Nobody, Chapter 2

“Good morning, sunshine”, Nobody said to nothing as he walked out of his tent, stretching out the kinks he got from sleeping on the bottom of a tent with no tarp or ground cover. He couldn’t help but notice that the forest he was in was beautiful. Although it wasn’t too much different from the area where Nobody had “woken up” from, he could still appreciate the look of a good forest when he saw one.

“But I’ve only seen one”, he said to nothing.

“Oh shut the fuck up”, he said back.

Smiling at his own sense of humor, Nobody packed up the tent, slung the duffel bags over his shoulders, and kept walking. After a few minutes of walking, Nobody noticed a road leading down the little mountain range. Nobody thanked Christ out loud before he started walking down it. After a few feet he saw an iron gate with barbed wire to either side. The gate itself was locked. Seeing no sign of anything else interesting, Nobody jumped over the gate and kept walking. It was getting dark again when he saw a highway off the edge of a small cliff he was standing on. The highway was a small one, only two lanes, surrounded by big hills of sandstone. Nobody ran for it, didn’t stop until he got to the highway. By the time he reached it the sun was setting. Nobody spent the next day walking along the highway. On the way he had two panic attacks, but at least he didn’t cry himself to sleep.

Nobody got up the next morning the same way he got up the last two, stretching and admiring the view. Wherever he was, it was a pretty place. It looked like a nice mix of mountain and desert from what he had seen, which made for a really appetizing look. Nobody couldn’t stop looking around him the whole time he was walking. The only thing that made him stop looking was the sight of a small town in the distance, after rounding a bend behind one of the hills. Nobody wanted to run, but didn’t. Instead he froze, pulled one of the duffel bags from his shoulders, and took out one of the handguns, three loaded clips, slid one of them into the handgun, cocked it, and slid the gun into his belt, putting the clips into the pockets on his jeans. The thing that scared Nobody was that he did it so calmly. He didn’t even pause to consider why he was doing it, he just did it. Nobody knew there was something going on here that wasn’t just isolated to the mountain range that he had just come from. That, and the fact that Nobody of the small town was completely black and grey, just like the camp was. Burned.

Nobody moved towards what appeared to be the town's only gas station. It was separated from the rest of the town, clearly meant to be a truck stop. It looked like the gas station was untouched, so Nobody moved towards the entrance, walking on the balls of his feet to help keep quiet.

"It's no use trying to act all quiet, I could hear you since you rounded the hilt".

Nobody froze and put his hands up. The voice had come from the gas station. Nothing had scared Nobody this bad since he had woken up, but at the same time it was the best thing he had heard since he had woken up. A person! Finally, a living, breathing person!

"Please", he said, "I don't mean any harm, I just want to know what's going on!". There was a pause...

"Who are you?", said the voice.

"I'm... Hal". Nobody liked that name.

"What's your business, Hal?"

"I just want to know what the fuck is going on".

A man stepped out of the shadows of the gas station, chuckling. He was old, with a long beard and a bald head.

"Well then by all means, come inside and make yourself comfortable, but fair warning, if you draw a gun on me I'm going to blow your head off."

"Of course", Hal said. I like this guy, Hal thought to nothing.

Hal followed the old man into the gas station. It was completely empty, the only thing remaining being the counters in front and back of the store. The store had a very green look to it, due to the setting sun and the completely white walls. Looking at the empty racks and fridges gave Hal a bad feeling.

Hal set the two duffel bags down on the counter where the cash register usually was and watched the old man as he seated himself on a lawn chair on the other side of the counter.

"Was everything looted?", Hal said.

"Yeah," the old man said, "so how much do you not know?"

"Nothing, besides the fact that it looks like a lot of people are dead", he said.

The old man said nothing as he looked and Hal, measuring and weighing him. Hal felt uncomfortable and regretted putting it like that.

"Yes", the old man said, "A lot of people are dead, in fact, most of them are dead from what I've seen."

Wait, what!? Hal thought to nothing as he took a deep breath and put his head in between his hands.

"You really don't know anything? About the infection, the Great Panic, anything at all?", the old man said".

Hal shook his head.

"Be glad you don't remember," the old man said as he looked out the window towards the parking lot of the store. From here you could see the darkening sky and the low hills, the green sky caused by the setting sun. After a few moments the old man turned back to Hal. "I'm assuming you don't remember anything?".

"Yeah", Hal said.

The old man looked at Hal for a few more moments before speaking again. Hal could tell the old man was trying to see if he could tell he was bullshitting or not.

"What's your name?", Hal said. The old man grimaced.

"Just call me George", the old man said.

"Okay, George, can you just tell me how all of this happened?" The lead ball was starting to form in Hal's throat again.

"Rage", he said, "Rage by infection".

"So... Zombies?" Hal said.

"To put it simply, yes, but I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't believe me", George said.

Well, I don't have anything else to believe right now, Hal thought. He nodded toward George. George nodded back and kept going.

"No one knows how it started. No one really knows how it ended either, though the best bet is probably a cure released into the atmosphere. The actual infection technically only lasted ten days. In those ten days, every city in America fell. I don't know the percent myself, but for now I'll just say that a shit ton of people died. Most people, actually. That's all I know personally."

Hal took a deep breath and tried to process what he had just heard. It made sense, in a twisted way, but...

"You sound like this happened a while ago", he said.

"That's what confuses me", George said, "Most people seem to have woken up by now, in fact it's been a month since I've last seen a person who had just barely woken up. You’re also the first person I’ve seen who’s lost their memory.”

What the fuck is goi- Hal was thinking when from nowhere something clutched at Hal’s throat and stomach so hard he collapsed onto the empty gas station floor.

“Oh shit”, Hal hear George say at the edge of his mind. Hal couldn’t breathe, even though he knew he could. All that he thought about while he was writhing on the floor were the bodies that he was at the camp. Was that going to happen to him? When? How? WHY!?. Hal suddenly felt something touch his shoulder.

“Come on, kid, everything’s going to be alright. Just breathe, come on, you know this, amnesia or not.”

Hal was comforted by George's words. He didn't know for sure but he could tell that George was right, but it didn't help him. All he could see were the dead bodies. If what George was saying was true, then for all he knew he could have killed them. Out of the corner of his mind Hal could hear George trying to calm him down, but Hal just couldn't focus, couldn`t think. All he saw were the dead bodies, looking at him, accusing him.

Hal felt a flash of pain go across his cheek. Hal was stunned. All he could do was look at George, arm outstretched with a pill at the palm of his hand, a cup of water in his other.

"Take this, it helps, trust me," he said. Hal took the pill and swallowed it with the water.

"Now", George said, kneeling down next to Hal, "What set you off?".

"After... After I woke up, I found a camp full of dead bodies" he said, "All I can see are the bodies..."

"And you think you might have killed them, don't you?", George said.

"Yeah... Yeah, I think I might have," Hal said.

"Well, you might certainly have, for all we know".

Hal looked up at George. He felt like decking George, but he knew he was right. For all Hal knew he very well could have killed those people.

"But when I say there is no sense dwelling on it now kid, I mean it in the harshest way possible. You are going to see a lot of dead bodies from here on out, you may even make a few yourself, and if you can't handle that, fine, go an end it like so many else have, but let me tell you this: You are damn lucky."

Hal stared at George, speechless and slack jawed. A wild fire had appeared in George's eyes, and for a few seconds Hal was afraid for his life.

"Yep, that's right, lucky. Believe me, kid," George sat down across from Hal and leaned forward, "There are people out there who would literally kill just for a chance to lose their memory like you did. A lot of people woke up next to their dead families or friends, some even woke up just as they saw the life go out of the eyes of the ones they loved, them usually being the ones that caused it, so believe me when I tell you that you were damn lucky" And with that George got up and walked out of the gas station.

Hal scurried to his feet and ran to the door of the gas station. He saw George disappear over the hill that he had just walked from. It was dark out, the sky a deep purple. All Hal could see of the strange stranger George was a dark silhouette scaling the hill. A part of Hal wanted to run to him and apologize, another part of him just wanted to run grab his duffel bags and run. All Hal did instead was grab the softer of the two duffel bags, walked behind the counter, and laid down onto it, using it as a pillow.

For a while Hal couldn't fall asleep, no matter how hard he tried. All he could think about were questions that he knew he couldn't supply with answers. Hal still had trouble coming to grips with what was going on, a part of him didn't want to believe that he himself was probably a part of the zombie apocalypse. Hal took little comfort in knowing that the supposed apocalypse didn't last long.

"Is this a test", Hal said to nothing.

"I don't know," he said back.

Hal woke up the next morning hoping against hope that he would wake up in a hospital bed with his memory back, but even in his half-asleep mind he knew that wasn't going to happen. The feeling of the hard plastic ground underneath him was evidence enough.

"Gotta hope George has some kinda breakfast tucked away in here," he said.

"Nope, can't say I do." George said from in front of the counter.

"Holy sh-" was all Hal could get out when before he knew it the floor was rushing towards his face. For a split second Hal thought it wouldn't hurt too much just before a train hit the side of his face.

"FUCKING GODDAMNIT", he screamed. From behind the counter Hal could hear George laughing his ass off. Hal stood up rubbing his head and saw that George was indeed laughing so hard that his face was starting to turn purple.

"Well fuck you too", Hal said, but before he could finish he was starting to laugh as well.

A few minutes later Hal and George were sitting in the back room eating some of Hal's rations.

"So, how're you liking Utah?", George said.

"That where I'm at?", Hal tried not to gag out the dry rations and was finding it increasingly difficult.

"Yep. Very nice place once you get used to the neurotic climate." George said. He wasn't appearing to have any problems downing the slime himself.

Well, Utah. So that's where he was it. He didn't have much of an idea of what kind of place this even was, but he was liking it so far.

"How close are we to winter", Hal asked.

"Too damn close," George said, scooping out the rest of his ration with the edge of a knife he seemed to have produced from nowhere. "It's August right now. Not too bad, but there's going to be some much needed preparation pretty soon".

The more Hal thought about winter, the more he wanted to shut it out his mind.

"Where should I head go first?", Hal asked.

"Leaving already?", George asked with a somber smile, "I guess you'd want to head towards the Rocky Mountain Line. It's where most people out here in west went, and from what I've heard from the passing it seems to be doing pretty well."

"If that's the case George, I think I'll be leaving here in a few," Hal said. Even though he had only been here for a very brief it still made Hal sad to leave. He liked the appearance of an empty gas station, he guessed.

"Suit yourself, kid, it's always nice to meet a stranger. But fair warning, it's not going to be a cakewalk. You're going to need all the gear and ammo you have and more if you're gonna have any hope of making it to the Rocky Mountain Line."

Hal nodded and finished the rest of his ration, then got up and grabbed his duffel bags from the counter. As Hal was walking out he stopped and looked back at the counter. George stood behind it with his hands folded under his chin.

"Good luck kid, stop by again if you get the chance", he said.

Sure thing George, thanks", Hal smiled, nodded, and walked out of the gas station.