Infection

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Gwen sat silently, outside the bathroom, hugging her knees to her chest, listening to the soft running water as Jarett was taking a shower. The smell of the zombie gunk they smeared across themselves earlier was beyond disgusting, feeling slimy, now having mixed with her sweat across her face, neck and arms. Still, she felt herself unable to want to do anything, or even feel anything. She was unsure of what she should do. She had no urge to feel anything. Too weary to cry at the loss of her best friend or feel vengeance toward the men. Basically, she was much too tired of the rapid change of events... it was only less than a week ago that the world was as per normal, she could still see herself going around classes and attending lectures...

They were back at the same apartment where they met, the only quiet, sheltered place Jarett knew of. No one had followed them there. Jarett had locked the door, although the gate had been broken, the door's lock was still working. He had also pushed some furniture against the door as precautions in case anyone tried to break in. It was probably noon or so, yet the house was dark and gloomy. The curtains had been drawn.

It was well approaching an hour since he carried her off from the mess and from Ralph's transformation, and the streets had been quiet.

Jarett emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a brown towel. A warm air breezed out of the bathroom. "Funny how there's still electricity here." He remarked. "But it may be cut off anytime. Go and take your shower. You seriously need one."

Gwen said nothing and didn't move. Jarett sighed as he went out of the room. The house still smelled faintly of the rotting corpse in the other room, but he had earlier taped the edges of the door and sprayed an air freshener around the entire house before his bath, and that helped some. He put on a fresh pair of pants and shirt, belonging to whoever lived in this apartment, surprisingly close to the sizes he wore, except that the shirt was a little small. If he recalled the picture frames he saw around the house, the place was owned by a young couple with a kid.

Jarett walked back to the room and Gwen still sat there unmoving. "Look," he started. "I don't quite know what to say now, but at least just – just go take a bath like seriously."

Slowly, Gwen stood up and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door. "Towel on the top rack." Jarett told her, as he heard the watery flow of the showerhead.

He went out of the room and into the living room. He lifted the curtains slightly at the edge and peered at the surroundings. It was an empty road, lifeless except for a few dead zombies that sprawled under the sun, with pools of blood underneath their corpses. Those were the zombies he killed a day ago.

"Phew. So we really did lose those fuckers." He muttered under his breath.

He went into the small kitchen and opened the fridge, greeted by a cold gush of air and an orange luminescent bulb. Electricity was still on. He opened the freezer and saw frozen meats and fishes. A dig around the cabinets found him several cups of instant noodles. A day before, when he was alone, he didn't have much mood to eat. It had been close to a day since his last meal and he was now absolutely starving. Gwen was probably the same, though he doubted that she would be bothered about food now.

He opened two cups of instant noodles and poured in hot water from the thermal airport. He reached out to grab a pan but hesitated. It would be lovely to cook up a nice hot meal, but the scent of food could waft around to who knows where... The windows were slightly ajar, after all. It would be too stuffy to lock every single one.

Gwen was still bathing. Jarett went to the couch and unloaded his items, sorting through his weaponry and backpack while he waited for her to finish.

***

They were ready to leave. A dig around the desks found just a small little flashlight, a small pink metallic flashlight belonging to a female worker. They didn't find any batteries, but the flashlight already had some in it, and it worked.

"How long will this even last?" Allan asked.

"Not sure." Ashlyn replied. "Just gotta conserve, right?"

Jake nodded. "Yeah. Shouldn't be too much of a worry. We only need it for a short while."

"Where is the nearest station?" Ashlyn asked.

"I know where it is." Allan said. "I think I know where it is, anyway. It's a few blocks uhh... thataway." He pointed in a direction.

It was where he came from earlier. He recalled running past an underpass, which probably led to a subway station.

"Are you sure?" Ashlyn queried.

"Gotta trust you, then." Jake replied. Their phones were flat; they couldn't check GPS. Even if they did have chargers, he doubted that they'd be able to connect to anything anyway.

Now all they needed to do was find a way to escape this office. The main glass doors were the way they came in, but the horde of zombies were still there slamming uselessly at the door.

"Is there another way out of here?" Jake wondered.

"Maybe we could climb out the window?" Allan suggested. "We're not high up."

Ashlyn turned to Jake. "Actually, I think –"

Whatever Ashlyn thought was interrupted by a sudden sharp shriek that caused the three of them to instinctively duck down, hiding below the window level. The shriek echoed again throughout the streets.

It was the same monstrous cries from all the strange creatures that had roamed the streets.

"Shit." Jake breathed.

"And how are we going to get past that?" Allan said.

Ashlyn turned pale, as Jake edged toward the window and peered out.

The cry echoed through the streets again, seeming to be from a distance. Jake couldn't see it; the streets were still clear except for the zombies which turned toward the sound.

Another deeper roar came from another direction.

"Now there's two?" Allan shouted.

"Keep it down!" Jake whispered harshly, still scanning the streets urgently.

Fuck.

Slowly, a long-limbed, pale creature crawled along the street below, on all fours. Like a humanoid spider, it had a human torso but all four limbs were stretched impossibly long, reaching onto both sides of the street.

"Right down there." Jake whispered, as the other two crept beside him.

Ashlyn let out a gasp and covered her mouth. The creature below reached the zombies and suddenly, its mouth opened, impossibly wide, and swallowed a zombie whole. It did the same for the remaining zombies.

"It's eating the zombies." Allan whispered.

The creature suddenly stopped in its tracks. It's elongated, deformed head turned and stared right where they were, it's eyes just two jet black ovals, glaring right at the three.

The creature suddenly sprang up and jumped toward them.

***