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go to his car, open the trunk, and take out the little painting. Out behind the house, Will can hear people in the pool. Will hasn't felt this peaceful in a long time. It's like that first slow part in a horror movie, before the bad thing happens. Will knows that sometimes you shouldn't try to anticipate the bad thing. Sometimes you are supposed to just listen to swimmers fooling around in a pool. People you can't see. The night and the moon and the girl in the dress. Will stands on the lawn for a while, holding the painting, wishing that Becka was here with him. Or Mike.
     
    Will takes the painting back upstairs and into the master bedroom. He turns the lights off and wakes Carly up. She's been crying in her sleep. "Here it is," he says.
    "Will?" Carly says. "You turned off the light. Is it the ocean? It looks like the ocean. I can't really see anything."
    "Sure you can," Will says. "There's moonlight."
    "I only have one contact lens in," Carly says.
    Will stands on the bed and lifts the painting of the garden off its picture hook. How can a painting of some flowers be so heavy? He leans it against the bed and hangs up the painting from the car. Iceberg, zombie, a bunch of trees. Some obscured and unknowable thing. How are you supposed to tell what it is? It makes him want to die, sometimes. "There you go," he says. "It's yours."
    "It's beautiful," Carly says. Will thinks maybe she's crying again. She says, "Will? Will you just lie down with me? For a little while?"
     
    Sometimes Soap has this dream. He isn't sure whether it's a prison dream or a dream about art or a dream about zombies. Maybe it isn't about any of those things. He dreams that he's in a dark room. Sometimes it's an enormous room, very long and narrow. Sometimes there are people in it, leaning silently up against the walls. He can only figure out if there are people or how big the room is when he stretches out his arms and walks forward. He has no idea what they're doing in the room with him. He has no idea what he's supposed to do, either. Sometimes it's a very small room. It's dark. It's dark.
     
    "Hey, kid. Hey, Leo. Wake up, Leo. We gotta go." Soap is lying on the floor beside the bed, holding up the dust ruffle. He has to whisper. Carly is asleep on the too-big bed, under the covers.
    Leo uncurls. He wriggles forward, towards Will. Then he wiggles back again, away from Will. He's maybe six or seven years old. "Who are you?" Leo says. "Where's Carly?"
    "Carly sent me to get you, Leo," Soap says. "You have to be very, very quiet and do exactly what I say. There are zombies in the house. There are brain-eating zombies in the house. We have to get to a safe place. We have to go get Carly. She needs us." Leo stretches out his hand. Soap takes it and pulls him out from under the bed. He picks Leo up. Leo holds on to Will tightly. He doesn't weigh a lot, but he's so warm. Little kids have fast metabolisms.
    "The zombies are chasing Carly?" Leo says.
    "That's right," Soap says. "We have to go save her."
    "Can I bring my robot?" Leo says.
    "I've already put your robot in the car," Will says. "And your dinosaur T-shirt and your basketball."
    "Are you Wolverine?" Leo says.
    "That's right," Wolverine says. "I'm Wolverine. Let's get out of here."
    Leo says, "Can I see your claws?"
    "Not now," Wolverine says.
    "I have to go to the bathroom before we go," Leo says.
    "Okay," Wolverine says. "That's a great idea. I'm proud of you for telling me that."
     
    Some things that you could try with zombies, but which won't work:
     
    Panic.
    Don't panic. Remain calm.
    Call the police.
    Take them out to dinner. Get them drunk.
    Ask them to come back later.
    Ignore them.
    Take them home.
    Tell them jokes. Play board games with them.
    Tell them you love them.
    Rescue them.
     
    Wolverine and Leo have a backpack. They put a box of Cheerios and some bananas and Leo and Carly's parents' gun and a Game Boy and some batteries and a Ziploc bag full of twenty-dollar bills from the