Free And This Too: A Modern Fable by Emily Owenn McIntyre Page B

blushed and looked away. “I still think we should make a plan.”
    *****
    The definition of a stalemate is: a situation with no potential winners. And Harley had found herself in the epitome of a stalemate. If she didn’t move, her enemy would never know she was there, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to get her right away. Yet, she couldn’t fight them because rolling down a window or opening the door would both draw them to her and leave her more vulnerable.
                  Upon this epiphany, Harley figured out why the shooting had stopped. Whoever had taken pity on her lost soul had also risked compromising their hide out. Harley had seen it many times before, in movies, where the gun slinging and throat slashing came to a standstill because it was dark.              
                  Harley sighed, petting Pixel, who had crawled onto her chest after she curled up in the back seat, and whispered, “I just want to survive this, Pix.”
                  The cat mewled softly in reply, as if he knew that the slightest sound would alert the eerie figures flailing around outside.
                  “Once we find Allie, we’ll take her and get mom and dad. And…and maybe that Christian kid, if he’s still alive.” She continued. “There’s probably safety in numbers.” Pickles began to purr. “And then…and then maybe we can go to the bus. Lots of birds and mice for you to hunt there. Start a camp, not have to deal with these zombies.”
                  Pixel mewed in agreement.
                  “Yeah…no more mutherfuckin’ walkers,” Harley voiced, before closing her eyes and letting a light sleep overcome her desire to survive.
    *****
                  Light filtered through the window as Allie awoke with a plan in her head. She looked through the blinds and found that most of the walkers had become too hungry to care, and meandered off to stalk more idiotic prey. This was what they had been training for before and during the Infection. Allie poked Kurt in the rib, who was dozing on the couch.
                  Kurt jolted awake and yelped, “What the hell!?!” before flinging his blanket to the floor.
                  Allie held her finger to her lips, “Shh.”
                  “Don’t ‘shh’ me.” Kurt whispered angrily, “you woke me up, now tell me why.”
                  “I have a plan,” she quietly reassured him.
                  “Oh really?”
                  “You were right; I want my Harles safe, where I know she’s safe. There’s only about ten of them out there, you wanna know what’s going down?”
                  Kurt began to rub the sleep out of his eyes and mumbled. “I suppose.”
                  “Alright,” Allie said, putting her hands on her hips, “Do you think we can get down to the second floor?”
                  “The building is locked, for now,” Kurt replied, scratching the back of his head. “So getting to the second floor should be easy. What do you have in mind Aunt Allie?”
    *****
                  With a mighty roar, Allie jumped out of the second floor window, landing with her knees bent. Harley sat up and looked out the window. It was morning. As she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, the door to the apartment building burst open and Kurt ran out, wielding a shotgun.
                  “What in the hell?” Harley asked the sky.
                  Allie unsheathed her katana, a Japanese fighting sword, from its place on her back. She hollered as she ran at the nearest walker.
                  Kurt pointed his gun and pulled the trigger. Zombie mush was left where a head once was. Harley grabbed the handgun from the dash and opened the door, not bothering to close it. Adrenaline pumped through her