It's 3:13, and Danny isn't here.
I pace back and forth at the exit near her house, trying to beat down the panic in my chest. Worry spreads to my lungs, and I realize too late that I'm bordering hyperventilation.
Deep breaths, I order myself. Deeper, I direct, when my body doesn't listen to my mind. Call her.
Soon, the terrible, drawling, ring...ring...ring...fills my right ear. I squeeze my eyes shut in desperation. I see the swaying of my parents' front door, the lock broken. Hear the moans of the undead.
"Answer!" I scream, my eyes snapping open. "Answer, goddamn it!"
When it reaches her voicemail, I scream incomprehensibly and want to smash my phone against the highway. Instead, I shove it back into my pocket, force the helmet back on my head and speed down the exit.
I've been to Danny's house several times this past summer and so I find it quickly; a two-story house just off of Blossom Road. Unfortunately, her road is heavily lined with trees where undead neighbors lurk. I scan them nervously, always wondering if I'll see a loved one's face in the crowd, even in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
I accelerate up the sunlit driveway and hop off of the bike, ripping my helmet off and tearing my axe free. The surrounding moans are louder now that the engine is cut and my helmet is off. The white Chevy is parked up against the garage; the front window of the house is completely shattered. Did Danny do that to get in, or did an undead force entry and Danny, hours later, use it as a way to get in without thinking? I feel my blood run cold.
"Danny!" I scream. Undead in the yard next-door behind a tall, white fence howl back in agony. "Shut up!" I screech at them, quickly jogging around the house, careful to stay in the sun. "Danny!"
Panic wells inside my chest again when there's no response. A small group of undead push against the edge of the shadows in her front yard, yelping when they go too far and sunlight scorches their skin. They carefully slink back into the shade.
I go to the nearest window and smash it in with the back of my axe while stepping out of the way of falling shards, and pause to listen inside.
Scratching sounds, quiet moans. A distant sob.
I call for Danny inside. The scratching sounds continue, and I also hear soft thudding sounds. I glance around the kitchen; the room is in entire disarray, pots and pans strewn across the floor, the fridge door open. Blood is splattered against the walls and the sink, darkened as though aged.
Then I hear Danny scream.
Before I know it, I've punched out the remaining glass around the edges and pull myself through the window. My feet skid unreliably over the floor, sticky with God-knows-what. "Danny!" I screech again, the anxiety in my chest exploding as I make my way through the disordered house. I vault over an overturned couch and reach the carpeted staircase at the bottom of their living room.
I glare up the stairs and take two at a time until I'm on the landing that overlooks the dining room. It's when I reach the top of the staircase that I spot Danny's parents.
Her mom is slender, her clothes torn in several places, her left arm badly burned and her right hand completely missing. Her father, at least a foot taller than me and three times wider, seems relatively unharmed except for the wounds at his neck where he must have been initially attacked, along with a hammerhead-sized dent at his skull. Neither of them has seen me yet.
"Hey!" I snarl, my axe at the ready. Danny's mom notices me first, her soulless eyes catching my gaze and for a fraction of a second, remembering her kindness of bags of snacks and fresh meals with every visit, my grip slackens. She abandons her post outside of Danny's bedroom door and moves unsteadily toward me, her arms reaching forward, hands curved into claws.
I swallow hard, forcing my hands to steady, and take in a deep breath. The moment she's within reach, I use all my force to bury my axe blade into her neck. She screeches upon impact, calling her mate's attention. Pulling out the blade with blood flowing everywhere, her husband turns toward us. I chop at her neck again, take advantage of the momentum of my swing and throw her down the stairs behind me.
Her body thrashes past me, plummets down the staircase and slams into the opposite wall of the dining room. Before I can check to see if she's getting up, Danny's huge undead father is in front of me, his hands nearly at my throat.
I slip out from under his reach and go around behind him, using the butt of the axe and all of my weight to try to push him. His balance barely falters. He turns to me and screeches, his blackened eyes wild, spit flying from his teeth. I take a step back and he regains his footing, his back to the balcony railing.
He pounces across the narrow landing and I cry out, his hands taking my shoulders with an impossibly strong grip. I straighten my arms in front of me, pressing my axe against his chest to keep space between us. He snarls, his breath hot on my face, and I raise a leg and kick him hard in the stomach.
His uncoordinated body tips slightly backwards; I kick again and immediately follow with a firm shove of my axe. Finally, with some room to use my arms, I turn my axe lengthwise and push it against him hard, ramming him against the railing behind him.
The force and his weight result in the collapse of the railing, and the man's heavy-set body disappears from sight. A loud crash makes the first floor shudder. Danny's mother at the bottom of the steps straightens and is starting back up the stairs slowly, one of her ankles turned unnaturally beneath her.
"Hayden?!" Danny's voice comes from behind her bedroom door.
"Danny!"
Her face peeks out through a crack, and when she sees the coast is clear, she throws her door open. "Hayden, let's go!" Her face is streaked with tears and her eyes are wide, probably matching my own expression of horror.
"Yeah, of course. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah," I verify quickly. Danny's mom is halfway up the stairs; her dad is still out of sight on the first floor. "Quickest way out?"
"This way—"
Danny grabs my hand and races across the landing, past the top of the stairs where her mom still stumbles up and we hurdle into another room. Once inside, we lock the door behind us. A quick glance around tells me we're inside her parents' room, looking relatively untouched compared to the disorder of the rest of the house.
Danny goes to the opposite wall and slips open the window, beckoning for me to follow. She climbs out the window onto the black-shingled roof, stretching her arms out for balance. "There," she points down to the trampoline in the backyard behind the house.
"Uh..." I hesitate, halfway out the window. Boy, that's a high jump.
"What?"
"It's just...I sprained my ankle on a trampoline once..." I straighten on the roof next to her. I can hear Danny's mom's moans from the hallway inside.
"You're not serious right now."
"Is there another way?"
"Are you joking?"
I glance around the roof. "I'm gonna climb down. See you at the car."
"Wait, you're actually serious."
"Bye!" I lower myself to my hands and knees and begin to make my way carefully across the shingles.
"You're unbelievable," she admonishes behind me.
"Gonna be a lot harder to survive the end of the world if I have a broken leg!" I call back.
I crawl my way to the gutter at the corner of the driveway and carefully take hold of the metal where the gutter goes vertical. After tossing my axe down, I turn my back to the driveway, take a firm hold of the gutter with my free hand, and begin to shimmy down the side of the house.
Halfway down, the metal creaks and in my panic, I slide the rest of the way down, my feet finally touching ground where Danny waits for me next to the car.
"Ow," I moan, examining my reddened hands.
"Hurry up," Danny hurries into the car, as I reclaim my axe. Then I hear the crunching of glass.
I turn to the sound and see Danny's father forcing his bulky frame out the barricaded side door; I grit my teeth and turn to race to the car door.
Shockingly fast, his snarl greets me; I hear Danny's scream from inside the metal body. I open the passenger side door as he lunges me. I try to bear him away with the butt of my axe and simultaneously make my way inside the car.
A piercing pain catches my wrist and I cry out in anguish. His teeth sink into my skin, and one quick glance tells me that blood is already beginning to well up and drip down my arm.
I cry out again, kicking out hard at the man and driving him back. Before he can recompose himself, I'm inside the car, door slammed shut, and screaming, "Go, go, go!"
The engine already running, Danny throws the car in reverse and smashes against the side of the motorcycle, reaches the street, and slams the gas pedal against the floor. We speed down the road, leaving her house behind us.