I Fear I’m Losing The Room

•••

Gracie was running out of breath. They were on the docks, frantically searching for Bernardo’s yacht.

She pulled most of the glass shards out in the elevator on the way up that skyscraper, so they weren’t stabbing her with every step, but her feet are still bleeding. She almost couldn’t keep up.

Ultimately, Brody was the second to get taken by the horde. He just couldn’t keep up. After ten minutes of running, his tiny legs got tired. He tried to fight them off, but even with a flamethrower, he could only punch and burn through so many zombies.

They kept coming, and coming. Eventually, one of them cut into his face. One worm after the other crawled into the wound, feeding on Brody’s blood.

As if that wasn’t enough, they pried his mouth open and a bunch of blood worms headed straight for his windpipe, cutting off his breathing.

All Gracie and Savannah could do was run for their lives.

••

After half an hour of searching, they spotted it at the end of the pier. As they ran to the boat, Gracie couldn’t help but feel dread. Looking at the waters around them, she could see dozens of rotting bodies full of holes. She feels her stomach turn, but shakes it off.

It was just her and Savannah. She turns to her best friend, “You go first. I’m right behind you.”

Savannah nods. She runs ahead to the yacht and starts looking for the keys. Luckily for her, the Finks were an obscenely rich family. They never bothered with any type of security for their boats when they could just buy another one. She finds the keys on the dashboard right next to the steering wheel with the yacht’s manual.

There’s a hatch door leading below deck to the kitchen, bathroom and sleeping quarters. Savannah goes in with her bat raised, ready to get rid of any danger so they can finally get to safety.

Gracie stands alone on the docks, thinking. She’s not stupid. She’s valedictorian for a reason. She knows the worms are already inside her. Even if she goes in the water to get rid of them, she’s seen the corpses. All the holes on them. The worms will just burst out of her body to get back on land.

Gracie was already a goner, but Savannah can make it without her. For once, she does something that doesn’t benefit her. Something that only helps someone else.

Alone at the Fink or Swim, Savannah looks for any sign of blood worms and finds nothing. She breathes a sigh of relief.

“Gracie! It’s safe! I got the keys, let’s go!” There’s no answer.

She heads back above deck. “Gracie?”

Suddenly she hears a crash. Savannah rushes to the nearest railing. “Gracie!”

She sees the horde quickly approaching the end of the dock. Only a few feet away from Gracie and a few broken pillars. The leader of the sorority pushes the boarding platform back on the yacht. She sees Gracie pull her flail from the pier.

“Gracie, what are you doing?!”

“I’m not coming with you, Savannah. You saw me in the car, I ate all of those burgers. The blood worms are in my system already. I’m a lost cause. You should go.”

“No… no! We can fix this! There’s plenty of water around. They hate water! We can just…”

“You’ve seen what happens when the worms leave people’s corpses. They stop and they go to another dry body. I don’t want that. It’s only going to go after you. ”

“No. Gracie, you’re fine! You’re talking to me right now, aren't you? You can’t have worms. It’s probably just indigestion. Or your period! You can’t! You just can't!“

“Sav, I’ve been bleeding out for a while. My feet are totally fucked up. I’m pretty sure this worm’s the only thing keeping me standing. I’m going to die either way.”

Savannah’s lip quivers, “But who am I gonna be without you?”

“Sav, you’re smart, you’re kind, and let’s face it, you’re the one that does all my work for me. I can’t even count the number of times you’ve saved me today. You’re more than I could ever hope to be. You don’t need me. You never have. Whoever you are without me is already an amazing person.”

“But—” The sounds of the groaning horde get louder.

“There’s no time. They’re gonna try to climb on. We don’t know how far these guys can jump. If any of us was going to survive, it’s you.” Gracie hesitates for a moment. She wants to say so much more, but, instead, she bites her tongue. Anything else she says will make her want to stay. “Now, go! I got you girl.”

Savannah, teary-eyed, leaves her behind. She goes to the wheel, starts the engine and pulls the anchor up. As soon as her back is turned, Gracie takes off her necklace, throwing it onto the deck.

She smashes her mace on the pier once more, and plunges down into the ocean, taking more than a few zombies with her. The worm detaches itself from her brain, and her body begins to feel heavier. Her breathing slows, and her eyes shut as the worm tears its way out of her.

In her last moments, Gracie thinks back to their time in the cabin, just four college students. Two blissful months away from it all, right before it all ends.

(At a locked bedroom in a cabin, two girls sit on a bed. Both have a couple shots in their system. Their emotions reach a fever pitch. What else could they do but fall into each other? Their lips meet again and again.

Later, both of them lay down on one of their beds, Gracie's chest pressed flush against Savannah's back. She wraps her arm around Savannah’s waist, burying her head in blonde hair.

In the darkness, Savannah whispers, “I love you, Gracie.”

Gracie's heart skips a beat. She tries to keep her breathing steady, feigning sleep while her mind races.

Valedictorian, head of a sorority, rich daughter of a millionaire, Gracie Gorbo has everything. A picture perfect life. Even the captain of the water polo team is obsessed with her.

What would people think if they knew? They would blame her. The sporty, attractive girl who never dated anyone. The same girl who hangs onto her every word and command. The one who knows everything about her.

“She gave her ideas.” They’d say. “She corrupted her somehow.”

So she pretends. She keeps her at a distance and makes Savannah do things she could do on her own. To anyone else, she is just Gracie’s right hand woman, even to Savannah herself.

She stays close to Brody, just enough to keep him wanting, but not enough to let him know. She feels bad sometimes. Stringing him along like this is cruel. Then again, he keeps saying shit that makes her think he deserves every bit of it. She’s just being friendly. If he thinks something else is going on, that’s on him.

In the morning, she’ll pretend she doesn’t remember. She’ll say she’s such a lightweight, that two shots of grocery store vodka made her black out. But for now, Gracie breathes in the scent of blonde hair and savors the taste of bubblegum chapstick left on her mouth, content with only the tiny moments.

After they graduate, she’ll say it back. Just a short year away. Someday soon, she won’t be bogged down by so many expectations: from her parents, her professors, everyone. Savannah will still be by her side. Just like she has been all these years.

Someday, they can finally be free. Together. For now, she writes it in her journal, the only key tied to her wrist. Maybe she can show Savannah then.)

Her heart stops beating. With her journal abandoned in Brody’s car, all but one of Gracie Gorbo’s secrets die with her.

•

Fink or Swim leaves the Seattle harbor. In the rear view mirror, Savannah sees blood blooming on the ocean below the broken pier.

She breathes deeply. In… and out… and in… and out.

“Whoever you are without me is already amazing.”

Savannah stops sailing for a minute and tries to figure out where to go from here. She still has the map Bernardo printed out, and the flashlight Brody kept in his backpack.

She takes the keys out of ignition and looks through the locked drawers. She takes out a nautical guide takes it to the deck to read.

Something shiny catches her eye. She slowly approaches, expecting a trap of some kind, like in one of those games the guys play— used to play— on the Xbox. Instead, she finds Gracie’s necklace seemingly split in half.

Savannah goes to pick it up. Robert Gorbo engraved on one half and a floral pattern on the other. But it’s not broken. All these years, she never noticed the hinge. It wasn’t just a heart shaped pendant. It was a locket. Why did Gracie never open it?

Savannah turns the locket over and finds a picture of herself. On the other side are their initials, an S and a G, side by side. A barely perceptible hand-drawn curve connecting the two letters.

In the middle of the ocean, alone on her dead friend’s yacht, Savannah sobs.