Subject Change!

How Mabel kept seeing through you, you'll never know, maybe it's thanks to all the years you two spent together and she just paid more attention to you. But the real question was how you could get out of this without revealing what happened to you when you got here. There is no way you could bring yourself to admit what happened so you quickly changed the subject.

"Mabel, what was with that kiss?" you ask. Something else you didn't want to talk about but it was the only thing you could think of that would derail her from the topic. And it worked, Mabel's eyes widened, her smile drooped, and there was a faint blush on her cheeks.

"That was such a subject change!" Mabel shot back narrowing her eyes at you.

"Still, that's not a normal kiss to give to your brother."

"Hey, I didn't plan for that to happen," Mabel replied. "I was aiming for your cheek and then you moved your head."

"True, but you didn't exactly pull away. You kept it there until the kiss was no longer an accident and definitely un-sisterly like." Mabel blushed again, this time more noticeably. Before she could try to reply your mother called from downstairs.

"Kids! Come downstairs!"

"This conversation doesn't leave this room," Mabel said as she got up.

"Fine by me." The two of you head downstairs to see your mom, dad, and Carolyn sitting at the dining table. Your mother would glance at Carolyn every few seconds but you decided it wasn't worth mentioning.

"What's up?" You asked.

"We're going to have a community meeting," your father said. "Ladies, I want you to go round everyone and meet John and I at the playground." The girls nodded and then left. With nothing better to do you follow dad.

The playground was the area between three backyards that faced the road that lead into town. You and your siblings used to play here all the time with the neighborhood kids. But instead of kids, the playground was full of lawn chairs. One for everyone, excluding you so you decided to stand and wait for everyone while dad sat at the chair that all the chairs where pointing towards.

Mabel was the first to come back, and she brought a lawn chair with, this one was for you. Saying thanks you sit down and Mabel sits next to you. Carolyn is the next to return. She grabs a chair and moves to the other side of you and sits down. Mabel glares at her for a bit but you dismiss it as bad blood that occurred when you weren't here. Mom came back and sat next to dad. Then other people started showing up, some you recognized, others Carolyn and Mabel had to fill you in on.

You recognized Gary Perry and his mother Mildred. Gary was an amateur musician that dreamed of becoming a rock star and his mother was the cheery town gardener. However, a few months ago she married a deeply religious attorney, Adam Mills, who somehow converted Mildred, and she's been a complete bitch to everyone, especially to Gary.

Two people in punk outfits came up. The seemingly always jittery, Larry Evans and his bossy girlfriend Phyllis White, everyone calls her Raven. The two of them moved into town not to long after you moved away, meaning they've been here for about a year. They opened a tattoo parlor in town but it wasn't doing so well, if it wasn't for this incident they might've become bankrupt, so silver lining.

You know Kathryn Martinez and her daughter Shirley, another family you grew up with. Kathryn was a fit ebony woman and a big rig driver and she drove all over the state. She was pretty protective of Shirley so you barley knew her. According to Mabel, she was apparently studying zoology in college before everything happened.

You see the girl that was on guard duty when you and Carolyn arrived. Helen Henderson, a former grocery store clerk that saw one of her co-workers get **** by zombies and has been "fascinated" with them ever since.

You see a scruffy looking man with a woman with a hair band. Jesse Wilson and his girlfriend Lillian Ross. Jesse was a lab assistant in some lab in Cambridge so he was dubbed the group scientist. Lillian was a helicopter pilot and a medical school dropout, her year of medical knowledge was the best anyone her had so she became the group medic.

You see the ever grouchy Timothy Sanchez. You remember that he and his family weren't very stabile in the financial area so Ol' Tim had to take on multiple jobs to keep his family afloat. Know that his wife left him and his children had moved on he only needed one, which is a waiter job at the local diner, apparently.

You see Doris Thomas and her son Arnold. Doris was a firefighter that recently got into an accident that left her crippled, her son moved back with her to help her out.

You see a man with black hair, dark skin, glasses, and a sneer on his face. According to Mabel, that was George Rodriguez. An IT specialist and a total jerk. He thinks he's the smartest one here so he constantly tries to boss everyone around but it doesn't work out well for him.

You see an ebony woman that seemed to be looking in every which way. Carolyn told you that was Linda Carter, a former petty thief with a talent for picking locks. Normally they wouldn't want someone like her living around here but her skills make scavenging missions easier and faster so they dealt with it.

You see a well dressed man with black hair. Josh Holmes, a flight attendant. Not much else is known about him since he's both shy and he travels a lot.

You see Ora Malone and her mother Josephine. Josephine was in the National Guard with your dad and they had been friends ever since. You grew up with Ora and you remember she was sickeningly sweet and likes guns a lot.

Finally, there was Gretchen Berry. A quiet librarian and apparently a parkour enthusiast. Just like Josh she kept to herself so not much is known about her.

"Everyone!" your dad said standing up. Apparently he was the group leader. "I've called you all here to bring something to your attention."

"John is back in town?" Gary guessed waving at you. You wave back and at the others you grew up with.

"No, but it has something to do with that. My son drove into the state without any resistance from the military. We're not sure what this means, either the state is no longer under quarantine and we can leave freely or the military has given up trying to control whatever is going on."

"And what happens if they give up?" Larry asked nervously.

"They start dropping bombs on us," George replied with a sneer. This scared some people, you included, but you're father was quick to calm everyone down.

"You don't know that, George!" Dad said quickly. "We still don't know anything for certain. It could be that John simply took a route that the military had overlooked, or that they had left to regroup."

"Being optimistic isn't going to solve anything," George spat at your father.

"Neither is making everyone panic for no good reason!" Dad snapped. It was clear that this wasn't the first time this happened, Dad was usually a lot more calm with people and he only stopped being pleasant when he really disliked someone. "Look, I just wanted to bring this to everyone's attention. It's getting late, we can plan out our next move in the morning."

"And if we get nuked and never wake up?" George asked.

"Then the first person who finds George in the afterlife is free to strangle him!" On that note everyone left. George stomped away but no one paid him any attention. You spend a bit of time getting reacquainted with Gary, Arnold, Shirley, and Ora before heading to your old home and getting settled in your old bed. Your bedroom was exactly how you left, no doubt thanks to mom. As you take a trip down memory lane you hear a knocking at your bedroom door. You sit up and see Mabel looking sheepishly at you.

"Hey," she began swaying on the spot a little. "Remember when we were kids, and whenever I ha a nightmare I would crawl into bed with you?" You nod, not seeing were she was going with this. "Well... I've been having nightmares since this whole, living nightmare, started. I know it's silly to ask this now since we're both grown up... (and after that little "accident") but can I spend the night with you?"