the bucket beside the entrance. She stomped her feet on the doormat and rubbed the bottom of her boots against it. Then, she went in.
A small doorbell rang above her head as the door opened, and the cashier waved at her.
"Hey, Tamsin, running errands for your mother again?" He teased.
"Yeah," Tamsin shrugged at him, before she grabbed a basket.
"Well, if you need anything, just let me know, okay?"
"Sure, thanks, Mr. Wilson," Tamsin told him with a smile. Then, she went through the aisles and started to look for the things her mother had wanted.
After getting the butter and tomatoes, she stopped at the shelf where the shampoos were at, and read the yellow tag which said "buy 2 get 1 50% off". She checked to make sure that the brand she was going to get was included, before she took down two bottles and put them into the basket.
She lingered at the candy section for a while, and picked up a bar of chocolate. she slid it into her basket while chuckling quietly as she pictured how angry her mother would be when she found out that Tamsin had bought chocolate for her brother.
The ringing of the doorbell came to her. Then, she heard someone walking into the store. She couldn't see them because of the shelves, but she could hear the noise they made when they walked. It sounded like they were having trouble picking up their feet from the ground, so instead they dragged their legs along with them.
She heard the cashier saying "whoa, ma'am-", together with the sound of someone swallowing saliva hard, grunting and lip smacking.
"Whoa whoa! Wait, what are you-" the cashier's voice came to her again, only was interrupted by the sound of something heavy falling to the floor. It was immediately followed by a loud, sharp scream of the cashier's.
She heard struggles, more screams and cries of agony. Then there was the sound of a shotgun firing, and she immediately lowered her body while covering her ears with the basket hanging on her arm.
A loud cry that was cut off came to her, seizing her heart. She got down on the floor and held her breath, as she listened to the sound of chomping, munching and swallowing.
She struggled to get her phone, and it was then she realized that her palms were covered in cold sweat. She swallowed hard as she typed 9, 1 and 1.
What just happened? She asked herself as she inched forward on her hands and knees. She had no idea why suddenly she had become so afraid, but that scream of agony from the cashier somehow rang in her head like a fire alarm.
"Mr. Wilson…?" She called, her voice shaking.
No one answered her, but a series of growling and chewing.
Tamsin took a deep breath, as she crawled out from behind the shelf. She froze when she saw the cashier lying in the middle of a huge pool of blood.
Two people, or creatures looking like humans who crouched beside the cashier raised to look at her. They look exactly like humans, except those small rotten spots on their skin, the fresh blood dribbling down on their clothes, and the flesh chunks in their mouths.
One of them immediately went back to dig into the cashier's thigh with his bare teeth. Low, happy growls came out from his throat, muffled by the human flesh in his mouth.
The other one, however, reached for Tamsin with her bloody hands. That move suddenly made Tamsin gain her strength and her voice back.
Tamsin screamed, and smashed her basket as the woman's head. The woman was knocked to the side, and Tamsin dashed out through the door.
She breathlessly dialed 911 while running as fast as she could.
"Jackson county 911. What's your emergency?" A calm, sweet female voice answered her call.
Tamsin panted and swallowed hard. It took her a while and the receptionist repeating twice, before she could actually speak. "Help..." she said, "Someone's eating...someone's eating Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson...he's...he's-"
"I'm sorry I can't quite hear you, miss," the receptionist answered. "Could you tell me where you are?"
Tamsin had to stop and look at the street name sign before she could tell the other woman where she was. When she looked around, she saw groups of human-like things chasing other people along the street. Those who weren't chased were running for their lives.
She saw those human-like creatures gobbling people alive. "Zombies," she blurted, running away from those things. "They are zombies...they are-zombies are eating humans."
"I'm sorry, miss, what was that again?" The woman on the phone asked after a long pause.
"I said zombies are eating humans alive!" Tamsin said with a loud whimper as the image of those two eating Mr. Wilson in front of her came to her vividly. "They are everywhere!"
The receptionist paused for a while, before she said, "I'm afraid that-oh my God! There's-"
Her panicking voice was cut off by a loud scream, and Tamsin listened in horror as the same munching and chomping sound came through the phone.
Then, it was dead silence on the phone. Shortly after that, the call was ended.
Tamsin squeezed her phone hard and ran. Too much fear overwhelmed her, and tears started to burst out.
Screams came from everywhere. People screaming in fear, in pain, and in the hope of staying alive. She heard the screams coming through the half closed door of the restaurant her family would always go to. She heard cries coming from the flower shop she had bought flower for Mother's Day. She heard them coming from the supermarket, the tire shop, the tailor place, from every place she had been to.
She saw several zombies cornering a crying child across the street. She swallowed her fear and took out her pepper spray from her purse. She ran over, even though she had no idea if the spray would work on those creatures. However, she was too late. She watched them tearing the poor kid apart and inhaling his flesh.
They then came after her, and she had no choice but to run.
The rain drenched her clothes. Her legs were protesting, and so were her lungs. She inhaled too much air too fast and it made her throat burn. For a moment she thought she'd stop breathing and die, and the mere thought of being eaten by those creatures gave her the strength she never thought she'd have, making her run even faster.
"...like?" Bo's voice came to Tamsin. Although incoherent and afar, it did pull the blonde out from her train of thoughts.
"What?" Tamsin asked in reflex. She glanced at Bo and quickly turned away, doing the best she could to hold all the feelings inside.
"I said, were you here when the outbreak happened? What was it like?" Bo repeated her question.
Tamsin managed a shrug. She secretly swallowed, trying to forget the screams, blood and bodies.
"You were here during the outbreak?" Bo pursued.
"I was," Tamsin replied simply. A part of her wanted to tell the story to Bo, but the rest of it just yelled "no" at herself.
"What was it like?" Bo asked as she followed the other woman to the outdoor store, concerned.
"I imagine that it doesn't have anything to do you, does it?" Tamsin replied as she leaned towards Bo a little, a hint of teasing in her eyes.
"Well, I told you about Kenzi, it's only fair if you-"
"-tell you my story as well?" Tamsin interrupted her, amused. She scrunched her nose at the brunette and continued, "I don't do stories, sweetheart."
"Why? Because yours are lame?" Bo countered.
Tamsin rolled her eyes and turned away from the brunette with a soft scoff. She stared at a pile of dead bodies, mostly fleshless skeletons, outside a fast food store, and said, "you know how the outbreak was like, okay? A bunch of people turned. They preyed on humans. Everybody was either killed or turned or running for dear life. End of story. Happy now?"
Bo couldn't help but let out a chuckle, and the blonde curled her lips into a subtle smile. However, when Bo's chuckle died in the air, she noticed the bitterness deep down in Tamsin's light eyes. The painfully bitter look was buried deep, under the dancing sparkles of the sun, under the teasing look, and under the blonde's nonchalant attitude.
She couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Tamsin 10 years ago. Had her life been hard back then? Had she witnessed unspeakably horrible things? Had she lost someone she had held dear to her heart?
"Are you coming in or not?" Tamsin's voice interrupted Bo.
Bo licked her lips as she looked at the blonde who stood in front of a narrow space between the budged doors of a big outdoor store. The bitterness in those light eyes was gone, maybe having sunk deep inside already.
"Yeah, of course," Bo answered as she walked in.
They quickly went through the store, walking passed by the empty shelves and cracked counters and checking the warehouse behind. Unfortunately, the warehouse was filled with trash, bodies and blood drenched camo shirts.
Bo eventually managed to find a bike under a pile of fallen ceiling tiles and other broken merchandize. "Hey, look!" She beamed at the blonde as she dragged the bike out.
Tamsin rolled her eyes when she glanced at the bike. The frame of the bike was pink, and the tires were ivory with brown rims. The seat, and the grips, were ivory too, with brown on the sides. There was also a white basket in the front. It was dusty, and its front tire was bent slightly, but other that those, it looked like it was in mint condition.
"Hey, I am pretty sure I can fix it," Bo said as she picked up a piece of brick. She unscrewed the tire with a toolkit that she had carried with her, and laid the tire flat on the floor.
"Yeah, believe me, sweetheart. It's not the tire that I'm worried about," the blonde grunted as she picked out a small hand pump from the debris and threw it to Bo.
"Why? You don't like pink?" Bo teased as she hammered bent rim of the tire, until it was flat again. She pulled the bike up, and started to pump the tires. "I don't think we have many choices here, Tamsin."
"First of all, there is no we, and second, yes I do have another choice," Tamsin hissed. "I can walk, instead of getting on that thing."
"Like anyone's gonna judge you for riding a pink bike now," Bo murmured, sitting on the bike to see if the height of the seat was proper. She got down after a few seconds, and lowered the seat a little. "I mean, the zombies out there will be equally attracted to you with or without a pink bike, and you know that, right?"
Tamsin shot her a cold stare, and headed out. She was a little absentminded because of her old memories about the outbreak, and when she squeezed through the space between the doors, she cut herself on a piece of broken glass that was sticking out.
Great. She thought as she checked her left forearm, and saw a shallow, three inch long injury. Blood slowly seeped through, and she grunted as she wipe them off with the back of her right hand.
"Are you okay?" Bo asked, rushing over with the bike.
"I'm alright," Tamsin replied in a grunt, before she walked out.
The sun had set, but Tamsin still felt like everything was melting around her. The heated, humid air tasted like sweat, too thick for her to breathe. A small swarm of mosquitoes circled above her head. They weren't attacking her, but their very presence annoyed her.
Waving her arms back and forth, she forced them to go away, though only for a second or two. After that, they gathered together and danced above her head again.
Tamsin sighe, and rubbed her sore shoulder. Her sweat stung the small grazes on her neck and shoulders, but he just kept walking.
The trees on the sides of the road looked like they were dying from a drought. The grasses looked pale and dry too.
When was the last time it has rained here? Tamsin asked herself. The last rain she remembered was almost two weeks ago, before she had met Bo, and that was miles away from here.
She paused, panting, bending forward slightly, feeling the thick air choking her.
"Are you sure you don't want a ride?" Bo asked lazily as she caught up with Tamsin on bike.
"No, I just want to drag you off that damn thing and burn it," Tamsin replied in a growl.
"Really? I thought you'd be too exhausted to do that," Bo teased, riding in a circle around the blonde.
Tamsin hissed, but her eyes uncontrollably fell on the pannier rack. It was pink, bright pink, but with her legs heavy like lead and her skin burning, it was the second most tempting thing in the world right now, immediately after a cold beer.
"Just hop on, will ya?" Bo told her after stopping in front of the blonde. She twisted her torso to tap the pannier rack gently while faking a seductive look on her face.
Tamsin sighed while wiping the streaking sweat off her forehead. She took a deep breath and sat down on the rack sideways.
She adjusted her position, not too close to the brunette, not too far from the center to fall down either. The bike suddenly jolted forward, and she lost her balance, ending up with her arms tightly grabbing the brunette's body and her face smashed into Bo's back.
Bo laughed as she stopped the bike again, and Tamsin hissed and gave her a hard pinch on the side of her waist before withdrawing her arms.
"Just hold on tight, okay?" Bo told the blonde in chuckles, before she took Tamsin's right arm and put it around her waist again. "Cuz if you fall, I'm not coming back for you."
"Whatever," the blonde replied, rolling her eyes. Bo's body heat burnt her, forcing her to loosen her grip on her waist. Gently grabbing the corner of Bo's tank top, she mumbled, "are we leaving or not?"
"Wait, so there is a we?" Bo asked, and the blonde immediately slapped her arm.
Bo laughed again, before she took off, she asked, "Kenzi first, or your scavenger hunt first?"
"Ummm...if you want to carry a shit ton of loot from the hospitals on the way to your dear friend, be my guest, let's hit the hospital first."
"Okay, Kenzi first it is then," Bo murmured as she pushed down the pedals.
They travelled on bike towards the canyon, and got off at where the ground started to become craggy and rugged when the dusk fell.
Bo put the bike away from the road, and covered it with foliage that had been dried by the sun, in case someone would come by and then take it.
They headed to their destination, that canyon where Kenzi was supposed to be at, on foot. During the trip, Bo turned on her device for a couple of times, but didn't receive anything yet. Afraid that the battery would be drained before she got close enough to Kenzi's location, she turned it off. The night slowly shrouded everything around them. The only things Bo could see before the moon came up, were Tamsin's shimmering eyes.
The blonde silently walked side by side with her, and Bo took out the advice again and wanted to see if they were close enough. Before she did though, a flock of spooked birds flitted out from the woods, above them, and then disappeared in the night sky.
Herds of deer and other animals ran out shortly after them, quickly moving towards downhill, moving fast into the darkness.
Tamsin frowned as she gripped the hilt of her falchion tightly, her other hand pulling Bo closer to her.
"What's going on?" Bo whispered and drew her dagger. She looked around vigilantly in the darkness, and slowly, she started to see pairs of sparkling things among the trees and long grass.
One, two, three...and when she counted five, she realized that those were eyes. Blood thirsty animal's eyes.
A loud, synchronized howling composited with different tone came to her. Immediately after that, a pack of zombie dogs came out from hiding. Their sizes varied, but one thing they had in common was the hungry desires in their bright eyes.
A big dog, the alpha of the pack, approached Tamsin and Bo slowly. It looked more like a wolf than a dog. It arched its back and howled again.
A group of howlings answered the alpha immediately and the rest of the pack showed up behind Bo and Tamsin.
"Fuck," Tamsin cursed as she glanced at the small injury on her arm. She could barely see it, but she could feel the blood seeping out again. Knowing that the smell of it was probably the reason the pack of those nasty creatures showed up, she pulled her weapon out and moved to the narrow opening between the dogs while dragging Bo along with her.
The alpha snarled and pounced at them, stopping them from escaping. Tamsin slammed her knee at it, kicking it away, but it quickly rolled on its paws and growled at them.
The pack tightened the circle they had formed excitedly, their growls low.
"Stay close, okay?" was the only thing Tamsin managed to tell Bo before they went into the battles with the dogs.
A/N: Per an anon's request, they got a pink bike :)
More flashbacks coming up in the next chap, thanks.