11 - Revelations

"You mentioned you dreamed of a memory," Mark said. His eyes were on me as I took a spoonful of pancake batter. I tasted its rough, liquid sweetness. I never expected uncooked pancakes to be delicious. "What's it about?"I glanced up at him and paused, setting the spoon down. "It's nothing."He damped a cotton with disinfectant. "What aren't you telling me, Amari?"I shook my head. "Not sure. I just like to keep things to myself. That's all.""Such as?"I sighed, getting annoyed. "What do you want to know, Mark?""Your parents...""They're gone." "Your childhood...""We grew up together.""Your friends, maybe...""I got no one else after you guys."Then silence. It took a while until it got awkward. He looked like he realized how I'd been all alone since Nathalie ended our friendship. I broke the quiet first. "Are you just gonna let the cotton dry?"He sighed and gestured for my arms. I gave him the one with the worst wounds. He found the veins and stared at them for a second before

12 - Sunrise

I took a deep breath through my nose, trying to get Mark’s confession off my mind. Then I stared into the orange sky for a long minute. Something peaceful above something rotten. What a beautiful mixture.The lawn below caught strays once again, stumbling into a curb and rising back to their feet. They were headed for the door. One started banging its head, as if it were knocking. They completely forgot they could do it with their fists.They had gotten dumb, but smart enough to become a threat. And we were still in their house.I walked away from the window and into the nearest room, not looking for anything in particular. The room had blue walls, and the playpen was left disorganized. Toys were scattered around the floor with a half-empty bottle of milk, and crayon scribbles painted the white tiles. Until it wasn’t crayon. It was something deep and flowing. Something that shone faintly under the sunrise glow through the window. My eyes traced where it was coming from—a slow drip fro

13 - Liability

We took the back door.I brought a baseball bat while he had the pry bar I had found before.I thought the bat was a better weapon for me—longer reach, for one thing.We waited, watching through the gap until we found an opening, then charged at every sicko nearby. I struck their sides and legs to keep them from moving, while Mark struck their brains out. We already knew hitting them in the head kept them dead.When the path was free, we pressed on through the streets. There was a horde gathered four blocks away. When it seemed they hadn't noticed us, we took the opposite way. We were still deep in Kerns, where the school was only a few miles from here. My house, though, was farther, which was a relief. I didn't have to see that place anymore. I didn't have to suffer another night with a broken bladder. No screened windows, no cracked paint on the ceilings. The world had gotten wider for me. Yet more dangerous. At least the sickos didn't seem to keep victims locked in a room and beat

14 - Two Weeks Late

There was more than just silence in the air. Some strange ambiance of being wrong about everything. Two weeks. We'd been living like it started yesterday because it did—for us. But somewhere out there, people had already been dying for two weeks before we even knew to be afraid.Two weeks.Two weeks, and nobody told us. Two weeks, and the news was still running cooking segments. Two weeks, and my stepfather was still locking me in my room like the world wasn't already ending outside my window. Two weeks, and I was at school worrying about graduation.And here I thought my issues with Mark and Nathalie were the worst to have ever happened.If it had been two weeks, how far had it gone? How many cities? How many states? Were there places it hadn't reached yet, or were we just the last ones to find out? And the people who knew—the government, the military, whoever made the call to keep it quiet—what were they thinking? That containing the information would contain the virus? That panic w

15 - Clockwork

Every month without fail. Clockwork, my body called it. I called it inconvenient on a good day and unbearable on a bad one. There were months when the cramps came so bad I’d curl into the corner of my room and wait for it to pass—which was fine, because I wasn’t going anywhere anyway. The lock on my door made sure of that.I never thought I’d bleed through my pants in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.Then again, I never thought a lot of things.I’d pulled a chair from the barricade Ian had built. I sat on it, my legs pressing against each other. Besides the pain, the bleeding never stopped.It couldn’t let me keep my mind on what was in front of me. The present, the sickos, the pizza. Even pizza couldn’t tame the throbbing in my stomach. Something was building up in my throat, and I knew one more bite could trigger vomiting.Then again, my body was too weak to let it out. Breathing came loud, bleeding came out in volumes. I could sense it was dripping on the floor by now.I opened m

16 - There is No Saving Now

I'd been walking my whole life toward something. Out of that room. Out of the house. Out of high school and into college, and into a life that looked nothing like the one I'd been handed. One foot in front of the other, eyes forward, don't look back at what's behind you because what's behind you will follow you if you let it. I never thought of what would happen when you finally get there, and there's nothing left. Turns out, you just keep walking. The three of us left the pizza diner, Ian leading. Thor was ahead of both of us. It was the next morning, and it felt like there were fewer sickos nearby than I expected. Bodies were lying on the ground. Most had already decayed, and some looked like they had just dropped. None of them moved while we walked past. Maybe they were dead—dead. Or the day really did slow them down. They were more active at night and asleep in the day. But that wasn't always the case. A horde wide awake was just waiting for us in an alley. Every step we