Game theory: A Zombie Apocalypse

chapter two: escaping from school...

Matthew and Stephanie started walking the hallway. They passed next Mrs. Drew's Dead and torn body and they both frowned in sadness. By the sight, Stephanie felt like she's going to vomit. Suddenly a sound came from the hallway on the left. They looked around and there were zombies. They looked like jocks considering the fact that they had the school's football team outfits. Matt grabbed Stephanie's hand and took her to behind the lockers to a hiding place. "What are we going to do?" Asked Stephanie in a whisper. Matt didn't answer. Instead, he took one of the firecrackers in the small bag and threw it as far as he could to the other side. As the firecracker made a contact with the floor, it made a loud noise, that the zombie went right away to explore. 

"Sometimes I hate to admit it.. But your a genius." Said Stephanie with an amazing smile on her face. He smiled at the compliment and they moved on. They traveled the hallways. Hiding when they saw a zombie and using the firecrackers to distract. It was the final hallway before they would be out of the school. They were about to go to the door when they suddenly saw that they are surrounded by zombies. They were back to back, facing a huge threat. "Um..M-Matthew? Why aren't you using the firecrackers? We're clearly in danger here!" She shouted in panic as the zombies got closer. "We're out of firecrackers!" He shouted back. "Stephanie started shaking with fear. They were so close to the door. 

"Stephanie when I'll say now we run to the door, out to the parking lot and into my car. OK?" Said Matt. Stephanie nodded. "NOW!" he shouted and they started running. They ran as fast as they could, the vicious zombies on their lead. They ran out to the parking lot and got into Matthew's car. The zombies surrounded the car, making it impossible to see anything from the windshield. They took a few breathes, what was happening was so intense. "Buckle up your seat belt." Said Matt as he buckled up his, so did Stephanie. "You know what I've always wanted to do?" He asked and she shook her head. "This." He said as he started the car, running over zombies and howling from joy. Stephanie shut her eyes tight, the sight was way too disgusting for her. 

She took a look around realized that they weren't at school. "Where are we going?" Asked Stephanie. "To my house. There are things there that can help us." He said. After a while Stephanie noticed something. The streets are deserted. No people, no loving things around. Just silence, a very disturbing silence. Without her noticing, the car stopped. She kept looking outside of the window in wonder. Then she came out of her thought as Matt was opening the car's door for her. She came out and they went inside the house." Well, This is my house".he said as he went down a staircase that Stephanie assumed leads to the basement. She followed his steps and they reached a storage room. 

"So you brought us here so we can fight against the zombies with... Childhood pictures?" She said as she picked up a picture of matt as a kid from one of the many boxes. "No we're not gonna use pictures and give me that!" He said and took the picture of her hands. On the back of the picture was written 'MatPat 2004'. "What's MatPat?" Asked Stephanie as she took the picture again and flipped it so she could see the write properly. matt sigh. He clearly didn't wanted to tell her this."it's my nickname. It's a shortcut to Matthew Patrick." He said. But instead of what Matthew thought she would do, she didn't laugh, she actually smiled softly, looking at the picture of 'MatPat' with aw. "That's actually very sweet." She said and put the picture back at the box. she lifted her eyes to look at him, only to find out he was looking at her in aw too. More then he should. "Umm...you wanted to show me something?" She asked awkwardly. Even if he was just a nerd, him looking at her dreamily like that made her blush. 

"Oh right, right. So like I said we're not going to use the things in here. There's another room next to this one. The other room belongs to my father." He explained and went to the next wall. On the wall there was a pad with a keyboard. He typed something in and the wall opened. He entered in and Stephanie by his side. She looked around in shock. The room was full of guns and other weapons, like axes, knives in different sizes and crossbows. "My dad's hobby is hunting. A lot of times he tried to convince me to go with him to hunt, but I'm not the guy to shoot innocent animals for fun. Instead, he taught me how to shoot by shooting bottles in the backyard. After I learned how to shoot, he gave me the password to the room. Now the thing is, we'll have to defence ourselves from the zombies, and we both need to have a good fighting skill if we want not to die." He said as he took one of the small guns. Quickly he shot an empty beer bottle that was in the corner of the room. Stephanie screamed at the loud noise and glass shared we're all around the room. She looked at him with shock. "He is so not what I expected." She thought to her self and on his face was a knowing smirk, because he knew that she wasn't expecting this. "We'll start practicing in an hour. In the mid time help me lock all the doors and windows." He said as he went out of the room. Stephanie just stayed where she is. The nerdy Matthew Patrick is not who she thought he was. Suddenly he seem more like a man instead of a boy. And she hated to admit it, but without him she might have been eaten by the zombies, or at least become one of them. Plus, he could have got revenge for what she did to him all this times, but he chose not to. Then she noticed that she was standing in there for too long. She quickly went up the stairs and closed all the windows on the second floor.

(After an hour)

Matt and Stephanie, were in the weapon room, in front of beer bottles, empty cans and apples that were attached to strings in the ceiling. "OK look, using a gun is simple after you practice. All you have to do is learn the right tactics for you to use a gun and then it will be easy. Now do the same as I do." Matthew said and Stephanie nodded for approval. "You hold the gun with your good hand. The third, fourth and fifth fingers are on the grip panel while the finger is on the trigger. And the other hand you put under the gun for support." he said and Stephanie did as he told. "Here, is the front sight. It'll help you to shoot the target better. Like that" he said and shot successfully in one of the empty cans. Stephanie put on her earplugs and tried to do as she was told by Matt. But she didn't succeeded on shooting any target. And it happened in almost all of her tries. She sighed and sat on the floor. "What are you doing?" He asked as he looked at her sad face. "I can't do this. I've tried like hundred times and I still can't shoot any of the targets." She said in frustration. "You hit that can," he said with a small smile. "I was aiming for the bottle." She said with sadness. "Well, maybe you'll be more lucky with another weapon. C'mon, don't give up. We still have axes and crossbows. Here, let's try the crossbow." Matt said and pulled her up. He took the crossbow and learned her how to use it. "OK, now try to go for that apple over there," he said and pointed on the apple in the middle. Stephanie took a deep breath in and breathed it out for a few times until She felt she was focused. Finally she shot the arrow and the arrow hit right in the middle of ht apple. "Oh my gosh! I did it! I did it! Ahhh!!" She shouted in happiness. "I know! You were amazing!" He said. Without thinking of their actions they give each other a tight hug. When they broke the hug, still each others arms, they looked each other in the eyes. Then Stephanie realized what was going on and broke the hug completely saying:"are you hungry cause I'm starving", and going upstairs. Matthew stood for a moment in place to recover from this moment he had with her before going upstairs.

(Night) 

Stephanie lied in Matt's bed. Looking at the ceiling. She tried to go to sleep but to no avail, because every time she remembered what was going outside, her eyes were opening and her brain was torturing her with scary thoughts about zombies. She sat up and looked around his room, noticing all the gaming posters, and all the computers he has. It's not like she imagined it. It's just an ordinary room of a teenager boy. Then a thought came to her mind. Without thinking it all through she went out of the bed and walked to his parents bedroom where he was sleeping. She opened the door quietly to find him asleep peacefully. She almost didn't wanted to wake him up, but on the other hand she had too if she wanted to get a good night sleep. She walked towards him quietly, and shook him a little. "Matthew" she said with a whisper. Nothing happened. She tried to shake him a little harder. "Matthew" Still nothing. Now she was really shaking him as she said aloud:"Matthew!" He woke up with a rush and asked:"what? W-what is going on?". He looked to his right to see Stephanie, wearing one of his old shirts that looked like she was wearing a dress and her face was worried. "Stephanie? What's wrong?" He asked as he sat up properly. "Sorry, I didn't want to wake you up, but I'm... Kind of... Can't go to sleep." She said and looked at the floor. "You can sleep with me" he said. Stephanie arched her eyebrow at his choose of words. "I meant that you and I will sleep next to each other. Geez, your mind is going to messed up places." He said and she chuckled. He moved to the other side, making some space for her to sleep. She climbed to the bed next to him and said:"good night". He replied good night and they both closed their eyes. Now Stephanie felt like she can fall asleep.