Desolate

It suddenly seemed pointless to stop for the night, since no one got any sleep. And it didn’t help that they had to leave so early in the morning, everyone was practically dead.

“Charlie, can I ask you a favor?” Jordan asked softly as her and Charlie were loading up the van.

“Sure, as long as it isn’t to get along with your stupid little fiancé, there is no way in hell that I can get along with that freak,” she scoffed, her upper lip twitching.

“No, that’s not what I want,” Jordan said softly, “I want to go to my brother’s. He lives an hour down that way and I just want to see that him and his wife are ok.”

Charlie stayed silent for a second and Jordan stopped and shook her head, “I would never do anything to intentionally rub it in your face that my brother might be alive and-”

“It’s fine Jordan. I may not have known you for long, but I think I know you enough to know that you wouldn’t do that to me,” Charlie chuckled, “I actually want to take you. My brothers may be dead, but you have a chance and who am I to take that from you, right?”

Jordan nodded and smiled as they finished loading up the van. Oliver stood by the open door to the driver’s side and narrowed his eyes at the front door.

“Where is Zakk and that idiot douche bag?” Oliver asked irritably.

* * * *

“Zakk, can we talk for a second?” Austin asked softly. Charlie whipped her head around, with murder in her eyes.

“What am I supposed to do? Be a mute?” he asked.

“That’d be a dream come true, for all of us,” Charlie snapped as she headed back outside to the van. Zakk stared at Jordan, who was turning to look at Charlie and talking.

“Well, can we talk?” Austin asked again. Zakk scoffed and nodded. They rounded the corner and Austin seemed to morph into something totally different.

“Let’s cut to the chase,” he said bluntly, “I want you to back off of Jordan.”

“Why should I?” Zakk hissed. Austin smirked and didn’t hesitate to respond, “You never know Zakk. Jordan could end up like your girlfriend.”

Zakk froze and his heart almost stopped. Memories flashed in his head of her, every moment he spent with her up until Charlie blew her zombie head off. Zakk shut his eyes and covered them with his hands.

“Where is Zakk and that idiot douche bag?!” he heard Oliver asked irritably.

“Glad we could have this talk,” Austin said softly. Zakk shook his head and waited for his footsteps to fade before he stepped out. Jordan smiled when she saw him and ran towards him.

“Charlie said she’s going to take us to my brother’s!” she said cheerfully. Zakk moved away from her, as if she was poisonous.

“What’s wrong?” she asked softly, reaching out for him. He yanked his arm away and backed away from him.

“I can’t talk to you right now,” he said quickly. He moved away from her and into the driver’s side, practically shoving Oliver to the ground. Oliver gave him a disgusted look as he followed Jordan into the back of the van with everyone else.

There was an uncomfortable silence for the entire ride. Even Austin, who seemed to be constantly putting his foot in his mouth, had nothing to say. Charlie sat next to Jordan, her arms folded across her chest and staring at Oliver, who refused to look back at her, even though he was full aware that she was looking at him. Jordan rested her chin on her hand and watched Zakk drive steadily along the street, keeping his eye out for any zombies that could possibly jump onto the van. They’d evolved into something stronger, they could surely jump onto a moving vehicle if they wanted to.

There was suddenly a spark of hope in her heart as she jumped onto her feet and ran to the front of the van.

“Turn in here!” she said excitedly. Zakk sighed and turned into the driveway of a small white house that looked disheveled, but nothing too strange. She turned and ran out of the van.

The others followed behind her, pointing their guns and keeping the guard, knowing she wasn’t focused on that at the moment. She ran up the wooden porch and threw open the door. Everything looked untouched and normal. She slowly searched the house, to find there was no one.

“Then…this means…” she mumbled, her voice beginning to crack. She turned to everyone else, who had pained looks as well as her. She was ready to scream and cry and throw a big fit and throw herself outside so the zombies could just eat her away and put her out of her misery.

“We should go…” she murmured. They began to walk when the door to the basement began to open. Charlie turned Jordan to the door, as if she was showing a little kid Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. Jordan felt a little of her hope come back, but she still had her gun pointed, ready to shoot her zombie brother.

“Jordan…?” he said softly. She froze and her gun fell from her hands. He looked at her up and down and opened his arms. She let her tears out as she ran to him and threw her arms around him.

“John!” she screamed, crying into his shoulder. She let go of him and looked over his shoulder, “is Paige and the baby ok?”

“Paige? Baby?” Charlie said.

“Paige is my brother’s wife and she’s pregnant,” Jordan explained, not really paying attention to her.

“Paige and the baby are fine, we’re all fine. I’m just glad to see that you are too,” he said softly, throwing her into a hug again. He let go of her again and gestured to the others.

“Oh, sorry. This is Charlie, Alex, Darren, Oliver, and you remember Austin,” Jordan listed, pointing to each person as she introduced them. Her hand suddenly felt numb when she pointed to Zakk, “and…this is Zakk.”

John looked at Zakk and it seemed like he could see everything that happened in the past few hours just by the look in Zakk and Jordan’s eyes.

“We came to get you and bring you with us,” Jordan said, bringing John’s attention back to her.

“I can’t do that Jordan…” he mumbled, “if it was just me, then I would but…I have a wife and an unborn child to protect…so no.”

“But…I can’t just leave you…” Jordan whimpered. John smiled warmly and patted Jordan’s shoulder.

“You can stay here for as long as you want, if it’d make you feel better,” he said. Jordan looked back at Charlie, begging her silently.

“I guess it’d be ok to…rest for a couple days…” she sighed. Jordan sighed happily and hugged John again.

“And listen, I know it’s kind of stupid to ask but…have you talked to Andrew?” he said softly. Jordan raised an eyebrow and shook her head, “who’s Andrew?”

“I didn’t think you’d remember him,” he said, “He was Mom’s husband’s son. You met him once. But his mom was jealous of Mom and us so she didn’t want him to see us.”

“Then, how do you remember him?” she asked.

“He called me a couple years ago and we talked a lot,” he explained, “he told me he was going to call you in the next couple of days.”

Jordan slowly pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at her list of missed calls and read the number, “was that Andrew?”

John nodded and Charlie stepped forward, “that’s my Andrew…”

Jordan heard Oliver mumble under his breath and she looked back up at John for answers, “he did mention having a girlfriend…Charlie I think her name was.”

He glanced at her and nodded, “yeah, he said he wanted the four of us to meet.”

Charlie’s eyes welled up and she looked at her feet, “he did…he said that to me…”

Jordan wrapped her arms around Charlie’s shoulders and almost felt the need to cry too. She may not have remembered him, but that didn’t change the fact that Andrew was technically her family.

“Andrew didn’t make it…” she mumbled. John opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again and hung his head.

“And…Mom and her husband didn’t make it either…” she said, her throat tightening and she felt the mood of the room go down.

“Did Dad?” he asked.

“I don’t know…probably not,” she responded softly, praying silently that her dad did make it.

“Well, at least you’re ok,” he said, trying to help ease the sadness, “I don’t know what I would do without my sister.”

Jordan smiled, but it faded quickly and she walked up the stairs where she knew her room would be. When her brother had moved in with Paige when Jordan was still in high school, he’d made this room hers so she could come visit. Even when her visits came less and less, he never touched her room. Her posters were still plastered on the walls. Her bed was still made. Her pictures were still on the nightstand where she’d left them.

“Can I come in?” she heard a voice say. She turned around and there was Austin. She stared at him silently and he came closer and closer to her. He grabbed her hand and sat her down on her old bed.

“I wanted to talk to you about Zakk,” he said, “he won’t bother you anymore.”

“Excuse me?” Jordan snapped.

“I got rid of him, so we can be together,” he said happily, grabbing her hands. She yanked them away and stood up.

“Why would you do that to me?!” she exclaimed, “Zakk was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. I somehow found happiness under this chaos and the destruction and the madness and you took it away from me! Couldn’t you have just let me be happy?! For once?!”

He stayed silent and she scoffed, “Get out!”

He slowly stood up and walked out like a dog with his tail in between his legs. She slammed her door and slid down it, sobbing as she did. She was letting emotions out that Austin had been able to trigger in her. There was rage mixed with misery and she didn’t know what to do with it. She hugged herself and dug her nails into her arms, not realizing it. She hung her head and scratched down her arm and clenched her fists until her knuckles cracked.

Charlie leaned in to hear Jordan’s cries and stopped Zakk as he walked down the hall.

“Are you hearing this?” she asked softly. Zakk nodded indifferently and she smacked him upside the head.

“Don’t you care?” she asked.

“I do. But…it’s none of your business,” he said softly. Ignoring her silent threats, he turned into one of the bedrooms.

Charlie covered her eyes and sighed, trying to relieve the stress but it wasn’t working. She was so overwhelmed, not only with her own drama, but the drama Austin brought. The little weasel brought emotional baggage that no one needed or wanted. Thinking about it and trying to set it straight was giving her a migraine.

“I’m just so tired…” Charlie mumbled, feeling her last bit of tolerance for anything slowly begin to slip away.