No Harm Done

When the sunrise peaked, we set out on the road again.

This time, it's only the three of us.

"I know that you don't like comin' out here," Vick acknowledged as he gripped the steering wheel of the suburban. "Thing is we can't rebuild without coming back out here for what we need. We have to come out here with nothing to go back home with something."

I remained silent as I stared out the tinted passenger window. The abandoned houses and empty streets, the soulless beings wandering them — all bitter reminders of what it's like out here now.

"But what exactly can we come back with?" Kara questioned skeptically. "Food? Water? That's only until it runs out and we have to face the outside all over again."

"Seeds. Gardening seeds, tools — the things we really need," Vick explained firmly. "Food and water is a plus but we still have a lot in the houses of the community. What we're looking for is the things that can help us rebuild."

Something I've noticed about him — Vick lives in regards to the future. He stares into the bigger picture and thinks of ways to improve it. How? I'm so used to living day to day, always on edge as to when I'm going to die.

"How can you be so sure we're going to make it?" I inquired blatantly, no longer able to hold back my curiosity. "I mean, we've lost people left and right since this all happened."

"I don't know if we'll make it or not." He admitted, "I just know that whatever I leave behind is going to help the next person survive and rebuild. It'll help the future."

Sometimes it's hard to see things the way Vick sees them.

"So, a department store? Is that what we're searching for?" Kara chimed. "Home and garden?"

Vick nodded. "Anything. We'll try the home and garden on the edge of the city first."

Kara huffed, "Quite the task for three people."

"Christie and Courtney are mourning. I can't bring them out here knowing they're not in the right state of mind," he objected. "If you're on edge out here or not thinking, consider yourself dead."

When we approached the garden and home store, I could already spot zombies lingering in the parking lot around the cars. As we crept through the crowded lot, I noticed most cars still had the driver inside. They banged against the window in an attempt to free themselves but none succeeded.

Vick examined the front of the store. "Goddamn, this place is —"

Kara completed his sentence as she stared upon the abandoned store. "Raided to bits?"

The glass front of the store was shattered. Zombies loitered inside and shopping carts were tipped over with items scattered on the floor around them. Blood has become the new normal and I think I'm getting used to the smell.

"They looted this place good." I commented, stepping through the shards of glass and entering the store. "Better hope they have what we need."

"People are stupid. When chaos ensues, people get even stupider." Vick stepped through the glass, eyeballing the blood stained shards on the pavement. "They didn't think to grab the gardening supplies. Probably robbed the place of money and anything worth selling."

Are people really that ignorant?

I got the answer to my question when I noticed the overtipped cash register without any money in it. They really were just robbing the place.

Rrrgghhh....

A man appeared from behind one of the registers. The top of his head was bald and the hair he still had was greying. He reached for me over the conveyor belt, making it clear he didn't have enough sense to go around.

Whack!

One good knock to the skull sent him down. His head slammed into his register before he finally fell, leaving blood from his wound to form a puddle underneath his body.

I turned around to catch a glimpse of Kara whacking an infected woman with her nightstick, which now also had nails embedded in it courtesy of Vick. It's not really a nightstick — just a piece of an old wooden bed frame that Vick modified.

Kara turned to me with adrenaline clearly rushing through her veins.

"Yeah, bitch! You thought!"

"You're starting to get good at fighting them," I complimented as I stared at her admirably. "You'll have to teach me sometime."

"Oh stop it, you ass," she laughed. "You taught me."

"Found 'em!" Vick hollered from just feet away. "Grab the watering cans. I'll get the seeds."

"Dirt?" I questioned, grabbing a bag of soil from nearby and throwing it over my shoulder.

I feel like apocalypse version of Santa Clause.

Vick shoved multiple packets of seeds into his pockets. "A'right. Good to go."

When we stepped out into the parking lot, we were immediately met by two men. One was younger — more than likely in his early twenties. The second man was older and seemed to be around Vick's age.

The older man spoke first. "What do we have here?"

I examined their faces. The older man was tall and stocky with tattoos almost completely covering his pale arms. The younger guy was clearly shaking in his boots — his hands could barely grip the glock he held.

Vick examined him before responding, "Two dead men if you don't step back."

"Woah, woah, no need to get hasty. We're just here to get what we want and then we'll leave. No harm done."

"What do you want?" I chimed in.

"We've been keeping an eye on you. We see y'all going back and forth," the older man explained with a smug expression. "We think that Hillandale could be the perfect place for us to settle down. We need to be with other people to survive."

"So, What? You want the community?" Kara questioned skeptically.

They want our home. The first place I've felt safe in since it started.

"We want to live there. Whether you're there or not is not the concern."

"I'm sorry, just can't see myself sleeping with strangers so close." Vick objected politely. "Hillandale is ours, man. There's other communities — we can help you clear them for some supplies."

"You're telling me that you want us two to clear a whole community of those brainless bastards?" The older man hissed. "This kid barely knows how to shoot a gun."

I interrupted, "You shouldn't use guns anyway. Noise will draw the zombies."

"I don't give a fuck!" He barked in response. "We need somewhere to live. We can't keep surviving out on the roads! We —"

Bang!

The man's sentence was cut short by a gunshot that went into his chest. Blood leaked out of the wound quickly and he fell to the pavement.

Vick held the gun.

"What — What did you do to him?" The younger man began to panic, reaching in his pocket quickly.

Before he could grab his gun, Vick was on top of him.

"Vick! Vick, stop!" Kara cried out as she attempted to pull him off of the man.

I stood there in shock, still staring down at the other man's lifeless body. Vick just killed him.

"You won't be needing this." Vick stated, pulling the gun away from the unfamiliar guy. "I'm sorry I have to do this."

Before Vick could pull the trigger on the gun, I intervened.

"C'mon, man! Vick, you can't kill him." I argued, "he can barely shoot a gun. He's younger than I am, he's —"

"A threat." Vick finished my sentence firmly.

"No," I argued. "He's not a threat, Vick. He's shaking. We can't kill him, not after you killed his friend in front of him."

"What do you suppose we do?"

"We can bring him back with us, tie him up to make sure he doesn't have any people watching us." Kara chimed.

"If he had people watching us, we would've been dead when Vick shot him." I stated, staring at the shaken man in front of me.

"Watch out!" The man called out in warning.

It was too late.

Rrrrgghhh!

The man Vick killed was now back with a vengeance. He lunged at me from behind. Before I even realized what was happening, the stranger reached out and grabbed his now zombified friend. They struggled until I whacked his friend in the head and put him down for good.

I turned to the man who just saved me. "Thank you — what's your name?"

"Andrew. Call me Andy."

"Thank you, Andy."

"Get in the car, quick!" Vick commanded. "We've got company."

I turned to realize that zombies now approached from all directions. By the time we got to the suburban, we were practically surrounded.

Clunk. Clunk.

"May have hit a few." Vick commented as he drove away from the scene.

Three words reacted in my head for the rest of the drive home.

We made it.

While arriving back at Hillandale, I realized we would have to explain this to Courtney and Christie. As we exited the suburban, my heart raced. How are they going to react?

"Why the Hell would you bring a stranger back here? A stranger that wanted this community?" Christie hissed at Vick. "He could have people, Vick. They could be looking for him."

"If the others were watching us, they would've killed me. I don't think there are others but we're going to be cautious just incase," Vick explained. "I wouldn't let anything happen to you but I know your dad wouldn't have wanted me to kill him or his friend."

Christie stared at Vick for a moment as tears formed in her eyes. "To keep us safe I think he would've done anything."

"I'll tie him up at night. Make sure he's restrained real good," he assured. "I refuse to believe that the only way to keep life is to end it. There has to be another way."

Courtney and Christie stormed off. I think Courtney agrees with us but doesn't want Christie to feel alone in her choices.

If Rotis was still here, I would back him up no matter what.

"You killed that man, Vick." I had to express it. I've been thinking about it since it happened. "I can't believe it."

"I did what I had to do to keep you all safe. You're lucky your buddy in there is still alive."

"He's not my buddy. It would've been wrong to kill him and you know it."

"What if his people come back here and find out we killed that man?" Vick questioned harshly. "If he escapes and goes back to them, tells them what happened — we can lose our lives."

"Tie him up. Do whatever makes you feel safe but do not kill him," I commanded hawkishly. "He doesn't deserve to die. Humans are rare now, Vick. You don't see living, breathing beings nowadays."

"Yeah, the living ones are the ones you gotta worry about."

When we met gazes, my stare was firm. "You want to rebuild, right? You need people to do that."

I shuffled into the doorway of the spacious split level home that Vick, Kara and I reside in now. I admire the modern, clean look that it gives off even during such a heinous time. Kara stood in the kitchen, two different type of cans of beans in each hand.

"Which one?"

"It doesn't matter," I snipped. "Nothing does."

"Nobody shit in either one so don't act like it." She advised. "You alright, cupcake?"

My hands began to sweat and my pulse started to race. I keep seeing that man's face in my head — before and after he died. The harder I tried not to think about it the more realer it felt and eventually his face was in front of mine, staring directly into my eyes. I couldn't stare back into his because his irises and pupils were absent.

Rotis' death destroyed me but I wasn't there when he changed. I was feet away from the man Vick killed — close enough for me to still have his blood still splattered on my face. I could feel it drying to my skin.

Is this the way things are now?

I walked into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I've been avoiding it — avoiding seeing what I've become since this all happened.

The dark, stubbly hairs along my jawline are starting to form a beard. My blue eyes are cold and lifeless. I don't even resemble what I used to be. My clothes are starting to become baggy as I continue to lose weight.

This is what the apocalypse has turned me into.