Life After the Undead (Completed)

PART 16: The Beast .5

Connor's P.O.V.

Melissa went straight to bed the second Jack dropped her off.

She had had this rosy glow about her face and this lovesick smile that was so unlike her. At first Rebecca and I were confused about what was going on with her, and she wasn't too forth coming about what had her smiling like that when we asked. She was clear that she wasn't injured though, which was good because I was starting to think she had a concussion or something.

"Where's Evelyn?" we had asked her, once we were certain that she was relatively okay, but she had just smiled in that dazed way of hers.

"Godrick's out looking for her, I'm sure she's fine," she had said. Wait... she didn't know where Evelyn was and she had left her... wherever she had been? "Leave the drawbridge down, I'm sure she'll be home soon. I'm going to go shower and go to bed."

Then she just skipped her way up the stairs, humming to herself as she went.

Both Rebecca and I exchanged glances because... well... this was weird. Maybe this particular life-or-death situation she had just been in was too much for her, the literal last straw. Maybe she had finally snapped.

We weren't going to ask her that though, and she was right about leaving the drawbridge down at least.

Normally Evelyn was clear about not leaving the drawbridge down, but she wasn't back yet. We wanted to be sure that she got back in without any trouble, even though she'd be the one to be able to get it down anyway, she was the one with the remote to it after all.

As she said she would, Melissa was out cold the second she was done with her shower. Even Rebecca had gone up to bed, but I couldn't sleep.

Oh I tried to.

I had my own before-bed shower, and cup of hot cocoa before retiring to my room. I even lay in bed wiling myself to sleep. It just didn't happen. I couldn't fall asleep.

I couldn't stop thinking about what we would do if Evelyn didn't come back. I'd be in charge of course, Melissa would fight me, but it would make sense that it was me. I had helped Brandon with our own colony back in Montreal so it would make sense that I would take over here.

I'd have to figure out a way to operate this house without the system though, I wondered if there way anyway to get back to manual operations.

Though there was a good chance that, without Evelyn, we'd have to leave the house behind. It'd shut down on it's own and be useless to us.

Maybe I could start up a new colony, in a hotel or apartment building just like Brandon did. I'd be the new Evelyn, take over all her trade route and deals. I had gone with her and Melissa I would remember where to go... mostly.

I'd have to introduce myself to Steve.

But I'd have to play the part of worried housemate first. I'd have to try to find Evelyn, because, let's be honest here, I didn't want to loose the house. I wanted to build on something that already existed not build from scratch.

Eventually, when the sun started to rise, I got out of bed myself. I made myself coffee and decided that if Evelyn wasn't back by noon I was going to get Melissa to take me to where she had last seen Evelyn and then start looking for her.

But I didn't even get to finish the coffee when suddenly someone was knocking on the door.

I knew right away it wasn't Evelyn because she had the biometric lock to open the door, so I was immediately wary.

Problem was, Evelyn still didn't trust us with guns and the really sharp knives were locked away. Also because she didn't trust us.

I did, however, grab a fork, the sharpest one I could find.