Before the Storm

"Keep your head down!" I heard someone shout all of the sudden, causing my ears to perk up. I didn't look up to see who it was, I just did as I was told. I ducked my head down and covered it with my hands.

I heard the sound of a rapid fire gun shooting off rounds, every bullet that left the chamber was zooming overhead, taking out each of the walkers all at once that had been following me since I left the cabin.

The gun fire continued for another few seconds before it finally quieted down, and the ringing in my ears was louder than ever seeing as how the bullets were firing from such a close proximity. I lifted my head up slowly, completely shocked to see Zack running towards me with worry written all across his features.

"Are you okay? Did any of them get you?" He asked, crouching down next to me and setting the gun down on the ground.

"My leg," I winced. "It hurts real bad. I fell down the hill tryin' to get away from 'em."

"What happened?" He asked curiously. He looked down at the leg that I had been clutching in my hand and reached down to assess it.

Once I was able to get a closer look at it, I saw that there was no blood coming through my jeans, which was a good thing because it told me that I didn't break the skin. I knew that it wasn't broken because the pain was more muscle oriented than bone, so at most I had just bruised it up pretty badly.

"I was cleanin' out the place 'nd I went to dump out the dirty water. I was so stupid, Zack. I didn't look before I went outside." I scolded myself over and over in my head.

I was so pissed off at myself because the only real place we had managed to find that had food and water was now overrun and we couldn't get back to it, all because I was too careless to keep a look out for those cannibals.

"Did they get you?" He asked, looking me over for any bites or scratches.

"No, they didn't get me. But we lost our shelter, again."

"Jaycee, it's okay. We can always find more shelter, I can't find another you." He stood up next to me, picking up the gun and holding his hand out for me to help me up.

"It's still irritating." I mumbled, more to myself than to him. I dusted the dirt off of my jeans that had gotten on them from the ground. I looked over at him once more, furrowing my brow together. "Ya found some guns 'nd ammo, I see."

He glanced down at the gun in his hand and shrugged, smiling. "Yeah, just a bit. Oh," He paused, reaching down by his belt buckle and unbuckling a holster that had a large buck knife inside. "I picked this up for ya, too."

I grinned, reaching out and taking the knife from him, thankful to have a proper knife again instead of the flimsy steak knife that was still stuck in between my belt and jeans. I quickly replaced it, dropping the steak knife down onto the ground, having no real use for it anymore.

"Thanks."

He nodded, looking back down at my injured leg. "Can ya put any weight on it?"

"Not very much." I said. I slowly started putting more weight on it, testing the waters for myself now that I wasn't being chased down, just to see exactly how much weight I could put onto it before it was too much.

"Well, there were a few places that I saw that we could go to in that town I went to. Ya think you could make it?" He held his arm out, indicating for me to lean on him so that he could help me walk.

"Yeah, no problem. Not like I have much of a choice, do I?" I chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood a bit.

"I guess not, huh?" He replied with a gentle laugh.

I bent over and grabbed the pillow case, dusting it off lightly before letting it hang down by my side. I scoffed, earning me a confused look from Zack who then looked down at it in my hand.

"What's that supposed to be?" He asked.

"I washed your clothes for ya." I looked down at the dirty make-shift bag. "Guess that was a wasted effort."

"Eyh, I guess so. Thanks anyway, I suppose it's the thought that counts."

We began walking down the road as fast as my injury would allow, me having to use my brother as a crutch. My breathing was finally getting back to normal, and it was still mind blowing to me that he had come just in the nick of time. I was so grateful to have him with me during this whole thing. He had saved my life more times than I could count in the previous few months, and I knew there was no way I could even begin to repay him.

The sun was going to be going down here within a couple hours and I already knew that we wouldn't reach the town until after it had gotten dark. I just hoped that we didn't encounter any more than a few walkers at a time after the sun actually set.



My feet were numb by the time the first couple of buildings began to pass by us. I was more than ready to just fall over and pass out right here and now on the sidewalk, but I knew that would be a bad call.

"Wait here," Zack said, stopping in front of a random townhouse. "I'm gonna go in and clear it, then I'll be right back out."

"I can help you." I protested, limping over towards him but he held his hand up to stop me from going any farther.

"No, you're not well enough to. I don't want you gettin' yourself hurt even worse than you already are."

I pursed my lips together, but nodded my head anyway. I walked over to the front steps of the house and sat down to finally give myself a rest. The moon was shining brightly overhead, giving just enough light to be able to see around me clearly.

Zack walked up the steps and entered into the house, disappearing into the darkness. I sighed and rested my elbow down onto my knee, propping my head up on my closed fist. I looked around at my new surroundings, wishing for nothing more than to be able to take a nice hot bath and relax my aching muscles. Hell, I would even settle for a quick, five minute shower at this point. I couldn't even remember the last time I had bathed, and I was utterly revolted with myself.

I listened in on the sound of crickets chirping in the tall grass, trying to keep my mind off of that whole thing, and I took in a deep breath, filling my lungs with the crisp night air. A small gust of warm air blew past me, and I closed my eyes from the comforting feeling.

If I thought about it hard enough, I could just about place myself back in the back yard of my house. I'd be laying on the trampoline as the vast amount of twinkling stars shined above me. Everything would be perfect and normal again.

"Okay, it's safe now." My eyes shot back open at the sound of Zack's voice coming from behind me, followed by his heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

I blinked a couple of time to try to get my thoughts back in order, but then picked myself up and hobbled my way up the steps and into the house. It was on the smaller side, but there was definitely more than enough space to accommodate the two of us. And, it had an upstairs, which made it that much better, in my opinion.

I headed over towards the very comfy looking couch and flopped down into the soft cushioning, propping my leg up on the arm and sighed to myself. I don't think I had ever been more exhausted and sore in my entire life; Sometimes I was pretty sure it even hurt to breathe.

Zack sat down in the arm chair across from me and dug around in his back pack for a few moments before pulling out a small white bottle of Advil, popping the cap off and pouring out a couple of the little blue pills into his palm.

"Here, take these." He said, and handed them over to me.

I grabbed them, along with the canteen of water that he handed over to me and swallowed the pills down hastily, swallowing hard.

"Did you manage to grab some more water?" He asked once I handed him the canteen again. I just shook my head, and he sighed. "That's a bummer. We're gonna have to find some more soon, then."

"Is that all we have left?" I asked, already knowing the answer to my question. He looked over at me and nodded.

I laid my head back against the arm of the couch and let it lull over to the side. I was too exhausted to even really care that much. Right now all I wanted to do was go to sleep and if possible, stay that way for days.

Zack placed his canteen down next to him and stood up to walk over to a doorway that was a little ways down the hall, and I saw him begin to pull out large pieces of fabric, which I assumed were either towels or sheets. He then walked over and began throwing them up over the curtain rods in the living room and kitchen to block out the light.

I was already beginning to nod out, and I was practically forcing myself to stay awake. My body was actually able to relax, and this couch was so damn comfortable right now, I probably wouldn't have gotten up even if I needed to.

Once Zack was finished covering up the windows, he came back over and sat down in the arm chair. He began rummaging through his bag again and pulled out a couple of fresh Sterno cans and a lighter, lighting them up so that we could have at least some light in this place.

My eye lids were getting heavier, and there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to keep them open for much longer. I felt my breathing begin to even out and within a few seconds, I was fast asleep.



The next morning, I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed and wide eyed. I had no idea what time it was, but the sun was out and shining brightly overhead. I moved myself so that I was sitting up straight on the couch and it was then that I realized just how stiff and sore my muscles really were. After an entire night of not really moving them and then suddenly being used again, they were just screaming at me to stop.

I looked across the room and saw Zack fast asleep in the arm chair that he had been in last night, blown out Sterno cans sitting next to him on the end table. He was actually snoring from the deep slumber that he was currently in, and I figured it was probably best to not disturb him unless it was an emergency. He needed his sleep just as much as I had.

I stood myself up and decided that I would explore a bit through the upstairs of this house and hopefully find myself some clean clothes that I could put on, because I was so over wearing the same jeans that had long since been soaked through with walker blood and dirt.

I felt like I was scaling Mt. Everest with how much my muscles were screaming at me, but I just continued to press on until I was up the stairs and in one of the bedrooms down the hall, which looked like it had been a teenage girls room at one point or another.

The walls were painted a pretty lavender color, and the room was decorated in beautiful white furniture. Whomever's room this was before had definitely been more on the girlie side of things, that much was obvious.

I walked over to the closet and began searching through what little clothes had been left, smiling to myself when I saw a pair of jeans and a normal t-shirt that I could put on. I would definitely have to find a bag to pack some more clothes in so that I wasn't wearing the same thing every single day.

Luckily for me, there were a couple of messenger bags and back packs to choose from that were resting down at the bottom of the closet, all I had to do was take my pick. I shoved a couple pairs of jeans and shorts into the bag that I chose; A large purple and black back pack that had plenty of space for clothes and supplies.

Once I was done in there, I walked out to the dresser and grabbed a few shirts that I liked, along with a few other things that I had lost when the SUV had gotten stolen. When I was certain that I had everything that I needed, I sighed to myself as I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror, almost cringing when I saw the greasy haired, sleep deprived girl staring back at me.

I smoothed my hair out to the best of my ability, but it was just a lost cause. There was no saving this rats nest that I had currently going on. I looked around and saw that there was a hair brush sitting on a white, wooden vanity table, and I limped over to grab it, along with a couple of hair ties. If I wasn't going to be able to shower, I was going to do at least something to make myself look presentable. Not like I really had anybody to look good for anyway, but it would make me feel better about myself.

I walked back over to the mirror sitting over the dresser and began tackling the chore that was my ratted up, knotted hair. The last time that a brush had been run through my hair was much too long ago.

I heard footsteps begin moving around the house, and I knew that Zack had woken up and was probably looking around for me. "I'm up here, Zack." I yelled down the stairs towards him.

He began walking up the stairs and heading over towards the room that I was in, and in the mirror's reflection I saw him with his arms crossed over his broad chest and was leaning up against the door frame.

"I see you're lookin' a bit better." He mused, watching me put my hair up into a messy bun.

"A lot better. As long as I don't put to much strain on it, my leg is doin' pretty good, too." I replied, smoothing back a few stray hairs so they were resting behind my ears. I walked over and stuffed the hair brush into my newly acquired bag along with the clothes and zipped it up.

I slung the bag over my shoulder and walked over towards him. "So, how long do you think we have left in this place?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders, moving a bit so that I could slide past him and out into the hallway once again. "I'd give it a couple days, if we're lucky."

I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips together at him saying that. Him and I both knew that no place was really that safe for us, and it was foolish of us to ever let our guard down and think otherwise. However, for the time being, we were as safe as we could possibly get, and that was more than enough for me. We had been through more than our fair share of shit the past couple of months, so I had come to the realization that I had to take the good whenever I could get it.

"C'mon, let's grab somethin' to eat." I held my arm out for him, and he linked his with mine as we both walked down the stairs.

Weather it was for a few days, or a few weeks, I was grateful to have my brother with me. I couldn't think of anyone else that I'd rather be with on this crazy hell ride known as the zombie apocalypse.