The corridor nightmare came again for the fourth night in a row, complete with the ending she hated most. And—for the second day in a row—it was the doorbell that woke her.
Wow. I must be getting popular.
She rose up, feeling a numb throbbing in her skull. Her stomach was queasy and there was a weird tangy aftertaste in her throat. She recalled the bar, the Manhattans, the stumbling, and Leon Wolfe bringing her home. She was immediately embarrassed.
The digital clock on the nightstand told her it was
She just knew that this day would be worse than normal. She was tempted to not even answer the door, but figured it could be something important—Not too important though or the air raid sirens would be blaring. At least she knew it wasn’t an emergency.
So, after looking down to realize she had fallen asleep fully dressed and therefore didn’t need to put jeans on, she got off the bed and went to the front door.
It wasn’t even shut properly. Sure, it was closed, but none of the deadbolts were latched and the metal bar that was usually propped underneath the knob was still leaning against the wall where she had left it yesterday morning. To think, if something had somehow gotten past the main walls in town, they could have just walked right in her house.
But then she remembered that even Leon Wolfe had trouble turning the handle. It was kind of funny.
She opened the door—again, forgetting she would be blasted with a morning dose of sunshine—and saw, standing on her porch, the bartender from last night. Her straight blonde hair was shining even brighter under the sunlight. The very ends, still dyed red and black, contrasted so heavily they almost seemed like they would fall off.
Courtney was forced to think for a moment before saying, “Alexis.”
A smile showed on her face as she replied, “You remembered.”
“I wasn’t drunk,” Courtney told her, trying her best to sound convincing. “So of course I remember.”
“You were totally tipsy and you were getting mean. That’s why I cut you off.”
Courtney rolled her eyes and looked away. She mumbled, “What do you want?”
Alexis motioned to the porch and asked, “Come outside for a minute?”
Courtney sighed. The bartender didn’t seem mad at her or anything, so the purpose of this visit must be for something else entirely. She was kind of curious—and besides, she was feeling kind of bad about yesterday. She knew she needed to salvage the last of her pride.
She opened the screen door and stepped onto the porch. Alexis motioned for her to sit down, so they both took a rest on the edge and propped their feet on the first step. Alexis reached off the side of the porch and retrieved a can of Sprite and a baggie with two little white pills rolling around inside. She handed the items to Courtney.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Sprite and aspirin,” Alexis replied. “For your hangover. You know, that thing you’re having now.”
Courtney held the can of Sprite in her hand and inspected it. It was very cold. She asked, “Didn’t this stuff expire like a long time ago?”
Alexis smiled. “Those are like Twinkies. They last forever.”
Courtney considered this for a moment, then popped the top of the can and put the pills on her tongue and swallowed them down with a couple hesitant slurps. It turned out that the stuff was still good after all. She hadn’t had Sprite in over five years.
She asked, “You probably hoard this stuff, don’t you?”
“And sell it to customers for an extra token,” Alexis admitted, grinning mischievously. “Completely off the books. Gotta look out for numero-uno.”
Courtney felt herself smile too. She sat the can down beside her and whispered, “Sorry for the trouble last night.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s not why you’re here?”
“Well, sort of.” Alexis turned a little bit so she could face her more directly and went on, “Last night in the bar you just looked like you were tired of being alone.”
Courtney shot her a glance and whispered, “Are you hitting on me?”
Alexis’ face turned red for a second, but she quickly smiled it away. “No. God, girl, you need to get out more.”
Courtney grew even more skeptical. “Then did
“No,” she replied. “Look, there’s only a couple girls here I get along with and neither of them are that interesting. I just wanted to get to know you. That’s all.”
Courtney sighed. She knew if Alexis was looking for someone interesting, then she was looking in the wrong place. She wasn’t sure if any interesting people were even alive anymore. She sure hadn’t met any.
Alexis looked away to wave at the memo-lady walking down the road, who was probably delivering flyers about the upcoming Fourth of July celebration. Courtney didn’t know the memo-lady’s name, but she did know the Fourth of July Committee thought up new rules and restrictions every year. They took that stuff into way too much detail. The lady dropped a bright orange sheet of paper in Courtney’s never-checked mailbox, then continued on down the road giving letters to people who actually cared.
Alexis said, “See? You don’t even try.”
“What do you mean?”
“You didn’t even wave.”
“I wave sometimes,” Courtney stammered. “Like at the people guarding the gate.”
“Well, yeah, but do you know their names?”
Courtney shook her head side to side.
Alexis very matter-of-factly stated, “That’s my point.”
“I know the names of most of the people that live on this street though.”
“Well, that’s because you’ve had almost five years to overhear what other people were calling them.”
Courtney sighed and took another drink of Sprite. Her stomach was beginning to settle and her headache was less throbby. The stuff was working fast. God bless bartenders.
“Before you got to Eastpointe something bad happened to you, didn’t it?” Alexis asked.
Courtney, taken aback by the abruptness of the question, replied with a question of her own: “Why? Did something bad happen to you?”
“Something bad happened to everybody,” Alexis said with a frown. “I’m just wondering what makes you the way you are.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?” Alexis pressed. “You seem interesting. You were one of those zombie fighters. You must have some cool stories to tell.”
“Cool?!” Courtney snapped. “The guy who trained me got bitten and for all I know he might not have had time to shoot himself like he planned. I loved him and maybe right now he’s walking around out there somewhere. Aside from that, I have no idea what happened to my mom and dad and I’m a thousand miles from home. I risked my life for you people by going out those gates even after you treated me like dirt.” She paused for a moment, sort of surprised she had blurted what she did. So she capped it off with, “And I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
Alexis looked away and softly stated, “I had to kill my own brother you know. Elliot. He died and got back up. I had to hit him with a bat a bunch of times.” She then grunted and made a motion like she was going to stand up. “You’re not the only one who’s a long way from home. Something bad has happened to all of us. I just wanted to get to know you because it’s hard to make friends. If you want me gone, just say so.”
Put on the spot, Courtney realized that left alone she would just have to go back in her house on the other side of those prison bars and maybe sleep, maybe read a book, or maybe watch a movie. But none of it sounded like fun. With the end of the world came the end of all things new, so it was only a matter of time before she grew depressingly tired of doing the same things over and over again. She just wished it wouldn’t have happened all at once. A few days ago she was perfectly content—or, at least—had convinced herself she was perfectly content.
She swallowed her pride and said, “No, I don’t want you to go. You can stay if you want.”
Alexis relaxed once more.
Courtney told her, “I like that you came by. I’m just not good at talking.”
“Then just start whenever you feel comfortable,” Alexis replied. “I don’t mind hanging out.”
Courtney squinted up at the sky. It was blue and beautiful. Little clouds were rolling by in their typical, indifferent puffy style. Then she looked down and studied her arm. Her skin was so much whiter than it had been in
“Okay,” Courtney began. “I know what to say.”
“Go for it,” Alexis replied.
Courtney took a deep breath and stated, “I don’t understand the rules here.”
“Rules?”
“Rules. I mean, everyone else has had almost five years to adjust and learn how things work. But I’ve stayed by myself since I first got here. I didn’t get to pick up on things one at a time like everyone else did. I didn’t get to move on. Do you know what I mean?”
Alexis shuffled her feet. “Sort of like once you’re out of circulation for too long, it’s hard to get picked up and read again?”
“If you want to compare me to a magazine, then... yeah.”
Alexis nodded. “I think I understand.”
Courtney continued, “What do we have to hope for now? Nobody else seems to get that. The world’s over.” She motioned to the can of Sprite. “This stuff’s gone. It’ll never get made again. Same goes for Oreos. Cheerios. Spaghettios.”
Alexis giggled.
“And nobody seems to care,” Courtney added. “It’s like I’m waking up and realizing everyone knows something I don’t—like they know the secret to being happy but they’re not telling me.”
Alexis tried to show her a comforting smile, but it wasn’t very convincing.
“What’s going to happen now?” Courtney asked, putting her palms in the air. “We survived the end. But somehow there’s still going to be a future. I mean, are guys like Leon Wolfe the best we have to hope for? Are these little houses all we’re going to get? We don’t even have a chance to improve because we have to stay in these walls. And everybody knows the rules to being happy with that except for me.”
“Let’s put it this way,” Alexis began. She motioned with her fingers in the air as if she were scribbling cursive letters and told her, “Welcome to Yesterday. Population: You.”
“That is what I’ve been trying to explain.”
“Okay, so let me tell you what you want to hear.” She turned fully this time to face Courtney directly. “You can’t go on thinking along the lines that you’re going to grow up and get a job and maybe get married someday. I mean, for you and me, these were supposed to be our college years—Our time to get all the fun out of our systems while making that wondrous transition into adulthood. Am I right?”
“I guess,” Courtney replied.
“Well, now there’s nothing to transition into. There’s no grownup world anymore. We’re not going to be doctors or lawyers or veterinarians or whatever, getting into our cars every morning and going to work. The old world is gone.”
“I kind of noticed that.”
“Well, the world’s not going to go back to normal—at least not in our lifetime. And you’re worried that guys like Leon Wolfe are the best we can hope for?”
“Something like that.”
“Right now there’s no such thing as boyfriends, fiancés, or husbands. Nobody worries about titles anymore.” Alexis paused and sheepishly lowered her head. She continued, her tone even softer, “My family didn’t exactly have it easy when the world was normal. We didn’t have much money. You think I could afford the kind of clothes I’m wearing now? You think a guy like Leon Wolfe would have even given me the time of day back then? But I don’t worry about it. I try to be happy. If I don’t, it gets me thinking about bad things. I mean, we survived the end of the world—”
Suddenly, with almost impeccable timing, a wail pierced through the air and echoed through the street. It seemed that somewhere beyond the high walls of Eastpointe a zombie was getting cranky. It wasn’t anything unusual—there were at least three loud roars every day. Most of them came from zombies who had been trying to scale the wall outside for weeks on end and not getting any favorable results.
Alexis continued, with a point already made, “This place can be depressing if all you’re hearing is that.” She motioned with her thumb in the direction of the wailing. “If you don’t do something to make yourself happy, you’re gonna go nuts. For people our age, it can be like spring break if you let loose those inhibitions. You just need to try.”
“That is supposed to be what I wanted to hear?” Courtney asked. “Take my shirt off and run down the street like it’s Mardi Gras?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Alexis said, rolling her eyes. “What I mean to say is that this town is the world as we know it. You’re not going to meet anyone that isn’t already stuck inside these walls. But people accept that because at least there’s people. We have electric power and running water. We have a town. And some of us—if you would just take the time to socialize—aren’t all that bad, really. You know all this already, but that is what you wanted to hear. Or needed to hear.”
Courtney put her head down. She waited to see if Alexis’ speech would sink in and give her comfort, but it didn’t. Not really. Maybe there just was no simple answer. Maybe that was the point. Maybe at least now she knew that everyone else didn’t know the answer either. They were just pretending they did.
“I see you at the pool sometimes,” Alexis said. “You always go alone. Like I told you, there’s not many people here and these are the only people to choose from. You have to find friends where you can. I like you. If you want a friend, then you know where to find me.”
“I’m not sure I want to go back in the bar,” Courtney told her, smiling uneasily. “I don’t know if I even want to look at another drink for the rest of my life.”
Alexis laughed. “You’d be in even worse shape if I hadn’t cut you off. You never even had to hug the porcelain. Consider yourself lucky.”
“Then... thank you, I guess.”
“I live by the power station,” Alexis said. “The only blue house on the street. Most nights I just watch movies.”
“I watch a lot of movies too,” Courtney replied.
“Well, then you’re welcome to—”
Then came another interruption. Not the random wailing of a zombie this time, but the wailing of a siren originating somewhere near the hotel.
It startled Courtney and Alexis and brought them both to their feet.
Since they hadn’t heard any kind of siren for so long, they immediately assumed the worst: that the walls had been breached. However, after taking a moment to realize that the siren they were hearing wasn’t the really bad one—the one everybody feared—and that the one they were hearing was a high-pitched repeating whistle, it shocked them even more.
“That’s the siren that goes off while the main gate is open,” Courtney said. “But nobody’s gone outside for almost two years. Not even scouts.”
They looked at each other, shocked at what they were both thinking.
Alexis uttered, “That means they’re letting somebody in. A new arrival.”
“Somebody was still alive out there?” Courtney added, speaking for both of them, “—After all this time?”
Like most everyone else in Eastpointe, they had to drive to the gate to see the new arrival with their own eyes.
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