Chapter 9: Zombies Aren't Real

The fire crackled and popped. Its light sent shadows jumping and jittering across the walls of the otherwise dark living room as it continued to burn in the working fireplace, eating up dried wood and crumpled paper. Its embers glowed as its noise filled the quiet space and its life warmed the four post-teens collected around it.

Rapunzel watched as the fire danced, her legs pulled up to her chest, arms warped around her knees. Her frying pan was on the floor at her side for easy access if she needed it. Though she was the closest to the fire, but she could still feel a tremor in her fingers. She gripped the hem of her skirt in her fingers a little tighter, hopping to stop the shaking before the others noticed. She didn't think they would. They were too wrapped up in their own conversation, anyways.

It turned out that the three men that had invaded her house were robbers. But not of a traditional sense. They hadn't been meaning to take anything from anyone. They'd found the house, hidden way back in the woods, miles from any real city or major roads, and thought it was empty. They were simply looking for food. Only they were wrong. The house wasn't empty.

"You the one that took out the zed downstairs?"

"W-What?" Rapunzel asked. Her arms were starting to shake from the strain of holding up the frying pan as her toes curled around the edge of the bathroom counter.

The boy with the warm eyes and brown hair gave a shrug.

"You know, the zed. Dead thing. Blue eyes, baked brain, walks around like this."

The boy stuck out his arms, still holding his metal staff, and shuffled his feet around, his mouth hanging open, eyes rolling. Rapunzel supposed that it was meant to be funny. But honestly, she couldn't see the humor in it whatsoever. The boy dropped the act as soon as he realized Rapunzel wasn't getting it.

"Ahhh." The boy looked at her, slightly bewildered.

Jack, she remembered. His name is Jack.

He ran his fingers through his hair, managing to ruffle his bed head even more.

"You know…the zed," he said again with more insistence, still confused by the fact that he had to explain himself. "Known for its craving of human flesh. Attacked you probably, am I right?"

Rapunzel narrowed her eyes. She still had not a single clue about whatever this guy was talking about. What he said made her nervous, though. (Ok, more nervous.) How could he possibly know that her mother had tried to attack her?

Jack dropped his hand, his shoulders slumping as he stared at Rapunzel, confusion crossing over his face.

"You know…," he said cautiously. "The zombie?"

Rapunzel's head snapped up at the sound of a question, her memories interrupted like the surface of water when you drop a rock into it, ripples spiraling uncontrollably, water splashing everywhere, the clear, smooth surface replaced by chaos.

"Huh?" she asked, having missed what had been asked.

"I said, 'so how about you, Princess?'"

It was Jack that was talking. The smallest of the three men, with his messy hair and wide smile.

"Bunny's going to the coast to find a boat he can take to get back to the great 'down unda'."

He said the last part with a funny voice that Rapunzel didn't recognize, but she noticed that it earned him a smack to the back of the head by the largest of the three men, who went by Bunny. Jack just laughed it off and continued.

"And Flynn said that there's refugee camps set up in D.C. he's trying to get to, so I figured I'd tag along with him since I had nowhere better to go. So how about you?" he asked again. "You headed anywhere in particular?"

Rapunzel twisted the hem of her skirt in her hands. She refused to bring her head up any higher than necessary to see the others, her mouth and nose hidden behind her knees.

Was she going anywhere?

Why would she be going anywhere? She had nowhere to go. Why would she leave her home? She didn't understand what he was saying. Refugee camps? Camps for what? Her heart began to pick up speed and she'd been clenching her teeth for so long that her jaw had begun to hurt.

She gave a tiny shake of her head no.

"Well you're welcome to come with us, if you want, love," Bunny spoke up, "Least we could do for letting us stay the night."

"Speak for yourself," the other man, Flynn, grumbled as he rubbed the back of his head, where there was no doubt a growing bump.

Rapunzel's hands started to shake even harder. What had she been thinking? Letting these men stay the night? Letting these ruffians, thugs, thieves, stay in her home?

What a stupid question that was. She knew what she'd been thinking. She'd been thinking she didn't want to be alone anymore.

Bunny, though he was the largest of the three, was as far as she could tell, also the kindest. He was the only one that had been able to calm her down in the bathroom. He managed to convince her that the three of them weren't going to hurt her. That they'd thought the house was empty and that they were sorry for frightening her.

They were about to leave before before Rapunzel stopped them. She knew now that she shouldn't have. They were strangers, after all. She didn't know anything about them, and mother had always warned her about all the different kinds of dangerous people that lived in the world. She knew she shouldn't have asked them to stay the night, either. But she couldn't help herself.

The thought of another night on her own terrified her.

But she didn't realize what a terrible idea it had been. Ever since they'd gotten here, the intruders hadn't been making any sense. They talked about things that confused her, things that she knew couldn't be real.

~Jack dropped his hand, his shoulders slumping as he stared at Rapunzel, confusion crossing over his face.

"You know…," he said cautiously. "The zombie?"~

Zombies? Zombies couldn't be real, they just couldn't. They were fiction, fantasy, impossible. She knew. She'd read enough books about them. Zombies didn't exist. Just like vampires and werewolves didn't exist. But these men were talking about them as if they did.

The trembling in her fingers had started to migrate up Rapunzel's arms until her shoulders were shaking. The others still hadn't noticed.

"It's a nice set up you've got here, though," Bunny said as he gestured around the living room. "Secluded, easily defendable. Quite the find. You've even set up some good defenses around your boarder."

"So how long have you been hiding out here?" Jack asked. Rapunzel's eyes snapped to him, the lower half of her face still hidden. What kind of a question was that? "I'm guessing not too long," he continued, "since you don't seem like someone that's come from up North."

Rapunzel could feel her whole body trembling now, just as it had two nights ago after her mother had attacked her. It felt like her heart would burst from her chest if it raced any faster.

~"You know…," he said cautiously. "The zombie?"~

Zombies weren't real. Zombies weren't real. Zombies didn't exist. These people were crazy. They were nut-jobs, wackos, insane, just like the people Mother warned her about. Zombies weren't real. Why were they talking about zombies if they didn't exist? Zombies weren't real.

But if zombies aren't real, what happened to your mother? A voice popped into her head, scattering her thoughts. She'd been dead, and then she wasn't. She attacked you for no reason at all. If that wasn't a zombie, then what was it?

Rapunzel's teeth had begun to chatter, her shaking uncontrollable. If she twisted the hem of her skirt any more, she was sure she'd rip it.

Zombies weren't real. They didn't exist. They were made-up, pretend. Zombies. Were. Not. Real.

But your mother…

"Eight—" Rapunzel choked out, her throat closing up before she could finish. She'd never had a panic attack before. Never had the need to. Mother had always kept her safe, locked away in the house so no one could hurt her. But now her mother was dead. And the outside world was now invading her home, her life, ripping open her jaw and stuffing itself down her throat until she felt like she couldn't breath.

Jack nodded, completely oblivious.

"Eight weeks, not too bad. How often do you make runs for food—?"

"Eighteen—" Rapunzel managed to choke out a little more before her voice was swallowed once more by the thunder that shook her body to the core. Her eyes were going to pop out of her head if they grew any larger. Her teeth were going to shatter if they chattered any louder. Zombies were not real. Zombies were not real.

Jack stopped and looked at her, face blank from surprise.

"Eighteen years," Rapunzel forced out, the words shaking as they tumbled out of her. "I've been hiding out here…for eighteen…years…"

The room had gone stiller than a graveyard. All three men had frozen to stare at her. Even the fire seemed to die down somewhat, its hissing and popping growing quiet. Rapunzel had never had a panic attack before now, but she was pretty sure that this was what one felt like. She felt like she was going to fall apart at the seems if she shook any harder. Zombies were not real. Zombies were not real.

After a few more unbearable moments of silence, Jack spoke.

"Flynn," he said slowly without taking his eyes off Rapunzel, "When you did a sweep of the house, did you find a T.V.?"

Flynn took a moment to respond, no doubt running through his memory for an answer.

"No."

"How about a computer or radio?"

"No. Found a radio out back that looked like it'd been thrown out the window, but that was it."

"Not even a newspaper?"

Flynn shook his head no.

When Jack didn't ask anything else, Flynn spoke up.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Bunny started, jumping out of his apparent daze and off the couch he'd been sitting on, "that she has no idea what's been going on out there."

Bunny was next to her in a second, kneeling in front of her as he reached out to grip her shoulders. His bright green eyes found hers and tried to get her attention.

Only, she couldn't focus. Her eyes were fixed on something in the distance. Rapunzel's mind was racing to keep up with her heart, which was now out of control. She couldn't think. She couldn't feel. The world was falling around her for the second time that week.

"Love, you need to look at me. Calm down," she could hear Bunny's voice grow distant.

"Z-Z-Zombies a-a-aren't real," she managed before the shaking forced her teeth down on her tongue and the taste of copper filled her mouth.

Bunny let out a sigh as he still tried to get her to focus on him.

"Yeah," he said, "That's what we thought, too."

That was the last thing Rapunzel remembered before everything went black.