Day 48

I wake up in my own bed.

I cannot describe the feeling of opening ones eyes and seeing your own familiar things around you. Dawns sewing stuff at the desk and selves across from the bed; there is a quilt  half made, folded on the desk next to the sewing machine. Our closet is open and clothes hang there, untouched for some time, now. Our bed, large and comfortable easily fits us and Connor and Seeley. They are still asleep when I wake up.

I had the dream again. I kill the man, Crystal and now the doctor. I am unable to sleep and I can feel the effects of it draining me dry. And still I am unable to sleep, despite my exhaustion. 

The others are sleeping in our living room. On the floor or couch. I make my way out of mine and Dawn's room and, in the morning twilight, watch them as they sleep. They are at ease and it is an odd thing to see.

Outside shows the true measure of peoples panic. There are burnt houses, some still smoking, all around us. Trash litters the streets from knocked over garbage cans. Houses show signs of having been broken into. My car that I had left behind has busted in windows and smells of mildew.  Smoke rises from several places throughout the valley. Some large, dark, stacks billow into the sky. The sky is gray and it looks like rain.

I walk into the bathroom and open the mirror, grabbing Ibuprofen from the shelf. My left hand aches. Hell, my body aches. I am weak and tired. It is hard to go on when your body is constantly bombarded with horrible injuries, and you don't even have time to cope with them. You're either mentally drained or running for your life. I am exhausted.

I try the water but nothing comes out. It was too much to hope that I could take a shower. I walk out and everyone is still asleep and I decide to take a look outside. As I open the door Josh opens his eyes.

"Where are you going?"

"Just out. I need a walk."

"Is that smart?" he sits up slightly to look at me better.

"I don't know, I think I'll be fine." I look out at the front yard and my black car that has no windows.

"You're not going to take anything? No weapon, nothing?"

I look down and realize he's right. I don't even have a jacket on. He stands up and looks at me. I can tell by his face he is concerned. And I can tell I am not acting normal.  The door is still left open and as I go to shut it an arm reaches in and grabs me hard. I spin around and swing my fist wildly, hitting a woman in the face. She is not a zombie, nor is the other two, a man and woman, running to catch up with her.

"Please," she says, "please can we stay here?" I look down the road and there, some hundred meters or so are four zombies, running at awkward sprints towards us.

"Get in," I say, and open the door. They both walk in as Josh grabs his katana, and I grab my machete.

We walk calmly towards the oncoming zombies. I have my blade lowered, Josh holds his in a baseball hitters stance. The first to approach is nearer to Josh and he swings down, diagonally. I swing my blade up at one nearing me, catching it in the chin and cutting through the things face and into its brain. It crumples. There are two more and I side step around the one just as it falls and chop downward. I catch its arm which starts to bleed out. It spins back towards me when Josh, swinging hard, separates its head from its body, the fourth already killed by Josh.

We turn back, and see the three people along with McKay and Charlotte standing in the doorway. The girl has a tissue held to her nose that has turned red from blood.

"I am so sorry," I say to her. "I thought you were a--"

"It's fine, it's fine," and I can tell she means it.

"What happened there?" Josh asks, "Where were you heading?"

"We heard there is a safe house down near UVU with supplies and food," the man said, panting slightly. I look at Josh and he shrugs. I absently rub the bandage on my left hand with the thumb of the same. It is wet and I figure I must had hit it on something during the short fray.

"What are you're names?" Charlotte says from behind them.

"Oh," the girl without a broken nose says, "I'm Ann, and this is Lauren and Dean."

"Are you . . ." Charlotte starts.

"Friends, yeah."

"Well," I say, "You can stay here as long as you'd like. We don't really have much, but there is some food that we can spare." I walk into the house and they follow, Josh checks to make sure there are no zombies coming as he closes the door.

Dawn is walking out of out bedroom, and closes the door behind her. The boys are still asleep. Charlotte is walking back to her stuff, searching frantically for a mask and puts it on upon finding one. I fill Dawn in on what is going on and she offers them some food and goes back with Charlotte to grab some cans of beans or something. I can tell they make Charlotte nervous, not having masks.

"If you'd like you can recoup here and maybe tomorrow we'll head down to the school with you. We're heading to Saint George, so we could head that way first. Drop you off, or something."

They agree and so, for the remainder of the day we clean out the Hummer and restock it, checking out weapons and supplies. It takes longer than I'd like and by the end of the day we are finally well stocked and ready to head down to Saint George to try and find my family, after we go to the school and help these three.

I hear Lauren cough from the back room. It is gargled and thick. It reminds me of something but I can't place it. I lay down at night, exhausted and hear her cough again and I know what it reminds me of.

Jacob.