Dead Beginnings | Vol. 3, page 9
part #3 of Dead Beginnings Series
When she wasn’t defending herself she was testing out the vegetation around her. Food was more sparse in the stores every day and with all the calories she burned with her constant movement her stomach craved more than a can of food a day. Grass was the worst and she refused to try that again, especially when she tasted the grit of dirt on the blades, or what she hoped was dirt. She was elated to find wild berries growing in a bush but then regretted it an hour later when she retched it all up. Apparently those berries were merely decorative and not meant to be consumed.
At night she spent her time up in the trees away from the munching mouths of the dead. When she climbed up, racing the setting sun to the highest, most comfortable branch before it sank beneath the horizon of Lake Michigan, she was reminded of her childhood in her quaint, quiet neighborhood where there were rows of perfect climbing trees and plenty of kids to climb them with on hot summer days. She rested her back against the thick trunk of the tree and let one leg hang down, swinging back and forth lazily. With her hands folded over her stomach she stared up at the canopy of leaves over her hoping for a quick glimpse of the evening stars above. Sometimes the zombies would get wise and notice her up there and surround the tree. One night they stayed there until the sun rose again and she knew she would have to take care of the problem. They were relentless. She was more so, though, and she took out all five of them in under a minute. She was becoming deadly in her practice and she liked it.
But eventually the weight of endless wandering coupled with the lack of food and proper water caught up with her. That morning she felt a little lightheaded when she hopped out of the tree, landing on the ground on wobbly knees. The woods seemed to spin around her as she walked and a few times she ran right into a tree that seemed to dance around her. She opened her mouth to speak, not sure who she would be talking to, and then fell to the ground, everything around her going black.
When Olivia came to she was back in the bird sanctuary building behind the information desk. She was groggy and moaned with a terrible headache as she tried to sit up. It was dark but she knew the place well. In her confusion she expected to hear her mother coming out of the bathroom and to see Axel patrolling the front doors to make sure they were securely locked for the night. But she looked around and didn’t see anyone. Was it all a dream? Had they been there the whole time and her mother and boyfriend were really alive and well? Her mind still reeled with exhaustion so it let her believe the lie for just a moment. And then an unfamiliar voice spoke.
“I think she’s awake,” it whispered in the blackness not too far away.
“Well don’t just stand there, go make sure she’s OK,” a woman reprimanded.
The shuffling of feet grew louder as someone approached her. On instinct she smashed herself against the wall with nowhere to go. Her eyes squeezed shut tight and she felt around on the floor for her bat eagerly.
“It’s OK, little darlin’,” the man said. His voice was deep and gruff but also smooth and soothing.
Olivia opened her eyes and took in the face that was half-hidden in the darkness in front of her. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and a hulking girth. His hair was wavy, messy, and a beautiful rustic auburn. The same color ran through his beard which covered the entire lower half of his face with its bushiness.
“Are you hurt? Have you been bit?” he asked sincerely. She could tell he was more concerned with her well-being than anything else, like his own safety.
Olivia’s eyes roved his figure, his face, his hands. When she concluded he wasn’t a threat to her she relaxed the tension in her shoulders and shook her head. “No, I’m fine. At least I think I am. What happened?”
The woman who spoke before chimed in over the man’s shoulder, resting her hands on him in a familiar way. “We found you passed out in the woods.” Her voice was high and loud, louder than Olivia would have dared to speak in the midst of a zombie apocalypse in the middle of the night in a glass house. “Poor thing, you were just laying there like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White or somethin’, untouched and peaceful looking.”
Olivia certainly felt like Snow White in that moment, being woken up with a handful of strangers surrounding her like she was some alien figure, staring at her, prodding her with questions. She attempted to stand but her legs wobbled beneath her and she had to grip the wall for balance.
“Whoa there, little filly. Take ‘er easy,” the bearded man said as he mirrored her motion to stand, his arms outstretched to brace her if need be. “You should probably have some water and somethin' to eat before you try to move around.”
“How long were you out there?” the woman asked, her green eyes turned down in concern.
“I—” Olivia started and then stopped. She had to take a moment to count in her head and think back to when it all started. This made her think of Maddie and Jennifer, her mother, Axel. It all came rushing back to her, ready to knock her off her feet. She slumped against the wall and let her legs turn to noodles like they begged to. She fell back to the ground in a heap. Those gathered around her all followed, dropping into squats around her with their hands outstretched in worry.
“I don’t know. Since it started I guess,” she said.
The woman looked to the man and exchanged silent words of shock with her wide eyes. “Honey, that was over a month ago. Are you saying you’ve been out there in the woods surviving on your own this entire time?”
Olivia opened her mouth to answer but then shut it again. Did she really want to go through her whole story, relive the tragically horrifying deaths of the people she loved most dearly in her life? It felt too personal for these unfamiliar faces. The forgiveness of her mother at the end, the deep burning love she had for Axel, the bond between her and Maddie and Jennifer that was almost like sisterhood; these were all pieces of her she was not ready to share with anyone. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready, so she shook her head to let them know that yes, she had been out there alone.
“Oh, Rex,” the woman said, one hand covering her mouth as tears gathered in her eyes, the other resting on the bearded man’s shoulder.
“Well, you can stick with us as long as you like,” the man called Rex said as he stood up. Everyone else in the group did the same and Olivia quickly realized that they hadn’t been following her when she stood or collapsed, but the movements of their large, bearded leader.
“Thanks,” she said meekly.
A young man in his thirties came over and handed Olivia a bottle of water and a paper plate piled with beans, hot dog chunks, and a little bit of mac n cheese mixed into it. Compared to what she’d been eating for the last week or so this looked like a gourmet meal. When he handed her a napkin underneath the plate she knew she must be dreaming.
“We’ll let you be, give you some time to eat, adjust, and we’ll talk more in the mornin’,” Rex said with a smile hidden by the overhang of his mustache.
Olivia attempted to smile as she was already shoveling in the first bite of food she’d had in days, since...her mind quickly turned away from Axel and the pain thinking if him caused her now.
“Oh,” the man said with a snap of his finger as if he had just remembered something important. “The only rules we got is no guns. The temptation to shoot is too great for some to bear. Best to keep it quiet and sneak through the darkness unheard.” The imagery of the men sneaking up on her and Axel, waiting in the shadows of the night like malevolent ghosts out for nothing more than blood crossed her mind in a flash.
“I don’t have a gun,” was all she said, her voice muffled by the mouthful she was still chewing.
“Good girl.”
As everyone scattered to return to their own corners of the building to hunker down for the night, Olivia quietly took stock of each of them. There was Rex, the defacto-leader who was larger than life and rugged. There was the woman Olivia assumed was his wife by their familiarity and ease with each other. She was almost comically small compared to Rex with platinum blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail, her most likely grown out roots hidden beneath a camo baseball hat with a pink deer symbol stitched into it. She seemed trustworthy enough, at least so far. Her eyes, though a dull shade of green, were kind and caring. There was the younger man who handed her the food. He was well-built, not overly muscular but toned like Axel had been, though he was taller. His face was scruffy looking with the beginnings of a dark beard, his hair overgrown and disheveled as well. In one corner there was another man, dressed similarly as the others in jeans, a t-shirt, and a hat which he had pulled low over his face with his head rested back against the wall. His interest in Olivia and the commotion she caused seemed to be limited. Occasionally, whenever someone would make a louder than normal noise he would poke his hat up just enough to look out with one peering eye. When he saw all was in order he would pull it back down low and sit motionless as a marble statue. Back by the tanks of bugs and snakes was a man, likely in his forties, with a woman. They sat close enough for Olivia to realize they were together but not so close for her to recognize that they were husband and wife. They talked low but fast to each other. Every once in a while the woman would laugh and the man would shush her with laughter just beneath the surface. They were both natural blondes, both soft in their builds, and both dressed in dark jeans and dark shirts. Olivia reconsidered their togetherness and wondered if maybe they were brother and sister. It was hard to see their likeness with how dark it was.
Just then, a toilet flushed and she realized there was one more in the bathroom that she had yet to see. She had no idea if it was a man or a woman, but she hoped it was another female. That’s when she realized that she was still nervous about the group. Another female paired with the lonely sleeping man was ideal because then that would mean every male there had a female counterpart they had to answer to. No one would give Olivia any trouble in that way…unless there were more out there scouting or wandering, returning to them at a later time. Olivia couldn’t be sure of anything except she was sure she wasn’t going to sleep a wink.
XI
Summer passed to fall and Olivia eventually found her place within the group of country folk that had found her. The wives were kind and took her under their wings in a sense, showing her what was good vegetation in the area and what was bad, how to sterilize water for drinking, how to sew, how to stab a zombie in the head with a knife. The person in the bathroom had turned out to be another man; one in his thirties and without a wife but neither of the single men gave her any trouble. In fact, they barely spoke to her or looked at her. They left her alone and that was the way she liked it.
The group worked together like a hive of bees. Everyone had their job. Olivia wished it had been according to skills and that she would be appointed lookout or scavenger, but unfortunately the group was a little more old-fashioned than progressive. Olivia was ordered to stay close with the wives, to learn what they taught her in cooking, repairing, mending, and berry picking. The men were the ones who went out to raid stores and homes, kill the surrounding zombie hordes that threatened the area, and kept watch over the building in shifts while everyone slept. In fact, it reminded Olivia of the caveman days, days of primitive cultures when a woman’s job was to stay at home, rear children, gather and cook. The men were the hunters, heading out with their clubs in the hopes of dragging home a sabretooth tiger, or in this case a deer or a possum, which was a whole new dining experience for Olivia the first time that was dropped on her plate.
Any time she spent doing wifely duties with the others she longed for the life Axel had promised her; a life together in a home, protecting each other, loving each other.
“Did any of you have any kids?” she asked one day as the women walked the woods together, their arms hugging their midriffs for warmth as the wind shifted off the lake and threw a cool fall breeze at them.
“We did,” Mary Beth, Rex’s wife, said. “I had a girl about your age actually, or at least she would be.” A heaviness settled in over them as each one remembered their lost children.
“What happened?” Olivia couldn’t help asking. She knew the topic was sensitive and they might not want to talk about it, like she never ever spoke of Axel or her mother or friends, but she was curious and hoped thinking about it was more cathartic for them than it was for her.
“We lost her in the beginning. With all the craziness going on, everyone not having a clue what they were up against. Our house had been overrun and we were fighting to get out and…they just…they got her,” she said softly, a catch in her voice which she cleared. “Rex never speaks of Cally, but I think it’s good to talk. Helps us to not forget, to keep a piece of her alive within us.” The other nodded in agreement but didn’t seem eager to jump in with her own tragic stories.
“How about you,” Mary Beth ventured, though she knew Olivia’s answers were always guarded and vague. “Didn’t you have a family at one point?”
Olivia couldn’t help chuckling at the absurdity of the way the question was worded. “Of course I had a family,” she laughed, throwing a stick she’d been fiddling with as far as she could. “My dad worked in the mills and my mom was a waitress. They weren’t around when it all happened, though. I was home alone,” she lied flawlessly, "so I have no idea what really happened to them.”
“You never returned home to see if they ever came back?” Jillian, the blonde who looked so much like her husband they could be siblings asked.
“Well, I mean,” Olivia stumbled for just a second but then collected herself again. “The house was destroyed by a horde that overtook it. There’d be nothing to come back to really. I’m pretty sure they’re dead. There’s no way they could have survived this.” For a moment her mother’s pleading face entered her mind, her voice urging her to run as the horde closed in on her. She swallowed the tears, something that had become easier with each passing day.
The only thing that ever unsettled Olivia was the amount of personal items the men would bring back from their raids. Some of the things could have been picked up at a store but not likely. One of the flannel shirts the men distributed to her had a name written on the tag; Katy. They could have picked it up at an abandoned house. But for some reason, something Olivia couldn’t quite put her finger on, made her think something was wrong. It wasn’t until a chilly night in October that she realized what it was exactly.
The men had just come back from a long excursion. In their backpacks and duffle bags, some new, they carried medical supplies, food, water, and winter clothes because there was no denying the bite in the air as temperatures dropped to the thirties at night. Snow was on its way and with that a whole new challenge to surviving the zombie apocalypse.
Olivia was with the women in the back of the glass building by the insects, rodents, and snake containment wall. Most of the creatures lay belly up since no one had remembered or cared to feed them or give them any water. The snake was the worst to see, curled in odd positions and stiff, its black and brown color faded to an ashen white. Its mouth hung open as if it died hoping one of them would drop a morsel of meat into its mouth.
“I would kill for a cookie right about now,” Jillian complained with a grumble of her stomach. They were busy at work categorizing and storing what the men had brought home, making sure nothing was left out in the open. Anyone wandering the woods could peek inside and the point was to make the place look entirely empty and abandoned. The food was kept in the containment room where access to the cages was.
“Uhg, girl!” Mary Beth groaned with laughter hidden beneath it. “Don’t even talk to me about sweets, OK? It feels like a year since I had any chocolate and I’m about to die.”
It took every effort Olivia had not to roll her eyes at the innate conversation going on. They were in the middle of the end of the world, the extinction of humanity if they weren’t careful, and these women were complaining about cookies and chocolate. How could they after what they’ve seen? Was it easier to pretend things weren’t as bad as they were? She didn’t know how anyone could. They were bad, and every day they were getting worse. The only silver lining to the colder weather was that it seemed to slow the dead down so it was easier to either get away or stop them in their tracks.
Just then Olivia heard a commotion at the front doors. All the women froze where they stood like deer in headlights, looking at the glass wall that led to the outside world. Rex and the other three men stood there, but there was someone else out there with them. Olivia couldn’t quite make out who it was but she thought it was possibly a young woman with how quiet and meek she presented herself in the darkness. One of the men had a flashlight on him but he kept it pointed down at the ground as was their practice to not attract any unwanted attention. All Olivia could see was a pair of petite but dirty bare feet and long legs covered in hair and nothing else. They were muscular and had to be half-frozen in the night.
She couldn’t hear what was being said exactly but she hoped that they would invite the poor woman in soon and give her something warm to eat like they had with her all those months ago. She feared the memories seeing another person who was out on their own would bring up for her but at the same time she was curious. It took a special type of person to be on their own in a world like this; a fighter, a warrior, an extremely smart individual. She wanted someone like that around her since she was quickly figuring out none of the women currently in the group had any of those attributes.
A scream followed by a deep groan filled the night air. Olivia threw down the box of rice she’d been holding, scooped up her bat that was leaning against the wall, and rushed toward the front door. She recognized the sound immediately; it was the sound of a young woman in pain. There was no hesitation in her mind as she made the decision to run to her rescue. A pair of arms wrapped around her, jerking her backwards and slamming her to the ground. In the confusion her fingers had loosened their grip on her bat and it went rolling noisily across the tile floor.
