Lovers And the Dead

1

I live close enough to home that some weekends I come home from college. This is one of those weekends. Just a normal do laundry while hanging out with mom, dad, and my brother Jack kind of weekend.

We heard a huge bang that vibrated the entire house, and then several more. "Mom! Dad!" I call from the laundry room off the kitchen. "What was that?"

My brother Jack comes barreling from his room, "It was a blast! The airport and a few other buildings were hit!"

Mom and dad were outside when the blasts hit, when they come into their eyes are bleeding, blood trickles from their ears and nostrils as well.

"Jack call 911. Mom? Dad? Can you hear me?" I ask them.

Mom closes her eyes and falls to the ground, dad shortly after her. I hear a scream and realize it's me. I drop down checking for a pulse first on mom, she has none, then dad, same.

"Jack," I cry, "They're gone. What do we do?"

"I can't get ahold of the paramedics." He sets his phone down and picks it up as it starts ringing again. "Hey man, my parents are dead. Yours too? Shit what do we do? Just come over to my house, my sister is here too."

"Who was that?" I sob.

"My best friend Matt, he's a senior with me in high school." Jack explains. "His whole family just died in front of him, same way mom and dad did."

"What do we do with their bodies?" I ask.

Jack inhales deeply, "Let's put them in the garage for now, okay?"

I nod still sobbing when the front door bursts open. My tears stop as a see a blonde god of a man in front of me. He's wearing a tight black t-shirt and jeans. He does a double take at me then rushes to where I'm squatted next to my parents.

"We're moving them to the garage," Jack says. "You can stay here with us."

Matt helps Jack pick up dad, while I drag mom from her arms. My crying picks up, just not nearly as bad. I wish I had gone to school for nursing instead of just taking the core courses. I mean it was only my first year but still nothing I've learned from school will help me in this situation.

"Thank you, Matt." I choke out, "I'm Rosemary."

He brings me in for a tight hug, "I'm sorry about your parents."

"I'm sorry for your loss too." He nods.

Jack comes back into the kitchen, "Good you've met. Shit, though." He looks at Matt, "You think we're about to have a zombie situation?"

Matt looks tense and nods, "I saw we board up windows and hit the grocery store fast."

Jack nods, "Yeah let's take the minivan, we're going to need to pick up boards."

I grab the keys wiping my tears from my face handing them to Jack. I see Jack pull out a handgun from one of the kitchen drawers, "Matt get the rifle from the closet."

He nods disappearing, "What about me?" I ask.

Jack hands me a kitchen knife, "You shouldn't need it, we'll protect you."

We have to go through the garage where we just put mom and dad to get to the minivan, I feel so bad for leaving them just laying there near the garage door. But what do we do until the cops start responding?

Jack and Matt get into the front while I get in the back. "Walmart?" I say.

Jack nods, "Yeah that's the closest." He agrees.

He floors it, the roads are empty right now, except for crashed cars and bodies. There are so many bodies, all died the same way mom and dad did. I keep my tears in check, I need to be strong right now.

In Walmart we load up a cart each, water, cans, toilet paper, batteries, flashlights, camping equipment. Walmart itself is chaos, there are people everywhere doing the same thing. Everyone is just grabbing items and running. We decide to do the same, even though it's so wrong.

Our next stop is Lowes, we grab wood and tools that could be used as weapons and get back to the house. I unload and organize supplies while they board up all the windows on the first floor and secure the doors.

"What do we do with mom and dad?" I ask, "I think we should try and bury them."

Jack and Matt exchange a look, "Sure sis let's bury them."

I grab the shovels and open the garage door picking a spot in the front lawn and start digging. All three of us take turns until we have a big enough grave for both of them.

"Even if they reanimated, they wouldn't be able to get out right?" I say, I've watched tons of zombie movies, I should know what to do.

Matt shrugs, "I'm not sure."

"Let's go shower before the water gets turned off." Jack mutters heading back to the garage.

I go to mom and dad's shower, I watch the mud wash off and fresh tears run down my cheeks. I collapse onto the floor, sobs wracking my body. I'm not even upset when Matt joins me in the shower picking me up and holding me while we both cry for the loss of our parents.