Though to be fair, most people would have faired much better had there been some type of warning before the full outbreak.
After I was no longer on bed rest, I was still encouraged to take it as easy as I could. Though Daniel and I began going for short walks around the hanger. Lasa sometimes went with us but sometimes she wanted to stay with her aunt Phoebe.
I finally told Lasa Daniel and I were getting married. I hadn’t had a chance to before. She was so excited; she began jumping on the bed. I didn’t tell her to stop, instead I just laughed at her enthusiasm.
“You’re getting married like a Princess,” she said. “Let’s read Cinderella!” She insisted.
I laughed as that was her favorite. She insisted on that book for any occasion. I sat down with her on the bed to begin reading.
I hadn’t been reading to Lasa long when a siren went off. The siren was so loud, and the lights went out leaving only a blinking red light.
“What is that?” Lasa asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
In the midst of the sirens I could hear a growling in the hall.
Lasa looked at me with panic in her eyes. I instructed her to hide under the table near the bed. I quietly shut the door and joined her in the hiding spot.
The alarm was loud and blaring as we waited for something. I wasn’t sure how the zombie got in as the hanger was like a bomb shelter. A bunker of safety.
I heard the faint sound of the door squeak as it opened. I heard the growling and saw the feet of the zombie shuffle in.
I held Lasa as we curled up in the corner of the dark room under the table.
The zombie was inching closer to us. Snarling and growling as it went. I didn’t know where the others were, and I couldn’t scream out for them. Being pregnant, I wasn’t in much condition to fight the zombie.
It got closer to us and then stopped. It was messing with something on the table.
Lasa’s breathing was becoming labored from her crying. I could feel her little body struggling to stay silent as the fear coursed through her veins.
“It’s okay,” I whispered into her ear and kissed the side of her head. “We’re okay.”
I had to believe it even though I highly doubted it was true.
The zombie was banging around on the table. I expected it to flip the table at any second.
It was growling and pounding its hands or fingers against the table.
Suddenly a loud ringing filled the silence of the room. It sounded like the ringing when you call someone on the phone. Which didn’t make sense as no phones had worked it months.
The zombie began to stagger away as the ringing continued. The ringing was leaving us. It was coming from my cellphone. I realized I had left it on the table.
As the realization hit me, the room filled in with a loud breathless and shocked sounding “Hello.”
The hello was quickly followed by “Shelly, is that you?”
My sisters voice was exactly as I remembered it. My memory had crystalized it perfectly.
I fought the urge to scream out and tell her I was okay. There were so many things I wanted to tell her. But any noise would give away our location to the zombie that had stopped bothering us seemingly mesmerized by the voice coming from the phone.
It let out a low but not menacing growl at the phone.
“Shelly?” Cate said again, now sounding panicked.
The zombie let out another growl that sounded almost like a cat purr. It seemed to be enjoying the voice speaking to it from the other end.
“What’s going on?” I heard someone ask. A younger voice coming in from the phone.
“I’m not…I’m not sure,” Cate replied, then said, “Shelly, if this is you please tell me you’re alright.”
“I don’t think that’s….” the other voice said before the phone cut off as it was thrown into the wall. The zombie clearly bored of it by then.
I thought the zombie staggered away, no longer interested in our room.
“Do you have her number to call her back?” Lasa asked quietly.
I nodded. “Yeah, I know it by heart.”
That’s when the table flipped. The zombie growled as Lasa screamed. I stupidly had left my gun on the table and it scattered across the floor away from me.
“Go Lasa,” I instructed as I tried to keep the zombie focused on me.
I grabbed Lasa’s book off the nightstand as it was all I had. I swiped it at the zombie. I hit the side of the zombie’s head, causing it to growl in anger.
When I tried to hit it again, it caught the book in its teeth. I tried to get it free, but the zombies jaws were locked in tight. In the tussle, I fell backwards, and the zombie landed on me. It was uncomfortable but I put my forearm against its neck as it chomped wildly near my face. Its breath smelled of death and it was all I could do to keep from gagging.
I knew this was it. It had to be, there was no way this zombie wasn’t going to bite me.
Just as I thought I was done for; I heard a loud shot ring out. Cold black blood landed on my face and the zombie stopped thrashing as it went limp.
I pushed the zombie off me and looked to see Lasa with the gun in her hand.
“I should have acted sooner but I was scared,” she said.
I smiled, “You did great.”
The alarm died, and the lights came back on.
“Shelly?!” I heard Daniel say panicked.
Daniel burst in the room. He took in
