“I’ll hit you,” I replied in a joking manner. We all erupted into laughter, a nice and hearty laughter, though I coughed twice after. Chelsea had just thrown the hotdogs onto the frying pan and was heating up the green beans as well.
“Dinner’s almost ready,” She said, poking at the hotdogs with a fork.
Zach clapped his hands together, “Great, I’m starving.” He walked over to the pan and took a deep whiff of the food, “Smells wonderful.”
“Of course it does,” Chelsea said. “I made it.”
“Touché,” Zach replied. “Back to your point, Daryl. I agree that you have been successfully killing the contaminated by hitting them over the head with the blunt objects, but I don’t think the actual shot to the head is what is killing them. Do you remember when you took off half of the contamianted’s face with the wrench?” I nodded. “Well, it was still coming after you. And when I shot the one earlier today, it was still approaching. I think that when you guys would hit the contaminated in the head, it would sever some part of the connection in the spine, thus resulting in a dead contaminated.”
“So, you’re saying that we’ve been technically doing it all wrong this whole time?” I asked.
“Well, kind of yeah, but it has been working out. So you have also been doing it right,” He finished. “Really, I am no expert on human anatomy or the most effective way to kill people, so I honestly have no absolute answer.”
I shrugged my shoulders, “That’s okay. I figure that I am right anyways.”
“Right about what?” He asked.
“Everything,” I smiled at him as Chelsea brought out the food. I picked up a hotdog and proceeded to sneeze on it full force, “That one’s mine.”
“Along with half of the rest of dinner,” Zach jested.
We ate heartily that night. Zach bid us a good night and went off to his side early. Chelsea was up, cleaning the dishes, “You really don’t need to do that.” I said. “It’s not like we’ll need those by the end of the week.”
“I guess it’s just habit,” she said, vigorously scrubbing the pan. “It sort of calms me from all of this craziness that’s been going on around here.” She continued to scrub. I wrapped my hands around her waist, but coughed, ruining the moment. Chelsea reached over and kissed me on the cheek, “Why don’t you go rest up. You will need your strength for tomorrow. No need to be fighting the cold on the eve of our departure. I’ll be up shortly.”
I nodded and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning in. I don’t remember how I became so tired, but all that I remember was my head hitting the pillow and the darkness of sleep take me.
I awoke the next morning with a pounding headache and weakness in my eyes. My nose was running and my chest felt as if a fifty pound weight was resting on top of it. It seemed as if every single one of my breaths was a hard, phlegm filled cough. I sat up, and it did not get any better. Looking around the room, I noticed that Chelsea had already gotten up. My watch read ten thirty in the morning. I overslept.
Forcing myself out of bed, I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Chelsea was sitting on the counter talking to Zach. “He’s just really doesn’t look too good. Oh hey, Daryl!” She said, jumping off the counter to give me a morning peck on the cheek. “You don’t look so wonderful.”
“Thanks for being blunt,” I replied.
“You look like shit,” Zach said with a smirk on his face.
“Keep that up and I’ll sneeze on you,” I replied.
Chelsea’s hand was on my forehead, checking my temperature. “You are burning up. Gosh you have a fever and it’s huge. You are not going out of the house today.”
I shook my head, “No, we need to prepare things. I can’t have the two of you guys running around without me. Besides, I need more practice with the guns-“
“Chill out, Daryl,” Zach said, leaning his chair back so that it balanced only on two legs. “We have already talked it over. We’ll be going back to the superstore to look for medicine and take some target practice.”
“Which I need target practice,” I interrupted.
“Eh, not really. The guns might not be as effective as we thought since we’ll have to start focusing on the spine now. A headshot might not be as effective without the blunt weapons, which you specialize in.”
“Oh, I don’t specialize in anything,” I countered.
“Daryl,” Chelsea said, resting her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t strain yourself. Besides, we’ll need you here. Zach and I have already planned it out to work nicely. You can discuss the travel plan with our guy in Indianapolis, what was his name? Ah doesn’t matter. If anything happens to us you’ll have a walkie talkie to get in contact.”
I did not respond right away as I knew when I was beaten. It was a solid plan. We had communication, and they would be practicing. Chelsea and Zach had already gone out on their own before, but this time it bothered me for some reason. I could not tell if I was being a jealous boyfriend or simply paranoid. “Alright,” I finally responded. They both sighed in relief. I figured that we did not need to argue when they would be doing such a dangerous task. My sick self did not need to be on their mind distracting them as they potentially fought against the contaminated.
Chelsea squealed in excitement and kissed me on the cheek. “We’re going to be leaving then. I actually argued with Zach to wait for you to be up just so that
