Heat shimmers rose off the two tarmac lanes of McLaren Road. Cicadas and crickets sang in the trees and mosquitos buzzed around their head as they walked at a fast pace towards Poor Man's Hill.

"Is it bad that I'm really hoping my mom is a zombie already?" Petra asked. She kicked a pebble from the soft shoulder sending it bouncing off a tree in the forest that lined the road.

James crooked up one side of his mouth and took her hand. "No worse than me being glad my dad did turn into one as some kind of perverted retribution for treating me badly my whole life."

Petra tipped her head back to the sun's rays and blew out a noisy breath. "This whole situation is really making me think hard about that saying 'I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy'. Part of me wants my mom to suffer, for the same reasons, but after seeing JJ get attacked, and hearing that poor woman die on the phone... I don't want her to suffer. Maybe bitten in her sleep and turn into a zombie, but not know it? Gah! I don't know what I want!"

James chuckled and wrapped an arm around her, giving her a squeeze. He laid his cheek on top of her head, inhaling her scent. "This whole thing is messed up, Pet."

"I feel bad about Mrs Marsten. She definitely didn't deserve to be zombified."

Pulling slightly on Petra's hand, James urged her to stop. He turned her to face him and brushed the loose strands from her braid out of her face.

He drank in the sight of her face before saying the words that had been weighing on his mind for what felt like days. "Petra, if either of us get bitten-"

Tears welled up in her eyes. "No, James. Don't. Just don't."

He breathed out through his nose. His heart cracked to think of seeing her beautiful near-black eyes with that milky film, to never hear her laugh, or get hot-and-bothered by her being smart. To never have the chance to kiss her.

He cupped her cheek. "It's our reality. We have to accept that it might happen one day."

She closed her eyes and started shaking her head in denial. "No, no, no, no, no."

He tipped her face up with one finger on her chin. "Petra, we will do everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen, but what if Anna and the others hadn't found us today? What if there had been more zombies? What if the weapons got lost or something? There are a million 'what if' scenarios."

Tears leaked from beneath her closed lids. Wet streaks were left behind as they slowly traced their way down over the apples of her cheeks to finally drip off her jawbone.

"I need you to promise me that if I turn, you will do everything possible to put me down. Hopefully before I eat anyone."

His heart buoyed at the tiniest snorting laugh she gave at that.

"Please, Pet. Just do for me what we've done for all the others. Okay? And I promise the same to you."

She sniffed and opened her eyes. He would do anything to take away the pain there.

But this was their reality. They'd always faced whatever was happening head on, always tried to plan three steps ahead. This was definitely not the time to stop, because now it could literally be the difference between life and death.

"Does it feel like we never get a break?" she asked, her voice cracking.

He brushed away the tracks of her tears. "How do we know we're strong enough to handle what's happening?"

"Because it's happening." Her lower lip trembled with her smile.

For years their motto had helped them bear any hardship, from their parent's treatment to the incessantly cruel teasing and bullying from kids at school to the threat of being separated.

Whatever they were experiencing they could handle.

"So, what are a few zombies?" he asked cheekily.

Petra groaned and said dryly, "Ha ha."

She took his hand and they resumed walking. "Quite a bit worse than Billy Pierce and his crew of psychopaths. At least JJ is out of the way. If we get lucky, the others have already gotten themselves killed off."

"You know, are zombies really worse than Billy? Zombies don't care who they eat. They're just hungry. Like those cats that eat their owners when the owner dies. Is it the cat's fault? Not really, they're just hungry."

"Ewww, gross!" said Petra.

James chuckled. "But, come on, think about it. The zombies are just like those cats. Billy on the other hand specifically targets someone to go after. He enjoys hurting people."

Petra wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her upper arms. Goosebumps had risen all over her skin, despite it being at least in the upper twenties out there in the full June sun.

An awful whooping sensation went through James stomach. He'd never asked Petra about her experiences or things she'd seen. The couple of times he had, she'd just clammed up and disappeared for a couple of days either physically or emotionally.

He learned the hard way to just remind her occasionally that he was there to support her and listen if she needed. But she'd never opened up.

"Pet, did Billy ever go after anyone you knew?"

She dropped her head and twisted her neck to hide her face.

"I'm sorry, I just... I guess it doesn't matter now being the end of the world and everything."

Sniffs told James that Petra was crying. He released her hand to place an arm gently over her shoulders and hug her to him.

She turned and buried her face in his chest. The sniffs quickly turned to deep, heart-wrenching sobs the like he'd never heard her release. He stroked her hair and back, slowly rocking her from side to side as she tore up the roots of a pain held inside for far too long.

After several minutes, her sobs reduced to occasional hiccoughs. Face still buried, she said, "I made your shirt snotty."

"It's okay. It'll wash." Continuing to stroke her hair he stayed silent and waited for her to take the lead.

She pulled back, a long string of clear, glistening snot connected from her nose to his shirt. "Ewwww!"

James laughed. "It is pretty funny, Pet."

She cracked a grin and stared at the snot. "I don't have any tissues."

"Allow me." He gathered the edge of the shirt and collected the string. At her nose, he turned the fabric and used a new spot to tenderly wiped her nose. Twisting the fabric, he was able to get another clean section to dry her cheeks.

She looked at the crumpled, snotty shirt. "That's really gross."

"No worries." With speedy care, James pulled in his arms and spun the shirt around backwards. "Just remember not to wrap your arms around my waist."

She snorted and covered her mouth again.

James examined her face. It was red and splotchy, but her eyes were clearer and brighter than he'd ever seen. His heart hurt again with the love he had for her. He would do anything to protect this woman.

She took his hand and turned him in the direction of her mother's house. "Let's walk. It's easier for me to talk that way. If I'm moving."

A sliver of fear spiked through James. He didn't know what he would do if he heard that Billy Pierce had threated Petra, or – his heart gave a stutter at the thought – touched her. It might make him go ballistic.

"Billy and his cronies used to lie in wait for us girls. All over the school and sometimes even in town.

"If they knew your schedule, they'd find a way to be there. I knew the town better, so I could get away and hide really well. Once I jumped in the dumpster behind the grocery store. They stood right outside it, but the numbskulls didn't think to actually look in it. They probably thought since I'm a girl I wouldn't want to get dirty or something."

She shrugged. "I have a pretty good relationship with that dumpster. It's saved me on a lot of occasions, actually."

Petra covered her eyes with a hand before she continued. "Do you remember Eloise Goyer?"

"Yeah, she moved away in ninth grade after she was kidnapped. I heard the abductors really messed her up. Such a horrible thing to happen to someone."

"It was Billy that took her."

James heard the whistling from his own mouth as he sucked in a breath of surprise.

Petra shook her head back and forth. "Eloise wouldn't tell anyone what happened to her. She told the police the kidnappers kept her blindfolded so she couldn't describe anyone.

"Right before she moved, though, like the night before she moved, she told Becky Walters to tell all of us that we needed to avoid Billy and his psychos at all costs. Becky asked her straight out if Billy took her. Apparently, Eloise burst out crying and ran away.

"I," her voice squeaked. She had to take a few swallows before continuing, "I heard from Roberta Prim that Eloise killed herself a few months later. She didn't leave a note or anything. But we all know it was because of fucking Billy Pierce.

"That's when we started to move around in groups, or during basketball practice. That was the safest time to leave the school. We'd all huddle up in the bathroom or behind the stacks in the library and wait."

Silence stretched out, punctuated only by mosquitos buzzing around them and birdsong in the trees. The crunch of the occasional bit of gravel that had made its way onto the road from the soft shoulder was loud beneath their shoes. They only unlinked hands when one of them had to smack at a bug.

Finally, Petra continued. "Billy seemed to have a special thing for me. When I told him to get lost, it made him try harder to catch me. I hate that people think I'd be a whore like my mom."

James was aghast. "You never told me, Petra. I would have, well, I don't know what I would have done, but I'd have made sure he left you alone."

"He used to torment you just as much as me. Can you believe it was just yesterday that he tried to corner you after school? That feels like ages ago."

Petra pushed the wisps of hair back from her face. "But that's why I used to wait for you outside your class, or Viktor's. I mean, I lo-" she cut herself off, her mouth open around the unformed word ending. Her face turned apple red. "I looked forward to seeing you guys, but it also meant Billy left me alone."

James' heart soared because that was not what she was going to say. And they both knew it.

She chewed her lip for a few moments, then relented and said, "Alright, I promise. If you turn, I won't leave you like that. Can I just ask one thing, though? If you turn, and you're about to bite Billy Pierce, can I let you?"

James threw back his head and laughed heartily. "Alright, for Billy or Neil or Roger, you can make an exception. But please don't let me eat any of them." James gave a fake shudder. "I wouldn't want to eat their basketball cooties even after I'm undead."

She snorted and covered her mouth.

"Who's on your bite list, then?" James' smile widened to see Petra genuinely laughing.

"Hmmm, I guess Rachael Belvita, for sure. She's such an uber-bitch!" Petra tapped her lower lip and absently watched some birds wheeling through the air as they walked. "I wouldn't mind biting any of Billy's crew actually. I imagine I won't have any clue what I'm doing, so I'll just have to relish the thought now that I'll be putting the fear into them."

He cast his eyes sidelong at her to enjoy the smile dancing around her lips as she imagined her little fantasy.

She swivelled her eyes at him the same way and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Watching you."

"Why?"

"Because there is no one and nothing that I'd rather look at than you."

Pulling his hand to make him stop, Petra reached for his other one, linking them in a circle. They were almost at Poor Man's Hill.

"James, before all this craziness started, I had already come to a decision. So, please don't stop me, because this isn't a product of an adrenaline rush or fear of dying, although I guess it is a bit of that, for sure. But I already knew I wanted to do this, so just know that it isn't in a response to anything. It's just something that I'm ready for and not anything else."

James eyebrows had winged higher and higher up with Petra's nervous monologue. He'd never heard her go off like that or seen her shifting around on the balls of her feet like she was standing barefoot on hot sand.

"Ok, Pet," was his reply.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath that smoothed out all of her nervous lines. When she opened them, she was once again the confident, if slightly nervous, woman he loved.

He was drowning in the love shining from her eyes for him.

Releasing one of his hands, she laid it alongside his cheek.

She trailed her hand down to his shoulder then stepped so their sneakers were side by side and stomachs touching.

James caught himself from saying a frustrated "Damn!" as he felt his loins begin to respond to her nearness.

When she looked up through her lashes, it nearly undid him. He felt himself grow rock hard and tried to shift away from her.

She gripped his hand and shoulder hard to hold him in place. "No, James. Please don't."

She pressed herself even closer to him and rose on her tiptoes. Her other hand rose to his other shoulder. He placed his hands lightly at her waist.

He couldn't help the groan that escaped him to feel her softness pressing against him. With their chests tightly together, he could feel the hammering of her heartbeat.

She gave a giggle. "Your heartbeat is going a mile a minute."

He broke into a wide grin. "So is yours."

She glanced at his mouth then back to his eyes.

James steeled himself to resist the almost overpowering urge to lean in to taste her lips. He gave the tiniest of nods and relaxed his face into a welcoming smile.

If Petra decided she didn't want to do this now, he needed her to read from him that that was fine with him. He wouldn't dream of rushing her.

But God! He really hoped that she was ready because her partially open mouth was screaming invitation at him.

Her hands flexed on his shoulders, then she leaned her face towards him.

His mouth got burning desert in July kind of dry, then flooded with saliva which he quickly swallowed. The sun beating down on their heads felt scorching hot. Did the mosquito buzzing around them have unusually loud wings?

He wanted to keep his eyes open to savour her expression, but at the first soft touch of her lips on his, they closed in ecstasy for the few eternal moments that Petra kissed him.

When she pulled away, she took his hands and squeezed them. "You can open your eyes now," she whispered.

He cracked them slightly, surprised they were still shut. The radiance of her smile stole his breath.

Taking his hand, Petra led him up the first curve of Poor Man's Hill.

Rounding the bend, they halted. "Something isn't right here," Petra said.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you for reading!

WORD COUNT: 2661

NANO WORD COUNT: 34, 458

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 36, 283