Chapter 32 - Taylor

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It was crazy how a few days ago I hadn't wanted to go out at all

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It was crazy how a few days ago I hadn't wanted to go out at all. I just wanted to hide away and pretend that this wasn't happening. Now, I all but ran from the firehouse. I had my knife, gun, bow a full quiver, and my backpack. I have an energy drink in hand, sipping on it as I move down the street. It was nice and cold from being in the fridge. One of the best things about the firehouse is they have solar panels to run the basics, and the fridge is large enough that they put drinks into it.

The sweet fruity sharpness calms my nerves as I continue walking down the street. The zombie that was here had already wandered too close to the firehouse and was dead on the street. Now, there were none, that I could see from my position anyway. As I walk, I try to block out memories of before this happened, of Cici and my parents. Every time their faces pop into my mind, my heart painfully squeezes and I'm on the verge of crying.

I had to force myself to be strong because so far, I'm the only one immune. I'm the only one that has been able to run past a zombie and not get chased, as long as I didn't talk. Times are different, I had to adapt.

That was easier said than done though.

Moving from car to car, I check them all. I only had a few things I was looking for when it came to a usable car. Keys, and no blood in it. A few had blood and bodies in them, a few were locked and the others I couldn't find the keys. The van is the last one I check, grabbing the door handle I pull and the door pops open. Good start, next I pop my head in, taking a look around and not seeing any blood. Climbing in I close the door behind me, and begin the search. Under the visor, nothing but some mail and papers tucked in with an elastic band. The passenger side seat has nothing in it, the floor is clear save some dirt. The glove compartment is tiny and just filled with more papers. No keys.

Beginning to get frustrated I slam the glove box closed and sit back in the driver's seat with a huff. Movement catches my eye and I look up to see one of the papers beginning to tip out of the holder in the visor. I catch it before it frees itself, then pull it out before flipping the visor up. It's a piece of mail, with an address on it. It's to one of the apartments in the building sitting in front of me.

It's a beautiful apartment building, the first floor a tan color and the other two floors are a deep red. There are two buildings right next to each other, and I think eight or twelve apartments per floor. It was hard to tell from the outside exactly how the building split apartments. The land its on was beautiful, with great landscaping and green-green grass. Now there are a couple of bodies on the ground, dried blood coating some of the rocks in the landscape and making that green grass brown.

I get out of the van, holding the paper to myself as I skirt around to the leasing center slash front office of the building. The large front window is shattered, and blood along the ground leads out of the building. That was a good sign, right? Nothing broke in, but it broke out.

The large windows allow a lot of natural light through the office area. If there wasn't blood, unidentified chunks, and furniture thrown everywhere, it would have been a nice front office. The smell of it was really bad, I was glad that one window had been busted. It at least aired out the room somewhat. Moving past the office into the hall behind the desk I turn down it. There's a groaning noise and I immediately look down to see the zombie dragging itself along the ground. Well, it was trying to anyway. Its legs were technically still attached to its body, barely.

It seems to reach out towards nothing, then try's to pull itself down the hall, but it wasn't moving very much. I move over to it, pull my knife out, and stick it straight into its head.

Pulling it out, I rub the blade along what semi-clean spot of its shirt I can find. The sound of a door bolt sliding out of place is loud in the silence. I move back from which door I think it was, there's not enough time to hide behind something when the latch opens and the door is slowly pulled up.

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