Little boys and girls would play merrily on the sidewalks of Kingston Valley while their mothers walked and talked on their phones. Though Kingston Valley was a big place, it had all the charm of a little town. We had no huge mall built by commercial property developers; our shops lined the Main Road like ones in small towns. Main Road was once the busiest place in town with everyone going about their shopping, but now it was completely deserted.
Some of the display windows were broken and a mannequin lay crashed through the display window of Wendy’s Fashions. It seemed that when the infection hit, it hit the Main Road with hard ferocity. The burger shop was burned down and the walls above the windows were stained from the black smoke and the smell of burned food still lingered in the air.
I glanced over at Dharma with sadness in my heart. I overheard her wish and wished I could grant it for her. She was too young to go through life without a mother. Yes, his father could protect her and tuck her in at night, but it just isn’t the same as a mother’s touch.
“It looks like a warzone.” Henry said.
Henry stared at the ransacked post office to our left. Mail lay scattered across its front steps and a bus stood crashed through the wall. If only I had been here when this happened I could perhaps have saved some of them.
“Don’t.” Fred said to me.
I turned to him and asked, “What?”
“I can tell what you are thinking.” Fred said, “Don’t go there. Do not wonder about things that could have been. If you were here, you might have ended up dead yourself and then what would have happened to my daughter, your mother or your friends?”
I nodded and stared out in front of me as we walked down Main Road. He had a point. I was no use dead to anyone.
“It just saddens me.” I said, “That’s all.”
How many innocent people and children had to die? What was the purpose behind the infection? It all felt so pointless and violent.
“The important thing is to focus on the here and now.” Fred said, “You have to concentrate on your friends and family. There has to be a reason we survived this apocalypse.”
“Some things just happen for no reason.” Henry said.
Henry sounded a bit down in the dumps, almost like he was ready to give up. It could not be easy not knowing whether your loved ones were still alive. I completely understood his lack of enthusiasm and wished I could help him save his loved one, but I had to think of the others in my group. I can’t simply run off saving everyone’s loved ones when I did not know for a fact that they were still alive.
“Don’t give up hope.” I said to Henry.
He turned to me and his eyes were completely robbed of emotions. He seemed like a broken man simply clinging to life because he had to. Things had taken a turn for the worst in the last couple of minutes. He was alone with his thoughts of despair and they clearly had a negative impact on him. We had to keep a conversation going to uplift his spirits.
“Why did you choose to become a paramedic?” I asked.
“Who cares?” Henry asked with a sigh.
He kicked a can to the side of the road and we carried on down Main Road.
“Something had to motivate or inspire you to save lives?” I asked.
“My mom wanted me to do something with my life.” Henry finally said, “She said that the medical field was the best way to go so I became a paramedic.”
I nodded and said, “Oh, okay.”
It wasn’t the answer I expected, but at least he was talking again.
“And your father?” I asked.
“Ran off when I was nine.” Henry said bluntly.
“Oh.” I said feeling very foolish, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be.” Henry said, “You didn’t know him. He was a wife beater. It’s better that he left when he did because if he laid his hands on my mother when I was a teenager I would have probably killed him with my bare hands.”
It seemed that almost everyone I knew came from a broken home.
“That’s just wrong.” I said, “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
How did we end up on such a depressing conversation? It was dampening the mood and not lifting it. Perhaps I could steer the conversation into another direction.
“So, that clown…” I said, “It was by far the scariest thing I have seen so far.”
Fred laughed and said, “It was pretty scary.”
“I wonder where the hell it came from.” I said, “We don’t have a circus or anything like that.”
“Perhaps it came directly from the pages of that Stephen King book.” Henry said.
“Stephen Queen.” I corrected him.
“Whatever.” Henry sighed.
Henry fidgeted with the ring on his finger and thought of his fiancé.
“I still cannot feel him.” Henry said, “I… cannot… feel him.”
His voice was on the verge of snapping along with his courage. I longed for such an intense love that he had with his fiancé and could only hope that with time Michelle and I could fall in love.
It was no use; Henry was stuck on his fiancé and no matter what we talked about he would steer the conversation back to his fiancé.
I turned to Dharma and asked, “Do you like dogs?”
“I love dogs.” She said excitedly with her little voice.
“I have a big ole fluffy Husky back at the hospital.” I said.
Dharma gasped with excitement and tugged at her father’s hand.
“Daddy!” she said excitedly, “I want a dog.”
“Fluffy belongs to all of us, I guess.” I said, “Fluffy can be your dog too.”
Dharma started prancing as we walked and said, “I can’t wait!”
A child could still be excited about meeting a dog in the world of the dead. Savour the little things in life, because it’s the little things that make us human.
“You will love him.” Fred added, “He is a lovely and brave dog.”
“He is big and fluffy and gives the best hugs.” I said with a smile.
Dharma could hardly contain her delight, still prancing with anticipation. The night (or rather early morning hours) was quiet except for our footsteps on the tar road… click-clack-click-clack… and then I heard a grunt somewhere in the shadows. I motioned for the others to stop and keep quiet while I inspected the dark buildings around us. The sound was too distinct to be the wind or my imagination. The growl murmured again and then I spotted three tigers approaching from the shadows of a ransacked coffee shop. One of them had a severed arm in its jaws, but dropped it as soon as it spotted us. Splat! The limb made a horrible squishy sound as it fell to the ground.
We all stood frozen in fear and stared at the tigers as they watched us with those wild eyes of theirs. Fred slowly pushed Dharma behind him without alerting the tigers.
“Zac?” Fred whispered, “Shouldn’t we run?”
“No.” I whispered.
“Where the hell did these tigers come from?” Henry whispered.
“There is a zoo twenty miles outside of town.” I said cautiously over my shoulder.
I turned to face the tigers again. The one at the front was a bit bigger than the others and was clearly the leader of their pride. It looked as if the others waited patiently for their leader to pounce us before they made a move.
“Do something.” Fred insisted in a hushed tone.
I wasn’t keen on the idea of hurting a living creature since they were so hard to come by in the world of the dead, but these living creatures could tear us apart. I wasn’t even sure whether I was fast enough to outrun or outfight a tiger.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” Fred whispered.
That was a good question… why didn’t they attack us? We were at the bottom of their food chain so it made no sense. The front tiger took a step forward and Henry stumbled back a few feet before standing still.
“Stand still.” I insisted, “Stand your ground.”
; “What?” Fred asked confused.
“Push out your chest and stand your ground.” I said.
I pushed out my chest and threw my shoulders back. I looked the front tiger dead in its eyes and dared it to make a move. The tiger lowered its head but kept its gaze upon me and then took another step forward.
“Zac?” Fred whimpered.
I was not about to back down and let a tiger win. Yes, it was big, scary and wild, but still – if I could take on hordes of the undead then bunch of tigers were no match for me. I kept gazing at the tigers and then took a step towards them. The front tiger did not move, but the other two took a step forward and aligned themselves with the front one.
It was a showdown between three tigers and myself. The three of them stared at me and I stared back waiting for them to try and attack us. The bigger one finally huffed, dropped its gaze and slowly walked off. A moment later the other two followed him and the three of them disappeared into a nearby alley. Perhaps they realized that finding alive humans was something scarce and decided to let us live… or they were just cowards.
I gasped for air and listened to the sound of my heartbeat.