Page 8 of Cora

I caught it before it hit me. “Your point?” I asked, biting into the fruit. “There’s always the couch if you’re that uncomfortable.”

“You couldn’t get me out of that bed if you pissed on it,” Remi replied.

I wrinkled my nose. “That’s fucking gross, you sicko.”

“I didn’t sleep well either,” Isaac stated, changing the subject before we got too out of hand. “I think Remi is right. We have some rodents in the walls. As long as that’s where they stay, I’mmore than willing to ignore them. Rodents are a small price to pay for a roof over our head.”

“If we stay here, we will want to set up a perimeter around the property.” I took another bite of the apple and chewed it thoughtfully. We had come into the mountains because they seemed to be zombie light, but that didn’t mean there weren’t still zombies up here. A perimeter would go a long way toward keeping us safe.

“What did you have in mind?” Trent asked.

“A trench with wooden stakes,” I replied.

“Oh, is that all?” Remi scoffed. “Let me go get my backhoe and chainsaw.”

“I’m not saying that it will be an easy job,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “But it’s a job worth doing if it means keeping our new home safe.”

“He has a point,” Trent said. “I can work on the stakes. I don’t mind.”

“Do you know how long it will take us to dig a trench around this place by hand?” Remi asked.

“A while,” Isaac conceded as I went to the fridge and opened it. “We can go outside and see where trenches are needed and where they aren’t.”

“Who ate the rest of the chili?” I asked. Nobody spoke as we all looked at each other accusingly. “Really, guys? Nobody is going to fess up? It’s not that big of a deal. If you had late-night munchies, just say so. Not saying anything is making this weird.” Still, nobody spoke. “Ok then. We’ll pretend this isn’t weird.” I closed the fridge and sat at the kitchen table.

“Trent, I could have sworn you got up in the middle of the night,” Isaac said.

“Yeah, to go to the bathroom,” Trent replied. “Not to eat the rest of the chili. I didn’t touch it. It must have been one of you.”

“Either someone is lying, or someone sleep-eats and doesn’t know it,” Remi laughed. “Either way, I’m gonna be watching all of you more closely from now on.”

I shook my head. “Back to the security of this place, I like Isaac’s plan. Let’s see where natural barriers could work in our favor and where we will need to dig some holes.” Isaac looked at me in surprise. “What? Most of the time, your plans are excellent. Other times, you have us sitting out in the forest for days watching jackshit happen in an empty house.”

I finished my apple and tossed it in the trash. “Come on, let’s get this day started,” I urged as I went outside. Looking around, I realized there weren’t nearly as many natural barriers as we might have hoped. Walking around the house, I realized there weren’t any—just forests around us.

“On second thought,” I said as Remi came to stand beside me and rested his arm on my shoulder, “perhaps we should build a fence instead.”

“Now you’re thinking with your big brain,” Remi laughed.

I rolled my eyes at him. There’s never been a moment since I’ve known Remi that he took a hundred percent seriously.

Seven and a half months ago

I watched Remington run around the abandoned playground, giggling like a psychopath as he dodged out of reach of thezombie that was trying desperately to catch him.

“I say we just leave him here,” I said to Isaac quietly. “This is too much fucking crazy for any of us to deal with.” We had found him walking along the side of the road a couple of weeks ago, and honestly, that first encounter should have been all the warning we needed to keep driving. When we were within fifteen feet of him, he suddenly started flapping his arms like wings and jumping into an odd rendition of what I assumed must have been the chicken dance.

“We can’t leave him here,” Isaac admonished with a chuckle. “He keeps life interesting, and his skills are proving useful.”

“You said weird wrong. Remi keeps life weird,” I replied.

“I’m not weird; I’m fun,” Remi yelled as he jumped on the merry-go-round and spun it.

“Ok, fun-time-Charlie, are you done?” I asked. “We’re losing daylight.”

“That depends,” he replied, jumping off the merry-go-round and climbing to the top of the slide.

“On what?” Isaac asked.