Chapter 8- What's Dead Can Never Die

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Oli's POV

Las Vegas, Nevada

“I can’t believe that I come to America for the first time in a long time and there’s some sort of horrible disease going around,” Hannah said, laughing at her dismay. Her, me, and Matt were currently in our rental car travelling to Las Vegas. We weren’t really sure where to go so we just took a highway here.

“About that...” I said awkwardly, clearing my throat a bit. “This disease thing actually started in England. I wanted to take you here so we would be safe,” I explained, readying myself for her to blow up.

“Are you meaning to tell me that you let all of our friends and family in England to die?” Hannah asked, fuming more and more with every second passed.

I shrugged. “I just wanted you to be safe because I love you.”

She laughed hoarsely. “You can’t use that excuse now. What about Matt? You were just going to leave him too? He’s gotten you through some pretty tough times. Remember that time you were a drug addict? Who was there for you? Oh yeah, Matt fucking Nicholls, your fucking best friend was there!”

“Well he was going to find out eventually! And no one would believe me if I told them the real reason why we were leaving anyways. Matt would probably use the drug excuse, wouldn’t you?” I asked Matt, finally pulling over and looking back at him.

He shrugged. “I would’ve accepted an all exclusive trip to Hollywood,” he answered, quietly.

“See? How can you be such a heartless coward?” Hannah asked, taking off her seatbelt.

“Where are you going?” I asked, grabbing her arm.

“I’m going to get some air. I suggest you don’t follow me.” She didn’t look back at me as she ran out of the car and into the woods at the side of the road.

I stared at the woods, contemplating whether I should follow her or not.

“You should probably follow her,” Matt said, answering my question for me.

Without anymore hesitation, I got out of the car and made my way to the forest. Just as I was approaching it, I heard Hannah’s high pitched scream.

I ran into the forest and saw Hannah chuck a tree branch at something in front of her. The tree branch hit the thing and it went toppling to the ground.

"What the hell was that?” I asked, dumbfounded.

Hannah approached the creature and kneeled over it. “It looks like-” she was cut off by the creature growling to life, pulling her down by the neck.

“Hannah!” I yelled, running over to her and pulling her off of the creature. Tears stung my eyes when I saw her lifeless eyes and semi-detached head.

“You fucking monster!” I yelled at the creature. I grabbed the tree branch Hannah used and stabbed it continuously in the chest.

The woods were finally silent. There was no breeze, there were no bushes rustling. I stood there, my senses completely dulled as I closed my eyes and let the tears escape.

"Oli, are you ok?” Matt asked from behind me.

I didn’t respond to him.

“Come on, let’s go,” he said, grabbing my shoulders and steering me away from the scene.

“I can’t leave her,” I murmured.

"She would want you to be safe. C’mon,” Matt tried.

I shook my head. “I’m such a coward. If I wasn’t such a dickhead to begin with then this wouldn’t have happened.” A crouched on the ground and tucked my knees into my chest.

“It’s not your fault. Neither of you knew that was going to happen. It’ll take us a while to find out what the hell is happening here, but Hannah is still with us, Oli.”

I cried even harder. “She’s not, Matt. It fucking killed her because of me!”

“We’re leaving,” Matt mumbled, grabbing my hand and pulling me off the ground. He tried to pull me by to the car but I stayed still.

“Go without me. I’m not fucking leaving her.”

“Look, she’s fucking dead, Oli! I could tell you all of that “she’s still in your heart” crap but I know what it’s like to lose someone close to you. You just have to suck it up and get on with your fucking life!” He yelled, growing agitated with me.

“Did you feel like this?” I whispered.

“If you feel like your heart is a meaningless hole that’s slowly eating away at you, probably. But you need to fucking move on. It’s not easy, I haven’t even moved on yet but reality sucks.”

I took a deep breath and slowly started making my way back to the car. I immediately went into the backseat and let Matt drive.

I slept for a long time, because every time I woke up for a few seconds, the sky was a different colour. I woke up to the sun rising, setting, and it being pitch black outside. Matt drove for a long time, but he didn’t bother me and my sleep. When I was sleeping, Hannah was still with me. Her smile, her laugh, her everything was sitting right next to me.

            When I woke up this time, I heard voices. And it wasn’t Matt talking to himself because the second voice was higher. It was an American, and a girl. I wasn’t in my full mindset, so I just lied there and listened to their conversation.

“Yeah, apparently the beginning of the entire epidemic is from a bottle of pills being supplied by the government. My boyfriend was a Scientist and they were doing tests of teenagers from all cities all across the world that volunteered to test the product. It’s called Stage 1, which stands for Steroidal Testosterone Adolescent Genetics Epidemic,” the girl explained.

“And by your boyfriend was a scientist, you mean...?” Matt asked.

“He was taken by one of those zombies when he was doing a test on one. The pills are supposed to make teenagers feel better about themselves and eliminate acne. Instead it reversed their cell reproduction and turned them into zombies.”

Matt took a sharp breath in, obviously trying to hold in his tears.

“You lost someone too?” She asked.

He sighed. “My girlfriend was anorexic and she hated herself. She would’ve done anything to feel better about herself and I guess that pill was what got her. It’s hard knowing that I couldn’t help her.”

“What about the guy in the backseat?”

“His girlfriend was eaten by a zombie back in the woods after they got into a fight. Oli is always like this when something hard happens in his life. He had a drug addiction because of family problems and it took him forever to get over that and he’s technically still not fully healed. Hannah was helping him cope, but now I’m worried.”

“I don’t appreciate you talking about my life to strangers,” I muttered, sitting up and rubbing at my eyes.

“Oli, this is Lydia. She was stuck in her car because a few zombies were surrounding it and I helped her. You were too busy sleeping so don’t give me any of that “we never talked about this” shit. You’ve been sleeping for two days,” Matt explained, obviously annoyed with me.

“Hi Lydia, I’m Oli,” I murmured to her.

“Nice to finally meet you, Oli. If you’re hungry, there’s some food in the trunk and you can drink the rest of my water.” Lydia seemed nice as she passed her water bottle back to me but I ignored her attempts to make me like her.

I looked into the trunk and grabbed an unopened Twinkie. These things tasted like shit but I was starving.

“Oh fuck... the bridge,” Lydia murmured, looking ahead at the bridge in front of us. It was frozen in a diagonal position with a small hole in between the two halves of the bridge.

Matt immediately accelerated towards the bridge.

“Matt, what the fuck are you doing?” Lydia yelled, tightly clutching her seatbelt.

“I did not come this fucking far to turn back.”

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