The Plague

Chapter eleven

The sound of the horn woke Emily up and the vehicle began to swerve. She could feel the strain in her eyes from all the tears she cried. Her head hurt so much.

She sat up and looked into the car from the trunk at Lucy tapping Tyler. He sat up and quickly steadied the vehicle.

She could hear Lucy talking but she didn't want to listen. She crawled over to the end of the trunk and let her feet dangle from it.

She turned her head to see everyone dozing. Brad was sprawled across the floor of the trunk and Helena was wrapped in Dave's arms fast asleep.

She remembered what had happened earlier when Helena shouted at her and was pained.

She looked back at her feet and saw the road roll back. She frowned at herself for being so weak. She wanted to be tough like Helena... like Lucy, but she would never admit that.

All she could think about was her grandma, she wished she was there to assure her she was strong. But she knew better than to imagine that being a reality.

Tears rolled down her eyes once more and she became annoyed with herself.

Just then, the engine failed and the car stopped, waking Helena. She looked up to see Emily at the end of the trunk. She wanted to ignore her and sleep, but she couldn't.

She sighed and walked over to Emily who didn't notice until she sat down beside her, feet dangling.

They didn't say a word to each other for about a minute, sitting in an awkward silence.

"Listen Emily..." she began without facing her. Her words were soft and comforting but Emily wasn't ready to face her yet
"I know I was hard on you, but you have to understand why I did it. As a child I wasn't always this tough. I often got bullied for my small stature and low self esteem.
I would get picked on, laughed at, humiliated and disregarded, kind of just like you"

Helena smiled at herself, gazing at the stars. Emily looked up at her in disbelief.

"I know it's hard to believe but it's true. I remember crying myself to sleep every night, I was so scared to tell my parents because I felt they would worsen it." Her eyes dulled and sadness covered her face. She looked at Emily who was still avoiding her eyes and smiled.

"And on one faithful day, when I was being beat up in the girl's toilet, I couldn't take it anymore and I fought back. I didn't realise how strong I was until then, ever since I could stand up for myself and no one dared to pick on me ever again"

She reached over to Emily's hand and gave it a little squeeze. Emily finally looked up at her, wiping her tears.

"The zombies don't care if you are tough or not. They eat, they kill. You have to be strong to survive this world now. I know you can, but you have to believe in yourself. Just take a look at Lucy, she wasn't always this tough you know."

Emily smiled and nodded slowly

"Thanks Helena" she said and hugged her tight. Helena pat her hair. "I'll try harder now"

~~~

Emily woke up when the truck ran through a pothole, she looked around and saw everyone still asleep. It was still dark and they were moving slowly.