Bang

Bang

Bang

"Three!"

"Five!"

"One!"

I turn to Chris' shout. "One?"

"There was only one in the house." He tries to explain. I hear Michael some little ways away, laugh.

I roll my eyes and move on to the next house.

We have a pretty good system going, the creatures here seem to be starved. They don't move just make sounds. They are easily handled. We go house to house and clear it out. We each are given one minute. It we aren't out in that one minute then something is wrong. We shout how many creatures we took down.

We've been at this for 3 hours now.

"Okay. Final stretch you guys. Look alive!" I roll my eyes at Michael's pep talks.

I move through the house with my gun out. No movement. I hear scraping in a room upstairs. I move and try not to make the stair creek.

When I reach the door I move in quickly then freeze. The creature in here is a little girl. Hair in pigtails and wearing a pink little dress. I hesitate before I end her. When I do I try not to study the room but It's hard not to notice the childlike innocence in the air. Pink walls with hand painted pictures on the wall.

I leave the room before I see much more. I check my watch and see I have 30 seconds to go.

I move to the next room and prepare myself.

I stab the head of the mother of the dead girl next door.

Check my watch again.

15 seconds.

No other rooms in the house so I make my way downstairs.

10 seconds.

I freeze for a minute when I notice a freshly dead cat in the living room. I walk in with my gun ready.

5 seconds.

I look to my left and see nothing. I turn to the door when I am grabbed by a creature.

Taken by surprise I drop my gun.

I hear muffled shouting from outside and try to fight of the creature that is trying to tear at my face.

When I am knocked to the ground I look to my right and see my gun too far from me. I grab a book from under the coffee table and smash it in It's mouth. I crawl to my fallen gun and barley touch when…

Bang

I look over at Chris with his gun out.

"You okay?"

I nod but don't say anything.

"What happened?"

Michael comes running in.

"Creature snuck up on me" I shrug.

They both breath a sigh of relief and move out of the house. I stand up after grabbing my gun and glare a bit at the dead corpse lying on the floor.

I stomp out of the house and see the boys talking a little ways away.

I walk up to them and catch some of the conversation.

"…the wall a little higher…"

"Clean up the houses…"

"…home…"

That word catches my attention.

Home.

This could be our home.

I smile at the thought.

"Maria?"

I look up at the sound of my name and catch Chris' eye.

"Are you okay from that close call?" He asks me hesitantly.

"I'm fine. What's next?"

"Well we are done clearing the houses. Next is cleaning them out. Then building up this wall." Michael answers.

"Okay." I smile at him.

"I'm going to go into town." Chris suddenly says.

"Why?"

"We need some supplies. Might as well start building them up again."

"You shouldn't go alone." I tell him.

He looks me over then looks over at Micheal. "You guys look exhausted. I was on my own plenty. I will be fine."

I open my mouth to argue but am interrupted by Michael. "Alright. Be careful." I give him a glare but he just shrugs me off. "He's right, Maria, he's been on his own plenty. He'll be fine."

I cross my arms and pout and they just both give me a smile.

"I'll be back in a bit."

Chris pats Micheal on the shoulder then gives me a kiss then turns to leave.

As I watch him go I try not to smile when he turns back and throws me a wink. I roll my eyes and turn my back to him.

"Hey." I look at Micheal and he his laughing at our display. "I mean it. He'll be fine."

I smile at him and turn back to Chris but he is already gone.

I just huff and move to one of the houses we cleaned out to lay down.

I will make it up to him later.

…

When the sun rises the next morning and Chris still isn't back I regret not smiling at his silly antics.