Dash Dash Dot Dot

So close but so far

Willow stared out the window. She could see the school fence from here, they were so damn close, if those zombies hadn't been at the fence they could have been inside the faction, but then again, maybe not, they had brought quite a few zombies with them. The faction probably would not have let them in with all the zombies following. She sighed and looked at her car; the zombies were smearing all sorts of gross looking fluids all over it. Who knew the last time she would drive her car she would be running for her life and trying to survive. She loved that car, and now it was just as useful as the TV was.

Tiffany stood beside her. "You did good, we couldn't have known about the zombies at the fence. We just have to wait for this to die down and then we can somehow get to the faction."

Willow looked across at the school fence again. "Is, is that someone looking at us?" She pushed the sheer curtain aside to see better. "Someone knows we're here, that's a person, they're watching us." She squinted, her nose almost pressing against the glass. "There's two of them." She turned to Tiffany. "We need to get across the road."

Her friend shook her head. "I know but look at those things, they're crazy," she indicated towards the zombies swarming Willow's car. "They're even crazier than the ones that were chasing me. I think the car was just teasing the crap out of them. If we go out there and get seen they will rip us to pieces. I know the school is so close, but we still need to be careful and do this safely. We will probably have to spend the night here so let’s explore, we will need to find blankets to keep us warm and they may have some food left in the cupboards."

Willow took a deep breath and slowly released it. "You're right. It's just so frustrating to get this far and still be stuck outside the faction fence. Being able to see the tall green fence is even worse. But you’re right, let’s check this place out.” She paused. “I really wish I had my fire pit."

"Me too," Tiffany laughed and the pair went exploring the small house. It had two bedrooms and a study. They opened every drawer and cupboard. They gathered five blankets and several pillows, deciding to sleep on the couches rather than the beds. "The faction must have raided the houses around the school, there's pretty much no food items left. But I did find a block of chocolate and half a bottle of baileys, let’s celebrate getting this far. I know this isn't the faction, yet, but hopefully by tomorrow we will be there and won't have to be locked inside a small building anymore." Tiffany poured them each a glass and snapped the bar of chocolate in half.

Willow nodded. "Why the hell not." She raised her glass. "To us, we have survived thus far and will continue to do so!" she declared.

“Here, here!” Tiffany replied. They clinked their glasses together and took a sip of the creamy alcohol and then a bite of the chocolate. “Alcohol and chocolate, two more things that will be harder and harder to find. You don’t realize how much we have taken for granted by having access to them every day.”

***

“What do you think happened to the people on the planes and the boats when everyone else became zombies? Are there boats out there still floating in the oceans with survivors? Or are they all zombies on board?” Tiffany laughed. “Is there a zombie captain? Is it a skeleton crew ‘cause they had to push the zombies into the water?” The alcohol seemed to have gone straight to her head and she just rambled at Willow who pulled a bottle of water from her bag and gave it to Tiffany. “Oh, thank you so much, you’re so nice to me. Thank you for being so nice to me. You saved my life from those zombies, and from the ones out there.” She lazily lifted her hand, aiming it in the direction where the car was parked in front of the neighboring house.

“I know.” Willow said softly. She dug the radio out of her bag and turned it on; making sure the volume was low. The night hosts spoke with softer voices than the day hosts, which was another reason they were her favorite pair to listen too.

“Oh, this is nice.” Tiffany closed her eyes and hummed softly to the song on the radio. The events of the day had been stressful on both of them; becoming trapped in the house just across the road from the school had deflated their joy bubble a bit after seeing the fence within view. And now it teased them, they could see it from the window, but there was a road and a house block in between, not to mention the zombies wandering the street. They had finally lost interest in the car now that it no longer made noise to attract them. Willow listened as Tiffany’s humming became a soft snore.

She stood at the window and looked across the gap to where she had seen the people watching them. She could see what looked like a flame torch hovering just above the fence line but it was too dark around it to see anything else. Willow dug through her bag and found a lighter then went back to the window. She flicked the lighter a few times, the flame was tiny, but maybe they would see the glow of light. She clicked out the signal of SOS. Her dad having been in the navy had taught her Morse code when she was younger, and continued to instill the SOS signal at every age. As he would say to her and her sister: “You never know when it may come in handy, most people would know it, even those with no Morse code training at all.” She hoped he was right as she flicked the lighter on and off. The torch above the fence then seemed to flicker itself. The person watching must have been covering it but they must not have known Morse code themselves as they did the same SOS signal back to willow. Better than nothing, at least she knew that someone was still there.

She knew that any rescue mission would not be done that night; it was too dark, meaning it was too dangerous to attempt a rescue; a zombie could sneak up behind you and bite you before you realized they were there. She took one last look out the window and then sat on the free couch and pulled a blanket over her.