Today I Die, Tomorrow I live

Chapter Five >Harley<

I lay on the floor sleeping with everyone else, the only thing between me and the cold night air was a thin blanket like every else. My mind was too alert to sleep I’ve tried everything but in the end gave up on it and contented myself to keep an ear out for the zombies if they decided to attack tonight.

A whimper brought me out of my thoughts; I rolled over to my side and looked for the source. Meredith was the closest to where I was but still a good two meters away, I called to her.

“Meredith,” I whispered in case he was asleep. Slowly she rolled over and looked at me, even in the dim moon light I could tell she’d been crying. “What’s wrong?”

Instead of answering Meredith shook her head, I rolled my eyes and moved closer to where she was laying.

“Liar.” I whispered to her as I settled back down next to her. For a time she just stared at me, her eyes studying my face, but then tears filled her eyes and she sobbed silently. I reached over and grabbed her hand in an attempt to comfort her.

“Shh, it’s ok,” I whispered, placing my hand on her cheek I wiped away her tears with my thumb. I hate it when she gets like this.

“What happened here, when ‘they’ came?” Meredith whispered after she had calmed down a bit. I was unsure of what to tell her, so I just told her the truth.

“It was small things first; people getting sick of an unknown disease and dying. Until some of them started to survive, they were the ones that turned into zombies.”

She nodded and sniffed.

“What happened to you?”

“I found some weapons. You know; knives, fire pokers, baseball bats, things like that.” I went on quietly as not to wake the others, “Then I just stayed here. There was enough food and stuff here for me and the zombies don’t come here surprisingly.”

“What happened to the other people who were living here?”

I remembered how the others had died to the point where it was just Teegan and I but after a week she caught the disease and turned, I had to kill her.

“They didn’t make it.” I said simply.

“So you’ve been here all by yourself.” Meredith whispered, her tears had dried up and she could speak easier without being interrupted by sobs.

I nodded slowly.

“Are you leaving tomorrow?” I asked when there was a pause in the conversation.

She sighed.

“I don’t know, I think so.”

I couldn’t help but frown.

“You don’t have to leave.” I didn’t want her to go now that I’ve just found her again, she was right I had been here by myself and wanted her to stay.

“I don’t know.” She paused, “I can’t leave Daniel, he’s all I have left now.”

“Thanks.” I said genuinely hurt. “It’s not like I’m still here or anything.”

I rolled over to face away from her, I would have moved but I was too cold at this point to risk getting out of the blanket.

“Harley,” she whispered to me.

I didn’t respond.

“I’m sorry.” I felt her hand on my shoulder and she gently rolled me onto my back, I still didn’t look at her.

“Don’t touch me.” I said flatly.

She paused for a second before slowly removing her hand from my shoulder, I heard her roll over so she was facing away from me. There was a long silence when I thought she had fallen asleep.