“We gotta run,” Allen said as he hurried into his shirt.

Speaking for the first time, Benny said, “But there are already zombies out there.”

“I could care less about that,” Cindy said. She had slipped into a very impractical dress that was about as opposite a ‘fleeing from zombie garb,’ as you could get. “What about all the things we’ve gathered here? I don’t want to leave it all behind.”

Allen spoke again. “We can get more or come back later when it’s safe.”

But Mar barely listened to him. “Screw these guys,” she hissed under her breath as she led Benny toward the back of the house. They hurried into the room they shared and she tossed Benny his ‘bug-out’ backpack, while she threw her own over her narrow shoulders.

Pausing while her brother grabbed up a few more things, Mar looked around the dim room. The place was a horrible mess with so much gear spread in every direction that a person would be hard pressed to guess what the color of the carpet might be. It stank too, like a hamper full of dirty clothes left in the sun. It looked like The City of Lost Children meets Peter Pan’s storeroom, but it had been home for them for longer than any other place since the Apocalypse began. Casting one last look over her shoulder, as he ushered Benny from the room, she felt in her gut that they would never see it again.

Disregarding the others, Mar and her brother moved toward the back yard. She winced when Allen caught up with them. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Getting the fuck away from you losers. Enjoy your death trap. Try not to get eaten while Cindy sorts through what dresses she’s deciding to bring.”

“What? You can’t just leave on your own.”

“Watch me,” Mar said as she opened the door. Her hasty move almost cost her life for a loud moan sounded as a zombie lurched in through the doorway at her.

She screamed, a little too girly for her tastes, but reacted quickly and drove the point of her pick deep enough into its skull to drop it. Its body was, however, in the doorway and she couldn’t shut the door, so she just opened it wider. More zombies came their way, but none of the other ones had made it onto the wide back porch.

Allen grabbed her by the arm so violently it hurt. “I’m not letting you leave. You’re going to end up getting both you and your brother killed.”

“Staying here is what would kill us, you idiot. Now let go of me or you’ll be getting what I just gave that geek.”

Before Allen could answer, a crashing came from the front of the house and Cindy came running their way. “Run! A zombie fell through the window and now they are all pouring in. Run! RUN!”

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Check each weekend for another episode in Mar’s fight to survive the Eternal Aftermath\.\\

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You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

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