Chapter 2

Jaydon slowly pushed the door open, a loud squeaking echoing through the house. A dimly lit hallway extended a little ahead, with a door on the right and the hall opening up into a room not too far down. He slowly stepped in, taking in a deep breath and sighing. "Home sweet home... been so long…" He sighed, flopping on the couch.

Jessica followed after him, sitting down on the couch beside him. She looked around. "Nice place. So… about those quieter weapons you were talking about…?"

"Ah, right. Those are in my room upstairs, I'll take you there in a second. I gotta just… breathe for a second." He let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders dropping down slowly.

Jess nodded, taking the offered time to try and calm herself down. The situation outside seemed unreal to her… like a nightmare that she fought to wake up from, but never would.

Jaydon was thinking the exact same thing that she was. The nightmarish creatures… this doesn't happen in real life… it just doesn't… He sighed again, stretching out on the couch and sitting up. "Alright. I'm ready if you are."

"Anytime. With a nightmare like this going on, we've got to be," she replied grimly.

"Well, it's on us to turn this nightmare into a dream then." He smiled and stood up, trying to stay bright. Inside, he was just as scared as she was, and he knew it. But he also knew that he had to be strong if they were going to make it. He turned slowly, climbing up the stairs and opening a white door, leading into the most nerdified room imaginable. Multiple posters were carefully taped onto the wall, shelves upon shelves of trading cards were to the opposite of his bed, and a fully stocked video game set up and TV set was neatly organized at the foot of his bed. "Sorry about the, uh… nerdified room," he chuckled lightly.

Jessica smiled and shrugged. "I don't care," she told him. "I love video games, too." She glanced over at his pile of games.

"Oh, is that so? If we weren't living it I'd say let's play some Halo online, infection mode." He laughed and smiled, heading to the far wall where two swords were hung up. He picked up the first, a well decorated yet deceptively sharp golden and red patterned longsword, and handed it to her. "Here, try this one."

She took the sword in her hand, her fingers wrapping around the hilt. It matched her weight and balance perfectly, and she gave an experimental swipe at the air. She smiled. "Nice. This'll be fine."

"Awesome. Then I get to use my baby." He smirked and picked up the second, a very painstakingly made two bladed sword. The two blades were connected with what seemed like just a metal solder, but it'd held well for many years of use. He swayed it back and forth, readjusting to its balance. "Alriiiight. So, do you have a plan?"

"Well… I guess I've never really thought about a zombie apocalypse before. All I know is that we have to kill them and find a shelter that can't be easily infiltrated by the things."

"The genius is strong with this one!" he exclaimed playfully, ruffling up her hair with his free hand.

Jessica glared at him and swatted his hand away, trying not to laugh as she fixed up her hair, straightening it with her fingers.

"Well, lucky for you, I actually have planned for this occasion. It was my project for my graduation from engineering college. I'll show you, it's downstairs in my gallery."

He headed down the stairs and down a little disconnected hallway, opening another door to a small room. This room had multiple engineering tools like solder, chisels, mallets, nails, bolts, wrenches, practically anything you could imagine for repairing or creating something. In the center of the room was a highly detailed wood model of something.

Jess followed him, looking around the room slowly until her eyes fixed on the wooden model. "I guess that thing over there is the plan?"

"Hey, check out the big brain on Jessica over here!" Jaydon teased with a smirk.

"I guess I'll have to put up with a lot of jokes about my stupidity," she sighed, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

He chuckled, walking her over to it. "This right here is the culmination of 4 years of engineering, mechanics, and circuits classes. Along with about 10 cans of red bull."

He smiled, showing her a few working traps that he'd made on it, including log drops, tripwires, and an alarm system made out of tin cans.

"You put a lot of thought into this," she admired, watching with wide eyes. "We'll have no problem surviving as long as you're here. Wow… that's the nicest thing I've said to a person," she added jokingly.

He laughed and smiled, giving her a little hug. "Well, you could say that. Or you could say that an 'all or nothing' engineering final kinda brings out the best in me."

Jess smiled. "So... What now?"

"Well you tell me what we do now. This right here is a model for a base that would be really good for this. I was thinking of having it in a tree, then we'd be safer."

"Sounds good to me. Should we stock up on supplies like food and water?"

"Mhmm. I don't have a ton here, so we'll need to find a city nearby. You have any ideas?"

"I don't think we should enter the city until we have complete protection and possibly a vehicle…" Jess said.

"Good point...where will we get protection then?" Jaydon asked.

"I guess we'll just have to be really well equipped with weapons and have a strong and fast vehicle. I'm not sure where we can get said items, though… Maybe we'll find something along the way. We can search houses and stores to get the supplies we need, and maybe we can even grow our own crops later."

"Mhmm. You can't see it in this model, but a garden is incorporated into the base. As for the vehicle, I think having a vehicle when heading into the video wouldn't be a good idea. More noise, we'll have more zombies eating our heels. Plus we have to fuel it."

"Then a bike or something? Speed is also important to get away from those walkers…"

"I'm not super worried about that...Besides, we need to stay in shape. Running will help with that." Jaydon smirked, elbowing her ribs.

"Are you calling me fat?!" she demanded, outraged.

He broke down laughing, falling backwards. "BWAHAHAHAA! THAT REACTION WAS PRICELESS!"

She glared at him, trying not to laugh.

He held his stomach, laughing hysterically. "H-hooo god...th-that was so funny…"

He was literally crying from the hilarity.

She huffed, turning away, her eyes sparking with amusement. "I guess I'm going to be the joke out of the both of us," she grinned.

He smirked, standing up and hugging her from behind. "Only if you don't insult me back."

She gently elbowed him in the face and spun around. "So you were calling me fat!"

"No! I was referring to the jokes about your intelligence."

"So now you're calling me stupid?!"

"Maybe I am. You gonna do something about it?" He smirked, clearly teasing her.

She glared at him and suddenly tackled him to the ground.

He jumped a bit, staring up at her with a smirk. "You have no idea what you're starting."

"A fight? Yeah, I know what I'm starting," she joked, sticking her tongue out at him.

"You think so?" He slowly pushed up, pushing her over easily.

She fell back, glaring at him with amusement. "Showing off your strength, huh?" she teased.

"Oh no. That's just me asserting my dominance." He smirked down at her, then winked.

She punched his arm. "I could be a leader if I wanted to!" she huffed. "I'm just letting you do all the hard work."

He laughed. "You? Leader? You couldn't lead us out of a paper bag."

"I'm pretty sure it's you who couldn't find their way out of a paper bag without my help!" she laughed.

"Uhhh, who's the one with a full detail zombie survival plan in his gallery?" He smirked down at her, pushing at her forehead.

Jess flailed at his hand that pushed her forehead. She looked up at him, grinning. "Paper bags and basic coordination has nothing to do with zombies." She stuck her tongue out at him again.

"I'm pretty sure the fact that zombies don't have basic coordination means that they DO have something to do with surviving," he laughed. "Stick that tongue out at me again, I dare you. I'll bite it."

She squealed and wriggled away from him, sticking her tongue out at him and running out of the room, laughing.

He ran after her, laughing, before tackling her to the ground and pinning her by her shoulders. "Give it here! Don't make me take it!"

"Nooo!" she squealed, trying to wiggle her way out from under him.

"Last chance! I'll take it from you!" He kept his grip on her strong, a huge grin on his face.

"Neverrrr!" she laughed, trying to loosen his grip by pulling at his arms.

He sneered at her, then felt himself blush and his heart rate pick up. He leaned forward, pressing his lips against hers.

She let out a muffled squeak, her eyes wide as she felt the heat rush to her face.

His own face heated up, his eyes wide. He quickly parted her lips, taking her tongue and biting it before pulling away, his heart pounding. 'Yeah… I can't say that now…'

Jess stared at him, blushing immensely. "Well," she managed to squeak jokingly. "You're a pretty crap kisser."

Jaydon play glared down at her. "Oh shut up. I held back my snarky comment so I didn't ruin the moment."

"Well, that's me," she grinned. "The one who ruins the moment of romance and -" She decided not to add the last word.

"And…?" He leaned forward, waiting.

"Nothing," she said quickly, forcing a teasing smile.

He gave her a dead stare. "Either say it or I'mma kiss you again."

"Hmm… I'll take the kiss for now," she teased. "Even though you suck at it."

"If I sucked at it, why would you want the kiss then?" He smirked, pressing his lips slowly to hers.

"Reasons," she replied simply before hugging him as she kissed him, her eyes closing.

He sighed quietly, his own eyes closing slowly. His arms wrapped around her, holding her close. 'Gotta remember to ask what those reasons are…' He thought to himself, smirking.

She pulled him towards her, smiling into the kiss.

He smiled down at her, his shoulders dropping and an enormous sigh shooting through him. His entire body going incredibly lax.

Jess stiffened as she heard a new noise, one that she had become so familiar with from her first encounter. Her eyes flew open, and she turned her head, her eyes fixing on several faces pressing against the window, their fleshy and bloody jaws gaping as they grated their teeth and claws across the glass.