"Get back in the house!" her brother shouted as he pushed her backward. "Zoe! Get back in the house!"
She backed away a step as she saw him advance on the gray skinned man and she flinched as he struck with a mighty yell, slamming his fist solidly into the man's nose and sending him staggering back.
Zoe heard some kind of gurgle beside and behind her, then she turned and saw the horrible apparition of a woman, also with gray skin and sunken eyes, who rushed to her, and she screamed as the woman grabbed onto her, and she screamed even louder as the woman bit her arm. The pain ripped through her and she staggered sideways, somehow managing to push the woman off of her, and she retreated as her attacker continued to advance with grasping hands and snapping teeth. "Steve!" she screamed.
Her brother charged in and slammed full on into the gray skinned woman, knocking her brutally to the floor, then he looked to Zoe and shouted, "Get in the house!"
This time she complied, driven by terror, but she paused at the door inside to look over her shoulder, and she gasped as she saw her older brother pick up a baseball bat and square off against four more who were lumbering toward him, four more tattered and dirty gray skinned people who seemed to not be able to control how they moved very well. Their jerky movements and the way they walked like they could barely stay upright played together in her mind and fueled the horror that welled up within her and she cried out again and ran blindly into the house. Stopping in the kitchen where she expected to find her parents, she shouted, "Daddy!" She looked around her, and screamed, "Mommy!" Barking a scream as she heard something bang from her side, she spun around to find her father storm into the kitchen, and she found herself crying as she hysterically reported, "Daddy! Steve is fighting with some people out there and they have gray skin and they are all dirty and—"
He took her shoulders and interrupted, "Zoe! Get your medicine and whatever you need and put it in a bag and get yourself to the back door. Do it now!"
She nodded and rushed past him, past her mother who had just entered.
Running into the bathroom, she grabbed two bottles of pills, her deodorant, her toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, then turned to her room and ran in there. The room was comfortable and pink and white and had an assortment of dolls and toys about. The bed was, as always, perfectly made and her white teddy bear was sitting on her pillow with its back to the headboard, and she took it as well. Pausing by the bed as she held what she had and hugged the teddy bear to her, she looked around her. She needed a sack like her father had told her, or something to use as a sack. Dropping the bathroom items on the bed, she darted to the closet, pulled it open and looked to the top shelf, and she reached to where her sheets were neatly folded on one end of that top shelf, pulling down a pillowcase. Hurrying back to the bed, she set her bear down and quickly opened the pillowcase with shaking hands, then she put the bathroom items inside one by one before picking the bear up and running with it and the pillowcase sack to the door. She paused halfway down the hall when she heard a banging from what appeared to be the front door, then she hesitantly strode that way, her eyes wide as she approached the end of the hallway.
Out in the living room, she could see the front door and her father pushing against it as someone or something on the other side was banging on it to try and get in.
Her mother hurried to her and took her shoulders, holding her firmly as she frantically ordered, "Zoe, go out back and find somewhere to hide! No, hide in the garden shed and make sure you close the door behind you! Go!"
"Mommy?" she whimpered as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Just go!" her mother shouted. "We'll come for you as soon as it's safe. Just don't come out of there until then."
"Zoe!" her father shouted from the front door as he struggled to hold the intruders out. "Go on! Do as your mother said and get to the garden shed! Go!"
With a little child-like cry, the girl looked once to her father, then to her mother, then she turned to the sliding door that would take her out to the back yard and pulled it open, running out into the back yard. She hadn't the time to get her shoes and barely noticed as she arrived at the shed, and she cried as she pulled the door open and entered as quickly as she could, closing the door slowly and quietly as she had always been told to. It was afternoon and the shed was hot within and she retreated behind the riding lawn mower and hid behind the shelves in the corner at the back. It was not a big structure, only about ten by ten feet, but there was a lot of stuff to hide among and she pressed her back to the wooden wall in the corner and curled herself up as small as she could. She still cried, but did so as quietly as she could. Absently, she dropped the pillow case she used as a sack and raised her hand to her other arm, which bled halfway down from her elbow and hurt terribly.
She trembled as she forced herself to stop crying, her wide, dark green eyes glancing about as she heard noises outside, moaning and heavy, clumsy steps on the ground. Looking around her in the darkness as if to see the horror that was looking for her right on the other side of the thin plywood walls, she breathed in shaking gasps. It stank within and the smells of insecticides mingled with the odor of gasoline, cut grass, soil, and every other scent that could be imagined in such a place. It was an overwhelming smell that she found herself too afraid to notice.
Something banged on the door and she flinched, turning her wide eyes that way. There was a scream from within the house. She recognized it as her mother, and even way out here could hear the struggle in the place she had been told to abandon. Her parents and brother knew she would not be safe inside and echoing in her memory was her father yelling at her, telling her to get out the back and hide and do it now! She was too afraid and did as her father had told her. This kept replaying in her memory, as did the event in the garage, when her brother was fighting with a number of them, including the one that had bitten her.
The house was silent in moments and for what seemed like hours after she could hear the moaning of the gray skinned people outside of the shed she hid in, but after a while the moaning grew more distant, more faint as they seemed to move away. She had seen such people in the movies, movies she was not supposed to watch, and she knew they were zombies, just like in the movies.
Zoe waited for a long time, as quiet and still as she could be. Her eyes darted about in the darkness, following every sound, every creak of the shed, every bump she heard.
Sometime later, she looked down at her watch, seeing that it was nearly six o'clock. There were things to be done at that time, routines and rituals that were her life, but she was too afraid to move, and she was feeling sick from the bite. Her head was beginning to hurt, mostly right behind her eyes and she had a terrible ache at the back of her head and down her neck, an ache that managed to creep all the way down her back. She did not understand what was happening to her and was much too afraid to go for help or even leave the corner in the shed where she hid.
Moments later she looked down at her watch again. It was now after six and it was time for dinner and the things she would do in the evening. Despite how ill she felt as the virus did its work inside of her body, she was feeling more anxious about what she had to do at six, and this anxiousness began to urge her to go about her tasks, speaking louder and louder until she could take it no more.
Hesitantly, and as quietly as she could, she stood from the corner, clutching the pillow case and teddy bear tightly to her as she looked about. Growing very dizzy, she blinked and finally squeezed her eyes shut. She staggered backward two steps and slammed into the corner of the shed again. Sweat began to bead up on her and she found herself shaking horribly and soon lost control of her legs, and she collapsed to where she had been a moment ago. She felt like her entire body was slowing down, like she had just run a great distance and now exhaustion had robbed her of her strength. Coldness swept through her, radiating out from her core. Even as she tried to reason out what was happening to her, something began to interfere with her thoughts. There were times when she had been unable to concentrate on something, but this seemed different, as if something else was trying to think for her. The dizziness grew worse and as her head bobbed forward. Her eyes grew very heavy and before she realized what was happening, her arms dropped to her sides and she slumped over, falling to the plywood floor and on top of her teddy bear.