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were zombies,” I said, confused by his sudden turn of mood.
     
    “ No, you didn’t. I’m sorry; this has just really freaked me out,” he said and pulled me into his arms, Nero squirming in between us.
     
    “ It’ll be okay,” I said, “We’ve got each other and the farm. We should be good for a while, right? It won’t take long. Someone will have this straightened out in no time.” Sebastian untangled himself from me and strode to the kitchen. “We have to be ready.”
     
    I followed him, “For what?”
     
    “ I think we’re going to be on our own for a while,” he said as a loud thumping footstep echoed through our little house.
     
    My adrenaline soared as I thought about the scene on the TV. The reporter hadn’t had a chance, the speed of the Nevermore man and the ferocity of his attack were like nothing I’d ever seen before. I swallowed hard and put Nero in the bathroom on a makeshift towel-bed and shut the door and headed back into the kitchen. I didn’t want to believe that we were already going to face down one of the Nevermores, but it was all too likely. I stepped to my knife drawer and pulled out the biggest blade I had and gripped it tight. Sebastian nodded and pulled out a knife of his own. Together we crept through the house to the front door, reaching it as another thump rumbled through the floorboards. What the hell was out there? I didn’t want to know, really I didn’t.
     
    Sebastian held up his hand and with his fingers counted to three. I nodded and he held up one finger, two, and as he held up the third he gripped the doorknob and snapped the door open.
     
     
     
     
     

5
     
     
     
    We both stumbled back in relief, Dan staring at us with bushy grey eyebrows lifted high. He had his gun slung over his shoulder and a strap across his chest that was full of ammunition, long gold and silver cartridges. They looked big enough to drop an elephant.
     
    “ You two need some lessons in surviving. First off, don’t go investigating a strange noise without some serious firepower. This is not a horror movie, there’s no hero going to come rescue you. You want to survive this outbreak of idiots who took some new drug and turned into animals, you’re gonna have to do it on your own.”
     
    He stepped across the threshold and sauntered into our house, casual like, as if he belonged here. I lifted an eyebrow at Sebastian who shrugged and said, “Dan, what’re you doing here?”
     
    “ Don’t you listen boy? You need a lesson or two before I go and lock myself in the bunker.” He paced around the living room, peering out the curtains of the bay window.
     
    “ Dan, they’ll have an antidote in no time and this will go down as one of the greatest blunders in history and everything will go back to normal,” I said, desperately wanting to believe my own words.
     
    “ You really believe that, girl?” He turned his steely eyes on me and I froze, my mouth dry as he made me face the reality with a single look. I shook my head ever so slowly. He mimicked me. “Didn’t think so.” Flopping himself onto our couch he motioned for us to come closer. Sebastian obeyed but I stayed where I was, close to the open door.
     
    “ Second thing,” Dan leaned forward, elbows on his knees and lowered his voice, “food and water. Next is weapons. Then you got to have a way to keep them out.”
     
    “ Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped, my fear making me surly, “There isn’t going to be any horde or pack or whatever you think there’s going to be.” A breeze blew in and I spun to close the door, gasping at the person standing on the edge of the doorstep. I vaguely recognized him as the portly clerk from Tom’s Grocery. But he was no longer chubby. He was lean, the excess flesh hanging off his arms and face, the skin a sickly yellow like the man on the TV. Worst was the way his pupils had become a horizontal slit that stole his humanity from him.
     
    “ Hungry,” was all he said