Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 292: The Accommodations

The heavy metal doors of the third and final checkpoint slammed behind us, officially cutting us off from the outside world.

"I am here to take you to your housing," grunted a guard, narrowing his eyes on Tank before turning his attention back to Eric. It was like I was completely invisible to him, and I didn’t know if I should take it personally or not.

Eric grunted in reply, and placed a hand on the small of my back. He was carrying my backpack in his other hand, and while he still had a smile on his face, it was clear to me that he was uncomfortable.

Looking around, I tried to figure out what was setting him off.

The sanctuary itself was a lot bigger than I expected. The outer walls did a fantastic job of hiding the heart of the settlement, and a part of me had to wonder if they did that on purpose or if that was just how it ended up being.

All around us, there were several large buildings, fortified with both earth and metal like the outside walls but lacking the thorns and spikes. That was great for me because all I could picture was me tripping over my own feet and getting a foot-long spike in my eye.

I didn’t think the Healer would be able to heal my eyes twice, and I really didn’t want to put her to the test.

The buildings were separated by the road we were currently standing on. It appeared to be the main street, with a bunch of smaller streets branching off the further down the line we got.

The only creepy thing was the fact that there were multiple watchtowers with guards that had a perfect bird’ s-eye view of everything going on. On top of them, there were more guards patrolling the streets in teams of two and three. Each one had an automatic rifle, and they were ready to use them.

However, none of the people around us even seemed to notice them. They went about their day with smiles on their faces as they greeted each other. It was like something out of the movies from the 1950s, and frankly, it was disturbing.

So maybe there were two creepy things.

It wasn’t until we took a step forward and seemed to cross an invisible line did people turned to look at us. It was like they couldn’t see us before, even though we were standing out in the open, but now we were fair game.

The whispers started the moment the guard walked forward, his gun in both hands as he led the way to our accommodations. People glanced at us before quickly looking away, not wanting to meet our eyes. I honestly couldn’t tell if they were more scared of the guards or of us.

But if this place was supposed to be perfection, then why would the people be scared at all? Surely, they knew that the guards would protect them from outside threats. Then again, with all the screening that we went through, it wasn’t like we were really a threat anymore.

Tank walked into me, knocking me out of my thoughts and toward Eric. My ’husband’ caught me in his arms and glared at the man who was staring at me. "Please watch where you are going," smiled Eric, his voice light and friendly. "You almost bumped into my wife."

"We don’t need no outsiders here," snarled the guy so softly that there was no way the guard in front of us was able to hear him. "Leave by morning or be prepared to die."

Now, see. This was the welcome that I was expecting.

I couldn’t help the smile on my face. "Is that a wish?" I asked, practically bouncing on my toes. "You could so make that a wish."

"You’re fucking crazy, you know that right?" muttered the man, looking me up and down. "And it isn’t a wish. It’s a statement. If you don’t leave now, you will die."

"We all die at some point in time," shrugged Eric as the guard leading us finally turned around to see what was going on. "If it’s our time to go, then there isn’t much any of us can do about it."

The man muttered under his breath and shook his head in disappointment. "Don’t say I didn’t warn you," he grumbled before disappearing down one of the alleys. It took less than a minute before three guards were chasing after him.

"What was that about?" asked Eric as we finally caught up to the guard.

"Nothing you need to worry about," sneered the other man as he looked us up and down. "That man’s off his meds; you shouldn’t listen to him."

I cocked my head to the side as the guard spun around and started to walk away. "Hurry up, the sun is setting. Dinner will be delivered to you in an hour. You’ll want to be ready for it."

Eric hummed and took my hand, gripping it tight as we continued into the unknown. "Don’t worry," he whispered, leaning toward my ear so I could still hear him. "I’ll keep you safe."

If I had a dime for every time I heard some variation of that statement, I think I’d be rich by now.

"I know," I replied. "But you also don’t need to worry about me. I have Tank."

The crowds were starting to thin out the longer we were walking until we finally veered off to the left. "This is where the probies stay," grunted the guard pointing to the door and indicating for us to go inside.

Eric let go of my hand in order to push open the door, and the guard, once again, led the way forward. We walked down a long hall with open rooms on either side. People were gathered together, playing games and talking low as I looked inside.

"Your room is on the third floor," continued the guard, leading us up the stairs. "Once you complete your 14 days, you’ll be assigned different housing accommodations. But until then, this is where you will sleep."