Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (13 page)

I Love Lucy was, perhaps, the greatest show on television in Willa Baker’s expert opinion.

On Monday’s it was a cooking show, Tuesday it was comedy night, Wednesday nights they would watch crime shows like NCIS and CSI: Miami, Thursday was, of course Gray’s Anatomy, and Fridays? Fridays were the nights when she and Phillip would sit back and watch the TV show that had been around for decades upon decades: I Love Lucy.

No matter what the news said about spreading diseases, epidemics, pandemics, or odd human behavior, Willa knew that she could lay in her husband’s arms and watch Lucy and her antics for hours without a worry or a care. There was something so simple in that comedy of days gone by, something so hypnotizing.

“Lucy, you got some ‘spla-“

And then the television shut off.

Willa and Phillip must have stared at the blank screen for several seconds before finally turning to one another. Their television had never just shut off in the middle of a beautiful summer evening before.

“Umm…” Phillip started, but there wasn’t anything for him to say after that. His thoughts, instead of going straight to fear, stayed first at laziness. He was so comfortable with his wife lying in his arms. He didn’t much want to get up.

“Well…I guess we better figure out what’s wrong, sweetheart.” Willa said quietly.

“Sure thing, babe.” Phillip kissed her on the forehead and then stood from his position on the couch, Willa shifting behind him underneath the blanket to get more comfortable.

That was when their front window broke into a thousand shards and something reached in with a long, bloody arm.

Willa screamed and jumped up from the couch to try to help her husband, who was now fighting a ferocious battle to get his arm back from the unnamed figure. It didn’t occur to her that she wasn’t the only one in the room that was screaming.

Acting out of pure instinct, Willa grabbed her husband’s free arm and pulled as hard as she could, childishly fearing she would pull it right from its socket from the excessive force she was putting on it. But, if she did, it wouldn’t be her fault. It would be the fault of the monster that had attacked him in the first place.

Willa sent up a quick prayer to the heavens, gave one final tug, and then tumbled to the floor as her husband’s arm was freed from its captor. Phillip wasted no time in bringing her back to her feet and leading her into their kitchen, the one room in the house that had so many windows that it would have been impossible not to see someone coming before it did.

“What the hell was that, Phillip?...
Phillip?”

Her husband wasn’t answering her questions. Instead, he was looking around wildly, almost a completely different person; one whose only mindset was to keep his wife safe from harm. Unfortunately, this meant he didn’t care too much what she had to say about the situation.

“Phillip,
damnit,
answer me or I’m going to walk out that door and look for myself!”

Phillip rounded on her so quickly that her eyes began to fill with tears as he pushed her against the kitchen counter with the force of his weight.

“You’re going to stay right here, Willa, and if you try to go outside, I’m going to have to put you somewhere where you can’t. Do you understand me?”

Her crazed husband must have noticed her eyes growing wet, because he threw in a quick kiss on her forehead for good measure. He then continued to look around, slowly releasing his wife until she was able to move of her own free will again.

“Phillip,
please…”

And then they heard the back window in the parlor smash.

Something was coming in, and that was enough reason for Phillip. He snatched his wife’s hand and led her to the front door, trying to make an escape. But what the young-groom had not anticipated was the swarm of creatures waiting to find their way in.

Willa stared in shock at the beings until, finally, her mouth allowed her to emit a shrill scream. Phillip clapped a hand over her mouth and turned her away, almost dragging her now to the back door, their last option.

It stood open. And a large, gangly sort of monster stood in its place. This one had blood stains on its waxy, leather-like face and its smile stayed in an almost-permanent grin of pleasure, as though it laughed at moments like this, when its prey was close to capture.

Willa screamed again, and Phillip realized that, for once in his life, he didn’t have a backup plan. He didn’t know what these things were or why they were coming into their home, let alone whether or not they wanted to eat his brains. Zombies? Was this some kind of joke?

Phillip didn’t even realize that his wife had stopped screaming, and that the terrible figure was clomping slowly toward them.

“Phillip, listen to me. We have to go downstairs to the storage room.”

The look that Phillip now gave Willa very clearly said ,
‘Woman, we do
not
need to go to the storage room’,
but Willa had no intention of giving her husband an option. There was no time to waste with arguments. She turned and ran to the stairs as quickly as her half-stunned legs would carry her. Phillip looked at the thing, then looked at her, and ran to protect his wife, even though she was certifiable.

While the two reached the basement stairs and tumbled down as quickly as possible, the dead forced their way into their new nest for the neighborhood. This dark, quiet house would be perfect for them during the day, when they avoided sunlight like the plague.

Willa and Phillip shut themselves into the basement storage room, turning off all the lights and barricading the door with old furniture. There was no easy way for them to get out. But Willa was confident her husband would figure something out. He was beautiful and smart, and he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to them.

After all, I Love Lucy couldn’t wait forever.

There were worse things in the world than death.

And Jennifer Marthawitz discovered that fact right now, as she sat in the corner of a dark storm cellar, about as far away from civilization as she could possibly get. She shivered and shook, her brother’s protective arms wrapped around her to shield her from whatever it was that was out there.

“Carlos…” She whispered. “Carlos, we have to go get him.”

“I’m not letting you leave this room, Jen. They’ll find you.”

“Carlos, then
you
have to go get him…”

“Why should
I
go get him? Why should anyone get him at all?”

“He’s my
boyfriend
, Carlos.”             

“Jennifer, I don’t care,” The seventeen-year old boy said, releasing his sister from his grasp and trying to look into her eyes, though he couldn’t see much more than a faint glow from the sapphires that were usually gleaming. “He’s the one who got us into this mess, and I’m not going to help those…those
things
up there find you.”

Jennifer pulled away from the force holding her and stood up, praying her head wouldn’t hit the ceiling as hard as the door had hit it on the way down here. The sixteen year-old girl had never found herself in a position to stand up to her brother before, but she wasn’t an idiot. She knew he wasn’t fond of her boyfriend. But someone had to help him. What kind of people were they if they just left him up there to die?

“I’m going to get him.”

“Jennifer!” Carlos yelled angrily, standing and trying to find her in the darkness. Instead, he hit his head on the ceiling. Being a foot taller than Jennifer, he would have much more difficulty moving around in the storm cellar. If he could just find the light switch, maybe he could get her back…

Jennifer felt her way along the wall, trying to find the opening that would take her back up the stairs. Her hand ran along a light switch, and it crossed her mind to turn it on. But she knew that, if she did, her brother would have his hands back around her in their protective grasp until they starved to death down here and her boyfriend’s brains had been eaten.

So she chose to remain in utter darkness.

Why she was risking her life for Nathan, she really didn’t know. He had never been a very good boyfriend anyway. Satisfactory, if she had to give a word. He was cute, sure, but he wasn’t strong or motivated…and he, honestly, lacked any of the qualities that attracted women to men in the first place. He wasn’t daring or brave and, even though he wasn’t a nerd or anything, he’d always been awkward around women.

Nathan wasn’t much a ladies-man, and he wasn’t much of a rebel either. Nathan was just…well…Nathan was just Nathan. He was…sweet.

And…just a little stupid.

Have you ever been friends with someone who just…lacked common sense? And you feel bad for them, but you don’t know how to tell them that they’re just…kind of stupid? Well…that was Nathan. And dating someone who doesn’t have common sense…is much more difficult than being their friend. Because it’s all the time. And this time, it almost got her killed.

She and Carlos had been sitting in the living room watching their favorite show, which came on around 10, much too late for Nathan to be paying a visit. Their parents had been out of town for several days celebrating their 20
th
anniversary, so it was just the two of them.

When the knock came at the door, Jennifer figured it was probably someone playing a prank. There had been an increasing amount of deaths in the area, and their parents had been reluctant to leave them home alone in the first place.

But Carlos, being the brave one, stood up and opened the door.

Only to see a panting Nathan, trying to force the words out of his mouth and pointing rapidly at something behind him.

“They…came…my house…couldn’t…stop…followed…me…”

That was when Carlos saw the…
things
in the distance, the
zombies,
since that’s what most people would have called them. The slow-moving, ugly, flesh-torn things coming toward the house with looks of pure murder and malice on their faces. They were coming to kill, and they were coming now.

“You brought them
here, you idiot?”

It wasn’t until Carlos said this that Nathan realized what he had done. His face fell as he threw an apologetic look across the room to Jennifer, who was now standing in shock and fear. What was happening?

Carlos pulled Nathan in and slammed the door behind him, turning to his sister.

“We have to get to the storm shelter.
Now.”

So that’s what they’d done. But, somewhere along the way, they’d lost Nathan. He never came down. And now…now he was probably dead anyway.             

But Jennifer still had to try because…something about him made her smile. Something about him made her happy. And she couldn’t risk losing that. Not when she needed so badly to smile.

Jennifer’s fingers found the opening with the stairs, and she scuttled up them as quietly as possible, praying her brother wouldn’t find her before she could open the latch on the door.

Success. She opened the door and clambered through, hearing her brother change direction and begin moving toward the sound of the opening.

“Nathan!”
Jennifer screamed into the night after she’d closed the trap door securely below her.
“Nathan, hurry up!”

But Nathan was nowhere to be seen. All Jennifer could see were two little specs in the distance, near her house, beginning to move toward the sound of her voice.

“Nathan!”
She gave out one final, desperate cry before her brother slammed the door open and flew through the opening, grabbing his sister around the waist and pulling her back.

“Jennifer, you have to let him go. He’s gone.”

“NO! Nathan!”

“I’m right here!”
A voice yelled from behind them, followed by a small bark. Carlos turned to see a blood-covered Nathan standing awkwardly, with an extremely scared dog in his arms.

“…you left your dog.” He said simply.

“Oh, for Christ sake-” Carlos started.

“Lucy!” Jennifer yelled, flying toward Nathan and the dog. She gave Nathan a long, sincere look. “Thank you.”

“…you’re welcome.” Nathan responded sheepishly.

She pulled the furry creature into her arms and grabbed her boyfriend. “Come on, we have to get down there, now.”

And so they all piled back into the storm cellar.

It wasn’t until hours later that they heard the crash on the ceiling. And, as Carlos checked the trap door and realized it would not lift, they became aware of one horrible fact.

Just because a storm cellar is supposed to be safe from harm, doesn’t mean you can’t get trapped in one.

Without food. Or water. Or, really, anything at all.