After what seemed like a few minutes to him, Alex opened his eyes and was surprised to see sunlight peeking in through the window. He turned to his clock. 9:14 AM. He simply stretched out his body and slowly got up. When he did, he heard a knock at his door.

“Come in!” he called in a tired voice. After a second, the door opened up, revealing Josie standing in the doorway wearing a white tank top and a baby blue skirt. She quickly stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, all the while not taking her eyes off Alex. Her face looked like she was upset about something.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, more awake and alert now. Josie slowly shook her head.

“Nothing,” she replied. “It’s just...well...”

“Well what?”

“Well...I’ve been thinking about something lately...and I’ve been meaning to tell you about it, but I never had the courage to...until now.”

“I’m not following you, Josie.”

“Well, it’s not something you’d expect me to say, but it’s gotta be done.”

“What does?” She continued to stare at Alex with a nervous face.

“Josie, you can tell me anything! You know that!” She just sighed.

“Promise not to freak out or anything?” she asked.

“Of course!”

Josie then deeply exhaled, tightly closed her eyes and quickly blurted out, “Alex, I think we should start repopulating the planet!”

She continued to stand there with her eyes tightly shut for a few more seconds, waiting for some sort of response. When there was none, she slowly opened up one eye, revealing Alex staring at her with his eyes widely opened and jaw dropped.

“Umm...” he started to say. He then stood there in silence. Finally, Josie opened her other eye and sighed.

“Forget it,” she told him with sadness in her voice. “I knew it was stupid to even suggest it. Sorry for wasting your time.” She then turned around and grabbed the door handle, but then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Wait, Josie!” she heard Alex say. He then turned her around so she was staring at him.

“It’s not that it’s a bad idea,” he told her, “it’s just...well...awkward.” She just scoffed with upset.

“Josie, it’s not like we’re dating or anything,” he continued. “We’re best friends. It’s not like we’ve ever had feelings for each other, right?” Josie then leaned her head down yet pointed her eyes towards Alex’s.

“Alex...that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you these last few days,” she responded. She then reached and grabbed Alex’s hand.

“Alex...I kinda like you. Like...more than a best friend or a brother.” Alex just stared at her with shock. Was this really what she was hiding?

“Well...why have you never told me this?” he asked. Josie slowly shrugged in response.

“I don’t know,” she responded. “I guess I was just afraid you didn’t feel the same way back. I mean, we’ve had a great friendship; I didn’t want to ruin it by telling you this, you not feeling the same, and making it awkward for both of us.” Alex continued to stare at her. He then let out a small laugh. Josie just closed her eyes and sighed.

“I guess I was right, huh?” she murmured. Alex just smiled, placed his finger on her chin, and turned her head up so she was face-to-face with him. When he did, she opened her eyes, which showed slight hints of watering.

“Josie, you were WAY off!” he responded. “I didn’t realize it myself until a while ago, but I felt the same way!” This made a slight smile appear on her face as she looked down again.

“Stop trying to make me feel better, Alex...” she said with almost a whisper.

“Josie, we both know there are things I could be doing other than this to make you feel better,” he responded. “Look, when we first met, I didn’t really think of you as a potential girlfriend or anything like that like the other guys; I was just happy with having a friend that wanted to be with me.” She then looked back at him. Alex suddenly noticed how cute her eyes looked glistening in the light.

“Somewhere along the way, though, I think I must’ve felt something more,” he continued. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before...maybe I was just so focused on me having a friend and I didn’t wanna ruin that for me.” A slight smile came across her face.

“I guess that’s how I was with you,” she admitted. “When I first moved here, I had nobody. I mean, yeah, I had guys who liked me and stuff, but I had no real friends to share my feelings with. When I stood up for you from those bullies...I don’t know. I must’ve felt some sort of connection. But I didn’t even know you at the time...I didn’t wanna weird you out and embarrass myself by going like ‘Oh, you’re kinda cute’ or ‘Hey, wanna go on a date with me this Saturday? My treat’. So I decided to just hang out with you more and get to know you first.” Alex smiled a bit.

“So you’ve felt this way ever since we met?” he asked. Josie smiled and slowly nodded in response. He then just chuckled.

“I wish you could’ve told me that BEFORE the planet was overrun by zombies!” he said playfully. “Our only year at high school together could’ve been different!” She nodded in response and then quickly took his other hand.

“Maybe it’s better that it turned out this way, though,” she pointed out. “By just staying friends during the zombie takeover, it wouldn’t have been that big of a loss if one of us got killed. If we were a couple, there would’ve been more emotions if one of us died.” Alex thought about that and nodded head slowly.

“So....” she continued. “About my suggestion...?” Alex’s smile suddenly faded.

“Well...Josie...” he said nervously. Her smile faded as well.

“What?” she asked with worry. He then just stared at her awkwardly. She then let go of his hands and placed hers at her side.

“I knew it...” she murmured. “You don’t want to do this...I understand...” She then started to turn around again when Alex grabbed her shoulder again. When she turned back around, she noticed he was closer to her this time.

“Josie, like I said, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. And believe me, you of all people should know how much I love kids and always hoped to have my own someday.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Josie...think about it. These zombies are getting stronger, correct?” She slowly nodded with confusion, not sure where he was going with this.

“They’re getting stronger by the hour, sometimes less! They’ve gotten so strong that our best defense system against them has had some close calls! You following me?”

“I guess so,” she replied. Alex then placed both his hands on her shoulders.

“Then answer this,” he told her. “If we can barely manage to protect OURSELVES, how do you think we can protect ourselves AND a baby?” Josie just stared into his eyes for what seemed like eternity. At one point she opened her mouth to say something, but slowly closed it. Finally, she closed her eyes, leaned her head into his chest, and let out a giant sigh. Without thinking, Alex wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said into her ear. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t reproduce; I’m saying let’s wait until we feel more safe. Understand?” He felt her nod her head in his chest. Then, still being held by him, she looked at him with sadness in her eyes.

“So...what will we do about us?” she asked. Her eyes seemed more watery than before. Alex just shrugged.

“I guess we’ll have to see,” he responded. Then, without realizing it, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. After noticing what he did, he quickly pulled back and stared at her. She had a confused and surprised look on her face. After a few seconds, though, she smiled and placed her head back into his chest.

“I just don’t wanna screw this up,” she told him. “I’ve finally told you my biggest secret and I don’t want things to get ruined because of it.”

“Don’t worry,” he replied. “It won’t. I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Alex...”

“But I CAN keep this one...no matter what happens we’ve got each other’s backs, remember? Even if we both die within an hour from now, we’ll still be together. Understand?”

“Yeah, I guess so...”

ERT! ERT! ERT! Alex unwrapped his hands and placed them on her shoulders.

“Let’s kill some zombies,” he told her. “That ought to cheer you up!” She simply let out a big smile.

“You’re right about that!” she replied happily. She then bolted downstairs. Alex slowly walked out of his room and down the stairs, thinking about all that just happened.

‘I can’t believe I kissed her head...’ he thought. ‘I don’t even know why...maybe my feelings are stronger than I thought!’ He then made his way to the basement, where Freddy, Crazy Dave, Josie, and the Plants were all staring at the TV with confusion.

“Maybe it was a false alarm?” Peashooter asked them. Alex looked at the TV and saw no zombie in sight.

“This thing has never had a false alarm before,” Dave responded.

“Maybe they’re invisible?” Freddy asked. The others slowly turned and stared at him with confusion.

“Hey, they seem to be trying everything,” Freddy pointed out. “Maybe they’ve become Invisi-Ghouls!” Josie rolled her eyes.

“What if they’re attacking from somewhere else?” Alex suddenly blurted out. The others stared at him, too.

“Like where?” Dave asked.

“Well, maybe they’ve given up on the front lawn...and are trying the backyard?” Dave continued staring at him for a few seconds before turning to the laptop and typing on it. After a few seconds, the image on the TV changed from the front lawn to the backyard. Sure enough, zombies were slowly approaching the backyard!

“Well, there’s our pool, which takes up a third of the yard,” Freddy pointed out. “That only leaves 4 rows they could possibly go on...right?”

“You never know what these zombies have in store,” Dave told him, “so I figured that they could eventually try attacking via the pool.”

“What would we do if they do?” Josie asked with concern.

“We’re simply gunna use...this!” He then pointed to the table behind him, which showed a new plant! This one was in a flower pot that was filled with not soil, but water! The plant was flat, green, and had two small eyes in front.

“If I didn’t know better,” Alex said, “I’d swear that was a...”

“Lily Pad?” Dave finished with a smile. “Well, you’d be right! Lily Pad can be planted on a surface of water. Once on, you can then plant another Plant on top of her!”

“So if a zombie gets in the pool, we can just plant a Lily Pad and, say, a Peashooter on top of her to kill the zombie?” Alex asked.

“Exactly!” Dave replied.

“This shouldn’t be a problem, then!” Alex responded with a smile. “Now all we gotta do is plant some Puff-Shrooms and...”

“Yeah, about that...”

“What is it?”

The problem with the mushrooms is that they’re nocturnal! They sleep during the day! And a sleeping plant is not a functional plant!”

“Are you serious?!” Dave then just pointed to the other side of the basement, where all the mushrooms created the previous night were placed. Sure enough, they were all sound asleep!

“Well, at least we can get sunawatts from the sky again,” Josie pointed out. “That’s gunna help a lot.”

“Exactly,” Dave replied. “Now, let’s say we kill these suckers!” He then started planting Sunflowers and Peashooters, as they had before. Now, they backyard was a bit different from the front yard. Instead of 5 rows, it was 6. The middle two rows were nothing but swimming pool. The remaining 4 on the outside were grass. Other than that slight change, it was pretty much the same.

At first it seemed a bit too easy. It was only regular zombies and Cone Head Zombies, and they were all in the grass area. However, after about 5 minutes, they saw a zombie in a rubber duck floatie approach the pool! When it did, it jumped in the water and started floating towards the house!

“C’mon, Lily!” Dave told Lily Pad. “You’ve got this!” He then placed her in the back of the lane the Ducky Tube Zombie was in. Quickly after, he planted a Peashooter on top of her! After a few hits, that zombie was down!

“Sweet!” Freddy exclaimed. “This thing will be VERY helpful!” And sure enough, it was! More Ducky Tube Zombies started approaching the house via the pool. However, thanks to Lily Pad and Peashooter, they quickly went down! After that, the zombies were all gone!

“Man, Crazy Dave, you think of everything!” Josie told the lunatic.

“It pays to have creativity,” Dave responded proudly.

“I second that!” Alex replied with a chuckle. “It’s honestly no surprise why my only decent grade in school was art...”

“I didn’t know you were an artist,” Dave said with surprise.

“Well not officially, but I do enjoy drawing and doodling from time to time.”

“That’s pretty cool. My art class was interesting. It was literally sitting down with a paper and pencil and drawing whatever the teacher told you to draw.”

“That doesn’t sound that bad.”

“It wasn’t. Especially since she always said to draw bacon, tacos, nachos, and coffee!” The teens just stared at him.

“Are you sure that’s what she had you ALWAYS draw?” Freddy asked. Dave paused for a moment before replying, “Now that you mention it, that would explain the F’s I got on all my assignments...” The teens then just chuckled.

“Well, at any rate, I may as well make a new plant,” Dave continued. “Any suggestions?” The teens instantly started thinking of fun ways to kill zombies.

“Oh! I know!” Freddy quickly blurted out. “How about a plant that can just pound the zombies flat?” Dave simply smiled grandly.

“Now THAT’S creativity!” he replied. “It shouldn’t take very long to make something like that.” The teens then just nodded and went upstairs.

“These zombies are truly trying everything, aren’t they?” Josie asked the guys.

“That’s an understatement,” Alex pointed out. “But it’s not like we aren’t, either.”

“Good point,” Freddy responded. “I mean, where else are you gunna find plants that shoot peas, explode, and eat concrete?!” They all just laughed.

“I just hope we don’t go overboard with all this...” Josie murmured.

“Hey, we already have Doom-Shroom; what can get worse than that?” Alex asked.

“Knowing Dave, that new plant he’s making could get pretty disastrous.”

“Are you implying you don’t want us to hurt the zombies a lot?” Josie just glared at him.

“You got a point,” she finally admitted. Alex just smiled.

“But you also have a point that it could get too out of hand,” he replied. “But Dave’s gotta remember he lives here, too. He can’t do something too drastic that’ll ruin the place.”

SLAM! The house suddenly shook a little bit, knocking a few pictures off the wall!

“You were saying?” Josie asked. The teens then ran downstairs to the basement. When down there, they saw Crazy Dave next to the work desk, where the new plant was standing. It appeared to be some sort of giant gourd-type vegetable. In the middle of it was a face that seemed quite angry and determined. Dave suddenly turned around at them when he heard footsteps coming down.

“Hey, guys!” he said with a smile. “This is Squash! It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out how he got such a name!”

“Why, because he’s a squash?” Freddy asked. The others slowly turned towards him.

“Well THAT,” Dave replied, “and because he squashes zombies! You just plant him on the lawn, and when a zombie approaches him, he jumps up and pounds the sucker flat!”

“Nice!” Josie exclaimed with a huge grin. Alex stared at her for a few seconds. ‘Was her smile always that beautiful?’ he thought to himself. Before he could think about it, Dave continued talking.

“To make it even better, if multiple zombies are on the same square in front of him, he’ll squash them ALL, not just the front one, like Potato Mine!”

“That’ll help!” Freddy replied with a nod.

“It sure will!” Dave responded. “Well, while we wait for more zombies to show up, how about we have a quick brunch?” All the teens quickly smiled and nodded their heads in response.

“Sunflower, make something, please!” Dave told the flower.

“Roger that!” she replied with her smile.

*           *           *

Meanwhile, off of the planet, someone else was having brunch as well. Dr. Zomboss sat down at his table in the dining section of the Zombot. He waited for a few seconds before a zombie dressed as a waiter approached the table with a silver platter in its hand. After placing it down in front of its master, the zombie lightly bowed and walked away.

Zomboss stared at his plate and sighed; it was another morning of Insta-Brain and artificial brain juice. He grabbed the brain and took a bite out of it. He slowly chewed the artificial organ.

‘Just add water and it’ll taste like the real deal!’ the box had read. Zomboss just let out a sarcastic chuckle.

“I swear whoever created this stuff had never tasted a brain before in their life!” he mumbled to himself before taking another bite.

“Master, didn’t you create Insta-Brain?” Minion suddenly asked from the other end of the table.

“Yes, but that’s beside the point!” Zomboss replied and then proceeded to throw the rest of his food back onto the plate.

“I just don’t understand it,” he said to himself. “It was easy to get everyone else’s brains...how in the world is it this difficult to get four more?!”

“Well, Master,” Minion replied. “I may have good news for you!”

“What’s that?” his master replied in a clearly irritated tone.

“Earlier I ordered some zombies to attack the house from the BACK yard instead of the front!”

“What good will THAT do?”

“Master, their back yard has a swimming pool! How can you possibly plant a plant in pure water?” This piqued Zomboss’s interest.

“Were the zombies fit for water?” he asked.

“Definitely! They had some old pool floaties they found from other houses!” Zomboss smiled a great huge grin.

“Minion, I must say I am proud of you!” he told his minion.

“Well, thanks, Edgar!” Minion replied. Zomboss quickly returned to his evil glare.

“Don’t get too excited; you still must refer to me as ‘Master’! Got it?”

“Yes, Master...”

“Good. Now how long ago did you send those zombies?”

“About 20 minutes or so ago,” Minion replied.

“Then my calculations tell me that the zombies should be back on the Zombot in...” he then turned to his watch. “...NOW!” Just then the door to the dining room opened up, revealing a zombie with a scared expression on its face.

“Minion!” it exclaimed. “The attack in the backyard failed! They created some new plant that lets them put plants on the water! Man, I sure hope the boss doesn’t find out about-” It then noticed Zomboss was in the room, and he did not look very happy.

“Um...” the zombie murmured. “I’ll just...go now.” It then ran out the door, which shut behind it. Zomboss then just groaned and slammed his head on the table.

“Well, you still get an ‘A’ for effort, Minion,” he finally mumbled. “We’ll just have to keep trying! Sooner or later, they may goof up! And when they do, we’ll be right here waiting for them! Got it?”

“Yes, Master!” Minion replied.

“Good. Now, I’ll head up to the control center and see if I can think of something.” He then stood up and left the dining hall, leaving Minion all alone.

‘Poor Edgar,’ he thought. ‘First he became a zombie, then he can’t achieve his number one goal, and on top of that he thinks ‘effort’ starts with ‘A’!’ He then shook his head. ‘I hope we get these brains soon; I’m tired of seeing him like this...’