Don't Whistle Past the Graveyard

Ch. Nine

Shane tried a couple different channels, but it was the same on all of them. We sat in silence then, just watching the static on the screen.

We both jumped, Shane hissing when it jarred his ankle, when a single shot rang out through the building. I stood, turning back to Shane with wide eyes. His voice and face were completely calm as he said, "Kyle just had to take one of them out."

I blinked when I realized what Shane meant.

That was always something that surprised me. That Shane was so easily on board with what was going on. Then again, Shane was never really one to question something that had basically waved a red flag right in front of his face.

It sounded so ridiculous, so ludicrous, even coming from Shane. What was worse, though, was that him saying it made it more real. What he meant was that Kyle had had to take out a freakin' zombie. That's what this was.

"Is this real?" I asked, my voice a little scratchy. I kind of felt like the world was swirling away, breaking into tiny pieces around me.

Shane looked down and took a breath. "I think so."

"How could it happen so fast?" I asked, sitting back down on the table.

Shane shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe because the universe is getting back at all the people who said it couldn't happen?"

I looked up to find him smiling a little, obviously trying to keep things light. I shook my head, and tried to give him an answering smile. There wasn't one to be found though and I asked, "Kyle should have come back, right?"

Shane looked at his watch. "I'll give him five more minutes." He glanced up at me. "If he isn't back are you gonna let me walk on this?"

"Would you let me go myself?" I asked, answering his question with one of my own. Of course, I wasn't really asking permission. I was going to go whether he wanted me to or not. It would just be easier if he wasn't arguing about it.

Shane surprised me by taking a moment to think. "Do you know how to shoot?"

I paused, taken aback by the question. "I... yeah. My dad took me shooting a lot when I was a kid."

"Smart man," Shane sat forward. With a frown he said, "I think my gun slid under the couch when that thing jumped me."

"Thing?" I echoed, laying flat on my stomach to peer under the couch. Sure enough, Shane's gun was there and I pulled it out, handing it back to him.

He took it and looked at me, eyes incredibly serious. "Yeah Raleigh. Thing. That's what you have to think. They aren't people."

I looked over at the body, and my face must have shown my uncertainty because Shane said softly, "Come on, Rals. You've seen the movies just like we have. If you think of them as people, it's hard to kill them. If it's hard to kill them, then you get dead." He shook his head a little. "And I don't want you dead."

"So... we're for sure going with the zombie thing? Isn't that a little fast?" I looked at the dead woman again. "I mean, you know how crazy that sounds right? It's insane."

Shane scoffed, the sound drawing my attention back to him. "Raleigh, it might make you question my sanity, but I promise I am smack dab right in the middle of my own mind. Okay? It's not crazy. " He shook his head, scoffing again. "I shot that thing in the heart, Raleigh. Two rounds, right into its chest. To not so ironically sound like Shane from The Walking Dead: Could someone who's alive take that? Why was it still comin'?"

This was still insane.

The real question is: was he the crazy one for jumping on board, or was I the crazy one for resisting?