Locked Away [10k Z Nation]

24

"Cody! Catch me!" She giggled, we were running in the backyard. I was running in slow motion, trying in vain to catch her. Our surroundings were peaceful but I was uneasy. The air felt like pudding, and I couldn't move fast enough.

"Kailey- slow down!" I yelled, but she couldn't hear me.

Her pretty brown hair was billowing out behind her and she was screaming with glee. The sun shined from behind a group of trees and cast the light beautifully around us. The grass was fresh with dew. The amazing surroundings only made me feel worse. I needed to keep her close, she didn't know what she was doing.

She stumbled suddenly, and fell to the ground.

"Kailey!" I was rooted to the ground, and our surroundings started to grow dimmer. A fog crept across the grass and the sky was grey.

She stood up slowly, and turned around to face me. It was no longer Kailey. It ran at me, it's jaws open and blood shooting from it's eyes, it's nose, everywhere.

Kailey was gone.

I jolted up in bed, drenched in sweat. I stupidly searched the room with my eyes, looking for anything that seemed familiar, unaware of my surroundings. Then I dimly remembered I was spending the night the bedroom that I stayed in the first night we stayed here. The group had convinced me to stay one more night and promised me we would leave in the morning.

I climbed out of the hot bed, shook my legs out and stretched my back. I pulled on my boots, the last pair of shoes I had. In fact, I had lost most of my clothes along this journey. It made sense, and I realize I had been kind of dumb to think that I could actually pack a bag for the zombie apocalypse.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and opened the door, and stepped into the hallway. Outside the door, slumped up against the hall, was a deeply sleeping 10k. My heart immediately swelled at the sight, and I was hit with the memory of me socking him in the face. I felt guilt wash over me and I knew that I was in the wrong. I had allowed myself to get my hopes up, I thought i was going to see Kailey again. I needed to drink.

I jogged down the stairs and into the lobby of this little apartment building. It seemed unlikely that there would be a bar in this little shelter, but if there was, I was gonna find it.

The lobby was abandoned aside from one man in the corner reading- I assumed- an out of date paper. I padded around the lobby and sat down on one of the rustic armchairs with frustration. I was torn. On one hand I wanted to get out of this dingy building and on the other, I was too scared and unsure to actually go anywhere else.

"Looking for something?" A voice drawled from the other side of the room

My head shot up and I located Murphy in the corner of the room, reading the paper. It had felt so long since the last time I had seen him, and to be honest I had totally forgotten about him.

"What are you doing here?" I accused

"It's public property, thanks to your Daddy." He stood from the chair and began to walk towards me, "Don't come near me." I snapped, "Excuse me?" He lifted an eyebrow and smirked.

"I don't trust you." I stated simply, trying to draw myself up and appear more menacing than I actually was.

"I feel like we've done this before." He quipped and sat down on a couch across from me.

"That's because we probably have." he folded the paper under his arm. I almost wanted to laugh. We looked so normal here, in the room, just talking. I would have almost believed it if he didn't look so terrible. As the time went on, he just kept looking worse. I'm pretty sure his eyes were starting to change color, and his skin looked like it was on the verge of falling off. The people here must think he's part Z, and I was starting to agree.