My brother was perched precariously on a branch below, and when he looked up at me, I could see that his eyes were alight with amusement. Out of all the people I knew, Lark was the last one I would have ever expected to actually be happy about a zombie apocalypse, but he was happy. Maybe it was the challenge that the situation presented. Or maybe...maybe I had just completely misjudged him.

Lark turned his face to the wind, his eyes closing for a moment before he looked up at me. He made some weird hand gestures and then looked at me expectantly, frowning when I just stared at him. He repeated the gestures, but I still had no idea what he meant and wondered why he didn't just say something. His arms dropped to his sides as he looked at me with disgust, and then he stood up. For a moment I feared that he'd fall out of the tree, but instead he grabbed the branch above his head and pulled himself up beside me.

"Let's go find some food," he said, keeping his voice low as if he thought a zombie might be close enough to hear.

I looked around just in case, but as far as I could see, we were the only moving things within sight. I turned my attention back to Lark. "What was with the sign language?"

"Well," he said, leaning back on his heels to the point where I again thought he was about to fall. "I figured that it would be good if we didn't talk in case there was..." He lowered his voice and leaned forward. "You know, a zombie."

"But there wasn't. That's why we picked this tree, so that we could see if there were zombies coming."

He scowled at me. "Whatever."

He grabbed the branch with his hands and swung back down to the one he had been sitting on before. From there he made his way to the ground. He started walking off toward the street but stopped as if finally noticing I wasn't beside him. He glanced back over in my direction, his impatience clearly written on his face.

"Come on, Icarus."

"I think it's safer up here."

He came closer until he stood at the base of the tree. He put his hands on his hips and tipped his head backwards so he could look up at me. "If you don't come down right now, I swear you'll be safer facing the zombies than you will be with me."

"You're threatening me," I said, my voice a small whisper.

"Down. Now."

My face scrunched up at his demanding words, and I clung to my branch, half expecting him to climb up the tree and try to pull me down. Actually, I wouldn't put it past him. When my brother wanted something, he'd stop at almost nothing to get it. And he wanted me out of the tree. He grabbed the branch closest to him and started pulling himself up.

"Okay, okay," I said and lowered myself to the ground.

Lark grabbed my hand and pulled me after him as he made his way to the road.

"You know I couldn't just leave you behind," he said. "What if you got in trouble and I wasn't here?" He glanced at me.

"I would have stayed in the tree and been fine. Zombies can't climb."

He suddenly stopped walking and looked at me for a moment before grabbing my shoulders. He studied me. His eyes seemed to be pleading with me. "Icarus..." His voice came hesitantly as if he were afraid to speak about what he knew. Finally, he leaned forward and said, "The zombies aren't our enemies. It's people."

I blinked and pulled back away from him. "What do you mean?"

His lips pressed together, and he gave a quick shrug of his shoulders. "Dunno. I just feel..."

"What? What do you feel?"

He shrugged again. He stared at the ground for a moment and then returned his gaze to me, smiling. "Come on," he said, grabbing my hand. "Let's get some food."

"Okay."

We walked away from our tree, and I couldn't help but glance back at it. I had felt relatively safe up there. Being on the ground made me nervous, but Lark didn't look worried at all. He was still smiling. He turned to look at me, smile widening into an all-out grin.

"Don't look so glum, Icarus. We'll be fine."

But if that were the case, why did I have such a sense of foreboding?