HUMAN

Chapter Fourteen

A/N: I'm ending tonight's posting spree with one of my favorites that I've written so far. 

I'm Not Dead – P!nk  

*** 

Thankfully, they marked their route back home on the map. They would have been completely lost without it. The didn't encounter any of the dead for most of their way back, which was actually pretty shocking. There were many more on their way there. They knew it had been some time since everything happened, but they all had to have gone somewhere. Where could they be?  

"I didn't really see... back at the lake," Avi rambled, "in case you're feeling uncomfortable... there's no reason to be because I didn't... I didn't see much." 

Kirstie smiled and then replied, "I appreciate that, but I'm sure you saw everything."  

He gulped, "No... honestly. I was mostly focused on if you were ok, if you were hurt or anything. You really scared me back there."  

She looked up at him, then back down because the damn sun was blinding her sensitive eyes.  

"What the..." Avi murmured.  

When Kirstie looked back at him, she could see that he was staring off into the distance. He was frozen.  

"What... oh my God..." She saw it too.  

Far down the road, in the direction they were headed, they could see a bright, yellow vehicle slowly driving towards them. But, there was more. Hundreds maybe even a thousand zombies were walking behind it, following it blindly. They panicked, but acted immediately. They ran over to the tattoo parlor that they had stopped in front of. It was locked. Kirstin ran over to the window. Thankfully, that wasn't locked. She pulled it open and pushed in the mesh screen as fast as humanly possible. Avi picked her up by the waist to help her climb in. Just as the vehicle began to approach them, Kirstie unlocked the front door from the inside. Avi ran in and they immediately secured the door and windows, making sure they were all tightly locked. They probably should have searched for zombies inside, but they were in such a rush they hadn't even considered it. Kirstie watched the events outside from the window, only peeking the top of her head above the window sill. She could see that the bright, yellow vehicle was a school bus. There were several people inside of it, but she couldn't make out their faces. When she saw the crowd of zombies following, she closed the blinds. She didn't want them to even get a glimpse of them in their hideout. While she did that, Avi searched the building. Luckily, there were none of the dead inside.  

"Well, it looks like we might be here for a while," Avi said in a hushed tone.  

They both set down their supplies and sat down on the couch that was across from the front window.  

"I wonder who those people were," Kirstie added.  

"It looks like they were diverting a large group, maybe they were coming from Philadelphia or something. Why they came here, I have no idea," he said.  

"We should pack a tattoo gun for Mitchell," she joked. "He'd love us forever."  

Avi laughed, "Hmm... food or tattoo gun? Which should we make room for in our bags?"  

Kirstie laughed too, "Ok, you're right. Food wins every contest." 

She glanced around the room, "Hey, this place is pretty cool. It's so bright and colorful. The artist that worked here was really talented too. Look at their drawings on the wall. Amazing." 

She looked at Avi, who was silent. She asked, "Would you EVER get a tattoo?" 

Avi paused before speaking, "Maybe. I had different... opinions on it... before everything happened. But it doesn't look like any of that matters anymore. Yea, I probably would."