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Sneaking through the woods wasn’t V’s strong suit. Give her a building to creep through and she could move like a shadow. Out in nature it was different. There were so many things on the ground to step on that would make noise and give away your position. At least in the city you knew how loud that bottle or can or bit of trash would be if you stepped on it or kicked it. Out here in the woods some leaves crackled while others were quiet. Sometimes twigs were under pads of soft leaves and cracked when you stepped on them. Branches scratched and scraped at any exposed skin, and rustled leaves. Sneaking out in the woods was much more unpredictable than in the city.
V crouched and made her way through a small patch of young trees and brush and glanced over her shoulder. She shifted her grip on the machete she held and reached her free hand back. “Come on, I see a path this way.” she spoke as quietly as she could, trusting that Judy’s audio processor could pick it up. Once the outbreak started Judy did some fine tuning on the implant and it had been incredibly useful to help them avoid any of the…Things. Walking dead. Re-animated corpses that feasted on the flesh of the living without regard. . At one point V thought that the world couldn’t possibly throw anything at her that she wouldn't know how to handle. Then, the world went and proved her wrong. Fucking zombies
Judy paused and tilted her head , listening before she quietly made her way to join. She nodded. “Sounds clear. Doesn’t mean it is, but I’m not hearing any of them.”
V nodded and pushed through the brush and into the clearing as quietly as she possible. She looked around and then motioned for Judy to join her. Now that they were out of the woods it was a bit different. They had a clear view which would make it easy to spot and avoid, or take out, any creatures that staggered their way. Being out in the open exposed them to other dangers. The zombies weren’t the only threats in this strange new world. Other people had been a problem in the ‘before’ time, and they were even more of a problem in the ‘Now’ times. When even the illusion of law and order dissolved, the world became even more of a free-for-all than it ever had been.
V crouched low, trying to stay as covered by the tall grass of the clearing as she could while still being able to use the increased sightline of the clearing to her advantage. “I think we’re good. Come on.” she whispered and slowly continued forward. It wasn’t long before she was climbing through the railings of a run down wooden fence. She held out her arm to help steady Judy as she crawled through behind her. “You hear anything?” When Judy shook her head she nodded and peered around. Just because Judy didn’t hear any of the creatures, didn’t mean there wasn’t danger.
V spotted a little cabin in the distance tucked into a little clumping of trees and nodded. “That looks like it might be a place to camp up for a few days. Get some rest.” Slowly and carefully the pair of them made their way closer to what she hoped was going to be ‘home’ for at least a few days..
“If we’re lucky, we won’t have to fight for it.” Judy spoke up as they got closer. “Maybe that’s too much to hope for, though.” she sighed and followed along behind V.
The past few months had been nothing but running. It was a miracle they had made it out of Night City once people started turning. The place was absolutely swarming with zombies. So many people didn’t make it out. They’d been on the go ever since. They had tried to find their friends, but in all the chaos they never could. None of them had answered their holos. Finally, when it was too dangerous to continue to stay in the city, they gathered what supplies they could and set out on the road. Judy had been desperate to get to Oregon to try and find her grandparents in the hopes that they had survived. She had spoken to them a few times since the outbreak but her calls had gone unanswered since.
The car they left the city in had run out of fuel two weeks ago, and by that time all of the stations they came to were already drained dry. They had been on foot since then, occasionally managing upon a car that still had some fuel.
Judy looked so tired. Neither of them had a good night's sleep in what seemed like years. V really wanted that little cabin to not be too good to be true, for both of their sakes.
The pair of them approached the small cabin and stopped at the small porch. V glanced back and arched an eyebrow. Judy tilted her head, a gesture that had become a common sight when the tech was tapping into her audio processor to listen. When Judy frowned and shook her head V’s brow furrowed. Damn, they were going to have to clear it the scary way.
V reached out with one hand and to test the first step before putting her full weight on it. The wooden step gave a low quiet creak at the pressure. She shot a glance back towards Judy. The tech was silent for a few moments and then shook her head again, her eyes taking on a distant glimmer of hope. Maybe the cabin was safe.
V slid the machete into its sheath at her hip and pulled out a smaller combat knife, and glanced back once more. Judy’s motions mirrored V’s as she too drew her own knife. The ex-BD editor’s combat skills had improved since the outbreak, and to say it was impressive would be a massive understatement. Judy had become every bit as competent in close quarters combat as she was, and there was no one else that V would want to have her back. They shared a nod, a silent question asked and answered.
Together they crept up the stairs. Every creak sent a stab of fear through V. Making noise now was not ideal, if there was anyone or any…thing in the building it would alert them.
Finally they made it to the door and V reached out to try and open it. To her surprise the door slid open as soon as she reached out and touched it. She paused at that and looked back at Judy. The hell?
The pair of them made their way into the little house, and moved from room to room clearing each one. When they were done they both let out a sigh of relief. No Zombies, no people. The little cabin was empty. V glanced at Judy and grinned. “There’s even an actual bed.” And it wasn’t covered in gross. She looked around the small house again and inhaled deeply. “We should see if we can get access to the doors locks. Maybe…” She paused again, hesitant to finish the thought in case she jinxed it. “Maybe we’ve found a place to stay for a few days. Rest up. Relax a little.” They were out in the middle of nowhere, which had its benefits.
V headed for the door and started to work on the security systems. She worked her way through the various security measures and tried to find a way to add their biometric data to the database to give them full access to the security measures of the cabin.
Judy moved to the kitchen and dining room area of the house and started looking through the cabinets and drawers. She started pulling out food that was still edible. “Hey V, There’s a barn out back. Might have some stuff in it we can use. Maybe we should check it out tomorrow.” She glanced over and chuckled quietly seeing V completely focused on trying to hack the house’s locks.
“Hah! Got it! Come over here, let’s get your data into the security system!” V was wearing a wide grin and looking extremely proud of herself. Judy couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Put up some extra security to make sure it’s not as easy to get through for anyone else.” She peered through the window towards the barn and nodded. “Yeah. Might be some good stuff out there, or at least some stuff we could use. Yeah, we should check it out tomorrow.” When Judy joined her at the door she was quick to input her biometric data “It’s.. nice to have a solid roof over our head for a change, yeah?” She looked around again. “And… it doesn’t have any blood or guts painting the walls.” V looked impressed. “I think we just won the lottery!”
“Mmmhmm” Judy had made her way back to the kitchen and was surprised to find that the water turned on easily when she turned the knob on the faucet. “Holy shit.. We have running water!” Her grin lit up her entire face as she quickly turned one knob off and twisted the hot water. “Now.. let’s see if we have hot water! Because, I would kill for a nice hot bath.” Judy’s eyes closed and she tilted her head back with a grin as she felt the water starting to get warmer and she let out a low chuckle. Her grin only brightened as she looked back at V. “We. Have. Hot. Water. Holy Fuck.” It was kind of amazing how something that was taken for granted only a year ago could be such a luxury now. Judy quickly turned the water off in the kitchen and brushed past V towards the bathroom. “Hot bath, here we come!” Simple pleasures.
It was full dark by the time Judy and V finished. It had been a very long time indeed since the pair of them had the time and ability to take a nice, long hot bath. It had also been quite a while since they had been in a place that felt secure enough to let down their guard, and enjoy themselves. They took every advantage they could of the situation.
“Well, let's see if there’s anything we can make a hot meal out of here.” Judy couldn’t stop grinning as she looked through the cabinets, pulling out canned goods and various things that hadn’t gone bad.
“A nice hot meal would be amazing. As long as I’m not the one cooking it.” V flopped herself down onto the couch, coughing a little at the plume of dust that puffed up around her. “There’s that town we went through before we got here. Might still be some supplies there. We could go there and stock up, maybe make this a home for a little while?” The suggestion was hopeful. She was tired of always being on the go. Never staying in one place for more than a day was starting to wear really really thin.
Judy frowned at that and glanced over at V on her dusty couch. “That was five hours before we got here. There’s gotta be someplace closer than that.” She marched over to her backpack and pulled out a small case. She rifled through the case for a moment before pulling out a chip and slotting it. “There should be a small agri town, or what’s left of it, about three or four miles northwest of here. Not as far as the last place we were at. We get up early tomorrow, check out the shed, and then head that way.See what we can find?” Plan decided, she headed back to the kitchen to finish up with dinner. It wasn't much just some canned veggies heated up in beef flavored broth, but it was a warm meal in the comfort of a house. She grabbed some of the bowls left in the cupboards and washed them out before she spooned the soup into them.
“Here.” She offered a bowl to V and sat down next to her. She cuddled up as much as she could without either one of them spilling their precious meal. “Hopefully the bed isn’t as dusty as this couch is.” she commented as the pair of them lost themselves to their meal.
When dinner was finished V made her way towards the bedroom and gave the bed a testing thump. She wrinkled her nose as a fresh cloud of dust puffed up. “Well I guess it’s better than sleeping on the ground again.”
“Damn.” Judy frowned. “Well yeah… I guess you’re right.” The frown deepened as she looked around the small cabin and leaned up against the door to the bedroom. “You really think we could stay here? Make a little home for a while?”
“If you want.. I think we could. We’re kind of out in the middle of nowhere which.. You know. Pros and cons.” V answered as she looked in the closet for new sheets for the bed, or at least something they could use. “Why not?” Finally finding a set of sheets for the bed she made her way back to start putting them on. “Unless you wanted to keep trying to make it to Oregon. If you want to keep going we can.”
“It’s a really long way, n’we ain’t got a car.” Judy reached for the end of one of the sheets to help fit it to the mattress. “Haven’t heard from ‘em in a while, an..” Judy shook her head. “We’ve been goin’ for months now and haven’t really stopped.” She tucked the last corner over the mattress and looked around the room. “It’ll be nice to have a place to stay, somewhere that we can at least try and pretend things are normal again.”
V nodded and flopped down on the bed. “We don’t have to decide right now, but…” she nodded. “You’re right. A place in the middle of all this where things can be kind of normal would be nice. A place that’s ours, for at least a little while.” she tucked an arm behind her head and peered over at Judy. “How about we get some sleep, and check out the barn, and the town tomorrow and maybe that’ll help us figure out if we want to stay for a little while or not?”
Judy crawled into bed and curled up next to V. “Sounds good.” She already sounded like she was half asleep, and V wasn’t far behind.
“We’ll figure everything out tomorrow.” V murmured as she drifted off to sleep.
_______________________________________________________________
Morning brought the smell of something cooking drifting through the small cabin. V squinted as she opened her eyes. She groaned at the bright morning sun streaming through the windows. After months of getting used to sleeping in whatever cramped or uncomfortable spot they could find that provided a bit of security it was heaven to finally have a surprisingly comfortable bed. V threw her arm across her eyes and took a deep breath.
Finally V pulled herself out of bed and headed towards the kitchen. “You should have woke me up, I’d have helped with breakfast.”
Judy let out an amused grunt in response. “We’ve only just found this place, V.” She said and V could hear the little grin in her tone. “It’d be nice to keep it for a little while.”
V leaned against the wall, crossed her arms and waited for the punchline. She tried to fight the tug of a smile. “Go on.”
“So I figured I’d let you sleep a little longer to avoid the risk of burning it down when you tried to help me cook.” Judy glanced over her shoulder with a little smirk.
“I have never burned down a house with my cooking, thank you very much.” It was refreshing falling into this conversation with Judy. It had been too long since they had a place where they could feel secure enough to just relax and be themselves with each other. V was finding it more and more difficult to keep that smile off her face.
Judy hmm’d softly and split the synth-egg scramble between the plates on the counter. “You’re right. It was a tent.” Judy brought her coffee mug to her lips and took a sip but the grin she was hiding behind the mug danced in her eyes.
“That was not my fault.” V tried to sound indignant and failed terribly. She couldn’t help the laugh as she took up one of the plates and started to eat. At the time, the tent burning down was a disaster and a devastating loss, but it had been months ago. They had gone through so much worse since then and it was nice to be able to laugh. “It wasn’t!” V protested around a mouth full of breakfast at the skeptical look Judy threw her way.
The pair of them broke into laughter. A pressure valve had been pressed and weeks of tension and stress disappeared with something as simple and normal as sharing a relaxed breakfast. Their laughter faded out and they fell into a comfortable silence as they finished their meal. When V had polished off the last of the scramble on her plate she glanced over “That kinda sounded like you wanna stay here for a little while.”
Judy shrugged. “Maybe.” She sighed heavily and shook her head. “We’ve been on the move for so long now, and we haven’t been able to contact anyone for weeks. The odds of finding my grandparents, and them still being alive are…” Judy trailed off and stood. She took V’s plate as she passed. “Yeah, I think we should stay for as long as we can. I mean assuming there’s anything worthwhile we can scavenge nearby.”
“Yeah. It is an agri town…” V offered Judy a weak smile. She crossed the room and glanced out the window. “Maybe there’s some seeds there, we can build up and maybe try and start a little garden?” She glanced back towards the kitchen. “Finally get a taste of something other than scop and synth shit?” Who knew it would take the apocalypse to make real fresh food a possibility.
V’s lips pressed into a thin line she reached out to wrap her arms around the other woman. “I know.” her voice was quiet, she tried to sound comforting. “Let's get our gear and check out that barn first. See what there is.” V leaned forward touching her forehead to Judy’s. “Let's get the day started.”
Barn was a generous term for the building behind the cabin, though calling it a shed was an understatement. They approached the building carefully and quietly. Judy’s head was tilted, listening. V continued towards the building hoping to catch a glance through one of the windows.
V’s head snapped to look back at Judy when the other woman suddenly grabbed her arm. She brought her finger to her lips and nodded towards the building. “Shit.” V’s muttered curse earned a glower and she mouthed a quick apology.
It wasn’t easy to get a view of anything through the window. Between the dust and grime caked on both sides of the glass, and the angle V was looking from with her back pressed against the wall of the building she couldn’t see shit. Her nose wrinkled in frustration and all she could do was shake her head at Judy and point towards the door. They were going to have to go in swinging and just deal with whatever they found inside.
They crept towards the door, making as little noise as they could. V drew her knife and turned to Judy.
“Ready?” The question was whispered and she reached out with her free hand, resting it on Judy’s shoulder.
Judy nodded and leaned into V, pulling her into a quick hug. After everything they’d seen over the months since the outbreak, and all the close calls they’d had themselves. They had developed this little ritual before throwing themselves into a fight. Night City was bad, and there was always the chance that you wouldn’t make it home from work, but life and death seemed so much more uncertain these days.
When the pair finally let go of each other, V took a deep breath and released the safeties on her mantis blades. The door was simple, secured with a fairly standard bio-scan lock. She did a quick scan, nodded, and reached out to gently press her hand against the pad. It was linked to the main cabin security, which made things so much easier.
V took a step back from the door as it slowly slid open. She winced at the loud scraping sound it made. Clearly it had been a while since the building had seen any use. She glanced over her shoulder briefly when she felt Judy’s back press against her own. V shifted her stance and pulled in a few slow breaths, readying herself.
The door swirled dust in its wake as it slid open. V squinted to try and see through the sun reflecting off of it. Nothing came running out at them, which was a good sign… probably. “Ready?” She glanced quickly over her shoulder to see Judy’s nod. “Go.” The pair of them moved together, back to back into the building.
V heard the growling as they stepped further inside, her gaze snapped to the first source she heard. Someone got stuck inside the truck that was parked in the middle of the building. That truck would certainly be useful if they could manage to keep it fueled. Movement further in caught V’s attention and she and Judy moved towards it. As they passed the truck, V heard the soft squelch of Judy taking care of the dead one hanging out of its window and continued on towards the wandering zombie at the back of the building. It was staring at them. Once they got closer the reason why it hadn’t run for them became apparent. Someone had tied it to one of the building's supports with a rope. V stepped in closer and took care of this one herself, a quick jab of the knife through the eye socket and into the brain was usually enough to take care of them. Sometimes some types of cyberware complicated matters, but this one didn’t seem to be one of those cases. She waited a few moments, watching the crumpled body, waiting for any sign of movement.
“Well that was..”
“Don’t you fuckin’ dare..” Judy cut her off before she could finish.
“Good call. Almost said something really dumb.” V let out a small sigh. “You hear anything else?”
“I don’t…” Judy paused, her head tilting to the side again. “I don’t think so. I think we’re clear.” She sounded far from certain, but V would take it.
“Good. Still, be ready. Never know, right?” V finally took a moment to look around. The building was large, the first floor had two layers of shelves that went from floor to ceiling all stacked with crates. V reached for one, pulling her machete to try and pry one open.
A sudden bark of laughter behind her made V jump, her machete clattered to the ground. “We have a fucking truck, V!” Judy laughed again.
“Jesus, Judy!” V’s words came out with a heavy breath as she snapped around ready to fight. It took a moment before V was able to relax and take in the sight before her. Judy had climbed up into the bed of the truck, a bright grin on her face. That grin was a sight V didn’t see nearly enough, and it was infectious. “I see.”
“It’s got solar panels on the roof, they look like they’re in great shape, and it’s hooked into the power grid here. It doesn’t need Chooh2. V, this is…” Judy paused briefly as she glanced back towards the cab briefly. “Fuck I hope it still runs, but even if it doesn’t right now…” She looked back at V. “I put a fucking fire truck back together once. I can get her running again if I need to.” For the first time in a very long time, V saw real hope on Judy’s face.
“There’s a bunch of crates on these shelves, too. Gotta be something in them.” V glanced towards the cab and the unmoving zombie hanging out of the driver's window. “I’ll check them out while you deal with… all of that.” V smirked at the glare she got from Judy. She grabbed her machete from the floor and went back to working the top off of the crate. “Gotta be something in them, wouldn’t be here and sealed up if there wasn’t.”
V grumbled and let out a frustrated sigh. The Machete wasn’t cutting it as a pry bar. If she wasn’t careful she’d break it, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone. She wrinkled her nose and slid the blade into its sheath on her leg. “If you see a pry bar let me know.” She called out as she started making her way through the sets of shelves. There had to be something she could use around. You don’t just have this many crates around without there being a tool to open them with.
It took a few moments, and a lot of searching for V to finally find what she was looking for. “Found it!” May as well let Judy know she didn’t have to keep looking for one, assuming her output had been looking for a pry bar in the first place. With her new found tool in hand V began working on the lid of the nearest crate.
When V finally got the lid worked off the box she sucked in a breath as she pulled the lid off to find the crate absolutely full of packaged kibble. It was kibble but kibble was still food. When you were living off of whatever you could find that hadn’t been ransacked, kibble was a good meal, and V was looking at a feast. “Holy shit.” She moved quickly to the next crate and pried the lid off. V couldn’t stop the laughter as she pulled out a pack of synth beef. “Holy shit, Judy I think we actually hit the jackpot here!”
“What’d you find?” Judy’s voice came from above, she must have started checking out the loft area. “There’s some crates up here too, smaller than the ones down there but, there’s a lot.”
V moved to another crate and popped the lid off of it as well. More packaged food. By now she was just laughing. “They’re filled with food, Jude! Packaged food. Chicken, beef, fish… veggies. It’s all here.” Had they really managed to get this lucky? “You manage to get any of yours open?”
“Working on it!” It came out as a grunt. She was working on getting one of the crates open up there. While V waited she kept opening up more crates and peering in, finding more and more packaged food. Crate after crate. “Jude?”
“Holy fuck. Seeds!” Judy’s voice trembled as she spoke. “V… We could actually start something here. This could be…”
Suddenly there was a loud snarl from the second floor. It was a sound they had learned very well over the past few months. Judy let out a yell, and a long string of profanity both in English and in Spanish. V took off running for the stairs as the sounds of the scuffle continued. “Judy!”
By the time V made it to the loft it was over. She found a wide eyed and breathless Judy covered in blood and grime. There was a zombie body crumpled at her feet, and one motionless one that looked like it had been reaching through the shelves. A crate had crashed to the floor spilling packets of seeds everywhere. Judy was leaning against the shelving unit trying to calm down.
“You okay?” V rushed over and gave the dead one on the floor a solid kick for good measure.
“M’fine.” Judy leaned over, bracing her hands against her knees and sucked in a few deep breaths. “Fuck.”
“You’re covered in blood and…” V grimaced as she reached out. “Let me check you out just to make sure.” It startled V when Judy slapped her hands away and pushed herself off the shelving unit.
“Said I’m fine, V.” Judy growled “Not my blood. It’s theirs!” She took another step back as Judy took a vicious swing with her crowbar at the shelf zombie’s head. Blood and bits of brain matter flew in a wide spray. “I fuckin’ hate these things.” She spat out and stooped down to yank her knife out of the floor zombie’s head. Judy wiped the blade clean against her jeans and slid it back into its sheath. She took another steadying breath, adjusted her shirt at the neck, and scrubbed her hands against her pants.
V stepped closer and pulled Judy into a quick hug. “It’s fine. You’re fine.” She relaxed a little when she felt Judy lean into the hug, and rested her forehead against Judy’s for a moment. “It’s over.”
“Yeah.” Judy pulled away gently and looked around. She smiled, and V’s heart sunk. Most of the pure hope and joy that had been in that smile only a few moments ago was gone. The encounter brought the reality of the state of the world sharply back into focus. “But we got all this stuff to go through. God, V, the stuff that’s here..” Judy trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief.
“We could be set for life, Jude.” V finished for her. “At least as far as food goes. We’ll have to learn how to be farmers but… we really could make a life here. Every crate I’ve opened has been full of food and there’s so many of them. This could be our place.”
“Yeah.” Something flickered in Judy’s expression as she spoke, it was brief then she was back to smiling. She glanced around then nodded. “Guess someone’s got to learn how to be a farmer.” V crouched to help pick up the seed packs that had spilled, she studied the other woman for a moment. “How about we just do a quick look through what we’ve got here today, pick out some of the really good things and have ourselves a feast. Then check out that town tomorrow or the next day?”
“Yeah. That makes sense. We can take a moment to relax now that we’re good on food for a while.” V agreed. “And a night in, a day or two for ourselves, yeah?”
It only took them a few hours to check out most of the crates.They spent the time going through the crates talking, laughing, telling stories and generally just enjoying each other's company. It felt good and things felt as close to normal as they could be. Most of the crates had food, but a couple had some uniform shirts and work pants that looked suited to working greenhouses and fields. No doubt this place was connected in some way to the agri-town a few miles away. They picked out a few sets of the clothes and some of the best of the food items for their feast. It had been months since either one of them could remember not having to worry about where their next meals would come from, or if they’d have to ration out the little food they had for several days until they could find more. Finally, they’d found enough that they didn’t have to worry for a while, and didn’t feel in any way guilty or stressed about making enough to eat their fill.
It was only a few hours after noon when they headed back to the cabin. Even though they hadn’t had to walk the miles to the nearby town and back and crawl through whatever they found there scavenging for scraps, both women found themselves more than ready for some rest. The months of being always on the move, and always on guard had finally caught up with them now that they had the promise of a good meal and the security that both the storage building and the cabin offered them.
“I’m going to take a shower, get some of this grime off me before I start cooking.” V watched as Judy headed towards the bathroom as soon as she was through the front door. “You get the stuff ready, and then I’ll cook it while you’re taking a shower!”
“You sure you don’t want me to join you in there?” V called after her. She frowned at the negative response she received and carried the small crate they’d brought back to the kitchen. It had been a tiring day, Judy probably just wanted some time to herself. There had been very little time for either of them to have any ‘me’ time since everything started. So how could V really deny her some if she wanted it. Instead she just busied herself with getting everything ready for cooking. She pulled out several pots and pans, made sure they were rinsed out and clean, and then went about putting the packs of food away, leaving out a generous selection for tonight's chef to choose from.
The shower didn’t take very long at all, V flashed a brilliant smile. “Those look good on you.”
“They look clean at least.” Judy smiled, though something about it was a little off.
“You okay?” V frowned and wrapped her arms around the other woman’s waist, crossing behind her and resting her chin on a shoulder.
Judy twirled around and slipped out of V’s arms. “I’m just tired. Been a long day.” Her smile widened a bit but it didn’t quite touch her eyes. “Go take a shower. I’ll get dinner ready.”
V took her time with her shower. She was still amazed at having the ability to take a warm shower. She found it strange that something that she took for granted a little more than a year ago was now such a rarity. So she took the time to enjoy the warm water. She leaned against the wall of the shower stall and just let the water run over her. She reached for the soap and cleaned off the day's dirt and grime. She ran the soap through her hair, they were lucky to have found what they did, unfortunately not quite lucky enough to find shampoo. When she finally rinsed herself clean she stepped out of the shower and savored the feel of new, clean clothes as she slipped into one of the shirts, and pair of pants they’d found. She wrapped the towel around her hair and breathed in the steam that still filled the room for just a moment.
By the time V stepped out of the bathroom dinner was already done and just waiting to be served. “That smells fuckin’ amazing!” She pulled the towel from her hair on the walk over to grab a plate, scrubbing at her hair briefly before dropping the towel on the pile of dirty clothes. “I think you outdid yourself this time.” V dug into the meal. She spent a few moments studying Judy. “You sure you’re okay?” She nodded at Judy’s plate, not nearly as empty as her own.
“Yeah… I’m just tired.” Judy flashed a small smile. “And enjoying the company.” She started eating with a little more enthusiasm. “I’ve been thinking though. We’ve got all this, we got lucky and found an amazing place. Maybe we should consider sharing some of it.” She paused and looked over at V. “This is a world where you just really can’t make it on your own. You’ve gotta find other decent people and build something, right? I think that should be the goal here. You gotta find other people to build this place with.”
“I’m not alone.” V said, pausing on the last few bites of her food. “I’ve got you. We won’t be alone. But, if you really think we should try and bring other people in, we can try. We’ll have to be careful, but we can try.”
“But you might not always have me.” Judy’s voice faltered slightly and she took another bite of her meal. “And if something happened to you, you wouldn’t want me to be alone. You’d want me to go out and find people, help them. You’d want me to have something to focus on… And I want the same thing.” She held up her hand to stop any interruption. “I want the same for you. What happened today in the building just went to show that anything can happen at any time. And I need to know that… I need you to promise me that if something ever happened to me that you’d keep going. You’d find people, a group, friends.. People to help, people that can help you. I need to know that you wouldn’t just… stop. And you have to promise me that, if something happens to me, you won’t let me turn into one of.. them”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you..”
“You don’t KNOW that, V.” She sucked in a breath as she spoke. “Promise me.”
“Yeah, I promise.” V did as she was asked, and set her now empty plate to the side. She reached out towards the other woman. “What’s all this about?”
“I just needed to know, that’s all. Making it until tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed even before all this happened. But now?” She shook her head. “I just needed to know.” She nodded towards the empty plate. “Want more?”
V shook her head. “Nah, I’ll help with the dishes though.” She picked up her plate and took it to the sink, rinsing it off before setting it in the dishwasher. “Hopefully this thing still works.”
“Think you could turn up the heat a little? It’s getting kind of cold.”
“Sure.” V frowned and shook her hands to get the water off before stepping away “How about I keep you warm.” She whispered as she wrapped her arms around Judy’s waist. She ducked her head to trail kisses along her neck. She pulled the collar of the shirt out of her way and froze. She swallowed hard. “Judy?” her own voice sounded muffled and distant to her ears. “You…” she felt Judy sigh against her. “Oh.. God..”
Judy turned, a look of sad resignation on her face. She just shrugged and shook her head. “Shit happens, V. It’s done and…” She glanced away sucking in a deep breath as the tears formed at the corners of her eyes.
“No…” It was all V could think of to say. She shook her head as if just refusing to accept it would change things. “No.. you..”
“It happened, V. Nothing’s going to change that.” Judy reached up and pulled V so she had no choice but to look at her. “It happened.” She gave a small, sad smile. “Nothing either of us do will change that.” Her voice was thick, and choked. “Nothing either of us did caused it to happen. It just fucking happened. So we have to enjoy what time we have left, and you have to remember the promises you made me.” She glanced back towards the mess that remained in the kitchen and sniffled. “Let's go to bed.”
V jerked awake and grumbled softly. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. She shifted towards Judy, snuggling up for warmth but finding none. “Jude?” There was no response. She moved her hand to feel for a heartbeat, for breathing. “Nononono…” She scrambled to turn on the bedside light. “No, Jude.. come on.” She didn’t even bother to swipe at the tears. Her expression screwed up and she sobbed. “Fuck.”
Judy was motionless, her body had already started to go cold. V sat frozen staring at her, hoping to see her take another breath but knowing she never would. She sucked in a heavy, shaking breath. “God Damn it.” Finally, she glanced towards the table the light was on and numbly grabbed her knife. She took Judy and cradled her in her lap on the bed. “Come on, babe. Wake up. I don’t know if I can do this Jude.” She found it hard to speak, her throat was burning and tight and she could barely force the words out. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.” She reached up and gently brushed hair out of Judy’s face, and she carefully positioned the knife at the base of her skull. She had a promise to keep. She promised not to let Judy turn.
She couldn’t do it, her arm wouldn’t obey. Finally, with a scream she flung the knife across the room and pulled Judy in close. She no longer cared who or what heard her. She screamed again as fresh tears flowed. She rocked with the body, her scream trailing off to agonized whimpers and sobs.
The movement she felt was just her imagination. Judy was dead. V pulled her closer and held on as tight as she could, her eyes closed tight against the tears. Suddenly fingers clawed tightly in her hair. Her eyes shot open as her head was yanked back and she found feral dead eyes staring back at her. She tried to pull herself out of the zombie’s grasp, she flailed her arms and tried to push it… her away in a panic.
“V!”
V flailed more. She no longer cared about the hand that had a death grip on her hair. She screamed again and used both hands to try and push the biting dead thing that had once been Judy away, her eyes closed with the effort it took.
“V! Easy! You’re safe! It’s just a dream. I’ve got you. You’re safe, you’re in our tent. It’s okay!” The voice was everything she wanted to hear. The person she wanted to hear the most. She listened.
V woke up gasping for air and bolting upright. She looked around wildly, the light filling the tent burning her eyes as she did. Where was she? How did she get here? Her eyes fell on the other person with her, and she gasped again. “Jude?” V reached out carefully almost as if touching the other woman would make her disappear.
“I’m here.” Judy took V’s hand and pulled her closer again. “That was a bad one huh? It’s okay. You had another nightmare.”
It took a while for everything to settle in and for V to calm down. She was safe. Things were slowly coming back to her and she let out a humorless little chuckle. “We were watching a Zombie vid.” She was safe. Judy was alive. They were in their tent in the Aldecaldos camp. It was Halloween.
“Mmhm, you fell asleep during it.” Judy’s tone was calm and soothing. “Guess a scary movie wasn’t the best idea.”
“It was a terrible dream.” V broke the long silence and shifted slightly to lean her head on Judy’s shoulder, soaking in the fact that she was here, and she was alive.
“Did you want to join the party outside? Pretty sure they’ve started already.” Judy reached up and brushed some of V’s sweat soaked hair from her face.
“No. I just want to stay here, with you. Maybe watch something that doesn’t have anything to do with Zombies.”
“I like that idea too.” Judy agreed. “But you’re going to have to let me go so I can grab our movies to put something in.”
V shook her head. “Maybe we don’t really need to watch anything, then.” She was quiet for a long time before she sucked in another deep breath and pushed herself up off the couch. “Actually, let's join the party for a little bit. Then we can come back and watch something.” She held out her silver left hand for Judy to take and led them out of the tent.