Frozen Flesh

Ch. 3 ~ Preparing

Chapter 3 - Preparing

Jake POV

“What are you talking about? Haven’t you seen any horror movies? I’m the only blonde here, I’ll die first.”

Leo laughs, and Diana shoots us a frustrated look as she passes us in the hallway. I’m heading upstairs to pack some clothes in a bag for me and Leo. The guy’s had servants to do everything for him all his life and he doesn’t know how to do stuff on his own, bless him.

Diana’s thinking out loud downstairs, but I tune her out. I pick up the backpack I use for school and turn it upside down, emptying out all the books I’ll probably never use again. Hopefully. Leo lies down on the bed and pushes his laptop open.

“Wonder what Diana’s talking about,” I comment absently as I shove the essentials into the bag.

Leo looks up from his laptop. “What?”

I glance at him and close the wardrobe door behind me. “She’s talking to herself. Downstairs.”

“I can’t hear anything,” Leo shrugs and looks back at the screen. “Whoa, man, twitter’s going crazy.”

“Really?” I throw myself down beside him.

“Yeah, look at all these people. #zombies is everywhere.”

“See anything useful?” I ask.

Leo hums softly as he scrolls. “Not really. Loads of people are posting where they are, some of them are asking for help. There’s a few offering to take people in. Should we try going there?”

I shake my head. “No, too dangerous. They’re probably letting the infected people in as well.”

“Oh, okay. What about your dad?”

I grimace. “Let’s not go there, unless we have to. What about yours?”

Leo shrugs again, and doesn’t reply. This is one of the many things we have in common, neither of us are too fond of our fathers. But at least Leo still has his mother, I’m not so lucky.

My phone rings, and I almost fall off the bed in my haste to answer it.

“Kim?”

“No, Jake, it’s me. You realise you have caller ID, right?”

I roll my eyes at my Dad’s condescending tone. “I’m a little bit distracted at the moment, I think I can be allowed to make one mistake.”

There’s silence for a few seconds at the other end of the line. Leo’s trying to be subtle, but every time he glances at me I feel myself tense up. I narrow my eyes and he smiles sheepishly, then pretends to read more stuff on Twitter.

“What do you mean by distracted? Is it happening there too? The reports we’re getting are inconclusive. Tell me everything.”

“Oh, yeah, I missed you too, Dad,” I snap. “Maybe if you were here more you wouldn’t have to ask.”

Dad sighs. “Not now, Jake. This is serious. People are dying. You-”

“I know that!” I yell, and Leo flinches beside me. I push myself off the bed and stride out of the room. “I know that. I tried calling Kim a few times, but it went straight to voicemail. Have you heard from her?”

“No, I haven’t. Why didn’t you call me?”

“Do you really need to ask that?”

More silence. “Are you safe?”

“Yes. I’m at Leo’s with him and Diana.”

“Good. Stay there. If you can, barricade the doors and board up the windows. It’s isolated there, and knowing Reggie, he’ll have a store of guns somewhere. Find it and-”