I sighed with relief, “Good, I was worried. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“It’s alright. Both of you are pretty stressed out. How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner,” he said.
“He didn’t do anything to me; just the intention has me unnerved.”
He nodded. “That was smart to draw in a zombie like that.”
“I was trying to get a zombie or you. I was worried I would draw in a horde of them which happened but I was at a loss of what to do.”
“It worked. That’s what matters.” He said with a smile.
I sat down next to him and we began to talk for a while. He was trying to take my mind off what had happened I think. Phoebe was still asleep or at least she wasn’t coming out of the room.
Daniel talked about his parents and his childhood. He told me a lot about Jamie. She was extremely smart and had been accepted into Yale but chose to move back to Guam and go to the University here. I didn’t understand how someone so smart could end up with someone so terrible like Freddie. I didn’t dwell on it though since the very thought of Freddie made me want to vomit.
Daniel and I talked about the shows we were going to miss like Family Guy and Elementary. We also talked about how we’d both miss watching baseball in the summer. It was bittersweet to reminisce. We had lost so much in such a short amount of time. Even the little stupid stuff was gone. We’d probably never enjoy a soda again. No fast food, movies, even surfing the web. It was all gone now.
It had gotten late and neither of us was ready to sleep. I knew we needed to since we planned to leave in the morning. Instead we just kept talking.
After a while I felt the air change, aware of the tension. I knew deep down it had been there all along but it still surprised me. I was of course attracted to him. However, I still felt like a married woman. As if I’d be doing something wrong to pay attention to the growing longing.
He leaned in first and I met him halfway. I was surprised by how tender his kiss was. It flowed so easy, his lips lining the curves of my neck. He knew all the right places to touch me.
Maybe it was being threatened by death so closely and I just wanted to feel alive and I gave in. I just needed to feel the heat of skin on skin. Feel the urgency and kiss of passion.
Afterwards Daniel fell asleep. I was too wired to sleep so I stayed awake and kept watch. I felt a bit strange about what had just happened between Daniel and me. I’d never been with anyone but Adam. It was weird but kind of nice too.
I sat in the dark listening to the wind outside. The rain had gone but the wind was still strong. I could hear the occasional moan of the dead. They didn’t sound close to us. It sounded like the wind was picking up the voices. There was really no telling how close they might be.
Halfway through the night I heard something different, the shuffling of feet. I listened hard, trying to distinguish what I was hearing over the wind. It was close. The shuffling and the moans that followed. There was something dead on the porch.
I put my ear against the wall between the door and the window. I could hear nails scrapping along the other side of where I stood. It was right there, so close to us. I heard an angry groan and the scrapping and shuffling stopped.
I backed away from the wall. I had a feeling that dead creature on the other side sensed my presence. I got my gun ready just in case, though I felt strangely calm. I wasn’t as scared as I should or had been in the previous encounters with these things. Maybe it became easier over time or maybe it was all the trauma I had been dealt since this mess started. Maybe dealing with the dead creatures wanting to eat my guts out was an easier thing to deal with than everything else that had come my way.
The dead creature must have lost its interest because I heard it shuffle the other way. Eventually the shuffling faded completely. I put my gun away. I would just tell Daniel and Phoebe what I heard when we left in the morning.
The morning, I hadn’t thought about that. We were finally going to continue our journey in the morning and would split up somewhere along the way. I would finally make it to the Navy base.
The thing was, was there a point in continuing on to that destination? I didn’t know anymore. It was the only thing that kept me going after the loss of my dear Jackie and Adam. It was what kept me breathing and surviving. It was the thing that kept me fighting.
So why give it up now? Was it worth it? Most likely they wouldn’t let me on the Navy base or what might be left of it. They probably wouldn’t have any ships leaving. So much time had passed now. Though, deep down I had to admit that staying now would have little to do with logic and all to do with emotion. I couldn’t deny that if I stayed I’d be staying now because of having slept with Daniel. Was that anything more than a moment of pure human need? Would he be worth staying for? And what was love in a world like this anyway?
I knew I couldn’t stay. I needed
