Becoming Them: A Zombie Novel

Two

     The place I met those people was not a permanent place for us to stay. I was glad since the small house didn't contain any proper and sufficient borders to help keep out the zeds. The house was only a place to stay in for the night and was also the place where they decided to explain everything to me. They didn't want me in their actual home just in case I posed some sort of risk, like if I was infected. They had two vehicles among them. With their black van, I was driven far away from the city and into the country, where two large houses had been built to join together, creating one larger building.

     It took me two days to learn all of their names. The leader of the group was Adrian. The blonde-scalped woman who showed me around the place was Aria. Cara, who everyone called Aria's twin because of matching bald heads and green eyes and height, was the new friend I made. The rest of the women whom I had hardly—or not at all—spoken to, were Jamie, Holly, Paula, and Joe. Oh, and Evie, but that was on purpose since it seemed she didn't really like me all that much.

     However, from the brief encounters I've had with them, I observed Jamie as ... unapproachable. Not that she wasn't nice, but she was very hard-headed and blunt. Joe was kind of similar, except she was mostly just mean, or maybe I had just not been accustomed to her good side yet. Paula was one of the quiet ones, so I didn't know her well. But Holly made up for it with her peppy demeanour. It was weird to see Jamie and Holly as best friends since they were so different from one another. Lastly, Evie was the girl who was the same age as me, and she was Adrian's little sister. She always grimaced my way, but I had no clue what I did to already be on her bad side.

     The men hardly spoke to me too, spouting out nothing but orders. Along with Adrian, there was Aaron, Caro, Caleb, Luther, Hunter and Nick. I think the most approachable out of them would be Nick. He'd send a smile my way every time he saw me, but didn't talk to me. All of them barely talked to me, so I didn't hold it against him.

     Needless to say, I didn't mind the isolation from everyone for a bit. I wasn't good with conversing with people, let alone strangers who I didn't trust. Also, I needed a little while to wrap my head around everything. It wasn't like I was going to forget everything that happened and pretend it didn't affect me.

     I missed my family. At times, I would mindlessly touch the space underneath my neck where my locket should be. A picture of Lucas was inside the precious jewellery. He died in a car accident only a little more than three years ago, and the locket itself was a gift given to me by my aunt for my birthday, telling me I can put whatever picture I wanted inside. I decided it just had to be of my brother. That way, I could be reassured that he'd never be forgotten and it would feel like he'd be close by wherever I was. A part of me thought of what it would be like if he was still here. He would surely go out of his way to protect me. However, another part of me was glad he didn't have to see and experience what the world had become.

     The first night I was here, I cried myself to sleep. I wanted mum. I shouldn't have to deal with this either.

     A week into being part of the group, I was starting to get the hang of things. Adrian assigned me on clean-up duty and to be observant of our surroundings just in case any zeds lumbered by. I regularly saw someone out at their post outside keeping a watchful eye for them already, so it wasn't like I'd be much help in that. Although, if worst came to worst, I still had my knife which was returned to me by the time I arrived here.

     As I scrubbed at the dishes that were left after breakfast, I caught sight of movement in front of me, outside the window. Two decomposing zeds walked drunkenly on the road, caught sight of Cara in her chair sharpening her knife, and changed their direction to go after her. I stopped what I was doing and just watched. This was the first time I saw those things ever since I moved here. They didn't travel much outside of the city unless they had found reliable prey, and there weren't many other buildings for miles so any potential zeds that were living in those houses would not be near us enough to be a liability.