Someone grabbed me and pulled me into one of the school supply closets. He put his hand around my mouth so I wouldn't be able to scream. I dug my elbow into his side as hard as I could but he didn't let me go. I threw my head backwards, hitting harder than I meant to. Good, at least it worked. He let go of me and I stepped forward  then spun around kicking him to the ground.
"Ariana stop!" My attacker lay on the floor with his head down but I knew that voice anywhere.
"Carlos? What the hell?" I closed the door he pulled me through before anything unwelcomed could come through. Carlos had his hand to his nose.
"Is it bleeding?" he asked, his hand still covering his face.
"No. What are you doing in here, I thought  I told you to stay with the others."
"You did. But I couldn't stay there while you here risking your life."
I heard them before I could reply.  Their death groans getting louder and louder. Carlos's hand found mine and we slowly walked to the back corner, away from the door. If they find us in here we're dead meat. There's no other door to go through and crawling through the vents only worked in movies. I just have to pray and hope they don't pound on the door too hard. Carlos let go of my hand and walked toward the door.
"What are you doing?" I whispered to him.
"Blocking the window. Now shhh." He grabbed a piece of cloth off an old storage box and held  it over the window on the door. The whole room went dark.
"Carlos!"
"Shhhhh I'm right here." He put his arms around me and pushed me back to the corner as far away from the door as possible.
I started to hear bodies dragging on the floor and soon across the door. I tightened my grip on Carlos. I reminded myself that they can't open doors.  They're not that smart. But then again, get enough of them to push against it, it's sure to fall revealing their next meal. And our death.
The smell of decay was slowly finding its way into the room, making me want to throw up what little I had in my stomach. I don't think that I'll ever get used to that smell. One, it was revolting, and two it reminded me of the world we all live in now.
After a minute there were no more sounds in the hallway. I kept still just in case but I knew there was nothing there.
"I never got to ask if you were okay." Carlos still had his arms wrapped around me.
"I'm fine. What about you? Is your nose bleeding yet?" He chuckled joking about how it's only a matter of time before it does. I smiled. I missed the way we used to be. Always joking and laughing at the stupidest things. Never taking life too seriously. The whole zombie outbreak made us different people. We have to take life seriously. If we don't then not only are we putting our lives in danger but the lives of the others back at camp.
I just haven't heard his laugh is so long, that I didn't realize that I had taken it for granted before.
"I've missed  you'r laugh." I told him. "You haven't laughed in so long. None of us have."
"I know. Life's different now. Not really a lot of things to laugh about now-a-days." I pushed out of his embrace, regretting it when I felt how cold it got.
"Isn't that a reason why we should. Life sucks without laughter. Without happiness. Shouldn't we now, more than ever, enjoy life and all the little things it gives us." I looked into his pretty gray eyes and I knew that he understood what I'm tying to say. He smiled. "Of course we should. You know I believe that more than anyone else, but the way life is now, it's hard to find things to be happy about."
"I could think of a few things to be happy about. How  about the fact that we're still alive? All the people back there that I love as if they were my own family. My dog. You. There are still things to be happy about. Even if you think there are not."