Trepidation by Chrissy Peebles

with my own eyes.
    As I was pondering the sad state of humanity, the man’s eyes opened—the milky, filmy orbs of a newly turned zombie. I scooted back, but he reached out with his still-warm hand and grabbed my arm.  I was just glad I was far enough under the bed that the gun-toting idiot couldn’t see me unless he peeked under the bed.
    “What are you flailing around for?” the shooter asked. “I thought you were dead, buddy. But we can’t have you runnin’ around here tryin’ to eat everyone’s brains, now can we? I’m afraid it’s time for you to go into eternal slumber, Ricky.” With that, he pulled the trigger again, and the headshot caused the zombie to loosen his grip on my arm. The man spat on the dead guy, then turned off the lantern.
    Surrounded by complete darkness, with hairy bugs and slithering snakes crawling all over me, I was frozen in terror. It didn’t help matters that there was a dead guy lying just inches from me. Still, I knew I couldn’t stay there forever.
    Just as I was about to ease out from under the bed to escape the madness, the door opened, and someone burst in and turned on the lantern again. “What did you do, Tommy?” Rita asked.
    “It was an accident,” Tommy said, sobbing as if he really cared. “What am I gonna do, Mama? The other guys are gonna hang me!”
    “We’ll tell them the blonde got the gun and shot him.”
    “But they’ll kill her then...and I want her.”
    “Well, you’re just gonna have to do without, son. This is the only way to keep the peace. If Marvin finds out that you shot Ricky in cold blood, he’ll kill us all.”
    I could feel spiders crawling on my back, legs, neck, and head, and it was creeping me out. I tried to jerk my body so they’d fall off.
    “Get this mess cleaned up,” she said, “and get all these spiders and snakes back in their pens. Marvin won’t be happy that his pets are loose.”
    “We could eat them,” Tommy suggested. 
    “Son, do you have a death wish? They’re off limits! You know that. Now get this cleaned up.” With that, she turned and left.
    Tommy grabbed a tall laundry hamper to gather up the spiders. As soon as he bent over to pick up the first one, Val burst out of the closet and kicked him, causing him to stumble back a few feet. When he lunged for my sister, that was my cue to get out from under the bed and give her a hand.
    Before I could even get close enough to help, Val cold-cocked him. “And that’s how I take care of flesh-munching monsters,” she said.
    Tommy fell backward, right on top of the dead man.
    She shook her fist and looked at me. “You okay?”
    “I’m fine. How’s Nick?”
    “Asleep again.”
    “Let’s wake his lazy butt up,” I said, shaking Nick. “He’s had enough beauty sleep.”
    She knocked a spider off my shoulder.
    I shuddered. “Whoever Marvin is, he’s lucky I didn’t smash his creepy pets.”
    Finally, our brother opened his eyes. 
    “Get up,” Val demanded.
    We helped him up, and he stared off into the distance.
    Val opened the door and looked both ways. “All clear,” she whispered.
    Nick was still out of it, but we were lucky that he was at least able to walk.
    Val went down the stairs first, with the catlike precision of the average ninja, then waved us forward when she saw that the coast was clear.
    I guided Nick down the stairs as carefully as I could, but his feet were still half-asleep, and he missed a step and tumbled all the way down, groaning all the way. 
    At the bottom of the stairs, I tried to get him to open his eyes and get back on his feet, but he was out cold. “C’mon, Nick!” I said, patting his cheeks. “Wake up, man! We don’t have time for you to keep going narcoleptic on us.”
    Val ran to the dining room, then rushed back in and glanced at me. “Kate and Lucas are out cold too,” she said.
    “Where are Rita and her evil offspring?” I asked.
    “Probably out back, chopping up that body they were talking about earlier.