ELPIDIOS: The Heir Must Survive - A Zombie Novel

CHAPTER 30: The Museum

"What do you have in mind DK?"

"I thought I saw something."

"What is?"

"I don't know yet."

"That's reassuring." Violet rolls her eyes so hard, I think she see the inside of her eyes. 

"Let's go have breakfast." I insists.

"NOW?"

"Let's go."

"WOW!! Did you just had a memory lost?  We barely survived a parade of zombies attack not even 10 minutes ago and the first thing you think right now is BREAKFAST?"

"Aren't you hungry?"

"No. I mean... What??" Violet starts to blink rapidly, I afraid she's going to see double. "What are you talking about?"

"We lost them, I'm sure." I glance over my shoulder. "I don't think they're going to find us."

"How confident are you?"

"Very."

I would never have expect the town will be so big until the 3-storey buildings neighbourhood becomes skyscrapers. I drive the Hummer slowly and calmly. The area looks worse than the other side, the buildings are more damage and glasses are everywhere on the street. The rustling sounds of the papers being blown by the winds company the empty town.

"This side is quiet too but not as eerie as before." Violet says while looking out of the window observing the empty streets and abandon buildings. She stares at the windows of the buildings, she saw movements and pulls my sleeve. She points at the window but nothing to be proven.

"What did you see?" I ask reaching my head out to look.

"I swear I saw something." She added.

"Okay, I believe you." I tuck in my head and turn to the road. I press the fuel and we leave the street. We enter into another empty street and look for a dinning or a groceries shop. We stop at a street and head into a diner restaurant at that block.

"Lets go in."

"I want eggs." Violet grabs a dozen of eggs out of the Hummer and bring it with her.

I stop as I step in the restaurant to see shadows creeping through the corner of the room. Violet asks my reason for blocking her way in but I didn't answer back. I observe the movements but nothing indicates danger towards us.

I stare as I move in the room. "Stay here." I say to Violet. She stands quietly at the edge of the door, hugging the eggs she carries.

"Do you see anything?" She whispers.

"I don't know. I thing I saw something." I frown.

I see the shadows move to the back of the room and headed to the kitchen department. I wait a bit longer for an attack from it. I can't see it clearly but I will not take a risk for both of us. I sneak my head through the kitchen door and check the inside. After checking, I move back into the front and nod for a clear sign to Violet.

"It's safe." I say. She gets inside quickly and sits on the chair facing the dinner. I get behind the counter and turn on the heater. "Well at least there's electricity." I comment. She smiles bitterly and keep looking behind the kitchen bar.

"I can assure you everything is fine." I say eventhough I'm not sure myself. I know nothing harmful is near us but I doubt that it will stay that way for a long time. I make myself a cup of tea and brew a jug of powder milk. Violet wait for the food to be ready. I heat the baked bean from the top kitchen counter and serve it to Violet when it's done.

I sit down behind the counter and fix my watch. The screen cracks and few pieces fell off. The needles are no longer moving, stopping at 3.15am. I take it off and put it to aside when I realise it's not going to be fix.

"When did you broke it?" Violet asks with her mouth fill with eggs and baked bean. She split some of her food when she tries to talk.

"Violet Edelweiss." I scolded as I wipe away the food on my face. She giggles softly and continue putting more food in her mouth.

"I don't know. It might be during one of the zombies attack we encounters." I shrug. I turn at her with a smile and take a sip of my tea. I see a pamphlet of an exhibition for 'A Discovery of The Ancient Egypt' at the National Museum. The pamphlet shown pictures of Egyptian artifacts from a thomb stone to the jewelries. One caught my eyes. It reminds me of something I saw in my dream when I was in Kemble's office. "I want to go here." I inform Violet. She looks at me and take the pamphlet from my hand.

"You want to check out the museum? At times like this? We are not coming here for fun you know." She argues. "I can't believe of all the places in this town, you choose to go to the museum." She sulks.

"You silly girl." I reply. I want to finish my meal as quickly as possible and headed to the museum.

"I can be a nerd anytime I want." I added.

"It's the end of the world you know."

"Every evolution, there's always a fall." I reply. So as we finish our breakfast, we headed back to the Hummer.

"Well..." She says.

"What?"

"It is the end of the world." She continues. She see living dead hanging around in a dining restaurant. She stares at them and hops in to the car. I turn to the zombies and observe them. They were slow and inactive unlike the others back in other side of the town. I get into the car and press the pedal and let the car drives away. She informs me about the zombies and I look at the mirror and see more of them getting out of the building.

"Don't worry. They are just attracted to flowers." I reply.

"That's not funny. What are we going to do?" she asks.

"Nothing. They are not eager to have us for breakfast." I check the mirror to see them again. They are not aggressive than the other zombies before. I turn into a street and drive a little faster.

I stop in front of the museum and get out of the driver seat. Violet begin to unbuckle her seatbealt and open the door but I pull her back into the vehicle. She looks at me with shock. "You are not coming with me." I say.

"WHAT?!!" Disbelieve of what she heard, she ask me why.

"There are more of them inside compared out here." I answer.

"NO THEY'RE NOT! They are not in the building, they were on the streets. On the streets DK." She argues. She grabs my sleeves tightly and refuses to let go.

"Get to the back." I order.

"Why?" Violet asks.

"Just go to the back." I yell. Violet quickly get to the back seat. I ask her to lie down and covers her with a blanket and hide her along with our bags and the fuel tanks. I slip out a gun under the covers and hand it to her. "Use this when things get out of hand. You'll be fine here. Your enemy is your fear."

"DK." She stops me. I look at her and smile. "Be save." She says.

I lean and kiss her forehead. "I promise I'll come back." I open the door and leave the vehicle. I fix the gun and place it on the leather case at my waist.

I take a deep breath as I start to walk up the stairs. The stairs were bloody and sticky. Pieces of skin and body parts scattered at the stairs. I remove some of the rotten body tissues off my boots and glide my shoe on the stairs to wipe it off. I continue to walk up the stairs and avoiding the body parts on the cements.

I take my steps slowly and calmly before reaching at the top of the stairs. When I arrived, the vibration in the air coming from the museum pierce in my respiration system. I gasp for fresh air and cover my face with a bandana. I feel the danger as I touch the ledge. Carefully, I lift the ledge up and open the entrance door.

I enter the museum as danger awaits and walks through the hallway. From the Hummer, Violet places the gun under the seat and covers herself with the equipments that she found in the vehicle. She hides and waits silently.