Fay stood staring at him, as he sat
slumped against the wall, his leg bleeding where he had been bitten by the zombie.
She was not sure if she could believe
what was happening. She was not sure she
wanted to believe it. This was not
supposed to happen. It could not end
like this...it just couldn't....A tear slowly rolled down her cheek. What could she do? She couldn't save him; that was impossible. She didn't even know where to begin. She was lost.
The others were standing around the
small room. Two of them were at the
door, holding it. The infected were
outside, pounding on the steel door, trying to gain entry. They had bolted the door and pushed furniture
in front but Joe and Henry were still standing by leaning against the chairs
and tables. Amber and Silos were
standing around the room catching their breath. Amber looked at Matt's leg. It was bad. He was infected now. It would be a matter of
hours, maybe less. Amber saw Fay. She simply stood there looking at horror at
her boyfriend lying on the ground against the wall. Fay was crying.
“Let's get up to the roof guys,”
said Joe. “They aren't getting through this door anytime soon, and unless they
can figure out how to climb the ladder and open the hatch we'll be safer up
there.”
“We'll freeze though,” said Silos.
“We have to take that chance,” said
Henry. “We can build a fire or something, but we shouldn't stay down here.”
“Matt should,” said Joe. “He's been
bitten, he'll be one of them soon.”
“Well we can deal with that when we
get to that point right?” Fay said tears in her eyes.
“We should just kill him now, get it
over with,” said Amber still staring at her brother sitting on the floor,
bleeding.
“Am I going to get a say in this?” asked
Matt. He was sweating more and more.
“What do you want to do Matt?” asked
Joe.
“I want you all to go up to the roof,
but I want you to stay Fay...if you want to,” Matt said. He felt selfish for asking it, but the fact
was, he was scared. He was trying not to
show it, but he was, and he wanted to be with Fay. He felt safe around her.
“Yes of course,” said Fay kneeling down
next time Matt, resting her hand on his shoulder. Tears were rolling down her cheeks now.
“Alright, you heard him, let's go then,”
said Joe.
They started making their way up the
ladder. Henry stopped to give a grim nod
to Matt before he started climbing up. Now
only Matt's sister Amber and his girlfriend Fay were left. Amber was not crying. She had always been rather emotionless since
the incident with their mother when they were kids, and the events of the past
two days had desensitized her even more. She was still simply staring at Matt. Matt looked back at her. He didn't know what to say. They had never been close, and he was
regretting that now.
“Amber –” he began saying.
“Hush, just listen to me,” Amber said.
“You're my brother, I love you, I don't want you to die...but it's happening.
I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time together, but that's how it is...” She walked past them towards the ladder.
As she started to climb Matt saw tears
starting to form in her eyes. But he
said nothing. He had nothing to say to
that...or he just didn't know what to say. He looked at Fay. She had her head bowed, she was praying again.
She did that a lot. She thought it made things better...maybe it
did...maybe it didn't. Matt didn't
really know. He used to pray all the
time. When he was young he had gone to
church every day with his family, even after their mother’s accident. But when he had turned eighteen and had gone
off to college he had sort of stopped.
His father tried to keep on top of it at first but eventually gave up,
Amber usually only called him on his birthdays, and she never went to church as
far as he knew. His brother was a devout
Christian and had been married and had lots of kids. He was a good man, and Matt was proud of him,
and was closer with him than most people realized. Then he had met Fay, who went to church, and
started going with her, but he had never gotten back into it. He figured if there was a God, He wasn't the
wonderful God that the preacher always talked about. If God was real, where was He right now?
“Fay,” Matt said. “Are you going to sit
there talking to someone who won't answer you or are you going to talk to me?” She looked up.
“God always answers my prayers Matt, in
one way or another,” she replied. “What is there to talk about? Maybe we should just be quiet, and enjoy the
rest of our time together?”
“Yes, that would be nice...” He wanted to talk, but at the same time, what
was there to talk about?
Fay sat down and leaned against the wall
curling up against Matt's chest. Suddenly
Matt felt at peace, and so did Fay. His
hand found hers and their fingers intertwined, both of them trying to show as
much love for each other as they could through that physical connection. They sat there, silent. The only sound came from the sound of pounding
on the door from the outside. That sound
slowly died away and then they were left in complete silence. It was so quiet now they could hear each other
breathing. The sound comforted Matt even
more. And then it angered him. He suddenly had the urge to bite Fay. He sat up suddenly knocking her over.
“Matt? Are you alright?” she asked.
He looked at her. She began to move away, fear in her eyes.
“No...wait...I'm fine…sorry, I just got
startled was all...”
“Are you sure?”
“Y-yes I'm fine...”
She moved back over to him and they
leaned back against the wall together. They
held hands again. Fay rested her head on
Matt's shoulder. It had been an hour
now, at least. Matt didn't know much
longer he had. He thought maybe he
should make her leave now…but he didn’t want to be alone, not just yet. Then he remembered something.
“Fay…” he said.
“Yes?”
“Do you remember that one time, years
ago, when you told me that you never wanted to see me again?” He asked her.
She choked out a laugh through her tears.
“Yes I do. We were so foolish back then, so immature.”
“We’re much more mature now, well you
are at least,” he said with a wink.
“Why do you bring it up?”
“Well…it’s just amazing, remembering
that, and how I felt…and now here you are, waiting with me until…you know…”
She smiled and was silent for a few
minutes. Then she spoke what was on her
mind.
“Matt, where do you think you’re going
to go after you….you know,” neither of them could say “die.”
“I don’t know Fay, but I doubt its
heaven,”
“But I wish it were! Why don’t you believe anymore Matt?"
“God’s never been there for me!”
“Yes he has, I’ve seen it, others have
seen it, I know He has a plan for you. You
just have to trust in our Savior.”
“Yeah…” that was all he could say.
Fay was silent. Matt realized though, that was what he wanted.
He wanted a savior. He wanted...no...he needed Jesus. He needed God. That was his last thought before his mind went
out, like a blank light. Fay jumped back
as Matt began jerking back and forth violently.
“RUN!” he shouted, but it didn’t quite
sound like Matt.
She screamed and made for the ladder but
tripped and fell to the ground. Before
she could get up Matt had jumped on her and was clawing at her. She tried to fight him off, kicking and
punching at him...but he was too strong. His bloodshot eyes were crazed and hungry as
he gnashed his teeth at her. They
struggled back and forth. Fay tried to
grab her gun but before she could Matt found her flesh with his teeth. She screamed out in pain as blood sprayed
across her face...and so the feast began. That was all it took for Matt to finish her
off, biting her throat, tearing it out.
Up on the roof Amber thought she heard
screams from below. She jumped up
grabbing her rifle and opened the hatch. She shined her flashlight down to the floor
below. She saw a bloody mess, Fay's body
torn and ripped open, Matt eating her. Matt
looked up screaming at her and began jumping at the wall and ladder trying to
get at her.
Amber
wiped a single tear away and then fired a single round into her brother's head.
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