The store was a mess. Broken glass, empty containers, even money littered the floor. Lark bent over, grabbing up some of the bills.

"What do you need that for?"

He shrugged. "To pay for the food."

"But it probably came from the cash registers," I pointed out. "So it's already theirs."

He rolled his eyes. "You think too much."

We walked down an aisle, but it didn't look like there was any food left. Everything was either empty or spoiled. I kicked a peanut tin and watched it roll across the floor before it came to a stop, and that's when I saw it. At the end of the aisle was a zombie.

"L-lark," I said, but I knew my voice was too quiet for him to hear as he rummaged through the various containers on the shelves. I tried again, raising my voice this time.

Lark turned to look at me, but so did the zombie. In a movement so quick that I was unable to comprehend what happened, the zombie knocked me to the ground. I screamed as it crawled on top of me, head lowering towards my face. With arms trembling in terror, I pushed on its shoulders trying to keep it from biting me, but its gnashing teeth continued to get closer.

"Don't move, Icarus,"

I nodded my head, though, of course, I wouldn't have been able to move anyway. And just when I thought there was no chance of holding the zombie back any longer, it froze, mouth a mere inch away from my face. It straightened up and got to its feet.

I scooted backwards until I bumped into Lark. Glancing up at him, I saw that his eyes were glazed and he was staring intently at the zombie, which was now starting to walk away. When it was out of sight, my brother's eyes seemed to come back into focus.

"There," he said, grinning. "It's okay."

"Wh-what did you do?"

He shrugged.

"Tell me!"

"I told it to go away," he said.

I stared at him in bafflement. "But...it's a zombie."

"I know."

"How?"

"I don't know. It just started happening. Dead things listen to me." He knelt down next to me. "That's why we don't have to fear them. We just have to fear other people."

I had the sudden urge to laugh hysterically. Lark made it sound so simple--that we didn't have to fear the dead because he could do...that. But it had still almost killed me. If my brother hadn't been here, I would be dead.

He grabbed my hand, and studied me intently.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, but--"

"Good." He stood up. "There isn't anything here that we can scavenge, so we should move on." His face grew contemplative. "Where do you think we should go? Somewhere where there won't be any people for sure, but I'm just not sure where that might be."

"I think going where there are people is a good idea."

He gave me a baleful look. "I can't control people, Icarus, only zombies."

"But--"

"Other people will be trying to find food and weapons, just like us, and they're not going to care how they get it. They'll kill us to get it."

I shakily got to my feet. "Not everyone would do something like that. I wouldn't kill someone."

Lark smiled, like he thought I was being naive. "It's easy to say that, but when you're starving and the only thing standing between you and some food is a stranger, do you really think you'd play the hero?"

I scowled. When had my brother become so cold? When the apocalypse started? Or had he always been like this? Had I simply missed it when I was too caught up in the the tediousness of my once normal days? It was hard to believe that I could have ever missed the dark, hungry look in his eyes.

I fixed Lark with a determined glare. "No, it's easy to say that you would kill someone, but it's harder to actually take a life."

Lark shrugged. "Whatever you say, little brother."

"Don't patronize me!"

He grinned and headed back towards the front of the store. "Then don't be so patronize-able," he called over his shoulder.

I followed after him. "That's not even a word. Don't make up words."

He turned around, walking backwards. "Hey, it's the end of the world. There aren't any rules anymore, so I say that not only is patronize-able a word, but it's also the official word of the day."

"Well, I say it's not a word, and you're stupid."

He laughed and faced forward again.