I sat on the log next to a sleeping Emery while the fire roared in front of me, how were we still alive? Everything went to shit two years ago; for me, the zombie apocalypse started in my sophomore study hall, for Emery it started when she had to come to my sophomore study hall to give me back the homework she needed to copy for geometry. At least I finally was able to get back at my middle school bully by knocking his brains in while Emery threw a smaller kid out the window. Since that fateful day in study hall, Emery and I have been on the run, and our little group of two has grown surprisingly large. Bob and Jay were intertwined under a thin piece of cloth, shifting even closer while they slept, searching for warmth. The twins, Margaret and Jerry, were sprawled out on the other side of the fire; Margaret’s foot twitched and almost kicked Baby Jack, who was lying on his back next to his snoozing mother, in the side of the head. I let out a heavy sigh. Joey and Roy were still trying to find a pair of gloves that Roy had dropped a few yards back, this temporary camp was set up so we would be easier for them to find; that and I had gotten my machete stuck in the log. I whipped my head around when I heard the scuffle of some gravel against the road, they were back already? A deep and snarly moan came from the direction I was facing. I reached for my machete only to silently curse myself when I remembered that it was stuck deep into the log. I didn’t want to wake up anyone because by the proximity of the noise and how long it took for people to be alert, it would be too late. I glanced around in a panic to see what I could use, the gutteral noises getting closer with each second that passed by. Zombies could burn, right? I felt a leathery hand paw at my shoulder, and I grabbed the burning log in front of me while jumping to my feet. The log swung like a baseball bat and cracked the braineater in the skull. I jumped over the log and brought the log down on the zombie’s head again and again and again. That motherfucker wasn’t gonna get us tonight. I stopped when I realized that the log was still burning and was starting to burn my own hand. I dropped the log and cradled my wounded hand, sitting back down next to Emery; Emery was now awake, along with the rest of the group, and stunned at what had just happened.

“Ollie, is your hand ok? Did you get bit?” Pure fear was shaking in her voice, the rule with our group was either cut off the infected part and hope for the best, or a mercy shot to the head. I shook my head a little too fast.

“No, I just burned it,” I could see the tension in her shoulders release as she scooted over to look at my hand. Joey and Roy were running back, gloves in hand.

“Whoa, what happened?” Roy looked very concerned, I guess that I was nice to know that he cared and wasn’t just concerned about having a place to stay. Bob interjected from where Emery had been sitting.

“Oliver beat the shit out of a zombie that wandered over, I didn’t even know what was going on. I was sleeping and just heard a thud that woke me up, I think he burned his hand. Dumbass used a log that was still on fire,”

“Hey! I saved your ass, Bob, and my good weapon was not accessible at the moment. At least I was still able to kill the damn thing,” Bob scoffed and went back to filling in Joey and Roy about what they had missed. I winced when Emery brushed some dirt out of the wound.

“Looks like you gave yourself a second degree burn, Tonto,” I squinted at her.

“Quit saying words that I don’t know. It’s not fair, you were born speaking Spanish, I got half a shitty semester of it,” Emery smirked and started to unroll some gauze that she kept with her, I didn’t know how it managed to stay clean after all of the blood and guts we had to go through at various points. I bit my lip and tried counting the hairs on her head while she wrapped it tight, the pain was almost unbearable. Once she was done wrapping my hand, she patted it lightly almost as if to check that she had done it right.

“You want me to kiss it to make it better?” I laughed, hoping that the red light of the fire would hide the blush growing across my face. Friends can make jokes like that, right? The log beneath us moved a little, and Jay let out a small happy cheer.

“Got it! Now everything is packed up and we should be able to keep on going. Where to next, Oliver?” Jay held the machete out to me like he was about to pronounce me king of this fucked up world.

I led the group through the rest of the town, the new location was supposed to be a surprise. Bob was whining in the back about how long we had been walking, the sun was just starting to peek out over the horizon, its fiery red hue contrasting to the chilly air enveloping us. Winters in South Carolina were mild, but it was still cold enough that we wouldn’t be comfortable unless we found some sturdier clothes, Jack was sick enough as it is.

“Oh no, we are not going where I think we are going!” Jay tugged Bob’s arm, a useless attempt to shut him up. “Do you even know how idiotic it would be to make camp on the beach? Hurricanes just come by here willy nilly, and the wind coming off the sea is even colder than being in the parks! I cannot let you make us set up camp here,” Rosie spun around and got in Bob’s face, pushing Jay away from his grasp.

“My baby is sick and needs to rest, and Oliver has gotten us through hell and back times before. If he thinks that we should set up camp on the beach, then we are going to set up camp on the beach. The zombies seem to not like the water, so it works out for us in the end. You better shut up before I make you,” Jan seemed to be having fun watching everything in the back, Emery was glaring at her with a fire in her eyes. If it wasn’t for Jan’s medical school training, she would have been kicked out a while ago, but we need all the medical help she could give us even though she did fail out of med school. Emery’s mother was a nurse and taught her a lot, hell, Emery set my broken leg in fourth grade when the teacher was crying her eyes out, but we still needed more than what Emery could offer, and despite Jan’s blantent hatred for queer folk, she was a half decent nurse. Rosie backed off and started walking forward again, I waited a second to make sure that Bob or Jay wasn’t going to lash out at her. Emery gave me a slight nod to keep on going.

The beach was all clear of zombies and most wildlife in general. Turns out, a zombie outbreak can really fuck up an ecosystem. The waters themselves seem less full of power with the lack of everything that should have been there. Jay, Joey, Jan, and Bob were setting up the barriers around where our little camp would be. Emery and Roy were counting supplies and getting the station stuff out and ready for use if needed, Rosie and I were watching Jack, his sickness seemed to have only been getting worse with the cold weather rolling in. The poor little guy had a rough start in life, Emery helped deliver him and Rosie almost broke my hand in the process of birthing him. Nobody knew what they were doing, but Emery and I couldn’t just leave the lady to give birth next to a dumpster alone. I bounced Jack up and down while Rosie was trying to figure out a way to feed him without exposing herself too much, Jan was the only one who seemed to care; Bob and Jay were gay, Emery was straight, I couldn’t look at Rosie without thinking about my hand being crushed and that was an extreme turnoff, Roy just seemed to not be interested in humans altogether, the twins saw Rosie like a mother figure themselves, and Joey seemed too afraid of Rosie to look at her normally. Rosie did feel bad because of how vocal Jan was about her displeasure about having to see Rosie breastfeed, so I guess that’s the only reason Rosie tried to be discreet about it. Jack, on the other hand, did not care about formalities. He wanted food and he didn’t care whose tit it came from. The little fucker tried to nurse off of me, and I did not care for that shit at all. I still hold hard feelings towards him, and I didn’t like having to be in charge of him while everyone else set up our camp. I normally did most of the work myself, but Emery gave me a look that could kill when I tried to help set up the fence. I guess my hand if could enough to be a backup hand to hold a baby but not good enough to set up a much less damageable metal fence. Eventually, Jack got fed and everything got set up. The twins started helping Emery and Roy out with the supply count while I crashed on a ratty sleeping pad.

“Ollie!” I snapped my eyes open to see a curly-haired mess standing over me. Her cheeks were slightly pink from hanging her head down to get close to my face, Emery’s brown eyes and freckles shone brighter in contrast to the hue spreading over her face. I closed my eyes again and turned to the side, my hands wrapped around my aching ribcage as I tried to go back to sleep and ignore whatever devilish ploy Emery had decided to concoct for today. “Oliver, you better not be ignoring me. It’s important.” I wiggled myself into a more comfortable position, I could practically hear the smile in her voice. After a few muttered cursings, Emery grabbed me, spun me onto my back, and hoisted me up to her via holding my shirt. “Comeon! We’re out of supplies, and we need to go on a raid! Ollie!” I let my head loll back as I groaned. I hated going on raids. Raids meant that I had to play babysitter for x amount of people. I swear, everyone here has one brain cell, yet I have to use all of them.

“How low on supplies are we?”

“Rosie needs lady things, so do I, and we don’t have enough food to last us more than two days. This includes today, too,” I scooted back away from Emery’s grasp, she plopped down in front of me.

“Who is willing to go and who is willing to stay back?” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“I wanna go, Joey and Margaret probably wanna go, Jerry will wanna stay back, I dunno about Bob, Jay, and Jan, though. Rosie and Jack need to stay here, I don’t trust them out without the protection of our lovely fence that you so graciously helped set up,”

“Hey! You wouldn’t let me help!” Emery smirked at my cry and stuck her tongue out at me. I sighed. I just wanted to sleep, was a little sleep too much to ask for?

“I’ll let you sleep on the good cot if you goooo. Besides, are you even willing to let us go without you? There’s a reason that the first time we went to get supplies without you was also the last one,”

“And it’s a damn good reason. Let’s get our asses in gear, but do we have any Advil or anything? My head hurts,” Emery nodded and sprung up to get me some drugs from the med kit. I rubbed my ribs and closed my eyes. God, I fucking hated going on raids.