The next day we continued to rest up. I slept for most of the morning. In the afternoon I made my way down to the main living room and found some books to read.

Jack and Maria were playing a heated game of ‘Jenga’.

Kenji was keeping watch upstairs somewhere and Daniel had gotten to work on boarding up the house. He was turning it into a real stronghold. He was using all the interior doors and the doors from the kitchen cupboards to board up the windows.

“Do you want any help?” I asked.

“Nah, I’m fine. I’m nearly done anyway.”

In the short time that I’ve known Daniel, I’ve come to realize that he doesn’t know how to stop. He’s like a machine. He just keeps going. Except unlike a machine, he didn’t have an off switch.

“Hey, do you know where Kenji is?” I asked.

“He’s upstairs. Setting up two bird’s nests.”

“Huh?”

“Sniper positions. Defensive shooting positions.”

“Oh.”

The books I had found were all old hard covers. Some of them looked pretty expensive.

The book case was built into the wall next to this huge fire place. I read this one book about Ernest Hemingway. OK, I didn’t actually read it all. More like I skimmed through it. But this one quote jumped out at me. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

“The beast at the bullfight is the crowd.”

I don’t know why I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I guess it was like it was a small universal truth about human nature. People are beasts. We are monsters. We’re capable of creating a virus that could wipe out an entire population. We’re capable of acting like we’ve been robbed of our humanity, in a situation where we should be coming together to fight a common enemy.

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As I was reading the collection of books in the living room, Jack and Maria continued playing their game of ‘Jenga’, while having a friendly argument about movies and fashion and how Maria wanted to open her own line of clothing. For the practical woman.

“So, you know, she can be ready for a zombie apocalypse at a moment’s notice. I mean, ninety percent of women’s clothing right now, is just not apocalypse compatible. Jeggings? Forget about it.”

Jack wasn’t really paying attention to Maria’s rant. He was concentrating on removing one of the wooden blocks from the Jenga tower.

“God, I wish I had started my own clothing line,” Maria continued.

“Fashion?” Jack said. “Really? That’s what you’re thinking about right now. Honestly, I could not think of a more useless industry. Every time you make me watch ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, I die a little on the inside.”

“What? I thought you liked that movie.”

“I mean, sure, Anne Hathaway is smoking hot, but seriously, when the boss lady, what’s her face?”

“Meryl Streep.”

“Yeah. When she gives that speech to Anne Hathaway about her blue sweater and how it first appeared in some fashion magazine and now it’s available at your local bargain bin, discount store and how it’s supposed to be all meaningful…”

Jack stuck a finger down his throat and mimicked throwing up.

I loved listening to these guys talk. At that point in time, listening to them was a great way to escape and forget about the outside world for a while. Forget about where we were and what we were doing.

“OK, fine, whatever,” Maria continued. “That’s not my point anyways. My point is, if I had a clothing line, I would be making way better, way more practical clothes.”

“Like your NBC suit,” Jack said, smiling. “I am a huge fan.”

“Shut up. But yes, maybe not as full on as the NBC suit. But yeah, you’re on the right track. Like jeans for example. Jeans used to be blue collar work wear. Reliable. Durable. And now they’re fashionable. That’s what I’m all about.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“And pockets,” she said. “Female clothing is sorely lacking in pockets.”

For a fleeting moment, it was like everything was back to normal. If I closed my eyes, ignored the outside world, listened to Maria and Jack playing board games, it was like we were on some sort of family vacation.

But then Daniel and Kenji entered the room. Their faces looked grim.

They said we needed to have a meeting, make a plan.

“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We’re out of food,” Daniel said.

“And water,” Kenji added. “There’s not enough left. We need to raid the nearby town. We need to do it now.”