Chelsea merely smiled, “I’m sure that I am able to cut around the burned section,” she said, taking the plate from my hand. “And I expect some bacon on the side.”
I laughed at her request, “Right away, miss.” I pulled the bacon out of the freezer and broke off a couple of pieces (which was not easy as my smart ass decided to do it fully frozen). “Just to clarify things,” I said as the bacon sizzled on top of the frying pan. “Just because it is the end of the world, it does not mean that you can wear the pants.”
“Would you rather I didn’t wear pants?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
I had to control my bacon for a second, “Just remember, Jesus is watching!” I pointed up to the sky and we both belted out laughing uncontrollably. Chelsea even managed a full on snort, extending the moment.
We had finally settled down after a good thirty seconds. I remembered to flip the bacon over, cooking it in its own grease. “I had a dream last night,” I said.
Chelsea was chewing her eggs, but was able to motion with her hands that she was interested.
“It was about the first contaminated that I killed,” I said, toying with the eggs in the frying pan. “Sometimes I’ll still think of it, every now and again.” I turned off the burner and placed the bacon on a napkin, draining some of the grease from it. “It bothers me, but I can’t pinpoint how. I don’t regret killing the thing. I mean it was pretty much already dead, but there’s something about the whole scenario that just really makes me cringe inside.”
I brought over the plate of bacon, laying it on the kitchen table for us to eat.
“Well you shouldn’t worry about it,” Chelsea said, picking up a piece of bacon. “It’s you or them. That’s the unfortunate way of things now…” her voice trailed off.
I think I finally realized why the first time that I killed one of the contaminated was finally bothering me, and Chelsea did too. If it was me or them, I would have to kill Chelsea as if she was nothing but a monster, a contaminated. I did not want that. She may be the last person that I will ever interact with, and she is my girlfriend.
Her fork fell to the plate with a light clatter, not as if she threw it down, but more of a light drop with a weighty contact. I was about to go over to her when she got up and walked away to the hallway, she walked swiftly as I heard light footsteps going up the stairs to the bedroom.
I was pissed off, not at her but myself. I’d been able to keep her spirits up for so many weeks, helping her remember that the military should be coming back any day now, reminding her that we could survive on our own, her parents…
Coal jumped onto a chair, her head just poking over the kitchen table. Her nose was sniffing into the air in the direction of the bacon and eggs. I cupped my hand around her cheek and scratched her behind her dark ears. She was purring within a few seconds. I had to smile at that. My cat was the only thing that could always cheer me up no matter the situation. She was so sweet and innocent that I could not help but smile when she was around.
I snapped off a piece of the crispy bacon and held it out for her to sniff. Before long she snapped it up into her mouth, teeth not even grazing against my skin. I went to get another piece of bacon and saw the burned remains of the eggs that I had made for Chelsea. I took the entire plate and placed it on the floor for her to get too. She happily jumped off of her perch on the chair and began purring while eating burned egg. Whatever makes you happy.
I made my way up the stairs and into the bedroom. Chelsea was slumped over the edge of the bed, her hands in her face. She did not hear me coming. “Hey,” I managed to say. Proper words for proper times. “Uh, you know, I’m not quitting on you yet.”
“It doesn’t matter. You know what those military guys told us, it spreads once it’s able to enter the bloodstream,” she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m just going to end up like any other contaminated.”
I sat on the bed behind her, gently placing my hands on her shoulders. “Well,” I began. “At least you’re my contaminated.”
Chelsea let out a soft snort of laughter at that. She turned her head, puffy red eyes staring into my own. “Well when you put it like that, it makes it sound so much better, as if I have herpes or something like that.”
“You have herpes?!” I said, doing my best acting job at being surprised. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
She laughed, a full laugh this time. Her white teeth, straightened from years of excruciatingly painful braces showed through. I relaxed a little bit. The only thing worse than being in an apocalyptic scenario where nerds in their mother’s basements got more and more excited with each waking day until they got their throats ripped out by blood mongering monsters was bad enough, was the future realization that I might have to do it
