The next day we woke up early to get ready for the manhunt. The first place we decided to go was my ex-best friend's house. She lives—sorry—lived in a compound near the school, so we headed there. Jacob and I drove in separate cars, and I was grateful for the brief silence, it gave me time to think and practice my reactions granting I found anyone. I was driving ahead of him since I knew the way. We had yet another surprise as a horde of zombies was blocking our passage. Odd, I thought, this was not here before. I didn't even dare honk, too scared to attract them, instead, I opened my window and waved at Jacob to stop. I did a u-turn very slowly and drove a safe distance away from the horde. When I thought to be a relatively safe distance away from the walkers, I exited my car and Jacob did the same.

"Did you see that horde? How are we supposed to get past them?" Jacob asked.

"I have no idea, but think," after contemplating on different options for a while I spoke up, "You know my cars are equipped to go through hordes right? We just have to go right through them," I suggested.

I once met this guy named Pablo, he was a mechanic, and we became terrific friends. We were out together, and we almost died because our car had no protection against hordes. We had to climb to the sunroof and be very still until the walkers dispersed. It took the whole day! After that, we both decided to zombie-proof my cars. We put links and tracks on the tires with blades, we attached the scoop part of friction scoops in the front, and put metal bars on the windows. My biggest dream for this apocalypse was to find a Ghe-O Rescue, a Knight XV Armored SUV or an INKAS Huron APC. Then I wouldn't need all these shenanigans on my cars.

"There had to be at least one hundred biters back there. Even if we go through them, the rest will follow us into the compound," he pointed out.

"Then we kill them."

"We will be wasting too much ammo. The supplies don't even belong to me and I am preserving them more than you are. And not to mention the fact that they are too many for us to kill."

"I just feel anxious," I confessed, "I want to get this over with, the faster my disappointment, the faster I can learn how to live with it."

"Let's keep thinking, how about that?"

"Yeah, sure," I agreed with him.

Jacob was the first one to speak up.

"How about one of us goes around and leads them away from the other side to somewhere else?" he suggested.

"That is a good idea," I said surprised, "I have walkie-talkies in my bag, you go around, and I'll wait."

"Why do I have to go around? What if I find another horde?" he complained.

"Then drive through it, you don't have to kill them, just drive somewhere safe. Then talk to me using the walkie-talkie," I assured Jacob.

"You make driving in the middle of a zombie horde sound as natural as walking down the street," he pointed out sarcastically.

"We haven't all day, let's hurry up," I told him, soberer than before.

"Okay, I'll go around and take them to that restaurant in the back," he began moving around, projecting a plan.

"The one that's behind that green school? Isn't that a bit far?" I asked him, preoccupied.

"Isn't the point of all this to take them away from here? Might as well make this area relatively safe," Jacob explained.

"In that case, drive right through them. We kill some of the walkers while driving the rest away."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, might as well test out the car's protection. I will be back here if you need back up," I went to my backpack inside my car and retrieved a walkie-talkie for him. "Here, take this," I handed him the device, "They have a long range, so you can get to me no matter how far you are."

He silently nodded and made his way back to his car, and I did the same. His engine roared to life, and he began ahead of me. I followed suit keeping a considerable distance. When he finally reached the horde, I stayed behind and got ready in case something went wrong. I got a rifle from the back—because no one leaves their haven without weapons these days—climbed to the roof and took position laying down.

He got through the horde easily at first, but the zombies quickly took notice of the invader and surrounded the car. I was panicking for him, and I could only imagine how he must have felt. His car stopped, and sweat broke out on my forehead. It dripped to the bridge of my nose, it went into my eyes, and it burnt like hell. I drifted my attention from Jacob to wipe my eyes, as soon as my vision was clear the vehicle was already moving again.

The walkie-talkie made a static-like noise, and a voice spoke from the other side.

"I could sleep in this car and not worry about these biters. No matter how much they surround the car, it still moves. This is amazing! Over," Jacob said from the other side.

"That's great just keep going. I repeat, we haven't got all day. You don't want to be out here by nightfall, over," I advised him.

"It's barely ten in the morning; I think we have enough time, over."

"Just hurry up, over," I told him.

"Fine, over and out," from the other side sounded a honk.

I looked up and noticed he was already gone. I hurried back into the car and made my way to the restaurant he planned on taking the horde. I drove slowly, careful not to attract unwanted attention. I found him—or should I say the horde—by the bowling alley, left mid-construction. Once again, I stayed behind, observing the crowd. Some of them were drifting; others were still trying to keep up with the car. Jacob drove slow enough to keep them interested but fast enough so that they don't surround the vehicle. I could only see the back part of the horde; I couldn't see what was up front or the car too well, only the top part.

"Shit," came from the walkie-talkie, "There is another horde here, over."

"How big is it? Can you drive through them? Over."

"I don't know if one car will be enough. Where are you? Over," Jacob asked.

"Right behind you. Go ahead and drive through them, get their attention, distract them. I'll go in behind you and do the same; we'll confuse them. You will get to the intersection at the restaurant first, make a right and drive down that road; I'll go left. We'll drive a safe enough distance from them, and then we go back to where we were initially, okay? Over."

"Okay, better than nothing. Over."

I started driving again, right in the middle of the horde. The car shook side to side, but it kept moving. The walkers in the front disappeared as the scoop pushed them. The intersection wasn't far; it was just the slow driving that made it seem so far away.

Once I got there, I noticed a big horde on the right side of the intersection and Jacob speeding up front, ace made a left and drove for a few more meters then I sped up leaving the zombies behind. I followed the unpaved road that led up to some banks in the main street, from there I could make my way back to my ex-best friend's condo.

Once there Jacob drove through the wickets that were closed, but they were no match for his large SUV. He pushed through it smoothly without damaging the car. When we got to the front of her apartment building I carefully parked the car in the right spot—just because the world is ending doesn't mean manners should too.

I got out of the car and started heading towards the entrance, and Jacob hurried his pace to keep up since he took longer to exit the vehicle. I took the stairs two by two and got there in no time since she lived on the second floor, which oddly was also the last one.

I stood in front of her door for a moment just staring and contemplating on what might happen. I didn't expect this to have any effect on me. Guess I still felt some way about how we left our friendship.

"Are you ready or do you need more time?" Jacob muttered sympathetically, apparently having noticed my hesitation.

"I'm all right," I told him and then I knocked. Silence. I knocked again. There was a light shuffle followed by a closing door. I looked at Jacob, and he was smiling. "It might be a walker?" I questioned, although I knew better.

"Walkers don't close doors Zy," he said smiling even wider.

The shuffle came closer to the door, so I knocked again. Shuffle.

"Who is there?" a female voice I've heard way too many times asked from the inside.

"It's me Zy. Open up."

The lock turned, and right there my heart beat picked up, and I could feel myself starting to shake and old memories flooded my mind like a tidal wave and let me tell you this, it felt horrible. Then finally the door creaked open slowly to reveal my old friend's now slender figure with long brown hair and the same old square-framed glasses she always wore. Guess she wouldn't be changing anymore.

"Hi," I said shyly. The door flew open, and my old friend engulfed me in a bear hug. She changed from when I saw her last. Her curves now replaced by skin and bone, and she was taller than I remember. I was taken aback by her sudden gesture, but I guess six months alone in a world with the living dead will do that to you.

"I can't believe you're alive. I can't believe you came for me," she was crying by now. Snot and drool, and violent sobs type of crying. Once again I stood there not knowing what to do because I was never good at comforting people.

"My curiosity got the best of me," I responded flatly. At my comment, Jacob nudged me in the ribs softly. It wasn't a lie, though. I was curious. "I mean... Uhm... I wasn't sure if you or anyone I knew was still alive, so we decided to check," I tried my best to be sympathetic.

"I see that the horrors of this new world only made you colder," she said between sobs, already calming down.

"It's life, my friend. So let's get this snot and drool off your face, and you'll tell us what your story is."

"My story?" she asked even though I thought it was pretty self-explanatory.

"Everyone has a different story to how they're living now since this began," I explained. Jacob and I helped her straighten up and took her inside the studio apartment to sit her on the couch. I went to the kitchen division to see if she had any water and just as I thought the fridge was empty and so were the cabinets. How is Elise alive? I immediately turned to my backpack and took one of the extra water bottles I always bring just in case, along with a can of sausage and some bread that I baked yesterday—call it life necessities. I gave her the water first, and she downed it under a minute, and then I gave her the food and took out a second bottle of water and handed it to her too. While she was eating, I finally had the time to look better at the studio. It was gross, and it smelled. There were dirty dishes everywhere and rotten food too—most likely the cause of the smell.

"What happened to your parents?" I curiously asked.

"In the bedroom," she said weakly. I made my way to her parent's bedroom. The hallway smelled much worse than the living area. I covered my nose with a bandana I had around my neck and moved to her parent's door. I opened it and God I've never closed a door faster than in that moment. "What the heck?" I wondered to myself. I pulled my t-shirt over my bandana and opened the door again. It smelled so bad my eyes began watering, oh my! When I fully opened the door, Jacob had just joined me and was gagging due to the smell.

"Aye, what the f—" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw what I saw. Both her parents were dead in bed. They were so decomposed. I don't know when they died or how but the way their bodies decayed was fascinating. Word for word, skin, and bone, their skin looked greenish, and the eye sockets were sunken in, resembling a black hole. They caught sight of movement and human scent and started to stir in bed, but that's all they did really. This happens to zombies. If they never feed they lose their strength and decomposition accelerates but they don't die because their brains are intact. That's how you kill them. Destroy the brain. I took out my hunting knife and did the deed, opened a window, closed the door and went back to my hopeless friend.

"Elise, what the hell—" Jacob cleared his throat stopping me before I could continue, "I mean what happened to your parents?" I rephrased, but she kept quiet. "I'm assuming they have been dead for quite a while now but, how?"

"When we heard the news of this virus breakout, my parents were rushing to get to one of those centers where they helped people and stuff, but I had thought of all the times you went on and on about zombies and what else so I told them it was a bad idea. I convinced them to stay and wait. But then..." she started sniffing, and tears threatened to spill, but she kept on going, "My dad—stubborn as he is—decided to go downstairs and ask the guards if they were warned about anything and my mom went with him. I don't know what happened outside, but when they came back, they were both bit and traumatized. It got crazy. When they were finally too sick, I took them to their bedroom, and we said our goodbyes. They wanted me to leave just in case, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I stayed. Too scared to go outside, too scared to even break into my neighbor's house just to take some food since I barely had any food, so I had to eat small portions and save up. I've been starving for almost a week now."

By the time she finished the tears were already shed and the crying just intensified. This is why I always put this shit off. I wonder how my rich friends are doing. Just those pantries they had at home could last a good four months even if they had to feed six people, no exaggeration.

~~~~~~