“Thanks, man. I really appreciate this.” The man shifted. A sound ripped through the atmosphere, and warm liquid sprayedNick’s face. He drew back, wiped away the wetness, and stared down at smears of blood on his arm. When Nick raised his head, the blonde man was slumped back against the car seat. His unmoving eyes held an empty gaze at the roof of the vehicle, and blood spilled out from a hole in his head.
“He wasn’t going to turn, Phoenix.” Nick swept a hand down his face in frustration.
“You don’t know that!”
“I do fucking know that!” Nick stood and carried himself to Phoenix with heavy steps. He clutched Phoenix’s shirt and slammed him down on the hood of the car. With his face inches from Phoenix’s, he glared down at him.
“If you are going to travel with us, you need to listen to every fucking word I say. To the letter. If Kate had gotten bit, and you shot her in the fucking head, I would tear your limbs from your body. I would kill you so fucking slow that you’d cry out for death until it came.”
Phoenix quaked beneath Nick’s body, his face twisted in fear.
“Okay, I’m sorry. Nick, please. I’m sorry!”
Nick released Phoenix and strode back toward Kate who waited on the side of the road. Worry colored her face a pale shade. The sound of Phoenix’s footfalls just behind him told Nick that he was following him close though he did not dignify his presence with any acknowledgement.
“Let’s move,” Nick ordered, placing a hand on Kate’s back. Kate glanced over her shoulder at Phoenix, offering a worrisome look, then carried on.
The tension in Nick’s jaw sent an ache through his bones. He tried to relax. Phoenix was young and did not know the world as Nick knew it. When Phoenix first asked to join them, Nick feared an intentional attack. He had not prepared himself for Phoenix to make foolish mistakes.
Chapter 9
The vast military base rose up from the hills, seemingly small from their distance. The training facilities, barracks, and administrative buildings spread for miles. Nick and Kate walked along the outskirts, far enough away to remain unnoticed. They found a small opening of woods to sit and spent the next few hours resting and watching the fort.
Phoenix had taken a route opposite the couple, stating he would find an abandoned building to climb where he could observe the military installation from afar.
“What are we watching for?” Kate asked, ripping open a bag of trail mix to snack on. The wind blew a fierce gust through the trees, blowing Kate’s hair across her neck and sending a chill down her spine.
“Signs of life. People. Civilization carrying on. I don’t know,” Nick answered. He wrapped an arm around Kate’s waist while keeping his eyes trained on the base. When she offered him the trail mix, he grabbed a handful and tossed the sweet and salty mixture into his mouth.
Nick tried to ignore the pounds that had sloughed away since he left his home and ventured into a world terribly different than what he knew. Kate’s clothes also seemed looser these days. The human body could survive on canned foods and quick bites. They would keep the body nourished enough to carry on. Yet, Nick was not the type to simply settle forcarrying on.
Thoughts of thick-cut steak, steamed vegetables, and warm bread made him salivate. His stomach performed a cartwheel as though dancing at the idea of such a meal.Soon, he promised himself.
The pair was too far to see into the fort; they focused on the front gates. From their location, the place seemed desolate. Besides the occasional undead creature wandering the street nearby, there was not a soul to be seen.
“How do you think this ends?” Kate asked. The question hit Nick in a strange way. He used to think about the end all of the time. In fact, he often craved it. Survival in a world that had caved in on itself was easy when you had no ambition, no care whether you lived or died.
Then, he met Kate. Life became a worrisome, delicate thing. Nick became responsible for another life. Not just anyone, but a person who had visited the depths of hell only to come back stronger than he could ever dream of being. A person he had come to care about more than anything.
“How what ends?”
Kate gestured vaguely to the world around them. “Everything is so screwed up. We’re literally sitting in the woods spying on a military base to see how safetheyare. We can’t trust anyone. We’re afraid to bring shitty people back from the disease. We’ve almost died so many times. Youdiddie!”
Nick pulled her closer hoping to quiet the raging anxiety within her mind.
“I didn’t die. I just… wasn’t myself.”
Nick hid the fact that sometimes he still felt hot rage coursing through him, and that he had to curb animalistic reactions to situations.
“No, don’t minimize it. That’s something you say when you don't get enough sleep or you’re hangry. Not when a disease has ravaged your body and mind and makes you want to eat brains.”
Nick laughed and pressed his lips to Kate’s temple. “How do you want it to end?”
Kate’s eyes scanned the landscape and stopped at Nick’s face. “My entire life has been…” Kate sighed. “I guess dignity is probably too much to ask for at this point. I just want to die with some certainty.”
Even certainty seemed to be a pipe dream. Everything around them had collapsed. The world was a shell of its former self; it was nothing more than a collage of blood and death and abandoned morals. A next meal was not promised… and every human they crossed paths with could be their last encounter. Certainty was a delusion.
“I can’t say how it ends, but you can becertainthat I will be right there next to you. Whatever happens, we’ll be together.” Nick tilted Kate’s chin so that his lips brushed against hers. She responded with a kiss, deep and needy; feeling certain of that, too. Without the typical constraints of life, they had the freedom to do and be whomever they wanted. Except, Kate did not know what she wanted in this beautiful, agonizing life, aside from Nick.
