Stand Alone -2/?

A week. A week was all it took for this “zombie” virus to bring down every major power, every government, and every family. A week was all it took to make people lose every shred of humanity that had been loosely held together by corrupt governments. A week was all it took to turn me into a regretless, ruthless zombie killer.

Everyone thought that the thing everyone had to worry about was the Mayan Calendar, and the fact that France now had atomic weapons and was blackmailing all nations into doing what they wanted (I guess the French got tired of being called cowards). No one ever thought about zombies. Well, except the crazy nerds who lived in their mother’s basement, but who ever paid attention to those loons?

Guess it turned out they weren’t such loons after all.

As I trudged through the soft dirt that lies across many of the dry, grassy plains that lined most of eastern Colorado, I reflected on how my week had been. Christmas had been only three days ago. Only three days ago, I had fled my house, hoping and praying with every fiber of my five foot being that I could survive this apocalypse.

December 28^th, 2012. That’s what today’s date was. A week after the Mayans predicted the world would end, or supposedly predicted. I wondered if they had known about this zombie-infested, living nightmare that had previously been known as Earth. I wish Star Trek had been right about the future; a utopia where the entire human race got along, explored the galaxy, and met Vulcans whose greeting was freaking “Live long and prosper”. Of course, we had to be given this Hades known as “28 Days Later”. What luck the human race has.

I was brought out of my grim thoughts when my foot caught on an old tree root sticking out of the ground, even though there were no trees around. I tripped and fell flat on my face into the sinking dirt. Maybe the human race did have some luck; at least I wasn’t being chased by zombies at this very moment.

The noise of the venomous horde shattered the silence that had been comforting me.

Oh, crap. Well, I guess Murphy’s Law has it in for me.

Sharp grass also had it in for me, too, as I had gotten a long, deep scratch on my arm from my fall, which could not possibly be covered by my grey tank top. If the horde attacked and I got blood or saliva on my cursed arm… I didn’t even want to think about becoming one of them.

Rapidly, I used my grimy palms to push myself up, not bothering to dust off my clothing, like most of the girls in my high school would’ve. I didn’t have the time for frivolities like that. I had to get out of there, and fast.

Making sure that my gun (Your father’s gun, I silently reminded myself) was secure in its holster, I took off running, tearing through the prairie like there was no tomorrow. With the horde growing as fast as it is, there probably is no tomorrow.

Once I was satisfied with my distance away from the loathsome terror, I practically collapsed straight onto a moss-covered rock. Exhausted, I quickly rummaged through the small pack I had on my sweaty back, yanked a bottle of water out, popped off the cap, and guzzled down the angelic liquid. I drank so fast that I could’ve quite possibly drowned myself.

While I enjoyed the sweet, hydrating drink, I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around me. That is, until I saw him.

An actual human, male in stature, was walking towards me from about five hundred yards away. I swiftly set my bottle down, and my hand flew to the pistol on my waist. During a zombie-doomsday, one could never be too careful. With all the raiders around, I had to keep constant vigilance. There were times, after all, when your fellow man could prove to be more deadly than the horde. People were intelligent, conniving, and manipulating. They were also way more agile than the horde could ever hope to be. That was a lesson that I did not want to learn from personal experience.

As the male neared my position, I got a better glimpse at his features. He looked like he could’ve been no older than sixteen, and definitely was not one of the guys who would’ve played football. What he lacked in muscle, however, he made up for in height. It would not have been difficult for him to take me down and make off with the few things I had.

The fact that he was getting closer every second was unnerving. I slowly drew the .45 from its resting place, but still held it to my side. Once he had gotten close enough to see the gun my hand was gripping, however, he lifted up his hands in surrender. I can’t say I blamed him; I would’ve done the exact same thing.

“I come in peace,” he said, with a tone of joking in his voice. I didn’t like that. People who didn’t take this whole apocalypse thing seriously shouldn’t have survived this long. Like Obama…

I rolled my eyes before responding, “Congrats, you get a Nobel Peace Prize. Now, if you’ll so kindly leave me alone.” I waved my hand good-bye with an extremely fake grin on my face. I’m sure I looked like an absolute clown.

Rather than turning around leaving like I had requested, he walked right over to me and sat down on the same rock I was sitting on; right beside me. This was no small rock, mind you, as it was more like a boulder. Yet, he was deliberately sitting right up against me. Holy crap, this dude is annoying.

“Is there something I can help you with?” I asked through gritted teeth. I’m known for my extremely short fuse; I was expelled from several elementary and middle schools for violent outbursts. I could control it better in high school, but I’d still gotten many detentions.

He reclined back on the rock, arms behind his head, and eyes closed, as though he hadn’t a care in the world. “Meh, I just thought you’d need a travel buddy.”

“A. Travel. Buddy!” Oh no, my temper was going off. “This is an apocalypse; the end of the world! You treat it as though we are kindergarteners on a field trip! What is wrong with you?!”

“Nothing’s wrong with me, my lovely lady friend,” he said, half opening one eye to glance at me. “You simply take life much too seriously.”

Lovely lady friend? What the heck is wrong with this guy?! “Oh yeah? And how, pray tell, do you know anything about me? I’ve never seen you before in my life.” I had met guys similar to him, however, and I hated them. They were always the cocky gits who clowned around in class and thought they could get any girl they flirted with. Yuck.

“Au contraire, I’ve been observing you for a while.” He waved his hand as though to say, ‘It’s no big deal’.

This really ticked me off. “‘Observing’ me?! Isn’t that called stalking?!”

He put on a smile very similar to Flynn Rider’s ‘smolder’. “Observing and stalking are two very different things. Stalking is for creeps; observing is for people who simply want to know more about you.”

“Oh, so you were stalking me,” I said, looking dead serious. Maybe if I irritated him as much as he irritated me, he’d leave.

“I am no creep.” He feigned feeling insulted. “I was simply watching you to see how well you could survive. I’ve only been following you since Fort Collins, which you passed about a day ago.”

I was surprised that I had passed Fort Collins; I thought Longmont was the town that was on the horizon. “Really? Where are we now, then?”

“About twenty minutes from Norfolk. We’re actually only about twenty-one miles from Cheyenne.” He glanced around the area surrounding us, as if the dead grass around us was pink and sparkly. Boy, were we lucky that this was the driest and warmest winter Colorado had ever seen. That the United States had ever seen, for that matter.

“What time is it?” I asked. I hoped that we would have enough time before sundown to get to Norfolk. Maybe there was an abandoned house we could hide out in for the night. Ah, sleeping in a bed. Even though I had left my house only a matter of days ago, the ground was already wearing on my neck.

The guy pulled out an iPod touch and pressed the sleep button, bringing up the lock screen to see the time. “It’s three fifty-eight. If we walk quickly, we can make it there by the time the sun sets, which is typically around five.”

“Where did you get an iPod that’s actually charged? It’s been five days since any power has been available,” I asked, shocked. “Mine died three days ago. I ended up leaving it at my house.” I got up, brushed of the seat of my pants, slung my mini backpack over my shoulder, and turned to face him.

He pressed the sleep button again to turn the iPod back to its original state, and slipped it into the back pocket of his cargo pants. “I got it about two days ago, when I left Fort Collins. There’s a Sam’s Club about four blocks from my house, and it had a backup generator. Outside of the fact that there were zombie guts and blood everywhere, and the occasional zombiefied employee, it was rather enjoyable. All the iPods and iPads that were on display were completely charged, per usual, and so I took one.” He smirked at me, pretty much saying, ‘I’m awesome and you know it.’ He then proceeded to also get up, and stand next to me. Great, just what I need. I hate working with people.

“Why didn’t you take an iPad? Afraid you wouldn’t be strong enough to lift it?” I replied, and started to walk through the barbecued prairie. I preferred to stay away from the roads. It was much too easy to run into the horde.

“Ha, no. It more had to do with the fact that iPod is more practical in a life-or-death situation.” He smiled, looking amused at my comment. Crap, that was suppose to offend you, you idiot. I hated amusing people.

“I’m sure you’ll attract more zombies than females with that face,” I said snarkily, hoping this would push his buttons and make him leave me alone.

Unfortunately, it worked about just as well as the previous statement. Actually, it worked worse, way worse. He laughed. “You’re really funny, you know,” he complimented with a smile.

“I’m honored you find my attempt-at-being-insulting banter entertaining,” I said dryly, and picked up my pace to try and lose him. Three words: it didn’t work.

It actually took us twenty three minutes to reach Norfolk, and I told him he was stupid and obviously couldn’t do any more math than counting to five. He laughed, again. This was plain vexing.

We walked down Main Street of Norfolk, looking for any house that might be in good enough condition that they could have food, bottled water, and furniture.

“Xavier and- wait, what’s your name?” Apparently his name was Xavier. Weirdo.

“Joely. No, I’m not on Facebook, so don’t even ask,” I said, trying to make a point about how utterly stupid he was, thinking we could have Facebook now, with any kind of internet connection. Then again, he’d never said anything about the stupid social network… Great, now I sound like the idiot.

“Xavier and Joely are looking to move from their houses in Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado, to live the small town life in Norfolk. They have been presented with three options. Which one are they going to pick?” Xavier said with suspense.

I rolled my eyes. “Have you watched ‘House Hunters’ or something?”

He grinned. “Well, now I know you have.”

I punched him in the arm. “My mom watched it, okay? I sometimes sat and watched it with her, but not all that often.”

We walked in silence after that, until we came upon a decent looking house. Sure, there were blood splatters on the siding, but that’s to be expected in your average zombie infestation.

The house was a cobalt blue, with a white door and windows. The yard looked like it was in need of a weekend mow, but there had been no one around to do so. The owners were either A, now zombies, or B, eaten by zombies. What lovely prospects.

Xavier started to walk up the driveway, but I put my arm in front of him. Even though my arm only came up to his midriff, he stopped. “What?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m in charge,” I said, suddenly proclaiming myself leader, “And I’m going to go in first.”

“It could be dangerous,” he half-jokingly warned.

“Exactly,” I said with an eye roll. “I have a pretty powerful pistol; you have a dwindling wit and the brightness of a retarded monkey.”

Cautiously, I approached the blood-stained house. Very quietly, I listened for any noise that would indicate any type of horde activity currently going on. Nothing.

I laid my hand on the doorknob, and gave a slow twist. It was unlocked. I cracked the door open with a creak and peered inside.