Red at Day

We sit on the boat as the sky turns a beautiful orange color. We talk about the times before the zombies came.
“And that's why I call the corner 'Mr. Corner'.” James laughs.
“I doubt you did that in the corner for hours.” Reed laughs.
“I don't think you understand how addictive it is.”
“I miss Claudia!” Jackie sighs.
“I know, babe. Me too.” I say.
“I remember just the three of us hanging out.”
“Oh god, I remember that one time when you and I pretended to be mad at Claudia so we stomped away dramatically. We enter the next room and all I see is this short ginger taking her gray dress off, which is already above her blue and white striped panties. Needless to say, I fall to my knees laughing and I fall over.”
“And Claudia came in the room and yelled at me to put my clothes back on!”
“I don't blame her!”
“Annabelle, can you tell the story of when you and Jackie first met again?” Honey asks.
“Oh, uh, yeah” I say with slight smile, “Well, we were in middle school and I was in the bathroom crying. Some girls had just finished hitting me in the large stall where they could all fit. They, of course, made sure to hit me where no one could see the bruises. You know, my torso and pelvis. It didn't matter anyway though because I always wore white long sleeve shirts and jeans. I was scared to wear black because it would make my hair look whiter and I had to somehow hide my marks.”
“Oh yeah, you also had your hair cut down to your shoulders!” Jackie points out.
“Yeah... I did that so I could hide my face but my white hair wouldn't be too obvious.”
“Remember when you tried to wear sunglasses to school?”
“Yeah, a good deal that did,” I huff,“But while I was crying, “Jackie came up to my stall and knocked on it asking what was wrong. I was surprised that she talked to me at all- well, that and I wasn't crying that loudly. When I told her I was fine, she continued to ask me but I stuck with the 'I'm fine' story. Jackie proceeded to crawl underneath the stall and slide herself into it with me. Her next words were 'Hey, you're the girl with the demon eyes!' which only made me cry harder. Jackie then hugged me and told me everything was okay.
When I calmed down, she threw open the stall and confronted the girls about hitting me. 'What are you going to do about it?' they asked as they laughed at me, hiding behind this tiny little ginger.” I laugh.
“What was her name again? Iris?” Jackie asks.
“Yeah, because she was black with blue eyes.”
“Yeah! And she hung around with Shirushi and Adalia!”
“Yeah!”
“They beat us up.”
“Yeah, we were laying on the ground together after they beat us up and Jackie introduced herself, finally. After that incident, Jackie kept sitting with me at lunch, inviting me to hang out, and sat next to me. She introduced me to Rose, James, Bruce, Kasmira, and Adolf. Rose began dating Reed which is how we became friends and Curt was following James around which is how I met him. Then Curt brought over Honey, who he was stalking until her boyfriend, Dakoda, showed up, and I met her then. Paris and Carter actually went up to me on their own. Paris thought it would be fun to befriend the girl with demon eyes while Carter and I had to make conversation while being lab partners. It wasn't before long that Carter and I became friends. He began dating Angel and Paris began dating Jackie.”
“I introduced you to more people!” Jackie huffs.
“Right, right.” I laugh, “You're in more than one group like I am. In Jackie's other group there was her sister Brea, Brea's boyfriend Justin, Brea's best friend Claudia, Claudia's boyfriend Mark, Claudia's cousin Andy, Andy's girlfriend Lotte, Jake, Stella, Gustavo, Jasmine, and sometimes Jasmine's boyfriend Lucas. Sometimes Mindy, who stalked Lucas. Not just that but weren't we stalked?”
“Yeah! Okay, this one summer we hung out with Dave, Dave's older sister Megan, Jamin, and Tony! Well, Jamin ended up having this weird crush on Annabelle that never went away and Tony, Jamin's cousin, got a weird crush on me!” Jackie explains, sounding a bit grossed out.
“What other group were you in?” Carter asks, confused.
“Me, Annabelle, Dakoda, Amanda, Andy, Henry, Hung, Alex, Sophia, Tyrone, Joe, and Jay were in the second group. Sometimes Lucas.” James answers.
“Does no one remember my friend Aaron?” Reed asks.
“The dwarf?” Rose asks.
“Yeah!” We all sit around and laugh about old stories. I wonder if everyone's okay. We kinda left them all in the dust.
“They're all in good hands.” Jackie smiles, “If they're with Brea, they're safe. Brea's a bigger zombie junkie than you.”
“Yeah.” I agree.
“When this is over, do you think we could go to Disneyland?” Kasmira asks.
“I dunno. We'd need a whole mess of power and gunk. We'd need more people to do it so it'll be a while before we can go.” Rose says. Kasmira and Honey sigh.
“Once we can go, it'll be fun. Angel and I went to Disneyland before.” Carter smiles as he steers the boat.
“So have Rose and I.” Honey sighs.
“Remember when you, carter and I stayed up all night talking on facebook?” Kasmira asks me as she laughs.
“Yeah. While we were doing that, I'd be on Skype call with James, Amanda, Dakoda, Alex, Joe, Andy, Henry, and Sophia.” I laugh.
“What about me?” Jackie asks.
“I'd be texting you and Claudia.”
“Yay!”
“What do you guys miss the most in the apocalypse?” Honey asks.
“The guys.” James says.
“Anime.” Jackie sighs.
“Dakoda.” Honey says, biting her lip.
“My bed.” Kasmira says.
“My flashlight.” Reed says.
“We hav-”
“Not that kind.”
“Internet.” I laugh as I tighten my grip on my cross.
“Easy access to water.” Angel smirks.
“Well I'm still having sex, so...” Carter laughs.
“What do you miss!” Angel laughs.
“My cat!”
“Aw!” Angel runs up to Carter and gives him a big hug. Carter was really close to his cat. I hope he's okay.
“Tell us about your cat!” Kasmira says.
“Well, his name is Brutus. Let me tell you, he was a handsome kitty! He was ginger with stripes and fierce green eyes! Sometimes you'd think he looked like a lion! Ugh but he was the nicest kitty ever. Brutus would always bring my little gifts, even if I didn't want them. I remember he brought home a live rabbit. Twice! We took the rabbit to the vet to make sure it was okay and then put it in an animal sanctuary.”
“Sounds like a great cat.” Honey smiles.
“Oh he was!”
“What's up ahead?” Rose asks.
“It's a tunnel.”
“According to the files, the Americans made tunnel to get to the pole. They knew it would take too long to climb up the huge wall of ice so they made this.” James informs. We look at him with amazed looks but tear our eyes away to watch as we enter the secret tunnel.