ɢʜᴏsᴛs ~ 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚍¹

(11) Before

Original Episode

October 7th, Day 64

BEFORE THE WORLD had ended, Nicky had finally bought herself a phone.

She didn't want one, what would she even do in there? Solve some scientific problems until she gets bored. Play some video games. Create herself a Spotify playlist. But other people do more interesting things with their devices; play games; level up; write stories. No. That all sounds stupid to her.

She gave in, though–mostly because one time she solved all of her equations and read all the books in the library and had nothing better to do–so she spent the rest of the time before the apocalypse in front of her phone, reading about people's lives and scoffing at them. Joke’s on them, though. A degree in nuclear physics won't help these days, but knowing how to work a car and hot-wire it and plan escape routes through infested cities, just like those zombie games–those were useful skills these days, so Nicky settled for those.

The RV bounced over a pothole, and Nicky leaned her face against the slightly opened window, wishing to catch a scent of something not dead. Sweat ran down her neck and dampened her shirt. No one had really spoken since they got in the cars; everyone was probably in shock, she concluded. In the front, she saw Rick's filthy, white-knuckled hands clenching tightly on the wheel, and Carl was half asleep against Lori's shoulder. At the back, to the left of Nicky, Andrea was staring straight ahead with blank eyes, not even noticing Dale's arms around her. Everyone was a mess. A dysfunctional group, all of them, including herself. What would Nicky do with a phone now? Play games like nothing happened? Scroll through Facebook? Post about what just happened?

She sighed and let her head fall onto the leather seat. Yeah, at first she had been proud of her skills she had before the apocalypse. She didn't want to see anybody die, and she didn't want to think about her dead mom and dead dad–she loved them dearly as much as they loved her, yet Dad had committed suicide, Mom got bitten, and now Nicky was all alone with a group she met just a day ago. She tried to keep her mind off of everything, and tried repeating the periodic table all over again–it wasn't helping–she rehearsed it seventeen times by now. This new world had been exciting at first. A little cool.

That was when she hadn't seen it up close, and now none of this shit was cool. Watching her home, and Dad getting blown up as she sobbed in the arms of Glenn. Running over the dead people lying on the ground just outside of the CDC. Leaving her home and never seeing it ever again, the one where she grew up with Mom and Dad, not cool–Jesus, nothing was cool anymore. They drove away from the explosion that killed Dad and that woman and almost killed them, not fucking cool. In this moment, more than anything else, she finally realized the truth of everything happening. This wasn't a movie or a video game. This was actually real, and it terrified her to no end. She wanted to switch places with Carl, just to have parents again, to trust that her parents would comfort her and keep her alive.

She looked out the window and watched the scenery–Rick was driving extremely, painfully slow just to save gas–and she knew that this world hadn't really changed. The sun still rose; trees were still green and beautiful; birds still sang; insects flew over the thick, humid air. It's like a normal road trip, they were probably heading to Savannah to drink some beer and juice for the kids, maybe go to Hilton Head to hangout on the beach, but then there would be bugs swarming certain areas in a way, only the bugs knew. And when you looked closer, you'd see someone's jeans or bright shirt sleeve hidden in the grass by the road, or someone's long, blonde hair in the caravan, like an abandoned doll.

She wondered when all the bodies would sink into the earth, before the dead all ran out of food or were just too starved to drag themselves around. The others are probably still thinking there's a cure, but Nicky lived at the CDC. Even if they could stay alive long enough, adapt in this new world, somehow keep from going insane–they could just wait it out, maybe they'll eventually run out of dead people. The world probably won't be the same as before, but they'd be safe; they'd be alive. That's all she hoped. That's what she saw in the future.