Turned: A Spine-Chilling Young Adult Apocalyptic Fiction (The Undead Series, Book 1) (5 page)

Being re-introduced to all of this after ten months was difficult for me to cope with, especially since I’d never seen a child zombie before. It was heart-wrenching. Jasper melted down to the ground, pressed his stomach against my back and wrapped his arms around my waist. He pulled my hands back down into his. We laid there together, with me sobbing and Jasper staring into the evening sky. No words were spoken – they didn’t need to be. After a few minutes, I thought I felt the wetness of a tear fall down on to the back of my neck, and I imagined Jasper finally understood the magnitude of what happened and was crying over the child too.

I must have fallen asleep on the ground, because when I woke to the sound of birds chirping, I realized Jasper had carried me on the bus. I saw the sky growing lighter in the distance.

I looked over and didn’t see Jasper on the seat next to me. I sat up quickly, afraid that something bad may have happened. When I stood up, a knife fell down on the floor, and I saw that Jasper had put a knife under my hand in case anything happened during the night, since the bus doors didn’t lock.

I poked my head out into the aisle of the bus and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Jasper’s legs draped over the middle of the aisle. I walked back to see him fast asleep on the back right side of the bus with his long legs propped up on the left seat. He had his knife clenched in his fists, as if he was ready to jump up and fight at a moment’s notice. His appearance made it seem like he had been up much of the night and hadn’t gotten much sleep.

It quickly came back to me what had happened the night before, and I peered out of the back window of the bus to see the girl and Lindsey lying beside each other, hands intertwined. Jasper had taken one of his shirts and laid it over top of them, so that I couldn’t see their faces which was probably for the best. He had found some sticks, fixed them into two crosses, and laid one on top of Lindsey and one on top of the girl. Jasper must have put his knife through Lindsey’s head when she fell asleep, to stop her from turning and killing us in our sleep.

I stood there for quite some time, staring at the covered bodies and into the sky, thinking about all that had happened in the last year, from losing my fiancé, to the outbreak, to the virus turning everyone into zombies, to my parents dying, to being taken into the sanctuary, to Trent raping me, and to meeting Jasper. It all seemed so…calculated. But of course, it couldn’t be. This wasn’t one of my horror books – no…sadly, it was my life.

After nearly a half hour, I figured we’d better get moving, so I turned around to walk to the front of the bus only to be greeted with Jasper’s adoring grin.

“You looked like you were really deep in thought, and I didn’t want to interrupt,” he said lovingly. I smiled. His bright eyes always made my heart flutter up into my throat.

“How long were you watching me, mister?” I questioned in a playful voice.

Oh, that doesn't matter,” he smiled, extending his arm out for me to grab. I grabbed it, and he pulled me to him and sat me on top of him, then began stroking my hair.

“Are you alright?” he asked, with his grin turning down into a tight frown, his brows growing furrowed.

“Just recovering emotionally and physical from yesterday,” I said. “What about you, baby? How’s your arm?”

“Feeling better…thanks to a special nurse,” he remarked with a smile, then turned his gaze outside to Lindsey and the girl’s makeshift grave. “But this shit isn’t easy…for anyone.”

He stared outside for at least a minute, lost in thought. I waited for him to say more, but he continued to only stare out the window. I grabbed his chin and turned his gaze back to me. His chin was starting to get stubbly, and I rubbed it with my palm.

Jasper grabbed me and pulled my face closer. As he ran his fingers through my hair, I pressed my lips up against his. The heat of the kiss blew me away. He pulled my body closer to his chest and lifted up the back of my shirt to run his fingers up and down my spine. My throat suddenly became dry and my body tensed up.

“I am so glad we’re together, baby,” he said. How bad I wanted to be with him at that moment, but I couldn’t because of what Trent had done to me. I was so sore all over, especially there. I looked into his eyes and saw the desire pulling me in. God, he was so perfect. He had changed into a clean white t-shirt before falling asleep, and it hugged his muscles beautifully. I ran my fingers under his shirt and up his stomach, chest and back.

“I love you…and it’s okay,” he assured my with a serious look in his eyes. He knew what we both wanted and couldn’t have.

As much as I hated to pull myself away, I knew we had to get moving. We needed to get to the next town and find food and a car because the bus was at a quarter of a tank and according to Jasper, it would be easier to find a car with a fuller tank of gas than it would be to find a gas station with gas.

“Let’s go babe. We have a lot to take care of,” I said as I pulled myself off of him and helped him up. The next town was fifteen miles away and the bus had barely enough gas to get another ten miles. That means we’d have to walk at least five miles. The bus sputtered out of gas as we hit the eleventh mile.

“Not bad,” I said “One extra mile we don’t have to walk.” We grabbed our belongings and ditched the bus to start walking along the highway, half hoping that someone would pass us and let us ride along with them. But deep down I knew that didn’t happen anymore. You couldn’t trust anyone these days.

It was a nicer day out, a lot warmer than the day before. In fact, it began to get really hot during the afternoon hours when the sun was at its peak. We had no water, and the best thing we could do was get to the next town and hopefully find some.

The landscape around us still thrived, which was rather ironic when nearly seventy-percent of the human population was dead. We walked alongside beautiful, lush trees and then finally began to walk into a countryside where deserted farms dotted the horizon. After walking around four and three-quarters of a mile, we could see the town in the distance.

“I wasn’t expecting these farmhouses out here,” Ethan observed. “But this is great. Let’s go and search that one up there on the hill. I doubt that truck up there runs, but it’s worth a shot and maybe we can stock up on some water and food and fix those wounds of yours.”

I nodded and we trudged up the hill, keeping our eyes peeled for any impending zombie swarms. Jasper walked up to the S10 truck first, opened the door and slid in the driver’s seat. “There’s no key in it,” he said, but I watched him fiddle with the wires underneath the steering wheel until the ignition purred like a happy cat.

“Thank God!” I said relieved. “How much gas is in it?”

“This kind of feels like a trap.” Jasper gazed over at the farmhouse with a skeptical look on his face. “Cause there’s nearly a full tank, and that never happens anymore.”

“Maybe it’s a miracle?” I said cheerfully. “C’mon, let’s go check it out.” Jasper nodded, and we walked over to the farmhouse with our guns out and ready. Jasper turned the handle and walked in first to check out the house and make sure it was safe before I came in. He never allowed me to go in with him, even though it would be safer for him if I did.

“It’s clear,” he called from the kitchen. I cautiously stepped into the entryway and looked into a luxurious farmhouse with beautiful original wooden floors, charming country designer furniture, and a large diamond chandelier hanging in the entryway. There had to be at least six rooms in the house, and pictures of a beautiful family adorned the walls.

How I would have loved to be a famous writer living in a house like that. But of course, that was probably never going to happen, not with the world the way it was now.

As I walked through the entryway and down the hallway to the kitchen, I heard Jasper yell “Jackpot!” and he came out of the half bathroom with some antibiotic crème, Band-Aids, and gauze.

“Let’s fix you up,” he said wrapping his arms around my shoulders and guiding me to sit down at the large white kitchen island with cherry butcher block countertops. He stopped short of one of the cottage-style bar stools.

“Wait, what am I doing? There’s a beautiful living room down the hall!” I laughed as he then guided me to an oversized living room complete with a beautiful white leather sectional, a stone fireplace with a chimney that reached all the way to the ceiling, an 80-inch plasma television and high architectural ceilings with exposed wooden beams. In awe of my surroundings, I tossed myself on the corner of the sectional and threw my legs up over the cushions.

“Sure we can’t stay here?” I asked, sighing. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stay here for a day and pretend we’re married and life is normal. Let’s pretend you just got home from designing an amazing house just like this, and I have been home all day writing a best-selling novel.”

“Alright,” he smiled. He plopped down on the couch next to me, tossing the first aid items on the granite and iron coffee table. He took my foot into his, untied my shoes, peeled off my dirty socks and began massaging my swollen feet.

“I’ve missed you my sweet, sexy lady. How’s that novel coming along?” I giggled at his attempt to role play.

“On a serious note, maybe it would be for the best,” Jasper pondered. “I really wanted to get into town, but this house is too grand to pass up. It might just do us good. Plus, if there’s some food and good water in there, then this house has everything we need. And, wait until you see the master bedroom.”

I threw my hands into the air, letting out a marine’s “hoorah” as if I’d just found out I was going home after five years in battle.

“Is there a plush down comforter like in the hotels?

“A down comforter with like, a million thread count, if that even exists,” said Jasper, matter-of-factly.

“Woohoo!” Though we had fantastic living quarters at Saving Grace, it felt like our journey to this farmhouse had taken a week, despite it really only taking less than two days. I was physically and mentally exhausted after having been attacked by the zombies that killed Lindsey and the little girl, and watching them both die way before their time.

Jasper began cleaning my ankles ever-so-gently with the peroxide that he had stashed in his hoodie pocket. Then he applied the antibiotic cream, then the gauze. He wrapped it around my whole foot and up to my shins and told me to let it stay like that until the next morning when he’d clean it again and prepare for us to leave. We had the truck now, so we wouldn’t be walking, thank goodness.

After Jasper cleaned me up, we rummaged through the kitchen to see if there was any food. It felt like we had stumbled upon a gold mine because no one had miraculously been there yet. The kitchen was stocked to the maximum, looking as if the owners had just done a full round of grocery shopping with enough non-perishable food to host a party for at least a hundred people.

“What can I make you for dinner?” Jasper asked me happily. “I used to love cooking before all of this. I actually even took a cooking class a few years ago.” Since he apparently loved cooking and was eager to make me dinner, I happily accepted. I cared about a hot shower more, but that wasn’t probably going to happen.

“Electricity?” I asked. Jasper walked over to the light switch and flipped it. A stream of light lit up the room.

“No fucking way,” I finished. “Too good to be true.” Jasper didn’t seem as surprised and pulled out a box of noodles from the pantry.

“Do you like fettuccini? There are these yummy looking noodles in here. They’re not expired yet,” he said, while browsing through the shelves. “Perfect, there’s Alfredo sauce too!”

“Electric range?”

“You know it.”

“Then that sounds fabulous, honey,” I said warmly, though my stomach wanted to scream at him to hurry up and make it quick.

“Is there water?” Jasper walked over to the sink and turned the faucet. It ran smoothly. He grinned, and I sighed.

“I’d love to go get cleaned up and crawl into some pajamas, and then you can clean up after dinner,” I said to him while opening up a pack of cheddar goldfish snacks I found in the drawer.

“That sounds great baby. I want you to relax and feel better for tomorrow. We have a long journey ahead of us.” With the taste of goldfish in my mouth, Ethan fluttered through my mind like a sparrow. I remembered how he used to love these goldfish crackers, just as much as a little kid.

“Go baby, get cleaned up,” said Jasper. I smiled and began to walk upstairs. But just as I stepped into the master bedroom, my mouth gaped open, and I gasped at what was waiting for me in the bedroom.

The bedroom. It was so magnificent that I could only stop and stare in awe at it. A large round bed sat in the middle of the room, probably about fifteen feet from where I stood in the doorway. I’d never seen a round leather bed in person, but I had heard about famous celebrities buying them. The bed was decked out with a red satin comforter with gold decorations and sequins. There were two large bay windows on either side of the bed, covered with exquisite valences that matched the bedspread. The flooring was dark wood, and a beautiful gold and white oriental rug was draped over the floor. Another beautiful diamond chandelier finished this room and looked to be larger than my own body.

I walked across the room, running my palm along the bedspread as I walked over to peer out the left bay window. From that window, I could see the entire farm, with all of its lush greens and rolling hills, and I imaged that it once held all sorts of animals. Of course, there was nothing there anymore except for one sad looking fat cow that stood grazing on a large patch of grass along with a roaming horse. These two must have missed the memo that the rest of the barnyard animals were relocating.

I squinted my eyes and gazed to the far left of the window, noticing a group of people far off in the distance walking along the grass. From the way they were staggering aimlessly, I could tell they were zombies. But Jasper had shut and locked all the doors to the house, so I didn’t have to worry about any zombies or intruders coming in.

I walked into the exquisite master bathroom which contained a large soaking tub with gold and brown marble tile surrounding it. The floor was also golden marble, and there was a shower that looked to be about the size of my old bathroom with a dark copper showerhead on each side and decorative glass doors encasing it. On the other side of the bathroom was an expensive looking toilet and his and her sinks, something I’d always really wanted in my own house because Ethan always used to leave his shaving particles across my old sink. Ethan. This is the sort of house we'd always dreamed of one day.

“The only thing that would make this complete heaven-on-earth is a working shower,” I said to myself. With that, I turned the knob on the shower and was greeted with the sound of running water but nothing coming out. All of a sudden the shower head sputtered and let out a pressurized flow of water which quickly slowed down to a smooth, warm flow. There definitely had to be someone here recently, or this shower wouldn’t be working.

I peeled off my dirty jeans and hoodie and stared at myself in the full-length mirror while the shower was still running. My ankle was definitely swollen as if I was eight months pregnant with twins. I examined my thighs and private area which were covered with fading dark green bruises. I gently rubbed my thighs to see if the bruises were still hurting. Thankfully, the pain was quickly fading.

My hair was sweaty and matted to my forehead. What a mess I was. After examining myself, I tiptoed quietly into the shower as if the owner was going to hear me and walk in at any second.

The downpour of water on my back and breasts felt like heaven. They had showers at the sanctuary, but nothing like this with this much pressure and warmth. My skin started to form goose bumps as I let the water run through my matted hair and fashion it into a dark lump on my back. I walked over to the second shower head and turned it on, then I sat down in the middle of both of the shower heads with my hands wrapped around my knees and my head bent. I wanted the water to fall on all sides of my body.

After about ten minutes, I thought the warm water might be ending soon so I contemplated getting out of the shower but I just couldn’t yet. I closed my eyes and pretended this was my house and Ethan was waiting for me downstairs. The thought of wishing Ethan was with me made my heart twinge with guilt, but with this being the life we always wanted one day, I couldn’t stop thinking about him, despite my love for Jasper. My thoughts were interrupted by Jasper rapping on the bathroom door lightly.

“Dinner will be ready in ten, baby.”

“Okay,” I called out to him, thinking he wanted to say something else. “You want to join me, babe?” There was a pause. It had been two weeks since we were together on our own. I knew he needed comfort, and quite frankly though I was still in pain, I needed comfort too.

“Um. Yeah, of course. Let me get undressed,” he called, and I could hear him anxiously floundering with his pants and hoodie. He walked in a minute later and opened up the door to the shower. I looked up at him. He was completely nude with his hair falling into his eyes the way I loved. He was so muscular, much more muscular than Ethan had been, though that didn’t matter much to me until he was standing nude in front of me. Then, all of a sudden, it mattered a little. I felt a pang of regret yet again.

I stood up, embraced him, and could feel the desire pouring out of the pores of his skin. I couldn’t blame him – he was a man and well, it had been a little while. I looked up and when our eyes met, there was no stopping what was going to happen next. I pulled him down on to the shower floor, and we connected until we imploded. The next thing I knew, he was pulling himself off of me, and I realized it was over. I had meant to stop him, but it felt so good.

I instantly felt regret, realizing that I could get pregnant from what happened. Of course, I could have gotten pregnant from Trent raping me, but I didn’t think I was because I was still having my menstrual cycle and well, it had been out of whack anyway my entire life.

“Shit. I’m sorry, babe. I meant to stop, I just couldn’t. It felt so good, baby, I’ve missed you.”

“It’s okay,” I said half-heartedly. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to get pregnant because I do…I want to with you. I’m just not sure…I don't want to bring a baby into this sick world.” He pulled up my chin with his two forefingers.

“Retta, I promise you, things are going to get better. I’m sure you won’t even get pregnant, but if you do, know that there’s a cure in the works…I know there is. I’m going to make sure this world is damn perfect for you before we bring a baby into this world.”

“There’s something else I didn’t tell you,” I said mournfully, breaking down into tears.

“Baby, you can tell me anything, trust me,” he assured me, wiping the tears from my face with his fingers. “What is it?” I looked up into his eyes again, stood up and walked out of the shower to grab two towels. I handed one to Jasper who followed behind me.

“I could already be pregnant. And not from this.” I couldn’t believe I just blurted that out. It wasn’t the right time to tell Jasper I could already be pregnant with Trent’s baby. He had raped me once nearly ten weeks ago, then not again until after his girlfriend was killed. After I blurted it out, I couldn’t bear to look at Jasper’s face. I walked over to the mirror and watched him through the reflection.

He stood there for a moment, just staring at the ground, and then he went into a rage, punching through the wall and running out into the bedroom.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” he screamed. “That monster fucking ruins everything.”

I could hear him slamming things in the bedroom, so I just stood in the mirror staring at face. When something really bothered Jasper, he would go into a rage, and I felt like it was best to stay in the other room. Not that he would ever in a million years hurt me, but I didn’t want to make his rage worse. As horrible as he was feeling, he had to understand how I was feeling, not knowing if I’d become pregnant and have to raise a baby in this monstrous world, not knowing if the father of the baby would be Jasper or the evil monster, not knowing if the baby would be born out of love or rape, dealing with the loss of my fiancé and then getting pregnant to another man. It was all too much.

It took Jasper about five minutes to calm down, and when I heard him sit quietly on the elegant upholstered rocking chair in the corner of the room, I went out wrapped in a towel. He was still nude. I walked over to him and sat on his lap, draping a towel over his right leg.

“I’m sorry, babe. I feel like I keep breaking your heart with every step I take.”

“Dinner’s probably ready,” Jasper interjected, lifted me off of him, stood up and walked out of the room. I figured he just didn’t want to talk about the issue anymore, and I could understand why. I could see the emptiness in his eyes when he turned the corner to walk down the hallway to the stairs. I sat there for a few minutes quietly thinking about all that could still happen.

***

After walking downstairs, Jasper and I filled our plates, and then sat quietly in the corner of the impressive mahogany dinner table in the formal dining room. Royal blue velvety wallpaper with elegant ironwork patterns adorned the top portion of the walls in this room with the bottom portion of the walls painted a bright white…a mix of country and luxury. Surprisingly, there was no chandelier in this room, but the ceiling contained a gorgeous mahogany ceiling fan that matched the dining set.

The house was deathly quiet except for the sound of chewing. Jasper’s dinner was amazing, one of the tastiest I’d ever eaten, and I wasn’t quite sure how he did it with simply noodles, sauce and spices. Jasper held up his head with his right hand and used his left hand to eat. He ate robotically, as if he didn’t even realize I was there anymore.

I could hear a breeze whip through the air outside, and then the sound of a wind chime clatter in the back of the house. I was just about to shove another forkful of noodles into my mouth when I heard a vehicle come into the driveway. The ignition shut off and what sounded like two pairs of shoes walk towards the house. With my fork stopped midair, Jasper and I looked at each other.

The door opened and the sound of boots hit the wooden floor. The door was quietly closed and locked. Jasper motioned me to a standing position and I pulled my gun and pointed it at the entryway door. At that point, the person must have noticed my shoes by the couch in the living room.

“Someone is here,” said a raspy male voice. I heard the safety click off of a 9mm accompanied by footsteps. I tightened my grip on my gun, ready to shoot if I felt the need. I saw Jasper tighten his grip out of the corner of my eye. I heard the footsteps closing in on the entryway to the dining room. Five seconds later, a man appeared outside of it, gun pointed at my head.

The man was short, but stocky, with a head of thick silver white hair. He wore a jean jacket over a flannel shirt. I couldn’t take my eyes off of his eyes or I’d risk being shot, so I had no idea what else he was wearing. I did see that his cheeks were very red, and I wasn’t sure if that was the natural color of them or the color they became when he was infuriated. He looked to be about fifty, but that might have been the silver hair throwing me off. Behind him trailed a woman, who pointed her gun at Jasper’s head.

Out of my peripheral vision I saw an enormous head of thick red hair, so I couldn’t help but glance at her. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and had piercing blue eyes. She was a very colorful woman in appearance, and wore a khaki jacket with a white tee underneath. I quickly dropped my gaze to her bottom half and saw light boot cut jeans and brown cowboy boots that were extremely fashionable for the current state of the world. She also wore a gold cross necklace underneath the jacket. Her voice interrupted my thoughts.

“What’s going on?” she questioned us while nudging her gun towards us. I could tell she knew what she was doing with it.

“I don’t know yet, Em,” the man said to his wife. “I’m waiting to hear why these two young bucks invaded our house.” Jasper’s finger grazed the trigger which made me tense up – they didn’t look like they’d shoot us so I didn’t want him to shoot them. The man noticed it.

“Don’t you dare move a goddamn muscle boy,” he warned Jasper. I needed to intervene.

“Sir, I’m so sorry,” I blabbered out, begging the man to forgive us. “We weren’t sure anyone lived her. We thought maybe this house was vacant.”

“Did you forget to lock the front door, Em?”

“Oh my heavens,” she answered him, seemingly simmering her hostile attitude. “I think I did.”

“We just wanted a place to stay the night, and some food and water,” I assured them apologetically. “We were headed into town when we saw this place, and we had to stop. We fell in love with it and wanted to stay the night.” I didn’t mean to, but I smiled. It was my nature to smile when nervous.

“Yes,” Jasper spoke finally. “She’s right, we’re really sorry, we can leave now.”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Slow down,” yelled the man as Jasper began to move. “Don’t try to pull any quick moves on us. We’ve lasted this long. There’s no way a young buck is bringing us down now.” Jasper stopped in his tracks and nodded, dropping the gun. I dropped mine too.

“Oh, Frank,” the woman said to her husband. “They’re harmless. Let them stay awhile. You know I’m a good judge of character, and I’ve got a good feeling about these two.”

“What’s your names?” the man known as Frank said, directing the question to me.

“I’m Retta, and this is Jasper. And you are?”

“Doctor Emily,” the woman replied. “My name is Doctor Emily, but just call me Em. And this is my husband and owner of this farm, Frank.” The woman extended her hand, and I got up to reach out and shake it, with Jasper following after me.

“It’s very nice to meet you both,” I said, moving on to shake hands with Frank. “You have a beautiful home sir, a beautiful farm.” Frank nodded but his face contained no traces of happiness. Doctor Emily motioned to her husband as she sat down next to me.