{"id":233,"date":"2013-07-21T16:15:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T16:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/?page_id=233"},"modified":"2013-07-21T16:15:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T16:15:59","slug":"chapter-46","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/story\/chapter-46\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 46"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 46<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

It always took me a little longer than the average person to get close to someone.\u00a0 I was the quiet one in a group of friends, reserved and shy, a far better listener than I was a talker.\u00a0 I was the girl people came to with their problems, not the girl who dumped her own problems on everyone else.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like talking about myself.\u00a0 To my friends, I was the nice girl, the friend you could count on, the shoulder you could cry on, the problem-solver.\u00a0 With the exception of Shawn and a few others, I felt like I understood them better than they understood me.<\/i><\/p>\n

In many ways, my role here is the same.\u00a0 I calm, and I comfort.\u00a0 I listen, and I help.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t experience something like we have with a group of people and not get close to them.\u00a0 You have to open up to each other.\u00a0 You have to understand each other.\u00a0 You have to trust each other and depend on each other.\u00a0 And so I have, and I do.<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve shared more of myself with these people than I did most of my old friends from my old life, and in just a matter of weeks, I\u2019ve grown closer to them than anyone but my own family.\u00a0 In this new life, they are my family.<\/i><\/p>\n

You see, when humanity dies, you cling to what remnants are left.\u00a0 You don\u2019t hold back; you hold on tight, and you never let them go.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wednesday, April 18, 2012<\/b>
\n7:00 a.m.<\/b><\/p>\n

Gretchen breathed a sigh of relief when she opened her eyes to see a crack of faint light filtering beneath the door to the back room.\u00a0 Another dark night over \u2013 at last, it was dawn.<\/p>\n

She sat up, feeling groggy and stiff, her bones cracking as she picked herself up from the pile of thin blankets she\u2019d spread across the tiled floor.\u00a0 The blankets were identical, purple, with \u201cUnion County Tigers\u201d spelled out in gold lettering \u2013 merchandise for the local high school\u2019s athletics program, no doubt.\u00a0 They were the only blankets she and Brian had been able to find in the gas station, tucked away in a corner behind a sparse rack of t-shirts.\u00a0 They\u2019d taken all that was left and used it to pad the floor, but Gretchen was still feeling it, after spending the night there.\u00a0 Bruised ribs were only a part of it; her body was simply not the same, at thirty, as it had been at thirteen, when she\u2019d had no problem curling up in her sleeping bag on the thinnest of carpets and dropping right off to sleep.\u00a0 She had slept poorly last night, waking every hour upon the hour, it seemed, though she had no way of knowing the time for sure.<\/p>\n

Of course, the zombies were as much to blame as the uncomfortable sleeping conditions.\u00a0 It was hard to sleep soundly, knowing that they prowled restlessly outside the station, fearing that they would find a way in while she slept.\u00a0 If Brian had not been there, she doubted she\u2019d have been able to relax enough to fall asleep at all.<\/p>\n

She and Brian had been sleeping in shifts, trading off between lying on the makeshift bed of blankets and sitting up at the small table and chairs, the only furniture in the back room.\u00a0 He had chivalrously offered her the bed on the first night, volunteering to take the night shift of guard duty and sleep during the day.\u00a0 Gretchen was grateful.\u00a0 Though she\u2019d never feared the dark before, she wasn\u2019t sure her sanity could take sitting up alone all night in pitch blackness, as Brian did, listening to the muffled scraped and moans of the undead outside.<\/p>\n

She looked up and found him slouched in the hard-backed chair, his elbow on the table, propping his chin in his hand.\u00a0 As her eyes adjusted to the receding darkness, she saw that his were bloodshot and glazed; he seemed to stare right through the barricaded door without seeing.\u00a0 Gretchen cleared her throat quietly and whispered, \u201cMorning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though she\u2019d tried not to startle him, Brian jumped in his seat.\u00a0 He recovered quickly, though, and looked down at her.\u00a0 \u201cMornin\u2019,\u201d he rasped back, managing a lopsided smile that didn\u2019t reach his bleary eyes.\u00a0 Neither of them bothered to preface it with a \u201cgood.\u201d\u00a0 There had not been any \u201cgood\u201d mornings since Friday.<\/p>\n

She struggled to figure out how many days it had been since then.\u00a0 There was Saturday, the day she\u2019d spent alone in the house with the power out, waiting for word from Shawn.\u00a0 That was the last time she\u2019d heard his voice, she thought, and the realization made her heart skip a beat.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think that way,<\/i> she scolded herself.\u00a0 Of course you haven\u2019t heard from him since then; the phone service is down.\u00a0 How would he reach you?\u00a0 But he\u2019s fine, he\u2019s got to be fine, and eventually\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

But she couldn\u2019t finish the thought.\u00a0 How would<\/i> Shawn find her, eventually?\u00a0 She still hadn\u2019t figured that out and had been contemplating telling Brian that when they got out of this place, she was turning around and going back to Georgia, back to her home.\u00a0 It was the only place she could think to meet Shawn, or at least leave a message for him.\u00a0 But she would have to find a way out of the gas station first.<\/p>\n

How many days had it been?\u00a0 She returned to her former train of thought.\u00a0 After Saturday came Sunday, and that was the morning she\u2019d awoken when it was still dark and found the zombies outside her house, the morning she\u2019d picked up Brian.\u00a0 They had been traveling together ever since then\u2026 but how long?<\/p>\n

They\u2019d spent Sunday night in the farmhouse, and on Monday, they had started driving again and run out of gas and ended up here, at the gas station.\u00a0 Blowing up the pumps had killed off most of the zombies who had forced them in there, but even once the blaze had died down and it should have been safe to come out, it wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 More of them had appeared, attracted by the sound and the light of the flames, no doubt.\u00a0 The fire had acted as a beacon for them, something neither she, nor Brian, had anticipated.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the movies were wrong:\u00a0 the living dead had no fear of fire.\u00a0 They feared nothing, for they had no feelings, no thoughts or emotions.\u00a0 They were not like animals, acting on instinct, for even animals showed fear.\u00a0 Animals had feelings and needs, just as human beings did.\u00a0 But there was nothing human, animal, or alive<\/i> about the undead.\u00a0 They were more like robots, terminators, cold and unfeeling, programmed only to destroy and deadest on fulfilling their duty.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Terminator, they had no technology and no problem-solving abilities.\u00a0 If she and Brian were being pursued by the Terminator, they\u2019d have been dead the first day, but instead, they\u2019d survived through Monday\u2026 Tuesday\u2026<\/p>\n

That meant today had to be Wednesday.\u00a0 They\u2019d been trapped in the gas station two full days and nights, securely barricaded in \u2013 so far \u2013 but unable to come out.\u00a0 The whole place was surrounded by the living dead, and Gretchen knew if they dared venture outside, they would be attacked and killed in mere seconds.\u00a0 Even with guns, there were simply too many of them to take on.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t willing to risk it.<\/p>\n

The station wasn\u2019t exactly comfortable, but for the time being, it would do.\u00a0 It was secure enough, especially there in the back room, and it had enough supplies to live on for at least a few weeks \u2013 not that they planned on being there that long.\u00a0 There was bottled water and other drinks, plenty of snacks, batteries for their flashlights, and a working bathroom.\u00a0 When they\u2019d first emerged from the back room to check on the fire and found the grounds teaming with new zombies, they had rounded up enough supplies to last a couple of days and holed up in the back room again, barricading themselves in once more.\u00a0 They\u2019d been there ever since, sneaking out only to make trips to the tiny bathroom and check on the zombie situation outside.<\/p>\n

Wondering if there\u2019d been any change in that situation overnight, Gretchen asked Brian, \u201cAnything new?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s been quiet, \u2018cept for the moanin\u2019.\u00a0 Did ya sleep?\u201d<\/p>\n

She shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cOff and on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you wouldn\u2019t give for a bed, eh?\u201d\u00a0 A faint smile passed over his lips.<\/p>\n

She returned the smile.\u00a0 \u201cOh yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019d made small talk like this over the past couple of days, in the few hours they were both awake at the same time.\u00a0 Gretchen found Brian easy enough to talk to when they were planning or just chitchatting like this.\u00a0 He seemed mild-mannered and sweet, and she imagined that, under different circumstances, he would have been quite charming.\u00a0 But there were shadows behind his light blue eyes, a darkness, a sadness that she suspected had not been there a week ago.\u00a0 Whatever he had been through before she\u2019d come across him on the roadside that morning, whatever he had experienced when the undead rose, it still haunted him in a way that surpassed her own nightmarish memories.\u00a0 Whenever their conversations turned to more personal matters, he shied away, shut down, and silence ensued.<\/p>\n

Gretchen was running out of things to talk about.\u00a0 She had never been particularly skilled in the art of making conversation; she depended on others to keep the chatter going.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t one to talk endlessly about herself, either, yet in this case, she felt she had shared much more of her own life with Brian than he had in return.\u00a0 She still didn\u2019t know much more about him personally than the few details she\u2019d learned during the car ride that first day, and that troubled her.\u00a0 She was depending on a man she barely knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, mattress or waterbed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian blinked, caught off-guard.\u00a0 \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know\u2026 what kind of bed do you sleep in?\u201d probed Gretchen, smiling.\u00a0 \u201cAre you a mattress guy or a waterbed guy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh\u2026 waterbed, I guess.\u00a0 I mean, I used to be.\u00a0 Bought my first waterbed for fifty bucks at a garage sale once.\u201d\u00a0 He grinned.\u00a0 \u201cBut I\u2019ve just got a regular bed at home, now.\u00a0 Not just regular, I guess \u2013 it\u2019s huge<\/i>.\u00a0 My wife\u2026\u201d\u00a0 But he trailed off, and his grin faded.\u00a0 \u201cWell\u2026 it\u2019s a king-size,\u201d he finished lamely.<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds nice,\u201d said Gretchen.\u00a0 She wanted to ask him about his wife, but was afraid to pry.\u00a0 She knew how it felt to be asked about things you weren\u2019t ready to talk about.\u00a0 She knew how it felt to just want to shut down \u2013 and shut out everyone else, too.\u00a0 She also knew it felt better when you finally opened up and let them in, hard as it was to do.\u00a0 \u201cOurs is just a regular mattress, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a queen.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got this down mattress topper, though, and that makes it really soft and squishy\u2026\u00a0 You just sink down into it, like a cloud.\u00a0 I\u2019d kill for that thing right about now\u2026\u201d she moaned wistfully, getting up to stretch out her stiff body.\u00a0 Maybe Brian wasn\u2019t ready to let her in yet.<\/p>\n

His grin returned.\u00a0 \u201cI bet you would.\u00a0 And if it was a zombie you killed, you\u2019d be killin\u2019 two birds with one stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo zombies, you mean.\u201d\u00a0 Gretchen grinned, and Brian chuckled appreciatively.\u00a0 \u201cSo\u2026 headboard or no?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u00a0 You?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeadboard.\u00a0 One pillow or two?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSame.\u00a0 Comforter or bedspread?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gretchen laughed.\u00a0 \u201cA bedspread is longer, but thinner.\u00a0 A comforter is thicker and warmer, but doesn\u2019t hang as long on the sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cComforter, then.\u00a0 Definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe too.\u00a0 Except when you have a cover hog for a spouse.\u00a0 Or, in the case of my husband, one who gets hot and throws his heavy legs and big feet on top<\/i> of the comforter so that you can\u2019t even pull it out from under him in order to hog,\u201d huffed Gretchen, though she was filled with longing for Shawn and his big feet and warm body.\u00a0 Where was he right now?\u00a0 Was he safe?\u00a0 Alive?\u00a0 He had to be\u2026 wherever he was.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t think otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife was the cover hog in our family,\u201d Brian replied.\u00a0 Again, a ghost of a smile appeared and then vanished.\u00a0 The past tense confirmed what she\u2019d already suspected about his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah\u2026 I guess I was, too.\u201d\u00a0 Gretchen offered her own fleeting smile.\u00a0 Again, she considered asking\u2026 and this time, decided to go for it.\u00a0 \u201cWhat happened to her?\u201d she asked quietly.\u00a0 \u201cDid she\u2026?\u201d\u00a0 She didn\u2019t know the most sensitive way to word the second question, so she left it unfinished.<\/p>\n

Brian pressed his lips together into a thin line.\u00a0 His nostrils flared as he sucked in a deep breath.\u00a0 He glanced once toward the ceiling and then down at the floor.\u00a0 For a few seconds, Gretchen thought he wasn\u2019t going to answer, but then he said, \u201cYes \u2013 same as everyone else, I guess.\u00a0 She got sick.\u00a0 She passed.\u00a0 She\u2026 reanimated.\u201d<\/p>\n

He closed his eyes completely on the last word, as Gretchen drew in a sharp breath.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t sure why that last part shocked her \u2013 hadn\u2019t they all reanimated?\u00a0 But \u201cthey\u201d were all strangers to her.\u00a0 Even her neighbor, lying in the street \u2013 she hadn\u2019t even known his name.\u00a0 She had not had to see any of her loved ones die and come back, for she had been all alone. \u00a0Up until now, she had pitied herself over this, wishing for Shawn, but now she wondered if she hadn\u2019t been lucky her husband had left before it all happened.<\/p>\n

She looked now at Brian, whose eyes were squeezed shut, his lips pursed so tightly, they were lined in white.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m\u2026 so sorry\u2026\u201d she whispered, knowing it was lame and clich\u00e9, not knowing what else to say to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe chased me into our bathroom,\u201d Brian went on.\u00a0 She could see the emotion in his face, but his voice was flat, utterly void of it.\u00a0 Yet it trembled slightly, and she knew he was fighting hard just to get the words out.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t have to, but it seemed that now he\u2019d started to talk, he wanted to keep going, or rather, needed<\/i> to keep going.\u00a0 \u201cI put the towel bar through her skull.\u00a0 I killed her.\u00a0 My own wife\u2026\u201d\u00a0 A tear slipped out from beneath his eyelid, and he took a shuddering breath that sniffled in his nose and rattled down his windpipe.<\/p>\n

Gretchen listened in increasing horror to the story, but tried to mask her revulsion, wanting to give him comfort and understanding.\u00a0 \u201cShe was already dead,\u201d she whispered, all the while knowing her logic wouldn\u2019t ease his pain.\u00a0 Emotions were just more powerful than logic.\u00a0 \u201cYou did what you had to.\u00a0 You did what was best for her.\u00a0 You freed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

He exhaled through his nose, shaking his head slowly.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what I told myself I was doing, when I\u2026 when I killed my own daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, Gretchen tried to hide her shock, but couldn\u2019t conceal it completely this time.\u00a0 He had never mentioned having children, and now she knew why.\u00a0 \u201cOh, Brian\u2026\u201d she whispered, her hand poised near her lips, her heart breaking for him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2026 I can\u2019t imagine\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He opened his eyes, and the moisture in them made them glisten, vividly blue, both tragic and beautiful.\u00a0 \u201cThey were just seven years old,\u201d he said, and his voice quivered worse than ever.\u00a0 The deadened quality had left it, and it was brimming with emotion now.\u00a0 \u201cTwins.\u00a0 Identical.\u00a0 Blue eyes\u2026 blonde hair, like my wife.\u00a0 They were so beautiful\u2026 like little angels, people always said.\u201d\u00a0 He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.\u00a0 \u201cWanna see them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have pictures?\u201d Gretchen asked hopefully.\u00a0 She was hopeful for his sake, not hers.\u00a0 To her, they would be just pictures.\u00a0 To him, they would be precious memories, irreplaceable and invaluable.<\/p>\n

He rose from his chair and dug into the back pocket of the jeans he\u2019d taken from the farmhouse.\u00a0 They were baggy on him, at least a size too big for his narrow waist, but he\u2019d secured them with a leather belt.\u00a0 From them, he withdrew a leather wallet.\u00a0 He opened it, and she saw the flood of emotion wash over his face as he flipped through its contents.\u00a0 Finally, he held the wallet out to her.\u00a0 \u201cThis is Leighanne \u2013 my wife,\u201d he said quietly, and Gretchen\u2019s eyes widened at the beauty of the young, blonde woman in the portrait.\u00a0 She could tell from the hairstyle and type of clothing that it was a dated picture, but even so, Leighanne had been striking.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s beautiful,\u201d Gretchen whispered.<\/p>\n

Brian nodded, his adam\u2019s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallowed.\u00a0 He reached out and flipped the picture.\u00a0 Behind it were two more photos, side by side.\u00a0 Gretchen\u2019s breath caught in her throat.\u00a0 Twin girls grinned up at her, each with wispy, blonde hair, big blue eyes, a light smattering of freckles across their identical noses, and missing front teeth.\u00a0 They were cute girls, just a couple years younger than her students.\u00a0 The realization that they were both dead \u2013 as well as probably most, if not all, of her students \u2013 made Gretchen feel sick to her stomach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are their names?\u201d she asked.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t bring herself to speak in the past tense.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrooke Lynn and Bonnie Leigh.\u201d\u00a0 He pointed them out to her as he spoke the name of each.\u00a0 \u201cWe used our first initials \u2013 B for Brian, L for Leighanne \u2013 for their names.\u00a0 We all went together.\u00a0 We matched.\u00a0 I thought I had the perfect little family, all I could ever want\u2026\u201d\u00a0 He trailed off, and the tears spilled over the puffy red rims of his eyes.\u00a0 A sob escaped his throat, and Gretchen could barely made out the words as he choked, \u201c\u2026 and now it\u2019s all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gretchen didn\u2019t know what else to say, didn\u2019t think there were words that could express what she felt, so she got up from the floor and went to him, pulling him into a hug.\u00a0 She felt his body \u2013 smaller and bonier than she\u2019d imagined it would feel \u2013 tense at first, then go limp in her arms, as he relaxed into the hug, his arms encircling her back.\u00a0 Gretchen wasn\u2019t much of a hugger, normally, and had never before initiated a hug with a stranger, but it felt comforting to be able to hold him and be held, herself.\u00a0 His tears wet her bare shoulder, and when at last they pulled away and he saw the moisture there, he snorted and shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cSorry,\u201d he apologized, managing a sheepish smile as he wiped his eyes.<\/p>\n

Her smile back was sympathetic.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t apologize.\u00a0 I\u2019m\u2026 I\u2019m glad you told me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not one to talk about the hard stuff either, but sometimes it helps to get it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took another shuddering breath.\u00a0 \u201cI thought I\u2019d burn in Hell for doing what I did\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Gretchen shook her head adamantly.\u00a0 \u201cBut you had t0-\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Brian interrupted her.\u00a0 \u201cNow I know there is no Hell, not in the sense of some other realm of fire and brimstone.\u00a0 This<\/i> is Hell.\u00a0 Hell is here.\u00a0 We\u2019re already living in it.\u201d\u00a0 Gretchen opened her mouth to protest, but he went on gravely, \u201cIf the dead are walking on Earth, there must be no Hell, and if my wife and daughters were among them, there must be no Heaven either.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t free them.\u00a0 I just ended their existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gretchen listened in dismay to this bleak view of their situation and couldn\u2019t accept it.\u00a0 \u201cBut what about their souls?\u00a0 You can\u2019t tell me those creatures out there have souls.\u00a0 Your wife and children\u2026 their souls had already gone on, the natural way.\u00a0 What you saw after that was only their bodies, not them<\/i>.\u00a0 Their souls, the real them\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre where?\u00a0 Certainly not in Heaven.\u00a0 Certainly not with God and Jesus.\u00a0 The Lord I believed in put His children through hardships, to make them stronger, but He would never allow such an abomination to happen on the Earth He created,\u201d spewed Brian.\u00a0 The look on his face was that of a man betrayed.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t believe in that God anymore,\u201d he went on bitterly.\u00a0 \u201cThere is no God.\u00a0 There is no afterlife.\u00a0 The only life after death is the kind moaning at us from outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goosebumps rose on Gretchen\u2019s flesh.\u00a0 Despite the stifling heat, she felt cold from the inside out.\u00a0 She had never been devoutly religious, though she believed in a God, but to hear this gentle, Southern man renounce his faith with such venom hurt her heart in a way she didn\u2019t fully understand.\u00a0 It was not just depressing; it was downright unsettling.\u00a0 And there was nothing she could say to change his mind.\u00a0 His points were valid.\u00a0 They left her questioning, wondering, herself\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost a baby,\u201d she said suddenly, so candidly it surprised even herself.\u00a0 She once had agonized over having to tell people about her tragedy, but now the words flowed from her with relative ease.\u00a0 \u201cAbout a month ago.\u00a0 I had a miscarriage.\u00a0 It was my first pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anger left Brian\u2019s eyes.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he said, reaching out to touch her shoulder.<\/p>\n

She acknowledged the gesture with a nod.\u00a0 \u201cI was devastated.\u00a0 I felt sad, disappointed.\u00a0 I felt guilty.\u00a0 I wondered about the baby.\u00a0 I still do.\u00a0 Was it a boy or a girl?\u00a0 What would it have been like?\u00a0 I wondered about the baby\u2019s soul \u2013 what happens to babies who die before they\u2019re even born?\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t felt it move yet, but I was through my first trimester, and I\u2019d heard its heartbeat.\u00a0 It was alive<\/i> inside me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

She would never forget hearing the miraculous, rapid whoosh-whoosh<\/i> of her baby\u2019s heartbeat on the Doppler monitor in her doctor\u2019s office.\u00a0 She could hear it even now, in her head, but with it, forever tarnishing it, was the memory of the obstetrician\u2019s face a few weeks later, as she looked at the ultrasound, grainy and completely still.\u00a0 Gretchen had known even before she\u2019d been told, simply by the stillness\u2026 and the silence.<\/p>\n

Blinking back the tears that threatened, Gretchen looked at Brian and said, \u201cI know it\u2019s not the same\u2026 but I can empathize with losing a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded grimly, squeezing her shoulder again.\u00a0 \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter the circumstances,\u201d he replied.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s never easier or any less painful one way or the other.\u00a0 But life goes on\u2026 if you can call this living.\u00a0 I guess we\u2019ve got to, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sighed and listened to the muffled scrapes and thumps of the monsters outside, still relentlessly trying to claw their way in.\u00a0 \u201cSo what are we going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

They left the back room together, cautiously pulling the shelves out of the way and creeping out into the open store.\u00a0 A row of zombies blocked the wall of windows, their bloated gray faces pressed against the glass.\u00a0 Over their shoulders, still more were on the horizon, their slouched and stiffened forms silhouetted against the sunrise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just too many of them,\u201d murmured Gretchen despairingly.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019d never make it out alive.\u00a0 And even if we did, where would we run?\u201d<\/p>\n

They both looked out into the parking lot.\u00a0 The Cadillac which had been pulled up to one of the pumps was blackened, its windows blown out in the explosions.\u00a0 The pick-up truck parked closest to the building looked to be in better shape, but they knew that it was locked, with no keys inside.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d both wondered about the zombie they\u2019d killed in the back room, surely the owner or at least an employee of the gas station.\u00a0 Surely he had a car around here \u2013 if not the pick-up truck, then possibly around back.\u00a0 If the keys weren\u2019t in the vehicle, perhaps they were on him.\u00a0 But the dead zombie was outside, blocked from view by the live ones who were crowded in front of the locked door.\u00a0 They would never get to him in enough time to rummage for keys.\u00a0 And what if there were none?\u00a0 Or if there were, what if they didn\u2019t go to the truck after all?\u00a0 It seemed too big a chance to take.<\/p>\n

There was another option, a tan Suburban parked further down the road, in the opposite direction from where their own SUV had stalled.\u00a0 They could just barely see it out the windows.\u00a0 It looked to be in drivable condition, no flat tires that they could make out, likely just another vehicle left by a dying person who had tried \u2013 and failed \u2013 to outrun the plague.\u00a0 But they had no way of knowing if it had gas, keys, or even if it was unlocked.\u00a0 If it didn\u2019t\u2026 if it wasn\u2019t\u2026 there would be no escape for them.\u00a0 The distance was too great; the zombie hordes would close in on them before they could make it back to the safety of the gas station.<\/p>\n

In the station, they had supplies and relative security.\u00a0 The situation was serious, but not desperate.<\/p>\n

As a look of grim uncertainty passed between them, Brian and Gretchen came to a silent consensus.<\/p>\n

They would wait.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 46 It always took me a little longer than the average person to get close to someone.\u00a0 I was the quiet one in a group of friends, reserved and shy, a far better listener than I was a talker.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":46,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233\/revisions\/234"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}