Silver Horizons (Silver Horizons #1)

Silver Horizons | 4

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." – REM, It's the End of the World As We Know It

 

Kyle and I stayed at the Waters household for a little over a week. They told us that we were welcome to stay, and Kyle told me that it was the best we were going to get, and that we should take them up on their offer. So the morning after we got there, they made up a bedroom for us to share, and we’d been there ever since.

            It was fairly easy getting along with Ivan and Paula, but getting along with Forest just wasn’t possible. He thought he was the smartest in the room at all times, and he always had to show up and one-up anyone who dared to “challenge” him.

            There was barely any talk of zombies, which was obviously the main problem, and only when somebody wanted to go outside was the word “shotgun” murmured. For it supposedly being the end of the world, everything seemed to be normal.

            A little too normal.

            It was after that week did Kyle and I learn why things had seemed to be so sunflowers and dandelions. Ivan and Paula had devised a plan to get us to safety. At first, we thought they were being kind and giving us supplies just for me and Kyle to get to the quarantine, but we soon learned the catch.

            We had to bring Forest.

            Now, it wasn’t a big deal to bring him along. It really wasn’t. It wasn’t a big deal until he made a gigantic fuss over it, saying that he didn’t want to go.

            “Mom,” Forest whined, “please don’t make me go with them.” We were eating dinner, and it was then that Ivan and Paula decided to spring the gigantic news on us. It started out as them telling Kyle and I that we were going to be on our merry way, and then it turned into them telling us that Forest was going too.

            “Now, now,” Paula said, “be reasonable, Forest. We’re going this for your own good.”

            “My own good?!” he shrieked. “You’re making me go with—“ he cringed, pausing to look at Kyle and I, “—them.”

            “Yes, we’re making you go with them, the two very nice teenagers that are willing to take you across the country to a quarantine that will save your life,” Ivan said.

            Well, I wouldn’t take it that far, but Kyle and I barely had any room to argue, so we simply went along with it no matter how much we despised the idea after Forest pitched a fit.

            “Ugh,” Forest groaned, shoving meat into his mouth and chewing slowly, glaring at all of us in turn. “You guys are annoying, and I hate all of you.”

            “You don’t hate us, Forest,” Paula said. “You know that we’re doing this because we love you.”

            “Mom, why can’t I just stay here with you and Dad? We’ve survived this long! No zombies have come busting down our doors! No, instead we get two helpless children invading our home and eating our food.”

            From my peripheral, I could see Ivan visibly shaking. “Elijah. Kyle,” he said, looking toward us with an apology written all over his face. “You’re going to have to excuse my son.” That was a term that had been thrown around a lot this past week. “He doesn’t know what’s good for him.”

            “Dad,” Forest ground out, “I know what’s good for me. And that’s not leaving the house with them.”

            “For—“