Summary: A few weeks after the events at Pacific Playland, Columbus and his surrogate family make it to his home in Ohio. Columbus doesn't find his family there, but he does find a note leading to them. And, his friends meet his sister. In some ways, she is exactly like her brother. In other ways, she is completely different. Rating is for language and of course, zombie gore.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (except for my own), 'nor do I own the plot for the movie Zombieland. Enjoy!

Wichita stared at Columbus. They had just passed the first sign welcoming people into Columbus, Ohio and his face remained the same. The boy was like stone. Then again, she thought of how she and Little Rock would react to going home after everything that had happened. Their parents had died before the zombies came though, they had been in a car accident years ago. So she guessed going home and expecting to find your parents as the enslaved undead would cause people to tense up like Columbus was.

Columbus never spoke about his family, but as the streets became clearer to him, he began to feel upset. A lot of the houses were burned to the ground, as Wichita had said. However, it was more of the down town that was burnt down. As they got farther away from town, the houses seemed alright. It wasn't that he really missed his family, it was that he realized he never really had much of a family. His parents were a lot like him. However, he did have a sister who was on the borderline of being decently normal. He had never really told any of his companions about her, but then again there wasn't much time to think when you were being chased about zombies.

As Tallahassee pulled onto the street that Columbus had directed him to, the younger man sighed. When the car stopped, everyone was still. Waiting. He spoke up finally.
"I know I won't find my parents in there." Everyone looked solemn at this. They had expected it, however. "And I especially know I won't find Grace."
"Grace?" Wichita asked, confused. "Who's Grace?"
Columbus looked down, "I should have told you all sooner. Grace is my sister. Or was. At this point, I really don't know."
"She could be in there," Little Rock tried to cheer him up.
"She was living in New York City when the outbreak occurred," he mumbled.
Tallahassee nodded, but looked over at his friend. "Well, we'll try. Just in case."

Columbus was more surprised than anything that his house wasn't destroyed. A few of the other houses on his block seemed okay, too. The front door was even still locked and the key was still in place under the fake rock. He opened the door quietly and the others ran inside to check for him. Little Rock came back and looked solemn, "It's empty."
"The good thing is that there's no sign of a struggle," Wichita added on.
Columbus nodded, making his way upstairs. He showed Wichita and Little Rock his room, a request made by Little Rock, before moving down the hallway to Grace's room. He pushed the door open.
Her room was nearly bare. She, like him, had wanted as far away from Columbus, Ohio as she could get. A bare desk sat in one corner and a bed with a white ruffled comforter sat on the other side of the room. A paper lay on the bed. He stepped over and picked it up.

My dearest brother, it read. I stopped by the house. I don't know why, but I figured that for some reason you might do the same. Hopefully you didn't get here before me and this note isn't a lost cause. Hopefully you're safe, as well. I firmly believe that you are, because I know you. You're probably taking shelter somewhere and surviving pretty well. I miss you and I worry about you all day and night. I am fine and I hope we can see each other again. I brought mom somewhere. Somewhere that I hope is safer. If you read this, we'll be at the cabin by the lake. You know, the one that we used to go to when we were little. I think it puts mom at ease to be somewhere familiar. I just hope there aren't any zombies there. Love, Grace.
P.S. - Mom says hi.

Columbus couldn't believe it. His eyes were about to bulge out of his skull by the time Wichita came in to check on him. She grinned broadly, "Well, let's go! Maybe it is safer out there!"
Tallahassee nodded coolly, "Yeah, Columbus, let's go have a family reunion, whattya say?"
Columbus smiled up at his friends, "If nobody really…minds."
Tallahassee rolled his eyes, "Come on, kid, you act like we got somewhere else to be!"

"Is this it?" Tallahassee looked at Columbus in the rearview mirror. The boy nodded. There was a large gate in front of them, stopping them from going any further. The gate extended into a tall, heavy iron fence that looked as if it surrounded the entire area. The entire lake looked completely empty. There were two or three other lake houses, but they were all spread decently far apart. Each driveway had either a Hummer or a truck much like the one they were in. After prying their way into the area, Tallahassee drove the truck in. The kids shut and locked the gate behind them, climbing back into the truck as Tal drove slowly up the path. A man standing on top of his house mumbled something into a walkie talkie and then shouted down to them. "Can I help you kids?"
"Uh, I think my mom is here?" Columbus spoke awkwardly. The man nodded once and mumbled again into the radio.
They followed Columbus up to the house and stood there for a moment. Tallahassee raised a leg to kick the door down. Wichita rolled her eyes, holding a hand up to pause him, before knocking.
Footsteps were heard shuffling to the door, along with the noise of a shot gun cocking, "Speak."
"Mom?" Columbus asked, hopefully. A gasp was heard, before a clatter. The locks were undone and the door flung open.
A woman in her middle aged years had opened the door. She had Columbus' eyes and the same color hair and an oval shaped face. Her face was slightly wrinkled and worn due to age and stress. She was short and a bit pudgy. Her hair was pulled back in a bun.
"Pumpkin!" she cried out, wrapping her arms around her son. Tallahassee snickered before Little Rock kicked him in the shin. He hissed, glaring at her.
Columbus' mother held him at arm's length, "Oh, you still look the same," she had a sad look in her eye, "Grace would have been so happy to see you if she'd opened the door." She looked around at his friends, "Oh, come in, all of you, come in."
His mother ushered the group inside. As they sat at the kitchen table, she made a mug of hot cocoa for each of them. Columbus introduced his friends by their city names and his mother thought that it was adorable. "Well, then," she had stated, pouring milk into the mugs, "I guess you can call me Mama Columbus."
Everyone laughed, thanking her for their drinks. Columbus looked around uncomfortably, "Um, mom?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Where is Grace? Is she…okay?"
His mother giggled, batting at the air, "Oh you know your sister, hon…" she looked out at the window, "She should be home any minute now, actually," worry crossed her face.
"Where did she go?"
"There's a mall about a half an hour away. Zombies always flee to it for some reason, it must be engraved in their memories or something. That's at least what Gracie says. She likes to go to it some days and sit on the roof and shoot at them," she frowned, "It's kind of her hobby now. It worries me some days that she enjoys it so much, but the days she goes up there are the days they aren't anywhere near here."
"Do they come around here?" Wichita asked, politely.
"Oh, some days they'll come as far as the entrance gate before they're shot. I do hope you closed it, behind you." Columbus nodded.
She nodded back at him, "Yes, there are a few other people around here somewhere in the other cabins. Gracie and two of them sometimes sit on the roofs. They set up alarms to know where the zombies are at. I guess it's safe here. Safer than it was at home."
Columbus nodded. He hadn't asked about his father yet. He didn't really think asking his mother would be very appropriate. He would wait for Grace to arrive.

A light roar was heard down by the entrance gate and Mama Columbus looked visibly relieved, "That would be Grace…on that horrible vehicle."
Columbus chuckled. Grace had always been an absolute darling to her parents. She did very well in school and played piano and did ballet. So, when she had proposed the idea of a motorcycle, everyone was very shocked. But, she enjoyed it.
Tallahassee looked out the window after the roaring stopped. "Wow, that bike's a beaut."
"Thanks," an angelic voice spoke from the doorway. Everyone except Columbus and his mother jumped. Grace was known to be very quiet and very quick. It helped her a lot during her teen years, sneaking out.

The girl was no taller than Wichita, and was probably about the same build. Tallahassee noted that she was a lot fuller in the chest than Wichita however and looked to be either the same age as Wichita or older. Her face was the same oval shape as her mother's and she had almond shaped green eyes that she had gotten from her father. Her hair was a very deep red that fell to the middle of her back in waves. Her skin was a creamy pale color and her lips were full and red. She had a petite nose and immaculate eyebrows.
She had bangs that were parted over to the right side of her face and layers all throughout her hair. The hair on the left side of her head was tucked behind her ear and Tallahassee could make out four piercing on the earlobe and two on her cartilage. She had a small diamond on the right side of her nose and as she smiled, he nearly shivered. She was one of the most beautiful women he had seen. Even before Zombieland.
She was dressed in tight dark blue jeans with rips all up the thighs. They were tucked into boots that hugged her calves and were a shiny black color. They had no heel on them. The top she wore was a simple black tank top and she had a cropped leather jacket layered a top it.

"Oh! Shit head!" Columbus blushed and Tallahassee grinned again, glad he wasn't the only one to make such fun of his friend. Their mother glared at Grace and she giggled. "You made it!" she cried out finally at her brother, leaping onto him in a hug.
He grinned, hugging her back, "I went to the house!"
She rolled her eyes, "Well, duh, dumbo. Like you would have thought to go to the lake house," she snickered. "Oh! You have friends…? Well, I guess Zland changed some things for the better." she looked confused. Tallahassee laughed, Columbus must not have been that popular in high school either. Columbus glared at her before introducing his surrogate family.
"Yes. Um, Grace, this is Wichita and her sister Little Rock. And this is Tallahassee." Tallahassee grinned smugly at her as Wichita and Little Rock smiled kindly.
"Cities," she nodded, "Clever. Well, I'm Grace," she pointed out the obvious, "And it's very nice to meet you."
Likewise, Tallahassee thought.

"Okay so there are three rooms and the sofa bed. Um, we can either do all the girls in one room and the boys in another or Columbus in my room, the girls in their own room, and you on the sofa bed," she spoke calmly. "I mean, if the girls want to stay with me, we have about three air mattresses."
"You don't stay up and take watch?" Tallahassee looked confused.
Grace shook her head, "Not our night. It's cabin four's night. Plus, we have the alarms," she shrugged.
Wichita smiled, "I think we should stay with you, tonight. Because then we can get to know you. You know, girls night," she suggested. She was anxious to know more about her boyfriend, as well.
"Sounds good to me," Grace laughed. She turned to her brother, "Help me get the air mattresses out of the linen closet?"
He nodded, following his sister. When they were upstairs, he turned to her. "Um, Grace?" he whispered.
She looked at him, "Yeah?"
"What happened to dad?"
Grace's face fell, tears immediately filling her eyes, but not yet falling. Columbus looked down. He could even feel his sister's heartbreak. She had loved their father the most out of anyone in their family, next to him.

"Mom!" Grace cried out rushing into the house. She slammed the door and locked it, running upstairs. "MOM!" she screamed out. Her voice cracked.
"Gracie!" her father shouted from back downstairs. She turned and sprinted down the stairs.
"Daddy!" she flung herself into her father's arms. "Where's mom?"
"She had gone to the store," his eyes were full of tears. "When I turned on the news I…" he trailed off, "Why did you come home?"
"Because it happened in the city. I got out of there as fast as I could. And as I was driving here you could see the people changing," she was speaking monotonously. "One second they were normal and the next they were crashing their cars and diving out to eat somebody!" Her father looked away, disgusted. "What store did mom go to?" she asked, quietly.
"The grocery store a few blocks away. Grace, don't!"
"Dad," she turned to him, "stay in the house. Be quiet and lay low. I will be right back."

Grace ran through the streets sleekly, hiding from the zombies that hadn't seen her. She didn't want to waste what ammo she had left from breaking into the gun store on her way home. She spotted her mother in the back of the grocery store, hiding. "Mommy, come on," she whispered hurriedly. Her mother smiled at her, touching the side of her face. When they got home, her father was outside. A zombie lay on the ground dead and her father smiled up at her. His arm was bleeding where a chunk of skin was missing.
"Daddy!" she cried out, eyes full of tears, "I told you to stay inside!"
"It's okay," he nodded, "It's just a scratch, Gracie. Get inside."

"Did you have to kill him?" Columbus whispered. Grace closed her eyes, the tears falling as she nodded. "I waited for him to change. I couldn't…" she gulped in air, "I…not to my…not daddy," she whispered. "We brought him inside and sat him at the table, talking to him as he passed. It was so peaceful…he was so calm. And then, when those eyes opened and they had no life left in them…" She wiped her eyes and handed one of the boxes with the air mattress in it to her brother, "Here this is so Tallahassee can sleep in your room." She balanced the other two air mattresses on her arms and went down the hall to her own room.
Wichita jumped up, shocked. She'd been looking around Grace's room cautiously for something. "I'm sorry! I brought our bags up here and I was just looking around." Grace chuckled as she tried to explain. "What are you looking for?" Grace questioned.
"I saw you had makeup," Wichita gestured to Grace's vanity. "I thought maybe you'd have nail polish?"
Grace laughed, sitting the boxes on the ground and taking one air mattress out. She left it to inflate while she pulled the other one out, "Bottom drawer," she nodded towards the vanity. Wichita lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw all the colors, calling Little Rock in.

"They've been locked up there for a while," Tallahassee nodded to the ceiling. "What do you think they're doing in there?"
"I don't know," Columbus shrugged, turning on the TV. There were no stations on, of course. He had guessed that. Luckily Gracie had packed movies and he put one in. Another thump was heard upstairs followed by some giggling.
"It sounds like they have an elephant up there!" Tallahassee exclaimed.
Mama Columbus laughed, entering the room. "I think they're dancing. I'm not entirely sure, but that's what it sounds like."
"How do you have electricity and water?" Tallahassee asked curiously.
"The lake has always been run on a huge generator. It's quiet, too. It was just replaced last year. So, as long as we keep gas in the generator, we have electricity. The water tower up the hill is for the water. The zombies don't go up there because it's just a lone tower. They just pass it by, there are no people there for them."
"So it fills up with water every storm and purifies itself with the filtering system. So we're set as long as we have gas and as long as someone checks the water once a week," Columbus finished for his mother. She nodded and Tallahassee shrugged.

A noise rang through the cabins. A soft beeping. Tallahassee and Columbus looked around while Mama Columbus left the room, frowning. The door upstairs was thrown open and Grace ran downstairs.
She had changed into blue pajama shorts with white polka dots and had white, furry slippers on her feet. She had a white tank top on instead now, and her dark red hair was piled on top of her head. Her nails were now painted black, Tallahassee noticed and figured that's what the girls had been doing upstairs. She reached for her walkie talkie that she had left on the table. "What happened?"
Columbus took this moment to realize that the beeping was one of the alarms that this little society had set up.
"It's just one by the gate, Grace. You want it?"
Grace bit her lip, thinking She should probably prove herself in front of her brother's friends so they didn't think she was just a weak little girl, "Yeah, why not?"
"Well, hurry up. Jack's on his way to his tool shed," the voice on the other end of the radio chuckled. Grace reached for her sniper rifle that was in the corner of the cabin and raced back upstairs. Columbus and Tallahassee shrugged, following her. "Grace?" Columbus looked up to the ceiling where the ladder was hanging down. He sighed, climbing it. "Grace, what are you doing?"
She was sitting cross legged on the roof with the rifle in her hands, chewing gum. She put her eye up to the scope and aimed, blowing a bubble. At the same time that her bubble popped, she squeezed the trigger. And a moment later, the zombie collapsed. A man on top of another cabin groaned. Her walkie talkie spoke, "God damnit, Grace!"
She beamed, pressing the side button, "Looks like you got clean up, Jack."
They could hear the other man groan from the roof of the other cabin without the radio and watched as he went back into his cabin before exiting from the front door. He dragged the zombie off.
"Where do you take them?" Columbus asked.
"The woods," Grace stood up, "Where else?"
"Dinner!" Mama Columbus screamed out from the first floor. The three raced down the ladder, back into the house.