The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(44)

"Promise?"

"I promise."





3. Dead Stars In Her Eyes





Jenni wandered along behind Travis, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets. It was cold now that the sun had settled beyond the horizon to slumber. She had finally let her long hair down to flow in the wind. It was a little bit of a ploy to get Travis to admire her and it seemed to be working. She really liked this tall, handsome rather shy man. He greeted everyone they came across warmly and finally they climbed up on top of a truck and took up watching the zombies who had survived the slaughter. The undead kept trying to maneuver their way closer, but they kept falling over their dead comrades. It was almost comical.

"I could shoot them," she offered to Travis.

He shook his head. "No, they're not much of a threat down there. We need to wait to use guns. We don't need to be drawing more of them to us until we are more secure." Stretching, he held his trowel-spear over his head and that stirred up a zombie woman, who tried to run, fell over the dead bodies and slammed headfirst into the asphalt.

"That had to hurt," Jenni decided.

"I don't think they feel pain," Travis said sadly.

The woman tried to get up, but could not find stable purchase on the bodies around her and kept sliding around in the gore and muck.

"Seriously, I could shoot her," Jenni said again, somewhat hopefully.

Travis just laughed. He rubbed his eyes and sat down in a chair someone had put up on the back of the truck. The bed was full of earth and the chair sank down a little, but it was better than standing. Jenni sat down next to him, Indian-style, recognizing he needed the better view for his job.

"So. All the zombies are holed up in the school?"

"Yeah and we considered having someone drive out there to doublecheck, but decided that could end up giving them the incentive they need to break out. Juan noticed that when they can't see humans directly, they tend to just mill around. It's when they spot living flesh that they go ape shit."

Travis watched the zombie woman languishing in the guts of her dead comrades, at one point trying to eat a bit of intestine only to spit it out. She continued to swim through the congealed blood and decaying flesh.

Jenni watched the woman with a small smile on her face. Her fingers were itching to draw her gun and blast a hole through the woman's skull.

Something about her desperation to get to them and eat them, coupled with her bright, candy-pink jogging suit and bouffant hairdo just annoyed the ever-loving f*ck out of her.

"Most of the ones I have seen are always running to eat me. I never see them just standing around."

"Because we're back behind the barricades we've had a chance to see them just stand there swaying or milling around until they spotted someone alive. But once they figure out we're back here, they attack and just keep attacking until we kill them." He sighed and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Sound sets them off, too. We used a radio to distract some of them once.

When you and Katie arrived, we set off a car alarm from the roof of the city hall."

Jenni drew pictures in the earth with her fingers. "I was wondering how you did that. It seems that each time Katie and I encounter zombies, they are on us in a second. We just run."

"You and Katie had a rough time out there, didn't you?"

Jenni made a face and nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much from yesterday morning on."

"We didn't have it so bad here. With the townspeople being herded early into the school we really have had limited interaction with the zombies.

Honestly, we had secured the perimeter before we had a pack of them show up. I almost feels guilty that I didn't have to run for my life like other people have."

"Well, it’s no fun, that's for damn sure. Just consider yourself lucky and don't feel guilty." Jenni looked down at what she had written in the earth next to some stick figures. It read "Benji". She quickly rubbed it out. She just couldn't think of those little fingers straining…straining…

"You okay?" Travis leaned forward and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Jenni looked up into his face and said simply, "No."

He pressed his lips tightly together and nodded. "Of course you're not.

Sorry."

She just looked down and shook her head. "Is anyone okay? Really? I don't think I was okay before all this went down. I think I'm actually somehow better now." Her brow furrowed "That doesn't make sense, I know.

My children are…but…something inside of me is maybe stronger."

Travis sighed and ran a hand over his hair. "Adversity brings out the best or the worst in people. Perhaps you are just finding some strength inside you didn't know you had."

Jenni tilted her head, her dark hair falling softly around her pale face.

She considered this, then shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not sure. I just know that when…" She faltered for a moment. "…that when I saw what had happened to my children, who I was just stopped existing. I'm weirdly happy in this world. Just having Katie and Jason makes me feel solid. Safe. Being here makes me feel that way."

Travis gave her that smile that warmed her to the very depths of her soul. "I'm glad you are dealing with all of this. I'm glad you and Katie and Jason made it here. I'm not sure what will happen next, but I know we're going to fight. And that at least is something."