The invasion had finally ended. I lay in my bed with Hobbes next to me, purring contentedly. A warm glow emanated throughout the room from my lamp and the alarm clock read 11:30. My door was open to the dark hallway; the rest of the house was asleep. Apart from the steady breathing of myself and the cat, all was silent and peaceful. And then I heard the noise.

It was a meow coming from the hallway. But it didn't seem real; it was more like a poor human imitation. Something was horribly wrong. My heart pounded faster and faster in my chest and Hobbes leaped off of my bed, disappearing into the darkness. And then it entered. My skin froze and I shivered violently as I looked at it. I could see it dimly in the entrance to my room, it looked like a cat, but it just wasn't right. Its nose was too long, it was missing patches of fur, and long teeth protruded from its mouth. It looked at me with dead eyes, and took a step closer.

All air in the room disappeared and I couldn't breath. My left eye became blind. I tried to get out of my bed, to get to the sword on the wall, my only salvation. But I was rendered immobile by the weight of the universe pressing down upon me. I was helpless. And it darted closer.

I awoke from that nightmare to a bigger, more real one: life. The room was illuminated by moonlight, and the steady moaning was coming through the door. I was amazed I had gotten to sleep in the first place. I sat up to see Hobbes lying on the foot of my bed, and Xiran to the right of me asleep on the floor. I couldn't see Alex from my position; he was lying on the floor directly beneath Hobbes. I decided to check if he was awake too.

I turned myself around in my bed, and stuck my head over the edge to look at Alex. He looked back at me, rubbing his eyes groggily. "Shit...", he said. "You scared me..."

"It doesn't look like I scared you too much", I whispered back. He was barely conscious. "Trust me... I'm scared... Is Xiran up?"

"No. He's still asleep."

Alex pondered this for a while, and blinked a few times. "Shit, I've been having so many nightmares."

"Yeah, me too."

"No, like... I'm out in the road all alone and they're all around me and you guys are there and I keep trying to fire the gun but I can never hit or it doesn't fire or something... What'd you dream about?"

"Zombie cats."

"Whoooo… Spoooky…"

"Whatever. You wanna wake up Xiran?"

"Yeah, sure."

I repositioned myself so I was above Xiran, and Alex crawled across the floor until he was next to him. Xiran just kept lying there, a small pool of saliva soaking the carpet next to his mouth. "Xiran", I said quietly. "Xiran!" He didn't stir. I reached down and grabbed his arm. He jolted to life and wrenched it away, smacking his head on the wall in the process. "Fuck!" He looked at us with a mixture of pain and exhaustion, rubbing his head. We laughed at him.

Alex and I retreated to our original positions and stared at the ceiling in silence. Xiran wasn't saying anything either. I tried to strike up a conversation. "So... What's up?"

"Oh, nothing", Alex replied. "Nothing but the zombies." Xiran joined the conversation. "Aw, you know what sucks?"

Alex and I asked what.

"Pretty much ever girl our age is a zombie."

Alex laughed. "So, I don't see a problem with that."

Xiran looked confused. "What? That means there's like no chance of us getting any dates."

Alex giggled girlishly. "Well, just because they're zombies doesn't mean you can't... you know..."

Xiran cut him off. "Oh come on, Alex. That's disgusting."

He began laughing hysterically. "No, just think about it. Zombie prostitutes."

I responded to his statement. "You see Alex, this is why you're going to hell."

After some uninteresting chatter, we decided to get back to sleep. Regardless of how dad decided to get out of the house, we knew that it was going to take a lot of effort, and I hoped that the little sleep we had gotten would be enough.

And outside the room, they just kept on moaning.

Author's Note! Huzzah! Thanks for reviewing, I like reading them, etc. While this chapter may be a bit uneventful, I'm building up for the great escape. And just so you don't think my characters are sick in the head, Alex was joking. Julia, I fixed the two just's at the beginning but NOTHING ELSE! I DEFY YOU! Also, after looking around my house, I noticed some more weaponry I hadn't put it so the weapons list in chapter 2 (number 3, he prologue isn't a chapter) is updated. Enjoy