Ashes to Ashes (Book 1 of 2) A ZOMBIE FICTION

The Crying...

It took probably half an hour for Crystal to make sure that i was actually fine, figuring that I had a serious concussion.

"He should be fine, but I'm not expecting him to get into any fights soon." She told the others as they crowded around me, amazed that I had even survived.

"One tough somabitch..." Josh stated as he carefully pulled my bag off and laid it under my head in the back seat of the truck. It was a very awkward experience, my legs being bent at one end and my head at the other.

"We'd be better off leaving his ass..." I heard Mike say, followed by the cocking of one of my revolvers to his skull. "Kidding! I was kidding!" He nearly shouted, getting nervous with the .44 to his skull and Josh behind the trigger.

Everything seemed so much louder, it was giving me a headache, and I think Crystal was able to see that in the way that I moved my head around; keeping my eyes shut.

"Everyone shut up." She ordered as Sadie started driving again, much slower than the...fall, I guess you could call it.

"Ugh..." I moaned, "This is the worst hangover ever!" 

Everyone laughed a bit, "You weren't even drinking."

"Yeah I know, it feels like I was..." 

Yet another hush came from Crystal.

At some point I had passed out and when I awoke the environment was way different than I remembered. Everything was a yellowish tan, like we were at a really, really big beach...or in the desert...

"Where are we?" I asked, opening my  eyes all the way to see Jennifer looking down at me; her legs were really comfortable."

"A couple hundred miles away from where we were." I heard Josh answer.

I would have shot up, if I could; "How long was I out?"

"Day and a half...ish." Sadie answered, opening her door and climbing out.

"Jeezus...." I slowly sat up and looked around, we were in a desert, "Ugh. Why a desert?"

"We just kind of traveled.... didn't know where we were headed."

"How's Drake?" I asked, hoping for the best.

"Oh he's great. He's actually looking better than he did before." Crystal responded. 

"So I might have been right?"

"So you might have been right." 

The truck seemed a lot more empty than I remembered. Kat and Cathy were gone, so was Mike.

"Where is everyone?"

"Behind us in an Industrial sized bulldozer." Josh answered calmly.

"Why did you let Mike go with them?"

"Get his dumb ass out of here." Jenn told me.

"...and put him in an industrial sized bulldozer? Seems to me like this would have been the better choice."

"Yeah, not when you've got Drake keeping a constant eye on him with the .50." Josh said.

I turned my head to look and saw the Over-Industrial Sized Bulldozer, this thing looked like it could take a direct blast from an M1A2 Abrams using SABO rounds at point blank; "You think a .50's gonna get through that!?"

"No, but he does."

"Fucking idiot... Hey? Where's my pack?"

"On the floor." Jenn told me, "Where'd you get the laptop?"

"The semi." I told her as I reached for my pack and pulled the laptop out.

"What's on it?"

I was gonna tell the truth but, decided not to; "Nothing. Just comforts me, makes me remember what things were like before everything happened." I lied, and they believed. Or at least from the looks in their eyes they had.

I just looked at it for a moment, then put it back and fought to get out of the vehicle with my gear. All of the blood rushed to my head at once, and mixed with the heat of the desert, almost made me black out. I reached back for the door of the vehicle and caught myself, then sat there for a minute and waited for my vision to return.

"You up?" Drake asked, "Good. You want to help Josh clear the inside?"

I replied with a nod and reached for my shotgun.

"I appreciate everything you've done for us, you know that right?" 

"Mhmm. Come on Josh..." I began my walk towards the door, letting Josh kick it open when we reached it.

The inside was empty, no food, no drinks, no lights; no anything. I was about to walk back out of it when I heard a cry from the back.

"Hello?" I called out, hearing the crying stop like someone was trying to hide.

"Dude? Hey, Alex! What are ya' doing?" josh asked confused, I shushed him.

I neared the back of the store and opened the small door, revealing an empty room and a young girl, lying dead in her own blood and guts. Her intestines ripped from inside of her and her heart half out of her chest; I gagged, trying to reempty my already empty stomach.

The crying returned, and the room changed in the blink of an eye. Josh was gone, the world seemed to be a strange shade of grey and there was a little girl sitting; crying. It was the same little girl that was dead on the floor just a second ago.

I took a step towards her, then she turned and screamed in horror; when I turned around I was met with one of the infected. I jumped for a revolver but my hand was caught and I was pushed to the ground.

"Alex! What the fuck!? What is going on!?"

I snapped out of it, confused as I looked around; "There was- the- you were-...."

"Dude! Fucking relax. God damn, man. I thought you were about to shoot me."

"Alex? Josh? What's going on?" I heard Sadie call from outside.

"I wont say anything about this, but you got to tell me what the fuck you saw."

"The- the little girl, she was alive, and then I turned around and saw one of the infected... but-...."

"It was me. Just calm down."

"You two alright in there?" Sadie called again.

"Yeah! We're fine." Josh replied, helping me up and letting me lead the way back to the vehicles, "What did you hear? Like, before?"

"A crying."