Page 9 of Cora

“On whether Trent is done making eyes at the young lady down the street. Are you going to go talk to her or not, kid?”

We stumbled upon this zombie-free town a few days ago, and they were gracious enough to let us stay, with the understanding that it wasn’t a permanent visit and that we were expected to move on soon. The man who ran the town had a daughter about Trent’s age, and he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her in her presence for more than ten seconds the entire time we’d been here.

“I’m twenty-two. I’m not a kid,” Trent argued, flipping Remi the bird. With great effort, he finally dragged his eyes away from the girl. “I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”

“You’re not going to make a move?” I asked.

“What’s the point?” Trent asked. “We can’t stay, so why bother.”

“He has a point,” Isaac said, clapping his younger brother on the back.

“Yeah, but why should that stop you?” Remi asked. He slid down the slide, stood, stabbed the zombie in the head, and joined us at the fence. “If this world has taught us anything, it’s that life is too fucking short not to enjoy it when you can. Walk your ass down there, sweep that woman into your arms, kiss her senseless, and then take her to bed for the rest of the fucking day.”

Trent turned three different shades of red. “I can’t— I don’t— I’ve never— I don’t want to,” he finished lamely.

“Wait,” I said, trying not to laugh because the last thing he needed was for me to laugh at him. “You’ve been with a woman before, right?”

“What?” Trent sputtered. “Of course I have. Lots. All the time.”

I looked at Isaac, and he shook his head.

“Oh, yeah, then my idea would be terrible for you to do,” Remi said. “You need an older woman who can teach you a thing or two before we let you loose on an innocent girl.”

“Can we stop talking about this?” Trent asked.

“What about her mom?” Remi suggested.

“I thought we were leaving,” Trent said, grabbing his backpack and walking toward the edge of town.

“You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about, Trent!” Remi called after him. He jumped the fence, grabbed his bag, and chased after him. “I’m sure there are plenty of virgins left in the apocalypse.”

Isaac and I laughed as we grabbed the rest of our stuff and followed along behind them. “How the hell is he still a virgin?” I asked.

Isaac shrugged. “Beats the shit out of me. He had game but always managed to get himself friend-zoned in the end. If the outbreak hadn’t happened, I think he was getting close. There was this girl in his class that was always following him around. You could see the determination in her eyes. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe she would have been the girlfriend from hell with how obsessed she was with him, but he would have gotten laid.”

We walked in silence for a while, lost in our thoughts. We were only a few years older than Trent, but by the time I was a senior in high school, I had long since lost my virginity. “When did you lose your virginity?” I asked.

Isaac gave me a weird look. “That’s a weird thing to ask,” he replied.

“It’s not weird considering we were on the subject,” I argued. “I’ll go first. I was fifteen when Annie Cambridge let me flop around on top of her like a dying fish for the best thirty seconds of my life up until that point.”

Isaac laughed. “A whole thirty seconds? You lasted a long time. I was fourteen, and by the time I got inside Mary Ross, who lived next door to my grandparents, I was so worked up that I think I only lasted about ten seconds. It was also the best ten seconds of my life; Mary didn’t seem too impressed.”

“We have to make sure Trent does better than we did,” I laughed. “How we go about that, I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know?” Trent asked as we caught up with him and Remi at the gate.

“How to make sure you last more than thirty seconds during your first time,” Isaac replied.

“Why are you still talking about this?” Trent groaned. He turned and pushed the gate open without checking to make sure the coast was clear first. Remi slammed into his back, knocking him to the ground as the zombie on the other side of the gatelunged for him. Remi shifted, shoving his bag into the zombie’s face to keep from getting bit as he fumbled for his knife. Just as me and Isaac jumped forward to take out the zombie, Remi managed to put him down.

We pulled the body off of them and helped Remi and Trent to their feet.

“Thanks, man,” Trent said to Remi.

“Anytime, brother. I can’t let you die a virgin, can I?” Remi replied, making us all laugh.

As it turned out, we needed someone in the group who didn’t take things too seriously. Remington was a constant shining light in an otherwise dim world. We’d be lost without him, and I’m glad we decided to keep him around.