Eve

Chapter 25

I was barely out of the house, dragging my sleepy-face mom with me, when I saw it.

Well, not it. Them. A real big fucking them is what it was. Dragging feet up the road heading for us, a pack of at least a hundred zombies, and that's just as far as my eyes could see. Turning around, I saw them coming from the other side of the road too. Surrounding us.

My very first herd.

Mom seemed to have noticed them too, because one second she was rubbing her eyes and grunting, "What are you doing Eve?" and the next she was screaming out of her mind, running with me to the car.

We jumped in the back seat and, with a Vin Diesel screech of the tires, Aunt Meredith took off.

"What happened? What happened?" mom asked, as Meredith swung in a right turn so sharp the car almost went on two wheels.

"Edgar wanted to go to the lake," Aunt Meredith half-screamed, eyes on the road. "We were running out of food and he – God, fucking damn it!"

The car screeched again, just in time to avoid the zombie that had thrown itself in front of it.

"Is he ok?" Mom asked, in a desperate voice that did nothing but freak me out more.

"No, he's not ok! He was bitten."

"I'm fine," Edgar said, in a throaty voice that finished the freaking out job mom had started.

"We didn't see them, these fuckers came out of nowhere!"

Aunt Meredith drove us down a narrow road walled by thick vegetation. The shadows of the trees moving fast inside the car were making it seem like we were in some sort of night club, with moonlight flashing spasmodically on our faces.

"Were are we going?" I asked, sticking my face between the front seats. "What now?"

"I don't know, Eve. Right now I'm trying to focus on – fuck!"

Again, Aunt Meredith was barely able to avoid the zombie. It had jumped out from the woods.

"We're going away from here, Eve," she said, keeping her voice steady with the strength of God knows what. "Away from here."

I don't know how long we drove for. It felt like five hours, but it could have been five minutes. Meredith finally stopped by a cliff going down several hundred feet.

"Shit," she said, pulling the hand brake. "I think we have a flat tire."

The road was deserted. We were between the cliff and a thick layer of woods.

"Ed," Aunt Meredith said, turning to Edgar. "How are you feeling?"

"Swell," Edgar replied. "Could use a shot, though."

Aunt Meredith pulled the flask from her purse and pressed it against Edgar's mouth. Blood gurgled from his throat when he tried to swallow.

"Easy," Aunt Meredith said. "We'll get you fixed up, Ed. Hang on."

"Meredith," Edgar whispered, in a pleading voice.

"Don't you fucking start with that. Don't even start."

There was a heavy silence in the car. We all knew what Ed was thinking. We all knew where this was going.

"You gotta keep going, Mer. You gotta take them somewhere safe."

Mom pushed her body between the front seats. "Edgar, we're gonna –"

"You're not gonna do anything," Edgar interrupted. He turned to face Aunt Meredith. "I don't know how long I got, Mer, but I don't wanna sit around here and wait to find out. Take them with you. Just – do me a solid, before you go."

Aunt Meredith pressed her lips together. From my (terrified) spot by the back window, I watched her press her eyes closed. I watched her breathing fast, her hands shaking. I watched my Aunt Meredith cry for the very first and last time in my life.

"I'm not gonna leave you here, Ed."

She hid her face with her hands, sobbing.

Edgar pulled Meredith closer. "You can't break now, Mer. They need you. I need you."

Aunt Meredith kept crying. I wanted to help, to do something. I wanted to take her in my arms and say it'd be all right. When she took a deep breath, wiped the tears and pulled the pistol from her purse, I wanted to grab it from her and shoot every zombie in whole state of California and tell her it was ok, everything was fine.

I wanted to shoot the world in the face so Aunt Meredith wouldn't have to do what she was about to do.

"Eve, get out of the car."

"Aunt Meredith, don't do it, we can –"

"Eve, now!"

Mom tapped me on the shoulder, eyes red and swollen. "Come on, Eve."

In a haze, I let Mom drag me out of the car to the cold wind outside. There was no one for miles, and the moon was shining bright over the valley beyond the cliff. Mom took me by the shoulder and dragged me to the very edge.

"Don't let her do it, Mom," I said, I don't even know why. "Don't let her do it."

The valley below us was shining dark and silver with moonlight, no sound but the cicadas.

I heard the gun clicking somewhere behind us.

"Mom..."

Mom pulled me tight and held me. "It's going to be ok, Eve. It's all going to be ok."

It wasn't. Of course it wasn't.

"I don't wanna hear it, Mom!"

"Look down at the view, Eve. Don't look back." Don't look back at your Aunt killing her boyfriend.

"Mom, please!"

"Look down, Eve. Look down at the woods."

I started crying.

"Mom!"

"Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Everything is going to be ok. It's you and me and Aunt Meredith against the wo –"

Bang.

Bang, bang.

We heard the car door opening, but neither of us looked back. Aunt Meredith showed up between us, shoulder to shoulder.

She lifted the flask to her mouth and downed a gulp without a sound, eyes down on the valley below. I could hear Mom's breathing. I could smell Edgar's blood on Aunt Meredith.

"He didn't' die as one of them," Aunt Meredith said, finally. "He died who he was."

She turned to me. "We should die as who we are, do you hear me, Eve? You're not gonna die like one of them. You're gonna die an old lady. Not a zombie. Do you understand?"

Her voice was teary, and her face was red, and her hair was a mess, but she wasn't crying.

Mom turned back and started making way to the car. I hugged Aunt Meredith, and then I turned too. Aunt Meredith stood by the edge of the cliff, looking down, her back to us.

Edgar's body was lying by the side of the passenger door. I made a point of not looking.

I had my hand on the car knob when I heard Aunt Meredith's scream.