The Virus

Forty Two

We both woke early and got packed while the sky was still grey and colourless, with the sun still low in the sky. 

We walked for ages. Wandering as aimlessly as the Roamers. "Do you believe in true love?" Marley suddenly asks.

 "Well that depends." I reply

 "On what?" She gives me a puzzled expression .

 "What is true love?" I ask.

 "True love. Uhm.. well it's a love that's meant to be. They're made for each other." She answers, unsure.

 I shake my head. "Then no. I don't." I say with conviction.

"Why not?" She demands.

"Because it can't be meant to be. Things can always get in the way, decisions, death and well the fall of the entire human race." I say back, giving a sarcastic chuckle.

"What about just love? Do you believe in that?" She asks innocently.

 I nod. "Of course. I love m- I loved my family." I say, correcting myself.

She nods. "So did I." She replies sadly.

I stop when a lone house comes into view. I shake Marley and run over to it. I stop in my tracks when I see something move in the window. I raise my gun at it. And start approaching the window. The figure is nowhere to be seen. "Lower your weapon." I hear a man say. I turn around to see a small middle aged man holding Marley's head back with a knife raised to her neck. Like I did when Stella, Jason and Terry first came. The image flashes across my mind before I finally nod and lower my gun slowly, before finally laying it on the grass before straightening back up to face the man, with my hands above my head.

I meet his eye. "Is that a person in there?" I ask quietly.

 He stays silent for a moment. "Yes it is." He replies.

"I apologise. I thought it was one of them. We're not violent towards the living." I say as respectfully as I can.

 "Well neither are we. Unless it's provoked." He says, glancing between the two of us. I bow my head.

An old woman, at least fifty years old, comes out of the house and begins scolding him. "Bill! What'd I tell you about threatening people. We need the numbers. You scared those other people off, you're not scaring them off!" She shouts. He reluctantly lowers the knife and apologises to Marley before looking at me and giving a small nod.

Another two people emerge from the house. "Visitors! Finally!" A younger woman chimes. She ushers us in and make sure we're not hurt, feeling our limbs for injury. She's like a mother hen who does not have enough children to care for.

"How many of you are there?" I ask cautiously, glancing around the room.

"Oh, we have seven people here." She says. "I'm Anne, and my husband Michael. And there's Bill and his wife Laurie. Their children Danny and Ethan and Gracie." She points to three people standing in the doorway. The two boys are about my age and the girl is younger, a little younger than Marley.

"Bill here, owned this house for years. The only place we had to go. We've been here ever since." She says quietly. Anne tells me about how they survived and all about everybody there. She gives us homemade cookies and cakes and constantly talks. When I get the chance, I leave Marley to her. They're very alike. Gentle and talkative, trusting.

I make my way out the back and along the porch where I sit and stand for a while. I hear someone approaching me and turn around to face them. "Hey." He murmurs.

 I nod and greet him back. "Oh, you're Danny?" I ask.

 He chuckles. "No, Ethan. Danny is my younger brother. I'm nineteen, he's sixteen." He says, smiling.

 I laugh. "Wow he's huge." I exclaim. "I assumed he was the older one."

He nods. "Most people do." He agrees.

He steps forward. "So, where did you come from?" He asks, looking up at me.

"Far, far away." I reply wistfully, with  a small smile. 

He nods slowly and follows my gaze into the darkness, before finally pushing the conversation further. "Do you miss it?" He asks, trying to make conversation.

"To be quite honest, i don't know." I reply, shrugging my shoulders before slumping slightly. 

He smiles and nods. "So how old are you?" He asks, stepping forward again.

 "I'm eig- oh my god I'm nineteen. I'm nineteen." I correct myself.

He raises his eyebrows at me. "My birthday is in April. I drifted a while. Lost track of time." I say. "It's weird to think I was seventeen when all of this started. I'm gonna be twenty in a few months."

He chuckles. "Time passes fast when the world is falling apart." He replies.

"You're very right there." I chuckle.

For a while we sit there in silence. "I'm getting a bit cold. I'm gonna go inside. I'll see you later." I say before leaving. I feel him watch me as I walk away. He seemed friendly, but I decide to be wary. I had to be careful, always careful.

Later, we all gather around the dinner table. They've asked us to stay for a few nights. And we agreed. It's like old times. Everybody laughs and jokes like nothings going on outside. And everybody is happy.

I take the sofa in the boys room. With Danny and Ethan. Anne apologised but said there was no other space anywhere else. I didn't mind. I had shared with boys before. I waited until they were asleep until I undressed though, and even then I was still covered. I had only known these people for a few hours. 

The next morning I go for a swim in the lake behind the house. It's completely fenced off so I don't worry about Roamers finding their way in to hurt me. I figure I'm far enough away that no one will see me. I strip naked and jump in, washing myself as much as possible, scrubbing tmy skin, trying to get the endless layers of grime away that had built up over the past few months. Trying to take in the feeling of being clean. The lake water is practically transparent, it's amazing. 

I hear a loud hoot as someone takes a running jump and cannonballs into the water less than fifty metres away from me. When he resurfaces, I realise it's Ethan. He spots me and swims over. I cover myself in a blind panic.

"Hey, I didn't know you were here!" He exclaims. I laugh awkwardly. "What?" He asks, when he senses my awkwardness. Much to my displeasure, he swims closer. So we're less than half a metre away from each other. I flinch back. He gives me a worried expression. "What's wrong?" He asks. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Let me see," he says, concerned, moving closer.

"Uhm well it's just well I didn't think anyone would be here." I say. He looks slightly hurt s if I was too good to speak to him. I jump to explain. "No it's not that I don't want you here, but it's just I'm sort of unpresentable." I whisper, lowering my gaze away from his, emberassed. I hadn't had real intractions with men in a long time. It seemed to show.

He pauses and he begins laughing. "I am very, very sorry." He says, apologising.

"Its really not your fault." I reply. "I'm just careless." I continue, hugging my body.