The Dead in River City (6 page)

“
Library got
an upgrade.”
He said to himself, in utter disbelief.

Alan darted up the stairs to find Kendra and let her
know what the situation was. He found her hiding off in a corner, looking more
scared than he had ever seen her. She never seemed to be one to hide in fear,
but this time, she’d been spooked pretty bad. Before he could talk to her, he
heard a loud bang outside. He was pretty sure the car just exploded.

Alan ran to the window to confirm his suspicion.
Sure enough, the eyesore that was their ‘borrowed’ car was now a burning hunk
of metal. The Dead Ones that were close to the vehicle when it went up in
flames began to burn, and the bodies soon dropped to the ground, finally being
destroyed by the fire.

Kendra’s voice sounded out behind him. “What
happened? What did you do?”

“I saved us.” Alan replied.

“I mean, what did you do exactly?” She asked, her
frustration beginning to show.

“I blew up the car.” He admitted.

“YOU BLEW UP THE CAR?!” Kendra exploded.

“I didn’t have much of a choice, Kendra!” Alan shot
back. “I used it as a distraction so that I could lockdown the library.”

“Lockdown? What kind of lockdown?” She asked him.

“This building has security measures. In case of an
attack, someone can press the button underneath the desk, and it will lockdown
all the doors and cover all windows on the first floor.” Alan explained. “The
windows up here will stay uncovered, and the procedure runs on backup power. I
can lift the lockdown whenever necessary, but that will allow Graves and his
creatures to get in.”

Kendra absorbed the nature of the situation and
spoke. “Did you learn anything from Graves?”

Alan took a moment to replay the conversation in his
mind. “Not really. Only that he is definitely controlling these things. He even
had them turn the woman we left for dead in the mall.”

“I wonder why.” Kendra pondered aloud.

“Oh I know why.” Alan claimed. “He said he turned
her in order to save her. Graves is delusional, and apparently has some sick
feeling for her. I’m just guessing that he wouldn’t have a huge problem with
necrophilia.”

“Ewww.” Kendra shivered. “That’s sickening.”

“At least you didn’t see her. I did.” Alan remarked.

Kendra shivered again, pausing before she spoke. “So
what do we do now? We don’t have anything but the flashlights and your crossbow
pistol. Any ideas on what to do?”

“We aren’t leaving any time soon.” Alan spoke.
“Might as well get settled.”

Kendra went off the sit up against the wall. She
dared not look out the window. She’d seen enough of the dead walking around for
one day. Alan came over to her and sat a couple feet away.

“Hey, Alan.” Kendra suddenly said.

“Yeah?” He asked.

“Can I ask about you? Like what you were like before
all of this?” Kendra seemed interested to know more.

“Sure. I just never thought you’d want to know.”
Alan replied.

“
Yeah, neither
did I.”
She thought to herself.

10

If nothing else, it was a way to kill time.

Alan began his story, telling Kendra of his life
before the Dead Ones, and his life before her. “Where do I even begin?” He
asked aloud. “My whole life was in this city. I was born here, raised here, and
now I’ll probably die here. Childhood was normal, just like everyone else. I
had a good family who took care of me. They’re all dead now though. Luckily
they died before all of this happened. They never had to see this world. In the
few years before the attack, I’d had a few different jobs. I never went to
college, so I never had a lot of hope in getting a decent job. I mostly just
did part time stuff. I had a few retail type jobs, and a couple of temp
positions, nothing special. I always wondered what I would do with my life. I
guess I don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

“Seems like a pretty standard life. Not a bad one.”
Kendra said. “You said you’d lost people before. Was that your family, or were
you talking about someone else?”

“That was after the attack.” Alan replied. “I had
banded together with a few friends who survived the initial attacks. They were
the only people I had left in this world. I’m actually surprised they banded
together with me, considering I was more the outsider of the group as a whole.
Although, my best friend was one member of the group, so I guess that counted
for something. We’d managed to all find each other when we emerged from our
respective shelters and started our fight for survival. It went on for a few weeks,
and everything went as well as could be expected. Then one day we fell into a
raider ambush, and 2 of our number fell. A few days after that we ran into a
horde of Dead Ones, all due to my atrocious navigation skills. After that
incident, it was just down to me, and my best friend, Owen.”

“And what happened then?” Kendra asked, her interest
in the story rising.

“Well, Owen and I escaped the horde, and made it a
few more days on our own.” Alan continued. “We found ourselves holed up in the
old Brown Theatre in downtown. We were there for a few days, and our food
supply had run out days before we got there. We were starving and we couldn’t
make it out of the building, because of the Dead Ones outside. Owen made one
final act: an act of sacrifice. He made a loud racket, and did everything in
his power to draw the Dead Ones inside while I escaped. He died so I could
live, and I’ve been blaming myself since then. I stayed in downtown, and I met
you a little over a week after.”

Kendra was totally floored. “I’m… I’m so sorry.” She
said.

“It’s alright. I’m learning to cope. You’ve actually
helped me with that quite a bit.” Alan confessed.

“Really?” Kendra said, surprised.

“Yep.” He replied. “Since I met you, I don’t feel so
alone anymore. You’ve become more than just the girl I decided to tag along
with. You’ve become a friend.”

Kendra was a little shocked. She had no clue that
she could possibly have an effect so great on him. Kendra had never been a
major influence on anyone. This was all new to her, and part of her really
liked it. She smiled as Alan continued.

“So, anything else you wanna know?” He asked her.

“Hmmmm.” She hummed. “I’m not sure. I mean I don’t
expect you to give your life story.”

“I’d hardly call 23 years a life story.” He
retorted. “But I do see your point.”

There was a silence between them before Alan spoke
again.

“What about you? Can I ask your story?”

“You really wanna know about me?” She asked him.

“Sure. You are my friend after all.” He said with a
smile.

“Ok… here goes.” She said with a sigh.

Not really knowing where to start her story, she
began at the most logical place. She started at the beginning.

“I was born into a family that never deserved me.”
The heaviness in her voice was noticeable. “From an early age, I was abused. My
father was a poor excuse for a man. He beat all of us children, and even raped
both of my sisters during their young teen years. The bastard never tried it on
me until I reached that age, and by then, my sisters had told me enough about it
that I was ready to strike back. He wasn’t about to violate me and get away
with it. I was 14 years old when he tried, and I decided that 14 years was
enough Hell for one lifetime.”

“What did you do?” Alan asked, heavily invested in
the story.

 
“One
night, he came into my room, and I was awake enough to hear him. If that wasn’t
enough, I could smell the whiskey on his breath mixed with the stench of sweat
from his clothes. The floor creaked in my darkened room as he approached my
bed. He could never have known what was coming next. I was ready for him. When
he reached the bed, and was mere moments away from raping me for the first of
what would have been many times, I turned over to face him, and pulled my hand
from beneath my pillow, revealing a knife I’d taken from the kitchen. It was
one of the big ones from the cutlery set, big enough to slash deep through his
skin, or even kill him with an accurate stab. In one fluid movement, I rammed
the knife through him, and he screamed out in agony and blind fury. In the
darkness, my aim wasn’t good. He hadn’t died immediately, but he would bleed
out soon. I ran, trying to get as far away as I could. He stumbled after me,
screaming, cursing, and threatening to kill me if it was the last thing he did.
I just kept running. I ran away from the house, down the street, and hid out in
an old hiding spot I’d found as a kid.”

“What happened then?” Alan asked.

 
“I
stayed out there until dawn, and when I returned, I found the corpse of my
father, bled out just as I thought he would be. Not far from him, were the
bodies of my mother, brother, and both my sisters. As I looked around, I pieced
together what had happened. After my escape, my father had gone into a rage and
murdered the rest of my family. He must have bled out soon after. I felt a
degree of responsibility, but I had to survive. I wouldn’t submit as my sisters
did. I wouldn’t ignore it as my mother and brother did. It seemed that this was
the price I had to pay. I lost everyone I had in this world at such a young age.
I was truly alone.” Kendra had a small amount of tears streaming down her face.

Alan went over to Kendra and hugged her tight. “I’m
so sorry, Kendra.” He whispered to her.

She didn’t respond, simply taking comfort in being
held.

After the moments of silence, Alan spoke again. “So
what about the other 9 years?”

Kendra, still being held, replied. “I lived alone.
Since the day I left that bloodbath of a house, I’ve been alone. I drifted
around the city, going to different shelters. I was old enough to know that
there were places I could go, places that were off the streets. I got food when
I needed it, slept when I could, stayed as clean as I could, and did everything
I could to survive. By the time I was 16, I’d found a place to live, and a
means of surviving on much better terms.”

“And what would that be?” Alan questioned her.

“Someone wanted to take me in. I met them by sheer
chance. It was a small family, just the two parents and their son. They were a
religious family, nice people. They took me in out of the goodness of their
hearts, and I accepted. I had very little choice, and it beat living with my
original family. I don’t know that I ever trusted them fully. It’s hard to
trust a new family when the patriarch of the old family was a drunken, abusive
rapist. With the new family, I took a chance.” Kendra continued.

“Hmm.” Alan hummed. “How did that work out for you?”

“Pretty good, for awhile.” She replied. “Of course,
all good things come to an end. The couple that took me in, Richard and
Victoria were their names, were great people. They were nice, caring, and they
showed me a lot of love. The son, however, was a different story. He was a
little younger than me, about 15 years old, and he was a massive pain. He was
the stereotypical rebellious kid, hated religion, and unfortunately for me,
seemed to have a crush on me. I can’t tell you how many times I had to smack
him for making advances. He’s lucky I didn’t break his hands. After living
there for 2 years, I’d gotten so sick of him that I’d decided to leave. Richard
and Victoria never knew the real reason I left. I lied and said I wanted t go
out on my own. Before I left, they gave me a parting gift of $1000 and told me
I was welcome to come around any time.”

“You ever see ‘em again?” Alan asked.

“A couple times, yeah.” She continued. “Until the
day I went to see them and they were gone. I got inside and saw the house had
been ransacked, essentially turned upside down, and generally just really
screwed up. A few minutes of searching turned up nothing, save for the bodies
of Richard and Victoria. It looked like they had a few stab wounds. I didn’t
know what happened, but I knew they didn’t deserve it.”

Alan was enamored with the story by this point. “Did
you ever find out who did it?”

Kendra continued her story. “Oh yes, I most
certainly did. The stupid little prick that they called a son had a group of
friends that were far from being pillars of the community. They were as close
to a gang as you could get without being labeled a gang. I saw a news report a
few days after I found their bodies, and the police had arrested their son, and
his little group of friends. They cracked under interrogation, admitting that
they were stealing money and valuables from them so they’d have money for
drugs. Richard caught them in the middle of the night, and one of the boys
stabbed him. Victoria heard the struggle and came out as well, only to be
stabbed mere moments later. I ended up going to the funeral, but couldn’t bear
to stay for the whole thing. I’ve been on my own since then. Used the money as
a few months rent on an apartment, got a job to keep making payments, and had
as normal of a life as I could.”

Alan was still holding her. He had become captivated
by her story, and didn’t realize until this moment that he’d never been closer
to Kendra. He was comforting her as best as he knew how, and for a moment, they
both forgot that they were in the middle of Hell on Earth. There, in that dim
library, Alan and Kendra shared stories about their lives. There was no more
fitting place for it than here.

“Kendra, I… I’m so sorry.” Alan offered his
condolences.

“It’s fine. I survived.” She replied, with a small
tear rolling down her face.

“I know.” He said. “But you deserve so much better.”

“No I don’t. I deserve nothing. I’m nothing. Life
has made me nothing.” Kendra said solemnly.

“You’re not nothing, Kendra. You are worth so much.”
Alan replied. “You saved me, you teamed up with me to survive. You survived a
really crappy life that most people would have given up on. I don’t think that
you’re nothing. I think you’re strong.”

As the words entered Kendra’s ear, more tears began
to roll. She’d not felt like she was worth anything for a very long time, if
indeed she did at all. And all of a sudden, in the middle of the end of the
world, this survivor, whom she once found annoying, showed much care for her.
She laid her head on him, and tried to process this feeling of being cared for.
She closed her eyes, and just a moment or two later, she felt the feeling of
lips pressed to her forehead.

Her eyes darted open to see Alan, gently kissing her
forehead in the most comforting way. She felt warm inside. She felt what it was
like to be really cared for, even though she had no clue why he would care
about her.

“It’s ok.” Alan reassured her

“Wrong spot.” Kendra quietly replied.

“What? What do you mean?” He asked, very confused as
to what she meant.

“You kissed me in the wrong spot.” Kendra replied,
unable to help herself any longer.

Before he could react, Alan felt Kendra’s lips press
against his. “
Ohh, that’s what she
meant.”
He thought to himself.

There, leaning up against the wall of the dark 2
^nd
floor of the library, Alan and Kendra shared a kiss.