Is This The End Of Us? Or Just The Means To Start Again?

I wake up cold again, the remains of another nightmare still lingering on my skin. Looking around I see I’ve fallen asleep on the couch, Jack curled up next to me. As much as I’d like to close my eyes once again and let the sleep I need claim me I know I can’t.
“Jack” I nudge his shoulder. “Jack wake up”
“Mmmmrh” came his muffled response.
“Jack wake up!” I say, shaking his shoulder harder.
“What?” he asks, tagging out the ‘a’ until it turns into a whine.
“It’s stopped raining, we should go”
“Do we have to? It’s so comfy here plus you’re warm” he says, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer.
“Hey Jack” I laugh, trying to swat his hands away but he just pulls me to his skinny chest and rests his head on my shoulder.
“We do have to go though, it’s a long walk to Ohio” he groans but I feel him nod against my shoulder and slowly I pull us both to our feet.
“I don’t want to leave” he says, as we back our small belongs into our bags.
“Me neither, this is the closest I’ve felt to normal since it happened” I replay, staring back into the room we had spend the night. Sadly we leave the house, bags banging against our backs as we walk, guns on our shoulders like soldiers going to war.
“Fuck this” says Jack after we’ve been walking a of five minutes.
“What is it?” I ask, the sun already up and even after such a short walk I can feel sweat on my skin.
“I’ve had enough walking, let’s drive” he says, going towards one of the cars that are sitting in the middle of the highway.
“One: do you even know how to drive? Two: the noise of a car will attract every zombie in ten miles!”
“I learnt, it’s been awhile but I’m sure I can remember, and so what if it does? We’ll be in a car we can just run the fuckers over” I look at Jack and the red car next to him. It would be nice to have to walk and it would be safer not to be out in the open for once.
“Okay, just don’t get us killed”
“Deal” he pulls the door and it opens with a creek.
“Also do you know how to jump start a car?” I ask, getting in the passenger side. My bag chucked in the bag with my gun laying on my lap just in case.
“No need” he says, turning the key. The car roars into life, a noise that makes us both jump.
“Let’s go” Jack put his foot down and the car lurched forward. As Jack drives (rather terribly) I curl up against the window, staring out as the world goes past.
“Alex, can I ask you something?”
“Hmm” I snap out of my daydream to see Jack looking at me. “Oh yeah shoot”
“Who’s Lisa?”
“Wh...What did you just say?” I stutter.
“Lisa?”
“How do you....”
“JACK!” I yell, quickly Jack slams his foot on the break ad we fly forwards before being pulled back by our seat belts with such force I’m sure it will leave a bruise. Out in front of us was a maze of abandoned cars, all empty with not a soul sight.
“What the hell is this?” I ask. We both step out of the car, guns in hand and have a look around.
“It looks like a lot of people tried to leave and well didn’t get very far...” Jack says, turning around a see a sig behind us.
“It’s the state line, look” I point to the Maryland sign now behind us.
“So what happened to everyone who tried to escape?”
“I don’t know, but I’m scared to find out...” Unable to drive through the maze of cars we go back to walking. We’d been driving for awhile and now the sun has begun to set and the temperature is dropping.
“Think we can find somewhere to stay? I’m freezing” I complain, rubbing my hands over my arms.
“Sure, I didn’t think it as that cold though” Jack is only wearing his light hoodie and his sleeve are pushed up half way up his arms why mine is pulled tightly around my body as I continue to shiver.
“You’re just a freak of nature” I say, Jack laughs and sticks his tongue at me. Walking down the middle of the highway there’s no comfy house for us to sleep in tonight, not much of anything to be honest the only thing we come across is a gas station.
“Well it’s this or sleep in a car”
“Inside, I don’t want to be sleeping with your feet in my face all night” I say, pushing the unlocked door to the gas station open. It’s small a main room that has shelves of food and other related items and a smaller back room that had a few boxes in. Moving shelves from the main room we block up the door in case of visitors and we set out our sleeping bags ad stove, heating up another can of meat and beans as we sit in silence. The conversion we had had earlier in the car came back to me, how did Jack know about Lisa? I open my mouth to ask but a loud bang from outside stops me in my tracks.
“What was that?” I whisper.
“I don’t know maybe it’ll just go aw...” Jack’s cut off by another bang, this time sounding more like it was banging at the door.
“I think we need to take a look” I say, shakily rising to my feet.
“Alex no, what if...” Jack tries to grab my hand.
“It’s okay” I take the rifle and walk slowly to the door just in time for it to start banging again. Making my away to the far side of the room I peer though the grubby window to see what’s banging against the door expecting to see mindless zombies not a group of people, normal human people trying to break in.
“Jack its people! Actual people”
“What?” He rushes over to me and together we push the shelves blocking the door out of the way and letting the people through.
“Oh my god” says a girls voice. Stepping back from the door three people come in, one girl and two guys none of them could be far away from our own age.
“Hi” I say.
“Hello” she cheers. “I’m Hayley and wow it’s good to see people”
“Alex, and this is Jack” I say jerking my head at the idiot behind me.
“This is Jeremy and Tyler” she says pointing at the other two, Jeremy being a tall guy with brown hair, bright blue eyes and a tattoo on the top of his arm. Taylor’s, curled haired, dark brown eyes and kind of scary looking.
“Oh my god you’ve got a guitar!” Jack half yells looking at the instrument that’s lying across Jeremy’s back.
“Yeah, you play?” he questions, taking the acoustic guitar off his back and handing it to Jack.
“Only a little”
All three of crowd around the little stove why Jack and Jeremy swap between playing songs on the guitar, after a while Hayley starts to join them singing along.
“Hey, don’t write yourself off yet
It’s only in your head you feel left out or looked down on
Just try your best, try everything you can
And don’t you worry what they themselves when you’re away
It just takes some time, little girl you’re in the middle of the ride
Everything, everything will be just fine
Everything, everything will be alright”
Hayley sang along to Jimmy Eat World, why Jeremy plays and I can’t help softly singing along too.
“Hey Alex you should sing, you’ve got a good voice” Hayley says.
“Me? No I don’t”
“Yeah you do! Here try this” Jack takes the guitar and starts to strum a song. He plays the intro to a song I know so well and soon I couldn’t resist singing.
“I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On this boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I’m the only one and I walk alone”
In that moment, I forget Tay, I forget my parents, I forget Lisa, I forget the world outside, in that moment all that matters is the music. Just as my body decides there’s a tickle in my throat that it just has to scratch and I start coughing.
“Alex, are you okay?” Jack asks, putting his hand on shoulder as I get air back into my lungs.
“Yeah, yeah I’m okay” Jack reaches up putting his hand to my forehead, I shiver under his touch.
“You feel warm” he says. There’s a yelp and we both look up, Hayley has got up and was slowly going towards the other end o the room.
“He....He’s infected!” she says, shakily pointing at me.

Notes

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