Nothing else was said, Shauna wasn't in the mood to talk and the men didn't want to push her any further. She had been through a lot and they wanted to help her make the next steps.
The three of them silently worked together to gather up her mother and father and picked where they would be buried. Shauna led the way, and when they looked at her with questions in their eyes, she instructed them "let's bury them under the pecan tree, it's where they were married."
While the men started digging the graves, Shauna made her way to the the wildflower field to pick flowers for her parents funeral. As she walked through the field, she was overcome with emotions. Shauna threw herself onto the ground and began sobbing. Once she gathered herself, she looked up to the sky and prayed for her heart to be healed. Now was not the time to give into her grief, the world around them was crumbling and she had worked to do.
Shauna got off the ground and wiped the dirt from her pants. She continued on her mission to pick two bouqets worth of flowers and made her way back to where the men were working.
It was a hot summer day and Zach didn't understand how this other man was able to dig so much faster than him! He increased his speed but found that he couldn't match his strength. As he was getting frustrated and about to quit he heard footsteps coming towards them.
Shauna had seen the men working so hard so she had run inside to grab them each a cold glass of lemonade. Both men took their glass with appreciation and gulped them down. "Thank you guys... I don't know what I would have done if I had been alone." Shauna was beginning to feel emotional again but she surpressed it. She had made that promise to herself and she wasn't going to go back on it so soon.
"We should be done in a few hours, go inside and we will finish this." Jonathan handed her back the glass, "thank you for the lemonade."
Zach handed her back his glass as well, "yeah, thank you Shauna."
As Shauna made her way back to the house, she noticed that the front door was open. She figured that one of the guys had run inside and back out and had forgotten to shut the door. It was such a beautiful day that it really didn't matter. She walked inside and decided that she should catch up on the news.
Shauna had been watching the broadcast from the last news station when she heard a noise upstairs. "Hello?" she yelled out but she received no response. Her curosity got the best of her so she grabbed the glock and made her way upstairs. "Anyone here?"
Suddenly, a man jumped out from her parents bedroom. She was still several feet away but she screamed and began shooting at him.
Jonathan and Zach heard the sound of gunshots coming from the house so they both dropped their shovels and ran as quickly as they could to the house. Jonathan made it in first, "Shauna? Shauna!" he screamed. He feared the worse with her being through so much trama in the past few days.
"Up here! There is a man in the house!" He sighed in relief when he heard Shauna's voice cry out. Zach pushed past him and ran upstairs before he could recover from his fear of losing her.
"Shauna, are you okay?" Zach grabbed her and started moving her towards the stairs.
"Yeah, I'm okay but this guy just jumped out of my parent's room!" Shauna was calm for a woman who had just been shocked, "luckily I brought my gun up here with me when I heard a noise and shot him before he could get me."
Jonathan had made his way upstairs at this point and made his way over to the body. "This is Gene from the hardware store, what is he doing here?" He was confused, Gene had always been a great guy and he would have never pegged him as someone who would invade another's home.
Jonathan turned around and looked at the two when Gene went to grab Jonathan by the ankle. Without even thinking, Shauna raised the gun and shot him between the eyes.
"Guys, I think there is something wrong with Gene. Look at the marks all over his body and the fact that I shot him enough times that he should have been dead." Shauna's internal alerts were on high, what if Gene was one of these zombies that the news had been reporting on?
"We need to tie him up and see if he comes to again." Zach was in awe with how aggressive Shauna had been with the gun. He didn't know that she would have the courage to shoot someone, much less so quickly.
Shauna grabbed rope they had stored in the barn out back while the men stood guard over the body. Once she returned, Jonathan took the rope and expertly tied Gene up. "Boy scount, remember?" He gave Shauna a wink.
The two men carefully moved the body outside and sat him on the back porch.
A few hours later, the three of them stood at Shauna's parents graveside. "I have so many things that I want to say and things I wish I had said when you were still alive." Shauna began. "But...the most important thing is that I loved each of you with all of my heart and you will be forever missed." She placed the boquets she had created earlier.
The next morning, they all three went out to check on Gene. He was fighting with his bounds and was foaming at the mouth. "Well, looks like he's a zombie alright." Zach had run across a few on his trip down from the city. "We need to burn him to kill him."
Shauna and Jonathan looked at him, "how do you know that?" Shauna said in disbelief.