The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(88)

Travis sighed. "You're so lucky to have had her. My ex-fiancee and I never had what you did. I was always trying to please her and make her happy and in the end, I guess I failed and she left. I guess I'm not good at this whole girl thing."

The thought of Lydia made her heart literally hurt and she sighed.

"Travis…"

"I know, I know, Katie. I know how this goes down. Yeah, I've tried to pretend, but I knew even during moments of hope it was not going to happen." Travis looked down at the rifle in his hands, then over at the street.

"In this new world you've been one of the good things in it. Everything has changed and gone to hell, but you help make it tolerable."

She couldn't help but smile at his words. She reached out and hugged him gently. "You and Jenni and Jason are very special to me. My new family.

I want you to understand that."

Travis looked down into her eyes, sad and resigned. "But?"

Katie rested her hand on his cheek and found the words harder to say than she had imagined. She opened her mouth to speak, reconsidered, then closed it. What was there to say? Instead, she kissed his cheek softly. It was rough and slightly scraggly against her lips. He clung to her and it was a comforting expression between them and the world felt far away.

Travis turned slightly and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "Friends only?"

Katie nodded, mutely.

Travis nodded back then kissed her lightly again, but the platonic veneer quickly faded. Forgetting all her reservations, Katie kissed him back, softly and sweetly. The kiss turned into something both of them had not expected and that energy pulsated between them. They clung together, wrapped in each other's embrace, their kiss real and intense.

Sharply, overwhelmingly, Lydia's image filled her mind. Images of her lovely face, sweet kisses, gentle hugs and then her screaming reanimated corpse.

Pulling away abruptly, but more reluctantly than she would have ever imagined before, she said softly, "I can't."

"I know," Travis said with a sigh. "I know."

"Jenni adores you," Katie said lamely.

"Let's not go there," Travis answered almost bitterly.

"Okay," she said helplessly. She wanted to comfort him, but the energy of their kiss still tingled over her skin and she couldn't risk it. She had to stay true to Lydia. To what they had shared. She had to mourn her and remember her. How could she let herself care for someone else when Lydia was still out there?

"I'm sorry, Katie. I really am. But you can't just deflect my emotions onto Jenni. Don't get me wrong. She's gorgeous and makes me laugh. I really like her a lot, but please, just don't do that."

"I guess it’s stupid of me to think I just cleared the way for you two."

Travis gave her a small smile. "I would never call you stupid."

Suddenly, a bright light blinded them both. The roar of an engine broke through the sound of the gates' construction.

"What the hell?"

"It's a motorbike," Travis answered.

He flipped on the searchlight that had been rigged upon the platform and aimed it down the main street.

An old battered motorbike darted into the light. A scraggly looking young man and his equally scruffy girlfriend looked up at them with desperate, terrified expressions.

"Let us in! They're right behind us!"

Travis flashed the light up the road to reveal a crowd of zombies running toward the fort, obviously following those on the motorbike. Katie noted immediately that most were in doctor's coats or nurse's uniforms.

"The clinic. They went to the clinic," she said.

"Shit!"

"Let us in!" The boy was yelling loudly, stirring up the pursuing zombies even more.

Katie and Travis were so stunned at this quick turn of events they both seemed incapable of figuring out what to do.

The boy noticed the open gate and gunned the engine. He swerved around the corner and headed up the road toward the next unblocked intersection to loop around the block and to the gate.

"He's heading for the gate," Katie said in a trembling voice.

"Shit! Shit!" Travis grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Juan! Close the gate!

Close the gate!"

There was a cackling noise, then, "We're working on it, dude. Chill out."

"Zombies coming, Juan!"

"What? Shit? From where," Juan's voice demanded over the static.

"The clinic. There is a kid on a motorbike heading around the block to get into the gate."

"Gawddammit!" It was obvious that Juan's voice was terrified.

Katie headed down the stairs, running as fast as she could. Even from across the great distance between Travis' post and the new entrance, Katie could hear Juan shouting.

"Shut the gate! Shut the gate!"

Travis caught up with Katie and they both sprinted to the post that would overlook the approach to the gate. More people came running, grabbing up their guns and spears. The squeal of the gears as the gate started to close filled the night air. Already some of the construction workers were trying to scramble up the ladders out of the new area to safety.

"What's going on?" Jenni caught up to them at the platform and looked down the road.

The guard at this post already had aimed his spotlight down the road and it illuminated the two teenagers on the motorbike just turning around the corner. Soon after them, the zombies followed.