Short, weird, fun!

scintilla [sin-til-uh] (noun)
1. A spark; a flash; a trace amount.
2. A small piece of writing intended to inspire wonder, curiosity, or amusement.

(This scintilla is a continuation of the zombie series I was doing earlier, which started with Awake in the Dark.)

On further examination, Lanie thought Keller’s stockpile would last them closer to three weeks than three months. “You lied to me,” she said when she was done going through the last bin.

“No I didn’t.”

“You said you had this place stocked for years when you talked me into coming here with you. Then you said you had it stocked for months. Does this look like three months worth of food to you?”

“Um… yes?”

“So you’re an idiot as well as dishonest. I should have just gone to the official shelter.”

Keller scoffed. “Yeah, like they’re not down to sizing each other up for breakfast by now. If they’re not all zombies themselves… You really think the government is organized enough to deal with this?”

“Maybe. At any rate, I know you’re not.” Lanie kicked the bin. “Stupid. I was so stupid to listen to you!”

“Look,” Keller started, holding his arms out and stepping forward to comfort her. He stopped dead at her glare, and let his arms drop while he went on. “Ok, this hasn’t turned out as well as I thought it would, but it’s not like you had some great plan of your own. Did you?”

Lanie kicked the bin again. “No,” she growled.

“So now we know more. We stop laying blame, and just move forward as best we can. Move on from here, since there’s no telling when they might come back. Next time, they might not leave before we run out of food.”

“But that might be what they want us to do!”

Keller shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. We’re holed up with not enough food to last out a siege and not enough weapons to break one. We get out now, make ourselves a moving target, rather than one they can come back to at their leisure.”

“And when we run right into them?” Lanie sat down and buried her face in her hands. “We’re dead, aren’t we? It doesn’t matter what we do.”

Keller took a few steps and patted her tentatively on the back. “We won’t run into them. Because we’ve got you, right? And you can tell they’re there, even through a cinder block wall. Now come on, and help me load up our packs. I want to get out of here before nightfall.”

Note: Obviously, I have written today. I’m planning to work on my novel revision a bit now that I’m warmed up, too!