I nodded in agreement, “Do you think that they would be dangerous?”
She waited to reply, thinking for a long time. Chelsea thought for so long that I was able to hear the car coming down the street again, the dark orange headlights barely illuminating the road. “He might be dangerous, but we have the advantage of surprise.”
“Okay then, I’ll signal him with the porch lights. Get the weapons ready,” I said as I moved to hit the light switch for the porch. I couldn’t risk the contaminated seeing it, so I had to wait until the very last moment that the car could get a glimpse of the lights. Chelsea arrived shortly after with the wrench and a bat in her hands. “Why the wrench?” I asked.
“If he is dangerous, I don’t want to risk him grabbing it from you mid swing,” she pointed to the iron of the wrench. “If he tries, this will shatter his hand or anything that he will try to block with.” I could not argue with that.
“Here goes nothing!” I said, my hand flicking the light switch on then off then on then off in less than a second. My head poked above the front door to look out the window. The dim lights were curving into the driveway and were quickly cut off. The engine was running for a second but was sputtering out shortly after the lights were. It was so silent that I was able to hear the click of the door latch followed by grinding steel as it opened. “You ready?” I asked Chelsea. She was standing behind where the door would open. I would greet our new guest.
She nodded, “Ready and willing to smash a face in.” I loved her.
Footsteps echoed through the night as the familiar sound of shoe on wood rang out. It was not loud, just recognizable. They came to a stop in front of the door. “Hey,” I heard whispered through. “You in there?”
“Who are you?” I raised my voice slightly, just enough to hear past the thick front door and into the night.
“You wouldn’t recognize me,” it said, sounding slightly worried. “Can I please come in? I promise that I’m unarmed. All of my weapons are in the car.”
I looked to Chelsea for approval. She gave me the nod to proceed. My hand gripped the round door handle and pulled it gently back. I waved the wrench in front of the screen door to make sure that it was the first thing that the person saw.
“Woah! No need for that,” he said, pulling open the front screen door. He closed it behind him gently followed by the front door. The man was true to his word. I could see no signs of any weapon on him. Chelsea popped out behind the door and he startled back. “Oh! So the two of you are still alive?”
“How do you know us?!” Chelsea exclaimed, bat raised. If the man made the wrong move, he was totally fucked. “Who are you, now!” She was so sexy when she demanded.
“How rude of me,” he said, bowing down. “My name is Zach, and I have made my way here all of the way from Buffalo, New York. But you probably know me best as Buffalant909.”
Wut.
Chapter 13
The three of us sat around the kitchen table, risking the ceiling fan light only because it had adjustable brightness. Chelsea and I also covered any near windows with blankets to prevent any stray light from escaping the confines of the house. A light texture of warm and humid air surrounded us as I had already put more water on the stove to boil.
Zach sat across from me and Chelsea perpendicular to us. The wooden table was empty accept for the opened cake with two pieces taken out. Chelsea quickly moved the cake to the kitchen counter, clearing up more space.
“Wow, the cake’s not a lie,” Zach said, his voice on the higher side. He sat just a little taller than Chelsea with a mixture of white and black in his hair and a baby face to finish the odd build. He looked to be between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, minus the lack of facial hair combined with the Italian in his nose.
“So,” I piped up. The night thus far had been an abundance of awkward silences. “Why are you here?” I said, rolling the wrench slowly across the floor to remind him that it was there. I did not mean to be hostile, but I did.
Zach looked into my eyes. It was not a look of anger, but one of pain and struggle. “I did everything that I possibly could to get here. Buffalo had practically starved me out. It’s a real shit show out there. Contaminated are all over the place, running amok as if they own the city. Well they do now own the city. I don’t know whether there was anyone else in Buffalo besides me, though there probably was somewhere; it is a big city. As it was, I had two options: flee north to Canada and hope for the best, or to find one of the eight. The only thing better than one of the eight would be two, which is why I decided on coming here. Besides, you guys are the closest of the group.”
“How did you know where to find us?” Chelsea asked, the quickness in her voice almost sounded desperate. “If you found us then that means others can too.”
Zach sat back in his chair in a relaxing stance, legs loosely at his sides, “Relax. I found you by finding your internet
