Chapter Three

 Caged Birds Singing

Day Twelve. Twelve days we’d been in the Underground. Twelve miserable, meaningless, gray days. Everyone was at each other’s throats. Twenty or so kids had even been thrown in “jail” which was more of a time-out room with a psychologist asking, “How does that make you feel?” for eight hours straight. It was really only a matter of a couple more days before things got out of hand. I was sure of it.

That’s why Zeke and I were on a mission to find where all these Scientist Big-Shots met to discuss life and what not. I was sure a meeting room of some kind existed; I couldn’t really imagine a bunch of Scientist/Doctor people in lab coats discussing matters akin to national security over a bowl of oatmeal in the cafeteria.

“You ready, Rowe?” Zeke ducked his head in as he passed the doorway to my room.

“Ya,” I finished lacing up my gray tennis shoes. “Let’s go.”

He took off, loping down the hallway. I followed, hurrying to catch up to his long-legged stride. His brown hair had grown out a little bit. It was just covering the tips of his ears. Maybe Sam could cut it for him. I watched him as we walked because it was one of my aspirations to become a professional stalker. Just kidding, I am not creepy.

He used to be the clown of the group. Always smiling, always laughing, and perpetually joking with Caius about something naughty or inappropriate. Only a ghost of a smile ever seemed to touch his lips anymore. His jokes were strained like he was trying too hard. The old Zeke was gone, a seasoned survivor in his wake. All because of the stupid disease. It killed his mother and his little sister. She was Jace Andrew’s age, barely thirteen years old. That’s enough to destroy anyone.

I unlocked the memories I had hidden away. Remembering a day back in April this year. It was stupid hot, but I had let the boys coerce me into going to one of their home baseball games. I had put up a fight, but let’s be real: I wasn’t going to miss it; I went to all their games.

I gave Zeke’s mom a twenty and she handed me my burger. Ballpark burgers were usually the best. The way the bun got soft wrapped inside the foil. Oh man, was I hungry.

“Here, Rowe,” his mom handed me my change.

“Thanks Robin,” I smiled at her. “Is Zeke pitching today?”

“I think they have him as the relief,” she leaned on the counter.

“I’ll make sure to get some good shots then,” I held up my digital camera.

“Marissa is already set up in the bleachers. You should go keep her company.”

“On it, Mrs. Longhorn!” I took off in search of Zeke’s little sister. I should have brought Jace Andrew. Marissa was quite the cutie and Jace Andrew had a terrible time interacting with the opposite sex.

Sure enough, the curly headed sister was lounging in the sun. She was already a deep shade of brown. Though Zeke was half Mexican, you would never guess with his fair skin, freckles, and light brown hair. Marissa, on the other hand, was blessed with that gorgeous dark skin and dark hair.

“Hey Rowe!” Marissa waved me over.

“I heard your brother gets to pitch today,” I said.

“Ya he’s pretty stoked.”

I sat beside her and then jumped up with a yelp. The bleachers were blazing under my exposed thighs. Maybe shorts weren’t the best idea.

Marissa erupted into a fit of laughter that made me start laughing. One of us even snorted far too loud, causing Mario’s parents to glare our way. Which made us laugh even harder.

“Rowe?” Zeke had stopped walking. I realized I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going or what he had been saying. Great. I would make a fantastic stalker.

“Ya?”

He grimaced and shuffled his feet, much like Ella does when he wanted more candy. “Can you give me some advice?”

My immediate reaction was to say no. I definitely was not a shrink, and anyone who took my advice was subject to insanity. But with Zeke looking so uncomfortable, I managed a shrug, “sure.”

“You know Laylanni,” he hedged. I resisted the urge to say “Yes, Zeke, we all know her.”

“I think…I might have…” he squeezed his eyes and said in a very quiet voice, “feelings for her.”

What, were we in grade school discussing “crushes” under an oak tree? It was almost absurd to imagine that after everything that had happened, someone could still have such normal, pointless inclinations.

I immediately regretted those thoughts. We were, after all, still human, still teenagers. There was no guarantee we would be alive tomorrow. So I shoved him in my best playful manner and said, “You should tell her.”

His eyes got really wide, “But-”

“Shut up Zeke,” I grabbed his arm and forced him to turn towards me. “A girl turning you down isn’t the worst thing that could happen to you, and you know it.” Okay so maybe I didn’t earn points in the “gentle” category. If you think about it, then it was weird I took so many children…

He frowned, still torn. I sighed and offered him what I hoped was an encouraging smile, “Besides, she might even reciprocate your feelings.” Of course she did; Laylanni had a crush on Zeke dating back to the second grade.

That seemed to spark a decision in his eyes. He actually smiled, and that was the best reward he could have given me. “You’re right!”

Duh. I was a woman after all, and women are always right.

The rest of the excursion was a blur of failure and frustration. Zeke couldn’t stop talking about all the scenarios and things he should say to her (yes, Zeke, I know her favorite color is green. You’ve told me five times. No, Zeke, I don’t think she would turn you down by breaking your arm), while I actually tried finding what we were looking for.

Three hours later and all we managed to find was a hallway of empty classrooms, an empty storage room, and what looked like a hidden bathroom with the nice kind of toilet paper. Two ply and soft. Nothing except that last one seemed like a good place to stage nightly meetings about security and supplies. So, defeated, we were on our way back, promising to try again the following week.

Zeke was busy yammering on about how he wanted to teach Laylanni how to shoot a revolver or something, while I was trying to keep track of the hallways and rooms. He seemed content with my occasional “mhms” and “ohs” until he asked me in a very serious voice, “Do you ever think about it, Rowe?”

“It” could have meant a lot of things, but since he was on a Laylanni Kick, “it” could only be one thing. Max.

Even thinking the name was enough to stop my heart cold. Max Allen Crass. Laylanni’s younger brother. I could picture him clearly, as though he was standing in front of me. Red curly hair, brown eyes, freckles. Tall and thin like his sister. Gawky since he was only fourteen; you could tell he would be breathtakingly handsome when he got older.

But he never did get older. Because I shot him in the head. Twice.

Bang! Bang! I cringed as the shots cracked in my skull. The loudest sound I’d ever heard. I would never forget the feel of the Beretta in my palm. Like cold fire.  

“It’s my waking nightmare,” I croaked, my throat having suddenly gone dry.

“I can’t imagine…” he trailed off, or maybe I tuned him out. Because now I could hear Laylanni screaming and begging for help and pleading for Max to hear her. And I was on my knees, the gun having slipped from my fingers. And there was Max, merely five feet from me, with a gaping hole in his head. His skin was ashen grey and he smelled like a rotting corpse. A side-effect from the Disease.

But Laylanni didn’t seem to notice. She was clutching him to her chest and moaning her brother’s name, while I just stayed on the ground, in shock. His black blood was splattered across my front, but I hardly noticed. I could only stare.

Laylanni and I were just stopping at her house to grab a snack after our evening run when her brother barreled into the room, disease ridden, a bite mark on his arm. I lunged for the gun my dad had made me carry, as Laylanni screamed…

“Rowan!” I was back in the Underground, and Zeke was shaking me. Laylanni’s screams having turned into an awful ringing noise.

I looked up at him helplessly. My face was wet, and snot dribbled down my nose, “I don’t stop. I don’t stop thinking about it.” My voice was so hoarse, it hurt my throat. It hurt my head. It hurt my skin. It hurt everywhere in my body. Because I was now killing Tobias, or Micah, or Ashlyn, or…James. It’s one thing to shoot a Rager you didn’t know, but it was another to shoot one you knew and loved. I had killed Max on instinct, without thinking. Kill or be killed. But in doing so, I couldn’t sleep at night, and I saw his face everywhere I went. Having to do that again to someone else, might just destroy me. Or maybe it already had, and I was an empty shell.

“You had no choice,” Zeke whispered into my hair. I wanted to believe he was wrong. We always have a choice.

“Zeke…” I fought my feelings back down my throat, locking them away into a little box tucked inside my chest. I could not afford to live with them. I was supposed to be strong or something. Not a blubbering coward. “I’m okay.”

“Rowan-”

Noises down the hall caused me to jerk my head out from Zeke’s torso. A couple scientists rounded the corner, chatting amiably. Without paying much attention to us, they slid their cards into a slot on a nondescript door and it opened. I caught a glimpse of a long table with scientist and doctors crowded around it.

“Zeke,” I wrenched away from him, thankful for the proper distraction, “Zeke, look!”

He turned in tremendous reluctance, in time to see the door close. “Is that the meeting room?”

“Ya,” I glanced up at the ventilation shaft above our heads and scrubbed my face clear, “suppose I would be able to fit in that?”

Zeke looked at me for a long moment before following my gaze, “I doubt something like claustrophobia is enough to keep you out of that room.”

I smiled; he knew me too well.

That evening, Micah and I broke into the ventilation shaft from inside our bathroom. It wasn’t difficult when you had a hall full of teenage boys. We all know the only thing teenage boys are good for is destroying things.

I climbed in first, boosted by Caius and Zeke. Micah crawled in after me, gingerly trying to avoid sticking his face in my butt. Smart man, since they had served beans for dinner. Zeke was in charge of walking the hallways below us while talking to Blaire so we could follow their voices.

It took a lot longer to find the room again, since I took two wrong turns, and we had to inch slowly to avoid making too much noise. Eventually, Zeke managed to guide us to the right spot, “Here’s the room. Good luck.”

I found the vent opening for the air to get through. The meeting room below was visible. A long white table and swivel chairs seemed to be the only furniture in the room. No one was in there. I swallowed in disappointment.

“Guess we’ll have to wait,” I told Micah and then scooted past the opening so we both could look down into it.

“Do you think they’ll even have a meeting?” Micah looked worried.

“I’m sure they have one every night. They have to debrief, don’t they?”

“Ya, I guess.”

Silence followed, and let’s face it: my biggest fear was boredom. That and spiders.

“How are you and Samantha doing?” I asked, searching for something to pass the time.

“Fine,” he rubbed his eyes, “It’s just hard. I can’t stop thinking about my brothers.” His younger brothers were among the first in the city to get sick. They were the first two to die.

“There was nothing you could do,” I told him. Like I told him that night he climbed through my window and sat on my bed, eyes rubbed so raw he’d bruised the skin around them. I repeated it over and over as he sobbed against my shoulder into the early hours of the morning. I whispered it to him when he finally fell asleep just past dawn.

I needed to get better at this shrink stuff.

His face looked haggard, “Why wasn’t I infected?”

A million answers landed on my tongue, but I only said one of them, “Because I need you.”

I’d always considered him to be my big brother, ever since kindergarten after he had pushed down Jonny Knells for calling me stupid. Honestly, I wasn’t sure where I would be without him.

He reached out and grabbed my hand, “I hope you know what I mean when I say I wish you weren’t here, but I’m glad you are.”

I squeezed his hand, “I’m always here for you, Micah.”

“That’s what makes you such a good little sister.”

“I try,” I flashed him a rare smile.

“Rowan,” Micah nudged me. I growled incoherently. To me, it sounded like, “I was so not asleep” but to him it probably sounded like “grumble grumble gr.”

“Rowe,” he chuckled, “they’re starting.”

I opened my eyes, “About time. What time is it anyway?”

He glanced at his watch, “Ten.”

We’d been in the shaft for nearly two hours! I suppressed a growl and looked down at the meeting room. Nine members were seated around the table and three more were filing in, followed by Mr. Boss Scientist. He was a middle-aged African-American man with salt-and-pepper hair.

“Dr. Lattus, is it true?” called out one of the older nurse ladies.

Dr. Lattus (Mr. Boss Scientist) pinched the bridge of his nose like he was already exasperated by the questions to come, “Yes, I am afraid so.”

“How could something like this happen?” another doctor demanded.

“First the military falls, and now this?”

Micah and I exchanged a dreadful look. What could be worse than losing our defenses?

Dr. Lattus looked ill. “The government has been compromised, the President has gone into hiding, and Congress has been dissolved.”

“So who is going to rescue us?” Dr. Passalgia snapped.

“Who is going to stop the Ragers?” another doctor stood to his feet angrily.

“We are alone!” I didn’t catch who said that, but it was met with complete and utter silence. Micah reached out and gripped my hand so tight that pain cut through me. There was no future left for America.

“What are we going to do?” asked the head lunch lady.

“There has been talk of fortresses and compounds set up in the North and South. They only have to fight off Ragers who still have a pulse. There’s also a Fort Mason in San Francisco. That’s the one closest to us,” Dr. Lattus explained.

“Do we have the ability to transport seven thousand children all the way to San Francisco?”

“Underground?” Dr. Lattus sighed, “No. Because of District 285G’s recent break-in, the tunnels around it have been shut. Same with District 127D’s. The only way would be to transport them above ground, but that is far too risky.”

“So we have to stay here?”

“What choice do we have?”

“We’re sitting ducks!”

“We have to stay! Think of the children!”

“Put it to a vote!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! We can’t transport that many kids!”

“Well in three years we won’t be able to feed them, either!”

“We have to stay and hope for the best!”

“These children are the only hope we have for any sort of future-”

“We’re stuck here, too, Janice.”

“Enough!” Dr. Lattus pounded his fist on the table, “Like Dr. Passaglia and Dr. Keats said, we will stay until further notice. Meeting adjourned!”

“Rowan,” Micah whispered to me.

I looked at him in horror. The government was gone. The military was gone. Nobody was going to swoop in and save us. Nobody was going to make this problem go away. On an even more alarming note, there had been Rager break-ins in surrounding districts.

The doctors began filing out, and I felt sick to my stomach. By the look on Micah’s face, he did too. He was still gripping my hand like it was a lifeline. I clutched at him with my other hand, tensing my entire body to keep my heart from rupturing out of my chest. My vision began tunneling, and a rushing sound filled my ears. Only the pain in my hand kept me grounded.

“We have to go back. We have to tell them.”

Micah nodded numbly, but didn’t move.

“Micah,” I touched his cheek. Hi face was warm in my palm. “Micah, we can do this. We know where to go now if things get crazy.” San Francisco.

“I have faith in you, Rowan,” he was still staring at nothing.

“Come on, Micah.” I really wouldn’t be able to carry him back to the hall.

“I have a bad feeling about the break-ins,” he was looking at me, now. “The Ragers know we’re down here. The adults know it, too. And if it’s easy for us to break out…”

“Then it’s easy to break in.” The thought hadn’t occurred to me. “They thought the military would clean it up in a matter of weeks.”

Micah’s eyes were liquid gold, “They didn’t expect the military to lose, or the government to fall.”

That explained everything. It explained why there was no security, why we could push the Scientists around, why we could sneak around and steal things without repercussions.

“We’re screwed.”

“No,” I said with so much ferocity that the vent vibrated. I lowered my voice to a hiss, “they may all be sitting ducks, but we have a fighting chance.”

“Rowan-”

“Micah, listen to me. We aren’t dumb. We have a backup plan, and now we have a destination in mind. We are all fairly athletic and most of us even know how to shoot a gun. We are capable.”

He offered me a wry smile, “I didn’t realize that all those football practices would come in handy in the real world.”

“Come on; let’s tell the guys what’s going on.”

Their reaction was similar to Micah’s and mine: a whole bunch of questions and dawning realizations.

“So I guess the main question is for you, Rowe,” Tobias looked up at me with eyes like the night sky.

“Which question would that be?” I was exhausted and I was tired of questions I couldn’t answer.

“Are we leaving or staying?” Fallon interrupted his brother.

I was taken slightly aback. I hadn’t really thought about it. Except, mulling it over had half of me screaming to run out and escape while we still could, and the other half telling me to act in a rational manner – to take our time. We had food and shelter here, but for how long? Then again if we ventured out into the world we would have to fend for ourselves. Were we ready to do that?

“I think we should stay another week…” I began.

“I think that’s a stupid idea,” Fallon cut across me. I rolled my eyes. Of course he did.

“I agree with Fallon,” Caius drawled, “I don’t wanna be here if the Underground is gonna fail.”

“We don’t know what’s out there. We need more time to prepare,” I argued, stung at his betrayal.

“We don’t have any food gathered to take with us. There’s food and water here,” Jace Andrew added. I squeezed his hand warmly.

Fallon’s upper lip curled, “When things go south, everyone will be trying to get out. It will be chaos and confusion. We’ll be lucky to get out of the panic.”

“Then we will take our chances! You can’t possibly expect us to leave tonight or even tomorrow. We don’t have the supplies!” Micah insisted.

I could see the stubborn set of Fallon’s jaw, and I knew there was no convincing him. I said, “Then let’s vote on it. We can decide as a whole instead of dictating.”

Fallon sneered looking like a predator, but he didn’t object. He just leaned back against the wall and gave me a level look as if to say, “Well, get on with it then.”

“All in favor of staying?” I asked. Micah, Jace Andrew, Ashlyn, Blaire, Samantha, Arianna, Laylanni, Zeke and a hesitant Tobias raised their hands. Majority. Fallon swore and stalked out of the hallway.

I felt relief release the tension in my chest. I didn’t want to start worrying about finding food and shelter, and I most certainly was not ready to face more Ragers. Not since Max.

Day thirteen was one of the worst days in my life.

I was with Micah in our government class, idly tapping away on my desk when the teacher decided to call on me and ask me something about bicameral legislature. I looked up at him, annoyed that he had the audacity to interrupt my drum solo, and said, “I don’t know.”

He blew air between his teeth, irritated that I wasn’t interested in a governmental system that was in shambles. Then again, most people still weren’t aware that the government had fallen. The scientist seemed to see fit to keep that under wraps.

“Miss Blackthorne, how do you expect to succeed in the future if you can’t even pay attention to the essential classes?” he looked down his crooked nose at me.

“Essential class?” I scoffed and slammed my pen down on the tabletop. “The world has gone to crap and you think some stupid government class is going to be essential in our survival? There is no government to return to. This is all pointless.”

His face purpled, “Young Lady, I will not have your attitude in this class!”

“Ya?” I stood angrily, “You’re gonna kick me out? Go right on ahead. It would be a favor. This-” I gestured around me, “is all a waste of time. We should be learning how to survive if Ragers attacked, not how to keep a broken regime in order.”

“Rowan,” Micah warned.

The teacher’s pockedmarked face went white, “You are a child. Your job is to be a good student, not fight Ragers! Leave that to the adults and SIT DOWN!”

I was beside myself with fury. How dare he stand there and tell me I was a child? “A child? A child?” I shouted incredulously, “Who do you think you are?”

He got very close to my personal space. He towered above my small frame, but I didn’t step back. “I am an adult, Young Lady. You will respect me!” he spat. “How do you expect to be in a civilized society if you cannot act civilly?!”

“Civilly?” I growled. This guy was a complete idiot. “We are living in the freaking Apocalypse!”

He paled at the word. It had become a dirty word that nobody used anymore, but I was in no mood to be politically correct in order to spare the idiot’s feelings. He stepped even closer and jammed a finger into my chest, “I am your teacher and I am telling you to sit down before I call-”

“Call who?” I laughed, half hysterical and shoved his hand away, “The Army? The government?” I know I sounded crazy but my anger had boiled over and I was like a runaway train. “Hate to break it to you, Buddy, but there is no one left. We are the only ones left.”

“OUT!” He yelled, spit flying into my face. “DETENTION!”

I inclined my head and gave him a smile dripping with poison, “Gladly.” I turned to grab my backpack and met Micah’s eye. He gave me the “Well, there you go again, Rowe” look, and shrugged. I offered him a wry smile and walked out.

I had no intention of going to detention, but Dr. Passaglia was waiting for me in the hall, tapping a heeled boot on the floor, “Miss Blackthorne.”

Great, the day just couldn’t get any better. “What do you want?”

Her lips tightened at my tone, “Come with me.”

I briefly considered refusing her, but then I realized all that would accomplish would be proving Mr. Government Teacher right about being a child. So I shouldered my bag and followed the click clack of her heels down the hall towards Jail. I groaned inwardly. I’d been in Jail once before after they caught me trying to break into a supply room. That was eight hours of my life I wasn’t getting back.

She ushered me in and had me sit at one of the long white tables. Surprisingly, we were alone. Usually there were a handful of naughty kids seated at various points around the room with a counselor slapping them on the wrist. Dr. Passaglia looked like she wanted to do more than slap me on the wrist, though. She appraised me with shrewd green eyes as she adjusted her grey glasses on her sharp nose.

“You’re putting me in Jail because I yelled at a teacher?” I asked bluntly.

She narrowed her eyes a moment, “What did you mean by the government being gone?”

Whoops. I wasn’t supposed to know that. I widened my eyes, trying to pull off the classic “innocent” look Ashlyn always used on Dad when she let Caius stay over too late. Except, I am pretty sure all I managed to accomplish was looking dumb, “I don’t know.”

Her lip twitched in irritation, “Don’t play dumb Miss Blackthorne, you’re too good at it.”

I ignored the jab, putting on my best poker face, “I overheard some scientist people talking about it.”

I could tell by the tilt of her head that she didn’t believe me, “Did you, now?”

“Ya,” I leaned forward on my elbows and said in mock hushed tones, “you should really make sure the information you don’t want getting out stays hidden.”

Her face contorted into a snarl, “How did you overhear?”

I leaned back in my chair, tilting back and balancing on the two hind legs, “What does it matter to you if it’s not true?”

I got her on that one. She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. It was clear that she was trying to think of a witty answer, but I wasn’t done. I leaned forward again, my chair legs making a loud clang against the ground, “and if it is true, then don’t we have bigger problems than worrying about how I came across the information?”

It was a challenge, and she knew it. Why weren’t they telling everybody the news? Why hide it? I felt like we all deserved to know the truth. The fact that they thought to conceal this information made me wonder what else they thought was better hidden from the public.

She was livid but managed to control her temper. “Miss Blackthorne, you have been a pain in my behind since the moment you waltzed on in here. You have no respect for authority and you flout the rules. You act like we are the bad guys when we are trying to keep you safe.”

“I just don’t like being locked in a cage,” I said plainly, “and I like to know what’s going on. We aren’t that safe here and you know it.”

“We are doing the best we can,” she hissed.

“And so am I,” I met her gaze. She was right, they weren’t the enemy, but that didn’t mean I had to respect the doctors.

She opened her mouth to answer when she was interrupted by the scariest sound I had ever heard: the warning sirens. Have you ever heard them? They sounded like the world was on fire and you had five seconds left to live. It instantly froze your heart with paralyzing panic. I can still hear them ringing in my ear. That’s the stuff nightmares are made of.

The minute the sirens started blaring, Dr. Passaglia blanched and ran over to lock the door. She began bleating like a trapped animal and told me to cower under the table. Instead I stood and raced for the door.

“Let me out,” I demanded reaching for her keys.

She snatched them away from me, “No, we’re safe in here.”

“Those sirens mean we aren’t safe anywhere,” I retorted. “Stop playing around.”

“You know the procedures! Stay here until someone comes to rescue us!” She screamed her brown hair flying free from her too-tight bun.

“Nobody is coming to save us,” I snapped. “I’m tired of you controlling my future.” I lunged for the keys, but she side stepped me with surprising speed, drawing her Taser.

“Miss Blackthorne! I will not hesitate to shoot you!”

I believed her. She looked crazy. But I didn’t have time for this. I was supposed to find James while Ashlyn and Caius got Jakob and Ella. Jace Andrew and Zeke had to get Grace and Alex. Micah would be racing back to F Block with Tobias, Shane, and Fallon to grab our supplies. Rixon, Blaire, and the girls would be meeting at the exit. This was plan R. The plan we would use if Ragers had infiltrated the premises.

And those sirens meant exactly that.

I jumped for Dr. Passaglia, and tackled her small frame to the ground like I used to do to Jace Andrew before he hit his growth spurt. Her Taser went off, and part of it attached to my leg. My muscles immediately cramped in on themselves – it was a good thing I was already on my way to the ground. I bit my lip, fighting through the pain, and slammed my elbow into Dr. Passaglia’s face. Blood spurted from her nose and she grunted in pain, but didn’t fight back. She released the trigger off the yellow Taser and the pain subsided. I rolled off of her, my body twitching, but those sirens refused to be ignored.

I wrapped my trembling fingers around the keys and dragged myself over to the door. This was not how I was going to die. I hauled myself up and managed to get the key in the door. I threw it open and staggered out into the hall. Barely anybody was running around; most people having listened to the teachers’ orders to hide. I half ran, half limped down the halls toward the nursery. My muscles protested the entire way, but I had more important things to worry about.

I reached the nursery and rammed my shoulder into the door. It didn’t budge, but I had anticipated this. For some reason these people wanted to believe that a locked door would keep hungry Ragers out.

 “Open up! This is Dr. Passaglia!” I mimicked the haughty doctor’s voice perfectly. No one ever said no to Dr. Passaglia. She was on the board. She was important.

The daycare lady timidly opened up, and I shoved my way though. The room was the size of a classroom with toys for a wide range of ages. The children were behind a play gate and another lady was shushing them. When James saw me he gave a strangled sob and waddled for me. The other lady grabbed him and pulled him back.

I jumped over the gate and grabbed his other arm. “He is coming with me.”

“Where will you go?” Her eyes were half crazy with fear.

I pulled him out of her grip and scooped him into my arms. “Out of this Rager trap.”

“You’re a fool!” she snarled. Forcing myself to ignore the other babies, I held James tighter to my chest and shot out of the room.

“You just killed yourself and that boy!” the daycare attendant shrieked in protest, but she did not dare give chase. I bolted down the labyrinth of halls. Right. Right. Left. Right. My feet slapped the floor with silent screams.

I rounded the corner into one of the main halls, and suddenly there were kids everywhere. A spiral of screams pierced through my eardrums as someone shoved me aside. I careened into a wall, trying to shield James from the violent raucus. Another kid tripped or was pushed. Nobody paid him any mind as they ran right over him. I heard the crack of his bones as someone stomped across his hands. I tried to move to help him up, but the surge of the crowd threw me back the way I came. Panic flared in my chest as I tried cutting my way through.

Fallon had been right. This was impossible. I felt like I was being suffocated by the raw fear in the air. The crowd of people pulled me further from the right direction. I couldn’t fight the crowd and hold James, plus my muscles were still protesting. I didn’t know what to do. I dodged to the side as a larger girl elbowed her way past, but she still managed to clip my bicep. It was enough to knock me unsteady.

“No!” I breathed out as I fought to stay on my feet. The boy who had been trampled on hadn’t moved. James and I would not die like that.

Then Fallon was there, the sea of children surging around his large frame. He reached for me and gripped my arm so hard that I knew I would have bruises for weeks to come. I was never happier to see him. Like never. He tugged me through the mass of chaos without a word. I watched him, amazed, as he barreled his way through. Mind you, he was 6’3 and built like a monster. I would get out of his way, too.

He didn’t relinquish his hold, so I had to run in an awkward juggle of clutching James with one hand and keeping up with Fallon so that my arm would not rip out of its socket. I didn’t put it past Fallon to rip it out. Finally we burst into an eerily empty hallway and he began racing towards the end. I recognized where we were. We really only had a couple turns left, then we would be home free.

In the back of my mind, something was really bothering me about the hallway being so empty. With everyone going crazy and running in all directions, you would think there would be people in this hall too.

But everyone hadn’t been running in all directions, had they? No, they had all clearly been running from this direction. Why would people run from this section?

“Fallon stop!” my warning came half a second too late. A person came shooting out of one of the classrooms, severing Fallon’s hold on me. I staggered back as the guy turned and looked at me. He had disheveled brown hair and a scruffy beard. Oh, plus his right arm was missing a huge chunk out of the triceps, and his eyes were milky white. Rager.

Time felt like it was wrapped in syrup. Nobody moved. The Rager stood there as it tilted its head to the side like a bird. And then James screamed. Time snapped back to full speed as the Rager lunged. But Fallon was quicker. He swung a kick at the Rager’s head that knocked it over. From the ground it started crawling toward me, gnashing its teeth.

“Rowan, come on!” Fallon beckoned. I raced passed the Rager and grabbed a hold of Fallon’s hand so he could lead us through the rest of the hallways. We rounded the corner and the exit gleamed like an entryway into heaven. Everyone was waiting there, scared out of their wits. I gave them the “what are you waiting for?” look and moved passed them. Micah and Tobias kicked the door open and started ushering everyone through, “Hurry before they close the tunnels!”

I didn’t say that I wasn’t sure anyone was left to close the tunnels. I didn’t say anything because I could hear the screams in the distance turn into something else. Something deeper, primal.

“This way!” Blaire called. He was on the lift with four guns in his hand, ready to navigate the tunnels. This was it. We were about to leave this horrible place. But we were also leaving behind the only safety we had left armed with nothing save one shotgun, one rifle and two handguns.

Fallon grabbed the shotgun, a 12-gauge from the looks of it. I grabbed the .9mm Smith & Wesson and Caius took the revolver. Shane slung the rifle onto his back.

“Move!” I switched James in my arms so that I could shoot right handed.

We stepped down into the sewage tunnel. The smell of festering fecal matter burned through my nose. Green slime clung to the walls and a river of brown water sloshed up the back of my legs as I crossed the sludge. I did my best not to think of the floating objects as they rolled around me.

“Ah! That stinks!” Alex complained from atop Zeke’s shoulders.

“Hey!” someone shouted from behind us.

I spun and raised my gun. Four or five more kids were following us. I didn’t recognize them from where we were. One looked like he was bleeding.

“Wait up!” one of the girls called.

“Keep moving,” Fallon grabbed my arm as though he knew what I wanted to do.

“Let go,” I wrenched my arm free. “We can help-”

“Ragers!” one of them shouted, pure terror slicing through his voice.

An unearthly scream echoed across the tunnel, sounding worse than the sirens. I watched, in horror, as four Ragers lunged through the door and ripped through the group of kids. A sickening crunch squelched in our ears and scarlet drops splashed across the door.

“Move!” Fallon shoved James and me forward. Paying no mind to the thick liquid beneath us, I propelled us toward the walkway on the opposite side of the tunnel. I awkwardly heaved myself and James up on the walk and turned to check on the Ragers.

One had an arm wrapped in its jaws. An entire arm. I almost threw up my dinner.

“They’re here!” Fallon growled. “Just run!”

Everyone took off at a dead sprint. I cradled James to my chest and ran faster than I ever had in my life. The sudden rush of feet slapping the cement echoed back down towards the Ragers. I glanced back in time to see them loping through the water. They were just as fast as we were.

“Deaders,” Fallon hissed. Three more Ragers spilled into the sewage tunnel from the doorway, and I didn’t need to ask Fallon how he knew. These Ragers had ashen gray skin that clung tightly to muscle and skin. From hollowed eye sockets peered blacked out eyes. I could see their darkness from where I stood, transfixed, on the walk.

“Skeleton!” Ella screamed.

Their heads snapped in our direction. I could almost feel their insatiable hunger across the distance. The Deaders tilted their heads back and let out an unearthly groan before sprinting after us.

“Oh,” the air spilled out of my lungs in a sharp exhalation. The Deaders were fast. So very fast.

“MOVE!” someone shouted.

“Over here! We have to climb!” I hear Zeke yell. “This ladder leads to a manhole!”

I handed James off to Arianna and dropped back to help Fallon cover the rear. I fired off a shot but it went wide, arcing into the river of poop. My next shot hit a Deader in the shoulder. It didn’t even notice, didn’t even flinch at the pain. It just kept running for me. The third shot was clean between its eyes. Fallon dropped one with a slug that ripped from the gun so loud that I swore my ears would never cease ringing.

I glanced behind me to see how close we were to getting everyone up the ladder, but they were having a difficult time coaxing Ella up the darn thing. She kept crying and clutching the wrung.  

“Hurry!” I shouted and then focused back on the third Deader in front of us. Fallon seemed to be waiting until it was closer, but the thing moved so fast. Faster than I could have hoped for.  

“Fallon,” I warned. Was he waiting for an invitation? Did he want to dance?

“Wait,” he commanded, black eyes narrowed.

The Rager got closer, jaw wide and groaning noises dripping from its charcoal mouth. It didn’t have any hair, but it made up for it with long, jagged nails. Nails that just screamed “staff infection.”  He had been dead for a while. I could smell him above the sewage stench.

The Rager was close enough that I could make out the faded design of its t-shirt: Led Zeppelin and something witty about Rock & Roll. Any closer and the Rager would have me for dinner.

“Screw this!” I hissed and shot it through its frontal lobe (extra points for retaining that info from Freshman Biology). Pieces of skull flew at us in an explosion of black blood that looked more like tar than anything. It splattered across us like some sort of inspired hipster painting. I remembered at the last minute to slam my mouth shut and turn away.

“I had that!” Fallon snarled. I ignored him as more Ragers, Lifers this time, made the journey across the muck. It didn’t look like they had mastered the ability to get onto the walk as they reached for us from below. So how had the Deaders done it?

My questions went unanswered as Fallon leapt forward and swung the shotgun around like a golf club. It met the nearest Rager’s skull in a heavy thunk! that sent the monster reeling into the sewage.

“Get to the ladder!” he growled as he reloaded.

“Follow me!” I grabbed his arm and tugged him back towards the ladder.  I wrapped my hands around the warm metal wrung and hauled myself up towards the light. A few hands helped me out of the hole and onto the rough asphalt that burned. The world was painted red and purple like the bruises on the Rager that had grabbed for me in the hallway. It was sunset, thank goodness, because the setting sun was still enough to make my eyes water in pain.

I froze, staring at the ground, willing my eyes to adjust. What if there were more Ragers around? How would we fight them if we couldn’t see? I fought down my panic and tightened my fingers around the gun in my hand. Come on!

 I squinted over to see Fallon heave the metal grate back over the manhole. He furiously rubbed his eyes, but mine were already adjusting to the light. I could see everyone; I could count their heads. Caius had his revolver pointed down the street with Ashlyn cradling Jakey beneath him. Zeke had Laylanni and Jace Andrew had Ella. Micah was with Alexander whispering for him to stop crying. Blaire, Rixon and Samantha were huddled with Arianna, Tobias and James. Shane had the rifle pointing the opposite direction. We’d all made it. We were safe.

I turned back to Fallon but he rounded on me like an angry bull, “This is why we should’ve left last night!”

I was stunned. Was he really going to bring this up while we were exposed in the open? I just stood there gaping at him like a stupid fish. Unsure if I should raise my gun to protect myself.

“Shove off, Fallon,” Tobias growled and stepped between us. If I was surprised before, I was sure as heck blown away at that moment. Tobias never crossed Fallon, and Fallon never crossed Tobias.

Fallon’s face contorted in black rage for a minute, then smoothed over into cool disregard, “Sorry, Toby, didn’t mean to offend your girlfriend.”

Tobias blushed furiously, and I managed a hasty, “I am not his girlfriend!”

Fallon appraised me with his black eyes and shrugged, “Whatever.”

“Um, guys?” Rixon’s voice ripped my attention away from the Kahn Brothers. I looked around at him, noticing for the first time that everyone was in tears. I shoved the guilty feeling back down my throat and looked around at our surroundings.

We were on the street that ran through the middle of town square. The houses and buildings nearby were broken down, ransacked, and utterly deplorable. Cars were in worse condition, some turned on their side, some stripped down to the metal framing. Garbage and debris littered the sidewalks and it smelled like the sewer had followed us through the streets.

Home was gone. Obliterated. Almost like it had never existed in the world. There were no humans, either. Nobody. Not even rotting corpses. It was as though we were the only ones left. And maybe we were. Maybe we were alone in the world. The last survivors of a lost Eden.

It was so quiet. Like a cemetery. Though, I suppose that’s exactly what it was. There was no wind whistling, no leaves rustling. There weren’t even birds chirping or the underlying sound of a hundred people breathing.

“We need to keep moving,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “There could be Ragers around.”

Nobody moved. They all stood like statues from a lost age, surveying their broken kingdom.

The sun dribbled into the edges of the sky and pooled there in golden embers. Twilight beckoned with a warm breeze. We needed to get off the streets before the nighttime settled a dark cloak around us.

I grabbed James from Ariana, and he nestled in against my chest. At least he wasn’t screaming anymore, otherwise we’d attract every Rager in Yuba City. “C’mon, Guys.”

We all shambled along, quiet, slow, horrified. There were no bodies, but when I looked closer there were plenty of bones. They glistened in the waning light. Big bones, small bones, any size you could want. Some even had bits of flesh attached to them.

“I wanna go home, Rowie,” Ella whimpered.

I looked back at her; she was holding Jace Andrew’s hand. “I know, Baby,” I tried for a smile. “We have to do some things first.” Like survive.

Jakob’s eyes got big and round, “but I want to go home, too.”

I turned away from him and glanced at Micah helplessly. He shrugged, “there’s nothing you can do.”

He was wrong. I could keep them alive. And even if it seemed like an impossible task, it was all I had left to offer them.

“City Hall,” Tobias nodded towards a regal looking, marble building. It had fading white walls and the statue of our county’s founder. The majestic fountain was off, but there was water leaking out of its basin. The water was a grotesque myriad of green, brown, and red.

Tobias reached the fountain first and paled. Arianna vomited. I moved closer out of morbid curiosity, but Fallon grabbed my free arm, “Don’t.”

He tugged me away, “Don’t look.” My initial reaction was to be angry, but the look on his face – a mixture of horror and revulsion, stopped me cold. Fallon never let anything affect him.

“It’s locked,” Blaire called from the entryway.

“Any broken windows?” Shane tried to peer into a crack.

“They’re all boarded up,” Rixon answered.

“Can we climb it?” Zeke suggested.

Fallon rolled his eyes, “It’s marble.”

I glared at him for being rude, and handed James to Jace Andrew. Dad once showed me how the Sheriff’s Department taught him to kick in doors. If the door swung inward, then you could kick below the lock and it would weaken. Not that I ever tried it. I mean, I wasn’t a delinquent or anything.

I tried looking for the hinges; if it opened outward then I could kick it all day but it wouldn’t budge. Plus I would probably break my foot. Cursing, I found them with anti-theft mechanisms in place.

“Let’s go somewhere else,” I said.

“No,” Fallon stepped forward, shotgun at the low-ready. “Go get behind cover.”

“Are you stupid?” I demanded.

“Ah c’mon, Man,” Caius drawled. “That only works in the movies.”

Fallon gave him a long look, “this is a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with deer slugs.”

What the heck did that even mean? It was still a stupid idea and he needed to know it. “What happens when the bullet ricochets?”

“Just get behind cover,” he raised the gun.

I considered slamming my gun into his head, but Micah grabbed me and pulled me behind the nearby statue. “Watch the backside. Doesn’t sound attract Ragers?”

I grimaced. He was trying to distract me from rendering Fallon unconscious. It was a good distraction, though; a gunshot in a silent city would most certainly accomplish attraction. Plus, wasn’t this what they did in the movies? Shoot the locks off doors?

The shotgun sounded in a thunder type snap. The door made a groaning sound and Fallon gave a grunt of pain. I spun back toward him. He was on the ground with his hands covering his head. Shrapnel littered the ground, but the door swung outward with a gaping bullet wound.

“Fallon?” Tobias knelt beside his brother with fear written across his face.

“That bloody hurt,” Fallon growled as he heaved himself onto his knees. A deep cut painted his cheek with a dribble of red and he had a matching scratch across his neck. Served him right.

“Hurry!” Zeke was at the door. We all rushed through it, Shane in the front with the rifle at the ready. Micah slammed the door behind us while Fallon shoved a register desk in front of it. It wasn’t like the lock would do us much good now.

I looked around the foyer, one hand hold James, the other holding my .9mm. The inside was extremely dark, since the only light came from cracks in the boards on the windows. Mildew and dampness permeated the air. It was cold. Someone had forgotten to turn off the AC.

“Do you think there’s anyone left?” Grace’s whisper cut across the darkness. I didn’t ask her to clarify.  

“I’m scared,” Alex’s voice echoed down the empty hall.

We all were. What do we do now? I tried to run through basic survival stuff. We had shelter, so we needed food and water, right? We also needed to get a vehicle to take us to San Francisco. Oh and diapers. We definitely needed diapers.

I swallowed down my ominous fear and tip-toed down the entry hall. There was a line of built in receptionist desks that would be helpful for cover fire if the Ragers managed to break in. There were way too many windows for my liking. Too many options for something to go wrong. Call me Crazy for not trusting flimsy plyboard thrown against the panes to prevent a horde.

“Let’s find the stairs. Ragers can’t climb stairs, right?” Caius whispered near my ear. I didn’t know. They certainly hadn’t seemed able to climb onto the ledge in the sewers. None of them followed us up the ladder, right?

“Hey! Don’t move!” a shout cut across the room. I whipped around toward the desks, gun at eye level. Four people were standing behind them, four guns drawn. I shifted James away from them, fear flooding my veins with adrenaline. I’d kill the closest one first then maybe even get the second one before diving behind the nearest desk. But what about the others?

“Put your weapons down!” I told them, biting back my fear. Maybe I could talk them down. Maybe they were friendly. It was too dark to see their faces, but I was fairly positive that two of them were female. Inwardly, I cursed myself for not thinking about other people. In the Underground we only really had to fear Ragers, but out here? People were fighting to survive just the same, right?

“You put your weapons down first!” a male voice called back.

Fallon chuckled softly, and his gun made a menacing cha-chung! as he pumped it. “Here’s the deal. We are willing to shoot. And we know you’re not. So put the weapons down before I put a bloody bullet between your eyes.”

“We have five children with us,” Tobias interjected before Fallon really pissed them off, “One is just a baby!”

I could see the four of them hesitate. As awful as the situation was, no one was willing to kill infants…yet.

“Fine, but put your weapons away, too,” the second male answered.

I recognized his voice. I’d recognize it anywhere.

“Andrew?” I asked.

“Who-” his voice stopped cold as he stepped out of the dark and into a little shaft of light. His green gold eyes widened at the sight of me. His chestnut hair stuck out in wild directions, and his skin was the color of toasted caramel. Andrew Whitehorse. My ex-boyfriend.

“Rowan,” he stared at me in disbelief.

“Who’s Rowan?” one of the girls approached. Blonde, blue-eyed. Two more people followed, a boy I recognized as Titan Cormier (short, thin, tanned) and a girl with a very plain face.

“Rowan, this is Titan Cormier and his girlfriend Shelby Knoxx. And this is my girlfriend Chase Everwood.”

Well this was awkward…

“Now it’s a party,” Fallon muttered under his breath.

“What are you doing here, Andrew?” Micah growled.

“Micah!” Andrew paled. I hid a satisfied smile. Let’s just say that after Andrew broke my heart…Micah broke his nose.

“We didn’t know where else to go…”Chase started.

“I think,” Caius interrupted, “he means ‘why aren’t you fighting with the Army?’”

“We avoided the draft,” Titan smirked, delighted with his own intelligence.

We stared at them horrified. At least Andrew had the decency to look away ashamed. They avoided the draft? Fallon and Shane had tried their hardest to get drafted, and here were four cowards. Proud of their accomplishments.

The silence stretched until Tobias managed, “Do you have supplies? We are just stopping for a day or two. Then we are heading to San Francisco.”

“What’s in San Fran?” Shelby asked.

I didn’t want to tell them, because I knew they’d want to follow. But I certainly had no right to withhold information that could potentially save their lives. “There’s a fortress there.”

“A fortress?” Titan repeated dumbly.

“How are you going to get there?” Andrew’s eyebrows were furrowed together.

“By car.”

“All of you in one car?” Chase looked at me like I was dumb.

I shrugged, irritated, “We’ll figure it out. Comfort isn’t really that big on our list of priorities.”

“You guys are welcome to stay here,” Andrew offered. “We’ve been here for about a week.”

“Thanks,” I told him.

He looked at me for a second too long before saying, “I’ll show you where we sleep.” We all followed him to a room marked “offices.”

What I expected was something akin to mahogany desks and aesthetic antiques, but the offices of our city officials consisted of cramped cubicles and rolling chairs. Andrew showed us their four cubicles with blankets, pillows, and clothing strewn all around it.

“You’re free to choose wherever you want.”

“Thanks,” Micah said in a tone full of dismissal. “We’ve got it from here.”

Andrew looked like he wanted to argue, but he had no reason to stay. So he just walked off while Micah watched him go, hatred in his golden eyes. I wanted to tell him to leave off. That I was so over Andrew Whitehorse. But Micah had every right to be angry. He was my honorary big brother after all.

We picked out an island of cubicles, and the boys went to work turning them to face each other. I took the children to the restrooms and then down to the kitchens for dinner. Of course the refrigerator wasn’t well stocked aside from a six-pack of beer and cans of cola. I rolled my eyes and moved aside the remains of chicken wings. This was going to be fun.

“Salad?” Grace wrinkled her nose at me as I plopped a container of lettuce and greens on the table.

“Salad and deli meat,” I smiled at her. “Oh, and some cheese.”

Other than that, there was very little food left. It looked like we would have to go pillaging in the morning. My stomach growled, but I let the kids eat as much as they could. Being hungry was going to have to be something we got used to. Comfort was not a top priority.

“We were planning on getting food, tomorrow. We were scared to try and go out again, since last time we tried, Titan almost got bitten.” Andrew’s voice caused me to look up from trying to make James eat spinach. He was standing in the doorway, hands shoved into his pockets. Feet barefoot. My heart did a stupid little flip flop out of habit and I shoved it away.

“You never struck me as a coward,” I told him. It was pleasurable to see his reaction, like I’d slapped him.

“Chase wanted to run away,” he said helplessly. “And I couldn’t just leave her alone.”

“Ah, I see,” but I didn’t. I didn’t see at all.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, dejected, “I don’t expect you to understand, Rowan.”

“Good. Then we’re in agreement.” But I wasn’t sure if we were still talking about the draft.

“You must think low of me.”

“Incredibly low.”

He stepped closer to me, “I’m sorry. About everything. I was an idiot.”

“An idiot?” I laughed in incredulity, “Now that is a sorry excuse.”

“I know,” he pleaded with me, “I am worse…I-”

“You are a cheater and a coward, Andrew Whitehorse. And I would be just as happy to never see your face again. But now I have to, so we’re just gonna have to live with it.”

“Is there anything,” he begged, “anything I can do? For you to forgive me?”

I appraised him. He looked miserable. A part of me just wanted to forgive him, but then a part of me wanted him to hurt like I had. Was I being petty? We were living in a zombie wasteland after all. Didn’t everyone deserve a chance?

I was spared an answer by Tobias’ voice wafting into the room, “It sounds to me like you don’t deserve her forgiveness.” He appeared behind Andrew.

“Hello, Tobias,” Andrew said coolly. Even before the disastrous breakup, Tobias and Andrew never got along, which was surprising since Tobias was so sweet-tempered. Tobias got along with everyone.

“Is he giving you a hard time, Rowe?” Tobias sat down next to Alex.

I looked at Andrew again. He looked extremely uncomfortable. Oh how the mighty hath fallen. “No.”

“Good,” Tobias smiled. “So we need to talk about tomorrow.”

“I was thinking that a couple of us should go food hunting while Fallon and Shane find us some cars.” I coaxed another piece of cheese into James’ mouth. He glared at me with eyes that understood too much for his age. Those glaring eyes promised that I was going to have a mess to change in the next couple hours. I wrinkled my nose at the thought. Baby vengeance was the worst.

“Fallon won’t like that idea at all,” Tobias frowned.

“Yes, but those two are the only ones who know how to steal vehicles. Fallon spent a day in Juvie, after all.”

“He was there to talk about interning…you know what? Nevermind. I am sure Fallon and Shane can go steal us some cars while we go grocery shopping,” Tobias gave me a winning smile.

“We can help,” Andrew offered. “Titan knows how to hotwire cars. He and I can join Fallon and Shane.”

“There, that way Fallon has a small army to take on any Rager,” I told Tobias with a satisfied smirk at my genius.

Tobias laughed at me, “Very well. Who will go food hunting? And we need to know how to get in and out of here.”

“Here, let’s sketch out a plan…”

Weak morning light slipped between the cracks in the plyboard as I laced my gray tennis shoes. Maybe I could find a pair of boots while we were out. Rubbing the rest of the sleep from my eyes, I ruffled Grace’s hair and grabbed my .9mm. A holster would be nice too.

Tobias, Micah, Caius and Zeke were waiting for me outside. The morning was already too warm. It wouldn’t be until late October that Yuba City started cooling down. If our plan went well, we wouldn’t be here for that. Not that Autumn in YC was anything to cherish. The leaves turned brown and fell in the same day.

Shane, Fallon, Andrew, and Titan were already out car hunting. Everyone else stayed back to watch the kids in case something went wrong. Something like us not returning. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but this was our first time venturing out in the unknown. The fear was enough to destroy a person. Luckily, I was wired wrong, and the fear just filled me with heaps of adrenaline.

The streets were still eerie in their silence as we picked our way through a nearby 7 Eleven. The lack of Ragers was a little disconcerting. Where were they? Biding their time? Lurking in the shadows? It was one thing to know where your enemy was, it was another thing entirely to know your enemy was out there…and just not know where.

“This place is a mess,” Zeke kicked a box of lollipops. He was right. There was barely anything on the shelf; it was all littered on the floor. Trash and blood clung to the walls, and a couple aisles were even turned on their sides. Apparently lots of people avoided the draft, that or the Ragers had developed a hunkering for Twinkies and Coke.

“What about the old people?” Caius asked as he inspected a bottle of beer. I snatched it out of his hands and gave him a look my mom would be proud of.

“What about them?” Tobias grimaced as he wiped something brown on his pants.

“You know, everyone over forty five. Where are they? Where did they go?”

“Or the people not fit enough to be drafted?” Zeke added, jumping on the bandwagon.

Uncomfortable silence followed his words. I hadn’t given them any thought. It was easier to pretend we were the only ones left. That would be ignorant of me, though. And the boys’ questions were itching my mind.

“Maybe they made it to the safehouses?” I said. “They could be in San Fran.”

Caius shoved wipes into his bag. “Or they’ve turned into cannibals and are waiting for some poor unsuspectin’ kids to wander into their – ow!”

I chucked another box of Twinkies at him. “Shut up Caius.”

“Let’s just hurry up and grab some stuff. This is freaking me out,” Tobias packed a bag of diapers into the backpack Shelby had loaned him.

“There’s hardly any food,” Micah ruefully toed a black banana.

“Unless you count junk as food,” Zeke tossed a bag of chips into his pack. “I guess beggars can’t be choosers.”

“We need to go through a house,” Caius said as he peered out the entrance.

I looked up at Tobias in dread. It was perfectly reasonable, but it made me feel like a thief. Sneaking around in a stranger’s house? Scavengers, forced to hide and snatch whatever food we could.

“Aren’t there some rich people homes over there?” Caius pointed with his revolver toward the adjacent street.

“I think it’s a gated community,” Micah nodded. “We would have better luck there.”

I shouldered my bag and stepped out onto the street. The heat off the black top was stifling as I moved down the middle of the street. No need to stick close to the store fronts. Not if they could be housing the undead behind their glass panes.

The River Valley Gated Community gleamed through the wavering heat lines. The gate was bent in on itself like someone had driven their Hummer through it. The streets were cleaner, though, and didn’t smell like the inside of a sewage tunnel. Still, there were no Ragers.

In a town of sixty thousand, the lack of anybody was a little disconcerting.

I chose the first house. It had a brick façade and a lawn that looked like it had once been manicured and pristine. Now it had dandelions and weeds crawling across the paved walkway. The front door was still locked, but there was an inconspicuous flower pot on the porch that practically said, “Hidden Key for when Judy locks herself out again.”

The door didn’t creak like they do in the movies. It swung inward with a soft whooshing sound and I stumbled back.

“Crap,” I breathed out.

“You could say that,” Zeke looked like he wanted to throw up.

A body was splayed across the foyer, arms out like it had been reaching for the door. There wasn’t much left of it. Not even enough to really tell if it was a guy or a girl. Bones poked out like hungry teeth around the rotting meat.

“Is it anyone we know?” Micah whispered. I cast about for a sharp or heavy object to smash its head. Most of its brain seemed gone, but I didn’t want to take chances. I remembered the news stories about people dying and coming back as Ragers.

“Don’t do that, man,” Caius gently pushed him toward the kitchen. “It won’t help anythin’.” He pulled out a knife from somewhere inside and came back to the foyer to finish the corpse.

I shook my head; I hadn’t been looking too close. I had enough of shooting people I knew. A flash of red hair tried forcing its way into my mind, but Micah and Tobias were already moving into the kitchen.

I followed and hit a wall of stench, that the body had been concealing. Rotten milk amongst other things clung to the air in a stubborn refusal to drift through the window and escape. Instead, the spoiled food permeated the air in a hot, sticky soup that sent my gag reflex into overdrive.

 “Grab anything you can fit,” I called from underneath my shirt. “Preferably, non-perishables.”

“From the smell of it, that’s all that’s left,” Micah gagged as he opened the fridge.

“Hey fruit cake is supposed to last forever, right?” Zeke joked as he held up an awful looking cake.

“Nah Man, that stuff will kill you long before starvation will,” Caius shuddered.

“Is that right?” Zeke smiled, “Does it work the same on Ragers?”

“I’m sure we can find a way to outfit my revolver into shooting fruit cake pellets…”

I shook my head, smiling in spite of myself as I took off down the hall in search of blankets and extra clothing. The closest bedroom was fairly clean and looked like it belonged to a teenage boy with a rebellious taste for Death Metal. I tried not to think too much about who might have lived there as I stuffed his clothes into a gym bag I found under the bed. I even packed his superman boxers.

The next room was the master bedroom. A king sized bed took up most the space with a giant vanity competing for second place. Shelves of books lined the walls, making me homesick for my room. I shoved the nostalgia away as I explored.

It was clean with lots of drawers filled with frilly perfumes and striped ties. I packed the clothing (not the ties) into the gym bag and shoved some blankets and towels in for good measure. It wasn’t like anyone was missing them.

Next I moved to the vanity to see if there was anything of value there, but a noise behind me froze my fingers midair. I spun around, gun raised. The door to the bathroom was ajar, revealing a woman sprawled on the tile floors, her blood congealed into a sticky puddle that stained the edges of the carpet. Kneeling over her, was a man in a tattered suit and tie. His shoulders shook as though he was sobbing.

But he wasn’t a man. And he wasn’t sobbing.

When I had spun around, the gym bag swung wide and smashed into a slew of perfume bottles, clanging onto the floor in the loudest sound I had ever heard.

The Rager jerked his head up, gore oozing from his bottom lip and spilling back onto the dead woman. It moaned and got to its feet with surprising speed, then lunged at me.

I threw my body to the side as it slammed into the vanity in a scattering of glass and perfume. I tripped on the thick carpet and rolled as it jumped to the floor. I hit the edge of the bed as it grabbed me with fingers that felt like they were covered in maple syrup. I brought the gun around and shot at it. The first shot flew wide and hit him in the shoulder. I was forced to kick it back as it gnashed its teeth, my feet slipping on its rotten skin. The second shot cracked in my ear, but this time I didn’t miss. The shot went right through its head, and it slumped on top of me.

“Gah!” I scrambled out from beneath it. Ragers reeked of the nastiest things you could think of, and I knew I would have to burn my clothes to get the stench out. Except I was suddenly back at Laylanni’s house with a Rager boy leaping for my throat.

“Max!” Laylanni screamed and it cut through me as I pulled the trigger back. “Max! NO!”

“Rowan!” Micah shouted, fear tangible in his voice.

“I’m okay,” I called back, hands braced on my knees, willing myself not to vomit on the Persian rug. “I’m okay.”

 I moved to the window, trying to focus on nature to calm me, but what I saw made did nothing to calm me whatsoever. A dozen or so Ragers were picking their way across the yard. All dressed in business suits like they were on their way to a funeral.

Our funeral.

“Crap!” I hissed and hurled the curtains shut. “Crap, crap, crap, crap!” I grabbed the bags and bolted out the door. “We need to get out of here!”

“You don’t say,” Zeke said from the front window, his voice dripping in sarcasm. There were even more Ragers coming up the front lawn.

“Well on the bright side, we know where all the Ragers are,” Caius backed away from the kitchen window.

“We’re trapped,” Tobias drew a meat cleaver from the kitchen counter.

“There’s too many to fight,” Micah warned him.

“Well, aren’t you all balls of positivity,” Zeke locked the front door for good measure, sidestepping the dead woman.

“The roof!” I pushed Tobias towards the stairs. “They can’t climb!” We all raced up the stairs. I burst into what looked like an office room with mahogany littered with paperwork. I went straight to the window and heaved it open. The heat instantly blasted my face, but I was already reaching up to the roof tiles. They burned under my hands as I hauled myself onto the roof. It slanted to the east toward the neighboring rooftop, but even at its lowest point, it was still a daunting distance off the ground.  

“We’re still trapped,” Caius gave me a long look like it was all my fault.

“They can wait forever down there,” Zeke added.

“Suppose we could call in Med Evac?” Caius asked him.

“Think we can jump from roof to roof?” I eyed the distance between our house and the next one. The distance didn’t seem too significant. Big houses, small yards.

“Worth a try,” Micah shrugged, “I mean it’s not like we have a lot of options.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Zeke tried for a light tone.

“You fall, break your legs, and the Ragers eat you nice and slow,” Caius said.

“Shut up. I’ll go first.” I shoved my gun into the backpack and tightened it across my back, hugging the gym bag to my chest. This was where long jump in high school came in handy, I suppose. I wish my dad was here so I could thank him for forcing me to try it. I took off running and leapt. (Now would probably be a bad time to tell you how awful I was at long jump…) I hit the roof hard, too hard. Pain lanced up my left heel, but I didn’t miss a beat. I kept running to keep the momentum up and leapt onto the next roof.  This time I rolled on impact, the cans jamming painfully into my back.

I heard Tobias land beside me and I kept going, knowing they would catch up. The next jump was much bigger than the previous ones, and I hesitated. I shouldn’t have hesitated.

Tobias landed like a cat on the roof and I tossed the gym bag across to him midstride. Then I jumped. I knew the moment my feet left the roof that I wasn’t going to make it. My hands hit the roof hard, but that was the only part of my body that landed. I slide backwards as gravity grabbed me around the ankles. In a panic, I grabbed onto the gutter thingy. It groaned under my weight and pulled away from the roof.

“Rowan!” Micah screamed, but my hands were already slipping. I let go and fell onto the pavement, rolling to deaden the impact, but blood still sprang up from a gash on my knee. Maybe it would leave a cool scar, and I would be able to tell a thrilling, exaggerated story on how I got it.

Cursing my injuries, I used the wall to heave myself off the ground. This side of the street was silent. I limped around the corner of the house and glanced down the road. Ragers were running toward me like rabid dogs, hot on the hunt.

“Crap!” I tore the backpack off and plunged my hand in for the gun. The Ragers got closer. Where was that stupid…

“Aha!” My fingers clamped around the metal and I ripped it free. But the Ragers were too close. I grabbed the backpack and took off sprinting. I think I watched a movie once about the zombie apocalypse, where the number one rule was “cardio.” If I ever met the writers, I would kiss them. They knew what they were talking about.

My feet pounded the pavement as Ragers started coming in from all sides. The silent street was suddenly alive with moaning Ragers. Gee, were they all just having a block party? Were all the people in Yuba City here? I was too busy fleeing to even fear for my life. Of course that’s what was fueling my Olympic speed.

 “We need to get back to City Hall!” I called up to the boys who were tracking my progress on the roof of a nearby house. They seemed unsure of whether to jump down and follow me, or proceed along the rooftops.

“Then they’ll know where we’re staying!” Micah shouted back as he jumped to a neighboring roof.

He was right, of course, but I could see City Hall and it was beckoning.

Frustrated, I cut across toward the houses. I knew I wouldn’t have the time to climb one, so I shot inside, only pausing to make sure I wasn’t walking into a nest of Ragers. It was clear. I bolted to the kitchen and ripped the stove away from the wall. I found the gas line and wrenched it open. Then I raced down to the living room and found a match. Understand, I had never done anything of this sort before, so I was hoping that I wasn’t about to die a really stupid death.

I lit the match, tossed it in the kitchen and barreled out the doorway.

The house exploded. I was knocked over; skinning my other knee in the process, but the distraction was enough to pause the Ragers; advance. I rolled onto my hands and heaved myself up. Enthralled by the flames. The boys were sprinting towards me accompanied by Fallon, Andrew, Titan, and Shane.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Micah shouted in hot fury. His anger shook me out of my momentary daze.

“Berate me later!” I spat, “We need to move!”

Tobias helped me up and we headed for City Hall. CA BOOM! A second blast knocked me onto the asphalt (the asphalt and I were becoming best friends). But strong arms were already hauling me to my feet and shoving me around the fire and toward City Hall.

I looked back, but all I could see was a world painted in red and white.