Chapter 2: Not Alone
We moved our way out of the musty old church, carefully. We didn’t want to get surprised by any monsters. When we reached the door, Chris peeked around the corner.
“Nothing,” he said. I could hear fear in his voice even though his face never showed it. Was I scared? A little maybe. I don’t know if it was them, or if it was just plain everything. I mean, going into a cold town that reeked of death. Wouldn’t that make anyone lose their nerve?
“They’re out there somewhere,” Chris finally spoke after a minute that seemed like and hour of silence. “They’re too smart. It’d probably be a bad idea to run the gauntlet.” Chris looked in another direction. “We could send another help signal.”
“Were you the one who sent it?” I asked him. He hesitated then looked at me.
“Yeah, but I didn’t know someone would actually come, then get stuck in the same situation,” Chris swallowed hard.
“Where’s the radio?” I asked him. It had to be functional…or was it? “I’ll try to send a signal. They’ll recognize my voice.” Chris nodded and motioned me to follow him. He crept around the corner and scanned the area around him, as if to make sure nothing was watching. Then he jogged forward to a small building. It looked as if it were once a house. A house meant for one person. Was it his house? I followed close behind him.
A moment later, he grabbed hold of the door knob, hesitated, and then opened it slowly. What was once a nice house for a hunter was now a blood drenched mess with broken glass and wood. On a desk close by was a broken picture frame with a picture of a grown man holding a rifle. Behind him were grass and a clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds, something that wasn’t around any longer. After a while of looking at it, I recognized his face. It was Chris, and this was Chris’s home. He moved behind the desk and picked up a radio with a microphone and set it nicely on top.
“Here she is,” He said almost proudly. I walked over to it and noticed the frequency had never changed. It had been on 10005.5, which was the frequency you had to use to contact Mars. I picked up the microphone and turned on the radio. Chris walked over to a window and stared out.
“Hello?” I said as if the microphone would speak back. “This is Caligo. The situation on earth is more than I expected.” I paused and looked at Chris, wondering what else to say.
“Tell them if we aren’t out within three days to bomb the area,” Chris said without looking at me as if he could feel my questioning stare.
“Shouldn’t I ask for reinforcements?” I questioned his plan. It didn’t seem right. What if we were still alive and almost to the ship when they decide time was up?
“No. If we do that, then they’ll get infected, and that’s the last thing we need, more zombies.” I decided it wasn’t worth arguing. I mean, I could’ve argued. It was my life on the line too! But I gave in and said exactly what he instructed me to do and turned the radio off.
“When did you send your distress call to us?” I asked, wondering how long mine would take.
“Three days ago,” He replied. Great, I thought, just what we need. Once they get the call they’ll come two days later.
“Want to tell me everything that happened here?” I leaned against the desk. Nothing had been lurking around. I didn’t know why Chris was so worried. But I could feel a chill go throughout my body as I felt as if I were being watched.
“Sure,” he said finally looking away from the window, which didn’t last long. Only five seconds. “It was a beautiful day. The weather was great. My neighbor’s daughter came by everyday to see how I was doing. She was a nice young gal, about fourteen years old with long brown hair. In the newspaper there had been warnings of a deadly disease going around. Some people left while others stayed. That was the worst decision we ever made.” He paused a while as if he saw movement outside the window. I was about to ask about it but he went on with the story. “Well she came over and was smiling happily as always. I was just listening to the radio and I chatted with her a bit. That’s when her father came around the corner. He acted a bit strange. He walked as if he had a limp and was drooling on the side of his mouth. She thought he was playing and started to walk up to him, but I stopped her before she got too close. I knew something was wrong with him. I was the hunter of the town so it was natural for me to have a gun and know when something was wrong. I grabbed my shotgun, loaded it and fired at her father, but he stood unaffected by it. Instead of dieing he kept coming closer so I fired at his head, killing him. That’s when we heard a scream and people started running in all directions. It was pretty hectic. I took a look outside of the house to see what I’d rather not have seen. There were so many zombies chasing people, biting them, leaving them to die. People ran as fast as they could, try to get away from the menace, but they failed. I only knew one thing to do. I hurried into my house and grabbed the radio. I called for help, and rushed back outside. I grabbed my neighbor’s daughter’s arm and ran forward, not knowing where to go, until I ran into an old man, Ron. He told me the church was safe, and followed us there. That’s how we ended up in there.”
I stared at him, puzzled. “What happened to the girl that was with you two?”
Chris flinched. “When I woke up she was gone.” I knew what he thought. She must’ve been killed. I pushed off the desk and walked over to him.
“What now?” I asked. I don’t think he even knew what to say. We both stood in silence as we looked out into the misty realm that was once a beautiful place.
“We should get some rest,” Chris finally spoke. One of us has to stay watch though.”
“I’ll do it,” I said. After all, I wasn’t tired. I was freaked out. I’d never be able to sleep. Chris walked away from the window and sat behind the desk.
“Wake me up in three hours.”
“That’s all?” I looked at him shocked.
“Well we do have a time limit to get out of here. Or did you forget that?” He reminded me. Before I could say anything more, he was snoring away.
I stayed by the window, waiting for any sudden movement. Two hours later I started feeling faint. Strange, for it wasn’t a normal everyday tired, but a tired as if someone wanted me to think I was. I sat down by the desk Chris was sleeping by. I tried my hardest to stay awake for the remaining hour but it felt so hard. I could feel my eyes start to drift shut. Soon everything went black, and I was asleep. Well, I thought I was asleep. I found myself standing in another room, another building. I looked around and noticed it as a normal house that was overcome by the terror that haunted the village. Maybe it’s just a dream, I thought to myself. I heard a noise that sounded like a bunch of pots and pans falling. I moved forward looking for some sort of kitchen. When I finally found a room with a stove, I inferred it was a kitchen and looked for the source of the noise.
“P- Please! Please don’t hurt me!” I turned around to find a woman in a corner of the room holding her hands up in defense, more frightened then I’ve been the entire time on Earth.
“It’s ok! I’m not a ghost or a zombie,” I tried to reason with her but the closer I got the louder her yell. I stopped halfway to her position and looked around. Surely she didn’t think I was a one of them? When I found nothing I came to realize she did think I was one. “Look, if I was one of them I’d have killed you by now.” She gained the courage to look at me between her arms. “It’s ok. Zombies don’t talk either, to my knowledge.”
The woman put her arms down, “What if it’s a trick? I know how they have tried to persuade me to trust them.” She spoke in a slight Japanese accent. It seems with all the wars going on everybody lived wherever it was possible to live in. “You are no zombie…but maybe a ghost?” I stared at her for a second.
“If I were a ghost I’d be transparent…and you can touch me, see?” I grabbed her arm. She flinched immediately but quickly relaxed when she realized I wasn’t a ghost after all. She looked up at me with watery eyes. She seemed to have been fighting back tears.
“Another human?” She gasped. She slowly got up to her feet. “I thought I was alone…”
I let go of her arm, “You’re not alone. There’s another with me.”
“How did you appear like that?” She stared at me with her head cocked to one side as if she were a dog trying to understand something impossible.
I was unsure really. I didn’t know how to answer. Then I remembered falling asleep while being on watch. I hope Chris is ok, I thought. “Where are we?” I asked the woman. I had a hunch on how I got there and that I wouldn’t be there for long.
“Two houses down from the church, why?” Her head was still leaning to one side with the same wondrous expression.
“Listen,” I started. I felt myself somehow fading. “Stay here, and stay hidden until you hear me call. What’s your name?”
“My name’s Miki,” the woman replied now with a more understanding expression. I was glad she didn’t question me this time.
“Ok, Miki, I’ll be right back…” right as I said that I found myself back in the room I was earlier, though I wasn’t at the window anymore. I sat up and looked in the window’s direction. Chris was sitting in front of it and seemed to be in deep concentration. He glanced at me and smiled.
“You fell asleep,” he said still looking out the window.
“I wasn’t asleep,” I said and stood up quickly remembering Miki.
“Whaddaya mean?” Chris looked directly at me with a “you’re crazy” look.
“It’s a long story,” I shook my head. “Maybe I’ll tell it to you when you’re older.” Chris chuckled at that. “Right now we need to go two houses down from the church.” Chris turned to look at me.
“Say what? Why?” He questioned. He’d probably think I’d have lost it.
“There’s a woman in there by the name of Miki and I promised to bring her with us,” I took out my gun and looked at him. “I’m serious you know.”
“Yeah,” he shook his head. “That’s what scares me. What makes you think there’s a woman in that building?”
I smiled. “Like I said, I’ll tell you when you get older. Are we clear?”
Chris stood up with his gun in hand. “Let’s do this.”
We headed outside with our guns in ready. It was strange; there was very little movement out there. Maybe they were devising a plan against us. Of course I wouldn’t believe in such things. Surely they weren’t that smart…
We went to a house two buildings down from the church as the woman had said. It was torn up and looked like the rest of the village had; like it was out of a horror movie. It was torn up and the stench of death lingered in the air.
“This it?” Chris asked staring up at the house.
“I hope so,” I said as I stepped through the door. The door creaked as I pushed it open slowly. “Miki? Miki are you in here?” I walked in deeper and recognizing a few surroundings. This was the house. Chris stayed behind me not liking the idea of walking blindly in. After calling her name again I heard a noise. As if a pan fell from a table in the kitchen. Then a figure formed from the darkness.
“I’m here,” Miki said as she came closer. I sighed and looked back at Chris as if to say ‘I told you so’.
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