Citizen Z

Chapter 31

An hour passes

It's dark now, the three of us have been waiting for Frank return. I'm getting anxious that he's been away this long.

"You don't think anything happened, do you?" Mikey asks, sounding anxious.

"Don't talk like that, I'm sure he's okay," Ray says and checks his imaginary watch, "If he's not back in twenty minutes, I'm going to go look for him."

"No," I suddenly answer and look at them, "I'm going to go look for him now, if I'm not back in like ten minutes, come and get us."

"Are you sure? It's dangerous to go alone." Ray says concernedly.

"I won't be alone when I find him, I'll be back," I say and pick up my sniper rifle which is leaning against the Range Rover, "If you hear shots, come and get us."

"Gerard," Mikey says, crossing his arms, "I don't want you to go out alone, it's dangerous. We don't know how many zombies there are around here, let alone in the dark. Let one of us come with you. Please?"

I don't want anyone to come with, I want to talk to Frank. I want to know what's wrong. I can tell something is wrong.

"I need to talk to him, Mikey." I answer and start walking away.

Mikey still wants to say something, but Ray stops him, allowing me to go.

I walk away from the lighter area, into the wilderness's darkness. The starts are my only source of any light.

A few minutes pass as I walk alone in the sandy dunes.

It's quiet and dark, I should've taken a flashlight or something, I can barely see anything, I can only see the car's headlights from a distance. Luckily I can still see woth the moonlight.

He couldn't have gotten too far, could he?

"Frank?" I call repeatedly and look at my surroundings.

Just lots of bushes, most of them are dried out. Trees without leaves. Prickly cactusai too, I won't dare come close to one of those again. A dried up riverbank with just dust and sand.

There really isn't much out here anymore, just a patch of thick bushes up ahead.

I call again and again, but no answer.

I walk through the plummier bushes, they're thick and thorny, so not ideal. I gasp as I suddenly fall forward, tripping over a rock in between the bushes.

I curse under my breath and help myself up. I still struggle to pick myself as I'm trying to be careful, my stitches aren't out yet, so I need to be careful. I don't want another problem.

"Frank?" I call desperately for the millionth time, "Please, just answer me."

Again, no answer.

Please just answer me...please?

This is hopeless, he's gone too far.

Just as I want to turn around, I see a human figure sitting on a tree stump a few meters ahead of me. His face is in his knees.

That has to be him.

I quietly walk up to him, then put my hand on his shoulder. He swallows his tears as he jumps. His red eyes are startled as he looks at me, but then he immediately relaxes and wipes his eyes.

"Hey, what's the matter? You've been gone for a while, I started to worry about you." I whisper and gently put my hand on his cheek, trying to comfort him.

"I lost track of time I guess, I got lost in thought. I just needed to think. I have to know what I'm going to do."

"What are you talking about? What's going on, Frank?" I say, wiping the tears rolling his cheeks away with my thumb, "Are you okay?"