Zombie Story

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen- Accusations (Day Four)

The steaming bowl of chicken soup made my mouth water. I had to restrain myself from downing the whole bowl in that very second. I remembered reading something about how you could get sick from eating too much too soon after not eating for a while. Instead I took more civilized sips while Carmen kept me company from across the table.

Carmen seemed like she wanted to tell me something, she kept looking over to me before looking back at her hands. I didn't feel like being bombarded by questions right then, so i finished off my soup before asking her, "Did you want to say something?"

She nodded slowly and paused before finally speaking,

"You kind of smell, dear. Maybe go take a shower and change?"

°°°

Despite feeling slightly offended by Carmen's comment, I was now sitting comfortably on the couch in fresh clothes, smelling like passion fruit with a hint of coconut. Oh, it'd be a sad day once we could no longer find shampoo and conditioner on runs. Carmen dissapeared, I presumed to gather the group.

When Carmen popped back in, I was relieved to see she only brought a few group members along with her: Geoff, Colt, Aspen, Belle, and Heather. I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw the black haired bundle Heather had in her arms along with a bottle. After taking a second to admire Luke from my seat in the couch I surveyed the group. In total, there was eight of us in the room but if I didn't count Luke and myself it was only six.

"Here, Luke missed his momma," Heather gently placed him in my arms before smiling, "I'm glad you're okay. I felt like I lost a sister."

Her words touched me but our moment was cut short by Geoff's obvious coughs. He signaled for everyone to find a seat before speaking, "Everyone would've been here you know how nosy they are, but we didn't want to overwhelm you." He spoke as if the six pair of eyes boring into my soul wasn't overwhelming. "So Josephina, what on earth happened back there? Where were you? Where's David? What happened to the car? Why di-"

He was cut short by the guy with the freckled face I knew as Aspen, "Hey chief, give her a chance to answer one question before you ask her like four more." I almost thanked him before he turned back to me, "but what did happened out there?"

I didn't know where to start and instead multitasked with feeding baby Luke the warm bottle that Heather had handed me previously and answering the questions,

"You'd never believe it, well actually it isn't that unbelievable, but that traitor David left me. He took my bag and keys and ditched me."

Geoff and Colt side eyed eachother before Colt spoke, "Didn't I see a bag on you when you walked in?"

I didn't even get the chance to explain that I had picked up this bag up at the Walmart before Geoff hesitantly backed up Colt's accusations, "Yeah no offense Josephina, but me and David were chatting it up before everything went down and I just don't think he'd do that."

If this were a cartoon, my mouth would be gaping open. Did they not hear all of David's remarks? Did they not notice his attitude? They couldn't have possibly not noticed how lazy and ignorant he was. Now that I think about it though, he only ever acted like that around women, he usually kept himself composed around men. Did being a sexist snob really work out for him? Aspen's voice cut through my thoughts, "Uh aren't we supposed to believe the victim or whatever? I don't know guys that's what I used to see on like every girl's instagram story."

Belle nudged her brother, "Of course you're supposed to believe the victim!"

Heather agreed, gathering her thoughts, "Guys I went on that run with David and Josephina. I can vouch that he was complaining the whole way, he was so difficult on that car ride. He made the biggest fuss about being in the backseat."

Geoff shook his head, "When I bunked with him, he told me he had a bad back. That was probably why he was complaining."

"He told you that?" I asked completely dumbfounded, he had never mentioned anything about a bad back.

Geoff nodded, "Yes, he did! He told me that the floor was making his back problems worse. Bill traded places with him and all his complaining stopped, I'm telling you."

There it was. On top of being sexist and a traitor, he was manipulative too. It seemed like this was all stacking up against me. Colt leaned against the door frame, there wasn't enough seats so he was left standing, "And if I recall, the car you guys were taking had a missing window in the back. Bud was probably just scared. That's probably why he was making an issue out of sitting in the back." I recalled when I first entered the house, Colt was the one asking me about the car. He seemed to be really invested in the car, so of course he knew every detail about the missing car, including the missing window. It was just my luck he was one of those guys obswssed with cars.. In theory, this all looked bad for me.

I placed the bottle Luke had finished off aside, "You guys can't be serious? So what, are you saying I'm lying?"

Even Belle, Aspen and Carmen looked hesitant now. I didn't dare look at Heather in case she held a similar expression. Geoff broke the silence, "Look none of us questioned you when Ethan and Zach died. It just seems like the people you go on runs with don't always come back. You've been on what, three runs? And in two out of those three runs, someone didn't come back."

"Hey, what are you implying?" Hetaher cut in looking furious, "that she killed Ethan and Zach? Keep their names out of your dirty mouth." This had to be the firsy time I had ever seen Heather angry, "What happened to them was tragic, but it had nothing to do with Josephina. And for you to even imply that it a disgrace on their names."

Those final words felt like she was stabbing at my conscious. I couldn't honestly say that their deaths had nothing to do with me. In fact, I'm a second hand cause to their deaths. But I couldn't confess that to the group now. Not ever.

Colt took the floor, "Look, I'm just saying she could have very we-"

"No." Heather stopped him, "I don't know if you all forgot but me, Zach, and Ethan found this place. We took you guys in NOT the other way around. This is my place. And I try to practice democracy here, but don't forget who holds the key to the solid metal door of the food and gas storage here. With that, I can vouch that me and Josephina easily go on the most runs here. Maybe if more of you went you would notice how hard it is to bring everyone back."

Heather turned to Geoff and Carmen, "Geoff, we've all excused you staying because you're the closest thing to a doctor, but I promise you we say that out of courtesy because we feel bad for you. You crack under pressure as soon as you see more than one zombie. You're not even a vet you're a vet assistant for goodness sake. And Carmen, I've always defended you when you were too scared to go on runs without George. And then again I helped you out when I excluded you two from runs entirely because you two are absolutely useless together."

The two looked stunned. Heather wasted no time and moved on to Colt, "Colt, when me and Zach found you, you had a dead woman in your arms and a bloody knife in your hands."

Colt looked around wide eyed, it was clear this was new information to the rest of the group because they looked as stunned as I did, "H-Hey I told you already, she was bit. I had to."

Heather glared at him, "We chose to believe you despite how bad the situation looked, right? You'd be a hypocrite not to do the same. Heather looked over to Aspen and Belle, "Need I say more? Because I can say more. Or are we all on the same page?"

Silence. Everyone mumbled their answers and nodded. Heather placed her hand on her hips before pointing at the exit of the living room, "Then what are you all doing here? Make yourselves useful. Check the cars. Clean the dishes. Take a shower. Something, just get out."

I watched the group trail out as Heather flopped onto an empty sofa. I still had to take everything in. I had never seen Heather lash out at anyone. I wouldn't lie, she was kind of scary. I looked down at Luke, somehow all the yelling had rocked him to sleep. He would do just fine in this apocalypse. I turned my attention to Heather, "Hey, thanks."

Heather lifted her head, still flopped on the couch, "Yeah don't mention it. But hey, what happened back there anyways. Not that I'm doubting you or anything, but it seems like a good story."

I grinned, looking back at it, it would be a fun story to tell, "It is.

Look so it all started when..."