Bigger Monsters by Eliza Andrews

Author:Eliza Andrews [Andrews, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: What Happens at the Walmart Stays at the Walmart

Outside the cozy warmth of the Visitor’s Center, the evening is crisp but not freeze-your-ass-off cold yet. According to Kaye’s calendar, it’s February 20th, two and a half years after Everything Happened. Along the coast and in the piedmont of North Carolina, spring will arrive soon. Here in the mountains, winter will likely hang on a few more weeks. Today was warm-ish, but judging from the way the temperature’s been dropping, we’re in for a freeze tonight.

Kaye leads me past John G., who’s leaning against the front of the building with binoculars around his neck and a solar-charged LED lantern at his feet, on watch duty until the shift change after dinner. He gives us a wave and Kaye gives him an acknowledging nod as we walk past.

We head downhill through the empty parking lot, making our way towards the fence at the far end.

“Watch out for ice patches,” Kaye warns. “It can be hard to see sometimes against the asphalt. Believe me, I’ve learned the hard way.”

I just nod, still wondering what it is Kaye wants to talk about. Especially at the far edge of the parking lot.

She stops at the fence, resting her hand on a post. “There’s a good view of the sunset here, sometimes,” she says, gesturing westward with her other hand.

Kaye’s right. The day was clear, but there are just enough clouds high in the sky, left over from a recent rainstorm, that the dying rays of the sun have something to bounce off of. I’ve always found it ironic that a cloudy sky—or, in the before times, a polluted sky—makes for a far better sunset than a clear sky.

I say as much to Kaye, who smiles and nods.

“Which goes to show that the human mind can always find a way to forge beauty out of tragedy,” she says.

“Sounds like something the Professor would say.”

Kaye chuckles. “It is, actually. It’s something he told me after … after one of the many tragedies we’ve gone through together since all this started.”

I wonder if she means Loretta but I say nothing.

“Tragedy has a way of bonding people,” Kaye goes on. “It has a way of turning someone you’d never be friends with in the before times into someone who’s like a brother to you. Chuck’s like that for me. We’ve been through a lot together. I’d trust him with my life.”

“I get that,” I say.

“There’s something we haven’t talked about, Will,” she says, changing the subject abruptly. She turns away from the sunset and faces me. “Something I’ve wanted to ask you about for a while.”

“Alright,” I say evenly, bracing myself. “Ask.”

“It’s about what your lives were like before—not ‘before-before,’ but before you found us. When you were in King.”

Uh oh.

I shrug and my eyes slide away from her, pretending to take in the sunset. “There’s not much to say about our lives before here. There were zombies. There was scrambling to survive, always trying to stay one step ahead of starvation.

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