The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(19)

"That was Dwayne Emory," Ralph said behind her.

Nerit crossed another name off the list.

They all stood on the roof of the hunting store once more. The evening sky spread out above them a lush panorama of cold stars and velvet darkness.

The zombies of the small town spread out on the dirty street below in a shambling mess of dead flesh and lost hopes.

"See if you can get the one over the corner," Ralph said and pointed.

Jenni aimed again, her finger squeezed, and another head popped like an overripe tomato.

The evening had started off well enough. A delicious dinner with good conversation followed by cheesecake had made her feel better than she had all day.

Afterwards, they had trudged downstairs into the shop at Katie's insistence.

Jenni glanced over at Katie who stood next to her. Nerit was instructing Katie on the finer points of the rifle she was holding. She had tucked her blond curls up into a ponytail making her Germanic features stand out strongly. Katie radiated strength and it made Jenni feel safe. Ralph and Nerit were capable, but Katie was the one to follow.

Nerit had found a skirt and T-shirt for Jenni to wear and she felt more comfortable now. She had thrown the bathrobe and nightgown away with disgust, never wanting to see them again. The color pink would forever haunt her. She wanted to forget about this morning and those tiny fingers…those tiny fingers…

She squeezed the trigger again.

Chunks of brain matter splattered the lamppost.

"Reload", Ralph said.

Jenni quickly complied.

Ralph had shown them around his spacious store, explaining the history of the well-fortified building. Originally it had been the town jail, before the great fire that had wiped out most of Main Street (the entire town Jenni took it) and then it had been the town bank. Finally, when the town died out except for a few hangers-on, it became a hunting store, which was the only real commerce in the area.

"Hunters come here for all seasons. Make a good living off of them. And the Internet," Ralph said as he had opened up a door to reveal a state of the art computer. "Store is on-line and I sell hunting and camping gear. Works well. Makes money."

Ralph had shown them a small set of offices in the back that doubled as the city hall and post office. Evidently, Ralph was the Mayor and Nerit the postmaster.

The building was bigger than she had originally thought and jammed with everything a small town could need in one nice little package.

Jenni found it all very boring.

Katie, though, had been absolutely riveted by everything Ralph explained to her. They had talked about all sorts of things that Jenni didn't understand or really didn't care about. Small town politics, law enforcement, gun laws…

Jenni had wandered to the front door and watched two women slowly eat away at Six Figures Guy. One of them looked up at her, snarled, and ran for the window. Jenni didn't flinch when the woman ran straight into the heavy metal bars and busted her face open. The zombie tried to wedge a hand through the bars and Jenni watched the woman's torn fingers scratch futilely at the window.

So much like the little fingers…those tiny fingers…

"More are getting out of that store. Gonna have to put them down tonight or we'll have issues in the morning", Ralph had decided from behind her.

Then the most tedious part of the night started. Two hours of Ralph going over the variety of guns they had to chose from. They went through a slew of guns until they found at least two they were comfortable with. Finally, they had trudged back upstairs and got another lesson on loading and reloading the guns.

And finally, they had started shooting zombies.

Jenni had enjoyed shooting that one woman who had rushed the window. She had reminded her too much of Benji and his tiny fingers.

Now Jenni stood next to Katie, the night wind buffeting her dark hair, aiming at yet another zombie staggering out of the darkness into the light pooling below the street lamps. Tilting her head slightly, she studied him, his labored swagger, and his profuse beer belly. His wife-beater shirt was stained with blood and gore.

She shot him in the knee.

He went down, growling, clawing at the ground. Over and over again he tried to get up, only to have his leg give way beneath him. Finally, he looked up and saw her. Shrieking, he reached up, desperately.

Jenni narrowed her eyes and fired.

The bullet punched neatly through his head.

"Nerit and I have been talking and we know you said you just want supplies, but we want you to consider staying here. Once we clean out the town, it will be safer than the world out there."

Jenni turned swiftly. "We can't!"

Katie flicked the safety on her rifle and reached out to calm Jenni with a gentle touch on her arm. "We need to move on and get her stepson. He's stranded out at a camp in the national park."

Ralph considered this. "I can understand that. But when you get him, then what?"

Katie looked at Jenni, then back at Ralph. "Honestly, we haven't talked about it."

Jenni hung back a little behind Katie. She really liked the old people, but she wasn't sure this was the place for them. She liked Katie being in charge and she wasn't sure of this whole new dynamic. Yes, they had only spent maybe ten hours together in the car, but in that time she had grown to trust Katie. She suddenly just wanted to be in the truck, with Katie and Jack, and far away from here.