Decaying Hearts

Chapter 5

Tony led me out of the nurse's room and in to a long corridor. The walls were a soft neutral yellow, plastered with posters and pictures. One wall was filled with seemingly endless colourful delights, along with some that lacked the same artistic flare. Amongst them, one in particular caught my eye. It was clearly a mock of a book cover drawn by a child, maybe around ten years old. It was a gruesome illustration of a zombie leaning over a human corpse with bloody puddles scattered across the page. The title on top of the image read "The Walking Dead." The child must have been a fan of the comics, once.

"Clearly the kid never thought that this shit would actually happen one day." Tony sighed matter-of-factly beside me.

"Clearly." I whispered, but then who did expect this shit would actually happen. This was supposed to only happen in books and movies.

A name laid in the bottom right corner, Rowan Pierce. I had once known a young Rowan, he would have been around ten years old himself at the beginning of the outbreak. I remember his parents well, they were once really good friends of mine, calling me in the middle of the night when Rowan was just a baby. They had found a rash on the inside of his legs and were overcome by the anxiety that their first and only child had contracted meningitis. If only meningitis was the only disease we had to worry about right now.

I had made the 5 minute drive to their family home in the suburbs and rushed them to the hospital. In the end, it turned out to be just a sore nappy rash accompanied by a coincidental fever. After that his father and I forever joked about the worry in his mother's eyes that night to her dismay, but she would always take it with a giggle. It had been years since I had seen them, even before the outbreak. I doubt they would have welcomed me anyhow. I wonder what happened to them, if they were still alive.

Seeing the numerous and almost identically structured rooms on each side of the corridors and the lockers that lined up against the walls, I realised I was in a school – a primary school, no doubt. I should have known. Lenny had mentioned that he was holding up with a group in a school, why hadn't realised sooner? The irony of it was that a place built for the education and growth of children, to provide them safety, but was now a refuge for desperate adults.

The classrooms, I had noticed, were no longer filled with rows and rows of tables and chairs, but were now turned in to alternative bedrooms. A few of the rooms seemed to hold two mattresses with a suitcase or two filled with personal belongings against the wall.

"Hey there, Nancy. How are you holding up today?" Tony smiled pleasingly to a little old dear walking toward them in the quiet corridor.

"Just fine, thank you dear." Said Nancy and she turned to me politely, "and who might you be?"

"Josh, ma'am!" I nodded.

"Oh lord! Don't call me ma'am. It'll only bring back memories of my wretched mother." And she laughed to herself, walking in to one of the empty rooms.

"She's a nutcase at times." Tony whispered, laughing along with her echoes and then continued down the hallway.

He brought me in to a classroom that held a single mattress and a small pile of clothes. There was a few pictures across the back wall showing a happier time, before the world turned dark, and a single Iron Maiden poster sat alongside them with its left corner hanging limply.

"Room 6. You'll be sleeping in her from now on. We'll have to go on a run in a day or two anyway but we'll get you a mattress then. We do have a spare duvet and pillow for you though." Tony explained.

That meant I wouldn't be alone in the room. This put me on edge. In this world it was hard to know who you could trust or who would kill you in your sleep. Groups were usually reluctant to take in outsiders, strays and rightly so, those who did often had one or two members who disagreed and would do anything to make sure they were gone... for good.