Chapter 14 - Old House
Tamsin slammed her foot into a zombie's stomach to shove it away from her. As the zombie stumbled to the side, she slashed her machete at its neck. She chopped off its head; the zombie twitched and fell.
A second zombie lunged at her from her left. It reached for her arm with its filthy, half rotten hands.
Tamsin dodged to the side swiftly. With her left hand she pulled out her back up weapon, a small dagger, and gave the zombie a simple stab. Her blade went into the walker's throat and came out from the back of its head.
She kicked the zombie away, letting its body trip the third zombie that was coming at her. She chopped that one's head off with a single blow.
The head fell and rolled off the ground, into the river that was beside them. The headless body collapsed in front of her. Right before it had stopped moving, it struggled to grab her ankle.
Tamsin crushed the festered flesh with one of her heels, before she kicked the body away. She quickly caught her breath, before she turned to look at Kenzi who was fighting zombies behind her.
The petite woman was swinging a katana she had taken from the old camp where Tamsin and Acacia used to live. She decapitated the zombies one after another, until the last zombie surprised her by jumping out from behind a tree.
Having no time to prepare her swing, she raised her blade and stabbed it through the zombie's nose in a quick, hard blow.
She pinned the walker into an oak tree. The zombie let out a few vague growls while reaching its hands out for her. Kenzi cursed and pushed the blade forward further to penetrate its brain completely.
The zombie stopped moving eventually, and Kenzi panted while trying to pull her weapon out from the tree. However, she seemed to have pushed it too deep inside the trunk, and no matter how hard she pulled, it just wouldn't come out.
"Are you gonna offer some help, or are you gonna stand there just like that, Tam-Tam?" She grunted as she gripped the hilt tightly and battled with it.
"Don't call me that," Tamsin replied as she helped Kenzi to get her blade out.
As the blade moved out from the zombie's head, a spray of dark, thick fluid came out with it too. It splattered all over Kenzi's face, and the petite woman fell back while cursing. She raised her empty hand in reflex, wanting to wipe it off, but then she paused there since it would be too gross to have her sleeve and her hand covered in that.
She let go of her blade and stumbled to the river in Tamsin's chuckles. While spraying clean, cold water into her face, she announced breathlessly. "That was the third herd we've encountered today."
"Yep..." Tamsin murmured while looking around for more zombie. After seeing none, she wiped her blade clean on one of the dead zombie's clothes and sheathed it. Then, she started to count the bodies.
24. There were 24 dead zombies around them. And this was the third batch they had killed today. In the early morning, before they had entered this patch of woods, they had killed 13 zombies who attacked them. And before that, another 18 came at them while they were having some food.
Tamsin sat down against a tree and threw her head back. She took a deep breath while trying to relax her sore, cramping muscles.
When was the last time she had killed so many zombies in one day? She couldn't remember. She might have had such experience during the outbreak time, once or twice, but for a very long time, all she had been dealing with were a few strays here and there, and small groups at most.
Kenzi had finally finished cleaning her face. She sat down on the dry grass, before she lay down on her back. Sprawling there, she asked, "are they after us or something?"
Tamsin shook her head. "They aren't smart enough to do that," she said. "Maybe they are migrating and we happened to be right in their way…."
"Lucky us," Kenzi mumbled and dug her fingers into her matted hair. She tried to scratch her scalp because it was itching, but that single scratch made her feel that her entire body was itching.
Why wouldn't it? Her skin was practically coated in dried blood, dirt and zombie fluids.
She grimaced. "I think I'm gonna grab a quick bath, if you don't mind."
Tamsin shrugged. "I can wait for ten minutes."
Kenzi rolled over on the ground like a worn out dog. Then, she got up on her knees and started to take off her clothes. Tamsin casually turned away and started to organize her backpack.
"Hey, can I borrow your soap?" Kenzi asked.
The blonde rolled her eyes. "Am I allowed to say no?" She grumbled, taking out a small soap that was wrapped in plastic. She tossed it at Kenzi. "Don't apply it on yourself too generously, and make sure you dry it before you wrap it back."
"Thanks," Kenzi singsonged as she got into the water. She made sure that she was in an area where the water was shallow and calm, before she took off her underwear.
She sprayed water on herself while biting back her shivers. She ran the soap all over her body, and paused while looking at it. "It smells funny," she commented after sniffing it. "Why does it smell like burnt matches?"
"It's the sulfur," Tamsin explained. "It's good for killing bacteria or parasites, since you know, we don't bathe too often and we sleep in zombie crap everyday. I would have added some vanilla extract or whatever, had I had some."
Kenzi nodded while continuing to clean herself. She let out a series of short breath to stop herself from screaming when she dipped her head into the water to wash her hair. She clenched her teeth in shivers as she washed the bubbles away. "I can't believe that we are making soaps from scratch now," she murmured.
"Well, congratulations. It's the zombie apocalypse. We make all shit from scratch," Tamsin replied. "Hurry up, we are way behind our schedule."
"Alright, alright," Kenzi mumbled as she squeezed water out from her hair. She dried herself using a hand towel, before she quickly put on some clothes that were relatively clean. She balled the dirty ones and stuffed them into a separate pocket in her backpack. Zipping everything up, she said, "let's go go go."
Tamsin nodded. She grabbed her bag and got up. When they were about to take off, though, a cold breeze carried over a putrid smell that was thick enough to upset both of their stomachs.
"Shit," Tamsin threw her backpack on and pulled out her machete. She grabbed Kenzi's arm with her empty hand and urged. "We need to go."
Kenzi quickly grabbed her things and followed Tamsin. They didn't make it far, before they saw a huge group of zombies marching towards them through the woods.
Those hideous creatures limped and staggered, forcing their way through the trees and the bushes. When the ones that were in the front smelled Tamsin and Kenzi, they inhaled excitedly and started to trot.
"Holy fuck..." Tamsin murmured as she took a step back. The last time she had seen this many zombies, was during the outbreak when almost everyone had suddenly turned into flesheaters in streets. She swallowed hard and pulled Kenzi's arm. "Run!"
"Yeah, I was gonna say that too!" Kenzi replied before she turned around and ran for her life.
They didn't make it very far, before a second herd appeared in front of them. The monsters growled at them in excitement and came at them immediately.
Tamsin and Kenzi took a sharp turn and ran towards the river. They waded across in loud splashes, but when they had arrived at the other side of it, they saw nothing but more zombies plodding out from behind the trees.
Those who were chasing Tamsin and Kenzi were closing in, and those in front of the two women were thrilled to have discovered the two fresh, alive prey trapped in the middle of the huge herd. They all stuck their arms out at them and growled.
Slashing her blade at the closest zombie's arm, Tamsin chopped it off clean right before it had touched her. She swung her backpack at another one and forced it back.
The armless zombie fell to the side, knocking another zombie down, causing a temporary stir among the herd.
"The tree," Tamsin commanded briefly before she sprinted towards the closest pine tree. She and Kenzi quickly killed several zombies that were around it, and climbed up.
They did not stop until they had arrived on a thick branch that was at least twelve feet above the ground.
Kenzi panted and pressed her hand against her lower right abdomen that was cramping. "Where did all these assholes come from?" She exclaimed while watching hundreds of zombies gathering under the tree.
"I have no fucking idea," Tamsin replied while looking around trying to figure out a way to escape.
The woods was filled with zombies now. There was no way for them to make their way out by killing all of them for sure. They'd be torn into a million pieces long before they could get out.
Kenzi raised her katana when she saw some walkers digging their fingers into the tree and howled at them. Those zombies languishly moved their feet against the tree trunk, like they were trying to climb up but had forgotten how.
"Do you think they know how to make zombie pyramids?" She asked, genuinely worried.
Tamsin shook her head. Hadn't they been surrounded by so many zombies, she would have laughed at Kenzi's thought. She scanned the entire place and could only see two things. Zombies, and trees.
Trees. She thought as she looked at all the trees and their branches. There was a thick branch of another tree right above them that she could easily reach. And if she would move along….
Tamsin looked at that branch, and some other branches that were further away from them. "I guess we could..." she said to Kenzi in a low voice as she drew a route with her index finger along all the branches that seemed to have formed a path in the air.
"Oh no, no no no," Kenzi shook her head as she gripped her weapon tightly. "That shit only works in movies and games, woman. It ain't gonna work in real life."
"Well, this shit-" Tamsin pointed at the zombie army below them, "-only existed in movies and games too, and now this is real life."
"I-I'm terrible at walking on anything that is like a balance beam," Kenzi argued.
"Look," Tamsin said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Unless you can come up with a better plan, we are gonna do it my way."
Kenzi groaned in frustration. She moved her eyes back and forth between the zombies and the trees, before she let out a heavy sigh and strapped the katana on her back. "Fine, but just...don't move too fast, okay? Don't expect me to do any acrobat shit."
"No one's asking you to do back handspring while holding ten lamps on a bracket between your teeth," Tamsin said impatiently as she tightened her backpack straps. She beckoned to Kenzi, telling her to come forward. Then, she grabbed the petite woman's waist and raised her up so she could reach a branch that was above them.
Kenzi grabbed the branch and lifted herself. She struggled to put one of her legs around it, and then the other one. Holding on to the branch firmly, she slowly rolled on top of it and eventually landed on her feet.
She let out the deep breath she had been holding as she balanced herself up there, and Tamsin winked at her before she jumped to grab the branch herself.
Swinging her body up, Tamsin practically threw herself on it. Then, she moved into a standing position swiftly, and gave Kenzi a nod.
They moved down along that branch, and switched to another one after they had reached a spot too thin to hold their weight.
Taking a deep breath, Tamsin stopped at the edge of the branch she was standing on while looking at another one that was a bit far away from them. She thought if she was lucky, she'd make that jump, but she gave up that thought since she couldn't afford the failure.
"Alright, we are gonna do it this way," she murmured to Kenzi as she stared at a hanging branch that was above their head. She reached for it and gripped it firmly to pull it down. Then, she slowly moved backwards while still pulling it.
She took a few deep breaths, before she started to sprint. Right before the branch under her feet bent downwards, she took off and swung herself across the air.
She let go of the branch in the middle, and landed on the target branch. She kept running while reaching her arms out to balance herself until she had a chance to grab the trunk of the tree.
She panted while carefully turning around. Then, she gave Kenzi a nod.
Kenzi shook her head like crazy, and Tamsin rolled her eyes.
"There is no other choice," she told the petite woman. "You'll have to do it."
Kenzi groaned and reluctantly held the branches that were hanging down. She moved backwards, and started to run, but stopped right before she took off.
She paused there and mumbled some prayers, before she moved back again with her shaking legs.
This time, she sprinted faster and jumped. She swung across the air while screaming, and let go of the branches too early.
Instead of landing on the branch on her feet, she hit it with the middle of her torso. Letting out a painful cry, she fell down.
She panicked. The fear of dying and being eaten by the zombies below made her throw her arms out to catch a branch below.
She landed on it on her chest, feeling like the air in her lungs had been punch out. She gripped to the branch tightly and struggled to pull herself up.
Slowly lifting her legs and then her hips, she eventually managed to land on there on her feet.
"Tamsin, I swear to God..." she murmured breathlessly as she looked at the blonde who was a few feet above her. Then, she lolled against the trunk while panting hard. She couldn't feel her legs, or her arms. Her chest was in pain like it had been hammered too hard. However, the feeling of being alive and in one piece still made her feel relieved.
She rested for a while, before she moved up to Tamsin's branch. "How long are we gonna keep doing this shit?" She asked.
Tamsin sighed. "I don't know," she answered honestly as she watched the group down below. She noticed that more zombies were coming from outside the woods. "Looks like more are all coming this way."
"Oh great," Kenzi groaned and closed her eyes. "Do you think we could survive if we start to build a treehouse up here right now?"
Tamsin huffed out a light laugh, though she wasn't amused at all. She tried to come up with a plan, where both of them could make out of here alive, but how? How could they get away from this many zombies while more are coming towards them? How far could they go between the trees before they were finally too exhausted to even hold themselves on their feet?
Despair seized her heart as she realized that there might not be an escape at all. What if there wasn't a way out? What if this was it? What if this was the last moment of her life, where she was trapped in a tree among hundreds of zombies, with a woman she barely knew?
She closed her eyes and scoffed. No, I am not giving up. She told herself while clenching her fingers. Not like this.
"Psst," Kenzi's whisper interrupted her. The petite woman gently tapped her shoulder, before she pointed at the other side of the river.
Tamsin looked over through the clusters of pine needles and cones that was in front of her. There, she saw a bulky guy standing among the flesheaters. He was wearing a dark gray hoodie. Most of his face was hidden behind the tattered hood and his hands were tucked in the front pockets. His dark gray fleece pants were tucked in a pair of muddy boots. The boots looked familiar. They looked like the ones that a government settlement had been handing out to its residents, and that made Tamsin frown.
She couldn't see his face, or much of his skin, so she couldn't tell if he was a zombie or not, but somehow she knew that he was an alive person.
But, how could he be an alive person? How could an alive person stand among hundreds of zombies just like that, without being attack?
The guy took a few steps forward and scanned the surroundings. When he saw a lot of zombies gather under a tree, he paused and looked up like he was wondering what was above there.
Tamsin and Kenzi both held their breath and hid themselves carefully behind the trunk. The blonde slowly and cautiously took a peek through the branches, and caught a glimpse of the man's face.
His face reminded her of those hitman or bodyguards she had seen in action movies. but other than that, there was nothing about him that would stand out.
The man quickly lost interest and took a step back. He let out a low, rather weird-tone whistle, before he took off and headed down along the river.
Most of the zombies immediately stopped growling or moving. They paused briefly and turned to him simultaneously. Then, they followed the man, dragging their legs across the river noisily and sloppily and marching away.
A small group chose to stay. They looked up and inhaled hungrily as they weren't ready to give up their preys yet. The bulky guy let out another whistle from afar, as if he was urging them to leave.
Most of them reluctantly followed the army. A few persistent ones stayed behind, waiting for Tamsin and Kenzi to come down, or to fall down.
The two women waited for the army to march away. After those monsters were far gone, they came down and killed the ones that were wandering on the ground.
"Who the hell was that guy?" Kenzi eventually asked, after she sheathed her blade and caught her breath. "I don't think he's a walker, is he?"
Tamsin shook her head. "I don't-"
She stopped abruptly when the murmur of the river reminded her of that time she and Bo had escaped from a group of zombies. The brunette was bathing herself in a river, and a large group of zombie showed up. Then, a bulky guy appeared, and whistled the zombies away, just like this.
She didn't see the guy's face last time, but she wondered if they were the same person. Who was he? How could he do that, whistling zombies away? Why would the zombies even follow his commands? Why wouldn't they attack him? Was he really an alive person?
"What, dude?" Kenzi nudged her.
"Nothing," Tamsin replied quickly "Nothing. Let's just get out of here before they return."
They continued their journey to the old house that Kenzi and Bo used to live in in the next few days. Other than a few stray zombies and some human survivors who tried to attack them but got their ass kicked, the rest of their journey was quite peaceful.
Days later, they had finally arrived at the house. The small, one story house stood quietly in the dusk. The trees in the backyard and the bushes in the front yard had been stripped naked by the early winter. A broken windchime hanging on the front porch sang some dull whimpers in the wind.
Part of the house had already collapsed for it had lacked maintenance for too long. The standing part was covered in foliage, vines and rubbles. A piece of a large falling tree branch had penetrated the roof. Kenzi rolled her eyes at the big hole it had created, and sighed.
She walked into the front yard, and stood by a big oak tree where a swing seat was hanging. One side of the seat was buried in mud since the rope on that side had been broken for a long time.
Kenzi brushed the dead leaves off the seat carefully, and watched a few spiders flee in panic. She tried to tie the two pieces of ropes back together, but it was too worn out.
She sighed again, and turned to the garage.
The garage door was closed. A message was painted on there using bright red paint. "I'm at the 4th settlement." Under that sentence, there was a simple map painted there telling her where the 4th settlement is.
It was Bo's writing, and that finding made Kenzi's heart squeeze painfully. She walked to the garage door and pressed her fingers on the writing while swallowing hard to stop herself from bursting into tears. Then, she turned to a yellow convertible that was parked outside the garage.
It was covered in rust, dirt and dead leaves. Its front hood had been popped up, and a few parts had gone missing. Three wheels of it were gone too.
Kenzi shook her head slightly. She checked the car but found nothing useful. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she stared at the house.
"If you wanna go inside, you probably should do it now," Tamsin reminded her. "We need to set up the camp before it's dark."
Kenzi nodded. After a brief hesitation, she walked to the door.
A row of dead potted plants were sitting on the front porch. Some pots were shattered, and she noticed that they seemed to have been broken recently.
Then, she noticed that the door was budged open and one of its hinges had been pulled off, like someone had forced their way into the house.
She frowned at it, before she pulled out her katana.
Tamsin unsheathed her weapon too. She approached the door in stealth and stood beside Kenzi.
Giving the petite woman a nod, Tamsin pulled out her revolver too.
Kenzi nudged the door, but it seemed that it was stuck. She pushed it hard, and it suddenly flung open in a deadly squeak.
Great. Kenzi thought. So much for the stealth plan. She raised her weapon and stormed in.
Someone was sitting in the middle of the living room. Spooked by Kenzi's noisy entrance, that person jolted and turned to look at her.
Kenzi squeezed the hilt of her katana, about to swing it at that person, but when she saw her face, she froze there, shocked.
"Bo…?" She squinted her eyes hard while letting that name slip out from her lips.
Bo blinked, and then she blinked again. She rolled on her knees and opened her eyes wide at Kenzi. "Kenz?" She murmured, her voice shaking a little.
Kenzi gaped at the other woman. She quickly withdrew her hands when she realized that she was still holding her katana at Bo. She threw her weapon away and let out a choking laugh, before she threw herself at Bo.
"Holy shitface, is this shit real?!" She exclaimed as she hugged Bo tightly. "Oh my God, Bo-bo! I thought you were...I thought you were-" she mumbled loudly, turning into a teary mess in Bo's arms.
Bo choked out a few happy chuckles as she embraced Kenzi. Stunned and a little confused, she looked up, and saw an euqally stunned Tamsin standing there with a machete in her right hand and a revolver in her left.
She eyed those weapons. Then, she moved her eyes to Tamsin's face. Looking into those light blue eyes, Bo tried to pull her quivering lips into a smile, but all she could do was an awkward facial expression where her lips were crooked weirdly.
She had known that Tamsin was alive, but seeing her standing right in front of her was a whole new level of relief and wild joy.
Bo wanted to say something. She wanted to at least greet the blonde, but the moment she opened her mouth, her tears fell.
"Is that...really you?" Tamsin asked in a whisper. She gripped her machete tightly with her shaking fingers. She forced herself to focus. She wanted to figure out if this was another dream of hers, but how could she think straight when her heart was pounding so fast and so nervously? How could she think straight when Bo was right in front of her and looking back at her with those warm brown eyes that had been haunting her dreams for too long?
Licking her lips that had suddenly gone dry, Tamsin sucked in some air to relieve the painful thrills dancing in her chest. She desperately waited for Bo's answer. Was she real, or was she nothing but an illusion of her crazy, exhausted mind?
The brunette chuckled and nodded, smiling in tears. "Yeah, it's me."
Tamsin smiled back while putting her weapons in place. She had a hard time stuffing her gun back into its holster, and ended up putting it down on the floor.
She cleared her throat and rubbed her palm against her lap repeatedly while wondering if she should go give the brunette a hug. She wanted to. She wanted to hold her, to cup her face and to kiss every inch of her face, but Kenzi was there sobbing happily on Bo's shoulder.
She eventually walked to Bo and reached her hand out. She barely touched Bo's cheek with her trembling fingers, before she quickly withdrew them and gave Bo a firm squeeze on her shoulder instead.
Bo turned to her and smiled again. She reached for Tamsin's hand and held it in hers tightly with their fingers locked.
Holding Bo's gaze, Tamsin swallowed nervously. That moment, she knew that the brunette was real, so very real. As real as the little sparkles in those brown eyes. As real as that soft chuckle dancing in the air. As real as those smiling lips, that happy voice, that blazing warmth. As real as everything that was bubbling in her chest right now.
The night slowly fell, its darkness veiling the whole world. Kenzi started to babble about what had happened to her. She went on and on about the things that had happened in the military, in the settlement with Tamsin, and their journey to this old house, and almost every sentence of hers would make Bo chuckle or gasp,
Tamsin wasn't paying much attention to those babbels, though. She just looked at Bo while smiling like an idiot.
And every once in awhile, Bo would look back at her. Those bright sparkles in her dark eyes would make Tamsin's heart go wild and her mind go crazy.
A/N: Finally the reunion!
If you are wondering about Bo's journey, don't worry, she's gonna tell Tamsin (and later Kenzi) all about it in the next chapter. And there is going to be some fluff since the two of them haven't seen each other for a very long time. :)