Zombie Apocolypse? As If Being A Teen Wasn't Hard Enough Already!

Chapter 1; Heartbeats Fast.

Lub dub. Lub dub. The heart beat goes off, jerking me out of my restless sleep. Restless. That's about the only kind of sleep I get anymore. I jump off the top bunk and land, quietly, on the balls of my feet. Since the apocalypse started I've gotten better at moving around silently, gracefully. Without even looking to see if Dakota had waken or not I rush down to the control room. I don't bother with the stairs. Instead I use the railings.

“It's five,” Hunter Hayes tells me, “Not one Kitten. Not him.” He brushes a brunette strand of hair out of my eyes.

“He could have found others,” I insist. He looks at me with pain in his blue eyes. It's been a month since Matt, my best friend, disappeared. The two of us had gone out on a routine med supply run. There were no zombies anywhere around so we split up. I went to get him and he was just gone. No sign of a struggle or anything.

“It doesn't matter,” a harsh voice, which belongs to my ex boyfriend, Conner, says from the staircase. It's a long story how I ended up living in an old college dorm with my ex and a bunch of other young adults. I'll tell it later. “You're staying behind on this one.”

“Who the hell died and made you leader?” I snap at him. Another set of footsteps on the stairs brings down Chris. He's the oldest on the team and the one that we unofficially elected leader. Chris was like my big brother even before the world went to hell. But we're closer now. Killing zombies together is a good bonding experience.

“No one did,” Chris says, “He's going to shut up and go wake up Kreed and Bo.” Conner does as he is told. Hunter, Chris, and I watch him go back upstairs. “How many do we have?”

“Five,” Hunter replies.

“Good then five of us should be enough.” I double take. Did he just say five?

“Five Chris?” I ask, “Is Conner staying?” He shakes his head. “Well I know you aren't. So who is?” He gives me that look. “No! I'm not staying here! That could be him! I have to go! I have to! I'm the last person he saw! What if he doesn't recognize you?”

“We'll take that chance,” he says as the others come down the stairs, “But you need to stay. You need sleep.”

“I told you so,” Conner says. I jump to attack him but a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist. He looks scared. He knows I can kill him with my bare hands and I won't feel anything. The arms holding me back turn me. I look into the blue eyes of my favorite ginger. Ed Sheeran.

“I'm going to take her back upstairs,” he says in his British accent. Chris nods and comes over to kiss me goodnight. It's isn't a real kiss. It's just a kiss on the cheek. The others do the same. When Conner's turn comes I spit at him. He nods and barely touches my arm. Ed and I watch as they grab their weapons and leave. When they're gone he slowly lets go of me. I'm not going to run after them though. All of the excitement leaves my body and I'm too tired. Ed seems to realize this because he picks me up bridal style and carries me up the stairs.

We're careful not to wake Jane when we go back in. He lays me gently in the bottom bunk (Jane has the single bed on the other side of the room). “Scoot over,” Ed tells me. I know what's going on now. He does this a lot when I can't sleep. On nights when he's gone Hunter takes his place. Ed crawls into bed next to me and I lay my head on his shoulder.

“Rae!” Jane suddenly yells. I roll over Ed (literally) and run to her side.

“Shh. I'm right here,” I whisper to her. She holds tight to my hand until her breathing calms. “You alright?” She nods then spots Ed behind me.

“What's going on?” she asks.

“There was a heartbeat,” I begin, “Well five actually. Chris, Bo, Hunter, Conner, and Kreed went. They made me stay back so Ed came up to help me get back to sleep.”

“Will both of you get over here already?” Ed says exasperatedly, “I got to get the both of you asleep again before I go mad with worry.” We laugh at that and quickly crawl into the bunk on either side of him. “Right then. Now that we've got that sorted what shall I sing tonight loves?”

“Lego House,” I whisper. It's my favorite of his songs. It doesn't take long after he starts before Jane falls back to sleep. He finishes the song and looks down at me. “I'm not quite asleep yet Ed.” He chuckles, like he always does, at the way I say his name.

“Another then, yeah?” he asks. I nod and he begins to sing U.N.I. He gets to about the first chorus when I fall asleep.