WILLA, стр. 8

By the time I made it back to my cot, Grandma had Mom sitting up and sipping tea. By the glazed look in Mom’s eyes, Grandma had slipped her a sedative. I hadn’t heard Mom say anything. If, when she woke from her nap, she awoke as the woman who believed the zombie-apocalypse had happened, then she’d probably been hysterical. If she’d woken in denial, she could’ve gotten a bit violent. Either version would need calming.

“Whose idea was it to bring everyone here?” I asked Grandma as she coaxed Mom to drink.

“Mine,” Grandma said, not taking her eyes off her daughter. “This is our family home. We’ll be safe here.”

“Do you think it’s real?” I asked, nodding toward the outside of the house, hoping she understood what I was referring to so that I wouldn’t have to say the word aloud.

“Yes. And not just because of what your Uncle Carson says he saw. I’ve lived for a long time. I know real panic and fear when I see it. Those news anchors weren’t joking.”

“This feels so impossible.”

“Impossible things happen all the time,” Grandma said, motioning me away from my mother. “With all the hype zombies have been getting over the years, it was inevitable that someone would try to create them. Of course, I don’t think their creator made the creatures with this in mind. Some idiot probably thought they could contain the virus. They always think they can do that.”

“You think someone purposefully started the outbreak?” I asked, barely whispering the words.

I couldn’t believe anyone could do such a thing.

“It’s more than possible,” Grandma said.

“How are you staying so calm?” I asked.

“I’m a mother and a grandmother, I’ve learned how to hide my freak-outs, as you would call them. When your children see you scared, it makes their fear worse, no matter how old they are. I’ve had a good cry. I’ve pissed on myself watching some of the videos on TV. Now, I’m just trying to focus on one second at a time...one task after another. What about you? You seem to be holding up well.”

“I don’t know how I am. To be honest, I guess that I don’t fully believe this is real.”

“It’s real, all right,” Uncle Carson said, coming to stand beside us. “The latest news reports say that the creatures will be here first thing in the morning. Jamie and I are going to board the downstairs windows and some of the second-floor ones. We’re also going to add bars to the doors, though they’ll be our main guard areas down here.”

“Okay. Take Willa upstairs with you,” Grandma said.

“I...” Uncle Carson said.

“Take her while your sister is sleeping. When she wakes, she isn’t going to let Willa help us do anything. You know that. Which is sad because Willa is one of the few people here who has kept their shit together.”

I gaped at Grandma’s use of the word “shit.” I don’t think I’d ever heard her curse.

“Okay,” Uncle Carson said. “Come on.”

He nodded in the direction of the stairs.

“Take those nails up to Kris and help him,” Uncle Carson said when we got to the living room, pointing to a few boxes on a table by the front door.

“Okay.”

I grabbed the nails and went to the second floor to find my cousin. Kris was in his dad’s old room. He was working on nailing a board over one of the three windows.

“I come bearing nails,” I said, entering the room and heading to one of the open windows.

The world outside was growing dark. That didn’t stop me from noticing that someone had moved our vehicles, including the ones used only on the farm to form a circle barrier around the house.

“Your dad is brilliant,” I said, going on the assumption that either Uncle Jamie or Uncle Carson had the bright idea to use the cars as an extra layer of protection.

“Oh, that was Chad’s idea,” Kris said.

“Good on him.”

“Yeah. It’s a good thing Chad has read all those zombie books.”

I barked out a laugh that wasn’t at all humorous.

“I can’t believe we’re living in a world dependent on the knowledge found in fiction novels,” I said.

“Right. You know, I thought I’d be excited if something like this occurred. Now, I can barely stop from pissing myself when I take a second to think about what’s happening out there.”

I turned to stare out the window one last time before helping Kris steady a board on the next window.