Outnumbered

Three days after that week, half the town was either gone or sick. Whoever this sicko was, they were working pretty fast. Some of my friends had fallen victim to the sickness or kidnapping. The only ones left were Athena, Gerard, Seth, Andy, Kerli, Alice, and Louis. Some teachers went missing too. School had to be shut down for investigation.

My remaining friends were at my house today in my den. We were strategizing motives the kidnapper might have and ideas of what the illness might be, even though we'd never witnessed any of the victim's symptoms.

After dinner, we all went out into my backyard.

"Let's investigate. Just us." Athena suggested.

Alice and I looked at each other uneasy.

"I don't think that's a smart idea." Louis said in his British accent.

"Oh? And why not?" Athena said crossing her arms.

"That's the polices job?" Kerli answered. Athena rolled her eyes.

"Well they're doing a very shitty job of piecing this mystery together."

"Plus, where do we even start looking?" Andy questioned.

"That is an excellent question." she said, giving a wicked smile. Now Andy rolled his eyes.

"Let's just wander until we find something. Obviously that's what the police did." Louis said.

"That's a stupid idea." Seth said. "Let's start with someone we know. Like, uhhh...Mr. Tenpenny!"

So we went with Seth's idea and traveled to Mr. Tenpenny's house. I texted my mother and told her we were going for a walk. She was iffy and almost got in the car to pick us up, but I assured her everything was going to be okay. I could tell she was scared.

"No one's home." Alice said as we arrived to Mr. Tenpenny's home. The lights had been shut off except for one, which Gerard had pointed out. It was behind the house and on the second floor.

"Someone give me a boost up." Athena said. Everyone protested at first, but then Seth willingly agreed and stated, "If we're going to get any answers, we have to investigate without question and argue later."

"Someone got a pen and paper on them?" Gerard asked.

"Nope. Left my crime investigation kit at home." Andy said sarcastically.

"I'll use my cell phone to type what I see." Athena said before stepping onto Seth's hands and lifting herself up on a high branch of the tree in front of the second story window.

"Should I come up there with you?" Seth whispered to her.

"Sure, come on up. I'll need a partner."

Gerard boosted Seth up to the same branch and he climbed next to Athena.

"Tenpenny isn't sick, is he?" I asked in a whisper.

"Not that I know of." Gerard answered shaking his head.

"But you could never be too sure about things like this." Louis whispered from beside Alice.

"Can you see anything?" Kerli whisper-yelled up to Athena and Seth.

"Shh!" Seth said.

"Oh my, God..." I heard Athena say.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked her sister.

Above, I heard a camera shutter. Athena and Seth had both taken pictures of what they were seeing. And then suddenly....something bad happened, I assumed.

"Holy shit!" Athena screamed, scrambling to put her cell phone back in her pocket. Seth jumped down from the tree, Athena doing the same and landing wrong. She most likely just sprained her wrist, but she didn't seem to notice. "We have to leave, now!"

"Why? What did you guys see?" I asked curious.

Athena didn't pull her cell phone fast enough before Seth had his cell screen in my face. The picture was harmless looking from Mr. Tenpenny's side. But what he was tending to was his sick wife and kids. And they were hideous looking. Grey colored skin that looked too easy to peel off, patches of hair missing, brittle looking limbs.

"They've got the sickness that's been mysteriously going around." I said, thinking outloud.

"So, what was so scary?" Alice asked.

"His wife bit him..." Athena said horrified.

"This reminds me of a zombie movie..." Gerard said, his voice trailing off.

"Do you think...?" Andy said slowly, thinking about what Gerard had just said.

"There is no way this is happening. I'm going home." Kerli said.

Inside we all clearly heard Mr. Tenpenny scream. It was not a humanly scream...It sounded more animal than human.

Immediately, we all ran back to my house.

"What the fuck was that?!" Andy and Athena yelled.

"Mr. Tenpenny's a zombie now!" Gerard said more excited than terrified.

"There's no such thing!" Alice screamed.

"What are you guys screaming for?" My mother, Jane asked confused.

"Mom, that's gonna be kind of hard to explain because we don't know exactly what we saw and heard for ourselves." I answered, my body shaking in fear.

"I know what I saw and heard. And believe it or not, we've got zombies on our hands." Gerard said ominously.

"I really don't fucking care what I saw or heard, I just want to go home!" Kerli hollered, beginning to sob.

"C'mon, I'll drive you home." Louis said, leading her out the front door. "Goodnight, everybody." he said waving.

We waved back and waited until the door was all the way closed to start talking again.

"So, what do you mean, zombies?" Jane asked, curious to know more of what was going on.

Athena pulled out her phone with her hurt wrist and pulled up the picture she took. Mother's face was horrified.

"Oh, God...That's disgusting." she said giving Athena her phone.

"After we took these pictures," Seth began. "Athena and I saw his wife bite his arm."

"Her teeth went in his skin so deep..." Athena said, staring off as if she was picture the scene in her mind.

"After that, we didn't see what happened, but we heard someone scream. It was like...the type of scream you'd hear a large animal make." Seth described.

"Oh! Oh my, God!" Jane exclaimed.

"I feel like we're living in a total nightmare, right now." Alice said hugging her brother's arm.

"Okay, okay. Um, I'll go call the police and have them check out the house." Jane said, going for the house phone.

"No, Mom. The police can't do anything. I say we leave. All of us. Gather our families and leave." I said alarmed.

"We can't just up and disappear." she said.

"This must've been the same thing that got Bobby." Gerard said.

Bobby...Is this what happened to him? He became a zombie? How could that be? Guess there's only one way to find out.