“Wait. She wasn’t dead?” asked my mother.
“No,” said Leo. “And that’s when it dawned on me. It felt unbelievable, but it made perfect sense. I had been an avid fan for years. She was a zombie and she wasn’t going to go down easy. She leaped towards me, but I somehow managed to avoid her. I ran, swerving past her, hoping she would lose sight of me. I had no weapon to finish her off with, but the door was easily accessible now, so I ran for it. I ran faster than I’d ever run before. I was out the door before she even realized where I went.”
“Leo, I’m amazed you survived,” I said. “What brought you to the States in the first place?”
“It was meant to be a well-earned break for me, away from the everyday bullshit, meeting new friends, experiencing American culture, the people, and their way of life. I got that, plus some! John and I, although we lived in different states, we had been planning for this trip for over a year. Our American connection and best mate, Kyle Anderson, had invited us to stay at his place for two weeks. He had organized activities where we could test our combat, survival and shooting knowledge all in the name of fun. We all knew each other through our favorite survivalist website. Our trip was to culminate with a big gathering of American people from the site.”
“You were a survivalist before all this? I wish I’d been more prepared. I mean, I’d often thought about what would happen if zombies walked the earth, but I never expected it to really happen,” I said.
“We all wrote articles on various survival topics. John and Kyle were both pretty entertaining characters. We spent a lot of time chatting online. I couldn’t have picked two more compatible mates. John and Kyle were both the same build, sported the same short hair; they’re both witty and fast with their jokes. Sometimes, I wondered if the two of them were twins separated at birth.”
John smiled. He had kind of a glossed over look, as if he was thinking about his friend Kyle.
“I flew in from Sydney,” Leo said. “Kyle picked me up at Dulles airport since his house wasn’t far from there. As we drove, I got a quick glimpse of an American town for the first time in my life through the car window.”
“How did it compare to Sydney?” Mom asked her.
“The suburbs looked similar to back home, but the atmosphere was completely different. Maybe it was being in an unfamiliar territory that made it exciting. John had already arrived a day earlier; he was crashed on the couch when we got there. I practically had to kick him so he would wake up and greet me, which he did with a wisecrack comment as always. To this day, I don’t believe I have ever been able to beat him with a smarter comeback, but the day will come and I will drink to it.”
Leo grinned at John as she spoke. John appeared lost in his own thoughts, so she continued. “We spent two days catching up, laying back at Kyle’s drinking and laughing; then it was time for some adventure. I packed my kukri and my batons in my pack along with some water, a couple of shirts and something to munch on, and the three of us took off in Kyle’s huge, black, four door ute.”
“A ute?” I asked. “What is a ute?”
“You yanks call ‘em pickups, mate. We call ‘em ‘utility trucks’, or ‘utes’,” replied John.
“It was about nine in the morning, so we decided to stop in Leesburg for breakfast before driving to wherever Kyle was going to take us. He’d kept it secret for some reason. I wish he had lent his secret to us, I will never know where we were heading that day,” Leo said sadly. “The boys made the usual jokes between mouthfuls of chocolate chip pancakes and orange juice. I noticed two men across the road wrestling in a lane. They were stumbling, and I assumed they were drunk, or they were playfully ‘fighting’ with each other. I thought I saw one of them bite the other on the shoulder, but I wasn’t paying much attention as I made my way to the bathroom to clean up from breakfast.”
“The same bathroom where you were bitten?” Mom asked.
“Yes ma’am. I wish I had stayed at the table. Luckily enough, at least for John and I, the tides have turned and the events that took place that day have worked out to our advantage. When I escaped from the bathroom, I ran outside to where the boys were sitting at our outdoor breakfast table. They both stopped to look up at me, noticing the panicked expression written all over my face before realizing that I was bleeding.”
“John asked me what the hell happened, but I didn’t want to stop to discuss it, so I just shouted ‘We have to go NOW!’ I was walking quickly, anxious to get away from the restaurant. I needed to get back to the safety of the SUV, where I could dress my arm wound. The boys followed quickly, leaving some coin on the table before vaulting the small fence surrounding the outdoor eating area. John ran up to me to stop me, asking ‘What’s going on? Why are you bleeding?’ I was kind of surprised neither of them had heard the cries coming from the bathroom when that zombie bit right through my arm.”
“It was loud in the restaurant, and we were sitting outside with cars whizzing past us,” John said defensively.
“I explained that it was a zombie; that no, I was not kidding and no I am not delusional. I remember saying ‘I cracked the bitch’s head open and she stood as if I slightly bumped her with a twig’. The two of them looked at each other then they looked at me. Kyle said they should get me to the hospital, but I refused. They insisted, until another shrieking cry was heard. We all looked at a woman outside the restaurant, pointing her finger across the road.”
“What happened across the road?” Mom asked.
“When we looked where she was pointing, we saw a man stumbling towards her. He could hardly walk; his right thighbone was sticking out of his flesh. His left arm was missing. Several people advanced towards him to help him, the first man to get to him was bitten on the neck when he got too close. The Samaritan screamed and clutched his neck, but fell to the ground within just a couple of seconds. From the volume of blood on his chest, it looked like he was down for the count.”
Leo had a sad expression on her face, despite her somewhat cavalier nature in describing the situation. It seemed to me like she was putting on some bravado.
“The boys turned around to face me, I nodded at them, they understood right there and then that this was not some sort of joke. Kyle made some joke, his attempt to disarm the situation, as he leapt into his truck. John sat in the front, every now and then turning back to look at me and then exchanging worried glances between them. I knew what they were thinking. They knew I’d been bitten.”
“We were both certain one of us was going to have to shoot you,” said John. “I figured it would have to be me, since I’ve known you longer than Kyle, but I would have had a hard time with it, mate.”
“I’m glad you didn’t have to. Kyle passed me a first aid kit he kept in his glove box; I rinsed my wound with some antiseptic and wrapped a bandage around it tightly. It wasn’t bleeding as much, but I didn’t want it to get infected, and it was pretty gross looking. When I was finished taking care of my arm, I wrapped my hair up in a bun to make sure it was out of the way, then I sat back looking out the window as I told them the story of my encounter in the bathroom.”
Recalling the story of that Day was obviously difficult for Leo. She paused for a minute to collect herself, before continuing. “The ride to Chantilly was not nearly as attractive as it was an hour before. It seemed that the infection was spreading fast and soon enough, we came to a standstill. Cars were parked one behind the other and people were out of their vehicles wandering around aimlessly, which lead to them being attacked by zombies. We were forced to abandon the ute and continue on foot.”