REANIMATION

[5]

The soft rumbling of thunder could be heard in the distance.

It was time.

"It'd be so much easier if we had guns to shoot them from a long range, that way we wouldn't be at such a high risk of coming into contact with them," Pen groaned.

"Uh-huh, and where do you expect to find a gun, genius? You think Tree stores them in his toolshed?" Remote responded. Mockery, but the friendly kind. Clearly just teasing on her part.

"Actually now that you mention that..." Tree mumbled, fiddling through his keys until he spotted the right one. He inserted it into the garage lock and twisted it, opening up the door. The interior of the garage was dark, but it only took a few flicks of the nearby light switches to brighten it up. The Deathers made their way inside, looking around for any potential weapons. Tree beckoned Remote and Pen forward with a hand motion, "I do have a gun."

He pushed the dusted and worn down junk out of the way to reveal a gun hidden in one of the corners in the garage. It clearly hadn't been touched in a long time, but aside from that appeared to be in pretty decent shape. He bent down and grabbed it, holding it tightly in his hands. He blowed on it, brushing away some of the remaining dust that had collected on it.

"Holy shit! That's so cool! Can I use it!?" Pen squealed in excitement, eyeing the pistol in awe.

"...Do you even know how to work a gun?" Tree asked.

"...W–Well," Pen stammered, "I could learn if you let me!"

Tree stared at him thoughtfully for a few moments until he shook his head, "Another time. Grab something else. I'll teach you how to work it when there isn't work to be done."

Pen's excitement dimmed just like that. He took a step back, now looking dejected, "Well, what is there to use as a weapon around here?"

"Get innovative!" Remote suggested, "Like... oh! There's a bunch of tools for housework up on the wall over there! How 'bout that?"

"You're a genius!" He exclaimed as he rushed over to where the girl had pointed. She cracked a small smile from the compliment, then continued to look around for a potential weapon.

The sound of footsteps came up from behind her, "So... uh... you found anything yet?"

It was immediately recognizeable as Liy.

Remote stood up to face her, "No, not yet. What about you?"

Liy sneered, swinging up a metal object and resting it on her shoulder. It was a crowbar.

"Pretty cool, eh? I bet I could rip off all the faces of those zombies with this bad boy!"

Remote smiled, "Yeah, that's a good find." However, her voice didn't really seem to carry happiness for her best friend.

Liy picked on it immediately. Her face dropped and she let the crowbar rest back on the floor, "What's wrong?"

"I'm just scared, that's all..." Remote admitted. Her sentence almost cut off at the end from how weak her tone was. She had barely managed to force that out. In fact, she even seemed embarrassed to be admitting it.

"You can always stay home..." Liy suggested, putting on a fake smile.

"No... I... I want to do this. This is a group effort. Just... stay with me... while we're out, okay?"

Liy released the crowbar from her grasp, letting it clash onto the floor loudly behind her. She took a few small steps toward Remote, reaching out with her hands to grab hers. She held them tightly, despite her rising heartbeat and the screams inside her head for her to stop. She, at last, spoke, "I'll be with you every step of the way, Remote."