This Would Be Paradise (Book 1)-A Zombie Novel

Chapter 10

"But you're fine," She stated again.

My hand flew up to rest on my side where my scratch wound was still healing.

"I could have been one of those things," I said quietly.

I'm sure the others wouldn't be too keen on finding out I had been attacked before.

"You're not though. We saw how fast it turned Mike and all those other people. If you had been infected you would have turned by now," Zoe pointed out.

I wasn't sure how convinced I was of Zoe's words but I nodded and bent down to gather up the supplies I had dropped. Maybe I was immune or maybe a scratch didn't work the same as a bite; if that was the case then at least we wouldn't have to worry about being scratched in the future. The fact that the scratches were healing like a normal cut would, made me feel relieved but how would other people react? The last thing we needed was for people to go around killing each other thinking others were going to turn when they might not.

Once Zoe and I had finished stuffing all the supplies back into the overflowing baskets, we headed back to the front doors. As we walked, I gave one last look to the fallen infected on the floor, content with the fact that he was no longer moving. At the entrance Darren was handing out plastic grocery bags and we started to stuff our "borrowed" supplies into them. Taylor propped a mesh bag against the wall.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A tent. I'm assuming we all can't fit into a huntin' cabin," Taylor said, adding the other camping gear and sleeping bags to the pile that he had found in the supermarket.

"Good idea," Ethan said, "There are two small bedrooms and a pullout couch but it'll be crammed."

"We're going to need more supplies like gas stoves and other gear but I don't think we have the time right now," John added in.

"Once we get settled, we can make a run back in to town," Ethan said, hauling all his bags out the doors.

We dumped all the bags into the Mazda's trunk and the back of the truck.

"We need some bungee cables or something to hold all this down," Zoe said, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

The sun was right above us, glaring down on the parking lot pavement. Zoe and I were too Canadian for this southern heat. I could already feel the sunburn on the top of my head. I had no idea how they could put up with all this heat without locking themselves in an air-conditioned room. Crazy southerners.

"Ok, well I saw some in the back of the store with the campin' gear," Taylor said, "I'll head back in and get some."

He took off back into the store before anyone could answer and John followed in after him.

"Where are they goin'?" Chloe asked, as she stepped out of the truck.

"Just ran to grab some ties for the back of the truck," Ethan said, tossing the last of the bags into the truck bed.

"Did ya get anything good?" Chloe asked.

"Define good," Darren smirked.

I fished my arm over the truck bed and rummaged through my bags looking for the items I had grabbed on impulse. Once my fingers found them, I pulled them out and handed the pieces to Chloe not realizing they were all staring at me. Her eyes lit up when I handed her the Scooby-Doo mystery books I had spotted at the pharmacy waiting area.

"Thank you!" She squealed and launched herself at me.

"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome," I said slightly embarrassed.

She took the books and skipped over to the passenger seat to flip through them.

"Awww," Zoe smirked at me and I flipped her the bird.

"Thanks for that," Ethan said, flashing me an appreciative smile.

"Yeah well it wasn't completely unselfish. I just didn't want to listen to are we there yet? the whole way," I grinned.

"Fair enough," Ethan grinned back.

We just finished tossing in the last bag when Taylor and John re-emerged from the grocery store with the bungee cables in hand. John had a red empty gas canister in both hands and tossed them into the back of their car.  

"So are the gas pumps even working?" Zoe asked as we climbed back into the truck.

"Only one way to find out," Ethan said.

The truck pulled up to pump number one while the Mazda took pump number three. We all hoped back out of the truck, except for Chloe who was engrossed in her books. Ethan lifted up the nozzle and the machine sprung to life. He grinned triumphantly as he placed the nozzle in the gas cap opening of the truck. Three canisters later, we had a good amount of gas that would hopefully last us a while.

"Good thing we don't have to pay for this, it would have been more than the guns," Darren grinned.

"So now do we just head out to your cabin and wait?" I asked, propping myself up against the side of the truck.

"Wait for what exactly?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know, order to be restored. The infected to be cured," I listed off, "What I meant was, what's the plan?"

Ethan raked his fingers through his hair and glanced briefly at Chloe before answering,

"There is no plan. Getting to the cabin was the plan."

"Maybe the military will start taking over," Zoe said hopefully.

"That's not necessarily a good thing," Darren muttered.

"It's better than chaos," Ethan said.

Darren didn't answer but I could tell he wasn't going to be convinced.

"Why isn't the military here yet anyways?" I asked.

"Too much ground to cover," John said as they approached us.

"There's got to be safe zones set up or something," Zoe said.

"Probably somewhere, just not here," Ethan sighed.

"Although it would probably end up just like the school did," I said.

"Not necessarily, the military have trainin' and fire power plus they would be more organized than a bunch of volunteers trying to run an emergency shelter," Ethan said back.

"I have an old CB radio I grabbed on the way out," John said, "When we get to your cabin, we can fire it up and see if we hear anythin'."

"Sounds like a plan," Ethan nodded relaxing at bit at John's words.

"So how far is your cabin from here?" Taylor asked.

Ethan reached into the truck cab and pulled out the map. We followed him to the hood of the truck and he spread it out.

"The cabin is here," Ethan said pointing to the circled spot on the map, "And we are here."

"Hmm looks about three hours or so, depending if we run into anythin' or not," John said eyeing the trail Ethan made with his finger.

How he could tell that from looking at a map is beyond me. I needed Google maps for that.