Runners

Chapter 6

  JJ let out a groan of satisfaction as she gave the sword a few experimental swings.  "Hey!" I exclaimed as she got a bit too close to my face, "That thing is real you know!" I got a look that suggested I was less than intelligent. I tried again, with less words. "SHARP!"

"Oh please," she drawled as she reluctantly sheathed her new toy, "you'll be okay, grandma."

"Grandma?!" I exclaimed in outrage, hands on hips. "Okay then, punk, no responsible grandmother would give her grandkids a weapon, so hand it over!" I advanced threateningly on her, holding out my hand as I spoke.

She danced backwards out of reach, clutching the sheath to her chest and turning to run. I seized her before she made it out the door and began tickling her sides. She let out a shriek and squirmed violently in my grasp, nearly doing a death roll as she tried in vain to escape. "Nuuuu I didn't mean it! Mercy!"

Laughing maniacally, I gave her a final prod in the side as I finally released her, shoving her gently back toward the second bedroom. "You kinda forgot the main reason you went in there, kid. Go get the pack!"

She marched back into the room, mumbling under her breath and casting me a venomous look over her shoulder as she went, swinging the sword across her shoulders on its long strap. The door swung shut behind her and I heard her digging through the closet, inspecting the other things I had shoved in there over the years.

I turned back to my room, rummaging through the drawers and pulling out half a dozen pairs of thick socks and panties each, a spare shirt and some cutoff jean shorts.

As I turned back to the bed to shove my clothes into my bag, a photo frame on my bedside table caught my eye. I smiled slightly and set the clothes down, picking up the frame.

The picture had been taken last year, on a camping trip with JJ, Danny,  Alan, and myself. Danny was JJ's younger sister, 16. She had declined to come spend her break with me and JJ, preferring instead to stay at home so she could visit her boyfriend, Michael. Teenagers, man.

Alan was the older brother, 20. Since he had graduated high school we hadn't seen him that often. He drifted around, taking short jobs in construction and staying with friends all over. Last I had heard from him was about a month ago, when he had taken a job working a shutdown somewhere in North Carolina.

This picture was one of the best times we'd had together in a long time, one of my favorite memories, which is why I kept a copy on my bedside table. On bad days I could see it and remember why I kept going.

As I sat there smiling to myself, JJ walked back into the room. She paused when she saw what I was holding, dropping the bag she was holding beside mine, then walking over to sit by me. She gently took the picture out of my hands, and gazed at it. She touched our grinning, sunburnt faces and smiled softly. "This was it, wasn't it?" she asked without looking at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I wiped away the wetness from my eyes.

"Well, we'll never be able to do anything like this again, will we?" She finally looked at me, sadness blooming through her eyes. "Now that the worlds gone to shit, we might never be safe again, never be carefree again. Never be just kids again."

I took the frame back from her hands and glanced at it once before tossing it to the other side of the bed. I put my arm around her small shoulders and hugged her tightly, pulling back after a moment but leaving my arm there more for my own comfort than hers. I looked at her seriously before I spoke.

"I think it's been a long time since we've been just kids, if we ever were. With the way we grew up, the kind of family we had, we've always had to be the strong ones. Now, with the only people we have to worry about right now being us and your sister, it might actually be a little easier."

She looked at me skeptically, eyebrow raised.

"Don't look at me like that!" I laughed as I pushed her to one side. She straightened, smiling slightly. "Think about it." I returned to being serious. "Now it's about survival, not who said what to who, or who offended who's feeling. No more Facebook or Snapchat, just living in the real world. Doing what we have to do to survive. Now, if someone gets in our way or on our nerves, we can just cut their head off!"

JJ finally laughed, and punched me in the shoulder. "Um, even during the apocalypse I think that's still a crime, woman!"

"The perfect murder." I deadpanned.

She laughed again and stood, surveying the remaining supplies spread on the bed. She grabbed her old pack and transferred her things into the larger bag, and began piling supplies in. She glanced up at me as she grabbed some waterproof matches. "Why didn't you just leave all this is one bag, and put our clothes in the other? Then we wouldn't have to dig to figure out where stuff was."

I shook my head, grimacing slightly. "I know it probably would have been more organized, but in the event that we lose one bag or get separated I want it to be evenly distributed so neither of us will be without something we might need."

She looked back up as she finished packing, concern on her face. "Separated? Why?"

I shrugged, grabbing the picture out of the frame, shouldering my own bag and moving back towards the living room with JJ close behind. "I'm not sure, but I don't want to take that chance, ya know? People who weren't prepared for this are going to be scared, maybe desperate. Even good people are capable of terrible things when they're afraid."

She nodded solemnly. "I know. You've gotta be more afraid of people than the dead most of the time. At least zombies are pretty predictable, going by the movies anyway," she said with a small laugh.

I agreed. I carefully put the photo in one of the smaller pockets on my bag as we piled our bags by the front door and went back to the spare room to get the larger stuff. I grabbed a sleeping bag for us both as she surveyed the closet one more time, pulling my old tent out and looking at me inquiringly. "Uuuhh.. might as well." I said. "I don't think we're going to be doing a lot of outdoor sleeping but I can't hurt. Gods know we have the room," I laughed as we lugged our loads back to the front.

"No kidding." JJ remarked as she looked out the front window to where my tank of a car sat, gleaming in the late morning sunshine. I had inherited the tahoe when my mom died, and it was my rock. Plenty of room for people and gear alike, I could comfortably haul five people and all our stuff no problem. It wasn't great on gas, but it would do until a better situation came along. I had ideas about a school bus.. I turned back to the kitchen to see about packing non-dehydrated food, and a rank smell smacked me in the face.

"Ohh, just fantastic," I groaned when I figured out where it was coming from. I had forgotten to close the window, and now my kitchen was full of undead stink.

I stalked over to the window, gagging slightly as I got closer and went to slam it shut. As I did, more movement caught my eye. "Oh, boy."

JJ rushed over at the tone of my voice. "What.." she came to a halt as she noticed the cause of my alarm. She took a deep breath. "Well," She quipped lightly. "'looks like I'll get to try out my katana sooner than expected."