Nothing's Written In Stone

Prologue

[KAYLEE]

A bang ricochets through the almost empty hallways of the high school, the metal of my locker cool beneath my fingertips. The lights are slightly dimmed with the faint sounds of footsteps scurrying to get to class before the bell rings.

With books gathered in my arms, I stroll down the hall and into my classroom. My eyes immediately catch sparkling green ones I know too well. Sliding it my chair, I turn to my best friend with confusion plastered on my face at the sight of the still vacant seat in front of me.

"She's still sick?" I question and nod in the direction of our friend's empty chair. Now that I take a better look around the room, I realize maybe half the class is missing. Whatever's going around is violent and extremely contagious.

"Yeah," Jacob replies. "Haveㅡ"

The clearing of a throat pulls us from our conversation and looking up front, the teacher's glaring down at us with their arms crossed over their chest. We both flashed a shy smile. Their gaze lingers a second more before turning back to the front to grasp the sheet of paper to take attendance.

"Kaylee Anderson."

"Here," I say, then listen to the rest of the names get called out and only a few choruses of 'here' follow.

"Jacob White." My best friend's name was the last listed and after stating his presence, class starts. My fingers run through my hair, scraping it into a ponytail so the annoying strands that fall in my line of vision are tied back.

I mostly zone out and let my thoughts wander, not being able to focus. Actually, I seemed to not be able to pay attention for more than a couple of minutes before blanking out, the words being jumbled into a blubbering mess. I tried to focus but my mind had other plans.

Something feels off, wrong. But everything was fine the first half of the day and when lunch came around, I managed to brush it off as hunger. But when Jake and I hop down the cement steps, out of the school, the sinking feeling returns.

Something is definitely not right.

As we make our way toward my house, I keep my eyes pinned to the sidewalk and watch my worn converse move one step after the other. I jump slightly when Jake throws out an arm, whacking my lower stomach and causing me to halt. Meeting his emerald eyes with my own sea-green ones, I'm shocked to see caution and fear shining through. My eyebrows furrow.

"What?"

Jake points to a man stumbling across the street. My gaze stays glued to the figure. Fear has rooted me to the spot and a wave of nausea washes over my body, a lump forming in my throat. My attention is shifted then to a truck turning down the road. A hand clasps onto mine and yanks, telling me to move. But I don't.

"Lee," whispers Jake. "Kaylee, let's go."

I shake my head.

"Lee," he tries again, his tone firmer. I go to respond when the truck slams into the man on the road. The body hits the hood before flying off the side. A small scream erupts from my lips as the truck speeds away.

I race toward the slumped body but something causes me to stop. The sound of gravel shifting reaches my ears. My eyes widen as the person who literally had been run over by a car stands clumsily back to their feet and bile rises in my throat.

His jaw is hanging by a string of skin, teeth missing. His arm is bent at an awkward angle that has to be painful but he shows no signs of distress. Clothes are torn and coated in grime, pieces of fabric hanging from their body. But what stands out the most is all the blood. Blood runs down the crippled arm, cuts from the crash bleeding freely. It almost looks like he's crying but it isn't trails of tears. Drops of blood slide down the bruised face from the mouth, down the neck and soaking the collar of the shirt.

Growls emit from the man and his feet move him toward Jake and me, fear running through my veins. A hard tug on my hand pulls me in the opposite direction. Stumbling over my own feet, I follow after Jacob, keeping my eyes pinned on his back and forcing myself to think about something other than the corpse walking behind us.

We reach my house and digging into my pocket, I grasp the keys and turn the lock. My parents are always still at work whenever I get home and Drew, my older brother, is away at college so we don't see much of him anymore.

"Hey, go upstairs and pack a bag."

I nod, still in a daze as I make my upstairs and to my room. I stuff two pairs of shirts and jeans and a jacket in my overnight bag. My hands shake as I do so, my knees wobbling. I suck in a breath and calm myself before twisting to my TV and turning it on. An anchor flashes on the screen.

"This show is interrupted for an emergency broadcast. As some of you are now aware, there is a deadly virus spreading rapidly throughout the states. At the moment, we have no source of the virus and no possible ways to prevent it from spreading. If you or your loved ones are showing any of these symptoms below, please, keep your distance."

The image of the anchor is replaced by a video. A figure similar to the one Jake and I saw in the street ambles toward a line of police cars. The quality of the video isn't great but I can still make out the blood and grime covering the body. A shot goes off, causing me to flinch. The body lurches back, the bullet landing in the heart but it keeps moving. Another shot fired, hitting the stomach, then another in the right lung.

The body collapses only when a bullet meets its head and it crumbles to the ground, lifeless. Just how it should be.

"A blow to the head." The anchor reappears on the screen. "The one thing that will keep these creatures down. Please, stay indoors and don'tㅡ"

The voice cuts off and the television goes black. Power's out. Great.

"Lee!"

"Coming!" I yell back. My eyes sweep over the room one last time, making sure I didn't forget anything. I go to walk through the doorway when a small, golden charm catches my eye. It was the necklace Jacob had gotten me for my sixteenth birthday last year. Two small wings rest in the middle of the chain, a reminder there's always someone looking over. Like a guardian angel.

After placing it around my neck, I bounce downstairs with my bag on my back. Jake was leaning on the railing of the stairs, concern coating his face. I frown.

"What's wrong?"

"Phone's not working." He tosses the object on the couch. "I wasn't able to contact our parents or Drew." Jacob runs a hand down his face and growls in frustration.

"Hey," I say softly. "We'll figure it out."

Jake stays quiet for a moment, seeming to be thinking something over then a smile lights up his face, and he bolts upstairs. Following after, I watch as he digs through my closet.

"Got it," he mumbles. Standing, Jake's fingers curl around the belt loops on my jeans and pulls me to him. My eyes widen at our position. He doesn't seem to mind, or doesn't mention it, as he wraps a belt around my waist and before buckling, slides something onto it.

I look down, recognizing the hunting knife he got me a few years back. He wanted me to be able to protect myself from intruders and s**t. But I'm guessing using it against the walking dead was not what he imagined.

"Just in case." Sucking in a breath, I steel myself. Jake moves his hand to mine, lacing our fingers together and I smile at the action.

"Did you see the news?" I question as we make our way downstairs and plop on the couch, his thigh brushing mine as we do so. Jake's eyebrows crease slightly in confusion. So I tell him what I saw and explain what was said.

The jiggling of the doorknob stops me mid-sentence and Jake and I both tense. Drew walks through the door, his usually perfectly styled hair sticking up in different angles and blue eyes heavy. When my brother spots us on the couch, he rushes over and pulls me into a bone-crushing hug. I hug him back equally as hard.

"Thank god you're okay," he murmurs into my hair. "Come on, I think I know a place we can go," Drew says as he reluctantly pulls away. I follow Jake and Drew out the front door. About to jump in the back seat, I stop when I hear Jacob scream.

Running around to the other side of the car, I spot one of those things trying to take a bite out of his neck. My fingers wrap around the handle of the knife and, without hesitation, push the blade through the neck. It doesn't seem fazed by the blow so I yank the knife out and deliver a blow to the skull right below the ear. The body falls limp.

I now realize my breathing has deepened and my eyes are wide. Jake pulls me into a warm embrace, his arms tightening around my slim frame.

"Shh, it's okay. It's okay. You're alright," he whispers. "It's over now."

"No," I mumble into his chest. "It hasn't even started."

~~~~~

"Jake, look!" Off in the distance, I spot a small neighborhood and he looks at me, smiling and his green eyes shining. We make our way toward one of the houses with huge grins plastered on our faces, happy we finally found a place to stay for a while. We haven't been able to find a stable home in weeks after we lost Drew.

Wandering in, we clear the house together. The place is empty, none of the dead hiding out. In the kitchen, we found numerous cans of food. We sit down at the table standing in the middle of the kitchen. It was quiet.

Until banging on the front door caused both Jacob and I to jump.

"Stay here," commands Jake. Getting up, he walks cautiously around the corner to the door. After a few seconds of waiting, I follow.

"s**t!" I round the corner and take in the scene. The top hinges on the door are broken and nails hang loosely from the wall, the door has cracks in the wood, dead hands peeking through between the door and the wall. Then, without thinking, my feet carry me to Jacob and I push against the door, trying to get it shut.

"You need . . . to get out . . . of here," he pants, out of breath from the effort to keep the dead out.

"No!"

"You have to!" The door clicks shut. I lock it quickly, even though I know it's not going to do much, considering the dead are still pressing their weight against it and their hands slam harshly on the wood.

"Lee, please, go." Jake looks over, fear flashing brightly like a warning sign on his face. My eyes burn. Hands fly up, cupping both my cheeks. "Please go. I'll distract them and I promise I'll find you."

The whole time he was talking, I was shaking my head. I am not leaving him. A warm tear escapes from the barrier of my eyelid and slides down my cheek, stopping on his hand.

"I . . . I love you."

Jake presses his lips against mine urgently. Electricity runs through my veins and my skin burns wherever he touches. I was so shocked that I don't kiss back for several seconds but once I do, it's as though Jake and I are the only ones in the world.

Our lips move in sync, his hands moving to my hips and gripping them tightly as mine slide up to wrap around his neck. My fingers brush through the chocolate brown hair laying on the nape of his neck. We only pull back when the wood cracks and the groans of the dead grow louder. The pad of his thumb swipes away one of my tears.

"I love you, Lee," he whispers once more, resting his forehead on mine, and something in my stomach flutters at those four small words. Then Jacob is pulling away, shoving me down the hallway, and throwing open the door. He slams against the corpses and goes running out, shouting.

My knees give out from underneath me and I collapse, tears now streaming freely down my face. I sit there and watch until every last one of them is out of sight and I could no longer hear Jake's voice.

The last thing I hear is a scream of agony, one that stabs sharply into my heart.

~~~~~