The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(5)

"Okay, Daddy. Okay. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Katie, be careful." His voice was rich with emotion and she wiped a tear away.

"I'm armed, Daddy. I have a good vehicle."

"Not that little-"

"No, no. A truck. I'm in a truck."

"How…nevermind…this day…too many weird things."

Katie nodded and pressed the cell phone tighter to her ear, ignoring the little stab of her earring against her skin. "Daddy, what are they?"

"I don't know. I don't know. The damn Ruskies are behind it. I know it.

We never could trust them. Everyone else is saying terrorists, but I'm telling you, Katie, the Soviet Union never really died."

She couldn't help but laugh a little. He was such a Cold War warrior. She could hear many voices behind him, demanding, questioning. Without a doubt her dear old dad was at the center of the storm.

"Katie, I gotta go. I love you. Get here as soon as you can. Be careful."

"Okay, Daddy. Okay. Love you."

Katie snapped the phone shut and pressed it tightly against her lips. She couldn't think of Lydia right now. She couldn't think of how she had pulled up to their beautiful home to see Lydia tearing at the mailman with their neighbors at her side. She couldn't think of how Lydia had rushed toward her, not to kiss her and hold her and make the world better, but to kill.

"I know what they are," Jenni said softly beside her. She was intently staring at her feet, especially her one bloodstained toe.

"Yeah? Well, what are they then?"

"Zombies.”

Katie laughed bitterly, then her voice died away as the crested a hill.

Before them lay the city. It was smoldering. Down in the city, chaos ruled.

Even from their high position, they could see clearly that it was overrun. The things were every where.

The phone rang.

"Katie?"

"Daddy?"

"Katie, don't come here! Don't come here! I just got word in. It's not safe to come in. The National Guard was overrun. Don't come, Katie! Run! Get the hell out of the city! Keep safe, baby, keep safe."

Katie rested her forehead against the steering wheel. "Daddy…"

"Just do it, baby. Just do it."

Either he hung up or the lines finally went dead for suddenly there was nothing but a pulsing tone.

Katie looked up through the windshield as she clutched the steering wheel. A car sped past her and down the hill toward downtown. She watched it for several blocks and then it was overrun by a horde of those things.

"We need to go now," Jenni's faint, singsong voice said. She turned her glassy gaze to Katie. "We really do."

Katie turned the wheel and they headed back up the road.

"Turn here," Jenni said.

Katie obeyed automatically. Tears streamed down her face.

Jenni pointed again. "Turn here."

Katie turned the truck and sped down a back road that sliced behind the suburbs nestled into the hill.

"It will take us far away from the city," Jenni sighed and reached down and cleaned her toe with the edge of her bathrobe. "Away from the zombies."

Katie whispered, "There is no such thing."

"Then what are they?" Jenni's voice held a hint of emotion. "Some bum bit Lloyd last night when he was coming home from work. This morning he ate my baby!" Abruptly, her voice was on the edge of hysteria.

Lydia racing toward her, bloody hands stretched out, her chest torn open…

Katie drew in a sharp breath.

"If they are not zombies, what are they?" Jenni's voice was shrill.

Katie looked at her and reached out and grabbed Jenni's cold, clammy hand with her own.

"Zombies, okay, Jenni. They are zombies. And you're right. This is the end."

Jenni sighed and nodded and laid her head against the back of the passenger seat. "I know. I know…" And she closed her eyes and slept





4. Into the Hills




Jenni woke to the steady hum of the road. She opened her eyes slowly.

Her nightmares released her and she sighed with relief. Her dreams were even worse than this new, horrible reality. In her sleep she had curled up, resting against the passenger door. Now raising her head, she saw the dry and caked blood her son had smeared on the window when he had tried in vain to reach her.

Not for hugs and kisses, but for far worse.

Beyond the swath of gore the world was speeding by. Hills, large and small, covered in trees decked out in colorful spring flowers greeted her gaze.

Time for Easter and Easter baskets. She would fill them with candies and toys and the kids were scramble around the backyard looking for colorful eggs. But that wouldn't happen now. It was all over.

Lloyd had taken away her kids. Stolen them away. Just like she had known he would. Maybe he was something else when he had attacked them, but he had only finished out the cycle he had started when he had decided to marry his blushing eighteen year old bride. His looks, his money, and his success had blinded her. He was older and wiser. In her heart, she hadn't truly loved him, but she had believed she would one day. When he spoke of his first failed marriage, she had vowed that she would never let him down.