Beyond the Grave - original story

Chapter 9 - Death do us part

"Of course, Romeo." Lois joked as she patted him on his shoulder, earning another chuckle from the man.

And before she knew it, Kristine and Matt drove off into the town. This time, however, it was Max who took care of closing the gate as they drove off. Although he slept through the whole night without waking up even for a moment, he was awake at five. Soon enough, as Lois walked out of the kitchen with a sandwich on a plate and sat on the couch, Max joined her. The dark-haired boy turned on the tv and grimaced as he remembered that the canals were turned off the day after the whole thing happened. He huffed and stood up from the couch, grabbing some CD's as he sat on the floor and started looking through them.

"So, Max, how did you survive the whole thing so long?" Lois asked after a while, her eyes focused on the teenager sitting by the tv.

Max turned around with a puzzled look on his face as he realized what Lois just asked him. He didn't knew her too good because didn't get a chance to talk with her earlier. He didn't also knew why, but her question made his stomach ache. It was difficult to answer it, that much he knew.

"Well, uh..." He started shyly, scratching his cheek lightly as he gathered his thoughts. "I was at my parents house when it all started. Two hours earlier, they drove off to work, saying that there's some leftovers from yesterday's dinner if I'm hungry and all that." He continued, swallowing hardly as he then bit his bottom lip.

Lois only nodded at the boy's words, listening intently. She wanted to get to know him better since they will probably be spending a lot of time around each other. After all, the ranch wasn't that big and they would walk past each other at some point. It was fair to at least know how they ended up where they are now.

"It all seemed silly, you know? Because before it all happened, i was such a big fan of that one tv show about zombies." He added, chuckling dryly at the bare thought. "I locked myself in my room the moment they left the house and just decided to rewatch the episodes, when my friends started bombing me with texts and links to some sites saying there's a disease spreading. A very infectious one that makes people act like rabid dogs, attacking everyone around them." Max mumbled, although he knew the former nurse could hear him.

The blonde woman knew how he felt back then, because she thought the same. It all felt surreal back then that a disease like this was spreading so fast. She still remembers how it all happened in the hospital she was working in, how the patients started coming in with weird bite wounds and then as they died, they came back but weren't the same. The chaos was unbearable, everyone was shouting, running, trying to protect themselves while Lois tried protecting her friends and patients from the infected people.

"When did you get out of your house?" She asked him softly, her eyes more understanding than ever.

"I don't remember it too clearly, but it was... like two or three weeks in." He admitted, looking up from the CD's to look at the woman sat on the couch. "When my friends stopped messaging me and I looked out the window to see the streets being taken over by the walkers. It was like a scene out of my dreams, except that now it's all a fucking nightmare." The teenager sighed, looking away again.

"You just decided to take the chance and run when you still have time?" She asked curiously and he nodded.

"Yeah, I did. I tried walking out through the backdoor, but they were everywhere." He murmured, hiding his face in his hands for a moment to calm himself down as the memories starred flowing back into his head. God, he hated to remember that. "I killed one of them and covered myself in his guts, because in the tv show I loved watching, it worked. Truth be told, in reality it didn't. They smelt through my facade and I almost ended up as their dinner." He said after a couple of minutes, shaking his head to the sides.