Meet Me

Chapter 21 - Home

 "This isn't the life I chose, but the one I was given" - Unknown

This morning is a little abnormal. That’s okay though, because I am used to abnormal. Ash woke up, stretching as if an exorcism was taking place, and grinned at me. I on the other hand, didn’t smile back. I jumped, literally, off the sofa and walked out the room. I couldn’t deal with being alone with him. Because the situation was different, kissing somebody felt different too. Everything felt different.

Different, different, different. I was repeating myself a lot recently.  Perhaps it had something to do with life repeating itself on me? I stood outside, under the shelter of the roof, and looked out from the safety of behind the gate at the broken city/town. It was silent. That was until there was a wretched sound.

Bash! Crash! GRRR!

I hoped if I stayed silent, they wouldn’t notice me. After all, remember, they could only hear and sense. Right now, I was grateful for that. Even though I had learnt that I didn’t turn into a member of the undead, I still didn’t understand, I didn’t want to feel the impact of a bite. If I could help it, that was.

I held my breath, probably a stupid move, as they passed my hiding spot. A closer look at them revealed something amazingly horrendous. I wanted to scream so badly, but resisted the urge. I could’ve shot them, but if one survived Ash was as good as dead. Me too, probably. Zombies could rip you to shreds. I was just immune to their bite/saliva. I needed to find out why. I would never find out why, because there was nobody who could answer why.

The silence was broken by Ash. He came crashing out from the door yelling-

“It was so quiet! I came to check if you were okay!” He bellowed.

“Shut up, look!” I screeched, making it worse.

The beast’s heads turned towards us and began to walk towards us at a quick pace. Hurriedly, in a panic, I tried to squeeze my way out of the enclosed site. When I realized I would just be dragged to the ground and ripped to pieces, I stopped struggling. Ashes eyes widened and so did mine. We mirrored each other’s expressions. Making sure I still had my gun, and I did, I slid it out from my pocket and fired shots at their heads.

Only two fell to the ground, clutching their heads. Those two weren’t Owen or Katherine. They were still fast approaching.

Ash shot at them too. It wasn’t easy taking them down. Especially when they started to try and pull down the gate. Within minutes, it would surely be down.  I had no choice but to fire at them with my back against the wall.

Eventually, they made their way through and had Ash and I cornered. I shot for my life, literally. Zombie Owen and Zombie Katherine were closing in on us. They looked just a little ill. They hadn’t been that badly bitten then, I guessed. What was I thinking? Of course they had been bitten badly! They were undead!  I was going crazy. Constantly, the fact that Owen was now undead kept hitting me.

“Go away, go away, go away!!!” I screamed as loud as I could. I was talking to the thoughts running round in my head. Ash turned to me and didn’t seem to react at all weirdly. He seemed to have some sense of understanding. He wanted to scream too, I knew it. Later, when we weren’t under a threat from zombies, I would tell him it was okay to scream.  With what I had planned, he might need to scream. I wanted to scream because of it.

I couldn’t bring myself to shoot Owen. Though I had promised I would, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have to do it. Ash shot him for me. Obviously no emotional attachment there. Owens death wasn’t as grand and dramatic as Luisas had been. It was quick, humane and expected. He fell to the floor with a loud thump. It wasn’t satisfying, it wasn’t depressing, it was just a loud thump. I should’ve felt miserable. More miserable than I felt anyway. That was my kind of brother.

Shortly after, Katherine was shot too. So were the remaining zombies who had attacked us. We were covered in blood and sweat. Ash looked and me, and I looked at him. We shared something, a glance, and stepped past the small graveyard for the undead. I couldn’t cry, but I couldn’t breathe either. Ash, seeing my struggle, held me and pulled me to the floor. We lean against the gate together. He stroked my hair and kissed my head. It felt somewhat normal. I wanted this, so did he. I practised breathing again.

“Breathe, Kate. You are alive.” He cooed.

Since when did I need his reassurance? Yes, I was alive that was true. Whether that remained a good thing… I’m not so sure.

I broke down.

In front of Ash.

In front of a stranger.

Another stranger that I had kissed.

“Yes, I am alive.” I felt horribly vulnerable.

We were still among scattered tortured bodies.

My brother, my brother, my brother. Why did he have to turn into a walking servant of death? I started to panic again. I shook and wanted to die. I could die. It was easy. Take a gun, point it to the head and one, two, three, shoot. I seriously considered it. Ash held me so tight that it was impossible to move. I was nothing anymore. No man was able to save me. Not even two years ago was a man able to save me. I had nobody… I was wrong. I had family. I was just too proud to try and be a part of it. Kyle, Connor and my father. They wanted me with them. I was so much like them. After all, I had nobody else. They were available. Tonight, I would leave Ash behind and make my own start. A new one. I would forget Owen, Luisa, Katherine and Ash. The life I had been living for two years. It was selfish, but I was selfish. My entire family had been proved to be selfish.

I now had to be a part of that family. I would leave tomorrow, extremely early in the morning.