You Can't Cuddle With A Zombie (Old Verison)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"And how long is your trip going to be?" I asked my dad as he grabbed his suitcase. He looked down at me and smiled, noticing me for the first time that morning.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for school?" he suggested, bending down to my height.

I pouted.

"I don't want to go! Eric stole my crayon yesterday! And the big fourth graders keep picking on us just cause we're in second grade."

My dad laughed.

"How about this: you go to school today and teach Eric a lesson, and when I get back, we can all skip school and have a family day, OK?"

I nodded, excited.

"When are you coming back?" I asked again.

"Three days, maximum," he promised, hugging me.

My mom walked into the room, holding dad's briefcase. She smiled at him, looking at him with love in her eyes.

He grabbed the briefcase from her and kissed her.

"Ewwwww!" I groaned, giggling.

"Well, I have to go," my dad said sadly.

My eyes widened.

"Can I go with you to the airport?" I asked, giving him the puppy dog face. He looked for at my mom, who smiled.

"Yes, you can, sweetie. But you're going to school right after," my mom affirmed, grabbing my coat.

I jumped up and down excitedly as I clapped my hands together.

But I should never have gone. That way, I wouldn't have seen my dad's airplane explode.

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"We need to stop for gas," I heard a faint voice say though my sleep.

My eyes opened slowly, my vision blurry, as I become aware of my surroundings. I hated that dream. I had been having it more frequently since the whole Zombie thing.

I looked up. Jeremy was smiling at me from the rear-view mirror.

I sat up straight and yawned, stretching out my arms. I glanced over at Alyssa, but she was still sleeping, cuddled around a blanket. So was Dominic, resting his head on the car window in the front passenger seat.

"Did you hear me?" I heard Jeremy say.

I stared at him, confused, as he raised his eyebrows at me.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, blinking.

I was still half-asleep. He laughed softly.

"I said that we're running out of gas. What should we do?" he asked, smiling kindly.

I bit my lip and looked out of the window. Then I turned back to him.

"Stop at the next gas station, we need food anyways," I said, shrugging.

As if on cue, my stomach growled.

"Whatever you say, boss," Jeremy joked, smirking.

I felt a small blush reach my cheeks.

"I'm not the boss," I replied, smiling back, trying to ignore the fact my heart skipped a beat every time he smirked.

"Whatever you say, boss," he said again.

I shook my head, smiling.

We arrived at a completely abandoned gas station about an hour later. Alyssa and Dominic were still sleeping when Jeremy parked the car in front of the gas pump. We both got out of the car in sync. As Jeremy went up to the pump, humming, I grabbed two guns from the trunk and headed over to him.

When I got back, Jeremy was kneeling down on ground and pulling on some wires that seemed to be connected to the gas pump. I leaned against the car and watched him for a second, curious. He was still humming as he pulled a penknife from his pocket and began cutting wires.

He was practically hot-wiring the pump as if he had done it every day of his life. There was a small click and he smiled, grabbing the pump handle and shoving the nozzle into the car's gas tank.

He looked up and saw me.

"What?" he asked, still smiling.

I pushed myself off the car and handed him the gun.

"How did you do that?"

He shrugged. "I took engineering at my last school," he simply said.

I smiled.

Kid's got skill.

"I'm going inside to get food," I said, heading towards the convenience store.

Inside, it was a complete mess. Things were thrown off the shelves, and I was pretty sure that was a trail of blood leading to the back. I shook my head and walked around the store. There were several backpacks in the back. I smiled to myself, and took as many as I could, stuffing them with food.

I was on the fourth bag when I heard a noise.

Of course, I was not going to be one of those stupid girls in the horror movie that yelled 'Who's there?' Seriously, that was like asking to be killed.

I took the safety lock off my gun, and sneaked over to the counter, kneeling with the gun close to me.

The noise was coming from the back of the store. It was the same thumping I'd heard that first day. The day Eric had attacked me.

The sound of moaning became clearer.

Zombies.

I didn't want to look to see how many there were, but from the different moans, I would have said about four or five.

I glanced at my gun. I only had one bullet left. One. I mentally swore at myself. I had taken one of the guns that we'd used in the school. Leave it to me not to check the freaking ammo.

I poked my head out around the side of the counter. I was right, there were five.

I leaned back against the counter. Maybe if I stayed here and was quiet they wouldn't notice me.

I closed my eyes and listened.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Suddenly, another Zombie appeared in the window in front of me. Without thinking, I shot it, the bullet going through the window and right into its head. It fell.

Unfortunately, the noise attracted the attention of the other five Zombies. At this point, I was weaponless. I leapt to my feet, turning around to face them. They snapped their heads to me, moaning. I held my breath, trying not to gag from the smell of rotting flesh. They slowly, very slowly, turned their bodies towards mine, moving forwards. Without thinking, I starting throwing things at them. It did not really work: when one of the Zombie's arms fell off, it just kept walking.

I was running out of things to throw, and they were getting closer.

Just then, they fell, all shot in the head.

My head whipped up, and I saw Jeremy at the door, smirking.

"Took you long enough," I joked, pretending to be completely cool and collected. In reality, I was so thankful he'd shown up. If he hadn't appeared, I would have been with Eric in Zombie hell right now.

"An 'Oh, thank you, Jeremy for saving my life once again' would be nice." He then added, "And it's your fault I had to go back and get ammo seeing as someone didn't check if they had any."

I rolled my eyes, walking over the dead bodies, and throwing him a black bag.

"Fill it up as much as you can. Lord knows how long we'll be driving."

He nodded once.

Once we were done, we made our way back to the truck, with about twenty or so bags. We just had to hope it would be enough to last us.