"Oh God, Mom. Please don't..."
My teenage cousin, Jace, slammed his body on the table and wrapped his arms around himself in a useless attempt at hiding from being the center of attention. He had just turned 18, and nothing- not even an apocalypse-was going to stop us from celebrating.
Aunt Mariah led into the ceremony with a, "1, 2, 3!," and engaged the rest of our group to holler out the most out-of-tune "Happy Birthday" song I've ever heard in my life.
Aunt Mariah had to elongate it too with the whole, "Are you 1? Are you 2? Are you 3?!" until by the grace of God we got to 18 and Jace waved his hand at us, begging for his torture to end. We laughed and almost convinced ourselves that everything was right in the world.
The gang and I stole some cupcakes from a bakery at the food court that had long been ransacked. All of the pastries were gone except for the cupcakes. Not that 20-piece box of cupcakes lurking in the back of the freezer. It was like it was waiting just for us to make my cousin's day as special as it could be. He had a sweet tooth after all, and he devoured most of the cupcakes before any of us could finish one. It was disappointing that he didn't give us a chance for seconds, and even more disappointing that the taste of zombie cum overpowered the one cupcake I ate.
We spent a good hour at the food court with the youngest member of our group. The rest of the team were women and men who had lost their families. Sole survivors who had nowhere else to turn, so they were happy to try and put a smile on Jace's face. It seemed to have worked, but deep down we were all aware that none of our efforts could make up for the loss of humanity.
Still, we tried.
We eventually left Jace alone to finish off his cupcake massacre so we could talk amongst ourselves on the opposite side of the food court. There was still work that needed to be done.
"How long do you think we can stay here?" one of the males said, "Do you think we could survive off of this mall alone?"
A lady scoffed, "Oh yeah, a huge building with tons of leftover food, clothes, and beds isn't enough for 20 people. Do you hear yourself sometimes?"
"I'm not saying it isn't enough. I just have to ask because...," the man groaned and rested a hand on his forehead, "Eventually, we need to find a better place to live, right? I don't want to spend the rest of my life here."
"You shouldn't look so far into the future. All you need to worry about is now. Take it day-by-day," another woman calmly said.
"Grace, it's not that easy..." the man gazed up at her somberly, "I can't take this anymore."
"None of us can," Aunt Mariah joined in, "but if we panic then we can't move forward."
"Move forward with what exactly?" the man sneered, "Your niece fucking zombies for sport?1"
"Ayy! You're going too fucking far!" a second man stood up in my defense.
"I'm going too far...You're joking, right?" the first man stood up and balled his fists, "This bitch has been fucking zombie cock and I'm going too far?!
Aunt Mariah was the third one to stand up and walked straight to the first man who had insulted my honor.
"You speak another word about my niece, and you'll be going too far over this building...Understand?"
All of us heard him gulp at Aunt Mariah's threat and he sat back down, looking at me across the table. "Sorry Nyla...I was out of line."
Sitting with my legs on top of the table and arms behind my head, I shrugged it off. "It's fine, Eddie. I personally thought it was hilarious." I couldn't deny that it really was funny. If the shoe was on the other foot, I'd have no doubt I'd act the same way towards someone known for fucking zombies.
After our usual arguments about my disturbing hobby were addressed, we talked about our game plan for the next few days. How we would ration the food, who would stay up pulling security- all that good stuff. I brought it up to Jace when I picked him up from the table he was sitting at, now covered in cupcake wrappers and dirty napkins.
I pestered the kid, "You really are a slob, you know that?"
"Don't be jealous just cause you only had one," he said jokingly. He wiped his mouth with his long sleeve and let out a satisfied sigh.
"Lick your teeth, weirdo. Looks like you got shit in 'em."
Jace licked the residue off of his teeth with a resentful glare.
"Great, now I'm gonna need to vomit from the image you just gave me. Thanks a lot, Nyla!"
I took a seat across from him and waited before he was ready to initiate a new topic.
"Everyone's still leaving me out on the good shit?" he asked.
"I wouldn't call it good, but yes," I confirmed, "Just about our plans on where to move off to when we're done with this place, but it's best to lay low here for now, don't you think?"
Jace nodded, "Hell yeah, you could have anything you want here. Everyone else already broke into the stores, and we're here to pick up the leftovers."
"Exactly! That's what Meera was saying earlier."
We let a few minutes pass by between us before Jace piped up again.
"I want to join next time"
"Your mom won't allow it"
"Why not?"
"She thinks you're not ready to talk about grown people stuff"
"But I AM grown. I just turned 18!"
"Just"
Jace huffed, "Oh whatever!" and made this juvenile pouty face, looking away, "I thought you of all people would vouch for me. They don't exactly treat you like an equal either, but you carry most of the work for them."
"And it's sad that you know what kind of work that is..."
"Well, it's not exactly a secret. They talk about you all the time."
"I'm sure they do," now it was my turn to look away, "I would be the same way..."
"I just don't get it though"
"Hmm?"
