Benton: A Zombie Novel: Volume One (7 page)

“Really?” says Katie. “Are you sure it’s okay for us to join him?”

“Yeah, dude’s got a big ass room.” Gary points. “It’s right over there. Number five.”

“So let’s grab some food and stuff and bring them to the room,” I say. “His name is Bill, and he looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks.”

“See, Sara,” says Katie. “Everything is going to be all right.”

I look at Sara. “You okay?”

She stares out the window and doesn’t answer.

“Sara, I said are you okay?”

Sara jerks her head and glares at me. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine.” She gets up and runs out the van to Bill’s motel room.

* * *

As we arrive at Bill’s room, he’s standing in the doorway. Despite everything that’s happening, he looks content.

Katie places her bag on the floor and gives Bill a hug. “Hi, I’m Katie.”

“Well, hello there!” Bill says, hugging her back.

Sara is already in the room, sitting in a chair and staring at the floor. We close the motel room door and put the supplies on the top of a dresser.

I look in the bathroom. Bill has placed a pillow and a blanket in the bathtub.

I stick my head out. “You’ve been sleeping in here, Bill?”

“Yes, I feel safer that way.” 

Mark pats Bill’s back. “We’ll set up here and get you something to eat, and no more sleeping in the bathroom for you.”

“I’m just so grateful you young people came by to see me.”

Katie whispers into my ear, “We can’t leave Bill here. We’ve got to take him with us.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” I say.

Sara is rocking back and forth in her chair, staring at the floor, balling her fist on her lap.

I go over to her and kneel in front of her. “How’s it going?”

“What day is it?” she says.

“Um . . . I don’t know. I never know what day it is anymore.”

“It’s Sunday,” says Katie. “My diary says it’s Sunday.”

“When we were swimming, it reminded me of when I used to go to the beach with my brother on Sundays,” says Sara. “That used to be our way of taking a break from everything. Just hanging on the beach, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. One of these days, I’ll go to the beach again.”

Sara’s expression changes. “What makes you think you’ll ever have the life you used to have? It’s over, Jennifer, over.”

“Well, it’s over for now, but things will get better.”

Sara lets out a demonic laugh. “Don’t you get it? This is it. We’re fucked. Those things have taken over.”

“Sara, calm down,” says Mark.

“Don’t tell me to fucking calm down. I’m tired of people telling me to calm down.”

Poor Bill stares at Sara, wondering what the heck is going on.

* * *

The motel room door is double locked. The curtains are closed, blocking all view from the outside. Katie peeks out the curtains and sees two zombies down the road. We remind her that the curtains need to stay closed and to stay away from the window.

We’re preparing our food. Bill lies on the bed, watching us. It makes me happy to know we saved him from what could have been a disaster. Sara, however, hasn’t left her spot.

“I’m worried about her,” whispers Mark.

“Yeah, me too,” I say. “Andy’s death was hard for her, and losing Eli hasn’t helped.”

* * *

We’re eating our food. Every so often, I notice Bill staring at Sara with a worried look on his face. Gary notices it too.

“Don’t mind her,” says Gary. “She’s just crazy, is all.”

Sara gives Gary a stern look, but she doesn’t say anything.

“My wife died, and we lost our son before she died,” says Bill. “I’ve been a widow for quite some time. Then zombies drove me and Jim, my neighbor, out of our homes. Luckily for me, Jim owns this motel and put me up in this room. Used to share it with two other people, but, they left and never came back.”

“What about Jim?” says Katie. “Is Jim alive?”

Bill looks at Katie and doesn’t say anything at first, but then he speaks. “The last time I saw Jim, he was a zombie. Saw him outside my window. He grabbed someone, but I stopped looking after that.” Bill sets his empty plate down. “I was going to knock on doors and beg for food. But you see what happened. I’m all out. There’s nothing left.”     

“Then it’s a good thing we came by,” I say. “Especially because the other people in this motel are just hiding from one another.”

“When we leave, you’ll come with us,” says Mark.

I look at Mark. Of course, it’s the right thing to do. I’m sure we were all thinking it, but we waited for Mark to say it.

Bill shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to be a burden.” 

I stare at the veins on Bill’s hands. “We need to take you with us. You can’t stay here.” 

Bill looks at me with tears in his eyes. I go over to him and give him a hug. “It will be good, Bill. You’ll see.”

* * *

After we’ve eaten our food, we clean up and relax. Sara is no longer sitting in the chair. She’s in her sleeping bag. I think about the time when the zombie almost got her. I notice blood from that zombie still stains her bag. I cross my fingers that Sara will be better in the morning.

* * *

Bill is resting on one of the beds. I’m glad we were able to feed him, and I’m sure he prefers sleeping on a bed to sleeping in a bathtub.

Gary is sleeping next to him. Katie has the other bed to herself, for now. Sara is in her sleeping bag on the floor.

It’s no surprise that I’m still awake, but so is Mark. We’re sitting at a table, our space lit with candles.

“I’m glad we convinced Bill to come with us.”

“Of course; we can’t leave him here.”

I kiss Mark on the lips. Then I look over at Gary to make sure he’s still asleep. The last thing I need is for him to wake up and be staring at us.

Then Mark kisses me on the lips, allowing me to melt into his mouth, once again.

But then Mark pulls his lips away and puts his hands on my head. “I wish I could kiss you all night, but we should get some sleep, yeah?”

“I’d like to sleep with you.” I’m surprised at myself for blurting it out.

Mark raises his eyebrow. “Well, I could take you into the bathroom and lay you in the bathtub.”

I laugh, grateful Mark is going with it. “No, I don’t think Bill would appreciate us doing it in his bathroom.”

Mark kisses me on the lips again. “Someday, Jen, someday soon, I hope. Now let’s go get some sleep.”

I nod my head. Instead of sleeping next to Katie, I decide to place my sleeping bag on the floor next to Mark’s. We lie side by side. Mark holds my hand as I fall asleep.

16.

I FEEL A TAP ON MY BACK. I look up. Katie is standing over me. “Have you seen Sara?”

“No, Katie. I’ve been asleep.” I look over at Sara’s empty sleeping bag. “Did you check the bathroom?”

Katie rolls her eyes. “Yes. She’s not here.”

Bill is sitting up in his bed, but Gary is still sleeping. “Did she run away?” Bill asks.

“I don’t know!” I say as I rush out of my sleeping bag.

“What’s the matter?” says Mark, waking up.

“Sara’s not here.”

“Christ! Okay, let’s go find her.”

“I’m coming with you,” I say.

“What’s going on?” says Gary, waking up as well.

“Sara’s gone,” says Mark. “We’ve got to find her.”

“You guys stay put,” I tell Bill and Katie. “We’ll go out and look for her.”

* * *

Gary, Mark, and I check the van, but there’s no Sara. There is a parking lot in front of the motel, a road, and then woods next to the road. “Let’s go look in the woods. Maybe she’s in there,” I say.

“She could be any fucking where,” says Gary. “This is bullshit!”

“Gary, stop making it worse,” I say.

“Yeah,” says Mark. “Let’s just find her.”

I want to scream Sara’s name, but I know that’s not the thing to do anymore if you’ve lost someone. You can attract zombies by screaming, just like you can attract them with gunshots.

We walk into the woods, guns ready, leaves and twigs bunching and crackling under our shoes. My nerves are on high alert. I know there are zombies in here.

It doesn’t take me long to see it. Everyone knows Sara by her black boots. They’re sticking out from behind a tree.

I grab Mark’s arm. He looks at me. Then I point at the tree. Mark motions to Gary and we all rush over. I gasp. Sure enough, just as I feared, there’s Sara, on her back behind the tree. Her arms are stretched above her, her gun by her arms.

I look at her head. Blood covers the ground below it. Her hair and her face are also covered with blood. I fall into Mark’s arms and he holds me tight.

“Damn, Sara, why’d you do it?” says Gary.

I cry as Mark pulls me in tighter and then I feel Gary coming in to hug as well. We all just hold each other, in silence, as Sara’s body lies by our feet.

Then, we hear them. Zombies coming our way. There aren’t three or four or even ten. We see twenty or thirty.

“Oh my God,” I say. “We’ve got to move Sara.”

“No! There are too many. Run!” says Gary.

“Come on, Jen. Let’s move!” says Mark.

We run out of the woods. I don’t look back. I can’t look back.

We bang the motel room’s door, and Bill lets us in. Then I fall on a bed, unable to move or breathe. We’ve lost three people to this horrible mess. I don’t think I can take losing any more.

“Where’s Sara?” screams Katie.

“She’s dead,” says Gary.

Katie starts to cry and falls next to me on the bed. We hold each other tight.

17.

WE’RE BACK ON THE ROAD. Mark is driving and I’m up front with him, but we’re not speaking. Nobody in the van is.

It doesn’t surprise me that Sara took her own life. I imagine we’ve all felt like killing ourselves. Depression can ruin a person’s body and soul, especially if the person is as fragile as Sara was.

I look behind me at Bill. He’s sitting back, relaxed, writing in a crossword puzzle. We’ve just met him, but I know the situation we’re all in has gotten to him as well. Yet, he seems to be doing what he can to calm his nerves.

Katie has never been one to hide her emotions. She’s been crying most of the trip. I don’t blame her.

But it’s Gary who has changed. Now he’s calm, quiet, a man beaten by all this, whether he has admitted it to himself or not. His callous attitude and grins are gone, and he looks human.

Mark pulls the van over to the side of the road so we can pee. I don’t need to go and neither does Katie. Mark, Bill, and Gary pee and then after Gary finishes, he leans against the side of the van to smoke a cigarette. 

I leave the van to go talk to him. “Hi.”

“Hey,” he says.

“How are you?”

“I’m good.” He doesn’t look at me.

I bump him. “You sure about that?”

This time, Gary does look at me. He tries to smile, but then he brings a finger to his eye and wipes it. “It’s crazy, you know? It just goes on and on.”

“Yeah, I know.” Tears well in my eyes as well. “Just think about Texas and how great it’s gonna be over there.”

“He’s got you buying that shit too, huh?”

I’m not mad at Gary for saying it. I’ve tried not to question Mark’s plan, but my skepticism is still there. “Well, I have to hope the place is gonna be okay. Otherwise, I guess we’ll have to go find a camp to live in.”

“Nah, screw that.”

“Yeah, I guess the camps are not the best places to be.”

“I lived in one for a month, over in Indiana.” He looks at me. “You ever been to prison?”

I laugh. “No.”

“A camp is just another prison. Just another overcrowded prison.”

“They seem scary to me.”

“A girl like you would have a hard time there.” Gary looks me up and down. “Yeah, that’s for sure.”

I hate when Gary inspects me, but I’m trying hard to like him.

“No, once we get to Texas, I’ll go out on my own. Go find me someplace to hole up and some woman to hole up with.”

I laugh. “You got it all figured out, huh?”

“You gonna stay with Mark? Be his woman?”

You’d have to be blind not to know that Mark and I like each other. “Yeah, I’m staying with Mark.”

“So what you gonna do with dipshit and the old man?” Gary takes another smoke. “‘Cause they’re not coming with me.”

“Katie and Bill can stay with Mark and me. Lord knows Katie can’t make it on her own. I would hate for anything to happen to her. And obviously, Bill needs us as well.”

Mark walks over to Gary and me. “You folks ready? We need to get moving.”

“Yep, we’re ready.” It occurs to me that the entire time I’m talking to Gary, I don’t even think about zombies. Even though I question how safe Mark’s home is in Texas, it’s become a huge fantasy for me to think the place is secure enough for a person to de-stress in all this.

I never thought I would spend my life with someone like Katie or that Bill would come into my life, but we all need one another now. Gary thinks about Gary and that’s no surprise, but I do hope that if he decides to go on his own, he’ll be okay.

18.

WE’VE FOUND ANOTHER ABANDONED HOME, a ranch that looks to be less than ten years old.

The neighborhood it’s in reminds me of Waterbank, the small, quiet place where I grew up. Yet, unlike what I left in Waterbank, I’m not staring at dead bodies here.

Green signs are on the doors of these homes, directing people to a nearby camp.

Many people have abandoned their houses for these camps. The government encouraged people to do it.

I’ve never thought the government has people’s best interests in mind. It’s ironic that I’m now living with people who feel the same.

It wasn’t hard for Gary and Mark to break into the house, and now they’re checking it out.

Me? I’m sitting here with a knot in my stomach, content just to wait in the van with Katie and Bill. I have no interest in proving my worth as a female in the zombie apocalypse. It’s natural for Mark to take over and to call on a fellow male for help. That’s just the way he is. I don’t feel the need to prove anything to him or to anyone right now.

I sit next to Katie. I put my arm around her, and she looks at me with those bright blue eyes. Then, she puts her head on my shoulder. The energy has left her usual bubbly self.