As The World Dies: The First Days-A Zombie Trilogy Read online

  Jenni lowered her eyes and tears fell. "I don't know...I just wanted..."

  Katie smiled and forced her to look at her. "It's okay. I understand. But this is not who you are. Right?"

  Jenni nodded slowly. "I thought I could learn-"

  "This is not who we are," Katie said firmly and stroked Jenni's hair.

  Jenni looked at her, eyes wide, trying to understand. "I just want to be useful. For you to need me."

  "But I do, Jenni. We are bonded by all that happened today. For better or for worse, we have a bond. You and me." Katie took Jenni's hands firmly in her own and held them tightly. "My Dad always told me about his war buddies. They loved each other and they shared a bond no one really understood because they are not a part of it. I think I understand that now."

  Jenni sat down all the way next to her Indian-style, her hair falling over one shoulder. Jack immediately plunked down and set his head on Jenni's knee. "I don't know how to...I don't have female friends or know any...lesbians...or..." Jenni rubbed her nose with the palm of her hand rather rigorously. "I don't know how to act."

  Katie smiled at her and kissed one of Jenni's hands. "That's okay. Hell, for both of us to be utterly insane right now is okay. But just know I just need you as my friend. I just need you to be whoever you are, Jenni. Okay?"

  Jenni nodded thoughtfully and smiled. "Okay." And she seemed relieved.

  Katie forced herself to stand up and pulled on the T-shirt and shorts Jenni had left in the bathroom for her. Her business clothes were wadded up in the trash bin along with her high heels. She knew she would never wear them again and in a way, that was a relief.

  "I wish it would stop," Jenni whispered.

  Katie raised her head, realizing she had been mentally blocking the sound of the moans.

  "Yeah, me, too."

  "Well," Jenni said at last, with a smile. "At least we live in Texas where people actually own guns and hunt."

  "Well," Katie said with a grin. "At least we're in a hunting shop and not a mall."

  Jenni giggled as she stood, stretching her long legs. "Yeah. Or a farmhouse."

  "Do you know how to fly a helicopter?"

  "Uh, no."

  "Me neither," Katie grinned.

  "You have watched Dawn of the Dead!"

  "Romero series all the way." Katie walked out into the bedroom and crawled onto the bed.

  "How about Fulci?" Jenni climbed in after her, looking much more relaxed now.

  "No, can't say I have," Katie said with the shake of her head.

  "I had hoped if this ever happened they would at least wouldn't run like in the new movies." Jenni pouted.

  Outside, the moaning continued, almost a lulling sound, the same sound over and over again. Jack crawled into the bed between them and nestled down.

  Snuggling down on either side of the dog, the women laid there listening, both lost in thought. The tension that had been brewing between them had dissipated without either one of them ever realizing it had been there. They now knew where they both stood and it was good.

  Without fear, without reservation, without being afraid of being misunderstood, Katie reached across the dog and took Jenni's hand. Jenni squeezed it tenderly.

  "Tomorrow we'll get your stepson," Katie assured her.

  "And kill more zombies," Jenni added.

  Katie somewhat laughed, her eyes still feeling horribly large and swollen. "Yeah, kill zombies."

  "But avoid malls and farmhouses and helicopters."

  "And find ourselves a handsome black man for the main lead in our story," Katie added.

  They both began to laugh and it felt amazingly good.

  And outside, the zombies gathered and moaned.

  3. The Midnight Hour

  Jenni's heart pounded almost as fiercely as her footfalls as she rushed down the stairs with Mikey beside her. Her fingers slid down the banister as she struggled to not fall headlong down the stairs. Mikey's hand was slippery in hers and she tugged him hard as she reached the bottom of the staircase and headed toward the front door.

  She felt Lloyd grab her long hair and yank her backwards.

  "Don't touch my Mom!" Mike's hand slipped from hers and her little boy launched himself at his father.

  "No," Jenni whispered and her eyes snapped open. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest it hurt. Slowly, she sat up and struggled to catch her breath.

  Katie was sleeping beside her with her arms wrapped around the German Shepherd. The dog eyed Jenni drowsily and she rubbed his brow lightly.

  "I'm okay," she lied.

  He licked her arm lightly before laying his head back down.

  She was sure he was tired, too, after their long day. Plus he had started the day with surgery and had endured their crazed escape from the city in a drugged stupor.

  Feeling shaken, she slid from the bed and stood in the darkened room listening to the moans of the dead outside. Lloyd always used to make her watch zombie movies because he knew they scared her. Scaring her had been something he enjoyed doing. Every time they watched a zombie film, he'd do things to upset her. Pretending to be a zombie while moaning always made her scurry away from him. She hated it. The entire concept of zombies was terrifying to her.

  And then this morning...

  No, don't think about it, she told herself.

  She ran her fingers through her hair to comb it back from her face and walked to the door. Careful not to make too much noise, she turned the handle and slipped out into the hallway. Down the hall she saw a dim light and followed it into the living room. The TV was still on, but muted. An ashen looking anchorman from one of the major networks was talking to several people including a minister. Ralph was asleep in his lounge chair with a quilt laid gently over him. A rifle lay on the floor next to him.

  "He couldn't sleep," Nerit's voice said quietly from behind her.

  Jenni turned around and saw the older woman was dressed in a nightgown and holding a cup of tea. "I had nightmares."

  "Me, too," Nerit said with a weary smile. "Would you like some tea and some cheesecake?"

  Jenni sighed. "That would be awesome."

  They settled into the kitchen, Jenni tucked into a stiff-backed chair as Nerit put on a fresh pot of tea.

  "You know, zombies always scared me," Jenni said after a quiet moment.

  "I never thought much about them or any movie monsters," Nerit answered. "I always thought the monsters of the real world were much more terrifying."

  "Serial killers and all that."

  "Terrorists, too." Nerit shrugged and cut two slices of the Italian-style cheesecake. "Ralph likes the monster movies. He says they're a safe kind of scary."

  "Not anymore," Jenni sighed.

  "No, not anymore," Nerit agreed and set down the dessert in front of her before taking a seat as well.

  "I...had kids." Jenni raised her eyes and gazed at Nerit. "They died this morning."

  Maybe she was expecting an accusation of her being incompetent or something like that, but Nerit only answered with, "I'm sorry."

  "My husband got bit last night. A bum, he said." Jenni stabbed at the pierce of cheesecake with her fork. A little bit of it crumbled off and she scooped it up and ate it.

  "Ralph discovered what was going on at the grocery store. We had stayed in bed late to celebrate his birthday. He was just going across the road to grab the paper when he saw the attacks inside." Nerit cut her piece into small sections and played with one tiny slice with her fork. "I didn't believe him at first when he called me. People eating each other. It sounds so ludicrous. Not real."

  Jenni set her fork down and stared at the plate for a long moment. "Lloyd liked to sleep on the sofa. He said I move around too much when I sleep and that he couldn't get a decent night's rest. He wouldn't sleep with me often. I would hear the TV on all night. If he had been in our room...Benji's room is the first one off the stairs. I think he just went there first because..." She covered her face with her hands and tried so hard not t
o think of what she had seen. It was a blur, actually. Just a swift image of Lloyd stuffing something thick and fleshy into his mouth and Benji's little body looking wrong under all that blood staining the floor. Her mind fought between adding in details and wiping the image out altogether.

  Nerit's fingers were soft and dry as she drew Jenni's hand down from her face. Gently, she held Jenni's hand in her own and said, "There was nothing you could do."

  Jenni forced back a sob and wiped away her tears. She wasn't sure if that was the truth and she didn't want to think about it anymore. Already, yesterday morning felt so far away and the world already felt very different. Mikey, Benji and even Lloyd felt like shadows to her.

  "When you saw them inside the store, what did you do?"

  Nerit sighed. "At first, we were going to go in and try to rescue people. But the...zombies," she slightly laughed at the word "the zombies rushed toward the door and we realized very quickly we couldn't go inside. We ran back here and locked ourselves in. At first we thought the people were infected with some strange virus, like the news said, but one of them came up behind the hunting store and was chewed down to the bone. There was hardly anything left of him. There was no way in heaven he could be that badly damaged and walking. He saw us through the window and began to beat on it. That is when we decided to head back upstairs and figure out exactly what was going on around us. That is when we saw our own neighbors forcing themselves into people's homes and attacking them. We took some out from a distance, but..." Nerit shook her head. "We've been killing our neighbors all day. And had no choice."

  Jenni took another bite of the cheesecake and the rich flavor distracted her thoughts for a few precious moments. "Does it bother you to kill them?"

  Nerit stood up, stretched and headed toward the teakettle. It was beginning to whistle. "The real question is do we have a choice?"

  "It doesn't bother me to kill them," Jenni confessed. "Not at all."

  The older woman poured the hot water into a cup and moved to set it down in front of Jenni. "It doesn't bother me either."

  The hot water was letting off a small plume of steam and Jenni waved her hand through it. It felt good against her skin. The cold spring night was pressing against the windows and she could feel a chill in her bones. The warmth from the hot water was a soothing sensation. Dumping too much sugar into the tea, Jenni tried hard not to think too deeply about anything other than rescuing Jason in the morning.

  Nerit sipped some tea and eyed Jenni thoughtfully. "It's a good thing, you know."

  "What is?" Katie padded into the room looking bleary eyed. Jack was at her heels yawning and looking for the nearest food bowl.

  "Being able to kill them," Nerit answered.

  Spotting the teakettle, Katie headed over to it.

  "Couldn't sleep?" Jenni dumped in more sugar for good measure.

  "Nightmares," Katie confessed. "But I guess we better get used to them."

  "Get used to all of it," Jenni agreed. Her friend looked pale and tired. They both needed to rest, but the sound of the zombies was dragging on all of them.

  "You don't think it will be stopped, do you?" Katie slid into a chair, a mug in her hand.

  Nerit shook her head and reached out for a pack of cigarettes sitting on the table. "No. It's too late. They didn't do what they needed to do in the beginning."

  "Which was?" Katie shoved her blond curls out of her face.

  "Kill everyone bitten," Jenni answered. She leaned her head on Katie's shoulder and sighed softly. "Everyone bitten should have been killed right away. Lloyd was bitten. The emergency room gave him some shots and told him to make a follow up appointment with his doctor."

  Nerit lit a cigarette and exhaled slowly. She leaned over and flipped on an air filter next to the table to suck up the second hand smoke. "The authorities told all the wounded to go to the hospitals and rescue centers. They accelerated the infection rate."

  "They still don't get it." Ralph walked into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. Clad in pajamas and an old robe, he looked frail. "Anyone saying zombies or end of the world is getting mocked. Got CDC taking back some of what they said and still telling people to go to rescue centers. Got major cities burning all over the States and they still can't figure it out."

  "Where is the President? What does he say?" Katie drank her tea without any sugar and that made Jenni wince.

  "In East Texas on a hunting trip," Ralph answered and slid into a chair. "News is all confusing now. They're telling half-truths. Lots of bull shit. Got one guy on last night saying it’s a strain of Ebola."

  Jenni rolled her eyes and sat back up. Katie snagged her plate and dragged the uneaten cheesecake over to her. Jenni didn't mind. She couldn't eat now that she was thinking of all they had endured. All they would endure.

  Nerit shook her head and took another drag off her cigarette. "So that's it."

  "Yep. Lost the local feed already," Ralph said with a nod of his head.

  Jenni laid her head down on her folded arms on the table and stared at the old man thoughtfully. He reached out and patted her head lightly and it comforted her.

  "It really is the end," Katie said.

  They all knew it, but hearing the words again helped it sink in that much more. To accept it was to be empowered. Jenni understood that and she knew the people at the table understood it, too. To survive meant to kill and to fight.

  Chapter 5

  1. Into the Breach

  The hammering on the back windows was annoying, but Katie tried to block out the sound. The number of undead outside the building had grown during the night and they were insistently banging on the windows. The sound wore on the survivor's nerves, but they tried to ignore the undead as they gathered to brainstorm for a good plan to save Jenni's stepson.

  Ralph spread out a map on a table in the back room downstairs along with a calculator and a notepad covered in equations. Nerit leaned against the wall nearby with her hands tucked into her jean pockets. Her yellowish white hair was pinned up on top of her head today and her green eyes looked sharp and intense.

  Jenni slid onto a folding chair at the table. She was clad head to toe in hunting gear: camouflage pants and jacket, a T-shirt that read "I aim to shoot" and heavy Doc Martens. Her black hair tucked up into a ponytail; she looked very young and delicate. Katie noted that today there was a difference in the way she held herself. It was subtle, but there. After they had returned to the bed they were sharing after their midnight snack, Katie had trouble falling asleep, but Jenni had seemed to have found some peace within herself and had slept soundly.

  Katie drew near to Ralph and crossed her arms over her breasts. She, too, wore an outfit consisting of hunting clothes. The only difference in her and Jenni's outfits was that she wore a black tank top under the Reverend's hunting jacket. The warm smell of tobacco and the faint smell of her savior's aftershave gave her a sense of peace. It was as though the old man who saved her life was still watching over her. In her hand she held a cup of coffee and she tucked a blond curl back from her face as she studied the map.

  "Truck you came in is not going to cut it. This ain't the old world where a low tank means a trip to the gas station. Electricity is still up here. Grid hasn't gone down. Depends on many factors if it keeps going. We might get lucky. TV is static except for the emergency broadcasting network. Bunch of horse shit regurgitation like yesterday. Not worth much. But we can't take it on face value that any of the gas stations between here and the camp are up and working. Gotta plan for the opposite."

  "Gotcha. So we're limited to what we can carry in canisters and what is in the tank," Katie said.

  "Right. Now, the truck yer in, well, it got you here, but probably not much further without a refuel."

  "We're dangerously low on fuel," Katie admitted.

  "My truck, has a half tank of gas. I noticed at least five gallons of extra gas loaded up in those red canisters in the back of your pickup. We'll put those in mine. Also, my truck has a bigger cab
. You can fit your young one and any other survivor back there along with Jack. Gun rack is perfect for your rifle. Also got a CB in there that can keep you in touch with us back here. Keep to channel 23." Ralph pointed at their location. "Here's Hillsboro. Here is the national park. Mapped out the most fuel efficient way for you to get there. Did calculations. You can do a round trip sticking to the route, but no more. Any detour might stick you out there with just the reserve fuel."

  Katie nodded and looked at Jenni. Jenni's eyes were huge and desperate. Katie knew instantly what she was thinking. "We're still going," she assured her and Jenni relaxed.

  "Keep to the route. Don't veer off. I mean it. We have a major highway near that park. If any infected people made it out that far you could have zombies on the roads out there." Ralph stood staring at the map, rubbing his chin, and looking deadly serious.

  "I understand," Katie assured him. "We'll grab Jason and head back here."

  "And don't hesitate to run those things over," Nerit said from her corner. "Don't hesitate to shoot them."

  Jenni giggled a little.

  Katie smirked. "I don't think that will be a problem."

  "Okay, then take the map, gear up. Take what you can in three backpacks. If you get caught out there you'll need supplies," Ralph said. His eyes were so sharp and thoughtful Katie couldn't look at him. His expression reminded her too much of her father.

  "MREs, ammo," Katie ticked off.

  "Flashlight, knives..." Ralph trailed off. "I should go with you."

  "No, no. You belong here with Nerit."

  A loud crash made everyone jump. Jenni ran across the room and whipped back the curtains. An enormous zombie stood slamming his body into the bars. Despite looking like his entire family had gorged themselves on his flesh, there were still lots of him to hurl against the barred window. The empty cavity of his torso beyond the sheets of shredded flesh made Katie turn away.

  "You fucking stop that," Jenni shouted at him and slammed her hand against the glass.

  The zombie growled and slammed into the bars again.