Two boys went outside after watching a long marathon of scary movies. After several hours of staring at a TV screen, they blinked in the bright sunlight. One of the boy's mothers had insisted they go outside to 'get some fresh air'. Then she'd left to go to her book club. The friends were home alone.
 They found a deflated soccer ball near the garbage can, and after searching forever for a pump, they decided it was good enough. After all, it still rolled. They played soccer. Well, they started out playing soccer, but the game quickly disintegrated into a playful wrestling match, and then, a who-can-pick-up-the-most-heavy-rocks contest, and then, worn out, they simply sat on the dew-covered grass.
 Out of the blue, one boy turned to the other and said,
 "You know, I'm glad we're not in a horror movie."
 The other boy considered, then said, "I don't know. It might be kinda fun- you know, until you get to the dying part."
 "Fun? What part of fighting for your life is fun?"
 "You know, the adrenaline, the drama. I think it'd be cool."
 "Well, maybe."
 After a while, they re-discovered the soccer ball where it had landed in one of mom's hedges. They knocked it out with a long stick and resumed playing.
 When they stopped to take a breath, one kid saw something.
 The backyard had a low fence, and the house was on a hill, so he was able to see a large group of people moving slowly down Main Street. He squinted, but was unable to see much more detail. They walked all over the road, and cars didn't go anywhere near them.
 "Hey, what's that?"
 The boy followed his friend's gaze and shrugged.
 "I think it's a parade."
 "I don't remember Mom saying anything about a parade."
 "Well, your mom can't know everything."
 They returned to the soccer ball, and then had a small argument over where, exactly, the goals were. They decided to mark it with mud smears.
 Suddenly, a crashing sound, accompanied by sirens, echoed up to their ears. Neither payed it much mind, and they didn't even talk about it. True, it was only a medium-sized town, but sirens were common enough.
 After a while, one of them stopped the game and looked in the direction of the large crowd. He noticed that the whole crowd was a dull color of grey, as opposed to the colorful shirts of most parades. More than that, he noticed that there were no floats- just a long flow of people, marching onward.
 When he pointed this out, his friend had the perfect explanation.
 "It must be one of those zombie marathons! You know, where people dress up as zombies and walk a marathon. They're pretty cool."
 With that reasonable answer in mind, they both went inside for ice cream. The kitchen didn't have a window, just a sky light, so by the time they got back outside, the throng of people had disappeared below the curve of a hill. They were now out of sight, but close enough to hear. Sounds of moaning, with the occasional scream thrown in, floated up to their backyard.
 The first kid started to get nervous, with memories of the horror movies fresh in his mind, but his friend just laughed.
 "Cool, they've got a soundtrack to go with it! I wonder who recorded it. It sounds pretty real."
 "A sound track? For a Marathon?"
 "Sure. Lot's of people run to music."
 The boys stood in awkward silence for a while, because the noises were unnerving, even though they knew they were fake.
 After a few moments, one of them noticed a hole in their reasoning.
 "If this is a marathon, wouldn't they stick to Main Street? Why are they coming up my driveway?"
 Now they were both nervous. Thoughts of a Zombie Apocalypse creeped into their minds, no matter how many times they pushed them away.
 "I'll go talk to them. Maybe they're just confused."
 Neither of them really believed that. It would be pretty hard to confuse someone's long, twisted driveway with a main road, but they were running out of ways to justify these events.
 Slowly, the braver boy unlocked the gate and peeked out. He got one glimpse of the group, just a few hundred yards away, and immediately slammed the wooden fence door against his back and swore.
 "What is it?" the other kid asked, quickly rising to the brink of hysteria.
 In response, the first kid turned and bolted into the house. He tore through the living room and reached the front door. He griped the handle, expecting the door to fly open, and slammed cheek-first into the wall when it turned out to be locked.
He was still there, shaking the handle, when the other kid, who hadn't looked over the fence, came up to him holding the key.
 "Dude, why are you so-"
 He was about to say 'freaked out', but his friend jumped through the picture widow, cutting him off.
 Slowly, the boy's gaze passed the hole in the window and he looked to the street beyond.
 His mind churned, desperate to grip onto his last shreds of sanity. Of course, he knew make-up artists could easily make people look like flesh was hanging off their skin. But why would professional make-up artists waste their talent for a marathon? Could they be shooting a movie? But the cast of a movie doesn't usually knock over mailboxes and rip siding from a house, especially if people actually live in those houses. Maybe his whole life was a set-up for a move made by an uber-intelligent race? It made almost as much sense as what his eyes were telling him.
 Zombies. All around him were zombies.
 He stood there dumbly for a moment, then instinct kicked in and he bolted out the door.
 He didn't get far. He was only on the edge of the mass of zombies and, unfortunately, he ran towards the center, not away from it. As he ran, the crowd grew ever thicker, until he simply could not pass through.
 The zombies made no move to attack him, but they didn't need to. Within minutes, he was doubled over, puking from the smell of rotting flesh. From there, a lumbering zombie was enough to rock him over onto his side. Even though he was an easy target, it took forever. And then it was over.
 The other boy didn't live, either, though he took longer to die.
 For the record, neither of them thought it was fun.
 And, to be totally accurate, they never did end up in a horror movie. They did, however, make an excellent short story.