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it’s like a party out there.”
    “We’ll wait a bit longer and then go upstairs. Maybe we can make a run for it through the front yard.”
    • • •
    A half hour later, the spider had eaten all the bugs in its web and Grant was growing impatient. Every so often, something moved upstairs.
    “I think enough time has passed. Can we go up now?”
    Ian looked through the basement’s small windows. Outside, the sun was setting. “Yeah, we can’t wait any longer.”
    The boys climbed the short set of stairs that led to the first floor of the house. They listened at the door. A soft dragging noise moved by on the other side.
    “Should we check the kitchen for some food while we’re here?” Grant asked, but his tone suggested it was merely to ask. He didn’t want to stick around in a house of potentially swarming with zombies.
    “Where’s the front door from here?” Ian asked, ignoring Grant’s question and answering it at the same time.
    Grant closed his eyes and tried to remember the layout of the house. “Turn left and take the first right.”
    “I can’t do it,” Ian said. “I’m too scared to open the door.”
    Grant reached for the knob and threw the door open into the hallway. “Run!” he whispered.
    Ian held his hands out in front of him, hoping they wouldn’t touch anything unfriendly. The front door was open and the yard beyond it, clear.
    “Into the first house without blood on it!” Grant yelled. “I’m right behind you.”
    • • •
    This one was the only option.
    “A place I never would have had to choose, except that…”

 
     
     
     
    …I LET DOWN MY GUARD
    Before the debacle in the neighborhood, Ian and Grant had plenty of food in their packs, but they stopped at a high school for Ian to quickly retie his shoes. Movement out of the corner of Grant’s eye made them stay a moment longer.
    “Whoa,” Grant said. There, on the athletic field, three girls jogged around the track like it wasn’t the end of the world. The boys watched their toned bodies move and their happy ponytails—and other things—bounce up and down. “We can’t leave yet.”
    One of the girls noticed the boys. She pointed him out to her friends.
    “Hey,” one of them said breathlessly after running from the far end of the field. The other two came up beside her, equally winded.
    “Um, hi?” Ian said, confused. It was such a normal, casual greeting. None of them were even armed.
    “I’m Nikki, this is Elyse,” the first girl said pointing to the brunette to her left, “and this is Cathleen. Like, who are you guys?” She flipped her hair.
    Grant and Ian hated the valley girl type. It was a disappointment and Grant immediately changed his attitude. “Like, I’m Grant,” he said, flipping long imaginary locks, mocking Nikki’s mannerisms.
    All three girls rolled their eyes. Nikki began to turn away from them and made to grab her friends’ arms. Grant might not have cared, but Ian didn’t want them to leave yet.
    “That’s a really good idea, staying in shape in case you have to fight,” Ian said, trying to appeal to their egos. “You look like you would win.”
    “We aren’t going to fight,” Elyse scoffed. “We have to stay in shape or we won’t fit in our uniforms.” She bent at her waist and reached her hands to the ground in a stretch.
    “Yeah,” Cathleen chimed in. “Five pounds gained and it’s muffin top central in my skirt.”
    “Wait, you were cheerleaders?” Grant asked. “Like ‘rah rah’ and all that?”
    “We are still cheerleaders,” Nikki corrected him. “And when school starts up again, so will the games.”
    “And we’ll be ready!” Elyse said with so much joy on her face that it made Ian want to cry.
    “School isn’t going to start again,” he said. “You should be thinking about the future. How are you going to survive?”
    “We’re doing fine, thank you!” Nikki spat before stomping toward a door on the side of the school.
    The trio of girls