An eternal optimist's guide to celebrating the apocalypse

Daniel observed the dilapidated grocery store through the binoculars. He probed the intense darkness of the aisles, carefully looking for undead shuffling, the scurry of other humans.

Everything was a threat now.

Reluctantly, he pulled the binoculars from his eyes. "Nothing. Nothing I can see at least." His hands found their way to the now-familiar gun slung across his body, and he ran his fingers over its cool grooves, tracing comforting patterns.

Isla hummed in assent, stepping forward gracefully, and abandoning the flowers she'd been admiring.

Daniel narrowed his eyes in annoyance. His sister found everything fantastic, the stupid flowers, running water, ducks, flushing toilets.

Daniel wasn't grateful for stupidly simple things. They lived in a goddamn civilization, this was all supposed to be guaranteed, not a miracle.

Isla breathed in the clean mountain air with a happy sigh. "Shall we?" She nimbly picked her way past the remnants of long-abandoned cars, some that still contained chewed-up skeletons.

Daniel avoided the sight studiously and followed Isla's calm and measured way to the grocery store.

He couldn't help turning to glare at the dark trees over and over, his eyes running over everything, one finger pulling at the trigger.

Isla's voice almost made him jump out of his skin. "Isn't it a relief to find a building again? After the nonstop trees, and running around?" She was holding open a door expectantly, and Daniel cautiously entered, pointing his gun into the darkness.

Isla sniffed the air. "Aside from food, I'm happy to report there is so smell of decomposing, reanimated flesh."

Daniel glowered at her, his tense grip on the gun only partially lessening.

"Oh come on, Danny, cheer up a bit." Isla pointed to her own grin, before wandering into the aisles.

There was a time Daniel would have refused to eat any of this, back when he focused on athletics and chugged down smoothies greener than grass.

"Cheer up in the apocalypse?" Daniel demanded, watching Isla check expiry dates on some candy.

"Sure, it's the apocalypse, but we're both still alive, we figured out how to use guns, and lo and behold, we found food. Again." Isla continued examining candy, pausing to stuff some into her own bag. "And, score! A KitKat that only expired two weeks ago."

Daniel pulled a disgusted face. "Yay, we found sort of edible food." But he slowly added chips to his own bag. Isla had always been an optimistic child, choosing to be grateful for their parents' money instead of love, seeing every missed opportunity as an opening for something else.

Scowling, Daniel crossed his arms. He had hoped living in the actual apocalypse would cure her of this nonsense.

Isla raised an eyebrow, looking impossibly amused. "Are you going to be this grumpy for the whole apocalypse?" She switched to another aisle, clearing out the scant first aid supplies remaining.

"There's no one else here, you don't have to act super...happy all the time." Daniel told her, following her into the first aid and survival aisle.

Isla tested a torch, then looked up at him. "I'm not acting super happy, I'm grateful. We didn't have to find all this, or survive to find all this beauty out here. Personally, I thought the apocalypse was going to be a lot more depressing."

She patted his knee, and he placed one foot onto an empty shelf, rolling up a pant leg. Daniel inhaled before carefully peeling off the bandage.

"Besides, our friends and family all died. The least we can do is properly live in their absence." Isla murmured, cleaning the bleeding knee wound with antiseptic.

"You call this living?" Daniel asked through gritted teeth. He didn't know if he'd be happier when Isla was depressed, but he couldn't stop himself.

"Aren't we still breathing? And eating moldy kitkats instead of brains?" Isla pulled back a little, then applied a tissue and some gauze to the wound. "Too tight?" She slipped a finger through regardless.

"No, it's fine." Daniel muttered, roughly pulling down his pant leg.

He only took a few more steps, before he held something up. "Empty bullet box." He rummaged through the shelf, but there were no more. Clearly, they were only the latest of many scavengers.

"That's okay." Isla shrugged, but Daniel swore.

"No, it's not. We're running out like crazy. What are we going to do?" Part of him was already panicking at the thought of the future. Even if they found bullets, how do you continue to survive in a world where nobody can make them anymore?

"Daniel. We're right next to the forest, we'll just keep hiding. Until our next supply run, we probably won't need bullets again, so there's time to find them still." Isla laughed when she saw the drinks fridge.

Daniel wanted to panic over the bullets more, insist that it was a bigger problem than it seemed, but he held back for now. "What?"

"Thank god for human stupidity," Isla chuckled, pointing at the drink selection. Someone had definitely removed every last liquor and beer bottle, pop drinks were decimated too, but there were plenty of water bottles.

"There's far too many for us to carry." Daniel's secondary role in the apocalypse seemed to be pointing out devastating, obvious truths to crush Isla's spirit.

"But just enough to keep us from dying of thirst." Isla grinned winningly and held up something slim. "Life straw. We can probably drink from rivers and stuff now."

"Why is the universe siding with you over me? It's the goddamn apocalypse, you have no right to be so happy with everything." Daniel moved to help Isla stuff as many bottles as they could into their bags.

Isla struggled to zip up her bag. "The universe has given us a lot, Danny, we-"

"I'll be grateful when we find more bullets." Daniel hefted his ridiculously heavy bag onto his shoulders.

"Why? The zombies prefer towns and cities over woods, you know that right? Even if their food supply runs out, we've got time." Isla listed to the side with the weight of her bag. "Oh shut up." She swatted at Daniel when his mouth twisted uncontrollably into a smile.

"What about other people?" Daniel pushed his smile down, feeling a little like he suffocated it.

"If they kill us, I'll be grateful for the opportunity to return and eat their brains." Isla bit into a bit of beef jerky. "God this stuff is hard to eat."

"What if they shoot us in the head?" Daniel took some from her, setting his pack down and leaning to the floor next to the shelf.

"Then I'll be grateful that they get to suffer through the apocalypse, and I'm out of my suffering." Isla replied mischievously, and Daniel bit into his sleeve to muffle his disbelieving laugh.

"You're so petty!" Daniel hissed, trying to kill his amusement.

"I knew I'd get you to laugh." Isla teased in a sing-song whisper.

Daniel shook his head, looking at his sister with affection tinged with annoyance. "I swear, two things will survive this apocalypse: cockroaches and your optimism."

"Don't forget twinkies."

Daniel and Isla both had to snicker at that, and Daniel said, "And the statue of liberty, it usually makes it in apocalypse movies."

Isla's face softened a little, and Daniel could tell she was remembering.

"And apparently, shitty people also make it through the apocalypse, while good people die." Isla gave up on the beef jerky with a sigh, and ripped open a bag of chips.

"Shouldn't we just be grateful, that two shitty people like us made it through the apocalypse?" Daniel asked, desperate to reverse the sadness he'd been trying to cause.

Isla squeezed his hand, eyes bright. "Could you stop being so obnoxiously optimistic, for like, five seconds?"

Daniel mussed up her hair in retaliation, but Isla suddenly seized his arm.

Out of habit, Daniel's voice withered to nothing, and he looked where Isla was pointing.

Two zombies were shuffling forward awkwardly, their rotting hands stretching out to paw at the pull handle of the front door.

His bloody knee must have given them away. Or the noise they made.

Half of him was sorely tempted to mock Isla's optimism.

Stay here. Isla mouthed carefully, gesturing to the floor. She quietly got up, and navigated her way silently to the back door.

Gently, she pressed at it, and Daniel held his breath as she peeked outside.

He could imagine some rotten, clawed fingers scraping at his sister, pulling her with inhuman strength out the door.

Daniel wished, they had the bullets to waste, so that he could just kill the two at the front door. So that he and Isla could find somewhere safe.

Isla returned to him, and his heart beat slower. "Back door is clear for now, let's go."

More zombies had accumulated at the front door, and sooner or later they were going to make their way in. The battered glass wouldn't survive another beating.

Daniel grabbed his bag, and took Isla's too, warding off her complaints with a sharp wave of his hand.

The zombies got more energetic, clearly seeing them through the glass, and Isla pushed open the back door, the gun ready in her hand.

They made a break for it, and Daniel jogged slowly behind his sister, who pointed the gun around, looking for threats.

The trees were close to here as well, another piece of the forest they made their home.

Daniel suddenly felt a sharp tug at his back and stumbled.

A zombie's hot, pointless breath huffed against his throat. Oh, it's over.

In a second, a knife buried itself into the zombie's rotting, crumbling neck and it's head rolled off.

Daniel's breaths stuttered, and suddenly Isla grabbed his hand, shouldered her bag, and they ran, damn the noise.

They made their way back into the safety of the forests, and Isla helped him up the aged, gnarled trees.

Daniel's breathing still wasn't normal, and he gasped, running his trembling hands over his throat.

"Okay, you're fine, Danny." Isla took his hands away.

"Don't say it." Daniel sucked in his first real breath of air and glared at Isla's twitching, grinning lips.

"Aren't you grateful, you were stuck with me during this apocalypse instead of someone else?"

"I hate you." Daniel growled back, knowing that there was nothing he could say.

"I'm grateful you aren't a brain dead, cannibalistic zombie. At least, no more than usual." Isla declared, still delighted. "Isn't it fun to be alive?"

"No." Daniel responded spitefully, then groaned as Isla launched into why they were still luckier than most.

When she finished, Isla pointed at the sun, a brilliant, splendid yellow against the pinkening, red, and orange-infused blue sky.

"Aren't you grateful you get to see that?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "The sun is supposed to be there, and don't look too long, you'll go blind."

But he was silent watching the sun set over these beautiful woods with Isla. He would cherish every moment he got with her, never take a single one for granted.