***
Keller was starting to wonder what he had gotten himself into. It had seemed like the most natural thing in the world to retreat to his Granddad's bunker when the dead suddenly started walking, especially with so many people dead of the bird flu in recent weeks. And of course he had invited the girl to come along. She was gorgeous, and besides, she had a gun. He just hadn't expected to find that gun pointed at him.
"Lanie... With the scope covered, there's no way you can know that."
She had seemed so sane and levelheaded the day before, even joking about redneck zombies once they got away from their disastrous stop at the gas station. He grinned, hoping to call out that sense of humor again. "Besides," he said in a light tone of voice, "why would they be waiting there for us? It's not like zombies are smart. Right? They haven't got any brains anymore, so they want ours. Braaaains…" He held his arms out like a sleep walker, rolling his eyes.
The gun didn't waver, and she didn't look amused. "Maybe they're not as brainless as movie zombies," she said. "All I know is they're out there, and if you try to open that door again, I will shoot you."
He took a deep breath and let it out again, slowly placing the crowbar back on the floor. "If you kill me, I'll turn into one of them," he said, holding up his hands. "And neither of us wants that, right?"
"Neither of us wants me to cripple you either, but I'll do it if I have to."
Keller looked around the tiny bunker, but his grandfather had stocked it with supplies for disaster survival, not crazy lady survival. Although…
"Chocolate!"
"Excuse me?" Lanie looked ready to shoot him even if he didn't try to open the door.
He smiled as charmingly as he could. "There's got to be some chocolate in the stockpile. Would you like some?"
"I am not PMSing, you idiot. I'm serious. I don't know how I know, but I know that they're out there. That's what woke me up last night. I could feel them arriving."
Keller set his back to the wall and slid down it to sit on the floor, careful not to make any move that might startle her. "All right," he said. "So we wait them out. It's nice to go outside for fresh supplies, and to empty the can, but my granddad stocked this place well enough that we don't have to go outside for months, if it comes to that. 'Course, he was worried about commies rather than zombies, but the food's the same either way."
Lanie glanced around and frowned, her brow crinkling in a way that made him nervous.
"So," he said, trying to keep her mind off shooting him. "How long do you think they'll wait?"
Lanie pursed her lips and lowered the gun, letting it point at the ground. Keller didn't relax, though. Ricochets could still kill, and he wouldn't be happy until the safety was on, at least.
"You believe me?" she asked.
How to play it? There was no telling just how unstable she was. If he agreed too readily, she might decide he was plotting something and shoot him preemptively.
"I'm willing to stay inside on the off chance that you're right," he said, honestly. "At least until the scope clears and we can get visual confirmation. If it's just debris, the wind should blow it off eventually."
"All right," Lanie said, flipping the safety on. Keller let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"I wasn't sure I believed it myself until you went for that lock," she went on. "Then, I had the gun pointed at you before I could even think. This… knowing is too strong for me to ignore. It's like knowing that jumping off a skyscraper will kill you. Right now, opening that door would be just as deadly."
Keller couldn't help thinking that a madwoman with a gun was equally dangerous, but at least the safety was on. He looked around, feeling a little desperate, and a pile of card boxes caught his eye. He racked his brain, trying to remember the rules for poker, hearts, anything...
"So," he said after a moment, trying to keep his voice light. "Go fish?"
The morning passed slowly, and Keller wasn't sure if playing cards made it better or even more interminable. He was down to two cards in their third game when Lanie suddenly perked up, looked at the wall, and said, "Look out the scope. Now!"
She still had the gun, so he complied.
The first thing he saw was the figure walking away. "Huh." After a moment, he decided to admit it. "You were right. It was a zombie covering the scope."
"And the others?"
He shifted his head to the side to get a different view, then spun away from the scope and set his back to the wall, trying not to vomit at the thought of how close he had come to walking out into that horde. "You were right," he whispered, after he got his voice under control.
"Can you see why they're leaving?" Lanie asked.
He shook his head, unable to deal with looking at that many zombies right now.
Lanie rolled her eyes and got up to look for herself. "I can't… tell," she said thoughtfully after a moment. Then she shuddered and backed away.
Keller nodded. He had seen at least twenty in his quick glance. The idea that they were gathering together in hordes like in the movies unnerved him.
It seemed Lanie was made of sterner stuff, though. She returned to the scope, peering intently out at the horde.
"Aren't you going to say 'I told you so?'" he asked.
She didn't bother to respond.