â€œCan I take the LSAT?â€<br/><br/>â€œNo.â€<br/><br/>Rainie buckled the last buckle on her heavy black rubber and leather boots. Rain still showered from the sky, now black, and the siblings didnâ€™t know how much they could take. Sure, they were clean, the rain allowing them pseudo-showers to wash themselves and clean their clothes. Theyâ€™d collected water and boiled and stored it in old bleach containers and milk cartons every day religiously for weeks.<br/><br/>Rainie stood straight, and reached for her windbreaker. Adrian was cursing and muttering, replacing the LSAT in the gun cabinet. Grudgingly, he grabbed the MG4 instead and clipped half a dozen magazines to his ammo belt. His hair was still a mess, sticking in all directions, and he pushed it back with his hand. He stuck one of the Smith & Wessonâ€™s in his belt along with a trench knife and clips for the S & W as well.<br/><br/>Their dog sat by the door, its cool blue eyes following the two of them as they moved about the apartment. They were going on a night raid, the most logical. The rain was also a helpful factor; it would mask their scent and drown out their footsteps. Kai watched Rainie zip up her jacket and go to the weapons cabinet. She selected her USAS-12 Daewoo and a trench knife, strapping the Daewoo across her back and sliding the knife next to her prized 94A1. Adrian went into the hall, then came back as Rainie was securing her hair in a long red braid with their packs. Rainie slung the empty pack on one shoulder, so she could still get to the Daewoo quickly should she need it. The excess strap on the other strap hung down, and had one of those three pronged plastic clips on the end. She clipped it to her belt loop on her left side to secure it without the other strap getting in the way. Kai watched as Adrian did the same.<br/><br/>Rainie made a quick run through the apartment. The drywall had cracked away on most of the walls, leaving wood and insulation bare. There was a window in each of the two bedrooms, both of them either boarded up or cardboarded and duct taped. There were wide cots piled with blankets in each room, not a distinguishing feature in either of them. There was a bathroom that was useless, but they stored blankets and water there. The counter was chipped and the mirror cracked, and the shower curtain had long since been torn off, the rings still dangling from the aluminum bar. The grout in the tile shower/bath had turned green and scum stained it in long drips. Pumps no longer worked, and most pipes had burst from pressure.<br/><br/>She returned to the main room to find Adrian testing the safeties on his guns. The main room was just as dingy as the rest of the place. There was a threadbare couch that had seen far better days. In the sixties, likely. A rickety chair. An old table. Candles and kerosene lanterns served as light. The kitchen was directly across from the front door, just a counter, a sink, and cupboards. There was a place for a refrigerator, but it had been pitched long ago. In its place was a dresser where they put any crap that didnâ€™t have a place. The nook where a washer and dryer or a pantry would have been had been gutted for their steel gun cabinets.<br/><br/>It was crap. But it was a place to stay. And it was a helluva lot better than most conditions. Rainie knew there were survivors out there. Sheâ€™d contacted a group a month ago, to check in. But, in total, she had personally met only 4. The first was when she and Adrian had lived in her old apartment. They were good friends, and did raids together. For a while he had crashed at her place. Adrian and him had been on good terms, and always had each otherâ€™s backs. But heâ€™d gotten bitten, and in those last minutes of consciousness, he told her the address to his own apartment. And he asked her to kill him.<br/><br/>Then there was a pair of men who came by and asked if sheâ€™d wanted to join their group of a dozen or so survivors. Their group lived in whatever shelter they could find, often emptying out libraries or hospitals to stay for a few days. They said they could use their abilities and their supplies would be a great contribution. Rainie had politely declined, but promised to keep in touch.<br/><br/>Then there was a woman. Just a middle aged woman in a tattered blue dress, wrinkles lining her frantic face and light brown hair in a knot at the nape of her neck. She stumbled to their door one night, hysteric and unresponsive. The two of them brought her in, and tended to her, trying to make sense of what she was babbling. What Rainie had gathered had been along the lines of she was surviving with her daughter and a man named Jason. But then she saw her husband, now an animated rotting corpse. Then her youngest son. Also infected. Sheâ€™d gone insane. She frequently asked them to kill her, or mistook them for Infected. Finally, Adrian claimed that the womanâ€™s screaming was going to draw the Infected to them. Agreeing, she let Adrian guide the woman outside as she babbled and cried. Rainie wondered frequently if she should have been the one to shoot her, so he wouldnâ€™t be left with that memory.<br/><br/>â€œYou ready?â€<br/><br/>Rainie jerked herself out of her reverie, looked up at Adrian. He was standing by the door, his MG4 slung over his shoulder in a similar manner as Rainie had hers. He had a plastic trash bag wrapped around it to keep it dry. She realized he had grown. For the longest time they had been on the same level, but she hadnâ€™t noticed how much heâ€™d shot up. He was a good four inches taller than her. She was shocked she hadnâ€™t noticed.<br/><br/>She nodded and joined him at the door. Kai was still waiting there, and he stood when she came over. She bent down to look the dog in the eye. â€œGuard.â€ She commanded. Kai looked disappointed. He huffed and walked over to the middle of the room, and sat down. He stared at them as they disengaged the locks, then slipped out the door.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>â€œDo zombies eat other zombies?â€<br/><br/>Rain drenched the siblings, slicking the roads inky black. Rainie remembered when there would be swirling oil rainbows in the rainwater, but it was long since gone. She and Adrian were crouched behind a car while Rainie siphoned out the fuel still inside.<br/><br/>Adrian turned and looked at her incredulously. â€œWhy would they eat each other?â€ He asked under his breath. His voice was almost drowned out by the sound of the downpour.<br/><br/>Rainie shrugged, watching the fuel stream into the bleach container they were lucky enough to come across. It was more than half full now. â€œWell, after the Evac, youâ€™d think theyâ€™d be running low on locals.â€ She said logically.<br/><br/>Adrian considered it for a moment, but still looked puzzled. â€œI donâ€™t know. Can zombies starve?â€<br/><br/>Rainie shrugged, flashing him a look. â€œHow should I know? Arenâ€™t you the video game guy?â€<br/><br/>The sound of gunfire sliced through the air. Rainie and Adrian both looked to the east, both silent for a minute. â€œHm. What do you think? Check it out?â€ Rainie asked her brother while watching the fuel drip through the siphoning tube.<br/><br/>But Adrian didnâ€™t answer. He was staring over her shoulder, at something behind her. His eyes werenâ€™t wide, he wasnâ€™t surprised, neither was he afraid. But the look on his face told her it was not good. She turned quickly, and immediately spied the shadow in the opening of an alleyway. Its arms were hung limply as if they were a great burden, and its head was thrown back, staring at the sky as rain pelted its disfigured face.<br/><br/>She froze, breath leaving her in an instant. If it heard her, it would attack. The low dribbling of the gas suddenly heightened into drips. Adrian was ramrod stiff behind her, silent as a shadow. The fuel stopped dripping, ceasing to flow completely. Neither of them moved. Rain continued to soak them, running down their faces and clicking against their jackets. Rainie began to fear that the sound of the rain hitting their windbreakers would give them away.<br/><br/>But suddenly, there was a siren. Loud. Familiar. For one wild second, Rainie thought she would see a police cruiser zip down Liberty Avenue as it had daily before the Infection. The wailing was far away, more than 20 blocks south. Rainieâ€™s eyes scanned the area, and found at least a half dozen Infected being drawn to the commotion. The one that had lingered by the alley eventually disappeared as well.<br/><br/>The explosion was loud, drowning out the sound of rain. There was something odd accompanying it. Like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. Or an animal dying.<br/><br/>With a gasp, Rainie stood. She could see the fire, the smoke was rising not that far away.<br/><br/>Adrian let out a low whistle. â€œIs it just me, or did someone just blow away a horde of â€˜fecteds?â€ He wondered aloud.<br/><br/>Without warning, she took off, running down the street. Her eyes were narrowed against the rain smacking her skin wetly, and her mouth was drawn into a tense line. Behind her, Adrian cursed and scrambled to cap their fuel container and shove it in his backpack. He hated it when she got like this. Something had caught her attention and struck her as odd, and she wanted to uncover what it was. She couldnâ€™t ignore something and move on. It was odd behavior for a New Yorker.<br/><br/>Cursing to himself, he scrambled to his feet and dashed after her, carelessly splashing up sprays of rain water. It wasnâ€™t until he finally spotted Rainieâ€™s black windbreaker when he slowed down, and started moving more carefully. He caught up to her and glared down at her red head.<span style="font-style: italic">Stupid girl,</span>he wanted to say. But he wouldnâ€™t.<br/><br/>Rainie was readying to peer around a corner. Adrian realized she had been running the entire time with her Beretta in her hands, clear headed as ever. He wished heâ€™d thought of that. Carefully, she peeked around the brick building. Adrian did the same, only not exactly as sneakily. What they saw was mind boggling.<br/><br/>It appeared to be a gas station, or at least it had been one at one time. The place was in flames now, and Rainie watched with a baffled expression as more than two dozen Infected burned and wailed high pitched shrieks. They fell to the pavement one by one, dying. Behind her, Adrian hissed a breath through his teeth. â€œDamn.â€ He said.<br/><br/>Rainie slinked into an alley lined with rotted garbage and â€“ ugh â€“ a few bodies. She was confident that any zombies from nearby had been drawn to the police siren, but some may come after the sound of the explosion. Adrian followed her as she picked her way through the muck and garbage. Hastily, she stepped over an almost-gone body of a man, his face mercifully covered by shadows and garbage. They hurried through the alley, and popped out a few blocks away from the wreckage. Rainie pulled out her old torch and clicked it on. It was a beauty of a Maglite, long and heavy with the ability to knock a man unconscious with a tap of the end of it. A gift from her father. The only issue was it ran on batteries, which were hard to come by. She used it only when absolutely necessary, and hadnâ€™t actually used it in four months.<br/><br/>Rainie signaled from Adrian to go check out the wreckage, and he slipped through the shadows and went to observe the damage. Rainie had a feeling, one of the feelings she got when something was about to happen. Not the kind that meant an Infected horde was on their trail, but something different entirely. She began to glide along the sidewalk, the Maglite pointed at the ground as she searched for something. Anything out of the ordinary. The rain had extinguished the fire, and the sound of it hitting her windbreaker was beginning to give her a head ache. Absently, she began to hum the tune of<span style="font-style: italic">â€œLondon Bridge is Falling Downâ€</span>as she picked her way around the area. She passed a grocery store, a cafÃ©, a bookstore, a CD/DVD shop.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">crash</span><br/><br/>Rainie whirled, bringing her gun up as she directed the light toward the sound, her humming breaking off abruptly. An Infected had knocked over a trash can. She fired off a round, getting it right in the head. It grunted, then it went down, falling in an arch to the pavement where it landed with a thud. Rainie clicked off her light, backing toward a building. She pressed her back against it and searched for a hiding place. Infected were drawn to gun fire. She and Adrian would have to hide. It was likely Adrian would be heading towards her that very moment.<br/><br/>She took a calming breath and resumed her humming.