The Strong Will Survive

Chapter Seven - Lilith [EDITED]

 I'll admit it: at first, I wanted nothing to do with anyone but Daisy, even though she was a dog, and Reggie, even though he was still a comatose zombie. I wanted to be alone, strangely enough.

A month had passed, and the stress of my newfound situation was starting to get to me. KC kept asking more and more frequently when a meeting to discuss ending the zombie apocalypse would be held, and I knew I couldn't put her off forever.

I could tell that there was a lot of pain within KC, but she pretended there wasn't. Or maybe she had hardened the agony to purpose. Self-righteousness. Perhaps ending the apocalypse was her way of striking out at the zombies for taking her family and whoever else she had lost.

Myself, on the other hand - I was just here to survive. Eventually, KC would have to learn that a few teenagers could never end the zombie apocalypse alone. Until then, I would humor her. After all, I wasn't about to be the cruel jerk who crushed her dreams.

I was working through all of these thoughts as I checked on Reggie. He was fine, other than the fact that he was still comatose. I had parked my car in the entrance area of the Costco, where the carts and display cars once resided.

I readjusted the blankets propping up my little brother's head and kissed his forehead, moving his limbs around a little in case blood circulation mattered with Bedridden zombies.

Someday, I would get KC to let him inside.

I jogged back into the Costco and pulled Jared aside. "Listen, you guys can go ahead with that meeting KC's been wanting to do forever. I need to take a walk."

"You want to take a walk." His eyebrows raised. "In the middle of zombie apocalypse."

"I'll take a gun."

"Please don't."

I sighed in frustration. I had barely been outside in the month that I had been staying with KC and Jared, and I certainly hadn't gone on a walk. But right now, it was just too much, and hopefully Jared could let KC down easy with the whole "ending the apocalypse" thing while I was gone.

"Let her go." We turned at KC's voice. She stood a few feet away, arms crossed. "She's not that young and I showed her how to shoot a gun. She can handle herself. We can have the meeting when she gets back."

"And if I don't?" I asked. It was a precaution they had to prepare for.

KC scowled. "Don't think that way. That's how they get you. But we'd still have the meeting."

I smiled slightly at her warped sense of humor, not even entirely sure she was joking. "Well, then. See you."

I grabbed one of several guns from the rack of them KC was keeping in the Costco. According to her, she had raided an outdoors store in her first week here. "Watch Daisy," I told Jared. I had been keeping her in the store and only trusted Jared, who adored her, to be a sufficient caretaker. Then, I walked briskly into the entrance area and wriggled past our blockades.

What the hell am I doing? I asked myself as I had to duck into the shadows to avoid a roaming zombie. Luckily, it ignored me. I shouldn't be out here. Why did KC even let me go? I've never actually fired a gun before and I'm inept at self defense...

I kept walking.

The silence felt good. The constant headache and bone-aching weariness I always seemed to have finally faded into the background slightly.

As I passed an alleyway, I noticed a huge horde of zombies rounding the street corner in front of me, only about one hundred feet away. I was about to duck into the alleyway for cover when a large hand circled around my mouth, an arm snaked around my waist, and I was pulled into the shadows.