Closer to The Edge

Isabel woke up next to a snoring Ryland and smiled at how cute he looked with his face smushed up against their sleeping bag. She slapped him playfully and rolled him onto his side anyways; he really needed to shut up or they were gonna have to move camp again really soon. She sighed and kissed the back of his head. She hated being quiet. She hated quiet sex, she hated quieting Ryland’s snoring, and she hated not being able to sing her favorite songs at the top of her lungs.

She wiggled out of her Ryland’s arms and tip-toed over to where they had made a fire the previous day. She noticed Frank and Honey still asleep a couple feet away and pushed her hair out of her face. Guess she was making the coffee today. She got a sort of half-fire going with some twigs and dry leaves and she went to their old, beat-up pickup truck to grab the tiny amount of coffee they still had left. She also grabbed an unmarked can of food off of the huge pile they’d stolen from the abandoned military base they’d passed by not too long ago. She hoped to god was spaghetti because all they’d had for a week was beans and like, fruit.

Ryland woke up just as she was pouring herself a cup of coffee and he plopped his sleepy, shirtless little self down next to her and draped his arm over her shoulder. She kissed him on the cheek and, after taking a gulp of her lukewarm and grainy caffeine juice, she handed her cup of coffee to him and they watched the sunrise together. When it was dawn or dusk or if it was foggy, you could see just enough of the city to know it was still there without seeing the bomb craters and collapsed buildings and exploded cars. You could almost imagine that the creatures walking around with blank stares and half their bodies gone were still alive. You could almost forget about everything that had happened in the past month.

Isabel turned her head and nuzzled her face into the side of Ryland’s, nibbling on his cheek with a smile before getting up and nudging Honey and Frank with her bare foot.

“Guys, wake up. I won at Random Canned Food Roulette and so we’re having spaghetti for breakfast. You better hurry up if you want some, Ry’s eating all of it as we speak,” she whispered, nodding towards Ryland for the benefit of… well, no one. All Frank and Honey did was roll around a bit and tell her to go fuck herself.

The sun had finally come up and the air was getting really warm really fast. Isabel wanted to take advantage of the little extra time she’d gained by waking up early. She decided she’d go down the mountain a little ways and try to find some water and maybe, if she was lucky, she could wash herself if there was enough of it. Isabel grabbed her shotgun from the bottom of her sleeping bag and hurried over to kiss Ryland on the head. Ryland looked up at her sweetly and tried to say something through his mouthful of spaghetti, but she had no idea what the fuck he was trying to get across so she just smiled and nodded and patted his hair down. He made a grumpy face and went back to eating. She told a now awake Honey and a still half asleep Frank where she was going, loaded her stolen weapon, and headed off, her combat boots clunking around as she walked.

She crept through the forest-y patch of land that separated them from everything and marched in the direction of where they’d come. She was sure she’d seen a lake or something on their way up the mountain. She’d been walking for about ten minutes when the ground dropped away into a cliff. She crept up to the edge of it and looked over, her breath taken away by the bright blue lake that was at the bottom. She smiled. It was beautiful.

She found one of the small streams that ran into the lake and filled up her water bottle. The water was too cold for the virus to spread in it, so they’d have a source of drinking water. She was surprised she’d made it all the way there without running into any of the undead.
She climbed to the top of one of the enormous rocks that rested on the edge of the water. She put her gun and her water bottle down before stripped off her clothes, swearing at how they stuck to her sweaty body. Thank god she’d abandoned wearing bras long ago, it would’ve sucked balls to have one sticking to her breasts in the heat wave they were having. Fucking global warming.

She backed away from the edge of the rock to take some momentum before she jumped off, holding in the scream that would’ve brought all the flesh-eating bastards right to them. She gasped when she hit the chilly water, her lungs contracting. She stayed underwater for a while. Three days’ worth of sweat was slowly being washed off her skin and she was fucking going to enjoy it. When she ran out of breath she broke the surface of the water with a loud gasp and began scrubbing herself in an attempt to get all of the dirt off of her. She rinsed her hair out as best she could, glad she’d cut most of it off before they’d gotten into this mess. It was so much easier to take care of when it was short.

She swam around contently for a while, enjoying herself, before something shiny under the water caught her eye. She moved so that she was treading water right above it and dove beneath the water to retrieve whatever it was. When she got to the bottom of the lake she could make out what the object was; a ring. It was golden, like a wedding band, and it was around something she could make out, a branch or something sticking out of the layer of plants covering the lake’s sandy bed. She smiled; she’d give it to Ryland as some sort of way to remember her if she ever died. Or something. She was almost out of breath so she quickly stretched out her hand to grab the ring. She began to slip it off of whatever it had nestled itself onto when she felt something twitch in between her fingers. Her hand instinctively shot back, the ring in tow, and her eyes darted over the algae under her. She screamed the rest of her breath away when she made out a cloudy, bloodshot eye opening near what she had just found out to be a decomposing hand.

She swam as fast as she could to the surface of the lake, glancing back to find the zombie not far behind her. Once she got to the lake’s bank she hopped out and ran towards her gun at the top of the rock. She slipped a few times, resulting in a scraped knee and a gash on her forehead.

“Fucking rocks,” she muttered, trying to control her panic.

Once she reached her shotgun she turned around to find what appeared to be an undead woman limping towards her. She was missing an eye and a foot, and her skin was in such awful shape from being underwater for a long period of time. Poor little bitch. Isabel didn’t want to shoot her, the sound of the gunshot would bring others and fuck, she liked the little campsite they’d found. She cursed herself for wanting a fucking useless ring and she cursed herself for wanting to swim around for no reason. She should’ve just gotten water, bathed herself, and hurried back up to camp to help make breakfast… or something.

She waited for the zombie to reach shooting distance so she was sure not to miss and shot her right in the forehead. The diseased woman fell to the ground, a number of her half-decomposed bones breaking. Isabel hurriedly put her clothes back on and shot the zombie in the head a couple more times on her way down the rock, scowling down at her. The bitch ruined their already lame excuse for a weekend camping trip. She ran back to camp as fast as she could, her shotgun and her water bottle in hand. She looked down at the ring on her finger as she was running and smiled. Fuck yeah.

When she got to camp she found Ryland freaking out, Frank yelling and Honey rushing around. Guess they’d heard the gunshot. They stopped what they were doing as soon as they saw her.

“Yeah, we need to leave,” Isabel said, out of breath. “Now.”

Ryland rushed over to her and started feeling her up for bite marks or a gunshot wound, still freaking out, his tongue tripping over confused mumbles of ‘are you okay’ and ‘what the fuck happened’. Isabel cut him off with a kiss, telling him she was okay. His fingers found the gash on her forehead and it didn’t help calm him down in the slightest. She shushed him and helped Honey and Frank load things into the truck. Ryland, to get his mind off of poor Isabel, looked for somewhere they could go. Ryland sighed. Their campsite was in an area circled on the map, almost completely surrounded by Xs. The Xs were places they knew to already be infested. Ryland sighed again –sighing was becoming a habit for all four of them, fucking zombies- and uncapped the red pen he kept in his pocket. He drew a big red X on their campsite and folded the map before putting it back in his pocket. He hopped on top of the truck and looked out over the town they’d just come from. He turned slowly, examining the surrounding hills for the undead.

His eyes widened when he saw what was coming.

He banged his hand on the top of the truck urgently, begging Isabel to hurry the fuck up and get into the truck, her injuries already having left his mind. Honey and Frank were already in the two front seats and Isabel was grabbing the last of their shit. She jumped into the back part of the truck and he joined her. Honey and Isabel shot matching questioning looks at Ryland as Frank slammed his foot on the pedal and they sped away.

“Where are the zombies? Which way are they coming from.” Isabel asked, fondling her forehead and frowning at the blood on her fingers.

“Every way, they’re everywhere,” Ryland said, his eyes wide and his hands shaking. “They’re coming from everywhere.”