Insomnia

Chapter 12: Maine

I slowly opened my eyes, and it was then did I hear their voices.

“He’s coming to,” Kit Kat said, her image blurry.

“Where…where am I?” I asked, I felt a twinge of fear when I recalled the zombies and the look on their faces when they were closing in.  “They, they almost got me.” I whispered.  My head still hurt, like there was a freaking hammer beating a nail into it.

“Don’t worry Caleb, you’re alright.” Came what sounded like Adrian’s voice.

I groaned while trying to pull my hand up to massage my head, but the funny thing was how I noticed something cold and metallic holding my hands together.  I tried to pull it away but to no avail I couldn’t. 

They seemed to be handcuffs.

This time I felt panic grip my chest, as it clouded my thoughts the way it always has.  I tried to thrash my hands around, but I couldn’t so I yelled trying to scream the images of those zombies eating me away .

“WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!” I screamed, scared to death.  What if Kit Kat and Adrian were turning into zombies themselves? "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

 I felt warm hands hold my shoulders down.  “Caleb, Caleb relax, your in the car and were driving out of New York, okay?”

I yelled louder, a car? What the hell are we doing in a car? Aren’t they aware that maybe this might end up into another car crash?!

“NO!” I yelled, “LEMME OUT! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

“Caleb,” Kit Kat whispered my name, and in an instant I stopped screaming, knowing that that was my girlfriend’s voice, and that she was safe…making me at least feel safe.  But that didn’t stop the tears from freely streaming from my eyes down to my face.

 Her image came close and before I knew it, our lips touched.

I froze, shocked beyond reason and then, I relaxed as I felt the pressure of her lips on my lips. 

This must be the first time I ever kissed her, the first time I felt her lips move against mine, willing me to kiss her back, I felt hot tears spill from her eyes and I could feel the pain that she felt in that kiss, the hurt and sadness mixed altogether, and mine returned the same message, except, except the fear now disappeared, and I knew that they weren’t gonna hurt me at all, not ever…

She let go, and smiled half heartedly, “I thought I’d lost you.”

I stared at her wide blue eyes, “What are you talking about?”

She looked down, then returned to her front seat, it was then that I realized that Adrian was driving, Kit Kat was sitting beside him, and here I was at the back seat, handcuffed.

 “Hey,” I said, trying to call their attention.

“Why am I handcuffed?”

"We should tell him Adrian," Kit Kat said quietly.

"Tell me what?"

 Adrian sighed. “We can’t risk it Caleb.”

“Risk what?” I asked in a slur, my head was still hurting you know, but because of Kit Kat’s kiss it kinda lessened.

She inhaled deeply, “A–a zombie bit you.  Remember?” Kit Kat answered.

 It must’ve taken minutes for the words to sink into my thick head. 

 “A, zombie, bit, me…” I whispered to myself, my voice trailing away.  And Luther, the wound on his arm…it was a bite mark, he was, he was bitten by those things too…and then, he turned into them…Luther got bitten and then he turned into them…I repeated that sentence again.

“Luther got bitten and then he turned into them.”

My chest felt like exploding with what I said.  In front of me, Kit Kat was suppressing her urge to sob.

And I, I was suppressing the urge to probably get a knife and stab myself to death.  “I was bitten by a zombie, and I’ll turn into them…” I whispered.

So that was truth of it all? I’ll die by my own hand, and not by some psychopathic zombie? Or will Adrian kill me to finish it all, dump my body into a lake and then drive on by, like nothing ever happened?

I blinked and looked at my shoulder, a new bandaged covered it up and I felt anger seep into me.  Why had I allowed it to bit me? How’d I even end up here in the first place anyway?

“Then you’ll know what to do,” I said flatly, not letting my emotions betray me.  “You’ll have to kill me then,”

Kit Kat took in a sharp breath.  “Take that back, Caleb.” She said, in between her crying.  “We will never take your life whether you would want it or not.”

I clenched my teeth.  “Then what Kit Kat? Answer me! I turn into what Luther has turned into and then I’ll eat you all up?!”

 Adrian swerved to another road, “No, not yet…but until then, let’s hope you’ll hold on.”

“What?” I asked, not understanding what Adrian had just said.

“Look Caleb, dad, dad made a cure for this…”

“A cure?” I asked, leaning forward.  “And since when was there a cure for this, Adrian? Shouldn’t the government then help exploit this cure? But where are they? The people who were up here ended up either getting eaten up or turned into one of them, and you’re telling me that there’s a cure for hell?”

“There is Caleb, dad told me so,”

I sat back, my mouth dropped, dad told Adrian again only?

I growled.  “Tell me,” I said.  “What else has dad told you that I do not know of,”

Adrian looked back and then again to the front.  “Enough, dad has told me enough…”

“What does enough mean Adrian?” I asked, looking out of the window, I knew that I wasn’t really dad’s favorite, nor was I that close to him…but how? How could he not tell me what Adrian knew.

 “Look, dad did some experiments, some experiments that would cure this disease, but he wasn’t able to complete it.”

“What good would that cure do to me, if it wasn’t even completed?” I asked.

“Dad left me to finish it,”

My mouth dropped even lower, alright, maybe Adrian was the science geek in the family, and sure they bonded more than we ever did…but Adrian, finish it? How? How would he even know the ingredients to that thing before I turn into a zombie too?

“What if we don’t reach it in time?” I asked, letting the truth wash over me.

 “No, we will Caleb,” Kit Kat answered me.  “We will, that’s a promise.”

I let the silence take over…it was then did I realize that the roads had nothing in it, nothing, it was bare empty…quiet…too quiet, the only thing that filled the place were those things as they walked aimlessly, could it be? That they have possibly taken over the whole world already? Even Europe possibly? I shook my head, it was already hell in New York for a whole two days…how much more at their country? With probably their soldiers, policemen, and including the government offices that were given short notices as to never intervene in this.  And if they did, were they killed? Shot? Or probably thrown into a lake, just the way dad died?

And that cure…would it be right to hope, that there is a cure after all? How long would I last anyway? If Luther held on to 2 and half days…how long would I hold on then? 3 full days before I turn into them and crave for flesh…or if luck was on my side…a week?

I shook the possibilities off my head, I didn’t want my hopes to end up getting hurt because I wasn’t strong enough to stay as Caleb, as me, as the boy who would never ever expect this to happen to him within a span of a hundred years.

 I bit my lip, “So where are we going then?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Back home, to Maine.”

I nodded my head, so, after everything we've been through, we were going back home, to our house, to those memories…to everything that I’ve left behind…we were going back to Maine.