Who: Heather and Open What: Just getting into town When: today Where: the woods Warnings: Leatherface
Everett, Washington. Population 104,295. That's what the sign had read anyway but Heather was pretty sure that number had diminished infinitely since the outbreak had happened. The cities were always hit the hardest anyway. There were just too many people in largely populated areas. One person would become infected and bite someone else and suddenly it spread like wildfire through the crowds. Heather hadn't actually seen any of this happen since she was locked away in rural Texas when the outbreak had happened. She had watched some of it on the old black and white TV that her grandmother had kept but it wasn't long before the networks were airing nothing but static.
Heather had thought she and Jed were safe in their mansion in the woods. The outbreak was almost a blessing. There were no longer any idiot college kids driving through the area, their cars breaking down and leaving them stranded. Cousin Jed never had a problem taking care of them. Heather was glad that the human population had started to dwindle it meant that Jed could focus his chainsaw on zombies instead of actual people. She felt no remorse or guilt watching him tear the zombies to shreds. Those people weren't people anymore and they would have eaten them if Jed didn't take care of them.
Jed was awful company though. He never spoke, Heather wasn't sure that he was actually capable of speech. He always wore that stupid mask of human skin and she had never, not once seen his true face. He hardly ever let her touch him, even if he was injured. Although he was something like a demented large infant, he was extremely dangerous. Her grandmother had told her that he was bound by blood to protect her and he had. But she sometimes wondered if there would ever come a time when her cousin would snap completely and turn his chainsaw on her. He had already nearly killed her once but that was before he knew that she was Edith Sawyer. She was positive that even if he had that knowledge ahead of time he would have killed Ryan and Danny anyway. Sometimes she hated him for that but sometimes she felt grateful. When she had driven that truck through the barn Nikki wasn't wearing pants and Ryan wasn't wearing a shirt. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were doing. It was just that they were too busy running from Jed to stop and deal with it. Heather never really had dealt with it and had no immediate plans to.
There had been a few people she had met since then, despite her and her cousin's tendencies to be reclusive. Shelley Godfrey had been the one that stuck with Heather the most. She had actually been a friend, such a sweet girl with a fucked up looking face. The face hadn't bothered Heather since she had spent so much time looking at Jed's mask. Shelley didn't talk either but she had a phone and a stylus that she used to type out words. Even the mechanical computerized voice had been a comfort to Heather for the short time they had known each other.
Rumors had spread about Everett all across the country. It was one of the largest last stands that humans were making against zombies. Not only humans but there were rumors of it being some kind of supernatural mecca too. Since Heather was positive she couldn't take Jed to the safe zone in Canada that was heavily guarded by military and probably chock full of young boys and girls for Jed to take apart with his chainsaw, she had chosen Everett instead. It had been a good choice because of the supernatural population maybe nobody would think twice about Jed. They could just find a cabin in the woods and live quietly. It wasn't exactly a mansion but it still beat the trailer park that Heather had been raised in. Now it was just a matter of finding one that was big enough for Heather and Jed to have their own spaces. She would have to work on finding a way to lock Jed up but that wasn't a problem she could solve immediately.
Heather stuffed her hands in the pockets of her light jacket. It was a lot cooler in Washington than it had been in Texas. Her black hair was dirty and tangled and she would have given her right arm for a shower. Jed was nearby, he never walked directly alongside Heather for some reason. He tended to lurk in the background with his chainsaw until he felt like making his presence known. Her grandmother had left Heather with a hefty responsibility. And a lonely one.