I made Vanetta some tea to calm her nerves. She sat at the table biting her nails. It was hard to see this pillar of strength so scared. It unnerved me.
I handed her the tea and told her I would check on Lasa. The siren hadn’t stopped yet.
I went up the stairs to Lasa’s room but she wasn’t there. I walked out and looked down the hall to see her in the guest room. She was holding Jackie’s stuffed animal while she sat on the bed.
“Hey,” I said. “You okay?”
She nodded then shrugged, “yeah sort of. I’m just scared.”
“Me too sweetie.”
She looked at me, “adults shouldn’t tell kids they’re scared. It makes them more scared.”
I laughed and walked in the room, taking a seat next to her.
“But it’s okay to be scared. Just because we’re both scared isn’t a bad thing, it just means we have to be brave.”
“Brave?”
“Yeah, being scared isn’t bad; it’s how you handle being scared. Right now, what we have to do is be brave.”
She nodded, “I can be brave.”
“I know you can.”
I heard the front door open and it took a minute or two before it shut. Then I heard a loud ear piercing scream. It was a scream that I had heard before in recent memory and the result was not good.
I had grabbed my gun from its hiding place just in case.
Lasa had terror in her eyes now. I told her to stay put. I went out of the room and shut the door behind me.
I walked cautiously down the stairs. I saw no sign of anyone in the front room. I continued on into the kitchen slowly. That’s where I found them.
A reanimated Cal sat lifeless against the cabinets. He had black liquid coming out of the side of his head, where he had been stabbed.
I looked and my heart broke when I saw Vanetta. She was sitting against the opposite cabinet and the bloody knife in hand. It wasn’t easy to miss the bite mark on her shoulder. There was a huge chunk of skin missing and blood was pouring out of the wound.
I put my gun down and walked over to her. I knelt by her side.
She smiled weakly, “how long do I have?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anyone change.”
She closed her eyes. Tears crept down her face.
“You have to go,” she said.
“I can’t leave you like this,” I protested.
“Shelly, what good will staying do? You can’t help or change what’s going to happen.”
I knew that she was right but I felt awful. I was just going to leave her to die all alone.
“Take care of Lasa. She’ll be in good hands with you.”
“I will,” I said fighting back the tears.
She touched my face lightly, “thank you.”
I took her hand and kissed it, “bye.”
Her eyes shut then. She was gone and it wouldn’t be long before she turned into one of those things. I took the knife with the blood and put it through the side of her head.
I dropped the knife on the floor and began to cry harder. I didn’t indulge myself for long. I needed to get Lasa out of there.
I wiped my tears and grabbed my gun off the counter.
I went back upstairs to the room. Lasa was still on the bed squeezing the stuffed animal.
Cal and Vanetta had said they kept bags ready to go just in case in their closet. They had mentioned that there was one for Lasa in there as well, so I knew at least I didn’t have to pack.
“Lasa, sweetie. We need to leave,” I stated calmly.
She looked at me, tears in her big brown eyes.
“Where are mommy and daddy?”
“They can’t come with us,” I said.
“Are they like Bambi’s mom?” she asked.
I nodded. “They’re like Bambi’s mom.”
She buried her face into the stuffed animal and held it tighter.
“I really hate that movie,” she stated.
“I’m sorry sweetie but we need to go.”
I grabbed my stuff and got Lasa’s out of the closet. We walked down the stairs together. I didn’t let go of her hand. I didn’t want her to go in the kitchen and see her parents. She was too young.
I grabbed their keys from the hook by the front door. I opened the door to see zombies making their way down the street.
Lasa opened her mouth to scream but I managed to cover her mouth with my hand before a peep came out.
“Lasa the main thing right now is not bringing attention to ourselves. We’ve got to try to get to the Jeep as quietly as possible. Okay?”
Her eyes were about twice their normal size but she nodded.
“Alright, let’s go.”
I went out the door with Lasa behind me. We walked slowly to the Jeep which was 10 feet away. It felt like it took an eternity to get to it. The zombies kept walking forward without looking our direction.
I opened the door for Lasa to get in. I put our bags in next to her and shut the door as quietly as I could.
We almost made it but I dropped the keys. I picked them up quickly but I hit the little red button as grabbed them.
The horn screamed into the air, asking, begging to be listened to. The panic button had caused a new panic in me.
I hit the button to cut it off but the three seconds it was going off was all it took.
The zombies had turned their attention to the Jeep and where I stood. They were moving slowly but fast enough to be a problem.
I opened the front door and hopped in. I locked the doors. I
