Partner

Partner

Blood was everywhere. Mine, his, theirs. After my slaughter of the creatures that surrounded him, I knelt by his side, sobbing. He was leaving me again, but this time, for good. I ran my fingers through his hair. I should have told him how I felt sooner. “I love you, Partner.” His last words stung.

~~~

It was about three o’clock when I called Noah to tell him about the internship I was just offered. “Hey, that’s awesome! I am so excited for you and I can’t wait to get tons of pictures of all the baby animals that I already know you’ll be sending me” I could hear him rolling his eyes at me.

“Oh, shut up. I mean, you’re not wrong, but thank you. I’m excited too. It’s such a great opportunity.”

He laughed and told me to come over so that we can celebrate the good news with lots of food, movies and games. I hung up with him and rushed to get ready. I packed a bag with extra clothes because I knew I might end up sleeping over. Walking upstairs, I yell to my family that I’m leaving, but nobody answers me. Hm, everyone must be at work or school. I get in my car and head off to his house.

As I’m driving down the road, I notice that nobody is out on the streets. There are no other cars driving past or any sign of anyone around. That’s really weird. These streets are usually very busy. I continue driving, thinking of any logical reason why there’s no one around. A dinging down comes from my car and I look down at the dashboard. My gas light is on. I always forget to put gas in. Pulling into the nearest gas station, I get out and start pumping gas. While the tank is filling up, I walk into the shop to grab us some drinks. I walk up to the counter and there’s no store clerk. Minutes go by as I’m left there waiting. “Hello? I need some help up here” I call out for someone to hear me. I wait, but there’s still no answer.

There was a loud crashing sound that came from the room behind the counter. It sounded like a whole shelf full of different objects fell. I look around, confused. I walk slowly over to the door and turn the door knob. The door creaks open and I see nothing but darkness except a few boxes on the ground where the light from the store was shining through. Taking my phone out, I turn the flashlight on and point it towards the room. I gasp when I see a man standing there, his back facing me. He just stood there, staring at the wall. All of the merchandise that was on the shelves were all over the floor around him, broken. “Excuse me, mister? Are you okay? I heard a loud noise and there was no one around, so I came to check what it was.” There was no response from the man, but his body started to turn, very slowly.

The next few moments were kind of a blur. I don’t even know what I saw. It was no man, that’s for sure. A stomach-churning growl came from deep within this creature. He lunged for me and I fell to the ground. He kept trying to bite at me and my hands were around his neck, holding him back. I was kicking and screaming, trying to roll him off of me. I finally did after a long time of wrestling him, his revolting smell made me weak. I tripped over myself, trying to get up. I ran out of the shop and shut the door behind me. I sprint to my car and throw the gas pump out of the tank. I get in and lock the doors. I look back up to the store and the creature who was supposed to be the store’s clerk was just leaning up against the door, his bloody hands just slowly banging on the glass, mouth open and dripping with a mix of saliva and blood. I guess he can’t open doors because the door needed to be pulled open from inside the store. I started my jeep and drove up closer to the store to have a better look. The man’s skin was discolored and looked as if it were falling off his body. In his mouth, there weren’t many teeth left, the ones that were there were brown and rotting. It looked as if he used to have a full head of hair, but now only patches remain. His eyes were the most prominent, though. This monster’s eyes were almost completely glazed over with a white-grey color, mixed with a little yellow. It would seem that he might be blind, and maybe he was before he turned into this, but he definitely came at me as if he knew where I was. It feels like he is just staring into my soul right now.

My hands were shaking as I started to drive away, still heading to Noah’s house. Tears started to roll down my face and my whole body was trembling. My eyes, widened, searched the streets for anymore of those people. I finally pulled up to Noah’s house, turned my car off, and looked out my window to make sure there there was nothing that was following me. I grabbed my backpack, looked once more, and sprinted out of my car up to his house. The door was locked, of course, so I started banging on the door. Something must have heard me because I heard a low gurgling sound that seemed to be right around the corner. I was still banging, trying to push the locked door open because I was terrified, and I saw it. I just caught a glimpse of the mutated person when Noah finally opens the door and I fall on top of him inside the house. I stumble off him and slam the door shut, locking it again. I started going through the house, closing all of the blinds and curtains on the windows, and locking all of the other doors to the outside.

“Natalie, what in the hell are you doing?” He asks, still sitting on the ground after basically being body slammed down.

I could barely breathe. My heart was pounding out of my chest. “I.. saw something.. someone, but they weren’t human.”

I turned towards him and that’s when he noticed I had been crying. My makeup was smeared all over my face and there were tears still coming down my face. He walks over to me and wipes the tears away. “Slow down, let’s go sit down and you can tell me what’s going on. Who did you see?”

I told him everything that I had seen at the gas station. His facial expressions changed from calm and soothing to confused and worried. “Are you sure that’s what happened and that’s what you saw?” He said to me while peeking outside through the curtains.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. Do you not believe me?” I accused, the irritation in my voice was coming out.

“No, no. I do believe you, partner. I’ve just never heard of this before. I don’t see anything outside either. Are they still out there?”

“I have no idea. I saw one at the gas station and one right on the corner of your house when I was coming in.” At that moment, I heard a loud knock on the door. It was followed by more, but they were slow and I could hear nails dragging down a couple inches after each knock. We both snapped our necks towards the sound and just stared at the door.

He started to speak, “was that--?”

“Shh!” I cut him off. I tiptoed slowly over to the door and looked out the peephole. There was a woman, her skin rotting just like the man from the gas station. Her hair was a dirty mess. As I watched her, she lifted her head at the hole and stared as if she saw me too. I gasped and stepped back. “We need to get out of here.”

“And go where? We can’t go out there, obviously. They’re like zombies! Something is definitely wrong,” he started ranting.

I got quiet and started to cry again. I was so afraid of what was going to happen. I didn’t know what to do. Noah noticed me crying again and came over to me. He put his arm around me and hugged me. “Don’t cry, we’re going to figure this out. What did you bring in your backpack?”

I unzipped my bag and pulled out the extra clothes I brought with me to show him that’s all I packed. He looked at the clothes and smiled, “planning on staying the night, huh?” I rolled my eyes at him and glanced up, he was looking at me like no one has ever looked at me before. It was just like the way a boy looks at a girl in the movies when he’s in love. My face starts to grow hot and red. I was blushing.

After a few moments, we realized that we were lost in the moment and only focused on us instead of everything going on outside. But just as quickly as I got lost in his eyes, I became very aware of what was going around us when another knock and dragging on the door made me flinch. I got up and went on a search through the house for anything that would be useful as some sort of weapon against those creatures. All I found was a bat and for some reason, a battle axe.

“Umm, how come you felt the need to have a battle axe?” I asked, curiously.

“Because I liked it!” He got defensive.

“Well, a bit weird, but I guess I am thankful for it now. Is this all you have?”

“Probably. I don’t keep an armory in my house.”

“Okay, smartass.” I laughed. I went through his cabinets and started grabbing food and water bottles. Then, moving to the bathroom, I rummaged through the medicine cabinet for some first aid. I put it all in the bag and gave him the bat.

He looked down at it, “how come you get the axe?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Have you seen yourself? You have a lot more strength and power than me. That bat will be perfect for you. I need something sharp.” He handed me a flashlight to put in the bag and went to look out the window.

We decided to make a run for it. We didn’t know where we were going, but we picked a direction and didn’t stop.

~~~

For months, we survived together, just the two of us. We kept South, only back tracking a few times because of massive hordes. He had my back, and I had his. We were walking along a road, surrounded by woods. He was a few steps ahead of me, only looking back to make sure I was still with him. I watched him, studying his hard jawline. There was dark blood and dirt smeared across his face. His hair was a mess and his clothes were torn bloodied, some his own, and yet he was still so charming and handsome. He was dark and mysterious. I wanted to uncover all of his untold secrets.

Noah must have heard something in the woods to the right of us because he stopped dead in his tracks, causing me to crash into him and snap from my gaze. “What’s wrong?” I whispered.

He didn’t speak for a long period of time. Just watched the darkness in the trees. Then he said, “come on, there’s something out there.”

“Maybe we should just keep walking then. It could be anything,” I tried to get him to ignore whatever was lurking in the woods, but he wouldn’t budge. “Fine, let’s go.”

I started walking into the brush. We walked for a little while and didn’t hear anything else. Noah must have stopped to look at something because a few minutes later, I heard twigs crunching from behind me, but when I turned around, the being that was there was not Noah. The beast was splattered with fresh blood and reeked of rotting flesh. A low gurgling sound came from somewhere deep inside of him as he rushed towards me. His long, bony arms came inches from my face before I could tell my legs to run. I dared to look back at him, causing me to collide with a woman. She wore a long, what was once a white dress, but now shredded and caked with a substance that was brown and yellow, revealing her scrawny body. It looked as though she hadn’t eaten in months and she was very hungry. I was on top of her, holding back her arms. Looking at her face, her skin appeared to almost be melting off of her. I didn’t have my axe, it was lost in the woods, so I jumped off of her and tried to get away, but the first man was in my way. He stood like a tower over me. Panicking, I looked over to my left and saw a clearing. I ducked under the man’s arms and ran for it, but when I got there, I wasn’t alone. There was another one, only younger. She was just a child. She still held tightly onto a stuffed bear, but dropped it when she noticed me. Her high pitched squeals led the others to me.

I was backed into a tree. The woman had gotten up and came for me first. I held her back by her throat, but it wasn’t very effective as my hand started to sink into her. Her skin and blood oozed down my arm as I reached the bones in her neck.

Noah must have heard me because the next thing I know, he is jamming a big rock in the woman’s mouth, pushing her off of me. I slid down the tree, exhausted and crying, but it wasn’t over. I watched as all three of the creatures surrounded him, like they did me. Something gleamed in the corner of my eye. It was my axe peeking out of the leaves. I grabbed it.

A blood curdling scream came from deep inside me, as I witnessed him becoming surrounded by three of those creatures. He called out for me, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to save him. I took my chance, picked up my axe, and started swinging as hard as I could. By the end, I was soaked head to toe in a yellow-brown substance, which is what they bled. Tears and blood dripping from my face, I knelt down to his side and placed his head in my lap. “Wake up, you idiot. You’re not leaving me yet. You promised you would never leave me again” I sobbed. His eyes blinked real slow as he looked up at me and smirked. “I’ll never leave you, I’ll just be with you somewhere else” he put his hand up to my chest where my heart was. “Why didn’t you stay back? I could have taken them myself. You never cease to get yourself in trouble” I could barely open my eyes from the amount of tears flowing. “It’s what I do best. Now go and survive, thrive. I love you, partner.” His eyes fluttered shut and his breathing came to a slow end. My best friend, my soulmate, saved my life by sacrificing his own.

. . .

This was a nightmare I had of my best friend. It was one of the worst feelings of my life.