Josie was sitting at the kitchen table with a steaming coffee mug in her hand and her head towards the window. She stared outside at the sky and saw the billions upon billions of stars up there. She also got a glimpse of a half-moon. She then let out a small sigh of disappointment. A second later, she heard a chair being pulled back. She turned and saw Alex sitting down in the chair next to her.

“You ok?” he asked. She slowly shook her head.

“One of my favorite things to do on a summer night was to lay out in the yard and stare at the sky,” she told him with a slight hint of sadness in her voice. “I’d try and make out constellations, maybe make my own, but mostly just fill my soul with the awe of nature’s beauty. But now I can’t even step outside of the house without the possibility of getting attacked by a zombie!” She then just closed her eyes tightly and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

“I just hate how you can’t even do what you love most because of these monsters!!” she continued with shakiness in her voice. Alex noticed more tears coming out of her eyes. “I just want things to go back to the way they were!! IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!?!” At this point she was just bawling. She placed her head on the table and started crying loudly.

Alex quickly placed his hand on her back and started rubbing it.

“Look at me,” he told her. It took a few seconds, but she slowly turned her face so she was looking at him. Her face was red and had tear streaks all over.

“You’re not the only one who’s upset about this,” he told her calmly. “You think I don’t miss being able to walk across the neighborhood without fear of being attacked and killed? If you do, you’re wrong.” He noticed a few more tears coming out of her eyes.

“We’ve all been severely impacted by this whole thing,” he continued. “I lost my parents. Freddy lost his best friend AND his parents. Dave’s lost his best friend, too. We all lost and miss something because of the zombies, but like Snow said, we gotta look at the positives!”

“What positives are there?!” Josie shrieked with tears. Alex just smiled and placed his hand and her shoulder.

“We still have each other,” he told her. “I guarantee if any of us were alone in this, we’d be goners. Well, okay, maybe Dave would have a better chance than us, but still.” A small smile grew on Josie’s face.

“Also, we’ve got a lot of protection now!” Alex continued to tell her. “Look at these plants that are doing nothing but protecting us! Sure, we’ve had close calls, but it’s still working better than what it could be like!” Josie slowly nodded.

“Most of all, the plants actually talk and have feelings! This gives us even more friends to talk to! Having these guys around makes me feel special because I’m not used to having a lot of friends who want to help me!” Josie just closed her eyes again.

“Look, I’ll be the first to say this life isn’t perfect, but you can’t live it very well if all you do is think negatively. Be happy you’re still alive when 99% of the population is nothing but goners!” She opened her eyes again and smiled.

“That’s what I like most about you, Alex,” she said. “You always know what to say to get me out of a funk.” Alex smiled as well. She then sat up and leaned over and hugged him tightly.

“Thanks for being my friend,” she whispered.

“Thanks for being mine,” he whispered back.

ERT! ERT! ERT! They continued to sit there hugging for a few more seconds before Josie got up and walked towards the basement. Alex then slowly got up and followed.

When they got to the basement, they found Dave and the others already waiting for them.

“You ok, Josie?” Dave asked with concern. “You look like you were just crying.”

“I was,” she admitted while wiping her eye, “but I’m good now.”

“Ok then,” Dave replied. “At any rate, here’s the new plant.” He then moved and revealed the newest plant. This one was rather big. The top half was round, purple, and kind of flat. The front of it had a small tube in front similar to Puff-Shroom and the Peashooters. The bottom was white and had a face on it, but this one seemed a little more serious than the other mushrooms.

“This is Fume-Shroom,” Dave told them. “He shoots fumes up to four squares in front of him. These fumes are special because, as requested, they can damage yet pass through a zombie, hitting those behind it!”

“Sweet!” Alex said with excitement. “Thanks, Dave!”

“No problem!” he responded. “I’ll just put his DNA in the computer...” he then walked over to the laptop. When he got there, he paused and looked at the TV.

“Holy gravy fur!” he gasped. “What are THOSE?!” Alex and Josie looked at the screen and saw four tall grey objects in the middle column of the lawn!

“They look like....gravestones!!” Josie responded.

“How did they get there?” Dave asked.

“I don’t know, but maybe the zombies set them up as a distraction!” Alex responded. “Let’s just keep going!”

“You’re right,” Dave said. “Let’s kick some zombie rear!” With that, he started planting as usual. With the Sun-Shrooms and Puff-Shrooms planted, he waited for stronger zombies to come.

Soon, some Cone Heads started approaching. When they did, Dave planted a Snow Pea in the row and slowed it down. A minute later, though, Dave saw something on the TV.

“What’s that zombie holding?” he asked. Alex looked at the TV as well and saw a zombie holding some metallic rectangle in front of it as a shield.

“That looks like a screen door!” Alex suddenly realized.

“Well we’ll see how good it protects it,” Dave responded. He then placed a Snow Pea in the same row as the Screen Door Zombie. However, its screen door shield seemed to be doing a decent job at protecting it, since the frozen peas weren’t doing a good job at slowing the zombie down!

He placed a Wall-Nut in front of it to slow it down, but the shield was still protecting it!

“That Wall-Nut won’t protect it forever!” Dave exclaimed. “Any ideas?!” Josie was about to suggest a Cherry Bomb, but Alex quickly spoke first.

“Will Fume-Shroom’s fumes pass through the screen?” he asked. Dave paused for a second in thought before replacing the other Puff-Shroom in the row with a Fume-Shroom. Immediately, bubbly purple fumes spat out of the giant mushroom’s spout. Sure enough, they passed through the screen with ease! After a few hits, the zombie’s head flew off and the body collapsed.

“Awesome!!” Josie screamed with happiness. “I’m glad that worked out!”

“Me too,” Alex responded, “but what I still don’t understand is the gravestones. I mean, what exactly do they do?” As soon as he said that, a hissing sound was heard. They all turned to look at the TV and saw slight steam come out of the graves, which were right in front of the Fume-Shroom and Puff-Shrooms.

A second later, each gravestone completely shattered to pieces, revealing a zombie in its place! The zombies then proceeded to walk over towards the house, eating the plants in their way!

“What do we do?!” Josie asked with panic. Instantly, Dave clicked on Cherry Bomb’s picture and placed them by the zombies.

POWIE! The zombies blew to pieces right as they were about to step on the porch.

“Man, that was rough!” Dave said with a deep exhale. “My best guess is that those zombies are gunna send more of those things and possibly set them even closer!”

“What are we gunna do about that?” Alex asked. Dave paused for a second before snapping his fingers.

“If I quickly go outside and grab a piece of a gravestone, I can bring it back in and analyze it! Once I figure out what it’s made of, I can see if there’s a way to destroy those things!”

“Sounds like a plan!” Josie told him. “Just be careful going outside!”

“I will,” he promised. With that, he ran upstairs and out of the basement. Alex and Josie looked at the TV and saw him run out of the house and onto the yard. He quickly found a piece of a gravestone and brought it back inside.

After coming back downstairs, he walked over to the work table and placed the piece under a microscope.

“This could take a while,” he told them. “You may wanna do something else for the moment.” Without questioning him, the two teens headed upstairs. When in the living room, they could clearly make out more gunfire upstairs.

“How can they seriously find that more important?” Josie said, mainly to herself.

“I’m not sure,” Alex responded. “I mean, I was a HUGE videogame geek and I still find killing the real thing more fun than any videogame out there!” Josie just chuckled.

“That’s right!” she said. “You used to go to that console like a moth to a light bulb!” Alex smiled embarrassedly.

“Hey, when you’re a teenage boy with no life and no friends, what do you expect?”

“Well what makes you think I know anything about teenage boys except that they only want women for their looks?”

“Hey, now! That’s not true!”

“Really? Because it seemed like every boy who asked me out only wanted me for my body.”

“Well, can you blame them?” Josie just glared at him.

“Hey, just trying to make a joke,” Alex quickly responded. “But seriously, a true man wants a woman for her personality.”

“So none of the guys at school were true men?”

“If they only wanted to be with you because you’re hot, then yeah!”

“Wait, so you’re saying I’m hot?” Alex instantly froze up with wide eyes. Did he really say that to her? She was staring back at him with a look that read ‘Well? Did you really mean that?’

“Well, you can’t deny you’ve got some beauty to you,” he told her. “I mean, if you got the prissy girls jealous of you, you’re clearly something!” Josie just stared at him blankly for a few seconds. All the while, Alex’s heart was beating faster than it ever had before in his life. Finally, she just smiled at him.

“I guess you’re right,” she told him. “I mean, it’s not like I ever thought of myself as ugly before.”

“Exactly,” Alex quickly answered, hoping the subject would quickly change.

“But I never thought I’d hear you of all people say how good looking I am...” Alex stared blankly again.

ERT! ERT! ERT! Alex instantly bolted towards the basement. ‘Saved by the bell’, the thought as he ran down the stairs.

Once he was in the basement, he instantly heard some sort of rumbling sound. He saw Crazy Dave by the desk staring at whatever he had made. He saw Alex and smiled.

“Check this out!” he told him, and then moved out of the way. Alex honestly had no idea what exactly he was looking at. This thing was grey and almost rectangular. The top had two glowing yellow eyes and some tangled vines along the top edge. The bottom had 5 lighter-shaded grey sticks coming out of it.

“This guy is Grave Buster!” Crazy Dave told them. “It turns out the gravestones were made of pure concrete! That made it easy to create a Plant that can destroy the substance, as well as the zombie inside! You just plant him on top of a gravestone and he’ll eat the whole thing in a few seconds! Best part is he has a quick reload time, which means you can get rid of all the graves in a short period of time!”

“Sounds awesome!” Alex told him. He then looked at the screen and saw some more gravestones on the lawn!

“Let’s try it out,” Josie suggested.

“Only when we got the basic stuff planted,” Dave told her. She just nodded in response. With that, she sat down and started planting. After the Sun-Shrooms and Puff-Shrooms were set up, and earning 75 sunawatts, enough for a Grave Buster, she planted one on one of the gravestones. The TV showed the Plant appear out of nowhere on top of the grave, grasp onto the top with its teeth, and quickly go down the grave. Once it reached the bottom, the Grave Buster disappeared. However, the gravestone did, too!

“Perfect!” Alex said with a smile. “This shouldn’t be a problem anymore!” Sure enough, the rest of the attack went rather easy. A few Pole Vaulter Zombies appeared, as well as more Screen Door Zombies, but Snow Peas and Fume-Shrooms took care of that problem.

Finally, all the zombies and gravestones were gone. The teens and lunatic all smiled with relief. Alex then noticed Dave pulling out a notebook and jotting something down.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“I’ve been keeping track of the zombies we’ve encountered,” Dave explained. “It’s basically what each one does, how tough it is, and how fast it is.”

“That’ll be helpful,” Josie said with a nod.

“My thoughts exactly,” Dave responded. “There’s even a section in here for the Plants! It’s basically names, what they do, how many sunawatts they use, their strength, and their reload times. It’s all just in case we forget.”

“Wow, you think of everything!” Alex said with an impressed tone.

“Thank you,” Dave replied. “I call it ‘The Suburban Almanac’.”

“Clever.”

“Thanks. Now, how about another game break?”

“Isn’t it a little dark and risky to play more Wall-Nut Bowling?” Josie asked.

“We’re not gunna go bowling this time,” Dave explained. “I have a safer and more fun game to play!”

“What is it?” Alex asked with curiosity.

“Follow me outside. Be sure to each bring a shovel!”

*           *           *

Back on the moon, Zomboss was keeping a journal on the day’s events.

“The humans are doing a surprisingly good job at stopping the zombies. I don’t know how I haven’t gotten so furious that I’ve destroyed something yet, but I haven’t. I’ve tried everything; road cones, metal buckets, pole vaults, newspaper shields, screen door shields, and even teleportation pods directly onto the lawn! Nothing seems to be working, and it’s really trying my patience! I don’t know what I can do to stop them, but I swear on my life that when I do, I will throw myself a congratulation party in honor of my world domination!”

He then shut the book and stormed off to the control panel. He then pulled up a live image of the house.

‘If only there were a way...’ he thought with doubt. Suddenly, his eyes widened at the sight he was seeing: three of the humans walking out of the house!

“This is my chance!” he exclaimed. He then pressed the intercom button again.

“Minion! Send every zombie-teleportation pod to that house NOW!”

“Yes, Master!” A few seconds passed before over 50 pods zipped past and flew towards Earth.

“Good luck, humans!” he shouted with glee. Immediately after saying that, he turned to the intercom and shouted, “And no, I’m not calling you a human!” There was a few seconds’ pause before he heard Minion reply, “I didn’t think you were.”