No Time To Bleed

Throughout the trip, the highway became less of our defense and more of a hazard.

Cece had warned us of the dangers ahead, saying that zombies would most likely be infesting the areas ahead. We decided to pull off the highway and drive off road for a while. The exit leading off the exit lead to a town called Fairfax, population 3, 850.

Tumbleweeds and dry breezes moved by.

The town was a mix of old and new, mashing together. Skyscrapers near the places center and old fashioned buildings fastened all around. Parks and swing sets were oil empty. The sewage vents leaked brown stew as well. Store lights blinked and flickered.

Eli saw the park and began shrieking.

“Come on! Come on! We gotta go to the park!” he shouted. “I wanna go on the swings!”

Everyone turned to Clarissa.

“It might be good for my baby. Have some fun.” Aliah patted her stomach.

Alex laughed and Clarissa seemed to be scanning over all the decisions in her mind.

“Come on, we need some fun. Clarissa, it’s worth a try. And if anything goes wrong, we dive back into this van.”

“Does anyone wanna stay?” Clarissa asked.

No one denied.

So we parked near the rusting iron fences of the park and stepped out into the tan grass. A still silence stalked into the air and I held the regular comfort of the bat in my hands. Eli and his little legs went full speed to the swings and Cece followed to give him regular pushes. I took a walk around the park’s perimeter and ended up setting near the edge of a sandbox.

“It’s all sorta creepy isn’t it?” Alex muttered.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. “What the hell, Alex?!”

“Um, sorry? Are you okay? I didn’t mean to…” His voice drifted, seeing that I was already ignoring him. “Are you mad at me?”

I snorted. “Mad? Just confused. Really confused.”

Alex plunked down stiffly next to me, as if his joints were against his own decisions. “Confused about what?”

“Why this whole thing is happening? I mean, it doesn’t really make any sense wanting to create an anti aging serum. Why?”

He seemed to speculate at the question under my gaze.

“I think the answer is old people.”

“Old people?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I mean, people have been dying on this Earth for what is it? Billions of years and eventually, people want to beat the great unknown. Immortality.”

That just scared me. “But, why do people want that? Why would anyone want to live forever?”

It all disgusted me.

“People fear death more than life.” He said.

I sighed. “Do you?”

We both watched Eli giggle and swing his legs as Cece pushed him on the swing. Aliah was two swings away from them, sunlight dripping down in the near afternoon.

“I think I do. I don’t think I’d ever wanna die. Especially like people these days. Getting their insides chomped out or even a scratch. I’d never wanna be unrecognizable.” His voice misted away. “Like my dad or William.”

We sat so close, both of our lungs breathing and heart pulsating.

“What’s wrong with your dad?” he asked.

Something wet seemed to be choking his voice, something that made me wanna answer for once.

“He lied a lot and I tried to believe in him.” I exhaled. “But I just ended up ripping apart family. I had to leave.”

“I’m sorry that happened.”

I chuckled. “I’m not. Even though things seem to be in the crapper right now, at least we’re doing something. I couldn’t even imagine things back at home if I’d stayed. I’d be…”

My eyes went shut. I just wanted to hold in the last few visible seconds of this day.

“You’d be what?” he asked.

I didn’t dare look at him. “I guess I’d be dead. I would’ve found a way out one way or the other.”

I felt his eyes on me, boring holes into my soul.

“You’re really pretty, Jasmine.”

My breaths became trembles, eyes still shut. “Thanks.”

The usual silence that had somehow picked up between made its way back in again, giving me ample time to think. I had to ask him.

“Why’d you tell Aliah to apologize to me?”

I opened my eyes to see the slight shock in his.

“W-why’d you think I’d do that?”

He looked like a little boy trapped with his hand in the cookie jar which just bewildered me more and more. So he took a deep breath and just tried again. “I wanted her to know she was wrong.”

“Well, she doesn’t know. It was nice of you, but she doesn’t know.”

He nodded again.

“Why do you think she listened to you in the first place?”

I wanted to know what he thought of this, of her.

He shrugged. “I guess I’m persuasive. I don’t know. She said she likes me.”

“Likes you… Wow, shock there.” The words had come out drier than I’d intended.

“Why’s that?”

“You just don’t seem her type.” Aliah had to have a type.

“Do you even know what her type is?” he questioned me.

“Not hard to tell. She’s religious or not religious, pregnant, and 18. She probably wants the devoted, marrying type.”

His eyebrows rose. “You don’t think I’m the marrying type?”

Now, he was turning the tables on me. This was how he felt most of the time.

I cleared my throat. “I never said that you that.”

“You implied it.”

I had no idea why his voice was being so defensive, forceful almost. It made me not want to talk to him anymore.

“Do you think I could ever marry someone?” My voice came out through its own fog.

This time he smiled. “Anyone you’d ever want to marry?”

For some reason, my mind faintly thought of Jesse and how things had been after the outbreak happened. He’d been sort of a protector, but that seemed like so long ago.

I giggled. “You wouldn’t wanna know. Embarrassing.”

That got his cheeks to burn and he looked down.

“What do you think’ll happen when we find this place?” he asked, changing the subject as the fire started to move from his cheeks.

“We’ll find Ryant and Max. Kick some Lexicon ass. Maybe get out of there alive.”

Alex nodded. “What about after?”

I breathed. After? I’d never given any thought at all to that. I mean, after all this madness calmed down, where would I be? Back with Uncle Trevor and Aunt Meg, my dad, or Clarissa?

“I don’t know. “