If I Die Before I Wake Chapter 20
Chapter word count: 2,309
Total word count: 46,343
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Cleveland, Ohio. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For now.
A soft rustling and rummaging woke me, right before the saving sun began to crawl into the hall where we were sleeping. At least, I thought we had all been sleeping as my eyes cracked open, giving way to a blurry figure sitting up from their things, kneeling as they went through their pack, attempting to find something. My glasses had fallen off (it had become habit to just sleep in them in case we had to leave suddenly. There were no optometrists in post-InfectionZ world, if I lost or broke them), and I slowly reached for the pair, slipping them silently on and allowed my eyes to focus on the figure, distinctly female which meant it could only be Giselle or Sophie… her hair glinted that distinct red in the dim sunrise and I knew she hadn’t seen me move quite yet, which was surprising considering I was blatantly staring at this point.
She was practically topless.
Ok. Not true. She had a tank top on underneath what she had been wearing, a long sleeved shirt that was now in a ball next to her knees. And she wasn’t nearly as… gifted as Giselle was, but Sophie was probably the second woman that I hadn’t been related to and spent this much time with. Did you blame me for staring? Of course, once my shock wore off, I realized what she was actually doing.
A first aid kit was open on her lap and she was struggling to re-wrap a wound on her left arm, the gauze and new bandages slipping every so often since she could only use her right arm to do anything. Maybe she had been cut… the used bandages that were laying next to her shirt didn’t look all that gruesome and the sight, while making me not want to eat breakfast, made me shift slightly, alerting her to the fact that I was awake. And when her eyes met mine, her own gorgeous ones grew in shock and she fumbled to finish wrapping the wound, as if attempting to keep it secret from me.
The hell?
Silently, I sat up and moved next to her, not really caring that she had grown still, shocked for a moment, it seemed. My fingers shook to fix her bandages, especially as her whisper broke the silence. Loud and sharp enough to warn me to stop… but not enough to wake the others that were still slumbering beside us.
“Seth, stop. I got it.” She hissed, attempting to yank her arm out of my grip. A frown found my lips as I looked up at her before attempting to help once more, my fingers gentle to make sure I didn’t hurt her, but firm enough that she should realize I wanted to help, not just get a chance to touch her.
“Relax, Sophie. I can help.” I replied in a stage whisper, hoping to show that I was concerned and was just attempting to be friendly and all that jazz, but she seemed to want nothing of it. Especially as the figure next to us, Alex, began to stir at the sounds and whisper fighting.
“What’s going on?” A small groan escaped his lips as his eyes flickered open and focused on us, seeming to scare Sophie even more as she pulled her arm away from my fingers. But this also made the gauze slip one last time and with frightened panic on her face, Sophie finally finished bandaging it all up. But not before I had seen her wound, something she had been trying to hide from all of us and barely succeeding. Alex didn’t seem to notice, but I had.
It was a bite. A large chunk of flesh had been taken out of her upper arm, probably a few days ago by the mere glance I had gotten. And it wasn’t a bite from one of the few dogs that were still ambling around, most of them immune to whatever was going on in this lost country. No… it wasn’t a bite from an animal.
At least not an animal that had been an animal before the infection started spreading. Sophie had been bitten by a Zombie. Badly. Probably just barely escaping with the ability to haul ass back into her boarded up house. Imagined images flashed through my mind of her attempting to get one of those National Geographic worthy pictures of these things, approaching them from behind in the early days when they weren’t nearly as strong during the sunlight hours. Approaching and getting caught off guard, bitten and forced to stumble back inside to mend her wounds by herself. Was she immune? Keeping the bite secret was obvious considering Giselle alone would want to put a bullet in Sophie’s head no matter if she was immune like we were or not… I had seen the water bottles in Sophie’s house, she could have easily avoided the water once the news reports hit the internet from New York.
Was she going to turn?
However, I didn’t get a chance to ask her about it all because when I blinked, Alex was awake and Sophie was fully dressed, her first aid kit and all the remaining evidence gone without effort. Alex hadn’t even seemed to notice and he questioned my worried look as Sophie rose to her feet. I wanted desperately to call her out on it… but she was our chance of getting out of Cleveland and getting a break from fighting for a bit.
I hoped anyway.
“We should get going.” Sophie spoke, brushing herself off and waking the other two with her voice. Miles gave a grumble and Giselle sat up with a moan, her hair a bit messier, and not in that artful way that she tried to keep it when we traveled. The red head’s face was complete stone, although I knew she was attempting to avoid any sort of conversation about what I had possibly seen, especially considering she was avoiding eye contact as we began to get ready, all packing up.
“Breakfast?” Miles questioned, pulling out a can of some sort of food that would never rot during our trip, but Sophie shook her head, even as Giselle reached for the can. This made him stop, a questioning look on his face.
We always tried to eat breakfast, especially if we didn’t eat the night before. There was no such thing as three square meals a day in post-InfectionZ world. If you didn’t eat when you could, there was a chance you weren’t going to get a moment in the day to eat. Sure, we had been lucky with the protected car driving through Indiana and most of Ohio, spoiled by the fact that we could somewhat relax while driving through the states. But now that we were getting closer to New York?
That wasn’t an option.
“You’ll get a chance to eat soon enough. Trust me. The sooner we leave, the better.” Sophie reassured Miles before finishing her packing and slinging her bag over her shoulder, her hunting rifle fully loaded with a sharp click. Miles gave a dramatic sigh before tossing the can back into his bag and loading up his stuff as well and we all began to get to our feet, not ready for a new day. My muscles and bones were sore from sleeping on the floor, spoiled by the luxuries we had managed to procure in the past few nights. Inflatable mattresses, dorm rooms, even the back seat of the SUV had been better than the floor with no blankets. Luckily it was summer and we didn’t need to pack nearly as many things as if it were the winter. But could the infection have survived the frost of not only New York and the eastern states, but Chicago’s cold and bitter winter? Would it have spread as easily, or would it have died with the first frost like yellow fever had back in Colonial times? Would it die off in the winter anyway? Or by that time would we all be Zombies?
Except for those who were immune, of course. What would happen to us during the winter? Move south to Texas or hopefully Mexico and fight out the winter with the Zombies and InfectionZ that hadn’t died off? The thought made me cringe as he tugged the straps a bit tighter on my pack and began heading in the same direction Alex was, the front door where the truck was parked.
“Nope! This way.” Sophie called, heading in the opposite direction with a jerk of her head. The back door? Alex frowned, looked at me and shrugged before turning on his heel and following the rest of our group towards the back of the building. My eyes hadn’t left Sophie since she had accidentally flashed me her wound, and I was worried. Reports had been hazy about the affects of InfectionZ. Some got really sick immediately and some it took days. Fevers. Vomiting. Kind of like that strain of H1N1, or even the regular flu, but the effects were even worse, sending people to hospitals and intense care units for days, if they were lucky.
Most died before they got the common sense to call. But those were the ones that didn’t spread the infection. Those that went into hospitals and came in contact with more people, taking cabs to get there, meeting so many different doctors who couldn’t figure out what the hell was wrong with them and spreading it to more and more people.
Luckily they had figured it out before anyone infected had gotten on a plane to go overseas. Or even to California, where we could have been dealing with the infection spreading from both sides of the country, cornered in the middle. So what would Sophie be? Immune? She had been living pretty well so far, granted we only knew her for about a day. Less than that. Hadn’t heard her coughing or vomiting, but that didn’t mean much, especially if the bite was relatively new.
I had to keep an eye on her.
“We’re going to the harbor.” She instructed, leading us expertly through more and more exhibits, mazes and tunnels filled with musical history before finally pushing out the back door, her eyes constantly flicking for threats. My stomach gave a mix between a nervous turn and a growl as we came out into the sunlight, our eyes having to adjust rapidly to the sudden change. She had brought us pretty close to what looked like a storage place for… well every kind of boat you could imagine. Each slip held what could possibly be a college fund for me. Fishing boats. Racing boats. Yachts. Everything and anything that rich people wanted to buy and zoom out onto Lake Erie with.
Damn.
“We’re taking a boat? Sophie, you do realize we’re going to New York, right?” Alex questioned, frowning at the sight, although Giselle seemed quite excited to be spread out on a boat instead of squished in the backseat with me and Miles once more. But Alex had a point. Where the hell were we going to go? There were no major rivers to drive a boat down, especially not leading to New York. She gave a small sigh, and an amused smile despite this morning’s happenings, her eyes still searching for Zombies as she continued to lead the way and we continued to follow towards the harbor.
“Take a boat up to Erie and get a breather. Then just skirt through Pennsylvania instead of hiking all the way through it. Most of it is forest and farm land, you won’t get any cover, let alone a place to sleep. We can pick up a car in Erie.” She instructed, hopping over a guard gate and instructing us to do the same as we headed into the harbor, passing smaller boats first. Alex gave a sigh, pressing his hand through what hair he had on his head, looking back towards where the truck was parked.
“You have to admit, sitting on a yacht would be a hell of a lot better than sitting squished in that fucking truck, Alex.” Miles called ahead, eyes greedily searching for probably the biggest boat he could find. That was what we needed to do… find a cruise ship and just head out to sea. They were equipped with months of food sometimes. Wait out the Infection. We passed yachts and luxury boats and I knew Giselle was probably drooling behind me, along with Miles as we imagined a pretty sweet ride to New York, at least part of the journey. But our fantasies pushed aside as we approached our new mode of transportation and probably our new home for a few days.
“Lady and gentleman. I present… Athena.” Sophie presented, waving her hand at a very large and very daunting…
Fishing vessel.
Scabs of rust spotted the hull as it lumbered in the water, slightly bigger than some of the yachts it shadowed and I couldn’t imagine Sophie getting this thing out of the harbor. But her wicked smile seemed proud of her boat as she fished her set of keys out of her pocket, getting ready to get the thing all set up for our journey. Eyes flashed to Alex, yearning for him to tell her forget it and head back to the truck that would surely not leave us stranded in Lake Erie. What if the thing sank? But he gave a small shrug and seemed reassured by the tank-like ship that we were all surprised even floated in the water like it did.
“Alright. We’ll do it your way.” He replied before climbing aboard with a shrug of his pack.
Awesome.