Apocalypse

11

Kate

I'd like to say the past few weeks have been fun and exciting, but they haven't. It's not that they were bad, because they weren't. To tell you the truth, they've been quiet. I liked this kind of quiet. It was so much different than the empty silence that I experienced back in the labs inside the facility. Back when all I could hear were my thoughts screaming and my feelings feeling and the machines beeping like a memory I couldn't quite grasp. This quiet involved learning to ride a horse and spending time with Liz and moving around frequently to avoid having hoards of infected come after us. They seemed to follow the living. They behaved like savage, wild dogs. Relentlessly they would hunt anything with a heartbeat. It was terrifying when there were twenty of them coming after you in the night. Once we had even run into a pack of infected dogs. They'd torn each other apart to the point where they were only just barely recognizable as dogs. 
Liz often woke up crying now. I'm not sure why. I always got nervous when she was upset. I wanted to help, and I had ideas on how. I just got too nervous about it. She had toughened up considerably since I met her. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Sure, she wasn't as visibly upset about things all the time, but that just meant that she was going though hell and was getting used to it. I didn't want Liz to go through hell. I wanted to keep her safe from harm and protect her from everything. I would have thought that as she proved that she could look after herself, that this feeling would go away. I was still wrong about that. It just got more powerful as I got to know her. 
As a distraction, I had taken up figuring out how it is you actually ride a horse.  
It looks easy, but I assure you that it is not.  
Liz knew a little. Just the basics like turning and stopping and moving forward. But only at a walk. I'm no genius, but I'm pretty sure the infected could catch us at a walk. So, through trial and error, a few face-meet-earth experiences, and a great deal of patience on Aztec's part; we figured out the gist of it. The only problem that I had was the fact that Liz and I had to ride the same horse, at the same time. 
It was awkward at first, and I couldn't decide if I hated it, liked it, or just couldn't get used to having someone so close to me all the time. Well. Not someone. I couldn't get used to having Liz that close to me all the time.  I'm trying hard not to admit it, but I enjoyed it now. I wouldn't let her know that, I'm not so sure why it was so important that she didn't know, but it was. That was that.  
Today we were at the top of a hill overlooking a grassy plateau. The sky was grey like it might start to rain later on, but there wouldn't be any thunder storms. There was absolutely nothing in front of us but grass and horizon. No trees, no houses, no caves or rocks or even any logs. Nothing to use as potential shelter if it started to come down on us while we were trying to cross it. Nothing to hide us if any infected came along, either. But I wasn't so worried about that. We would see them long before they saw us. Same with other survivors as well. I was sitting in the saddle on top of Aztec, and Liz was sitting just behind me. She was trying not to while we were still or walking, but when Aztec started moving faster like at a trot or a gallop she had to have her hands around my waist and I could almost feel the awkward radiating off of her for the first few times until she was used to it. Of course, this meant that if I went down, so did she. It's happened on more than one occasion and I can't say either of us were really pleased when we'd land on top of each other. It wasn't in the cheesy ways that Liz had described to me happened in books and movies when the two characters liked each other, either. No. It was in painful, 'ouch get off me' ways that left bruises on us both. And I am not suggesting that Liz and I are like those two characters, either.  
 
"I hope it doesn't rain. My sweater is still damp from the last time it rained and it won't be very useful this time around." Liz muttered to herself.  
 
I didn't understand the need to talk to one's self. Wasn't the point of a thought to be private? I've never spoken out loud. Not even when I was thinking about how the way she tilted her head when she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear was captivating. Or how I thought that it was funny when Aztec tried to eat her shirt. Not that I blamed him. She smelled pretty good, if you asked me.  
I especially kept quiet when I was thinking about my nightmares and my fears, both new and old. Or my time in the facility. That definitely stayed inside my head.  
Liz had a habit of voicing some of her thoughts, and while it was distracting and confusing, it was kind of nice to hear her talk just for the sake of talking. Her accent still sounded nice, and the odd time she'd say a word in a funny way and I'd have to fight to hide a smile.  
 
"You can borrow mine." I say simply, shrugging.  
 
"But then you'll be cold." 
 
"I won't be cold, I'll just wet."