Zombies; Chapter 3 Saving Ingrid

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Three bars out of five and the word Sprint across the top, along with the time and battery life. Soon, everything would go dead and there wouldn't be anymore connections. I needed to make my decisions quick, I had to act on my gut.
After a long pause of hovering my thumb over the numbers of the touch screen phone and biting my lips, I dialed the number and slowly brought the iPhone up to my ear.
I heard the muffled speaker sound of the ring on the other side, which always annoyed me. The way it was like a buzz or a hum of an annoying instrument, trilling an ugly set of notes. The ringing stopped and I heard the clicking of the speaker on the other line being pressed against something.
Suddenly, I heard a burst of quiet sobs and a small voice, trying to squeak out a whisper,"I thought you died."
I gave a calm, monotone response to the anxiety flipping over the phone, "I'm indestructible, doll face. I'll see you soon. Stay put." I didn't give them any time to respond before I hung up. I opened the text message app and texted the third recipient in my previous conversations.
The message said, "Pak ur bags, wer goin on vacation." About two minutes later it said that they had read the message. Quickly, they replied, "K hurry."
I drive around the big city I've lived in for years, still only being familiar with the consistent routes and roads I've visited time and time again. Every tree, every sign. All the changes and things that haven't changed at all. Now all the things that will stay the same until they wear away like the rest of us. Slowly but surely a forever existing molecule, but no minds to perch itself inside.
I sharply turn onto the small street, the only one I've actually driven on in this whole neighborhood. This old Jewish neighborhood that I've been galavanting around for six years. I pull up to the curb of the small blue house and slip some more bullets into my gun.
I climb in the back of the car and grab the bat for my friend, knowing she won't have anything but a knife. I quietly open the car door once again and slip out, gun and bat in hand. I slip my gun into my belt and creep around the back of the car. I notice a walker slowly walking around by the front door of the house, bumping into the sides, seaming to be a bit stuck.
I tiptoe up behind it and right as it lets out a gabble of zombie sweet-talk, I bash it's head in, saving my bullets and life from the sound of a gun shot. I look around me and see that the rest of the street is empty but unusually, the front door is locked.
I go around back and jump over the frozen, metal fence. Using my left arm to swing my body over it, landing in a squat to stop myself from slipping. I walk up the three steps onto the porch and see that there is a crack in the sliding door and there's blood sticking to the wood.
I step around it and I hear shuffling inside the house. I try to peer into the glass but I can't see past the white curtain inside. I try to open the door but this one is locked too.
I step back a little, looking around as I ponder. I take the bat and flip it upside down, right hand on top, left slightly on the base. I swipe my left leg in front of me and bend my knees into the steal of the bat. I bash the glass in and step back, flipping my hair as if nothing happened.
The earth becomes still and silent again. The grayness of the cloudy blanket in the sky is giving the scene a sense of anguish. The odd coldness for the time of year, enough for last nights rain to be slightly frozen. Enough for me to see the nerves and adrenaline in my breathe.
The wind was whistling between the leaves and branches in the trees, pushing my shaggy hair in front of my face, tickling my eyelashes, giving their length a good name. The smell of rain and dewy grass was still the same, unchanged by this apocalypse. The push and pull of the wind was all the same, another thing that might wear away.
I blink out of a daze when I hear a door slam. The wind pushes the curtain, whipping it against the wall inside of the house. I step onto the shattered glass, hearing the chimes of it breaking under my boots. I step into the house and wipe the curtain off my face.
The door that slammed was most likely to be to the basement, meaning someone got scared and ran away. So, I took my time upstairs, knowing that her relief can wait.
I look around, this house hasn't changed much at all in the past few years. It looks the same as it always has, work clutter, left overs, not clean but normal. I walk over to the cupboard and grab an organic grocery bag. I put all of their canned foods and macaroni and other treats into the bag.
I walk over to the basement door and set the bag down there. I open the door and take a step down the stairs. There's light coming from the room so I close the door behind me, quietly. I start to creep down the steps and see the candles that have been lit instead of using electricity.
I walk around with my bat propped on my shoulder. The bathroom door is closed and I can hear two sets of feet shuffling around on the old tiles. I walk over to the door and the shuffling stops. I slightly turn the knob and it sticks. I turn it the opposite way and decide that it's locked and there is no way this nervous nelly will unlock it.
I step back, hike my right leg up and kick in front of me. The door swings open and crashes against the wall behind it.
I hear a scream and a sudden cut off of the shrill alarm. I step in the bathroom, holding my bat and see Ingrid smashing her hand against Axel's mouth, muffling his terror. Ingrid looks up from the squirming brother and immediately drops her hand.
Ingrid looks at my face as I lower the bat and she gasps. Tears swell up in her fatigued blue eyes and begin to stream down her cheeks. Axel drops his worries and they both step towards me, slamming into my body with a bear-armed hug. After a few moments, I push them both away from me.
I look at Ingrid questioningly and ask, "Where's your mom?" Axel looked up at Ingrid with disappointment. Ingrid looked at me and down to the floor.
She fell to her knees and began to sob. She stuttered and stumbled for her words, gasping for air, "I-I don't know. She left to go get food yesterd-day and she-she hasn't come b-back."
Her cries got louder and I kneeled down in front of her face. I set my finger on her lips, telling her to hush her weeping. She stopped, still hiccuping on her sobs.
"Shut up, do want to get killed?" I said to her with an eyebrow raised.
Axel stood in the corner, being absolutely quiet. I sighed and made a, "pssst," noise with my tongue. I grabbed their attention and held my hand up, giving them a finger motion to follow me.
I lead them up the steps and peaked my head out the shattered door to see if we had any visitors.
"Oh, my door's shattered, no big deal," Ingrid whispers to herself.
I roll my eyes and whisper, "Both of you pack a bag of clothes and anything worth bringing with. Nothing big, keep the travel size minimal. Use back packs and wear tennis shoes, both of you. Grab coats and pillows and blankets. Go, fast."
I expected to be waiting for a while since these two have a record for being annoyingly slow and lazy. Surprisingly, they were ready in about ten minutes, give or take a few.
Ingrid has on a grey sweat shirt that was custom made by her girlfriend. On the front it says, "Minä olen homogien," which means, "I'm a homo," in Finnish. Axel and her both have on Jansport backpacks and converse shoes. Their pillows are both stuffed with blankets and I can see Ingrid's lamb plushy peaking out at me.
We all walk into the kitchen and I tell Ingrid to make four sandwiches with what they have in the refrigerator.
She squints her eyes at me and says, "I'm not your wife-maid."
I looked over at her with a sort of hate in my irises and I replied, "Then I'll just leave you here for a zombies snack."
She shuts her mouth and gets out a big ziplock bag. She makes four very plain sandwiches and stuffs them into Axels back pack. I grab one of their big jugs of water that they always have and make Ingrid take the other.
I hand Axel the bat and say, "You have to protect yourself from them. Go for the head, or legs so they can't keep coming after you." He nodded in response and gripped onto the bat as if it was his life line.
"What about me?! Don't I have to protect myself?!" Ingrid yells.
"Ingrid! Shut up and give me a minute!" I whisper back with a wispy tone.
I open the garage door and gasp. I quickly grab a long gardening tool off of the wall and slam the door. I lock it and motion for them to follow me.
I hand Ingrid the tool as she quietly asks, "What just happened?"
I peer at her out of the corner of my eye and reply, "It's nothing. Stop asking questions." I grab the organic bag of canned foods and sling it around my shoulder.
Axel and Ingrid fall silent and follow me out of the front door. I pull Axel to my side so he can't see much and I notice Ingrid's cheeks fall white when she sees the dead zombie on the pavement.
"Axel, you never leave my sight, okay?" I said to the small, 10 year old boy I've babysat time and time again. He nodded as we reached the car.
I opened the end gate and moved my bags around, giving them enough room for luggage. I had them hand me their bags and I neatly and snugly packed them against mine. I added the food bags to the collection and set my water jug in next to them. Ingrid set hers inside too, slightly shaking.
"What if mom comes back?" Ingrid asks as I pull my hands up to the hatch.
The question delays my thinking and I stop. I look over at her and commiseratively reply, "Molly will be fine, you know she will. She'll be happy that you're safe."
Ingrid looks down and nods. I close the hatch and turn slightly to my left. I see a zombie walking towards us and it's too close to take the time to beat it with the bat. I pull my gun out of my belt and point. The shot echoes through the neighborhood and stuns Axel.
"Ingrid, Axel, get in the car." I yell. I hear their feet scurry to the car and I hear the doors slam shut. I run to the drivers door and jump in, not seeing if I actually killed the walker or not. I'm not sticking around to find out, that's for sure.
I start the engine and lock the doors. I turn around to see if Axel is buckled up and he is, all on his own. Ingrid is already sitting with her shoes off and feet up in her seat, knees pressed to her chest. Toes twiddling like rodents in her socks. I buckled my seat belt and took off down the streets, seeing some walkers stumble out from behind some houses as we drove away.
As I focused on the streets, I saw Ingrid slightly turn her head towards me and open her mouth to talk, so I looked over a bit and yelled, "Put your god damn seat belt on!" She slightly turned to put it on and I hoped she wouldn't ask anymore questions.
I needed to avoid conversation with her. I don't have all the answers she'll want to hear and I might never have the answers.
I could see her looking at me for a little bit, deciding what was okay to say. Finally, she asked, "Where are we going?"
I flicked my eyes to the side to look at her and I slowly brought them back to the road. I opened my mouth and paused for a moment, "I have some more people to search for." She looked at me confused but turned in her seat to look out the window, knowing any further questioning would result in me yelling.