“You sure you want to get married?” I asked.
“To you? Yeah. You’re the forever I never should have been able to find in this bleakness.”
I smiled, “I really love you.”
“I love you too.”
He slipped the ring on my finger and kissed my forehead. I leaned my head on his shoulder and we took the final watch together.
Chapter 13
We held hands as we watched the sun rise. The others got up and we went in groups, taking turns to take care of business.
“Are we going to be alright?” Lasa asked me as she, Phoebe and I freshened up.
I looked to Phoebe and she had a sympathetic look in her eyes.
“We’re going to keep fighting. It’s a hard time and it’s dangerous but I will do anything to keep you safe.” I told her and kissed her cheek.
She hugged me tight then. I hugged her back.
We walked back to the vehicles and Daniel started the car. We made our way toward the base.
As we drove, it began to rain. Being Guam, the rain didn’t last long but it was still relaxing. A bit of normalcy in a world of insanity.
Daniel was right about it being difficult to navigate. There were tons of abandoned cars on the road. Though it was worse going the other direction. I remembered the back up of cars from when Daniel, Phoebe and I made our way across the island with Robert, Jamie, and Freddie.
That seemed like a lifetime ago though it had only been about six months.
We were able to go off road where we needed to being in the SUV’s. All things considered we made good time.
There weren’t many zombies. At least no hordes. There were a few stragglers. I guess the hordes were coming up from the ocean.
As we got closer to the base and I saw my POS car still sitting on the side of the road where it broke down. The tires were missing from it and there was a zombie missing its lower half crawling towards it.
Daniel pulled the Jeep up to the gate of the base. Unbelievably it was still guarded. The base had not suffered the same fate as the Navy Base did being overrun.
Despite this, it still looked mostly deserted.
“Sorry, no entry,” the guard said and then looked at me. It was Richard, “Shelly! I can’t believe it. I thought you were dead.”
“Hi, Richard. I’m okay. Just have a situation.”
He waved for me to come talk to him in the guard post.
I got out of the Jeep.
“Whoa,” he said seeing my growing belly. “I guess you’re full of life.”
I laughed a bit and explained to him what was going on. Why we left where we were and our theory about Phoebe.
“She was bit and didn’t turn?” He asked.
I nodded.
“I got to call it in, but Japan feels they’re close to finding a cure.”
“Japan? You’ve heard from Japan?” I asked surprised.
“Yeah, the Air Force Base was able to reestablish contact with a few bases,” He shared. “Not a lot of them but none of this seems as bleak as before.”
“Except zombies popping up out of the ocean,” I stated.
“What?” He asked genuinely perplexed by my statement.
I explained what happened to our camp site. He was truly stunned.
Luckily, most of the Air Force Base was on high cliffs but he would make calls to verify the beaches were heavily guarded.
After a few walkie talkie conversations, we were approved to stay.
An officer came to escort us to where we would be staying. The officer insisted on driving the Jeep and Daniel moved to the passenger side to let him. I moved to the back with the kids. Lasa laid her head against my arm.
The drive was uneventful with little conversation. The officer was not one for small talk.
We were assigned three rooms in the dorms. We could spread out in them how we saw fit.
“Someone will be by to pick up the one who survived the bite in the morning,” He said, “Don’t leave your rooms for any other reason until told otherwise.” He finished.
Luther took the kids saying it made the most logical sense since I or Daniel should be with Phoebe. He also insisted I needed to get some rest as I had been moving more than I should have been.
Lasa wasn’t too thrilled with it, but she didn’t protest too much. She did make a big show of giving me a hug and making me kiss Chippy before she left.
Kent and Gerald shared a room while Daniel, Phoebe and I took the last one.
Daniel said he’d sleep on the floor since there was only two twin beds in the rooms.
Phoebe went to the bathroom to freshen up. Though without power or running water, I figured she went in there for a few moments alone.
Daniel handed me my phone that he had grabbed from the car.
“Thanks,” I said as I had forgotten about it. “Don’t know why I still plug it in and drag it everywhere.”
“You still have hope that your sister is alright. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Except it’s silly.”
“It’s not,” he said brushing my hair from my face and kissing my forehead.
He set up a bed for himself and almost immediately began snoring.
I looked at my phone. It had a fully charged battery and for the first time in months, I saw a few bars indicating service.
I couldn’t believe it. I knew I had to give it a shot. I went to my contacts and pressed call when it got to Cate’s name.
There was nothing on the other end of the line. Not even a message that my call couldn’t be completed
