After sitting around the basement bored for about an hour, Alex started hearing snoring. He turned to his left and saw Crazy Dave lying on the couch with his eyes closed and mouth wide open. He thought he saw some drool in his beard, as well.

He then looked to his right and saw Josie doodling something on a notepad. He also saw Freddy talking with the Plants about something. They were whispering, so it was hard to tell what they were talking about.

Alex himself was just lying on the floor with his hands crossed on his chest. He felt as if he were about to end up like Dave and pass out. Dave insisted they stay in the basement, just in case the zombies quickly attacked again.

Well, a whole 60 minutes passed and not one zombie was seen anywhere. Not even thinking, Alex’s eyes started to slowly close. When they were all the way shut, his mind quickly flashed to his life before the zombie attack.

He was a C average student in school. The problem wasn’t that he wasn’t smart; everyone told him he was a genius. No, the problem was that he didn’t care. Like most kids, he didn’t really like school at all. He didn’t really feel like getting an education as big as they were offering was really necessary. His dream career was to become an actor for movies and TV, and seeing as how even the worst child actors still get their own shows, he felt like he had a good shot.

Josie, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. She felt like all she needed in life was to learn. She was the best student of the class, academically and physically. Nearly every other student was fat, stupid, ugly, druggies, or a combination of some.

However, Josie was the best looking and had the best grades. It comes as no surprise as to how she got so much attention. Many of the other ‘popular’ girls called her a geek or ugly or other things to try and bring her down. Josie simply shrugged and told them things like “Sorry to break it to you, but I ain’t your reflection” and walked away.

Many wondered how her and Alex were such compatible friends, including the two themselves. They didn’t think too hard on it, though. Josie was just glad to have a true friend in her new life, and Alex was glad he had a true friend he could be happy around.

However, now Alex was wondering how great their friendship really was. He wasn’t asking for much; just what Josie wasn’t telling him. He’s told her everything there is to know about him. He just doesn’t understand why she won’t tell him everything about her...

ERT! ERT! ERT! Alex’s eyes quickly opened up and turned towards the TV. He heard Dave snort a bit before seeing him stand up off the couch. Freddy and Josie also got up and looked towards the TV.

At first, they thought it was a false alarm, as nothing was there. However, after a few seconds, a zombie came sprinting across the yard towards the house! It appeared to have something in its hand.

Right as they were going to start planting, the zombie stopped in the middle of the yard, dropped whatever it was holding, and ran off the property the way he came.

They all paused for a minute or two, staring at the object dropped. It appeared to be yellow and rectangular.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that’s a folded piece of paper!” Josie said after the period of silence.

“We should check it out,” Alex told nobody in particular. Without even being told to, Freddy quickly ran up the stairs. A few seconds later, they all saw him running onto the lawn, grabbing the paper, unfolding it, pausing to read it, quickly look around for something, and run back inside.

“What is it?” Dave asked. Freddy simply handed him the paper. After unfolding it and reading it, Dave raised his eyebrows and handed it to Alex and Josie. They looked at it and were quite confused. It read:

Hello. We are about to launch an all-out attack on your house.

-The Zombies

“Why would they warn us about this?” Josie asked. Alex just shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe they’re trying to screw with our minds,” he told her. “At any rate, we should still keep our eyes and ears peeled. You never know if this thing could be...”

ERT! ERT! ERT! “...legit...” Alex finished with a low voice.

“Um, guys?!” Freddy suddenly said with a worried tone. “Check this out!!”

Alex and Josie turned towards the TV and saw an unimaginable amount of zombies walking towards the house! There had to have been a couple hundred of them, most of them being Bucket Heads and Pole Vaulters!

“Don’t panic!” Dave told them. “I’ve got a way out of this!”

“How?!” Alex asked with panic.

“I’ve been working on software that allows the plant DNA to not have a reload time, like it does now!”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“It wasn’t finished. However, it’s close to BEING finished that it can work, but only temporary.”

“Hey, a little’s better than none! Fire that bad boy up!” Without hesitation, Dave ran to the computer and starting typing like crazy. The laptop showed lots of green numbers and letters scrolling across the screen. Finally, after a minute, the laptop looked normal again.

“That ought to do it!” he told them. “It should last long enough to stop these suckers!”

“What are you waiting for?!” Josie shrieked. “Kill them!!” Dave then went on to start planting like crazy.

They could quickly see that he was right; he could instantly place two of the same plant only a few seconds after each other! This meant you could fill a while column with Peashooters and Repeaters in about 30 seconds! It also meant more Sunflowers could be planted quickly, which meant more sunawatts could be collected!

This attack, however, was much different than those previous. It contained A LOT more zombies. It also seemed like they were moving a bit faster, as if for the first time they’re TRYING to get the brains!

After about 10 minutes, the zombies kept on coming and they didn’t show signs of stopping! Alex noticed Dave’s eyes were starting to dry up. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw him blink!

“Want me to take over?” he asked him. Dave simply nodded in response and sat up. Alex then quickly continued where Dave left off.

Now, it’s not like they were 100% great at the moment; a few zombies had eaten some Peashooters and Repeaters and Snow Peas, but a couple Cherry Bombs and Potato Mines and Wall-Nuts quickly solved that problem.

Alex was very shocked at how determined the zombies were acting this time. He almost felt like something was controlling them to work harder...

At any rate, another 15 minutes passed by. By then, the back two columns had only Sunflowers, the next two columns after that had only Repeaters, the column after that had Snow Peas, then Chompers, and finally Wall-Nuts! Their current sunawatt count was around 2500!!

Finally, after about another 10 minutes, Alex started feeling like Dave; his eyes were dry and starting to burn.

“Josie! Help me out here!” he called out. After hearing some quick footsteps, Alex saw Josie standing next to him through his peripheral vision. He instantly sat up and got out of the way while she sat down and started planting.

When she did, Alex instantly shut his eyes and they started tearing up. After blinking for a few seconds, and with his eyes still wet, he turned to the TV and saw everything was still good; the zombie kill count was very high and the plant kill count was quite low.

Finally, another 10 minutes passed by. Josie started looking like Alex and Dave when they were at this.

“Freddy! It’s all you now!” she exclaimed. Freddy quickly sat down in the chair and continued planting.

“How many zombies are left?!” Josie asked while blinking rather quickly. Alex went towards the front basement window and took a peek outside, but all he saw were the backs of Sunflowers.

“I’ll head upstairs and look out the window,” he told them. He then sprinted up the stairs and headed for the living room window. He looked outside and saw the giant hoard of zombies that they were watching and killing downstairs. He saw some more coming from the street, but not too much more.

He then sprinted back towards the basement door. When he was right at the top of the step, he suddenly felt himself trip and fall down! The next thing he knew, he was rolling down the wooden steps! A few seconds later, his shoulder landed on the concrete floor, leaving him lying there on his side wincing in pain.

“Alex!!” he heard Josie’s voice shout. “Are you okay?!” Alex sat there for a second before closing his eyes and moaning. He then heard footsteps run towards him. Next thing he knew, a hand was on his shoulder, turning him onto his back. He partially opened his eyes and saw Josie’s face staring at him.

“Where does it hurt?” he heard her ask. Alex sat still before replying, “Everywhere!” Josie then simply tried picking him up, but she just didn’t have the strength.

“I’ll get him,” Alex heard Dave say. “You make sure Freddy doesn’t get into too much trouble with these guys.” Josie then nodded and walked away. A few seconds later, he saw Crazy Dave stand where Josie just was. He then reached down and picked Alex up and carried him up the stairs.

Dave placed Alex down on the couch and told him to rest.

“I’ll let you know when, or if, the zombies stop coming,” he told him. Alex simply nodded, but then winced in pain.

“Try not to move much,” Dave continued. “You need to give your muscles a break. Understand?”

“Yeah,” Alex responded with almost a whisper. With that, Dave started walking away.

“Hey, Dave,” Alex called. Dave turned around and looked at him. Alex simply gave a little smile.

“When I checked, there weren’t many left,” he told him. Dave just smiled and walked to the basement door and out of sight. Alex then slowly turned his head towards the window. The sun was just about to go completely down. He then turned so he was staring at the ceiling.

‘What a long day we’ve had,’ he thought to himself. ‘We’ve killed many zombies, met many new plants, I nearly killed myself trying to see how many zombies we had left, and I discovered my best friend is hiding something from me.’

He then paused and slowly tried sitting up. When he did, he turned towards the stairs. Without thinking, he then quickly got off the couch and tried standing up. He almost collapsed to the floor but slowly managed to stand straight up.

When he felt like he was ready, he slowly walked towards the stairs. When he got there, he carefully grabbed onto the railing and crawled up. It was proving to be a tad difficult. Of course, everything’s difficult after you fall down the stairs and land on concrete.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he made it to the top. He then continued crawling down the hallway until he made it to his destination: Josie’s room. Once he crawled inside, he instantly started looking again. Seeing as how he had already checked most of the room before, there were limited placed she could’ve hidden it.

After searching for a minute or two, he lifted up her pillow, and saw it: her diary! He quickly opened it up and saw writing in it! It was the real deal!

He then quickly flipped it to the most recent entry. This is what he saw:

June 15th, 4:43 pm

Dear Diary,

Ugh! Alex still won’t leave me alone about what I’m ‘hiding’ from him! In my opinion, if he can’t seem to figure it out without resorting to finding my diary and checking it, he is truly as stupid as everyone thinks he is!

I thought for sure I made it obvious...ever since we met I thought I made it clear how I felt. The way I was always wanting to hang around with him, the way I playfully insulted him, the way I was always giving him ‘the look’.... I don’t know. I guess he just assumed I was trying to be the friend he never had. If only he knew how I really felt... Oh, the alarm’s going off again! I’ll give you an update later!

-Josie

P.S. I hope Mom and Dad make it back to me okay...

Alex just stared at the diary entry.

‘The way she always wanted to be around me....the way she playfully insulted me....the way she gave ‘the look’ to me...’ he thought to himself. ‘It’s almost as if she’s trying to say...’

He then heard footsteps coming up the stairs! Alex quickly shut the diary, replaced it under the pillow, and tried to sprint out of the room. When he made it outside, he quickly plopped down onto the floor on his stomach.

As soon as he did, he saw Josie walking up the stairs and she saw him.

“What are you doing up here?!” she asked.

“I was too uncomfortable on the couch,” he quickly told her. “I was trying to get into my bed.” She simply stared at him with a confused look.

“Why didn’t you just call for one of us?” she asked.

“I didn’t want to distract you guys from the zombies.”

“You could’ve killed yourself going up those stairs!”

“I also could’ve killed us all by letting a zombie or two into the house!” Again, she just stared at him.

“Well, the zombies are gone now,” she finally said. “How do you feel?”

“A bit better,” he responded. “A good night’s rest should help.” Josie just nodded.

“Let me help you up,” she said. With that, she leaned over and grabbed his hand. Alex then slowly got up and leaned on her shoulder. The two then walked over to Alex’s room and she laid him down on his bed. She then took off his glasses and put him in his blankets.

“Good night,” she told him.

“Good night,” he responded. She then walked over to the door, shut off the lights, and closed the door. Alex then stared at the ceiling and shut his eyes. And for the first time in quite a while, he found himself praying.

‘God, thanks for getting us through this far,’ he started. ‘Thank you for not letting any of us be alone in this crisis. I’m sorry I haven’t been focusing on you much, but I was just so angry at you for letting all this happen, especially to my parents. Now I see, though, that maybe you did all this to finally prove to myself how fortunate I am. I have a brother who loves me and a friend who would literally die for me.

Lord, if there’s anyone else in this zombie-infested world who may be going through what we are, please be with them and help them out. And God ...if Josie’s parents are still alive, please let us know. You know she needs the comfort of knowing what happened to them. Even if the news is bad, I’m sure she’ll take it well.

God, I also want to thank you for Crazy Dave. He may have been a weirdo at first....well, I guess he still is....but he’s a really great guy and I’m honored to have met him. He’s really been helping us out a lot and at this rate, he may help us survive this thing altogether.

One more thing, Lord: You know how Josie feels about me. I’m pretty sure I do too, but I just want her to say it. So, if you could give her the courage to tell me the truth, I’d be grateful. In your son’s precious name, Amen.’

Alex then just kept his eyes shut and let his mind clear out.

‘I hope tomorrow can go as well as today,’ he finally thought to himself. Next thing he knew, he was fast asleep.