The tension in the house was thick as the gang worked together to board up the windows, each of them continued to be driven by fear and desperation. The sounds of nails being hammered into wood echoed through the house, blending with the occasional moan of the undead outside. The sun was starting to dip lower, casting long shadows through the remaining unboarded windows, heightening the feeling of impending doom.

Ponyboy and Two-Bit worked together on the smaller windows in the back, while Darry, Dally, and Johnny reinforced the front. Sodapop and Sandy gathered whatever they could find to help; chairs, shelves, and even the old wooden doors they had pried from a closet. Despite their frantic efforts, every creak of the house or moan from outside made Ponyboy's heart race.

Back down in the basement, Steve was sitting on the old couch, fuming. He could hear the hammering upstairs, the gang working against what he believed was an inevitable disaster. His leg bounced anxiously, his thoughts a storm of anger and worry. Evie sat close to him, her eyes wide with fear as she glanced between Steve and the door.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Evie asked softly, her voice trembling. "What's going on up there?"

Steve didn't respond immediately. He stared at the floor, jaw clenched.

"Darry's a damn fool," he muttered, finally. "They're all gonna get themselves killed. Darry said they're gonna board it all up." Steve looked over at her before rolling his eyes with a scoff. "Board is up? Please."

Evie gave her boyfriend hard look.

"And you won't help them?"

"That's right, I won't!" He snapped. "Because it's a stupid idea! The basement is safest place in the house. Just watch, before night falls, they'll be begging us to let them in."

"What will you do then, Steve? Will you open the door?" She asked but didn't get an answer. Evie had no idea why Steve was acting like this. It wasn't just the fear they all felt, it felt like something more...something hostel seemed to be brewing within him. "We should check your wound."

Evie reached over to gently pull back the collar of Steve's shirt but he moved himself away from her. "I'm fine." Steve responded, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. After the four of them ran out of the Dingo that night, they were attacked by two of those people, one of them sank its teeth into Steve's upper right shoulder.

The gang finished boarding up all the windows in the living room. They were about to move on to the dining room when the loud bang of something pounding on the outside walls caused all of them to jump. Getting over the scare, Two-Bit grabbed the tenderizer mallet and a few nails when suddenly a window in the dining room shattered. A zombie had just broken through, landing half on top of Two-Bit, half on top of the window frame before sliding all the way in. He yelled out as it grabbed at his jacket and Two-Bit managed to wrench himself free.

"Pain in my ass!" Two-Bit yelled as he slammed the mallet over the zombie's head. "Die!"

Two-Bit slammed the mallet down over and over, sending pieces of skull and brain matter splattering everywhere before the zombie stilled.

Suddenly, zombies crashed through the other two windows in the dining room. Ponyboy drew his gun but in a panic, he fired three times. The first shot connected, hitting the zombie right in the forehead while the other two shots were buried into its remaining heap. The second zombie stumbled to the floor and Dally quickly sprinted over, soccer kicking it right in the face. A loud snap complemented its neck breaking. Darry had his shotgun and blew the third zombie's head clear off. Together, the tossed the bodies back out of the house as he looked around for something they could use to board up the dining room windows.

"We need to get these boarded up, quick." Darry stated, but they all knew they were running out of lumber. Ponyboy then looked at him as he suddenly got an idea.

"We can take the bathroom doors off their hinges."

"That's using your head, Pony!" Darry grinned as he smacked his younger brother on the back. While it was a good idea, when Darry looked closer at the door of the bathroom in the hallway, he saw that it was light and flimsy. It was no good, the zombies would be able to break through them easily. Their relatives who had been living here must have recently put up all new stuff. "Na, it's no good." He frowned.

"It's better than nothing, Darry." Pony insisted.

Darry slammed his own fist right the door, leaving a big hole in it. He looked back at Pony with a stern face. "No good."

"There's a couple of old doors down in the basement." Sandy then told them. The old doors were thicker, harder to break through. They needed to get them but that would mean having to deal with Steve again. After being told this, Sodapop went over the basement door, knocking on it to get his best friend's attention.

"Steve!"

Upon hearing this, Steve smirked and looked over at Evie. "What'd I tell you?"

However, Soda wasn't knocking for the reason Steve thought.

"Steve, we need to get those old doors from down there to board up the rest of the windows!"

Steve's smirk quickly dropped as he looked over at the corner of the room to see several doors sitting up against the wall. He could only shake his head, wishing that his best friend had come to his senses and join in down here where it was safe. After letting a minute go by and getting no answer, Darry was all out of patience by this point.

"Randle!" Darry yelled as he pounded on the door before pointing the shotgun at it. "Open this door right now or I'll blow it off its hinges! We need those doors!"

"What are you doing? What do you hope to accomplish?" Evie demanded to her boyfriend.

"Shut up!" Steve snapped. They both listened as Darry continued to yell from upstairs.

"I'm counting to three!"

"Steve, please," Evie pleaded but Steve lightly pushed her away from him as he got up, slowly making his way up the few steps.

"That's one! What are you going to do, Steve, that's two! Better open this door, Randle!" Before Darry could count to three the door was unlocked and opened. Darry grabbed Steve by the collar of his shirt, yanking him out and slammed him against the wall. He couldn't believe that the other greaser was acting like a child, throwing a tantrum because he just realized the world can be a dark and unfair place.

"Look, from now on you leave that door open!" Darry demanded. "We may need to get down there!"

"Oh, yeah?" Steve scoffed. "You want the best of both worlds. You want to be able to run down here when your stupid plan falls apart! If you want to get into that basement, you get in there now or forget it!"

"Steve, this is our house!" Soda snapped, much to the surprise of his friend. "This is our grandparent's house!"

The oldest Curtis desperately fought with himself to keep calm.

"I told you before, I'm not boxing myself in until there's no other choice." Darry finally growled, not even close to being in the mood to discuss this again.

He, Soda, and Pony then all grabbed the three older doors from out of the corner of the basement before heading back up. Soda focused on reinforcing the door in the kitchen that would lead out to the patio. Steve cautiously made his way up the stairs just as a zombie started to break through the patio door. Soda struggled to hold it closed as the hammer and nails were on the ground, too far away for Soda to reach, but he couldn't let go of the door.

"Steve!" Soda yelled out when he saw him out of the corner of his eye. "Get me the nails over there! I can't let go!" Despite the desperate situation, the other teen just continued to stare at him, not budging at all to help his best friend. "Steve! You have to help me out, man! Give me the wrench and nails!"

Finally, Steve picked up the items and carefully handed them to Soda, who snatched them and quickly began nailing more nails into the panel, trying to get the violently shaking door to still. As he made no effort to help, Steve just shook his head as he backed away until he was in the basement doorway.

"This is definitely not going to work." He said to himself before closing the door behind him and heading back down to sit on the couch with Evie.

XXXXXX

Once the gang had finally finished nailing up the windows and doors, they collapsed on the living room sofas. They were all tired, but Johnny looked like he was getting ready to explode from exhaustion. Wincing, he carefully took up the rag from his wrist which was stained with dried blood. The rest of them tried not to gasp once they laid eyes on it.

It was nasty.

Tearing his stare away but still grimacing, Darry asked;

"How did you get hurt?"

"One of those...people, bit me." Johnny explained. "Back at the church."

A hushed silence fell over the group as they all looked at each other, shell-shocked. Before Ponyboy could ask what was wrong, Sodapop turned his attention to him, his eyes widened with terror.

"You didn't get bit, did you, Pony?" He asked, silently praying.

"No." Pony shook his head.

"Johnny, why don't you go lay down upstairs?" Darry gently told him. Two-Bit helped Johnny up and guided him up the stairs so he could lay down on one of the beds. Once Johnny was out of earshot, Ponyboy continued to stare the rest of the gang, bewildered.

"What's going on? What's wrong?"

Darry gave his youngest brother a grim look.

"Pony...he's been infected. Johnny's infected." Darry then exhaled heavily as he explained. "Whatever it is these people have, a virus, an infection, whatever, it's passed onto others when they are bitten. That's how it spread so fast."

The whole time this had been going on, Dally stared at the floor, his face twisted in silent fury.

"Are...are you s-sure it's the...b-bites?" Ponyboy stammered. The tension in the room thickened, the weight of Johnny's revelation was a shot to the heart to each other them. Ponyboy's heart rapidly pounded in his chest as Darry's words sunk in, the gravity of the situation becoming painfully clear.

"I'm sure, Pony," Darry frowned, his voice uncharacteristically soft but firm. "Everything we've heard on the radio, everything we've seen...the bites, they change people. It turns them into those...things." His eyes flickered with worry and resolve, emotions he rarely showed. "Johnny doesn't have much more time."

Ponyboy felt a lump form in his throat as he glanced toward the stairs where Two-Bit had taken Johnny. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. Johnny was his best friend, how could this happen? It felt so unfair, like the world was playing some cruel trick on them. Sodapop leaned against the wall, running a hand through his hair, his expression one of disbelief and helplessness. Sandy stood beside him, her face pale and stricken with fear.

"What are we gonna do?" Ponyboy asked. We can't...we can't just let him—"

"We're not gonna let anything happen to him," Darry interrupted, though his tone was less certain than his words. "But we have to be ready for when things...change."

Dally slammed his fist against the wall, his frustration finally boiling over.

"This is bullshit! We're not just gonna sit around and watch him turn into one of those things!" He pushed off the wall, pacing the room with a look of fury. "We can find a way to help him, right? There's gotta be something we can do."

"Dally..." Soda started, but Dally cut him off with a glare.

"I ain't giving up on him, Soda," he snarled. "Johnny's not gonna die like that. Not after everything he's been through."

Pony chewed on the tip of his fingernail for a moment before he asked Darry;

"How long does Johnny have?"

Darry sighed.

"There's no way to know. It depends on how badly infected the carrier was, and how bad the bite is. It could take days, or it could take hours. Johnny's bite...it's pretty bad, Pony."

Ponyboy thought back to the zombie who had bitten Johnny, that mortician. That thing looked terrible, horribly infected. If that was the case, then his best friend didn't have much longer.

A silence fell over the group, the weight of Dally's words were still hanging in the air. No one knew what to say. They were all feeling the same mix of fear, anger, and helplessness. The world had fallen apart around them, and now they were facing the impossible decision of what to do next about Johnny.

Ponyboy's mind raced as he couldn't imagine a world without Johnny in it. They had been through so much together over the years, both good and bad.

Johnny had saved his life, and now Pony felt powerless to return the favor.