Balboa

Today's song is Balboa by Cruiserweight.

The sound of their father's squad car pulling into the gravel driveway drew both of the elder Swan children from their soon to be vacated rooms at different speeds.

Emmett threw the door of his room open so quickly that it dented the wall and cracked the plaster but he took no notice as he raced downstairs, his precious porn stash tucked securely beneath his arm. He figured if anyone asked he would just claim it was more bullets or some shit like that.

Bella on the other hand took her time, pausing to survey the space she had called her own for so many years. This room was the last place she remembered seeing her mother's smiling face just before Charlie drove her to the hospital to have Alice. It was also the scene of her first kiss and the haven within which she had cried herself to sleep every night for months over her first real heartbreak.

Leaving the only home she had ever known would be sad but staying wasn't an option. Bella had considered how to properly defend the house many times but each time she had come to the conclusion. It would be suicide to remain in place. Sure, they knew every hiding place and the lay of the land but still there were too many disadvantages. Not only were there too many windows downstairs, the house was also located within a large city, a terrible place to be during a zombie invasion. So with a heavy heart she flipped off her light switch, even now conscious about conserving energy, before gingerly walking past Alice's closed door and toward her lifelong arch-nemesis, the stairs.

Once safely at the bottom of the stairs of death, she was met by the grim faces of her father and brother. Not usually one for open displays of affection, Charlie Swan took his children by surprise when he pulled them into a sudden hug. After releasing the shocked pair there was an uncomfortable moment of darting eyes and moustache twitching before Emmett couldn't take it anymore and broke the tension with a well timed fart.

"Oh Jesus, Emmett!" Bella scolded as she slapped her hands over her face and fled the house.

"Nice one son," Charlie coughed before he too fled back outside after Bella.

With the unfamiliarly tender moment behind them, Bella and Emmett led Charlie around as he inspected their handiwork. Emmett explained that Bella had organized everything and after flipping through Bella's extensive notebook, Charlie let out an impressed whistle.

"I didn't know you had it in ya Bells. I must say, I'm impressed. It would seem you've thought of just about everything. I would ask why you have this but frankly, it just doesn't matter anymore." He said sadly. "We need to get out of here while we still can and our window is closing fast. I saw what was happening in Tucson and once we got word that some of the infected had made it out of the city before they turned, I hightailed it outta there. Wasn't doing any good anyway, they multiply faster than roaches and have begun to overrun the blockades. Anyway, the military was about to abandon the city and move north last I heard."

"How much time do you figure we have?" Emmett asked, his tone betraying the sense of panic he had been trying so hard to keep under control.

"Few hours, tops." Charlie replied with a sniff. "It'd be best if we left now. I could get us through the curfew patrols with my credentials but why risk it? I'd like to leave before dark, just need to figure out where we're goin'."

Emmett shook his head. "No need for that Pops. Seems little Bellybutton has really thought of everything. She has a location set in mind as well as routes, alternative routes, and yet more alternatives all lined up."

Charlie's brow furrowed as he stared down at his oldest daughter. "That true Bells?"

Embarrassed, Bella refused to meet her father's gaze and chose instead to focus on the sidewalk crack plants that had begun to sprout along the slabs of their driveway. "Ye- yeah, it is," she mumbled as an intense blush colored her cheeks.

"Well I'm proud of you kid," Charlie praised as he ruffled her hair. "Alright, if we're all ready, let's get out of here while we still can," he said as he looked around, suddenly noticing he was missing a child. "Where's your sister?"

Emmett and Bella exchanged a loaded gaze, silently arguing about who would be the one to inform their father about why Alice wasn't with the rest of the family. After a few seconds of intense threatening looks and silent threats, Bella lost the battle.

"Alice is being, difficult," she explained judiciously.

"What do you mean she's being difficult?" Charlie asked in disbelief. "Didn't you tell her what was going on?"

"Well we did," Bella replied, "but she still thinks we're messing with her. She's pissed because she thinks you're in on it with us."

Charlie ran his hand across his face. "Alright but what about after she saw all this?" he asked gesturing to the loaded vehicles. Surely you've never gone to these lengths to mess with your sister." The guilty looks on his children's faces and their refusal to answer his question gave him all the answers he needed. "You didn't," he admonished angrily. "Seriously, how old are you two? Haven't you ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? No one believed him and then he got eaten, ironic isn't it?" he scolded while rubbing his temples in frustration.

Raising three children alone had been no picnic for Charlie, especially after losing Renee so suddenly and while he knew Bella and Emmett had tormented their younger sister for years, he had always thought it was just a bit of sibling hijinks. He had no idea they had taken it so far.

"Now what are we going to do?" Charlie grumbled to himself. "We can't just throw her in the car screaming, someone would surely get suspicious."

"Why not?" Emmett piped up. "We do it all the…" at the enraged look on his father's face and the swift jab in the ribs from his sister, he smartly snapped his mouth shut.

"You idiot!" Bella hissed under her breath.

"Uh yeah," he coughed, "we can't do that."

Choosing to overlook his children's past sins, for the time being, Charlie began to brainstorm his options. He jogged into the house, intent on getting Alice out of the house and into the car without making a scene, leaving Emmett and Bella alone in the driveway once again.

With Charlie gone, Emmett turned to berate Bella for allowing him to accidentally confess their wrongdoings when he was interrupted by a low moan coming from the other side of the fence.

"Uh oh," Emmett chuckled glad for the distraction from all the seriousness. "Sounds like the Copes are at it again." He said with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows. "Weird 'cause I thought Mrs. Cope was in Tucson on…" he trailed off as the moan became more of a shriek when its owner emerged from behind a large yucca dividing the two properties and caught sight of the two Swans.

Shelly Cope had always been a large woman who gave off the feeling of being someone's ornery grandmother although she and Mr. Cope had never been able to have children. It wasn't for lack of trying though. Shelly and Marvin Cope were a very active couple who liked to enjoy each other's company regularly, especially outside in their hammock.

Many times over the years, the Swan children had been subjected to the moans and muffled cries of pleasure drifting over the fence and into their yard. After a few summers of ruined barbecues and spoiled swimming parties, they had learned the only way to stop the loving next door was to perform what Emmet had dubbed the cold shower, a perfectly executed triple cannonball that sent a wave of water crashing over the fence and onto the entangled adults on the other side.

As she barreled toward them, eyes rolling and teeth gnashing, Emmett and Bella both wondered if perhaps this wasn't karma's bitch way of getting back at them for all those times they had interrupted her love making with their cheeky antics.

"Mother trucker," Bella whispered as Emmett froze in place, unable to think clearly as he watched death run toward him wearing a house dress and curlers.

Fortunately for the both of them, Bella had been preparing for a situation such as this for years and sprung into action. Scanning her surroundings, she was dismayed to find Emmett had packed all of their weapons, leaving her to scramble for something with which to defend herself. A reflection caught her eye and drew her attention to a pair of old hedge clippers lying abandoned against the side of the house. It would be risky but she was out of options and while she knew Charlie was still wearing his gun, with Emmett practicing his statue impersonation he would never reach them in time.

It took Bella less than two seconds to decide to run for the clippers. Mrs. Cope let lose an unholy scream as she charged after the small brunette. Amazingly, Bella managed to run without tripping once.

Apparently running from the undead does wonders for my coordination, Bella thought dryly as she scooped up the clippers and narrowly dodged the surprisingly agile Mrs. Cope.

"I really hate to do this," said as she back peddled nimbly, "but there is no way I'm going to allow myself to go down on day one!" She grunted as she lunged forward with shears open. "I've worked too damn hard, for too damn long to let, ugh, that, ah, happen!" She ground out as the shears closed around her former neighbor's neck.

A loud scream shook Emmett from his trance before it was intermixed by a strangled gurgle and then, silence. His eyes widened as he surveyed the carnage before him. Not three feet from where he had been rooted to the spot, lay the nearly headless form of Shelly Cope and beside her a blood soaked Bella. He was even shocked when the normally squeamish Bella withdrew the blood spattered shears from around the zombie's neck only to plunge them through the corpse's temple a moment later. He felt his stomach seize violently and turned in time to vomit violently into the gravel.

"You alright Em?" Bella asked nonchalantly as she wiped a glob of gore from her face and threw the shears aside as though they were merely a dirty towel rather than instruments of destruction.

"I-I… and you," he sputtered gesturing wildly back and forth, unable to form a coherent thought.

"I-I, yeah Em," Bella said drolly as she waved her hand dismissively. "I killed a zombie that was going to eat us for dinner. It's only a matter of time before it happens again, best to get used to it now."

"But-but," Emmett still struggled with his words and blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "you hate blood. And you didn't fall." He finished as his mind finally caught up with his mouth. "How did you do that?" He asked in amazement. "You went all Rocky Balboa on her ass! You were just like Alice. I mean not our sister obviously, but you know that bad ass chick from Resident Evil or some shit. Whoa."

Bella just shrugged and stripped off her blood soaked t-shirt revealing an equally blood soaked camisole underneath. The sight made her sigh rather than faint as it normally would have.

"I guess there's no time to be a klutzy hemophobiac when you're fighting zombies," she replied before turning toward the house and the shocked faces of Charlie and Alice.

"Oh. My. God!" Alice screamed before Charlie clamped his hand over her mouth and picked her up as though she weighed nothing.

"Well so much for getting out of here without making a scene," Charlie remarked with a sigh. "You alright Bells? She didn't get you did she?" He asked, a look of terror passing briefly across his face as he considered the very real possibility that he might be forced to murder one of his own children in the coming days in order to protect the others.

"No Dad," Bella assured him as she headed into the house to grab a clean pair of clothes for the final time. "She didn't even touch me. This," she said gesturing to her grisly attire, "is all Mrs. Cope."

"Well that's good," Charlie grunted as he and Emmett loaded a struggling Alice into the cab of Bella's truck. "Now, hurry up and get back out here. We have to get out of here before anymore of our neighbors try to eat us for dinner."

IV
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So two chapters in two days, impressive no? This story is really so much fun to write that it just seems to flow from my finger tips. Let me know what you think. Do you have a zombie survival plan? If so let me know and maybe some of your strategies will make it into the story!

XOXO,

Bellarella