Page 4 of Dyana
“It was in his backseat.” And she wanted something to remember him by.
I reached over and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry.”
I navigated through the parking lot and onto the main road leading away from the college. The road ran straight through town, and we looked around in shock as we drove. The once charming college town was in flames.
“How could this have happened so quickly?” Amy asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied. My thoughts turned to my hometown, which was significantly smaller than this one. That may turn out to be a good thing. “It can’t be like this everywhere, right?” I asked more to myself than Amy.
The further from town we got, the easier it was to pretend that the horrors we faced weren’t real. There were fewer abandoned cars. Fewer zombies were stumbling around—fewer people in general. About an hour after sunset, I stopped at a small gas station for the night. As anxious as I was to get home, I didn’t want to tackle the unknown dangers ahead in the dark, plus we needed gas and something to eat. After filling the gas tank,I parked by the door, and we went into the small convenience store.
We took every hot dog they had cooking on the rollers, a variety of snacks, and all the water the store had available. Once we had a ridiculous number of items on the counter, I looked around, having just realized that we hadn’t seen the cashier once since we entered the store.
“Hello?” I called out. Nobody responded. “What do we do?” I asked Amy.
She shrugged. “Do you have any cash to leave?”
“No. Do you?”
Amy shook her head.
“Ok. I’m making a list of everything we’re taking and leaving my number so they can call me to pay with my credit card over the phone,” I decided.
“Add Advil to the list,” Amy said as she tossed a handful of pills from the newly opened bottle into her mouth and chugged some water.
“Did you take enough?” I asked incredulously.
“My head feels like someone is trying to split it open with an axe,” Amy replied.
I finished my list, and we loaded everything into the SUV. When we parked behind the building, out of sight from the road, we finally had a moment to breathe and gorge ourselves on hot dogs and junk food.
When we were almost too full to move, Amy said, “I’ll sleep in the cargo area. You can take the backseat.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Definitely. You’re the one who drove today, so you should get more comfortable sleeping arrangements,” Amy replied.
“Thanks,” I said. I waited for Amy to climb into the back, then moved to the backseat and lay down.
“What if everyone we know and love is gone?” Amy whispered a while later.
“They aren’t,” I assured her more confidently than I felt. “We’ll get to my house, and then my parents will know what to do. They’ll know how to get you home to yours.” She didn’t say anything else, and soon, I drifted off to sleep.
We were on the cusp of a new dawn when I woke up later. I lay silent and unmoving to let my body wake up while I mentally prepared myself for another day in whatever fucked up world we lived in now. When I first heard the telltale sound of a zombie, I thought it was coming from outside the SUV, but as I listened closer, I realized it wasn’t. It was coming from the other side of the back seat. It was coming from Amy.
I assumed that since she hadn’t attacked me yet, that meant she didn’t realize I was there. It was the only advantage I was going to get, so I couldn’t fuck this up. The first thing I needed to do was get the fuck out of the car without getting bitten. Slowly, I unlocked the door manually and winced when the slight click echoed in the car, and Amy snarled. As her shadowy figure loomed over me from the back, I briefly fumbled with the door handle before I got the door open and bolted from the car.
As I hoped, Amy tumbled out after me. As I ran around the back of my car, a motion-sensing light turned on, illuminating the area around us. Amy must have gotten hot in the middle of the night and removed her hoodie because when she stepped into the light, I immediately noticed the bite mark on her forearm. That was why she took the hoodie—not as a memento but to hide the fact that she had been bitten.
“Dammit, Amy!” I yelled as I jumped in the driver’s seat, started the SUV, and sped away from her.
I made it about a mile down the road before turning around and going back. I couldn’t leave Amy like that. I passed her a short distance from the gas station and slowed down to makesure she had turned around to follow me before I sped up again. I left the engine running, ran into the store, and grabbed the crowbar I had spotted the night before.
I hefted it in my hand to feel its weight as I went back outside. I met Amy halfway to the road, and before I could chicken out, I swung the crowbar at her head. The end of the weapon went through her ear and into her brain. I had expected, like the movies, for her to die instantly, but she didn’t. However, it knocked her off balance and caused her to fall to the ground. Quickly, I pounced on her, ripped the crowbar out, spun it around, and stabbed it into her head again.
The force of the impact was jarring and sent shocks up my arms, but Amy stopped moving. I wiped away tears I hadn’t realized were falling as I pulled out the crowbar again and stood. As I stared down at her body, I remembered the last thing she said to me.
What if everyone I know and loveweregone?
