Chapter 14: Reanimation
The sun was burning; raging against my skin. It was so hot I felt like I was about explode up and into a ball of fire. I had been working for hours already and there was still so much more work to be done. I needed a break though as I would surely get heatstroke if I continued for much longer. I had been burning bodies of dead-ones since midday and it was almost three o’clock now. I was hungry and thirsty, meaning something had to be done about this.
Andrea was still there by Amy’s side, Lola accompanying her every now and then along with Dale who was almost a father figure to the Andrea and Lola. I spotted Shane sitting in the shade of the trees and the very edge of the forest, I of course deciding to join him. I kicked up dirt as I sluggishly dragged my sore feet along the sun-heated ground, the shade giving off immense relief as I bathed within it, taking a seat on my butt next to Shane and leaning backwards against the same, fat tree he was.
“Mind if I join you?” I asked, wiping the sweat from my brows.
“You right ahead misses.” Smirked Shane as he tilted his head back onto the tree, “can I ask you a little something?”
“Sure.” I stifled, as Shane subconsciously passed me his drink bottle which was filled with water.
“What’s happening with us?”
“I was actually going to ask you the same question.” I mumbled, sitting up straight as I took a sip from the bottle before relaxing back into the tree.
He laughed at my reply, then ruffling his dark brown hair, “well that makes things a whole lot easier, doesn’t it?”
I nodded sarcastically before replying, “I told you I’d fallen for you, so you know how I feel about you…”
“And I tried to kiss you without your go-ahead… so you know how I feel about you….”
“Well if we feel like that about each other…” I trailed off, realising this conversation was getting awkward without the slightest sense being made out of it.
“Okay, well, I think it’s pretty clear that we both want to be together…” continued Shane, finishing my sentence, “so question is-”
“I don’t think there needs to be any further discussion this actually.” I smiled, handing Shane his bottle back, “I like you, you like me and that’s that.”
“So, does that mean we’re… I dunno… together?”
“I guess it does.” I grinned, leaning on him and putting my head on his shoulder as the cool breeze cooled my sweaty face.
“Bye bye awkward talk, hello summer-fling.” Chuckled Shane, putting his arm around me.
“I reckon the two of us will make it for much longer than just the summer.”
“Let’s go see what the others are doing, hey?” he suggested, getting up before helping me onto my feet. I nodded and we left back off to see Rick and Lori chatting calmly by the extinguished fire-pit.
I sat down by them beside Shane and looked out to see Andrea and Amy still side by side, but this time something was different. Andrea was talking to her, patting her sister’s face and mumbling words unclear from this distance. But that wasn’t the only thing that was strange about the whole situation. I saw that instead of the two of Andrea’s hands moving, there were another two into the mix but they couldn’t belong to Lola and Dale seeing as neither of them were actually there. No, the extra pair of moving arms belonged to Amy. She had been reanimated. Amy’s dead arms moved in a jerky manor as though the thing that was once innocent Amy wasn’t quite sure how to use them. Finally, dead-one Amy had figured out how to use her arms and brought them up to Andrea’s head, wrapping its fingers into her hair and seemingly pulling herself up that way.
I nudged Shane to let him know about Andrea and the undead Amy, “Look.” I whispered, pointing over at the girl and thing.
Shane stood up from his seated position, Rick following his lead. The two of them felt for their guns in their pockets and turned the safety off from the both of them. I could hear dead-one Amy’s feint growling as she pulled herself up using Andrea’s hair to hold onto her, her face nearing Andrea’s neck as the first strike of hunger since the reanimation set in. Andrea held her face back as she continued to talk to her undead sister, Amy getting impatient over the fact that her lunch was right there in front of her but she couldn’t quite get to it. Amy’s snarling intensified as she drew ever so closer to Andrea. This behaviour from not only Andrea but her dead-one of a sister was freaking me out as I withdrew my own handgun and began to walk quickly over to Andrea.
“Stay back!” yelled Shane.
“I got this!” I called as I began to jog.
As I came closer, Amy was growling like crazy, Andrea bringing her own silver gun out of her pocket and holding it to her sister’s head.
“I love you.” She whimpered before pulling the trigger and sending chunks of Amy’s cranial mass around the place. I stepped back in shock of what had just happened, Amy’s body falling lifelessly back down to the ground as Andrea stayed put.
“I told you to stay back, that could have ended badly.” Said Shane as he ran up to me.
“And I told you that I got it.” I replied, my hands making their way to my hips automatically, “you’ve got to start trusting me Shane. I’m capable of more than you think.”
It was getting later in the afternoon now, meaning the temperature had gone down and the sun wasn’t as horribly harsh. I needed to do something now as I was tired of being lazy for the past hour I’d had off from work. Shane and Rick were busy on the lookout digging graves for Amy and others from the group, the two of them having that task to themselves. The bodies still needed to be brought up there, so I offered to drive the bodies in a pick-up truck that had seven deceased bodies in it to the lookout for burying.
I parked the truck and got out of it, seeing Rick and Shane finishing off what appeared to be the last grave required. I walked over to the two men to see the work in progress.
“Great work guys, they look perfect.” I said, giving the both of them rough pats on the back in a joking manner.
“Thank you ma’am.” Chuckled Shane, tossing the shovel onto the floor and wiping sweat from his fore head as Rick finished off the last few digs that were needed for the grave.
“Here, I brought you two these.” I said, giving each of the men a juicebox, one apple and one orange.
“Thank you.” Smiled Shane, giving me a small kiss on the cheek as Rick raised his eyebrow at us.
“I didn’t know you two were together.” Smirked Rick as he poked the straw of his apple juicebox in, taking a sip of the cool and refreshing liquid.
“It’s extremely recent.” I replied casually, leaning against the pickup truck.
“And by recent, I guess it was unofficial yesterday evening and official two hours ago.” Laughed Shane as he sipped on his orange juice.
I looked behind me to see the rest of the group trailing towards the lookout, Daryl quicker than the rest of the bunch as he strode in. He walked edgily up to Shane, Rick and I before looking over to the seven occupied body bags on the pickup truck.
“I still think it’s a mistake not burning all these bodies, it’s what we’d said we’d do. Burn ‘em all, wasn’t that the idea?” he asked, standing next to me.
“At first.” Replied Rick.
“The chinaman gets all emotional-” continued Daryl before I cut him off.
“He’s Korean.” I smirked.
“Whatever.” He said, rolling his eyes, “Just because Glenn said that it’s not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell’s in charge, what the rules are.”
“There are no rules.” Responded Rick, picking up the shovel again and placing it on the roof of the pickup truck.
“That’s a problem.” Chimed in Lori as she walked up to the three of us, “we haven’t had one minute to hold on to anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It’s what people do.”
“Who do we bury first?” I asked, looking at Shane and then to Andrea who joined us.
“Amy.” She replied solemnly.
Andrea strolled over to the pickup truck and pulled Amy’s body out of it as gently as she could.
“Need any help?” asked Lola as she wandered up to Andrea.
“Yes please.” She sulked, “you were her best friend, she’d appreciate it.”
Lola nodded and lifted her feet from the ground as Andrea held the upper part of her body. The two girls pulled it silently across and over to the grave, Andrea stepping backwards into the grave so that they could slide Amy in gently, not dump her like a piece of garbage. Lola lowered Amy’s legs into the grave and nudged her upwards a little so she’d fit perfectly. Andrea clambered out of the grave and walked over to stand by Lola’s side.
As the funeral proceeded, a select few people said some words for Amy, some of those people being Andrea, Dale and of course Lola. The rest of us just got teary eyed at the mention of her name, not wanting to face the situation any longer. The burial continued until all the bodies were underground and laid to rest, the funeral procession ending forty minutes after it had begun. After this event, we all headed back to base to rest up after what was quite a long day full of hard work and persistence.
RICK’S POV
As soon as we had all arrived back at camp, Lori and I decided to check up on Carol who was currently with Jim in the RV. Carol had stayed behind for the funeral, not wanting to say a word for her monstrosity of a husband or see Amy’s lifeless body ever again. I entered the RV with Lori following close behind me. As soon as we got in, I saw Jim lying shirtless on one of the two beds in the RV, his forehead drenched with sweat and his flesh getting paler with every passing hour.
“You need anything?” asked Lori, her chocolate brown hair frizzy from the heat of the day.
“Uh… Uh, water.” Breathed Jim, “I could use some more water.”
“I’ll get some. Carol, you help me.” Said Lori in her soft and comforting voice, extending her hand out to Carol who took a hold of it as they exited the RV.
I took this as an opportunity to move in closer to Jim, sitting beside him on the opposing bed and holding my own hands as I looked at his weak body.
He gave me a sketchy look before shuffling in his place, “did you save a grave for me?”
I hesitated before answering him, “nobody wants that.”
“It’s not about what you want.” Replied Jim, “That uhh… that sound you hear, that’s God laughing while you make plans.”
I gave him a weak smile, as I was able to see that despite Jim being on his deathbed, he still had a funny bone left in him that wasn’t made of glass.
“What I want, Jim, if… if God allows, is to get you some help.”
Jim groaned and coughed in his bed, looking as though he was about to spew. I grabbed the bucket on his bedside table and held it up to him as he vomited up into it, spluttering about like crazy.
“Watch the mangroves.” Said Jim, his words not making any more sense as they went on, “Their roots will gouge the whole boat.”
Whatever sickness he had was making him delirious and talk nonsense.
“You know that, right?” he continued, staring intently at me. “Amy is there, swimming.”
I made sure not look judgmentally at him; for I wasn’t judging him, I was merely scared for him. Jim was a good person and it hurt to see him going mad like this.
“You’ll watch the boat, right?” asked Jim, “you said you would.”
“I’ll watch the boat.” I nodded, “don’t worry.”
“Okay.” Muttered Jim.
I rubbed my hands over my face as I realised what this disease was doing to him. It was upsetting me.
ZELDA’S POV
I was currently sitting on the steps leading up to the RV beside Lori, the two of us silent as we looked at the kids playing not too far up ahead in front of us. Shane disturbed our vision by coming into it, kneeling down in front of the two of us.
“Lori, you’re Rick’s wife.” Said Shane.
“Well spotted.” She smirked.
“I need you to help talk some sense into Rick.”
Lori rolled her eyes and left her spot next to me, getting up and walking off before Shane stopped her in her tracks.
“Look, this CDC thing… Lori, it’s a mistake.” Spoke Shane, “so you’re backing him?”
“What else would I do? He’s my husband.” Said Lori.
“Look, it may be time for you to play the dutiful wife, but you can’t tell me that fixing your marriage is worth putting lives at risk.”
“Folks around here can make up their minds without bringing my marriage into it.” Retorted Lori, “it’s a habit you need to break.”
“I guess I’ll just add it to the list of habits I’m breaking, whether I like it or not.”
I heard footsteps making their way out of the RV and down the empty bit of steps behind me, Rick showing up out of the vehicle.
“What habits?” he asked.
“Just talking about my need for a plan, man.” Replied Shane, “so what is it, are we leaving or not? Maybe y’all just want to stay here. We could hang some more tin cans.”
“We can’t stay here. We both know that.” Said Rick.
“I was just telling Shane that I think we should trust your gut.” Said Lori, combing her slender hands through her messy hair.
Shane hung his head before looking over at me, “are you with me Zelda?”
“I-” I started, but wasn’t sure what to say, “Fort Benning seems a lot more secure… but the CDC is so much closer.”
Shane nodded his head in silence before talking again, “let’s go do our sweep.”
Rick agreed and the two of them went off and into the forest on what they liked to call Walker-watch.
During the time that they were out, I myself along with the rest of the people in our camp were setting up for dinner yet again, except for Andrea who looked as though she were sleeping, leaning on Lola’s shoulder. I had a feeling that Lola and Andrea would be brought closer together after Amy’s death. I also had a feeling that this would benefit both women as they both needed someone familiar to the both of them, Amy being the perfect bonding tool.
Jim didn’t appear to be getting any better, in fact, he was getting worse all locked up in that RV. He needed the fresh air, or so I believed. Fresh air was always what I needed when I had a cold, I didn’t see how the breeze could do any harm to Jim. And besides, what if he turned in the RV? Then we’d get one hell of a surprise when we pile back into it.
As soon as Shane and Rick were back from watch, it looked like Shane had some sort of announcement to make. I was assuming that this would have to do with where we would move onto next.
“I’ve uh…” started Shane, crouching down beside Carl and myself, “I’ve been thinking about Rick’s plan. Look, there are no… there are no guarantees either way, I’ll be the first one to admit that, but I’ve known this man a long time and I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is that we need to stick together. So… those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning, okay?”
Shane then took a seat beside me and gave Rick an appreciative nod before wrapping his arm around me as we started on our final dinner here.