Dead Lands

Chapter 2

The days passed in a blur. One after the other, house after house. The gas in the bike had been enough so far, my food supply hardly touched and lets not even mention the lack of sleep. I still didn't know where I was going, what I was going to do but I did know, home was not an option.

I eventually took up rest at an abandoned diner 4 days ride from home. I hadn't the faintest idea where I was or how far away from where I started. I took random turns and winding roads. Passed by Zombie packs of all sizes and locations. Never once had a reason to turn a weapon on anything. So it would seem my luck is high for the moment.

After a few hours of relaxing in the diner, with no worries and decent food, I heard a noise from outside. I loosely took my grandfathers rifle in my hand while taking the last bite of the sandwich I slapped together quickly. As I walked towards the window the floor boards let out a moan under my weight. The noise turned into a shuffling sound just outside the window. I quickly jumped off to the side to get out of the window. I saw a shadow pas but did not see a person of any kind. I peeked out the window and came face-to-face with a porcelain face, bright green eyes and fiery red hair tangled around her face. Her eyes widened with surprise and intrigue as her upturned, almond, Spring leaf green eyes met my soft hooded, deep silver eyes.

I smiled to myself at the thought of this young lady being a flesh eating creature. I backed away from the widow and let out a chuckle as the door swung open and she stepped through the door way. Axe in hand staring me down with a semi murderous look in her gentle eyes.

"Hello" I greeted with my hands out to the side in hopes of getting her to let down her guard.

"Who are you?" Her voice soft and sweet like an angel but not without the promise of death if you crossed her.

"Keir but everyone calls me K for short. Who are you?"

"Phoenix." She was very much to the point and I will admit, I feared for my life.

"Want to drop the axe to your side? As you can tell I am not dead, dying or other wise and I am very clearly not going to hurt you." She dropped it slightly but still keeping a tight grip with both hands, clearly untrusting of the stranger in front of her. To try and help her along I slowly moved towards the diner counter and put my rifle down on the cluttered surface keeping my hands in sight at all times.

"Now you have the upper hand. Surely you must feel safe enough to hold the ae in one hand at your side, unless you are trying to make this encounter hard to forget. In that case you get an A+" I half jokingly half sarcastically pointed out hoping to ease the clear tension in the room.

She tightened her grip after my comment and showed no signs of letting go any time soon. So in the clear situation of a stale mate I took a seat at the diner counter again and took up my riffle to clean it.

After a few minutes of silence and a clean riffle I saw her shuffle her feet a little bit before joining me at the counter, a few seats over. She put her axe on top of the counter and left one hand on it as she looked down and opened her mouth like she wanted to say something then quickly decided not to.

"Where are you from?" I asked non-chalant.

She looked sideways at me with a shy twitch of the corner of her mouth. S she turned towards me putting both hands on her lap and took a deep breath.

"I'm from a far off land. You probably have never heard of it" Her body language told me she didn't want to talk about it. She seemed sad.

After an hour or so of awkward silence I stood up and gathered my belongings and headed for the door. Suddenly Phoenix stood in front of me stopping me from leaving. "Yes?" I asked sarcastically "Can I help you with something or can I leave this awkward situation?"

Without a word and with slight hesitation she bowed her head and shuffled to the side. I walked out of the diner and headed to my bike to put my stuff away. I looked back over my shoulder briefly to see her in the door way with tear brimmed eyes watching me in silent protest.

As I drove away I found my thoughts kept returning to the image of Phoenix crying in the door way. A pang guilt kept tugging me back there but I refused to turn around. I forced my thoughts back to my brothers birthday. The cake, his smile, friends, laughter all the things that made it worth pushing past everything. Now I'll never see him again, never hear his, never hear him tell me he hates me for eating the last cookie. I'll never be able to sit on the side of his bed and watch him sleep ever again. that innocent little boy is gone forever. He was so annoying, there were times I actually thought I hated him until he smiled that sweet smile at me. I would hold him when he cried, stand up for him when he got bullied, I was his role model and I never got the chance to show him what it meant to be a man, how to treat a woman, be responsible, take him to his practices, games. give him shit for making our mother worry about him when he stayed up past curfew.

As I felt a cold tear fall to my cheek I snapped back to reality and realized I was driving through a heard of zombies all reaching out for me, their hungry eyes spotting me, decaying fleshy hands reaching for me and blood stained mouths trying to taste me. I tried to kick my bike up another gear to get through them. I kept trying and trying as my bike only fell in power until it was to the point of almost dead, I hoped off and grabbed my knife out of my thigh halter and reached for my gun. I had no time to get a grip on it, it fell to the ground and I booked it through the heard while fighting them off with my knife. Making as many head shots as I could manage, If I couldn't get one I would try to wound them to at least get out of there.

As soon as I cleared the heard I didn't stop running, slowing down was not an option at this point, I needed to find shelter for the night. I hadn't even noticed that it had gotten a little darker out. I was too far away from the dinner to back, though it had crossed my mind to just go back. I just kept running I didn't stop and I lost all track of how long it had been, I tripped in a hole and landed on my back starring up at the sky I just never got back up.

I woke up with birds chirping above my head, and voices whispered somewhere near me. I blinked a couple times and sat up as a sharp pain radiated up my back, I winched and the voices hushed. I rubbed my head a bit and looked around I located a fire pit just ahead of me, some canned food lain around it and some clothes hanging from a tree. I heard rustling in the bush beside me i reached for my knife as a person emerged with his hands up. He just looked at me with eyes that told me if I play nice he will too. I put my knife down and put my hands up like him.

He looked oddly familiar, like I've seen him before in my everyday life. His Sandy hair, baby blue eyes, strong jaw, and slight smirk. It was so familiar, I was having trouble placing it until I heard his voice, "Hello son."