I felt queasy. My gut churned and I glanced away from the blood. 

 

 Zach

I was watching the fire with their dingy knitted blanket draped around my shoulders, relishing in the warmth coming from the fire, when a thought popped in my head.

“How long are we going to stay here?” I asked. Their house was creepy, and cold, and with that thing - Robert, I hastily reminded myself, that thing had once been Robert – running around, we weren’t that safe.

“Well,” Trey glanced at his watch, “If we leave once your sweater dries, it’ll be around 6. You’re still going to drop us off at the bus stop, right?”

Hell yes! I thought. The girl was irritating, and Trey was starting to piss me off too, only because he was so passive and boring. He was a nerd minus the glasses.

He was quiet again, so I was left to my thoughts. Immediatly they went to Robert, and I remembered how sick he had been in gym class, and before that, in math. He had stuck his head out the window…

The rain had done that to him? The idea didn’t fill me with relief like I had thought. If the rain was the cause, who else had been infected, and why did it happen? What exactly was in the rain, and why did it turn him into… I couldn’t even find the words.

Robert had turned into a monster, that’s what.

So had everyone who was out in the rain turned, too? The idea sent shivers down my spine. There were 500 people in our town, at least 250 of them had to have been outside when the rain hit. Were they all… changed? Mutated? Whatever?

And if all those people had changed, did they become aggressive like Robert? Had they killed the rest of the town? We couldn’t be the only survivors… No, I refused to believe it. There was Peter, and all the kids in school. They had to have survived, too. And all the adults at work?

So if they survived, where was everyone? Why were we the only ones on the streets?

I felt Ralph shift against me and I realized I had forgotten he was there. I reached over and ruffled his hair. He didn’t smile, didn’t even meet my gaze.

There was a thump upstairs, and screaming echoed around the house.

Typical girl. She probably found a spider upstairs, or a mouse – Oh, scary rodent! I rolled my eyes, but Trey jumped to his feet and practically flew up the stairs. I wouldn’t put it past him if he suddenly ripped open his shirt and revealed a superhero outfit. He had that kind of geeky, hero complex to him that I didn’t like.

Let the girl scream, she’d learn to face her own fears without some dude coming to rescue her.

Still, I found myself following him up the stairs. I was half curious, and half set on making fun of her. If she was screaming over something stupid, like a bug, I swear she wouldn’t hear the end of it…

I turned the corner and saw the girl, still screaming, with tears streaking down her face. She was trying to throw herself down on the floor, way on the other side of the bed. Trey was holding her arms, pulling her up and I assumed trying to pull her away. His face was ghostly white, and that’s when all thoughts she was crying over something stupid left my head.

I rounded the corner and saw a man laying on the floor. There was blood – a lot of it – and I think a chunk of his shoulder was missing. I felt queasy. My gut churned and I glanced away, my eyes landing on Arlene.

I could suddenly understand what she was screaming, over and over again.

“Dad! Dad!” she yelled. A pang of some sort of emotion ran through me. I think I felt bad for her. I was lucky to not know where my dad was, but she had found hers half rotten laying in her house. That was just… sad.

“What’s–? What’s happened?” I recognized Ralph’s voice. I looked by the entrance of the bedroom and saw him standing there, wide-eyed and afraid.

“Get out of here!” I hissed. Arlene was thrashing and Trey couldn’t handle her anymore. I grabbed one of her arms, yanking her back away from her father and throwing her on the floor.

Trey knelt down, pinning her.

“Arlene!” he hissed in her face. She was starting to choke on hysteria. I could hear her breath, rapid and coming out too fast for it to be normal.

I figured her body was shutting down, or doing something considering she had been through so much today. Attacked by some creature not once by twice, dealing with the rain, the ambulance, and finding her father dead.

I saw she was clutching a gray tee shirt in her hand, and I felt kinda bad. She had only come up here for me. It was my fault she found her father… But would it have been better to just let him rot up here? Maybe it was good she found him.

I knelt down and grabbed the tee shirt, realizing I was still shirtless. It took a few yanks before the fabric was released from her iron grip.

I slipped it on, then got up and grabbed a bed sheet from the bed. I used it to cover up her father for the time being. One, so I wouldn’t have to look at all that blood, and two I figured it was the right thing to do. I mean, that’s what they always did on TV. I would’ve even shut his eyes, but that required me kneeling in a puddle of blood where I could smell it, and that was something I would not do.

For a moment, I stood there, my eyes on the body of her father. Thanks for the shirt, I thought hastily. When I realized it was quiet behind me, I spun to see what had happened.

Arlene was staring at the ceiling while Trey sat beside her, his hands on his face. I waited for one of them to move, but as the minutes ticked by I realized they might want to be alone with the body.

I shifted towards the door, wondering where my brother went, when Arlene’s voice spoke up.

“I’m not leaving tonight,” she muttered. The last word wavered a bit, like she might start crying again. “I can’t just…,” she inhaled, “leave him here.”

“We’ll call someone –,”

She jumped up, yelling, “What ‘someone?’ There is no one left in this fucking town, they’re either dead or turned into those fucking things!” She inhaled again, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes.

Trey looked away from her. “How can you be sure there’s more than one of them?”

“She’s right,” I said. “The one… the one that attacked us? He used to go to my school. His name was Robert. I think the rain changed him.”

Trey rubbed at his eyes again.

“Fine,” he said, pulling his hands away and blinking. “We’ll stay for the night, but first thing tomorrow morning we’re out of here.”

They both looked at me.

“Are you leaving tonight, then?” Trey asked.

I was going to say yes, but the word died on my tongue. I imagined just me and Ralph on the road to Calgary, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle being the one in charge, the one pulling the ropes without know one else’s opinions. After all, Arlene had known how to fix my cuts, so despite her irritating presence she was useful to have around.

“No, we’ll stay,” I said.

Trey looked relieved. I could relate. I doubted he wanted to be left alone with a grieving, moody girl like Arlene. She was a bitch normally, so she had to be way worse now, with her dad n’ all.

“Well,” Trey paused, “If there’s more of those things, we’ll need protection - just in case.” My mind flashed to the shotgun in the car, but Trey and Arlene’s eyes met.

“The hunting rifles,” Arlene mumbled, “Down in the basement.”

Hunting rifles? What kind of family did she have, where they had hunting rifles just tucked away downstairs?

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