Dead But Not Gone

A Helping Hand

"If you're gonna stay, you're gonna have to pull your own weight and help out out around here," Xander explained, "so today, you start your duty as a dishwasher!"

"Wow, my dream job." I replied while rolling my eyes.

"Ah it's not so bad. Mike has to clean out the bathrooms."

I assumed this was my second test. I've been here for about two weeks so I should've saw this coming. Xander left me with the pile of old early 2000 dishes. With a sigh, I quickly went to work.

The dish washing took about 2 hours, so I had enough time to sleep for a little bit. On my way to my room, I overheard Alessandra talking to Xander.

"... and Derek saved my life today." I heard her say.

"So he killed three people? Without holding back?" Xander asked, sounding more upset than impressed.

"He did it to protect me and Mike. They attacked us first! And besides, this shows us what he's capable of."

There was a long pause before Xander said, "I suppose. I still think it could've been handled differently but if you think this is a good sign, then I'll take your word for it."

I heard him walking in my direction so I quickly made it seem like I was heading to throw something out.

"Oh hey Derek. How's your wound?" He asked me.

I forgot I had cut myself during the struggle so I answered honestly. "I forgot it was even there."

Xander gave me a hard look but walked away without saying another word.

A little while later, I checked up on Mike. He was laying in bed and talking to a blonde girl who looked oddly familiar. I walked in slowly, and he noticed me looking at the unknown girl.

"Oh you think she's cute?" He assumed, "Her name is Lucy."

Lucy turned around, saw me, and got a look of excitement, disappointment, and anger formed on her face. Seeing her, here, in this very moment, reminded me of my first week of isolation.

6 months ago...

The cities were all quarantined and I didn't know where else to go so I decided to check out my house. A little over a 3 hour walk later, I arrived in my own deserted neighborhood. There were some Deads around, but I managed to sneak past them. I went in through my back door and saw that my house was trashed. Someone had broken in while all the bullshit was happening. I got angry but dismissed the feeling because last time I got angry, I brutally killed someone.

We don't need to get into specifics about that though.

I walked into my ransacked room and dug into one of the bags I concealed just in case someone broke into my house. I pulled it out of my secret compartment and checked inside to make sure everything was there. Sure enough, I pulled out a Baretta with some 9mm bullets, a combat knife, some medical supplies, and extra MREs.

I left my memories behind, closed my door, and walked away from this dead populated area.

The Present...

"Lucy? You're still alive?" I asked softly.

"I should be asking you the same thing, Derek." She replied.

Mike was obviously confused and commented, "Wait, how the fuck do you guys know each other?"

"We fucked before the world went to shit." Her and me said in unison.

I looked at her with disgust, and walked out of the room.

I ran into Hazel when I was angrily speed walking down the gravel pathway to my room. She followed me inside and pulled on my sleeve.

"Derek what's wrong?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it," I quickly replied.

"In a world where you have to worry 24/7, 'don't worry' shouldn't even be a sentence."

"Er... Uh... Well uh..." I stammered.

"Take it slow, what's the matter?" She pressed on.

I sat down on my bed and she sat beside me.

"So, I ran into the girl that fucked me over before the world fucked me harder. It was awkward. And I thought about how I was able to survive after losing my closest friend right in front of my eyes and being abandoned by the others." I confessed.

"And what'd you come up with?"

"I want to show my brother that I'm better than him."

Hazel gave me a long look, let out a sigh, and rested her hand on my knee, then opened up to me. "Before all this shit went down, I wanted to be a professional fashion designer. I told you this before, right? Yeah well, I was really good at it but then I used to get ridiculed by my art. So I fell into a depression and well, started having these 'episodes'. I mean it's nothing big but ya know. Anyway, once the Dead started to rise, I thought about letting the just eating me up. I didn't wanna live. Then I met Alessandra. She made the pain go away and protected me. I was grateful. So what keeps me going? My friends. They mean the world to me."

I stared at her for a long while but cut it short. "Thanks Hazel."

She nodded at me, and walked away, her usually pale face now bright red. I reminded myself for the 6th time this week, be alone. After this, Xander called for meeting at the dining hall where everybody had a nice feast of bread and cheese.

"You don't need anybody but yourself. Learn to live that way."