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.