The Buried Life

Chapter 6

Nothing could describe the silence everyone shared. They lost one person last night, and now possibly three in one day. How was this possible?

"Hey we don't know if anything bad has happened to Gretchen," Henry said trying to reassure the group. "For all we know she was running and her glasses fell off or she got scared and fell down not knowing they were gone."

"How would she not notice they were missing," Jeremy replied. "Gretchen is practically blind without them. True she could have gotten scared or was running but I don't think her glasses would have came off that easy."

"Then how would you explain how they are here and Gretchen is no where to be found!"

"Hey easy Henry," Adam intervened. "None of us knows what happened. Just calm down and let's keep moving. We might bump into her on the way to the bridge."

Taking a shaky breath Henry did his best to keep calm as he thought the worst. He tucked her glasses away in his pack ready to give them back to her. Henry loved Gretchen, he always had.

Since as long as they knew each other Henry and Gretchen had this chemistry between each other that no one could really explain. They were polar opposites but kept each other grounded.

It was a couple a months before the incident happened that Henry finally told Gretchen how he felt about her. However they weren't together, when he told her she was in the hospital recovering from surgery requiring the removal of her appendix. The doctors said that she was having a weird reaction to the surgery and might not make it.

Henry got up the courage though and told her. Unfortunately she had no idea he was even there. Poor guy.

Now he may never have the chance to tell her again. Pushing back the awful thoughts in his head, Henry encouraged the group to keep moving. He didn't want to stand around any longer knowing the one person he cared about most in the world might not be here.

Jeremy and Greg never had a connection like that with anyone; out of the group they were the only ones to never truly experience what it was like to be with someone of the opposite gender. Not sex related but more of an emotional interaction with a girl their own age. They've had tons of girls who were friends but having an intimate relationship with someone is a whole different story.

Adam was always with a girl. Before the incident he looked the same as he did now, ripped and attractive to make all the girls swoon over him for just one minute of his attention. The funny thing was he wasn't into girls; he was gay.

You would never guess it the way Adam presented himself that he played for the other team, but he was never ashamed of being whom he was. No one expect for Jeremy knew the truth. If Adam's dad knew back before this all happened he would have disowned him being the homophobic right wing jackass that he was.

Didn't matter though, he was always welcomed at Jeremy's place whenever he needed somewhere to stay.

Greg halted the group again claiming there was something up ahead. Henry decided to take a back seat on this one with Katy and tended to Sasha's wound while Greg, Adam, and Jeremy scouted ahead. Jeremy thought his friend had eagle vision, as he would have never noticed this.

The path towards the bridge was blocked by debris that would take too much time and energy to remove. Their best chance was to find an alternative route to their destination and quickly. Splitting up but staying close, the three boys each walked in a separate direction checking for any dangers along the way.

Jeremy was comfortable being on his own even though there is strength in numbers. After all he was the only one out of the entire group who could run for hours at a time if he needed to escape the zombies or other people trying to take what was rightfully his.

It took Jeremy a while to build up his endurance and cardio to what it was at this moment in time. Used to be that if Jeremy ran for a not even five minutes he would be out of breath and drained of energy. Months of running, hiding, and surviving helped shape Jeremy into the perfect runner he needed to be.

Jogging at a comfortable pace he scanned around the dirt path looking for anything that caught his eye. Feeling his heart pounding lightly inside his chest Jeremy thought of something he hadn't thought about in a long time. His family.

Jeremy was the middle child out of the family. His older brother Hank and younger sister Olivia were with him when it all began. Hank always looked out for them no matter how many people or zombies he had to face. As childish as it was Jeremy thought Hank was Superman.

It was dumb of him to think that. As tough as he was Hank wasn't immortal. The last camp they were in proved that when he tried to save their sister. All of it was for nothing.

Little Olivia, sweet and caring as she was, died for reasons Jeremy didn't know why as he watched her go down and saw the light leave those one precious eyes. She wouldn't hurt a fly even if she could; it just wasn't in her nature. Jeremy remembered her smile the most; she used to smile all the time.

You could be sad, mad, or angry and Olivia's smile would change it in a second. There would be no more smiles when with her gone, only renewed sadness at every turn.

The moaning brought Jeremy back from his precious memories. Sliding to a halt he listened to see how far the zombie was from his location. Taking out his sword he moved as quite as a church mouse to sneak up and take out the potential threat.

The path Jeremy took lead to a riverbank filled with lush trees and blooming flowers. The beauty of the bank wasn't enough to take away the terrible sight Jeremy was witnessing.

He found the source of the moaning and wished he hadn't. A few feet in front of him was dear old Gretchen slinking about trying to sink its teeth into her once best friend Jessica. She had her gun trained at her head, but her arm was shaking.

There was no chance Jessica would pull the trigger. As sad as it was Jeremy had to do what was right. Stealthy moving behind Gretchen he lifted his sword and ended her misery, scaring Jessica out of her wits in the process.

The good news: he found Jessica, the bad news: how was he going to explain to Henry what happened?

He wasn't. Jeremy swore that he and Jessica would never tell Henry what happened. It would hurt him too much to know that he would never be with Gretchen.

Making sure she was okay, Jeremy led Jessica back up the path to the others. How Jessica and Gretchen came together was a mystery to Jeremy. He thought at least it would be a good story to kill some time.