Elizabeth Jakes The Clone System

3- Former Friends

Confusion on Randall’s facial features because they had just met up on the road and had only acknowledged each other when they had seen the truck coming towards them in the distance. They hadn’t even spoken about taking the truck, it was just instinct to work on getting it together and they’d work in unison, well till now.

"What? You're kidding,", the naturally red-haired man scratched his head as he waited for dark browned but bleached-in streaks due to the sun-haired man to say he was just joking. His uneven bitten-off nails, burning slightly at the nubs where his salty sweaty scalp had him dropping his hand, still waiting for the redhead to answer.

"No, I'm not kidding. I can't see your face," the other returned, monotone. A slight furrow between his eyebrows now.

The man wiped his face more trying to remove the dust. She pointed the gun at him as she muttered, "Water in back. Don't waste."

"Gee thanks, lady," the bandana-holding man said, in mocked sarcasm.

He mumbled as he washed his face with minimal water. The man raised his head, showing a very youthful face, to the other two making them both gasp. She, in surprise, because her first impression of him was that he was old but now she realized it had been the dust, on his face. And Randall for he recognized the face then too.

"What the f*ck Matty. I didn't realize it was you. Your voice has finally manned up," his former high school friend staggered out, exposing his surprise. Randall looked the same to him, except bulkier than before. That and well- the hair. He used to always be such a weirdo when it came to his hair…always in a low fade with a side mark that most envied because of his widow’s peak. Randall also was the first out of them all to get facial hair, so the others always considered him as ‘better and more grown up’ than them.

Back when they used to be best friends.

The woman looked closer at the face. Matt? She blinked. Even if she had met him under proper circumstances, she would not have made him out. Matt had changed. His lanky body was nowhere in sight. He was muscled. And his voice was different.

Both of them were seniors to her by one year back in high school. And while Randall had dropped out, Matt had gone off to college. She was in her second year when the war took place. 2083 was a year nobody would forget. Nobody that lived anyway.

The entire world had been shaken by World War Three, then they had the after-effects of it to deal with. The ashes that weren’t just regular ash.

"So, I'm Matt, he's Randall and you apparently know him. Now, who are you?" Both men had their guns pointed at her again, having ignored her command to drop them earlier.

When did that happen?

"Hey man, it was nice seeing you," Randall said to Matt as he walked around her. He poked her back with the gun. "How was college?" he goes on speaking as if it was the way of having a regular conversation- which again, it was now.

"I finished when this sh*t happened to us," Matt answered nervously looking around eyebrows furrowing when the walking corpse was now just some feet away from them. The stench had reached his nostrils and his stomach paled. He could never get used to this smell.

"Hmm," his former best friend replied eyeing the decomposing form but still nobody made a move to end its miserable existence.

"They're all dead man, the whole town," Matt muttered as if he’d only recently returned home. Which may have been the case Randall figured. To move around in zombie-world is a slow and stealthy process with an overly cautious heart…definitely not for the faint-hearted. 

"I know man. As soon as we figure out who this is we can go. I ain't decide if we should take her or not," Randall added the last part in a whisper behind her. He said the harsh words, but he was not going to leave her alone and stranded...even though she looked as if she was capable more than them both.

He is curious as to who the female is- someone who’s car he fixed? She looked familiar a bit, but his brain couldn’t place from where.

"Just leave her let's go," Matt looked around again when more distanced explosions were heard. Gunfire this time. He had no desire to be around when the undead showed up. And he didn’t mean this one sole dragging one that seemed more lost and confused than any of the other flesh-eating-former-human-monsters he had ever come across in his years of survival. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that no trace of human was in them, he still could not get used to taking their lives. It just didn’t sit too right with him. Even his smell was still repulsing to him, not having had a real shower in months. When would he be used to the sweat and grim?

Besides Liz and him had a little hate between them. He gestured towards her stomach for Randall to notice the bulge and his eyes widened.

"Leave her? Are you crazy? She-that," Randall pointed to the side of her stomach from behind. They knew her and although this wasn’t a time for ‘meet and greet’ he felt they should stick with her. It’s been a while since he’s even spoken to another human and now, he had two companions. This is good- he was lonely and going crazy a bit for human interactions.

Liz pulled her face back. That? She isn’t a ‘that’. Rude much?

"What? I meant let's just take her. We'll figure it out on the way. We need to go now," Matt sputtered. Honestly, he could not leave her. Prom was a lifetime away.

Both men didn’t even have time to process her fast movement until the undead lay on the side on the road- headless. Sober-faced, the men stared at the sharp long blade in her left hand, now stained with dark rotted blood. She had speedily reached into her truck, pulled out the sword and sliced the head clean off. Worms oozed out of the opener- another first for Matt. College taught him maggots and they were efficient consumers of dead tissue. They munch on rotting flesh, leaving healthy tissue practically unscathed but he doubted his companions needed that information now.

This is the woman that had looked scared minutes back. Clearly, it had just been an emotional state of mine Randall thought, his eyes on her stomach. Being he was the first to recover from the miscalculation about her, he walked in front of her and pointed to her stomach. "Where's the dad?"

‘Dad?’ Liz watched where the gun was pointed. ‘Oh- that, that.’

"I'm not pregnant you idiot! I've- ughh." She pulled her at her crumpled-up jacket, which had somehow hiked up around her waist, down, revealing her flat tummy. She sniggered at Randall before she continued, "You were always an assh*le."

She swiftly got into the truck and both men jumped in as she started the engine. 

Guns to be aimed at her now forgotten. It was getting close to nightfall, and it was unsafe to be out when the creatures roamed. While there were some that came out in daylight, the more dangerous ones came out at night. Almost every few months, some evolved or what about the new species of creatures that he had seen roaming about and Randall wanted to be indoors with a locked and bolted door.

“Man, we got to get out of here now,” Matt hissed as he looked into the horizon of the setting sun, panic settling onto his facial features.

“Can’t believe I’m doing this,” Liz muttered more under her breath to herself before aloud, “Come with me,” to both men and pulled her messy curls of hair back behind her ears, squinting her eye at them both.

Randall squinted his eyes and pulled off her hat as he sat next to her in front and a few seconds later he gasped out, "Liz?" He sees her beauty and youthfulness- like everyone else, has long vanished with the harshness of the environment they now live in. Not in a harsh way just that she no longer was feminine. Well, Matt and her used to date back in the day that’s why he recognised her and not him.

They all had been friends before, back in high school. Uppity, Randall had nicknamed her some years ago when they were friends. When things were normal. Unfortunately, this is the new normal, so he aimed his pistol at the guy. "Ain't nobody leaving."

What a small world he thinks.