Alone Time
2049 Words
After Marisol's new information, we all had been on edge. Three people on guard at all times, even Pam had begun to train and take some shifts. Both firearms and self defense training became pretty much mandatory. Marisol and I had spent half of our time practicing our abilities. Although it had only been a week, I had unlocked more power inside of myself than I have dreamed possible. I could now levitate at will and could call on the elements. I could see peoples auras now, which helped me to know if someone was being truthful or not. The biggest gift though was that I could feel the undead. Almost like they were a part of me, I could feel their location like a beacon. This made our scouting missions more targeted.
We needed the extra experience and the supplies, so I would locate any zombies that were in town and send the group out. With Marisol here, I wasn't needed for every single mission and it was a nice reprieve. she had been a great asset to our group. She was smart and small enough to fit in places the rest of us could not. She was also resourceful. She could find things in places nobody else would think to look. She said it was from being raised in the foster care system. that she had always needed the most unassuming hiding places.
We had recently been working on combining our energies but no matter how hard we tried, I always seemed to overpower her. In my extra time, not going on every mission, I had begun to research with Scott. There was a list of books that we had started to make, as we found more promising leads that could help us. We couldn't fight a war with little information on our enemy. I think Marisol had a thing for him, but I wasn't sure what he thought as he didn't seem like himself lately.
He was a far cry from the obnoxiously flirty male I had first met. He ran the trainings like a drill sergeant and barely slept in his off time. Choosing to research and train even more. I was beginning to miss his old self. It was like this new way of life had sucked the joy and sarcasm from him. He refused to talk about it though. I wished he would open up, I knew he had night terrors and he was struggling with something. I didn't want to push though with how on edge he had seemed since Marisol's arrival.
Branson had become a ghost. He would come in and give assignments, then disappear back to the roof. He was up there so often that he had a sleeping bag set up in his corner. Instead of the next group relieving him, he would sleep for a couple of hours before he would wake and just keep watching. Chloe would bring his meals to him every day and then she would spend a while with him. I couldn't help but wonder, when I saw them together, if he was imagining the child he had lost. If he wasn't on the roof he was usually on a supply run and that's about all he did anymore. He still wouldn't talk to me and I wasn't sure what to do to improve the situation, so I just started ignoring him too.
Jimmy and I were still spending time together but it wasn't very often as I was usually preoccupied with Marisol's teachings to do much with him. He enjoyed coming to watch us and had even played guinea pig for some of my attempts. I had accidentally thrown him across the room once and he was less eager to help now. He seemed happy though. This world suited him.
For everyone else, it was business as usual. Take your shift on watch, go on runs, and spend what little downtime you had in the community room or asleep. Our little rooftop farm was doing well and everyone was pitching in on it's maintenance. We had salvaged a bunch of deer wire to cover the plants after a flock of birds had tried to ravage our crops. Good thing Branson basically lived up there or we would have lost it all.
Today was my first supply run in a while and I was excited to test out my newest ability we had been practicing. Knowing that the zombies were soulless, meant that they were reanimated by energy. Marisol and I were able to manipulate energy. The theory was that we could manipulate the zombies energy to repel them, keeping us all safe even if we were surrounded by a group. I hadn't encountered any to test this out yet and today I could feel a decent sized group of them in town. We were heading straight for them. I felt like I'd had a bunch of energy drinks, my body buzzing with anticipation of what this could mean for our groups safety.
We were gathered in the community room to get our orders and I wondered who was going on the run today. Marisol and Scott were obviously out as they had both gone two days ago after I had taken over Pam's watch so she could take care of Chloe, who had gotten some stomach bug. As I was looking around at everyone wondering who was going, Branson stormed into the room.
"Alright, Wilbur, Marisol, you're with me today. Everyone else who isn't due for sleep, hit the roof." He barked the order quickly, knowing we wouldn't normally question him.
"Sorry to break it to you, Bran. I just got off watch and I'm about to drop." Marisol told him. He froze for a second before his eyes landed on me. It was like I could see him mentally gritting his teeth.
"Okay..Laura, we're gonna need you to take Marisol's place then." It was obvious he wasn't happy about this. Everyone had started to notice his disdain towards me and the air became thick with their unease at our exchange.
"Sound's good to me. Let's kick rocks." I tried to keep the tremor from my voice as butterflies hit my stomach. This would be the first time we had been around each other, for an extended amount of time, since we had found the Olsen's. I hated that I still reacted this way towards him and he was unaffected, except for his disgust.
Without another word, Branson turned and walked out. Wilbur followed him and I did after a moment. I passed Pam and she touched my shoulder as I went by. I looked at her questioningly.
"That is a man who has been hurt. He's trying to hide it behind indifference but I can see it. Don't you worry, Laura. He'll come around." She squeezed my shoulder with a smile and walked away. I thought of what she said as I joined the men for the run. I hoped she was right.
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We had been walking for almost a half hour and the sun was merciless. I think it was June now and it was crazy to look around at the ghost town and remember that just a little over four months ago, it had been so different. There hadn't been much talking between the three of us today, aside from Wilbur trying, and failing, to make some sort of small talk.
"We're almost there. I can feel them." I said.
"How many?" Branson asked me.
"I'm not sure. It doesn't feel like much but they're fuzzy. Maybe ten? It's like I can feel them for a moment then they slip back. It didn't feel like a lot of them earlier though, so I'm sure it's not going to be difficult." I couldn't explain it in any other way. There was some sort of static that had appeared as we got closer to them. We rounded a corner and I was able to pick out where the energy was coming from. "There. That house." I pointed to a cute little cottage style home just a bit further down the street. We made our way there.
Wilbur, you stay out here in case anything happens or there are stragglers. Laura and I will clear the house of zombies and grab supplies. Do you have the list?" Wilbur handed Branson the list. Every supply run we took requests from everyone of things to look out for. Just because it was the apocalypse didn't mean we couldn't have some frivolous things.
We made our way to the door, hearing the shuffling of undead feet inside. Branson held up three fingers and counted down. On one, we burst into the house ready to fire. What we found inside was not what we had expected. There were at least a couple dozen zombies inside, if not more. We did not have enough people for this and I wasn't even sure if I could do anything magical to help against this many. I hadn't even been able to feel this many of them. Why were they hiding in this house? I could feel them all now and it was overwhelming in the amount. It felt like more than just this house.
"Fall back!" Branson shouted immediately. Firing on one of them that was within striking distance. I felt them just as we heard Wilbur begin to shout from the front yard.
"They're pouring out of everywhere!" We looked outside to see zombie's swarming from the surrounding houses. There were already a handful of them coming up to the porch. Wilbur raised his gun to begin firing on them but Branson stopped him.
"Run, Wilbur! Get back to the school and get more people!" Wilbur hesitated for a moment. "f*****g go! That's an order!" Branson screamed this as he grabbed my arm and drug me back into the house. Before I could try and argue with him about why the hell he was bringing us back into the house with zombies, he drug me past two of them into a door. He slammed the door behind us and locked it. Running to grab the dresser set in the room to put it against the door. I went over to help him, listening to the zombies on the other side of the door and watching it shudder beneath their strikes. Once the dresser was in place we both paused to catch our breath, still holding it against the door.
"What now?" I asked him.
"We wait. There's no way we can fight our way out of here, so unless you have some voodoo s**t you can do to get rid of all of them, we're stuck until backup arrives." He lowered himself to the floor, back against the dresser.
"How did you know where to take us?" I asked him, recalling how he had immediately brought us into the house instead of running.
" I saw the door open when we first came inside, saw one of em in here, but I knew they'd have started moving as soon as they saw us. It was either try to get in here, or try to fight a mob coming up the porch and coming from in the house. I liked our chances at running to the room before they could grab us. Hopefully Wilbur got away." He seemed so tired. I saw the bags under his eyes had become so severe it was like he had black eyes. It made him look much older than his twenty five years.
"That was quick thinking." I said. He just grunted in response and didn't look at me. "Thanks for saving me, I know you did it without thinking, but it doesn't mean I appreciate it any less." I couldn't help but wish that he had saved me because he actually cared and not just because he would have done it for anyone.
"We need you." This was all he said. I hated the pain I felt when he made these comments to show how much he didn't care about me now.
"At least I'm worth something to you huh?" I muttered this under my breath, not expecting him to hear me. He did hear me though.
"More than you know, Laura."
- Writer
