Dead Days

Chapter 7

My eyes snap open, I swing my fists wildly. The commotion wakes Cassie up.

     "What are you doing?" She asks, running the grogginess from her eyes.

     I look at my arms, legs, and pat my stomach, nothing seems to be out of order.

     "Just a nightmare, thank God." It's not until now that I realize it's morning.

      "I thought you were supposed to be on watch duty."
    
      "Yeah, well, we know how that turned out already." I say with a sigh. Cassie climbs back into the front seat and stretches. She looks at me.

     "What?"

     "Remember your promise?" She asks, already knowing I do.

      "Where do you live? That's a good place to start."

     "Take a right after leaving this parking lot, then I'll guide you from there."

      I start the engine and we're on our way, the city looks even worse in the day time. All of the bloodstains are visible. All of the chunks of flesh and pieces of bone that were masked by the dark of night give the city a much more grotesque look.

      Cassie break the silence, "What if my parents aren't there?"

     "I'm sure they are, Cass." She nods and then goes back into her thoughts.
What if her parents really aren't there? I ask myself. What am I supposed to tell her?
    
     "Right here, this is it." She points to a brick house. The windows covered with black shutters. The porch decorated with various flora.
    
     "Wow, nice place you have here." I say, as we step out of the car. Screams fill the air in the distance, unknown if they are human or belong to the undead.

     Every now and then the sounds of gunfire cut through the air. Down the street a pack of zombies chase something into an alley way, but it wasn't human. Might of been a rat or something.
    
     Cassie walks up to her door. It's locked.
    
     "That's a good sign, could mean they're still in there." She turns to me, her eyes lighting up. She pulls a plant from its pot and reaches in, a spare key, no doubt. She places the plant back in the pot and unlocks the door.
    
     "Mom? Dad? It's Cassie." She calls out. I follow her into the house. The hallway leading from the door to the living room is decorated with family pictures, an old French looking table with a fancy cover over the top and an umbrella holder.

     "Are you guys upstairs?" Cassie asks aloud. The sound of her ascending footsteps can be heard through out the house. In one picture it shows Cassie as a baby. She's being held by her mother who's a spitting image of her.

     Her mom is standing next to a man in a wheelchair. Her father, no doubt. Another picture shows Cassie accepting a trophy with a huge crowd behind her. I walk down the hallway to the living room.
    
     A couch sits in the middle of the room with a glass coffee table in front of it. Two glasses of water sit on opposite sides of the table. A large T.V is mounted to the wall.
    
      Cassie comes running down the stairs, "maybe they're in the basement." She says, her voice losing the hope it had when we entered the front door.

     I walk to the kitchen. The fridge has been left open, and the water in the sink is still running. Something isn't right. Cassie comes into the kitchen, tears streaming down her face.

     She pulls out a chair from the bar counter and sits down. She stares at the wall for a few seconds before laying her head down on the counter and crying.
    
     "Hey, Cass, it's going to be okay, we'll find them." She continues to cry. "Cass, come on."
    
     "You don't get it, Jack!" She yells. I take a step back, "My parents are all I have left!" She swipes everything off the counter. Cups and plates shatter and a stack of papers that sat at the edge flutter to the ground.
    
     "I promised you we'd find them. I plan on keeping that promise." She begins to sob. She lays her head in her arms on the counter.