Chapter Six

Days passed with nothing happening but organizing and packing. The scratching at the walls and doors grew louder as time went on. At a few points the zombies almost managed to get inside. We had two broken windows and a missing front door by the time we were ready to leave. We had been forced to board them up with a table we chopped apart using my fire axe.

The day we were going to leave the sounds outside had gone from scratching to full on pounding. The kitchen wall was beginning to crack. The house was in worse shape than ever, which was saying quite a lot.

We stood at the door, covered in bags, ready to charge for the car. I held my axe, Cameron the hedge clippers, Jesse the sledge hammer, and Evan his slugger. Evan looked over to the three of us to check if we were ready. We all nodded silently.

Evan threw the door open and we sprinted over to the car. There was a crunching sound as the zombies’ heads turned toward us. Jesse flung open the trunk and started tossing the bags in. I dropped mine to the ground and gripped the handle of my axe as I watched the zombies charge toward us.

One leapt at me, its mouth open and its arms stretched out. I swung my axe as hard as I could and chopped its head clean off. Three more rushed forward. I made one large sweep across their torsos. I looked down at my feet to find the zombies’ upper bodies pulling themselves toward me. One of the zombies grabbed my leg. His hand was cold and clammy like a corpse, but its grip was firm and wouldn’t let go. I screamed as I felt its icy touch. I jumped back and brought the dull side of the axe down on his head, making black goo pour out of it. Zombies are the most revolting creatures in the world.

I did the same to the other two and threw my bags into the trunk. “Hurry the hell up, Jesse!” I shouted as I drove the blade of my axe into another head. “This may seem like a good time, but I assure you it’s not. Hey I have an idea, you try it and I’ll do your stunningly simple job!”

“Hey,” he spat, glancing over his shoulder. “You pestering me isn’t making me go faster or making you kill more zombies.”

“Maybe not, but it sure is making me feel better. I hate having all these emotions bottled up inside.” I knocked a zombie to the side using the dull edge of my blade. More black gunk poured out of his head. Jesse slammed the trunk closed.

“All done,” he announced. “Let’s get going!” We all jumped in the car; Evan driving, Jesse in the passenger seat, Cameron and I in the back. As Evan sped out of the driveway, a zombie jumped behind the car and was plowed into the ground by the power of our four wheel drive. We zoomed down the street going eighty in a thirty-mile-per-hour speed limit zone. Maybe there was a good side to all of the cops having been eaten my grave crawlers.

Zombies weren’t an issue on our way out of town, and once we hit the highway it was all just open road. Well, open road covered in cars full of dead bodies. “Hey you guys,” said Evan cheerfully. “You ready for a zombie fighting road trip?” We all cheered. Cameron and I glanced at each other.

It was going to be a fun few weeks.

Chapter Five

I went up to my room and pulled on a black and red long sleeve boat-neck shirt and jeans. There was a long day of work ahead of us. Cameron and I had been assigned to organizing the food, while Evan and Jesse collected the clothing from all three houses. Great, I thought. More alone time with her and those eyes. This should go well.

I trudged into the kitchen where Cameron was sitting on the floor with all of the food already laid out around her. She looked up at me. “Oh,” she mumbled. “You’re here. Well, I’ve started four piles. From left to right it goes breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack. You have a shocking lack of sugary foods.” She picked up a bag of hamburger buns and moved it over to the middle-left pile. “Also citrus fruits, we should get some of those. I don’t think we need scurvy on our list of complications. That list is long enough as it is.”

I raised one eyebrow. “How’s that?”

“Well,” she said quietly, leaning back onto her elbows. “There’s the obvious issue of the zombies wanting to eat us and, from what I’ve seen, growing faster and stronger as time goes by. We’re set as far as food goes, but neither Jesse nor I have anything to wear. We have few weapons, and the baseball bat isn’t going to do much damage. Our army consists of four kids between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. The odds that we will survive are about one in a thousand.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and raised my eyebrows. It had occurred to me that we might not survive, but I hadn’t realized how likely that was. “Okay,” I said. “Then we’d better prepare as best we can. I’ll take this side, you take that side.” I picked up a box of Wheat Thins and placed them in the breakfast pile. An hour or so went by in silence before I found a box of Chips Ahoy! cookies. I threw them at Cameron. “Eat up.”

Cameron looked down at the box. “I’m almost positive we’re supposed to be packing these for the trip. I might be wrong.” I laughed.

“I think we can replace a box of cookies. Dig in.” She pulled out three cookies and tossed the box back to me. I removed a cookie and bit into it. “Chocolate is the best of God’s gifts to the world. Putting them into cookies is just too much good for one person to handle.” I turned to look at Cameron. “You know,” I said, cocking my head to one side. “We have most of this work done. What do you say to watching some TV?”

Cameron grinned. “That sounds great.”

We walked into the living room and plopped down on the floor. I grabbed the remote and turned on an old episode of SpongeBob. At our age, we had learned pretty well every line in the episode, and we laughed loudly as we recited it. “Gold team rules!” We shouted in unison. SpongeBob was a masterpiece of a children’s show. No one in their right mind could watch an episode without laughing at least three times. “So,” said Cameron. "What other shows do you like?”

I looked up into the corner of my eye. “I tend to like kind of dark shows,” I said. “Things like Six Feet Under and Trueblood. Alan Ball is great. Also pretty much anything by Joss Whedon. Firefly is my favorite show of all time.”

Cameron looked at me with a confused expression on her face. “Who is Josh Whedon?” My eyes widened.

“How—What—His name is not Josh it’s Joss. And he is one of the best television directors the world has ever known! He made Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Firefly.” She shrugged. “Remind me again why I like you?” Cameron looked up at me.

“You like me?” She asked with a smirk on her face.

My cheeks flushed bright red. “I mean…you’re kind of cool. You’d be a lot cooler if you watched good television.” A mental pat on the back to me for that quickly thought up escape route.

Her eyebrows arched. “Excuse me? I watch good television. Better than your Josh Whedon, that’s for sure.”

“It’s JOSS!!! His name is Joss!”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever,” she laughed. “He is nothing in comparison to the glory that is Doctor Who. The Doctor’s British wit and charm far surpasses anything this Whedon guy could put out.”

“Ha!” I shouted and leaned forward. “Doctor Who was okay at best. The original made me chuckle a couple times, but I found the main character incredibly irritating. The funniest thing about that show was the girl’s gradual increase in the amount of make up she put on. The new show is just awful and entirely lacks any kind of comedic or romantic pull!”

“While I will admit that the new Doctor Who is not up to par, the original show was hysterical.” she leaned toward me. “The hidden romance between the Doctor and the main character was so well written and played out that one couldn’t help but fall in love with the Doctor. Well I could, but that’s for an entirely different reason.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked. “And what reason might that be?”

“Well that would be because…” Cameron’s eyes darted around my face.

“Yes?”

Suddenly Cameron jolted forward toward me and her soft lips were pressing against mine. She put one of her arms around my neck and I wrapped one of mine around her waist and we lay on the chair kissing for a few blissful moments. We pulled away from each other and my eyes met with her shining blue ones. The warmth of her body flowed through me and made me feel safe. We stayed there for a few seconds before hearing a voice from above us. It was Jesse. He and Evan had returned from gathering the clothing.

“God damn you,” Jesse said, turning to Evan. “You don’t think you could have been a little bit less vague when you said I didn’t have a chance with Emmy? I’ve been racking my brain trying to think what might be wrong with me that I would be so completely unappealing.”

Evan grinned at him. “You fellahs never suspect it. You’re too easy to mess with.” Then he looked down at me. “If you girls are going to do that, may I make the request that it not be on dad’s chair? …Or while I’m within a mile's radius? Seeing my little sister make out with some girl is not really my idea of a good time.”

Cameron and I laughed nervously as she climbed off of me and stood up. Evan rolled his eyes. “Go get back to work.” he said. He and Jesse walked up to his room to organize the clothing, Jesse hitting his forehead and muttering:

“Stupid, stupid, stupid…”

Cameron and I walked back into the kitchen and sat back down on the hard tile floor. She coughed and I looked up at her. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I shouldn’t have assumed you were…you know. I was out of line.”

I looked back down at my hands. “No,” I said. “I-I am. I really didn’t think you were. You just caught me by surprise.” I looked up at her shyly from beneath my long orange hair. She smiled at me. I smiled back. Then we went back to putting away the food in silence.

Chapter Four

The next morning I woke up slowly. For an hour I refused to get out of my sleeping bag; the floor had never felt so cushiony. “Mmmph,” I mumbled as I hugged it. Evan tried with no avail to get me up. Eventually he resorted to kicking me square in the ribs. He was pleased that this had worked, but less so at the fact that I had then grabbed his foot and twisted it so that he fell to the ground.

I pushed myself off the floor and stretched. I looked down and realized I was wearing a sports bra and pajama shorts; a fact I would not care about were Jesse not staring at me from across the room as I stretched. I cocked my head to one side and looked back at him. “Can I help you, sir?” I asked. He blinked a few times then shook his head and proceeded to pour himself a bowl of Lucky Charms.

I helped Evan up off the floor. He glanced over at the couch where Kim was sleeping. “Should we wake her?” I asked him. He looked down at his feet.

“No,” he whispered. “Let her rest. She’s been through a lot.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go have some breakfast.” I followed him into the kitchen and joined Jesse at the table. I poured myself some cereal and milk and put a spoonful in my mouth. Evan sat on the counter and leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “We need to get packing today,” he said. “The first thing to do is take inventory of the food. We can separate breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the few snack foods we have. We’ll start once we finish eating and the girl wakes up.”

“I have one question,” Jesse interjected. “What are we going to do about that girl? I mean not that I don’t feel bad for her, but she may be a bit of a problem with making progress. Like…she may get in the way of our work.” A footstep came from behind me and I spun around to see Kim. She looked down at her feet.

“I,” she mumbled. “I, uhm, I didn’t mean to intrude. I’m sorry.” She walked out of the kitchen sulkily. I turned and glared at Jesse. He looked at me wide eyed.

“I’m sorry!” He stammered. “I didn’t mean…I didn’t see her there! I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings, I just--” I couldn’t hear the rest of what he said over the pounding of my footsteps as I stormed out of the room after Kim. I found her crying quietly in the chair she had slept in. I walked over and sat down next to her, laying my arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to me, her arms wrapping around my torso.

“Kim,” I said. “Don’t listen to Jesse. He doesn’t mean what he says. He’s just kind of freaked out about all the flesh eating demons from beyond the grave banging on our walls. We can find something for you to work on. You’re not useless and we won’t just leave you out there to die. You’re with us now.”

“My name isn’t Kim,” she said into the pillow. She looked up at me. Her eyes were a piercing shade of blue that looked as if they were staring straight into your soul. I mentally shook myself from the daze of being lost in the pools of blue. “Alex and I have been friends since we were small. When I told her my name was Cameron, she misheard it as Kim, and she’s called me that ever since. Or at least she used to.” She paused for a moment to wipe her tears and take a breath. “I can help organize the food, if you want. Whatever I can do to get us out of here.”

I brushed her short black hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. And there were her eyes again; blue as sapphire and bright as a supernova. Her pupils looked like a black hole that was sucking every emotion I had out of me. I took a deep breath and pulled myself out of her arms. I stood and smiled down at her. “We’ll put you right to work, then.” I said, and walked into the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and shook myself.

“Those eyes,” I said to my reflection. “Those damned eyes. Those eyes are going to be trouble.”

Chapter Three

“Help! Oh God, whoever is in there, please help us! Please! They’re coming!”

I sat up quickly at the sound of screaming coming from outside my door. I ran to it and looked through the window. Two girls maybe a year younger than me were banging at the door. There was a mob of zombies coming up the street behind them. I turned around to see Evan behind me. “Help me move the couch,” I shouted. “We have to let them in! They’re being attacked!”

Evan didn’t move. “Emmy,” he said in a low serious tone. “We can’t. The zombies are already on our steps, they’ll get in. Those girl are as good as dead, we have to think of ourselves.” I looked up at him, rage burning behind my eyes.

“If we’re going to survive this thing we need as many people and as much supplies as we can get. Now help me!” I spun toward the couch to find Jesse pushing it out of the way. I joined in, and together, with help from Evan toward the end, we moved the couch from the door and flung it open. One of the girls leapt in immediately, but the other had been grabbed by one of the zombies. I stretched out my hand and she took it, but the monsters were too strong. We couldn’t get her inside the door. Beside me, my brother and Jesse were cutting down any zombie who tried to get at me and the girl.

She gulped and looked at her friend pulling at my waist, trying to help get her inside. “Kim,” she said, tears in her eyes. “I love you. I’ll miss you. Good luck.” Then she looked at me very seriously. “Let go and shut the door.” I shook my head furiously. But she looked me in the eyes and simply said “Please let me go.” I stopped trembling with the effort of holding her away from the mob and looked down at the girl with her arms around my waist.

Then I shut my eyes and let go.

Jesse and Evan jumped back and slammed the door, then immediately pushed the couch back in front of it. No screaming came from outside as the fourteen year old girl was devoured by the zombies. There were only the moans from the creatures and the sound of the tearing of her skin and bone. We sat behind the couch, shaking as we listened to the monsters eat that poor innocent girl. The one she had called Kim was curled up next to me, her head on my shoulder, tears running down her cheeks onto my shirt. She wept silently into my chest.

Evan got up and pulled the large sleeping bag from under the other three and draped it over the girl’s shoulders. She still clung to my waist where she had been pulling so hard to try and save her friend. She mumbled something, but the word was covered by her tears. I leaned close to her to listen.

“Alex…why?”

I tilted Kim’s head up and wiped the tears from her face. I picked her up and brought her over to the one chair we hadn’t used to barricade the windows and doors. It was the chair dad used to sit in to tell us stories when we were young. It was large enough for three of us to sit in and so soft and plush it felt like you were lying on clouds. Nothing in the world could make us part with this chair; not even a zombie apocalypse. I laid her on the chair and told her everything was going to be okay.

I never knew lying could be so hard.

Chapter Two

The doors had been barricaded shut from the inside, but the couch that was doing most of the work had been moved for the time being to allow our entry. Jesse and I looked around the car to make sure there were no zombies waiting to attack, then ran through the front door behind which my brother Evan was waiting. We all hoisted the couch and a few miscellaneous objects back in front of the door and headed into the kitchen where we each took a cup of coffee and sat on the counter.

Jesse sat awkwardly in silence sipping his coffee and looking up at my brother who was glowering at him. “So,” said Jesse. “Nice weather for a zombie apocalypse, don’t you agree?” I chuckled, but Evan didn’t seem so amused.

“No,” he said. “It’s a little too cold for my taste.” He stood up and took a step toward Jesse. “How do you know my little sister?” Jesse looked up at the menacing six foot tall man glaring down at him.

“I-I,” stammered Jesse. “I don’t really know her. I mean, uhm, we have chemistry together. I mean the class nothing romantic or…I barely know your sister she just knew I had a license so she used me to get a ride here. I have no further intentions with her if that’s what you’re asking. Look, we were just trying to get away from the zombies! There’s nothing going on here.”

Evan looked down at the trembling boy contemptuously, then burst into laughter. “I’m just foolin’ with you, dude! You don’t have a chance in hell with my lil’ sis’.” Jesse’s face turned from one of fear to one of sheer impertinence.

“And why might that be?” he asked.

Evan paused for a moment before saying “You’re not really her type.” then walking away laughing to himself. I sat there for a moment thinking how incredibly lucky I was to have the ability to turn invisible to those discussing me. It was truly impressive. I patted Jesse on the back, then turned to Evan.

“So what’s our escape plan?”

Evan sighed. “Naturally I have to be the one to come up with it.”

“Oh shut up,” I growled. “I’m the muscle of this group, someone has to shoulder the responsibility of being the brain.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Okay, well obviously we have to spend the night here. It’s getting dark already and from what the radio tells me, they seem to thrive during the night. We’re going to need to gather the necessary supplies from the house. That means food, drinks, clothing, medicine, and nothing else. We have to fit all we can into the van. We can also use our neighbors’ houses. The Greenburgs fled up north with mom and the Brantwoods…well they weren’t as lucky. That may take us a few days. Money will do us no good anymore so you’d do well to leave that here too. The only thing we have to be concerned about at this point is weapons. Emmy, you have the axe and we have a sledgehammer in the basement. We have an aluminum baseball bat and some hedge clippers out in the garage.

“Tonight we should just rest and save our energy for the week to come, 'cause it’s going to be a hard one. I’ll make us some dinner and Emmy you can set out the sleeping bags and pillows. Jesse, find out if our cable is working so we can have some sort of entertainment for the night.” We all nodded and headed off to our assignments.

The sleeping bags were up in the attic. There were four of them, all of which I pushed into a huge shopping bag my mother had left up there when I had gotten a game console for Christmas. I looked out the window on the nearest wall. Evan had been right, it was almost dark; I suppose time flies when one is in danger of having their brains eaten by hideous terrifying monsters from beyond the grave. They were swarming around the few houses that still contained living people. The woman who lived across the street screamed from her porch window as she watched her cat being eaten.

I turned away, unable to watch any of what was occurring outside of my warm, relatively safe house, and walked downstairs. I went into my room on the second floor and grabbed a few pillows from my bed, then went down to the first floor covered in plush sleeping accommodations. Once I had set them down on the living room floor, I looked up to find that Jesse had our television working and Evan was walking in with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and milk.

“You know,” I said. “Take away the flesh-crazed monsters clawing at our door and this is just like a slumber party.” Evan laughed, then glanced back at the door where the scratching sounds were coming from. “Zombies. Always have to ruin my good time. Typical.” I laid the largest of the sleeping bags over the floor open, then put the other three side by side on top of it and placed a pillow at the head of each. I slipped into the one I had gotten for sleep-away camp two years prior, which I had laid in the middle. Evan and Jesse each climbed into theirs and we ate our sandwiches as we watched Night of the Living Dead. (It was Evan’s choice.)

I dosed off during the movie at the scene where they find the little girl eating a foot in the basement. Sleep enveloped me like a warm glove and took me away from all the chaos of the day.

Chapter One

I was fifteen when the infection struck. I was sitting in chemistry when the principal’s voice came over the loud speaker. Or at least, what sounded like his voice. He got out a few words about evacuating the school before the moaning came. It was deep and rough as if he had something large and wet caught in his throat. The speaker shut off in a burst of static and we all spun toward the classroom door, from which the moaning seemed to be emanating. A boy named Tommy went to the door and peeked out through a small opening he made. His eyes grew wide and he fell backward onto the teacher’s desk. “M-monsters,” he stammered.

I was next to look through the crack. What I saw I did not believe. I could not manage to wrap my mind around the creatures limping slowly through the hallways. Their pale skin. Their tattered clothing. Their eyes did not glow like they had in the movies and video games I had always enjoyed so much, but had a glazed look as they stared blankly in front of them, unseeing. I shut the door and walked to the rest of my class. I gulped and looked at all their terrified faces. “We’re going to need weapons. Grab anything you can find.”

We were lucky that our chemistry class doubled as the wood shop class. I ran into the back closet and grabbed the fire axe as the other students went for pieces of wood, saws, nail guns, and screw drivers. By the time we were prepared there was screaming coming from the other rooms and scratching at our door. I stepped to the front of the crowd, because no one else seemed willing. I turned toward them.

“The monsters, zombies, whatever you want to call them are coming from the entrance to the left, which means we’re heading right. They move very slowly, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get away from them if they come after you. However, on the offhand chance that they catch up to you, do not be afraid to kill them. Land any blow you can on them, because we have no idea what can and can’t hurt them. My best guess is to aim for the head. Are we all ready?” The students looked up at me in fear, but nodded.

I let out a heavy breath and clutched the axe in my hand as hard as I possibly could, then threw the door open. The walls of the hallway were splattered with blood, the posters which had once lined them were torn. A few bodies lay on the floor, and one of the creatures was bent over a freshman girl, his teeth sunken into her shoulder, tearing the meat from her bones as she cried out in pain.

It only took a few seconds for the zombies to notice us, and once they had, they began to advance. A few of the kids froze at the door, but I, along with most of my classmates, sprinted down the hall, knocking the creatures to the ground as we went. I heard someone behind me fall to the floor, but didn’t stop to look. There was no time for that. A cold hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me back. I spun around and passed the axe clean through the monster’s torso. I winced as I felt the blade tear through its skin and paused for a moment, looking down at the beast I had leveled.

But then I saw the number of them; all of them advancing toward me and the ten others left alive. I bolted down the stairs and out of the school, but they were there. All around. They were pulling themselves after the people left in our town. They were feeding off them. I looked behind myself to see the students leaping down the steps behind me. I recognized one of them as Jesse, a senior boy. I grabbed him and we got into his car. One of the creatures was banging on the window as he started the car and we sped out of the parking lot.

I pulled out my cell phone and called my brother Evan. He picked up, his voice panicked and his breadths heavy and quick. “Emmy? Is that you? You’re alive?” My eyes welled up with tears at the sound of his voice.

“Evan,” I choked out. “I’m coming home. Be prepared to let me in the house, okay? I’m bringing a friend with me. His name is Jesse, he’s from my school. He has to bunk with us. Are mom and dad okay? How’s the baby?”

I heard a short sigh on the other end of the phone. “Dad...” Evan paused. “We were attacked in the house during lunch. Dad didn’t make it. Mom took Becka and her car. They’re on their way to Canada. She asked me to go with her, but I told her I would stay here to wait for you. Dad’s car is still in the drive way so when we get the chance we can head up there to meet them. God, Emmy, I’m so glad to hear you’re okay. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you had been killed or…turned.”

I let out a breath. Dad was gone. At least mom and Becka were safe. I told Evan I had to go, then gave Jesse directions to get to my house.