“Woah, dude, check it out,” Zane said as he looked out one of the living room windows. “Man, that apartment over there is on fire...”

The rest of the group were sitting around the blank television, busy trying to think of a way to get out of the mess. Some of them were busy trying to decide if it really was even a mess at all. When Zane said this, however, they all turned and tried in vain to see through the wall from where they were sitting.

“It is,” Zane went on, trying to get the others to get up and come see. “The whole building, up in flames.”

Finally Bobby gave and went over next to Zane and looked out through the window. Indeed, Zane was right – the four story brick apartment building across the street, probably around fifty years old, was covered in flames from the second to the fourth story. The first story was relatively untouched so far, but that wouldn't last long.

Everyone else crowded around for a quick look before sitting back down, but Bobby motioned for Zane, Stephen and Derik to come outside with him.

The door closed quietly on the living room and for a moment the only noise that could be heard was the snap, crackle, and pop of the building across the street. There were no screams and the gunshots, if there were any, seemed to be drowned out.

Bobby pulled up a lawn chair from the side of the house and set it out on the edge of his lawn, right where he had taken cover earlier, and the other three pulled up more chairs next to him. As they sat down Bobby put his feet up on the short stone 'wall' and watched the building burn. It seemed almost soothing to him...

“So what the hell are we going to do, then?” Zane asked as the left section of the roof was consumed by the flames.

“I dunno,” Bobby replied as a window on the third floor cracked from the heat. “How do we know we can get out?”

The other three were quiet as they thought about this.

As the right section of the roof caved in Derik asked the obvious question: “What the hell do you mean?”

Bobby was quick to reply. “Look, this shit, whatever it is, is really friggin' bad. I mean, you guys can see that, right? Well, the military has told us all to stay in our homes and has initiated martial law or whatever, right? Well, I haven't seen anything from them other than that helicopter for a few hours now. How do we know they'll even let us out if we do make it the 'edge', if there even is one. Hell, how do we know the whole world ain't screwed over by now?”

By now the whole right side of the brick building seemed to be in danger of falling over upon a small and dark single story house next to it.

“Well then.” That was Zane.

Zane, Derik, and Bobby were surprised, however, when Stephen butted in with, “I've got to go and get my mom.”

“Where is she?” Bobby asked hesitantly.

“The West Apartment District.”

“Oh. God damn.” Bobby mulled over this. “Damnit, man.”

“I have to. I have to, man. She's my mom, she's all the family I've got left.” Stephen looked so desperate, so much so the Derik leaned and looked away. It didn't help that the fire across the street was casting a strange light on his face.

“Yea, but she's all the way in the West Apartment District!” Bobby spluttered. “I mean, shit, that's the most crowded place in the whole friggin' city! What are we gonna do? Just waltz on down there?”

Stephen tried to say something but Derik butted in and said, “Well, we have a car, we could barrel on down there and then back, and there we go...” Then he caught Bobby's glare. “Oh, sorry...”

But it was too late.

“Yea, like he said, we could just drive down and then drive back!” Stephen blurted, gesticulating wildly.

Bobby swore vehemently under his breath. “Fine, yea, let's take my piece of crap into the unknown parts of hell on earth, right? Then what? What if we crash, what if...” The words were drained from his mouth, though, when he saw Stephen's face and the look in his eyes. “God damn it all. Fine, look, who ever wants to go down and get Stephen's mom can go. I'm staying here so that I can figure something out and watch the house.” Stephen started to say something, but Bobby cut him off. “Yea, whatever, keys are next to the phone book in the kitchen. The nineteen eleven is in there as well, as well as all the ammo. It's all yours.”

Stephen got up and went back into the house, and as the door closed the right side of the brick building did crush the house next to it in a massive display of sparks, fire, and noise.

After a moment, once the ruin had settled and the house caught fire as well, Derik said, “I think I'm gonna go with him. I can't let him go alone in good conscience.”

“You heard what I said to Stephen, same goes for you,” Bobby said, shutting his eyes for a moment.

As the door closed behind Derik the other top of the other half of the building followed the rest the way of gravity.

“Well, there goes my car, Stepehen and Derik.” Bobby closed his eyes and watched felt the warmth of the fire die away. “Like we'll ever see them again.”

“You really think that they're that boned?” Zane asked this as he fiddled with a twelve-gauge shell in his hands.

“Well, look down the steps. You see that boot?”

Zane got up and look. “Yea, I see it. What about it?”

“It belongs to a body, and the body belongs to a guy who tried to break in here. That ripping sound from earlier was from a helicopter, like you already know, but what I didn't tell you was that it only took two seconds for it to kill, what, five guys? And they were spread out. If you're in a car how long is it gonna take for you to get shot?”

“Well, that's if they get caught, though, right?”

“Yea, I suppose. I don't know man. I suppose we'll see. In the meantime we should figure out what the hell to do with this shit situation.”

“Yea. You sure that thing ain't gonna catch the rest of the neighborhood on fire?” Zane pointed lazily towards the glowing, fallen apartment and the crushed home as he said this.

“...It shouldn't spread, I don't think. We'll just have to keep an eye on it, I guess.”

“That's what she said.”

Bobby grinned as he got up and picked up his lawn chair. He couldn't help it, even if it was a stupid joke; It was funny because it made sense.

As Bobby and Zane were putting the chairs away, Derik and Stephen's included, the aforementioned men came out the front door, Stephen with the handgun and a backpack and Derik with the Enfield rifle. Behind him was Olivia, who was carrying a backpack.

“She going too?” Bobby asked as the five people faced each other, some of them for the last time.

Derik was about to say, “Yea”, but Olivia interrupted him and said, “Yea, I'm going. You gonna stop me, Bobby?” There was an obvious threatening edge to her voice that none of them had seen before.

Bobby considered this for a moment. “No, I'm not going to stop you. I would like to, but I won't.”

The five of them stood there for a long thirty seconds more, Bobby looking the other three in the eyes in turn, all of them looking away.

“Well, you said you're gonna go, so get going.”

“Alright, man,” Derik said. “Don't worry, we'll bring your car back.”

Bobby raised an eyebrow. “Screw the car – make sure my guns get back here.”

Derik and Olivia went down the stairs, Olivia giving Bobby the finger behind her back, and Zane muttered something about the 'bathroom'. This left Stephen and Bobby alone on the lawn.

“Bobby, thank you,” Stephen spluttered after a moment of awkward silence. “I mean, serious-”

“Stephen, Stephen, shut up and get going. I need you guys to try and get back here in ten hours. If you're not back by then I'm assuming you dead. Get going.”

Stephen performed an odd sort of head bobbing motion before he hurried down the steps after Derik and Oliva, keys in hand.

Bobby shook his head grimly before going inside. The living room was quiet – the television was off and Emily was asleep on one couch while Sean was asleep on the other.

Bobby slipped by them and into the kitchen where Zane was sitting at the table with Jaime while Bret slept by the far door.

“They gone, then?” Zane asked.

“Yea.” Bobby grabbed his plate from earlier and piled on some various bits of pizza and chinese food before throwing it all in the microwave. “I told Stephen that if they're not back in ten hours then I'm assuming them dead. That means that they had better be here by two this afternoon.”

“So, you have any ideas for how to get out of here, then?” Zane asked this as he took the occasional sip from a glass of water.

Bobby pondered this under the hum of the microwave, racking his brain for ideas. As the microwave beeped something occurred to him. “Not right now, but I think that first we should consolidate forces.”

“Consolidate?” And then more sips.

“Yea. Think about it! It's not just us here! We should try to get all the other people here, all the other people whose houses are connected to the shelter...”

“What shelter? Like, a bomb shelter?” Zane suddenly stopped sipping his water. He was interested now.

“Sort of. But, bottom line, it's connected to five or six other houses, and even if there aren't people in those houses there could be supplies or...” Bobby was about to say 'weapons', but he had glanced at Jaime, who had her head on the table. She looked like she was asleep, but that wasn't what caught his attention. Her hair was let loose, shoulder long; a blond cascade falling down her neck.

Neck...

Jaime opened the car door and stepped out into the parking lot, her hair swinging across her shoulders and momentarily revealing her neck, which would have given any vampire an instant hard one. She turned and looked in the car at Bobby, who was dressed in a black suit, the one he always wore to choir concerts. He looked over at her and got an eyeful of her sleeveless, strapless, blue dress that hugged her figure beautifully.

“Ready?” she asked him, a shadow of a smile hanging perpetually around her mouth.

Bobby took a deep breath. “Ready.” A turn of the key shut off the car. Pocketing the keys Bobby locked the doors and walked around to Jaime.

Jaime smiled up at Bobby as she closed her door with a shove of her hips. “Thanks for driving me, Bobby.”

“Mm-hmm,” Bobby replied. “So you're staying for the whole thing, right? Until eleven?”

“Exactly,” Jaime chirruped as she stabbed at Bobby's chest with a slender finger.

“Right. So, if you need anything, I have my phone...” Bobby trailed off as Jaime looked him in the eye. “What?”

“You,” she said, “are coming inside with me.”

“Wha- but, I only said tha-”

“Oh, what's that? So you don't love me any more? Is that it?”

“What! Of course I – wait, love you?”

“Come on!” Jaime laughed. “Inside, let's go!”

Bobby tried to protest but Jaime led him by the hand across the parking lot towards the crowd around the school doors. At one point he thought that he heard Derik and Zane shout out at him and some cat calls after that.

Because of the large amount of people crowding around the doors Bobby had to stop looking at the ground in front of him and instead peer around. First he saw two guys arguing loudly with each other and there were all the groups of people standing with each other. As Jaime led him by one of the groups a girl with short brown hair, Jessica, started forward with a strange look on her face, almost like excitement or relief. That is, until she saw that Jaime was leading Bobby by the hand, and then her face fell.

Bobby shot her a look that said, “Hey, I'm sorry.” He meant it, too, because he hadn't been planning on going with Jaime. He had actually thought that she had had somebody already lined up and had been planning on spending most of his time with his buddies and girls like Jessica.

Just a few seconds more of pushing through the crowds of people and Jaime and Bobby finally made it inside the gymnasium, where the lights were still on and the sound system being tested.

“Uh, inside a little early?” Bobby asked her, now more annoyed than confused.

“Sorry,” she replied as she looked around and let go of his hand. “I need to go find somebody, can you wait here? Good.”

As she walked off Bobby realized that he hadn't exactly said anything, but didn't think on it any more. After a minute of standing there and feeling awkward and rather alone. The door opened behind him again, much to the protests of the older students watching the doors, and he heard someone yell out, “There you are!”

He turned to see Zane and Derik standing there, Zane in some nice pants, a shirt, and some fancy-ish shoes and Derik in a suit like Bobby's.

“Er, you found me,” Bobby said.

“Damn straight we did!” That was Derik.

“So, where're Stephen and Sean?” asked Bobby as he looked through the windows in the doors behind them.

“Well, last I saw Stephen was hanging around with this one girl and I think that Sean's hitting this one guy up in the parking lot,” Zane answered before asking, “which brings up the question of what are you doing in here, much less following Jaime around?”

“Weeeell, I'm not so much following her as she's dragging me around. I dunno what we - ...I'm... doing in here so early, though.”

“Ah. Well, I'm waiting for what's her face to get here so that I can pounce, like a tiger. ...Or something like that.” As Derik said this he peered through the glass at the crowd behind. “Don't see her yet, though. I know she's not coming with anyone, though, so that's good.”

“Aaaaaiiii,” Zane muttered as the lights dimmed.

“Hurrah,” Derik cheered as people started pouring in the doors. A second later music started playing insanely loudly, some loud rap song with a bass that was vibrating the whole gym.

“Hey, who put this crap on?” said Zane as he looked around for the DJ.

“What?” yelled Derik.

“I said, 'Hey, who put this crap on,'” replied Zane, though much louder. “Oh, I see somebody, I'll catch up with you guys later.”

As Zane ran off Derik yelled, “Wait, where the hell is he going?”

“Probably saw somebody with a nice ass,” Bobby screamed back.

“Guy or girl?”

“Who knows?”

“Ha! Funny.”

“Shut up, moron.”

“God, a bit touchy, aren't you? Oh! Here comes Jaime, and there goes Ol-something or other. I'm out of here.”

“Oh, wait, what? No, don't – shit.”

Jaime didn't hear this, however, as she flounced over to Bobby through the crowd and took him by the hand.

“What're you so happy about?” Bobby asked her as she pulled him towards the middle of the floor as the rap song ended. “Wait...”

He figured it out, perhaps later than he should have, as Jaime grabbed one of his hands and placed it on her hip and put the other one on her opposite arm. A few seconds later a slow song started playing.

After the shock had worn off Bobby managed to look Jaime in the eye and raise an eyebrow as they danced amongst the crowd of other people doing the same thing.

“You aren't quite serious, are you?” she laughed. “Holy crap, you are! I thought you were smarter than that!”

“What? What am I not getting here?” Bobby asked her, perplexed. Then he realized yet another thing that he should have realized sooner. “Oh hell. You're shittin' me, right?”

“Nope,” she said as she rested her head against his chest. “And Derik and Zane ratted you out.”

“I'm found out then, am I?” Normally Bobby would have said this jestingly, but inside his head he was fighting himself.

He liked her, sure, but did he really love her? Did he really want to take a chance that it might ruin their friendship for perhaps forever? What the hell was that crap! For once he liked somebody and was getting reciprocation! ...But what if it went wrong? No, it wouldn't.

...And what about other girls? What about Kaylee? Or Jessica? Or Nicole? He may never see any of them again, this could be his last chance to see if they are what he's been looking for!

“...Bobby!” Jaime snapped at him.

“What, what?” he spluttered as he came back to focus.

“Is something wrong?”

Bobby looked down at Jaime, at her happy but slightly worried features. He thought about the way that she would sometimes rush up and hug him if he was in a piss-poor mood, or the way that she could convince him to finish any assignment that he might be having trouble getting around to. He thought about how he felt around her. Did he want to risk losing that?

As the music ended Bobby pushed her away and averted his eyes – he couldn't look her in the eyes and tell her.

“I – I can't do this. I'm sorry.”

It seemed like it took a second for this message to sink in. She didn't say anything though, and her smile didn't change (though it did look more forced and unnatural), but in her eyes Bobby could see that she was crushed.

As she turned and lost herself in the crowd Bobby swore because he realized that he was a stupid moron. No matter what his intentions had been, though he couldn't remember them now anyways, he had just lost her just as effectively as a breakup, and perhaps just as permanently.

He didn't stay there for long, however. The place felt claustrophobic now, even around the sparsely populated edges; the crowd felt like it was pressing in on him.

When Bobby woke up in his car three hours later he found Jaime to not be in the car with him. She had probably gotten a ride home with somebody else.

“Fuck it.”

“Or what?”

“What?”

“There could be supplies or...?”

“Oh, yea. Weapons, there could be weapons. Not many pussy ass gun control freaks living around here.” Bobby blinked a few times. “Hell, though... I'm tired. I mean, seriously, I feel like I'm gonna fall over or something.”

“Ha, well, at least you don't have to go to work tomorrow, right?” Zane chuckled.

“I dunno, man. At least I get paid at work and have less of a chance of dying.”

“Eh, I suppose so. Off to bed then? I'll take the couch?”

“Yea, I suppose so,” Bobby said as he stood up and regarded the sleeping Jaime. “I'm gonna carry her up to my room. Let's wait until it's light out before we try anything else.”

“I'm with you there, man.” Zane finished off his glass of water. “'Cause all this shit is scary as hell.”

“Ah, go watch a zombie movie, you girl,” Bobby grunted as he slowly picked Jaime up out of her chair. “See you in the morning, man. But keep someone on watch or something,” he added as an afterthought.

(Been a while, guys, I know. I apologize. But I digress - life can be confusing. Anyways, I figured you all might like another chapter (You all being the two people that read this story, yea? Just kidding), so you got it. I dunno how I feel about it, but I suppose it progresses things nicely. If you have any thing to say, then say it, I guess.

Word out, guys. Don't let life hit you in the balls too hard.

-R.T.D.W.)