Zombies - A Love Story Ch. 05

Zack was fully immersed in his game, burning to death closely-grouped packs of grisly zombies while picking off others with full-auto assault and semi-auto sniper rifles. The muffled hum of their gas-powered generator could be heard just outside, above the din of the bloody carnage taking place indoors. He'd asked Caria to play with him but she instead opted to sit on the couch with her battery-powered music player, listening to music through a headset as her mind wandered.

They were still at the same house. After finding the old man's lifeless body sitting in his recliner Zack started collecting the few belongings they'd taken inside with plans to get on the road. But Caria had been shocked beyond belief upon realizing that he'd been planning on just leaving the man in his chair to rot. He quickly defended his decision by telling her that the old man looked more comfortable there than in some dark hole in the ground, but this only served to outrage her further.

At the end of what had erupted into the first heated argument of their relationship, Zack backed down with the agreement that they'd stay another day to give him the time needed to dig a grave and bury the guy, just as she'd demanded. Caria appeared angrier to him than the situation called for so he suspected there were other underlying emotions at play. If there were, she wasn't sharing them with him... at least not yet.

After locating a pick and a shovel in a shed out back Caria selected the place she wanted to see him buried. Zack then got started on a project that would take until mid-afternoon to finish due to the many rocks he encountered during the dig, which required him to remove them from the deepening hole. Caria's part was only to critique, but Zack eventually managed to appease her.

Once they loaded the old man onto a sheet and dragged him outside, Zack used the last of his waning strength to fill in the grave. Caria mumbled some polite words of prayer as he covered the lifeless body. Then, after he put away the pick and shovel, wondering as he did why he even bothered, Caria came back with some daisies she'd scavenged from a neighbor's yard. After placing them on the grave she blew the old man a final kiss goodbye.

She hadn't spoken a word since, Zack realized, and when he finished the level he was playing he glanced worriedly over his shoulder at her. Caria didn't return the look. Her eyes were closed as she was biting on a fingernail, something he hadn't seen her do before. Her other hand was gently petting the black dog's back that was contentedly resting on her lap.

Growing concerned about the mental state of his girlfriend -- correction, semi-official wife -- he paused the game and walked over to her.

"Caria?" he softly whispered as he settled along her left side, his right arm extending around her shoulders.

Sensing his presence, perhaps having even heard her name being spoken, her eyes opened. When they did he could see the unhappiness filling them. They closed again as she pulled the headsets off and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Are you going to leave me where I die?" she asked, adding, "If you think I look comfortable where I am? Or will you bury my body?"

Zack's face expressed the worry he was feeling. "What's wrong?"

"Will you bury me, or will that be too inconvenient?" she pressed.

He promised, "I'll bury you. But you better not die, you're all I have."

"Have you noticed how quiet it's been lately?"

Zack's brow furled. "Well, yeah. There's like nobody left. Of course it's quiet."

"It's been even quieter than that," Caria persisted. "When's the last time you heard the birds chirping?"

He was confused by this new line of questioning. "I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"I know something's been missing, something more than people, more than the cars that they drive, the horns they honk, the music they listen to," she attempted to explain. "It's been bothering me so much. Now I think I know what it is. The birds, they're all dead too."

"Other animals are alive. You said yourself you had to fight off a pack of rabid dogs."

"But not birds, Zack. And the dogs, that was over a month ago. Have you seen any lately besides this one? I think they're all gone."

He was still confused and uncertain. "So, what if they are?"

"People have used birds for generations to warn of danger," she pointed out. "Now they're all gone. That has to mean something. It's a clue of some kind."

"If the birds are all gone, as you say they are, so what? I mean it doesn't change anything," he argued.

"But we'll know, Zack, we'll know what happened. And if we know what happened maybe we can protect ourselves from the real danger that bullets may not be able to stop."

Moments earlier he'd been playing his zombie-killing game and enjoying a little slice of the life he once knew. Now he was listening to his new wife spouting a theory that made his brain hurt. What the hell was going on?

"What's the big deal? We're alive, nearly everything else is dead. Whether we know what happened or not, who cares?" he pointed out, his voice louder than intended.

He watched the anger in her flaring again. "Because whatever happened could happen again, only next time it could be worse and kill off the rest of us!"

* * * * *

After eating an early dinner Zack agreed to drive them into town in search of a library.

"I hope they're still open," Caria innocently expressed.

Zack bellowed out in laughter and, a second later, was joined by his spouse.

"I think you might be right," Caria mentioned as he drove. "You said you thought maybe something solid turned into a gas that killed so many people. That got me to thinking. I remember when I was a little girl when my father was installing these detectors in the basement and attic. When I asked what they were for, he told me for radon. When I asked what radon was, he explained that it was a form of radiation."

Zack frowned. "But radiation affects everyone equally, nobody is immune to it."

She wasn't going to be so easily swayed. "It depends on the dosage. Maybe some people got a larger dose than others? Maybe it all depended on where you happened to be standing when the whole thing happened. If I'm right, we won the lottery of a lifetime."

"So what will the books at the library tell us?" he questioned.

"If the symptoms they died of could've been from radiation poisoning."

"And what if you're right? How does knowing what happened help us now?" Zack challenged her.

"A person can only take so much. Maybe we received a smaller, non-lethal dose. If I'm right, we'll have to take precautions to protect ourselves from a future event."

"What, like wear radiation suits twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week? No thanks, Caria, I think I'd rather just die like the others."

"No, Zack, we find a place where there are birds," she offered. "There must be a place, somewhere, safe from this. If I'm right. And I'm probably wrong."

They both fell silent for a few minutes before Zack spoke up. "You're probably wrong, but your idea is the best one I've heard so far. And the last time I checked, I'm not busy doing anything else. How much time do you think we have?"

The question gave her a reason to pause. "Hours? Weeks? Months? Years, even? I don't know, I don't think even the scientists could know, if they were still alive to tell us. But I'm sure it will happen again, and we may not be standing in a safe spot next time, you know?"

* * * * *

The town was small but after exploring what appeared to be the main streets they happened upon a small red-brick building with a rather plain-looking sign out front that simply established its singular purpose as a public library. Parking at the curb out front despite the presence of a No Parking sign and an empty parking lot only a short walk away, they got out and walked up to the front door.

Zack used his elbow to break a small pane of glass and access a deadbolt, which then gave them entry to the small library much more devoted to children than to adults. But after a brief inspection Caria found what she was looking for.

They sat at a dust-covered wood table beside one another. The sun was getting low in the sky so the bright rays were dwindling.

"Just take it, I'm sure you won't get busted," he teased. "That thing looks like it was published way before we were born."

She looked at him critically, her morality still more in check than his, before glancing through it. Once she found what she was looking for Caria began reciting what she'd found.

"It depends on the dosage, but assuming the maximum dosage, nausea and vomiting within minutes, diarrhea, headache, fever," she listed, losing her composure as each of the symptoms she recognized was learned. "Dizziness and disorientation, weakness and fatigue, hair loss." After a brief delay she admitted, "My parents didn't lose their hair."

"They may have gotten a larger dose than any listed here," Zack decided, his confidence in her theory growing. "But the earlier symptoms, those are all right?"

Caria lowered her head, right hand rubbing her forehead. "Sure, but how many other things cause vomiting, diarrhea, disorientation and dizziness, weakness and fatigue? It could be a million other things, Zack. I think I'm wrong."

He rubbed her back while admitting, "I think you're onto something. Something big, Caria. I think you might be figuring this all out."

She looked over at him, her expression incredulous. "Me? Please, Zack, I think I'm full of it. I'm so desperate to try and find a cause, and a cure, that I'm starting to sound as delusional as the old man was."

"But what if you're right?"

"How could I have figured out what all of those scientists couldn't? You saw all of the news reports the same as I did. A pandemic, they called it. The worst in all of recorded human history, even worse than the black plague in Europe. It had to be viral or biological, and there had to be a cure, right? Because if they couldn't find one..."

"Ninety percent of the population could die," Zack finished. "But they were wrong about that one too, weren't they? All of those scientists and their high-tech labs were all convinced people were dying from some kind of an antibiotic-resistant super-bug. They never stepped back far enough to see the whole picture. Even I thought they were full of shit, and what did I know? Except that people can't be dying all over the world at the same time, not from a bug, no matter how bad it is."

They fell silent for a brief time, both lost in thought, lost in the memories of the panic that had gripped them all during the worst of it.

Her eyes turned to his, questioning. "Do you really think I might be right?"

"I think you are."

A smile brightened her cute face. "I'll be right back."

He watched her shapely body as she walked away before disappearing behind a bookshelf several feet taller than her. She reappeared a few seconds later.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Sure," Zack responded as he got up. "Where'd you go to?"

"I put the book back."

He couldn't help but smile. "Why?"

"Why did you put the pick and shovel back?" Caria countered.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know why."

"Maybe we'd like to think we're not the last people left alive, that there might be others," she explained. "And how rude would it be for us to make them pick up our mess?"

* * * * *

After they got back to the house Zack walked to the trailer and grabbed a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and a large jug of water. It was already dark, and as usual it was silent. No birds, he thought to himself, wondering why he hadn't realized that sooner. Hell, if not for Caria, he probably still wouldn't have noticed.

"Want to watch a movie? I can fire up the generator," he offered, nibbling on a few chips.

"No thanks," she politely turned him down, dipping her hand into the bag to grab a few to snack on. "You can play your game if you want to."

"What are you going to do?"

She weakly smiled before feigning a yawn. "I think I'll go upstairs and go to bed."

Zack grew concerned. "Are you tired?"

"Yeah, Zack, I'm tired," she finally vented, releasing the underlying emotions that had been at her very core for so long. "I'm tired of running, I'm tired of thinking we might be the only people left alive, I'm tired of... I'm tired of being scared, of not knowing what to do, of thinking that we might not have much more time left ourselves. And I'm scared to death of losing you."

By the time Caria was finished her eyes were wet with tears. He pulled her into his arms to give her a reassuring, life-affirming hug when her hungry lips met his. Zack eagerly kissed her back, gently at first, until her tongue extended into his mouth. Then the embrace turned passionate, his cock immediately stirring as the nipples of her breasts noticeably hardened against his chest.

They climbed the stairs and returned to the room they'd slept in the previous night. As the setting sun bathed them in faint orange rays he gripped the bottom of her t-shirt and lifted it up, her extended arms facilitating its removal. For several moments Zack savored the gorgeous sight of her perky, upright boobs and the light pink tips that were so tightly beaded with her arousal. Delicately taking them into his palms he squeezed on the firm swells, feeling the peaks throbbing against his skin.

"Kiss me, Zack."

His eyes turned upward to hers as he leaned forward, their parted lips meeting, tongues entwining. They both knew that each day they had together was a blessing, that each time they made love could be the last, and so they loved one another as best they could every chance they could.

Fear intensified their passion as darting tongues explored, his palms caressing her breasts harder, capturing the nipples between fingers to tweak and tug. After several minutes of intense kissing and petting Caria surfaced, briefly interrupting their embrace for a needed breath of air. Her hands clutched the bottom of his t-shirt and tugged it up, his arms extending to facilitate its removal.

Once topless he hugged her tightly, relishing the feel of her naked chest against his. Several moments elapsed as they cherished the moment.

As his fingers caressed her soft face Zack told her, "I love you more than life itself."

"I've never loved anyone as much as I love you, which is why I'm so scared," she confessed as her heart opened up to him. "When I've loved someone so completely, they're always taken away. And I'm afraid you will be too."

"Not this time, Caria, you have my promise," Zack reassured her. "There's a reason you found me, why we're both still alive. We just have to try and figure out why."

Releasing his hold on her boobs, the flats of his hands moved down over her smooth belly until the fingers were at the edge of her jeans. The fingers of his right hand dipped underneath, feeling the tight curls of pubic hair before they descended to the top of her pussy. His hand could only go so far and a middle finger strained to reach the outer folds, just managing to push between and to find the enlarged bud of her clit. He heard her breath catch as he gently stroked the hard nub.

As he stroked her most sensitive part, Zack's lips kissed up and down each side of her silky neck as she softly moaned her pleasure into the night. As her arousal heightened so did his, indicated by the swelling of his manhood inside his jeans. She could feel the growing bulge as he rubbed it against her crotch. Zack could feel the developing heat and wetness forming within her clothing as his stimulating teasing continued.

After a few minutes Caria was anxious for more. Reaching a hand down she began rubbing and squeezing both hands on his cock through his clothing. His semen was soon seeping, the thick seed painting the inside of his shorts with wetness. Her fingers found the zipper, lowering it, unbuttoning his pants, both hands slipping inside the final thin barrier of cotton until her fingers were gripping his hardened erection.

Breaking the heated kissing he suggested, "Let's get naked and get into bed."

After quickly shedding their clothes they climbed into the same bed for the second time, pulling a crisp sheet over their bodies. She immediately snuggled against him as his arms pulled her close. This kissing and hugging eagerly resumed.

Her thighs parted, welcoming his exploratory hand between them, moaning into his mouth as his fingers exploited her willingness. The probing digits separated the silky-moist folds of her labia, venturing into the slit, causing her flesh to tremble in delight. When the tip of a finger teasingly rubbed over the swollen nub of her clit her form powerfully shuddered. It moved down, feeling for the familiar opening, entering her.

His moans joined hers as soft fingers wrapped around the rigid shaft of his manhood, traveling up and down its length, encouraging the rush of blood swelling it. As his loving caresses of her wet sex fueled Caria's arousal, her stroking of his cock increased in urgency until he thought she might rip it out by the root. Thrusting his hips, he fucked her hand until he wanted, needed, more.

Without an invitation he moved on top of her, feeling her legs widening in anticipation. He was stiff with desire, throbbing with need, balls aching with a searing load of cum that was begging to be unleashed. As much as he wanted her, Caria wanted him. Her heated loins were aching with a need for her own, yearning to be filled, anxious to feel him pounding deeply inside of her.

"Make me feel alive," she whispered.

As one hand gripped the base of his cock, two fingers of his other hand separated the lips of her cunt, exposing what lay nestled within. He stabbed at her several times before finding the tight portal to her tunnel and sank into it. He groaned his delight as he felt her widening to accept his size, heard her moans as she accepted him inside of her most intimate of all places. With half his length buried he began urgently thrusting, as she did the same, her hips meeting his, willing his cock deeper.

The bed squealed in protest beneath their young, energetic bodies as they coupled, both seeking the joy of sexual release. The sounds of heavy breathing, of wet flesh meeting flesh, of moans and groans of excitement filled the room. This further aroused them, fueling their passion, inspiring them to achieve higher heights.

His powerfully ramming cock backed her body across the bed until her head was banging against the headboard. Her hands reached back blindly to grip it so her arms could act as shock absorbers, taking the punishing blows of his granite-hard cock as he pounded in and out and into her over and over. Her body met his with equally violent force, perky boobs twitching from the vibrations.

"Oh god! Don't stop, baby, don't stop," she breathlessly pleaded as she felt her climax building.

Zack focused on the amazing feeling of her hot, wet, tight sheath surrounding his cock, pulsing against it, squeezing around it. She was soaked and was soaking him, and he loved every moment. Then her cries intensified and the fucking turned even more frantic until her entire form stiffened, her cunt flooding with female cum as her feverish convulsions took over.

He wanted to last all night long, to bring her to climax after climax because he loved her so much, but his human body was equally in need of an orgasm. Shortly after hers ended, as he frantically pumped his cock as deeply into her as he could, grinding his crotch against hers, the tingling pressure in his balls became too great to hold back.

"Love you," he barely managed to get out just before his body clenched hard, muscles tightening as his ejaculations began.

Thrusting into her rapidly, each inward penetration ended with a squirt of thick seed. He kept at it time and time again, the successive ejaculations weakening, until his balls were spent. As the last bit slowly seeped out he collapsed on top of her, feeling her boobs compressing between their bodies, his withering cock still inside until it slid out.