Day 46

There is plenty of food. Dry non-perishable food. We stayed the previous day and through the night with hundreds of zombies surrounding the house. This morning there are still many. Too many for us to handle alone.

McKay informed us that his (and Dawn's) parents are dead and that they had died to save him only days after the outbreak hit Utah. I comfort Dawn as McKay tells her this, but I feel that on some level she knew that it would be this way. It seems to be the way with life now. Death. Chad and Crystal and Clive, even my Grandparents in Oregon I know, (or feel) cannot be alive anymore. Not after we were attacked. Death is a key factor to life even more so now. It is what drives us and keeps us alive, and it is what we fear more than anything. Because no death in a world like this is going to be a good death.

There is a silence that follows McKay's story. No one can speak, and there is no noise, save a quiet sob coming from Dawn. I glance over and catch Josh holding Charlotte's hand as we each give an unintentional moment of silence for not only Dawn's parents, but all of those that we know who have died in this world, this dying world. As I sit, rubbing Dawns back and holding her hands I think of those things I was so adamant about in, what I now consider, my previous life. Global warming, evolution or gay rights seem so trivial now. Now it is only survival. That is all we have and all that we can possible hold on to.

"We need to leave," I say out loud suddenly.

"What," Josh replies, snapping out of his own thoughts. "I mean, how?"

"I'm going to sneak out the back and run into the field next to it. I'll fire a few rounds and let them come after me. Then, I'll run to . . ." I pause for a second, thinking of a place they can meet me, "the old high school."

"What?!" Dawn says, "No! What is something happens to you?"

"I'll be fine. I'm faster and it'll give you enough time to get away. I mean, they will get in eventually." And like clockwork there is a loud bang on the door.

"No," she says, "someone needs to go with you. This is ridiculous. I'm not letting you go alone."

"I'll go," McKay says.

"No!" Dawn says with finality. "No! C'mon, this is nuts. You'll have hundreds on you. Not only those out front but all of the others around the city."

"I'm betting on that being all of the ones that heard the gunshots from yesterday. I'm hoping thats most of them. I'll take the M21 and will be able to get through any that appear while I am running to the school."

"What about your leg?"

"It's fine. It doesn't hurt."

"And you hand?"

I wiggle my fingers to show that it isn't too bad, but as I wiggle them there is a stinging pain in my wrist that I mask. "We need to get out of here. We aren't safe. I don't want to risk anyone else's life so I am going to do it."

"I'm coming too," McKay says, and I don't object.

 "Fine," Dawn finally consents, "But not until tomorrow morning, while it is still dark."

"Why not tonight?" I ask.

"Because I don't want you to do this at all, but at least then you could get plenty of rest and I could have you here a bit longer."

I agree with her. Tomorrow morning, McKay and I will be distracting the zombies to help us escape and I am only fifty percent sure that something like this will work flawlessly.