Losing Humanity: Book 4 in the Saving Humanity Series

And Then There Was One

The muscles in Caleb's legs twitched, pulling him out of a sleep he didn't realize he'd drifted into. His back was against the furniture and mattresses they had placed against the door to keep the zombies out. He leaned to one side, his hand and arm laying on the floor, his head cocked awkwardly over his shoulder. Sucking in some drool, he slowly pulled himself upward. His body was stiff and slow to comply. Moving was almost too much to bear, but he knew he had to relieve the tension in his back.

As he straightened and blinked, his gaze searched the room. He looked for Nina, hoping she had been able to get some rest. The zombies had long since moved on, and silence permeated the area. It was almost unnatural how quiet everything was. Caleb knew not to get too used to the silence. It wouldn't last long. As soon as the zombies became aware of he and his sister, the moans and pounding would start again. With a little luck, they had already moved on from the house and fields, giving him and Nina a chance to get away.

His back popped as he straightened, causing a grimace to cross his face. Pain radiated through his lower back, and he pulled his knees to his chest to climb to his feet. His eyes felt like they had sand in them, and the moments when he and Nina had been crying on the floor ran through his mind. He frowned through his pain. How he desperately wanted her to feel safe in the world again. He wanted to take away her grief and sadness, to be able to get over the death of their parents. But Caleb couldn't do that for himself, how was he supposed to be able to do it for her?

With a sigh, he pushed himself to his feet, his gaze once again searching the room. The area wasn't that large, yet he couldn't find his sister. He scanned again, looking into the closet and on the sides of the furniture that blocked the door. She couldn't have left. She wouldn't have been able to move all of the obstacles without waking Caleb. His stomach fluttered, his chest felt tight.

"Nina?" He called her name into the room, not overly loud, just in case there were some zombies outside the door, but loud enough that no matter where she was in the space, she would have heard him. No response. "Nina!" He called again, slightly louder.

When silence reached his ears, he moved with determination around the room, checking every corner and behind what was left of the furniture in the room, which wasn't much. Nothing. No trace of his sister. He went to the closet to see if she had tucked herself into a dark corner. While standing in the small space, a shard of sunlight drifted down onto the carpet, illuminating the dust that floated on the air. It wasn't a huge window, but it was large enough for him and his sister to slide through. The knotted sheets tied to the closet hanging pole and dangled out the window let Caleb know that's exactly where Nina had gone.

His mouth went dry. The butterflies in his stomach turned into a rock. Ice entered his veins, and the desire to get outside as quick as possible coursed through him. He ran back to the room and grabbed his backpack. With a tingling sensation in his limbs, he climbed the makeshift rope and squeezed through the space.

Cool air surrounded him as his feet touched the dry, hard ground beneath the window. His gaze took in the farm surrounding him. He was behind the house at this point, so the field he, Len, and Nina had crossed was on the other side, blocked from his view. Behind him was a barn, and behind the barn was a forest. Where there had been tons of zombies, now there was only empty space. Caleb didn't take that as comforting. He knew there were probably some undead somewhere in the area. There had been too many for all of them to have left. One sound would draw them to the area. Despite his desire to scream his sister's name, Caleb knew that he couldn't. Panic coursed through his body and shook his muscles as his eyes darted around the area, looking for a sign to indicate which way his sister had gone. He attempted to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself so he could think logically, but instead he sucked in quick pants that caused black dots to dance in front of his eyes.

Twigs snapped in the forest behind the barn, drawing Caleb's attention to the area. He forced his breathing down to normalish levels, then headed in that direction. He was fully aware that the sound could have come from the undead, but he wouldn't know until he checked it out. I also could have been Nina. There was only one way to find out.

Their last conversation ran through his mind, causing the panic to increase and his legs to propel him faster over the uneven ground. He shouldn't have been rushing into the area like he was, it could lead him directly into the snapping jaws of the undead. But if it was Nina, he had to stop her from doing something terrible. Her last words had been full of heartache and sadness and the desire to give up. He couldn't let her. He couldn't be the last one standing. Life was tough and uncertain right now, but taking her own life wasn't the answer. If that was her plan, Caleb had to stop it before it could come to fruition.

The bang of a gun echoed through the area, stopping Caleb in his tracks. Bile rose into the back of his throat. He waited for another shot to indicate that someone fought off a swarm of zombies. He counted the seconds in his head, getting to twenty before he realized there wouldn't be another shot. Tears stung his eyes, his chest tightened with sadness. Subconsciously, his feet moved him closer to the woods.

Nina's backpack lay on the ground at the edge of where the forest and the farm met. On top sat a torn piece of paper that looked like it had been buried at the bottom of her backpack for years. Scrawled in Nina's handwriting were the words "I'm sorry. I'm not as strong as you, Caleb. Know that I will always love you." A breeze caught the paper right after he read it and pulled it into the air. He watched it for a few moments before tears blurred his vision.

Caleb stepped over the backpack and into the trees. With blurred vision, he walked through the trees with no destination in mind. He didn't care. Sadness, loneliness, and guilt pushed his shoulders forward. He should have done something more. He should have told her all the things about how he felt and how he had days he wanted to give up too. Maybe then she'd still be with him. Maybe then he wouldn't be the only one left.