Page 23 of Dealing With Drak

Nodding, I tell her, “I will do this.”

An-nana collects herself and leaves her room first, her footsteps echoing through the abandoned home as she goes. Before I leave to scale the dwelling, I pick up the small book she left behind. She may not like the sight of it now, but I know that she may miss it later. Opening it, I lay my eyes on the unfamiliar words, memorizing their shapes.

Anna,

If you’re reading this, Dad’s essentially gone bat-shit. He’s determined to kill off every zombie he can find, even if it means dying in the process. If, by some twist of fate, you’ve made it back to the house and found this notebook, GO BACK. Living life like this, it’s not living at all. Find somewhere safe and STAY THERE.

You know I love you, and I’d do anything to see you again, but one of the only things that lets me sleep at night is knowing you’re not here suffering by my side. The road is safe enough, so don’t worry too much, but some of these months have been fucking scary.

So seriously, sis, DON’T LOOK FOR US. Depending on when you read this letter, we could already be dead. I know that’s awful to hear, and I’d never want to read this letter coming from you. Still, I had to write it.

For my sanity, just try to move on. Please.

Caleb,

(July 20)

None of the symbols mean a thing to me, but I will save them for my friend still. Shredding the page with the note from her family, I carefully fold it and put it into my pocket. I will guard it with my life, holding on to it in case she desires to read it once more. Perhaps there are clues hidden within it that we do not yet understand.

An-nana believes that it was written months ago, so her family has been back to this dwelling since leaving her. I hope this means that they are still close, but I was not lying when I vowed to An-nana that I would not stop searching with her. Urth will need to fully die before I break my vow because the only thing that will take my devotion from this task is a true risk to her safety.

I will drag her kicking and screaming to Aprix if it means keeping her from perishing along with this withering planet.

9

Anna

We spend three days exploring the property, taking our time to look for any signs of people recently camping here. Three useless days because we found nothing.

In our original plan, we decided a few days on the farm would be best, using any clues that we might find to pick our next search location. The only problem with that is we’ve essentially got nothing. No footprints, no animal tracks, no traps, and definitely no human sightings. No hint of zombies either, but that’s definitely about to change. The only information we have to go off of is what Caleb wrote for me in his note. Dad wanted to kill all the zombies he could manage, which likely means they went to areas with higher populations on purpose.

In all the times I’ve gone hunting with the Aprixians, we’ve shied away from the larger city areas. Even though the zombies act like tiny fish sensing a shark in the water when the aliens are near, they can only get away so fast. It’s weird hunting something that’s running away from you—or hobbling in most cases—but it’s great for anger management. The people who were turned into zombies aren’t at fault, but the zombies still need to be eliminated.

I’m more worried about running into people than hordes of zombies. Zombies are simple and easy to put down. People are tricky, especially in survival mode. Humans with a fight response will do anything to stay alive, even evil things they’d never imagine doing otherwise. And then there are people who were already evil, using this situation to act without consequences. Those are the really dangerous types.

I won’t lie and pretend like having Drak by my side doesn’t make me feel safer. It does sort of worry me as well, though. Will people shoot at him from afar because they’re scared? Will they try and capture him like he’s some kind of threat? The thought makes me murderous, honestly.

Bulletproof or not, if someone shoots at Drak, I’m going to end them. No one gets to point weapons at him except for me. No one gets to try and kill him except for me.

“We’ll try the closest city first,” I tell Drak, starting to scroll out a quick note in case they come here before we come back. “We’ll use this property like a base, coming back every so often to check if anything has changed. If it were up to my brothers, they’d be doing the same thing.”

Just like we planned. I know I don’t have to remind him, but talking out loud helps keep me grounded. Drak seems to recognize this and doesn’t inform me that he already knows. He’s a perceptive alien.

“This is a good idea,” he replies sweetly. “Do you have your armor with you?”

Kevlar, he means.

In case people try to fucking shoot me.

“Yeah, my vest is on the ship.” We ended up bringing my bag inside when we decided it was safe to sleep here for a few nights.

I appreciate Drak most when I’m sleeping. I always rest better knowing that he’ll watch over me the whole time. He doesn’t get bored either, and he never complains, simply guarding me in case anything were to happen.

I used to wake up every hour or so sleeping at the sorority house. Any sort of noise in the night sent a jolt of panic through me that forced my eyes open. That doesn’t happen anymore, not while Drak is near. Hopefully being a light sleeper isn’t a skill I’ll have to relearn anytime soon.

When I finish marking up the spare paper with a less-than-friendly note, I stick it to the fridge and turn back to Drak.

“Is there anything else we should do here before we leave?”

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