Becoming Them: A Zombie Novel

Twenty-Three

     When the morning finally came, I groaned.

     A muffled banging coming from my bedroom door had woke me from my slumber.

     "Megan? Rise and shine!" Billy said through the door. I only sunk my face into my pillow more. I could drown myself in the softness of it and just live like this for a long, long time.

     The banging became more frequent and louder. "Megan!" he screamed.

     "I'm up!" I screamed back, my voice croaky.

     "Joey's waiting downstairs," Billy said before I heard his footsteps retreating from the door.

     I dragged myself out of bed and freshened up. My eyes had faint bags underneath and I looked paler. Dousing my face with water woke me up a bit, though.

     Having been on my feet for a long time with Adrian and the rest had exhausted my body, which had barely any time to rest. Now that I had lived a week in complete relaxation without having to worry about zeds or my group betraying me again, my body used the time to catch up on well-earned rest, and it was so good that it didn't want to get up and work. To its disdain, today was the day I had to work with Joey.

     Looking through the huge pile of clothes I owned, I chose to wear my three-quarter black pants again, paired with a white t-shirt. Then I slipped on black converses.

     When I arrived downstairs, Eli and Jonah were already at the dinner table, staring at each other intently while shovelling their cereal into their mouths, bits of the food falling onto their laps. Another one of their races.

     Joey was sat in the living room, waiting. When he saw me, he stood up. "You ready to go?"

     "I need something to eat first," I replied.

     "We're taking plenty of food with us. Let's go."

     "Okay." I turned towards the kitchen door. "I'm going, Mel!"

     "Come eat something before you go!"

     "I'll be eating on the way!"

     "Oh, okay. Bye! Be safe!" she screamed back.

     I caught a view of his van, plenty of bags already in the back being evident when we got inside.

     "So, it's really just gonna be the two of us?" I asked him as he inserted his keys into the ignition.

     "Yup."

     "Why? Won't you feel more protected with your friends coming along, too?"

     "This is gonna be a chance for me to see how you do. I can't do that when I'm watching over them as well. We won't take long, anyway."

     "If anything happens and we die, I'll just say I told you so in advance. I told you so."

     He sent me a glare and I only replied with a smirk.

     "Are my things in the back?" I asked. He nodded. "Even my gun, and extra ammo?"

     I doubted I'd need my gun, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

     He nodded again while staring straight in front of him in concentration.

     Before long, we were out of the driveway and through the gates, taking a steady pace through the empty road.

     I noticed throngs of trees in the distance. Parks with slides and broken swings. Overgrown grassy floors filled the space and some of the roots had tangled and grown onto the playground playthings. It was depressing to look at the abandoned space, but I couldn't stop staring as we passed them.