REWRITTEN 1/15/16
Making Our Home
The angry, axe-wielding gummy bear chased me across the barren plain. Dry grass slapped against my bare legs and feet, and a cold wind whipped through my short hair, bringing tears to my eyes. Somewhere nearby, a bird shrieked ominously. The sound echoed across the empty space. The sky was filled with shadows and getting darker by the second, clouds blotting out the pale, watery sun. My heart pounded in my throat, and my lungs burned as I gasped for breath, forcing my legs to churn in continuous circles. I hazarded a glance behind me. The gummy bear was gaining fast, deep, angry furrows in its sugary brow.
Frantically, I cut to my left, leaping a fallen log and skidding on the slick grass. The gummy bear followed effortlessly, its legs eating up the distance between us, its heavy feet shaking the earth to its core, its axe cleaving through the log as if it were made of butter. I jumped a small trench and looked around desperately for a place to hide. There was nothing. The grey plain extended for as far as the eye could see, broken occasionally by small clumps of withered looking trees.
There was only one thing left to do; stand and fight.
I ran up a low hill, a stitch tugging at my side, and spun around. I snapped my fingers to summon a ball of fire. Nothing happened. There wasn't even a spark. Eyes widening, I clicked my fingers again. Not even a flicker of heat. I looked up to see the gummy bear closing in on me, raising its axe to attack. I stumbled back, heart in my throat.
Suddenly, my calves struck something hard, and I pitched backwards, unable to keep my balance. I slammed into the ground hard, the air racing out of my lungs. A dark shadow fell across my face. The gummy bear was looming over me, axe hefted over its head.
I scrambled back, rocks slicing into my palms, only to find myself trapped against a tall rock wall. "This is for eating me," the gummy bear growled in a throbbing voice and began to drop its axe.
My breath caught in my chest, fluttering against my ribs. So this is how I would die. Alone. Funny, I always thought my end would come from doing something heroic and incredibly stupid. Not getting cleaved in two by an angry gummy bear out for my blood because I ate him.
Wait a second…if I ate him, then how was he there trying to kill me?
The axe fell faster, blurring. My eyes were riveted on it. I couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. So this is how it would end. On a grey plain. With a gummy bear. And lots of blood.
Suddenly, a fuzzy smear appeared from out of nowhere and latched onto the gummy bear's face. The newcomer chittered angrily, and pieces of gelatin began to fly off in every direction. The gummy bear's features quickly disappeared beneath the ferocious onslaught, and then my savior crawled down onto the rest of the body. Within minutes, the giant candy monster was nothing more than a pile of red, gooey chunks.
My rescuer dropped to the ground and watched me with wide, green eyes. I stared back at it in shock. It was a fuzzy, white chinchilla. Its ears and tail twitched every so often, and the wind ruffled its puffy fur. "Well, aren't you going to thank me?" it demanded.
I blinked once. "Um, thanks?"
"That's better," the chinchilla said, nodding its tiny head.
"What's happening?" I wondered.
"Isn't it obvious?" the chinchilla answered helpfully. Suddenly, every scrap of fur on its body froze, and it stared at me with a scary, dark-eyed intensity. "Wake up, Enia, wake up."
"What?" I asked, afraid.
"Wake up, Enia, wake up," the animal repeated.
Then it leapt at my face.
I sat bolt upright in bed, an unfamiliar blanket falling from my shoulders, and bashed my head into someone else's. The stranger reeled back, clutching at their face, and tumbled to the floor. "Ow!" yelped a familiar voice.
"Samik?" I asked tentatively, rubbing at the pulsing bruise on my forehead.
"Who else?" he asked.
"I don't know. A serial killer?"
Samik stood up and flicked on a switch, instantly flooding the room with the light that stabbed into my eyes. Once my vision started to clear, I saw that I was in one of the small offices on the second floor of the library, lying on a pile of blankets. I didn't know how I'd gotten there.
"What's the matter?" he asked, moving forward to crouch beside me and take my hand.
"Weird dream," I answered. My head finally stopped pounding, and the last of the colored dots disappeared from before my eyes. I took a deep breath to calm the rest of my nerves.
Zeus and Arin knocked once and entered the room. "Did you have a dream about a gummy bear trying to eat you too?" Zeus asked. One side of her hair was sticking straight up in the air.
"Trying to kill me with an axe," I responded. I licked my lips; my mouth felt scuzzy, as if I'd eaten something furry. Seeing my expression, Arin reached into her pocket and pulled something out. She tossed me a green toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. I caught them gratefully, dousing the brush with paste and scrubbing furiously at my teeth. A few minutes later, I felt exponentially better.
"Come on, I made breakfast." Samik hauled me to my feet, leading me out of the office and into the main room. Delicious food smells wafted through the air. The scent lines were practically visible as they eddied on the air currents.
"What's for breakfast?" I asked, inhaling deeply and taking it all into my system.
"I went across the street while everyone else was asleep and grabbed some supplies. This morning, I made chocolate chip pancakes with bacon, sausages, eggs, waffles, and fresh fruit."
"Yum!" I exclaimed, hopping up and down happily.
He led me across the floor to where the rest of the group was crowded around the information desk in the center of the room. Steam rose out of the center of the circle, and the delicious smells seemed to originate from that direction. My mouth began to water.
Onyx heard our approach and stood up, a piece of bacon in one hand and a half-eaten pancake in the other. She stuffed the rest of the pancake into her mouth and took a bite out of the bacon. "Samik, you're my new best friend! Enia, I'm taking him from you!"
"Never!" I yelled, latching onto Samik's arm.
He laughed. "Aw, I feel so loved."
The four of us joined the circle, and William handed out paper plates. I loaded mine up with incredible smelling food, searching for some silverware. Finding none, I shrugged and picked up a pancake with my fingers. It was hot enough to burn. I crammed the whole thing into my mouth at once and almost fainted from sheer pleasure. It was literally the best thing I had ever put into my mouth. It was fluffy. And filled with chocolate. I'd always known that Samik was the best chef in the entire Universe, but actually tasting his food for the first time, holy gods, it was incredible! There was no way to put into words how yummy it was or how my I loved Samik in that moment.
"Ohmigosh!" Zeus gushed, bouncing up and down. "Yummyummyummyummy! Who knew pancakes could be so delicious!"
"And the bacon!" William added. "I may hate you, but damn can you cook."
"Cook for us more often!" Teemo demanded. He almost fell of his desk. Minka caught him by the arm and made sure he stayed put.
"Okay," Samik agreed, the tips of his ears turning a brilliant scarlet.
"So, David," I said around a mouthful of delicious bacon. "What are you doing here?"
He set down the apple he was eating. "Well, for some reason, my parents decided to come down here for winter break."
"Why would you come to Iowa?" Onyx interrupted.
David shrugged. "I don't know. My parents are weird. When all this shit went down, they freaked out and tried to flee. I'm not sure what happened to them. I stayed, got some supplies, and was wandering around the streets with William, trying to find a place to make camp. Pretty soon, we'd attracted the attention of a pretty large horde. William spotted this building, and we got to it as quick as we could. The building was instantly surrounded. William helped me with the fortifications then took off again, saying something about finding help. I've been here ever since."
I nodded thoughtfully, more concerned with finished another pancake, the chocolate melting in my mouth. "Interesting."
William opened his mouth to add something, but suddenly, there was a loud crash from downstairs. We shot to our feet in unison, food falling from our hands. I led the race to the stairs, leaping down them four at a time, careening around the corner and skidding into the foyer. One of glass doors had shattered, and five rotten munchers came staggering into the building. Their stench was particularly horrifying after the heavenly breakfast smells. I tried my best not to gag.
Onyx and William shifted into their animal forms and leapt into action. Using my powers, I swept some of the rubble into the air and fired the larger pieces into the heads of two of the munchers. Arin flash-froze the moisture in the air around one of the corpses and shattered it. The body collapsed without spewing any blood. Witnessing that, I suddenly got an idea. A brilliant, insane, and utterly irrational idea. I couldn't put it into action yet, but I would. Soon.
Onyx stomped all over the last two, and then it was done.
"We need to do something about that hole," Samik said.
"Yeah. William, drag those bodies outside, the rest of you, come with me," I decided.
"Why do I have to?" William whined.
"Because none of us want to. Now go do it."
He grumbled something that was probably insulting but went to grab one of the stinking corpses by the feet. David moved to help. The rest of us made our way back into the center of the library. "Ok," I began, perching on a countertop. "What do you guys think about bringing all the awesome books upstairs and then using the shelves to block the entrances?"
"That sounds like a lot of work," Teemo grumbled.
"Do it anyways."
We scurried away to different corners of the library. I slid over to the Young Adult Fiction section first and started pulling books from the shelves. My arms full, I carried the books up the stairs, and then I went back for more. It was dull, grueling work, but I felt like it had to be done. Stories made up our whole world, our entire lives. I couldn't let them fall to ruin. Having picked over the shelves, I moved on to the Adult Fiction, and Onyx and Minka swooped in to find books of their own. Finally, I shifted to the Children's Room.
The process took the entire day, and by the time the sun went down, we were all sweating and had trembling limbs. Onyx tried to collapse into a heap, but I grabbed her arm before she could hit the floor completely. "Nope, we aren't done. Now we have to move all the shelves."
She glared up at me, but slumped against one of the bookshelves and began to shove it across the floor. William and David slouched in from outside – where they had been keeping the munchers at bay – and joined us in our effort to shift the giant wooden objects. Eventually, all the doors and windows were barricaded as tight as we could make them.
"I hate you right now, Enia," Onyx wheezed once the last shelf thudded into place.
"Agreed," David said, collapsing to the ground and panting.
The group reconvened and barely made it up the stairs. I fell over halfway up, and Minka and Zeus had to drag me the rest of the way. Samik immediately set about cooking dinner. It was herb encrusted chicken with rosemary potatoes. It wasn't long before the mouthwatering aromas filled the air.
"So," I said as we sat down on the floor to eat. We still didn't have silverware. "I was thinking that tomorrow, Samik and I would head over to my house. There's some stuff I want to grab."
"Can I come too?" Zeus asked. "I'd like to get some of my stuff, too."
"Will you go to my house as well?" Onyx added. "I've got some useful crap."
"Yeah, sure," I said, nodding my head and using my fingers to shovel potatoes into my mouth.
"Who will be in charge while you're gone?" Arin asked, and the last of the potatoes fell back to my plate.
"I'm…not in charge," I contradicted, puzzled. I could be a control freak, yes, but that didn't mean I wanted to be the leader.
"Yes, you are," she disagreed, rolling her eyes. "Are you really that dense?"
"Uh…" I looked around the circle, and everyone nodded in agreement with Arin's words. The thought made my stomach churn. Taking charge during a group project at school was a lot different than taking charge of a group during a zombie apocalypse. "Well, who wants to be in charge while I'm gone?"
"ME!" Teemo yelled, flinging his arm into the air.
Arin coughed sarcastically, interjecting the words, "Bad idea," into it. He wrinkled his nose at her, offended.
"Sorry, Teemo, but we need someone at least mildly responsible." I tapped my chin thoughtfully, pausing to crack both of my wrists. "Onyx will be in charge!"
The redhead grinned evilly and rubbed her hands together.
"What? How is she any more responsible than me?" Teemo objected indignantly.
I shrugged and stood up. "I don't know. She doesn't randomly blow things up." I grabbed my plate and tossed it in the slowly growing pile of trash on the floor. We would have to figure out what to do with that eventually. "I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
Samik waved goodbye to the others and followed me into the small office I'd found myself in that morning. He shut the door and dropped the blind as I tossed my jacket to the floor, massaging my sore muscles. Samik walked up behind me, and I turned to wrap my arms around his neck, smiling gently. He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, still tasting of rosemary.
We dropped to the nest of blankets, and I tucked myself into his chest, laying my head on his shoulder. Samik dragged one of the blankets over us, and as I dropped off, I wondered vaguely if it had been a good idea to put Onyx in charge.
Teemo: I still think you should have put me in charge.
Enia: Maybe later. Anywho, drop us a review. Let us know what you think. We love hearing from our readers.