Chapter One: 'I wish my life was this song, 'cause songs they never die. I could write for years and years...never have to cry.' -The Last Song Ever by Secondhand Serenade

-Jeremy P.O.V.-

Silence. Eerie, empty, suffocating silence. It did all but literally drown me as I stepped slowly down the stairs, Josh close behind me. It was apparent that my family hadn't been living in the house for a while; the wooden furniture was covered in a thin layer of dust and the floor needed a good vacuuming. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stood there for a moment, taking it all in. Josh stepped down beside me, scanning the room with his intense blue eyes. His eyebrows furrowed together in worry and his eyes shown a glimmer of confusion once they hit the area near the couch. He was unbearably handsome, even when concerned. I wanted so badly to cuddle him, to take any worries that I could away from his already troubled mind, but I restrained myself. As much as I wanted to believe otherwise, this was not the time or the place for such affections.

We stood in silence for what seemed like forever. I wasn't even sure either of us even blinked. Or if we even breathed for that matter. I spent my part of the silence wondering what the hell happened the night of what I liked to refer to as "The Panic". What became of everyone? A slight resentment began to fill my heart when I thought about my parents, my brother, and my sister. Why would they have just picked up and left without us? They had to have known where we were, right? I shook my head, and quickly tried to suppress the hatred that was starting to take over my heart. I mean, there had to be good reason for them just taking off, right? But try as I might, I couldn't think of one.

In the midst of my reasoning with myself, thoughts of another individual began to swarm my mind; one of my dearest friends, Katie. She had been the one who locked us away in my bedroom upstairs to shield us from whatever horror laid just outside my front doorstep on that fateful night that "The Panic" occurred. She promised she would be back once things cleared up, but the screams had long since faded away into nothingness, as well as the sound of cars racing through town in every direction possible. But, much to our dismay, she never returned. Josh and I avoided any sort of conversation that might lead to discussing her potential whereabouts, because we both knew what that would turn into-a discussion of whether or not she was even alive anymore, and we both knew that the chances of her still roaming this now off-balance world completely intact was...slim. A lot of the time, lately, we actually avoided conversation altogether. Not because we found that we disliked each other after being stranded for Lord knows how long in a room together, but because you run out of things to talk about being stuck in one place for so long. I made my way slowly through the living room, everything sinking in more and more with every step.

"She never came back," Josh's voice sounded slightly sad behind me.

I paused for a moment, thinking hard about what I could possibly say in response, and nodding slowly. After several moments, I settled for the simple phrase, "I know."

We returned to silence. That was growing to be a surprisingly comfortable state between us. Silence. I walked through the room that held the piano that linked the kitchen and the living room together. Dust covered its keys, and my heart sank. It seemed like just yesterday that I was sitting at it, indulging myself with the latest masterpiece I was teaching myself to play, when Katie waltzed in through the doorway with Josh. They were smiling and laughing, just as blissfully unaware as I was that the world as we knew it was about to shatter completely.

I sat myself down at it as Josh made his way into the kitchen. I didn't even bother to wipe off the dust before placing my fingers lightly on the keys, and I began to play the softest, sweetest melody I could think of. I allowed myself to get lost in the music, and for a brief moment my world wasn't shattered anymore. That is, until Josh was back at my side. I looked up at him to see a saddened face and watery eyes. He held a folded piece of paper out to me, and curious as well as shaken at his state, gently took it from his hand. I unfolded it carefully, and allowed my eyes to scan over the ink that was pressed ever so neatly and carefully into the page. If my spirit was already broken before I opened it, it shattered once I read what it said. I attempted to swallow the lump that quickly formed in my throat.

Because I love you.

It didn't take me long to figure out what that meant. All I had to do was think back to "The Panic", which wasn't hard to remember since that whole night had been burned into my mind for probably the rest of my miserable life;

The sound of screams filled with panic and fear echoed in my ears, and the town was alive with confusion as I stepped out onto the balcony just outside my bedroom, and leaned over the railing to get a better look at things as well as try to figure out what the hell was going on. Josh and Katie had followed suit, and Katie was using her usual colorful vocabulary to display her confusion to the situation.
"What the fuck?" she muttered under her breath.
I looked over at her as she leaned over the railing as well, her gaze following a bright red Dodge truck as it sped through the town's intersection, almost colliding with several other vehicles full of passengers in quite a hurry to be anywhere but here. She pulled her eyebrows together in concern. There was a short silence before she uttered a single word, "Perhaps…", followed by even more silence. I stared at her intently, waiting to hear what she had to say next. Looking back on it, it wasn't hard to find that I was constantly lingering on her every word. She didn't seem to think so, but the things she tended to say and the way she said them could be found either very interesting, or intelligent.
But instead of finishing her thought, she abruptly turned on her heel and headed back through the doorway and into my bedroom. I watched her head toward my bedroom door, and as she rested her hand on the knob, I finally asked her, "Where are you going…?"
She paused. The silence was strained, tense. She looked back at us finally, and she opened her mouth briefly as though she were going to say something, but then shut it again without making a single sound. She turned back to face the door, turned the knob and headed out into the hallway, shutting the door gently behind her. I was filled with even more confusion at her strange actions. I let out a soft sigh, and decided to blow off her strange behavior. Had I known then what I know now, however, I wouldn't have.
I turned my attention back to the ruckus below Josh and myself. It suddenly dawned on me, that people just don't act this way on the fly. It must have been building up to this point for a while before all this happened. But how could I possibly miss any sort of information that would cause such an uproar? I must have been more oblivious to the goings-on in the world than I had originally thought.
"Maybe we should go back inside," I said nervously, before hurrying back into my bedroom, Josh close behind.
I shut the door that lead out to the balcony quickly, and for reasons unknown to even myself, decided it would be a good idea to turn the lock as well. I leaned back against it, and glanced over at Josh, who had sat himself down on my bed and was fiddling aimlessly with his phone. He normally did that when he wasn't sure what else to do. I glanced around the room, desperately looking for a way to distract myself from the all the dismayed noise emitting from the street. I slid down the strong, wooden door and planted myself firmly on the floor.
"I wonder what's going on," I said softly.
Josh paused for a moment, and glanced up at a spot on the carpet just above his line of sight to the top of his phone.
"I wish I knew," He went back to scrolling through whatever he was looking at on his phone. "That's what I'm trying to figure out."
I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them close to me. I wasn't sure what to say to him after that, all I know is that I just couldn't bare the sitting in silence as the world was seemingly crumbling down around us. I laid my cheek against them, and closed my eyes.
"I wonder where Katie ran off to…" I mumbled.
"Who knows," Josh stated simply. "But I'm sure she'll be back any moment now."
I sighed softly.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, my eyes were shooting open to panicked yells from Josh.
"What the hell," He shouted. "Oh my God, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
I looked immediately in his direction, taking a brief moment to wipe the drool from my chin. He was shouting at the door—well, more likely, whoever was on the other side of it. I heard fumbling coming from the other side, and I stood up, dazed and confused.
"What—" I was going to question who Josh was shouting at and why, but that was when I heard a voice on the other side of the doorway answer him. Katie's voice.
"It's for your own good," She answered, her voice shaky.
I looked back and forth between Josh and the door.
"What's going on…?" I asked.
"She's barricading the door so we can't get out," Josh answered, the tone in his voice making it apparent that he was far from pleased.
"She's….what?" I asked, even more confused and slightly concerned. "Why would she…..what?"

"I just…..I just need you guys to stay here for a little while!" She said. It was obvious to me that she was fighting hard to keep her voice even the slightest bit calm. "I swear, I'll come back here and get you both once things clear up."
With that, heavy footsteps sounded down the short hallway that led to my bedroom from the stairs, then down the stairs, before abruptly disappearing altogether. When things 'cleared up'? What the hell was that supposed to mean? I debated asking that question out loud to Josh. Though I naturally assumed that his guess would have been as good as mine about what she meant, I remembered what he had said earlier about searching for answers earlier on his phone, and decided it would be worth a shot.
"I wonder what she meant by…when things clear up…?" I casually stated.
Josh's body was suddenly rigid, which caught me off-guard. I blinked, once again confused. There was a long pause, and it felt like several eternities had passed before I even dared to shift uncomfortably. It was safe to assume he knew more than he probably ever wanted to about the situation.
"You…you wouldn't believe me if I told you," He said, finally breaking the silence.
I blinked. Could the cause of this whole thing really be that outlandish? Was he just being more overdramatic than he had to be? I highly doubted it. He was never known for being a drama queen—er, king.
"Well…." I started slowly. "You should tell me anyway because I kind of want to know."
He paused again briefly before nodding.
"There's kind of…sort of…zombies running around everywhere," He said, much more casually than I was comfortable with. "No big deal."
Okay, so it turned out that the answer I was looking for was a pretty outlandish one, indeed. I blinked, unsure of what to think.
"Zombies? You're….kidding, right?" I asked.
The whole idea of it was absolutely absurd. I was certain that he was pulling my leg in order to get a laugh or two out of the chaos, but when I saw how much of a straight face he had after he said it, my heart dropped into my stomach. Zombies. Fantastic.
"No, I wish I was, but…" He trailed off, and looked as though he had begun to zone out.
I was quickly riddled with horror. Zombies ATE people, which meant everyone I knew and loved was currently at risk of being devoured, and turning into one of those wretched monsters themselves. Before I knew it I went into a panicked frenzy, and began banging my fists as hard as I could against the blockaded wooden door, and screaming at the top of my lungs.
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!?" I shouted desperately, at nothing but what I thought was an empty house. "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE US UP HERE?! DON'T DO THIS! YOU CAN'T LEAVE US HERE! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
For the first time in a long time, tears drawn by helplessness and fear poured down my cheeks and dripped in large droplets off my chin, only to be absorbed by the carpet. I hit the door one last time with much weaker force before falling down to me knees, feeling the most helpless I had ever felt in my life. A major part of my brain desperately wanted to hate her, but my heart wouldn't allow that to happen. And so we waited up in my bedroom for days, before we finally decided enough was enough and took it upon ourselves to escape.

It was hard for me to see past the tears. A strong sense of guilt began to consume me. How could I ever have questioned her motives? Shouldn't her reasoning been clear to me from the beginning? And for me to even have a fleeting thought of hatred toward her? Unforgivable.
"We…" I bit my lip before continuing. "We have to find her."
Josh looked surprised. "But….how do we even know if she is still even—"
I cut him off. A new hope dawned inside of me after reading that note she left. "No. Just. Trust me. She's still out there somewhere. Alive! I just know it."
He blinked, and then gave me a half-hearted smile. It was easy to tell that he wasn't quite as convinced as I was, but he still nodded and replied, "I suppose you could be right."
For a while there was silence, when out of the blue, the knob on the front door jiggled, drawing both of our attention toward it. I sat, frozen to my seat, hardly able to think through the fear. It turned, and the door was slowly pushed open by an unseen individual. I was sure it was a living, breathing person (did zombies even know how to open doors?), but whether they were good or bad was completely unknown to us. My breathing heightened as the door knob that had been facing us gently thudded against a counter, revealing an all too familiar face…
I blinked, surprised. "Katie…?"
She smiled sheepishly. "I told you that I would come back for you, didn't I….?"