My heart was beating at a normal rhythm now. It was neither too fast nor too slow. In fact, for once, it wasn't on my mind at all.

I woke up to the morning sunlight shining in my eyes. I was lying on the matted old Persian carpet on the living room floor. The wooly blanket Grace had wrapped around herself the night laid in a heap beside me. Grace was gone.

Before I could search for my sister, there came a loud, annoying buzzing sound.

Ring ring ring!

I winced in the sunlight and stumbled toward the source of that sound. It was the front door. Someone was ringing the doorbell incessantly.

"Mom! Dad?" A voice yelled from the front door. "Jimmy?"

I went to the door, and I could tell by the height of the stranger standing just beyond the tinted glass door frame it wasn't Grace. I opened the door because the lock on the doorknob was probably broken anyway.

It was Holly. Her mouth dropped to the ground upon seeing me inside her house. She furrowed her brows and placed her hands on her hips. I noticed Holly was dressed in a sky-blue sweater and jeans, finished off with sleek leather boots. She was wearing black boots with heels during the apocalypse. Only Holly would do such a thing.

"WHAT are you doing here?"

"I was in the area, and I came to your h-house. The Blight was really bad last night." I stuttered. Oh, this was probably the most awkward conversation I've ever had. I noticed her eyes fixating on mine for a second. Then I realized what she was checking for. She wanted to see if I was infected.

I supposed I passed her inspections because she sighed and looked away. I guessed that at this point, the idea of strangers taking residence in her house was a tad better than having her house overrun by infected monsters.

"Did my parents let you in? Where are they?" Holly ran past me, into her house, and up the stairs to the second floor. I heard her screaming for her parents, and when she reappeared, she looked at me desperately for answers.

"I didn't see your parents here," I muttered. "Your front door was unlocked, so my sister Grace and I let ourselves in."

Okay, that was a lie. Holly's front door was very much locked, but I didn't want her to call the cops on us.

"My parents weren't here?" Holly asked as she looked through the pile of mail and random trinkets on the table by the front door. "Their car keys aren't here. Maybe they took Jimmy to the doctor."

"Maybe," I added helpfully, uncertain if I should make a run for it before she noticed the broken doorknob. If only I could find Grace, I would have. I glanced at my cellphone. Dammit, I didn't have a single bar of reception. The phone itself was flickering and shining in a weird glaring light. I guess the Black Waters did a number on it as well. Speaking of Black Waters, I distinctly remembered being dripping wet in it the night before.

I held my hand up to the sunlight shining in through the front door. My hand looked as it always did. My skin was a little dry, and my nails were dirty, but my hands were still very much my hands. They told us on television that those who were infected didn't like the sunlight. The Black Waters evaporated in the sun. Once the clouds cleared and the sun came out, the world was safe again — assuming you were still human.

The infected ones wanted to be somewhere wet and dark, like the waters that gave birth to the infection that consumed them.

I suddenly had a sickening thought.

It was my turn to push past Holly. I made a mad dash for the door to Holly's basement. I ran past the polished mahogany sauna room and to the door to their underground swimming pool. The door had one of those child-proof locks that you needed to twist a button fifteen different ways to open. I didn't need to go inside. From the window in the door leading into the pool area, I saw Grace sitting with her feet dipped into the pool.

My sister's arms were wrapped around one of the creepy stone lions. Her black hair covered her face so thoroughly I could barely see her face.

Holly came up beside me.

"Is that your sister?" Holly asked me and reached for the lock. I grabbed Holly's well-manicured hand before she could open the door.

"My sister is infected," I said, hardly believing the words even as they left my lips. "If we open that door, she'll attack us. She's sick."

Holly nodded absently, as though my revelation wasn't all that shocking. I noticed she had a stain on her fuzzy blue sweater that looked a lot like dried blood. I wondered what kind of bizarre and dangerous landscape she must have traveled through to make her way home that morning. She pursed her lips together and tapped her foot against the tiled floor. I saw specks of rust-colored grime fall from her shoe onto the spotless floor.

"Just about everyone's infected," Holly finally muttered and bit her lip that was always carefully outlined with rose-colored lip gloss. "I need to find my parents and brother before it gets dark."

I nodded and wondered what had become of my own parents. I wished we could find a news source. What did our broadcasters have to say now? Maybe — after that storm last night — in Windflower Springs, the number of infected people outnumbered those who were still human.

We were safe for now, as long as the sun was out. God help us if we were still in this town at nightfall.

"Your sister needs some medicine. Let's go to the hospital and get some. You have a car, don't you? Why don't you drive us there?"

"You don't have a car?" I asked. "How did you get here?"

"I walked," Holly snapped. "The rain stopped around 4 a.m. No more questions. Come on, do you want to save your sister or not?"