The next day, she had to work in the library, so we went to the arcade until the campus was getting ready to close before returning to the school. We waited across the street. This time of year, it was still sunny at the time she came out, but again she didn’t seem to notice us, so we followed along behind her for a few blocks.

Once she entered Hakodate Park, I called out to her. I thought for sure she was going to run since this time she looked scared when she glanced back at us. Thinking back on it now, it was kind of mean to do, considering she was a girl by herself in the evening, and we were two guys following her around.

I was having fun keeping her on edge, like a cat playing with its prey. Again with the cat analogies. I laughed to myself. Still, I hadn’t intended to freak her out, so I flashed my extra friendly smile that usually turns girls to puddles, the Charming Playboy mode I didn’t give her yesterday.

“Hey, sorry for startling you. I wanted to give you this, that’s all. To repay you for helping Mitsu.” I handed her the long pink box from the store we’d stopped at.

“Oh, okay.” She looked at the box as if it might bite her. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, take it.”

She politely took it with both hands before lifting off the top. Her eyes went wide when she saw the scarf inside. The one we picked out was nicer than that other thing she had, made of a soft fabric in a rich, deep blue with white flowers. It was pretty without being overly girly, something that would suit her since she didn’t seem to go for playing up her feminine side.

“This is really for me? I…” Tears filled her eyes as she lifted it out. “It’s so pretty. I…I don’t deserve this. I really don’t. I…”

Worried she might refuse it, I slipped it from her hands and wrapped it around her neck for her, tying it loosely like she’d worn the other one. “There, perfect.”

“Aww, man, you made her cry,” Shinji said as her tears left wet streaks on her cheeks. It wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. When most girls get gifts, they squeal and giggle while blushing.

“No, no, he didn’t,” she said as she wiped her eyes with the handkerchief he’d handed her. “It’s the first time anyone has given me a gift in a long time, and it made me all silly. I’m sorry.”

Her light-pink lips turned up slightly. It was a shaky smile, but I admit, it was kind of cute. She bowed deeply. “Thank you, Okamura-kun.”

I was surprised she knew my name. I’d watched her during the class breaks and stuff. All day yesterday and today, not a single person came over to say a word to her. She’d been alone all the time. A loner like that wouldn’t usually bother learning her classmates’ names. But she had known mine.

“You can call me Taka, if you want. Everyone does.”

“Oh, okay, um, Taka-kun.” Another uncertain smile, though she was looking less afraid now.

“Miho-chan, you busy? We were about to get some dinner if you wanna hang out with us,” Shinji said. I’m not sure who his invitation surprised more, me or her. I gave him a sharp glance, but he wasn’t giving her that look he usually had for a target. Nothing predatory or turned on at all, rather it was a kind of knowing look tinged with sadness. I couldn’t understand it at all.

“I…” She hesitated, her hands fidgeting with the edges of the scarf. She didn’t seem afraid, but more like Shinji’s gaze made her uneasy. “I wish I could, but, um, it’s my turn to make dinner at home tonight. My parents will expect me soon, so, um, I should go. Thank you again, Taka-kun.”

She took a few steps back. I half expected her to bolt, but she paused, to look at Shinji. “Um, Shinji-kun, we…that is, um, we got a new book in you might like. I kept it behind the desk for you.”

“Oh, cool. I’ll be by tomorrow to check it out. Thanks.”

She smiled another shaky smile then turned to leave. Once she was out of sight, I laughed. “Man, she is a jumpy little thing, eh? Wonder if it was her first time talking to guys or something. Wouldn’t surprise me if she was a virgin. Hell, the way she always wears those bulky, hot clothes, you wouldn’t even know she was a girl except for the skirt. I don’t think she has any tits at all, poor thing.”

Shinji didn’t join me in my mirth, though. He kept looking in the direction she’d gone.

“Shinji?” I prompted.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry. Mind wandered a moment,” he replied with a self-deprecating grin. “Miho isn’t that bad-looking, and she has some. I’ve seen them, when she has to stretch to shelve books. Not huge, but enough to have fun with. So, you planning to do her?”

“Her? Ha, have you lost your mind? Girls like that would be super clingy and expect romance and love and all that crap. I was just repaying my obligations, and she is kind of fun to tease.” As we headed out of the park, he looked back one more time. “What about you? You seem interested in her.”

“Oh? No, not like that. It’s more…” His voice trailed off. The silence stretched between us before he suddenly shook his head and gave me a grin. “It’s nothing. Come on, I’m starving.”

I felt like I’d missed something important in that exchange with Miho, as if the two of them had had an entirely separate conversation right in front of me without me realizing it. But what was it? What had they said with their eyes that Shinji felt he had to keep from me? We never kept secrets, not ever. So why was he lying to me now?

Tyler slumped in the oversized chair wringing his hands nervously, wishing he was anywhere but here, but he couldn’t walk away now. No. It was his fault she was hurt and he would do the right thing. He would stay until he knew she was okay. Until he had the chance to apologise.

“I don’t get it,” he admitted. “What’d I do? I didn’t even speak to her.”

“It’s not you, Tyler,” Christopher assured him with a sly smirk.

Tyler found himself wondering if Christopher had any other faces. In the ten minutes that he had met him, Christopher had half smiled more times than anyone Tyler had ever known. It was the kind of half grin that said ‘I know something you don’t know,’ and Tyler was desperate to discover what was behind it. There was a quiet confidence that Christopher exuded that intimidated the hell out of Tyler and he wasn’t sure where it came from.

“What is it then?” he almost begged, not recognising his own whiny voice. Tyler watched as the men exchanged glances. They were silently debating how much to tell him and how much to keep to themselves. In a way he understood, but he was about to burst with frustration. “Please! Someone just fucking tell me.”

Michael signed heavily, then looked at Christopher, who barely nodded before he began to speak. “It’s not you, Tyler. And it is you.”

“That makes no sense!”

“Tyler, Ava might look like the tough ‘nothing can hurt me’ ice queen, but that is so far from the truth I doubt she can even see reality anymore. Ava is a romantic in every sense of the word. And it’s worse than that. She’s an optimistic romantic. But life has beaten her down so many times that by hiding behind the tough as nails disguise no one can get close enough to hurt her. No one can scale the walls she’s built. No one except you,” Michael explained.

Tyler’s mouth fell open unconsciously as the words sunk in. “B-But she doesn’t even know me,” he mumbled.

“But she does. Tyler, for as long as I have known Ava, you have been her hero in every sense of the word. You’ve been her inspiration. Her guiding light. You were the one thing that was able to pull her from the darkness when it closed in and threatened to swallow her whole,” Christopher added, his voice soft and soothing.

I’m still grinning when we step outside. The wooden porch sags beneath my feet, feeling a little less than sturdy, but that isn’t what makes my heart almost stop. My smile melts away and my feet stop moving, and within seconds I’m shaking like a leaf.

There are three zombies in the yard. Three of them. I haven’t come this close to one since the first few months of the outbreak, and now there are three.

Roman steps in front of me and shoves the shoebox into my hands as he pulls his knife out, all in one fluid movement. “It’s okay.”

It doesn’t feel okay. It feels the complete opposite of okay.

Roman steps off the porch, and one of the zombies spots him right away. The thing groans and moves toward him, chomping his mouth. Gray skin stretches across his face, and the deep gashes that cut across the decaying flesh ooze with black goo. Thankfully, the other two creatures are facing the other way and haven’t caught wind of us yet.

Roman doesn’t seem afraid in the slightest as he walks toward the dead man. His knife is held firmly in his hand, but he’s steady. Sure of himself as he walks in a big arc around the zombie. He was right. They are slow. But it’s still terrifying, and I’m still shaking, gripping the box of batteries so hard the cardboard bows under the pressure. Just as Roman reaches the back of the first zombie, the other two notice him and head his way. My heart jumps to my throat and I reach out like I’m trying to stop them, but no sound comes out when I move my lips.

I try again, and this time his name comes out like a strangled cry. “Roman!”

He smiles like all of this is nothing, then drives his knife into the back of the first zombie’s skull. The thing drops to the ground, and Roman spins to face the others. He charges the second one, a sad-looking woman whose nightgown is stained and tattered, her gray skin barely clinging to her bones. Roman dodges her arms and loops around her back, then jabs his knife into her skull just like he did with the first one.

Two down, but my heart is still pounding wildly.

The third one is so tall that Roman’s head only goes up to the zombie’s shoulders. Next to him, Roman looks like a child. Even worse than his size is the fact that he seems to be faster than the other two. Less decomposed, even, like he’s just recently died.

Roman circles him, but the zombie spins too. His hands reach out to grab Roman, but Roman ducks out of the way. His face tenses, and his eyes dart over to me. I watch, frozen in terror from my place on the porch as Roman tries to get behind the zombie again. He could stab him in a different location, but with as tall as the decaying man is, it wouldn’t be safe. Only no matter how many times Roman tries to get behind the corpse, it doesn’t work. The thing is too fast and too hungry. Determined.