Apocalyptic Romance

Chapter 4: Very Vivid Dreams

Jack and I were assigned to different 'mini camps', as they called the little areas where we would be sleeping/living in until we moved to a different location. Our first movement was that we clinged to each other and we refused to be separated again. They eventually gave up trying, so they reassigned Jack to my area as a result. It turns out that the head supervisor for our area was Jason. I felt a sudden burst of happiness when I saw his face. He looked at me and smiled, but then I got hot in my cheeks, meaning that I was blushing, so I hid my face in my hair. I held onto Jack's hand tightly as Jason walked over to us. he had a huge smile on his face, looking at me as he walked over. Before he reached us, he saw Jack's and my hands intertwined; and suddenly, the smile vanished.

"Hello again, Eliza. I see that you found the boy that you were looking for." He had pain in his voice as he said those words.

"Yeah. I almost found everyone that I was looking for."

"Who else are you looking for, Eliza?"

"I was looking for my father. The other person that I described to you." I started to tear up again at the thought of Dad. Jason moved in to comfort me, but Jack got to me first.

"And who is this young gentleman holding your hand, Eliza?" He tried to hide his jealousy and pain with a smile, but it wasn't working very well.

"Oh. Um, Jason. This is my brother, Jack. Jack, this is Jason. He is the one who checked to see if I was okay from the blast. By the way, Jason. What WAS that blast?"

"Oh. That was small subatomic-particle launching device that is safe for humans, but kills zombies right away." I was thoroughly intrigued by this for some reason. "Oh really? How does it work?", I said enthusiastically. "Oh, that's simple science, My Dear. The particles get into the remaining brain cells in a zombie and they alert the nerve endings that are used for pain. The particles then send off messages to those specific nerves pretty much telling them, 'Hey! You've been stabbed in the head! Go down and die!'. It has a range of about one-hundred feet away," He paused for a moment, but then finished his thought. "I, uh, kind of added the last part myself." I laughed a little bit while feeling myself blush again. "Yeah. I figured because I've never heard an actual scientist say something like that before." It was a few minutes later that I realized Jack's and my hands were still intertwined, so I let go of him. Jack also let go, but very reluctantly.

After a little bit of packing up the remaining supplies, sweeping the lifeless corpses out of the way of the trucks, taking a roll call (with Jack's and my names included), and piling into a truck we were on our way to our base camp. It was a long drive from Portland to Salem; longer than it used to seem.

It was a few minutes into the drive that I couldn't stay awake anymore, so I fell asleep the second I closed my eyes. I was having the strangest dream; and it haunted my memory even after I woke up. It was so realistic that I had a hard time differing the dream from reality.......

I was sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of a pale pink room. There were cute little creatures painted on the walls of this mysterious room like purple and blue butterflies floating throughout the air, pink and golden ponies galloping in a field, great big apple trees swaying with the breeze. It was a pretty mural with unusually girly colors. I sat rocking at my own pace, gently pushing myself backwards with the tips of my toes, I feel my arms getting tired. "That's weird.", I thought to myself, "I'm not holding anything." That's when I felt something lightly kick me in the ribs. I look down to see a baby in my arms. My baby. "Oh! Hello Susan. I forgot that you were even there." I said smiling down at this little sleeping baby, who then started crying. I rock her in my arms and then as soon as she falls asleep again, I gently set her down in her crib and look down at her while smiling. I heard light footsteps behind me, and then I could feel strong arms wrap firmly, but gently around my waist.