The Infected

We headed back out and shook our heads at Lily and Brittany.

“We're going back up the road.” I said, hoping in and telling them where we were going to crash for the night.

“You know what we really need to look for?” Brittany said. “A house. Preferably with a garage.”

“Am I missing something?” I said confused. I put the SUV in drive and head back in the direction we had just come from.

“You know to store the stuff better. Are we going to carry it all into Harper's granddad's place, tonight?”

I hadn't thought about that.

“We have no choice.”

We drove back and by the time we made it the parking lot of the Sunny Day Apartments it was dark. We grabbed only what we needed from the SUV, we'd get the rest in the morning, and headed in. I, for some reason, expected it to be pitch black outside, but the streetlights came on as they always did. Were they on some kind of automatic system or was there someone operating them? I hadn't a clue, and put it away in my mind for further thought at a later time.

Harper's abuelo lived on the third floor of the senior citizens building. It was weird thinking of all those little old people walking out of this place with no will of their own. This thought led me to think of my own grandparents, who lived out of state. It hurt.

With our hands full of things we headed inside. Lily went the elevator and punched the up button.

“We're taking the stairs.” I told her, “I'm not getting stuck on an elevator with no chance of being rescued.”

“Here, here.” Brittany said.

“Fine.” Lily grumbled.

We were all keeping an eye out for anything suspicious as we followed Harper up the three flights of stairs. Apartment 310 was were we stopped. The door was shut, but unlocked. Harper explained that he shut it when he was here earlier, along with some others.

“It was odd seeing them all open like that.”

Many we passed on out way in were open.

The apartment was dark, but Harper knew where the lights were and he flicked a few on as we went further inside. The apartment was cozy, and filled with lots of knickknacks, and pictures on the wall.

If I hadn't believe this really was his grandpa's place, the pictures of Harper with an older gentleman were enough to tell me the truth.

The place was small, but who were we to complain. Harper, after putting his share of the load down, switched on the TV, only to find static, or emergency alerts, but what the emergency was, not one could say.

After I searched the apartment, (there was only two bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, living room, and three small closets) I felt a bit safer. Lily slipped off to the bathroom, and Brittany was in the kitchen, getting something cold to drink.

Harper was seated on his grandpa's couch. It was covered with throws and pillows and the pattern was definitely something a woman would have picked out. Harper hadn't mentioned a grandma, perhaps she had died. I sat down on the loveseat, also covered with a throw, and closed my eyes, feeling more tired than I wanted to admit.

“Do you guys have a laptop?” Harper asked.

I opened my eyes and shook my head. “Only wi-fi on our phones.”

“I want to see if that's shut down as well.”

“We hadn't checked it in a few hours. It was working but not telling us anything about what's been going on.”

“Yeah. Mine went dead a few hours after I left work. No charger.”

I nodded, thinking ours were going to do dead soon to, but we did have that bag of extras. Now that I had time to think about that it really did feel like stealing.

“We have extras.” I pointed to the bag on the kitchen counters, “Knock yourself out.”

“Extras?”

“Don't ask.”

Brittany sat down on the couch and Harper brought the bag over. His eyebrow raised when he was the dozen or so cell phones. He said not a word and began looking things up.

“Maybe one of the neighbors has a laptop, or desktop.” Brittany said. “I'm going to go check.”

“Alone?” I asked.

She nodded and quickly let. “Is she okay?” Harper asked as I stared after her.

“Dunno.”

I hadn't noticed Lily standing in the little hallway that led to the bedrooms and bathroom. She just stood there, her eyes red. She had been crying. And she hadn't wanted me to see. So I pretended not to notice the despair on her little face. A face so like my own that it hurt to look at her now. She was a kid, she shouldn't be feeling something like this.

So I gave her a little smile and grabbed the phone bag and checked to see if any messages or missed calls happened that we had missed. There were none.

Lily came and sat down next to me and grabbed the remote. Absentmindedly she flipped through the channels. Some still worked, showing reality shows and such, but most were disconnected. Harper's abuelo had a lot of channels on his television, so her flipping went on for quite a while.

“What's your grandpa's name?” I asked out of the blue.

Harper looked up at me, his brow furrowed, but whether at my question or what he was doing on the phone who knows. “Antonio. Why do you ask?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “Curious.”

“You said you were at lunch. With family.”

“Yeah. My parent's, sister, brother, cousins and aunt and uncle.”

“Is Brittany your cousin?”

I thought about lying, say yes she was my cousin, but really what would be the point? “No. She worked there.”

He looked at me strangely. “Your friend?”

I shook my head. “No, she was a stranger like you.”

“Does she know what happened to her family?”

I shook my head again.

“And you were the only ones left untouched by this phenomenon?”

“Phenomenon? Is that what your calling it? I'd say apocalypse.”

I meant it as a joke, and luckily he smiled. Lily said nothing, her channel surfing continuing.

“Yeah. We were the only ones there untouched. They're gone now.” I looked away from him. I refused to cry. Especially in front of some guy I just met.

“I'm sorry to hear that.” We said nothing for an awkward moment.

“What about you?” I asked.

“It was crazy. All of my co-workers just... stopped, like they were frozen, then they just...”

“Started marching out. Yeah, I know.”

“Where do you think they're going?”

“That's what I've been wondering. It's like someone's pulling the strings.”

“Yeah. It was the single freakiest thing I had ever witnessed. And I've seen some freaky things.”

I raised and eyebrow. “Really?”

She smiled coyly. “Anyway. I freaked out, didn't know what to do. At least you all had each other .I started thinking of I Am Legend. Like I was the last man on earth, or something. Well, the last sane one.”

“You're sane?” I joked.

He laughed a little. “Do you think your friend is okay?”

“I don' know. Should we go look for her?”

“Maybe if she isn't back soon.”

“It's nightfall.” Lily murmured. We both turned to look at her. “That's when zombies come to feast.”

I got a chill at her words. “They aren't zombies.”

“You don't know that.” she put the remote back down on the table. Her eyes were on the TV screen, not us.

“You're right, I don't. But have you seen any zombies around. It was dark when we were still outside.”

“Maybe they won't rise tonight, but tomorrow or the next, some time soon, they will.”

“Lily, maybe you should get some sleep.”

“I'm not tired, Leah.” Still not looking my way. My little sister, the little animal, was frightening me.

Harper shoot me a look and got up. “I'm going to go change the sheets on the beds.” He left us alone.

“Lily. Look at me.”

When she faced me her eyes were brimming with unshed tears. “Little animal.” I took her in my arms. “I will not let anything happen to you. I'm guarding you with my life.”

“And if I lost you, too.”

That stung. She thought she might lose me.

“You won't.” I said fiercely, rocking her in my arms. She cried on my shirt and when she was done a few minutes later I too was wiping my eyes. Harper thankfully hadn't returned.

“We'll figure this out. I promise.”

“How come we were left untouched?” She used the word me and Harper had earlier. There was no other way to describe it, really.

“Who knows. You better?”

She nodded.

“Here,” I fluffed a pillow, “Lie down. You're tired. It's been along day. Sleep.”

She was about to argue but instead leaned back and rested her head on the pillow. “What about you?”

“I'll be fine.”

“I'm not going to sleep yet. Just relaxing.”

I smiled. “Sure.”

Only when he thought it as safe did Harper return. And Brittany returned an hour later, a laptop and cord in hand. “I see your search was successful.” I said. I had been worried about her.

“Yes.” She, too, had been crying.

I felt like crying again myself, but now was not the time. Maybe come tomorrow the world would look like it had this morning, normal, sunny, bright, happy. Good. Not bleak. Not lonely. Yeah, and maybe pigs will fly. Not likely.

Brittany plugged the nearly dead thing into an outlet and she and Harper got to work, while I tried the phones again, calling as many numbers as I could. The night grew old, still no news, and Lily lied her head on my shoulder, still avoiding sleep.

“Lil, if you're tired, lie down.”

“I'm not.” she assured me. I knew better. She tried to hide her yawn, but couldn't. She didn't want to sleep, in case something else happened. She got up and went over to one of the windows. I joined her.
“It's so quiet out there.”

“Yeah. It is.”

The smoked was still visible if you knew where to look for it, but not as bad as I guess it could be. Lily yawned again, and her stomach growled. “I'm going to make you something.”

“It's one am. You know how mom used to say eating late was bad for your health.” and just that small memory of mom made her sad again.

“Well, we didn't really eat dinner did we. She won't mind.” I kissed her forehead and went to the kitchen. “Anyone else hungry?” I called out, but was greeted with a different reply than I was expecting.

“Leah, you've got to see this.” And at Brittany's urgent voice I ran back into the living room. She and Harper and Lily eyes were fixed on the laptop screen.

What is it?” I said getting on my knees by the couch so I could see.

Harper said, “A video.” just as Brittany answered, “Videos.”

They were on a website which had links to some Youtube videos. Somehow people had found a way to upload some videos. I hadn't a clue as to how they had done it when everything seemed not to work as it had twenty four hours before, but here they were nevertheless.

They clicked on the first of ten from around the globe. From Russia, Mexico, Asia, Scotland, here in the States, all showing similar scenes like ones we had experienced. Hoards of dead eyed people sleepwalking through streets, while the people filming had the same reactions we had: What the hell was going on?

The tags on each video had words like warning, beware, zombie, and apocalypse. They were shot from different angles and during different times of day. Some at night, some in the early morning, all different time zones, which led me to believe that all of this had occurred at the same time globally.

We all watched transfixed as each video, some long, some short, played out. Thousands of thoughts running through our heads. Lily took my hand in hers, her green eyes wide.

“So it isn't just here. It's worldwide.” I whispered as I watched the seventh video.

“Looks like it,” said Harper.

“What does it all mean?” Brittany asked. And of course no one could answer.

“This is mad.” I said. “It's a like some new kind of pandemic.” But a pandemic of what, exactly?

“And just what is 'it'?” Lily asked.

“Good question, kid.” Harper said staring at he screen, “What is it?”