RU in? - 1st novel in the Ruinsaga series

Chapter 15 .

Darren

Monica and I followed the van in the cars. A large group of zombies followed us. More zombies came from neighboring yards as we drove around the block and the group behind us grew even more. When we were two blocks away from Grant's house, Hunter's little sister sped up. We matched her speed and we soon left the zombies behind us. In the rearview mirror I could see they were beginning to disperse now that they were trailing behind us and we were no longer shouting.

Victory led us back to Grant's street. I almost stopped in shock when I saw the front lawn covered with zombies again. There weren't as many as before, but more than there should have been. The front door was closed where it had been opened before. I hoped that meant the others were safe. Especially Lily. She was brave, beautiful, smart, strong and just perfect. I didn't understand how she didn't have a boyfriend. If I hadn't been so short and nerdy looking and a year younger, I would have asked her out.

The first time I ever saw her was my first day of high school. She was a sophomore. I saw a group of older kids picking on one particular freshman, and Lily went up, put her arm around his shoulder and led him away from his tormentors. She was a lot taller than him. She was a lot taller than me, but I had a crush on her ever since. I told my friends about my crush once and most of them teased me about the height difference. Richard was one of the few in our group of friends who didn't. Now they were all dead or zombies except Richard.

I didn't have any sense of fashion, didn't really care about fashion. I had a bad habit of tugging on my hair so it always looked messy. I washed and brushed it every morning, but by the time evening came it looked like a bird's nest. I had to wear glasses because contacts irritated my eyes too much. I had planned to get lasik surgery when I was older, but that probably wouldn't happen now as we were in the middle of the world dying. I really needed to be careful not to break my glasses because I was terribly nearsighted. I wouldn't be able to tell if it was a zombie running at me or a human.

The kids started yelling from the windows of the van drawing the attention of the zombies. Monica and I followed suit. I cracked my window only a little. No use giving the zombies an opportunity to bite me. We followed Victory as she led us down a different street than the previous one before circling back to Grant's house once we lost the zombies. We parked in front of the house and waited.

We didn't have to wait long before Hunter and Lily ran out of the house followed by the others and a group of adults.

Hunter, Lily, Maria and a woman who looked like Maria with a bloody cloth wrapped around her hand came running towards the hatchback while Richard, Grant and a man ran to Grant's car. The other group of adults ran to other cars.

Lily sat in the front passenger side while the other three got in the back. I almost put the car in gear to leave, but noticed an unmistakable figure.

I rolled down my window and yelled out, "Mom!"

My mom stopped, looked around and when her eyes fell on me she immediately began to cry. She tossed her car keys to one of the other ladies she had been running with.

"Take my car and go find your families," she said to the ladies. "I've found mine."

She ran to the driver's side of the hatchback, cupped my cheeks in her hands and kissed me all over the face. Her wet tears fell on both of us.

"I'm okay, mom," I said.

"Get in, Mrs. Smith," Hunter said. My mom opened the back door and scrambled in. Now there were four people crammed in the back seat. I paused to look at Hunter. Most people assumed my last name - Harris - was the same as my mom's. Only my friends knew that my parents were divorced and my mom had remarried. Hunter knew though. I had no idea he knew that much about me. I had never spoken to him before tonight. I obviously knew who he was. Everyone in school knew who he was. The handsome, mysterious recluse that exuded this aura that made him stand out.