I can’t really talk about 4/15, not aloud anyway. It’s become a normal part of life now, disturbing as that is. But that day, I still find it hard to discuss. Everyone else can a bit, except Brian, but he has obvious reasons. Then there’s AJ, who, in the rare moments he actually DOES decide to talk about himself, speaks of that day with no problems at all.
But I have issues talking about that Day of Unholy Resurrection. No real reason, I think, anyway. I didn’t have to kill my family; I’d already found them dead and bailed. I didn’t have to see a zombie version of, well, anyone I knew, actually. But it was a day I’ll never forget, that’s for sure. None of us have the luxury of forgetting that day. How could anyone rid their memories of that day of chaos and of madness, a day beyond belief and of evil?
With all my issues talking about that day, it makes me glad we’re not reading each other’s journals. We’re all writing them, but it’s more to make sure our story is told. Just in case. Death is pretty much a very solid possibility every day now. But again, I’m glad we’re not sharing them with each other. Even though it was my idea to write them. There’s some things I don’t want the others reading.
Like me talking about that day.
It was the day the dead rose.
It was the day hell was unleashed.
It was a day I’ll never forget, for many reasons.
It was also the day I met Nick Carter.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
5:45 a.m.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It was the noise coming from the window that forced her to wake up. With a look to the window, she saw it was nothing more than an annoying pigeon tapping its beak against the glass at her. Annoyed, she started her engine to scare it off. Riley shut off the vehicle yet again and let herself fully wake up. A large yawn escaped, as she sighed and realized she had, in fact, slept in her car. If she’d slept in her Jeep, that meant what had happened earlier…
Her brothers.
Her father.
Her sisters-in-law, her nieces and nephews…
All of them were dead.
The tears threatened to fall again, as they had only hours before, but she held them back. She was awake, and even though she wasn’t running on very much sleep, Riley instantly made the decision that it was time to start trying to find a place that hadn’t been hit by the virus yet. If such a place existed.
She wasn’t sure; she had many of the facts and knew the chances were slim. Still had no idea what had caused it, but she’d witnessed firsthand how deadly it was, heard how quickly it had spread up north, and seen for herself how it happened down south. Surely, it had spread. Yet the hope for a safe haven still burned, because stranger things could happen. It wasn’t like there was anything holding her here in Florida, now that everyone she’d known and cared about was dead. Riley pushed a dark gold lock of hair out of her eyes and sighed to herself. She wondered if they even knew how much she did care about them.
“Riley, come on, Dad wants to see you. He says how you never come by. We’re all supposed to have a get-together there tomorrow. Around noon. You’re off then.”
“Nate, you come on. I use my days off to do my groundwork for my stories. I’m finally getting somewhere. That’s important to me.”
“More important than your family, huh?”
“Damn it, I never said that.”
“You don’t have to, Ri. You don’t have to.”
How many times had she cancelled outings with her family for work? How many times had she told them that work was important and that they didn’t understand? How many times had she wasted everything, only to learn now that it was worthless to do so?
“Riley! You and I totally need to hang out. My fiancé has this friend, and he’s perfect for you, I swear.”
“Jules, I want to go, really…”
“It’s just, ‘I have to work, and it’s important, and blah blah blah.’ Whatever, girl. You always blow me off, and I get sick of it. There’s more to life than a career, you know.”
“And that’s why I’m more successful than you.”
“Yet I’m happier. Sucks, doesn’t it? Call me when you decide you care about your friends again.”
She’d lost friends over work, dismissing it because they “didn’t understand,” and that it would “all pay off, and then I can relax,” and so many excuses she’d built up to justify putting her career before everyone else. Now, she’d never be able to tell them. Never be able to say she was sorry, that she did love them, and that she’d always cared. She’d never cared more about her career than family and friends, at least… not intentionally. Riley had just wanted to leave her mark on the world.
Now it didn’t matter. She may have been the only one left alive, for all she knew. Her thoughts went back to her family. Her family – she knew they deserved more than being left to rot. But she also knew they’d want her to get away, before she fell victim next. Riley reached for her keys again. She needed to just go, get away.
Another noise stopped her from starting up her car again. A series of guttural grunts could be heard in the distance. Scraping and thuds coming from nearby could be heard, as well. After a night of silence, Riley decided she’d see what was going on, unnoticed. Turning off all signs of light in her car, she ducked down and peered out her window. Her hands reached for her steadfast camera, turned it on, and started filming.
It took only minutes for her to lower her camera. Not turn it off, of course, but lower it so she could get a better look, as she peeked carefully through her car window. All the bodies that had been in cars, along the roads… all of them were standing, bashing through windows and doors, anything to get out. They did not sense her nearby, and she kept all sounds to herself. Her eyes widened as she took it in. It was something straight from one of her old favorite movie series, Resident Evil. Armies of the undead were roaming the streets, hundreds just by her eye count. There were still many bodies lying still on the roads, and she wondered why they didn’t rise as well.
She lifted her camera up again, keeping low to stay out of view. “Day Two of the chaos, only hours after I last filmed… Well, you can see for yourself,” Riley whispered, just loud enough for the camera to record. “They rose, not too long ago. I’ve only been asleep…” She checked her phone for the time. “… about five hours. I can’t believe this… How could this happen?”
She watched as they roamed the street. The moaning was loud and almost unbearable, as Riley fought to ignore it. There were so many of them. So many creatures were out there, all who had once been dead, now with no conscious thought, just shuffling slowly along the roads, in search of something. Riley figured herself safe, seeing that there was a decent distance between them, and the fact that none of them seemed to notice her.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Stupid bird…”
THUMP.
THUMP.
“What the hell?”
THUMP.
THUMP.
Her head turned to see that the undead on the other side of the road, the ones she hadn’t taken even one glance at, had taken notice of her. Her car was surrounded, and they were angrily banging upon it, in hopes of getting in. She stared at them, horrified at seeing them up close. The camera fell from her hands and landed on the seat beside her. Her sharp, blue eyes almost bugged out of their sockets, as the zombies grew in number, all of them banging on the Jeep, fighting to get inside and get to her.
She screamed. Her hands fumbled for her keys as she continued screaming, incredibly thankful that the doors and windows were all shut and locked. Riley fought to get the keys back in the ignition. Her screams didn’t stop as she became surrounded by zombies, trapped in her car with what looked to be nowhere to go if she couldn’t get going soon.
“Damn it, come on!” Finally, she was able to get enough coordination to jam the keys into the ignition and start the car. Frantically, she glanced backwards, seeing a small crack form along the shatterproof back window. Shoving the car into reverse, she floored it, hearing her tires squeal and feeling the bumps that came along with it.
Thrusting the gear shift into drive, she peeled off, slamming her car into the zombies. Riley screamed again as one was hit head on. The animated corpse flew atop her hood, moaning as it tried to beat its way through the glass. Swerving the Jeep, she frantically tried to throw the zombie from her car. It had once been a pregnant teenager, the protruding belly smashing up against the glass under a t-shirt that said Future Soccer Star, with an arrow pointing at the stomach. The face was ragged, bearing tire marks, probably run over by Riley when she had pulled to the side to park and sleep, hours before. Its fist continued to beat down until Riley finally screeched the car to a stop, forcing the zombie to fly backwards and land against a light post. She swung the car around and started driving again, desperately trying to get away from anything that had once been dead.
It seemed the more she drove, the more of these creatures she attracted her way.
The biggest horde came when she grew close to the hospital. Her car picked up speed. They were thicker than she’d seen them earlier, and she gritted her teeth, fighting to remain strong and run them down. What other choice did she have? She wasn’t even sure where she was going yet.
There was one that was waving its arms at her erratically, and she forced the speed of her Jeep to grow even higher. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake as before and let a zombie get stuck on her hood. This one, she was running down. The thumping noises began again, as the moans got louder. The blonde zombie that had been waving its arms at her still didn’t move as she got closer.
But instead of opening its mouth to release the trademark groan that all the other creatures had, it did something else. “HEY! HEY!”
She kept going.
“I’m NOT a fucking zombie, DAMN IT!”
At the last second, it hit her. She’d finally stumbled on someone who was actually alive. Though, that wouldn’t be true for long, as she was moments away from hitting him. Her foot slammed on the brake, and her grip on the steering wheel tightened so much, her knuckles were ghost white, as the car spun before finally coming to a stop, only inches away from him. She hit the button that unlocked the door, leaned over, opened it, and stared at him.
“Get in!”
He ran to the car, climbed in, and slammed the door shut. Though it felt pointless, Riley locked the doors once again and sped away. The zombies followed at a creepily slow pace behind them. She took a good look at her new companion. He looked tired, as she was sure she did. He had a childlike face, tousled blonde hair, and eyes that matched the color of the ocean, her favorite place in the world. In his hands, she then noticed, was an axe, gripped tightly like the ultimate security blanket. He breathed heavily beside her. She drove in silence, until she found an empty alleyway, where there seemed to be no bodies. Whether that meant the ones who had been there had already risen, or that she’d actually found a small spot where no one had died, she wasn’t sure. They had long outrun the zombies, which, she’d learned, did not ever seem to pick up their pace. Because of that, she felt comfortable parking and shutting off her car.
It was then that he, at last, spoke. “Thanks…” He glanced at her and gave her a charming smile Riley was sure had worked for him many times in the past. “Name’s Nick, Nick Carter.”
“Riley Blake.”
He shook her hand while the other still held the axe. His hand was gentle and warm, and it comforted her to feel that right then, knowing everyone else was dead – or undead.
“Nice to meet ya. Just… thanks for pulling over. If you hadn’t…”
“No problem. Sorry about…”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I prolly would’ve thought you were a zombie, too, if it were me…”
“So they are zombies.” Even though that had been the term she’d been using in her mind, on camera, it hadn’t seemed real.
He shrugged, setting the axe down on the floorboard, finally, and turning fully towards her. “What else could they be? Glad to see you. Man, I thought everyone had fled or died…”
Riley shook her head, tilting her head at him. “Fled? No one had time to run from this… “
Nick sighed. “I wouldn’t know. Got in an-” He paused, his tongue unconsciously running over his lips, as he thought it over for a moment. “-accident. I’ve been snoozing in the hospital that past couple days and woke up just in time for this hell.”
She stared at him in a mix of shock and pity. He didn’t know? He’d had to wake up to this, without any clue… She would have to be the one to tell him that there was an almost sure chance that everyone he knew and loved was dead. She wasn’t sure if he was the luckiest man alive, or the most cursed.
“There… there was this disease, spread all up north Friday morning. By the end of the day, it’d come here. Everyone who caught the virus died. Everyone. No exceptions. I woke up Saturday evening to find nothing but bodies everywhere.” She coughed, trying to cover the break in her voice when she was reminded that she’d never see her family again, and then continued. “I never caught it; sounds like you didn’t either, or we’d be dead too. I woke up-” She decided then not to mention it had been in her car because she had been so distraught. “-and saw this. That’s all I know.”
Nick stared at her, as she watched him take it in. It was hard enough for her, who’d seen it all happen within the span of three days. She couldn’t even try to imagine how she would be dealing if she had woken up to this, without a clue as to what had happened, only that leagues of the undead wanted to eat her brains.
After about ten minutes that felt more to Riley like an hour, he spoke again. “You said everyone’s dead, pretty much?”
“I thought so, anyway. You’re the first person I’ve found alive. Power’s down everywhere. Before they rose, there were bodies all along the streets…”
He nodded, and his hand touched her shoulder gently. “Riley, I know you’ve known me about an hour at best. But I need to ask you a huge favor. You can say no, and I’ll get out and find a car to hotwire and try it myself. I just don’t want to attempt this alone, though. It’s hella selfish, but I just really need this.”
“What is it?”
“I need you to take me to my place-”
“You’re insane, Nick.”
“I know, but I just… I need to check; I need to know.”
“You want me… to take you… to a place where there are almost guaranteed to be zombies waiting for us.”
“Basically, yes.”
“You’re insane, Nick.”
“You said that already.”
“I felt it needed repeating.”
“Please, Riley… I just- I need to know. Wouldn’t you, if you were me, and had just learned the world had gone to hell?”
Taking a deep breath, she thought about it. Logically, she knew it was stupid. They needed to just drive until they got to an open area and then figure out what steps to take next. They needed to leave. But at the same time, she felt for Nick. She felt his pain, and she knew why he had to see it for himself. She glanced back at him and made her decision. Riley started up the car.
“Okay, let’s go.”
