“No.” you say.
“Suzy? What?” Julie says.
“No, I’m not leaving. She’s been a bully to me all my life. It ends today.” You say.
“Wow! I can hardly believe you’re the same Suzy that spent hiding from the rest of the world. Guess you’ve finally learned to stand up and be a woman.” Kelly says with a smirk.

“But so what? You think because you’ve survived some of the horrors out there, you think standing up to me is going to suddenly change the situation? Got news for ya, it ain’t. I can blow your fucking head off with one twitch of my finger. Last chance to get the fuck out of my house!” Kelly adds.
“Fuck you Kelly. I know you. You already made up your mind to kill me as soon as I woke up. I turn my back and you’ll probably shoot me for the hell of it as I walk out the door.”

Kelly starts laughing.

“Well like I said, you always were a smart one. Too bad you did something incredibly stupid by walking in here in the first place.”
“Kelly, please! Just let us go! We won’t come back! We’ll just…” Julie starts to plead
“SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU DUMB BITCH OR YOU’LL BE FIRST!” Kelly shouts before turning her attention back to you.

Julie at this point starts sobbing uncontrollably. You continue to stare down the barrel of the shotgun like you’re fearless, but that isn’t true at all and Kelly knows it.

“You can give me the hard looks all you want, but deep down I know you’re ready to shit your panties. Which I imagine you’ll do after you’re dead anyway. You ready to die little sister?”
“Sure, just a little surprised you’d choose this method. Guess you’re more intimidated by me than I thought.”
“What?” Kelly snorts.
“You’re intimidated by me. You always have been. I really should’ve seen it before.”
“You’re fucking crazy. I’ve never been intimidated by you.”
“Sure you have, that’s why you’ve bullied me all these years. You’ve said yourself on many occasions on how pretty I am so I know you’re jealous of my looks. You’ve just admitted that I’m smart. The only thing that I always lacked in was self-confidence and now that I have that, well I’m pretty much better than you…”
“Fuck you Suzy!” Kelly says.
“No, I get it, you want to play it safe and shoot me, because hey if I gained self-confidence, who knows I might just be able to kick your ass in a fair fight.”
“Hah, not fuckin’ likely…”
“Well I guess we’ll never know, because you’ll shoot me and Julie and then go down and hide in the fucking basement…well what do you know…we’re more alike than you thought. Imagine that.”

And with that taunt it’s the last straw. Kelly flies into a rage. It’s the kind of rage she flies into when she’s participating in her underground fight club. She abandons all rational thought, drops the shotgun to the side and lunges at you with both of her hands going straight for your neck.

Julie is knocked to one side and you fall backward on the couch. You attempt to roll and scramble to escape, but Kelly grabs you by the hair.

“You’re right, beating your scrawny ass to death WILL be more enjoyable.” Kelly exclaims.
“Julie, grab the shotgun!” you manage to shout before Kelly throws you face first into the bookcase. Kelly then stops Julie from scrambling on the floor for the shotgun by kicking her in the side and then stomping on her back.

Still struggling to recover you grab some of the heavier books that have fallen near you and start throwing them at Kelly. A couple hit her in the head and she ceases abusing Julie and returns to attack you.

You manage to throw one more book at her face, but it doesn’t even slow her down. She punches you in the stomach causing you to collapse as you feel the air leave all your body and feel like you can’t breathe. As you wheeze, Kelly leans down and grabs the back of your neck with one of her hands. It feels like a fucking vice.

“A hit to the gut, fucks you all up doesn’t it? Feels like you’re suffocating, can’t breathe, can’t do much of anything really. It’s how Houdini died you know. I’m gonna hurt you so badly Suzy, you don’t even know…but you soon will.”

Kelly with her other hand smashes a fist into the side of your face. You feel your eye almost close immediately as the rest of you hits the floor. If you could catch your breath, you probably would’ve cried out from the pain though you’re a little dizzy more than anything right now.

“Thought you could kick my ass. Bitch please, what the fuck were you thinking? This isn’t a goddamn comic book or movie…shit!”

Kelly’s body lands on top of yours with crushing weight. You then hear a shotgun blast and some debris of the bookcase consisting of paper and cheap wood fall on you and Kelly.

“LEAVE HER ALONE YOU FUCKING CUNT!” you hear Julie scream.

You still aren’t in any condition to do anything, but Kelly certainly is. She scrambles for the pistol still in the front of her pants and gets up while yanking you up with one hand to use you as a human shield.

Julie takes cover around a corner when Kelly starts shooting. Four shots are fired before clicking follows.

“Fuck!” Kelly exclaims and drops the pistol.

You’re practically deaf from the proximity of a pistol going off near your head along with being disorientated. Kelly positions herself behind the couch to give herself some extra cover. She also tightens her grip around your neck with her forearm and puts her other hand on your head ready to break your neck in a second if need be.

Julie comes back out from around the corner weeping, but unsteadily pointing the shotgun at Kelly.

“No…Suzy…(Sob) Let her go!”

“Julie, you’re not in any position to give orders. Now granted with a shotgun and you don’t need perfect aim at this range, but your precious girlfriend here is BOUND to get hit in the process. Never mind the fact I could break her neck before you get the courage to pull the trigger anyway.”
“LET HER GO!” Julie screams again.
“Not gonna happen whore. You got two choices. You try to do the impossible by trying to hit me or you walk out the door and go on with your life. Either way one thing is certain, Suzy here isn’t going anywhere. Her fate is sealed and there isn’t anything you can do about it. Think about it Julie. Do you really want to be the one that kills her? Just walk away now taking solace in the fact that you never had a choice.” Kelly says.

Even with one blurring eye open right now, you can see Julie just standing there sobbing and looking so helpless, despite wielding a shotgun.

“Suzy…I don’t know what to do… (sob)” Julie cries.

You feel like you’re going to pass out with Kelly’s big meaty arm wrapped around your neck right now.
> You tell Julie to leave
“Julie, go…” you say.
“Suzy! I can’t leave you here to die!” Julie says.
“I’m dead anyway. You aren’t going to kill Kelly. At best you’ll probably kill me and blow off one of her arms in the process. After which she’ll probably beat you to death with it, because its obvious she’s got what it takes to survive in this shithole world which is getting shittier everyday.” You say.
“Heh, damn straight.” Kelly snorts.

“Suzy, I can’t just leave you! I just can’t! I love you!”
“Yeah… well I don’t fucking love you Julie! I never have and I never will!”
“But…”
“Julie just fucking stop! I’m not into girls despite whatever you might be hoping in your heart, so even if you did somehow manage to aim that thing straight and miraculously kill Kelly without hitting me, that still leaves you with NOTHING!”

At this point Julie starts crying again and barely able to hold up the shotgun. Kelly on the other hand starts chuckling.

“Julie, go on with your fucking life and forget about me.” You say.
“I…I…can’t. I won’t be able to. I won’t know how! I need you!” Julie stutters. She still doesn’t want to hear the words you’ve said to her.
“Julie, you’re far more capable than you realize. You’ve faced shit this week that you never expected to and survived. You’ll survive this too.”
“No…”
“Julie, look at me. If you REALLY love me as much as you say, you’ll listen to me one last time and get the fuck out of here. Please.”

Julie at this point continues to cry and nods. She slowly starts to walk towards the front door.

“Aww, ain’t this some fuckin’ heart breakin’ shit? Hell, I think I’m about shed a goddamn tear myself…over how fucking pathetically hilarious this is!” Kelly laughs.
“Kelly will you at least let me give her the keys to the car so she’s got a vehicle to drive away in? They’re in my pocket.” You ask.
“Sure, sure, anything to get this bitch out of here quicker.”

You put one hand in your pocket and start fishing around for the keys.

“Just keep moving towards the front door bitch. Your little unrequited crush will throw the keys to you. Heh. And then me and you are going to have quality sister time.” Kelly says.

You grab the key and slowly pull them out of your pocket.

“Come on, come on, give her the goddamn keys, al…” Kelly says when you blindly swing your arm backwards to try to jam the key into Kelly’s eye.

“AAARGH! FUCK!”

You’re successful and the piece of metal sinks deep into the orb.

Kelly releases her grip just enough for you to slip from her clutches and drop to the floor.

“SHOOT HER NOW!” you yell.

You see Julie pull the shotgun back up to her shoulder and point it at Kelly. A loud booming noise fills the room when she fires followed by a sickening squishy sound. Blood splatters on you from over head and the slumping of a body falls partially on you.

Julie drops the shotgun and rushes over to help you up.

“Suzy! Oh my god, I was so…” Julie starts to say in between the sobbing.
“Julie, don’t fuss right now, I’m fine. But right now the pair of us need to get our asses into the basement and look for that shelter entrance. With all the gunfire that went off in here, I’d hate to think what kind of crowd we may have attracted.”

Julie helps you up, but in reality, she’s hurting just as much as you, so you basically prop each other up. You stumble down into the basement and fortunately you don’t even need to search. You see a hatch in the floor that you’ve never seen before wide open and a fluorescent glow of lighting coming from within it. Apparently Kelly didn’t even bother to close up the hidden door.

You take a look inside and see a long ladder down leading to another floor, which you imagine that’s the main shelter. You can’t believe how close it was to your room and how you never knew about it!

“How the hell did you brother do this with you hearing or knowing about it?” Julie asks.
“I dunno. I mean he managed to routinely change the entrance all the damn time too. Ben had a gift I guess.” you say and you and Julie start climbing down the ladder and you close up the hatch.

Eventually you get to the bottom and you and Julie open up a metal door, which is fortunately not locked.

And there it is, you’re in the shelter proper. Before you is a dimly lit living area with various furniture and even a TV. Other rooms include a bathroom, kitchen area, a couple of bedrooms and A LOT of storage rooms. One such room is huge, as rows and rows of canned food and bottled water are found.

“Well looks like we’ll be fine for sustenance for awhile. Doesn’t even look like Kelly put a dent in the supplies.” You say.

Another storage room contains a goodly amount of ammo and weapons of all kinds. Mostly rifles. Medical supplies are in another.

One thing that stands out is that Ben’s shelter has solid steel walls. You have no idea how the hell he did this and you guess you never will. You do notice on several of the walls something has been repeatedly scratched out though not entirely successfully everywhere.

At one point you make out most of it.

Pr-p---- o- th- Gr--n- -er- Cor---at-o-

“Well Julie, guess we didn’t have to spend a bunch of money like those fucking commercials always said. Ah, damn it!” You say and hold on to your head, which is still throbbing.
“Suzy are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just need to lie down.”

Julie escorts you back to the bedroom where upon you collapse on the king sized bed.

“Oh Suzy, your eye, your face…its so bruised and swollen.”
“Yeah, I probably look like hell. Guess I’m not very pretty right now.” You laugh.

Julie holds your hand and looks into your one good eye.

“You’ll always be pretty to me.” She says and strokes your hair with her other hand.

There’s a moment of silence between the pair of you.

“Suzy… when Kelly was holding you hostage, I know you said what you said to trick her into letting down her guard, but… was it really true? I mean it’s fine but I just…”

You don’t answer her, you instead just grab the back of her head with your other hand and bring her lips directly to your own and kiss her passionately. And this time this isn’t one of those fake kisses to trick the National Guard; you genuinely mean it, because you do have deep feelings for Julie.

When you and Julie stop kissing, her eyes are closed and she exhales like a wave of euphoria has just washed over her.

“Well…I guess that answers my question.” She says.

“Ow. Ow. Get up, get up.” You say feeling another wave of pain exacerbated by the fact that Julie is partially on top of you right now.
“Oh. Sorry! Sorry! You okay?” Julie says getting off of you.
“Yeah, just still really hurt.” You groan.
“Yeah so am I actually. Why don’t I try to go find a compress or something for your eye?” Julie says.
“That’s a good idea. Maybe bring back some painkillers while you’re at it. I’ll just lay here and hurt.”

Julie leaves and you’re left in the room alone. You mainly just lie there, but you do occasionally have the brief thoughts of just how fucked up this week has been. At least you’ve sorted out your feelings for Julie though. Despite the pain, you’re also tired. Really you haven’t even been up that long today in the scheme of things, but being held hostage and getting the shit kicked out of you is enough for you to want to go back to sleep.

Besides, it isn’t like you’ve got anything else to do immediately. You’re safe down here and you’ll have plenty of time to figure out what to do next after some rest.

You drift off…
> Next day…
SATURDAY

You wake up to total silence for once. No sounds of annoying commercials and no sounds of psychotic family members pointing a gun in your face. Even Julie is still asleep. She’s right next to you on the bed as you sort of figured she would be when you woke up.

You instinctively reach for your cell phone to check the time, but you don’t currently have it on you. Fortunately there is a large clock on the wall in the room that you’re guessing is accurate.

“Holy shit, why the hell am I up this early?” you say to yourself, but then you remember you fell asleep pretty early yesterday. Really you’re sort of surprised you didn’t wake up in the middle of the night.

You get up and you’re still hurting, but you’re compelled to go wash yourself since your clothes are caked with dried blood at this point and you’ve been wearing them for a couple days.

Just as you’re about to go test the shower, Julie stirs from her sleep.

“Suzy, what’re doing? You shouldn’t be up and around.”
“I’m stinking like a dog here, I need to wash up.”
“You smell fine, I like the way you stink.” Julie says.

You start laughing.

“Well I’m sure you do, but I really feel like I should… (Sigh) shit.”
“What?” Julie asks.
“Don’t have a change of clothes. We got just about everything in this thing except clothing.”
“So? You don’t need clothing, just go all natural, it’s just us after all. I’ll even join you.”
“Heh, while I’m sure that kiss from yesterday has got you all revved up, we still need to talk about us in more detail before we start taking it to that level. In the meantime I guess I’m going to have go upstairs to get some clean clothes.”
“Wait, are you serious?! Those things could be up there!” Julie exclaims.
“Well that’s why I’m going to be taking some weapons with me.”
“But you’re wounded! You really shouldn’t be going out there!”
“While it’s true I ache, I can at least see out both eyes clearly again. Surprisingly I’m feeling slightly energetic. I’ll be careful.”
“Oh Suzy, (Sigh) I can’t let you go by yourself! I’ll come with you!”

You and Julie grab a couple of the lighter assault rifles and some ammo and head up the ladder. Really the most nerve-racking part is going to be the initial opening of the hatch since anything could be lurking around ready to attack as soon as you pop your head up.

You open up the hatch and scramble to the basement floor, looking around in all directions.

“Suzy? Is it safe?” Julie whispers from the ladder.
“Well if it wasn’t I’m sure they would’ve attacked by now. I don’t even hear any noise from upstairs.”
“Good, Now your room is right there, just get your clothes and let’s go!”
“Okay, okay, come on up, I need someone to watch out.”

You head into your room and Julie climbs up and keeps a nervous eye out. You start going through and grabbing clothing.

“Hey Julie, what about you?” you ask.
“What about me what?” Julie says.
“All your clothes are still in your bags upstairs, what are you going to wear?”
“I don’t know! I’ll wear your clothes or go naked! I’m not heading up there!”
“Like I said, I don’t even hear any noise and I had quite a few favorite belongings in one of the bags. Fuck it, I’m going up there, I wouldn’t mind seeing Kelly’s body anyway.” You say and pass Julie to head upstairs.

Once again Julie follows reluctantly.

You go up the stairs cautiously, once again expecting something to pop out at you. When you finally get up stairs, you expect the same thing, but after checking a bit, nothing is out of place from when you left it yesterday. No broken windows, no kicked in doors, and your bags are still in the same place where you dropped them when you got here.

Then you lay your eyes on Kelly’s body which hasn’t been disturbed in anyway. You didn’t see it when Julie did it since your back was turned, but part of Kelly’s head is splattered on the wall and the rest of it is all over the floor.

“Heh, you blew her fucking head off.” You say.
“Yeah, it’s really gross. Let’s get our bags and head back, I’m still worried that something might try to break in and I also don’t want to dwell on what almost happened to you in this room. It’s upsetting.”
“Alright, I just think I needed the closure of seeing her corpse. I know that probably sounds fucked up of me, but then again this whole week has been.” You say grabbing one of your bags.

Before you or Julie can say anything else a bright flash shines through one of the uncovered windows along with the sound of a large explosion in the distance. You can’t help but take a quick glance out the window.

And there you see it in the far distance, the dissipating remnants of a mushroom cloud rising up in the sky.

“…they finally went and did it.” You say.
“Oh shit! We need to get down into the shelter NOW!” Julie exclaims.
“Let’s get our asses moving then.”

You and Julie grab your remaining bags and head back into the basement. You don’t stop the haste until you’re safely inside the shelter, though Julie’s still a really stressed.

“Oh shit! Oh shit! We were out there when that bomb went off! What if we’ve experienced a lethal dose of radiation!? I don’t want my hair and teeth to start falling out and coughing up blood! Oh fuck!” Julie starts to say while pacing back and forth.
“Julie will you relax? First of all if it had been that close the impact should’ve at least shattered the windows of the house. From the direction I saw the cloud, I’d say it probably hit Security City and you know how far away that is. It probably wasn’t even a large one.”
“So we’re safe?”
“Well we’re safe from what you’re worrying about yes. But I mean if nukes are going off, that means the end of civilization, as we know it at best. The world is going to become a lot more dangerous.”
“But we’re in this shelter! We’ve got supplies for years!”
“Yeah, if we’re smart about conservation we probably can stretch out our supplies for I dare say a decade, but the thing is we’re going to HAVE to explore the surface eventually, if only to gather more food and water. And if we’re going to do that, we’re going to need to prepare ourselves. I foresee a lot of use of that small exercise room in the future unfortunately.”

Julie sits down as if this hard reality is finally hitting her.

“Suzy…I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to survive this new world. I mean if what you’re saying is true, and this week was just an indication of how bad its going to really be, then how useful am I going to be? I mean other than killing your psycho sister; I’ve been completely useless in this crisis. Even with your sister, you came up with the plan to distract her; my dumb ass thought you were being serious at first when you told me to leave. You’ve come up with all the plans and taken all the action. It’s actually very impressive of how you’ve managed to cope with all this…I’m just not as strong as you.”

You sit down next to Julie and hold her hands.

“Julie, I didn’t say this was going to be easy, but WE can do this. You have to have more faith in yourself Julie. And whether I come up with the plans or not doesn’t mean you’ve been useless. I mean you still needed the courage to pull the trigger to kill Kelly right?” you say.
“I wasn’t brave, I didn’t want her to kill you.” Julie says.
“Well I’m sure there’s going to be tons of people wanting to do that to me in the future. So you’ve already proven you’ve got motivation to kill when necessary. And just think you also helped in tricking the National Guard without killing anyone.”
“Oh sure, just shaking my tits and ass at them. That’s about all I AM actually good at.”
“Hey whatever works for your survival, but look we’re together now. I need you just as much as you need me. We’re not just friends anymore we have a stronger bond now, one that I want to last for a very very long time. I want to survive to enjoy your company and love for as long as I can. Would you really give up on that so easily?”

Julie smiles.

“No I suppose I can’t. You’re right Suzy. You’re always right.” Julie says and hugs you. She then kisses you on the lips.

“I love you Suzy.” She says.
“I love you too Julie.” You answer.

A brief pause of you both looking into each other’s eyes and savoring the moment.

While the next few moments are going to be filled with possibly the most fun you’ve had this week, you are still thinking about how difficult things are going to be in the near future. Already now, you’re thinking that the first order of business is going to be to get Julie to dry out from her drug abuse. (You can’t afford for her to go through your supply of medical supplies after all) She’s going to probably hate you while she’s detoxing, but it’s going to be for her own good.

And that’s just going to be one hurdle you’ll have to jump, but you’re not that “good girl” that hid out in the basement from the rest of the world anymore. You’re ready to face it head on when necessary regardless of the dangers it may hold.
>
Best Friends With Benefits Forever

The Future…

“I hate dealing with those trailer park assholes.” Julie says as you both enter the shelter.
“Yeah, but unless we want to go driving all the way to the next township or waiting around for a wandering merchant, it isn’t like we got much choice in barter partners.” You say.
“I just feel like we’re getting eye raped by all of them whenever we walk into their little enclave.”
“Probably are, but Mel’s pretty good about keeping his boys in line. He’s surprisingly reasonable as well. Besides, they got enough problems ever since the Cult of Tiamat launched a full raid on them.”
“Yeah, that’s another reason I don’t like going out nowadays, the entire fucking town is a war zone between those two.”
“Mmm, I’m just glad we don’t live where the fighting has gotten the heaviest. It’s almost like how it was when all those people were running around like rabid animals. Still never learned what caused that, weird that some people just suddenly went back to normal though.”
“Speaking of the cult, do you really believe they won’t attack us anymore?” Julie says.
“Well like with anything in this shitty world, nothing is certain, but Bobby has always been a true believer so when he came to us that night saying that Tiamat spoke to him in a dream saying that we were off limits due to recent losses, I’m inclined to believe we don’t need to worry about them for now. Personally I think it was that bitch Diana that kept targeting us specifically for sacrifice. She never did like me. Anyway Diana’s dead and Bobby isn’t under her influence anymore.”
“What about his new first wife though?”
“His sister Helen? I only met her a few times back when I was dating Bobby, but she was always okay to me. Seemed to almost want me in the fold as it were. Probably wanted an ally because her older sister Diana was a bully to her…hmm might’ve had something common I suppose.”

As you get ready to relax for the night, Julie ceases talking for a moment and then speaks up again.

“Hey, do you ever wonder what your life would’ve been like if you’d stayed with Bobby?” Julie asks.
“You’re joking right?” you say.
“Well I’m just asking do you think it would’ve been easier?”
“I really don’t see how being the member of an insane cult would’ve been easier and that’s not even factoring in Diana who probably would’ve been trying to kill me at every turn.”
“Ah, I think you would’ve been okay. You would’ve found a way to get over on her. Just think you would’ve been a high priestess with followers or something!”
“And I still would’ve had to have shared Bobby with Helen and whatever other sisters he choose as a damn wife. Nope, I’m not into polygamy.”
“But you weren’t into girls either at one time and we wound up together.”
“That’s a little different Julie, we had a long history. I mean I don’t even see you as a female. I mean I do, but (Sigh) …you know what I mean! I’m just saying I’m not the sharing type when it comes to these things. What brought all this weird line of questioning all of a sudden?”
“I dunno, I guess sometimes I play what if and I come up with all sorts of weird scenarios.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well okay for example, I can picture you still doing okay even if you made different choices in your life. Like I can picture you surviving and even thriving in this harsh world regardless of what you did. Me? I would’ve been dead without you around. I just wonder sometimes if your life would’ve been better without me. Silly I suppose for me to dwell on stuff like that.”

You know Julie can still get a little self-conscious at times and would seem tonight is one of those nights. It was annoying at first, but as time has gone on, you’ve actually grown to find it a little endearing.

“You’re damn right it’s silly, because how could my life be better without you? I mean I have everything I want with you, what more could I want? To be a leader of one of the many dysfunctional groups out there? No thanks, I was already part of one dysfunctional group, I don’t need to be part of another, let alone trying to lead them. I’m perfectly happy down here in our shelter with ample supplies and spending the rest of my years with you. Now come over here.”

Julie walks over to you a bit demurely and you passionately kiss her and grab her ass in the process.

“Mmm. Tell you what, since the town has become rather dangerous lately, why don’t we stay in for a month or two? Maybe by that time, those idiots will have stopped or killed each off by then. You know we still have lots of supplies left, we can afford a nice romantic vacation of sorts from the world.” You say.
“See, you always have the good ideas.” Julie says with a smile.

As the two of you embrace in the way lovers do, you realize Julie is right, you do have all the good ideas.

And your best one was choosing to be with your best friend.


THURSDAY

You wake up and find that Julie is still fast asleep with her head nestled against your body and one arm draped over you. The funny thing is this sort of thing doesn’t even bother you anymore.

But your increasingly odd relationship with Julie isn’t excessively important at this time. Right now you’re dwelling more on the grim situation you’re still in and the event less pleasant task you still have ahead of you. Not quite disturbing Julie yet, you reach over and grab your cell phone to check the time. Slept most of the day as usual. Just as well, since you won’t have long to wait for nightfall again when you have to dig another hole out back.

“Julie, get up I have to go.” You say tapping Julie on the head.
“Hgm,.. no…” she utters.
“Have to, I’ve got to take care of something and I think you know what it is.”

Julie slowly and reluctantly moves off of you and repositions herself on a pillow.

“I wish you could just stay in bed with me all day.” She says.
“At this point, I wish that too.” You say and get up to leave to go get your sister out of the washer and dryer.

You grab your seemingly never-ending supply of garbage bags, cleaning products, some towels, a bucket of water, some rubber gloves and go down into the basement.

Once again approaching the washer and dryer you open up them up and are bombarded by a horrible smell. You end up coughing and hacking up again.

“Ugh…(pant) ugh…goddamn it, I can get through this…” you say.

You empty the washing machine first, putting Donna’s dismembered legs and arms in trash bags. You then dump some cleaning products into the washing machine and turn it on figuring that it will least wash most of the blood out.

The dryer on the other hand is not going to be as easy to clean. Johnny threw Donna’s torso and head in there. While he didn’t exactly eviscerate her, there are definitely some or her insides coming out. It’s a horrible task (You try not to stare at her head for too long), but between the gagging you manage to get through it. Her body, her left over innards and her head all up into bags and tied up.

You then spend time trying to clean the dryer. Even with using bleach, you can’t get rid of that horrible smell. You wonder if it’ll ever go away.

“Ugh, that’s a really horrible smell.” Julie says causing you to turn your head and see that she’s come down to check on you.
“What are you doing down here? I told you I’d take care of this.” You say.
“You were down here awhile and I decided to check on you. Besides, your brother Peter called.”
“Is that right?”
“Yep, he was returning your call from yesterday. Didn’t realize you called him.”
“I was in the middle of calling him when that psycho attacked. Anyway, you talked to him?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t tell him about what happened here, save for the National Guard coming in and telling us to stay indoors. I didn’t want to tell him about Donna, I figured you’d want to do that.”
“Thanks. Peter and Donna weren’t exactly the closest either, but I think he’d be pretty upset to hear about her death. So he didn’t want to talk to me?”
“Well I told him you were really busy cleaning up an awful mess elsewhere in the house. He actually said he didn’t want to talk long though because he was worried that the government was monitoring the phone call what with the marshal law and all.”
“Huh, sounds almost like something my brother Ben would’ve said.”
“Yeah, that’s the other thing. He mentioned he was busily trying to locate Ben’s old hidden bunker in your backyard. He said he wants to wait this out in there because he’s scared shitless and feels vulnerable just being stuck in your house by himself.”
“Well I can see him being scared since this isn’t the most relaxed of situations.”
“Yeah, but he said its more than just the National Guard. He said he saw a few of your neighbors acting nuttier than a shithouse rat in the streets for no apparent reason. Like they were rabid animals. He mentioned some of them was trying to bite someone.”

You stop cleaning for a moment.

“What? Crazy people trying to bite others? That almost sounds like something out of a horror movie. You sure he wasn’t exaggerating?”
“He sure didn’t sound like it, I mean it sort of makes sense. People have become more aggressive and hostile. The crime rate in this town has gone up so bad that the National Guard had to come in. I mean maybe everyone in town is going crazy from some sort of secret military experiment!”
“If that’s true, then how come we aren’t running around biting people?” you ask.
“Well maybe it hasn’t affected us yet, maybe we’re immune, I don’t know! Maybe it spreads by bite like in a zombie movie! I’m just saying maybe we should start blocking the windows and doors.”
“Julie its entirely possible Peter saw some people just high on bath salts! I mean the people who live in my neighborhood aren’t exactly the most morally upstanding. Let’s wait and see for a moment. I mean I’m still cleaning up here, so it’ll be awhile and…”

Suddenly several machine gun shots are heard.

“Oh my God!” Julie says and instinctively ducks. You on the other hand get up off your knees from cleaning and start to head upstairs.

“Are you insane, where are you going?!” Julie asks.
“Julie, while at one time it would’ve been unthinkable for me to head TOWARDS the sound of gunfire, I’ve left a pistol and an axe upstairs. If nothing else I’d like to retrieve to viable weapons if an impending zombie apocalypse is indeed coming.”
“Well hold on I’m coming with you, I don’t want to be by myself!” Julie says.

And like that you’re cautiously going upstairs towards potential danger with Julie touching one of your arms and hiding behind you. Now you really do feel like you’re in a horror movie.

When you get upstairs, you and Julie keep your heads down. The gunfire doesn’t sound like it’s immediately out in front of the house, but it’s definitely nearby. You go and get the pistol first.

“Why is the gun in the cereal box?” Julie asks.
“Because I was desperately trying to find a place to hide it yesterday. Julie, I think you better go put something a little more protective on. If we need to suddenly leave in a hurry you’re not going to want to be running around in your underwear.”
“I suppose you’re right. Where are you going to be?”
“I’m going back to my room to retrieve the axe from the bathroom, wash this blood off and change my clothes as well since I obviously ruined these by cutting and ripping them yesterday in the first place.”

You and Julie part ways briefly to go take care of your short-term goals. After washing up and changing your clothes again you start to ponder what your next move might be. You don’t quite get to do that since once again you’re interrupted by the breaking of glass coming from the kitchen followed by snarling and grunting.

“Shit!” you exclaim and run to the kitchen to see a bloody arm through the window of the backdoor attempting to unlock it. The thing on the other side gets more excited when it sees you and starts pounding the glass with its other hand cracking more of it. It seems completely oblivious to the fact that it’s severely cutting itself in the process.

It looks like a regular (if a bit wild) human. It doesn’t look rotten (Could be fresh though) and maybe it isn’t a zombie, but you know damn well you can’t let it get in! You shoot at it through the glass completely shattering the rest of the window. The bullet hits it in the face and the thing falls backwards making one last death growl.

You cautiously move to look through the broken window and see that you’ve killed it. Meanwhile Julie has come running to see if you’re okay.

“Suzy! Oh thank god! Are you okay?!” Julie asks.
“Yeah, but I apologize for doubting you and Peter. One of those… things, guess I’ll call them the rabid just attacked. Look what one did to this door, I’d hate to think what more of them might do in a group.” You say.
“Oh shit! We need to start blocking the doors and windows!”
“I’m wondering if we shouldn’t just get the hell out of here while we can.”
“I really think we we’d be safer if we stayed put! I mean we have more than enough furniture and items to barricade ourselves in here. If we leave, we run the risk of bumping into hordes of them and that’s not counting the military who are still shooting people on sight, maybe even more so now. Where would we go anyway?”
“I admit, I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I think you’re hoping to ride this thing out until shit gets back to normal and I’m wondering if that’s even going to happen. We aren’t exactly well supplied here for a long-term stay even if we do barricade this place. Now I’ll give you that it’s probably going to be dangerous out there, but at least we’ll have more freedom to move around.”

Julie of course will follow you no matter what you decide, but she really wants to stay in. As much as you think it might be better to leave now, you probably would be safe if you barricaded yourselves in the house properly. Things do sound hectic out there right now with all the gunfire, it might even be best if you waited until things died down a bit and sneak out later.
> You barricade the house
Things are too hot out there right now. The National Guard is parked firmly in the neighborhood; you wouldn’t have a chance to get past them.

No, the best thing to do is barricade yourself in. You have enough supplies to last the remainder of the week you think.

“Okay, let’s block the doors and windows the best we can. Those shots might have the National Guard over here again, but at least we can point to a viable target this time.” You say.
“What about your… um sister?” Julie asks.
“(Sigh) Shit. I dunno. She’s all wrapped up in bags right now, I guess I’ll just throw her in the garbage can out in your backyard. It’s near the door, so I won’t have to linger too long.”
“You really want to throw her away like that?”
“No, I don’t fucking want to throw away my sister like she was just day old meatloaf, but I don’t have many other options right now and if we are going to be stuck in this house for who knows how many days on end, I don’t want my sister’s chopped up corpse sharing it with us! Now start pushing shit against the front door and block the windows!”

While Julie goes to follow your orders, you head back down in the basement to grab your sister’s remains. It takes two trips and a lot of paranoia, but you manage to get her all in the trash can without anything else attacking you or the military coming to check up on you again. You do hear a lot more shooting though, so you’re guessing that maybe they’re too occupied with something else. You finish up by shoving the refrigerator in front of the back door.

Julie meanwhile is trying her best. She’s got the front door barricaded well enough, but the windows leave something to be desired.

“Julie, anyone could crash through those windows right now. Don’t you have like hammer and nails or something laying around?” you ask.
“No, and I don’t have a bunch of wooden planks either. Why the hell would I have that shit? I don’t sit around thinking about how to best protect my home against a possible zombie attack!” Julie answers. Her state of agitation is vastly increasing under the pressure.
“I don’t think they’re dead…nevermind doesn’t matter. (Sigh) Okay, you’re obviously stressed. Why don’t you take a break and I’ll handle this. I’ll try to figure out a way to better barricade this place.”

Julie doesn’t need you to say anymore and she immediately runs upstairs. You imagine she’s probably going to pop some pills or something to mellow her out. At this point as long as she stays out of your way, you’ll be able to get what you need to do accomplished.

You spend a good amount of time shoving as much furniture as you can in front of most of the ground floor windows. Something could definitely still break them and with enough force they’d probably eventually knock through the furniture, but you’re confident that you’d at least have enough time to do something about it before they got in completely.

Still, the gunfire and yelling from outside hasn’t stopped the whole time you’re doing this, there are a couple points where you hear some explosions too, so you’re not exactly feeling completely relaxed about this situation.

You then start packing “get a away” bags with as many useful items as you can, just in case you need to leave in a hurry. One of your bags that you brought hasn’t even been opened and is still full of clothing. You fill your other bags with more useful items like some of the non-perishable snack food Julie has, the duct tape you were using, a few of the bigger kitchen knives, loose batteries, some of the medicine in the bathroom, etc.

You then finish up with packing a few more of your personal items and then think if you do need to leave in a hurry, it probably would be best if you could drive out of here.

You head upstairs and start calling for Julie, but when you find her, she’s laying on her bed in a semi-conscious state. She took something to calm herself just as you figured.

“Julie! Julie! Does Donna have a spare set of car keys?” you ask.
“Mgh…huh…come to bed…” she says.
“Julie! I need to know if Donna had spare keys to her car!” you shout.
“I dunno…yeah…prob…dresser…” Julie utters and starts to become even less coherent.

Seeing that she’s going to be of no more use for the rest of the day, you search Donna’s room for her car keys and fortunately Julie was correct in that they were on the dresser.

By this point, night has fallen and while the gunfire has lessened, you still hear the occasional shot. You’re a little tired from all the running around and other activity you’ve been doing to today, not to mention you’re still wearing the clothing that you cleaned your sister up in. As much as you’re hesitant to let your guard down, you absolutely feel the need to clean up.

After a quick shower, you return to being on guard for something to happen. Anything. Julie of course is peacefully asleep and oblivious to anything that’s going on at this time.

You peek out one of the second floor windows and see Guardsmen still patrolling, but it doesn’t look like there’s as many any more and you see a pile of what are probably bodies a little up the block. It does look like things have quieted down a bit, around here anyway. Who knows about the rest of the town.

You wonder if you shouldn’t sneak out and leave while things are quieter, but Julie’s not in any condition to leave now. And as inept as she’s been today, you can’t just abandon her. You’ve just lost your sister, you’re not going to lose your best friend as well.

You stay up late past midnight staying alert, but nothing happens. You wander back and forth through the house until eventually even you can’t fight off the sleep and you return to your room and close your eyes for just a moment…
> Next day...
FRIDAY

You are awakened by a loud explosion, a close one. One so close in fact that the force of it causes you to roll off your bed.

“Shit!” you exclaim as you hit the floor, still tired, but very much awake. You don’t know what time it is, but you know you haven’t been asleep very long.

You grab your pistol, which is nearby, and the smell of gunpowder, smoke and fire are immediately starting to become very strong.

You exit your room and see that your barricade of the front facing windows has been destroyed along with that portion of the house. Furniture is in pieces and some of it is burning. That isn’t all that is in pieces however. You see the remains of several bodies. One bloody legs looks like it was wearing a military outfit, a couple of the other parts are of the more civilian persuasion.

You can only guess this might’ve been a soldier desperately trying to escape and blew himself up either on purpose or accidently in an attempt to kill the rabid things after him.

You can’t make out everything from where you’re standing, but the streets are swarming with hordes of those things. It would appear a “second wave” has popped up and is strong enough to overwhelm the military here.

Even Julie has woken up.

“Holy shit Suzy! What the fuck…” Julie says from above.
“Julie get whatever…”
“SUZY LOOK OUT!” Julie screams.

You react just in time to shoot one of those rabid fuckers twice in the chest. He goes down and doesn’t get back up, but that’s of little help since you’ve now just attracted even more of them and they’re running in your direction.

“Julie climb out one the upstairs windows!” you shout, firing at two more rabid before running away yourself. Julie immediately runs back into her bedroom.

You’d follow her, but the burning debris makes it difficult and your own distance to the stairs isn’t close enough for you to get there before more rabid come gibbering in.

You instead head for the backdoor and fire off the remainder of your bullets as you run. You might’ve actually managed to make out had the back door not been barricaded with the refrigerator.

You don’t even get to open the back door before you’re roughly pulled backwards and you feel a set of teeth sinking shoulder. This is soon followed by more teeth and your screams.


WEDNESDAY

“Remember, if you act today…”
“Ugh! Shut up! I don’t care about your stupid shelters!” you hear Julie remark.

You open your eyes and see Julie to the left of you messing around on your laptop. (And clicking off on one of those annoying pop up audio ads)

“Hey…when did you get up?” you ask.
“I dunno, about an hour ago I think. Didn’t really feel like leaving the bed though, so I just figured I’d stay here and entertain myself on your laptop. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Eh, it’s fine. Don’t mess with my bookmarks and setting though.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to accidentally delete anything. I must say though with the extensive number of porn links in your history, I think you might have a real problem.” Julie mocks.
“Mm, bold words coming from a woman who has popped up in several amateur videos on those sites.” You answer.
“Hah. I don’t doubt it, but that brings up the question of why would YOU be watching those?” Julie asks.
“Who said I did? I can’t help it if I’m browsing through the videos and suddenly your ass pops up in a still.”
“If it’s just my ass, how do you know it’s me? Either you don’t or you’ve watched them enough that you know what my ass looks like without even seeing my face!”
“Argh! I don’t mean literally! I mean YOU pop up, and I’ve seen your face in the stills though once I almost couldn’t tell because it was covered in cum!” you exclaim starting to get agitated.
“Hmm, nice save.” Julie says a little unconvinced.

Already having expended more energy than you wanted to, you start to sit up and realize you’ve been wearing the same clothes for the past couple days.

“Christ, I really need to take a shower and change these clothes.” You say and get out of the bed.
“Yeah, I think I need to go do that too.” Julie says.
“Well you can go use your own shower. I know we’ve been sleeping in the same bed for the past two days, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be re-enacting a women’s prison shower scene from a movie.” You say laying down boundaries again.
“Hey I think you had that one bookmarked!” Julie says jokingly.

You shake your head and grab some clean clothes before heading into the bathroom to take a shower.

After washing up and changing your clothes, you feel refreshed. When you exit the bathroom, you see that Julie has left, presumably to go wash up as well. You check your phone and once again see nobody has called. You dial up your sister’s number and still no answer. You certainly hope Julie is right about her just sleeping somewhere else. But surely she couldn’t be so pissed at you that she’s moved out could she? All her stuff is still here after all.

You then hear a loud noise or more like a voice, but you aren’t sure if its coming from inside the house or outside the house. Still paranoid from yesterday, you grab the pistol and cautiously exit your room.

When you get to the living room, you deduce the noise is indeed coming from outside.

A quick peek through the window and you see several military men and a couple of military trucks and even an A.P.C.

“ATTENTION! THIS TOWN IS UNDER MARSHAL LAW AND THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOW UNDER WATCH BY THE U.S. NATIONAL GUARD. A GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE WILL SOON VISIT ALL OF YOU AND ASSIST IN ANYTHING THAT YOU MAY NEED DURING THIS STATE OF EMERGENCY. STAY IN YOUR HOMES. DO NOT COME OUT FOR ANY REASON. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN THE USE OF LETHAL FORCE.”

“Hey Suzy?! You hear that noise!? You got the TV up loud?” Julie shouts from somewhere up on the second floor.
“No! The fucking National Guard is out there in force and it looks like we’re under marshal law.”
“National Guard? Hold on, I’m coming down…” Julie says.

You turn the TV on to see if there’s anything about this, but you’re not exactly having any luck. You’re getting a lot of Ground Zero infomercials or news about shit going on elsewhere in the world. Local stations seem to be off the air with an “emergency test” beep but nothing more substantial than that.

“What the fuck is going on?” you say to yourself.
“Yeah what the fuck IS going on?” Julie asks coming down from taking her shower.
“I dunno, I might need to check the Internet, not having much luck with the TV. Do we have enough food and water?” you ask.
“Well we certainly got some food. Dunno about water though. I mean you can get some from the taps I suppose, but as you might expect I got tons of alcohol. Why?” Julie says.
“Why? Because the National Guard just said if we try to leave we’ll probably get shot on sight that’s why! (Sigh) We’re basically prisoners here.”
“Suzy, you need to calm down. You’ve been on edge since yesterday. You just said there isn’t a whole lot we can do, so we might as well just relax in the house. I mean really how much different is the day going to be for either of us?” Julie remarks.
“I’m just…its Donna. I mean she’s still out there. I mean I HOPE she’s still out there. I mean the last thing I did was argue with her. Shit, I’m even a little worried about Peter and Kelly now and I never got along with them either. Still family though.” You say.
“You tried calling either of them?” Julie asks.

Oddly you haven’t. You didn’t really have a reason before, but given what’s going on right now, maybe you should.

“I think I’ll do that Julie. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.” You say.
“Sure, you go check on what family you can and maybe find out more about what’s going on. In the meantime, I’m going to go get a drink.”
“Thought you were turning over a new leaf?”
“You just said we were prisoners here. Not much else for me to do is there? Besides, I’m not going to get bombed out of my skull.”

While Julie goes and deals with this situation in her own way, you head back to your room to get your cell phone to start calling up your other family members. You try Peter first since you figure he might at least answer.

You start to call Peter and then you hear a loud clatter from the kitchen. What’s odd to you is that you don’t hear a series of cursing following it; you do think you hear a stifled yelp though.

Panic wells up inside you and you once again head towards where the disturbing sound came from with your pistol pointed in front of you.

“Stop fighting me, bitch!” you hear a voice say.

This isn’t a video game this time.

You enter the kitchen and see Julie being held captive by someone you KNEW was no good right from the start. Johnny. He’s got one arm around her waist and another hand with a knife to Julie’s throat. He isn’t calm anymore. His face is displaying a rage and hatred you remember seeing a glimpse of in Uncle Ed when he looked at you during that horrible night with him. Julie’s face is one of absolute terror and tears run from her eyes.

“Let her go you fucking psycho!” you exclaim pointing the gun in his direction.

“Oh look, it’s your dyke lover come to rescue you! Fucking whores the pair of you! You think I’m scared just because you got a gun pointed at me? Pfft! Look at you, you’re so scared right now, you can barely aim that thing properly.”

He’s right. Despite having the gun in your hand, you’re incredibly scared.

“Mmm, think I’ll have some fun with you two after I’m done cleansing you whores. Just like I did with your sister.” Johnny exclaims.

Your worst fears are now a reality and it shows in your face. You feel ill and start to shake a bit.

“Guess you two have been so busy rug munching that you haven’t been in the basement lately. Told you it was a mess down there.” Johnny laughs cruelly.

Between this revelation, Julie’s desperate expression of wanting you to do something, and your own fear, you’re having a very difficult time concentrating.

You feel like if you shoot, you’re either going to miss Johnny completely and then he’ll kill Julie, or worse you’ll kill Julie for him by accidentally shooting her instead of him. You can’t fuck this up.
> You try to buy some time
“Johnny, look. We didn’t do anything to you, but if you felt that we offended you in anyway, then I apologize profusely. You can walk out that backdoor right now and nobody has to know about this.” You say trying to aim the gun so you know you’ll hit him with it, unfortunately he’s moving around with Julie even more now.

“Yeah right. The National fucking Guard is patrolling out there right now, I’m not gonna get my ass shot off and stop trying to play psychologist, it won’t work. I’m not interested in anything you two dyke whores got to say, so let’s just skip to the good part!”

Suddenly Johnny slashes Julie’s throat open. A gout of blood comes pouring out as Julie hisses and gurgles while clutching at her throat. The sight of this scares the shit out of you and it doesn’t help that Johnny also gave her a little shove directly at you after he did it, which causes a nervous reaction of firing your pistol.

You don’t hit Johnny though, you instead hit Julie and cut what little remained of her life even shorter. Her body falls on you and you scream when all the blood squirts all over you.

You attempt to push her off of you, but when you see Johnny looming over you, you try to bring your arm back up to shoot at him again, but this time he’s got the advantage and he grabs your wrist, breaks it and takes the gun out of your hand before pistol whipping you in the face with it twice. Your head hits the floor as you lie there now with a broken nose.

“Stupid bitch. You all are stupid bitches. I don’t know why I ever think I’m going to run into anything different. (Sigh) Still, I thought after your sister told me about you…I thought you might be…bah better get this over with, the fucking Guard probably heard those shots.” Johnny says.

Your last moments are seeing Johnny’s knife coming down several times on your face.


TUESDAY

“…Suzy…” you hear a voice whisper.
“Mgh.” You answer.
“Suzy…get up…I have to go pee!” the voice says again. Your eyes are still closed, but you recognize it as Julie’s.

“Guh. Well go! Why do I have to get up?!” you say angrily with your eyes still closed.
“Well because you arm is wrapped around my waist and your leg is intertwined with one of mine that’s why!”

Now you open your eyes and realize what Julie has just described is true. Julie looks at you over her shoulder.

“Hey don’t blame me, I stayed on my side of the bed. I’d enjoy this longer, but I really gotta pee!”
“Shit.” You say and remove yourself from your entanglement from Julie’s body. Julie smiles at you and then heads to the bathroom.

Great, now she’s going to read something into it. Though you do wonder how the hell you got into a spooning position with her. Maybe you were dreaming about Bobby.

Speaking of Bobby, while you’re checking the time on your cell phone, you see that he’s left messages again. After you recent “night cuddling” with Julie, you think it might be best if you do call Bobby if only to deter Julie from getting any ideas.

“Hello? Bobby?” you say.
“Yeah.” Bobby answers. He sounds pretty flat.
“Well you called me, so I assume you wanted to talk to me.”
“Yeah I did, I wanted to talk to you yesterday about something else, but I’ve changed my mind about some things since then. So I’ve got something new to tell you, and given that you didn’t bother to talk to me yesterday I think you’ll be fine with it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about us. Breaking up for good. It’s obvious that this isn’t working. I tried to bring you into my world, but you just refuse to meet me half way.”

You can’t believe you’re hearing this!

“Meet you half way? You want me to be one of your wives in your fucked up religious cult compound that’s what you want! Face it, you’re not going to give up your sister Diana and that bitch would kill me as soon as I stepped foot in that place!”
“Well…you obviously have valid points, so why are you arguing with me on this?”
“Because you’re trying to make out like I’M the bad guy here! I’m not the human sacrificing cultist Bobby and yet I looked past that because I loved you! You say I didn’t try to meet you half way? I proposed long ago that we BOTH leave our fucked up families behind and start a new life together! I was willing to change, YOU weren’t!”

At this point there is a long pause.

“Well? Don’t you have anything to say?” you ask.
“No, except…it was just too much. Guess I take after my dad after all. I’m sorry, but my God and family come first. Even before you. I’ll always remember…the good times we had. May Tiamat’s Chaos take mercy on you.”
“Oh fuck you and Tiamat!” you exclaim and hang up.

Its weird, but you start to sob a little bit. You sort of knew your relationship with Bobby was on borrowed time anyway, but it still hurts now that it’s officially over. He was your first love after all and now that’s gone.

Meanwhile Julie is standing in the bathroom door watching you.

“Suzy, I heard some of that…and I’m truly sorry about you and Bobby. Really, I mean that. You’re a kind and decent girl with many wonderful qualities. He had a treasure in you and he doesn’t know what he’s lost.”

Hard to tell if Julie’s just trying to flatter you or she really does mean it, but either way it’s still nice to hear right now.

“Did you want to talk about it?” Julie asks.
“No, not really. It’s over and that’s that. Best to not dwell on the past and move on right?” you say.
“Probably. Well I should probably see how much damage my home is in from last night and see who’s still lingering around. I’ll leave you alone.”
“Wait, I’ll come with you. I mean I live here too now, I might as well help you clean up. Besides, for the first time I think being alone might be a bad idea. I’m just going to end up dwelling on Bobby. I need to keep my mind on other things right now. I probably should try to make up with Donna as well. We kind of argued yesterday.”
“Yeah, I wondered what happened about that. When she stormed in yesterday I asked about you and she mumbled something about you being a bitch. Then later at the party I asked again about what happened and she still never answered.”
“Nothing really happened, she just jumped down my throat for a perceived insult, but I guess I should make the peace being the older sister and all.”
“See? This is why you’re so wonderful!” Julie smiles and the pair of you exit your room.

The house actually isn’t in bad shape. Julie remarks that usually the parties only get really out of hand on Saturday and Friday nights. She also remarks that she thinks this the first time in quite awhile that she woke up without a hang over since she didn’t really drink as much since she was mainly with you the whole night.

“It’s a bizarre feeling, but I have to say it isn’t an unpleasant one.” Julie says.

From the living room you hear the sounds of a vacuum as well as a TV.

“Who the hell would be vacuuming?” Julie asks.
“Donna?” the moment you say that, you and Julie both look at each other and say “Nah.”

When you arrive in the living room, you see a man probably about your age calmly vacuuming as he periodically looks at the TV screen, which is one of those Ground Zero infomercials. There are actually a couple of other people in the room flopped out on the furniture or on the floor still asleep, but the man merely vacuums around their sprawled out legs or bodies. You and Julie find the sight to be quite the peculiar one.

He notices you both and turns off the vacuum.

“Oh hey. You…you’re the owner of this house correct?” he asks.
“Yes I am, who are you?” Julie answers.
“Oh I’m Johnny. Sorry if I woke you and your girlfriend up, but I couldn’t in good conscience leave your house in such a mess. So I found your vacuum and tried to clean up a bit. Sort of a wild party last night huh?” Johnny says.
“Eh, had wilder. Never had a guest actually clean up though. Kinda weird, but hey I won’t turn it down. I don’t remember you from last night; though I have so many people at my parties I never know half of them anyway.”
“Oh, I’m not very memorable anyway. I’ve always kind of just blended in with the crowd. I heard about this party from a friend and figured I’d come since I don’t get out much. Did you want me to leave?”
“Doesn’t make difference to me. Like I said, I’m not going to turn down a guest that helps clean up.”

Johnny nods and returns to cleaning up, while Julie turns back to you.

“Hrm, he’s an odd one, but at least he’s helpful. Anyway, let’s go check and see if Donna’s upstairs.” Julie says.

You and Julie leave Johnny to his cleaning to go find your sister. After checking the bedrooms, you don’t find her (Though there are a couple of people still sleeping in said bedrooms) you wonder if she passed out on the lawn or something.

You and Julie start descending down the stairs.

“I dunno, while I’ve certainly passed out on the lawn, Donna has never gotten that bad. She’s more likely to be in the basement.”
“Well I guess you could look outside and I could look down there for my sister…”

Suddenly Johnny interrupts.

“Excuse me. Sorry for overhearing, but did you say you were looking for Donna?”
“Yes, she’s my sister.” You say.
“Oh…so you must be Suzy. Heard her talk about you last night.”
“Nothing good I’m sure. You know where she is?” you say.
“Unfortunately I don’t. I mean I remember seeing her leave with a couple of guys and another girl last night, but I didn’t know them either. I was under the impression they were going out to get more beer or drugs or something, but they never came back.”

You shake your head and sigh.

“Great, she probably got herself fucking arrested by the cops last night.” You say.
“Well we don’t know that.” Julie remarks.
“Maybe. I guess I’ll know if I get a call from the police station. Whatever, I know she’s like a cat and always lands on her feet, so I can talk to her later.”
“You sure you don’t want to still look around the house for her?”
“Well if she’s here, she’ll probably turn up while I’m cleaning this place a bit.”
“Okay, well I’m heading back upstairs to get those assholes out of my bed and clean up whatever mess is up there.”

Julie heads back upstairs nodding to Johnny who is now picking up garbage by hand and putting it in a bag. He nods to you briefly and continues his work.

Well mind numbing clean up work should certainly help keep your mind off Bobby (and the possibility of Donna being in jail) you’re just wondering if you should help Julie or Johnny.
> You help Johnny
You decide that keeping a bit of distance from Julie might be for the best for now. After last night you don’t want her to think you’re lingering around her because there is something there between you two.

Johnny seems a bit odd, but then you’re certainly used to odd people. You grab a trash bag and start cleaning up left over beer cans.

“Thanks, but you don’t need to help me. Your girlfriend probably could use the help more than I do.” Johnny says.
“Well I do live here now, so it’s gotta get clean or I’m living in a pig pen! And Julie isn’t my girlfriend.” You say.
“Oh. Sorry, I just assumed that you two coming out of the same room together…”
“Eh, long story. But she’s just my friend and I consoled her on a troubling topic. It got emotional and she slept in my room, though I’m fairly certain Julie wishes it had gone farther.”
“Hm, I see. Well your sister didn’t mention you had a girlfriend when she spoke about you last night, so I was sort of wondering.”
“Wow, I must’ve really pissed my sister off yesterday if she was talking about me to a stranger. Would’ve thought she would’ve been focusing on other things during a party. What exactly did she say?”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Johnny asks.
“It probably isn’t going to be anything I haven’t already heard before from her, so go ahead.”
“Well…she was sort of drunk when she started talking to me. I was actually surprised, since a girl like her doesn’t normally just go up and talk to a guy like me, well at least not when there are other guys around. Anyway, she at first propositioned me to go into the basement with her. When I declined, she got more hostile and started calling me a faggot and said I didn’t know how to have fun just like her sister Suzy.”
“And that’s when she went on a tirade?”
“Yeah, I was about to leave her since it isn’t my idea of a good time to be ranted at and insulted, but she grabbed my arm and practically forced me to listen. She went on about you being good and perfect and never doing anything wrong. Basically she said all this stuff about you as if they were supposed to be bad things, but I didn’t see it. I guess that just made her even madder so she eventually told me to fuck off and later on I saw her leave with that group I mentioned earlier.”
“Yeah sounds like her. (Sigh) I jut hope she hasn’t gone and done anything more stupid than usual. Family. What can ya do?” you say.
“Heh, don’t need to tell me. I had an older sister just like your younger one. Partied all the time, lot of sex, lot of drugs, pissed my mom off something fierce when we were still living with her.” Johnny says continuing to pick up cans and placing them in a bag.
“Oh I got an older sister too, but she’s even worse than Donna.”
“Party girl too huh?”
“No, she’s just a fucking sadistic bully. Had to put up with her abuse for years.”
“Your older sister sounds like my mother.”

While the tone of his voice reflects no anger though, you notice when Johnny mentions that, his hand crushes one of the beer cans he has. He looks at it briefly and then tosses it in the bag.

You wonder if you should stop talking altogether, but Johnny has already noticed that you’ve been staring at what he’s done.

“Sorry, bad memories. I didn’t meant to scare you there.” Johnny says.
“I wasn’t scared, just more surprised. We can get off the topic of families.”
“Heh, actually I was thinking we were kind of bonding a bit. Sounds like both of us come from fucked up families. Probably made us stronger right?”
“I dunno. I mean I suppose I’ve survived, not sure if that’s the same thing. I mean this is like the second day I’ve spent away from home. I only moved out yesterday and only then due to being under duress from my sister Kelly. I’ve always been a bit introverted and spent most of my life avoiding the outside world.”
“Eh, you’re not missing much. To be honest, I’m almost jealous you managed to do it for so long. I’m a bit of an introvert too, but occasionally I to mix with the crowd as it were. Just to see if I feel any different. Hence one of the reasons why I came to your friend’s party last night.”
“And?”
“And, I don’t feel any different. Just like I figured. It’s like I spoke with several other people last night even before your sister and everyone was just…dull…boring…like they were just empty shells. Like they weren’t even real people to me. To be quite honest before your sister started complaining about you to me, I was getting bored and nearly left the party.” Johnny says as he motions over to a few of the sleeping lumps still in the living room.
“What about your friend that you came with?”
“Oh him? I came here independently of him. Hell, he didn’t even show up. Really, he’s more of an acquaintance than a friend anyway…”

Johnny’s eyes sort of glaze over when he says this and he breaks in the middle of his sentence. Almost like he’s in a different “place.” ‘

“Johnny?” you say.
“Hrm? Sorry, I just kind of spaced out there. Anyway as I was saying, you haven’t missed much by not being a social butterfly, I think this group here is proof of that. And as far as not being strong, you’re stronger than you think. Despite coming from a dysfunctional family, you haven’t succumbed to drug and sex filled escapism like your younger sister and you obviously haven’t grown to become a mean bully like your older sister. The fact that you told me you spent the night consoling your best friend rather than indulging in some sort of meaningless hedonistic pleasure tells me that you’re a kind and gentle soul. That’s a rarity in this shitty world.”

You have to admit, as strange as this Johnny is, you do get the sense he’s being genuine when he says this to you.

“Well thank you Johnny.” You say.

Just as you’re about to converse more with him, you hear some loud noise coming from the second floor. You hear a man’s voice and a female voice, and then a very familiar voice. Sounds like Julie and it sounds like she’s gone back to distracting herself from last night’s concerns.

“Oh yes! Ohhhh yeah! Give it to me daddy!” you hear Julie scream.

A little disturbing choice of words considering what you both talked about last night.

Some of the people sleeping in the living room are even awakened by this. One of them looks at his watch and immediately runs out the front door like he’s late for something. A couple of others return to sleep.

“Sounds like your friend is feeling better.” Johnny says a little disdainfully.
“Mm, well she always was one to get over things quickly. Well looks like we’re all done in this room anyway.”
“Yeah, hey why don’t you take a break? I mean obviously we don’t need to clean this place spotlessly. Your friend Julie is just going to have another party tonight right?” Johnny says.
“True. Yeah, I guess you’re right. No point in me cleaning especially if Julie isn’t even going to be helping anymore, but what about you?” you ask.
“Me? Well I’m just going to dump out the trash and maybe pick up a few more of the bottles in the kitchen on the way. I’ll probably also take another pursue down in the basement. It was a mess down there, but I think I cleaned most of it. Nearly tripped on a bad step down there though. Anyway then I guess I’ll head home, I need the sleep anyway seeing as I haven’t been yet.”
“You didn’t sleep here?”
“Nope. I’ve been awake the whole time, but I find I’m more of a night owl and don’t sleep much anyway.”
“Well I understand that, but I’m just surprised you stayed. You told me you were getting bored with the party and were about to go home at one point.”
“Ah, but I also mentioned that after your sister complained about you to me, my interest was increased.” Johnny says.

You pause because you almost can’t believe what he’s implying.

“Wait a minute. Are you saying you just stayed at the party through the night AND this morning just to meet me at some point? Just solely based on what my sister bitched about to you?”
“What can I say? You sounded interesting and after speaking with you I can see I wasn’t wrong.”

Johnny smiles and you smile with a nervous laugh. On one hand it’s a little stalkerish and combined with Johnny’s oddness, he’s starting to come off a lot creepier.

On the other hand, in a strange way you’re sort of flattered. You always did attract the weird ones Suzy.

“Wow…I’m not exactly sure what to say to that.” You say.
“No need to say anything. The pleasure of speaking with you is all mine. Oh but one more thing, did you want me to get rid of these useless sloths still sleeping in the living room before I leave?”
“Well, they’re probably just going to be here for tonight’s party, so might as well just leave ‘em I suppose. No need to trouble yourself.”
“Okay then, as I said, it was nice talking with you Suzy.”
“It was…interesting talking with you too Johnny.” You reply back and head towards your room as Johnny starts taking a couple of garbage bags to the kitchen.

What a strange person. Even stranger is that your self-esteem has been a little boosted by Johnny’s stalkerish behavior.

Before Johnny’s praising of you, in the back of your mind you were still a little upset about Bobby and starting to realize you were alone again. Not that you had any major problems with being alone and you’re certainly used to it, but it still was nice to have a boyfriend every now and then.

After Johnny going on about how most people suck and putting you on a minor pedestal you don’t feel as bad anymore about Bobby. Screw him right? He’s the one missing out.

You enter your room and lock your door fully content on tuning out the rest of the world like you always do. You go back to fucking around on the Internet, playing games and when the mood strikes you, getting out your mechanical “boyfriend” who never disappoints you.

Hours pass…

Eventually the silence from outside your door becomes less silent. Looks like Julie’s party is getting started or at least getting louder.

You don’t really pay it too much mind as you pretty much managed to block it somewhat yesterday, but then you get a knock on the door.

“Julie?” you ask instinctively.
“Um, no it’s me.” A familiar voice answers.
“Johnny?” you say and then slowly get up to answer the door.

You open it up a little and see Johnny standing before you (Along with some party people passing by in the hallway).

“Hi again.” He says with a brief smile.

“What are you doing here? Did you even go home?” you ask.
“Oh yeah, I did, but just as I was finishing up in the kitchen, your friend Julie had come in to get some more booze. She mentioned that she appreciated my cleaning up and invited me back for tonight’s party. So I came back.”
“Really?”
“Well technically she also invited me to come join her and the couple up in her room, but I declined as you might aspect. Not an orgy guy.”
“Yeah, which is why I’m really wondering why you came back at all. I mean I have to live here, but this really isn’t your thing. You said as much earlier today.”
“I know what I said…but I also said…”
Johnny’s expression becomes… not quite flustered, not quite angry, but more like he’s having a hard time and you’ve just put him on the spot.

“(Sigh) Look. This is really difficult for me. I’m probably coming off like a creepy stalker and god knows you probably get a lot of guys hitting on you…but I like you. I know that sounds like third grade shit, but there it is. I really like you and I’d like to get to know you better. That’s why I came back tonight.”

Oddly that was honest enough to actually be kind of charming. Lot better than the “Show us your tits” pick up line that you’ve heard before.

Then again, Johnny is still pretty damn weird and much like how you didn’t want to lead on Julie; you don’t necessarily want to lead Johnny on either.
> You invite Johnny in
What the hell, you weren’t doing anything important with your time and you were thinking about making the first move yourself earlier today.

“Johnny, could you hold on one moment?” you ask.
“Um, okay.” He replies.

You close the door again and hastily clean up your room a bit just so you don’t have your underwear just lying around, let alone your vibrator. Feeling that your room and yourself are presentable, you open the door.

“Come on in Johnny.” You say.
“Wait, you’re inviting me into your room? Are you sure?” Johnny asks a bit surprised.
“Well if we’re going to get to know each other better to see if we’ve got potential, then I’d rather do it in here one on one rather than out there with drunks possibly butting into our conversation. Besides, if I leave this room, its very well possible people will wander in and have sex in it.”

Johnny chuckles a bit at your remark as he walks in.

“Well I suppose all that’s true, but…”

You make your first move by putting your arms around Johnny’s shoulders and kissing Johnny squarely on the lips. He’s really surprised. To be quite honest, you’re a little surprised at yourself as well since you aren’t usually the forward type, but maybe Julie’s party spirit has gotten a hold of you a little bit along with wanting to put more distance between yourself and any more lingering feelings you might have for Bobby.

Besides, you get the impression for all his praising and stalkerish behavior; Johnny would still be too shy to make the first move.

Johnny’s reaction says that your instinct about that was entirely correct.

He pulls away fairly quickly after you’re finished, he blushes a bit and then gives you a weird stare.

“What? I thought we were going to get to know each other.” You say.
“I…I don’t think I’m ready for this.” Johnny remarks and starts backing away.
“Wait, hold on. We weren’t going to have sex! We don’t even have to kiss anymore, I was just…”

Before you can even finish, Johnny’s already run out the door.

“Great, Suzy. Some seductress you are. (Sigh)” you say to yourself and close your door.

In any case, you go back to your laptop to help shut yourself out from the real world again. which wouldn’t be that bad, but Johnny just flat out running away from you doesn’t exactly put you in that great of a mood. You got dumped by a murderer and now you’ve run off a stalker. What does that say about you?

Oh well at least things with batteries don’t judge.

A couple hours later you get another knock on the door.

“Yes?” you ask.
“Suzy, it’s me Johnny. I need to talk.”

You’re not exactly sure if this is going to be a good idea, but you decide to at least hear him out.

“(Sigh) Hold on.” You say and get up to open the door. Johnny stands before you wearing a jacket and looking slightly more disheveled from the last time.

“Well? Are you coming in, I don’t feel like keeping the door open for all the partying assholes to peer into.” You ask.

Johnny enters the room and you shut the door and walk back to your sofa.

“Suzy, I just want to apologize. I’ve been thinking about this long and hard and I realize that I did the wrong thing.” Johnny says pacing back and forth, rubbing his hands through hair.
“Well, maybe I did come on a little strong. I suppose if the roles had been reversed I would’ve run away as well.”
“No, stop talking I need to get all this out. What I’m trying to say is that I obviously have wasted my time and that I shouldn’t have pursued you. I guess I just built you up in my head so much that I…dunno…I always do this…fuck! Shit! WHY!?!” Johnny says and hits himself in the head a couple times. He’s starting to worry you.

“Hey Johnny, you don’t need to…”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP WHORE!” Johnny screams and before you even can react he’s already run up and physically assaulted you. You try to scream out, but punches you your face and another tight grip around your throat prevent that from happening. The loud music from the party and indifference of the shallow partiers from any potential noise you could’ve made probably would’ve been lost to those two factors anyway.

When you’re nearly unconscious and so dazed that you can no longer fight back, Johnny ceases his punches and reaches for something inside his jacket.

“This is going to be quick, because even though you’re a whore like the rest…I still like you.” Johnny whispers. “I…really wish this could’ve worked out…you were so beautiful…”

Your last feeling is the blade of a sharp knife slitting your throat.