I heard a creak downstairs and it paused me in my tracks. I had been headed to the window to sit out on the roof where I knew I could watch the world, what was left of it, without being seen. The occasional zombie would walk by while I was out there, they never really noticed me but I always scrambled back inside after catching sight of there mangled bodies.
But now, in the house in the middle of the night, nobody should be up. Earlier I had heated up the last little bit of chicken soup over a candle and had fed my step mother and my sister. Then I had gone around and made sure the boards were up on the windows and that the back door was still barricaded. My father, before he had left on a supply run, had given me a gun with some ammo. I didn't know how to shoot it but I never went even to the bathroom without it.
He never came back on that supply run.
I shuddered at the thought and changed directions when I heard another creak, some one was in the kitchen. The only thing we kept in there was the water that we had managed to gather, but even that supply was running low. There was about two cases left, and I knew it was more than what most people had, but my step mother refused to go two days without cleaning. I had gotten her to downgrade from a full on heated bath to a single bottle of water and a cloth, but even with that it still wasn't ideal.
I stepped out into the hallway and looked down at my sister, Mabel's bedroom, soft snores were coming out of the room and I stiffened up a little bit. If my mother was on one of her rampages and if she made too much noise the zombies would be all over the house like they were last time. They had stayed for four days and we had all walked on eggshells for those four days, and I was so thankful that my step mother had not made a fuss.
I was halfway down the stairs when I saw it, a cat, in the kitchen. It was sniffing around the water and then it looked up and I breathed slowly. Could animals be infected? Could they get the disease that brought the dead back?
I was at the base of the stairs, hand on my gun uncertainly, I knew it was a long shot that I'd be able to shoot properly, much less aim worth a lick. But it brought me comfort that I'd be able to defend myself if I really needed it. Just because I couldn't shoot didn't mean I hadn't been taught self defense. My father had put Mabel and I to work as soon as this whole thing started, but I hadn't actually put it to work.
The cat made it's way towards me, it was a kitten really, a little grey thing with what I could tell, blue eyes. It was painfully adorable and I wanted to pet it but when it got close I stepped away out of fear. If I died, I doubted my step mother or Mabel would make it out of this house long enough to gather even a crumb.
But the kitten was persistent and it brushed up against my leg before sniffing my calf. I was stiff as a board, drawing out my gun from my waistband very slowly, until the little kitten started to purr.
What was I thinking? They had said it over the radio, animals did not get the disease, something in them repelled it, and while they still were broadcasting, they announced that they were trying to find a cure for the disease.
I blew out a breath and put the gun away before picking up the kitten. It was purring and stretching out in my arms before it curled up and mewed, it's stomach rumbled in my arms and I made a split decision before silently making my way back up the stairs. I would keep her, I would keep her safe and hide her from my step mother, and hide her from Mabel.
I crept back into my room after having checked on Mabel again, if I had woken my mother I would know. She wouldn't be quiet about having been woken up. The kitten was pawing my cheek and I smiled for the first time in a while.
I returned to my room and locked the door behind me, when the zombies had first shown up I had hid a few provisions in my little attic door in my closet. Nobody ever really bothered to notice the attic space and so it was a perfect spot to hide my things. I set the fluffy grey haired kitten down and opened up the small door.
Inside I found a can of tuna fish, and I let the kitten have it while I walked over to the window. Dawn was breaking over the other houses and the skies were lit up enough now that I could see part of the street. It was just as yesterday, and it would be the same tomorrow if we were lucky.
The world felt like it had been paused, and I waited around, hoping that maybe one day it would go on as if it had never gone bad. But in my heart I knew that that was an impossibility. I heard Mabel start moving around and the kitten moved around and settled into my bed, already falling asleep. I smiled. I would call her Chip. She was as sweet as a chocolate chip and.. oh I missed chocolate. I had a stash. In my grab bag that was also hidden in the closet, the only thing not packed into the grab bag was the dagger and a bit of the ammo.
I shut the attic door, and no sooner had I cleaned up the tuna can that I had given to Chip, did Mabel burst into my room. She looked sleepy still but that didn't stop the sneer that lit up her face.
"Kodi, Mom wants you," she merely sneered at me and left, leaving my door ajar. She didn't really look at me, I had noticed that as of late. The self defense lessons that our father had given us I had taken seriously whilst she had complained the whole time. I gained self confidence while she threw tantrums.
That was the biggest difference between my sister and I, other than our looks. I sported long curly brown hair with dark blue eyes while she had red hair and brown eyes.
But it was good, she hadn't noticed Chip, and for now, that's all I needed. If Mabel noticed her then I would have to be careful, my mom would complain about how we didn't have enough food already, and Mabel would probably hurt her.
I walked down the stairs, making no effort to hide that I was going downstairs. My step mother was in the kitchen, she looked frail, and ghostly. When she heard me walk in she turned around to face me, her body was hidden under the folds of a fluffy maroon robe.
"Kodi," her voice was sharp, it made me flinch but not as much as I used to, before all of this.
"Yes?" I asked softly, watching her.
She brought her robe closer to herself and her eyes were everywhere but on me, she turned away and towards the fridge. It was empty and didn't work but she still tried to open it and peer through it before slamming it shut and turning around to glare at me.
"You were supposed to make sure there's food. There's no food!!" she slammed her hand down on the counter to make her point better.
I took a step away without seeming to back up and gestured towards the cupboard that held one beef stew and three cans of beans, with a few random unmarked cans.
"We.. We've got food," I said softly.
She let out something that resembled a snarl and hit the counter again, stepping towards me.
"You are so ungrateful, Kodi. I let you stay in this house while I knew he had had an affair. I let you stay here even when that lazy bastard didn't return from the food run. I hope he was eaten by the corpse personally..." her voice trailed off and she stopped to look at me, and I mean really look at me.
She stared at me for several seconds, " he didn't die, did he?" she snarled and continued, "you helped him leave, he's going to come back for you, the vile creature that he bred up with some bitch."
She seemed to have come up with this whole idea on the spot, and I tried to put my hands up and calm her down, while saying that it wasn't true but she cut me off with a hand through the hair that hit my cheek. I was knocked back into the wall and I cradled my face. But I didn't cry. I wouldn't cry because of what she did to me anymore.
She grabbed my hair and pulled me over to the stairs before shoving me onto them, I saw a glimpse of Mabel and then she was back to hiding, ignoring what her mother did to me every other day it seemed.
I looked up at my stepmother, she looked furious.
"You will miss today's meals but you will cook them for Mabel and I. You will stay in your room until you are allowed out, and you will only leave if you are cooking for Mabel or I. If I find you out of your room, or eating.." she stopped talking and spun on her heels, walking away.
I sighed and made my way up the stairs. There was a pain in my back where it had me the stairs but I ignored it. I walked into my room and shut myself inside. I locked the door behind me and walked over to my bookshelf. Before everything had went bad I had my books in semi decent order and condition.
Now?
Now all of my books seemed to be barely hanging on. I read them so often that they were wearing thin. The electricity didn't work, so no music, and I had long ago had run out of juice in the back up batteries on my radio.
It was nearly twilight when I had been called down to cook them dinner, my step mother sneered at me and made me cook nearly half of the food we had left and I divided it between the two. If I had been worried about food, I was panicking now. My stomach was cramping but I refused to eat the emergency food from my attic space. If I was forbidden from eating again tomorrow, then I would crack into it, but anything before then felt like being weak.
I waited until the house was silent to give Chip the last can of tuna and a little bit of water. She had kept me company all day and now it was time for me to go outside. I needed to do this. I needed to gather more food or my step mother would starve us all.
I made sure the gun had bullets, not like they had been used but still. And I grabbed my grab bag, along with an empty bag for anything I might find. I put the dagger in the slit in the grab bag and made sure I could reach it if I needed. When I was done stalling I opened my window as quiet as I could. I wanted to make sure Chip could escape if Mabel came in and found her.
One last glance around the bare room and I was prompted forward to grab two of the books off of my shelf. They were my favorite and I stuffed them in my grab bag. If I'm being honest, I'm probably book nerd enough to be that one girl who read while fighting for my life.
I kissed the top of Chip's head and slipped out of my room. The front door was easy enough to get out, but I'd have to be careful from there.
After I undid the lock I took a step outside. I had been holed up in that house ever since my father had left. I didn't want to take the risk at being caught sneaking in or out. The only reason I stayed now is because if a fighter like my father had been taken out, where would that leave me?
I had snuck out a few times, and seen the zombies, but not once had I stuck around to need to defend myself. Maybe I should have. Maybe then I would be more prepared.
The neighborhood had seen far better days but it wasn't in complete shambles. I made my way towards the house that from days before the zombies, I knew had a pool. I knew I couldn't go and have a nice relaxing swim, but I also knew, or was guessing, that they might have some things in their house that I could make use of.
I heard a noise behind me and with a silent inhale of breath I turned, hiding behind a car that had been abandoned.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid Kodi. Don't you know to stay out of sight?
Another noise broke through the silent of the neighborhood and my eyes latched onto a figure on my porch. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and at the same time I knew it was her. It was dark out, not an ideal time to go out in a zombie infested world but at the same time she wouldn't have let me go out any other time. Then again, she didn't know I had snuck out in the first place- or I had thought she didn't.
"Kodi!!" her shrill voice broke the pretense of calm. I heard a rustling from where the shed was and I saw something stir, and look towards the house.
"Kodi" she screeched again, stepping off of the porch. I closed my eyes, if I moved she would start to scream at me out here. If I didn't move, she would be hurt by the zombie.
I remembered all the times she had threatened to leave me outside to be fed on, all the times before that she had punished me, all the times after that she had come up with worse ways to punish me.
It propelled me to my feet, and I was determined to take the zombie out without her seeing me. I had the advantage, I had been making my eyes better accustomed to seeing in the dark every night while on my roof, her? She always insisted a candle be burning while she was awake.
The zombie was sluggish and I remembered from what my father had said that this was good, and bad. It meant that it was weaker but it also meant that it would be desperate for food. I wasn't sure what they ate. Novels claimed brains but from what I had heard, they just liked flesh, period.
My step mother started to get a bit more frantic, yelling threats at me and I flinched at her noise, was she trying to get us killed?
I was shaking as I stepped up behind the zombie, I grabbed my dagger instead of the gun, knowing it would be quieter.
I wasn't prepared for it. The knife went into his skull, through his ear and out his brain... I wasn't prepared for how it felt. My stomach rolled and I wanted to throw up, but I had nothing in my system. The knife hadn't gone in easily, resisting at first, before sinking in all too quickly. The feeling was disgusting and the green tinted blood of the zombie oozed out as it fell. The knife fell with it and a blood curdling scream from my stepmother caught me off guard. Another zombie was on her and she was furiously trying to push it off.
I scrambled for the knife and yanked it out of the zombies head without looking at its face. I ran over to where my step mother was but I could tell it was too late. She had a bite on her hand, and the zombie was gnawing on her leg. I grunted and sunk my knife into the base of its skull, driving it up to the brain like I was taught.
It struggled and then slumped, landing over my step mom's bottom half. She screamed again and pushed it off just after I pulled the knife out, she swung her glare to me and leaped at me, we both fell to the ground and my back exploded in pain. I assume it was from the nasty bruise she had given me earlier.
She was going at me, trying to claw at my face while she screamed that it was my fault. I heard rustling and tears sprang up but I forced them back. I needed to get her off of me or we would both die. The rustling turned to feet pounding on the sidewalk. The only thing that could run was new, strong, fast zombies.
My heart raced uncontrollably as I tried to get my step mom off of me without hurting her, or getting hurt myself.
Just as the pounding of steps, it sounded like three people, got closer, they stopped and my step mother was ripped off of me. I closed my eyes and covered my face as two figured swooped down close to me, my knife had been knocked away, and even if I could have reached the gun, it would have taken too long to undo the safely and aim.
But my world was once again rocked as I felt warm, human arms pull me up to a sitting position, sparkling green eyes, human eyes, looked at me with concern.
"Are you okay?" his voice was soothing.
I wanted to answer but for some reason my mouth refused to work. I felt my eyelids grow heavy as everything caught up to me.
Black dotted my vision and the last thing I heard before I passed out was words being muttered, but they weren't English..
Then I couldn't see or feel the strangers anymore.