UnEarthed

Chapter 17

Kenzy pulls up to her family's house and as her anxiety begins to creep in, she takes a deep breath. It has been a few months since she has seen them and she does not know what they will say about her breaking her promise of not coming every other month. She gets out of the car, walks up to the door and knocks.

Her uncle Tom answers and when he sees his niece standing there, he immediately pulls her into her arms and hugs her tightly. "Kenzy!"

"Yeah, sorry it took me so long to come back."

"That's okay." He exclaims with his arms still wrapped around her.

"Who is it, honey?" Kenzy hears her aunt's voice and Tom releases his grip from her.

"Hi." Kenzy says and waits for Angie to respond. She watches as tears fill up in Angie's eyes and immediately tries to disperse any extra emotion. "Oh please don't cry, Angie."

It is too late, Angie begins sobbing as she runs to Kenzy and throws herself into her arms. "Oh I thought we'd never see you again."

"I promised you I'd come back. I just couldn't get back as soon as I hoped."

Angie wipes her eyes and laughs at herself for crying so hard. "Well you're here now. Are you hungry? I was in the middle of making dinner." Without waiting for an answer, Angie takes Kenzy by the hand and leads her to the kitchen.

Kenzy takes a seat at the island counter next to Tom while Angie tends to the food on the stove.

"Hailey and Brett are going to be so excited to see you." Angie adds as she stirs the noodles in the pot.

"Where are they?" Kenzy asks, suddenly realizing their absence and looks around the room.

"They are at a lock-in at the church. They will be back tomorrow." Tom answers.

A sick feeling develops in the pit of Kenzy's stomach. She knows tonight may be the last night she sees her family and Hailey and Brett aren't even here.

"Oh, I can't stay the night. I only came to visit tonight."

Angie whips around, nearly knocking the pot of noodles off the stove.

"Kenzy Lynn Galetto! You are not going to show up here after months of being gone and only stay a few hours, just to disappear again! Hailey and Brett will be devastated."

Kenzy stares at her aunt in disbelief. She has never been yelled at like that by her before. She knows she cannot stay the night with them but arguing with Angie may be a death wish. She decides to play along with her for now. The thought of lying to her family kills her but she has no choice. She will let them think she is staying and sneak off when they are preoccupied. "Okay, I'm sorry."

"Good." Angie feels somewhat prideful in scolding Kenzy. She turns her attention back to the dinner while Tom catches Kenzy up on the time she has missed.

After dinner, Kenzy helps Angie clean up and then they sit with Tom in the living room, each drinking a beer. Tom watches television while Angie and Kenzy talk. They mainly talk about Kenzy's cousins. Angie tells her about Hailey's little boyfriend at school and her first Girl Scout meeting and how well Brett is doing in karate. Angie suddenly changes the subject.

"Did you ever make it to Georgia?"

Kenzy was hoping she had forgotten about that but figures she better make up something. "Oh... yeah, I drove out there but the storage shed was auctioned off a long time ago."

"I figured that much." Angie sips her beer.

"Yeah..." Kenzy breathes a sigh of relief. Angie should not bring that up again. If only she could tell Angie about her father's storage shed and the zombies, it would make her life so much easier. Doing that would put her family's life in danger; just another burden of being Kenzy Galetto.