The Apocalypse

Chapter 33

Sarah

Illinois River



Sarah came blearily awake as the small man dashed into the living room. “Neil?” she asked. Partially it was a question because she wasn't quite certain if that was his name and partially because she wondered why he was so flustered and shoeless. He stood there with mud up to his calves, panting and pointing.

“Zombies,” he said. Louder he called, “Sadie there's zombies coming. A lot of them.”

And then he was rushing around grabbing his drying clothes and a damp sleeping bag and anything else he could clutch to his slim chest. Sarah stood and then wobbled in place still under the effect of half a bottle of rum on an empty stomach. She looked down at the side of the couch, and even on the wrong side of tipsy she knew that she had set her gun right there. “Where's my gun?”

If anything the question turned the pale man whiter still and he looked back the way he came. “I left it in the barn,” he said with large eyes. “I'll…I'll just go get it.”

Sadie came into the living room then. She still wore her muumuu and nothing else, not even her black converse which she carried in her hand. “You're not going out there, Neil. Look I can see ten of the things already.”

“Yeah, we have to lock the doors,” Sarah said. She went to the front door but Sadie pushed past with odd look on her face.

“Have both of you gone bonkers…damn its gotten cold,” she said stepping out onto the porch where the rain ran sideways with a new wind. “We could be in trouble. We'll freeze in the river.”

“That's why you should be coming in,” Sarah insisted. Were these two idiots? They had to get in quick before the zombies came.

“There's a hayloft in the barn with a ladder you can pull up,” Neil said. “I'll draw them away and you two…”

Sadie laughed at this. “I'll draw them off. You're too much of a slow poke. See ya!” And then she was skipping across the lawn, singing, “Tra-la-la-la, come get me monsters. Time for lunch.”

Of course they oriented on her in heartbeat and she continued to skip. “She's crazy,” Sarah said in a whisper. “We have to get her inside.”

“Inside here? No way, not when they know we're here. They'll tear this place apart. Quick grab that green bag, it's a tent. And that afghan. With everything wet it's going to be a little cold. Oh, and there she goes.”

Sarah grabbed the tent and the blanket in a hurry. Turning back to the front door she asked, “Aren't you worried that they'll get her…I guess not.”

The teenage girl wasn't just nimble and quick, she could fly. The nearest zombies were coming after her skipping body with obvious hunger in their eyes and just when they got within a few steps the girl turned on the jets and raced away. After running half the length of a football field she stopped and huffed out volumes of grey breath as she waited for them to get close again.

“No wonder she isn't really scared,” Sarah said with awe in her voice. “I wouldn't be either if I could run like that.”

“We should hurry either way,” Neil said. He was clearly worried for the girl. “One little slip and they'll be on her.” They jogged to the barn and after a quick check to make sure it was empty, Neil pointed Sarah up the ladder. Then he ran for the M16 and waved for the young girl to come in from the rain and the monster play.

When she came in she was drenched and smiling, while Neil was mumbling, red faced and vaguely pointing to the loft, instead of looking at the girl. Sarah understood if Sadie didn't; soaking wet the old muumuu was sheer and see-through.

“Come here,” Sarah said to the girl as she came up the ladder. The woman held out the afghan and wrapped her in it, saying, “That was very brave.”

She shrugged off the compliment, though her cheeks were a little pink. “I used to run track. It's not so brave if they can't catch you.”

“It was still impressive to us,” Neil said. “I bet you used to win a lot.” He came up, bringing the ladder with him, and though the girls cuddled and he was as wet as Sadie, he sat a little off to himself.

“No, not really,” Sadie said. “There's a ton of competition. There were even girls on roids. They might have been growing little penises but they sure could run.” They chuckled at this and then Sarah's eyes went to Neil.

“What are you dressed for?” she asked, just then noticing that he had traded in his khakis. “Halloween?”

Neil looked down at himself and belatedly began rolling up one of his cuffs—it hung down past his foot and it made him look comically small. “All my stuff was wet so I borrowed farmer Jones' clothes.” He got up and began to inspect the twenty by twenty loft. It was warmer in the loft than it had been down below, but it wouldn't stay that way for long and so Neil began to flatten out an area for the tent. When he did he discovered another stash: A jar of peanut butter, a box of saltines…and more Playboys.

He held them up and Sadie grew confused. “Do those three go together in a way that I'm too young to understand?”

Neil and Sarah locked eyes and then burst out laughing. “I'm far too innocent a creature to know, I'm sure,” Sarah said. This was actually quite true. Counting her moment with Veronica, Sarah had been with a total of five people.

“Me too,” Neil agreed. “All I have to say is yuck.” He tossed the playboys down to the zombies who were congregating below.


“Don't listen to him,” Sadie said. “He was the stud of Montclair. I'm sure he knew all sorts of kinky stuff; he just hides it under his shy demeanor.”

“Sadie,” he said to the girl as if warning her. “I'm not like that at all, really. Or I wasn't before, back in Montclair, and Sadie knows it.”

Sarah completely believed Neil—real studly types rarely blushed when they were called a stud. They usually only puffed up more like rooster than normal. “How does she know it?” she asked. “If you met on the road then you could have told her anything. Like being the stud of Montclair.”

“I never said that to anyone,” Neil pleaded.

Sadie, who had begun to shiver, snuggled closer and said, “I've been to his house. We met when I was robbing him. That's how I know he was all studly. He had a big ol' house with lots of choice stuff and a fine car. It was a veritable babe trap. Any girl he got back there would have her panties off in no time…”

“Sadie!” Neil said, glaring. “The only true part of that was the fact that she robbed me at gun point.” At Sarah's insistence he told the story and Sadie was quick to add to it.

“You don't know this guy Neil took on. He was a bad ass. John was like this savage; no one messed with him. Even I was scared of him…he was the reason why I started stealing. He looked on everyone like they were sheep. And he was right. You know how many people are out there hiding in their homes, waiting to die? They'll eat through their food and then just starve to death, or they'll come out when they are weak and become easy pickings. John said we only speeded up the process.”

“It was still wrong,” Neil said gently.

“Yeah, I know, and besides what did it get us?” Sadie asked. “I stole from you, you stole from us, and then I stole from you again, and then it was all stolen from us by the bastard the colonel.”

A shiver went up Sarah's spine and she gave herself a shake. “Maybe we should break out the peanut butter and crackers and try not to think about the porn. I'm getting kind of hungry.”

“You two go ahead and eat,” Neil said, standing up. “I want to get the tent set up before it gets too cold.”

As he went about setting up the little tent, cursing the Chinese under his breath for having such bizarre instructions, Sarah and Sadie munched through the crackers. “You're lucky you found him,” Sarah whispered. “Nice guys are a dying breed these days. I was from a whole town of nice guys and nice girls and I'm probably the only one left alive. In fact, I'm sure of it.”

“You're lucky too,” Sadie replied with her little impish smile that seemed to impart more than her words. “Maybe you don't realize it yet.”

Sarah's mouth came open but just then Neil said, “The tent's done. It's kind of small. I could probably make do sleeping in some of this hay. Cat's live in this sort of thing, right? That's what I hear…”

Sadie grabbed him and pulled him into the tent after her. Sarah, who had gone first, had to keep from laughing when she saw that Sadie had squished far to the right leaving him with only the option of the middle. He took a deep breath before settling himself down between them and in a very unstudly manner clasped his hands to his chest as if they couldn't be trusted.

That didn't sit well with Sadie who flung one of his arms wide and snugged in close. “I wonder what time it is?” she asked. “It's probably not even two and I'm exhausted.”

“That's why you don't drink at ten in the morning,” Neil reprimanded. “It ruins you for the rest of the day. That goes for you too,” he added turning to Sarah with a smile that quickly disappeared.

“I just shot my mother,” Sarah said, wondering if the words had come out of her mouth. The idea, the fact, the concept, the truth had circled her head all during her bout with the rum—I just shot my mother. I just killed my mother. I just murdered my mother. I just executed my mother. She was sure that she had said it a number of times, but couldn't remember if anyone had been in the room when she had. “She was going to turn…she had the fever. I think I was entitled to a drink.”

“I'm so sorry,” Neil said. Sadie only gave her the smallest glance and then clung again to the man she had adopted as her father. Sarah wished she had that just then.

Instead all she had was the feeling of being dead inside. She had mustered a bit of rage at seeing the soldiers earlier and she had smiled at Sadie running because it was such a pretty thing, but that was all the feeling she had.

Though in this she was wrong.

When the tent became unbearably quiet, Neil asked where she was from. “Danville,” came her reply, and just to be polite she asked, “And you're from Montclair? Where is that?”

“It's right outside Manhattan.”

“New York,” she breathed out the words, and now she had feelings again. Her insides weren't dead after all. She only wished that they were. “And is everyone…is anyone alive there?”

“I don’t think so. Not in the city,” Neil answered with concern in his light blue eyes. “Why? What's wrong?”

“Nothing,” Sarah whispered. And then in a move that wasn't at all like her, she pushed closer and lifted Neil's other arm. “May I?” she asked and then didn't wait for his reply and placed her head upon his chest. She knew what his answer would be. A nice guy would never turn down an invitation to cuddle.

Even if they wanted so much more.