Life After Z

Chapter 12 - Cooper

The fuel tank was everything Ivy said it would be. It was beyond amazing to be able to fill up our tank by simply pressing the trigger of the fuel gun instead of having to get a mouth full of gas every time we siphoned from a truck. Not to mention that we would be able to fill our tank and all of the portable fuel containers that we had.

A weight lifted off my shoulders. We had a stockpile of inhalers and a full tank of diesel. We could handle almost anything that was thrown at us with those two things under our belt.

I leaned against the truck, vaguely watching the truck fill up but really all of my attention was focused on the conversation happening to my right. Lucas had gotten Ivy to open up a little bit about her past and now they were talking about her group. Or rather, her lack of a boyfriend in said group.

To say I was interested in the topic was an understatement.

"Me too," Lucas said and I could practically hear his blush in his voice. "I- I mean that I'm single. No attachments for me either." I looked up to see Ivy was studying Lucas and she didn't look disinterested.

I should be happy. I had Jen. Everett sort of had her too. Lucas had been alone for a very long time. He deserved a good woman.

All true. Yet, happiness was not what I was feeling.

"The real question is how the fuck you are not hitched to someone," Everett budded in with zero tact. "Are you shacked up with a bunch of gay guys? A flock of priests? The remnants of an old folks home?"

"What?" Ivy asked, sounding both confused and a little affronted by Everett's words.

"Are you a lesbian? Is that why you like Jen more than us?" Everett continued to push and I had to fight a smile at the look of exasperation on Ivy's face.

"Why does it matter if I was?" Ivy questioned back and I had to admit that I liked the way that she didn't just bend over and give Everett what he wanted like so many others did. It was refreshing to see someone stand up to him.

"Believe me, to the three of us it matters a great deal," Everett volleyed back and Ivy's gaze shot between Lucas and me before returning to Everett. Ivy was no fool. She knew exactly what Everett was implying but instead of sparking her interest as I am sure Everett wanted, the idea of us being attracted to her scared the shit out of Ivy. Apparently, she was okay with Lucas shyly letting her know that he was available but not Everett's heavy-handed way of telling her we wanted her too.

Everett was right. Her fear felt wrong.

"Umm, I think I should be going. Rio will be worried about me," Ivy mumbled as her eyes darted between us, making sure we didn't make a move on her.

"Oh, don't run off because they are being horn dogs. They are typical men. They can't help it, but I swear that they are good guys," Jen said as she stepped out of the trailer brandishing a bottle of vodka and a couple of the small bottles of cranberry juice that we saved for Sebbie. "Now, who wants a drink? I think we should celebrate our good fortune in meeting Ivy and thank her for all of her help."

It wouldn't have been where I would have taken things, but adding alcohol to the mix might be a good move. It would buy us goodwill to share with Ivy and it might loosen her tongue. Plus, if she spent some time with us, maybe she would see that she has nothing to be afraid of.

"It is mid-morning," Ivy said skeptically.

"So?" Jen rebutted. "The world ended. We don't have any place to be. Have a seat, share a drink with us and we can tell you about what we have encountered on the road. You said that you have been here for over a year and don't get many visitors. I know you are dying for news about other people."

Ivy hesitated and took time to look at each of us before relenting. I moved the gas hose to fill the portable tanks as Lucas ran into the trailer to grab our camp chairs. Jen went back to grab some glasses and Ivy listened attentively to Sebbie as he explained something having to do with his dump truck. It took a few minutes to wrap everything up but eventually, we were all sitting in a circle under the shade of the trees with a drink in our hand.

It felt almost too normal to be real.

People didn't just sit around shooting the shit anymore. Which was a little weird if you think about it because when you didn't have a job to go to or a house to upkeep, there were a lot of hours in the day to fill. But our little group had been together for so long that we didn't really tell stories anymore. We knew everything about each other after Z-day and talking about before was just too damn depressing.

"Let's see, where should I start?" Jen asked with a dash of theatrics as she downed at least half of her drink. Ivy, on the other hand, had taken one polite sip and then just held the glass as if she had only accepted it because it was the socially acceptable thing to do.

"How about we start with you explaining who Rio is," Everett barked, taking a shot of vodka straight from the bottle.

"Or," Jen spoke loudly, drawing attention away from Everett and Ivy, "we can start with the Amazon distribution center."

Knowing Jen's motives, I didn't think allowing her to set the tone for our backstory was the smartest move so I jumped in. "About a week after the infected started to rise from the dead, we all ended up at an Amazon distribution warehouse not far from Cincinnati. We weren't the only ones with the idea of holding up there. In those early days, there were close to fifty of us there. Most of us had watched zombie apocalypse movies so we quickly secured the warehouse, rationed food, and set up a watch. But we had all thought the lore about shooting Zs in the head would take them out. None of us were prepared for them to keep reanimating. One guy was searching the downed Zs for weapons when he got bit. The idiot didn't tell anyone and turned that night. He got a couple of people and started a panic and we all hightailed it out of there without really thinking it through."

Ivy was fully engaged in my story but I could tell that Lucas was fighting the memories talking about this was bringing up. There had been a good number of kids at the warehouse and not all of them were killed by Zs. One little girl had been trampled as screams rent the air.

I cleared my throat and opened a juice for Sebbie before continuing. "By the time we regrouped, there weren't enough of us to hold the warehouse. More and more Zs were coming out of the city and we agreed that we should try to relocate somewhere more rural. We grabbed as much stuff from the warehouse as we could and hit the road. At that point, we had about six cars and twenty people."

"Is that when you started using the semi-truck?" Ivy asked in a soft voice.

"No," I replied and Everett passed me the booze. I took a hit and relished the burn. "That would come later after we learned some hard lessons."