CHAPTER 4

~Chapter 4~

I woke up the next day, feeling tired and drained like always.

I've been living the same pattern of life over and over and over and over again that it got so tiring to me.

I needed to do something else. Something different for a change.

I decided to look for a better place to stay, a place so safe that it couldn't be invaded by zombies or just anyone without my permission.

After finding this place, I planned on looking for other people who were still alive to cohabit and run the place with me, stocking up food and water supplies that would last a while for everyone.

This was my ultimate mission now.

~

After a few weeks of searching for a safe haven, I finally found a worthy place.

An abandoned old farm house somewhere inside the woods.

It wasn't an easy task for me to do, I battled zombies, fatigue and risked alot through out my journey here just to find the perfect place.

The farm house was a lot further from the little flower shop I slept in.

Thankfully I packed some snacks for the day and decided to spend the night at the farm house.

Walking was no longer as difficult as it used to be for me before, it was now a part of daily living that I was used to.

I had a flashlight on with me all through the night, as there was complete darkness everywhere.

Once it was morning, I looked around the farm house, checking out how strong the house was and if it had any electrical wiring. Thankfully it did.

I saw a power house at the backyard that could power the entire farm house and I was filled with joy.

This is good. The light would be good.

I tried turning on the generator but it seemed to be having trouble picking up.

I suspected that it must be petrol issues and decided to make another journey to gather enough litres of petrol.

~

Having walked all the way to the nearest gas station I could find, I found some Jerry cans and filled them up with petrol.

As I was filling them up, I saw an incoming van coming to the gas station and decided to hide till I saw who it was.

Some group of people came down from the van after parking.

Judging from their looks they didn't really seem friendly, that was until I recognized one of them.

A familiar face after all these while.

Louis. Nathan's best friend was among the people in the van.

I contemplated wether to show myself or not, he was a friend and I'm sure it was fine.

I decided to step out from hiding.

"Louis?" I called him out.

The rest of the people with him suddenly became alert, pointing their weapons at me, I automatically raised my hands up in surrender.

"Louis is it really you? " I asked him with a croaked out voice.

I saw The look of surprise on his face. Bet I was the last person he expected to see.

"Diana?" He said my name and I was relieved. He remembers me.

"You're alive. " He said and ran over to me to hug me.

"I can't believe you're alive." He repeated and i sobbed.

"I can't believe it either. I'm so so happy to see you Louis. You have no idea." I said to him and tear pooled up in his eyes.

"I'm really happy to see you too. We all thought you were gone." He said to me running his hands on my hair.

"We?" I questioned.

"Yeah. Nathan, Emily, and some of us from school." He said to me.

"Emily and Nathan are alive?" I asked him and he nodded.

"Yeah from the last time I saw them." He confirmed.

I couldn't explain the happiness I was feeling at the moment.

"What about Kayley?" I asked hopefully.

He Shaked his head. "She didn't make it. I'm sorry." He said to me.

Poor Kayley. I really loved her.

"It's Okay. Who are these guys with you? And can you take me to Nathan and Emily?" I asked him hopefully but his face suddenly changed.

"They're my friends. And Diana, please don't waste your time on Nathan and Emily. It's not worth it. You can come with me, I'm sure my friends wouldn't mind taking you in." He said to me.

"Why would you say that? What's wrong with Nathan and Emily?" I asked him.

"It's a long story. And I'll tell you all about it if you come with us." He tried to persuade me.

"Just tell me why you said I shouldn't look for Nathan?" I asked him again.

"They're different now Diana. It's not their fault though. It's all because we associated with the wrong people. I got out but they refused to leave with me." He explained to me.

"Different in what way? Are they zomb..."I was about asking but he cut me off.

"They're not zombies. They're just a little selfish and meaner now." He said to me.

"I think this whole situation we found ourselves in has made us more selfish than usual. It's the only way to survive." I defended them.

"I know. But with them, it's different. And it's best if you don't look for them. Please. For your own good." He said to me.

"Fine. It's not like you seem like you're going to tell me where they are anyway." I said tired with no more energy to argue.

"Where do you stay though? And why are you out here alone? Don't you have a group?" He asked me.

"No. I don't have a group and I stay alone." I answered him.

"Hmm. You didn't mention the part where you stayed." He must have noticed I purposely didn't say that part.

"Just somewhere around." I said to him and shrugged.

"You seem like you don't trust me anymore. You won't even tell me where you stay." He said and smiled glumly.

"Sorry. Alot has happened in the past months. I don't know if I can trust anybody. Including you." I say to him.

"It's okay. I completely understand. And it's good. Don't trust just anyone, everyone is looking out for themselves out here." He agreed with me.

"Do you want an introduction to my friends?" He asked me.

"No. It's fine. I rather they don't know me." I say to him and he nodded.

"Okay then, I guess this is it. It was nice seeing your lovely face again. I really hope we both make it till the end. When ever that is." He said to me and retreated back to join his friends.

I suddenly felt sad and lonely once again.

I watched as he joined his friends and acted on impulse.

"Louis!!!!" I called out his name again and he turned to look at me.

"What!!!" He yelled out. I motioned for him to come and he ran to me once again.

"Changed your mind about coming with us?" He asked with a smile.

"Actually not really. I have something else in mind." I told him.

"What else do you have in mind?" He asked me.

"Louis. I want to build something. No actually, I'm building something. Some kind of a safe place. Not just for me but for anyone else that wants to come. But it's not quite ready yet. And I need some help setting everything up." I explained to him.

"Okay? And where exactly are you building this safe place?" He asked me sounding doubtful to what I had just said.

"It's deep in the woods. But Louis you can't tell your friends yet. Just come with me and help me finish it up. Then you can come back for your friends when it's all done." I said to him.

"I don't know Diana.." he said unsure.

"Please Louis. We can do it together. Please don't leave me here." I pleaded with him and his eyes softened.

"But I can't just abandon my friends. It's not right." He said to me.

"You're not abandoning them. Just tell them something came up and you really need to help me out. Tell them you'll be back soon." I told him.

It took him a while before he finally gave in. "Fine. Okay. I'll help you. Just give me a while to explain to them." He said to me and ran off to meet his friends.

I sat down near my filled Jerry cans waiting for Louis.

I watched them as they talked but sadly I couldn't hear what they were saying as I was sitting far away from them.

After a few minutes, I saw Louis running to me and his friends got back into their van and drove off, leaving Louis behind.

"So. Guess You have me all to yourself now." He said to me and smiled.

"Glad to know." I replied and returned the smile.

~~~~~~

Louis and I worked day and sometimes night. Cleaning, arranging and building up the farm house to look as presentable as we wanted.

The power house was working now, turned out it needed not only petrol but also some electrical reconnection and rewiring. Thankfully Louis was good at engineering. He was good at everything and I was grateful I found him.

If I didn't find him, I definitely wouldn't have gone this far with the farm house and probably given up sooner.

"Hey we're running low on some supplies. When do you think we can go restock?" He asked me.

"Tomorrow maybe. We leave first light." I said to him and he nodded.

~

Later that night, Louis went out for a night swim near the small pond of water that was in the farm house.

I decided to join him but didn't get into the water. I sat down near the pond, staring at the stars.

We stayed together in silence, enjoying the quietness until he broke it by talking.

"You know Diana, I never stopped loving you after all these while. Even when you were with Nate, I never stopped. I always wished you would look at me differently, I always wished you would see how much I truly cared about you." He said to me, looking right at me.

"I know." I simply said focused on the stars above the sky, pretending not to notice him staring.

"You do?" He asked and I nodded.

He suddenly got out of the water in nothing but his short briefs that covered almost nothing, I could clearly see how hard he was down there, he started coming towards where I was sitting.

"What are you doing?" I asked him and stood up from the ground.

"I love you Diana. And I think I always will. I know this is not the right time to even think that way but I can't help myself. Especially being around you this much." He said to me and I gulped.

I don't like this.

"I'm sorry. But I don't know what to say to you about that." I told him honestly.

"You don't need to say anything." He said and suddenly grabbed my waist with one arm, pulling me close to him and used the other arm to press my lips unto his.

I tried to stop him and get away from the kiss but he was so much stronger than I was.

"St...op..." I muttered between kisses but he continued kissing me forcefully, purposely rubbing his hard self on me.

When I got one of my hands free, I punched him hard on the face and he stumbled backwards releasing me from his grip.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!!" I yelled angrily at him.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, not looking at me.

"No you're not. So what is this huh! You want to rape me now? Is that what you want?" I questioned him angrily.

"I would never do that to you. I'm sorry about all this, I wasn't thinking straight." He said to me.

"Look Louis, I get it, you love me, but I don't love you. I'm in love with Nate. Your best friend, remember him?" I said to him and he chuckled nastily.

"And you think he feels the same way about you?" He asked me.

"Yeah... Yeah he does. So just stop. You know I thought you were actually a good guy, I guess I thought wrong." I said angrily to him and went inside the farm house leaving him standing there.

Later that night, I heard a small knock on my door where I sleep.

"Go away!" I yelled out to Louis.

"I'm really really sorry Diana about earlier. I acted out of stupidity and impulse. I know you love Nate and I respect that. I really hope you forgive me. I can't handle it if you're mad at me. That's all I wanted to say. Goodnight." He said by the door and I heard his retreating steps.

All through that night, I kept thinking about what happened. Could I really forgive him and forget all about it just like that?

I sighed heavily and closed my eyes a bit to relax.

~~~~~

I woke up once I noticed some type of brightness from the window.

First light.

I kept thinking about how I would approach Louis after the stunt he pulled last night.

I came out from the small room I stayed in, keeping an eye out for Louis but I didn't see him anywhere inside the house.

I saw him sitting outside through the window and furrowed my eyebrows.

"You're up early." I say to him and he looked at me.

"Yeah. You said first light, remember?" He said to me.

"Right." I replied.

"I already have our bags ready and set to go. You don't need to do anything else." He said to me.

"Oh. That's eh... that's good. Thanks." I said to him suddenly feeling awkward.

We both walked silently through the woods, not saying a single word to each other until we got into the town.

"We're here. Let's keep an eye out for any sign of danger." He said to me and held his axe firmly. I did the same.

We came across a store that seemed not to be completely emptied out and went in.

We managed to find a few useful things we would need and stocked them in our bags.

As we were picking out a few more things from the store, we heard a growl that came from inside the store.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Louis.

"Yeah. Definitely." He replied.

We both dropped what we were doing and brought out our weapons, ready for anything.

A zombie walked out lazily from one of the corners of the store. It noticed us immediately and rushed towards me.

Louis was fast enough to hit it on the forehead with his axe and the zombie fell down to it's knee. I finished it off by chopping off it's head.

"We should hurry up and check other stores and get out of here." Louis said and I nodded.

We picked up our bags and moved on, looking for another store.

~~~~

When we were fully stocked up, ready to leave, we heard some noise down the street, it seemed like a girl running away from the zombies.

"Ok you hear that too right?" I asked Louis.

"Yep. What should we do? Should we go help?" He asked me.

"I don't know. What do you think we should do?" I asked him right back.

"Ok..ok...I think we should help... what do you think?" He asked me.

"Yeah, you're right, we should definitely help, it's the right thing to do." I said to him.

"Okay. Let's do it." He said and we both dropped our bags somewhere safe, covering it with some leafs so no one would steal them.

With weapons in both our hands, we stepped into the danger zone.

And that's when we saw her.

Emily.

"Oh my God. That's Emily. We have to help her!" I said panicking.

"What is she doing here?" Louis asked himself.

"What are you doing? Let's go help her." I said and ran towards her, and Louis followed me.

Emily looked so shocked to see me, she had to stop in her tracks from running.

"Yeah I know. Now Come on!!" I said to her and dragged her hands, pulling her with me.

The three of us ran and successfully hid behind a school bus that was parked on the street. Hoping the zombies wouldn't catch a sight of us.

"Oh my God, You're alive." Emily said looking at me like she saw a ghost.

"Yeah. Good to see you too Em. I can't believe it." I said to her and hugged her tightly. She hesitated for some seconds before hugging me back.

"Yeah. I can't believe it either." She said to me still looking surprised.

"How did you survive this far?" She asked me curiously.

"I honestly can't even explain it. I've been through a lot." I said to her and smiled.

"Yeah we all have." She replied and returned the smile. But it didn't seem to reach her eyes.

"Are you okay? " I asked her and her expression changed.

"I am now but there's an issue, Nate is also here. We have to find him. We both lost each other when those freaking zombies appeared out of nowhere." Emily said.

"Nathan? Nate is here?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I just said that." She said to me with a straight face.

"Wow. Well then we need to find him. I'm so glad I found you again Em." I said and hugged Emily again but she removed herself from the hug.

"I'm sorry Diana. We'll catch up later. But right now, Nate is more important." She said to me.

I looked at Louis and he didn't give away any expression on his face.

"Yeah. You're right. Let's find Nathan. Then we'll all catch up." I said to her and smiled and she smiled back.

She didn't seem like herself anymore, that I knew for sure.

~~~~~

~~TBC~~