AGNES LEFAY
"Where were you when the world ended?"
That is the one question you will always be asked and one answer you will always remember when you have survived a zombie apocalypse.
Me?
Technically, I didn't survive.
I'd just graduated veterinary school and moved in to my brand new one bedroom apartment. To most this may not sound very exciting or special. But to me, it was the world and everything I had worked my ass off for.
Just for a minute, let me take you back and give you the footnote version of my life. Back before I can remember -nineteen years to be exact- At the tender age of two I was abandoned by my loving parents on the steps of Saint Marys church in Mysterio, Alabama. Wrapped in a grey angora blanket, a black Onyx locket and the clichéd take care of our precious daughter letter pinned to my onesie.
Now I know what you're thinking, that for the next sixteen years of my life I was raised by strict nuns who never allowed me freedom and disciplined my unruly and rebellious ways in the name of the big man himself.
Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Those heartless bitches, instead of seeing me as the abandoned toddler I was. Saw only the financial burden that came with raising a child and within the hour, had handed me over to the state where I spent the remaining years up until my eighteenth birthday in and out of foster and group homes. Or at least that's what my file said when I had broken into the office of one of the group homes I was in whilst in between foster families (or foster fuckers as I liked to call them).
According to my very thick file, I was an unruly child and teen that nobody could seem to control, but the reality was that nobody really cared enough to even try. I wasn't out of control, I was trying to take back control from the people that prayed on the weak and stole it from me. All I was to the majority of my foster fuckers was either a pay check or a punching bag and the few good ones that I was placed with I didn't trust and quickly out stayed my welcome, after all, they were all nice in the beginning while the care workers were there through the settling in period.
There was only one constant in my life and that was Val.
Val, was the local waitress in the only diner in Mysterio. She was another walking cliché that seemed to be the pattern with this town, it was one big cliché.
She was a burly woman in her sixties, with a giant grey beehive, electric blue eyeshadow and more shocking pink lipstick on her teeth than on her lips. Her voice gravelly from years of smoking, greeted every patron with a What do ya want attitude.
To me, however, she was my home, my family and my saviour.
The first time I ran away from one of the nightmare families I was placed with, I walked into Ed's Diner at ten years old hungry, dirty and bruised. I had taken a particularly vicious beating from my foster dad for using the last of the milk on my cereal without realising and he took his belt to my tiny frame to an almost state of unconsciousness. I've never been able to eat Fruit Loops since.
I struggled to sit on one of the high stools at the counter due to my battered behind and once I managed to get seated, the pain had me constantly adjusting my seat. Without a word, Val took my hand, ignoring my flinch of mistrust and led me to bathroom in the back to clean the blood and tears from my bruised and swollen face. Once I was cleaned she tucked me in to a booth and brought me a hot chocolate and a bowl of Ed's famous Clam Chowder which I ate with gusto. Which was surprising due to the split lip I was sporting.
She let me sit there just staring out of the window into the rain until closing and when she spun the open sign on the door to closed she joined me in the booth with a coffee and another hot chocolate for myself. She became a sounding board for my troubled life for the next eleven years.
From that day, every time I ran away, I only had one place I could or would go. She did apply to become my foster parent but was refused due to her age and her single status, which totally sucked balls. She was ten times the parent than the bastards they were putting me with!
Salvation came on the day of my eighteenth birthday, when I was finally free'd from the foster system. I collected my meagre belongings that were kept safe by the state (mainly my baby blanket and Onyx locket) and walked into Ed's Diner where I was given a job in the kitchens and the spare room in Val's quaint two bedroom house.
After a few months of saving for books and supplies, I finally had enough to begin classes at the local community college where I studied to become a veterinarian.
And that brings me back to where I am now. Twenty one. Freshly graduated, my new one bed apartment and an apprentice job to walk into come Monday morning at the local vets office.
Surveying my living room, cluttered with stacked boxes and second hand furniture donated by Val and a few of the regulars from the diner. There wasn't much, but it was everything I could possibly need. A slightly sagging and faded chequered brown sofa. An old television, missing the remote and kitchen essentials from the diner. Val, kindly let me take the bedroom set from her spare room, which consisted of a queen sized box spring, a tall set of drawers and a beside table. It had a vague musty smell and there were a few brown stains on the ceiling that I didn't want to think about too closely, but I was home and ready to begin my life as Val and I had been dreaming up on those nights in the diner.
There was one more box in Ed's old pinto downstairs, luckily I didn't have to return his car until Monday. I was totally exhausted from dragging my belongings up to the third and top floor and I didn't have the energy to drop it back at the diner across the far side of town and then have to walk the few miles back.
This box had all of my toiletries in and if it wasn't for the unrelenting urge to soak in that glorious claw foot tub that sold the apartment to me, I would just leave it exactly where it was. But just the thought of resting my aching bones in almost too hot water and an indulgence of bubbles had me moaning aloud. I could almost feel the slight sting of the water on my skin.
I set the water flowing, letting the rusty water run clear before fitting the plug. From my calculations, I had enough time to make it to the car and back with plenty time to pour a glass of wine and light a few candles.
Grabbing my keys, I headed out of the door and made my way down the stairs already dreaming about the forthcoming bubbles.
Once in the foyer, I ran my hand over five mail boxes attached to the wall near the double doors of the entrance as I passed. One was Mrs Penbrook's, a little old lady that lived in the only first floor apartment who had introduced herself to me from my very first visit to the building. There were two apartments on the second and third floor, but I had yet to meet the tenants from the other three apartments. From what Mrs Penbrook told me the three tenants are all good friends and are such nice boys who always helped with any odd job she needed doing.
Pushing out of the double doors on to the sidewalk, I inhaled the fresh, crisp September air. Smelling the garlic aroma from the little Italian take out place on the corner. My stomach growled from being ignored. I had skipped lunch, choosing to keep moving my things to get in the apartment as soon as I could. A take out menu had been pushed under my door that morning and I vowed to put in a supper order after my soak.
Remembering my running bath, I jumped from my day dream and in to action just as big fat rain drops began falling from the sky.
Running across the street to Ed's parked car. I popped the trunk and pulled my last box from the car. The scent of my pomegranate bath salts tickling my nose and giving me a renewed sense of urgency to get back upstairs.
Checking both ways for traffic I sprinted back across the road and in to the foyer just as the heavens opened and a torrential downpour began. Talk about lucky
Pushing the stairwell door open, I gave the stink eye to the stairs that I swore were trying to kill. I'm not athletic by no means but after spending the past three years on my feet at the diner, I'd have thought these stairs would have been no problem. But they just seemed steeper than normal stairs. Adjusting my box and puffing out a lungful of air, I began the mountainous climb to the summit.
Once at the top, I slipped through the gap I'd left in the doorway, pretty pleased with myself that I'd had the forethought to jam it open with a fire extinguisher. Heading across the hall to my apartment I balanced the box on my knee freeing my hands to fish around in my jeans pocket for my keys. "Gotchya!" I exclaimed as my fingers grasped the cold metal ring of my keys. I must have gotten a little too excited and jolted the precariously balanced box trapped between my knee and the wall and watched in slow motion as it toppled from its perch, descending to the floor and scattering its contents at my feet.
"Shit!" I cursed dropping to my knees to scoop up the discarded items.
Sitting back on my haunches, I watched in horror and mortification as a stray tampon rolled slowly to a stop in front of three pairs of black boots.
Refusing to look up, I kept my eyes trained on the treacherous tampon, cursing it to Hades for forcing such an awkward first introduction to what I assumed were my new male neighbours that were stood before me. I prayed to the big guy that they would take pity on me and just keep walking. But if you knew me at all, you'd know that if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.
Mr Middle Black boots crouched down scooping up the offending item and offered it up to me as if it was a pen I had asked to borrow and not a private feminine product.
"I think you dropped this?" a smooth, deep voice rumbled out sending a shiver down my spine.
Stealing myself a deep breath I forced my eyes upward expecting to make eye contact but instead I was eye level with a perfectly sculpted, smooth and slightly sun kissed naked chest!
"Holy pectoral muscles!" my mouth blurted out before I could engage my brain. My hand flew up to cover my mouth in the hope to shove my words back down my throat or at the very least stop more from escaping.
My eyes shot up to meet smouldering emerald green ones and a cocky smirk on full lips that even Kendal Jenner would be envious of.
"Yeah, sorry about that. We got caught in the downpour and took our wet shirts off in the stairwell" he apologised even though his face looked anything but sorry "We weren't aware that anyone had moved in to the apartment."
"I'm just moving in today" I managed to rasp out "that..." I pointed at the box that had betrayed me "was my last box"
Hold up! His words just came clearer to my lust addled brain. Did he just say that WE got caught in the downpour. My face shot up to the two equally topless and equally chiselled men flanking each of his sides. My cheeks instantly flamed and my breathing faltered. Well damn, would you look at that!
The guy on his left was the tallest of the three. With hair a dark ginger and designer stubble to match that wrapped around the biggest shit eating grin you have ever seen. He was thoroughly enjoying my awkward predicament.
The guy to his right, however, seemed to be enjoying the situation even less than I was. In fact. He seemed down right put out by my existence.
He was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome but with an edge of danger. Dark almost black hair, sharp clean shaven jaw and flawless olive skin. And even though the look of disdain and boredom on his face really pissed me off. His stance and aire really turned me on.
"Need any help?" Mr Helpful and handsome asked bringing my eyes back down to his as he ran his hand that was not holding out the tampon through his rain dampened shaggy brown hair. Speaking of damp...
"I'm wet" The words whispered past my lips. Mr Helpful raised a perfectly arched eyebrow as his red headed friend guffawed loudly.
"Man! She's forward and to the point" he laughed.
Breaking the spell of the eye candy in front of me I looked down to the ever growing puddle of water around my knees and followed it back to it's origin. The gap under my apartment door.
The tub!
Shooting to my feet, I startled Mr Helpful back on to his ass in to the puddle of water and that's when the realisation to my words showed on his glorious face.
The scattered items now forgotten, I grabbed my keys, shoved them in the lock and began to turn. As I did the building began to shake violently. What the hell?!
Bursting open the door, my eyes rapidly took in the floor expecting my entire apartment to be flooded but the floors were dry. Confusion twisting my face as I tried to figure out where the water had come from.
Gasps from behind me caused me to look back over my shoulder to the three hunks filling my doorway. Their mouths open in shock which built on my confusion. But they weren't looking at the floor as I had. Nope. They were looking up.
Turning back and tilting my head up to follow their gaze. My jaw fell open and I took in a huge ragged breath in awe of what I was seeing before me. The water wasn't covering the floor. It was hovering in a perfect sheet like a force field above our heads and rising higher and higher by the second as the shaking of the building intensified. Causing me to grab onto the wall to keep myself standing. But the shaking was the last thing on my mind. After all, there was a floating lake heading toward my ceiling.
Just as the water reached the roof, the shaking stopped and the water stilled. Instinctually my hand grabbed the Onyx necklace around my throat, which had become habit since the day I started wearing it three years ago.
"Oh, for fucks sake!" Were the last words that left my mouth as the roof of water gave way and came crashing down over my head as everything went black.
JACKSON CARTER
Rushing forward, I managed to get my hands under my new and beautiful neighbour that had me so intrigued before she hit the floor in a soggy heap.
What the hell had we just seen?! What the hell had just happened?!
One minute I was trying to turn on the charm and the next minute, the building was rocking on its foundations and water was floating. Fucking floating!
Laying her flat on the now wet hardwood floor. I knelt down beside her and wiped her sodden auburn hair back from her breath taking face. She was pale in the hallway except for that exquisite blush that had me firing on all cyclinders. But now her skin was nearly translucent. She looked like sleeping beauty. Her rosy lips puckered, slightly parted just begging to be kissed. But no air passed her lips.
Horror quickly filled me as the situation hit home. She wasn't breathing.
Frantically feeling for a pulse, I jabbed my fingers just under her chin and held my breath while I waited for that tell tale tap, tap, tapping against my finger tips. But it didn't come.
I immediately began chest compressions. My hands furiously pumping against her chest to bring that irresistible blush back to her cheeks.
I looked over at my two friends stood shocked still in the door way. When my eyes met Blake with what I'm sure was the most desolate expression he has ever seen on my face. He jumped in to action, dropped to his knees next to me as Conner pulled out his phone and dialled 911. I watched as he tilted back her head, pinched her nose and began giving her the kiss of life.
For a split second jealousy tore through me, but I quickly got myself in check when I reminded myself that he is filling her deprived lungs with sweet, sweet oxygen.
"Come on, Red" I pleaded. "Don't give up now"
After a few rounds of compressions, I re-checked her pulse. Still, nothing.
Resuming the compressions, my hands worked furiously and harder. I cringed when I heard a rib crack. But I knew that could be fixed. Death could not.
"They'll be here as soon as they can" Connor all but growled "Apparently there's been a major incident and all the emergancy services are stretched to the limit"
"Are you fucking serious?!" I screamed not at Connor but into the universe "Did you tell them that she's pretty much dead?!"
I choked on the last word and my compressions faultered slightly before I picked back up my previous pace.
"Of course I did, I'm not a fucking idiot Jay!" Connor was close to losing his shit.
"Then we'll take her to them" I proclaimed. Rising to my feet bringing her with me cradled to my chest.
A resigned sigh came from Connor as I tried to barge past him.
"Move!" I ordered
"They said to stay put. All the hospitals are locked down for protection" he looked so crest fallen. His words were devastating us both.
"Apparently, the military is involved"
My shoulders sagged in defeat. "What do I do?" I whispered despairingly.
Blake rested his weighty hand on my shoulder. A slight comfort in this shit storm around me.
"She's gone Jay" his hand squeezed tighter and tears fell from all three of us.
Turning and walking back into her tiny apartment. A lump formed in my throat and my gut twisted as I took in her belongings stacked against the back wall in boxes that will never be unpacked.
My aim was to lay her on her couch but once I saw how threadbare and soaked it was I turned and headed for the bedroom. She deserved better than that.
Kicking open the door, I strolled across the room and gently laid her on her small bed. But she just looked so tiny against the plush bedding.
She looked so cold and lonely. I pulled the Hearts and flowers comforter up and around her slight frame, tucking her in tight.
Leaning down I whispered in her ear. "I never even got your name" before placing a gentle kiss on her now cooling forehead and left the room and the apartment feeling utterly devasted.