The Lightkeepers

6

freely flowed down my cheeks as I slammed them into the safety bars. At one point, I may have

appreciated the bars, but now it was more like a cage. As I rounded the smooth corner of the

catwalk, I met the ghastly face of what used to be my grinning cousin. She was a wild-child, that

one.

No, is , she is a wild-child, I corrected myself, still refusing to acknowledge their assumed

deaths.

Before I knew it, teeth pierced my leg and cold hands held it in place. I screamed out in

agony and stabbed my zombified cousin before me. I glanced down. My baby cousin, a toddler of

about three, had snuck up on me and chomped down on me like a kid’s meal . Another, my uncle

or maybe my father, I don’t know, grabbed at my arm and brought it to their mouth. Tears and

searing pain obstructed my vision. I stumbled as more skin was torn from my arms and legs. My

back landed on the frigid stone of the lighthouse. Familiar faces swam in front of me as my vision

floated between an unfocused haze and a sharp awareness. Something, or rather some zombie,

gnawed at my ribs. Winter wind blistered my newly exposed skin. I couldn’t be sure what hurt

more: the bites on my legs or the relentless attack on my ribs. My ribs. The pain was too real. As

my blood started to stain the freshly fallen snow, new snowflakes mixed with my hair and wetted

my parted lips. I hadn’t realized I was screaming until all sounds ceased and the constant pounding

on my ribcage was the only thing I felt. I was dead, or at least I hoped.

“Wake up! C’mon, Rae, wake up!” Ellie’s voice came from a distance. Another finger

prodded and poked my ribs.

“Ow!” I rubbed the spot as my other hand trapped her fingers. “I’m up, I’m up!”

“Wanna talk about it?” she asked, as she always did.

I shook my head and glanced up at my older sister. She frowned at me. I sat up and pushed

off the covers, leaving her cocooned under the soft blankets. “I’m getting some fresh air, don’t

wait up.”

I quietly pulled my boots on and placed my .22 in my hip holster, pulling a blanket around

my shoulders. As silently as possible, I climbed the darkened staircase, using only the pale

moonlight streaming in through the windows as my guide. I stopped and grabbed one of Henry’s

pullover sweaters before continuing my dark climb. As I poked my head up into the beacon’s

room, an arrow leveled itself with my eyes before immediately disappearing. Henry helped me up

and smiled sheepishly.