We introduced ourselves, and the girls and I looked through the cabinets for food. Shandre’s injured arm hung at her side as we put dinner together. While we were eating she opened up a little bit—even giggling once—but was obviously tired. More than once she looked like she was having trouble keeping he head upright. The thought occurred to me that Berke may have doped her up. Though I hadn’t looked in the medicine cabinet yet, people who owned a house like that probably had an array of pharmaceuticals. I couldn’t blame him. If she was in as bad a shape as she looked she was probably in a lot of pain.
Shandre had been sitting still for a long time when Berke touched her on the shoulder. She looked up at him, but didn’t say anything. Berke said something like ‘Time for bed,’ and then picked her up and carried her to a bedroom.
He came back quietly and we moved into the living room to sit down and talk. The sun had set, so it was dark outside. And barely any of the moonlight made it under the trees. I’d stopped counting how many zombies were outside. The moaning hadn’t gotten any louder that I could tell.
“She’s a sweet girl,” Liz said to Berke when he sat down.
“I know,” Berke said looking down. He started shaking his head then opened his eyes. “It’s so fucked up,” he said softly.
“I know it is,” said Liz sounding dazed.
“What happened to her shoulder?” Nancy asked in a hushed voice.
“Oh…” sighed Berke. He took a deep breath. “We were at my sister’s, my wife and I…” The I came out in a stutter. Berke closed his mouth for a second, and then continued. “When it started to look like things were getting serious. Some of the neighbors had packed up and left, but most of them decided to stock up and wait it out. Jaina’s...my sister’s house was much bigger than ours, it had a second floor. Tricia and I packed up some things and went over and— Anyway, the other night they got in and well, Shandre and I are the only ones that made it out.”
Everyone was very quiet for a second. “So what happened to her?” asked Dad.
“Zombie got her,” Berke said, letting out a breath. “It’s not as bad as it could have been, but…” Nancy’s face went waxy in the dark.
“Oh, God,” she said.
“She’s a fighter,” said Berke. “She’s really keeping it together pretty good. Thank God I could clean out it out once we got here.”
It reminded me,“What sort of have they got here?”
“Oh all sorts of stuff,” said Berke, then he chuckled. “The running water helped.”
“Water?” I asked
“Yeah,” said Berke.
“Is it still on?” asked my Dad leaning forward.
“Sure it is,” said Berke, looking side to side.
My Dad jumped up and started running. I got up and ran to the bathroom, stumbling through thedarkness.
“What?” Nancy asked in a modest shout.
“Power’s gone,” my Dad said. I found the spigot and turned it on full blast. “No telling when the water’ll go too.” I groped all around the tub for a stop but couldn’t find one. “Girls, why don’t you go look for some buckets in those cupboards by the door.”
“Why didn’t I think of that,” I heard Berke say as he followed the girls past the bathroom door.
“Dad,” I said walking out of the bathroom. “Do you have a lighter?” He was squatting under the counter pulling out a stack of steel bowls. He stood up, nestled the bowls under one arm, and tossed me a Zippo from his pocket. In the bathroom, I found there wasn’t a stop, but a little silver lever set into the wall of the tub, which I flipped.
The sink filled, Dad started in on the bowls. Berke and the girls were chattering, and clattering with things in the closets at the far end of the house. “Joe,” Dad said, “would you look through the fridge for any bottles.”
“Yeah,” I said but was interrupted. A loud, metallic knock rang out from the front door. Nancy shrieked, and crying started coming from Shandre’s room.
“Board up the door!” Berke grumbled, and the clattering near the door reached a new height. “Liz, will you…” he said.
Shandre opened the bedroom door and came wandering out right toward me. She was crying; her right arm out in front of her to stop her from running into things. Her hand bumped into me and I reached out and closed her in a hug. “It’s okay, Shandre.” I opened my mouth to say something, but Liz reached us, our of the darkness. Shandre pulled back and Liz took her, cooing, back into the bedroom.
As I got to the front door Berke was already hammering a board over the top of the front door, and it’s window. As I got closer I noticed the hinges hanging off one side; closet door. “Let me hold that, Berke.” He stepped back and I leaned against the board. A hand hit the door gratingly. I jumped, instinctively, and felt a little sick. It banged again. Berke started hammering at nails on either end of one side. We switched places and he finished that board. When I turned to get another board, Nancy passed up carrying two orange buckets.
“Check the bathtub,” I said to her. She nodded. Berke and put another closet door up. “Good thing you didn’t do this last night,” I said. Berke grunted and pulled another door from it’s hinges. The banging kept going, and I let out an uneasy laugh.
“Yeah,” said Berke.
“Or else…” Berke started coming back toward me, and the look on his face said stop.
“Look,” he said heaving the board up over the first one. “I didn’t think of…”
“No,” I interrupted, “I didn’t mean anything. I didn’t mean…”
We finished boarding up the door.
—Introduction and Dramatis Personæ
