First Arabesque Ending! Zombie Apocalypse: "Saved"

I woke up that morning, not bothering to open my eyes. I could feel the sunlight beneath my eyelids. I sat up on the bed, careful not to make any noise, I knew my cellmate was a light sleeper and had probably only an hour or so under her eyelids. She didn’t sleep at night, most people jokingly called her nocturnal and it kind of stuck. Hearing noises from the upstairs bunk, I stood up to find Arachnea already awake and furiously writing on a notepad.

            Of course I was speaking metaphorically when I said ‘cell’. I was as much a prisoner as anyone else in this apocalypse, that wasn’t saying much though. I shot an inquiring look at my friend and she looked up saying,

            “Oh good, you’re awake! I’ve been up all night working on this for you, but it’s not done yet, terribly sorry.” She kept writing ignoring all the questions shooting out of my mouth at once and laughed.

            “Wait, you haven’t slept all night? Why not? What are you writing? Why are you writing it? Where did you get the ink to write? Writing, for me?” She just kept on laughing and then there was a buzzing sound from my bunk. So, I sat down and opened my laptop turned translator. Gryffon’s face appeared on the screen and he yelled

            “Happy 16^th Birthday, Annlyn Rose!” He had donned a party hat and blew into one of the old duck quackers.” He was beaming at me and then moved out of the frame. I turned the translator so that it couldn’t face me. How he knew it was my birthday, I had only just remembered myself! It was kind of late in the day. I heard another burst of giggles from the middle bunk as I jumped away from the translator to brush my hair and get dressed in Gryffon’s favourite outfit of mine. I turned and raised an eyebrow at Arachnea, and now Ambroze who was looking down in interest from the top bunk.  

            I checked myself once again in the mirror. I smoothed down the insufferable bedhead, and turned back to the translator that still had no one in the camera frame. I waited and Gryffon looked into the lens seeing me and smiling even brighter than before he held up a painting. There was a blanket of snow on the ground and pronounced snowflakes which sparkled with the fresh brushstrokes, and looked even more amazing next to Gryffon’s perfect face.

            I smiled now and had no complaint of anyone knowing my birthday; this would not be the same dark day that it was so many years before.  I smiled back at him softly and he still did not look away, then abruptly he heard beeping and had to tear his gaze away.

            “Oops got to go. I’ll give this to you later. Bye, Annlyn” I smiled at him and waved star struck. Then the screen went black and I heard giggles from the two girls above. I got out of bed and back into my pajamas, it was my birthday, I refused to work today, well that and it was a Sunday. Most of the people in our refuge group were very religious and so therefore no work was done Sundays. It was just how things were.

            A couple years beforehand this virus broke out and people started rotting alive. But then they started eating animals alive, and the next step, of course was people. They went like it was the end of the world. Well it was the end of the world and it is the end of the world and will always be the end of the world.  We soon found out the virus was spread through bodily fluids.

            My parents were assigned to a different camp, to be called Encounter like aliens, but all the young people older than 11 got divided and put into two different camps, why they did this, no one is absolutely positive. Unfortunately by that time, I had just turned 11 so, I got taken and put in this refugee camp, Raven, (after the girl who designed it) with and one hundred and ninety nine other teenagers, most of which were four or five years older than me. There were only a handful of junior high students so; we all got assigned our own little corner of the mall, we set up in. The rest left to be abolished by the ever inebriated, promiscuous, high schoolers.

            The older kids, more mature, the ones about to be eighteen would teach us, and sometimes to the kids who were having trouble coping with this new change, namely me, they’d sing them to sleep or read them stories. Until they had to go off and be transferred to one of the adult camps, that is. Then BAM, just like that, we were the ones reading the younger kids stories and teaching and some of us, sneaking alcohol and staying in rooms of the opposite sex. Some were more in between like me.

            I was always totally concentrated on helping the younger ones, trying to make up for the trauma I had when I was that age. Then just like that, this boy that had always hated me got switched with a boy from the other refuge camp, he was a year older than me, and had the most wonderful laugh. His name was Gryffon and we were instant friends, he always talked about this girl from the other camp though. I knew he loved her.

            “Okay . . . done!” Arachnea squealed from the middle bunk. That’s another thing; my two roommates are Arachnea and Ambroze. Arachnea, and I had taken a Creative writing class in junior high, and Ambroze and I had been neighbours and best friends since before I could remember.

            I stood up and held my hand out for the notepad which was Arachnea’s life line and I knew it. She handed it to me, only now it had a light green bow on it, my favourite colour. Carefully reading under the bow, the top of the notepad said, and it was embedded into the thin paper, Happy Birthday, Annlyn Rose: A.R. + G.B. = Love in cursive in the center of a heart. Then flipping through all the papers on the notepad, I realized she wasted her entire notepad for me. I looked up at her, and hugged her after giving her a look that was full of thanks.

            “Why did you waste all your paper on me?” I asked knowing how scarce paper was these days; there was no one to actually create paper. Arachnea shrugged and smiled at me, which I returned. Ambroze had climbed down and was looking at the notepad, I set on my bed.

            “’Why did you save me,’ Annlyn asked Gryffon, he smiled lovingly up at her, and tweaked her nose like he often did, ‘You asked me to.’ Gryffon said speaking his last words, he held out his hand and Annlyn took it realizing that he held a scarlet, gold, black ring case in his hands. Annlyn gasped and with her jaw hanging open, she tore her eyes away from the ring case just in time to see him close his for the last time. She kissed him one more time, and sent him unto heaven to spend eternity watching down on Annlyn, as she spent the rest of her life in agony, she’d never told him she loved him.” Ambroze said reading the last page. I hit her belly playfully and said, “Thanks for spoiling the end for me.” And then I turned to Arachnea, “Thanks for killing the love of my life. I might actually cry if I get the chance to read it myself.” And simultaneously, they said “Any time.” I sneered jokingly at them, and then crawled back into bed.

            “Oh, no, you are not going to sleep; we’ve planned out a whole entire day for your sweet sixteen.” I groaned, it was the end of the world, who had birthday parties anymore? Ambroze pleadingly looked at Arachnea and as she nodded her head in consent, Ambroze sneaked into the bathroom, and came back in with a bucket of melted ice; it had just finished melting before I woke up. Arachnea climbed down, making sure that she wasn’t in the zone where I could reach her quickly enough to strangle her.

            I had just drifted back off to sleep when, I felt it. The cascading waves of water falling down on me, instantaneously, I shot out of bed, and Ambroze and Arachnea, were sniggering in the corner, Ambroze holding the bucket. I sneered at them, then seeing her in her night clothes nothing but a thin tank top and underwear, I gathered all the clothes from her dresser which may have been ten or fifteen outfits, and I mean I made two or three trips before they noticed me, they couldn’t figure out what quite what I was doing, but once I got all of Ambroze’s clothes into the bathtub I turned on the cold water.

            She laughed and said, “You think that’s actually going to bother me?” I meaningfully looked out the window at the snow blanketed ground and she just shrugged. I narrowed my eyes at her and then before she could get any kind of reaction in, I shook my hair like a wet dog, flecking them with freezing cold water. Remember how I told you about the promiscuous drunks? Well, let’s just say that I’m pretty sure in all her time here; Ambroze never read a story to a child or sang them to sleep. So, an hour later, with me and Arachnea in warm dry clothes and Ambroze still in her underwear and tank top, we left.

            Where we were going I had no inkling of an idea. We walked down the street with more than half the boys staring at Ambroze, not unkindly. She got wolf whistles and more than one guy’s hand on her rump, and other places, and she didn’t mind in the least. In fact, she encouraged behaviour such as this. Ambroze enjoyed the single life and also, she knew that she looked good; she didn’t try to hide it. She shivered a bit and had goosebumps but, she still had on a smile. Arachnea looked at me and we knew we were probably going to have to bunk with someone else for the night.

            Anyway, we walked up to Gryffon’s house, and Ambroze knocked on the door. Gryffon opened and looked Ambroze up and down, not as if he wanted her like all the other boys did, but as if she were crazy. He ushered them in and threw a bag of girl’s clothes at her. I knew this meant there was a girl who regularly left her clothes at his house and it made me sad, but the sadness dissolved a bit when he embraced me. “Happy Birthday, Annlyn!” He whispered in my ear, then he handed me a party hat.

            “We have a big day planned for Annlyn today, care to join us?” Ambroze asked, putting on a very form fitting tank top, and short jean shorts – with lots of holes in them. He looked at her again and shook his head, probably wondering who would wear that in this weather.

            “Yeah, just let me get some stuff in order,” he went into the hallway, and I heard him explaining to someone else on the phone that he wouldn’t be home all day, the last words he said were

            “All right, don’t call me. Just in case, call Annlyn. She’ll have her phone with her, I know. Bye, love you.” These words shocked me the most. This girl had my number, I’m friends with her. I should hate her guts. I wondered for hours that night about who it was. I knew it wasn’t Ambroze or Arachnea, so I crossed them off the list. And I crossed all the guys off. I couldn’t figure out who it was. Why would they have my number? Had Gryffon given it to them?

            Gryffon emerged out of the hallway and I saw he’d brushed his hair and changed his clothes. He was now wearing a collared shirt and a red bow tie, and a trench coat. I laughed as he modeled it for us, spinning and twirling. He, like magic, pulled the painting he’d shown me before, only it looked so much more eloquent in person. I ran my fingers over the brushstrokes; Gryffon’s paintings literally always brought a tear to my eye. But knowing that he’d painted this specifically for me brought the tears down like rain. He wiped the tears away gently, then jokingly took my arm in his and escorted me out of his house out onto the street. Ambroze and Arachnea glanced at each other knowingly then led the way, walking quite a ways in front of Gryffon and I. He told me jokes and we laughed the entire time. When we arrived at our destination, I looked around shocked.

            We’d left the shelter of the hospital that the refugee camp was based at and now were in the middle of the street, outside in a dark alley. I remembered it perfectly. I was where I’d killed my first zombie. It wasn’t a pleasant memory to say the least. But there was sunshine and fresh air, the city was dirty, but everyone knew about my claustrophobia, it was kind of hard to cover up when you’re forced to ride in an elevator.  The sun was shining and I could feel the breeze on my face. I heard a noise, but ignored it as I was in complete bliss soaking in the sun. I was freezing but I’d shed my heavy winter coat and ignored my surroundings.

            Then I heard my three friends stifling giggles and ignoring Ambroze and Arachnea, I, uncharacteristically graceful as a swan, asked Gryffon to dance. He bowed and said

            “It would be my pleasure.” He pulled me as close as our physical forms would allow then started singing. He had the most beautiful voice, velvet as silk and smooth as unfaltering. Once the song he was singing was over, he whispered into my ear, the only three words I’d ever wanted desperately to say to him.

            “Annlyn, I love you. You know that don’t you?” I looked at him; his mousy brown bangs had fallen into his face again. I was so startled by this confession I couldn’t answer, right away, then slowly I shook my head no and he looked sad. “Well, I do. I just wanted you to know. I know this is a bad day for you.” I buried my face into his chest. I really wasn’t sure what to do, other than attempt to show him how I felt. The words refused to conjure in my throat and I had no idea what else to do. So, I pulled him close to me, stood on my tip toes, but he was inevitably taller than me. I put my hand on the back of his hair and slowly pulled him into a kiss. It didn’t last long, but it was the most amazing kiss of my life, except for the long one after that. The only thing I had to compare it to, possibly the joy of him telling me his feelings. There were no words. I looked deep into his eyes and finally decided to reveal my thoughts.

            “Save me from this torture we call our world; this hell has no escape, except you.” I said to him, right before I kissed him again. This time, for the first time, I felt his lips, they were dry and cracked and rough, but I found I rather enjoyed it.

            Suddenly, Ambroze screamed. The moment was broken and so were our lips. He pulled away to see a handful of the undead surrounding us on either side of the alley. Arachnea was the expert at killing dead here, and had brought four guns. She handed two to Ambroze, who as having nowhere to store one hadn’t brought one.  I had one in my boot and two knives there; also I had one in the back of my jeans. The undead were trailing blood and were making an awful lot of noise. I had no idea how we’d not noticed them.

            They were closing in and Arachnea shot two or three in the head, then she beat one of them in the head until it fell off. The mouth was still moving even after that, pouring out blood, not so dramatically as in the old movies. Then Ambroze, not sure what to do started cowering behind her. There were only half of the original zombies now, and even better Gryffon had started shooting, I handed a knife to Ambroze who was better with blades than anyone else here. I’d also pulled out my gun and shot a few more. Now only four remained. I had Gryffon behind me, in a sort of protective way. But Ambroze was on a roll, before either I or Arachnea could shoot them, she’d beheaded three and gouged the last one’s eyes out stabbing the squishy red stuff inside.

            Then we heard it, in the silence. He was moaning and I whipped around. I was sure Gryffon was right beside me the entire time. I shot the already massively bleeding zombie multiple times in the head, and then I looked at Gryffon trying with all my might not to look at the part of his skull the zombie had eaten. I could feel the tears running down my face; I made no move to wipe them away. My hands were on his chest and he sputtered some blood I looked up at his face. Realization shot through my brain, I’d felt a very strange hand on my back halfway through everything, I’d just figured it was Gryffon making sure I was okay. But now I realized it was the zombie I’d just given a major dose of overkill to.

            “Why did you save me?” I asked Gryffon, he smiled lovingly up at me, and tweaked my nose like he often did,
            “You asked me to.” Gryffon said speaking his last words, he held out his hand and I took it realizing that he held a scarlet, gold, black ring case in his hands. I gasped and with my jaw hanging open, I tore my eyes away from the ring case just in time to see him close his for the last time. I kissed him one more time, and sent him unto paradise to spend eternity watching down on me, as I spent the rest of my life in agony, I’d never told him I loved him.

            I turned around and laid down in the fetal position and started crying, even more than before, my shoulders were shaking. Ambroze was at my side, plugging my ears, so I wouldn’t hear the gunshot. It had to be done, it was inevitable I knew, but I was going through a relapse. It happened again, my twelfth birthday all over again. My brother, wasn’t here anymore and neither was Gryffon and it was entirely my fault. That night, after the breakdown, I realized it must have been Sarah, Gryffon’s little sister he’d talked about all those years, and it wasn’t another girl. I never even knew he had a sister.