One second

For the third time in a week, Jacques had to smack a zombie dead faint with his lunch. His lunch, a lame burger that consisted of two pieces of thin bread and a piece of patty in between, had already been considered his best food in a month. And now it was squashed onto the head of some crazily cut and bleeding thing. Never mind eating his lunch, Jacques would have lost his appetite as soon as he saw it.

Now let's talk about that ‘it’. Well, it was a human. Not anymore. The human, after being infected by a disease, had turned green and half-dead. In other words, a zombie. It's clothes were ripped, red flesh peeking out from under it's sleeves. It had tried to make Jacques one of its kind by sneaking up behind his back. It had almost gone in for the bite when Jacques leapt away, just in time. Jacques had only been sitting by himself and minding his own business when it showed up. What had he done to deserve this? Now he wasn't going to take any more chances. He had to hide - immediately.

He climbed onto the treehouse which he had called home ever since the zombie apocalypse broke out. The Government had already been taken over by the zombies, right after an announcement that all normal human beings were to live apart. The rope ladder attached to a branch of the tree wobbled dangerously as Jacques clung on to it for dear life. Half a dozen of the infected hung out below him, which could have been a happier situation if they had a few cocktails and suntan lotion. But never mind that.

He snatched up his only pillow and a few packets of biscuits. His water bottle, only half full, hung on a strap around his shoulders. He had to escape. This situation was getting out of control. He might get betrayed by his family or friends. He might get bitten by them; if they got infected. No. This was a game of betrayal. Jacques had to stay clear of everyone and anyone, even his loved ones. He would leave that very day. Without his family or friends. Alone.

Alone. It was as if an unknown creature he had always known before had grabbed him by the shoulder. Almost a bit like déjà vu. But at the same time, the opposite of déjà vu...

He silently peeked out of a hastily crafted cardboard window to spy on the beings below. They were still there, chilling out and waiting for him, the guest-of-honour, to arrive. As he surveyed his surroundings, a worried feeling nagged at him from the back of his head and took over his guts. Not now, Jacques tried to shush and quieten the thought down. Disturb me later. After this gang of half-dead people leave. Or I leave.

Jacques practically fainted from the tension and stress the situation brought him. He had to go  hide somewhere in the unknown outside world, and even worse, by himself. As far as he was concerned, he had autophobia, or monophobia, which was the fear of being alone or lonely. Besides, he was only eleven years old. To him, the big, wide world out there...was unknown, was impossible, compared to the house he spent his daily life in.

Two months. It had been two whole months since the whole situation first started. It was nearing - how to say - the falling action of the whole thing. However things were nowhere near fading from Jacques’ head. He had planned everything out properly: he’ll hide in the World War II underground hideout which he had discovered when he was seven. No one else, not even his parents knew about it. However - however he remembered someone discovering the secret with him. The memory was fuzzy; it had been three years since he found out about it. However the person who he’d kept the information with...he knew it was a ‘her’. But just who, he didn’t know. She might be hiding there too, but he hoped that she wasn't a zombie already.

“Coast is clear. Go down the ladder and into the hideout. Roger that?” Jacques had always dreamed of being a secret agent, and always pretended to be one. He whispered again. “Roger that.”

The rich earthy smell reached his nostrils as soon as he took the first step in. The soil crunched under his feet as he made further progress inside. He couldn’t help but gasp in wonder again, the first time had been three years ago - what many memories the place brought back!

He quickly settled down, putting his suitcase on the floor. He sat down on the large stone which he clearly remembered sitting on three years ago...that was when he heard footsteps.

A girl came down the stairs. A girl that made Jacques’ heart skip. Her heart missed a beat when she saw Jacques too.

“Jacques Wilson.” The girl came back to the present first.

“Natasha Wilson...” Jacques stammered. Then he could say no more - he couldn’t believe that he remembered her name after all these years.

Suddenly Natasha started crying. She wanted to scream why her brother didn’t run away from home with her. She wanted to know her precious little brother’s whole life story. She cared too much for him, she still couldn’t forgive herself for leaving him at their cruel home after all these years. She managed, “Sit down. I’ll tell you everything.”

Jacques, for the first time in his life, couldn’t believe his ears. Sure, he usually was naive, but this was totally mind-blowing. No way. He was too weak to talk, so he turned to thinking in his head, and somehow trying to transmit the thoughts to his sister. Absolutely NO WAY. This is crazy. How? Judging by the half smirking and half crying face his sister was wearing, which Jacques was sure only his sister could manage to do, Natasha heard Jacques’ thoughts. “Don’t forget, Dad and Mom ‘met coincidentally when they were working in the laboratory for a project’. No. Jacques, you believe everything too easily. Think about it - our parents were working together to create this disease. To earn money by ‘coming up with the cure’. Think. Let’s go find the cure. I’m aware that they have already contracted their own creation.”

That was how the siblings got to rummaging around in their parents’ secret science lab in the basement of their house. ‘For important work stuff’, their parents had called it when they were younger. Natasha was going through a drawer of suspicious liquids in glass dials and reading the labels to herself. “Found it!” She breathlessly straightened her back and cried. They gasped in wonder at the glowing substance, which was changing color sporadically. “Let’s go.”

As soon as Natasha stepped out of the door, she poured the precious cure onto the floor. Jacques almost fainted when he saw that - “What did you just do?!”

“Using the cure.” Natasha rolled her eyes and answered as a matter-of-factly. Jacques opened his mouth again when everything explained itself. The spot where the cure had been poured onto started glowing, and spread out so fast the two couldn’t even look at their own feet; it was so bright their eyes started to hurt and water.

One second. One second and all the infected people in the whole wide world returned back to normal. The siblings spotted their parents running toward them excitedly, with open arms.

“One second please.” Jacques and Natasha turned away and dialled the cops. Yeah, they were really going to make their own parents sit in jail. Perhaps they would never see them again. But no matter. Their Dad and Moms’ whole lifetimes added together wasn’t even as precious as that one second, when all human beings escaped from the clutches of evil.

``` ~The End~