You Can't Survive Alone

Part 19

The Morning After
I woke up the next morning with the sunrise. Zack and I were going on a supply run together as soon as it was light enough, and I didn't want to be late.
I ran down to the kitchen and grabbed myself some leftover fruit and dry cereal- the breakfast of kings, I thought to myself humorously. Like there were any kings left.
That led me to wondering- had the virus infected Europe, as well? Or was it trapped in the Americas? That might be something worth discovering, because if we could flee to Europe, we would be guaranteed safety, and we would be back in modern civilization... but then I remember the globe I saw in Ethan's base, covered in a sea of red and blue. Most of the world must have fallen to the apocalypse, I realize with dread.
No time to wonder about that now, though. The important thing is to simply survive until tomorrow, I remind myself as Zack walks in. He pours himself a bowl of cereal, and says, "you almost ready to go?"
"Yep."
"So, how do you feel about the whole leaving thing?" He asks, making a circle in the air above his cereal with his spoon. "like, do you think it's a good idea?"
"I think it's necessary for us to leave. I don't really want to go, but we need to."
"I feel the same way. I've kinda grown attached to this place, but we do need to leave." He finishes up his cereal and says, "ready to head out?"
I stand up, brush off my pants, and say, "let's go."
When we get outside, I see that the stain on the street has faded a lot in the overnight rain. Good; there'll be less of a chance that zombies will be attracted to it now.
"What stuff do we need to pick up?" I ask Zack.
He takes a paper out of his pocket, unfolds it, and proceeds to read it. "Food, water, clothes, first aid. We can get all this stuff at Target."
"Yeah, let's just head to a Target we haven't raided yet. Easiest way to get all this stuff. Do we drop the supplies back at the base, or take it directly to the train?"
"We don't know what train we're on yet, so let's just take it back to base."
As we walk towards the Target, I realize that there is a suspiciously low number of zombies around. "Where do you think they all are? The zombies, I mean. We haven't seen any all walk, and there should be thousands of them here."
He looks troubled. "I don't know, but I don't think that can be a good thing."
"Agreed. Best to keep our heads down and get this over with as fast as we can."
As we walk down the street, I have an idea. There's a bike rack on the side of the street, with two bikes that look like they would be the right size for us. They aren't even locked to the bike rack.
"Hey Zack! Bikes!" He gets it immediately, and we head over to the bikes. I hop on mine, and it's the perfect height and everything. The front tire is a little flat, but hey, you can't have everything you want. "We can attach wagons filled with supplies to the back of these, and we can carry more than we could before! They'll be faster, too."
"Good thinking! Can't believe we didn't realize this before."
We get to Target a lot faster, but leave the bikes outside. We grab shopping carts, oil the wheels so they won't squeak, and grab as much stuff as we can. Then we attach the carts to the bikes with bungee cords. We bike back faster than we ever have before, happy as kids at a candy store.

A few hours after
"Hobbes, which train would be the best for us to leave on?" Nick asks, looking at Hobbes. We're in the Amtrak station, looking at some of the trains that we could choose from.
"I'd suggest that one over there," he says, pointing at a long train with three cars that were obviously built with comfort in mind. It was partially streamlined, and painted red, white, and blue. "That's an SDP40F. Rather big locomotive but it's only hooked up to a three car consist. I can drive it and it would obviously be comfortable and have enough space without too much space. You could easily fit all your things inside and yourselves, but it isn't too long."
"Sounds good to me," I say. Watching him for a moment, I realized that he moved with the grace that is usually seen in professional swordsmen. "Hobbes? Do you have a weapon?"
"No, I don't, as a matter of fact. I used the last of my knives while I fought the zombies." He frowns, thinking. "I'll probably need one sometime soon."
"I was just thinking that a sword might be the right weapon for you."
"I was going to ask you if I could try one when we get back, actually."
"When we get back, we can definitely do that," Nick says. "But first, we have to load all the stuff onto this train."
We start taking the supplies off the carts and loading them onto the train. Inside the train it's actually quite roomy and comfortable-looking. We set up our things in the closest car to the engine, so that we are closer together. We finish this quickly, then begin heading home.
I think for a moment, then frown and say, "it's strange we haven't seen any zombies around today. Usually we come across at least one or two."
"Yeah, I was just thinking that too," Nick agrees.
"Hope they aren't up to something. Last thing we need is them getting smart on us," Hobbes says.
"Wait a second," I say. "You think they're getting smarter?"
"It's a possibility," he says. "We'd better prepare, just in case they are getting smarter."
Nick scoffs. "No way that's possible. Zombies are stupid; they can't just get smart."
"It's better to be slightly paranoid than unprepared," I warn. "Besides, if you think about it, is it really that far fetched? The disease finished eating their brain, and brains can regrow, can make connections again that were there before. They might get human instincts back."
"When the disease finishes eating their brain, they die. You've seen the corpses yourself!"
I start getting panicky. "But what if it's mutated? It might stop eating just before death... You know, there haven't been any corpses for a while!"
"Ashley, calm down. There's no way that this could happen; you're being ridiculous."
My head pounds, and I see Hobbes start to back away. I need to get myself under control, and quickly. I sink to the ground, and say, "guys. Go ahead without me; I'll catch up." Nick starts to protest, but I interrupt him, saying "No, seriously. Go, it's my head." He immediately shuts up and turns to Hobbes.
"Let's go."
"We can't just leave her here! What if she's attacked?"
"If she's attacked, she'll be fine. I promise." I watched the war on Hobbes's face, deciding whether to leave or stay. He wanted to leave- he was scared of me; he wanted to stay- never leave someone behind.
Eventually he gave up and said, "okay. Let's go." I wasn't really paying attention at this point, as I was back to trying to get ahold of myself.
I sat there for ten minutes, fighting inside my own head, against the damage in my brain. My thoughts the weapons, my brain the battlefield.
A swarm of red goes over my vision, and I realized that I've lost the battle. That's the last thing I remember.