3

Nothing jumps out at us. No bones are on the floor. Glowing red eyes aren't peering through the darkness. We're alive.

      I take that as a good sign. But, we have to shut the passage entrance somehow.

      "Hey look," Mac's whisper is barely audible. "There's a handle to shut the door." Mac pulls it shut.

      At first, I'm overcome by claustrophobia and hysteria, paralyzing me for about two seconds. Then, I come to my senses and regain my composure.

      The flashlights guide the way as we walk forward. It's not long until we reach the end. There's a handle, presumably to open the door the same way we had closed the one to our house.

      "What do you think is behind the door?" I speculate.

      "Could be anything from the monster's nest to another house," Mac suggested. I intake a sharp breath.

      "We still have to check," I say. The not knowing would scare us more than if the monster were behind it.

      "I know," Mac reaches out, places his palm on the handle, then wraps his fingers around it. He slides it open and we look inside.

      "Another safe room," Mac whispers. A girl and a boy are sleeping in sleeping bags by one wall and a man and woman are sleeping in the same bag by the other wall.

      "Who's?" I ask. Because of their sleeping positions and the lack of light, it’s impossible to make out their faces.

      "Dunno," Mac whispers. "Come on, before we wake them up."

      Mac and I back out of the room, just as we're about to retreat into the shadows of the passage, one of the sleeping bags rustles.

We freeze.

      "Wha-, who-who's there?" Someone stutters, a girl. "Wait a sec, Mac? Quorra?"

      I turn around and point my flashlight at the girl. To my surprise, it’s Macasey, one of my sophomore friends.

      "Cas, I didn't know you lived here," I say, talking quietly so as not wake up the other Delmontes.

      "We've been neighbors since we were kids," she replies. "How did you get in here, though?"

      I gesture to the passage behind me and Mac. "Our houses apparently have a tunnel connecting safe rooms."

      "I was wondering about that loose panel in the wall, but I never thought to try and move it," Cas comments. "You know what this means? We can go over each other’s houses without going outside! I've only been officially over your house once, which is funny since we've been neighbors for so long."

      "Yeah," I nod. The thing is, Cas and I didn’t really talk much until I started high school. In middle school, grades don't have classes together, so if you have any friends who are in different grades, you don’t see them much.

      "Cas, who the heck are you talking to? I swear if there is a monster in our house and you are talking to it-" Macasey’s brother, Jamalin, props himself up to look at Mac and I.

      "Speaking of the devil," Jamalin comments once he recognizes us. He and Mac exchange greetings, something along the lines of "hey, dude, long time no see" and an air fist bump.

      "Mac, we should go," I say after chatting a few minutes with Macasey.

      “Good idea, see you two soon," Mac and I slip into the cover of the tunnel, sliding the door shut. "You know, for fraternal twins, those guys are pretty alike."

      "They're both very chatty," I elaborate.

      "Definitely," Mac agrees. I try to open the door; it doesn't budge. Of course, when Mac tries he opens it effortlessly, sending me a dark-masked smirk.

      I stick my tongue out at him and slide the door shut. Our parents are sleeping like infants, mom coiled around dad.

      Mac and I settle under our blankets. I put my head on his shoulder and we fall asleep at the same time.

 

      I wake up and my brother isn't next to me. I sit up with a start, looking around the room frantically. He’s sitting facing the wall, still as a rock. I heave a sigh of relief.

      Lesson learned; now I know how Mac and my parents felt yesterday morning. Mac turns around and sees me awake.

      "Hey," he says. I crawl over to him and sit down.

      "What are you doing, and how long have you been up?" I ask.

      "I've been up for maybe half an hour. I've been thinking," he replies.

      "About what?" I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that.

      "We need to tell Mom and Dad about the passage," Mac says.

      "Yeah, I know." I pause for a sec. "What do you think they're gonna do when we tell them?"

      "I dunno, maybe yell at us or something."

      "That's great."

      My mother and dad begin to stir on the other side of the room. They wake up within seconds of each other.

      "Good morning kids," my father greets.

      "Did you guys sleep well last night?" My mother asks.

      "Um, about that, we have something to tell you," Mac starts.

      "Or, it might be easier to just show you," I say. I walk over to the panel and slide it aside. My father reaches for the gun.

      "No, Dad, it's alright, see," Mac hops into the tunnel walks to the end and comes back. "But, look where the other door opens up to."

      I hand Mac a flashlight and he leads us into the tunnel. He flashes the beam across the door at the end and slides it open. The Delmontes are sitting in the room talking. Mr. Delmonte grabs his gun.

      "Dad, this is what we were telling you about," Jamalin says. "It's just Sheriff Nelson and his family."

      "Our houses' safe rooms are connected," I say.

The dads suddenly seem embarrassed to have grabbed the guns, (my father had brought his with him).

      "Oh wow, I never would have expected that," Mr. Delmonte breaks the silence.

      "No, me neither. How have you guys been coping with the recent developments?" My father wants to know.

      "Oh, we've been doing okay, only going upstairs to fetch some things and get food, spending most of our time down here. What about you?" Mr. Delmonte asked.

      "Pretty much the same," my father answers. There's another silence. I figure it's because it's been over three months since any of us have made real contact with another family, aside from the grocery store and stuff.

      "Would you guys mind staying for breakfast?" Mrs. Delmonte asked.

      "No, we couldn't use up your food," Dad refuses.

      "We don't have to worry about food. We have enough to fuel an army, for a year. Since dad was one of the only workers working at the grocery store when we got the news, he got a lot of the food that was there," Macasey explained.

      "But, still, resources are hard to get to and-" Mom starts.

      "Oh please, we haven't had company in months and we'd be honored to have you guys for breakfast," Mrs. Delmonte begs.

      "Alright, but we'll have to be sure to return the favor," my father consents, but Mr. Nelson waves him off.

      "Alright, I'll go prepare some food," Mrs. Nelson heads up the stairs.

      "I'll help you," my mother goes with them.

      "I'll come, too," Mr. Delmonte follows, still holding his gun. My father's support goes without saying as the parents retreat upstairs.

 

      The last time I was over someone else's house was a little over 3 months ago. It was a meeting for the school newspaper. The other people and I were discussing what to put in the next article. I remember it being laid back and relaxed, eating cookies, lounging, brainstorming and laughing. As it turns out, the paper we spent hours planning for never got printed. But, I remember the meeting was nice.

      Sitting here with Macasey, Jamalin, and my brother gives me a déjà vu feeling, reminding me of that particular meeting. It was kind of funny actually. Right now was nothing like then.

      Words didn't come easily. The one thing we wanted to talk about, the only thing that mattered at this moment, we couldn't talk about. We were scared. Nothing could hide it, you could see it plainly on all of our faces; we were scared. Glances were cast towards the safe room door. The panel was slid shut, us listening for noises behind it. In the past half hour, I think all of us together had said about 10 words.

      "They've been up there a while..." Jamalin's voice drifts off, looking at the safe room door again.

      "They're fine," Mac replies immediately. "If something was wrong we would've heard something." If even if nothing was wrong, we should've heard something. Nothing is worse than something. I didn't say this though, I only looked at the door waiting for our parents to come.

They did in about 5 minutes, all carrying trays of food.

      "Mom, dad, my god. We thought all of you were dead!" Macasey cries the moment they put down the trays.

      "Dead?" Mrs. Delmonte replies. "We haven't even been gone for 10 minutes. And, I'd figure that if we were under attack you'd here gun shots, if not screams."

      They'd been gone for only under 10 minutes? Fear really changes perception of time. I felt embarrassed, like a little kid all over again. Except this was different from before.

      Toast, eggs and bacon is the breakfast this morning. Cas hadn't been kidding when she said that they were loaded with food.

      "So, how's life been treating you?" Mac asked in the most awkward way I'd seen anyone ever begin a conversation.

      "Like we're pieces of-" Jamalin stops, remembering that all of our parents were at a close proximity, barely a body’s length away.

      "Crap," Cas finishes for him. "Like we're pieces of crap. It's been hard, to be honest."

      "Yeah, us too. Ever since our dad came and told us about the creature starting to attack during the day, we've been spooked. We haven't left the house since," Mac relates.

      "Technically we're not in our house right now," I have to say. "But, we'd have to be suicidal to actually go outside to get to your house."

      "But, just think. How lucky are we that our houses are connected? I swear if I had to spend one more day locked up down here with only my family..." Jamalin threatens. I laugh and it sounds and feels weird. When was the last time I honestly laughed about something? It's funny how I can't remember.

One look at the others' faces and I can tell it was weird for them, too. We weren't ready to laugh, not yet. Maybe when all of this has blown over.