Later that night, everyone gathered in the school’s two storey library to enjoy some peace. As the library was on the third and fourth floors facing the outside of the school, the curtains were closed to prevent the zombies from catching wind of us.
I was really exhausted from the day’s events but I was insanely curious about the view from the windows. Glancing around to see if anyone was observing me, I leaned against the curtains than slowly pulled the curtains back a little to steal a peek. The streets were completely dark with no lights on. Hardly anything could be seen from the shadows. I imagined what it would have been like if I had managed to survive from the hospital alone. Nightfall would have meant that I needed to hide, and sleep would have been near impossible. I wandered about walking along those deserted dark streets, lost. Some shadows seemed to be moving and I squinted my eyes trying to make out the shadows.
Suddenly, my sides were dug hard into, making me jump. “Blake, don’t sneak up on me like that!” I chided. He just shrugged as I realized was his habit, and instead circled my waist in his arms. I tried to move out of his hold but he held firm, relishing the fact that I squirmed uncomfortably at being close to him. It wasn’t horrible being close to him, but my heart rate would go up, making me feel giddy somewhat, and his embraces felt comforting. That sort of reaction to him was very wrong.
“You shouldn’t be peeping zombies in the middle of the night”. I rolled my eyes, it was only 9pm, hardly middle of the night. “My definition of the middle of the night is 3am” I smiled cheekily at him. He laughed at that and released me but for one hand to pull me away from the windows to the group who were telling stories about their lives or speculating about the virus as they did every other night.
There was this really eccentric old man that told the craziest and most fun stories. Blake’s parents had long since apologized for making me feel unwelcomed on the first day too. I listened to the stories, sometimes but usually, I sneaked off to explore the school on my own. Truth be told, I did not want to stay near Blake. It was nice to be around him but I did not want to develop an attachment. In this zombie world, who knew what was going to happen next?
The air was different that night, carrying an air of seriousness. Blake walked up to the centre of the room and locked eyes with mine for a moment. I met his gaze head on, it looked like he was going to tell the group about how he rescued me and the rest of what he knew of the virus. “When I was working at the hospital,” he began. I sat down to get comfortable next to the eccentric man, Teck Huat. “I witnessed the first infection. I freaked and ran home as fast I could and it was luckily not too far away” Blake chuckled and shook his head at recalling his behaviour. “I left my precious, expensive new car there, as you all know.” Sighing, his expression turned serious. “There’s something I haven’t told everyone about the virus yet… It does not take three days to turn into them. You could get infected from a mosquito bite. A really high fever, depending on how strong your immunity is, and immediately or up to three days later, you die. The incubation period is unknown…but from I saw, it’s pretty fast.”
Just then, my phone started ringing so I excused myself to take the call in private. “Hello, HELLO? Cassie, its mom, dear. Listen, there are many things I need to explain but I want you here now! I am at Singapore Chinese Gardens.” She put down the phone before I could say a word. My heart was pounding as I stared at the phone in my hand. I had to go now! They were alive! Blake stopped telling his story when he saw my expression and came over. “My mum’s alive, and she’s…she’s at Chinese Gardens! She wants me to go there now!” I told him.
His eyebrows furrowed together. “At this hour? Doesn’t she know how dangerous it is to go out when the sun is down???!!!!” I straightened my posture, looked him in the eye. “I am going whether you like it or not. It’s my life!” He stared into my eyes a few moments trying to read if I was serious. I stared back at him, resolute. He sighed, “Alright, I will take you. Let’s go.”
Nearly 45minutes later, we reached the Gardens. We used the pen torchlights to find our way. My mum was sitting and crying on a patch of grass just next to the river. As we got closer though, we knew something was wrong. Blood was smeared all over her shirt at the abdomen area, and her jeans had been ripped to the knees. Her hair was unruly. She looked up and saw us standing a distance away. ”Cassie! Come here!” I hesitated to walk over.
She tried to stand up but struggled revealing that her left foot had been bitten off completely. I sucked in a quick breath. Tears started to spill from my eyes. No, no, this was not happening. I wanted to hug her, hold her tight, and pretend nothing had happened since I last saw her four days ago. She was supposed to be okay! Where was Dad? I scanned the place but could not see anything in the darkness. I started to step forward but Blake put an arm out to stop me. “She’s still HUMAN!!”I could not keep the desperation out of my voice. “Keep your voice down!” He turned his head in all directions sharply, on lookout for other zombies. I wiped away my tears, it was too dark for anyone to have seen them. I had to be strong for her. “Alright, go ahead” as he followed me.
I wrapped my arms around my mum, smelling her rosemary perfume. I remembered the times when I was a child and she used to laugh when I asked her about the perfume. She would always tell me it was because she once had a vacation in Bali that had a lot of rosemary spa baths and whenever she put on the perfume, she would remember those times. As I grew older, I also knew that the trip to Bali was where she had first met Dad.
She sobbed even harder in my arms. I could feel that she was really burning up. “Where’s Dad?” managing to keep my voice steady. She answered in sobs, “He got bitten on the… second day, and was running a fever for… three days. We lost our phones…so we could not contact you. Just now, he looked really lucid, asking for you and your brother as his dying wish…But then… he died and he bit off my leg and and…” She hiccupped, unable to go on, lost in grieve.
The shock was still trying to set in and I struggled against it in denial. This was not happening, trying to calm myself. I looked at my mum’s tear stricken face, the easy going mother who was not afraid of anything, but was now crying so hard and felt it punch through my heart. It hurt to see her in so much pain. As for my father. I could not fathom it. Too many things were happening at once.
YOU ARE READING
Surviving in Chaos
Romance"I liked small children too but this one was a little odd. Her eyes were bloodshot and the colour of her eyes were dulled as if the life had gone out of them. That wasn’t the worse part of it, as she ran, it was obvious she was unstable on her legs...
