Chapter 7

Christmas Eve. Matt was pretty sure it was Christmas Eve, that was what day they had on their calendar anyway. It wasn't going to compare to the other Christmases he'd known, but they'd done okay, considering. They'd found a little fake tree in the back of the party store, and hung socks from it. There wasn't anything under it, but Valerie had made gloves to put in the stockings. Well they were kind of like gloves, they were made out of socks, and had a thumb and one finger, and there was a pair for everyone. Matt had found a whole box of foil covered chocolate coins under some pirate costumes. He'd also found a fleece lined leather jacket near the tree. He guessed it was accidentally packed, he'd found it in a box, under a bunch of holiday decorations.

He looked at the other kids, listening to Val read from the bible. They were stronger than they'd been two weeks ago, more ready to make a break for it. For the last week, they'd been exercising, running laps around the back of the store where the dead couldn't see them. He'd gotten more exercise too, He'd run as many laps as they had, and hauled the cinder block back up to the roof hundreds of times. Last time he'd counted there were only nineteen of the dead waiting for them outside. Before they left tomorrow, he'd go up and get rid of as many as he could.