So Long and G'night

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“Just five more minutes...” I mutter. The shaking unfortunately doesn't stop, so I force myself to lazily slap whoever is doing it. My pillow is all lumpy. Wait... when did I go to bed? I bolt into an upright position, my eyes wide open. The streets are still darker than a black eye. I check the watch on my left hand to conclude that it's 11:00 PM. “Where... am I?”

Shane stares into my eyes, too close for comfort. I scoot away, not wanting to be near anyone. “You ran outside after the... story... and passed out on this porch step.” I look around the area; the whole group is standing behind Shane—along with his parents—their eyes wide and worried. Except for Danielle, she's just in an apathetic state. I guess Carl woke up and someone filled him in, because his eyes look more watery than a river.

I'm also remembering everything that's happened. My mom... I can't believe she's dead. She's all I had left in this sad, cold world. My one and only hope. “If it helps, you've only been here for half an hour.”

What was I doing before? Oh yeah... knocking on the door... I don't even care anymore. I open it up, yawning and rubbing my eyes from a much-needed nap. The house itself isn't very capacious; furniture is crammed tightly together. Many items are broken on the floor, and some blood stains the walls. Weird...

I find the kitchen in the small house and sit at a Brazilian cherry table, while picking up a cup of coffee and drinking out of it. “What's wrong with you?! Don't drink that!” Carl screams at me, slapping the coffee out of my hand. It doesn't matter what goes into my digestive system anymore... I still can't believe my mom is gone...

I roll my eyes and open the refrigerator, checking out the insides. There's some lasagna, leftover mac and cheese, meatloaf... But... what's this? I pick up a container of some green goo. “Looks like someone lost their lunch in there,” Danielle smirks. “But really, what is that stuff? There's a disgusting, yet slight odor to it.”

“Let me take a look at it,” Mrs. Dotten says. I hand the container to her—so very glad it's tight-sealed—and she inspects the inside with her trusty glasses. Shane's mom is a very professional Earth scientist as well as an epidemiologist, so maybe she knows a thing or two about weird stuff. “It looks like it contains... oh my...clostridium botulinum. This stuff is very toxic and dangerous, capable of causing botulism. The weird thing about it is that clostridium botulinum is found in soil. So yes, this could've even been dug up in the backyard.”

“And this was in the refrigerator, acting as a plate of Jell-O just ready to be served?!” Carl screams.

Ritsu starts crying her eyeballs out. “What if some poor soul ate this?! The cause of death would be just awful!” She cries some more, but luckily Carl stands by to comfort her, leading to only a small sniffling sound.

“But like I said dear, that toxin is what this substance contains, not what it is,” Mrs. Dotten explains. “Based on the other ingredients that I presume to be inside of this, side effects might include those of sleeping sickness, rabies, and anemia combined together.”

Hold up. Hold the fudge up. Isn't that what I said when— “Zombies...” Shane whispers. Everyone turns towards him and listens. “This was the cause of the zombie apocalypse. I know it's by a long-shot, but... think about it. There are fork marks inside the container, along with a little blood. A zombie has definitely been there. And what Mom had just described is exactly what Kenny had described the first zombie we saw. This is so insane...”