Five
Mark and I had been surviving together in the dorm for a week when I finally decided that his adventures weren't all that bad. We decided to go out again, but not for anything specific. We wanted to get some more practice with our new weapons. What better way to practice than to apply our skills to real life?
"I don't think there's enough of the things on campus anymore. So, what other places should we clear out?" Mark asked.
"There's a park nearby. That could be fun. Other than that, we could clear out some more stores," I suggested.
I showered first in the morning, then Mark took his turn. There was a community bathroom on our floor of the dorm, so it wasn't as if we had to take turns in the bathroom. But it felt too awkward to be showering in there at the same time, even if we each took shower stalls on separate ends of the room.
While Mark was in the bathroom, I did my usual routine of blowdrying my long, light-brown hair into its normal natural waves and getting dressed. I chose some dark jeans, a dark gray v-neck, and my black and red flannel. When Mark returned to the room, he was wearing almost the same outfit - jeans and his new red and black flannel.
"You've got to be kidding me," I grumbled when we looked at each other and noticed our matching clothes.
"What? I took this to the bathroom with me. I picked out my outfit before you did!"
"Well, I didn't notice what clothes you had. There's no way I'm going somewhere in the same clothes as you," I retorted.
"Oh, come on! Nobody's around except for zombies who are going to die for the second and last time once we get near them. You don't have to be embarrassed about it," he assured me. It didn't make me feel any better about the situation, but I didn't feel like changing clothes and neither did he. I just slipped on my leather jacket and black combat boots and once we each had all of our chosen weapons on our backs and in our belts, we left the building. As we got out to the car, Mark stole the keys out of my hand.
"What the hell?" He just smiled.
"I want to drive this time."
"I know the area better than you," I reminded him.
"Great, you can tell me where to turn, then." He proceeded to get into the driver's seat, and I couldn't believe him. We managed to get our hands on MY dream car and suddenly he decides it's his? I mean, it wasn't as if either of us actually paid for and owned it, but still. I knew I had to just climb into the passenger seat and let him drive, though. He was as stubborn as I was sometimes.
"You better be careful with Jeff," I warned him as I put on my seatbelt.
"You're naming the car Jeff? Aren't cars supposed to have girl names?"
"Screw gender roles, I think this Jeep looks like a Jeff, plus who doesn't like alliteration? Jeff the Jeep. It's best not to argue with me about it." He just shook his head at me as he turned the key and the engine came to life. I felt nervous letting him drive, kind of like a parent in the car with their 16-year-old new driver. We survived, though, and there weren't any scratches on Jeff by the time we arrived at the park I navigated us to.
The park was absolutely full of zombies. The sad thing was that a lot of them were kids. Creepy, gross, undead little kids. And even though they were coming at us so they could infect or kill us, I still couldn't bring myself to kill them. For some reason, the parents and other adults were no problem. I shot them and threw knives at them with ease. But with only children left, I was struggling.
"Taylor..." Mark said as a group of them bounded towards me. I had my gun out but I had no intention of shooting. In fact, I didn't want to accidentally shoot them, so I started to put it back into its holster.
"I can't, Mark. I was going to school to become an elementary school teacher." I had a weak spot when it came to kids.
"Well, at least get away from them! If you're not going to get rid of them, then we need to at least get out of here before they catch up to us." I knew he was right. So we headed back to the car and decided to move on.
"I didn't see you shooting any of the kids either," I said.
"Yeah, I like kids. I get why you couldn't hurt them." Good. That was comforting to hear. It gave me a good impression of Mark, and somehow it made me feel safer.
Mark and I moved on to new zombie infested places. We went downtown, next. As we got out of the car, we felt cocky, as if we could take on absolutely anything. We were smiling and laughing, even. But as soon as we went around the first corner of the area and we saw how many of the infected were there, our mouths practically dropped.
There were probably fifty zombies roaming around in just the one downtown intersection that we were at. They all were attempting to feed on just a few bodies, and it definitely wasn't enough for all of them. As soon as they saw us, we would be in huge trouble if we weren't careful. Luckily, we at least shut up when we rounded the corner. Just to be safe, we hid behind the wall of a building for a minute to figure out a plan of action.
"So, how exactly are we going to do this?" I wondered.
"I think it's best if we both use our machine guns. If there are that many zom-zoms here, there's probably just as many around every other corner. We better use something that can fire a lot of bullets and take a lot of the things out really fast, right? Just make sure you have your ammo ready to reload. And you have your other gun on your belt and your knives, so be ready to use backup if you run out of something or if we get it down to just a few of them." I nodded in agreement.
*Play the song in the multimedia section while you read this part!*
We made sure we were ready to go and then we left our cover. Even though we weren't being purposefully loud or obvious, it didn't take long for the zombies to notice us. One saw us and came towards us and the rest of them quickly followed. Mark and I got our guns ready and began firing, easily taking out zombie after zombie.
We didn't get a break, though. Now every infected being in the area knew we were there, and it didn't take long for them to find us and attack. Mark and I ran as we took them out with our guns, causing thick, black blood to splatter everywhere. We both reloaded as fast as we could and continued to move around while we did so to keep a safe distance between us and our enemies. As we moved throughout the streets, it felt like the hordes of the undead were never ending. We were using up a lot of ammo and although we had more guns and other weapons, I was beginning to wonder if this was actually a terrible, terrible idea.
"Jesus, they just keep coming!" I hollered, leaping to the side as one of the nasty things jumped at me from behind a beat-up car.
"We can handle it. And if not, we'll just book it to the Jeep!" Mark shouted back. His machine gun was out of ammo so he switched to another gun. It wasn't long afterwards that I also had to switch weapons. I moved on to my shotgun and we kept going. We were so overpowered that I even ran out of ammo for that gun.
"How are you doing on ammo?" I wondered, pulling a katana out of it's place in my belt.
"Good - I still have a couple more guns to go through once I run out of ammo for this one. You're out?"
"Yeah, I guess I didn't bring as much as I should have," I confirmed, slicing the head off of a zombie as I spoke. There were still plenty to kill, but it seemed as if we had gotten to the last wave of them.
"Are you good, or should we start moving back towards the car?" Mark questioned me. I sliced up three more zombies as he talked.
"I think I'm good," I decided.
We kept going until there were only about five of the damned creatures left. Before Mark could reload his gun, I had already taken care of them with my throwing knives. He looked at me in awe as he lowered his weapon.
"You're quite the badass," he laughed.
"I guess you are too," I grinned.
"I'm really good with guns and you're really good with knives and swords. We make a pretty good team," he realized, crossing his arms and leaning up against a building to survey the damage. There were tons of bodies everywhere, littering the downtown area. I pulled my throwing knives out of the bodies of the last few I had defeated while Mark slid down to the ground and sat against the wall. I joined him once I had my weapons back. I pulled two water bottles out of my bag and handed one to him. He graciously accepted it and took a long swig from it. I took a smaller drink from mine and then began to clean off the knives and katana with a hand towel that I had in my bag.
"What else do you have in that bag of yours? Got any food?"
"A couple granola bars. Want one?"
"Nah, I can wait until we get back. I was just wondering. It seems like you thought of everything."
We both just sat there for a good fifteen minutes, catching our breaths and talking about how awesome it was that the two of us alone had taken out so many enemies. It really was badass. It felt good to be able to do that. It made me feel like we really would make it through this apocalypse, even if we did run into trouble later on. Especially if we got more practice fighting in future adventures - that would make us even better and stronger.
"Well, we should probably head back before any more zom-zoms find us," Mark suggested as he stood up.
"Yeah, you're right. But I have one request before we go." I pulled a camera out of my bag. It was a bright red Polaroid - the kind that printed out pictures instantly.
"You want to have a photoshoot?" There was confusion in Mark's voice as he questioned me.
"This was a birthday gift from Sam. I never really got around to using it before she left. I thought it could get some use. Plus, if you're going to be my roommate for a while, I might as well have a picture or two with you," I explained.
"Alright, sure. But first, let me take a selfie!" He took the camera out of my hands and snapped a picture of himself. That was the second time he had snatched something from me that day.
"Hey, be careful with that thing! And let me be in the picture this time!" I scolded him. We took a picture together and as it came out of the camera, we saw ourselves with the scene of the apocalypse behind us.
"It looks like we're in a movie or something. Maybe we should pose. Go over by that building and take your katana back out," he directed. I chuckled at first, until I realized he was being serious. We both took a couple pictures of each other, posing with our weapons. Why not make the best of the crappy situation we were living in? The pictures actually turned out really cool, and I knew exactly where I was going to display them.
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"I made it onto the wall?" Mark seemed surprised when he saw me putting our new pictures onto the wall my bed was pushed up against. It was already decorated with about forty or fifty pictures of myself with my family and my closest friends. The wall wasn't completely covered though - in fact, there was plenty of room to add onto the ends of the rows and new ones could be made on top of or below the existing ones.
"Yeah, why not?" Mark sat down his bowl of soup and sat down on my bed to look at the photos as I put them up.
"So, this was your life before everything went to shit?" I nodded, sitting down beside him after the last new picture was up. I looked at the photos with him. Some were from high school - group pictures at football games, school dances, and graduation. Others were from my time in college with new friends that I had made. There were old pictures of me and my family members and newer ones as well. And now there were some of Mark and I, the newest addition to my friend group.
"It seems like it was fun," he commented.
"It was. And I guess things aren't completely terrible now." Mark sent a funny look my way before I continued. "Well, they are, but it's a little more bearable now that I'm not totally alone."
"Aren't you glad you didn't shoot me when I first showed up here?" he pestered me, a smug look on his face.
"Sure," I answered sarcastically, although it was true (when he wasn't annoying or sassing me). But in all seriousness, a lot had been accomplished in just a week. Ever since Mark had arrived, life had been happier and more exciting. We now had a car, more clothes, entertainment, necessities, and weapons. We both had more fighting experience now, and neither of us were that lonely anymore. If he hadn't shown up, I'd still be in the same hopeless position I had been in before, and I probably wouldn't have been brave enough to do half the things I had done with him already. Someday I'd properly thank him for that. But for the time being, it felt like a good idea to save the sappy stuff for later and maintain my "badass" reputation that I had after fighting off the zombies downtown.
Hey guys, I hope you liked the new chapter (and the song choice for it)! I'm going to try to incorporate a lot of music into this story - I actually have a whole list of songs to add to future chapters. Anyways, please vote for this part to let me know that you liked it (if you did) and I'd love for you to leave me some comments as well. Thanks for reading :)