Hope Against Hope

It's Coming

'Stop it,' Natasha says as she presses my knee down. 'You're making me anxious with all that bouncing.'

'We should be anxious, it's getting late.' I reply. We hadn't made a run to the grocery store in two months, our entire neighborhood was run down by the infected so we never got the chance, today we did. But, it was quiet, too quiet.

'Live a little, Elena. Who knows when we'll be out here again?' She rolls down the windows and the frosty wind stiffens my nerves. She's becoming more and more careless every day, there's a glitter in her eyes that was lost the day our parents passed away. It makes want to ask her what drugs she's on, but I'm too scared of receiving an actual answer so I keep my mouth shut.

The force of the wind lessens and look up, the car slows down until we're standing still in the open, like bait.

'Natasha. Do you want to get us killed?' I asked as calmly as I could. She hasn't been dealing well with loud noises lately.

'Look up.' There's a billboard on top of a building that I'd never seen before. It's bordered with florescent lights and big ugly letters screaming, 'ARE YOU IMMUNE? WE NEED YOU. CALL US, WE WILL PROVIDE SHELTER AND FOOD IN RETURN FOR YOUR SERVICE.' A number is written under it with a US postal code.

'Must be a faux, phone lines aren't even working,' I say, 'Can we please go?'

'Don't be so quick to assume, we haven't rechecked the phone lines yet. Look around, see any infected? Clearly this billboard's been here for a while for them to have lost interest in it. Look at the lights someone definitely keeps coming to replace their batteries.'

'I'm sure it requires more maintenance than that,' I mumble, anxiety taking over me. 'Can we please go, please!'

'Just a minute, let me jot this down.' She pulls paper and pen out of the dashboard and writes the number down. 'Now, we can leave, don't you worry.'

We don't even know if we're immune or not. It must be a coincidence that we are still alive and well, but I have a feeling others are too. The grocery store is running out of commodities, it's not just us going there and hoarding supplies. We've been lucky so far to never have come into contact with the infected or even normal humans, you never know who's desperate enough to kill. Our entire neighborhood fell to the disease in a matter of days, some tried to leave and were caught by the infected, some tried to wait it out like us and got infected too. I want to believe we're immune, all the signs point in that direction, but it's better not to hope, to think that we are just lucky and to prepare for when that luck runs out. Who knew it would happen today.

§§§§

We reach home right as the sun began sinking. Natasha is still driving slower than usual, she's biting her lips and her stare is unfocused. She's lost in her own world and all I want to do is take her place in the driver's seat. I gather our stuff as she rolls the car into parking, but before I'm able to open the door and sprint she stops reaches out and locks my door, 'Wait. We need to discuss something.'

'Natasha, we can do it inside.' I retry opening the door and she grabs my arm. I wince. She lets go immediately and gapes guiltily for a moment before collecting herself.

'I'm not okay.' Dead, accusatory tone, blank expression. Is this one of her recurring episodes? 'I haven't been okay for a while now, not sure why you haven't noticed.'

'We need to go, I am not dealing with this now, not here.'

'Stop telling me what to do!' She yells, then looks surprised. I am surprised. She didn't roll the window up, she was loud enough to wake them all. My body heats up of both anger and fear. Should I calm down and talk it out with her? Should I get out somehow? She'll follow me if I do, but she won't stop screaming. We're already as good as dead. I feel frantic. I look around to see movement, and I could see shadows advancing.

'Look at me!' She yells, I don't heed, I want to get out. I want to leave. We need to go. 'Look at me! Look at me!'

Something clicks in the back, the car inclines just slightly and I hear a loud exhale, 'Hello, ladies.'