The Strong Will Survive

Chapter Five - Lilith [EDITED]

A lot can happen in six months.

Worlds can fall apart. Governments can unravel. Zombies can take over the east coast and possibly more.

Lives can shatter and no one even notices because that's the kind of crap that's happening to everyone.

You just become another statistic, someday destined to be jotted down in the margins of a history book, someday to be forgotten and disregarded. It has happened countless times in history, and it will happen to you.

It's enough to drive a person crazy.

I could feel something deep inside my mind stirring. The call of the wild, long-repressed instincts, pure insanity - call it what you will.

But I was no longer just fourteen-year-old Lilith. The apocalypse had broken me. It had beaten me up and pushed me down. Made me watch as it murdered my loved ones.

They would pay. The zombies would pay for what they had done.

I was no longer just fourteen-year-old Lilith. I was stronger, and I was tougher, and I was angrier.

My dead brother lay in the backseat of my dead parents' car. I couldn't sleep, couldn't rest for fear of zombies attacking.

I wanted to kill them.

I was no longer just fourteen-year-old Lilith.

I was deadly.

*

This is what ran through my mind one dark night as I curled up in the driver's seat of what I had come to consider as my car and kept a lookout for zombies, butcher knife held tightly in one hand. Daisy was sleeping in the back. I could almost convince myself that Reggie was doing the same.

For days, I had stolen gas from any gas stations I passed to keep the car running pretty much constantly. When I could, I took a few tanks of it with me. As I kept watch even now, a few tanks of the stuff sat in the trunk, stinking up the whole vehicle.

I suddenly got a craving for fanfiction or YouTube or something. It felt like so long since I'd gotten on the Internet, checking my brain out at the door...but the government said that it was dangerous online, even more so than ever. Criminals, hackers and other human scumbags were viewing the apocalypse as an opportunity rather than a tragedy. No one was safe. At the moment when we should have be helping each other most, many had turned their backs on humanity.

At least, that was what the government had told us. Who knew if they could even be trusted anymore?

Something knocked on the back windshield.

I jumped and tightened my grip on the knife, my heart picking up speed. Daisy woke up and growled. I hadn't come face to face with zombies since that day in my high school. Was now the night that I would have revenge?

In one fluid movement, I unlocked the door, jumped out of the car, and brandished my knife. Something moved around the car and, heart feeling like it might explode, I swung.

"Jesus!" flew through the night air as the shape moved backwards rapidly, holding up his hands.

"Who are you?" I barked.

"A girl?" The voice sounded deeply confused.

"Who. Are. You?" I repeated, voice steely.

"I'm Jared. And I would dearly appreciate it if you put the knife down."

I begin violently shaking. Lowering the knife, I felt tears of relief welling in my eyes. Well, maybe they weren't just out of relief.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," Jared apologized. He took a step forward and I flinched at his sudden approach. After all, it had been days since I had met another human. Living, at least.

He was African-American, with a tattered tee shirt and short, buzzed hair. He was just a kid, maybe one or two years older than me. Surprising, I guess. Why was he alone in a dangerous time like this? That made him suspicious.

Daisy let out a sharp bark from inside the car, and it was Jared's turn to flinch. "You have a dog."

"She's a husky chow chow mix and she will rip your face off." It was a lie, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to elaborate a little

"So is she just an explosion of fur or...?" Jared trailed off, focusing on the breeds more than the "rip your face off" part.

I opened the door of the car and Daisy bounded out. She launched herself at Jared, knocking him to the ground. He disappeared under a mountain of fur. When he emerged, to my surprise, he was laughing. He wrestled with Daisy for a few seconds before seeing my shocked expression. He took his hands out of Daisy's fur and stood up quickly. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine." I thought about how, for the last handful of days, Daisy had been terrified or confused constantly. "She obviously likes it."

We stood there awkwardly for a few more seconds. "What now?" asked Jared.

"What do you mean, 'what now?'"

"I mean, am I just going to leave and you're going to get in your car and you're going to continue driving and we're going to forget all about one another?"

"Well, when you say it like that..."

We stood awkwardly for a little longer.

"Fine, you can come with me," I said with a sigh.

"Thanks. It would have been awkward to ask," Jared replied immediately, opening the car door and dragging Daisy in. He took the passenger seat. I scowled. There was no way I wanted another person coming with me, but it would have been weird to leave him behind when he was obviously in need of help. All of my instincts, however, were on edge.

I could tell he was wondering about the comatose child in the backseat and was too polite to ask by the way his eyes kept shifting back there.

"You want to know about my little brother," I stated flatly.

"How can you read me so well?!"

"I've got a six-year-old zombie in the backseat. Any sane person would want the story."

Jared nodded but said nothing, waiting.

I took a deep breath. "I live...lived...up north." Even now, I was wary with giving out personal information to anyone. "My mom and dad are...gone. I found out about them right after my best friend..." I sighed and thumped my head back against the headrest. My story sounded absolutely pathetic, even to me. It didn't help that I couldn't bring myself to say the words "dead" or "turned."

Jared opened his mouth and I held up a finger, turning on the car. "Don't even say it."

I began driving. "Where are we going?" Jared asked.

I smiled grimly, a good idea finally coming to me. At least, I hoped it was good.

"Why, New York City, of course."