Zac, Zara and Zombies

Part 7

Zara

“Say your prayers, little one. Don’t forget, my son, to include everyone,” Mum said with a sigh.

“I’m not little, I’m almost a man,” Zac grumbled, but he was younger and littler than me so I smiled in the dark.

Mum shut the light off and headed downstairs.

I crept out of bed to the head of the stairs. Something was up and I wanted to know what. Mum wasn’t usually so sad.

Heavy footsteps.

“Shhh!” I hissed at Zac. He sounded like an elephant stomping across the floor.

“Another one today,” I heard Mum say. She sounded like she was crying. “That’s the entire United States now. Either something is killing them all off or they’re going crazy and imagining mythical creatures.”

“It could be magic,” Dad said, his voice soothing. “Some sort of magic that makes them think there are fantastical creatures.”

Mum laughed through her tears. “Mermaids, dragons and zombie armies? Anuar! They don’t exist.”

“Dragons and mermaids do exist. They can control people with magic. As a child, I heard stories…”

“Stories! I heard stories of Snow White and dwarves, princes and dragons, Peter Pan and Never Never Land. Silly stories that mean nothing. No, I have heavy thoughts tonight. The moon moved and the Earth is dying, but something else is taking over.”

“It sounds like a silly dream, like you had when you were a child. I know how to tire you out so you don’t have such nightmares…” Dad chuckled.

I tried not to retch on the carpet. Mum would only make me clean it if I threw up. But they were OLD! Twenty six! And Mum wasn’t having any more children. What use was sex without children? A waste of time and energy, I thought.

Mum slapped something. “It reminds me of a song I liked, back before the moon moved:

“Hush little baby, don't say a word,

“And never mind that noise you heard,

“It's just the beast under your bed,

“In your closet, in your head.”

She sighed. “If we didn’t have the kids, I’d apply for the resources to check it out. We’re so isolated here, it’s hard to know what’s going on anywhere else. If something is killing us off, we need to know so we can protect ourselves.”

“If it means so much to you, we can leave the kids with someone else – your parents, even. I won’t let you go alone.”

I looked into Zac’s wide, horrified eyes. I grabbed his arm and dragged him into my room so we could talk.

“Mum and Dad want to dump us and go off to chase dragons and zombies?” Zac’s voice went up so high I thought he sounded like a girl.

“She never loved us, you know. We were just what she needed to have so she could marry Dad,” I replied quietly. “She had the bare minimum and no more. I mean, what does that say? Just like everyone at school says – she doesn’t care enough to help with repopulation. She cares about her job and Dad. If we died, she’d probably just be happier, just her and Dad.”

Zac looked resolved. “We should go find those dragons and zombies. We could investigate them – I’m good at hunting! I hit a kangaroo with a boomerang once and it came back!”

I snorted. “Adam threw the boomerang back to you, you idiot. And you only hit the kangaroo by accident. I can catch fish with my hands.”

“Yeah, but there might not be anywhere to catch them and then we’d need me to hunt,” Zac replied defensively.

I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay. Pack your hunting gear and I’ll pack mine. One pack each – if it doesn’t fit, we can’t take it. Don’t forget your sleeping bag. We’ll leave tonight, when Mum and Dad go up to sleep. Pack and get ready – it won’t be long.”