Chapter 2

"I know I don't know everything." Julian said "But one thing I do know is, everything will be okay. That's a promise,"

Somehow he always had a way to calm her down. She gave him a sad smile and turned away to continue her packing.

"What else do we need, Honey?" Violet asked with a natural sparkle in her eyes.

"We'll have to make a list with all the things we have and all the things we need," Julian suggested.

"Good idea. There is a pencil and a note book in my nightstand. First drawer," Violet said gesturing to the rosewood nightstand next to the side she slept on.

Violet was very organized. She wasn't a perfectionist she just liked everything to be clean and neat. Luckily her fiancé was also a neat guy and didn't like clutter.

"First let's write down the food and drinks we have," Julian said while holding the pen in a writing position on the notebook. "We have four cans of vegetables, two cans of meat, a half loaf of bread, two packs of beef jerky, a large bag of salt and vinegar crinkle cut chips, one pack of wine gums to keep our energy level balanced, we have three litres of long-life milk, a pack of sugar and two large cans of coffee, we have seven energy drinks and five litres of water. I checked the garage and there were fourteen litres of gas and a can of oil. Weapons, we have two nine millimetres, four shotguns with eight boxes of ammo, a cross bow with ten bows, two army knives, one hunting knife and three pocket knives. You just need to tell me what clothes and hygienic supplies we have," Julian said looking up from his writing.

He liked planning and he was a very adventurous guy. That's why he liked Violet so much, she loved the outdoors. She wasn't so scared of nature like most girls who are afraid of walking bare foot on grass. They met at a beach party. He couldn't keep his eyes off her when they were sitting around the bonfire. Later that night he went to talk to her and they found out that both of them lived in California. They traded numbers and since then they were through the clouds in love.

"I don't really know what clothes I should take and what I should leave. Can't we just take everything?" she asked sarcastically.

"I wish we could but we have too much clothes. I'll tell you what. How about we take ten t-shirts each and five denims, two jackets, three pairs of comfortable shoes, some underwear and definitely some socks." he suggested nodding his head.

"Okay I'll compromise. What about some nighties?" she asked with an innocent look on her face.

"No, we won't have time to put on 'nighties' I don't even know if we'll have bathing facilities," Julian pointed out.

"I don't care if I have to take a bath in a river but I won't go a day without cleaning myself properly," she said folding her arms.

"I'm with you on that one sister," he said with a huge grin on his face.

"That's Honey to you Mr," she said returning the smile.

How Julian loved her smile, every time she smiled he would just fall in love with her again.

"Back to business, what hygienic supplies do we have?" Julian asked more focused but still smiling on the inside.

"I was going to do shopping tomorrow. But we still have a few things. Both of us have two bottles of deodorant, we have two or three tubes of toothpaste, two bars of soap and some body wash, two bottles of shampoo and conditioner, two razors and you have a half bottle of shaving cream," she said looking through the toiletries bag she had already packed.

"Great, that'll be enough for a little while, how about a medical kit?" Julian asked tapping the pencil on the left hand corner of the notebook.

"We have two, one in the kitchen and one here in our bathroom. I'll pack them both,"

"Okay, if you think of anything else write it here. I'm going to power up my laptop and start searching for an explanation," Julian said and left the room.

Violet smiled and went to the kitchen to get the medical kit. After she packed it she turned on the T.V to see if there was any news. All the headlines were about a virus spreading all over America. They didn't have a cure and people were dying and turning into zombies one by one. The hospitals were full and they didn't know what was causing it. All they knew was that the people were turning into zombies after being bitten by those who were affected by the virus. The phone rang; she turned off the T.V and saw it was her mom.

"Hello?"

"Hi Violet, your brother just arrived and he told us the whole story. He was late because he was being chased by… by zombies," her mother replied as if the word zombies didn't make any sense.

"I'm glad he's okay," Violet said "I think you should stay where you are, pack all the important things you'll need like foods that won't go off very quickly and lots of water, weapons, oil, gas, clothes, soap all those kind of things. Get them packed and be ready for us. We'll try to be there by tomorrow night. If you have to, shoot anything that looks like it can be a threat and don't open the door for anyone unless you're one hundred present sure they're not infected."

"Okay, we'll do that, drive safely," her mother said as if she didn't mean her last words.

Magdalene hung up before Violet could say anything else. Violet sighed thinking about how her mother always acted. She thought that maybe now that the world is ending her mother would be more concerning over her loved ones but she was clearly wrong. She decided to take her mind off this hurtful thinking by making some coffee. She needed to stay awake and so did Julian. Casey was right behind Violet the whole time.

"You better not tell your father what I gave you," Violet said while giving Casey two of her favourite treats. Casey's tail immediately started wagging when she saw her mistress taking out the yellow Bob Martin box from the paper bag Julian packed. After giving her dog the much deserved treat Violet smiled and walked away with the two coffee mugs in her hands. Julian was still on his laptop. The laptop's light was only lighting up a small part of the room since they kept all the lights off because they didn't want the zombies to see too much movement in the house. Julian was concentrating very hard. All his attention was on his laptop, until he saw Violet coming in with some fresh coffee.

"That's exactly what I need. Thanks Honey," Julian said with a grateful smile before returning his brown eyes to the flickering laptop screen.

"My pleasure honey, found anything yet?" Violet asked looking over his shoulder at his laptop.

"I saw some videos on YouTube. It's like watching a horror movie; those things are like wild animals. They did some research and found out that these things are the closest to a zombie, they also said that there is one thing that is different than the zombies on T.V. and that is that these 'zombies' we're dealing with are much faster,"

"It's going to be hard to kill them, don't you think? But didn't they say where the virus came from?" Violet asked still keeping her eyes on the horrible scenes in front of her.

"They're still working on it," Julian said going through all the news blogs and videos. "Maybe you should search for a place we could hide out." he suggested looking up at her.

"Good idea," Violet got her laptop in her room and sat right opposite Julian in the study. She went through a list of places where they could go.

"There are a few available beach cottages not too far from here, 35 Crystal Cove, Newport Beach. It's about sixteen miles from here. But if we go from my mom's house that would be about seven miles of driving. So what do you think?" Violet asked.

"Okay, let's go to your mom's and from there we'll go to Crystal cove," Julian replied.

"Do you think we should call to book a cottage or should we just arrive there?" Violet asked.

"Yeah call and book two so that we don't have to deal with your mother's wrath,"

Violet dialled the number on the website but no one picked up.

"There's no answer, should we try again later or should we look for something else instead?" Violet asked still holding the phone in her hand.

"No, I think ask your mom or dad if they can drive out to Crystal Cove and get a cottage while we just look for a plan b in case there's a problem," Julian suggested.

"I think it's better to rather think of something else. I don't want my parents to go out alone right now, and I don't think we should waste valuable time, we should just drive directly to my parents tomorrow morning and then we could head somewhere safe," Violet said.

Julian looked at her for a moment while processing her suggestion.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. How about we go to a deserted house somewhere and renovate it so it's liveable," Julian said.

"Do you know of any deserted houses around this area?" Violet asked.

"Well there is a deserted theatre in Mill Street?" Julian said.

"Okay if that's our only choice. But don't you think it's a little too big? And wouldn't someone already have taken it by now?" Violet asked.

"Then we'll just have to live with them. Don't worry Babe, it'll be fine, there is always another way out,"

Violet didn't like the idea but she didn't want to say anything.