You remember something your brother Ben said once when he was trying to teach you how to use a gun, "If you're going to shoot, don't think about it. Just shoot."

Probably not exactly best thing to tell someone, but nevertheless you remember it and so you do it. You shoot.

And it's all over so quickly you didn't even have time to blink.

You hit Johnny in the forehead killing him instantly. His grip on Julie is dropped as he collapses backwards to the floor.

You're still standing there in disbelief with the pistol still in hand, but now dropped to your side. Julie stands sobbing looking at Johnny and then begins to curse at him.

"You motherfucker! (Sob) You sick fuck! (Sob) Goddamn you!" she exclaims.

You go up to her in an attempt to calm her down.

"It's over. It's over. He's dead." You say and she stops to hug you tightly. Really you're having a hard time keeping it together yourself, this psycho just admitted to killing Donna and stuffing her body in the basement. You still need to deal with that.

"Oh my god Suzy, (Sob) you saved my fucking life! I'll never forget this! (Sob)"
"Okay, okay, just take it easy. (Exhale) Okay normally we'd just call the cops about this, but considering we're under fucking marshal law right now I don't think that's an option. So we need to get rid of this body ourselves. Julie. Look at me." You say staring into her eyes.

"I'll take care of most of this, but I need your help. Besides trash bags do you have any tarps or large sheets of plastic? What about a shovel?"
"…(sniffle) I don't know. If there is, they might be in the basement. I know there's a shovel down there."
"Well, I guess that's where I'm heading since I'm going to have to go down there anyway. Julie, why don't you go lay down in your room? We're going to get through this okay?"

Julie seems still very shaken by this experience, but nods and believes you. She gives you another hug and then walks off to go lay down. As for you, you've got an unpleasant trip to the basement.

You try to prepare yourself for what you know to be down there, and fortunately the adrenaline of the situation has given you the fortitude and clarity to carry out what needs to be done, but as you're walking down those stairs, it still doesn't give you an enjoyable feeling.

When you reach the last step, you fully expect to see a floor full of blood and gore, but you don't see any of that. In fact you don't even see a body. You can only guess he must've hid it down here somewhere.

As you proceed with the grim task of looking for your sister's body, you notice that there is an open window down here, which explains how Johnny managed to sneak in here again.

You find the shovel and take it. You don't find a tarp, but you figure you can always wrap the body using garbage bags.

Then you notice the washer and dryer…

"Oh god…no…Donna…" you say looking away with tears already forming.

You can't tell without getting closer and opening them, but both of the door windows to both are covered in blood. You know he must've mutilated her body and shoved the pieces of her in both machines. A blood stained axe is also propped up next to them.

You can't help but get sick and vomit nearby at the thought of this. You then break down and cry for a moment. You weren't the closest with her, but you just wish the last moments were at least better. You can't imagine what her real last moments were like. Or rather you have an idea, but you'd rather not dwell on it.

You don't quite have the strength to proceed with the grisly task of cleaning up your sister's remains right now. You stagger back upstairs with the shovel in hand trying focus on dealing with the body of the murdering fucker who killed her.

You get back to the kitchen and just stare at Johnny's body, getting angrier and angrier about how light he got off. Who knows how many others he killed before your poor sister.

"Someone should fucking chop you up." You say.

Remembering that you saw some duct tape in the desk in your room, you go back and grab it and then a trash bag from the kitchen.

You put the bag over Johnny's head and then tape it around his neck, so more blood doesn't smear all over the floor when you're dragging him back to your room. From there, you take him into the bathroom and get his body into the bathtub.

You then head right back down into the basement and grab the axe.

As you're heading back to your bathroom to repay mutilation with mutilation, Julie has come back downstairs to check on you.

"Suzy, what are you doing with that axe?"
"Julie just go back upstairs, I told you I got this."
"Are you going to chop up his body? Is…is he in your bathroom right now?"
"Julie I said just go back upstairs, you don't need to deal with this, I'll do it."
"Suzy, I thought you were going to just dig a hole and throw him in it."
"Yeah well that was before I found my sister in fucking pieces in your goddamn washer and dryer!"

Julie places her hand over her mouth and staggers back propping herself up against the wall.

"Oh god…"
"Yeah. This whole day sucks and maybe that dead motherfucker won't be able to feel the pain of me chopping him up alive, but it's the only satisfaction I'm going to get…besides with the National Guard out there right now, going outside to dig a hole probably isn't the best idea now. Better I should wait to do that at night."

Julie has no words right now, but she's starting to look at you a little differently. Maybe the combination of killing someone and the emotional trauma of finding your sister chopped up has caused a bit of a snap in your personality. In any case, you're definitely taking a darker turn here.

Suddenly there is a loud bang on the front door.

"Oh shit! Who the hell is that?!" Julie says.

"Fuck. That's probably that government rep the loud speakers outside were saying was going to visit all the homes in the neighborhood. Someone probably heard the gunshot and sent someone here a lot sooner. Shit…shit…gotta think…" you say.
"Suzy?! What're we going to do? Maybe we should just tell them everything that happened! I mean it was self defense, surely they'll understand that!"
"Julie, we're under marshal law. I got a man laying in my bathtub with a bag over his head and my sister is in pieces in the washer and dryer. At BEST we might be able to convince them of this entire outlandish series of events AFTER they arrest us, put us into whatever fucked up military cell they have, suffer hours of interrogation and god knows what else. At worst? They'll just think we're a pair of murderesses and execute us immediately without a trial." You say and then exhale.

"Or…we could try to cover this up and get them the hell out of here as quickly as possible." You add.
"Don't you think they're going to search the house?!"
"Well that's why we're going to try to prevent that from happening. Distract them some how so they don't bother. I mean I suppose we could try to run out the backdoor and over the fence, but I don't know how are chances would be with that." you say.

Julie has no answer for you. At this point she's so scared that whatever you decide, she'll follow.

You talk your way out this

Even if you do run, you could easily bump into more military outside.

"We need to distract them. Julie, go run up stairs and try to clean up your face a bit and then doll yourself up with make up. Put on something sexy, like lingerie."
"Wha…what?"
"Just do it. I'll call you when I need you."
"Suzy…I don't know…"
"Julie, just trust me okay?" You say.
"Okay." Julie says with a nod and runs off back to her room.

You run into your bathroom and toss the axe and shovel in there with Johnny's body and then draw the shower curtain closed.

Grabbing some scissors from the desk, you take your pants off and quickly cut the legs off of them so they resemble shorts and put them back on. You then tear your shirt and tie it up so it's really accentuating your breasts and exposing your midriff. You then grab some rubber bands and tie your hair in two ponytails on either side of your head.

More banging on the front door and you run into the kitchen.

You quickly put the pistol in a half full box of cereal, which you then put back into the cupboard. There isn't much blood on the floor, but what little there is, you easily wipe up with some water and soap.

"OPEN UP BY THE ORDER OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT!" you hear a voice shout followed by more banging on the door.
"Hold on! Hold on! I'm coming! I'm coming!" you shout, running to the front door.

Looking through the peephole, you see two soldiers and a man dressed in a business suit.

"I really hope these guys are straight." You say and open the door.

You open the door and you lean forward a bit and to the side hoping you look seductive rather than ridiculous (It isn't like you do this a lot). Judging by the brief pause and the stares, you gather that you achieved seductive rather than ridiculous.

"Miss, didn't you hear us knocking on the door?" the man in the suit asks.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't answer right away, I was just so busy with something and I had to make myself presentable. So how can I help you today?"
"You can start by letting us in; we heard a gunshot coming from this direction. Granted that hasn't been an uncommon sound in other parts of this town, but this neighborhood has been fairly quiet and peaceful otherwise, so we'd like to know if you know anything about it. We already got soldiers searching around your backyard and the immediate area."
"Oh. I see. Well, you boys come on in and I'll try to serve you in any way I can. My name is Suzy by the way."

You turn around and attempt to put a little swing into your walk. You then you're your head to look back at them and flutter your eyes a bit. You actually feel really silly doing so, but the grinning expressions you see on the two soldiers suggest that you seem to be doing better than you'd believe.

The man in the suit tells the two soldiers to stand by the door and he sits down on couch. You then sit close to him.

"Okay, Suzy. You may refer to me as Mr. Zoll. Now you're aware this town is under marshal law correct?"
"Yes, we heard loudspeakers outside earlier. It sounded so frightening… should we be worried?" you say.
"I can't tell you specifics about such things, however I'm sure you're aware that this town has experienced a vast increase in criminal activity and rioting. More than your police force can handle. So until we get the situation under control again, we're here to stay."

Actually you weren't really aware of that, or at least not to the great extent that it was bad enough to call in the National Guard, but you nod and cross your legs and rub your hand over one of them in a manner that catches the attention of Mr. Zoll.

"So um…"
"You were saying Mr. Zoll?" you ask.
"… yeah anyway…so while this is a state of emergency, we don't want the citizens to feel uncomfortable. We don't want to just send in soldiers here to search every house for potential troublemakers. I mean this is still a free country and contrary to popular belief, the government is here to help. At least that's how I have always approached these situations. Much better to work with people than forcing them against their will. Still, as I said, gunfire was heard from this house and we have to investigate. So I'd like to at least ask you questions before deciding if we need to search this house further, you understand."
"Oh yes, of course I understand. You have such a difficult job trying to keep our wonderful country safe, I will comply will all your wishes and desires." You say and then place your hand on Mr. Zoll's knee in the process.

This is enough to cause him to smile nervously, but takes your hand off at which point you smile and giggle in return.

"Okay first of all you keep using the term 'we' is there someone else here?"
"Oh yes. I'll call her down. Julie! Could you come down here? There is a man that wants to ask us some questions about the gunshot earlier." you say standing up from the couch.

Julie appears and thankfully the girl has pulled out all the stops. She's wearing purple lingerie underneath and her legs are covered by purple stocking with garters. She's also wearing all the usual makeup that makes her look like a cheap whore and that's definitely a plus right now since everyone is looking at her. Julie walks down the stairs in such a manner that continues to keep their eyes on her. While she probably knows what some of your plan is by now, the rest of it is probably going to surprise her.

"Mr. Zoll, this is Julie, my life partner of many years. Come over here and sit sweetie." You say taking a seat in a chair.

Julie is indeed surprised by this, but quickly knows to play along. The two soldiers meanwhile can barely keep their mouths from hanging open. Mr. Zoll is better at keeping it together, but he's unsure of whether to stare at you or Julie and where!

"Julie. Don't sit all the way over there baby. Come over here." You say and pat you hands on your lap. Julie now has a bigger smile than anyone as she hops into your lap and puts her arms around you. You then give Julie a kiss on the lips; Julie however gets a bit overzealous by slipping you the tongue and grabbing one of your breasts.

"Now, now, honey, we have company." You say smiling and putting her hand back. "I apologize Mr. Zoll, but we plan on finally getting officially married soon, now that it's become legal and we were sort of celebrating before you knocked on the door. We've been friends and lovers for so long that its so liberating to long at last have the freedom to do what everyone else does. Did you know we came out to each other when we were sixteen? It was almost magical how we just knew it was so right in that high school shower room… "

Now Mr. Zoll crosses his legs because he's probably hiding a big boner. The soldiers at this point are unsubtly "rearranging" but it looks more like they just want to whip it out and start whacking it. Zoll manages to get back on track.

"Ladies, I really need to ask about this gunshot so let's get to it."

You and Julie say you heard a gunshot behind the house and not much else. Julie then mentions that she saw someone through the window jumping over the back fence, but couldn't make out what they looked like. Then she describes what they look like they were wearing from the back.

"All I know is I was so scared that I hopped right back into bed and held on to my Suzy." Julie says and hugs you a little tighter.
"There, there, it's over now. These big strong men are here to protect us from lawless scum like that." You say looking at Julie and rubbing her legs.

You turn back to Mr. Zoll.

"So that's all we know Mr. Zoll. I hope it was helpful. As I said if you must search this house we understand, but I as a law abiding citizen of this country I do hope it isn't necessary." You say to Mr. Zoll who looks like he's trying to scan you for deception.

"Nah, I don't think that will be necessary. You two seem like a nice couple that just wants to live your lives and be free to do… whatever you want to each other in the privacy of your own home. Whoever is dumb enough to run around in this neighborhood firing off guns is bound to fuck up soon and we at least know a partial description now. Okay anyway, onto the second reason for my visit. Do you need anything? We're not just here to keep order, but to help out as well. While you're quite aware that you can't leave your home, we could bring some basic supplies like food to you. So anything?"

Any other time you might take them up on the offer, but right now you just want them gone.

"Perhaps another time. Nothing right now thanks." You answer.
"Well hopefully for all of us, this will all be over soon. Okay, I leave you two ladies."

Mr. Zoll tells his men that they're leaving (who seem very disappointed). A few more glances back at you and Julie and soon they're out the door. It's over and you're safe.

"Holy shit, I can't believe we pulled that off." You say slumping a bit in your chair and breathing a sigh of relief.
"Oh Suzy, that was fucking genius!" Julie says who is still in your lap and hugging and kissing on your face.
"Stop, it's over now, get off my lap. I still got a body to chop up and to dispose of."

Julie ceases her affection and gets off your lap, though she looks a little hurt. Not wishing to cause more distress for her you apologize.

"Look, sorry. I just…I still lost a sister and that's been going through my head since I found out today."
"No, I understand. She was my friend. I don't think I've even processed her death fully due to my own near death experience and the National Guard coming in here. I'll leave you to it."

Julie heads back upstairs and you return to your bathroom where Johnny's body still awaits your destruction.

The thing is now; you don't feel like it anymore. The rage and sadness are still there of course, but what is chopping his body up really going to do for you? Nothing except more work and you refuse to expend any more energy than you have to on this scum.

You get more trash bags and cover his upper half with one and his lower half with another. Then you duct tape them around him until he's wrapped pretty tightly.

You then wait until dark and head outside in the backyard with the shovel. Luckily Julie's fences are high enough that nobody is going to immediately see you. (It's a big yard anyway and the neighbors aren't very close either) The night is actually pretty quiet, though you do hear the occasional rumble of what sounds like trucks or some sort of military vehicles driving on the nearby roads.

It isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world digging in the ground at night, but luckily Julie's yard also has some pretty soft soil and it only takes most of the night as opposed to all of it. You then return back to retrieve Johnny's body and see Julie waiting nearby.

"You could probably use the help in carrying this asshole right?" Julie asks.
"It would welcome." You say.

The pair of you lifts Johnny and carrying him outside and dump him into the hole you dug and then proceed to fill up. You and Julie then return inside the house.

"Well that's that." Julie says.
"Yep. And I'm going to bed." You say.
"Suzy?"
"Julie, I know. Donna still needs to be taken care of. I just don't have any more energy today. I can't deal with it now, I'm so drained it's taken all my energy not to just break down and cry."
"I know today has been rough for you and I wasn't talking about Donna. I just wanted to say I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't been here to take care of all this. You really went above and beyond today Suzy. I'm never going to forget it."

Julie says and goes to hug you and kisses you on the cheek. She then faintly smiles and walks away.

You don't know what's going on with you, and honestly you're too tired to sort out all the cocktail of emotions you've been bombarded with lately, but right now you do know Julie doesn't really want to be alone.

"Julie, you don't need to got to you room, come on into my room."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'd hate for the National Guard to suddenly show up and expose us as liars." You manage to joke which causes a bit of a smile from Julie.

As you drift off to sleep all you can think is "How can this week get any worse?"

Next day…

THURSDAY


You wake up and find that Julie is still fast asleep with her head nestled against your body and one arm draped over you. The funny thing is this sort of thing doesn't even bother you anymore.

But your increasingly odd relationship with Julie isn't excessively important at this time. Right now you're dwelling more on the grim situation you're still in and the event less pleasant task you still have ahead of you. Not quite disturbing Julie yet, you reach over and grab your cell phone to check the time. Slept most of the day as usual. Just as well, since you won't have long to wait for nightfall again when you have to dig another hole out back.

"Julie, get up I have to go." You say tapping Julie on the head.
"Hgm,.. no…" she utters.
"Have to, I've got to take care of something and I think you know what it is."

Julie slowly and reluctantly moves off of you and repositions herself on a pillow.

"I wish you could just stay in bed with me all day." She says.
"At this point, I wish that too." You say and get up to leave to go get your sister out of the washer and dryer.

You grab your seemingly never-ending supply of garbage bags, cleaning products, some towels, a bucket of water, some rubber gloves and go down into the basement.

Once again approaching the washer and dryer you open up them up and are bombarded by a horrible smell. You end up coughing and hacking up again.

"Ugh…(pant) ugh…goddamn it, I can get through this…" you say.

You empty the washing machine first, putting Donna's dismembered legs and arms in trash bags. You then dump some cleaning products into the washing machine and turn it on figuring that it will least wash most of the blood out.

The dryer on the other hand is not going to be as easy to clean. Johnny threw Donna's torso and head in there. While he didn't exactly eviscerate her, there are definitely some or her insides coming out. It's a horrible task (You try not to stare at her head for too long), but between the gagging you manage to get through it. Her body, her left over innards and her head all up into bags and tied up.

You then spend time trying to clean the dryer. Even with using bleach, you can't get rid of that horrible smell. You wonder if it'll ever go away.

"Ugh, that's a really horrible smell." Julie says causing you to turn your head and see that she's come down to check on you.
"What are you doing down here? I told you I'd take care of this." You say.
"You were down here awhile and I decided to check on you. Besides, your brother Peter called."
"Is that right?"
"Yep, he was returning your call from yesterday. Didn't realize you called him."
"I was in the middle of calling him when that psycho attacked. Anyway, you talked to him?"
"Yeah, but I didn't tell him about what happened here, save for the National Guard coming in and telling us to stay indoors. I didn't want to tell him about Donna, I figured you'd want to do that."
"Thanks. Peter and Donna weren't exactly the closest either, but I think he'd be pretty upset to hear about her death. So he didn't want to talk to me?"
"Well I told him you were really busy cleaning up an awful mess elsewhere in the house. He actually said he didn't want to talk long though because he was worried that the government was monitoring the phone call what with the marshal law and all."
"Huh, sounds almost like something my brother Ben would've said."
"Yeah, that's the other thing. He mentioned he was busily trying to locate Ben's old hidden bunker in your backyard. He said he wants to wait this out in there because he's scared shitless and feels vulnerable just being stuck in your house by himself."
"Well I can see him being scared since this isn't the most relaxed of situations."
"Yeah, but he said its more than just the National Guard. He said he saw a few of your neighbors acting nuttier than a shithouse rat in the streets for no apparent reason. Like they were rabid animals. He mentioned some of them was trying to bite someone."

You stop cleaning for a moment.

"What? Crazy people trying to bite others? That almost sounds like something out of a horror movie. You sure he wasn't exaggerating?"
"He sure didn't sound like it, I mean it sort of makes sense. People have become more aggressive and hostile. The crime rate in this town has gone up so bad that the National Guard had to come in. I mean maybe everyone in town is going crazy from some sort of secret military experiment!"
"If that's true, then how come we aren't running around biting people?" you ask.
"Well maybe it hasn't affected us yet, maybe we're immune, I don't know! Maybe it spreads by bite like in a zombie movie! I'm just saying maybe we should start blocking the windows and doors."
"Julie its entirely possible Peter saw some people just high on bath salts! I mean the people who live in my neighborhood aren't exactly the most morally upstanding. Let's wait and see for a moment. I mean I'm still cleaning up here, so it'll be awhile and…"

Suddenly several machine gun shots are heard.

"Oh my God!" Julie says and instinctively ducks. You on the other hand get up off your knees from cleaning and start to head upstairs.

"Are you insane, where are you going?!" Julie asks.
"Julie, while at one time it would've been unthinkable for me to head TOWARDS the sound of gunfire, I've left a pistol and an axe upstairs. If nothing else I'd like to retrieve to viable weapons if an impending zombie apocalypse is indeed coming."
"Well hold on I'm coming with you, I don't want to be by myself!" Julie says.

And like that you're cautiously going upstairs towards potential danger with Julie touching one of your arms and hiding behind you. Now you really do feel like you're in a horror movie.

When you get upstairs, you and Julie keep your heads down. The gunfire doesn't sound like it's immediately out in front of the house, but it's definitely nearby. You go and get the pistol first.

"Why is the gun in the cereal box?" Julie asks.
"Because I was desperately trying to find a place to hide it yesterday. Julie, I think you better go put something a little more protective on. If we need to suddenly leave in a hurry you're not going to want to be running around in your underwear."
"I suppose you're right. Where are you going to be?"
"I'm going back to my room to retrieve the axe from the bathroom, wash this blood off and change my clothes as well since I obviously ruined these by cutting and ripping them yesterday in the first place."

You and Julie part ways briefly to go take care of your short-term goals. After washing up and changing your clothes again you start to ponder what your next move might be. You don't quite get to do that since once again you're interrupted by the breaking of glass coming from the kitchen followed by snarling and grunting.

"Shit!" you exclaim and run to the kitchen to see a bloody arm through the window of the backdoor attempting to unlock it. The thing on the other side gets more excited when it sees you and starts pounding the glass with its other hand cracking more of it. It seems completely oblivious to the fact that it's severely cutting itself in the process.

It looks like a regular (if a bit wild) human. It doesn't look rotten (Could be fresh though) and maybe it isn't a zombie, but you know damn well you can't let it get in! You shoot at it through the glass completely shattering the rest of the window. The bullet hits it in the face and the thing falls backwards making one last death growl.

You cautiously move to look through the broken window and see that you've killed it. Meanwhile Julie has come running to see if you're okay.

"Suzy! Oh thank god! Are you okay?!" Julie asks.
"Yeah, but I apologize for doubting you and Peter. One of those… things, guess I'll call them the rabid just attacked. Look what one did to this door, I'd hate to think what more of them might do in a group." You say.
"Oh shit! We need to start blocking the doors and windows!"
"I'm wondering if we shouldn't just get the hell out of here while we can."
"I really think we we'd be safer if we stayed put! I mean we have more than enough furniture and items to barricade ourselves in here. If we leave, we run the risk of bumping into hordes of them and that's not counting the military who are still shooting people on sight, maybe even more so now. Where would we go anyway?"
"I admit, I haven't figured that part out yet, but I think you're hoping to ride this thing out until shit gets back to normal and I'm wondering if that's even going to happen. We aren't exactly well supplied here for a long-term stay even if we do barricade this place. Now I'll give you that it's probably going to be dangerous out there, but at least we'll have more freedom to move around."

Julie of course will follow you no matter what you decide, but she really wants to stay in. As much as you think it might be better to leave now, you probably would be safe if you barricaded yourselves in the house properly. Things do sound hectic out there right now with all the gunfire, it might even be best if you waited until things died down a bit and sneak out later.

You leave now

Things aren't going to "calm down", they're just going to get worse if anything. You've already had too many intruders inside this house, staying here obviously isn't safe even if you do barricade it. You need to get out now.

"Julie get some bags and start packing items like flashlights and the like because we're getting the hell out of here." You say.
"But again, where are we going to go?" she asks.
"And I still don't know, but I'm thinking we need to at least get out of this town though. From there I guess we'll play it by ear. Your car is still at the shop so we're going to have to use Donna's. Do you know if Donna had a spare set of car keys? When I had to…clean up, it wasn't like she was clothed at the time so there wasn't anything on her."
"She probably left her keys on a dresser in her room when she first stormed in the house on Monday. I'll check. Speaking of Donna, what are you going to do about her? I mean you were going to bury her, but now?"
"Yeah, I'm sort of wishing I'd buried her first instead of the asshole that killed her now. I dunno, I mean there just isn't time. (Sigh) Fuck it, she's just an empty shell now, the person that she was is gone and we need to make haste if we don't want to end up like her, so let's start getting a move on."

Julie and you both split up to pack your bags. One of your bags that you brought hasn't even been opened and is still full of clothing. You fill your other bags with more useful items like some of the non-perishable snack food Julie has, the duct tape you were using, a few of the bigger kitchen knives, loose batteries, some of the medicine in the bathroom, etc.

You then finish up with packing a few more of your personal items and are ready to go.

"Julie, are you ready yet and did you find the keys?!" you call up to her.
"Yeah, yeah I'm just making sure I got everything!" she calls back.

You hear more gunfire coming from outside which sounds like its right outside the front door. A quick look out the window and you do see several guardsmen firing on those crazy people running at them. It looks like the National Guard have set up a bit of a "base" in one of the houses further up the street. You just hope you can drive off without too much problem. You're going to have to be quick that's for sure.

Julie comes running down the stairs with two bags and a big luggage case.

"Julie, what the hell, I told you to just focus on the essentials!"
"I did! I need all this…shit!" Julie says and trips down the stairs due to all the stuff she's trying to lug around and going at a fast pace. You attempt to keep her from breaking her neck by getting in the way of her fall. You're partially successful though getting crushed by a tumbling body and heavy bags isn't fun.

"Fuck…shit…goddamn…" you utter as you feel the pain. Surprisingly Julie doesn't seem any worse for wear.
"Wow. That was lucky. Thanks Suzy." She says in a bit of an animated tone. You look at her eyes and see that her pupils dilated.
"Julie are you fucking high right now?"
"Uh…I don't know…"
"Goddamnit Julie, really?"
"I needed a little to take the edge off! I mean I've been practically sober for the past few days and I needed something to keep myself from breaking down completely! I've already proven I'm no good in these high stress situations and now we're going to enter a whole new level of fucked upness by leaving this house! I'm sorry if I'm not as strong as you!"

You don't really have time to argue with Julie about this right now, but she might have a point. If drugs are going to keep her from melting down into a quivering mess then maybe it is for the best that she's a little high. The funny thing is before all this happened you were the one that was a bit more of a worrywart and Julie tended to have a more laid back approach to life. Just goes to show how one can never tell how people will react in an emergency situation.

"Alright fine, but we're going to deal with this later and where are the car keys? I'll be damned if I'm going to let you drive in your condition."

Grabbing the keys from Julie, you pick yourself up and grab your own bags and cautiously open the front door.

"Alright we need to throw these bags in the back of car as quick as possible and then drive off equally as fast. These weekend warriors are patrolling all over this neighborhood and who knows where those rabid things are."

You and Julie run over to the car and open up the doors and start throwing in your bags. Takes a moment for Julie to shove in her big luggage case, but she gets it in. The pair of you then get in the front seats of the car and you start up the car.

You actually manage to swing the car out into the street before you hear shouting and then fired upon. Julie screams as the sounds of glass shatter behind you from the bullets. You keep it together and just drive hoping that there aren't too many of the guard in front of you.

It's a false hope as you do indeed bump into more than a couple patrols with itchy trigger fingers. Some you try to avoid by going down other streets. Others are actually busy fighting off others. How you and Julie aren't hit by any that do shoot at you is something of a minor miracle, but the car certainly doesn't come through unscathed since by the time you manage to make out of Julie's neighborhood, it's making rattling sounds.

"Oh god! I knew we shouldn't have left! The car's gonna die and then so will we!" Julie shouts.
"Julie take some more of your happy pills or calm the fuck down, I'm trying to think! Shit! There's some of those things!" you say as you smash the car into two insane looking individuals that just jumped out of nowhere. One goes flying off to the side and the other falls backwards in front of your car, which then promptly runs over him entirely.

You continue to drive and try to keep off the main streets though with your car now making several clattering sounds you're not exactly keeping a low profile.

"We're never going to make it out of this town! Not with the car in this condition! We need to go back!" Julie exclaims.
"We can't go back now Julie! I told you to take some more of… whatever it is you take and let me try to fucking think!" you say while trying to keep an eye on your immediate surroundings.

"Okay. I'm thinking that we're currently not too far from my house. I suppose we could go there and try to help Peter look for my brother's shelter and hold up in there. At the very least we could exchange cars there. I'm sure Peter isn't going to have any intention on using his.

Julie doesn't really answer you, she's too busy digging in her pockets for pills. You decide to just go ahead and head to your house.

Your drive there isn't quite as eventful as your escape from Julie's house, but it isn't without peril. The National Guard isn't quite as in control in your part of the town and there are far more of the rabid roaming around either chasing down normal people or attempting to break into houses. Most of them don't attempt to attack you, or if they do, you just continue driving fast enough that they don't get the chance.

By the time you get to your own house, your neighborhood is eerily quiet. There are definitely signs of past conflict all over the place, but there is nobody on the streets and most homes are not lit either. (Though you do see broken doors and windows on a lot of them) Fortunately your own house doesn't look damaged (At least not from the front)

You half expect to get swarmed by crazies as soon as you park in front of your house, but instead your only major concern is herding Julie's high ass to the front door and getting inside with all the bags you're both carrying.

"PETER?! Are you here?!" you call out when you get in the door since you saw his vehicle in the driveway. There is no answer though. You dump all your bags on the floor while Julie practically just collapses on the floor with her bags.

You help her up and lay her down on the sofa and see that she's feeling quite numb now, though she still tries to grip on to you when you pull away.

"Suzy, don't leave me…please…"
"Julie, I have to see if Peter's in the house or if it's just us. I won't be that far away."
"Suzy…I'm sorry I'm so fucked up…I don't know what…I would've done if you weren't around…"
"Julie, just rest right now."

With this last bit of reassurance Julie faintly smiles and closes her eyes.

The first thing you do is search the ground floor. Amazingly it doesn't look like your house has been attacked at all. Even looking out into the backyard things look fairly untouched.

Then you search the connected garage and that's when you wish you hadn't.

You find Peter and another unknown man both not quite entirely dressed, but that isn't the disturbing part. The fact that they're both dead is the disturbing part.

The garage itself is a bit of a mess, like there was definitely a struggle, and your brother's body and the body of who you presume is his lover or client both show signs of blunt trauma. Looks like their necks were both broken to ultimately kill them though.

You aren't sure what to think. You feel like you should be more upset than you are, but given what you've already experienced you've become desensitized. You're actually more concerned with how this happened. There isn't anyone else here to your knowledge and if it had been one of those things, the bodies would probably have bite marks. You suppose it could've been regular bandits or robbers, but you'd expect gunshot or even knife wounds and neither have that.

Also if it was bandits that killed them, you wonder why they wouldn't take Peter's car since his keys are still sitting on a dresser nearby. Whether Peter was planning on leaving himself or still looking for Ben's hidden shelter (And if he found it or not) you'll never know you suppose.

In any event you have the means to leave immediately if you so desire which given the uneasiness of this situation might not be a bad idea, but then again it's starting to get dark so it still might be best to bunk here for the night at least.

You leave in Peter's car

After pondering it several times over, you think it would be best to just get the hell out of this town. You're not wasting your time looking for Ben's hidden shelter, and after finding your brother's body in here, you don't think this would be a safe place to stay the night.

"Julie, come on get up, we're not staying here." You say jostling her.
"Mgh, can't we just rest here? I'm so tired and it's safe here." She says.
"No it isn't, I just found my dead brother in the fucking garage along with his boyfriend or whoever that guy is…"
"Holy shit, seriously?" Julie says waking up a bit.
"Yeah, so let's get the hell out of here! Come on, grab your bags."

With some effort, Julie rouses herself from her drug induced exhaustion and grabs her bags. You get your own and make your way to Peter's car.

After loading it up as quickly as possible, Julie slumps into the passenger seat and you get into the driver's seat and start it up. So far nothing has come running to attack you, but certainly don't want to stick around for it happen.

You make your way towards what you believe is going to be the quickest way out of town, but instead you come across more National Guard barricades. Naturally they tell you to stop, but you don't and once again you're making U-Turns under a hail of fire.

"Holy shit Julie! We just got out of being shot at once before, do we really have to do this again?! Can't we just go back…"
"JULIE SHUT THE FUCK UP I'M TRYING TO GET US THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!" you scream and serve down a side street. Julie of course starts crying.

You're so harried and frustrated that you barely even know where you are. This town might not be the largest, but it seems like a maze when you barely leave the house for years.

You drive into an area that is literally swarming with the rabid. From the abandoned military vehicles it looks like the National Guard lost its battle here. A crowd of rabid see and hear your car and start immediately running towards you.

"Julie we can't run them all over! The car will overturn! Turn back! Turn back!" Julie screams, but you don't listen.

You slam the gas pedal and go full speed ahead.

You run over several of them and then their bodies begin to get stuck in the wheels causing the car to skid and spin. You attempt to maintain control, but you fail to do so and the car flips over lands against the wall of a building upside down.

You're hurt, but since you had your seatbelt on, you're still able to move, but unfortunately, you can't open the door on your side because it's crushed against a wall.

You look over to Julie and she's not moving. In fact she's half way through the windshield. She's obviously dead, but that isn't what concerns you at the moment. What concerns you is the rest of the rabid running over to the car.

After a few moments of struggling, the rabid eventually pull you out of the car and sink their teeth into you and gnaw straight through your bones. You die screaming as they eat you alive.