Red at Day

As soon as I reach consciousness, my back begins to ache in new ways. I turn onto my stomach and rub my back. Wait- I open my eyes and look around. I'm laying on a hardwood floor with the blanket from the bed next to me draped on my pelvis.
“Did you really manage to push me off the bed?” I ask, rubbing my back. A groan from above can be heard and I push myself up. I sit Indian style and look over at the bed. From left to right the order is Kasmira, Honey, and Jackie who is right next to me.
“There wasn't any room.” Jackie moans.
“What happened to 'we can make room'?” I ask.
“We did make room.”
“That's just rude. I could have slept on the boat.”
“That's your fault.”
“You told me we could all fit.”
“We did.”
“Sleeping.”
“We did. You just fell off.”
“I'm done.” I move onto to my knees and hands. I crawl outside of the bedroom and into the living room. On the couch is Carter laying on his back with Angel on his stomach. I smile at how precious they are and crawl to the fireplace. There I sit on my knees and throw logs into the fire. It's cold.
“How do you sleep?” Victor asks as he walks into the house. Carter and Angel's eyes flicker open. Victor looks back and forth between all of us with a smile plastered on his face.
“Good.” Carter and Angel say.
“Okay.” I say, chucking more wood into the fire. Some of it pops and fire leaps towards me. I fall backwards with a thump.
“You okay?” Angel asks.
“Never better.” I say, rubbing my back.
“You know, we have feast.” Victor says as he helps me up.
“What?”
“We go hunting and make beautiful feast.”
“Oh, uh, you really didn't have to.”
“We did. How else would we know of zombie?” I really have no idea how to respond. If the zombies came here would there be hope? They can hunt like they could in Sachs Harbour but would that even be enough? Are Bart and Ruby even okay?

Once the night falls, we all sit down at a long table for the feast. Food of various types are laid all around the table. People all around are speaking danish and other languages. Victor stands up and taps his glass with his fork three times after everyone had finished their dinner.
“Hello everyone.” Victor smiles. Everyone says hi back or smiles.
“Without these people” Victor starts “We not know of zombies. Annabelle, tell us of zombies.” I look at Victor confused but he encourager me to stand up. I sigh and do just that.
“Uh, hi, guys. I'm Annabelle. I'm sure you're all wondering what zombies are, exactly... Well, zombies aren't human.”
“Annabelle, I think you should let me do this.” James whispers.
“Oh?”
“I've looked into this online. I do more than get long codes that might save the world.”
“Right.” I say looking around, “Guys, this is my friend, James. He can explain it better than me.” James smiles and stands up. As soon as he does, his face sinks. James was never good at talking to crowds.
“Well, like Annabelle said, zombie's aren't human. Before this all happened, American scientists were trying to make people immortal. They began their search with simple human skin cells. I won't go into detail about it but eventually they gained test subjects. Usually, we test products and many other things on rats but this time we had human volunteers. When a volunteer who has family dies, the body is given back and a funeral is happen. When a volunteer who has no family, the body is thrown away. Every single volunteer died when they were given the immortal cell. When given the immortal cell, the person became very sick. Remember when you were a kid and got the flu so bad you couldn't move in your own bed? It's that times ten. You're dizzy, hyperventilating, can't hold anything in your stomach for even a second, and you have the worst hot/cold flashes. You're either burning alive in hell while Satan pours gasoline on you or naked in the north pole waters rubbing icicles on every inch of your body. There is no in between.
Just when you thought it could get worse, you get the worst migrane you could possibly have. You can feel your eyes tighten in their sockets while they feel like they could pop out at any possible moment. You would resort to having someone drill a hole in your head like they did in Salem to get rid of this headache. But you can't move or you'll feel worse, remember? Then the flu eats you up and you die. It takes from twenty minutes to two days to come back alive. But when you come back alive you have no memory of your past life. You don't even have memory at all. You just have an empty conscious. You're hungry and the only thing you want to eat is the first moving, living human you can find.” We all look at James with horrified faces. He knew all of this but didn't even tell us.
“So you become zombie by injection?” asks someone at the table. James shakes his head.
“Almost. The zombie has to bite you to infect you. Once you're infected, there's no way to stop it. Well, unless you cut off your limb as soon as you get bit.” James answers.
“So if we die, we do not become zombie?” another person asks.
“Correct.” The crowd murmurs to each other about the terrifying news. Could they believe a group of teenagers who claim that no one has come to Savissivik because of dead people eating each other.
I stand up.
“It's true, though...” I say “Because of the zombies, I've lost quite a few friends. I mean, quite a few had changed and died. Like my friend Adolf. He tried to rape Jackie in the woods and because of that, a zombie got to him and killed him. Then Curt had died because he was yelling at the group and a bunch of zombies came out of the lake behind us. We were able to get him out of there but he was already bitten. Even Pairs died because she was upset over her boyfriend Bruce dying. We've all seen someone die, close or not. We've all changed from this and have become stronger.” Victor's face has fallen and he's as white as a ghosts. He clears his throat and stands up.
“I think we should all go to the bed to sleep.” Victor says tonelessly. Everyone nods and stands up. Before Victor can walk off I make sure to talk to him.
“I'm, uh, sorry you had to find out about this.” I say.
“Yes. I need time to rest.” Victor replies.
“We're going now. Everyone will rest while someone drives. I just wanted to say bye.” Victor half smiles.
“Bye.”
“Also, if you see any zombies, get them in the head. It's the brain that keeps them alive. Once you get rid of the brain, they're gone.”
“Thank you. Goodbye, Annabelle and friends.” Victor gives me a hug then walks off with a half smile. “Byebye.”