Everything was still happening too fast to really process it. I was running but wasn't really thinking about it.

Run.

Get to the house.

Get to cover.

Find weapons.

Run.

I had barely even registered that I was back at Bri's side so quickly. And I certainly didn't have any time to register any happiness at the idea that there were weapons inside because by the time that filtered in my brain had moved on to the more pressing problem.

As I registered the crying- I knew exactly what it meant, how could I not- I felt my body go cold. We now had two options and they both sucked.

Keep running. Hope we found more weapons before our legs gave out.

Hide inside. Hope we stay quiet enough to keep that pain in the ass crying witch from noticing us.

Either one of those plans had a high probability of death. So I guess you could call that option three. Give up and get our faces eaten off by the various zombies following after us.

Like I said, the options all sucked. That's why I decided to grab Bri's shoulder and push her through the open door on the side of the building. Once inside I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tugged her down next to me to crouch just inside the door. We were now blocked from view of the horde outside. Good news. But we were also practically within spitting distance of the witch. Bad news.

"Don't even breathe," I whispered, still gripping my friend's arm tightly with one hand. Considering the seriousness of the situation I couldn't even come up with a joke about Bri always being the one to startle the witch. I was shaking so badly I was sure the witch would wake up based on that alone. I stared over at the crouched form. The horde was coming closer and the crying was becoming nerve wracking but I didn't dare move.

The House Ain't Safe

I've never been much of a runner. I'd run for the ice cream truck and I'd run from something chasing me, That's about it. Welp, there definitely was something chasing me. The shack seemed like it was miles off in the distance, but the adrenaline kept me going. I could see all the years Lindley spent studying Taekwondo kicking in because she was on the fucking move. At first I struggled to keep up with her, but the desire to preserve my life put a little pep in my step. 

Fight or flight. We've all learned about the mechanism in science class. Some external stimuli triggers survival mode in the body- Blood and oxygen is rushed to the muscles, all types of hormones are released, the immediate need to nourish the body or excrete wastes is postponed.  Thank God for that last one because knowing that there's a gang of zombies shuffling behind you definitely calls for a piss your pants moment. 

50 more feet. 

I signaled for us to go on opposite sides of the house so we could peek in the windows to make sure there were no unwanted guests. 

Even with just one light  on in the entire house, I could see that the wall was completely decorated. 

A moose head. A camo patterned crossbow. A shot gun encased in glass that rested on a mantle next to antlers sporting a big blue ribbon. And...holy shit...

25 seconds later, Lindley was by my side. It was completely dark in the portion of the house she peered into. She was ecstatic to know that my side was lit. She nearly jumped for joy when I told her I saw hunting paraphernalia. "There's definitely weapons in there!" She gleamed. She nearly shit herself when I pointed out the dark figured crouched in the corner, 15 feet away from the front door. 

It was only in that moment we were still and quiet enough to hear the crying. 

The wind was knocked right out of my lungs when I hit the ground again. I flailed a bit and thought for sure I was done for. That was when the crowbar in my hands found just the right spot and the zombie on top of me   slumped over and I pushed it off me. Of course, as I scrambled back to my feet I noticed that small horde coming towards us that I had missed earlier. I knew that we needed to get out of there and get somewhere else soon. We couldn't take out that many zombies with a big stick and a crowbar. We needed weapons. Preferably weapons with bullets. Lots and lots of bullets. I jammed my crowbar through the skull of the zombie on top of Bri and grabbed her shoulder.

"Move!" I gave her a rough shove and together we took off. I tried to remember the lay out of the area from when we played the game. My first thought was to get to a safe house but we'd only just started; that would be too far.

Bri glanced back over her shoulder and put on a little extra speed. I didn't dare look back but I could hear the horde coming for us.

"There, look," I gasped out. I pointed towards a shack that was just ahead in the trees. Bri nodded that she understood and together we sprinted for the shack. My only thought was that there had better be some guns in that shack or we were going to become zombie food.

Smoking is Bad

The moment I snapped into the reality of the current situation, my body slammed onto the ground. What felt like hours, even days of unconsciousness were just a few milliseconds of heaven, time that I was not aware that there was angry smoker right on top of my boobs. The last thig I remember before using my knees and fingernails to fend for my life was Lindley screaming about hearing a smoker. Now, I was screaming about a smoker- I was screaming for it to get the fuck off of me. During the charge, I had dropped my log mace thing I was left almost defenseless, almost. Wht that smoker didn't know is that my best friend was ten feet behind me, he also didn't know that I was full of suppressed rage, and finally, that I hate smoking. As I was kneeing and clawing for my survival, I saw the horror out of the corner of my eye: There was a small horde coming straight for Lindley. There were only about 6 zombies, but a horde is a horde and danger is danger. Lindley saw it too, but she acted as if it didn't exist for she was focusing on first charging the smoker and them jamming the crowbar through his head. Zombie juice spurted all over my neck and chest, but that didn't stop me from bouncing up onto my feet, ninja style. As soon as I got up, Lindley went down and there was a zombie in my face, again.

Here there be zombies...

The next time I looked up from searching for weapons I saw that Bri was already jogging away the way she always did. Except this time she was only armed with a large branch instead of the shotgun I was used to seeing her with. "Dammit, Bri, where the hell are you going?" I hurried after her.

"To look around and find out what the fuck is going on," Bri told me over her shoulder like it was nothing.

I was still getting my head around just what had happened even though there was seriously no time to really worry about that. I was actually more worried about the fact that I had neither a handgun or my usual oozie I was used to having. Even with those missing aspects there was no denying wherever we were looked a hell of a lot like Blood Harvest from our favorite game. "Well, has it occurred to you that maybe running off like an idiot like you always do isn't the best idea here?" I asked more than a little impatiently.

"Then keep up!"

Hitting my best friend with my crowbar seemed like a rather attractive prospect right then. Except I somehow doubted I'd get one of my usual 'friendly fire' message flashing across my screen. Mostly because there was no screen in front of me. We were so fucked. I debated coming up with a snarky comment in response to Bri's indifference to still being in front of me but a sound off to my side distracted me. It sounded frighteningly like a hunter. Or a boomer. Or maybe a smoker. "Bri!" I hissed in hopes of not attracting whatever it was. Fortunately she heard me and turned back.

"What?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

I heard the gurgling choking sound again. "That!"

"Oh, shit." Bri hefted her big stick. "Was that a hunter?"

I shook my head. "Sounded like a smoker." The next thing I knew I saw something come flying out of the trees around us right towards Bri. I shouted and tried to go over but right then I saw more movement to my other side and realized that the zombies had most definitely come after us.

It's Not a Game Anymore...

*YYYABBB-Left Trigger*...."This shit isn't working!" I whined.

"Bri, you HAVE to push the Xbox button! My controller flashed when I did it, but I think we have to do it together, let's try again."

I consider myself to be a pretty patient and rational person, but sometimes I do dumb, outrageous shit, and when it comes to videogames, I ALWAYS do dumb, irrational shit quickly and in a hurry. Shit like throwing a gas can at the witch and lighting her on fire, jumping off of buildings, and running head first into a horde of zombies. *YYYABBB- Left Trigger-Xbox Home button*

Sirens began to go off in what sounded like the near distance, but felt like inches away, and after 2 seconds of the sound piercing our ears; I spat my gum out. Our eyes were blinded by a multitude of bright light flashes that seemed to last forever causing us to close our eyes for at least an entire minute. The air around us thickened and swirled, wrapping us in a cloud of uncertainty. And just as quickly as it began, the madness ended, and we opened our eyes.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me, this is the opening scene from Blood Harvest, like the level the from the game" I slurred, obviously in shock.

"Yup, looks that way, HOLY CRAP!" Lindley said non-nonchalantly, while simultaneously going into survival mode and beginning the search for weapons.

We searched frantically and silently for what must have been 10 minutes before coming across anything. We remained focused on the task at hand as to avoid freaking out about our situation. "It's just a game" I kept reminding myself silently.

"There's an old crowbar over here in this car; I guess it will have to do for now" Lindley whispered. She grabbed the crowbar and I wielded the large, sturdy branch I found, and just like it was any old gaming session, I took false lead, jogging 15 feet ahead of Lindley into the unknown, weapon steady. Just one thing was different today, it's not just a game anymore, we both knew and accepted it, but refused to admit it because at that moment, there was no room for our ever so common freak outs.

Trying out cheat codes

Google. Why hadn't I thought of that? "That's a great idea," I told my best friend as I grabbed my phone and started searching. The results that came up were all the usual stuff. Mostly cheat codes and a lot of random chats on cool ways to kill zombies. Bri continued her gum chewing as she waited for my verdict. I was pretty sure that in the years I'd known her I'd never called her by her full name, she'd been Bri forever and always would be.

"Find anything?" Bri looked patient but I knew she was ready to start killing some zombies. She was always ready to kill zombies.

"Usual stuff. Hang on, this is a weird entry. Just has a code but not what it's for. And the only thing the person has with it is 'try this'." I looked at Bri and shrugged.

"So let's try it," Bri said.

"What if it crashes my xbox or something?" I thought that over for a second. "Well, not that it could screw it up any more than it already is... Alright, guess we can do it." I passed over my phone and showed the code to her.

"Ok, we've got to put it in at the same time," Bri said when she finished reading what I had come up with.

I nodded. "Hope it's something good and not super lame or anything."