The Final Female

Chapter Twelve

It seemed like a second apocalypse had begun when we entered the world again. Not a sound could be heard. Not a soul was in sight. 

"Where would they go?" I searched frantically to meet Jay's eyes for an answer.

"Maybe the commune hall. Where we had that meeting with the whole vivo your first day." I was pacing quickly before he was finished talking, then I went into a sprint. 

I made sure to dodge puddles. Every so often a sting graced my leg as my feet slapped the ground and droplets ricocheted up. The commune hall was across the Vivo, and although not that far, it felt like hours before I got there. Skidding through the door and around into the hall I saw a cluster of men in the corner. Their distraught faces met mine as their eyes flickered between me and something to the left of them.

A body. Curled up. Facing away from me.

I looked at the group again, scanning each face slowly to realise Zander was nowhere in sight. Tears stung my eyes as I ran over to Zander, not caring about the sting as I rolled him over. He was limp, barely there. Not there. Finally having the strength to scan my eyes up to his face I dropped the body from my arms in shock.

"This isn't Zander." I whispered as I shuffled away. 

"No. It's Jeremy. We couldn't save 'im. He just kept screamin' an' screamin' until there was no voice left." A man behind me said. 

Standing up I grabbed a sheet from a table nearby and laced it over him. I felt sorry for the man, but he wasn't Zander, and a small part of me was relieved. Was I a bad person for being happy another man had died? Pacing backwards and away, my back hit a surface again. Jay. 

"Come on mi amor, these men will sort this out. Let's try find Zane yeh?" 

"Yeh." I whispered, not caring about the Spanish name in the moment. I was still pressed against his chest. His hands on my shoulders, not slipping down to my waist. I was thankful for that, he wasn't like the other men in this new world. 

He gently used his hands upon my shoulders to guide me back outside and into the once again blaring sun. It was like nothing had changed. The four men about to be buried would probably disagree however. 

As we were walking I caught sight of a puddle in front of me and abruptly stopped as I looked down at my reflection below. It looked like a normal body of water. No discrepancies. No different hue or colour. No bubbles or steam. If a child were alive they might place their wellies upon their feet and spend an afternoon jumping in it and the hundreds of others that surrounded us. Their laughter and squeals would make the day brighter than it already was. The last time I had heard a child laugh would have been when I was babysitting Mrs Teagans daughter, a week before they both died in the same bed on the same night. 

A single stray tear escaped me as it slid down my cheek and dripped into the puddle. 

One, two, three, ripples, cascaded out from the centre distorting my face. Those hands were on my shoulders again.

"He'll be ok. Let's go check around yeh?" I nodded solemnly as we stepped over the water and continued onward. There was only few places he could have gone. The tents wouldn't have done any form of protection, neither would the dining area or the farm. If we were to find him there, we wouldn't be finding my smiling Zander, so we decided to check those places last. The huts were damp but had held up. There was one man camped out in one, but no one else. 

Once we had gone through every place within the vivo, even the last resorts of the dining, farm and tents, we were confused. Even if we hadn't found him alive, we should have at least found him by now. 

"I don't understand. He's nowhere in the vivo." Jay said. My mind thought for a second before I began running towards the hall leading out of the walls of the vivo and to quarantine.

"He couldn't have left the vivo! Only myself and Isaac have keys out that door." He yelled as he ran after me. 

When I reached the door and saw the lock broken and the handle falling off I almost cried with glee. Thrusting the door open I ran down the long white hallway that led to the quarantine room about thirty metres outside the Vivo walls. When I reached the door and couldn't get in I looked back at Jay for help. He caught up and brought his key out from his pocket. Before he could put the key in the lock I snatched it off him and turned the key before swinging open the door with a bang. 

Scanning the room my face morphed into bright relief as I saw Zander boredly sitting on the chair I remembered all too well. A few other men stood around him. They must have been on patrol, how could we have forgotten? I was about to run forward and embrace him when my face met a face I had seen many times before. The once bright relief contorted to terror at the sight of a man I wanted to forget, leaning against the wall beside him. His eyes met mine and I saw that gleam that I had seen on one too many nights.

Zander stood up, expecting me to run into his arms. Instead I backed out of the room and ran away. As fast as I fucking could.