Lost In the Real World

I sit quietly and watch my boyfriend watch the football game. He wants hot wings but we're out of hot sauce. I'm scared to tell him, but I don't have any money to go buy more, he keeps it all. I sigh, I have no choice but to interrupt the game.

"Um, Daryll?" I whisper softly. He doesn't hear me so I repeat myself louder.

"What? What do you want? Why are you interrupting my peace and quiet after I specifically told you not to? Huh?!" he demands.

"W-well, we're out of hot sauce for your wings. Could I have some money to go pick up some more?" I ask him.

He glares at me and I start to tremble. Eventually he hands me a ten dollar bill. "You better bring back exact change and the receipt. You know what will happen if you don't. Right?" he asks quietly.
I nod and leave the apartment. I walk to the grocery store a few blocks down. It's a small shop, but it's cheap and within walking distance. Since Daryll refuses to let me have a car, I try to stay close to home, even when I'm shopping. My phone starts ringing and I check the caller ID. It's Lisa, my younger sister.

I answer the phone with a simple 'hello.'

"Lorie, have you seen the news? You're at home, right?" her voice is frantic.

"No, I'm on my way to the market to pick up some hot sauce so that I can cook hot wings for Daryll." I respond.

"Get indoors! I'm serious, this is urgent!" she shouts at me over the line.

"Why? What's going on? Lisa?" I ask quietly.

"Lorie, it's happening. There's some kind of virus going around. People are turning into zombies!" she quickly explains.

I laugh, "Lisa sweetie, there's no such thing as-"

I get cut off as a large man body slams me. He's frothing at the mouth and he doesn't look anything like a zombie. The force of the hit knocked the phone from my hand and I could hear Lisa panicking on the line. I look around in a panic as the man tries to tear out my throat with his teeth. I see a rusty pipe and try to wiggle within it's reach underneath the man's heavy body. He seems to be dead weight. I knee him in his groin and it has no effect on him. Suddenly, his head is caved in and he's being rolled off of me. I look up at the man that had saved me as he holds out a hand to help me. I accept his assistance and I try to remember how to speak. My mouth opens and closes like a fish before I remember that Lisa is still on the phone line. I run to it and all I hear are bloodcurdling screams. I shout her name over and over and there's never a response. The line goes dead. I look at the man that had saved me.

"Thank you for helping me. I'm Lorie. What's your name?" my voice is surprisingly calm. I felt numb.

"I'm Carter. Are you alright?" he asks me with a worried look on his face.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just need to get to the market and pick up some hot sauce for my boyfriend." I sound emotionless when I speak.

"Why don't I walk you back home? I'm sure he'll understand why you didn't get him any hot sauce." Carter says with a strange look on his face. I nod and lead him to my apartment in silence. He bashes zombies in the head with a baseball bat on the way there. 'That must be what he used when he saved me' I think absentmindedly. We walk up to the third floor and I unlock the door.

"Why are you back already? I know you couldn't have gone there and come back already you little bitch." Daryll growls at me. Then he sees Carter. "Who the fuck is this? I knew you were cheating on me."

Carter says, "I just saved your girl's life. You might want to stop being an ungrateful prick for a few minutes and check the news to find out what's going on. It's the zombie apocalypse. Hope you're prepared."

Daryll just snorts in dismissal. "Zombies? Yeah, right. Get out of here. I gotta teach my girl a lesson and I don't need no witnesses."

Carter turns away and walks out. Daryll backhands me accross the left side of my face and suddenly my stupor is over with. "Carter!" I shout.

He comes back quickly enough that I knew he must have been waiting outside the door and punches Daryll in the face. "Nobody should ever hit a lady." he says to Daryll.

Daryll is knocked out cold. I run and grab a pen and paper and write 'it's over' in big, bold letters. Then I rummage through his pockets and steal his car keys. Then I try to decide whether or not to trust Carter.

He sees my indecision and says, "You can come with me if you want to. If not, you should learn to defend yourself and find a group to stick with. If you choose to come with me, I promise I won't hurt you."

I nod and say, "I took his car keys. I don't know how to drive. But I want to go with you. We should go before he wakes up."

Carter nods and we walk out. I lock up the apartment on my way out. I'm not so coldhearted that I'd leave it open for the zombies. We jog down the steps and I hand Carter the keys. "Where are we going to go?" I ask him.

"Well, I have a hunting cabin and weapons up north of here, so that's where I planned to go. Now that we have the car, we should go raid a supermarket for backpacks and supplies," he responds, adding, "and you need a weapon of some sort."

I nod and say, "I'm good with any kind of gun, and I know how to throw knives."

We make our way to the nearest store and grab a shopping cart. He beats the zombies off of me as I gather supplies, including: backpacks, canned foods, cutlery sets, eating utensils, medical supplies such as bandaids and antibiotics, lighters, lighter fuel, climbing gear, rope, two shotguns, two rifles, four revolvers, holsters, ammo, bows and arrows, a higher quality bat for Carter, a set of pots and pans, two coolers that are now filled with ice and meat, stovetop dinners, and enough soda to last a decade. We quickly run from the store and unload the things into the car, except for the weapons which we keep on us at all times. Carter starts the car, and we drive away from the chaotic marketplace.

"I need to find my sister." I inform him in the car.

"Is that who you were on the phone with?" he questions.

I nod and say, "She's only sixteen. She shouldn't go through this alone."

I give him her address and he drives by my old house. He tells me he'll be back in twenty minutes. He lives near here and he wants to check on his brother, so he's leaving the car and taking two of the backpacks to get his brother packed and back here. I get out of the car and walk up the short driveway. I stand on the porch, looking into the window at a gruesome scene. My parents are wildeyed, attacking the closet door. I see Lisa's phone smashed in front of the wall next to them. Lisa's boyfriend Eric is slowly dragging himself toward the others. He seems to be injured. He grabs the coffe table and pulls himself up. He glances toward me and points at the closet door. I nod, understanding what he's trying to tell me. I use ASL to ask him if he's ok. He responds by signing back that he'd fallen, sprained his ankle, and lost conciousness and they had lost interest in him. I motion for him to be quiet and I slowly open the door. My parents turn to look at me and lunge toward my throat. They trip over each other and I shoot them each in the head once. I step over them, refusing to accept that they were actually gone and knowing that I would need to be strong for Lisa. I cautiously open the door and step back. There's a form huddled in the back of the closet and I whisper her name. She looks up at me and when she realizes who I am, throws herself into my arms.

"Did they bite you?" I ask her.

She shakes her head and says, "I got into the closet before they got me, thanks to Eric."
He steps into our view from where he had been in the kitchen and walks himself into her arms. She sighs happily, until she glances over to where our parents lay still and lifeless. Their brain matter is sprayed across the floor, their hair is covered in blood and matted against their faces. Their eyes are staring into the distance, their mouths agape, and one of our father's ears is missing. She gasps in horror, tears in her eyes.

"Momma, Papa! Lorie what did you do?! You killed our parents!" She glares at me in hatred.
I look at her, shocked, and whisper, "I did what I had to do to save you Lisa. I had no choice. If there was a way around it, I would have taken it. But this was the only way to get you out safely. Now come on you two. We have to leave. Come help me pack some clothes up. Please. We can feel later. Right now we need to survive."

She sniffles but nods. We go upstairs and she takes a backpack to her room, after I inspect it thoroughly to ensure her safety. Eric goes with her. I go to my old room and pack essential clothes, change into tennis shoes, and grab my old walkie talkies and pictures of myself with my family at various ages. I find a ring that I haven't seen in years, and stow it away in my bag. I also put in a deck of cards, a flashlight, batteries, and some feminine products. On my way out I notice my gaming bag, which also contains my favorite books and movies. I make it downstairs and find my sister holding our cat, Pebbles, and glaring angrily at Carter and Eric.

"Why can't she come?" she demands to know.

"We don't have catfood. We don't have the room for a cat. We don't have a litterbox. It's the zombie apocalypse. I'm sorry but you're going to have to leave her." Carter patiently explains. I scowl at him.

"She enjoys car rides so she doesn't need a cage. There's plenty of room. She can eat tablescraps, she likes them anyways. We can empty and clean the two litterboxes here and bring them with us, plus the clean litter we have now. So what if there are zombies? We can't just leave her. We can get her new supplies when we scavenge for our own food and supplies." I butt in. There's no way I'm leaving my beautiful baby behind. I would have taken her with me when I moved out, but Daryll didn't like cats, so I left her to Lisa. I knew she would love and care for her and I was right. I look at Carter and say, "I'll move stuff around in the car to make room for everyone, our stuff, and the cat. Is your brother...?" I hesitate to finish my sentence, and he glances at the corpses of my parents with such sorrow in his eyes it hurts to look at him.

"He was one of them." he says simply. I nod in response, and reach over and squeeze his hand, then pick up my bags and carry them to the car. I stow them in the trunk, along with Lisa's and Carter's, and close the trunk. I go back into the house and empty and clean the litterboxes, get the boxes of clean litter that were left in the pantry, and put them in the passenger seat, behind the driver's side. Then I put Pebbles in her harness, and hooked her to the leash. I grab her bed, toys and catnip and add all but her bed to my evergrowing pile of cat supplies. I retrieve what food she has left and put it in the floor in front of it all. I protect Lisa and Eric as they get in the back of the car, Lisa in the middle, and put the bed in her lap. I go back inside while Carter guards the car and bring Pebbles out. I deposit her on the bed in Lisa's lap, and I get in the front seat. Carter gets into the driver's side and starts the car. We drive to a gas station, fill up all we can, and drive north out of Missouri and into Illinois. This is going to be a long night.