Out of Time

Chapter 1

"I wish you were a zombie, so I could just chop your head off!"

"Oh yeah? Well, if I were a zombie I wouldn't even come near you 'cause you don't have a brain for me to eat!"

"Isla Faith! Paisley Hope! That is enough, the both of you!" 

I was currently stuck in the third row of my parents giant SUV listening to my twin sisters argue. Even with my headphones at full volume, I could hear their argument clear as day. The bass of my music wasn't enough to drown out their twelve year squeaky voices. 

"But mom!" Paisley started to argue again but my father held his hand up. The well known signal to shut up. We didn't know what would happen if we continued to talk after the hand went up.  None of us were stupid enough to try. 

"Mommy, what's a zombie? And why you gotta chop it's head off?" my six year old brother, Weston, asked.

"Weston True! I don't want to hear you speak like that!" my mothers hand was cradling her forehead, a clear indication we were causing her a headache. 

"But mommy, I was just repeating Isla. She said it first!" West was getting frustrated now. He always wanted to be like the big girls, but always got in trouble for it.

"Actually," Paisley started, "Isla and I heard Mackenzie talking about zombies and head chopping of the phone the other night," what a little shit! 

"Paisley!" my voice visibly startled her as I saw her shoulders bunch around her head. "Why the hell were you outside my room listening in the first place?" 

I knew this wasn't the first, or the last, time the little sneaks would be outside my door.  Like our baby brother, the twins wanted to do everything I did.  Curse of being the oldest and six years older than the girls. 

"Mackenzie Love!" This whole first and middle name thing was getting old.  Clearly, my parents wanted all of their kids to keep their virtue close, even when we lost it. Hence the middle names.

"Mom, seriously, I am 18 years old. Swearing is part of my every day," good thing my sunglasses were hiding my rolling eyes.  I would get a hand upside the head when we got to where we were going.

"Mack, 18 years old or not, you are not to swear in front of us or your siblings. Is that clear?" My father spoke for the first time in about an hour.  That meant I was in big trouble.  

My father was a man of few words. When he spoke, we all listened like his voice was the last one we would ever hear. Anything and everything he said was always treated like one hundred percent truth. If he said run into the fast lane on the highway with a blindfold on, we would. No questions asked. This was how we were raised. Even my mother followed everything he said. 

"Gary, don't you think you're being just a little bit tough on her? She's right, you know. At her age she is technically an adult," my mother defended softly.

"Maggie, do you hear yourself? If Mackenzie were an adult, she wouldn't need me to remind her not to use that language in front of small children." 

If I rolled my eyes any harder than I was right now they would get stuck there. 

"Mom, what would we ever do if there were really zombies?" Isla piped up after  few minutes of quiet. She always hated when my father spoke to me like that and always did her best to try and steer the conversation in another direction. 

"Isla, darling, that's not something we have to worry about," mom turned in her seat with a  secret gleam in her eye, "but if we did have to worry we would stay home and wait for it to be over." 

Playing into the girls over active imagination was something we all had to try hard to avoid. They fed off each other and if we didn't stop them from going on and on they would keep themselves up at night with terrifying dreams of their creations.

"Home would be great at first, but what about when we run out of food?" Paisley jumped in now. I knew it was only a matter of time.

"Maybe we can stock on canned goods sometime soon, would that make you feel better girls?" Dad spoke again but for the first time in my life, I didn't believe what he said. He was just sick of listening to the zombie talk. 

"But how soon daddy? We really should have stuff like that at home. Even if it's not for zombies, we should be prepared in case there is a bad storm or something like that." 

Before my dad could reprimand her, I spoke. " I would want to go to Walmart or a store like that. Somewhere that has food, entertainment and weapons," to be honest, this wasn't the first time I had thought of something like this. The twins weren't the only ones with an over active imagination.  I had just learned to keep mine to myself.

"Well, would you look at that? Mackenzie is capable of thinking like an adult," the tone my dad used should have been insulting but instead all I felt was pride. It was rare for him to compliment us so for him to say that made me smile.

"I would want to go to Toys R Us so I never get bored!" Weston shouted happily causing the rest of us to laugh.

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I wish I had known then that this was the last family trip we were going to take. I wish I had taken more pictures, hugged them all a little tighter and enjoyed the time that we had. 

But now, after four months of being on my own I realized that I was completely out of time with my family. They were never coming back. No more hugs, no more arguments, no more laughing. Gone forever. Everyday I wish that I could fool myself into believing they would be coming through the front door any day now. But I knew that was bullshit. 

Because I was the one who had to kill them.  And that image haunts me every single day of my seriously lonely life. 

**This is a new story I am working on.  Something completely out of my comfort zone but I am so excited about where it's going to take us!  Please comment and/or vote if you like it so far!**