We peered just over the edge of the window, then ducked.

Shadow mouthed the word “Zombies?!” at me.

I just stared at him. My heart rate was rising. Zombies were an unstoppable threat, right? But they only existed in movies. And furs' imagination. Maybe Miss Dervin was pretending for some reason. I hadn't seen her body on the street, not that I'd looked at the rest of the surrounding bodies. I had to look again.

Shadow was unnaturally still. His eyes wide and alarmed, and I tried to hold my calm. I gestured to him to wait and he looked relieved somehow.

I pushed myself slowly upwards, moving slowly to get another look.

There were still bodies lying around outside, but two others were walking on the lawns across the street. Check that, they were stumbling, shambling, and limping. Nasty. And there was Miss Dervin, in the... rot?

If they were up, what about Mom and Kaylee? Without a thought to silence, I rushed to the back. But the ground was undisturbed. Meanwhile, my sudden noise and movement, visible through the window had attracted Miss Dervin. I had turned back in relief and met her eyes. Sort of. They didn't focus on me, but I could see a silvery glow in them. She rushed the house... at a shuffle.

I dove for cover on the far side of the couch. I could see Shadow from there, staring at me, looking even more alarmed now. I braced myself for the undead impact. Which was weak against the window, and squishy. I couldn't see it, but it sounded sloppy. I gestured Shadow to stay down, the window wasn't in danger of breaking. Shadow gripped his head in his paws, ears pinned tight on his head. After a moment the sound stopped.

I peered around the edge of the couch. I could see her back, shuffling away. A feral dog was barking outside. I crawled carefully over to Shadow.

“I thought all the dogs were dead,” I whispered. I leaned slightly against him, needing live reassurance.

“I saw a few before I found you, some dead some alive,” he whispered back, looking unsettled even as he peeped from his knees. “I don't like zombies!” he added.

So, some dogs had died and some had not. Something to think about another time.

The dog barked, then yelped, and howled as it clearly escaped down the street. Several minutes passed.

I eased up and glanced out the window. It was smeared with nasty coagulated stuff. All darkened and rotting. I could see the three creatures gathering across the street, they were munching on another dead body. For now, there must be enough “material” for them to munch on.

“Do those curtains close?” breathed Shadow, managing to look cautiously out with me. Our eyes barely cleared the sill, ears flattened, attempting to keep low.

“Yeah, I'll do it slowly, okay? I don't want to draw attention.”

Shadow nodded and I reached for the cord. He sank back down beneath the window; his head lay back on his knees as he started to tremble. He didn't look like he was handling this well. Maybe he really did have a problem with zombies.

Over a few minutes, I closed them. Who knew how sensitive these creatures were. When they were closed, I peered through the little slit between the edges. They didn't seem to have noticed - more interested in fumbling things slowly into gaping jaws. I angled my head to try to look down the street.

Wait. Was that? Don't go to them!

“Eric?” I said loudly. I felt a paw grab my wrist. “Eric!” I shouted, then was yanked hard to the ground. I instinctively swatted against a fur who had pinned me down.

“Shut up, you'll get us both killed!” a black wolf growled softly, holding a fuzzy paw over my muzzle.

It was Eric, it wasn't safe out there. Those things were moving around.

I jumped. What was I thinking? I shook my head slightly in confusion and shock, my movements limited by Shadows paw. He had died. It couldn't be Eric.

As I regained myself I began to tremble, then there was a thump at the door. Just a slight one, but I twitched and began to shake hard. My paws turned to clutch at Shadow, tears building in my eyes.

No, I knew I had seen Eric outside, heading to join the picnic across the street. That would have been Eric at the door, attracted to my noise. His gaping jaws and ruined body had collided with the door.

There was another wet thump at the door. This was torture. First the horrid deaths, now there were furs I knew rising from the dead and walking around dripping and with rictus on their muzzles.

I could feel a sob underneath Shadows paw. Had that come from me? I didn't think I could hold it back any longer. He looked down on me as he pinned me, and I think he realized.

He pulled me up and drew my noise-leaking muzzle into his chest and guided me up to my room. My nose was right next to one of the bandages. His arm supported me as I became more and more boneless. Finally he dropped me on my bed and went over to check the window, which also fronted the street.

I could hear non-distinct noises from outside as I pulled my pillow over my muzzle and made choking, sobbing noises into it. I lay over on my side, feeling weak and sick. But there was nothing else for my stomach to give anyway. I just felt upset, so upset.

Should I be happy? At least it was no longer silent outside.  My friend Eric was now one of... them! He wasn't dead, right? He was walking, moving, maybe not talking.... With that death snarl on his face. That rictus that bared all his teeth. I'd gotten a glance before, what would it be like on a moving, shuffling Eric? I shook harder and harder. Everything was spinning and I breathed faster and faster. I clutched at my pillow.

And a weight dropped onto the bed and moved behind me. I yipped in shock; it was just another terror to add to the past days. I struggled and yelped into the pillow as an arm came around me, but lightly. The arm closed around me slowly.

“Shhhh,” said a voice near my ear. “Slow down. Take deep breaths.” The touch was familiar, it was a safe voice.

I stopped wriggling and tried to calm down. I knew I was making too much noise. If he was smart, he'd kill me now and use the fresh bait for an escape. The thought made me sob harder into my pillow, because it made sense.

“Easy, focus on me. Don't think of anything else right now. Concentrate on my voice. Concentrate on me. Breathe in slowly and out slowly. Long, deep breaths.” He squeezed me firmly and moved closer to me.

Shadow. He was there. His voice kept low, telling me calming things. My breath shuddered as I drew deeper and deeper breaths and let them out slowly. I noticed I'd been clutching almost spastically at the pillow and let my paws relax.

“Just like that,” he encouraged, gripping me around my chest. “Just breathe, focus on just your breathing. You can relax.”

He rested his muzzle over my neck, chin against my shoulder as I lay on my side. He breathed evenly and I struggled to match. I opened my eyes, somehow they had been closed. I could see his nose out of the corner of my eye. I closed my eyes again.

My breathing finally slowed, but the breaths were still uneven and shuddering. I worked that down. I gave a long sigh as I released some more tension.

“That's it just slow down, no need to rush. Don't think of anything else. Just try to match my breathing.”

I could feel him breathing behind me, chest pressed against my back. I heard a slight crinkle of his chest bandage pressing in. The contact was nice. Affectionate and undemanding. His arm tighten around me. I realized he'd never put a shirt on since we'd gotten up and I'd thrown my shirt off downstairs. We were fur-to-fur. But it was comforting; I could feel his warmth and the slight shifts between our fur.

Finally I got my breathing down. I was starting to feel mellow and exhausted. I stopped shaking and my paws released the pillow muffling my muzzle. My paws sank to the mattress, relaxed and half-curled. I was quiet now. I felt him lick my ear once, twice. Maybe I should have cared, but I was just relaxing. I sighed and slowly moved to grip the arm around my chest, anchoring myself, which he then tightened again.

“My mom would have panic attacks,” I heard him say. I was just focused on his breathing. Nothing else mattered. “Sometimes, she would come down off drugs, or just have a really rough day and my dad would push her around. There was no one else, so I would be the one to calm her down.”

I managed to make a faint hum. I didn't want to move. Just wanted to feel his presence there, behind me. Safe, quiet. With my eyes closed, I could imagine that nothing else existed outside just my immediate sensations.

“It's okay, they're too busy with stuff outside to bother with the sounds earlier.”

I tensed for a moment, suddenly reminded of things outside this moment. Then he began slowly licking my ear again, and I sank into relaxation. I could only remember a few times when Mom had licked my ears when I was little. I supposed I could be embarrassed about it later.  I sighed again and mumbled something that never formed words as Shadow continued to steadily and slowly lick my ear. Damn that felt nice.

“I think we're going to have to leave, this time,” he said, pausing his licking. “There's no immediate threat tonight, but we're going to have to leave soon.”

My eyes snapped open and I tensed again, then he went back to licking my ear, sometimes carrying a little on my cheek. “Ummm,” I trailed off.

“Please think about it,” he said softly, between licks.

I could relax and finally think about it rationally. I gripped his arm a little tighter. I hoped he would give me this moment to think. The licks were soothing and a little distracting, but I could focus on the current built-up situation. My eyes were open, just staring at my room as the daylight faded.

My family, all that had been present anyway, were buried in the back. My best friend Eric was wandering around, dead and eating the dead. I didn't think there was any point in burying him now, and I wasn't going to decapitate my friend. That point no longer held meaning.

Creatures... zombies were walking around, there was an increased threat of staying here, where many furs lived. I didn't have any fantasies of the house holding up under a continued zombie invasion. My house was empty now. With no family to fill it, it was just a thing that would continuously bring up chains of memories. On top of everything else, bodies outside were definitely rotting. Even now, I could catch a fresh waft of decay. Rotting bodies attracted undesirable, disease-laden scavengers. I'd been avoiding noticing them, but there were so many bodies, even the various scavengers and carrion eaters had more than they could handle.

I could never bury the entire neighborhood, and what would I do with all the zombies? How many of them would reanimate? The house wasn't sturdy enough to hold against them for long. It also didn't have enough supplies to last indefinitely. That meant we would have to leave. As much as the thought made me cringe inside, there was no other way. I needed to survive. We needed to survive. We just couldn't do it here.

I felt that Shadow was asking me. It seemed that if I insisted, he would continue to stay here, in the house, with me. But that would be terrible. I knew that would just cause us both to perish. Shadow was right, we needed to survive.

“Okay,” I whispered. My voice slowly gained strength, “We can't stay here. Maybe we could've before. But, now with those zombies outside, it's... just not safe.”

He stopped his steady licking and let out a huge breath that I could feel against my back, “Thank you. I don't think I can stand staying here.” I heard him gulp, “Not that I don't like it here with you, but zombies....”

I yawned and stretched a bit, my footpaws stretching down over his. “Sorry, I'm just so tired....”

His chuckle shook my back, “Yeah, me too.”

I looked out the window, the sun had gone down, and the light was getting dim. “I think that curtain-thing only comes in the middle of the day.”

“Yeah?”

“Hasn't it come around midday each time? I wasn't checking the time, but it seemed to be around then. I think we can sleep without worry of that.”

He shifted a bit against me, “Do you think now that the zombies are around, it'll stop?”

“I don't know, but I don't want to risk assuming.”

There was a long pause, and my eyelids drew downwards.

“Tyler?”

I grunted a faint response.

“What if the zombies get in while we sleep?” I felt him give a big shudder.

“Hmmm, I don't think they'll get inside tonight.”

“What if they do?”

I really wanted to sleep, but his voice sounded worried. The idea really did have an uncertain edge to it. “We could sleep somewhere else,” I suggested, slipping out of his grasp to lean on an elbow and look at him. The shadows from the fading light made his attractive face appear tired and worn. Maybe it was more than the gathering shadows.

“Where?” he looked cautious at the thought.

“Ummm,” I thought a moment, “Maybe the attic? It's crowded up there, and there's dusty, old boxes. But it has a pull-down stair to it. Once it's up we can pull the cord up too. I used to do that when I was upset, and no one could come up to get me there.”

He nodded vigorously, looking relieved. “I don't mind dust, and we don't need a lot of room. You'll sleep up there too, right?” he looked at me, almost begging.

“Yeah, I think it's a good idea tonight.” Even if it wasn't my bed, it would still be in my house. Where things were familiar, felt normal.

I sat up and grabbed my pillow. Shadow got off the bed and gathered his backpack and bedding. I gathered my blanket off my bed and, snagging an extra sleeping bag from the closet, I walked down the upstairs hall. Setting my awkward bundle down, I jumped to grab a cord hanging high above my reach. We foxes tend to be good jumpers.

“I didn't even notice it there,” Shadow mused.

I smiled sleepily and hauled the stairs as they unfolded down. I fumbled the bedding into my arms again.

“This is perfect,” he said, climbing up after me and looking around the space.

There really was room for us just by pushing aside a few boxes that had been dragged out of stacks recently and then just left out. Shadow went back down to get the lighting, and I slipped downstairs. I was still in the same boxers from the day with Shadow, so I skipped changing them. Then it was down to the kitchen, to grab some foodstuffs we'd brought in from the car. I tried to ignore any of the faint sounds coming from outside as I took the food up to the attic. I met him up there. He had brought his pack into the attic along with the lights.

We ate quietly, I hardly noticed what was going in my muzzle. Then, as the light from the sun gave out, we settled inside the two bags. The blanket was over our footpaws, in case we needed more warmth in the night.

Even the occasional sounds of munching couldn't keep me awake. I could hear Shadow breathing evenly and calmly as I sank into a troubled sleep.


***


I jerked awake from a dream where a rabbit with glowing eyes was chasing me. It took me only a few seconds to mostly calm. Just a dream.

“Shadow?” I whispered groggily, feeling around where he had fallen asleep beside me, needing to know he was there. I found his sleeping bag easily. I reached further over, paw searching. I needed to feel him breathe, to know his eyes didn't have that terrible glow in them.

But there was nothing there.

There was no heat, no breathing, no lump inside the sleeping bag.

“Shadow?” I said more firmly. There was no response.

The attic had a tiny window and there must have been a late-rising moon that night, because there was more faint, silvery light coming in than when we had fallen asleep.

I couldn't see him, but I could faintly see his pack, next to the empty sleeping bag. The ladder was down. Figuring he had needed to use the bathroom, I waited for several minutes. When he didn't reappear, I grew worried, pulling me more out of my sleepy, groggy state.

“Shadow?” I called, softly, but there was no response.

I slipped down the dim ladder, leaving the little kiddie lamp. The flashlight was missing. I actually wasn't sure if these zombies were attracted to light like some zombies were in the movies. The kiddie lamp didn't provide much.... Right now seemed a bad time to find out.

At the base of the ladder, I paused, listening. My ears were perked and alert, searching. My whiskers shifted out, trying to sense movement in the air. I could only hear soft noises, all coming from outside. I could see things out fairly well in the faint light. Shapes, but no details or colors.

He must be here somewhere. I took a quick glance in my room, then my sister's and Mom's rooms. And the bathroom, I checked there, but no Shadow.

I crept downstairs, searching for a sign with my eyes and ears. “Shadow?” I whispered, reaching the bottom of the stair. I tip-toed through the rooms downstairs, even the downstairs bathroom which really was smelling bad, thanks to my previous episode of vomit in the toilet.

Not there. He was simply not there. Even in the “safe” room, I checked there last. Not there.

Gone.

Vanished.