Don’t Let It Become Normal

The city looked different in daylight. Not better. Just easier to see. Which might have made it worse.

We moved through streets that had once been clogged with traffic. Cars sat abandoned at strange angles, doors hanging open, belongings scattered across seats and pavement.

A child’s backpack lay beneath the tire of an SUV. I tried not to look at it.

Grass had begun pushing through cracks in the road. Vines crawled across buildings. Without thousands of people constantly cutting everything back, nature had wasted no time reclaiming what we’d built.

Liam walked a few feet ahead of me, machete hanging loosely at his side.

“Do you think the school will actually have food?” I asked.

“Yes,” Liam answered as if he had already been there.

“You sound very confident.” I glared at him with a smirk.

“It had a cafeteria.” He smirked back, as if the cafeteria still served a daily lunch.

“It had a cafeteria before the world ended.” I clarified.

“Canned vegetables don’t disappear because civilization collapses.”

“People take them.”

He glanced back at me. “You’re really determined to ruin this for me.”

“I’m being realistic.” I shrugged.

“You’re being annoying.” Liam rolled his eyes.

“That too.” I smirked.

My stomach growled loudly. Liam stopped.

I glared at him. “Don’t.”

His mouth twitched. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to.”

“I was going to politely ask if you’d like breakfast.”

“Liar.”

He swung his backpack around and dug through it.

“We’ve got half a bottle of water, crackers, and…” He paused. “Beans.”

I perked up. “Beans?”

“One can.”

“We could heat those tonight.”

Liam slowly lifted his head. “No.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“No.”

“They’re beans.”

“Exactly.”

“You don’t trust me to heat beans?” I crossed my arms across my chest.

“I’ve seen you cook.” Liam glared at me over his shoulder.

“I can cook.” I pouted.

“You burned soup.” Liam rolled his eyes.

My mouth fell open. “We are not talking about the soup.”

“Soup is mostly water, Violet.”

“It was one time.”

“I still don’t understand how you did it.”

“I forgot it was on the stove!” I threw my arms down against my sides.

“You were standing in the kitchen.” Liam stared me down.

“I got distracted.”

“By what?”

I thought about it. “I don’t remember.”

“Exactly.”

I shoved his shoulder as I walked past him. He laughed. The sound followed me down the empty street.

For a moment, it almost felt normal. Then we passed a body slumped against a bus stop.

Normal disappeared.

I kept walking.

We stopped twice over the next hour. The first time was for water. The second was because Liam spotted movement inside a pharmacy.

We crouched behind an abandoned car while he peered through the shattered front window.

“One,” he whispered.

I leaned slightly around him. A walker wandered between the aisles. Female. Or it had been.

Long strands of hair hung from a scalp torn open near the temple.

“Could be supplies inside,” I whispered.

“Could be more walkers in the back.”

“We need supplies.”

“We need to reach the school.”

I looked at the faded pharmacy sign. Bandages. Medicine. Painkillers. Antibiotics, if we were unbelievably lucky.

“We should check.”

Liam sighed. “Of course you think that.”

“What does that mean?” I glared at him.

“It means you see one potentially useful building and suddenly the plan doesn’t exist.”

“The plan is to survive.” I rolled my eyes dramatically.

“The plan is to reach the school.”

“Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

He stared at me. I stared back.

“Fine,” he muttered.

I smiled. “I knew you’d see reason.”

“I haven’t.” Liam sighed. “I’ve accepted that you’re going inside whether I agree or not.”

“That sounds like reason.” My smile widened.

“That sounds like I’ve known you too long.” He stood. “Stay close.”

“I always do.”

Something changed in his expression. Just for a second. Then he turned away.

“Come on.”

We slipped through the broken window. The walker didn’t notice us immediately. Liam moved first.

Two steps.

Machete up.

One strike.

The walker collapsed.

I grimaced as he yanked the blade free.

“Clear?” I asked.

“Front is,” Liam confirmed.

I swept my flashlight toward the rear of the store. Shelves had been stripped nearly bare.

Of course.

We moved aisle by aisle.

Nothing.

Someone had already taken most of the useful medicine, but I found two rolls of gauze beneath an overturned display.

“Jackpot.” I smiled as my eyes landed on something wrapped in white packaging.

Liam glanced over. “Gauze?”

“Don’t ruin this for me.” I pouted.

He smirked.

A few minutes later, he found a small bottle of antiseptic shoved behind the pharmacy counter. “Now that’s a jackpot.” I reached for it.

He pulled it away.

“Hey.” I reached for the antiseptic, clawing at his wrist.

“I found it.”

“We share supplies.” I scoffed.

“Maybe.” Liam grinned.

“Liam.”

He handed it over. I tucked it into my bag.

“You’re very mature.” I frowned.

“Thank you.” He grinned.

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I accepted it as one.”

I rolled my eyes.

Then I heard it. A thump. From the back room. Liam’s smile disappeared.

We both turned.

Another thump.

Someone was inside.

He raised his machete.

I drew my knife.

The door behind the pharmacy counter stood slightly open.

“Walker?” I whispered.

“Probably.”

Then a voice came through.

“Please.”

I froze. Liam did too. Human.

“Please… don’t leave.”

I was moving before Liam could stop me.

“Violet.”

I pushed the door open. A man sat against the far wall. Alive. Barely.

He looked somewhere in his twenties, though dirt and exhaustion made it difficult to tell. One hand pressed against his side.

Blood soaked through his shirt.

“Oh my God.” I hurried toward him.

Liam grabbed my backpack and yanked me backward. “Wait.”

“He’s hurt.” I pulled my arm out of Liam’s grip.

“Look at his arm.”

I did.

My stomach dropped.

Teeth marks. Deep ones. The flesh surrounding them had already turned gray.

“No,” I whispered.

The man looked down. “I know.” His voice cracked. “I know what it is.”

I couldn’t move. “How long ago?”

“Couple hours.” the man mumbled.

Liam’s grip loosened on my backpack. The man’s eyes moved between us.

“You headed somewhere?”

“The school,” I said.

“Violet.” Liam nudged my side.

“What?” I turned to him.

“Don’t tell strangers where we’re going.”

“He’s not going to follow us.” The words left my mouth before I realized how cruel they sounded.

The man’s expression crumpled.

“Sorry.”

“No.” He swallowed. “You’re right.”

I crouched a few feet away. Liam remained standing behind me. “Is there anyone with you?”

The man shook his head. “My sister was.”

Was.

I didn’t ask.

He looked toward my knife.

Then at Liam’s machete.

“Can you…” His voice broke.

I knew what he was asking.

My stomach twisted. “No.”

“Vi.”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

The man closed his eyes. “I don’t want to turn.”

My throat tightened. Liam stepped past me. I grabbed his wrist.

He looked down.

“No.” I shook my head.

“Violet.” Liam’s voice came out soft.

“There has to be another way.” I could feel tears beginning to form.

“There isn’t.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Yes, we do.”

“No, we don’t.”

His face softened.

That made me angrier. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you feel sorry for me.”

“I don’t.”

“Liar.”

The man laughed weakly.

We both looked at him.

“She’s stubborn.” The man chuckled.

Liam’s mouth twitched. “You have no idea.”

I glared at him. The man coughed. Blood stained his lips. The humor vanished.

“Please.”

One word.

That was all.

Liam looked at me.

I hated him for making me choose. I hated the man for asking. I hated the world for making any of this normal.

Slowly, I let go of Liam’s wrist. “I’ll wait outside.”

He nodded.

I stood.

The man stopped me. “Hey.”

I looked back.

“The school.”

I waited.

“I heard people talking about it a few days ago.”

My heart jumped. “What people?”

“Survivors. Passed through.” He struggled for breath. “Said there were lights there at night.”

Liam and I looked at each other. Lights. That meant electricity. Or generators. Or fires.

It meant people.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

The man gave me a tired smile. “Go.”

I walked out. The pharmacy felt colder than it had before. I made it through the broken window and crossed the street before stopping.

A minute later, I heard the sound. One strike. Then silence. I closed my eyes.

A few moments later, Liam stepped outside. He wiped his machete against the grass growing beside the curb.

Neither of us spoke.

He walked over. “You okay?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Yeah.”

I looked at him. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“It does to me.” He pulled me into a hug.

I wanted to be angry. Instead, I leaned against him. His arm wrapped around my shoulders. We stood there in the middle of the abandoned street, surrounded by everything we’d lost.

“I hate this,” I whispered.

“I know.”

“I don’t want that to ever feel normal.”

Liam’s arm tightened. “Then don’t let it.”

I pulled away. He looked exhausted. So did I. But for the first time that morning, I felt something besides fear.

“Someone’s at the school.” A small smile hinted at my lips.

“Maybe.”

“He said there were lights.”

“He said someone else said there were lights.”

I stared at him. “Can you let me have this?”

He smiled. “Fine.”

“Thank you.” I smiled back.

“There are definitely people at the school.”

“Better.”

“And they’re probably sitting around an enormous table eating hot food.” Liam added.

I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t push it.”

“Probably beans.” A smirk crept over his lips.

“Liam.” I frowned.

“Cooked by someone other than you.”

I punched him in the arm. He laughed. We started walking.