"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 fuck 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."
"I just want to kill them all. Kill them for killing…" She stopped and looked down at her dirty fingers.
The zombie woman finally reached the truck and began to bang on the side, moaning, screeching, desperate.
"I want to kill her."
"Then do it," Travis said.
Jenni stood up slowly and Travis wordlessly handed her the makeshift spear.
Walking to the edge, Jenni looked down at the bloodied, upturned face and all that damned hair-sprayed blond hair. She felt Travis’ fingers slip under her coat and grab her belt to hold her steady. She cast a grateful look over her shoulder at Travis and lifted the spear. Her gaze narrowed on the woman's face and her glassy, blank eyes. So much like Lloyd's when he had looked up at her as he had stuffed more of Benji's tender baby flesh into his mouth.
Jenni let out a hiss between her teeth and slammed the tip of the spear, which was the trowel, down hard into the woman's eye socket. She felt the flesh giving way, the eye slicing apart like a boiled egg and shoved it down as hard as she could. She felt things giving way, scraping, mushing, and tearing.
She lifted and slammed it down again. Almost growling, she slammed it down over and over again until the female zombie slid down the side of the truck and lay still.
Jenni took great breaths of the rank, cool air and slowly handed over the spear. Travis took it and reached out and gently touched her shoulder.
"Better?"
"No. Not really. But it felt good." Jenni gave him an awkward smile.
"You're a strange, strange girl in a strange, strange world," Travis decided and gave her a gentle hug.
Jenni nestled into his arms and smiled to herself. She then slipped away from him and sat back down on the dirt watching another surviving zombie try to walk over his dead comrades to them.
"Sure you don't want me to shoot him?"
Travis laughed and it was a wonderful sound to her ears.
4. Breathing Space
Katie stirred only once during the night. It was when Jenni had finally come into the small room to go to bed and had leaned over and kissed her forehead tenderly. Katie had sleepily opened her eyes to see Jenni lying down on her own cot and had reached out to take her hand. She had fallen back to sleep, Jenni's fingers intertwined with hers.
In the morning, she awakened to Jenni peacefully snoring and Jason sneaking out the door with Jack on his heels. She could smell hot, fresh coffee wafting through the building and pulled on her socks and boots immediately.
Almost stumbling down the narrow staircase, she found her way to the community dining room where people were gathered for coffee and a breakfast of what had been left over from the fundraiser dinner.
Snagging a Danish, half of a club sandwich, and a hot cup of coffee, Katie found a corner and sat down to enjoy her meal. The townies weren't as open to her as the construction crew. The townspeople looked at her curiously, but seem locked in their own worlds. Of course, this was their town and it was now dead. They were probably in shock, in mourning, and not sure what to think of any of this, including the blond in the camouflage pants and black tank top.
Jason joined her at the table, Jack hot on his heals with his ears perked and looking at the boy anxiously for any scraps. The teenager seemed a bit moody this morning and Katie didn't blame him. Being here, being safe, made her feel raw and more vulnerable emotionally. Being on the run, living on the edge of death, was numbing and comforting compared to a quiet moment to actually reflect on all they had endured and lost.
"Mom's still asleep?" he asked.
Katie looked at him, noting his use of the word "mom.” "Yeah, she seemed really tired."
"She was out late with that guy," Jason said moodily.
Katie opened her mouth to say something and faltered. Of course he was upset. Jason's dad was dead and already his step mom seemed to have her eyes on another man. She took a bite of the Danish, noting it was close to being stale.
Jason sighed and gave the dog a few bits of cold chicken, which were immediately gulped down. "Dad was a shithead, but…" He shrugged.
"Yeah," Katie said. Not sure really what she was agreeing to, but Jason nodded back at her and set about eating.
"It would be different if it was you," he said softly, so no one else could hear. "At least you wouldn't be replacing Dad."
Katie reached across the table and touched his cheek. "Jason, I think Jenni is just dealing with things the best way she can. I don't think you have to worry about anyone replacing your father right now."
Turning his face away, he shrugged. "Whatever."
She sighed softly and returned to eating. Jason didn't seem to want to talk, so she finished up, gave him a brief hug, patted Jack on the head, and headed downstairs.
When she stepped out into the fresh, cool air, she saw that the construction of the wall was complete. Made of concrete and at least two feet thick, the wall stood sturdy and defiant about five feet from the perimeter of the hurricane fence. It was, at the very least, ten feet high. She stared over the top of it at the buildings surrounding their little fort. There was no way to be sure, but it looked like most of them had been abandoned long before all of this went down, except for the Dollar Store across the street.
Hands on hips, she surveyed the interior of the little fort and noted a fairly clear path along the edges, except for where some of the bigger machinery was clustered in a corner. She had noticed the day before that the bulldozers and heavy equipment was parked outside the wall. She flicked her gaze up to the enormous crane attached to the building with the faded Coca Cola advertisement. How it all worked was beyond her.