Life After the Undead (Completed)

PART 11: Hibernation .3

Melissa's P.O.V

Evelyn woke us up at the crack of dawn.

Literally.

The second the sun peaked over the horizon, she was awake and getting us up too. I hated the early mornings that Evelyn seemed to be stuck on, but not even she was usually up before four in the morning. The days she was up that early were special. There was usually a specific reason for that early of a rising and, while I knew why she had us up so early on this day, I didn't think possibly getting our casts off was a good enough reason.

I posed the question to her, of why we absolutely had to get up this early and she responded with a simple: "It's supposed to snow today."

Goddamn why did this girl hate snow so much?

We didn't leave right at four like she wanted though. She let me and Connor get ready, she let us have breakfast while she packed meals and other things for the car ride, including snacks for Connor who apparently got motion sick if he didn't have something to eat.

I know. What a dweeb. How had he survived this long?

Much like Rebecca had, he had someone stronger, smarter and more capable making sure that he survived.

As per usual, I got the front seat and Conner got carted into the back, but Evelyn didn't take us to the 401 Drifter's base, she took us out onto the high way and towards the farmlands.

The farmlands were fenced in, they had patrolling units and barbed wires. Mostly to keep the zombies out and away from the livestock. Evelyn did a lot of business with the farmlands, did a lot of repair jobs for them.

"So... you gotta fix something?"

"I have to make sure their generators will last through winter," she told me. "Gotta make sure they know how to do small repair jobs too."

"Why? Aren't you in charge of..."

"As soon as it snows I'm not mobile anymore, they'll be on their own."

I turned to her surprised. I'm not surprised that she interrupted me, she does that all the time. No, what surprises me is the little factoid she dropped. That... that was something I didn't know before. I mean, she kept saying that she hibernated for the winter, I just didn't think that she actually meant it.

She was seriously not going to go out to help people once it snowed?

The people who worked for the Big Eye didn't do half of what Evelyn did. She was their number one front line worker. They sent her to all the places no one else wanted to go, and that was practically everywhere.

She caught my shocked look and she huffed. "Look, Steve... Steve hibernates in the winter. And if Steve's not going to be out it's not safe for me to be out either."

I nodded. Yep, that was it. I got it. No other explanation needed.

"Wait... so that's why you've been stockpiling supplies?" Conner asked from the back seat. "Seriously, you actually hibernate in the winter?"

"Yes, yes I do. And luckily, the guy who makes fuses lives on a farm out here. So I'm going to make sure their generator is in tiptop shape and I'm going to get rewarded with a season's worth of fuses in case ours blow. And judging Rebecca's beauty habits, I'm guessing we're going to blow frequently."

Evelyn parked the van, helped both of us get out and then lead us into the farm house we'd be staying in until she came back.

I liked visiting the other people around, I liked hearing their stories of Evelyn, because Evelyn rarely did her stories justice. The first time I had come here they told me this wonderful story about how Evelyn had to fish a live zombie out of the grain silo, without contaminating the grain in anyway. Evelyn told that story as the time she nearly fell into a grain silo, she completely forgot to mention the zombie until the very end.

As soon as we were sitting Evelyn left us and Connor lent in towards me. "Is she for real? She's really going to hibernate just because Steve does?"

I shot him a dry glare. This kid had just joined our group, who was he to make any comments about Evelyn and her habits?

"She sure does," the woman of the house told us both. It was bad that I never learned their names but to be fair, Evelyn mostly dealt with them. "Every time it snows she shuts herself into that house of hers. But we know, if it's an emergency she'll come out. She just doesn't like being out if her car can break down or get stuck especially in the winter. Especially since usually no one will go out to where she is to tow her out."

Oh I hadn't thought of that. That was actually fair. She did go out to all the places that no one ever wanted to go. It was how I had convinced her to take us in all those months ago, to use us for backup when she's in those places.

"That's ridiculous I thought she helped people!" Connor cried and I roll my eyes. He loved to tell us all about Brandon and how wonderful he was. He had a million stories about Brandon saving people, about the apartment complex that he had set up for everyone he saved.

He needed to realize that Evelyn wasn't like that. She wasn't used to having people be dependent on her, had never had to deal with that before... well us. Which I realize now is why she was so insistent on all of us having a purpose and why she was so annoyed that she had no choice but to take on Conner who had no readily apparent use to her.

"Okay, firstly, this is the end of the world. Everyone is out for themselves, and heroes die," I growled at him and realize later that it was probably a little hurtful to remind him that his personal hero had died. "Evelyn helps plenty of people, she just isn't running a hotel."

"No, she runs the city."

Both Connor and I turned to the woman of the house who was continuing to potter around the house doing whatever daily chores she had to do. I mean, Evelyn was very important to the city, she fixed a lot of the things that were broken and did a lot of deliveries for the major collectors that lived her, but I wouldn't say she was like... the mayor.

But I wouldn't know how wrong I was until later.