REM

Zombie House

"We have to go," ordered Jenny, as she rushed inside the house.

I stood there in the living room of the abandoned house, wondering why the front door had been ripped from its hinges.

"Well don't just stand there!"

"Right," I replied, snapping out of the daze I was in. "What do we do?"

"Run." She commanded through clenched teeth as zombies began to stumble up the porch and into the house.

I darted for the next room, then ducked behind the dining table and wedged myself under it. The chairs would give me some cover, as well as the table cloth.

Jenny's feet could be seen in the kitchen as she stopped and waited for her next move. I half expected her to bark another order at me, but that would draw more attention to her location.

"Jared, c'mon," she whispered. "There's only two."

"Yeah right," I replied in a hushed voice. "I can see the doorway from here. A lot more are coming. Just leave me."

She groaned at my stubbornness and then hurried out the back door as two zombies shuffled into the dining room. They were wearing old slippers, typically worn by elderly people in nursing homes. I watched as they continued to drag their feet toward the back door where Jenny had rushed out through.

I kept quiet as more zombies made their way into the house and slowly walked right on through. Some bumped into the wall, or the table, but eventually the herd seemed to have passed.

Slowly crawling out from under the table, I got to my feet and inspected the main level of the house. I peered out the back doorway and saw an empty backyard, then made my way to the front. There were no longer any zombies in sight, which meant I could finally relax.

Jenny was the only thing on my mind as I headed upstairs to explore the rest of the house. I had no idea what I would find, but I was prepared with a kitchen knife in my belt. Pulling it out, I started checking the rooms one by one, finding nothing but turned over furniture and items scattered on the floor.

The bathroom was the only room still in a somewhat organized state. I checked the door and made sure it locked, then looked for a towel and toilet paper. Being on the run for so long, I had become used to doing my business in the woods, or behind buildings while Jenny kept watch.

I checked the storage unit over the toilet, but it had been cleared out of most items. There were some face cloths, a nearly empty bottle of peroxide, and some q-tips.

Grabbing a face cloth, I tried the tap. Water slowly trickled out, but instead of wetting the cloth, I put my head under the faucet and wet my mouth. I didn't care how clean the water was at this point. Zombies were either going to eat me, or I was going to get sick and die. I preferred option two, so I sipped from the tap until my neck began to hurt a few minutes later.

After relieving myself in the bathroom, I walked out and finished inspecting the rest of the upper level. It looked as though a family of four lived in the the house before it was abandoned. I tried to imagine what things might have been like for them before the shit hit the fan, but my mind wasn't capable. Running on a low level of energy, I could barely keep moving from location to location in an attempt to find food and water. I was tired and contemplating giving up, even though Jenny insisted we could make it.

As I started to walk down the stairs to the main floor, I spotted a zombie in the living room. The stairs creaked, causing it to turn its attention to me.

"Son of a..." I muttered under my breath, drawing the kitchen knife from my belt.

Before I was able to reach the bottom of the stairs, Jenny walked briskly over to the undead man and stabbed him in the side of the head.

"Miss me, brother?" she asked, the zombie falling to the ground with a thud.

"Not really," I replied sarcastically, sliding the knife back into my belt.

She laughed. "Asshole."

"Where did you go?"

Smirking, she asked, "Oh, so now you care?"

"Of course I do," I answered. "I still need someone to trip so I can escape the next herd."

"You are definitely an asshole." She glanced up at me as she finished wiping the blood off her knife with a rag, then holstered it.

"You never complained while growing up." I finished descending the stairs and walked around the subdued zombie over to Jenny's side.

"That's because you used to gag me with your cowboy bandanna. You've always been an asshole."

"Yeah, well, this asshole is all you have left." I looked her in the eyes before adding, "And he's running low on energy. We need to find food."

"I know," she assured me. "That herd moved on quicker than I anticipated, so we should be good to move again."

"That's good."

Jenny walked out of the house and I followed. The streets were bare. There was nothing left for us to drive to make things easier. All we could do was hope to get lucky and find food left behind before the evacuation.

As we stepped off the porch and began walking across the lawn to the adjacent house, I wondered where we went wrong. We could have left with everyone else if we wanted to.

"Jenn, do you regret not leaving with everyone else?" I asked.

"Seriously, Jared?" She stopped and turned to face me. "That question again?"

I shrugged. "I keep thinking we made the wrong decision to wait things out in the house like Todd and Sarah did."

"Todd and Sarah weren't going to make it," she reminded me. "Sarah got sick early on and Todd stayed because he didn't want to risk her dying on the road. There was nothing we could do."

"I know," I accepted. "I just feel like I could get sick any day now and go out the same way."

"Positive thoughts, Jared. Positive thoughts."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm positive I might get sick."

"That's not what I meant." She glared at me.

Chuckling, I felt my energy levels fade more. "I feel like I'm going to pass out."

"Don't do that right now," she warned me. "Let's get settled into a house with a door for once and you can rest while I scavenge around the neighbourhood."

"I don't know how you do it."

"Do what?" She asked.

"Keep going," I replied. "No food, no sleep, no water. I'm barely hanging on."

"You'll be fine. Little sister has the situation under control."