Vote. Comment. Enjoy!
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-Kyleigh's POV-
"What should we do today?" Calum asks as he walks into the living room.
"I don't know. The weather is pretty shitty," Erica comments, looking at the rain streaming down the window panes.
"I'm pretty tired today honestly. I feel like we deserve a day where we don't do anything but exist," I say.
"I second that statement," Luke says.
"I'm sold," Calum smiles as he sits down next to Erica on the couch and throws an arm around her shoulder.
"I'll let the guys at the other place know that we're planning to lay low today," Luke mentions as he stands up and walks into another room to grab the walkie talkie.
"What should we do today? Kinda want to take a fat nap, but I know I shouldn't or else I'll be up all night," Erica says.
"I could sleep," I agree, but suddenly, an idea springs to mind, "Wait. I forgot to show you what I found."
I immediately stand up and walk over to a small cupboard. I open it up, revealing a mini board game collection.
"Tadaaaa," I say, doing jazz hands around the cupboard, "Perfect for a rainy day."
"Why did that make me want to cry a little," Erica laughs.
"I am so down for a game day. But just to let you know, I am extremely competitive and I am going to destroy all of your asses in whatever game we play," Calum says confidently.
"Ha ha. That's the funniest thing I've heard all day," Erica dryly laughs.
"What is?" Luke asks as he places the walkie talkie down on the table.
"Kyleigh found a game collection, and Calum thinks he's going to win the game we play," Erica explains.
"You're right. That's hilarious," Luke says with a smile that causes Calum to roll his eyes.
"By the way, the other group is also going to stay in their house. It's weird to think we probably won't see them today," Luke says.
"We all deserve a day to relax," I say before looking back at the games, "So, what are we feeling? Monopoly? Clue? Uno? Jenga?"
"My vote is for Uno," Erica offers. Luke and Calum agree, so I grab the box of cards and walk over to the table. We all gather around the coffee table, with Erica on my left, Luke on my right, and Calum in front of me.
I shuffle the deck of cards and deal everyone seven cards.
"Who goes first?" Calum asks.
"Isn't it left of the dealer?" Luke asks.
"Sounds right," I agree, "So Erica goes first."
"Alrighty," She nods, fanning out her cards and looking at her options. She finally places a card down, and Calum goes next. The first few cards are surprisingly nice, with everyone putting down normal numbers.
When we all get down to four cards, Erica breaks the chain by putting down a +2.
"Hey," Calum frowns with his eyebrows furrowed.
"What?" Erica laughs.
"I just can't believe you would do that to me," Calum sulks as he picks up two cards.
"It was the only card I could put down," Erica says, suppressing another laugh.
"Sure it was," Calum says, shaking his head, "It's your turn, Luke."
"I hate to do this, but..." Luke starts as he stacks another +2 on the pile. I gasp and look up at him in shock.
"Ouch," I say, picking up two cards, "I thought Calum was overreacting a bit, but damn did that hurt."
"Sorry. The game's the game," Luke shrugs, not looking sorry at all.
"I seriously think we need to reconsider our significant others," Calum says to me as if they couldn't hear.
"I'm with you. They're so mean to us," I pout.
"We're not mean. You two are just sore losers," Erica comments, placing another card down.
I almost lose it as she places another +2 on the pile, and Calum's jaw drops.
"You did not," Calum gapes as the three of us laugh, "I honestly believe this may be grounds for a break up."
"Imagine. We live in a literal zombie apocalypse, and a game of Uno is what kills our relationship," Erica jokes.
"Laugh now, but it's not out of the question," Calum says, picking up his cards.
Luke scans over his cards before picking one up and placing down a reverse card.
"I could kiss you on the lips right now, Lucas," Calum says as he looks at his cards.
"Sorry, I'm spoken for," Luke replies, nodding his head in my direction.
"Don't be so sure about that. You just made me miss my turn again," I frown.
"Don't worry," Calum says as a sly grin appears on his face. He chooses a card and puts it down, revealing a +4.
"Fuck off," Erica gasps, "You were bitching about me giving you +2 cards, and then you drop that?"
"That's what you get for making me pick up a million cards," Calum retorts.
"You picked up four cards. Which is what I'm picking up now," Erica says, adding four cards to her pile.
"What color are you picking?" I ask.
"Oh yeah, forgot about that," Calum says, scanning the cards in his hand, "Green."
I look through the cards in my hand, spotting a few options. There's a green three, a green seven, and a green +2.
I weigh out the options and notice Luke only has two cards left. I decide to be nice, putting down the three.
Luke grins as he puts down a green four and says, "Uno."
"Fuck. Do you think you can stop him?" Calum asks me.
I shrug, "No idea."
"Do you think he has another green? I could do a reverse card, but that's an easy win if he has green," Calum thinks out loud. Luke keeps a poker face as Calum deliberates.
"I say go for it. Play the reverse card," Erica finally states.
Calum releases a deep breath, "Okay."
He places the card down and we all hesitantly wait to see Luke's move. A small smile spreads on Luke's face as he places his final card, a green six, on the pile.
"You, dumbass," Erica says, lightly hitting Calum on the shoulder.
"You have to be joking. You told me to do it!" Calum replies, causing me and Luke to laugh.
"But you still let him win!" Erica rebuttals, causing Luke and me to start laughing loudly as Calum looks flabbergasted.
"We are not having this conversation right now," Calum shakes his head, dropping the rest of the cards on the table. I do the same, accidentally revealing my cards.
"Hold up, this bitch had a green +2 the whole time. She let him win," Erica says, holding up my card.
"That's it. This entire game was rigged," Calum huffs, crossing his arms.
"You guys are such cry babies," I laugh, "Luke won fair and square."
"I demand a rematch," Erica says, already beginning to shuffle the cards.
"You're on," Luke smiles.
We play a few more rounds, with Erica winning, then me, and then Luke again. We deem Luke the king of Uno, as Calum glowers at the fact that he never won.
"Uno is a dumb game anyway. We need a better game," Calum says as he grabs the box of cards and brings them back to the little cupboard. He gets excited as he pulls out a game and reveals it to be Monopoly.
"Now, this," Calum says dramatically, "This is a real game. Whoever wins this game is clearly the best of the best."
"If you thought Uno was bad, Monopoly can obliterate any relationship," Erica laughs, "But bring it on."
Calum brings the game to the table and we start setting up. I suddenly notice that the rain has stopped, even though the weather still looks crappy. I can feel my stomach start to grumble, and I realize I haven't eaten in a while.
As Erica and Calum talk, I turn to Luke and ask, "Do you want to quickly stop by the greenhouse? It's been three days since we went there, and we're going to need food for tonight and tomorrow. I also feel like I should show you where it is."
"Yeah, sounds good. I could use the alone time, and I think they could too," Luke jokes about the two that are still bickering over games.
"Alright, I think the rain is letting up, so Luke and I are going to quickly stop by the greenhouse and grab some food," I say to the couple.
"Do you want us to come?" Erica asks.
"No, we should be fine. We won't be gone for long," I reply, standing up.
"I'm still holding you guys to a game of Monopoly," Calum says, wiggling his finger at the two of us.
"Definitely. By the way, I call the dog," I say.
"Oooh, I want to be the top hat," Erica adds on, picking up the miniature piece.
"I'll be whatever Calum doesn't want to be," Luke shrugs as he throws his backpack on.
"If you guys aren't back within the hour, just be aware that we're going to send a search party. I hate splitting up," Erica sighs.
"We'll be fine," I reassure her before quietly adding, "Probably."
Erica squints her eyes at me disapprovingly so I laugh and say, "See you soon."
Luke and I head out, and I start directing us in the fastest way I can think of. Thankfully, there aren't too many zombies out, which I think somehow might be related to the rain.
We walk in silence for a little bit until Luke intertwines his fingers with mine and asks, "What are you thinking about?"
"I don't know," I shrug, "I guess I was just thinking about how well everything has been going recently. Despite what happened at the train station, everything has been going nearly perfectly here. We have shelter with things like blankets and board games, we have a solid food source, we just collected a hell of a lot of water from the rain, there are little to no zombies near here, and I honestly think this is the first time I don't feel constantly paranoid or threatened," I say, finishing my mini rant.
"I get that, but like you said earlier, we deserve it. We've gone through a lot of shit the last few months to get to where we are today," Luke replies, his thumb soothingly rubbing my hand in circles.
"You're right," I say, "Today has been fun. It almost feels like the normal world."
"It really does. Nothing has changed with Calum. He was always a drama queen when he lost games," Luke laughs.
"I can see that. I almost feel like we should let him win Monopoly just so that he doesn't sulk for the next two weeks," I joke.
"Never. He's going down," Luke smiles, "Even if we did let him win, he would hold it over our heads for the rest of time, which is arguably worse."
"True," I say, "Calum doesn't stand a chance."
We turn the corner to a familiar street, and I can feel my ears perk up at the sound of growling. My attention snaps to the small clump of zombies all entering the greenhouse.
"Fuck," I breathe out, "That's where we need to go."
Luke and I quickly reach for our weapons as he quietly asks, "Why are they going in there?"
"No idea," I whisper back, "But we should get rid of them."
"Definitely," Luke says as we creep forward, "It doesn't look like there are too many. We should be fine."
I nod when Luke and I suddenly hear a noise coming from inside the greenhouse.
"Was that..." I start as Luke says, "Someone is in there."
We don't wait any longer as we run over to the greenhouse. We capture the attention of some of the zombies in the back and take out the threat. We stab anything that comes our way in the head. When we clear the entrance, I suddenly see a blonde struggling on the floor where a zombie is scarily close to biting his arm.
I run over to the guy, as Luke takes out a few stragglers, and stab the zombie in the back of the head. The body falls straight on the person and I help to shove it off. The guy looks alarmed as I turn around and see there are no zombies left. Luke walks over to me as the guy scrambles to stand up.
"Thanks," He breathes out, wiping some blood off his forehead.
I'm about to reply when I hear a frighteningly familiar click of a gun from behind us.
"Don't move," A voice says and I feel every part of my body freeze. I turn my head and I watch as Luke protectively moves to cover my body.
"Drop your weapons," The man says in a stern voice.
"Listen, we don't want any trouble," Luke says.
"Blake, it's fine," The blonde speaks, "They quite literally just saved my life."
The dark-haired guy, I guess Blake, looks between the three of us before asking, "Is that true?"
"Yes," Luke replies.
"Doesn't matter. I still don't trust you. Drop your weapons," He repeats.
Luke and I hesitantly place our knives on the table in front of us, not seeing any other option. I can sense he is still doubtful, but Blake lowers his gun anyway.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding as Luke reaches for my hand.
"Why did you guys even come in here?" The blonde asks.
"We originally came for the food, but we thought someone needed help in here when we saw all the zombies," I explain.
"Ahhh, so you two are the thieves," Blake says, walking forward a little bit.
"What?"
"This is our greenhouse. We planted everything in here," Blake informs us.
"Oh," I say with wide eyes, "I'm so sorry. We didn't know."
"Don't worry about it," The blonde says.
"You're too nice to people, Reece," Blake says, sounding disappointed, "They owe us."
"No, they don't. And I'm not too nice to people. I'm just nice to nice people. And they are clearly nice people because they saved my life, which is a nice thing to do. Geez Louise, I just said nice way too much," Reece says, causing me to laugh.
"Just because they killed the dead doesn't mean they're nice. We know nothing about them," Blake points out.
"You guys know we're right here, right?" Luke says.
"We have more food than we can even eat by ourselves," Reece says, ignoring Luke.
"That's not the point," Blake sighs.
Reece finally turns to us and asks, "What are your names?"
Luke and I glance at each other before I offer, "Kyleigh."
"Luke."
"Great. It's nice to meet you. I'm Reece, and that ball of sunshine over there is Blake," Reece grins before turning to Blake, "See? Now we know something about them."
"You're such a dumbass sometimes," Blake says, but his facial features soften slightly.
"Do you guys live near here?" I ask.
"Yeah, just down the street. What about you?" Reece replies.
"We're not too far away either," I say, "We just moved here recently."
"Do you guys have a group or are you travelling by yourselves?" Reece questions.
I get the sense that Blake and Luke are both uncomfortable about the amount of information Reece and I are sharing, but neither makes a move to stop it. I hesitate a little before saying, "We have a group. There are ten of us."
"Ten?" Blake repeats, shocked.
I nod slowly, "What about you guys?"
"It's just us," Reece explains, "We know some other people in the area that we trade with and occasionally talk to, but it's just been Blake and I since the beginning."
"You guys are lucky to have each other," I say with a smile.
"Yeah," Blake nods, "We are."
"Not to break this bonding moment, but one of our friends did warn us that she would send out a search party if we weren't back within the hour, and she will undoubtedly do it," Luke reminds me.
"Oh yeah. We should probably head out," I say.
Blake and Reece look at each other, and I can tell they're having some sort of silent conversation. Blake eventually looks down and sighs before asking, "Do you guys need food?"
"Yes, but we don't want to take your stock," I reply, grabbing my knife from off the table.
"Reece was right. We have more than we could even eat," Blake says as he starts collecting a few items and placing them in a bag.
He puts more than I thought he would before handing the bag to Luke, "Thanks for saving my best friend's life."
"Thanks for not shooting us," Luke replies.
"And thanks for the food," I add.
"Maybe we'll see you guys around?" Reece says in a hopeful tone.
"Yeah, definitely," I smile.
"We live on the house on the corner. Black window frames and a blue door. It's hard to miss," Reece says.
I raise my eyebrows, a little shocked Reece would tell us exactly where they live. Maybe Blake was right. Reece is way too nice and trusting of strangers.
"Got it," I smile, "Thanks again for the food."
Luke offers a small wave before the two of us slip past Blake and start heading home.