Slowly Beatrix’s eyelids began to flutter, groaning she turned over on her side and tried to pin down what had woken her. Finally a sound filtered into her ears; the patter of water running in the shower. Lifting her head a bit she looked over at Daisy’s bed then sighed and let her head fall back down when she saw that it was empty.
“Two a.m.” Beatrix groaned and put her pillow over her head blocking out the sound and the light from the bathroom allowing her to fall back to sleep almost instantly.
She awoke with a jerk and swore when she realized that her own snoring had been what woken her. Grumbling she rubbed her eyes and then sat up on her elbow listening to the shower. Turning her head she looked at the clock on the nightstand. “Ugh, four thirty.” She went to roll over again and stopped remembering how Daisy had spent hours in the shower when Matt was still abusing her. With a patient sigh she slipped from the bed and slid on her flip-flops.
“Daisy? Daisy, sweetie are you okay?” She rapped gently on the door waiting for some kind of response. “Daisy I’m coming in.” Beatrix frowned, it wasn’t like Daisy to not say anything. Slowly she opened the door and then gave a loud shriek.
“Oh God Daisy! Are you alright? What happened? Are you okay?” Rushing forward she pushed Daisy’s shoulder and made the other girl sit on the lid of the toilet, dashing around the room to grab a towel.
“Nix? What happened? We heard you scream.” Katarina and Eliza appeared in the doorway, Katarina fixing the straps on her tanktop and Eliza pulling her robe closer in around her.
“Daisy’s hurt. Here hold this.” Beatrix thrust a second towel into Eliza’s hands. “Daisy, Daisy can you hear me?” Beatrix came closer to her friend again, wincing as she put her towel up to the girls cheek.
“Why isn’t she talking?” Katarina frowned and took a step forward.
“I think she’s in shock, she cut her cheek right open. Kat, call 911. Eliza help me.” Beatrix never looked away from Daisy, her brow furrowed as she tried to be gentle. “Fuck it looks like she ripped her stitches out too. Eliza get over here and help me.” For a brief moment Beatrix looked over her shoulder. In that second she knew something was very very wrong. Eliza’s face was dead white and her eyes were enormous. Beatrix could feel herself begin to say something, registering the clammy feel of Daisy’s hand on her arm and then time sped up again.
Eliza darted forward and grabbed Beatrix by the hair tossing her out of the bathroom and slamming the door closed even as Daisy started to snarl and walk uneasily towards them on an obviously broken ankle.
The world was black. Slowly and with great difficulty Beatrix fought her way out of her haze in time to see Katarina reappear with her phone and Eliza holding the door tightly shut.
“The lines busy.”
“Never mind the fucking line.” Eliza snapped. “Help me hold the door shut. Fuck!” Katarina darted forward dropping her phone and putting her hands over Eliza’s.
“What’s going on?”
“Something’s wrong with Daisy. Very very wrong.” Katarina could feel Eliza shivering against her as they held the door shut.
“Nix you okay?” Katarina asked looking over her shoulder.
“Ya, ya I’m fine. What’s up with her thought? She went right for my arm.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t just trying to steady herself?”
“With what her face?” Eliza snapped as the door thudded, the blows on it making it shake.
“Well what the fuck do you think it wrong with her?”
“I think she’s a …” The last word was mumbled as Eliza looked down.
“A what, I’m sorry I missed that.”
“A….”
“What?” Another heavy thud made Eliza cringe.
“A ZOMBIE OKAY?”
“You think she’s a zombie?” Katarina let the door handle go making Eliza set her feet and pull harder.
“What the hell are you doing? Help me!” Eliza threw a panicked glance over her shoulder.
“You’ve lost your damn mind.”
Beatrix stood and shook her head clearing it of the remaining fuzz that had settled before her eyes. Slowly she wrapped her hand around one of the ski poles that Daisy kept in their room. “Eliza open the door.” She said softly.
“Nix have you lost your mind? I’m not going to open the door.”
“You’re right. Kat, go get your and Eliza’s baseball bats.”
Eliza’s shoulders relaxed a bit and Katarina gave Beatrix a worrying glance. “Nix, what are you doing. You hit your head. Daisy isn’t a zombie, zombies aren’t real.”
“Please Kat.” Beatrix looked at her friend for a moment then set her eyes back on the door. “I’ll use this pole to keep her away from us just in case and we’ll try to talk to her. Okay? Just – go get the bats.”
Katarina gave one last look at her friend then disappeared out the door back to her room.
“Thanks Nix. I -”
“You had better be right Eliza.” Beatrix continued looking at the door and swallowed heavily. “Because frankly I’m with Kat on this. Zombies are just in movies and books. They don’t really exist. They CAN’T really exist. Yet here we are, freaking the fuck out because our roommate might be the walking dead. But it’s you that’s said it, not me, and you’re one of the most level headed people I’ve ever known. If you say she is then she is.” Swallowing again Beatrix’s eyes flicked to the side as Katarina came back in. Beatrix watched as Katarina handed the bat to Eliza with an exasperated look.
“Alright. I think you’re both crazy but here are the bats.”
“Good. Alright then. Eliza.” Beatrix took a deep breath and nodded.
With a reluctant look Eliza let go of the door, pushing it back with a heavy shove. On the other side a heavy thud made the girls look at each other and rush forward pushing the door out of the way. Daisy lay sprawled unceremoniously in the tub, the force from the door had pushed her back. Beatrix stopped just inside the door frame ski pole held in front of her.
“Daisy. Daisy you need to say something. Anything. Please?” The girls behind Beatrix inhaled sharply as Daisy began to work her way out of the tub, holding her hand out to them as if to ask for help up.
So focused were they on the scene in front of them that when the door to their apartment pounded all three of them jumped.
“Jesus fucking Christ. Kat go see who that is.” Beatrix shooed off her friend her eyes still trained on Daisy. “’liza this is stupid, she needs our help.” Beatrix lowered the pole and moved forward grabbing Daisy’s hand and pulling her from the tub. Stumbling, Daisy fell towards her groaning as her bad leg gave out from under her. “Fuck, take it easy there Daisy. You got it, just careful on that foot. Easy now. There you go.” Beatrix felt her friend lean more heavily on her, listened to her breath raspingly as her broken ankle dragged uselessly on the floor. “Just sit there.” Beatrix set Daisy down on the toilet to let her get off her foot.
“Nix. Nix people aren’t that uncaring of broken bones, get the hell away from her.” Eliza’s grip on the bat tightened.
“She’s just in shock Eliza, calm down. Endorphins and all that. Here-” She pulled the reluctant girl closer. “Make sure she stays upright while I go get my keys. She’ll have to get that set.” Beatrix grumbled and scampered out of the room, hurrying to grab her keys from the dresser.
Her mind was beginning to play tricks on her. It had been less than five minutes since this whole things started, from them arguing outside the door until the second she set her hand on the keys. Slowly it seemed as though sound came rushing back to her. Outside she could hear screams, breaking glass and above it all a persistent wailing that sent chills down her spine. Time slowed again as she turned back to the bathroom in time to see Daisy pitch forward again towards Eliza. Racing forward her mind lost in a gray kind of panicked haze she grabbed the bat and swung it up against the side of Daisy’s face, crushing her cheekbone and sending her sprawling back into the tub.
“NIX WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Katarina came back in to see one of her best friends standing arched over their roommate, bloody bat held in white knuckled hands. Shaking Beatrix turned to look at her with eyes made bright with insanity.
“The blood.”
“What?”
“The blood.” Beatrix said again as though that explained everything.
“You’ve gone fucking insane. Get out of the way, she’s got to get to the hospital.” Katarina tried walking past her but Beatrix lowered the bat across her path.
“Her blood was congealed.”
“So what?”
“So what?” Beatrix said softly her face slack, in a split second a change had come over her and her spine straightened her features twisting. “WAKE UP KAT.” She shrieked. “BLOOD DOESN”T CONGEAL LIKE THAT UNLESS YOU’RE DEAD. ELIZA WAS RIGHT THERE’S NO WAY SHE WOULD BE STANDING AFTER WOUNDS LIKE THOSE!”
“Nix.” Katarina was quiet as she stepped forward. “Give me the bat.”
“Kat listen.” Eliza said still staring warily at the figure that was slowly righting itself on the floor. “You can hear something going on outside. It makes sense. All those missing people, the reports on tv about the super flu. We were just too blind to see it. This is real.”
“You’ve both gone crazy.” Katarina stared at them wide eyed and swallowed hard.
“No, we haven’t and that’s the problem. It’d be better if we had.”
“Nix her wounds aren’t that bad.” Katarina pleaded, hand reaching for the bat again. A shriek from behind them made Beatrix whirl Katarina dashing forward to grab the bat and watching in horror as it slipped from her grasp. With eyes wide in fear and panic Beatrix brought the bat down on Daisy’s head again and again until she lay still.
Choking back vomit Katarina ran from the room to find her phone the front door bursting open as she ran by, David and Sky panting as they ran in.
“Kat, where are the others?”
“Bathroom, Nix has gone crazy. She just killed Daisy.” Katarina said turning to run to her bedroom.
“Kat.” The sound of that voice, usually so warm now so cold stopped her in her tracks and she looked over at Sky. “Don’t bother, the lines are busy.”
“What? What the fuck is wrong with you? Has everybody lost their minds tonight?” Katarina snarled and whirled away again trying to get her phone.
“Kat.”
“Let her go Sky. Come on, we need to get the others.” David put his hand on Skyler’s arm and the pair of them ran into the bed room.
“Sky. David.” Beatrix emerged from the bathroom holding the bloodied bat at her side. “Ah. I see you’ve already run into Katarina. I can assure you I am not a dang-”
“That doesn’t matter right now.” David cut her off. “Have you looked outside?”
“You mean the moaning?”
“Ya.”
“Zombies?”
The boys nodded and for a split second Beatrix stepped back from her own mind, her eyes glazing over as she tried to comprehend what this meant. “I thought we were all just joking about the end of the world. Umm… Umm… I can do this, think.” She said softly to herself, wacking herself in the forehead with the base of her palm a few times. Suddenly she stopped and her eyes focused again, looking back over her shoulder at the body slumped in the bathroom she nodded, mostly to herself. “Right. We’ve got to get going. You saw them outside? With your own eyes?”
“Not many, just two so far, but that can’t be all there is. There are screams coming from all over campus.” David said as he watched her pull Eliza from the bathroom door, grabbing the door to shut it.
“Right.” She nodded again. “No time to lose. Eliza go find Kat and get packed. Sky, David have you two already have your things together?”
“Ya, they’re out in the living room.”
“Good. Then you two call the others. I’ve got to pack and then I’ll join you. I’ll call Leon while I’m doing it. Go.” She pointed out of the room and tapping David’s arm lightly Sky led them from the room.
With them gone Beatrix stood still for a moment, her eyes fixed on the bathroom. “I’m so sorry Daisy.” She whispered.
It took her less than ten minutes to pack almost everything she owned into two large bags.
“Nix come on hurry up!” Eliza called from the hall, wringing her hands nervously.
“I’ll be right there… Go start waking people up.” Beatrix shot around the room grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, scribbling furiously on it.
My Dearest Daisy,
Please forgive me. I hope I did what was right and set you free. I pray that I didn’t take your life from you. I’m so sorry. So very sorry. Be at peace.
Always,
Your Nixy.
With hands that trembled she folded the paper and slid it under the bathroom door then left to join the others, her bags thrown easily over her shoulder. Fingers flying she whipped out her phone and dialed Leon, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for him to pick up.
“Hello…”
“Leon get your shit together something big’s happened-”
“you’ve reached the phone of Leon Hendrix. I am unable to pick up right now but if you leave your…”
“Mother fucking son of a bitch. Why does he never have his god damn phone on?” Beatrix shivered in anger.
“Nix?” Beatrix looked up at Sky who stood in the doorway and reality rushed in again.
“Sky. You remember what we decided on how to shore up this place?” He nodded. “Get started on it.”
“What about you?”
“I have to get Leon. He’s not picking up his phone.” Her shaking began to change and her eyes filled with tears. “Someone has to get him and Summer.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“No. You’ll be faster here. People listen to you. Get this place as safe as you can, and keep your phone at hand. I’ll be outside in the van in half an hour at the most. Tell the others to be ready. Get all your shit by the door downstairs so you’re ready to leave.”
“Nix you-”
“Sky. Shut up.” Tears streamed down her cheeks and she walked close to him, kissing him lightly on the cheek, her hand resting lightly on his other one. “I’ll be careful but we’re wasting time arguing here. Get them ready to leave. We move out in thirty.”
Skyler looked at though he wanted to argue then closed his mouth and grabbed her wrist as she walked by, pulling her back to kiss her gently. “Be safe.”
Beatrix refused to answer just nodded before dashing out of the room, leaving Skyler to dash back out to the others.
As she ran, outside sounds faded away from her ears, only to be replaced with the frantic hammering of her heart against her ribs. With long legs she propelled herself down the stairs to the first floor, shooting out the door on the side of the door. The world seemed to narrow as her eyes focused in on the walking path between the door and the student apartments. Her feet barely touching the ground as she ran across the asphalt to retrieve their friend.
