Chapter Two- Guests

"Erica, you slut!" Rachel yelled. Danny had opened the door to reveal Erica Danner and Jason White in her parent's bed. She remembered having second thoughts about inviting the love-crazed Erica, who was notorious for being sleezy, to her party. And now, with the slender girl hurriedly getting dressed beside the bed, she was sure that it had been a mistake.

"Hehe, is the party over already?" she said, trying to sound innocent.

"What the hell are you doing in my parent's bed?"

"You see, when a girl likes a guy and they want to have some fun they-"

"That's not what I meant."

"Well better their bed than yours, right? At least I have some decency."

"Don't make me laugh."

"Umm, guys," Ellie said from behind Danny. "Should I just grab the gun or…"

"The gun?!" Erica squealed.

"Unfortunately it's not for you." Rachel said. "There's a pandemic going on. We aren't supposed to leave the house."

"But I left my stuff in my car."

"Did you even hear me? There is a pandemic going on. As in a lot people are dying."

"Sucks to be them. Now, since I'm dressed and clearly not wanted here, I'm going to go home."

"You can't do that, Erica." Danny said.

"Ha! Try and stop me." She bounded out of the room and all eyes turned to Jason.

"Hey, um, I'm going to um, go and um…"

"Do whatever you want, just keep your clothes on for crying out loud." Rachel said, leaving to deal with Erica. She may be annoying but she wasn't going to let her get some virus on her watch. She opened the door and yelled out to Erica,

"Erica, get back here, it's not safe out there!"

"I can handle myself, thank you very much!"

"Erica… Erica you can probably hardly see anything."

"I can see fine. I just need to remember where I parked."

"Erica, come on."

"Who the hell are you?"

"What?"

"Not you, there's some guy out here who was most definitely not at the party."

"Erica, get back in here, he could be infected."

"Oh, there's my car. He's your problem now. See you at-" Her yelling was interrupted by her screaming. "He tried to bite me! Ugly freak! Get away from me!"

Ellie came panting in with the rifle and handed it to Rachel, who was the far better shot. She ran out to Erica just in time to see her trip and the infected man fall on her. She held him back by his shoulders as he tried to bite her face. Her thin little arms couldn't hold it up much longer. Rachel aimed the gun and shot it's head at almost point blank. It stopped flailing and Rachel helped Erica get the thing off her.

"Who the hell invited him?" she panted.

"No one, he was probably just infected."

"Then why did he look like that?"

"I don't know. The news said that they could return from the dead if they died of the disease."

"Like… like a zombie?"

"Yeah, I guess. Come on, lets go back inside."

"Okay, one second, I'm going to get my bag from my car."

"Really?"
"Yes, really. If I don't it'd be like I almost died for nothing."

"Fine, just hurry up."

To Rachel's surprise, Erica was extremely quick about grabbing her bag and running inside. Rachel walked back inside and dusted the dirt off of her socks. She locked the door and went into the living room where Erica, Jason, and Ellie were watching a report about Malibu. Hordes of the zombies were walking around the streets eating people. The news didn't even try to censor anything out. Danny came into the room with his phone in his hand.

"I don't have a signal or WiFi." he said. Suddenly the tv went to static and the lights flickered off.

"Well this is just great." Erica said with as much sarcasm as possible.

"So um, what now?" Jason asked. There was a moment of silence as everyone pondered that question. Rachel thought about all that had happened within the last couple of hours; the mass hordes, her parents, her sister, the zombie outside. After a while she spoke up.

"I think we should barricade the doors and have someone on watch while the rest of us sleep."

"Barricade the doors?" asked Ellie.

"Yeah, in case more of them show up."

"More of them? But there was only that one. Besides, we are miles away from a big city and I'm sure the military will put an end to all of this soon." Erica added.

"Yeah, but until then, it couldn't hurt."

"I agree." Danny said.

"Yeah… yeah, me too." said Jason.

"Okay then," Rachel said, "let's get to work then."

An hour later and all the furniture was pushed up against the doors and windows haphazardly. Danny had agreed to keep watch while the rest slept. Erica and Jason were put into separate rooms, leaving Rachel to sleep with Ellie in her room.

"Goodnight." Rachel whispered. After Ellie didn't reply she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, Rachel, I'm fine. It's just… I'm worried, y'know. For mom and dad, and grandma and my friends."

"They'll be fine."

"You think so?'

"Yeah… Yeah I do."

"Goodnight, Rachel"

"Goodnight, Ellie."

"Rise and shine, Rae." Rachel rolled over and tried to block out the idiot trying to wake her from her peaceful slumber.

"C'mon lazy butt, it's nearly eleven." the voice continued. Eleven? Already? She usually never slept in that late, even on the weekends. She rolled onto her back and as her eyes adjusted to the light she could see that it was Danny trying to get her up. For a second Rachel wondered what Danny was doing at her house, but then she remembered last night. So it hadn't just been some dream. Darn.

"What's up with everyone else?" She asked when she noticed that Ellie wasn't in the room.

"Well I think Jason is trying to cook breakfast, Erica is nagging him to hurry up, and Ellie is keeping watch."

"Why? She's horrible at shooting that rifle."

"Yeah, well hopefully she won't have to use it. Honestly keeping watch last night was just boring more than anything else. Nothing seems to be out there. We should probably try to get the news to see what's going on out there."

"Um, we don't have electricity. Or, don't you remember?"

"There's a radio in my truck. And I'm sure Erica and Jason both have radios in theirs as well."

"Oh, right." Rachel had forgotten about that. The cars' batteries shouldn't run out for a while. But getting to the cars could be risky if any infected show up. A savory smell greeted them as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Smells good." Danny said. "What is it?"

"Eggs, bacon, toast, the works. Y'all hungry?"

"Heck yeah! C'mon Rachel."

"Yeah, lemme go get Ellie first."

"Shouldn't someone be on guard at all times though?"

"If we get overrun in ten minutes we're screwed anyways." she said as she went onto the porch.

"Hey, Ellie, breakfast is ready."

"Okay."

"How's guard duty going?"

"Good. I don't think that any more are coming. We are pretty far out. And our neighbors are pretty far away as well."

"One of the benefits of living in the country. That and we have all the firewood we need from this forest. But we should still be careful."

"Yeah, ok." Ellie said following her into the kitchen. Normally Rachel would be opposed to some random guy from her school going through her fridge and cooking breakfast, but given that she was hungry and she couldn't cook worth crap she didn't mind much.

The food was delicious; apparently Jason had worked as a chef in his aunt's diner for a summer. Rachel didn't know how many pieces of toast she had eaten and she didn't care. Whether it was the stress of their situation or the fact that breakfast wasn't served until almost noon they didn't know, but no one quit eating until every last morsel of food was gone. Afterwards, Danny called them all into the living room, where they all lethargically slumped onto the couch.

"What's this all about?" Erica asked with much less attitude than usual. Maybe she was more civil when she was fed.

"We need a plan of action," Danny said, "and I think I have one."

"Well?"

"I think that we should drive a car right up next to the back of the house. Then we can take turns listening to it as someone guards."

"That doesn't seem like an entirely complete plan for five people." Erica continued.

"Well I'm not done yet. We also need water, and with the electricity off the tap won't work. There's a water pump in down the road a bit in someone's yard. I noticed it the first time I came here. If we could get water from that and bring enough back here for a while."

"Why do we need water if we have like four cases of water bottles?" Erica asked.

"That won't last us forever."

"Well we aren't going to need them forever, the government will end this all soon, right?"

"We don't know that for sure; better safe than sorry."

"Whatever, but I call radio duty. There is no way I'm trespassing onto some backwood lawn just to lug water."

"Fine. Who should guard her?"

"I will." Ellie said. "I probably can't lift much water anyways and I know how to use the rifle."

"Good. I guess Jason, Rachel, and I will be getting water then? Everyone good with that?" he said. There was a general nodding and murmuring of agreement before he said, "Okay, any questions?"

There was silence. The plan seemed pretty straight forward. Then Jason decided to talk.

"What if the house has infected at it. Or what if the neighbors themselves are infected?"

Silence.

"You can take the rifle." Ellie said.

"No, you need it here to protect Erica. There are some tools in my dad's shed that would probably make good weapons." Rachel added. The last time she looked around there she had seen some odd pieces of things that her dad had meant to use but never did. There was definitely her old softball bat in there if nothing else.

"Okay, Rachel and Jason, go get weapons. I'll line the back of my truck with tarps to hold water in."

"Okay. Ellie keep guard while he does that. Erica can move her car back when we leave." Rachel said.

"Got it."

The shed was a safety hazard of molding boards and rusty nails leaning in the far back of the yard. Rachel supposed that it had to have been there for a while now to accumulate so much moss on it, but it didn't appear as if was going to fall down within the next five minutes so in they went. The shed was roughly seven feet by five feet and the floor was littered with forgotten boxes, rusty tools, and pieces of metal that probably once attached to a car. This was where things came to die. Fortunately, her baseball bat was in pristine condition. She took a practice swing at some boxes and toppled them over.

"I didn't know you play softball." Jason said. His eyes were scanning a pile of moldy Christmas lights, but his voice sounded genuinely interested.

"I don't. This is from like, two years ago."

"Oh, ok. I used to play too… Baseball, that is, not softball."

"Were you any good?"

"I was worthless in the field, but I reckon I could bat better than most of the team."

"Why'd you stop?"

"Bad grades. They make you quit if you can't keep up a certain G.P.A."

"Oh."

"You?"

"What?"

"Why'd you quit?"

"Oh, no particular reason. I just started doing other things and it kind of just ended up falling away."

"Oh, darn."

"Yeah."

"Yeah." Rachel could hear the longing in his voice as he talked.

"Here, take the bat."

"What? Why? It's yours."

"Not anymore, take it."

"You sure? It is a pretty good weapon against the undead."

"You know what, I was more of a fielder anyways."

"Oh, thanks. Thanks." He took a few swings with it and she continued looking. She kicked over a pile of boxes and a tool box came open to reveal a hammer and some nails that had rusted together. She picked up the hammer. Light, unrusted, easy to use. Good enough for now.

"I don't think that there's much else we can use in here." Rachel said, looking around.

"But doesn't Danny need a weapon?"

"He has the kitchen knife. Besides, unless he wants to strangle them with a hose I don't think that there's much in here that can help."

"A hose? Where?"

"Right back there, in the blue box."

"We should take that. It might come in handy with the water."

"Good thinking." She grabbed the hose and the two of them made their way up to the truck.

"You two ready?" Danny asked as the two inspected his tarp job.

"Yeah. You got that knife still, right?" Rachel asked.

"Yep. Right here." he said holding up the knife. "Should we go now?"

"Yeah."

They hopped into the truck and it started down the driveway and into the woods. The house they were going to was only a mile or two down, so the drive was a quick one. They parked on the lawn and got out cautiously. There didn't appear to be any of the undead around but they all kept their guard up.

"So, how are we supposed to get the water into the truck? Just put bucket after bucket in?" Jason asked.

"Bucket?" Danny replied.

"You're kidding right? You didn't bring a bucket? How'd you think we were gunna get water into the truck?"

"I… I hadn't really thought that part."

"Yeah, clearly."

"Guys, we still have the hose." Rachel butted in.

"That won't work. It won't attach to the faucet thing."

"No, it can work. Danny, give me your knife." She took the knife and cut the metal end off of the hose. Then she cut a slit down a few inches on one side and held it up against the water pump. "See?"

"I never knew you were so handy." Danny said, thoroughly impressed.

"Yeah well, I have my secrets."

"Such as?"

"Such as… I don't know. Honestly that was all just a kind of spur-of-the-moment thing."

"Well good work, Rae."

"Thanks."

"Hey, guys!" Jason interjected. The two looked over to see him pointing at a fallen telephone pole. "Y'all reckon that's why the power is out?"

"It would make sense," Danny reasoned, "The power shouldn't have gone out that fast. I bet other places'll have electricity for weeks."

"Oh, shit!" Rachel had just noticed the two zombies walking towards them from behind the house. They were moving slowly, but they would be upon them in a minute.

"Just calm down. There's only two, we can take 'em." Danny said. He took the knife from Rachel, who followed behind him with her hammer. Despite having what was probably the best weapon, Jason seemed more hesitant. The closer of the two zombies was an older woman in a floral dress. There was a bite mark on her neck, no doubt from the second zombie, an elderly man in pajamas with blood dripping from his lips. Danny swung the blade at the woman and sliced off a few outstretched fingers.

"Try stabbing!" Rachel yelled. This was intense. The first one she killed had been in the heat of the moment, quick, and in the dark. This was different. It was different to see their faces, to see where they lived. These had been people. Real people with real lives and they had to kill them. Well, re-kill them, but same thing kind of.

Danny tried stabbing and got it in the head. It let out a shriek and then crumpled to the floor. Rachel turned to deal with the second one just in time to see it's head being knocked off by Jason's bat. Good news: no more zombies to deal with; bad news: blood from the second zombie had splattered all over her clothes.

"Eww! Ew ew ew!"

"Sorry!"

"It's fine, just… eww!"

"Did any get on your face?"

"No… c'mon, I'm fine, let's go fill up that truck."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Using Rachel's ingenious hose adjustment they were able to fill the truck up in an hour. Water sloshed out on their way back, but they managed to maintain most of it. The truck rolled up to the front porch where Ellie ran up to Rachel.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay? What happened to you? Why are you covered in blood?"

"I'm fine, Ellie. We just ran into some zombies."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine, I swear. What's going on on the radio?"

"Nothing good. The death toll is going up, a lot of state governments are going down, and the radio stations reporting are dropping like flies. There are only four left."

"Make that three." Erica said as she walked from the backyard. "Most cities are going down quickly. Rumor has it that Denver and London are still running, but they're under martial law."

Rachel was shocked. Partially at Erica being actually helpful and partially at how quickly things were going to hell. How could things be getting that badly so quickly? It had been less than a day and already the government was out of control. What would happen to them?

It was getting dark, and since they had no electricity they all decided to head in. Jason kept watch while they cooked semi-frozen french fries and fish sticks. Thankfully the house was old enough to have a gas stove. How long the gas would last was another problem. They would have to figure that out sometime. Hopefully this wouldn't last that long though.

The fishsticks hadn't been nearly as good as breakfast, but they were filling. Maybe having Jason on watch duty during meals was a bad idea. Rachel went to go relieve him of his duty. Afterall, she was the only one who hadn't kept watch yet. Besides Erica, but hopefully they wouldn't get desperate enough to hand her a gun. She was about to open the front door when Jason came running in.

"There are like four of them out there!" he whispered frantically, shoving the gun into her hand. She cocked it and went onto the porch, where, sure enough, she saw five zombies shambling to her. She made a mental note to teach Jason how to shoot and shot the first one. She pulled back the slide and shot the next one. Where had all of these zombies come from? She shot at the third one, but it tripped over the second and she missed. She shot at it again and hit it this time. The two remaining zombies had managed to shamble their way to just a a few feet away from the porch. It didn't matter though, she was a great shot, and from ten feet away she couldn't miss. She aimed at the closer of the two, a lanky woman with pearls slipping off of her neck, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

She was out of ammo. She hadn't even considered that this would be a problem. The woman tripped into the porch and reached for Rachel as she ran inside.

"What is it?" Danny asked as she raced upstairs for more ammo.

"There's two outside, don't open the door!" she yelled as she turned the corner and ran into her parent's bedroom. She swept everything off of the top shelf of their closet and onto the floor where she picked up the two boxes of ammo and ran back downstairs. Danny was staring quizzically at the door. Banging and moaning could be heard through the door. Rachel ran to a window to look outside. It was impossible to see them from this angle. Maybe she could lure them away.

The sound of a slamming door came from behind her. She turned to see Erica shaking. Had she just been outside?

"I was in the car…."

"Oh my gosh, were there some out there?"

"Yeah, they were like two feet away before I noticed them. I left the radio on."

"Did you get bit?"

"No… But they're in my car."

"Where's Ellie?"

"Here. Why?" Ellie asked, entering the room. Jason followed her in, holding a large kitchen knife.

"We're surrounded. We need to turn off the radio in the car or else it may attract more of them." Danny said, taking charge.

"How do we do that?" Erica asked, "There's like five of them out there!"

"Rachel, you go out your window onto the overhang and see if you can snipe them. Maybe that will lead the ones from the front to the back and then you can snipe them too."

"Got it." said Rachel.

"Wait just a minute, how do you know that there's an overhang outside of her window?" Erica questioned. It was a good point. Rachel remembered the many times he had had to use it, especially in the last week or so. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Maybe Danny should have been a bit more discreet about it, but for now at least, she didn't care; she never would have thought to use the roof to fight them.

After an awkward pause, Erica said, "Oh, and I'm somehow the slut here." She left the room and Rachel ran up the stairs. Her window already had the screen taken out from two nights ago. Thankfully her parents never bothered to look into her room very closely. She crawled up onto the overhang and took aim. As the sun set, she had a clear view of the car from here, along with the five undead trying to eat the radio. She took aim and steadied the gun on her shoulder.

She squeezed the trigger and took one out with one clean shot, right through the head.

"Woah!" Ellie said from her room, startling her, "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Dad already taught us how to. You hid inside."

"Yeah, but back then I never thought I'd have to use it."

"Fine. Come here." Ellie slid onto the overhang and Rachel handed her the gun.

"You remember how to hold it?"

"Yep." Ellie said, holding the gun on her shoulder.

"Okay, but raise your elbow up." She did and she took aim at one that was near the side mirror. Ever so slowly, she pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Her shot hit the mirror. She swore, pumped the gun, and aimed again.

"This time try to use the scope."

Ellie eyed up the zombie again.

BANG!

Right in the chest. It kept moving.

BANG!

It's shoulder blew off.

BANG!

Top of it's head blown off.

"Nice."

"Thanks." Ellie said feebly. The color was gone from her face.

"Are you okay? You're shaking."

"Yeah, I…. Yeah, I just, I don't know, I've never shot a person before."

"You can't think of them like that, Ellie. They're not people anymore."

"I know, but… still…."

"Yeah… I know."

"C'mon, let's get the rest of these…"

There was a sudden bang forceful jolt, causing them to slip. Rachel grabbed ahold of the window sill but Ellie fell down, grasping for anything. Rachel stuck out her foot and Ellie grabbed it, slipped a bit farther, and kicked out the gutter. Rachel could hear shouting and the air smelled of smoke. Ellie slowly pulled her way up and after grabbing Rachel's other leg she managed to get back onto the overhang.

"What the hell was that!?" Ellie shouted, out of breath.

"Let's find out. C'mon."