Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot -- in this case, my brother, Shaun -- deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens.

There's only one thing we never wrote down. You know what it was.

...although I had to admit a certain affection for the Mattel booth advertising Urban Survival Barbie, now with her own Machete and blood testing unit.

Think about that for a moment. They died for you. Now take a good look at the life you're living and tell me: Did they do the right thing?

Etienne gave me lessons. Three of them. Then he said I was a menace and refused to teach me anything more for fear that I’d slice his head off.

He didn't have much strength to offer, but what he did have was hers without question.

Time never runs backward when I need it to. Not for me, and not for anyone else.