The Town of Last Haven: A Zombie Novel

Part 28

"So, you liked The Twilight Zone too?" Natalie asked giddily.

"Loved it. I know it was old TV--still old now, practically ancient--but I loved old black and white movies. Watched them on My-Tech before that turned old-worldly." Jake was at Natalie's side as they walked towards the Wallace house from up the street. "What was your favorite episode?"

"I liked them all, but the first episode I ever watched was the one with the power outage on one street, the one where everyone was turning on each other--remember that one?" Natalie asked, and Jake nodded.

For once in a great blue moon, Natalie felt normal for once. It was like the whole zombie apocalypse hadn't happened, just two young adults walking in sync and talking like the world was normal, like they had their whole lives ahead of them instead of having to worry about walls coming down and the dead coming in.

Natalie laughed with Jake, and Clarise and Trent ran to the windows as Opal barked her call. Clarise looked wide-eyed at Jake--her sister was with a boy? Clarise brushed back her dark bangs from her face and hesitated to go outside. This never happened--Natalie with a boy, laughing with a friend, just being--and Clarise didn't want to interfere with that.

"Hey, Natalie has a bag! Maybe she'd brought something for us?" Trent suggested, about to run outside to join Natalie and the stranger until Clarise grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Hey, don't tear my shirt."

"I wasn't going to tear your shirt, Trent." Clarise protested. "I was trying to stop you from stopping a beautiful moment! Wouldn't mom say something like that?" she asked, and Trent nodded slowly. They both missed their parents terribly, but they still had Julia and Natalie and Austin, and Natalie told them to focus on that point when they were down.

"What beautiful moment?" Trent looked out the window at their sister. "Oh, my God." Trent couldn't believe it either. "Clarise, our sister is with a boy." He said it like it never happened, but there was truth in that too.

Clarise and Trent moved to the door, creaking it open to hear better. "And I'm certain my brother and sister are already spying on us now." Natalie smiled warmly, taking off her hat, her blonde hair falling long about her shoulders again. The two young Brown siblings leaned too hard against the door. It creaked, Natalie and Jake looked to the front door, and Trent slammed the door closed before bolting for the stairs.

"Sorry!" Clarise squealed.

Outside, Natalie blushed, and Jake laughed. "Natalie, I wish I had siblings spying on my every move."

"Be careful what you wish for," she said, "because you may get it." Natalie looked down at her bag, moving her hand to touch the bulge of the pregnancy test box. "Thank you for all your help this morning. I don't think I could have found--what I needed without you." She paused, not about to admit to hiding a pregnancy test for Julia.

"When you need me, I'll be here." Jake promised, then looked to the high sun. "I stay in a house a block away, so I'll be seeing you around more regularly. I hope, anyway." He turned red in the face, and Natalie smiled again.

"You will," she said, "and thank you again." Jake walked back down the street towards the center of town, and Natalie walked in through the front door. Clarise was standing by the window, hiding poorly. "Oh, Clarise, come on out of there."

"You're not mad?" she asked quietly.

"No, I'm not mad." Natalie leaned against the door. "I just made a... new friend." She looked blissful. Shaking her head and returning to Earth instead of flying higher than Cloud Nine, she turned to Clarise. "Could you tell me where Julia is?" she asked.

Clarise nodded towards the stairs. "Your room," was her answer. "She's been up there all day so far." Clarise paused, smelling meat cooking in the kitchen. Turning back to Natalie, she asked, "Where were you all morning?"

"I had an errand to run." Natalie spoke quickly, not wanting to reveal anything of her mission to her sister--she wouldn't understand.

Natalie went to her bedroom, seeing Julia lying on her bed with a book in her hands. The book was old, frayed at the edges and binding, but a book was a book and that's all that mattered to Julia on that subject.

"I was starting to think you'd been lost on a trip out there." Julia smiled, sitting up as she set the book aside. Natalie looked to the cover--Julia was reading one of her favorite books before the world went to the dead.

"It took some doing, but I got back." Natalie smiled. "I have what you asked for." She handed her sister the test box from her bag, then sat beside Julia to look at it with her. "Do you know how to use it?"

"All I know is that you pee on the stick, then one or two colorful marks show up." Julia blushed as she explained the vague process to Natalie, continuing. "Natalie, I'm mentally freaking out right now. I don't want to be pregnant..." she whispered.

"Oh, I got you a supply of condoms, by the way," said Natalie dryly. "Maybe that'll 'help' you with this, too, you know." Natalie twitched her fingers in quotes as she spoke.

"Very funny," said Julia, "but I know you're serious."

"Go into the bathroom and see if you're pregnant." Natalie and Julia stood, then Julia left for the bathroom, Natalie waiting outside.

The younger Brown sister could hear the elder saying, 'Please, God, no,' several times, and Natalie simply rolled her eyes. Julia was brave, but she could be exceedingly reckless. Like taking on the wanderers alone and having unprotected relations. Natalie wasn't like that; she was saving herself for the right person. When she thought of it, leaning against the doorway, a picture of Jake's face flashed in her mind. She swallowed hard and stopped herself; she'd only met Jake this morning, but...

...but she was so lonely. Could he have been the Glenn Rhee to her Maggie Greene?

Natalie could no longer hear Julia peeing, just walking to the door. She opened it, her cheeks red with the rest of her face pale.

"Well?" Natalie asked.

"Not pregnant," Julia said with a released breath of relief. "Not pregnant." She brushed invisible sweat from her brow.

"Good," said Natalie. "Maybe next time be less reckless with your activities?" She raised an eyebrow, not in a mood for jokes or jests.

"Lunchtime!" they heard Mrs. Wallace call from downstairs, then headed down to eat.