We With Daisies Lie

Closer

“They’re coming!” Emily yelled from the front of the school- by then I had reached the cafeteria, Spencer was flipping tables in a blind rage. No food left. Emily ran in- blind panic in her eyes.

“There's hundreds of them!”

“Those bitches ate all the food!” Spencer turned to me. The glass from the front door shattered and the locks began to break from the force of hundreds of dead pushing hungry against the doors.

“Out the back,” Spencer said and led the way, I stayed.

“No!” I yelled, he looked back at me waiting for the rest but I didn't have time to finish. Two of the five girls appeared at the far end of the hall. The youngest baring her bloody milk teeth at us. The other crawled on her arms; the bullet must have shattered her spine.

“Afraid of some little girls?” Spencer laughed and crossed to them. As Spencer rushed those girls without an ounce of remorse, I began to feel like things were getting smaller. Like the hallways weren't big enough to fit through- like the ceiling was falling on our heads. The sound of the dead groaning from behind us kept my knees locked. Air was suddenly gone from my lungs. Spencer yelled for us to follow him, Ryan ran like a bat out of hell- but I couldn't. Couldn't run, couldn't even breathe. Emily asked me what was wrong, I didn’t answer. Spencer and Ryan disappeared into the hallway assuming we were behind them. I heard the other girls snarl and bite at them, then sound of their heads being cracked like eggshells.

The front doors finally broke and hundreds of dead poured inside. Emily rushed me into the refrigerator in the kitchen behind the counter. All the food inside had turned to rot; it took all we had no to vomit. The smell must have kept them away. Emily and I were in complete darkness. The space was so small we had no choice but be pushed against each other. I snapped myself from my fog. Emily had just saved my life, and I had just out hers in danger. The refrigerator was utterly silent. We could barely hear the sound of the dead outside. “I'm sorry,” I whispered, “I don’t know what happened.”

“Just paying you back,” the air of her breath brushed my cheek.

“You don’t owe me anything. Spencer will be mad you didn't go with him. I won't let him hurt you anymore,”

“He's not my boyfriend,” just then one of the dead things knocked something over outside- they rushed and swarmed whatever it was with ravenous expectation but there was nothing. I heard them give up and continue to wander.

“What do you mean?” I almost said it in my normal voice I was so taken back.

“He was our neighbor. He saved my life. He said if I wanted to live I would have to do what he said. I would have to be his,” her breathing started to change, it became hard and shallow with struggle. She was crying. I took her hand in mine and leaned in close to her ear, “You don't belong to him,” her hand tightened around mine. Her cheek lay wet on my shoulder. “You don't belong to anyone,”

The dead sounded less and less prominent outside, we knew the oxygen wouldn't last forever but we deiced to wait a few minutes before trying to escape. She asked about my family. Her story was similar to mine. I told her about my sister, my writing, about living on my own in New York. I told her I was on the way to the wedding of a girl I had loved all my life and how I used to picture her in a wedding dress, looking at me through the veil. She said she was home from college and that going away to a new place was the first time she realized she didn't have to be miserable all the time. That life got better than what she knew at home, at least it seemed like it would until it all changed.

       It felt like hours later when we heard the shots. Spencer had returned with new weapons. Ryan fired off some rounds down the street to distract the dead while Spencer mowed down the ones who hadn't left yet. He opened the fridge, Emily dropped my hand, and though my eyes hadn't adjusted yet, I could have sworn I saw a flash of pain cross his face. The only emotion he'd ever shown aside from rage.

“Come on we don't have much time,” he said extending a hand to her. He glanced at me for a moment and led us out to the back.

“Where's Ryan?” Emily asked.

“He'll be right along,” Spencer said and pointed to a path in the woods. “Go on that way- he's gonna meet us. We found weapons and a place with some canned food left. Ryan knows this town real good. We're gonna be okay here. Go on,” he told her again.

“What about you guys?”

“There are more guns, we have to go back. Hurry, Ryan's waiting,” she hesitated and then started to run, pretty soon she was gone and it was just Spencer and I. “You found food?” I asked him, things were starting to get foggy again, I was lightheaded and weak. Standing in the fridge so long had been more draining than I realized.

“Food, yeah we found food, guns, everything we need,” he looked around the clearing, checking for something. “For the three of us,” I opened my mouth to ask- before I had a chance he slid the knife just under my ribcage. There was no pain at first. And then it was like someone had struck a match and lit my insides on fire. He lowered me to the ground as the blood began to soak through my once blue shirt. Spencer walked over to the back door and opened it- he put a rock down to keep it that way and fired a shot into the school. A dinner bell for the dead. He walked back to me and looked down.

“That'll teach you to touch another man's things,” he said and cleaned the blood off his blade. Blood oozed between my fingers as I pressed my hand to the wound. My breaths became hard and shallow. He smiled, satisfied with himself and walked off.  I was left alone, blood pouring out. Just as my head began to spin and my vision got dark, I heard the approaching droll of the hungry dead.