Interlude: Day 2, Morning

The mid-morning light poured fitfully through the bay windows as Michael stared bleakly through them into the front yard. A nice, open front yard. A yard with no obstacles, and nice, BIG bay windows of fine glass between him and the outside. Nice, clean, easily shatterable glass that wouldn't hold those freaks out at all. With a deep sigh, he turned to the slim brunette girl standing next to him.

"This isn't going to work Lisa." He began with what he hoped was a judicious tone to his voice. "There's no way we can barricade this window. There's just too much of it and not enough wood. Or supports to brace against, for that matter."

Lisa absently flicked back a strand of her hair that had escaped the ponytail she usually kept it tied in. "Why not? Don't forget the bricks make the approach to the windows tough. Not more than a few people could get to the windows thanks to the terrace." She shrugged her shoulders and turned to the back wall. "And don't forget this big old china cabinet; it'll cover the main window with room to spare."

Michael looked at the huge Waterford cabinet. Its true the thing was massive, and solidly built. It would cover most of the front glass. The step-terraced brickwork would certainly keep all but a handful of zombies from pushing at the glass. He smiled to himself when he thought about his return to the apartment and trying to convince Lisa of the danger waiting not six blocks from them. He'd made a mistake calling them 'Zombies'; but it was too late to change it now. The moment he mentioned the 'Z' word to Lisa and she refused to take his worries seriously. Even with the KTYS TV news reporting riots and assaults, she would only agree that something weird was going on. She didn't like the thought of the walking dead, and refused to give it credence. She was still thinking of human burglars, and Michael knew that only direct experience would change that.

"You know..." he began tentatively. "We could just go into the country, maybe to Helen's old cabin in the woods? Where we do the Medieval Recreation events? We could even..."

She cut him off. I am not going out to BFE. My parents house is far out enough." She gestured around them with her hands. "Besides, mom and dad's place is plenty big, they don't mind us staying, and we're in a good neighborhood; not like those riot areas north of Fifteenth Street."

'Actually' he thought sourly to him 'only your mom doesn't mind us being here.' Lisa's father wasn't a bad sort, but unless it was on talk radio he didn't think it was true. They were beginning to talk about the riots all right, but they blamed it on Communists and Democrats. What was worse, her father refused to stay at home and insisted on going in to work, in downtown Tyson no less. He promised to keep calling in every few hours to the house, but Michael was becoming more and more concerned that he and Lisa might have to go pull him out of the Bank of America building. 'If there's time...' Michael thought sadly. But it would do no good to get Lisa's dad back here if they couldn't make sure this place was secure. "Ok,..." he conceded "Let's move the cabinet over there and see just how much it can cover."

To his surprise, it really did cove most of the class. The thick wood took nails well, and removing the shelves gave some nice treated oak boards to cover the two smaller adjoining windows flanking the main glass. The two then pushed the dining room table flush against the cabinet. Lisa looked triumphantly at Michael and smiled. Michael was still skeptical, though even he couldn’t admit for sure if this was sincere or his own stubborn determination to admit he was wrong.

“Well, it LOOKS decent.” He reluctantly said, his voice giving ample evidence of his uncertainty. “But we still need more reinforcement.”

“Oh please! The only thing we need to worry about is my mom’s irritation at us wrecking the china cabinet.” She tapped experimentally on the boards covering the flanking French-style windows on each side of the main glass. “It’ll be fine.”

Michael admitted defeat with ill grace. “Ok, but if some of those people come through the window I’m going to say I-told-you-so.”

With that the two went to the other windows further in the house. Michael still insisting that further in the country would be better than the suburbs. Lisa, of course, blithely ignored his mood and began pointing out more furniture that could be sacrificed for security.