The Last Alive

Chapter Twenty-Five - Waking up

Chapter Twenty-five

Waking Up to the Man You Love but DENYING it!

I woke up in a mild state of confusion. I knew I was in my bed, but someone's arms were wrapped around my body. After a few terror-filled moments, I remembered. It was Nathan.

He tightened his hold on me and breathed into my hair.

"Good morning," he whispered.

"Is it morning?" I asked.

He looked out the window that was across from the bed. "Yes, just really early."

I stretched and curled up in a ball. "Nobody will be awake yet."

"Then stay here with me."

"We should get up," I said, pushing the blankets off.

"Why?"

"Did you forget what's happening out there?" I walked to my dresser.

He sighed heavily.

"I'm getting a shower. I'll find you something to wear."

"From where?" he asked. "Your dad's stuff will probably be too big."

"Becca's boyfriend always leaves, left, his stuff here. You're about his size," I said quietly.

I stood in my sister's room looking at the chaotic mess she always left it in when we'd leave to go back to our dorm. Her unmade bed looked as though she just rolled out of it. Her hiking boots were still caked in mud and the shorts she wore were tossed on the back of a chair. I sat on her bed, picked up her pillow, and took a deep breath. It smelled like her lavender shampoo.

"Oh, Becca," I cried into her pillow.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked from the doorway.

"Finding something for Nathan to wear," I said, looking up at Meaghan.

"By sniffing Becca's pillow?"

"I miss my sister. Okay?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"It's just hard to believe she's gone. She'll never complain about having to clean her room again. She'll never barge into my room to take my clothes again. I'll never hear her laugh like an idiot while she watches stupid videos on the internet."

"I'm sorry, Emma," she said, sitting next to me.

"It's alright." I wiped my eyes while digging around in the basket of folded clothes near her dresser.

I pulled out a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt. They looked like Nathan's size. I hoped they would fit, otherwise he was stuck in blood stained scrubs.

"So that Nathan. He's cute."

"No, Meaghan."

"No what?" she asked innocently.

"I'm not going to get involved with someone at the start of the zombie apocalypse. It's the end of the world as we know it. What if something were to happen to him after I let my emotions get involved?"

"I think you already did," she said, holding one of Becca's shirts.

"No."

"Where did he sleep last night?" She arched her brows at me.

"He went through the same thing I did yesterday. I wasn't about to let him sleep on a floor somewhere. I need to get in the shower." I stood holding the small pile of folded clothes.

I took one last look at the room before returning to my own. Nathan sat on the bed staring out the window. It was a grey, foggy morning.

"Do you think the electric fences will work?"

"I don't know," I replied, handing him the clothes.

"What will happen when they go out?"

"I guess we find another safe place. If there is one." I paused at the doorway to the bathroom. "Nathan?"

"What, Emma?"

I bit my lip before looking up at him. "Will you stay?"

"Stay where?"

"With me even if we have to leave here. Will you stay with me?"

"Of course."

I nodded my head and walked into the bathroom. I quickly undressed and climbed in. The water was hot and felt good. My legs and shoulders ached from the daring escape from the hospital. Half of the stuff I did the day before, I didn't even know I could do.

"Emma?"

I pulled the curtain back a bit and looked out at my mom. "What?"

"Don't be long."

"I won't. I just need to wash," I mumbled, putting the curtain back and squeezing some of Becca's shampoo onto my head.

My heart felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and was going to fall to the pit of my stomach.

As I finished up I grabbed a towel and hurried to my bedroom. Nathan still sat in the same spot, staring out the window.

"Shower's free," I said, drying my body.

"Do you think it's spreading?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, sitting next to him.

"When do you think they'll get here?"

"I don't know."

"Is there anywhere else we can go that's safe?" Nathan asked.

"No. This is the safest place around for now. I'm sure someone will set up a refugee camp or something eventually."

He reached out and grabbed my hand. My heart skipped a beat, and I could feel my cheeks flush.

Damn it!

"I know you don't want to let me in because you're afraid of losing me, but Emma I'm falling for you."

"You barely know me," I whispered, leaving my hand in his.

"I know that you're a loving, caring, smart, and resourceful woman. It seems we have nothing but time now. If we're going to be here together until, well until whatever this is, is over, why not get to know each other better?"

"Because, Nathan. There's so much going on in my mind. I've lost my sister. There are zombies walking around. I have no idea if any of my other friends or family is alive. Then you just jump into my life and stir up these feelings that I don't want to feel right now. I shouldn't be thrilled to have you touch me. I shouldn't be excited to see you. I should feel scared, terrified, worried, sorrow. I should feel everything that I'm not." I squeezed his hand.

"Perhaps with the way things are turning, feeling excitement and thrill is what you'll need. There's no way to know what will happen tomorrow. Live in the moment for now."

"I don't want to. I don't want to think about anyone else dying. I can't deal with that." I didn't resist when he pulled me close to his body.

He wrapped his arms around me and stroked my hair. "At the present moment I think death is to be expected. There's no way to get around it. This is something nobody has a cure for. Don't dwell on the what if's. What if an asteroid would smash into the planet tomorrow nullifying the virus anyway? Just open yourself up."

"Oh, Nathan." My heart skipped a beat again. I felt so conflicted. My heart wanted to go along with it but my mind said no.

He leaned down, closing his eyes, and let his soft lips rest on mine.

Zombiepocalypse? What zombiepocalypse?