Turned: A Spine-Chilling Young Adult Apocalyptic Fiction (The Undead Series, Book 1) (9 page)

              Can you forgive me?”

“Maybe,” I said to him, turning back around to face the landscape again. “If you come down here and hang out with me.” He chuckled.

“Be right down, baby. I just have to blow my nose and pee.” I heard the window shut, and I thought I’d get us a drink and then sit over on one of the patio chairs in the corner and wait for him, so I turned around to head back inside.

As I walked back in through the French doors, I realized Jasper had left the front door open during his fit of rage. I turned around to shut the French door behind me when I heard the scuffle of feet. I smiled, and was just about to tell him he was faster than I thought, when I realized I hadn’t heard anyone come down the stairs. My thought was greeted with the gut-wrenching breathing of a zombie coming up behind me.

I turned around, and at that moment, as I stared into his bulging, ravenous eyes and he lunged toward me, my world went dark. I felt as if I was in some sort of transcendental state, floating in between two worlds. All I could hear was the sound of my own thoughts and the beat of my own heart slowing down when it should have been beating more rapidly. I don’t remember actually ever feeling it bite me, but he must have.

He got me. I’m turning. Either that or I’m dead already and being eaten. If that’s the case, then thank God I’m already dead. How ironic. I’m either transforming into a disgusting, flesh-eating, blood-sucking monster, or I’m floating off to heaven. I’ll take the second option, God…if you’re even real. God, do you hear me? If I turn, don’t let me kill anyone. Don’t let me rip Jasper or Em apart like that zombie did to my parents. If I turn, make someone kill me quickly. Don’t let me live like that. Oh my god. My baby. What’s going to happen to my baby? If I’m turning, will he or she turn too? Am I going to be a zombie with a baby zombie inside of me trying to eat out the inside of its own mother? If I’m turning, will my baby die inside me? If I’m dying, my baby is going to die too, isn’t he God? I didn’t really mean anything I felt, I promise. Don’t hurt this baby, Dear Lord, please don’t hurt my baby.

Lord help me.
It was my final prayer before I felt the abrupt halt of my heart. 

Silence. Complete and utter silence. Silence so loud that you can actually hear it. That’s what it felt like when my eyes popped open like Frankenstein. The difference between Frankenstein and me was I hadn’t turned into a monster, I could tell that by glancing down at my hands. I did have one large similarity to Frankenstein however, and that was that much like him, I wasn’t able to remember anything that happened to me after Jasper got pissed off at me and went to pout upstairs.

I couldn’t lift my head, so I struggled to look around at my surroundings. I could tell from the light fixture that I was in the same house we were in before, and that was good. There was no electricity here, so the room was rather darkened with streams of light coming in from the window.

I felt pain in my right bicep, but I had no idea what caused it. I reached my left arm up to touch it and felt only an ace bandage wrapped thickly around my arm. I realized at that moment that my head was pounding.

I laid there in pain and utter confusion for at least a half an hour before I heard footsteps walk down the hall towards the room. I tensed up, not sure if I was still with Jasper and Em or someone else. Thankfully, Jasper’s face appeared in the doorway. He looked slightly surprised to see me awake, but then smiled warmly at me.

“You’re awake,” he said as he walked over to the side of the bed. “That’s so wonderful.”

“What’s going on?” I asked him. “Where am I?” He smiled.

“We’re at the same house in Tennessee that we were in before this happened,” he answered me, lifting up a bandage on my head to check out something which I guessed was a wound from the way my head was pounding.

“You had an accident the day before yesterday, and you’ve been unconscious.”

“What kind of accident?” I probed. I wanted to know why I felt so shitty. He didn’t answer right away; it looked like he wanted to make sure he chose his words carefully.

“With a zombie,” he answered. Well, at least he wasn’t sugar-coating his story.

“A zombie attacked you the other night when I accidently left the door open, when I was being an idiot. He pounced on you and knocked you down onto the floor. On the way down, you smacked your head off the kitchen countertop.” He paused again as if that is all he wanted to say. I touched my arm where the ace bandage covered it.

“Did I get bit?” I asked. I knew that sometimes it could take up to seventy-two hours for a person to turn into a zombie.

“No,” Jasper said, and walked over to look out the window. “No, you didn’t. I got to him before he did and stuck a butcher knife through his head.”

“Then what is this?” I said pointing to the bandage on my arm, coaxing him to tell me more. He sighed with frustration.

“He did bite you, Retta, but not deep enough to transmit the virus to you – it is only a flesh wound. He didn’t get it into your blood stream.”

“Where’s Em? Is she okay?”

“Em is fine honey,” he answered. “She snuck out to the grocery store to get you…” he paused, not knowing if I remembered the pregnancy.

“Get me what?” I pushed, not being able to think clearly. My brain was covered with a thick fog.

“Em went out to see if she could scavenge some…” he paused again. I stared at him, forcing him to answer. “Some vitamins,” he finished.

“Vitamins? Vitamins for what?” I asked, not knowing why he seemed so evasive. I glanced down to the foot of the bed and when I did so, the pregnancy came back to me.

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered despondently.

“It’s okay,” Jasper assured me and walked back over to my side of the bed. “I didn’t know if you remembered, and I didn’t want to upset you more.” He saw me starting to get upset. “According to Em, you are pregnant sweetie.”

“I remember…I remember,” I answered reluctantly.

“She got you another pregnancy test,” he continued, “and took a sample of your urine. She believes the baby is at about ten weeks babe…and he…or she…seems fine.” I started to sob uncontrollably, and he sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arms around me.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” I replied through sobs. Jasper handed me a tissue from the nightstand, and I blew my nose.

“We’re going to be just fine,” promised Jasper. “You, me and the baby. Em is looking for nutritional shakes too, ones that might not be expired. She saw an apple tree down the road too, so she’s going to stop and see if she can find any so you have some fresh food.

“She’s the greatest,” I smiled, feeling more content about the situation for the first time. I felt well taken care of considering the circumstances. “But I don’t know why you were so pissed that night, if you wouldn’t have done that, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” Jasper’s mouth tightened as he clenched his teeth together.

“Are you okay, babe?” I asked him, noticing a difference in his demeanor. I guess I irritated him. “I’m not mad at you for it, I just wish it wouldn’t have happened, but oh well.

“Listen,” he said. “I need you to relax and get some rest. They have an office downstairs with a bunch of books in it, so I brought some up for you to read if you don’t feel like sleeping.” He pulled the books out of the nightstand drawer. “I’m going to make you lunch and get you some water too while you rest.”

He pulled the sheets up over me and handed me a hardcover book by Stephen King. I didn’t want to tell him that I was actually too warm. He bent down to kiss my forehead and walked out of the room. I wished I would have asked when Em would be back because I really wanted to talk to her about what had happened. My breasts began to itch from sweat, and I pushed the sheets back down to my waist to let the air circulate over my body.

It was nice of Jasper to give me the book, but I loathed Stephen King so I tried to wiggle myself up to a sitting position in order to get one of the other books out. The wiggling didn’t work. I felt as if I had no strength to lift myself up so I laid back down and gave in to reading the King thriller.

I obviously didn’t find the book to be too interesting because I dozed off and woke up to the sound of a car parking in the driveway. When I opened my eyes, I realized that it was dark again. I looked over at the night stand and saw the lunch that Jasper made me still sitting there. He must have not wanted to wake me. Though it was dark, I had no idea what time it was.

“Jesus,” I muttered. I couldn't believe I slept until dark. I listened and heard a car door close, footsteps up the driveway, and the front door close. I hoped it was Em, and I tried to call out for her to come up to the room but my voice wasn’t cooperating. I heard the muffle of voices from Jasper and Em talking downstairs, though I couldn’t hear what specifically they were saying.

Five minutes later the muffle of voices increased exponentially until I heard Em’s typically chipper voice yelling at Jasper. I heard: “I’m a good judge of character young man, and you leaving the door open almost cost your girlfriend her life!”

I guessed Em was blaming Jasper for the zombie getting in the house and almost killing me. I didn’t have to think about it much longer because a moment later, I heard Jasper storm out the door and into the car and drive off. I wouldn’t have been surprised if his nonsense attracted zombies.

I heard Em’s cowboy boots thud up the stairs and down the hall to my room. She poked her pretty red head in and held up a canister of prenatal vitamins in one hand and a candle in another.

“You know you love me,” Em said with a giggle as she walked into the room. Her laughter stopped short when she laid her eyes on me.

“Oh honey, you look terrible,” she said honestly, putting the vitamins on the nightstand with a bottle of water and sitting down to rub my hair. Her face was illuminated by the candle. She wore a black sweater with khaki pants that looked a little too small and her black boots. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

“Why were you two arguing?” I asked. “I hate it when people I care about argue.”

“Well love, I certainly didn’t mean to argue with him, but he seems to have a short temper and doesn’t like being asked questions.”

“What do you mean he doesn’t like to be asked questions?” I never noticed that about Jasper. He always seemed to answer any questions I asked without a problem. I felt my eyes turn dark and somber.

“I just want to make sure we can fully entrust our lives to him, Retta. Are you sure you know him well enough? Since I met him nearly a week ago, I swore up and down that I had seen his face before. The only problem was I couldn't put a finger on where I had seen it.”

“Oh Em, I’m sure you’ve seen him before somewhere, or maybe someone that looked like him.”

“Didn’t you say he’s from California originally? You said he then migrated down here after the outbreak?"

“Yeah?” I replied.

“Well, he told me he’s from Missouri,” Em replied coldly. “Not California.” All of a sudden, I started to feel cold and pulled the sheets back up over my chest.

“Well maybe he meant to say California but had Missouri on his mind,” I deduced. “Or maybe he just doesn’t want to disclose all of his background information to you, Em. He hasn’t completely opened up to you yet.”

“Maybe,” Em said shaking her head no as if her mouth and her brain believed opposite things. “I showed him the stuff I found for you, and I casually asked him where he’s from just because I was curious. He said Missouri, but then he seemed to get super defensive when I told him I thought you said he was from California.

He sort of blew up, telling me not to worry about him, worry about you. I told him that obviously I am worried about you since I risked my life to get your growing child vitamins. Then it slipped. I said I was obviously more worried about you than he was, you know, leaving the door open and all. Then he stormed out.”

“Oh dear,” I muttered, not understanding why they couldn’t just get along.

“Look, Retta,” replied Em. “I’m going to be honest. Part of the reason I came with you is because I don’t fully trust him. I really wasn’t going to come, but then I thought about you. I felt I had some sort of purpose.” I nodded, though I truly felt Em was over-reacting. Jasper had the ability to rub people he didn’t like the wrong way when he got angry, and he seemed to be doing it to Em. But why didn’t he like her?

“How long are we staying here?” I asked, in an attempt to change the subject.

“I think we planned to leave in the morning,” Em answered, still halfway lingering in the conversation about Jasper. “At least that’s what Jasper said before he stormed out.” I frowned, worried about where he went, and whether he’d actually come back. 

“I know you’re not feeling well, and you haven’t eaten much,” Em continued. “Do you want to come downstairs and eat a candlelight dinner with me and get out of this room?”

“How?” I asked, perplexed.

“Oh girl, lean on me – I’ll help you down.” She jumped off the bed and took me downstairs for tomato soup and stale saltine crackers with tea. We ate by candlelight, and Em seemed to let the Jasper conversation go. Instead, we talked about exciting things like baby names, and things we wanted to do after the apocalypse ended, if it ever did.

Em had a battery operated watch on her wrist, so we were able to tell the time. Jasper arrived back to the house near 11 PM. We were sitting on the couch reminiscing about our old lives. We could only see his shadow come through the door, but he didn’t bother to say a word. We heard his boots trudge up the stairs, down the hall, and one of the bedroom doors shut.

Half an hour later, we called it a night. Em helped me upstairs and into bed. Once in the room, I realized Jasper didn’t come to my room. He slept in another room.

“Are you going to be alright alone?” Em asked. “Nice of him to even sleep with you and watch over you.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I’m fine…I promise,” I assured her with a grin. She nodded, gave me a hug, placed an unlit candle and a lighter on my nightstand, in case I wanted to light it, and walked out of the room.

Though I’d slept so much the past few days, I still had no trouble falling asleep again. I didn’t mind Jasper not being there. I decided I’d let him pout, and then I’d tell him he better shape up in the morning. There was no reason he needed to act like he was. I had a great evening with Em, and I wasn’t going to let him ruin it. Boys, I grimaced.

***

After falling asleep for what felt like minutes, I was startled halfway awake when I felt something tickle my inner thighs.

“Oh honey, I thought you wouldn’t be apologizing until the morning,” I said, but the tickling got fiercer.

“Babe!” I whispered, wiggling in my covers, a little turned on by his apologetic efforts. “Babe, do you really want to do this when I’m handicapped?” When there was no response, I opened my eyes to look down, but saw nothing except a bloated belly and a sheet over my feet.

What a dream, I thought to myself. Then, as I started to doze back off to sleep, the tickles started again, but this time it felt like something bit me, and it shot a pain through my body. My eyes popped open right away and I saw the sheets in between my legs move.

“What the fuck?” I said out loud, pulling the sheets off of my legs. To my horror, a bloody lump sat in between my legs, but I couldn’t tell what it was. The sheets underneath my private area and thighs were soaked with blood.