The Town of Last Haven: A Zombie Novel

Part 4

Through the night, Austin debated between crying or screaming, but neither would help the situation--he just sat there in the book nook room with his brother and sisters and tapped his knee with his fingers.

Nine to ten, ten to eleven, eleven to twelve--Austin wasn't one much for faith, but he was praying that he was wrong, that he didn't see his parents walking down the street in the horde of the dead--the walkers, the zombies, them, whatever they were.

Austin wanted to be wrong--so wrong, but he saw what he saw what he saw. 

Julia sighed in quickly and opened her blue eyes. She still had their dad's gun in hand, and Austin swallowed hard. He didn't want to face life without... without their dad.

"Hey," Julia whispered to Austin. She looked around, listened for any sort of sound--moaning, creaking, shattering of glass, and heard nothing. "We've survived the night."

"Yeah," Austin said quietly. "Looks like we did."

Julia cracked her neck from side to side. The others were waking up now, too, Clarise's head and Trent's head both resting on Natalie's legs. Out of the five of them, Natalie was little Miss Motherly--proud to be like their second mother.

"Are we dead yet?" Trent asked quickly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"No, we're not dead, bro." Austin stood to stretch his sore muscles, so tense after last night. "We're alive, so are mom and dad, and we should... be... happy." Austin didn't meet his brother's eyes, only glancing to Julia, who had a curious Nancy Drew look on her face.

"You three stay here. Austin and I'll go downstairs and bring back some things to eat and drink."

Clarise stood from the sofa and quietly went back into the bedroom. The shades leaked sunlight, but she didn't pull them up, even as she peered through the slits.

"What do your elf eyes see?" Julia asked, quoting Aragorn.

Clarise wet her lips. "I see dead people," she said, inadvertently quoting The Sixth Sense--their whole family watched a lot of movies. "I see them... but I don't see a whole lot of them."

"If we're stuck here without mom and dad..." Natalie tapered off. "They didn't come home last night, did they?" She swallowed hard, and Julia glanced to Austin as he turned his back on them. She knew something was up, but she didn't want to call him out on this. Not now, not yet.

"No, guess they didn't." Julia cleared her throat, checking the bullets still loaded in the gun. "Maybe they're still at the mayor's house?" she suggested.

"Um, yeah." Clarise swallowed hard. "Yeah, they could be there still. I'm sure the mayor has guns--everything needed to protect them, right?" Clarise cracked her neck from side to side, and only now did Julia realize Austin was no longer with them.

"We'll go get food," Julia repeated. "You three stay here." Julia hesitated between giving the gun to Natalie or taking the gun with her. That is, until Natalie told her to take the gun--after all, out of the five of them Julia had the most skill with guns. Besides their dad, of course.

Julia quietly hurried downstairs, seeing Austin in the kitchen looking up at the skylight--the only light showing in the room. Austin had always been the suffer in silence type, but Julia knew he was crying. She looked worried--something was wrong.

"Austin? Are you... crying?" Julia didn't know what to say, how to console him. "You've been quiet since last night. What did you see? Did you... see..." Julia couldn't finish the question--she already knew.

"Julia, don't tell Trent or Clarise this, okay? They're too young to know about this." Austin brushed his tears away, but still they came. "Tell Natalie another time... when Trent and Clarise aren't around." Yeah, like that would happen.

"You saw them..." Julia said, her throat dry. "You saw mom and dad, didn't you?" Her face paled, went blank of all color. Even her hair turned whiter. Not like Bride-of-Frankenstein white, just... just a few shades paler than normal--fear could do that to a person. "Didn't you?" Julia repeated herself.

Austin turned to Julia with tears sliding down his cheeks. Julia couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him cry.

"Yeah," Austin said quietly. "Yeah, I saw mom and dad." Austin brushed his nose with his shirtsleeve. "...and they weren't creatures with beating hearts... if you catch what I'm saying."

Julia was crying silently now, nodding twice. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I know. I won't tell Trent or Clarise, but Natalie has a right to know."

And it was the first time in a great long while that Austin threw his arms around Julia and cried into her shoulder. "I miss them," Austin said through sobs.

"I miss them too, Austin. I miss them, too."