James stroked Petra's wet hair and inhaled the strawberry scent of her shampoo. It had taken almost two hours to get everyone squared away with a shower, clean clothes – which a few picked up from their houses on the way and set up on makeshift beds downstairs.

Viktor was lying on his side with his back pressed against James, and Petra had cuddled into his other. James watched the dust motes dancing in the thin beam of light that came in the slightly open door from the kitchen light. He was too keyed up to sleep.

He pressed his fingertips together. Despite having had a hot shower, he could still feel the springy coldness of his dad's skin when he'd knelt to close his eyes on their way in. Petra had run inside and returned with a dishtowel to cover his head. He'd expected to feel...something, but he was just numb.

"What a fucking night, huh?" Vik said into the dark.

"And then some," James replied. "I know it's awful, and I don't want to speak ill of the dead like Father Lee always says, but did either of you catch sight of Old Mrs Winter's legs?"

Viktor had to sit up when he started snorting. "They were two little stick legs!"

"Twigs!" James started snorting and Petra chuckled.

"But super wrinkly," Petra added.

"Like prunes!" Viktor guffawed

"Pruney-twigs!"

The three of them burst out laughing then quickly clapped their hands over their mouths to keep the noise down and not disturb the people in the basement. One of them would stop laughing, then they'd look at each other and start all over again. They had to lean on each other for support as the night's stress was released through mirth. They flopped back down and snuggled together when their guffaws finally slowed to the occasional giggle.

James didn't remember falling asleep.

Screaming woke him up.

"Que pasa?" Viktor yelled, jumping to his feet and inadvertently ripping the blankets off James and Petra in the process.

Petra leapt up and ripped open the door. "The basement!"

Groggily, James struggled to standing. Another scream rent the air and he jerked, fully awake.

He winced in the bright kitchen sunlight when he followed Viktor and Petra through it and out into the corridor, then down the stairs. They burst into the large room.

Blood scented the air.

Katy Wilder was backed against the wall in her pyjama shorts and t-shirt, holding Marjorie Simpson and Blaise Winter off with a chair. "Help me!" she screamed when she spotted them. Her bare feet squeaked against the tiles as she dug in for more strength to push her attackers back. "I woke up, and they were eating Norman right fucking beside me!"

The five pallets all lay side by side, but two contained bloody corpses. Hal Nonning's face was composed in a caricature of shock, but Norman Brundt's still appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

James looked around for a weapon. There were a stack of metal folding chairs and wooden tables, the mats and belongings of the sleepers, and nothing else. "Hey, Blaise! Marjorie!" he yelled as he ran to the stack of chairs and grabbed one. The two zombies turned in his direction.

Viktor followed him, also yelling but ran in a different direction with his chair.

The zombies stumbled into the middle of the room. The competing loud noises seemed to confuse them about which fresh meat to attack first.

Katy slumped against the wall, trying to catch her breath.

The door to the store cupboard swung open and Petra emerged with a badminton racket. "We need to hold them down!"

"Pet, what are you going to do with that?"

"Shove it through one of their eyes!" She looked at the racket and flung it to the side. "I'm a freakin' moron! Can you hold them off for another minute?"

Katy pushed herself upright. "Yes! Just do what you have to do!"

Petra wheeled and ran through the door upstairs.

Katy banged the floor with her chair. "Hey Blaise! I hated you in high school and I hate you even more now! Come and try to get me, you bitch!"

Blaise moaned and stumbled toward Katy.

"No, Blaise! Come and get me instead!" James yelled, also banging the floor with the end of his chair. The brunette's curls bobbed when she changed direction. Marjorie followed along with her, an inadvertent sycophant to the undead Prom Queen of 2008.

"No, no, no, chica, I'm the one you really want!" Viktor picked up one of the shoes lying neatly by the pallets and threw it at the two undead who turned in his direction.

Feet thumped down the stairs and Petra burst in with her nail gun in hand. "I'm strapping this thing to my leg from now on!" Without hesitation, she ran to the centre of the room and fired.

The dull thud of the two bodies mingled with the collective huffing of the four live people.

Katy crossed and knelt by Marjorie. She began pushing up her sleeves and then the shirt covering her torso.

"What-" began James.

"I knew it!" cried Katy. She had flipped the body over and pulled down the shirt at the neck to reveal a bite mark. She immediately checked Blaise who had a bite near her wrist.

Katy looked up at the others with horror in her eyes. "All of those people from last night who went home..."

They were momentarily weighed down by the possibility of what was currently transpiring all over town.

"We've got to call the Chief!" Petra said and took off for the stairs again.

"Wait! I've got a phone!" Katy called.

The trio turned back.

"Actually, I'll go see if Father Lee is here," Petra said and headed up the stairs.

Katy snagged a purse near a tidy pile of clothes and pawed through it briefly for the mobile. Keying it on she asked, "Do you know his number?"

James rattled it off.

"Chief? It's Katy Wilder here." She paused while he spoke. "No, we're ok, but Marjorie and Blaise turned in the night. The kids saved me from being eaten, but they got Hal and Norman. Yeah, one moment," she handed the phone to James. "He wants to talk to you."

"James, are you all ok?" The Chief's voice was high with worry.

"Yeah, everyone is fine. We were upstairs. We heard the screaming and came down." Father Lee, fully dressed, came through the door with Petra. "Here's Father Lee."

James handed over the phone and the priest walked away to have a hushed conversation.

Reassurance rushed through him when Petra slid her hand into his while they waited.

"Alright, we'll meet you there." Father Lee swiped the call off and handed the phone back to Katy. "I'm going to rendezvous with Seb on Main Street. You can come if you want or stay here. There's no judgement. You've proven you can take care of yourselves, but your safety comes first."

"We're in," James said for his friends who nodded agreement.

"Me, too," said Katy.

After just enough time for them all to use the bathroom and change clothes, they were on their way, weapons at the ready.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

What do you think of the latest development?

And would Petra have been able to do anything with that badminton racket?

Thank you for reading! Your comments and votes mean so much to me.

WORD COUNT: 1207

NANO WORD COUNT: 12, 712

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 14, 537