Desolate

So the house in the mountains was out. The infection had reached the animals and the mountains were crawling with infected bears and god knows what else.

“It’s getting dark, maybe we should stop somewhere,” Bianca said with a yawn.

“Where do you suggest we go Bianca? There is nothing here!” Jason snapped, squeezing the steering wheel. Bianca became quiet and slid down her seat.

“What about there?” Alex said, pointing to a large department store, “those department stores have everything. Food, a nice bed to sleep in, clothes, all that good stuff without having to go to different stores.”

“She’s right,” Charlie mumbled, patting Jason’s shoulder. He sighed and turned into the parking lot. They looked around the empty parking lot and were surprised to see that the parking lot looked completely normal. No trashed cars. No smeared blood all over the ground. It looked like it hadn’t even been touched.

They pulled into a parking spot near the exit and filed out of the van. They walked through the glass doors and looked around. Unlike the parking lot, the store looked like a tornado had torn through it. The mannequin heads had popped off the bodies and looked like someone tried to eat them. They walked in a tight circle through the store. They reached the frozen foods section when a zombie popped up and ran at them. Blood flowed from his mouth, with chunks of flesh spilling out with it. Without hesitation, Charlie raised her gun and shot the zombie on the head. His head exploded and pieces of skull and rotting flesh rained down on them.

Another zombie rounded the corner and ran at them and Charlie grinned with happiness as she raised the gun and heard the click of the gun. Her fingers fumbled for extra bullets and the zombie was getting closer and closer as she dropped her bullets on the floor. She threw herself down on the ground to grab her fallen bullets. He was ready to jump at her when his head exploded, splattering in her face. She looked up to see Jordan with her gun raised. She put her gun away and looked down at her.

“Uh, thank you?” Charlie said softly.

“Don’t mention it,” Jordan mumbled as she turned and walked away. Charlie sat there and watched her leave as she stood up.

“That was weird,” Charlie said to herself. She shrugged and walked towards the others.

“So this place is good?” Charlie said.

“Definitely,” Zakk answered as he examined one of the stoves.

“But that stove is just there for display, not cooking,” Bianca whined.

“I’m sure Oliver and I can fix that,” Zakk replied, smiling at Bianca.

“Let’s let Oliver and Zakk do their thing and we’ll search the rest of the place,” Alex declared. They searched every corner and every room and they even checked the roof. They didn’t find anything else.

“Did you guys get that stove working?” Charlie asked when they got back.

“Yup,” Oliver answered proudly. Zakk nodded in agreement with a satisfied smile on his face.

“I’m getting hungry,” Bianca said softly, putting her hand on her annoyingly flat stomach.

“I’ll make some dinner,” Jordan mumbled.

“I’ll help you,” Charlie replied, walking towards Jordan. She raised her hand and stopped her.

“I don’t want help,” she said softly. She walked away and came back a few minutes later with raw chicken wings and different seasonings.

“And you can cook too, I’m surprised no one has put a ring on that finger,” Zakk joked as Jordan tore open the package. Jordan chuckled but didn’t respond and she didn’t sound amused. Zakk stared at her for a second and then sat down on a stool. He watched her as she cooked and Charlie nudged him on the side.

“What?!” he snapped.

“Why are you staring?” she teased, nudging him some more.

“No reason,” he said as he moved his body away from her. Jordan turned from the stove and looked at Charlie, Alex, Bianca, and Jason.

“You two bring me a table and chairs for us to sit at,” she ordered. Alex and Charlie nodded and ran off with Bianca and Jason following close behind. She moved her head to look at Oliver and Darren, “and you bring me some dishes.”

Oliver and Darren nodded and ran off to find some dishes and it was just Zakk and Jordan. He stood up and walked over to her.

“Do you need me to do anything?” he asked. Jordan shook her head and smiled, “no it’s fine.”

It wasn’t long before the table and dishes were ready and so was dinner. Jordan smiled as she finished serving everyone and sat down.

“Is it ok?” she asked.

“Not bad,” Charlie said when she bit into it. After that, it was complete silence until Bianca spoke, “I don’t like it quiet…”

“What do you want us to do? Tell everyone what we were doing before all hell broke loose?” Jason said sarcastically as he licked a piece of chicken skin off his finger.

“Actually, that’s a great idea,” Bianca said cheerfully.

“Alright then, why don’t you start Bianca?” Charlie said, rolling her eyes.

“Well ok then!” she squealed, “I was living with my sister and her friend-”

“So, no significant other?” Alex said with an amused smirk on her face, as if she’d heard this before.

“Um…I wouldn’t have called him a my boyfriend but we did do things a boyfriend and girlfriend would do,” Bianca said, her cheeks a bright red.

“Really…how interesting. Anyways, go on,” Alex said, letting a laugh escape from her lips.

“Right…anyways as I said before I was working at a diner at the time and one day while I was working a herd of them tore through and slaughtered everyone,” she said, her voice getting softer, “Charlie, Oliver and Alex came just in time to save me.”

“Wow…that’s pretty rough…” Jordan said softly.

“What about you Jordan?” Bianca said.

“Uh, no I don’t think so,” Jordan replied, shaking her head. Everyone leaned in, still waiting for a story like they never heard her say no.

“Fine…” she sighed. “a couple months before this happened, my boyfriend and I moved in together…and a few weeks ago, he’d proposed to me…” she stopped and composed herself, not wanting to cry.

“One day, he left to go get us dinner and…he never came back,” she added, “I’d heard about the radiation thing but I didn’t believe it…”

She threw her half eaten chicken on her plate and wiped her hands, “excuse me.” She felt so stupid. Bianca didn’t cry or excuse herself. Maybe Charlie was right when she called her Miss Self Pity.

“Hey,” she heard a voice say softly. She turned around to see Charlie had followed her. Jordan turned away again and chuckled.

“I feel really dumb right now. Bianca didn’t cry when she was telling her story,” she mumbled, pressing her palms against her eyes to stop the tears from falling.

“Don’t feel that way. She wouldn’t stop crying and screaming when I found her. It was awful,” Charlie said, glancing back at Bianca, who was digging chicken out from behind her press on nails. Jordan visualized Charlie being on the edge of murdering Bianca and laughed.

“I guess that makes me feel better,” she said as her laughter faded.

“And I’m sorry about your boyfriend,” Charlie said. Jordan smiled a bit, knowing this was getting uncomfortable for Charlie.

“A part of me wants to believe that he survived, but…” Jordan’s voice trailed off.

“You can’t focus on all that now. You’ve got to focus on the present and what matters now,” Charlie said softly. Jordan turned around, smiling at Charlie.

“You know what, you’re right,” she said. There was no way she could turn her back on what used to be like Charlie could.

But if she had any intentions of surviving, she was going to have to suck it up and try