Love is Dead

Chapter Seven: Four Against One

Margot learned to sew from her mom when she was seven. She poked her fingers many times with the sewing needle, and vowed that she would never sew again. After her mom died, she picked up sewing again, and it turned out to be one of the only things that she was good at. Margot even learned how to embroider some simple designs, although she couldn't really afford to be wasting thread for it.

She always tried to match the colour of thread to the item of clothing that she was patching up so that you could barely notice that it had been damaged in the first place. However, she didn't have quite the right shade of grey for Fallon's shirt. It was the one she was wearing when Gunner had accidentally shot her, and Margot wanted to sew the holes in it for her. In fact, a lot of Fallon's clothes had small holes or tears in them, which wasn't that surprising considering the state of the world and the fact that Fallon didn't look like someone who knew how to sew. Since Jackie seemed to know how to knit, Margot figured that she might also know how to sew and may have some grey thread that she could borrow.

It was still pretty early in the morning, so Margot quietly left her and Fallon's room and walked across the hallway to Jackie and Elliot's. The door was left open and Jackie sat on the bed inside, continuing her knitting project from before. The bed itself was queen sized and pushed into the corner of the room. There was a nightstand beside the bed and a dresser beside the door.

As Margot walked up to the door, Jackie noticed her and smiled. "Good morning."

"Morning," Margot replied. "Do you sew, by any chance? I'm looking for some grey thread."

"Oh, yes, I have some, just give me a moment." She said, setting down her knitting and grabbing her backpack from where it was sitting at the base of the bed.

While she was searching, Margot entered and sat beside her on the bed. "So, how long have you and Elliot been together?"

Jackie laughed. "Oh no, we aren't a couple. Just really good friends."

"Oh, sorry, I just assumed because you share a room and, you know, you're pregnant, so..."

"We only share a room because we thought it'd be safer. We were the first to find this place before Gunner and Ayumi, and we only had the one shotgun, so it would be a good idea to be near each other in case anything happened." She replied, looking up from her bag. "As for who got me pregnant, it was my boyfriend, Peter. He got bitten roughly eight months ago, or else he'd be here."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

She shrugged. "Shit happens. He died while we were escaping our Safe Zone, one of the quarantined areas set up by the government at the start of the outbreak, after a hoard of zombies got in. We didn't even know I was pregnant at the time. Elliot freaked out when I told him, he felt so guilty."

"Why would he feel guilty?" Margot asked.

"Well, Elliot was the one who let the zombies in. A lot of people in our Safe Zone kept getting sick and dying. Since Elliot and I worked at the clinic, we saw everything first-hand. It was really bad. But even though the illness kept spreading, travellers and traders were still allowed to enter without even being told what they were walking into. Then they'd leave to spread the illness to the rest of the world, and you know there aren't that many people left." Jackie spoke as she started to search through her bag again. "Elliot's dad had a job guarding the gates, and that man was a drunk. He'd even drink on the job sometimes. One night when a large hoard was passing through and Elliot knew his dad was working, he snuck over there and opened the gates. So many people died that night, but he stopped the illness from spreading and killing more people."

"That must be a lot to deal with, knowing you killed so many people."

"It is a large burden to bear, but he knew it had to be done. Sometimes he gets nightmares about it." She pulled out the grey thread and held it out to Margot. "Don't tell him I told you all this."