Zombie Story

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: My Strange Addiction (Day Two)

It was unfortunate that on the day that baby Luke was born, the word of what had happened to Ethan and Zach spread around. The whole group, not that there was many of us, was stricken with grief. David was excluded to this, of course, he never even met them.

Heather approached me from my spot on one of the stair steps, where I was cradling baby Luke. I still felt awkward holding him, I couldn't say I had all too much experience with newborn babies. They just felt so fragile. Heather plopped down next to me, "Hey. We're holding a funeral for Ethan and Zach in about an hour or two. We need to feed Luke and get David situated by then."

The thought of even going on a run right now seemed exhausting, no, impossible actually. "A run? Right now? Will we even make it back by two hours?"

Heather smiled, seemingly happy to be the bearer of good news, "Did I ever tell you that me, Zach, and Ethan were the ones who claimed this place? It was our neighbor's but they took a vacation shortly before everything went down." I  was confused onto where this was going but I nodded to show that I was listening. Heather continued, "Well since it's our place, we made a rule that the basement was off limits. It's a storage for emergencies. And our neighbors had a back up freezer..." Heather grinned as if we were sharing an inside joke, "Well the Miss of the house, she loved Almond Milk."

°°°
The missing piece of the puzzle. A whole case of Almond Milk. I'm sure whoever the previous owner of the house was, she could have been on My Strange Addiction. The freezer was packed with Almond Milk. Fortunately, it had a good month before it expired. Unfortunately, none of us knew just how long the back up generator in the freezer would last.

"I was saving these in case we couldn't find anymore food on runs, but I think Luke needs it more," Heather laughed pulling out a carton of Almond Milk. "Look, I'll go warm this up, why don't you settle David in."

David. I forgot about him. "Are you sure? Luke is my responsibility. Warming up milk isn't too hard," I reasoned.

Heather glanced at her feet in response, "It's not that, it's just that it's been so long since I held a baby. And right now with everything that happened, the last thing I want to do is be civil and social, you know?"

I knew exactly what she meant, truthfully I didn't feel like showing David around either. But me and Heather brought him in so one of us had to do it. She knew Zach and Ethan a lot more than I did. Of course, however much this hurt me, it must be killing her. Although, she didn't have to carry the burden of being the reason of their unfortunate demise.

Luke started to stir as I handed him over to Heather. He seemed to remmeber how hungry he was because he woke up wailing. Heather wasted no time in grabbing the carton of Almond milk with her less dominant hand, "I better be quick to warm this up, good luck Jos"

I was left in silence, alone with my thoughts, but I didn't mind. I grabbed the key to the storage and locked the steel door before sliding the small key into my pocket. Without this key, I doubted anyone could break through that door, the lady of the house must have really wanted her Almond milk untouched.

I wanted to change out of my blood stained shirt and take a nap so bad. But instead I walked upstairs and then over to where David was sitting on the couch. He was tapping his foot repeatedly, looking around anxiously. His expression didn't change when we made eye contact, "Hey. Josie, was it? You guys have food? I'm starving."

The familiar nickname disgusted me coming from a stranger, "Josephina, actually. And we eat twice a day, but there's a funeral about to go on so we'll probably eat tomorrow morning."

David's face changed to one of annoyance, as if our group hadn't taken him in, "Look, I'm really hungry. It's only fair I eat now, I did help you and that other chick collect food. Hey speaking of that other chick, she's kinda hot. She single?"

This guy. I clenched my jaw shut to refrain from lashing out at him. Deep breaths, "Oh, you're really hungry? In that case let me cook you something right now," I matched his previously annoyed expression, "Is that what you expected David? Now get off the couch so I can find you a place to sleep. Unless you're fine sleeping there that is."

David looked stunned but got up, he seemed shocked that he hadn't gotten his way, "Hey, calm down okay. Didn't know I caught you in that time of the month, geez"

Maybe kicking him onto the streets wouldn't be the worst idea. I had to remind myself we needed the extra muscle in the group, the elders certainly couldn't go on runs. The elders. Geoff was an old soul. My mind went through the points and in a matter of a minute I ended up with the conclusion; Geoff could squeeze Dave into his room, wherever it was. Perfect.

"David, where's Geoff? He's the one who was helping the pregnant woman you were with."

David pointed to the garage, "He took her body outside and just sat there when he came back inside. You'd think he's never seen a dead person."

'Lack of sympathy' I noted on my ongoing internal list of David, mostly negative traits so far. I almost felt bad just handing him off to Geoff but I had enough on my plate. I walked over to the garage wordlessly before turning and seeing David standing in place, "Well, c'mon Dave."

I opened the door while David made his way over to me, spotting Geoff sitting on the spot where the woman was previously lying. He attempted a grin when he saw me and David, "Hey there young folks. How's the baby?"

I returned the grin, he was much more bearable than David. "The baby is doing great. He's probably eating right about now. Geoff, do you think David can bunk with you? Just until we can rearrange rooms."

Geoff looked over at David before nodding, "I don't see why not. I'm staying with Bill, but I don't mind a third person," he pointed to David, "If he doesn't mind sleeping on the floor that is."

I didnt have to look at David to know he was disgusted at the idea. Regardless, I was fed up with him so I didn't really care about how he felt about his living arrangements, "Oh David doesn't mind. He's just grateful we took him in," I reassured Geoff. Before either of them could say anything, I rushed back inside and headed upstairs. David was dealt with and Luke was being taken care of by Heather.

I could take a short nap before the funeral. It wasn't really a funeral. It would probably just be us mourning, but I guess thats what a funeral is. Part of me debated just sleeping through it. But the other part of me refused to risk missing it. Instead, I settled on changing into one of old shirts the Heather had left folded on my bed at some point and heading back down stairs.

I was right on time, the whole group was starting to gather into the living room. I felt a tap on my shoulder and quickly turned around. I swear if I heard David complain about anything else right now. Fortunately, I was met by Heather.

"Here you go, fed and asleep now," she beamed proudly, the sleeping infant wrapped in a blanket instead of a towel now.

I gladly took baby Luke into my arms, handing her the key to the storage in return, before paying more attention to the grim atmosphere. Just then David walked in with Geoff before speaking,

"What's with everyone. You'd think someone died or something"