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Bright colors covered the screen and a rainbow of rays spurt out from the TV. I was in the kitchen, making myself a zebra sandwich with goose jelly until I heard the commercial on, but it was only five seconds later that I was plopped on the couch, my eyes glued to the brand new television my dad had bought the family last week. I was OBSSESSED with Easy Cleaner’sTM cleaning products and I have been waiting for months on end for their latest item. “Mom, come look! Easy Cleaner’sTM have come up with a new product!” I shouted. A tall, skinny woman, with stick-like crane legs stumbled into the living room and crossed her arms after her eyes darted over at the TV screen. My eyes glanced over at hers and then at the TV, so I could see what the commercial was all about. “You’ve all been waiting, and here it finally is!” A man with a springy voice let out. “The brand new Easy-fix! Have you ever had a worn down item? Perhaps one that’s lost its original shape or form due to natural causes? Well, no worries! Easy-Fix will solve it!” A hand showed up on the screen with a green bottle that had “Easy-Fix” in big and bold letters, pointed at a busted tire. The man then sprayed the tire a couple of times and it instantly gained back its original form and even looked rejuvenated, as if it was brand new!My eyes widen and I gasped, looking at mom only to see an unamused expression on her face. “Oh, my gosh! Mom! We have to get it! I perked up with excitement. Mom scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Honey, I don’t think that’s the best thing to buy right now. It’s a waste of money, and I really don’t see anything useful about it.” My jaw dropped and I gasped in feigned horror. “B-but, mom! How could you say that!?” I grabbed the TV remote and pressed a green button and the screen evaporated, all the lights and rays emitting from it just vanishing out of thin air. “Mom, it’s 4018, ALL the cool kids will be buying it! Please, mom! I swear I won’t ask for anything else!” I looked at her with begging eyes, on my knees. She sighed and groaned. “Fine, sure, you can get it.” Her voice was flat. I gasped with happiness and stood up, cheering with excitement and jumped up happily, squealing like a little girl. “Oh, my god, oh, my god! Thanks, mom!” Her arms fell to her sides and she rolled her eyes, walking away. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, just don’t make me regret it.” She mumbled.I skipped passed the sidewalk merrily with glee; you would almost think I’m gay. I hummed and even squealed a little. “F-fuck! I can’t believe this is actually happening! I’m going to get me some of that good kush!” I laughed. I was still raving on about it in my head like a little girl until I actually heard what sounded like one, squeal somewhere close to my direction. I furrowed my brows and my head turned sharply to where the voice came from, my eyes squinting to sharpen my eyesight towards an alleyway where a group of tall, scrawny guys were picking on a girl, much taller than them. You could tell they were dickheads, and the girl was obviously too shy and afraid to fight back, even tough she was, like, a foot taller them and could TOTALLY beat their asses.I finally grew the balls to puff out my chest to look tougher than I already was and shout, “Hey! How ‘bout you skanky whores pick on someone your own size!” The duo of boys, well, more like a threesome, turned their heads quickly after harassing the girl one more time and sneered as they locked eyes with me and started laughing. One even wheezed. I kind of wanted to laugh, too. First, because this was ridiculous, and I was probably going to get my ass beat, and second, because, well, people laughing kinda makes me want to laugh as well, even if it’s at me. So, I hid my laugh, and barked, “You fuckers gonna man up and take on a REAL fighter, or are your tight, little pussies into that type a thing, picking on ones weaker than you?” I scoffed, kind of smiling with pride on how I handled that with my remark. They growled and started inching up on me and I could feel my torso shrinking as I let out a little whimper. All of a sudden, I felt weak and empty inside and muttered under my breath, kind of with a squeak in my voice, “Oh, fuck…” One of the boys pushed me into a wall and I laughed sheepishly. “H-hey, w-we don’t have to play r-rough, do we? We could just have a nice…little chat.” The boy laughed at me and just before he was about to speak, I lunged forward and punched the sucker in the jaw. He grabbed his jaw and he looked at me with darkness in my eyes, the kind I see in my dad’s when he wants to kill me when I want to do/did something bad. My knuckles hurt but I still had that fighting type of fire in me, which didn’t last long because the boy I punched gritted his teeth and growled with a locked jaw, “Pin that fucker down.” The other two boys grabbed my arms and slammed my back against the hard and cold concrete wall. I winced and even whimpered a little. There was obviously nothing else to do, so I might as well have enjoyed my pain by using my words against them. I smiled up at the boy in the middle, the “leader” of the pack. “Hah. Say, you know I can see a lil’ boner down there right, Mr. Alphy? Does seeing me like this turn you on? Get you off? Or are you just a sadistic S.O.B?” I snarled the last part with gritted teeth as I wriggled around a little, trying to break free from my captors. He blushed and looked down, realizing he wasn’t even hard until I said so. “God, let him go, guys, we’re done here. The two followers glanced at their leader with a smirk and snickered a little as they let me go, and gave me one last threat before they slowly left the alleyway, looking at me one last time. I breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed my scrawny arms with both hands. They had claw mark in them and felt a little sore, even. I turned my sight to the girl, down on the ground, her knees curled to her face, and weeping a little. I frowned and walked towards her slowly, holding out my hand and bending down a little. “H-hey…you need some help?” She whimpered a little as I reached my hand out and her body was shaking lightly and she nodded, “Y-yes…that’d be nice.” She said with a slight smile at the corner of her mouth. I smiled back as she grabbed my hand and grunted as I puller her up. My eyes widened a little as I looked up at her and realized how much taller than me. She was about a whopping two feet taller than me. I was only 5’4, so…Yeah, I’m a pretty short boy for a 15 year old. I still couldn’t believe she was about SEVEN feet tall! I sighed lightly and perked up a little, remembering what I was doing before I almost got the shit beaten outta me, if it weren’t for my cheeky and sly self. “O-oh! Um, I was just about to head somewhere, to get something! You wanna come?” She furrowed her brow and tilted her head with curiosity, and you could hear it in her soft, velvety voice. “W-well, what were you out to get?” She asked. I batted my eyelashes and held in a random burp so I didn’t seem impolite/embarrass myself, “Mm, well, it’s this new product that’s come out from my favorite cleaning brand, Easy Cleaner’sTM. (Yeah, I know, sounds nerdy) I laughed. “Oh, well I got nothing to do. Let’s go!” She cheered with a happy expression on her face. I smiled as I could only picture a very high-pitched anime girl when she said that and walked with her. She held my hand and locker her fingers around mine. I smiled, and did the same, smiling uncontrollably. I would’ve been blushing like a strawberry, but my face only smiles when embarrassed.

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There were loud screams and shrieks everywhere, and there I was, flames and death all around me. Chaos was in every corner and all I could think of as I panicked was, “Why the fuck does Easy-fix exist?” I grimaced and winced in horror as I saw a creature, with a human-like structure, but he wasn’t human, no, not at all…he was a possessed motherfucker, consumed by one death-engraved product: fucking Easy-FixTM. The man under the creature was yelling and pleading for help as the ugly beast toppled over him, trying to rip his fucking face off. My bottom lip quivered and I whined as I tried to find something to kill the bitch, looking around frantically until I found a blowtorch. I gasped and my eyes lit up with determination and I grabbed it. Fire was the only thing that could kill an Easy-Fix creature, since they were composed mainly of a deadly, highly toxic and easily spreadable virus/disease. Just simple skin contact could easily infect you. It was kind of like a spore, or a parasite. One touch, and you were toast, unless you got in a heated room, and detoxified yourself. So, I gripped the blowtorch firmly, stopping myself from my hand shaking and let out a focused, deep breath and pressed. The blowtorch lit up with a stream of hot, blazing fire. I could feel the heat on my face as I burned the nasty fucker’s face to ash, and it fell on the man’s chest. He let out a sigh of relief and brushed the dead creature’s last remnants off his chest and stood up, looking down at me. “Whew, thanks, kid. You’re a real brave motherfucker.” I exhaled sharply with a chuckle and looked down, my voice shaky, “H-Heh, y-yeah…” I looked up at him, my voice stern now. “Look, you need to get cleaned up, the virus is probably all over you, you need to get yourself up in a hot place and detoxify.” He nodded and ran off, presumably his home. I looked all around me and pursed my lips at the burning houses and the disease killing everyone around me and sighed, knowing all too well it was too much for me to handle and holstered my new blowtorch, and walked back to my supported, and well defended bunker; home. I blew a heavy sigh as I plopped myself on my beaten up couch. “Ugh.” I thought to myself as my eyes analyzed all the holes and filthy spots collecting and festering up on my couch. I blew another exasperated sigh and sunk deep in the cushions. “But it’s so comfy.” I hummed happily. I finally sat up and groaned, resting my chin in the palm of my hand, trying to think on what to do next until a light bulb lit up in my head. “Ooh! I know.” I said aloud, even though no one was here. It was just my couch, my weapon stash, and I. Parents were off on a supply run, burning up green slops and taking names. A part of me wondered if they were okay, and a bunch of questions fluttered all around inside my head. I tried not to think about it and stepped into the garage, opened up the trunk of our black, luminous car and shelves upon shelves of compartments filled with all sorts of fire-type weapons were revealed. A sadistic grin spread across my face. “Ooh~” I cooed. I planted my fingers on the side of my face and they reminisced the light, but sharp and short grains of hair on my cheeks. “Hmm…what to combine, what to combine?” I bit my lip, deep in thought as my eyes slowly moved each weapon and I perked up as an idea sparked. I chuckled evilly as I picked up the hip fire flamethrower in one hand and some shrapnel grenades in the other. “This is gonna be great” I cackled. I curled my lips as I slid the grenades down the shaft of the flamethrower and said in a very light voice, almost a whisper, “Careful, careful…” They clinked and clanked as they reached the bottom and I smiled, exhaling sharply and walked over to the door, looking at all the mess of an apocalypse outside. “Time to lay some heat.” My shaky hand gripped the cold knob and I took a deep breath in and out before forcing my hand to tighten up, the knob already warm to my touch and turned it slowly, finally opening up the door swiftly. “Hey, meat bags! White meat over here! Come and get some, bitches!” Three of those green, nasty and pathetic excuses for monsters turned their heads with a snarl and grunted as their sight finally reached me. I let out a huff and aimed my new master-weapon at them and pulled the trigger. It clicked. I furrowed my brow and bit my lip. “F-fuck…fuck, fuck, no!” I pulled the trigger again and again, it just kept clicking until I finally heard a wheezing sound. I tilted my head out of curiosity and stretched my neck forward a little. “Huh?...” and that’s when the wheezing grew louder and a loud banging sound came from the shaft and a fiery explosion of shrapnel burst through it, the flaming metal pieces dispersing and digging into the nasty creatures’ flesh. Their skin boiled and popped, and they let out some inhumane screeches before exploding to ash. I grinned down at the flamethrower. “Mm…what should I call you, baby? Fuck, how ‘bout…’Veronica’?” I chuckled. “Heh, yeah, Veronica it is. Mm, I love you already so much.” I glided my finger down the barrel and pulled it away quickly, wincing. “Ow! Ooh, fuck…baby’s still hot.” I couldn’t help but smile and sigh lightly, then, I turned my back and headed back inside, shaking my head at the mess I left outside.I placed Veronica propped up against the arm of the couch and my eyes focused more on the one walking in from the kitchen. “Mm, hey, baby.” I chirped. My girlfriend smiled and pulled me in close to her and looked down at me. I groaned and scoffed as I looked up at her radiant face, my eyes darting over her natural blonde hair. “Ugh, you know I don’t LIKE when you do that!” I glared up at her. She smiled cheekily and leaned in, nuzzling my nose. “Mm, do what, baby boo?” I smiled, embarrassed and flustered, chuckling sheepily and averting my gaze from her. “Th-that!” I stuttered. “When you get all…I dunno…dominant. And you know it doesn’t help that you’re much taller than me…” Jessica chuckled and caressed my cheek, leaning her head forward and whispered in my ear, “Hey…baby…look at me.” I couldn’t help but shiver and grin, looking up at her. She cupped her hands around my jaw and wrapped her lips around my bottom one. My eyes fluttered closed and I hummed lightly in her mouth, letting out a lustful breath and kissed her back for a little before pulling away reluctantly and looked up at her with starry eyes. “B-babe…we can’t do this now. We got…stuff to do.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes playfully. “Ugh, naw, you just don’t like it when I take the lead~” I groaned and gritted my teeth, my hands turning into fists and I gripped her hips instead. “N-no!? I-I just…ugh, forget about it!” I scoffed and pulled away from her. I know I lost the conversation so I just rolled my eyes and turned around, walking towards the kitchen door to get something to eat. She giggled and covered her mouth. I let out a deep breath, but smiled. I was so lucky to have Jessica. We were lucky to have each other. To think we had only met in an alleyway. It’s been about a year since the virus and…I’m still surprised we still have each other.Sparkles roamed out from the kitchen table and came to greet me with a brush up against my legs. “Aww.” I couldn’t help but feel my heart melt every time this cute, little S.O.B. came around the corner. I bent down and lifted Sparkles off her feet. I scoffed and shook my head. “I still don’t see why you had to name ‘er ‘Sparkles’. Jessica giggled as she walked in the kitchen, behind my and wrapped her arms around my waist and pecked me on the side of my neck with a smile. “Well, that’s just because her eyes are so wide and the light just make them…sparkle.” She giggled again. I groaned, shaking my head. Jess bit her lip lightly and whispered in my ear, “Well…if you don’t like it so much…how ‘bout you change it?” My breath shuddered and I inhaled sharply after a shiver ran down my spine. I ignored her and put Sparkles down, pursing my lips. “Mmh, nah, I’m good.” I just didn’t want to get into that right now, I know it would’ve led to some pillow talk with bae, but I was too deprived from food to ruffle around with her in the sheets.I grinned as I opened the fridge and looked over my shoulder, at Jessie. “Heh, hey, you see what I did to those ghouls out there?” She smiled and shook her head, crossing her arms, curious. “No? What’d you do to ‘em?” I hummed happily, since she asked. “I, um, got the flamethrower, from dad’s trunk? And, I, uh, heh, I also got some shrapnel bombs. Mixed them together, and you got le lethal shrapnel bomb-fire-thingy. I, um, dunno what to call it, exactly, so I named her Veronica.” I looked back into the fridge and bent over to open some drawers. Jessica furrowed her brow and cocked her head to the side. “Hm, ‘Veronica’ huh? She dulled. I smiled cheekily and chuckled a little. “Heh, yeah? You got a problem with that? Ooh! Are you…jealous~?” She stood up straight as I pulled out some star fruit and blurted out, “what?! I-I’m not ‘jealous’?!” I laughed as I stood up and placed one of the two stars on the counter and tapped my foot on the floor as I looked up at her. Oh, really? Haha, okay, babes, you keep telling yourself that.” She growled and stormed off to our room. I rolled my eyes and scoffed, letting out a little mutter, “I was just kidding…” I let out a light sigh and took a guilty bite out of my star fruit, throwing it away carelessly and walked in the bedroom, only to see bae, sitting on the other side of the bed, her head down and her arms propped up, with her hands on her face. I frowned and pursed my lips. “Aww, baby. You can’t do that.” I said as I crawled on the bed on my knees, my back up straight and my arms curling around her. “D-do what?” She choked up and sniffled. I nuzzled the side of her neck and kissed it lightly, looking up at her and whispered lightly in her ear, “Act all sad like that… you can’t be like that around me. It makes me sad, too.” Jessica sighed lightly and sniffled once more, wiping the light streams of tears from her perfect cheeks and looked down at me as I started placing kisses all over the side and back of her neck. She giggled, “S-stop~ What’re you doing~?” I smiled and chuckled, kissing behind her ear now and said lightly, “Just making up, sweetheart.” My voice was became more of a whisper now, “You don’t have to do anything…just sit back and enjoy the ride.”I furrowed my brow in my sleep and hummed lightly, tossing and turning. I bit my lip, “Mm, no, please, please!” I muttered. Jessica turned over on her side, now awakened and looked at me with furled eyebrows and nudged me. “Babe. Babe, are you okay?” I gasped and flinched, my eyes wide open and let out an exasperated sigh, looking her in the eyes, myself calming down just at the sight of her, and my voice light, “Y-yeah. It’s just…the same old nightmare, you know?” She frowned and caressed my cheek, resting her hand on my jaw and nodded. “Yeah. The one with how all this started?” I exhaled sharply and nodded, my voice low, “Yeah…just, all the people, that…god forsaken product, and all the destruction it’s caused… how it all spread.” I sighed lightly and my gaze averted from my girlfriend’s eyes, down to the sheets between us. She frowned and plucked my chin up, making me look at her and sighed lightly and leaned in closer to my face, nuzzling my nose a bit. “Hey…everything’s going to be alright, okay? As long as you have me, as long as I have you, as long as we have each other, everything will be fine.” I couldn’t help but smile. Jessica always knew what to say to me. And that’s exactly what I told her, before we both drifted off back to sleep again.

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Droplets of water flickered on my sleeping face. I furrowed my brow and squirmed around, my sleepy eyes opening up just a slit, sensitive to the light and I groaned, my voice groggy and cracked. “Ugh, what the hell?” I woke up to see my dad smiling down at me, cheekily, with a spray bottle in his hand, and his other hand on his hip. I pursed my lips and groaned again. Looking over at my sweetheart, resting her head on my shoulder, still asleep as my dad walked out the room. “Hey…hey. Babe. Wake up.” I nudged Jessica and she moaned a little, her beautiful angel eyes fluttering open and smiled at the sight of me. I smiled back. “Heh, hey, there, sleepyhead? You ready for just another day of this shit-show?” She giggled and nodded, sitting up and looking down at me, her finger plucking my chin up. “As long as it’s with you, I’m always up for it, sugar. I chuckled and shook my head, sitting up and placed my hand on her jaw, and my lips on hers, loving up on her top lip sweetly. She hummed in my mouth a little, her eyes fluttering closed and I sighed lightly as I pulled away. She moaned exasperatedly and looked down at me with a furrowed brow and whine, “Aw, babe, why?” I frowned and tilted my head to side, whispering, “We’ve got work to do,” my voice rose back to its usual tone, “You know that, sweetheart, huh? I looked at her expectantly. She sighed and whined again, her voice filled with breath, “Yeah…I know.” She looked down. I tried to smile, even though it pained me to see her sad and grabbed her hand, helping ourselves off the bed and looked up at her, standing on my toes, still smiling. “C’mon, babe…let’s get to it. She chuckled lightly as I leaned up more and pecked her on the lips.My dad sighed lightly and looked down at all of us, my mom on my left side, and Jessica on my right. It was a perfect, family sandwich, with me in the middle. “All right, you two,” My dad pointed at Jessica and I. “You two are gonna sweep the pus-bags off from the front porch, or lure them away at least-“ I cut him off with a scoff and groan. “Ugh, why do we have to do all that shit?” I whined. “I mean…” Dad gave me a stern look and raised his voice just a little, loud enough to scare the both of us, meaning my girlfriend and I. “Me and your mom have been out all day, yesterday, and I haven’t heard of you doing anything important, so, yeah, I’d say you DO ‘have to do it.” He scolded me. I snarled and rolled my eyes. “Ugh, yeah, sure, whatever. I let out a forceful sigh and swung my head to Jessie and spoke with my breath. “Ahh, welp, you heard the man…let’s work.” My girlfriend glared at my attitude and shook her head. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” She mooned her arm and grabbed the blowtorch propped up against the couch and my arm swooped to grab Veronica and a small smile had twitched the corner of my lips a little.I kicked open the door, which was very dramatic and unnecessary, but it seemed right, so I did so, and a small swarm of meat heads turned theirs with a snarl, growling at our direction and started limping over to us. There were still a few that hadn’t had their attention towards us. I huffed out a breath of air and fired some shotgun shells into the air. “Hey! It’s Abbot and Costello here! We’re just out here to make a few laughs out of you piss-poor mucks!” I turned my head with a sneer on my face, looking at Jessica. She scoffed and shook her head. “You’re crazy.” I chuckled lightly and caressed her cheek with my thumb and stood up to her, saying in her ear lightly, “Oh, come on, baby…that’s why you love me.” She couldn’t help but smile because it was true. I turned my attention back towards the crowd and couldn’t help but notice one was reaching one of their arms to grab me. “Heheh, woah, there, grabby hands, you gotta pay some to feel some.” I laughed at the innuendoes sentence I made up while pulling the trigger of Veronica and a loud blast came out, incinerating the goop-head in front of me and two other around “him.” The rest, which was about four more, growled and hissed at us, picking up speed in their legs a little. My eyebrows rose a little, glancing over at Jessica. Um, hey, you might wanna pick up the pace in that little trigger of yours, sweetheart.” I laughed nervously. She nodded as she loaded the last of her munitions into her glock. It was nice and gold, sparkly and to be honest, you could definitely see a gay guy carrying that around, but I liked it. Mostly for the gold shimmer it had. I chuckled lightly and shook my head as she clicked the mag in and smirked. “An order of dead ugly mugs, coming right up.” Gosh, I couldn’t help but spring a boner at how sexy she looked when she went all out on the undead mob, and god, that sexy, British accent of her was just such a turn-on for me. If there weren’t a god, I’d sure as hell worship her.Jessie turned her head and blew the smoke away from the golden barrel as the “deadies” plopped to the ground, their heads shot to ash and just an empty space left where their heads were. She looked at me, and then glanced down at my pants, then back up at me, and chuckled. “Well, aren’t you excited, huh?” I stood up straight and chuckled, a bit nervously and shifted weights, nodding a little. “Heh, well, um, yep…only when I see my baby girl kicking ass. Now, um, let’s get back inside.” I changed the subject. She laughed and went in before me. “Sure thing, chuckles.” I shook my head at her as I passed her up through the door and closed it behind her.My mom and dad looked down at the both of us. I could tell by the tiny smiles on their faces that they were proud of us, and I couldn’t help but smile back and sigh deeply with content. “Well…I think that’s it for today.” My dad let out. “It wasn’t much, but you two, got the job done. Excellent work.” He finished. I chuckled lightly and cocked my head to the side. “Hah, well…it wouldn’t have been easier without my little bundle of sunshine over there.” I looked over at Jessica with lust in my eyes.She giggled and grabbed my hand, yanking me to the bedroom. “Woah-ho-ho! Easy there, ‘little’ one. Ya don’t wanna rip my arm off, do ya?” I laughed. She giggled again and my parents whooped with excitement before the door closed and Jessie locked it behind us. I scoffed and shook my head at them, even though they couldn’t see it. I was only 16 and I was going to have sex with the love of my life like it was regular. But, hey, it’s the apocalypse…what’re you gonna do?Jessica pushed me on the bed harshly and I gasped a little, biting my lip lightly. I let out a harsh breath of air and looked up at her with lust-filled eyes, and my voice low, almost like a growl, “Gosh, you aren’t taking the lead again, are you? Heh, when am I going to get a turn, huh?” I chuckled. She had her hands around me wrists, nails also sunk deep in my veins. “Mm~” I winced. It was a bit painful, bit I also enjoyed it, a lot. She leaned in slowly and whispered past my ear, “Hm, maybe when ever you grow the balls to take back the lead yourself, huh, big stuff?” She leaned back and stared down at me with a smirk. I laughed and leaned up a little, both of our chests pressing against each other. “Well…if that’s what it takes.” I said in her face. I let out a growl and a bit of a grunt before clasping the back of her hands with my fingertips, sinking my nails into them until I felt her bones and smiled down at her, now that I was at the top, and she was at the bottom. “Hm…it’s nice to have a little change in scenery every once in a while, eh? What d’ya say, darling? She chuckled and nodded, her voice so light, almost like a whisper, “Uh-huh…mm, it’s always good to see you get all dominant on a six-footer…” I smiled at that thought: dominating somebody like, almost two feet taller than me. “Mm-hmm…” I nodded and leaned in, kissing and sucking on her neck. Jessica concealed a small moan in her mouth, her voice vibrating against my lips from her skin and I smiled a little, giggling against her neck. I started to bite and nibble, and tear and pull at her neck some, licking all the light and dark hickeys I placed all over her neck, the bite marks, too. She started to squirm and writhe a little bit from under me. I chuckled. I knew she was already soaking wet from under me, dying to have me inside her, so that’s what I gave her. We both worked each other out, each others’ hips grinding back against each other in a perfect, simultaneous motion. It wasn’t long before we were driven hard to erupt all over each other, but we were in too much heat to stop at one. We finished each other off at least more than three times before we grew tired and had each other huffing and puffin, each on their own side of the bed. We both let out a sigh of relief and glanced at the blinds of the window. The sun was setting and it must’ve been about only and hour or thirty minutes before the luminous, shimmering sky turned into a dark, oil-like color of night. We both looked at each other and sighed contently. I placed my hand on Jessica’s jaw and rubbed her cheek with my thumb, my voice light, “Thanks, boo…sleep good.” She smiled and nodded, kissing me behind the ear, lightly, and said past it, “Yeah, you, too, hon.” I smiled as well and spooned closely behind her, my arms wrapped around her waist, and my knees curled up behind her legs, nuzzling into the crook of her neck and we both closed our eyes. I hummed lightly and began to slowly drift off to sleep.

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An eerie, loud and ear-piercing shriek woke me up, the tiredness in my eyes vanishing immediately as I let out a gasp. My chest jolted forward and I looked over at Jess, who was just as awake was me, and I sprinted downstairs, after tearing the bed sheets off my legs and feet. The screams and shrieks continued as my girlfriend and I made it to my parents’ room. Dad must’ve been out somewhere, and a ghoul had it’s arms stretched out over mom, thrashing ferociously at her face. We both stared in terror as we were already too late, that nasty beast digging it’s dark and atrocious nails at my mom’s neck and face. I finally snapped out of it and gritted my teeth, grabbing the flamethrower propped up against the wall beside me and aimed carefully before lighting up the mongrel up in flames.My breath was heavy as I ran over to mom, blood gushing out of her neck and drooling out of her thrashed cheek. I placed my hand on her neck, shaking, and tears sliding down my cheeks and dripping on the floor, on my knees. I exhaled shakily and rubbed my thumb across her perfect cheek, her dark blood all over my hands and said, “It’s okay, mom. You’re gonna be ok.” I choked up and sniffled, trying to stay strong, because I knew what happened next. She was going to have to die, by one of us…that, or turn into one of them; those horrible beasts that we exterminate every single other day, as if it was normal. It practically was, but I never had to kill someone I loved, or put them out of their misery.I wiped the tears off of my face with the clean, backsides of my hands, and mom inhaled a raspy breath before clenching onto the collar on my shirt and whispered out weakly, “Be careful, son…protect your dad. He can be a little wound up, sometimes, but…you have to lead him through this world. Because, without me, he’ll still be human…but he will become one of those things out there.” I nodded as the tears filled up my eyes again, unable to control them as they rolled down my cold cheeks and hit the carpet with light thumps. “M-mom. Please…please don’t go.” I cried out, my voice shaky and choked up. Her eyes rolled back and her fingers loosened up around my collar before finally letting go slowly, her back reuniting with the carpet as she drew her last breath. She was dead. Those dirty monsters had somehow got to my mom, and I could do nothing else but feel a dark hole of hatred inside me and I stood up slowly, sniffling from the snot in my nose and sighed heavily. I pursed my lips and grimaced as I walked pass Jessie. “Hey, where you going?” Her voice shook, wiping the tears off her face with my arm before sniffling. I didn’t answer her and stared at the massive crack poking out from inside the corner of the house, from inside their bedroom. “That’s where that bitch must’ve came inside from, huh?” I growled and walked into the living room and grabbed Veronica, exhaling harshly. I was just about to walk outside the door before Jessie latched onto my arm. “Hey-“ I pushed her back forcefully before she could finish and let out a puff of air, before slamming the door shut behind me. The ghouls didn’t seem to notice me, since they were apparently busy ripping off the flesh from the other people around me. I lifted the barrel up in the air and pulled the trigger. A blast went off and pieces of flaming hot shrapnel burst into the air, with a hint of flame tracing them. The hideous monsters each shot a look at me, some with flesh in their nasty, raw mouths. Their gums were black, and teeth merely decaying right out their mouths. “Fresh white meat right here, you sons of bitches!” They all started to hobble up on their feet, some with flesh already torn off their legs, the bones visible, some who were bloated, or either had their deteriorated and extensively long guts hanging out from their bellies. I growled and propped my hand up under the barrel, supporting Veronica before I slowly pulled the trigger with the finger to my other hand, and flame took it’s course over the cursed part of humanity. They screeched and wailed out as they either disintegrate or blew up into flames. I merely just chuckled sadistically as they extinguished from our front lawn and sighed as I blew off not even half of my steam. I hung my head and walked towards the house slowly, placing my hand on the warm knob and turned it sluggishly, my arm kind of limping. I looked up to see my girlfriend looking right back up at me and gasped before grabbing onto my shoulder and harshly pushing me away. A confused expression ran across my face before I heard a loud gunshot from her pistol and an arrow of fire blew from the barrel and into a limping ghoul right from behind where I was. It dropped to the ground and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks for the ‘warning.’” I snapped a glare at her. Jessie scoffed and crossed her arms. “A ‘thank you’ would be nice!” She barked. I pursed my lips and sighed lightly. “Ok, I’m sorry. Thanks for the save, I guess…” I mumbled. “Look, we need to see about mom right now, okay? That’s the main priority. Before dad gets home.” I stood up and looked at her, feeling pretty small. She sighed lightly and nodded. “Yeah. That’d be best.” She nodded and stood next to me. “Ok. Great. Glad to see we’re on the same page, sunshine.”My girlfriend and I walked back in to my parent’s room, where we saw the already decaying body, stinking up the room. I exhaled harshly in disgust and covered up my nose with the palm of my hand. “God. This isn’t how your lights were supposed to go out, mom.” I sighed and turned my head over to Jessie. “C’mon, Jess, we gotta…burn her. Before she turns.” She frowned and stood on the other side of the body, grabbing the ankles and I lifted her up at the same time, by her arms. My eyes glanced over at the purple veins and green and blue skin bubbles forming on her arms, legs and face. I let out a shuddered breath and just after we had walked passed the door, we heard the knob turning. “Shit!” I stuttered and looked around frantically. “It’s dad!” I whispered. “Well, no shit, Sherlock!” She whispered back. I scoffed and watched as the door opened slowly and my dad walked in only to stare at us as we stared back at him. He froze in his place and dropped his shotgun. “Now, dad, I know this-“ his yelling interrupted me before I could finish. “What the hell happened to my wife!?” I gasped as Both, Jess and I flinched. I stuttered in panic and Jessie helped me. “A-a ghoul broke in! A-and, w-well, sir, it…got to her.” Dad breathed in deeply and heavily. I knew he was trying to keep his calm until he finally pounded his fist into the wall. A loud echo pierced through the walls of the house and I leaned forward over to Jessie and whispered, “Yeah, um, you go and keep him occupied, while I go and…do what needs to be done.” She nodded and told dad to take a seat while she sat down. I sighed as I walked out the back door and immediately heard shouting from my dad coming form inside. I pursed my lip and grunted as I struggled to hold mom up in both arms. I walked into the shed and put mom down on the cold, hard wooden floor. I kept my tears in behind my eyelids and said shakily, “I’m sorry, mom. I’m so sorry.” I sniffled and heard the shouting from inside stopped. Part of me wondered if something bad had happened or if Jessie had worked her magic. I gulped as I opened the toolbox and my eyes were laid upon several different types of frag grenades, ranging from shrapnel, incendiary, explosive, and toxic. I sighed lightly. “Incendiary.” I murmured. I took out the incendiary grenade, hesitating before pulling the pin and closed the door behind me before sprinting over to a shelf of concrete, tears rolling down my cheeks and breathing shakily before a loud hissing sound went off before the shed ignited into flames. I sat there, back against the cold concrete wall for a few seconds before walking back into the house, slowly. I saw dad sitting on the couch, his face sunk deep in his palms and Jessie on the sofa, her legs crossed and her eyes looking up at me. I looked back at her with watery eyes and sniffled before sitting down next to her and burying my face in my knees, bursting out into a sob. She wrapped her warm arm around me and pulled me closer to her side as she whispered shakily into my ear, “it’s going to be alright, sweetheart. It’s going to be alright.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

So we were packing our bags, since the house had sustained too much damage to be considered a “zombie fort,” and, well, our emergency shed had practically blew up. It basically gad all of our necessities in order to hold out against the zombie horde, i.e. incendiary grenades, a wide variety of explosives, flares, (to attract/lure zombies in other directions) lethal hand-to-hand combat weapons, and of course, long-distance weapons like, flamethrowers, shotguns (with incendiary shells) etcetera, etcetera. My dad shot a look at me and told me to “grab that duct tape,” even though Jessie was close. “But dad-“ He shot a glare at me with clenched teeth and barked, “I said, grab that duct tape for me!” I flinched at the loudness of his voice and sighed, reaching over on my side and stretched my arm out to clench the roll of duct tape sitting by Jessie’s thigh. She looked at me from the corner of her eyes and turned her head the other way. I sniffled and sat back on my knees, handing the tape over to him. He grimaced and grunted before averting his gazer away from me and stuffing it into the suitcase. I sighed again and murmured, “A ‘thank you’ would be nice.” I pursed my lips and snatched up my belongings, including Veronica, a couple of hand grenades, my etched combat knife, and a picture of mom I had. I looked at my reflection staring back at me into the shine of my blade and then over at the picture of my mom. She just had this lovely smile, like – like she was an angel. I remember that day perfectly, almost as if it was yesterday. I wish it were that day. I reminisced at my mom’s shiny smile, and her perfect teeth, and just the everything that she had that was gone forever to us, except our memories, of course. I sighed heavily and slowly reached my arm into my bag, only to place the picture and my knife down inside it lightly. I turned my head to see that everyone else, Jessie, and my dad, were packed and ready to go. So, I zipped up my suitcase, lifted it up on its wheels by the leather handle on top, and stood up on my feet. Dad looked down on both Jessie and I and nodded. “Well, I guess it’s time to go, then.” His voice was low, and hardly audible to the human ear. My girlfriend and I both pursed our lips before we got a steady grip on our suitcases and walked out the door after dad, a pistol filled with incendiary bullets holstered in each of our sides. The strong musk of the dead had filled the air, and our noses. It was only a few years ago that that same smell would have made us cringe instinctively. It was horrible, and atrocious. Even after getting used to it still wasn’t enough, the dead was an obvious smell, and you could easily sense it from a mile away. It wasn’t long, of course, before a hoard of five goons had decided to hobble our way. I inhaled deeply, not petrified, but ready, and already alert. My hand reached for my pistol and I took aim, held my breath, and released the trigger, putting a bullet between the eyes of three monsters. They snarled and growled before they hit the ground, but the other two had already closed up on me. One tackled me to the ground and my eyes widened, gasping sharply. Jessie gasped and covered her mouth, petrified at the scene, while my dad just watched. Jessie finally snapped out of it and took out the one zombie closing up on her and finally took aim to the one toppled over me. I hand my palms and fingers trying to keep it’s nails from tearing away at me flesh, and my head turned to avoid it’s thrashing teeth, it’s black goo drooling down on my neck and I cringed. The trigger was pulled and the brute plopped on my chest, my face shrinking and I pushed the lifeless husk off of me, wiping my sleeve over my neck. “Ew…” The disgust was written all over my voice. I stood up and was only hardly able to smile at bae for a “Thank you,” and a glare at my dad for nearly just letting me die. “Oh, shut up, ya big wuss, you two already had it. I snarled at my dad and shook my dead, sighing heavily.We carried on through an alleyway, already deep in thought, almost zoned out as my feet slowly walked behind Jessie and dad. I thought, “What’s wrong with my dad? Like, what the actual fuck? I almost died, and he just WATCHED.” My thoughts were interrupted by an eerie wail and my head shot up. The three of us darted to the end of the alleyway, with the wheels of our suitcases rolling hard on the ground. We saw a two-story house up ahead, the white paint chipping and the pillars supporting the second story nearly broken apart. It obviously needed some serious repairing. But that was the least of our matters; a ghoul was attacking a man on his porch and Jessie had pulled out her glock, took aim and missed a few times. I scoffed and shook my head before pulling out my pistol and took a shot clean through the side of the attacker’s head and out the other side. It dropped down and the man was still in shock, his palms on the ground, behind him, supporting him, and his knees in the air, legs trembling. I looked at Jessie and smirked. “You’re such a lousy shot, babe.” She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Whatever, dude, there’s a guy over there, idiot.” I chuckled, “Right, right, let’s go help him out.”We scurried over to the porch and darted up the three stairs. Dad had already helped him up to his feet and the man was still trying to catch his breath. He was huffing and puffing some heavy breaths, and his face was pale. He was still petrified from the encounter and he took a seat on the chair resting against the wall of his house. He looked up at us, his eyes wide and his voice shaky, “Th-thank you all. That was a nice save.” He took in a few more heavy breaths before seeming to have caught himself. He stood up and held his hand out to dad. “The names Shane. This is my house, and, uh, my wife’s on a supply run, but she’ll be back to greet you all, I assure you.” He said with a smile. Dad put his hand out and gave the man a strong handshake before saying, “John. The name’s John.” He let go of the man’s hand and looked at me. “That’s my son, Celest,” and then he looked at Jess, “And that’s his girlfriend, Jessie. She’s like family.” The man smiled again before I shook his hand, and then Jess. “It’s a real pleasure, Mr. Shawn, and we’re always happy to help.” I looked all over at the outside of his house. “If you need any help, sir.” I looked back at Shawn and smiled warmly at him just to assure him of any doubts he may have of us. The man chuckled and opened his door out to us. “Well, the truth is, we might need a couple pairs of hands around here. We’re kinda short, and you know how it is in this world…it’s kinda hard to get by just by yourself. We all nodded and walked in the house. Shane walked into the kitchen and opened up a cabinet and looked back at us. “Y’all old enough to drink?” He smiled. Jess and I chuckled. “Does it really matter in this world? I blurted. My dad glared at me and my eyes widened a bit before looking down, embarrassed. Jessie smirked and I nudged her in the arm hard, with my elbow. “Ow!” she whimpered, rubbing her arm. I chuckled. The man laughed heartily at my remark and tilted his head to the side. “Well, I suppose you’re right, young man.” He poured whiskey into four small glasses halfway, the bottom of each cup having an indention at bottom, and a rhombus-like design engraved in the inside of the glass. He handed out glasses to each of us and I furrowed my brow as I sniffed the fluid inside the cup. It’s occurred to me that I’ve never actually drank alcohol before. I chuckled at the realization and took a tiny sip out of it, before my face made a grimace. The man looked at me and laughed. “Ugh. Why does it taste so…awful?” I whined. Shane chuckled. “Well, the drink isn’t made to taste pretty, it’s made for something else.” Dad replied. I nodded. “Ah. Well, I think I got that pretty clearly now. Jessie smiled and took a gulp out of her cup. Dad shook his cup a little, making the orange, translucent drink whirl around a little in a circle before he sighed lightly and took a gulp out of the cup, and exhaled. “So, when is your wife, uhh-“ Dad didn’t exactly know the name of Shane’s wife, as did Jess and I. “Mary. Her name is Mary.” Shane chimed in. “Right. Yeah.” Dad said. “When is Mary going to arrive from her-“ A knock was heard from the door. Shane smiled and his eyebrows flickered up once. “Oh, I do so love perfect timing.” Shane chuckled. The man stood up and walked to the door before opening it up to his wife. She smiled back at him and gave him a peck on the cheek, her hands to full to hug him, and walked into the family room, where we all were.She looked a bit surprised to see us and dropped her bags, only to draw her pistol at us and hollered, “Babe? Who the hell are these people? All three of our hands raised above our heads and I murmured in Jess’s ear, “Wow. ‘These people,’ she said.” My girlfriend tried to hold in a snicker, even though we were basically being held at gunpoint, but that was practically the story of our lives for these past few years, so it was kind of normal to us. Shane rushed in and covered the top of her pistol with his hand, lowering it down to her front. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, honey. Y-you don’t have to worry, baby,” Shane chuckled. “These people saved me, actually, a little while back, and so I thought they could stay with us for awhile. His wife let out a huff of air and holstered her gun slowly. She then exhaled lightly and looked over at her husband. “Well, hon, if you trust ‘em, then so do I.” We all smiled and blew a sigh of relief before sitting back a bit tensely and drinking from our cups. Mary grabbed her bags from the floor and set them on the table in front of us, laying out some ammunition, food supplies, and a couple more items, including a few pistols, and some…candy? I chuckled at the candy and smiled at Jess. Mary had caught a glimpse at me and smiled. “Oh, you two can have some if you want?” I shook my head and laughed. “Oh-ho, no. Sorry, ma’am, we aren’t really much into candy anymore.” She nodded and understood and went on to placing the items she gather from her supply run into special compartments around the kitchen. I looked up at Shane. “Uh, not to be rude, or anything, but, uh-“ I finally said. “Where are we going to be…staying, exactly?” My voice was filled with question and curiosity. “Oh, um, hm. That’s a good question, actually.” He turned his head and looked down a hallway centered in the middle of the house. “Well, on the left we have a, uh, guest room. And then, on the right, we have two kids’ rooms.” The man looked down and sighed lightly. “Those, uh, two rooms…were once my kids’ roomed. Until, well…they, uh, passed away. The room filled with an awkward silence, almost louder than anything until we all said in unison, “We’re sorry for your loss.” Shane looked up and forced a smile, his voice hint shaky, “Heh, n-no worries. No need to get all riled up about the past and all that.” I looked up at him and frowned. “Well, we, um, kinda lost our mom pretty recently…” Shane’s wife sat down in-between Jess and I and wrapped her arms around the both of us, frowning, and her voice filled with sympathy, “Aww, well, that must suck, you know? Losing someone at such an early age is just such a dark time for everyone.” I sighed and looked down. “Yeah, well, I’d rather not talk about it.” My voice was low. I stood up and looked Jessie. “Hey, um, let’s get settled in, shall we? I stared at her for reassurance and she nodded with a slight smile. I smiled back and nodded, stretching my arm out and grabbed the handle to my suitcase, tilting it behind me and let the wheels roll as I dragged it to my new room, as Jessie followed from behind me into the same room.I set the brown, leathery suitcase up against the wall and looked back at my girlfriend. “A-aren’t you going to stay in the other room? I mean, you know, more space ‘n all that.” She chuckled and shook her head. “No, babe. I wanna be in the same room as you. As long as I’m with you, that’s all that matters.” I chuckled. “Hah, you’re so cheesy, babe.” I let out a laugh and hugged her. She nuzzled my neck, bending down a little to reach my short height, and sniffled a little. I hummed happily and whispered in her ear, “I’m so happy to be with you…what would I do without you, huh?” She smiled and leaned her head back to look at me, her eyes gleaming and her pretty lips just leaving my heart flutter. “You’d die without me, sugar.” She laughed. I laughed with her and shook my head. “Oh, yeah, sure~” I said, my voice filled with sarcasm.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I began to unpack my bags, a strong, and surprisingly weird lavender smell filled the air. I furrowed my brow and sniffed the air strongly. “What the hell?” I turned around only to see Jess walking towards me seductively, her legs and feet moving past each other confidently towards me and I looked up at her, my knees on the carpet and my hands slowly backing out from the suitcase. She tackled me to the floor harshly and giggled, kissing all over my neck and I laughed nervously. The strong smell of her lavender perfume and the kisses she was covering my neck with was quickly getting me aroused and I bit my lip as I felt a strong sensation in my pants: A rock-hard boner. “Mmph.” I grabbed onto her waist and leaned up, whispering in her ear, “What is that wonderful, fluorescent scent coming from, huh?” Her lips parted from my neck and she straddled my hips, stretching her arms out and resting her palms on my chest, the corner of her mouth spread out from ear to ear with a grin. “Hm. You know that wonderful lady, Mrs. Mary?” Her voice sprang out with an odd mixture of seductiveness and question. “Um, yeah? What about her?” I questioned. She chuckled and leaned in to whisper past my ear, “Yeah, well…we was kind enough to lend me a variety of perfumes and make-ups…” She chuckled again and used her normal voice. “Mm. Something to do with, ‘impressing’ a certain someone?” She smirked and I laughed, pushing her away. “She did not!” I declared. “You probably stole some, didn’t you?” She scoffed and rolled her eyes with a cheeky smile. “I did not!” she lied, then paused for a few very long seconds. “Ok, well, I did, but what’s wrong with wanting to impress the love of your life, huh!?” I chuckled and shook my head, making my way to my feet. “Babe, I really have to unpack. Now’s not really the time to be getting it on in a married couple’s dead son’s bedroom!” I looked at her with a smirk on my face. “But~…there will be some punishment for stealing.” She gasped and covered her mouth before showing it again and grinning. “Ooh~ Kinky much, huh?” I nodded and smiled widely. “Uh-huh. Yup. Now, like I said, I’ve got some unpacking to do. She perked up from the floor and pinched her bra strap up to her shoulder again; since that was the only thing she was wearing, besides short shorts and a tank top. “Here, lemme help you with that, sugar!” She cheered. I smiled as she helped me unpack my leather suitcase. Meanwhile, dad was in the guest room, unpacking his bag, setting up his long-range weapons up on the shelf above, and his short-range weapons (pistols, knives, etc.) down on the carpet, up against the wall. He closed the closet doors shut, slowly, and inhaled deeply before going back to his suitcase and folding his clothes to put into the dresses against the wall, next to the closed door. His bag was nearly empty before he saw a picture of his wife, Samantha. He frowned and his eyes quickly filled up with tears. “I’m so sorry, Samantha. I shouldn’t have left you all alone that night.” His teeth clenched with anger and regret, his knuckles turning white from the fists he made. “It was so STUPID of me!” His fist pounded the floor and a loud thud emanated from his room. He blew a harsh sigh past his lips and hung his head down, on his knees. He finally looked back up, tears flowing down the stubble on his cheeks, and dripping off his chiseled chin, onto the carpet, making a light tapping sound. “I’m so sorry…Samantha.” He whispered, before placing the picture into a pocket on one of his shirts and wiping the tears from his face, sniffling and letting out a deep breath. He opened up his door to see everyone having breakfast at a dinner table of four. There were five chairs, the last one empty, ready for it to be filled, by him. Everyone looked at him, smiling, and invited him over. “Hey, why don’t you come over here and have some breakfast, John? We got Zebra toast and star dust?” Shane chirped. John’s gaze moved over to Shane and gave him eye contact. John pursed his lips and shook his head slowly. “Naw, I’m good.” His voice was low as he slumped over to the refrigerator and pressed a green button. The door evaporated and he eyeballed all the drinks inside until he spotted a bottle of whiskey. His eyes lit up and the reflection of the bottle and the light inside the refrigerator gleamed off his eyeballs and his arm stretched out to reach the bottle, and he grabbed it loosely in his hand before looking to the side and saw everyone’s attention focused on eating. He didn’t even have to hide the bottle as he walked outside and chugged down most of the half-empty bottle down. John was half drunk by the time a few goons decided to show up. He grunted and hobbled a few steps as he pulled out his holstered pistol. “Eh.” He took aim, his blurry vision and swaying. A few bangs went off as he merely wasted half the clip before taking out one out of the two ghouls. “Heh. I still got it.” His voice slurred. John raised the hand with the bottle of whiskey in it and let out a drunken yell as he threw it at the hobbling monster, and the glass shattered all over it’s bloated belly. Shards of broken glass had popped open the zombie’s stomach and a pool of black ooze had spilled out, along with its guts. The goon moaned and wheezed as he still continued to move towards John, stepping over her own guts, a light sloshing sound coming from the intestines. John took aim once again and fired the rest of his clip into the deteriorated monster, except this time, he missed all six shot. John grunted and threw his pistol at the ghoul’s face and it’s jaw dislocated. As the zombie continued to hobble over to him, John just walked back to the house, almost collapsing as he walked in and caught his balance by merely grabbing onto the wall.Everyone turned their heads to look at a drunken John after just finishing up with their breakfast and all threw a look of concern at him. “Uhh, John? A-are you okay?” Shane asked. John shot a look at him and barked, “Who are you to ask if I’m ‘okay?” My Eyes widened and I curled my lips as everybody sat there in an awkward silence while my drunken, ill-mannered dad stumbled into his room and I let out a long sigh after his door closed from behind him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Wake up, sleepy head.” A voice rang out as I opened my sleepy eyes only to see Jessica, straddled over my lap, a whip in her hands, and black lingerie covering up less than half of her body, whilst all the good parts were mostly showing. The sleep had washed away form my eyes almost instantly and I gasped, trying to move my hands. But that’s when I realized my hands were tied, literally, my feet, as well. After realizing there was no escape, and I had exhausted myself, I sighed and looked up at her. “This isn’t fair! I was only JOKING yesterday, okay?! Please let me go?...” I looked up at her with pleading eyes and a tiny squeak in my voice. She only chuckled and shook her head, leaning closer to my face and rubbed her thumb down my bottom lip. “Well, that’s the thing. Ya see, the thing is, it didn’t really sound like you were “joking,” exactly, so, I, um…” She smirked and produced a laugh from between her lips with a closed mouth and finally said, “Decided to take precaution.” I wiggled around some more in the restraints and moved my hips from under her before finally glaring up at her with gritted teeth and growled. “You’re gonna regret this!” I threatened her. She chuckled and shook her head. “Mm…maybe. But it’ll be worth it. She took out a small, sharp blade from behind her back and edged it towards my face. I inhaled sharply out of fear and exhaled shakily. I tilted my head and pressed my jaw into the knife and growled, “If you’re gonna cut me, then do it!” She smiled sadistically and dragged the slick part of the blade down my jaw, making a small incision as the cut released an easily visible line of my dark and red blood. “Oh…I intend to.” Her voice was a bit low and had a sort of a dark hint to it. My lip quivered as she lifted my shirt and placed cuts all over my sides and chest. My back arched up and I inhaled sharply, grunting in pain and moaning a little each time she inflicted that bitter sweet torture upon me. I seemed to be enjoying it and out of breath until she put the knife away and opened up a drawer next to the bed. I raised my eyebrows in curiosity as I watched her grab an unknown object from the drawer and turn around. I wiggled around a little, impatient and I asked with petulance, “M-mistress, what is it?” She exhaled lightly and smiled. I didn’t know what it was until I saw her connecting two black straps around her waist and my eyes widened, my heart stopping for a moment. I sank into the mattress after she turned around with a smirk and said as she grabbed a bottle of lube, her teeth biting her lip flirtatiously, “Mm~ You read to become my bitch, hon?” I gasped at her remark and nodded frantically, accepting my fate and told her what she wanted to hear. “M-mhm. Y-yes, Mistress.” I couldn’t keep my eyes off the thing she put on. “I’m ready.” I whispered after finally looking up at her. She chuckled and crawled onto the bed with her knees, spreading my legs open harshly and I whimpered.Jessica pulled out of me slowly, my chest gasping for air as I whimpered a little and my body lay on the bed, tense and shaking. Jessie smirked and rubbed the fake, black rubber cock against mine as she pressed her chest against mine. I scoffed and wriggled around from under her. “Ugh. Get that dirty thing off of me!” She smacked me across the face lightly and I flinched. “Mistress! I mean, Mistress.” She smiled and rubbed off of me and stood on the carpet. “Hm. Much better.” I lay there with my used up hole gaping and my body shaking. “C-can you please just…untie me? Please.” She looked at me with sympathy as she started to untie my wrists and ankles slowly. “Aww, does someone need a little aftercare?” She teased. I shot a look at her. “I don’t need any ‘aftercare’!” I barked at her and finally got off the bed after I was freed. I let out a harsh breath and looked away from her. “Oh don’t be such a wimp.” She nudged my shoulder. “It wasn’t that bad! I mean, after all, you do do that to me, like, almost half the time.” She let out defensively. I scoffed and glared at Jessie. “Well, that’s different!” She crossed her arms and squinted at me. “Oh, yeah? How? Huh? Go on.” I stuttered and looked down. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” Jessica pulled me in closer to her and I lightened up a little, leaning against her arm. “Just…go easier on me next time, okay? It’s not every day you get boned by your frickin’ seven foot girlfriend with a strap-on!” She chuckled and nodded. “Okay, okay, I get it, I get it. No need to be theatrical about it.” I scoffed and glared up at her. “Jerk.” I blurted. “Bitch.” She said. I sighed and smiled, shaking my head and murmured, “Your little bitch…” She chuckled and whispered, “That’s right.” I pulled up my pants and put a shirt on while Jessica put all her toys away and dressed regularly. I looked at her and smiled. “Hey, babe, I’m gonna, uh, talk to dad. He seems like he’s been kind of…out of it, lately.” She nodded in agreement and shrugged. “Yeah, you go do what you gotta do, hon. I smiled more and winked at her. “Love you, hon.” Jess winked right back, “Love you, too, baby.” I walked out the door and closed it behind me, spotting dad sitting at the breakfast table, just carving something into some bullets. I furrowed my brow and sat right next to him, my fingers locking with each other and my forearms resting on the table. I looked down as I twiddled my fingers around and finally looked up at him, my voice a little low. “Hey, um, can we…talk outside? Just for a little bit?” He didn’t say anything for a little bit as he continued o a bullet with a serrated knife and sighed lightly. He finally looked up at me, the light from the ceiling making a shadow over his eyes and he nodded. “Yeah, sure.” I nodded back and stood up. “Okay.” I said, before walking to the door and opening it for him. He walked out and headed towards the backyard. I followed him and we both sat on some rocking chairs. It’s amazing they still existed, considering how obsolete they were. John pulled out a cig and lit it before pulling it close to his lips and smoking from it. “So. What did you wanna talk about?” He said, blowing smoke from his mouth as he spoke. I exhaled deeply just as I had inhaled, catching a whiff of his smoke and cleared my throat lightly. I looked up at him and my face distorted out a little with my eyes and my mouth. “Look, um, I know it’s hard, with mom being…gone, and all that. And I know it’s harsh, man, like, she wasn’t the only person that was dearest to someone. She may have been your wife, but she was basically Jess and I’s mom. She took care of us when you were out on a hunt, or when you, or nobody else could teach and protect us. We all owed it to her. So, yeah, it’s hard…but, you know, we can’t just all lose it because we lost someone, even if she was the closest person to us. You want to know why? Because that’s what’s going to take us down. We just simply can’t survive this world with our minds all fogged up and our judgment clouded, you understand?” He nodded and exhaled deeply. “I understand.” John’s voice was low. He stood up, and so did I, then pat me on the back and walked back inside. I stood there for a few seconds and watched the cigarette burn out slowly on the ashtray. “Huh. Well, that was easy.” I smirked and walked back inside.I opened up the door to our room and a cold breeze hit me as I saw Jessica on her knees, crying, with the picture of mom in her hands. I sighed lightly and frowned with open arms as I walked towards her slowly and sat down next to her, wrapping my arms around her. I pressed my cheek against hers and nuzzled her face lovingly as she exhaled shakily and a tear dropped off her face. Her skin felt cold against me so I got up and yanked the blanket off the bed and walked back over to her, wrapping it around the two of us and whispered in her ear, “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be just fine. I promise.” She looked at me and I looked back at Jessica, her voice quivering. “H-how do you know? How can you be so sure?” I smiled lightly and used my regular voice. “Because as long as you’re with me, and we’re together, we can make it through all kinds of things, including everything. Got it?” She smiled and nodded, and I wiped the tears off of her blushing face with my thumbs. “You always know what to say, Celest.” Jessica murmured before burying her face into my chest and I held her in my arms tighter, exhaling deeply and scooting over to rest against the side of the bed.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Mary and Shane were huddled up together in their bed, whilst John decided to take the couch for some reason, and Jessica and I had fallen asleep against the side of the bed. The crickets outside were singing loudly, and the wind was howling, blowing and swaying the trees from side to side as the nearby ghouls could be heard moaning and dragging their feet across the paved roads. All seemed normal until nearly everything went quiet. The monsters from outside had gone quiet after a few slices and thuds were made. But, of course nobody had noticed, since they were fast asleep, with John snoring on the couch, and the door to Mary and Shane’s room closed. Only Jessie and I were light sleepers. I was drooling on my arm, dreaming of that time mom, Jessie and I had gone out to go picnicking at the park right outside Stone River Alley, until I heard some creaking going on around the house. My eyes snapped open and I wiped the drool off of my arm and mouth with my sleeve. It took me a few seconds to come to my sense and then I had finally nudged Jessie. Her head poked up from my chest and she rubbed her eyes. “Mm, babe, it’s too late right now.” She slurred. I shushed her to be quiet and then gestured toward the door. “No, no, wait…I think there’s someone here.” Her eyes widened with panic and she started to frantically look for her gun. I shook my head and handed it to her and helped both of us to our feet. “C’mon, we need to wake everyone else up.” I whispered. She nodded and whispered back, “Yeah.” I sniffled and had walked ghostly through the dark hallway to Shane and Mary’s room with my gun aimed up at eye level, ready and prepared to shoot at anything, or anyone I didn’t recognize. The cold, wooden floorboards had creaked a little as I stepped closer to the door and opened it slowly. I checked to see if an intruder was there and finally walked towards their bed once I noticed it was clear. “Hey. Hey!” I whispered as I nudged Shane’s shoulder. He opened up his eyes slowly after groaning sleepily and flinched at the sight of me. I put my finger up to my lips. “Shh. I think there’s someone here.” Shane stared back at me with his mouth gaping and he nodded slowly before turning over on his other side and alerting his wife. So then all four of us has tiptoed towards the couch and tried nudging John awake. He just kept snorting like a pig so I tipped him off the couch and he landed with an abruptive thud. We all flinched in surprise and I could feel everyone glaring at me, even though I could hardly see their faces and I chuckled nervously in a whisper. John sat up and immediately pulled out his gun and I scurried over to him and covered his mouth, almost tripping on Sparkles. She meowed and I rolled my eyes, scoffing. Dad was already saying something muffled into my hand so I leaned in and whispered, “I think there’s someone around the house.” He immediately went quiet and stood up slowly. I walked towards the front window slowly and lifted on of the blinds up, just enough to see a crack. I saw two people moving in towards the front door from the left and the same from the right. I looked back and whispered what I saw and told Jessie to check the back. She nodded and scurried over to the back window and reported the same. We all huddled together and formed out a plan. We all silenced our pistols and carried a bowie knife for each person; one short-range weapon in one hand, and one hand-to-hand combat weapon in the other. Everyone took their positions, me being placed right next to the front door, Dad behind it, Jessica crouching from behind the coffee table in front of the back table for cover, Mary behind the back door, and Shane hiding behind the couch near the side of the house, for backup.The knob to the front made a few clicking sounds and after a long second, it started turning slowly. Then, the door opened up with a prolonged creak. I held my breath as two readied arms stuck past the doorway slowly, a gun held in both hands until the rest of the person was showed. He gasped as I tore him closer to me by his arm and held him in a headlock before slitting his throat and he made a few gagging sounds from behind his black mask. And that’s when Dad popped up from behind the door and shot the guy clean between the eyes before he could rush in to get me. There were still two guys approaching the front of the house and one had ran through and tackled John to the floor and made a thud. I shot him in the back with three silenced shots before his body went limp and rested on John. Dad grunted and looked over the shoulder on him. “Duck!” He shouted. I crouched quickly and dad took aim before landing two shots in the person’s chest and one in the head for insurance. His body plopped in my arms before I could let him fall to the floor and I let his corpse collapse on the floor quietly and I let out a sigh of relief. The four in the back were still edging towards the door before I looked up at Shane peeking his head from atop the couch and I gestured him to come with as I head out the front door. We both went opposite sides of the house and both met up with the two pairs of interlopers trying to break in. I covered the mouth of the one in front of me and sliced his throat, as Shane did with the baddie in front of him. The two in front of Shane and I were too far ahead, though, to take down, so we let Mary and Jess take them down. The door opened slowly, but quieter than the front door, and Mary tackled the front person to the floor before stabbing him in the neck, blood splattering all over her face like ketchup over fries, and that’s when the last of the eight decided to show. Jessica had rested her forearm on the coffee table, held her breath and fired four silenced shots into the eighth and last robber before his body made a thud to the ground.John closed the front door, and Mary, the back one, and everyone regrouped in the middle of the house. We all looked at each other in surprise and John shouted, “What the hell was that!?” He shoved Shane lightly. “Hey! I’m just as surprised as you, okay!?” Shane barked and huffed. We all looked at each other again and Shane walked into the kitchen. “Hey, how about we all have a drink before we go haywire, huh?” We all looked at each other, again, and murmured, “Eh, yeah, sure, why not?” in unison. Shane smiled and poured everyone a glass of bourbon. We all sighed and sat down, taking a sip from our cups, some taking gulps. John pulled the brim of the cup away from his lips. “Ahh. Well, we obviously have a huge house problem.” Shane and Mary furrowed their brows and we all looked at dad. “Well, what d’ya mean?” Shane asked. “I’m talking about physical appearance. Structural work.” John replied. Shane cocked his head to the right and scratched his chin. “Meaning?” Shane blinked a few times. John sighed deeply. “Meaning, there are obviously some improvements that need to be made to this house. The paint is chipping, the floorboards creek, hell, the columns look like they can barely even hold the second floor of this house.” John chuckled. We all laughed and Shane smiled. “Well, maybe you’re right, John.” Shane agreed.“I think that tomorrow would be a great day to start repairing this house,” John started. “Appearance is usually a great first impression, and, well, not to be rude or anything, Shane, but when your house looks like…this,” John continued. “Hah, well, I mean, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say this would be the perfect house to rob, or, of I were a monster, the perfect house to invade.” John chuckled. “Wow, um…you’re absolutely right, John.” Shane laughed, and then we all did. Everyone took a their last sip of bourbon form their cup and stood up to put their cups in the sink, then everyone walked back to bed and shut their door after the bodies were disposed of. I sighed deeply as I lay down on the cold sheets of the bed and wrapped myself up in a blanket next to Jessie. She smiled at me and I smiled back, our pupils contracted and adjusted to the dark, enough to see each other’s faces. I leaned in and placed my hand on her jaw, kissing her top lip lightly, pulling on it a little with a suck from my lips and I pulled away from her as I heard her lout out a moan of pleasure. She whined and pushed herself up closer to my chest, looking down at me. “Why’d you stop?” I chuckled and booped her nose before whispering, “Because I can.” with a smirk on my face. She growled and nearly kneed me in the jewels and I flinched before shooting her a look. She giggled and closed her eyes. I scoffed and closed mine as well, and we both drifted off to sleep, holding each other in our arms, tightly. We had a labor-filled day, tomorrow, not to mention the ghouls we had to ward off from the house as we worked.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

A loud thud was heard from all in and outside the house and I woke up with a gasp and widened eyes. My chest instinctively pushed up and my back slumped, panting lightly until I caught my breath. The disturbance seemed to have woken up Jess ass well, since she was staring right back at me and we decided to take a step out the room, and investigate…after we got dressed, of course. I glanced over at Jessie struggling to lift her pants up, tugging it past her hips. I smiled and blew a wolf whistler over her way. She blushed and finally put a shirt on before pushing me against a wall lightly and ran out the door, shouting, “C’mon! Let’s go see what happened!” I chuckled and darted after her, grabbing Veronica, just in case we needed some protection. God, I love Veronica so much!I closed the door behind me, Jessica already ten feet away from me. “Hey, wait up!” I yelled. It wasn’t long until I saw her stop running in her tracks, frozen almost. I finally caught up to her, huffing and puffing, trying to catch my breath and I turned my head to smile at her. “Damn,” I stood there, still breathing heavily. “Those crane legs of yours sure can run like hell, huh?” I chuckled halfheartedly. Jessica didn’t move, or blink, or even blink, it seemed. I looked at her with a bit of concern and finally turned my head to see what she was staring at; a dark, huge crater had been engraved in the dirt. It must’ve spanned at least a grocery store in width and length. Now it wasn’t only my girlfriend that was staring in awe, but it was I, as well. I finally had the guts to snap out of my trance and investigate, snatching up Jessie’s hand in mine and yanking her with me as I trudged through the dark and black dirt. It almost seemed at it was burnt, like a meteor had struck the earth. Jessica yelped as I forced her to walk with me and finally let out with that condescending tone of hers and scoffed. “Ugh, y’know, I can walk by myself, if ya don’t mind.” I chuckled and let her hand go. “Okay, fine. Just as long as you don’t go acting all, ‘I see dead people,’ on me.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “That’s such an old movie.” I gasped at her remark and shot her a glare. “So? It’s a classic!” I whined. Jessica scoffed again. “Psh, so? It’s not like-“ I stretched my arm out behind me and stopped her dead in her tracks before she could finish. “Ugh, what? You don’t like me crapping on your ‘classics,’ or whatever?” I turned my head and shushed her.“No, look. I think we’ve finally reached the center of the disturbance…” I started to walk slowly to the center of the crater. “Ooh~ Ominous much.” Jessie mocked. I rolled my eyes and kept walking until we saw what it appeared to be a…man. I scratched the back of my head in confusion and leaned forward to get a better look. The person seemed to be about 5’4 in height, had dark brown hair, and was wearing a khaki-colored trench coat with black buttons draped down the extensively long edges of the coat, where it’s buttoned up. He also wore dark, black jeans, up to the ankle, and black, slick shoes. It was weird because, well, he…he looked exactly like me! I gasped and stumbled back a few steps, my eyes widened a little from surprise. “H-how can this be? Th-that’s not possible.” The me-imposter groaned weakly and opened his eyes slowly, squinting up at Jess and I. He hobbled up to his feet and started walking towards me slowly. I aimed Veronica up at him from my hip. “Whoa, there, cowboy. Don’t take one step closer.” This doppelganger of mine didn’t seem to notice the fully loaded weapon in my hand and just grunted as his stomach touched the end of the barrel and his face got closer to mine, almost close enough to kiss me. I got weirded out by him and pushed my head back. Jessie giggled and blurted out, “I liked ‘em already.” I looked over at her quickly and growled. “Be quiet, you! I’m trying to assess the situation.” I turned my head back to see that the weirdo suddenly had my weapon in his possession instead of mine. I gasped, and then growled again. “Hey! That’s my Veronica! Don’t you touch her.” I said through gritted teeth. “My name is Tselec. Wh-what planet am I on?” I furrowed my brow in confusion and looked back at Jessie again. She was just as weirded out as I was and then she stood next to me, analyzing ‘Tselec’s face. I whispered in her ear, “You do realize that ‘Tselec’ is like, my name, but backwards…right?” She looked at me and nodded and whispered a simple, “Yes,” back, before averting her gaze from me and back onto Tselec. “Um, you’re on planet earth, Mr. Tselec.” He grunted and walked right past me. “Hey, whoa, whoa, whoah, whoa, mister. Where do you think you’re going, huh?” I grabbed onto his shoulder and he turned back only to stare at me with blue, gleaming eyes. I stared back with astonishment and before I could open my eyes after a blink, he was gone.I could only stand in my place, frozen for a few seconds, not knowing what the hell even happened, and then I looked at Jessie, and she was looking right back at me. “Dude…what the hell was that?” I blew out a puff of hair. Jessica shook her head slowly with wide eyes. “I have no idea whatsoever man…” A shiver ran down my spine and I let out a shuddered breath. “Okay, well…we’ve got ‘house work’ to do. Not a word to anyone about this, you hear me?” I stared into Jess’s eyes for a response. She nodded quickly in agreement. “Uh-huh. Definitely. Gotcha.” We both blew a sigh and started walking back towards the house, but when we got out, everybody was pretty much just standing there, absolutely frozen in their place, just staring up at the house. It was…clean. I mean, like, no, seriously, it was perfect. The paint was brand new, the columns holding up the second floor of the house were rebuilt, the roof looked brand new, just every thing was remodeled and fashioned perfectly fine to the last particle. We were all staring in awe at it. And it even had a defense system! (I.e. artillery barrage, mounted cannons and sentries, booby traps, explosive trip wires) Dad, Shane, and Mary all looked back at us after they realized we were back and clamored, “Did you do this!?” in unison. We both shook our heads slowly and suddenly heard a familiar voice ring out from the open front door.“I did,” Tselec said. Jessie’s eyes, as well as mine opened wide after we looked up to see my doppelganger, standing there on the porch. The other three of us were just as astonished as we were to see him. Everyone was speechless, and all five of us just stared at him, and he stared right back. “I, um…is this what you humans call a ‘staring contest’?” Tselec asked, and then he accidentally blinked. “Oops. I, um, think I just lost.” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I sighed heavily with my hand on my face, just trying to grasp what was present. “Ok, so, basically, you’re a…Celestial being from…” I looked back up at Tselec. “The inter dimensional realm known as, Fugor.” Tselec finished my sentence. I sighed once again and nodded slowly. “Right. Yeah. ‘Fugor’. And so you’re here to guide us on our…what, exactly?” I looked up at Tselec for an answer while I sat down on the floor, my legs crossed. “To help you on your mission.” Tselec said, his voice naturally gruff. I stood up and pointed at Tselec while every one watched me. We were all huddled up in a circle with Tselec centered in the middle. “Ya see? Exactly. That’s my point right there. What ‘mission?’ There is no so-called mission. It’s the zombie apocalypse, there’s nothing special about it, and there’s nothing important to do. So, why should we trust you? You just…show up here, uninvited, oh, and not to mention your mystical powers that nobody has a fucking clue about, and also, you look exactly like me, despite the Sherlock Holmes costume you got going on!” Tselec looked at me with confusion, his eyebrows furrowed. “Sherlock Holmes…costume?” I scoffed and stormed outside the house.Jessica ran after me and closed the door behind her before grabbing my arm with a firm grip. I wriggled out of her grasp and turned around quickly, exhaling harshly. “What? What do you want from me, huh, Jessie?” She just stared at me for a second and grabbed my wrists lightly, pulling me close to her, and she used her light voice. I know she was trying to comfort me when she said, “I know this crazy, especially because you basically have a clone that can fix things up faster than Bob The Builder, and God knows what else he can do, but…you’ve gotta consider the possibilities, Celest.” I twisted my wrists slowly in her hands and locked my fingers around her wrists. “Yeah, but…how do we know we can trust him? I mean, like, he just waltzed in, does all this magical Wizard of Oz shit, and we’re just supposed to bend the knee and act like it’s normal?” I looked up at her with fire in my eyes and she sighed lightly, letting my wrists go and cupped my face in her hands. “No, baby,” She said lightly, brushing the hair out of my face and behind my ear. “I never said we had to trust him…but we have to at least give him a shot, just like we do with every one else, just like Shane and Mary did with us. But the second he does something, the second he shows us he can’t be with us, then, we terminate his ass. But, for now, we’ve got to all the nice things he can bring us. He has powers, babe, and god knows what else he can do. He’s an asset.” Jessica stared down at me while I thought about what she said. She put up a good argument, and her points made sense. I nodded and looked down. “Okay. Okay, we’ll give this ‘Tselec’ a shot. But don’t you take advantage of him just because looks like me and has mystical powers.” I scowled. Jessie chuckled and shook her head. “Don’t you worry about that, boo. Even if you had a twin brother, which you technically do, now, I would still choose you over him.” She booped my noise and walked back inside. I sighed and walked in after her, everybody marveling at Tselec. I growled internally and walked up to him, shoving Tselec a little. “Hey, so what else can you do, huh?” I barked. Jessie pursed her lips and grabbed my arm. I turned my head back and glared at her. “Hey, go easy on him, okay? He still seems pretty new to…Earth.” She whispered. I scoffed and Tselec didn’t seem to mind me “pushing” him. “Hm. Well…” Tselec looked down at the pistol resting on the table. “I can do this.” He reached his arm out towards the gun and his skin seemed to granulate and dissolve into black and silver particles. It was only within seconds that he had transformed into a duplicate of the weapon itself. Everyone’s eyes widened and they stared in awed, Mary covering her mouth after gasping and John taking a gulp of bourbon after saying, “Welp. I’ve seen everything now.” Everyone blinked and he was now in his original “human” form. Everyone was quiet for a few seconds until Mary blew a wolf whistle Tselec’s way. Shane and I both glared her way, considering the fact that she was basically flirting with someone who looked exactly like me, and that Shane was obviously jealous, although, the rest of us just laughed and Tselec just seemed to stand there like a dumb doll. I crossed my arms and tapped my foot on the carpet. “Hmph. What else can you do, Mr. Magical Ken doll.” Tselec furrowed his brow in confusion to my reference and stood there for a second before reaching his arm out and touching John’s shoulder. “Well, I can also do this.” Tselec’s voice changed during mid-sentence from his own to John’s after he basically molded himself to look exactly like my father. Everyone had their fair share of ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s and Jessie nudged my shoulder, blurting out, “Dude, no way!” I just rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I saw it.” My voice was flat. John swatted Tselec’s hand off his shoulder and his face made a nasty distortion of ‘officially weirded out.” “Dude, can you stop being me?” Everyone chuckled except me and Tselec molded back to his original form. “Sorry,” Tselec looked down. Ugh, I just hate his perfect looks, that stupid trench coat he wore, and the tacky blue tie and black suit/pants he wore. And his voice, oh my god, what was up with that? Why does he sound like Batman? “Alright, so you can shape-shift, basically clone other people, and you have a shitty taste in clothes. What else?” I had a sarcastic and petulant tone in my voice. Tselec paused for a second, thinking of what else he can do and his face sort of lit up a bit. “Well, those were a majority of my stealth/tactical moves. Usually made for hiding, or getting out of situations. I also seem to have a more offensive selection abilities.” Tselec went. I shrugged and gestured for him to show them. “Ok? Go on.” I bit my lip. “Well…” Tselec paused for a bit. I sighed and rolled my eyes before snapping my fingers. “Hey, ‘zone-out,’ snap out of it.” Tselec blinked a few times. “Oh. Right. Sorry.” Everyone looked at each other in confusion and turned their attention back to Tselec. “Well, I understand that those…monsters out there are the majority of your problems. I have some sort of ‘energy source’ consisting of pure light and power. I believe if I could direct that energy towards my physical abilities, I could produce specified weapons for you all to use against those ghouls. Or I could possibly even come into direct with the monsters and…purify them.”I cocked my head and my brows furrowed in confusion. “Hold on, wait, what? ‘Purify,’ what do you mean by ‘purify’?” Everyone stared at Tselec, waiting for an answer. After a dramatically long pause, Tselec finally let out, “What I’m saying is, I might possible be the cure for this apocalypse.” Jess and Mary gasped a little, and John, Shane and I looked back over at each other for a few seconds until I finally looked back over Tselec. “Wait…what do you mean by, ‘this apocalypse’?” I asked. Tselec paused for a second before saying, “This is not the first apocalypse to have happened on this Earth.” Everyone turned heads and murmured to each other. “And what the hell could that possibly mean?” John let out broadly. Tselec let a heavy breath slip past his lips. “There are several billion multiverses out there. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s like a total other universe, exactly like this one, but one simple decision made by someone important to history, only altered by a slight amount of percentage, causing a ripple affect in space and time, causing massive events to change astronomically.” Every one stared for a while and John cupped his forehead with his hand. “Ugh, my head hurts.” I scratched my chin and thought for a few more seconds. “Hold on, so, lemme get this straight: Basically, there are about a few billion other me’s, possibly with a few thousand different variations of haircuts, different choices of clothes, and tiny little differentiations of choices, and that all leads to a whole new other different apocalypse?” Tselec paused for a bit, then nodded. “Yes, that is correct,” he affirmed. I blew out a heavy breath and scratched the back of my head. “Damn…that’s a lot.” I chuckled. “But this isn’t the only apocalypse to happen on this specific earth. There were times when decisions from people in the past have enabled an apocalypse, and God called upon me to help the humans he sent me to, to stop the apocalypse.” Everyone thought for a second. “Soo…God called upon you, to help us, beat the apocalypse.” I repeated, but in a much more simpler form to grasp. Tselec nodded. I took in a deep breath and sighed lightly. “Well, then…rock on, team God Squad, right?” I looked at everyone. They all shook their head and rolled their eyes. “Aw, c’mon, guys, that was good!” I looked at Tselec and held out a fist. “C’mon, man, fist bump, that was good.” Tselec looked at my fist, confused and his head tilted to the side. He held out a flat hand and slowly wrapped his fingers around my fist. “Team God Squad,” He said.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

My fingers wrapped around the sphere-shaped knob and I turned it slowly to the left, gently, almost, and then it happened: Water. Gushing out from the faucet in a sizeable stream. It started to steam so my wrist turned ever so slightly to the right. I didn’t like my showers hot, neither did I with my baths. My skin was too sensitive, and although I hate that weak part of me, I more than made up for it in endurance, and for that, I felt a slight smidge pride within myself. My fingertip pressed lightly on soft and rubbery button attached atop the neck of the faucet, and then the gauge of water spouting out from the large faucet transmitted to the showerhead above me and I moved back quickly to stand up straight and avoid the water from hitting me before I got in. I could feel someone behind me, but I didn’t care to look, assuming it was Jesse. I sighed lightly before thrashing the right side of the shower curtain to the left and stepped into the tub; one foot after the other, carefully, cautious of slipping, and I let my torso endure through the warm water hitting my skin. It wasn’t too hot, but it burned a little, against my sensitive skin, and I stood there, until I adjusted to it and stepped the rest of me into the raining stream. I lifted my arms and started kneading my fingers into my head, insuring that water passes through my entire scalp, and leaves no hair untouched. I could almost hear someone stepping into the tub, and had assumed someone did. I chuckled and let out with a voice of haughtiness, “Hmm, ya like what ya see, hon~?” Tselec cocked his head, analyzing me from behind. “Well, you do seem to have a rather…interesting build.” My eyes flared and I even may have gasped a little. I twisted my torso sharply and my voice was suddenly filled with annoyance, some anger, even. “Wh-what are you doing in here?! L-like, what the hell!” The celestial being’s face pushed back slightly, a look of distraught imprinted on his face and he exhaled lightly. “M-my apologies, Celest, it’s just that—it’s that-“ I gritted my teeth and my voice raised a little bit, having no patience for his impertinence. “Huh? ‘It’s just that’ what, huh?” Tselec rubbed under his right eyebrow, kind of like he was scratching it from an itch, and he gulped, then he let out with that rough voice of his. “Um…it’s just that I, as a pure celestial, have never taken a ‘shower’ before, since we don’t exactly get dirty from where we come from, as you humans do on Earth. So I…was merely observing.” I scoffed and mumbled, planting my hand on my forehead, “God, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” I looked back up at Tselec and sighed lightly, shaking my head. “Yeah. Yeah, ok…you can…” I sighed again and my voice grumbled. “Watch, er—‘observe’ me take a shower.” Tselec nodded and I groaned.I stepped out the shower and wrapped a towel firmly around my waist. “Alright, well, that’s how you take a shower, mister I’m-too-pure-to-know-how-to-be-human.” The dumb angel had that stupid expression on his face just like every other time someone tries to encourage ‘humor’ around him. I scoffed and pursed my lip. “Oh. Yeah. Right. Wittle angel doesn’t know what ‘funny’ means.” Tselec stood up straight like he knows it all, and I could only hear his annoying voice for very few seconds before having to stop his innocent little know-it-all attitude. “Well, actually, funny means-“ I presses my hand against his chest. “Don’t…finish the sentence.” His voice filled with awkwardness. “Okay.” He hanged his head. I scoffed and walked out the bathroom, shivering as the cold air made contact with the warm droplets of water covering my body. “Stupid angel.” I muttered as I walked into the bedroom. Jesse’s eyes darted up from the book she was reading and her face lit up with joice and I smiled. “Hey, darling.” My voice finally became calm and I sat on the bed, next to her, leaning up and smooched her on the lips briefly. “Finally. An actual angel that I can have, and enjoy, all to myself.” She giggled and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Wh-hat d’ya mean, sweetheart.” I chuckled and pinched her chin lightly, brinding it down to my level and I whispered, “Tselec. I hate that stupid me impersonation.” She laughed and pinched my nose teasingly. “Oh-ho-ho, so thaaaat’s what you mean~” I growled angrily and let out a sharp huff from my nose. “Don’t make me hate you too!” Jesse gasped and leaned back with horror written all over on her face. I laughed and closed the gap between us. “Just kidding, love, I could never hate you. Ever!” My angel of a girlfriend let out a sigh of relief and I kissed her lips with a smile, my eyes closed, and her eyes closed too, submitting herself fully to me and my lips parted from hers. The you-know-what mood was in the air, the air was full of it, and she opened her eyes, despair in her voice. “No~ Baby, please don’t stop?” I chuckled and had that sly look on my face I always had when she asks me for more. “Don’t worry, sugar plumb,” I whispered. “I was only just starting.” I continued as I leaned in more against her, pushing her body down against the bed slowly with mine, and our fingers locked together tightly, our hands firmly together as I started kissing the side of her neck. “Hmm, interesting.” A gruff voice let out. I growled and grabbed the book that had somehow shifted next to us and did my best of my aim to throw it to where I had heard that irritating voice come from. I missed Tselec and the book had hit the wall instead, the pages fluttering as “Zombie Chasers: Reincarnated” Had hit the floor. It was one of Jesse’s favorite books, but I didn’t really care. Just as long as it hit that awful, cringy version of me it was fine, although any human powers used to hurt him were pretty much rendered useless. “Hey!” Jessica cried out. “That’s my-“ I interrupted her with “Favorite book?” and finished her sentence for her. She looked down, almost sadly and said in a low voice, “Yeah…” I glared up at Tselec, and all he had to say was, “Your aim is poor.” I growled and shouted, “Your aim is poor!” And he leaned back as if I had offended him, or something. “My aim is not-“ A loud gunshot had popped from outside. Jessie gasped a little and I looked back at her with a “Seriously?” Face. She scoffed and nudged my arm. “C’mon, lets go!” I ruished off the bed and looked around frantically. “Shit! I’m not dressed ye-“ I looked up to notice Tselec was gone. I scoffed. “Pushover.” I ran after Jessie, despite the only ‘clothing’ I had on, was a towel. Everyone was gathered outside to see what the commotion was all about. Tselec had already had his ‘magical hand’ planted on the armed man’s bald head. He was prepared to eliminate this ‘threat’ outside our house, but I couldn’t help but stop him, not knowing if this man meant harm or not. “Wait!” I shouted. Everyone’s heads turned towards me. I was almost panting and my eyes glanced all around myself, feeling everyone’s stare and I exhaled lightly. “Wait. We don’t know what this man after, and, well, he’s obviously outmanned, and outgunned, so let’s see what this man has to say.” The group stood in silence and nodded in agreement. Tselec just stared at me for a few solid seconds until grunting and then letting his hand part from the man’s head. Then, he phase shifted next to Jessie. She glanced up at him and smiled. I rolled my eyes and scoffed.This person had an odd aura coming from him, but I wasn’t going to let our humanity die, and let us become animals, despite the world we live in now, the world that we sometimes have to scrounge for food, for water, resources, and the harsh things we have to endure just to have pass one more day of our live. “Hmm. ‘Outmanned, and outgunned,” eh?” The man chuckled devilishly. Oh, you have no idea…” He raised his arms and a strange and loud sound of clicks had emitted from us. My eyes widened in fear because I knew what that sound was coming from; Guns. We were surrounded, and at gunpoint. Outnumbered, and outgunned. I sighed and pursed as I looked down at the ground, feeling everyone’s glare on me. “Fuck.” I thought to myself angrily. “How are we gonna get through it this time?” Suddenly, we heard a pulsing sound and a shot was fired. A tranquilizer latched around Tselec’s neck and he was shocked, until he fell to the ground, unconscious. “No!” I whispered through gritted teeth. “Alright, folks! Collect the bounty, and—hmm.” The ominous man scratched the light, salt-and-pepper stubble secured on his jawline, thinking for a moment, and that’s when he smiled. He had these perfect, pearly white teeth, so tightly compacted in a secure and close formation. It looked so purely innocent but so…dark and evil. Like some sadist whose joy comes from seeing other people go through some rough hardship, while they’re the cows, and he’s the whip. “Search these kind folks, raid whatever they have in that nice house of theirs, and, well…we’ll spare them. Since one of them was kind enough to ‘spare’ us.” I glared up at what seemed to be the leader of these ravagers with gritted teeth as he walked towards me slowly, hinting that he obviously meant me. He looked down at me and made that sinister smile he seemed to like to do a lot. “You’re a smart jewel, you know that, right?” I chuckled. I growled and clinched my fists before spitting in his face. “Piss off,” I snarled. Apparently he didn’t appreciate that, and so he backhanded me with his hand and my body turned after he hit me, my knees and palms, bracing my fall and I looked down at the muddy, wet ground. Jessie gasped and covered her mouth and my dad wanted to lunge at the man, but two of his men had already grabbed his arms and he tried to break free from their grasps, but they were overpowering. I sighed lightly. “Damn it. I just took a shower.” I muttered. I could still feel the sting on my cheek and it had almost made an imprint on my face. I tried to stand back up the man’s men had already grabbed my arms and did the job for me. He sneered and looked down at me. “You should be lucky I didn’t make an example out of you. Alright, we’ll be keeping this one in a special place…load them up!” The men who had searched the house gushed out like ants from a pile of sand or dirt, and loaded everybody else up in a large truck and shoved me in the trunk of a small car; I’d guess which was for the ‘boss’ of these people, or their leader. “No!” I yelled and shouted, but my voice was no longer after they shut the trunk over me.I cried silently and whimpered. “Why? Why is this all happening? How? It’s all my fault.” I choked up and sniffled. I wiped my tears with shoulders, since my wrists were tied together. I exhaled deeply and shakily. “I will find a way out of this…I promise you that.” I said to myself. It was meant for Jessie, and my dad, and Shane, and Mary…but also Tselec. I shouldn’t have stopped him. Maybe we’d all be perfectly fine right now, drinking and eating together, or possibly having some good bedroom time with my girlfriend, if I just haven’t stopped him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Suddenly, a piercing, sound, that of metal, shot through both of my ears and I finally opened my eyes. It was apparent that I had fallen asleep during this long and ‘fun road trip.’ I grumbled and raised my arms to rub the sleep but then I realized, “Oh. Right. I’m held as some sort of prisoner inside some psycho man’s trunk.” So instead, I turned my neck to the right and rubbed the drool off of my face with my shoulder. If I weren’t wearing a shirt, I think I’d be too prideful to even let my drool come in contact with any other part of my skin. Or perhaps I’d just wipe it on something other than me.I heard a clicking sound, and then the trunk opened. A flashing, and blinding light attacked my eyes and I squinted harshly. “Wow. Aren’t you an ugly sleeper,” A voice sneered. I groaned internally, knowing damn well whose mouth it was that was spurting such bullshit. I didn’t know his name, though, or what his plan for me was, or everyone else he’s taken from me, but I was going to find out: even if it meant becoming his best friend on this wretched Earth. The man smiled down at me deviously with those evil lips and my eyes had finally adjusted to the light, and I could see him, but my eyes burned from just waking up. “Take him to headquarters,” he ordered. His henchmen nodded, and their voices were firm and loyal. “Yes, sir!” I could feel their hard fingers sink into my light skin and pull me out the car, forcefully. Their boss chuckled and tapped his foot. “Easy, there. We can’t be harming our…valuable candidate,” He hissed. I stared up at him angrily as they dragged me away, my lip twitching, and my insides just boiling with furious rage towards that man.I was sat in a chair, my eyes analyzing everything in the room. The exits, the guards, how many there were, possible weapons to use if I broke free, everything to at least try and get out. The mystery man had finally walked in, wearing this caramel-colored leather jacket that he always seems to wear, those black, stereotypical boots you see the soldiers wear in movies, black jeans, and he had spiky, black hair. It was obviously styled well using a fine-toothed comb, and some mouse or a hair gel of some sort. My anger towards him grew even more, but as odd at it seems, inside, I sort of felt…attracted to him. But I pushed away those feelings and focused at the matter at hand: escaping, and finding my family. “Ahh.” Their boss sat down at the other end of the table and laughed. “C’mon, guys~ Almost all of us have guns…I think the least we could do for our friend is give him some sense of freedom, am I right?” The two guards behind me looked at each other and then cut the white, thin rope connecting my wrists together. I looked down and finally separated my wrists, twisting them, and feeling a weight lift off my chest and exhaled deeply. “Well, alright, then,” The man rang out with almost an excited voice. “My name’s Grant, and I-“ I banged my hands on the table as I leaned forward to strike ‘Grant’ with a harsh fire in my eyes, hitting him right back in his brown, crystalline-like eyes. “I don’t care who you are, and I could give less of a shit on what your name is, or if you even had a name! Where is my family? And what have you done with them?” My voice rang sharp, and persistent. Grant paused for a solid second and then made that stupid smile of his that he always does, and leaned back into his chair. It was beginning to get on my nerves. “Haha, well, then,” Grant put his hands together and locked his fingers before resting them on the table. “Straight to the point, I see. I like that.” I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands into fists. “I don’t care what you like! Answer my questions!” My blood began to boil. “Whoa, whoa, hey~ your people are just fine, alright?” His seat squeaked as he stood up firmly and walked around the table, towards me with his hands locked behind his back and he leaned in to whisper in my ear. My body tensed up a little and I shied away a little as he whispered, “They’re allll, fine and dandy…but that just depends on how you react from now on.” My eyes flared and I looked at him, my voice low and still coated with an obvious anger. “Wh-what do you mean by that, huh?” I questioned. Grant chuckled and leaned back, standing up straight. “Oh, you’ll see.”I inhaled and exhaled deeply, impatient, and wondering what the hell this guy wanted with me. “What do you want, Grant?” I barked. “Ahh, finally. Now you’re answering the right questions!” He cheered. His voice slowed between each word in a dramatic affect as he said, “I want you…to become my lieutenant, fine sir.” I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and shifted awkwardly in my seat. “Uh—um, ‘lieutenant?” I asked, with doubt and insecurity in my voice. Grant nodded with a smirk. “Yes. My lieutenant.” His voice softened, and then heightened a staggering amount. “I saw how you acted back out there, with your people! You’re a great leader…” Grant’s voice seemed to have a small lick of darkness in it at the end, between the words ‘great’ and ‘leader.’ I tried to silence my gulp using a technique that involves moving around parts of the inside of my throat, but there’s only so much that can do when you’ve been trying so hard to keep your saliva in your mouth and stopping yourself from looking so intimidated by such a tall and scary…handsome man. “Wh-why would you want me to be your Lieutenant? I mean…there seems to be a lot of people under your command, here, and some look awfully more able than I am to be your right hand man.” I looked up at Grant. He chuckled and leaned towards me again. I could almost feel him on my unclothed skin (my neck) and his breath, venting out on me, lightly. He chuckled lightly in my ear, with such a dominant sound in his breath as he whispered, “Well, ya see, there’s something special I see in you. A spark. One tha t’s hard to burn out. One that can only grow, and emit into a high and mighty bonfire. I think that, if you let me help you, I can make you become that.” I shivered and let out a shuddered breath. Whispering turned me on so much…and the way he was doing it, it was like he…I glanced down at his pant, and the most visible thing to my sight was his bulge and I looked away. “Oh, my god,” I whispered shakily. I sighed and tuned everything out for a second while my speedy thoughts had raced all around in my mind. I knew if I said ‘no,’ that it would only make things harder…um, n-not in that…way. Things were already hard at the moment. Well—for Grant, at least. But I knew that the only way to get out of this…was to be his underling, as much as I hated it. I smiled seductively and looked up at grant with a sly gleam in my eyes. “Okay,” I whispered, and placed my hand on his bulge lightly, glancing to see if any of the guards were looking. Thankfully, they weren’t. I grabbed his pride firmly and squeezed it lightly, teasingly and my voice continued softly. “I’ll be your…loyal lieutenant…sir.” “Grant bit his lip softly and moved it back and forth with his jaw and chuckled. “Good. Then I have a few things to show you,” his voice heightened slightly. “In the bedroom,” He whispered. My eyes widened a little as he turned his back on me and looked over his shoulder, signaling me to come with. “O-okay…sir.” I nodded. Butterflies filled my stomach as I followed him through a lengthy corridor, a light on the ceiling flashing, flickering lightly above me before I go past it. A door, with engraved metallic writings, and details was seen, and I thought, “This must be the snake’s den. Keep your calm. Act collected. Confidence is key.” I breathed in deeply, and exhaled heavily, hoping Grant hadn’t noticed as he went to a halt, just before the door, and looked over his shoulder at me. His lips grew wide to make a sly smile on his face and I tried my best to smile back, too, but I could feel my bottom lip quiver a little. Grant opened the door slowly and stretched his arm out into the room; his fingers spread apart, all pointing towards the bed. “O-oh,” I chuckled nervously, looking down at the floor. “Ok,” my voice lowered. I scratched behind my ear awkwardly and stepped towards the bed slowly, one foot after the other, my ankles almost shaking as the soles of my feet parted from the floor. I finally leaned in, stretching my arms over the mattress; my palms gliding forward against it as I finally felt the front of my scrawny legs touch the foot of the bed. I let out another shuddered breath and let my legs climb In on the bed after the rest of me and turned over on my back to look at Grant, staring back at me, with lust in his eyes as he analyzed me intently. I whimpered internally and then that’s when he finally started trotting towards the bed moderately. “Oh, boy,” I thought. Grant bit his bottom lip with a sort of passive-aggressiveness and then licked his top lip from the left corner of his mouth, to the left. Then, he glided himself along the bed, almost like I did, and he slid past my open legs and sat himself on my waist, looked down at me fiercely, and slid my shirt up slowly. He made eye contact with me the whole time as he kissed the skin covering my ribs, lightly, and sucked on different parts of my chest lightly, pulling at it with his lips before letting go. I moaned a little, both in pleasure, and unease. My throat released a shaky breath and my voice moaned out, “P-put it in me, sir. Please…” My new, temporary master sneered and he unbuttoned my pants from beneath his waist and stretched his arms behind him, pulling my jeans past my knees, along with my underwear. Grant grabbed my member firmly and stroked it up and down slowly before he whispered in my ear, “I like to play with my food before I dig in.” I chuckled nervously and nodded. “Wh-whatever pleases you first, sir.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

My chest puffed up and down heavily, according to my panting. I was exhausted, and I’d rather have been pounded by Jessie’s strap-on…than by Grant. Ugh, now I know how Jessie feels like when I fuck her. I wanted to glare up at him, but I needed him to feel like I respect him so, instead, I looked up at him and smiled gleefully. He chuckled and pinched my chin lightly. “Mm, you like?” Grant titled his head, waiting for an answer. I continued to smile and nodded. “Mhm. Best I’ve ever had, sir~” He smiled and laughed a little. “Well,” He started saying as he put on a shirt and then his jacket. “I have to get back to leading these people.” I chuckled and sat up quickly. “W-wait! H-how…old are you?” I asked. He paused for a second and smiled. “Nineteen,” he answered. I gasped lightly and looked at him in surprise. “N-nineteen??” I repeated. Grant laughed and nodded. “Yes. Nineteen. You seem surprised.” I gawked up at him and blinked twice, quickly. “I-I am! You look a bit…older than nineteen, don’t you think?” He stared at me for a second. “Well, what about you, how old are you?” I hadn’t thought about that until now, so I froze. “Uhh—um, fifteen. I’m fifteen.” My voice lowered. Grant’s eyes flared and he perked up a little. “Ooh~ Fifteen, huh? Heh, I pegged you for about my age.” He proclaimed. I chuckled and stood on my knees, pulling him closer to the side of the bed, and me, too, whispering in his ear. “Well, we’re not far off, so…” He smiled and nodded. “Well, anyways, like I said, I’ve got some work to do, feel free to tour around the base.” He continued as he put on some pants and walked out the door after taking a peek at me over his shoulder.I let out a heavy sigh of relief and fell back on the bed. “Gosh, being a double-agent is hard,” I thought. But enough of that Mission Impossible stuff, I need locate where the rest of my people are. Well…I still need to stay undercover, but—whatever. “Okay,” I sighed. “Where could they be?” I walked out the door long after Grant had left, after searching some of his private stuff. Most of it was just some pretty weird shit, and some…oddly engrossing, but there was nothing important, except a pistol I had snagged from inside his drawer—for protection (or self-defense) of course. I had holstered it in the back of my pants with my shirt covering it, in any case that I’m not yet required to be armed in the base, and also, as an invisible place to the naked eye for when I surprise my foe and decide to take them out. It seemed a like a good plan as any, I suppose. I scouted the layer of the long corridor that lead to Grant’s for useful information on his base, bit it was just filled with rooms for his guards and the ‘civilization’ Grant had going on in his HQ, so, nothing useful. I breathed out heavily with impatience as I found no clue so far as to where everyone else was pinned. I rubbed my face with frustration and almost screamed my guts out, but I had to keep my composure. Anger or anything irrational would only most-likely result in trouble for me, or complications. I pressed my back against the wall and slid my body down all the way to the floor. I had grown a bit tired and I needed to rest. My eyes began to close until I heard something, and I perked up in surprise. It was a sharp whisper. “Hey. Hey!” The voice called out. I looked around. “Huh? Wh-where are you? Um, I can hear you, but-“ The voice sounded familiar. It was gruff, and it was—annoying. I knew who it was. It was Tselec. Although I could never stop being annoyed of my one-sided doppelganger, his voice was a sight for sore eyes; except I couldn’t see him, I could only hear him. “Down here!” His whisper pierced through the wooden, polished floorboard beneath me. I gasped and bent down swiftly, digging my fingernails between the crack that separates each peace of the floor together, and then I tore it open. The sight of black-ish, silver metal bars were the first to hit my eyes, other than my double-me’s face. I let out a sigh of relief and hung my head. “Okay, so how do we get you out of here, angel face?” Tselec furrowed his eyebrows. “Why did you call me—n-never mind, um, there’s a key in that guy’s room.” I scratched the back of my head. “Um, wh-what guy’s room?” Tselec used his head to gesture towards Grant’s room. My eyes flickered up towards he was suggesting. “Oh,” I whispered. “The guy that fucked me.” I saw Tselec mouth the word, “What?” and my eyes flared at him as I looked at him in surprise. “Oh! What!? Um, heh, I meant nothing!” I chuckled nervously. I darted over to Grant’s room and slammed the door shut behind me, while Tselec cocked his head out of curiosity. I went through the only drawer in the room frantically, but I couldn’t find any key! But, wait. I saw a crack at the beginning of where the base and front-plate of the drawer met. I gasped and held my breath, hoping that this was it. I slid my fingernail in-between the crack and bent the joint in my finger to lift it, and the base did exactly that. I exhaled sharply and smiled until I heard a click. My eyes widened and I froze. You move a single muscle, your brains’ll be splattered allll over that wall in front of you, friend. I chuckled nervously and raised my hands slowly. “See? Okay, I’m unarmed,” my voice was calm as I stood up slowly as well. I inhaled deeply and exhaled, concentrating on the aura of the person behind me. I could sense how far the weapon was from my head, and how stretched out the arms of the person holding the gun behind me was. I turned around swiftly and striked my palm against the barrel of the pistol, the weapon falling to the ground, and my pursuer gasped. I could see the shock in her eyes as I made contact as I reached behind me and pulled my pistol out, aiming at her. “The hunter becomes the hunted,” I sneered. The look of astonishment on her face quickly turned to anger and regret, and she snarled. “Ah, ah! Back up, against the wall, now.” She did exactly so and I paused, thinking on what to do until it finally came to me: no prisoners. My finger pressed on the trigger lightly, and blood painted the wall behind her, and some even landed on my cheek, spreading down to my jaw. I sighed lightly and rubbed her blood off my face with my thumb, pausing before looking at it and licking it off my thumb. “Mmm…it’s been awhile since I’ve tasted some victory.” I flicked the key in the air and grabbed it hard in a fist before running out Grant’s room, and ripping up the rest of the floorboard covering up the cage concealing Mr. Celestial being. The opening of the cage was place on top, oddly enough, so luckily for me, all I had to do was bend down on my knees and reach my arms out. I twisted the key in the lock, and it unlatched. Tselec lifted his arms up and pushed his palms against the bars, lifting the door up and letting it fall back. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up. We looked at each other for a few seconds before I could ask, “How did that cage conceal your powers?” He looked down and then up at me. “I-I don’t know.” I pursed my lips and shook my head. “Anyways, we need to find the others!” I reaffirmed. My doppelganger nodded and placed his hand on my shoulder. I looked at it and then in his eyes. “What?” I asked. I already know where they are. We teleported to a large and red, metal cargo box. I looked at Tselec once more. “Th-they’re in…their?...” He nodded with reassurance. “God, that’s awful.” I whispered. I sighed and pried open the chains wrapping around the entrance of the cargo box with a crowbar but it wasn’t enough to break it. I let out an exerted breath before Tselec placed his hand on mine. “Let me.” He said, with a look as if he was almost looking down at me. I scoffed and stepped aside. The Celestial grasped the chains and the area around his hand began to flare orange and even started to make a steaming sound, until they melted and dispersed, falling to the ground. “Show-off.” I grumbled. The door suddenly creaked open slowly and my attention shot towards the opening. That’s when I darted towards the entrance and pried it open even more. The light shined inside the guts of the cargo box, and everyone was revealed. Jessie gasped and ran towards me. “Celest!” She cried, and jumped on me. I laughed and caught her, holding her tightly and buried my face in her chest as she rested her chin on my shoulder. We both blew a sigh of relief and John smiled at Jesse and I being reunited. Eventually everyone huddled together into one group hug until-Bang! We all broke from our gleefulness to turn our heads to a door being kicked open forcefully. It was Grant, and his soldiers. “YOU FUCKERS THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE?!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. Jesse and Mary gasped, and my eyes widened in surprise. “Quick, grab onto me.” Tselec spoke hastily. Everyone instinctively each grabbed a different part of my doppelganger. Jesse grabbed his crotch noticeably and I glared at her. “Sorry, hon, it’s just that he looks exactly like you, and-“ I gritted my teeth and death-stared her. “Not. Another. Word.” I growled. We quickly poofed out of there, and back to our house. It took us all a second before deciding to look at our surroundings and a few of us blew sighs of relief. Finally. We made it. I looked back at Jessie with the same glare before I we abracadabra’d out of there. “Oops. Sorry.” She chuckled nervously and her hand raced off of Tselec’s private area quickly. He didn’t seem to notice, but I still crossed my arms. “Hmph.” I turned my head away dramatically. Jessie smiled and hugged me. “Aww, don’t be like that, sweetheart. I was only playing~” She nuzzled my nose. I couldn’t help but smile and look back at her. “Okay, fine. I forgive you.” I chuckled and kissed her lips lightly.“Guys, I think we’re all still forgetting one thing.” Shane looked over at my father. “Oh, yeah? And what’s that, John?” My dad looked at everyone else and paused dramatically. We can’t stay here any longer. We’re compromised.” And that’s when everybody broke into a verbal fight, and things were off the roof. “Where are we gonna go next!?” “Are you crazy!?” “How are we gonna find another place!?” A whole bunch of other questions rang out through the house. Ahh, just when everything seemed to be back to normal, it wasn’t. But at least I had Jessie, and everyone was back together again. That’s all that mattered. Because I knew that with all of us combined, we could defeat just about any problem we faced, like we did with Grant, and his ‘army.’ But I also feared that we haven’t seen the last of him…

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Jessie held my hand as we walked through a neighborhood, together, with to rest of us, searching for a new place to settle in. I admit, I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t know it was going to be this hard. I mean, I would ask Tselec to use his magical powers to poof us the hell outta here, and to somewhere nice, or something, but apparently he can only teleport to memory-related places, so, great. And it didn’t seem like we were taking any trips to heaven any time soon, unless one of us decided to just die all of a sudden. I scoffed at the thought of that. My girlfriend looked down at me in concern. “What is it, sweetheart? Is there something bothering you?” The sound of her voice shot me out of my train of thought and I looked up at her with a content smile and shook my head. “Heh. No, babe. I’m fine.” Then my smile turned into angry, distraught frown, and I kind of growled…a little. “It’s just that with all these magical bullshit powers our angel friend has, he can’t take us some place and end our journey? Ugh. It’d just be so much easier!” Jessie looked down and sighed lightly, nodding slowly. “Mm, yeah, but…you know, he can’t, so…we kinda just have to get past that and do what we do: fight the situation head on, ya know?” I looked up at her with a tinder smile and nodded in agreement. “Yeah…you always know what to say, darling.” She hummed happily and nuzzled my face, talking lightly in my ear, “Yeah. Only for you, baby cheeks.” I glared up at her and rolled my eyes. “Ugh. Don’t call me that!” She giggled and pinched my nose playfully. “What, ‘baby cheeks’-“ She was interrupted when we heard Shane shout, “Hey, over here!”We were all separated into two groups; Tselec, Jessie and I were put together, then, John, Shane and Mary. It was to make searching for a better place happen sooner, which, apparently worked out well, I guess. The three of us sprinted over to where the other group seemed to be huddled up together. It took us a few seconds to settle in with our marry, little band of seekers before we finally set eyes on their grand search. Even I gasped a little at the sight of their findings. It was…I-incredible! A three-story mansion, with three stone pillars to support the roof-like structure at the front of the mansion, all made out of stone, like those ones you see in room, and the door was right below that, a-and it was just…amazing! But, of course, “There’s one little problem though~” Mary rang out. My thoughts were interrupted by those words and Jessie and I groaned in disappointment, except Tselec, of course. He never seemed to pout, or do anything that involved emotions at all, except argue with me. He always seems to just love arguing with me. God, I hate that guy. Do I ever say I hate that guy? Ugh, I hate that guy. “Anyways,” Mary continued. “We kind of have a, um, heh…ghoul problem in there.” She laughed nervously. I rolled my eyes and groaned. “No worries.” I reassured her. “Guess we’ll just have to go through it the old fashioned way.” I smirked and then cocked the barrel of ol’ reliable: my Veronica. But then, of course, Mr. good lad Tselec had to put his hand on my shoulder and looked down at me, as if he was taller than me, or something! Then, he almost sounded prideful and arrogant when he said, “Let me take care of this.” My eyes widened and I stuttered when he poofed inside the house and then I just grumbled angrily, with tight fists. In almost an immediate second, all the windows of the house had flashes and rays of light emitting from them, like god had just took the stairway from heaven all the way down into the house. Then, just as fast as Tselec was in the mansion, he was out, right next to me, and I glared up at him with my head titled down as he stared down at me with his ‘innocence’. “Well, then, looks like we have our Ghostbuster problem eradicated.” I mumbled. “Let’s check out the place!” I tried to make my voice have more enthusiasm, instead of letting my doppelganger ruin the moment, like he almost always seems to do! Everybody cheered, including Jessie, as she grabbed my hand and yanked me alongside with her as she ran to the staggering sight of a building. I yelped and ran her speed, even though it’d be a lot more fun to go faster than her and drag her along, like she had just did. So, we ran inside, and luckily for us, we had…Tselec. So, there was no stench, no rotted corpse, and most of all, almost nothing to worry about, but letting your guard down could ultimately lead to someone’s last mistake, so I gripped my pistol with both hands after letting go of Jessie’s and scouted the house. She trotted after me and grabbed my arm with in concern. “Baby, what’re you doing?” She asked. I exhaled lightly in annoyance and spoke without even turning my head towards her. “Scouting the house,” I growled. “But—there’s nothing to scout.” She pouted. “You don’t know that,” I replied. “Tselec could’ve missed something.” Jessie groaned and yanked my arm. “Is that what this about? Tselec?? I mean, c’mon, babe, he’s just an angel!” I grumbled and rubbed my face with my hand in frustration. “You say that like it’s a normal thing.” Jessie stammered and paused for a second before smirking and tugging on the hem of my shirt. I whined and turned to her. “Baby, what’re you doing?” She looked down at me and giggled, running her hands under my shirt and gliding her palms and fingers up and down against my chest. “Don’t you wanna play~?” she sang. I scoffed and smiled, placing my hands on hers from over my shirt. “I wouldn’t mind,” I bit my lip and smiled up at her. “But we don’t even know where a single bedroom is in this place.” I chuckled. “There’s a bathroom a small ways past us,” She chimed. “We can do a little naughty in there while we clean ourselves up at the same time.” She whispered. A smothered laugh tickled my sealed lips and I kissed her jaw. “I like the way you think, baby.”It was only moments before we darted past Tselec and others to get to the bathroom. “If you even dare to come in with us, angel face, you’ll wish you had stayed up cloud-nine.” I grumbled in Tselec’s ear. He stared at me blankly and let out with a simple and flat, ok.” Jessie pulled on my arm. “Baby, let’s go.” I smiled up at her and took her to the bathroom, closing the door behind us and pressed a button on the knob. The cracks under, on top of, and on the opening side of the door sealed. It was now locked, and I had Jessie, myself, and the bathroom all to my partner and I. She let out a giggle before hurrying to take her clothes off and I was set on getting the bath ready. Jessie worried bout taking out the towels and unloading clean clothes from our bags, while I added some suds to the water. Jessie had already unzipped my pants and tore them off, along with my boxers and I hurried to take my shirt off, and then she hopped in after me.Jessica placed her hands on my chest and forced me against the cold shower wall, opposite of the one where the faucet was connected. “Mmph!” I arched my chest a little, in response the instant cold upon my back and eased back into it, my voice muffled by her lips on mine, kissing me harshly, like an animal who hasn’t had food in days. I muffled a laugh before opening my eyes and placing my hands on each side of her face. She opened up her eyes and moaned with discontent. “Mm, babe, what is it?” I chuckled and looked up at her with starry eyes. “You’re quiet rough, considering how you usually go.” She chuckled and spoke past the opening of my lips with a seductive, soft voice. “Well, how hard do I usually go?” I smiled and kissed her lips for a second. “Not this hard.” I replied. She laughed and placed her hand on my face, caressing my cheek with her thumb and she hummed. “It’s just that I haven’t had you in awhile…and I want you so much…” Jessie cooed. I chuckled and nuzzled next to the bridge of her nose. “But it hasn’t even been 24 hours since we last-“ Jessica put her hands on my shoulders and slid me into the warm water. “I don’t care,” She cut me off. “I just wanna fuck the life out of you right now, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” She dared as she rested her legs against my sides and grabbed my cock from beneath her. I smirked and shifted from under her just a little. “Mm, I love when you get so dominant all of a sudden.” I chuckled. “Oh, you haven’t seen nothing yet, sweetheart.” She continued as she guided me inside her and started riding me, cowgirl style. I bit my lip and arched my back, moaning a bit and inhaled deeply, and then out. Suddenly, I started having flashback of Grant: not good ones. Jess placed her hands on my chest and leaned herself forward as she continued to go down on me. “Aww, what’s the matter, hon, can’t take being the bottom once in awhile?” I gasped and chuckled nervously, snapping out of it and shook my head. “You know damn well I love it when you get a hold of me.” I snarled. She chuckled and leaned in some more, whispering in my ear as she started grinding on me slowly, teasingly. “Yeah…I know…”“Soo, how many rooms does this place actually have, John?” Shane asked. John looked down and thought for a second, trying to remember. “Hmm…twenty-five.” He answered. Shane’s eyebrows flickered up in surprise and astonishment was written on his face, and he chuckled. “Wow. Twenty-five you say?” Shane couldn’t believe his ears. “Heh, yup. Six bathrooms, five bedrooms, a home theatre, two offices, two kitchens, an indoor pool, three game rooms, two garages, an attic, a basement, and a wine cellar.” John continued. “Wow,” Mary awed. “So you mean we can just actually sit down in the zombie apocalypse and watch all six Transformers movies?” She asked with hope and a hint of desperateness in her voice. John chuckled. “Really, Shane started. “Transformers is like, one of the worst movie franchises in the last two centuries! How do people even still watch that crap?” Mary gasped. “How could you say that? Transformers, is like, the best movie franchise there is, you millennial?” She protested. John laughed and shrugged. “Well, we don’t know for sure, exactly, if it still even works, per se. I mean, it is the apocalypse, and, well, there could’ve been a power outage in the system’s electrical component, so…” John thought for a second. “But~ There are a few ways we could get that working again, that is, if it’s not working.” Mary cheered and Shane was content, as long as she was happy.Although there were some very trivial things in our new settlement, i.e, a wine cellar, an indoor pool, six bathrooms, etc., etc., there were also several advantages this mansion had. For example, the size: it was perfect for building a fortress out of, with built-in sentries, a self-defense grenade system, and plenty other things! There were also several many indoor traps we could build, in case of an attack and also, more than two handfuls of locations we could plant security cameras. It was almost like a dream home, and I don’t know if we could honestly ever even find a better replacement, in case we ever needed to. But I only hope that it never has to come to that. After all, the bathrooms were pretty nice.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Alright, is it ready?” I shouted from outside the first story of the house. Jessie shouted right back, “Yeah, hon, it’s as ready as it’ll ever be!” She gave two thumbs up with black smoke on her face and grease smeared all over her hands. I smiled at my hardworking angel and nodded. “Alright, then, let’s test run this baby!” I threw a medley of red, green and yellow apples into the air with a catapult towards the house. A sentry gun automatically picked up the apples coming towards it’s vicinity and made a short hissing sound and mechanical parts transformed in sync with the house, and the sentry gun came out with all it’s glory. The barrel started spinning fast and a whirring sound came out as it started firing heavy fifty caliber bullets; one for each apple in the air, and they all exploded, right over my face. I just stood there, with an apple milkshake for a costume. Jessie smothered in a laugh of course and snickered, holding a hand over her mouth and I smiled, nodding slowly and wiping the apple off of my face. I looked up at Jess with ecstasy and laughed, “That. Was. Awesome!” We both laughed together and I jumped up and down excitedly. “Again, again!” I shouted.“Okay, Operation: Defense Mechanism, (or, DM for short) is a go.” I whispered into the comms. I could hear Jessie snicker into my earpiece and I groaned. “Seriously, Jessie? That word is so out of style.” I shook my head. “Right, right,” Jess cleared her throat. “Heh, sorry.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay! Again, phase two! Bring out the cavalry, guys!” I stretched my arms out and kept bending my elbow back and forth, moving my forearms up and down, like I was directing an airplane. The whole group (John, Shane and Mary) managed to cage at least a large group of parasites and opened it up for them to go to the mansion. Instead, like the mindless brutes they are, they did the total opposite and just started heading towards they’re captors and they started to break into defense form. “Hey! Guys!” I cupped my hands around my mouth to make a cone. “Lead them over here!” I shouted. They looked at me and started backing up towards the mansion. “Threat detected.” A loud, automated voice emitted form the speakers on the side of the house. It was also integrated to the insides of the mansion, so anyone else inside could be aware, too. Just like the sentry gun, the missile’s defense system sprouted out and a barrage of heat-seeking missiles lunged at the deformed deadies. Luckily for us, we combined some odd form of chemicals together in a secret lab the mansion just so happened to have, and we made anti-air missile clothing. It cloaked human heat from any heat-seeking weaponry so that the missiles wouldn’t happen to ‘accidentally’ misfire on us, in case we were to do a strategy like this. Apparently it worked, since the missiles flew right past our living family. They all braced and shut their eyes, then blam! Our limping flesh-eaters were now nothing more but dust. “Haha, just the way I like it,” I chuckled. Jessica patted my back and I flinched in reaction, unaware of her presence. “Oh, I didn’t see you there,” I laughed. “The fireworks must’ve lured my attention away from you,” I smiled. Jessie laughed and squeezed me in her arms. “Yeah, I came here to go get a good look myself. It’s awesome, isn’t it? The defense system, I mean?” I looked up at Jessie from between her arms. “Heh, hell yeah, it is! Gosh, I still can’t wrap my mind around it…” I pondered.“O-kay,” I said flatly. “Now it’s indoors for us. Operation: DM, phase three: Trapdoors. Now, these aren’t just REGULAR trap doors, you see. In every specific part of the layout in this house, (and there is a blueprint, in case you haven’t memorized it) there is a spot for a trap door. But these aren’t normal trapdoors, as I said, and they each have different qualities and attributes. Each one is specially designed to capture our common enemy, restrain them, and/or eliminate them off the face of this earth-“ I was cut off by, “Wow. Do you really have to talk so dramatically?” Jessie slurred with boredom in her voice. “Wh—I—Yes, of course I do!” I stammered. I cleared my throat. “Anyways, as I was saying. There is a category for walkers, and then, there’s one for humans. Now, for humans, each and EVERY trap is set to ‘capture,’ so if anyone even manages to escape through our outter defense system, (outside) then once they walk over one of our traps, boom: hog-tied, down a tubular chute, and stowed away in the deep depths of our underground basement.” Jessie chuckled. “Well, that doesn’t sound creepy at all.” I laughed and shook my head. “Right. Well, anyways, we also have a system that shows us if any of our traps activated, that way, we can check it, and see what the cat dragged in. The human traps are set to ‘capture’ for interrogation, to see why the hell the person(s) broke in, who they are, and what they intended to do. Then, we have the munchers’ trap, for capturing those green freaks. There are actually two types of booby-traps for these, as there are for the ones for humans. They both have a ‘capture’ setting, and an ‘eliminate’ setting. Now, most of the walker traps are set to ‘eliminate’ because we don’t really need the dead guys, but in case we want to capture them, and spring a trap on anyone who dares to encounter us, we have the ‘capture’ default set on some of the greenie traps. But most of them are set on ‘eliminate.’ You’re probably wondering though, ‘oh, dear Celest, what, or how do the zombie traps exactly work?’ Well, that’s a fine question, thought inside all of y’alls heads. For the grabbers, there is a specially and individually placed flame-thrower in each booby-trap that incinerates all the zombies, and for the humans…a harpoon, to spear them straight through the heart, before they even realize what happened.” I smirked. Everyone was in awe with how the defense and offense system was arranged. It just…couldn’t have been made anymore perfectly than what it already was! Both I, and everyone else were proud of it, and to be honest, couldn’t even wait for someone to try his or her luck on us. We could all finally sleep contently without having to keep one eye open, fearing that someone would be stalking us from the side of our beds with a knife in their hands, or be wary of any raiders who were looking to capture, rape and/or kill any single one of us, and steal our valuables. If there were anything better than this, I could only hope that it wasn’t found or placed in the wrong hands, and also, I want to know, WHERE THE HELL COULD THAT BE?

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

A buzzing sound flew past my ear and I swatted in agitation, grumbling. “Ugh, is this really necessary?” I my voice rang angrily at Jessie as we trudged through some mud. She blew heavy air and glared at me. “Yes, Celest, it is. We’re low on supplies, so we need to gather some more supplies in order to survive. Make sense?” She sarcastically smiled at me. I nodded and spoke through gritted teeth, “Yes, darling. That makes total sense.” The buzzing flashed past my ear once more and I threw my arms up in angers and frustration. “Gah! Stupid fucking pests!” Jessica glanced at me in amusement and smirked. I huffed air in and out heavily until I saw the little bloodsucker take it’s place on my arm. I chuckled evilly and whispered under my breath, “Nothing more than nuisance…” I raised my hand and slapped my arm swiftly. “Aha! I got-“ The mosquito buzzed and flew around my face erratically. “Ah! You fuckin’ motherufucker, fuckin’…bitch!” I roared in anger and just sprayed the bug with pesticide. Jessie giggled and we continued on until we reached a gas station.‘Sip ‘N Go’ the sign hanging over the roof read. It shook from the light wind and the chains rattled. The structure of the building was all beat up and we could hear the monsters moaning inside, their voices slurred and light footsteps tracing through the automatic door. I looked at Jessie and sighed. “Really? You’ve got to be kidding me if you say we’re going in there.” She chuckled and nodded. I griped and groaned, slouching and whining. “Aw, c’mon Jess, seriously? Can’t we just find somewhere else to plunder?” I pleaded. She forced the pistol that was in my pocket in my hand and pulled me close to her by my shirt. Her breath hit my face as she spoke harshly through gritted teeth. “We have been walking for fifteen minutes! And I’ll be damned if we have to walk for another quarter hour, possibly more, just to find nothing!” She let go of my shirt roughly and I stumbled back a little with wide eyes. “Okay, okay, we’ll check it out, sheesh.” I huffed, straightening out my shirt, and then we both walked in slowly, with caution. The old, rusty automatic door creaked and scratched against each other before they opened fully. Jessie and I looked at each other and I sighed. “So much for stealth,” I grumbled. “Yeah,” Jessie chuckled as we went deeper into the small store. I looked over at the cashier station and smiled. “Too bad money doesn’t have a currency now, am I right?” I looked over at Jessie for a response, but to my surprise, she was gone. “Shit,” I whispered. “Jessie. Jessie!” I shrieked, even though I was whispering. That’s when I heard a yelp and some screaming. My eyes darted over to the direction of where the voice was coming from and I sprinted over there, trying my best to tread quietly with my sneakers on. My legs ran past a few aisles until my eyes caught a glimpse of two ghouls haggling over my girlfriend, one tugging on her arm and one thrashing at her face as she tried to get away. I gasped and took aim, inhaling and holding my breath. I exhaled slowly as my arms moved swiftly to the left, put a hole right between the sucker’s eyes that was pulling on Jessie’s arms, and then I put a bullet in the back of the other goon’s head right as he lunged at her. Of course, he fell on top of her and she shrieked like a little girl. I laughed and drew a few steps closer to her and stooped down to take the corpse off of her and she was still screaming like a little girl. “Okay, that’s enough, Beyoncé, God knows what others you could’ve attracted with your beautiful singing. Gosh, did I ever mention how angelic your vocals sound?” Jessie was breathing heavily and even shaking a little until she punched me in the arm and got up. “Ow! What the hell!” I rubbed my arm. “That’s for being an asshole,” She scolded. I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “I saved your life, didn’t I?” Jessie glared at me and growled. “I saved your life too!” She barked. I put my finger to my lips. “Shh!” Jessie grumbled and I chuckled, whispering teasingly, “I saved your life more.” I laughed a little. She pushed me back lightly and walked on. I followed her to help loot the store. We opened up an ice chest and I gasped. “Oh, my god, I can’t believe they still sell these!” I whispered at the top of my lungs. “What, Twinkies?” Jessie scoffed. “Those taste like crap.” I gasped horridly. “They do not!” I protested and leaned in to grab one. “They must’ve froze them here to preserve their pure and delightful, delicate state.” Jessie rolled her eyes and moved on to loot some more while I took care of the frozen good. I stuffed all the Twinkies in a bag and the ice merely melted in my hands. My mouth watered just thinking about stuffing my face full of Twinkies. “Ahh, just wait ‘till we get home, my little angels.” My eyes moved onto the rest of the items left in the chest, including popsicles, animal meat, and, well…ice. “Hey, babe!” Jessie whispered with cupped hands around her mouth. I turned my head just after raiding the ice chest and whispered back, “What?” She gestured me to come over to her by waving her arm towards herself. I got up off my knees and walked to her aisle with a full bag in hand and my arm being pulled down by its weight. She looked up at me and then at the aisle. Almost every one was empty except this one. This one seemed to have a load of goods to take. I rubbed my hands menacingly and chuckled. “Oh-ho, yeah. The mother load.” Jessie smiled and whispered, “Yeah.” As she started stuffing everything into her duffel bag. Everything was fine and dandy until we heard the automatic doors scrape against each other and then close. Jessie and I both froze for a second and looked at each other. “Stray monsters?” I asked. She shrugged and looked at me with concern. My back pressed against the shelves and I peeked past the aisle all the way over to the center of the store. I gasped and turned back quickly. “What? What is it?” Jessie grabbed my arm. “It’s people,” I hissed. “People with guns.” I continued. Jessie’s eyes widened and she leaned back slightly, filled with fear and intimidation. “What do we do?” Her voice panicked. “I-I dunno.” I shook my head, and then I paused. Then, a light bulb flashed in my head. “Wait, wait, I got an idea.” I glanced over at Jessica’s duffel bag. She noticed the direction my eyes went and whispered, “What, what is it?” her words passed quickly. I took two cans out of the duffel bag and handed her one, then kept the other can in my hand. “Here, take this. We’re gonna use these as a distraction, and then take them out.” Jessie nodded but then she paused. “But wait. What if they’re…actually good guys?” I sighed and looked down. “We can’t take that chance, Jessie.” I looked back up at her and she leaned forward, closer to my face. “Baby, yes, we can. Just know that whatever happens, we’ll go through it together, and I know we’ll make it out alive, like we always do.” She reassured me. I exhaled lightly and stared at her for a second before sighing deeply. “Okay, okay, I’ll give it a shot.” I assured her. She smiled at me and caressed my cheek. “I knew you’d make the right decisions, honey.” She hummed. I rolled my eyes and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, it’s not over yet, sweetheart.” I mumbled.I looked down at the can in my hand and sighed lightly. “A perfect waste of beans if you ask me.” I rolled it across the floor and we heard four guns cock. “Who’s there?” A girl shouted. I hesitated and exhaled calmly. “Um, it’s just us two.” I replied with an equal sound of voice. “We were kind of just, uh, you know, scouting the place for some supplies.” The group of four looked at each other and then from where the can rolled out from. “You find anything?” A guy hollered. I glanced at Jessie for a second. “Uh, yeah, in matter of fact, we did.” I heard the group murmur to each other briefly. “You plan on sharing?” A second guy asked and I sighed lightly. “We’re coming out with our hands up, okay? Don’t shoot.” My voice was calm, but my caution was sharp. Both, Jessie and I put our hands up slowly, a gun in one hand and our gatherings the other, and then we showed ourselves. The opposing group of people exchanged glances and then looked at us directly. “So, um,” I said awkwardly. How exactly are we going to-“ I got cut off from a desperate plead. “Please, man, we’re hungry! We got nowhere to go! It’d be really kind of you if we could just…tag along?” I looked at Jessie and she smiled at me. “See? They’re good guys.” She winked. I scoffed and grumbled, “We don’t know that yet.” I turned my attention towards the quadruplet of people. “Alright,” I said firmly. “We’re gonna have to disarm you, just as a precaution, until we’re sure you’re not a threat. Rest assured, though, we will see about letting you come with us.” The girl of the group cheered and hugged a much older looking man next to her, presumably her father, and the two other boys smiled. Jessie and I stepped closer to the four, cautiously, patted them down after putting our supplies on the floor and nodded to each other after confirming they were empty of anymore possible weapons they could harm us with. “Alright, you guys seem good to go. Follow us.” We picked up our bags after placing their weapons in them for safekeeping and walked out the store with the four people smiling behind us. A short fifteen minutes later, we arrived. The mystery people behind us looked in awe as they feasted they’re eyes on the mansion and I turned my head back towards them with a smile on my face and chuckled. “Yeah, it’s really something, isn’t it?” They all nodded quickly and agreed. I could tell by their ragged, filthy and beat up clothes that they’ve endured through some pretty tough things, and it looked liable enough for them to be going by their word. “Alright, guys, we’ll lead you inside, but be prepared if some of our people greet you with the barrel of their gun.” I chuckled nervously. Jessie followed me up the porch while the other people stayed behind, and I knocked on the door in a rhythmical manner. It was a password. To let the others know it was us. We could hear the door unlatching from the other side and then it opened up a creek, just enough to see Shane’s green eye. I smiled and chuckled. “We have some guests.” I said lightly. A second later, the door opened and the inside of the mansion had been revealed, and we all walked in, one after the other. Everyone else was having lunch until they noticed the others walking in. That’s when everyone stood up quickly and locked eyes with our guests. “Um, who are those people?” Mary asked hesitantly. I was the first one to say, “Um, well,” then I chuckled nervously. Jessie chimed in after me. “They’re people we encountered during the supply run. We were busy looting the store until these four showed up. They had more firepower, but they still surrendered in return that we help them. They seem to be starving and friendly. This was all my idea, by the way. I kinda had to persuade Cel to go along.” She chuckled nervously.” John growled and stood straight strongly. “I don’t care whose idea it was. Since when is it a good idea to bring over people that we have absolutely no idea about, into our house, our place of security, our place of-“ Shane nudged John’s shoulder and he paused to listen to his whispers. “It might not actually be a bad idea to let these folks in, I mean, I get where you’re coming from, John, but…we kinda need the extra hands around here, and, well…Jessie’s right, they kinda do look innocent. You know I have an eye for that sorta thing.” Shane went on and John nodded to the rest and stared at our four new friends. He grunted and walked towards his room but stopped at his doorway and turned to us. “But the first thing I see odd about those four, they’re out.” The group of four looked at each other and then the girl nudged my arm. I looked at her and she murmured in my ear, “Is he always like that?” I chuckled and shook my head. “No, not always.” I replied. Jessie gave the girl next to me a sharp and witty squint without her noticing and grumbled. I Looked at Jessie and smiled. “Hey, let’s show them around the place, huh? You know, give them a good sense of home.” Jessica’s eyes popped at me and she stammered. “Oh, why, yes, of course.” She chuckled.