Our Undead (16 page)

Abe, however, looks like he
is still in good shape as Margaret examines his now more intriguing
physique. She has no idea what he might have been through before he
showed up and killed the rest of her family, but his body still
looks to be in satisfactory condition, if you look passed the
multitude of rips in his clothing and the plethora of deep
scratches and puncture wounds scattered all over him. Yep, with the
exception of holes in his midsection caused by the door, an arm
that looks a little damaged (cause unknown), a bruised up face
caused by her, and his filthy torn clothes, Abe looks as tough as
ever, and being unable to move him even a millimetre, is enough to
prove to Margaret that he is just fine. Before she takes her seat
again, she thinks to herself how horrifyingly powerful an army of
zombies like Abe would be.

Margaret:
Blah, fine then. Stay standing if you want to. See if I
care.

She lets out one more huff
and goes back to her place, sitting on top of her blanket beside
her duffel bag to finish her meal. She speaks with her mouth full,
slowly forgetting more and more of the manners she was taught in
the old world.

Margaret:
You'll learn eventually. I'll make sure you do… But I'll um…
try not to beat you as much.

At that moment, Abe
finishes the hare he is eating and drops it on the floor.
Immediately after, he bends down and grabs the squirrel, which goes
straight from the floor into his mouth.

Margaret:
Oooo, I hope you like that. He… or she… was waaaay faster
than the hares. It took me a few more tries before I finally got
him… her… it… whatever. The squirrel.

Abe seems to enjoy the
squirrel but pretty much on the same level he enjoyed the hares.
It's hard to tell how the walking corpse feels when his face can
only express about two emotions. His usual look is one that reads
tired or weary, and the other one just looks like anger at varying
degrees. Now, while he is eating the squirrel, Abe wears the
"tired" expression. Margaret has no idea how he feels about the new
treat she brought for him, but at the rate he is eating it, she is
quite certain that he is enjoying it.

Margaret:
I know this is probably pointless to say, but you should
probably slow down. The sun is setting. There's no way I'm going
back out there tonight, so there won't be any food for you until
some time tomorrow.

Just then Margaret takes
her final bites of bread and last few slurps of noodle soup. She
finishes the meal, but her murmuring stomach remains unsatisfied.
As hungry as she still is, Margaret knows that it wouldn't be smart
to eat any more food. She knows that she's running low on rations…
but how low?

Checking the inside of her
duffel bag, she finds one can of Spaghettios and a little over a
half loaf of bread. She still has the water bottle that she can
bring along with her and refill whenever she gets the chance, but
she won't be able to survive on water alone. After swallowing a
large gulp of h2o, she lets out a sigh.

Margaret:
I'm almost out of food myself, Abe. I think we might have to
leave this place tomorrow… Shit.

Abe responds by dropping
the squirrel hide to the floor. Margaret chuckles halfheartedly,
thinking about all of the trials she has already overcome, and the
ones she has yet to face. She knows she has to leave, or she'll
starve to death, and that would be a fate much worse than being
eaten alive… maybe. Regardless, she knows she has to leave, but
where should she go? And how well will she be able to fend for
herself alone?

Margaret:
At least I have you to keep me company.

Abe is already chowing down
on the last of his woodland rodents. He seems rather nonchalant
about the whole situation, a welcome change from the raging beast
he used to be. Margaret, on the other hand, can begin to feel the
stress bubbling in her belly, making it's way up in to her skull.
The last thing she needs is a headache, so she makes a
decision.

Margaret:
Well, I'm gonna get an early night's sleep, Abe. I have a
feeling this'll be the last time in a long while that I'm going to
get to rest comfortably. Not that this place is at all
comfortable.. It's just… I'm pretty sure I'm better off in this
cabin than I'm going to be sleeping under bridges and on the ground
out there.

She readies her blanket and
starts to get nestled under it.

Margaret:
Actually, that's another thing I envy about you. You don't
have to sleep.

She lays her head down on
the pillow and gets as comfortable as the broken down floor will
let her.

Margret:
(yawning)
But like I said, if
you get tired feel free to take a seat.

With that, Margaret closes
her eyes and drifts away into unconsciousness.

<><><>

She wakes up the next day,
and the room is it's usual bright self, with golden rays of light
pouring in through the windows. Margaret blinks her eyes into focus
and looks over to the spot that Abe was standing in the night
before. She finds it empty with the exception of two bloody animal
hides. This startles her, helping her along in the process of
waking up. The fatigue suddenly leaves her body as she props
herself up on to her right elbow.

Margaret:
Abe?

But her mild panic is short
lived, as she simply looks to the opposite side of the cabin and
sees Abe still standing up. Only now, he is in the kitchen area,
standing and staring at the wall of cupboards. Margaret breathes a
sigh of relief when she realizes that she isn't alone.

Margaret:
Abe!

Abe turns around to the
sound of her voice and waits.

Margaret:
I thought you left me.
(sits
up)
That might've actually been the
smarter thing to do. We have to leave soon, and it's gonna be hard
enough keeping myself alive. It'll be a miracle if I'm able to keep
both of us safe.

She looks over at Abe who
stays quiet.

Margaret:
We'll be leaving in twenty minutes… This place is starting to
stink anyway.

The living room of the
cabin has become an utter mess. Her mother's covered remains still
sit by the door under the broken window, and the two zombies that
attacked her the day before are in a two-man pile beside her
mother's corpse. Part of her actually doesn't mind leaving, so
twenty minutes later Margaret stands at the open door way with her
duffel bag at her feet.

Margaret:
Okay, this is it.

She picks up her bag and
makes her way out the door. Before she exits, she looks down at her
mother's hidden corpse sat to the door's right side. She doesn't
bother to reveal it.

Margaret:
I love you, Mom. Please, watch over me, you and
Dad…

Unable to say goodbye, she
leaves it at that and exits the cabin. She goes down the porch
steps and calls back to Abe. He appears in the door and makes his
way outside to meet her. While he approaches, she tries to decipher
which way they should go.

Margaret:
When my family and I found this place, we were on our way to
Portland. I'm thinking we should probably just keep heading that
way. We lost the map, but my father was pretty certain that it's
that way.

She points in the direction
heading behind the cabin as Abe stops at her side.

Margaret:
I'd check my phone, but I lost
that
before we lost the map.
We'll just have to take a chance… So,.. ready?

And thus begins the next
chapter of their journey. They walk and walk for what seems like
hours. When they had left the cabin, Margaret guessed that it was
probably about 11am. The sun was very bright then and seems to only
be getting stronger as the day goes by. The terrain isn't too
difficult to traverse through, and the land is relatively kind, but
now hours into their trip, everything is starting to look the same.
She expects that it must be about three or four o'clock, although,
she really has no idea, so she decides to take a rest. She finds a
small shady clearing and takes a seat on the ground, resting her
back against a large boulder. She exhales, totally
bushed.

Margaret:
I'm just gonna have a little snack, if you don't mind. Don't
worry. I'm just gonna have a couple pieces of bread and some water.
We'll be leaving sooner than you know it. I'm not even tired. I
could walk so much longer. For hours! But what's the rush,
right?

She talks to Abe while
digging in her bag for her light snack. As tired as she truly is,
she tries to not look weak in front of her partner. Abe doesn't
look tired at all. He looks like he actually
could
walk for hours longer. Perhaps
Margaret doesn't want him to see her as the feeble fleshly mortal
that she is, so she acts tough to compensate for her worn out and
sweaty appearance. She continues her performance.

Margaret:
You better take it easy too. The sun must be killing you. It
must be really bad for your skin, you know, speeds up the
decomposing process. I'm not doing too badly. In fact, this whole
experience has been pretty great. It's like going for a hike, and
the landscape looks amazing. I can't wait to get started again…
We'll get going in like five minutes.

She continues on like this
while she eats her first few pieces of bread, but as time passes,
Margaret's tone changes significantly. Five minutes had gone by at
least twenty minutes ago, and now, she sits in a more reclined
posture with her hands up, resting in between her head and the
boulder, looking extra relaxed.

Margaret:
…and I don't even know where we're going! We've been walking
forever, and we could be going in the wrong direction completely.
This whole thing is ridiculous… Fuck it. Fuck this, fuck walking…
and fuck the wilderness!

She closes her eyes and
takes a deep breath in, opens her eyes and exhales.

Margaret:
But it wouldn't be too smart of me to just lie here, would
it?

She slowly gets to her feet
and dusts herself off, then grabs her bag and walks over to Abe who
is standing by the thick trunk of a large tree.

Margaret:
Whoa… got a little bit of a head rush there. It's so bloody
hot.
(sighs)
Okay, let's go, buddy.

She turns to begin walking
again, rubbing her head to clear the head rush, when she looks to
the left and sees something shiny in the distance. The gleaming
object stops her in her tracks, and she squints hard to try and
make it out, but her vision is blurry, and her head is still coming
down from the rush of standing up too fast. It makes it quite
difficult to tell what the thing is.

Margaret:
What the hell is that? Am I hallucinating
already?

She squints even harder,
narrowing her eyes to their limit, and suddenly the thing in the
distance becomes recognizable. Her eyes widen when she realizes
that the object is something being aimed in her and Abe's
direction. She looks at Abe and makes a quick dash over to him,
completely disregarding her healing ankle, and tackles him to the
ground like a professional defensive lineman. She looks up at the
tree that Abe was standing in front of and sees an arrow stuck in
the trunk right around the area where his head would have
been.

Margaret:
(out of breath)
Holy shit… well…
I guess we're even now.

As Margaret gets off of Abe
and back to her feet, she hears a something or someone approaching
through the bushes. She hovers her trembling hand over the knife at
her side, but what emerges from the leaves is not what she expects
at all. A little black boy, dressed like a miniature jungle
commando, comes charging into the clearing wearing a concerned
expression.

The boy wears a black cloth
bandana around his forehead like Ryu from Street Fighter. It goes
well with his long sleeved black tee, cut short around the forearms
and the black knapsack held tight to his back. Margaret can see
about twenty arrows jutting out of it. On his lower half, the boy
wears loose fitting camouflaged pants in black and dark green, and
a pair of durable looking black runners. His bow is held tightly in
his left hand, and when he sees Margaret and Abe, he swiftly takes
out another arrow and draws it back on the string. His facial
expression turns from a concerned one to a serious one. There's no
way he's going to miss his target again, not at this point blank
range, but before he releases the bowstring, Margaret throws
herself back on top of Abe, obstructing the kid's shot.

Margaret:
NO! Stop! He's harmless!!

The boy says nothing. He
keeps his eyes focused on her and the zombie, and his arrow
steadily aimed.

Margaret:
Trust me! If he was dangerous, don't you think I would
already be getting my neck eaten out!?