Weird or not, you’re not going to just let him potentially get shot.

“Johnny! You can’t go out the front door! Look, just lie down on the couch okay? You can sleep here. It’ll be all right.” You say getting up and grabbing his arm.

Johnny stares at your hand and then at your face.

“Do you mean it?” Johnny asks.
“Of course, I can’t let you go out there and get shot. I mean if you still want to leave then at least wait until its night and you’ve had some sleep.” You answer.
“You’re so…so perfect…” Johnny remarks and starts to head back towards the couch.

You help Johnny back to the couch, and when he lies down he falls asleep almost immediately.

“I…love you Suzy…” he says as he drifts off.

Well there was nothing ambiguous about that. You start wondering if you should have your head examined for possibly enabling a possibly mentally unstable guy who’s more than a little obsessed with you.

“(Sigh) What the hell is wrong with you Suzy? First it was a cultist, now it’s this stalker. Are you deliberately picking crazy people as potential boyfriend material?” you say to yourself.

You stand over Johnny watching him sleep for more than a few minutes trying to figure out where you actually stand with this guy. As you do so you never noticed how cute he really is before. It’s true that he’s somewhat average looking, but maybe it’s due to him being in a more vulnerable position that he’s coming off as more attractive and not creepy.

Not knowing what else to do, you turn down the TV (Which is blaring a Ground Zero infomercial as usual) and leave Johnny to sleep. You stop in the kitchen first in the hopes of maybe finding food before returning to your own room.

“Wow, this place was a mess last night. How the hell did he get it so clean?” you say as the kitchen is indeed much tidier without drunken fools and broken tables lying on the floor.

When you open up the refrigerator, you surprisingly find another pizza box, which has been marked with a note saying “Property of Suzy, don’t touch!” Johnny must’ve ordered another one for you last night in case you got hungry later. That was pretty thoughtful, but what surprises you even more is its completely intact.

“He probably was acting like a guard dog all night near the refrigerator in case someone tried to eat it.” You laugh to yourself.

Grabbing cold pizza and an unopened drink you head back to your room and lock the door.

Still wondering about them, you call up Julie, Donna and even Peter, but you get no answer from any of them.

Just as you briefly pondering about calling Kelly too, you hear a loud banging on a door. Not the door to your room, but somewhere in the house. Upon exiting your room, it sounds like its coming from the front door.

You remember that the loudspeaker from earlier did say there was going to be a government representative coming to visit the houses in the neighborhood.

You enter the living room and find Johnny awake again. He still looks pretty tired.

“Wha…what’s going on?” he asks, rubbing his eyes.
“I think it’s the government rep.” you say, then you run over to the door and check through a window and see a well dressed man and one soldier at the door. You grab the handle…

“Wait, you’re just going to let them in?” Johnny asks.
“Well I doubt if they’re going to just go away. What can we do? Barricade ourselves in until they bash the door down? I don’t like it either, but it isn’t like we have too many options. Besides I don’t have anything to hide, do you?”
“No.” Johnny replies.
“Well there you go then, we might even be able to find out some answers too.”

You open up the door.

“Greetings miss. I’m Mr. Zoll and I’ve been assigned to be the government representative for this area. May we come in?” Mr. Zoll asks, though it’s pretty obvious that this is more of a polite formality rather than asking permission.
“Of course.” You answer and let Mr. Zoll and his soldier companion in.

When you turn around you see that Johnny is sitting up on the couch, but is propping his head up on the armrest. He’s still really sleepy so you’re not surprised to see a bit of a scowl from him. You just hope the others don’t take it the wrong way, but you figure as long as you’re polite and upfront, you shouldn’t have too many problems.

Mr. Zoll sits on the chair while his soldier buddy stands nearby (eyeing Johnny mostly) you sit on the other side of the couch with a space between you and Johnny and ask what all this is about.

“My name’s Suzy, and that’s Johnny over there. So how can we help exactly?” you ask.
“Well, before we start I know this isn’t an ideal situation. You’re probably already concerned about what’s going on and why this town is under marshal law in the first place.” Mr. Zoll answers.
“It is all a bit worrying.” You reply.
“I’m sure. Unfortunately I can’t talk about it too much, however I’m sure you’re aware that this town has experienced a vast increase in criminal activity and rioting. More than your police force can handle. So until we get the situation under control again, we’re here to stay.”
“Well we certainly can understand that. We haven’t experienced any criminal activity in this neighborhood though, well at least not to my knowledge.”
“Hmm, yes this is one of the quieter ones. Some places I’m hearing about are pretty bad. Anyway I’d like to ask a few questions before deciding if we need to search this house further.”
“Oh. Um, okay then. We have nothing to hide.”
“Good glad to… hear it.” Mr. Zoll says glancing over at Johnny who is still alternating between being sleepy and unhappy about being awake.
“So which one of you owns this place?”
“My friend Julie.”
“Oh? Neither of you are the owner? Where is this Julie?”
“Uh, don’t know. She skipped out on her own party yesterday and never came back home. Isn’t that what you said Johnny?”
“Hrm. Yeah.” Johnny mumbles.
“I see…” Mr. Zoll says studying Johnny though you don’t know why. It’s making you nervous though.

“Is this man your boyfriend?” Mr. Zoll suddenly asks.
“Um…yes! Yes he is. He hasn’t had much sleep. You see we had a party last night and he stayed up late cleaning up. He really shouldn’t have, but that’s just how he is!” you nervously laugh being completely caught off guard by the question.

In your mind you already are regretting saying that since you’ve sent out more than enough mixed messages to Johnny. Though when you look over at Johnny he doesn’t make any facial signs of a positive or negative nature, he’s too busy on struggling to stay awake.

Mr. Zoll is now looking at you a bit mistrustfully. He thinks something is wrong and now that you’re shifting a bit uncomfortably, he starts to think you’re covering up something even though you aren’t!

“Okay, you know what. I think it’ll be easier to just give a brief search of the house.” Mr. Zoll says standing up to say.
“Um, all right then. We have nothing to hide as I said.” You say. Johnny slightly awakens a bit at this remark, but otherwise he continues to say nothing.

Mr. Zoll tells his man to go take a quick look through all the rooms while the three of you stay in the living room. The soldier nods and follows his orders. He first goes upstairs and looks through. You half expect him to find a stash of drugs in Julie or Donna’s room, but he either doesn’t or that isn’t their primary concern.

Next the soldier comes back downstairs and searches the ground floor, but once again finds nothing that is going to get you into trouble. Johnny briefly turns his head to watch the soldier as he moves back and forth up and down the hallway.

“Searched everywhere sir, well except the basement.” The soldier says when he comes back.
“Well you might as well search that too.” Mr. Zoll remarks.

The soldier nods and heads back towards the hallway. Johnny doesn’t look at the soldier this time, he just closes his eyes.

You hear the door open to the basement and then a few footsteps going down, then all of a sudden…

“Oh shit! That basement has a bad step!” Johnny exclaims and goes running down the hallway and shouts at the soldier.

Mr. Zoll gets up and starts to yell at Johnny to come back and you call out to him as well. This is soon followed by both the soldier and Johnny yelling and then the sound of someone falling down the stairs.

At this point you and Mr. Zoll both run towards the basement and there you see Johnny in the stairwell and the soldier crumpled in a heap at the bottom. His neck doesn’t look like it’s supposed to be twisted that way.

“I…I tried to stop him from falling…” Johnny exclaims looking distressed.
“His fucking neck is broken! I can see it from here! You killed him!”
“I didn’t! I tried to save him! I shouted about the step!”
“Bullshit! And YOU’RE lying too!” Mr. Zoll says pointing to you as well. “Something fishy is going on here and I dunno what it is, but BOTH of you are going to pay for it!”

Mr. Zoll reaches for something in his suit pocket…

Panic washes over you and it’s in situations like this that sometimes people either freeze up or make a rash decision.
> You do something
Seeing that Mr. Zoll is threatening you and going for something in his pocket you do the only thing that you can think of that comes to mind.

You shove him as hard as you can towards the stairs. With one hand in his suit pocket he can’t quite catch his balance and he goes tumbling backwards down the steps.

Johnny just manages to get out of the way of Mr. Zoll’s tumbling body and soon it hits the bottom just like his buddy did. Mr. Zoll however starts groaning in pain indicating that he’s only hurt. He isn’t dead…well at least not yet.

Still in shock from what you have done, you stand motionless as you see Johnny take advantage of Zoll’s prone condition and begins stomping on his head. Several times. Then he grabs the soldier’s rifle and begins smashing the butt of it into Zoll’s face. You’re not right up front for this gruesome display; you can still see the blood flying from where you’re standing.

“Die! Die motherfucker! Fucking piece of shit!” Johnny starts muttering as he continues to destroy Zoll’s skull structure.

After a few seconds of watching this, you snap out of it.

“Johnny! Stop! He’s dead! He’s dead…(sob) he’s…dead…” you say and break down. You feel sick and run into your bathroom. You cough and vomit into the toilet, but it isn’t so much your contributing to Mr. Zoll’s death or watching it unfold, it’s mainly because you’re sick with worry right now about the repercussions of such actions.

“Oh my god…oh god…what did I do…” you say in between heaving and crying.

At this point Johnny has come up from upstairs to check on you. As you look over from hovering over the toilet, you see him standing before you in your bathroom doorway and blood on his clothes.

“Suzy…Suzy…calm yourself. You did what you had to do. The guy didn’t give you much of a choice. I checked his pocket and he was definitely packing a pistol in it. If you hadn’t pushed him, he might’ve very well shot you and me both.” Johnny says in an attempt to console you, but it’s not working very well.

“They…they’re going to send more people to look for him…they’re going to find out…we can’t even run. There’s military everywhere!” you say before heaving some more, but you’ve nothing left. You’re just shaking.

Johnny steps towards you.

“Suzy. Suzy. We’re going to be fine. Remember WE didn’t do anything wrong here. These assholes came invading our space and then acted in a threatening manner even after we both tried to be accommodating to them.”

You stand before Johnny who now has grabbed a small washcloth and is approaching you with it. You just continue to tremble.

“Suzy. Listen to me. I can clean up the mess in the basement. I’ll make it so nobody will ever know. Okay? If more weekend warriors show up at our door asking about their boss or whoever that dickhead was to them, we’ll just say he left and that they can search the damn house if they want. They won’t find his body. They won’t find ANY body. Trust me on that.”

Johnny dabs the sides of your mouth with the washcloth. You at him with a mixture of fear and hopefulness. All you can think about right now is how you wish all of this would go away.

“Can…can you really make all this go away?” you ask.
“Yes, I can. And in the event that we have to run, we DO have that option. We aren’t prisoners here despite what the government wants us to think. We’re free to go anywhere we wish.”
“I…I want to go home…” you say.
“Well, maybe that’s where we’ll go then.”

Johnny now holds both of your hand in his and looks into your eyes.

“Suzy. I love you and I’ll never let any harm come to you. If the worst comes to worst, I’ll take all the blame for what happened today. I don’t want you to worry about this any more. You’ve been brave enough for one day.”

His eyes they’re so piercing right now. They give off an almost commanding stare. His voice is so soothing though and it’s actually making you feel slightly at ease.

The combination of you having a minor breakdown and the stress of all that’s going on…well it’s all enough for you to just accept Johnny’s willingness to step up and solve all your troubles like some sort of white knight.

At least right now at any rate.

“Come on, let’s get you to your bed. You need to rest.” Johnny says and starts to guide you back to your room. You don’t resist. You just go with it. Johnny is a perfect gentleman though; he doesn’t attempt to touch you in any manner that might be inappropriate.

As you lay down the bed, you allow yourself to start giving into the wave of sleep that’s hitting you from all the mental exhaustion you’re going through.

“Okay, Suzy, I’m going to get to work. Now I’ll close your door and leave you be, but if you need anything at all, just call me of course. Just don’t get up, you don’t need to put yourself through anymore trouble.”

You nod at Johnny’s remark as you start to close your eyes. It’s hard to believe that not too long ago he was the one exhausted and you were still relatively lively. You have no idea where he gets his energy from.

Just as Johnny is about to leave. You call out.

“Johnny?”
“Yes, Suzy?”
“Thank you.”

Your eyes are still closed so you don’t see Johnny smile at you before exiting your room.
> Next day…
THURSDAY

You are suddenly awakened by the sound of your phone.

You don’t think, you don’t look, you just instinctively grab it and answer.

“Hello?” you answer still slightly groggy.
“Suzy? It’s Peter.”
“Peter?” you say a little surprised he returned your call as well still shaking the cobwebs out from coming out of your sleep.
“Yeah, it’s me. You called me yesterday, but I was busy with, well a bunch of shit really. It’s sort of crazy around here, the National Guard is shooting people in the street…well at least I think they’re still people.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying that I’ve been seeing some weird shit. Like several people running around trying to bite other people.”
“Wait…what? You mean literally trying to bite people?”
“Yes, I mean bite, as in I saw one guy that lived down the street from us chase another neighbor and start chewing on him like he was out of a goddamn zombie movie!”
“…are you saying this guy was a zombie?”
“Look I don’t know. I mean maybe he was just rabid or something, but this wasn’t an isolated incident. Maybe it’s a disease outbreak, or bio-weapon accident or something. I mean that would explain why the National Guard is here. I’m just glad they or any of those freaks haven’t beat down the door to this house yet, but I’m not taking any chances that’s why I’ve been trying to find Ben’s shelter.”
“Ben’s shelter?”
“Yeah, you know the one he was always working on and changing the fucking entrance all the time on? I figure it’s probably still well stocked and I intend on riding this whole fucked up situation in the safety of that thing until everything is back to normal. We haven’t had much luck in finding it though…”
“We? Is Kelly there helping you?”
“Kelly? Nah, I haven’t seen that Amazon cunt since she left for work on Monday night. Don’t know where she is. I’m here with one of my…clients. Anyway how are you and Donna?”
“I don’t know where Donna is. She left Julie’s on Monday night and never came back, then Julie left on fucking Tuesday night and SHE never came back. Then on Wednesday…(sniff)…”

You begin to feel a wave of emotion hit you as the thought of what happened yesterday catch up to you again.

“Suzy?” Peter asks.
“(Sob) I think…I think I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble Peter…(Sob) Something terrible happened…”

You can’t continue and you begin to cry.

“Hey… look I…” Peter is unsure of what to say for a moment and then he continues.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I really need to let you go. I was actually hesitant to call you since I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk on the phone long right now anyway. I mean who knows if the government is listening…so…”

You stop crying immediately and just stare at your phone in disbelief.

“Wait, wait, wait. Just fucking wait a minute. Granted we’ve never been close Peter, but I have been genuinely concerned about you as soon as the National Guard rolled up in this town. Why the hell do you think I called? I’m obviously distressed about my current situation and you don’t even offer a sympathetic ear? After all the fucking times you’ve stolen my clothes? After all the goddamn times I had to put up with your old loser junkie friend Kevin perving on me when you thought you were some sort of film maker? You can’t even make the fucking effort to even PRETEND to care a little? You can’t even do THAT for me?” you shout.
“Suzy, what the fuck do you want me to do? You’re over there and I’m over here. I mean I got my own shit to worry about. And you how this family operates, when the shit goes down, you fucking look out for yourself first.” Peter says.
“I’m not asking you to jump in your car and save me, I just wanted a little…fuck it…you know what just fuck you Peter!” you shout and hang up

“FUCK YOU!” you shout and throw your phone against the wall just as Johnny comes walking in.
“I heard you shouting, what’s going on?” he asks.

“My fucking brother is a goddamn selfish bastard that’s what’s going on! I’m fucking nervous, I don’t know what to do and I’m afraid. And what does he do? Does he even make an effort to console me in any way? No of course not he worries about himself. It’s what my family does, out for number one as usual. Fuck all of them, I don’t even care what happens to ANY of them any more!” say sobbing.

Johhny approaches you, but still keeps a respectable distance.

“Suzy, you don’t need to worry about them any more. They aren’t even worth getting mad about okay? Look I’m here and I’ll take care of everything. Speaking of which, that thing yesterday….”

You wipe your eyes and try to compose yourself.

“I…I don’t want to hear anymore about it… I just don’t…”
“I understand. I understand. I just wanted you to know that it’s all been taken care of.”
“Yeah, until they send someone to find out what happened to him.” You say.

Johnny now steps in a bit closer.

“Well, they haven’t yet and I doubt if they’re going to right now. You’ve been asleep for most of the day and you’re probably not aware, but there’s been some problems going on around the neighborhood I guess. In fact I actually went upstairs to check from one of the windows to get a better view and I saw them shoot a couple people a few houses down. Well I assume they were still people on some level, but they certainly weren’t acting right. Like they were rabid or something. One got killed by multiple chest shots though so I think we can at least assume they aren’t the living dead.”
“Hrm. Peter mentioned something like that happening in my neighborhood. He thinks it’s a disease or biological weapon.”
“Well he might be right on that somewhat. Seems like the Guardsmen would be equipped with gasmasks or something if it was something like though. I dunno. Anyway, as I was saying for all they know they might think that Zoll guy and his soldier buddy got bushwacked by one of those things yesterday. Besides, he went to several houses, it’s not like they’re automatically going to know it was us.”

Johnny’s attempts at making you feel better don’t really work, since it just replaces one concern of getting executed by the military for murder for another concern of getting possibly infected by whatever disease is turning people into “zombies.”

Still, he’s the only one trying and actually here for you, and that’s the sad part.

“Johnny, is that a uniform you’re wearing?” you say noticing he’s changed his clothes.
“Yeah. They’re from that poor soldier that broke his neck on the stairs. I know it’s a bit ghoulish, but my own clothes were shall I say, very… soiled after taking care of that business. Fortunately, the uniform seems to be a perfect fit. I was also thinking maybe it could also be a disguise in case we need to get the hell out of here.” Johnny remarks.
“Hm, could work, but I don’t have a uniform.” You say.
“I could always say you’re a prisoner or survivor I found. In any case it might be...”

Before Johnny can finish, he’s interrupted by the breaking of glass coming from the kitchen followed by snarling and grunting.

“Shit!” Johnny exclaims and runs out of your room. You’re not quite as eager to run towards the sound of danger, at least not until you grab the pistol out of the desk first.

You haven’t gotten a few steps out of your room and you hear the sounds of a multiple shots being fired, followed by more glass breaking and an awful sound of anguish.

You enter the kitchen and see Johnny standing there with an assault rifle pointed at the bullet hole ridden back door. Must be the same rifle the soldier had. He turns around.

“It was one of those things. More of them must be wandering this way… where did that pistol come from?” Johnny asks.
“It was in a desk. So you think more of those things are coming?”
“I don’t really know, just a hunch, but the gunfire outside doesn’t sound like it’s letting up. We could easily barricade ourselves in here, but who knows how long this thing is going to last.”
“Do you think we could make it out of here ?”
“I believe we could, but it does sound like a warzone out there right now.”
“Well I hope my sister has another set of car keys because that’s the only vehicle out there right now.” You say.
“Hmm, well even if we did, I’m fairly certain as soon as we drove out in it, we’d be getting fired upon on. Even if we made it, there’s going to be more military areas to drive through. Nevermind the fact that your sister’s car isn’t exactly sturdy looking enough to survive such an attack, there is also always the possibility of a bunch of those things gathering together to overturn the vehicle.”
“So are you saying we should go by foot?” you ask.
“Heh, if it were just me, I might do that, but since your safety is a priority to me, I feel like we’d have a better chance however if I stole one of those military jeeps I’ve seen patrolling around.” Johnny replies.
“Are you nuts? How the hell are we supposed to get one of those?”
“Not we, me. I believe I could steal one. I have to admit I’m a little tired though. Still haven’t had a lot of sleeps, especially with… well you know. If I could just catch a little rest, I’d probably be able to do it better under the cover of the night.”

The fact that Johnny seems so sure that he can just steal a military vehicle is a little scary. Did he also serve in the military or something? He’s never said. Come to think of it, he’s still never revealed too much about himself. In any case that isn’t quite your primary concern right now.

“Well if you really believe you can steal a jeep, I guess that’s our best shot.” You say.
“Well we still should pack some bags with useful supplies first. I’ll get some things from the basement since I’m pretty sure I saw quite few things down there. You can check this floor and check the upstairs.”

Johnny heads back into the basement and you check upstairs first. You search Donna’s room and you do find some keys. You’re fairly sure that they are probably a spare set to Donna’s car. After grabbing the practical pharmacy from the bathroom (Julie and Donna sure didn’t reserve their drugs to just the illegal kind) you return to your own room and start repacking some of your clothes and some other personal items. A quick trip to the kitchen finds you a few bags of snacks and batteries. (And you looking over your shoulder constantly thinking that something is going to try to break in through the backdoor again)

Johnny eventually comes up from the basement with an old looking bag of stuff. He’s looking really tired now.

“Johnny are you going to be okay to do this? I mean I just found Donna’s car keys. We could leave in that and I’d drive.” you ask.
“No, our best chance is the jeep. We’ll be riddled with bullets in that car. I’ll be fine. Just need a few hours of shuteye. After that, I’ll be ready to go. I guess I’ll sleep on the sofa in the living room.” Johnny says while walking off towards the living room with the bag and rifle.

“Well I suppose we should wait before leaving anyway, I’d rather have you alert while we’re on the road. Hold on a moment you look a little wobbly.” You say and help him the rest of the way, which isn’t far of course, but you feel like it’s a nice gesture. Johnny certainly thinks so…but then he tends to think everything you do is wonderful.

“Shit, I’m so tired. Even that gunfire going on isn’t going to keep me awake.” Johnny says, flopping down on the couch.
“Well, I’ll be awake, so even if something unexpected happens and you’re still snoozing, I can wake you up.”
“Thank you.” Johnny says looking up at you. He almost reaches his hand out to touch your face, but quickly stops himself. “I’m sorry that you had to call me your boyfriend yesterday.”
“What?” You ask.
“Yesterday, when you tried to lie to Mr. Zoll. You said I was your boyfriend. I know you were just saying that.” Johnny says as he starts to close his eyes.
“You don’t worry about that right now. Just rest like you should have been able to yesterday.”
“Okay…God…you’re so perfect. You’re so much better than me. I’ve done a lot of bad things Suzy.”
“I think after yesterday we’ve both done a lot of bad things.” You reply.
“No…I’ve…” Johnny starts to say, but then he trails off.

Leaving Johnny to sleep, you stay in the living room if only because you’re a bit nervous to be by yourself right now. You turn the TV on and keep it on low, but as usual nothing of importance is on save for Ground Zero infomercials.

Lacking anything better to do (Other than being on edge a bit) you start to contemplate that if Johnny is successful WHERE you should go. You don’t really have any good ideas either. You’ve never been anywhere in your life, so why would you have any ideas on where to go now? And given how fucked up everything is right now, where would it even be safe to go?

No, the only place you’ve ever felt safe and at home is your basement. How you wish you could return. Then as you watch the GZ salesman obnoxiously go on about their product, it hits you… why shouldn’t you return?

It’s a pleasant thought, but who knows if Peter already found the hidden entrance to the shelter yet. He might very well be already be enjoying the shelter with his boyfriend or whoever he’s got over there. You’re fairly certain if that’s the case, he isn’t going to let you in to share it. That was clear when you spoke to him on the phone.

So where does that leave you? Leaving town to parts unknown? If that’s the case, you imagine you’ll have to leave that in Johnny’s hands since he’s mentioned he’s drifted from place to place and probably knows more about possible locations to go to in an emergency than you do.

On top of all this, you still aren’t quite sure what to do with Johnny. He’s definitely gone a long way in trying to prove himself to you. He has possibly saved your life and is obviously willing to risk his for you. The only other person who has done that was Bobby. In some ways Johnny sort of reminds you of Bobby…and that’s also another reason why you continue to be leery of him.

Other than his stalker behavior since you’ve met him, you’ve already come to the conclusion that Johnny probably has some sort of shady history. When you saw him finishing off Mr. Zoll…well it wasn’t exactly a normal reaction. He didn’t just react out of a panic like you did when you pushed Zoll down the stairs, Johnny got frothing mad. An anger you’ve never seen him display so outwardly before.

Between that and his mumblings of “doing bad things” and you’re inclined to believe that whatever his past might be, that Johnny HAS killed before.

And probably the more fucked up thing is that it doesn’t exactly bother you, or rather it doesn’t bother you like it should a normal person. Bobby used to kill people on a regular basis and while it took a little time for you to build complete trust in him, you did it and you had a relationship out of it. (And the funniest thing is that it didn’t even end in bloodshed)

The question is, do you want to possibly put yourself through it all again? The unstable nature? The paranoia of wondering is he ever going to hurt you? Even the “normal” part of wondering if you’re just going to just eventually break up is a concern for you. Part of you still is upset about Bobby after all.

You must have a thing for murderers at this point, because it’s the only explanation to why you’re contemplating all this. Maybe that whole incident with your Uncle Ed fucked you up even more than you realized.

You do have Donna’s car keys. You could just leave now while Johnny sleeps.
> You leave Johnny
You can’t stay with Johnny, he’s obviously unstable no matter how nice he is to you. You’re not going through it again.

Plus you’re also worried about staying here any longer than you have to since you’re still paranoid that the National Guard will be sending someone here to search for their missing in action comrades.

You go back to your room and grab your bags. You start to make your way towards the living room, but then you think that perhaps maybe going out the back door would be better since you don’t have to sneak past Johnny to do so.

The back door is still a wreck from today’s earlier attack. When you open it up you finally see the thing that was trying to get in. Looks human enough minus the bullet holes and the slightly feral facial features. You just hope there aren’t anymore currently lurking about though the nearby gunfire isn’t encouraging.

You make your way through the backyard and then go around the house and finally reach Donna’s car. You quickly load your bags in, worrying the whole time you’re going to get attacked by one of those things or Johnny suddenly waking up and running out the front door. You get the impression he’s not going to be happy to find you gone when he wakes up.

You get in the car and you actually manage to swing the car out into the street before you hear shouting and then fired upon. Despite the sounds of glass shattering behind you. You keep it together and just drive hoping that there aren’t too many of the guard in front of you.

It’s a false hope as you do indeed bump into more than a couple patrols with itchy trigger fingers. Some you try to avoid by going down other streets. Others are actually busy fighting off others. How you aren’t hit by any that do shoot at you is something of a minor miracle, but the car certainly doesn’t come through unscathed since by the time you manage to make out of Julie’s neighborhood, it’s making rattling sounds.

You continue to drive and try to keep off the main streets though with your car now making several clattering sounds you’re not exactly keeping a low profile.

“Just gotta make it home. I’ll be safe there.” You mumble to yourself.

Your drive there isn’t quite as eventful as your escape from Julie’s house, but it isn’t without peril. The National Guard isn’t quite as in control in your part of the town and there are far more of the rabid roaming around either chasing down normal people or attempting to break into houses. Most of them don’t attempt to attack you, or if they do, you just continue driving fast enough that they don’t get the chance.

By the time you get to your own house, your neighborhood is eerily quiet. There are definitely signs of past conflict all over the place, but there is nobody on the streets and most homes are not lit either. (Though you do see broken doors and windows on a lot of them) Fortunately your own house doesn’t look damaged (At least not from the front)

You half expect to get swarmed by crazies as soon as you park in front of your house, but you manage to get in the house with your bags.

“PETER?! Are you here?!” you call out when you get in the door and dump your bags on the floor. There is no answer, but then again maybe he’s already found the shelter.

The first thing you do is search the ground floor. Amazingly it doesn’t look like your house has been attacked at all. Even looking out into the backyard things look fairly untouched.

Then you search the connected garage and that’s when you make an unexpected discovery.

You find Peter and another unknown man both not quite entirely dressed, but that isn’t the disturbing part. The fact that they’re both dead is the disturbing part.

The garage itself is a bit of a mess, like there was definitely a struggle, and your brother’s body and the body of who you presume is his lover or client both show signs of blunt trauma. Looks like their necks were both broken to ultimately kill them though.

You aren’t sure what to think. You feel like you should be more upset than you are, but given what an asshole he was towards you earlier and what you’ve already had to experience, you’re not having feelings of sorrow. You’re actually more concerned with how this happened. There isn’t anyone else here to your knowledge and if it had been one of those things, the bodies would probably have bite marks. You suppose it could’ve been regular bandits or robbers, but you’d expect gunshot or even knife wounds and neither have that.

Also if it was bandits that killed them, you wonder why they wouldn’t take Peter’s car since his keys are still sitting on a dresser nearby. Whether Peter was planning on leaving himself or still looking for Ben’s hidden shelter (And if he found it or not) you’ll never know you suppose.

Feeling the fear of potential intruders in the house, you pull your pistol out and begin to search the rest of the house.

You head upstairs and cautiously search with your pistol drawn. Much like the downstairs though, you find that there isn’t anyone lurking up here. You even manage to find the courage to peek your head into Kelly’s room, but given how messy her usually room is, you don’t know if she’s ever returned here. You get the idea to call her up, but predictably there isn’t any answer. Who knows what’s happened to her.

Finally you end your search of the house by heading to the place where you started from, the basement. Again, not much looks different and fortunately there isn’t anyone down here either. Your own room is about the same as you left it. You shake your head that the though of all the bullshit you went through this week, only to end up back here. Makes you wonder why you bothered.

After a bit more perusal of your room, you head back upstairs to secure the ground floor as much as possible. You put chairs in front of the front and back doors. (As well as the one leading to the garage)

You also move a bookcase in front of some of the windows. It’s not the most fun thing to do and you bump and bang knees and elbows in the process, but it’s secure enough that you’re confident that if someone does try to get it, they’ll make such a loud noise in the process that you’ll at least wake up first.

As it starts to get darker, you decide to take your belongings to your old room in the basement where you figure you can turn on the lights without fear of someone potentially seeing them from the outside.

As you get resettled into your old room, you start to feel safer already. It’s odd that you should feel that way, but then this has always been your sanctuary. You do briefly worry about Johnny and if he’s going to try to track you down.

Well if he does show up, you’ll be ready for him. You aren’t completely defenseless after all. Besides, he’ll have to get through the military and those things never mind the fact that he doesn’t know where you live in the first place. (At least you don’t think he does)

Despite that, you’re going to try to remain positive. You make a plan to search for the shelter entrance in the backyard tomorrow and you figure if all else fails you can always take Peter’s car and try to make it out of town.

For now though, you’re going to enjoy a good night’s sleep in the safety of your own room.
> Next day...
FRIDAY

“Wakey wakey sis.” You hear a voice say.

You slowly open your eyes and at first see what looks to be a man standing in front of you holding a shotgun. Your first instinct is that it’s Johnny, but then after the blur of your eyes clears a bit, you see that it’s your sister Kelly.

Looks like she’s still hostile to you as well considering she’s pointing a shotgun at you. You don’t know why, but then has she ever needed a reason?

You look at your pistol on the floor near the couch you’re sleeping on and Kelly just shakes her head.

“I guarantee you wouldn’t make it sis. I suggest you don’t even try…heh I doubt you’d have the balls to go through with it anyway. I have to admit when I came up here to get something from my room, I didn’t expect to glance over this way and see you sleeping here.”

Up? Where the hell would she come “up” from? You’re in the basement now. Kelly’s blocking your doorway, but you think you can make out a glowing light source coming from the basement floor beyond. And then it hits you.

“…he moved the fucking shelter entrance in the house? And it’s been right near my goddamn room all this time?” you ask.
“Hey hey! It’s about time you used that blonde head of yours other than taking up space!” Kelly mocks.

Well you know where the entrance is, but unfortunately you’ve got bigger issues now. Kelly pointing a shotgun at you is concerning to be sure and makes you think back to what you saw in the garage. Peter and the other man’s body. Their bodies were beaten and their necks were broken. Kelly certainly has the strength and the skill to do such a thing. Kelly’s always been hostile to you and barely civil to your other sibling, but to actually kill one…

“When did you find out? When you killed Peter?”
“Pfft. I’ve always known. Crazy old Ben thought he was being so sneaky moving the goddamn entrance around all the time, but I knew where the fuck it was nearly every time. He had just moved the entrance again a few days before he blew away his family and himself. I’m just surprised YOU never accidently found it given that you lived practically right near the fucking thing for years. If the entrance was any closer you would’ve been sleeping in the damn thing.”

Kelly continues to address you while briefly looking over her shoulder.

“As for Peter, that little faggot managed to find out where it was and thought he was going to hide out from the current shitstorm in it with his boyfriend or whoever that other faggot he was with. Had to convince him that he had to go, he didn’t listen and tried to resist and well you saw how that turned out.”

Kelly briefly shifts a bit in your doorway, but still holding the shotgun firmly on you of course.

“So where’s that little whore Donna? Heard you moved in with her. She come with you? Julie maybe? Both? How the fuck did any of you survive the week?” Kelly asks.
“I’m here by myself Kelly. I have no idea what happened to Donna, or Julie for that matter. I…I think they’re probably dead.” You say.
“Mmm, well you’ll soon be joining them.” Kelly remarks and raises the shotgun as if she’s trying to get a more precise aim.

Terror wells up inside you.

“Wait! Can’t you let me go? I mean I’ll take Peter’s car and leave! You’ll never have to see me again! I mean you can’t have mercy on me just this once?” you exclaim and tears forming in your eyes.

Kelly smiles sadistically and laughs.

“God, you really are as stupid as you are pathetic. You know that? If I let you leave, do you really think you could survive out there with no supplies? How long would you be able to last without resorting to trading your own ass for safety? Not long I’d wager and that’s assuming you don’t just get raped and killed first or ripped apart by those freaks. I’m doing you a favor sis.” Kelly remarks.

You start to cry as you realize that this is it. You’re going to die.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, will you stop crying and be fucking brave for once in your life? (Sigh) Fine, you want me to show you mercy? Here.” Kelly leans her shotgun against the wall nearby.

At first you think she’s going to spare your life, but you soon learn it’s just another sick game.

“Okay sis, despite my undying hatred for you, I’m going to give you ONE chance just because out of all our siblings, I still think you were the one with the most potential. It’s just too bad you wasted it. So, here’s your second chance. Try to grab your pistol before I can grab my shotgun.”
“But…(sniff) you’re right next to your shotgun, you can grab it a lot easier than I can grab the pistol. You’ll kill me before I even can reach it.” You say.
“So what have you got to lose? You’re going to die anyway, so try to stop me.”

You don’t say anything. You just quietly weep a bit at your situation. You thought you were safe, but how wrong you were. You really wish Johnny was here, but there’s not going to be a rescue this time.

“Goddamn it Suzy, if you don’t make a move, I’m gonna just…shit!”

You react while Kelly is in the middle of her sentence. You scramble for the weapon and you actually manage to touch it and then a loud blast is the last thing you hear.


THURSDAY

You are suddenly awakened by the sound of your phone.

You don’t think, you don’t look, you just instinctively grab it and answer.

“Hello?” you answer still slightly groggy.
“Suzy? It’s Peter.”
“Peter?” you say a little surprised he returned your call as well still shaking the cobwebs out from coming out of your sleep.
“Yeah, it’s me. You called me yesterday, but I was busy with, well a bunch of shit really. It’s sort of crazy around here, the National Guard is shooting people in the street…well at least I think they’re still people.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying that I’ve been seeing some weird shit. Like several people running around trying to bite other people.”
“Wait…what? You mean literally trying to bite people?”
“Yes, I mean bite, as in I saw one guy that lived down the street from us chase another neighbor and start chewing on him like he was out of a goddamn zombie movie!”
“…are you saying this guy was a zombie?”
“Look I don’t know. I mean maybe he was just rabid or something, but this wasn’t an isolated incident. Maybe it’s a disease outbreak, or bio-weapon accident or something. I mean that would explain why the National Guard is here. I’m just glad they or any of those freaks haven’t beat down the door to this house yet, but I’m not taking any chances that’s why I’ve been trying to find Ben’s shelter.”
“Ben’s shelter?”
“Yeah, you know the one he was always working on and changing the fucking entrance all the time on? I figure it’s probably still well stocked and I intend on riding this whole fucked up situation in the safety of that thing until everything is back to normal. We haven’t had much luck in finding it though…”
“We? Is Kelly there helping you?”
“Kelly? Nah, I haven’t seen that Amazon cunt since she left for work on Monday night. Don’t know where she is. I’m here with one of my…clients. Anyway how are you and Donna?”
“I don’t know where Donna is. She left Julie’s on Monday night and never came back, then Julie left on fucking Tuesday night and SHE never came back. Then on Wednesday…(sniff)…”

You begin to feel a wave of emotion hit you as the thought of what happened yesterday catch up to you again.

“Suzy?” Peter asks.
“(Sob) I think…I think I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble Peter…(Sob) Something terrible happened…”

You can’t continue and you begin to cry.

“Hey… look I…” Peter is unsure of what to say for a moment and then he continues.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I really need to let you go. I was actually hesitant to call you since I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk on the phone long right now anyway. I mean who knows if the government is listening…so…”

You stop crying immediately and just stare at your phone in disbelief.

“Wait, wait, wait. Just fucking wait a minute. Granted we’ve never been close Peter, but I have been genuinely concerned about you as soon as the National Guard rolled up in this town. Why the hell do you think I called? I’m obviously distressed about my current situation and you don’t even offer a sympathetic ear? After all the fucking times you’ve stolen my clothes? After all the goddamn times I had to put up with your old loser junkie friend Kevin perving on me when you thought you were some sort of film maker? You can’t even make the fucking effort to even PRETEND to care a little? You can’t even do THAT for me?” you shout.
“Suzy, what the fuck do you want me to do? You’re over there and I’m over here. I mean I got my own shit to worry about. And you how this family operates, when the shit goes down, you fucking look out for yourself first.” Peter says.
“I’m not asking you to jump in your car and save me, I just wanted a little…fuck it…you know what just fuck you Peter!” you shout and hang up

“FUCK YOU!” you shout and throw your phone against the wall just as Johnny comes walking in.
“I heard you shouting, what’s going on?” he asks.

“My fucking brother is a goddamn selfish bastard that’s what’s going on! I’m fucking nervous, I don’t know what to do and I’m afraid. And what does he do? Does he even make an effort to console me in any way? No of course not he worries about himself. It’s what my family does, out for number one as usual. Fuck all of them, I don’t even care what happens to ANY of them any more!” say sobbing.

Johhny approaches you, but still keeps a respectable distance.

“Suzy, you don’t need to worry about them any more. They aren’t even worth getting mad about okay? Look I’m here and I’ll take care of everything. Speaking of which, that thing yesterday….”

You wipe your eyes and try to compose yourself.

“I…I don’t want to hear anymore about it… I just don’t…”
“I understand. I understand. I just wanted you to know that it’s all been taken care of.”
“Yeah, until they send someone to find out what happened to him.” You say.

Johnny now steps in a bit closer.

“Well, they haven’t yet and I doubt if they’re going to right now. You’ve been asleep for most of the day and you’re probably not aware, but there’s been some problems going on around the neighborhood I guess. In fact I actually went upstairs to check from one of the windows to get a better view and I saw them shoot a couple people a few houses down. Well I assume they were still people on some level, but they certainly weren’t acting right. Like they were rabid or something. One got killed by multiple chest shots though so I think we can at least assume they aren’t the living dead.”
“Hrm. Peter mentioned something like that happening in my neighborhood. He thinks it’s a disease or biological weapon.”
“Well he might be right on that somewhat. Seems like the Guardsmen would be equipped with gasmasks or something if it was something like though. I dunno. Anyway, as I was saying for all they know they might think that Zoll guy and his soldier buddy got bushwacked by one of those things yesterday. Besides, he went to several houses, it’s not like they’re automatically going to know it was us.”

Johnny’s attempts at making you feel better don’t really work, since it just replaces one concern of getting executed by the military for murder for another concern of getting possibly infected by whatever disease is turning people into “zombies.”

Still, he’s the only one trying and actually here for you, and that’s the sad part.

“Johnny, is that a uniform you’re wearing?” you say noticing he’s changed his clothes.
“Yeah. They’re from that poor soldier that broke his neck on the stairs. I know it’s a bit ghoulish, but my own clothes were shall I say, very… soiled after taking care of that business. Fortunately, the uniform seems to be a perfect fit. I was also thinking maybe it could also be a disguise in case we need to get the hell out of here.” Johnny remarks.
“Hm, could work, but I don’t have a uniform.” You say.
“I could always say you’re a prisoner or survivor I found. In any case it might be...”

Before Johnny can finish, he’s interrupted by the breaking of glass coming from the kitchen followed by snarling and grunting.

“Shit!” Johnny exclaims and runs out of your room. You’re not quite as eager to run towards the sound of danger, at least not until you grab the pistol out of the desk first.

You haven’t gotten a few steps out of your room and you hear the sounds of a multiple shots being fired, followed by more glass breaking and an awful sound of anguish.

You enter the kitchen and see Johnny standing there with an assault rifle pointed at the bullet hole ridden back door. Must be the same rifle the soldier had. He turns around.

“It was one of those things. More of them must be wandering this way… where did that pistol come from?” Johnny asks.
“It was in a desk. So you think more of those things are coming?”
“I don’t really know, just a hunch, but the gunfire outside doesn’t sound like it’s letting up. We could easily barricade ourselves in here, but who knows how long this thing is going to last.”
“Do you think we could make it out of here ?”
“I believe we could, but it does sound like a warzone out there right now.”
“Well I hope my sister has another set of car keys because that’s the only vehicle out there right now.” You say.
“Hmm, well even if we did, I’m fairly certain as soon as we drove out in it, we’d be getting fired upon on. Even if we made it, there’s going to be more military areas to drive through. Nevermind the fact that your sister’s car isn’t exactly sturdy looking enough to survive such an attack, there is also always the possibility of a bunch of those things gathering together to overturn the vehicle.”
“So are you saying we should go by foot?” you ask.
“Heh, if it were just me, I might do that, but since your safety is a priority to me, I feel like we’d have a better chance however if I stole one of those military jeeps I’ve seen patrolling around.” Johnny replies.
“Are you nuts? How the hell are we supposed to get one of those?”
“Not we, me. I believe I could steal one. I have to admit I’m a little tired though. Still haven’t had a lot of sleeps, especially with… well you know. If I could just catch a little rest, I’d probably be able to do it better under the cover of the night.”

The fact that Johnny seems so sure that he can just steal a military vehicle is a little scary. Did he also serve in the military or something? He’s never said. Come to think of it, he’s still never revealed too much about himself. In any case that isn’t quite your primary concern right now.

“Well if you really believe you can steal a jeep, I guess that’s our best shot.” You say.
“Well we still should pack some bags with useful supplies first. I’ll get some things from the basement since I’m pretty sure I saw quite few things down there. You can check this floor and check the upstairs.”

Johnny heads back into the basement and you check upstairs first. You search Donna’s room and you do find some keys. You’re fairly sure that they are probably a spare set to Donna’s car. After grabbing the practical pharmacy from the bathroom (Julie and Donna sure didn’t reserve their drugs to just the illegal kind) you return to your own room and start repacking some of your clothes and some other personal items. A quick trip to the kitchen finds you a few bags of snacks and batteries. (And you looking over your shoulder constantly thinking that something is going to try to break in through the backdoor again)

Johnny eventually comes up from the basement with an old looking bag of stuff. He’s looking really tired now.

“Johnny are you going to be okay to do this? I mean I just found Donna’s car keys. We could leave in that and I’d drive.” you ask.
“No, our best chance is the jeep. We’ll be riddled with bullets in that car. I’ll be fine. Just need a few hours of shuteye. After that, I’ll be ready to go. I guess I’ll sleep on the sofa in the living room.” Johnny says while walking off towards the living room with the bag and rifle.

“Well I suppose we should wait before leaving anyway, I’d rather have you alert while we’re on the road. Hold on a moment you look a little wobbly.” You say and help him the rest of the way, which isn’t far of course, but you feel like it’s a nice gesture. Johnny certainly thinks so…but then he tends to think everything you do is wonderful.

“Shit, I’m so tired. Even that gunfire going on isn’t going to keep me awake.” Johnny says, flopping down on the couch.
“Well, I’ll be awake, so even if something unexpected happens and you’re still snoozing, I can wake you up.”
“Thank you.” Johnny says looking up at you. He almost reaches his hand out to touch your face, but quickly stops himself. “I’m sorry that you had to call me your boyfriend yesterday.”
“What?” You ask.
“Yesterday, when you tried to lie to Mr. Zoll. You said I was your boyfriend. I know you were just saying that.” Johnny says as he starts to close his eyes.
“You don’t worry about that right now. Just rest like you should have been able to yesterday.”
“Okay…God…you’re so perfect. You’re so much better than me. I’ve done a lot of bad things Suzy.”
“I think after yesterday we’ve both done a lot of bad things.” You reply.
“No…I’ve…” Johnny starts to say, but then he trails off.

Leaving Johnny to sleep, you stay in the living room if only because you’re a bit nervous to be by yourself right now. You turn the TV on and keep it on low, but as usual nothing of importance is on save for Ground Zero infomercials.

Lacking anything better to do (Other than being on edge a bit) you start to contemplate that if Johnny is successful WHERE you should go. You don’t really have any good ideas either. You’ve never been anywhere in your life, so why would you have any ideas on where to go now? And given how fucked up everything is right now, where would it even be safe to go?

No, the only place you’ve ever felt safe and at home is your basement. How you wish you could return. Then as you watch the GZ salesman obnoxiously go on about their product, it hits you… why shouldn’t you return?

It’s a pleasant thought, but who knows if Peter already found the hidden entrance to the shelter yet. He might very well be already be enjoying the shelter with his boyfriend or whoever he’s got over there. You’re fairly certain if that’s the case, he isn’t going to let you in to share it. That was clear when you spoke to him on the phone.

So where does that leave you? Leaving town to parts unknown? If that’s the case, you imagine you’ll have to leave that in Johnny’s hands since he’s mentioned he’s drifted from place to place and probably knows more about possible locations to go to in an emergency than you do.

On top of all this, you still aren’t quite sure what to do with Johnny. He’s definitely gone a long way in trying to prove himself to you. He has possibly saved your life and is obviously willing to risk his for you. The only other person who has done that was Bobby. In some ways Johnny sort of reminds you of Bobby…and that’s also another reason why you continue to be leery of him.

Other than his stalker behavior since you’ve met him, you’ve already come to the conclusion that Johnny probably has some sort of shady history. When you saw him finishing off Mr. Zoll…well it wasn’t exactly a normal reaction. He didn’t just react out of a panic like you did when you pushed Zoll down the stairs, Johnny got frothing mad. An anger you’ve never seen him display so outwardly before.

Between that and his mumblings of “doing bad things” and you’re inclined to believe that whatever his past might be, that Johnny HAS killed before.

And probably the more fucked up thing is that it doesn’t exactly bother you, or rather it doesn’t bother you like it should a normal person. Bobby used to kill people on a regular basis and while it took a little time for you to build complete trust in him, you did it and you had a relationship out of it. (And the funniest thing is that it didn’t even end in bloodshed)

The question is, do you want to possibly put yourself through it all again? The unstable nature? The paranoia of wondering is he ever going to hurt you? Even the “normal” part of wondering if you’re just going to just eventually break up is a concern for you. Part of you still is upset about Bobby after all.

You must have a thing for murderers at this point, because it’s the only explanation to why you’re contemplating all this. Maybe that whole incident with your Uncle Ed fucked you up even more than you realized.

You do have Donna’s car keys. You could just leave now while Johnny sleeps.
> You stay with him
You’re still not quite sure if any of this is going to lead anywhere, but fucked up or not, Johnny’s still been there for you. To abandon him without even an explanation is just something you’re not willing to do.

Besides, if you’re right about Johnny’s past, having someone like that around might be necessary given how crazy things are right now. Other than pushing someone down the stairs out of panic, it isn’t like you’re a fighter.

Looking a nearby clock on the wall, you figure it’ll be getting dark in a few hours. Johnny didn’t tell you when to wake him, but you figure you should give him a few extra hours after it goes dark if only so he’ll be more rested. Then you’ll try to convince him to just leave in Donna’s car again since you still think it would be safer than trying to steal a military jeep.

Still feeling a little uncomfortable about the back door windows now being broken and thus your safety more compromised, you head back into the kitchen to fix the problem. As you get close to the backdoor, you briefly see the thing still lying dead with several holes in its body and head on the back porch. Looks human, but even dead it does look a bit feral.

With great effort you manage to push the refrigerator in front of the back door. Nothing is getting in now, well at least not easily anyway.

You return to your room and check to see if your phone isn’t quite as damaged, as it appeared when you threw it against the wall, but of course it is. Hardly matters, you don’t have anyone to keep in contact with any more anyway.

With the gunfire still going on outside, you flop down on your couch-bed and realize that barring something trying to break in again, there’s nothing to do. You re-open your laptop and lose yourself in a game because it’s way better than reality right now.

Hours pass…

You look at the time on your laptop and realize you’ve been playing much longer than you intended to. You immediately get up to go wake up Johnny. It actually sounds like the gunfire has died down outside as well.

“Hey Johnny wake up! It’s time to go. I know you said you had plans to steal a jeep, but I really think we should…”

When you get to the living room though, Johnny is gone. You call out to him a couple times figuring that maybe he’s upstairs or even in the basement, but you get no answer.

You do see a note placed on the nearby end table in such a way that you’d notice it. You almost hesitate to pick it up, but of course you do anyway.

To my dearest Suzy,

I’ve left to go get that jeep. I know you probably still want to use your sister’s car, but I still think our best shot is with a military vehicle. I figure we can blend in a whole lot better in one of those and not look suspicious while driving around at a casual glance by soldiers. Probably better at running over those rabid people too. We might even be able to get out of this forsaken town.

Anyway, I left this note since I didn’t want to disturb you or cause any unpleasant arguments on this matter.

I also know you didn’t leave while I slept, even though you could have. This means so much to me, I don’t think you know how much.

I know I haven’t exactly given you much reason to not be distrustful of me, but the very fact that you didn’t leave tells me that you believe in me on some level. You know I’ll try to come through for you and that you’re willing to wait.

I knew when I first heard your drunken whore of a sister talk about you; I thought you sounded like you were the one.

Then when I saw and spoke with you, I was sure of it.

I will come back tonight as planned, however if the situation becomes dangerous over there, then by all means escape in your sister’s car. It would never be my wish for you to stay in danger.

Forever my love,
Johnny

When the hell did he leave and write this? And how did you not hear him? He wasn’t joking about being stealthy you guess.

Of course you probably would have known all this a lot sooner had you not got wrapped up in your game and actually left your room.

As for the note itself, well…it’s standard Johnny in the short term you’ve known him. The “whore” description of your sister is a bit of a standout from the rest of letter which is fairly white knightish.

Of course you know damn well Johnny is far from being a “white knight”.

Suddenly you hear the basement door opening. You tense up in fear since you’ve left not only the car keys but also your pistol in your room. You think at first you’re going to have to risk just running out the front door, but…

“Hey Suzy! Suzy? I got the jeep, come on let’s get ready to go!” you hear Johnny’s voice call out.

You cautiously walk towards the hallway and see Johnny standing there looking into your room, then he turns his head and sees you. He’s got some clothing in his hand.

“Oh there you are. I was worried for a moment that you had to run out in a hurry!”
“Johnny, what the hell…didn’t you hear me calling you?” you ask.
“No, I just got here.”
“What? How? I’ve been in the living room for the past few minutes! You couldn’t have gotten by me.”
“No I came in through the basement window. I couldn’t just leave the front door unlocked when I left.”
“Basement win…wait I didn’t hear any glass breaking.”
“That’s because it’s not broken. I had it so I could easily open it. Don’t worry, I thought about your safety. That window is pretty well hidden and not exactly easy to crawl through so I didn’t think any of those things would see it. They would’ve been more likely to just try to bash the ground floor doors or windows in.”
“When did you mess around with the basement window and why didn’t you just tell me you were leaving?”
“Didn’t you get my note? I explained why I left with bothering you in it.”
“I only just finished reading it this minute.”
“Oh, well I assumed you would’ve left your room before now. Anyway, here I got you these to wear. I think they might be a bit baggy, but they should work to help us blend in more.”

Johnny shoves the clothing at you as if to distract you from asking more questions. It’s a uniform like what Johnny is wearing.

You almost ask Johnny how he got the uniform, but as with most things concerning Johnny you’re starting to think it might better if you don’t know.

As far as the basement window weirdness, you’re not going to dwell on it too much because it’s really not important right now.

“Alright, that sounds like a good idea, I’ll go put these on.” You say and go to your room.
“Um, don’t worry, I didn’t get those from a dead person or anything. It was a spare one I found.” Johnny blurts out.
“Okay. I trust you Johnny.” You say which seems to make him smile.

You lock the door and change into the military fatigues. Granted you don’t see any blood or tears in the fatigues, but then he could’ve just choked the person wearing it to death.

“(Sigh) Suzy, why the hell are you attracted to this guy? Oh right, because you’ve got some serious psychological issues yourself, that’s why.” You mumble to yourself as if being painfully aware of the situation makes everything okay.

You grab your bags and exit your room.

“Glad to see the fatigues aren’t excessively big on you, I know you’re small framed and all. You ready to go?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah, let’s get out of this place. How is it out there?”
“In our immediate area? It’s fairly quiet now. Haven’t seen any of the rabid and the remainder of the Guard is busy burning bodies right now. I mean there are still patrols, but nobody even batted an eye when I drove this thing up to the house. Probably assumed whoever was inside was investigating or something. We shouldn’t linger here though.”

With both of you ready and as prepared as you’re going to be, you and Johnny exit out the front door and quickly enter the jeep which is sitting right next to your sister’s car. You have to admit, you do feel a little safer sitting in this thing than if you did in your sister’s car.

Johnny starts up the vehicle and turns to you.

“Suzy, you know I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. So is there any place you had in mind?” Johnny asks.
‘Never been anywhere, so not really.” You answer.
“I remember you saying you wanted to go home before.”
“Well that would be nice, but things aren’t exactly normal any more. I mean the only reason for going back there would be to look for my brother’s bomb shelter, which definitely would be a safe zone knowing how Ben spent so much time building and constantly modifying it. Of course my other brother Peter is currently looking for it as well and who knows if he already claimed and locked himself inside it.”
“Hmm, well it might be worth a look if you still want to try it. I mean the only other logical option I can think of is to as I suggested, leave town altogether. Should be much easier while driving around in this thing. Of course it might still be risky, if they’ve set up some sort of checkpoints outside of town…but maybe we can get the edge by fooling them briefly before smashing through such things.”

Pretty risky stuff, but then these are risky times.
> You go home
It might be wishful thinking on your part, but you desire to be able to go home and stay there is a lot stronger than trying to find some place new. In fact it seems like every time you try something new, it turns into a clusterfuck.

“I want to go home and give it one more chance. If it turns out staying there isn’t a viable option, then I suppose we can leave town.” You say.
“Okay, but you’ll have to give me directions.” Johnny says and starts pulling out of the driveway.

You pass by a few soldiers dragging a few more bodies and placing them in a large pile outside one of the homes in this area. Another large pile of bodies is burning outside yet another home. Nobody tries to flag you down or anything though, you’re guessing that between the dark, the uniforms and the jeep, if anyone is actually paying attention to you driving through, they probably think you’re just more soldiers patrolling around. It isn’t like this is most stable of situations right now.

You continue to tell Johnny where to turn and drive and you go through another area where the National Guard has a presence. Again, you have no problems for the most part. However you then start hitting areas that are still suffering from conflict and in those cases, pretty severely. This is where some soldiers notice you a lot more and try to call out to you, presumably for help.

In one case, you see two soldiers ragged and bloody running desperately from several of those rabid people. They cry out for you to stop, but naturally you and Johnny just keep driving. You hear some faint curses and screams as you put distance between you and the unfortunate soldiers.

You eventually drive through areas that have been completely overrun by rabid. In fact you find that the military doesn’t actually have that much control at all over your town and that there are far more of the rabid roaming around either chasing down normal people or attempting to break into houses. Most of them don’t attempt to attack you, or if they do, you just continue driving fast enough that they don’t get the chance.

By the time you get to your own house, your neighborhood is eerily quiet. There are definitely signs of past conflict all over the place, but there is nobody on the streets and most homes are not lit either. (Though you do see broken doors and windows on a lot of them) Fortunately your own house doesn’t look damaged (At least not from the front)

You half expect to get swarmed by crazies as soon as you park in front of your house, but fortunately that isn’t the case and you manage get in the house as quickly as possible.

“Can’t see shit, but I’m sort of afraid to turn on a light.” You remark.
“I know what you mean. Wouldn’t want to attract those things. I got a small flashlight on this rifle. It shouldn’t be too noticeable from the outside. So what’s the deal with this shelter your brother built?” Johhny says turning on the flashlight and briefly shining it around the room and the nearby room.
“I don’t know yet. I mean all I know is the entrance is hidden and that Peter was looking for it. In fact, I’m wondering if he already found it and locked himself up in it. Seems like he would’ve heard us.”
“We haven’t been that noisy. Besides, maybe he thinks we’re intruders and is laying in wait to ambush us.”
“Possibly. I’d call out his name, but again, I don’t want to make more noise…ah to hell with it. PETER?! Are you here?!” you said in a raised voice, trying not to shout too loudly.

There is no answer.

“He could be down in the basement or upstairs.” Johnny says.
“Maybe, I still think he would’ve heard me though…let’s go check his room. If he did find out something about the shelter, maybe there will at least be a clue there.” You say.
“Where’s his room?”
“The connected garage. It’s near the kitchen up ahead.”

You cautiously move about in the dark with Johnny taking the lead. You’re holding on to your pistol the whole time being paranoid about something attacking you in the darkness. Johnny slowly opens the door to the garage and shines his light inside…

You find Peter and another unknown man both not quite entirely dressed, but that isn’t the disturbing part. The fact that they’re both dead is the disturbing part.

“Holy shit, that’s Peter.” You say.
“Who’s the other guy?” Johnny asks.
“Dunno. Probably a client or boyfriend or something. He said he was with someone when I spoke earlier today with him.”
“Hmm, looks like there was a struggle. This place is obviously a mess.” Johnny says shining the light all over the room.

He shines the light on Peter and the other man and then gets a closer look.

“Hmm, looks like they both suffered quite a bit of blunt trauma before their necks got snapped. It certainly wasn’t those rabid people that did this. I’d wager if it was, they’d have chunks bitten out of them. Bandits perhaps, but this house doesn’t look ransacked.”

You stand there in silence as Johnny goes on about who could’ve possibly done this.

“Suzy? You okay?” Johnny asks.
“Huh? Yeah. It’s just…well sort of weird. I was pissed at Peter for the bullshit he said on the phone. Seeing him dead like this…is well…I dunno. I feel like I should feel something, but I don’t. Maybe I’m becoming desensitized or something.”
“Well, like you said, he was an asshole to you earlier.”
“Yeah, he was. In fact I think part of the reason why I came here was the hope that he hadn’t locked himself inside the shelter yet, so I could yell at him in person and maybe even kick his ass. (Sigh) Guess that isn’t necessary anymore. Also don’t know if he actually found the shelter or not and now I’m paranoid that whoever killed him is still in this fucking house.”
“We can find out the latter pretty quickly I should think, we can just make a quick search. As for the former, well that’s up to you really.”

It’s the middle of the night, you’re in a town full of trigger happy military and cannibalistic crazies, you’ve just found your brother and his lover dead in the garage, you’re hanging around a guy who is unhealthily obsessed with you and to top it all of, you’re getting tired.

At this point you don’t want to risk anymore travelling.

“Well, let’s do what you said and check the house out. If everything is safe, let’s just camp here for the rest of the night and start looking for the shelter tomorrow with fresh eyes.” You say.
“As you wish.” Johnny answers.

First thing you do is finish checking out the ground floor. Everything turns out okay and fairly untouched. Even the backyard doesn’t have any nasty unwanted lurkers in it either. (As added protection you and Johnny shove a few chairs in front of the back and front doors just in case any DO show up)

You head upstairs and cautiously search with Johnny. Much like the downstairs though, you find that there isn’t anyone lurking up here. You even manage to find the courage to peek your head into Kelly’s room, but given how messy her usually room is, you don’t know if she’s ever returned here. Who knows what’s happened to her.

Finally you end your search of the house by heading to the place where you started from, the basement. Again, not much looks different and fortunately there isn’t anyone down here either. Not worrying about someone seeing a light source down here you turn the lights on and find your own room is about the same as you left it. You shake your head that the though of all the bullshit you went through this week, only to end up back here. Makes you wonder why you bothered.

“So…this is where you lived huh?” Johnny asks.
“Yep. This was my lot in life. It wasn’t much, but it was mine. I was happy here you know? (Sigh) If only things never changed…Hm. Just realized you’re the first person other than myself that’s been in here in a long time.” You say.
“What about your boyfriend?” Johnny asks.
“Bobby? Not as much as you might think. We actually hung out upstairs when nobody else was really around or over his house as unpleasant as that could be at times. Honestly I sort of preferred that nobody come in here except me. This was my haven from the outside world and wanted to maintain that illusion as much as possible. Funny, but even with all the chaos going on out there, I still feel very safe here. Anyway, I guess nobody is lurking in the house.”
“Guess not. Either that or they’re very sneaky. So are you going to be sleeping down here then?”
“I believe I will. I figure even if we can’t find the shelter tomorrow, I will have at least gotten to sleep one last time in my own room before we leave.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll find it. In fact maybe I’ll do a little searching while you’re resting.”
“Heh, well good luck with that. I know it seems like an easy task since the backyard is only so big, but somehow Ben managed to hide it pretty well. Only his son Tommy used to consistently know where it was located and moved. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to suddenly drawing a pack of those rabid things due to you shining a flashlight around outside. Even if there is a privacy fence around the back.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“Yes. Yes, I imagine you would be…Johnny…you weren’t in the military yourself at one time were you?”
“Nah. Following orders, regimented life, not really my thing. Had enough of that growing up with my mom. Why?”
“Just wondering. Due to all the shit that’s been going on, we also haven’t had much time to talk. I still don’t know that much about you.”
“Heh, well you know. Like I mentioned a few times, I’ve been a bit of a drifter. Nothing really exciting though, it’s just the way things have turned out for me.”

Johnny starts shifting his body a bit. He’s trying not to look nervous about you asking deeper questions about his past, but you can tell by now when he’s being evasive.

“Okay, so I’m gonna leave you to your haven as you called it. If anything urgent comes up I’ll be sure to let you know.” Johnny says.

Johnny turns and starts to leave then he stops to turn back to you.

“You know I love you right?” he says.
“I… know Johnny…and we’ll talk about that tomorrow as well.”

Johnny doesn’t reply, he just turns around and heads upstairs.

Well barring any unforeseen problems you’ve got two big issues to tackle tomorrow. The shelter location and Johnny.

But those are issues to deal with tomorrow. Right now you’re going to pretend that none of the shit that’s currently happening is actually happening and enjoy your haven, if only tonight.
> The next day…
FRIDAY

“Wakey wakey sis.” You hear a voice say.

You slowly open your eyes and at first see what looks to be a man standing in front of you holding a shotgun. Then after the blur of your eyes clears a bit, you see that it’s your sister Kelly.

Looks like she’s still hostile to you as well considering she’s pointing a shotgun at you. You don’t know why, but then has she ever needed a reason?

You look at your pistol on the floor near the couch you’re sleeping on and Kelly just shakes her head.

“I guarantee you wouldn’t make it sis. I suggest you don’t even try…heh I doubt you’d have the balls to go through with it anyway. I have to admit when I came up here to get something from my room, I didn’t expect to glance over this way and see you sleeping here.”

Up? Where the hell would she come “up” from? You’re in the basement now. Kelly’s blocking your doorway, but you think you can make out a glowing light source coming from the basement floor beyond. And then it hits you.

“…he moved the fucking shelter entrance in the house? And it’s been right near my goddamn room all this time?” you ask.
“Hey hey! It’s about time you used that blonde head of yours other than taking up space!” Kelly mocks.

Well you know where the entrance is, but unfortunately you’ve got bigger issues now. Kelly pointing a shotgun at you is concerning to be sure and makes you think back to what you saw in the garage. Peter and the other man’s body. Their bodies were beaten and their necks were broken. Kelly certainly has the strength and the skill to do such a thing. Kelly’s always been hostile to you and barely civil to your other sibling, but to actually kill one…

“When did you find out? When you killed Peter?”
“Pfft. I’ve always known. Crazy old Ben thought he was being so sneaky moving the goddamn entrance around all the time, but I knew where the fuck it was nearly every time. He had just moved the entrance again a few days before he blew away his family and himself. I’m just surprised YOU never accidently found it given that you lived practically right near the fucking thing for years. If the entrance was any closer you would’ve been sleeping in the damn thing.”

Kelly continues to address you while briefly looking over her shoulder. You don’t know if she’s just being cautious or if she knows someone else is with you…and where is Johnny anyway?

“As for Peter, that little faggot managed to find out where it was and thought he was going to hide out from the current shitstorm in it with his boyfriend or whoever that other faggot he was with. Had to convince him that he had to go, he didn’t listen and tried to resist and well you saw how that turned out.”

Kelly briefly moves a bit to her left in your doorway allowing you to briefly look to see if you see Johnny coming, but you see nobody. Kelly notices you looking though.

“So where’s that little whore Donna? Heard you moved in with her. She come with you? Julie maybe? Both? How the fuck did any of you survive the week?”
“I’m here by myself Kelly.”
“Bullshit. SOMEONE is here with you. I can’t see a shrinking violet like you hauling your ass through a bunch of military patrols as well as those freaks. The fact that you’re wearing military fatigues tells me that SOMEONE helped you. I know damn well you didn’t kill someone yourself for them.”
“It’s been a weird week Kelly. You never know what you’re capable of until you’re put into the situation.” You say in such a way that gives Kelly a bit of an eyebrow raise.

“Oh? So…are you a killer now, little sister? Tell me, how did it feel when you did it?”
“I threw up. I’m not a fucking psychopath okay?! It didn’t give me some thrill! I just did what I had to, to survive!” you exclaim.
“Okay, okay, calm down there killer.” Kelly chuckles before getting serious again.

“While this is enlightening and all, we really should be getting back to the matter at hand.”

Still no sign of Johnny. Where the fuck is he?

“So what’s next Kelly? You gonna kill me too?” you ask.
“Don’t know sis…don’t know…severely thinking about it. I’ve never liked you. You’ve been a thorn in my side since you crawled out of mom’s vagina. Always having to be compared to how good and pretty you were and how bad and rotten I was despite the fact I was the one who was shouldering most of the responsibility in this fucked up family. What did you ever do except hide in the goddamn basement? Even now you left the house only to come crawling back here. Yep, I’ve thought about killing you on many, many, MANY occasions.”
“Actually that wasn’t my initial intention. My initial plan was to drive out of this forsaken town. I only stopped here because my own vehicle was badly damaged and I had hoped to maybe get Peter’s car and some extra supplies before heading out again.” You say trying to stall for time.
“Oh? Hmm, you’re just full of surprises today aren’t you? Well if that is true, you may have just bought yourself a bit of a reprieve sis…okay. What the hell, I’m in a good mood. I’m gonna let you walk outta here alive and you’re going to be thankful.”
“I don’t suppose you’ll allow me to gather some supplies or let me have my gun will you?”
“Hah, no. Wouldn’t want you getting any ideas of trying to shoot me, you being a killer now and all. In fact let me just take that pistol right now. Stay on that couch and keep lying in that prone position. Don’t you fucking move, or boom there goes your pretty little blonde head all over the place.”

Johnny is still nowhere to be seen. Did he take off? Did you actually get abandoned by a fucking stalker? Is your luck really that bad?

Kelly now moves into your room, still pointing the shotgun at you, As she’s crouching down to pick up the pistol, there is a brief moment that she takes her eyes off of you.

It’s apparent that there will be no rescue; the only thing you can hope is that Kelly is going to keep her word and let you go unharmed. Of course you don’t really think that’s likely and part of you wants to grab for the pistol before she can.
> You grab the pistol
In an act of desperation you lunge for the pistol, but Kelly easily anticipates your actions. She quickly grabs the weapon and manages to step on your hand in the process followed by her smashing the pistol into your head.

“You dumb blonde bitch, I was gonna let you go too! What the…”

What occurs next is a blur mainly because you’re still dizzy from getting hit in the head, but also because it happens so fast.

Johnny bursts out of the closet with his rifle in hand, but Kelly already has a grip on you and managed to pull you up in an attempt to use you as a human shield.

Johnny and Kelly scream at each other. Something about letting you go and something else about blowing your head off. Eventually it doesn’t matter because Johnny eventually feels he has no choice and if you’re going to get killed, then it should be him that does it.

Johnny opens fire on you both, before Kelly can make good on her threats of killing you. Due to you soaking up several of the initial bullets, she actually manages to get off a couple of shots at Johnny, but whether she got him or not is irrelevant because you’re still lying dead on top of Kelly’s equally bullet ridden body.