Odette is Dead

I walked back to the camp alone. Leslie was peculiar. She acted completely offended when I laughed at her dead dog story. She cannot seriously think that that is traumatic, right? She has her parents and her boyfriend. She is surrounded by people that are lucky if they have one person for them, let alone her family.

When I got back to the clearing, there were tons of curious eyes on me. Most were peeking out of tents, some were pausing what they were previously doing.

“Odette?” I glanced over at Francis and smiled a bit. His eyes ran up and down my body and back up to my face.

“Yes?” I asked lightly. He scratched the back of his head, it seemed like a nervous tick.

“You uh, look different. Um. Anyways, I thought I would introduce you to some people if you felt up for it.” I shrugged.

“I don’t see why not.” He smiled and offered me his hand. Weird, these people are all about holding hands. I decided to ignore him and soon he got it, letting his arm drop back to his side.

“You know you can put down the axe right?” He said nervously. I shrugged.

“I don’t think so. I’ll put it down and a swarm of zombies will come. Just watch.” He shook his head no.

“This is a safe zone, don't worry about it. I would protect you anyways.” I raised my eyebrow at him and laughed.

“And why would you protect me?” He smiled.

“Well you are a girl, a young one. Its my duty to-” I cut him off.

“No its not. If anything I would probably be protecting you. I get that you want to pretend to be this big protector in front of these people because they need that but its just you and me here.” His face was cherry red by the time I finished my mini speech. I reached up and ran my hand through his dark hair and ruffled it. I remember that the neighbor boy used to do that to me when I was a child and he embarrassed me, now it was my turn.

“Francis, is this Odette?” another mans voice grabbed my attention and I turned to see a man who looked similar to Francis. He had the same large build and was the same height. They had the same chocolate eyes, the main difference was this man had light hair compared to Francis.

“Odette, this is Charles, my brother. Charles, as you already know this is Odette.” Charles got a goofy grin.

“So you’re the reaper huh?” I raised an eyebrow, curious to know why he called me that. An old friend used to call me the reaper.

“Why did you call me that?” He shrugged.

“Leslie said you called yourself that.” I nodded. Word travels fast in this community I see.

“Odette.” I turned my head and looked over my shoulder to see someone who looked familiar. I couldn’t place where I knew him, but he had long blonde curls pulled into a ponytail and bright blue eyes. “Odette, it is you.” He breathed wrapping me up in a tight hug. “I heard Odette the reaper and I knew it was you.” He let me go and it dawned on me.

“No, you are dead. I watched you die.” I coughed out, looking at the neighbor who took me away from my infected parents and protected me.

“I got out.” He offered me a crooked smile.

“Edmund, you know her?” Francis said confused. Ed smiled and didn’t take his eyes off of me.

“Yeah, I have known her since she was five. Always joked that some day when I taught her to shoot that she would be a reaper.” He wrapped me in another hug and I just stood there limp. You would think that there would be a thousand emotions running through me, but confusion was the main one.

“Did you think I was dead?” He pulled away and I watched as he swallowed back his tears.

“There were hundreds, I barely got away, by locking myself in a car until they went away. When I went back to our house later they were everywhere dead and you were nowhere to be found. There was a lot of blood Odette.

“I know asshole. I had to learn to shoot a gun and learn the consequences of shooting loud guns all in the same afternoon.” I spat at him. I don’t know why I was feeling so angry. Maybe it was because he left me but either way, I wasn’t staying.

I spun around, feeling my hair swish over my shoulder and stomped away, dragging my axe with me. I weaved through people, ignoring their curious eyes until I found Leslie and Greg. They were standing uncomfortably close and laughing when I walked up.

“Leslie, where are my clothes?” She looked annoyed, and confused.

“You mean the blood stained scraps of fabric you came in wearing? I made torches out of them. Why?” She feined innocense which just pissed me off even more. Greg seemed to sense my anger and stood in front of Leslie protectively. I heard footsteps behind me.

“Whatever, bye.” I said quickly and stomped away, Greg followed.

“Wait! Odette!” I heard Ed’s voice which just made me quicken my pace. I glanced at Greg.

“Do you have a vehicle I can use?” His eyes just about popped out of his head when I said that.

“Now? You do realize it is the middle of the night?” He sounded genuinely worried, but sometimes you just want to leave and nothing can defer you from that path.

“Odette! I can tell you about Justin and Danielle.” Ed’s voice stopped me in my tracks. My anger had spiked completely. My knuckles were white on the axe as I spun back to face him, oblivious to all the people watching.

“Oh really?” My voice sounded sarcastic and synyster.

“What the hell is going on Edmund?” I ignored Greg completely so did Ed.

“My entire childhood I ask you to tell me anything you knew about Justin and Danielle, I missed them, and you basically threw it back in my face. Screw you Ed.” He sighed and reached for my arm. Acting upon instinct, I whipped my axe around so I was holding the blade and whacked his arm as hard as I could with the handle. He sucked in a breath of air and gripped his arm as I was pulled back from him. I was seeing red, only partly aware of the axe being removed from my hands and Ed stumbling a few steps back.

“You were a kid Odette, you didn’t need to know about them.” I let out a sarcastic laugh.

“Oh, a 12 year old is too young to know anything about her parents? She cant handle it? I hate to break it to you but if I could handle watching my parents become infected I think I could handle hearing about post church brunch and when my dad used to take you hunting!” I was screaming at this point. I was beyond furious.

“Odette, just calm down.” I could barely hear Greg as my anger died down and the world went black.