"Yeah. There are. One is coming up soon. About two hills over." Jenni slid her fingers through her hair and sat up a little. "Maybe those things aren't out here?"
"That's what I'm hoping for."
Jenni laughed a little, her voice sounding odd to her ears. "You know, this isn't supposed to happen."
Katie glanced over at her and nodded just a little. "I know, but it is happening, whatever this is." Then she added quickly, "Zombies, or whatever they are, just shouldn't exist. Maybe it's some sort of terrorist weapon.
Something like that."
"They aren't supposed to be so fast. They're supposed to be slow. Very slow." Jenni sighed and pouted a little.
Running down the stairs, trying to evade Lloyd, that had been terrifying.
There had been no time to think, just run. It was sheer luck that he didn't seem to know how to open the door and had just banged against it.
"How do you know that?"
"Movies. Lloyd always watched those movies. I was afraid but he made me watch." Jenni chewed on her bottom lip. "If the movie is right, we can't let them bite us." She looked over at Katie warily. "You're not bitten, are you?"
Katie looked at her for a long, frightening moment.
"No, no. Are you?"
Jenni sighed, relieved. "No. I'm not."
But she almost had been. Lloyd had almost grabbed hold of her when Mikey had turned back and yelled, "Leave Mom alone!"
She covered her face with one hand. She tried hard not remember the horrible fear she had felt "Run, Mikey," she had screamed and run out the front door.
How it slammed behind her, she didn't know. Maybe she closed it.
Maybe Mikey did. Maybe when Lloyd had grabbed her son he had shoved it shut. But the front door had slammed and she had been alone.
"How did you find me?"
Katie briefly glanced over at her and sighed. "I got lost in your neighborhood trying to get off the highway. I heard you screaming. I pulled up behind you just as-You didn't seem to notice me so I yelled."
That easy. That simple. Why hadn't she heard the truck pull up behind her on the lawn? Well, she had been screaming and MikeyJenni leaned toward the window and studied her reflection in the tiny side mirror. Her eyes looked too big, too wide. Her face was very pale.
"I think I'm in shock," she said to Katie.
"Aren't we all," Katie responded in a somewhat harsh voice. Thinking better of her comment, she said in a much softer tone, "Yeah, I think you are, too. It was hard to see my wife like that. But your husband, your children…"
She reached out and gripped Jenni's hand tightly. "I can't imagine."
Jenni clung to her hand desperately, grateful for the kindness. She really didn't care about Lloyd being dead…undead…whatever. The children. That was harder. Much harder. She didn't want to think about it.
She wanted to ask Katie about her wife, the beautiful woman in the photo on the phone, but she was afraid to ask. Afraid that Katie might think she was being judgmental and withdraw her comforting hand.
"Shit!" Katie jerked her hand away from Jenni and yanked the steering wheel hard to the left. Slamming on the brakes, they both were jerked forward and caught firmly, painfully by their seat belts.
A car was idling on the right hand side of the road. A man stood near it, covered in blood, looking at their truck in a daze. It was as if something snapped inside of him and he flung out his hands and rushed toward the truck.
Katie quickly reversed off the shoulder of the road, then shifted gears and the truck leaped forward. The man's hand slapped hard against the side of the truck and they could hear his nails scrapping the metal as they escaped him.
Jenni whirled around in her seat and looked out the back window. The man was running hard, pumping his arms, screeching.
"How fast are we going?"
"Thirty," Katie responded. "He's keeping up."
Suddenly the man howled and his legs seemed to pop out of alignment and he tumbled hard to the pavement.
Katie slammed on the brakes and looked back. "He blew his joints!"
The man staggered to his feet, looked around, saw the truck and began to slowly hobble toward them.
"Now that is the way they are supposed to be!" Jenni grinned at Katie triumphantly.
"He blew out his knees!" Katie laughed.
They both screamed as a mouth filled with sharp teeth suddenly appeared in the back window.
"Shit!" Katie blinked.
A German Shepherd stared at them looking a little dazed. He was smiling at them, but looked worried.
Katie flung open the door and looked into the bed of the truck. A veterinarian's temporary cardboard carrier was chewed open and the young German Shepherd stood on wobbly legs before her.
Jenni leaned out of the driver's side. "Uh, zombie-"Katie looked up to see the man still shambling toward them. He was a distance away, but would soon be a problem.
Jenni picked up the shotgun from the floor of the truck and handed it to Katie. "Just shoot him in the head. That's how it works."
Katie blinked at her, then looked back at the man. "I can't." She handed the gun back and reached out to the dog. "Come here, puppy, come here."
The dog padded slowly over to her and she lifted his heavy body out.
Holding him tightly, she slid him into the cab. As a second thought, she snagged the vet paperwork taped to the carrier.
Jenni, meanwhile, solemnly got out of the cab, released the safety, pumped the shotgun and waited. The zombified man was almost to the truck, moaning, reaching out to her. For a moment, he looked remarkably like Lloyd.
She fired.
The headless corpse hit the pavement.
"What the hell did you just do?" Katie looked utterly shocked.
Jenni looked at her plaintively. "We have to kill them."
Katie opened her mouth, then shut it. She looked shocked at Jenni's actions, but was more concerned at the moment with the groggy, half-grown German Shepherd. She climbed into the cab and shut the door.
Jenni sighed and climbed in as well, slipping the safety back on the shotgun.
"We don't kill."
"You ran over the runners back in town."
"I panicked. I…" Katie faltered.
Jenni sighed sadly. She needed Katie to be strong. She needed her to be the strong one. She hadn't minded shooting the zombie as an example and she would kill them in the future, but Katie needed to lead. Jenni couldn't bear the thought of having to figure all of this out.
Katie stroked the dog's fur as she looked at Jenni for a long moment.
"We'll talk about this later. We need gas now. And Jack here, well, we need to keep him up here. Poor baby just had surgery. Good thing he was knocked out during most of our escape." She nuzzled the dog and kissed him.
"Jack?" Jenni smiled. "I like that name." She wrapped her arms around the dog and pulled him onto her lap.
"That's what his vet papers say."
"It's a good name."
Katie smiled slightly and nodded to herself. "Okay, gas station next.
Gas, food, supplies, and we keep going until we figure out where the hell we are going? Sound good?"
"Yeah," Jenni answered. Snuggling the dog tight, she sighed with relief.
Katie was back in control.
It would be okay.
Chapter 2
1. In The Shadow of the Dying World
Katie sighed with relief when she saw the gas station sign up ahead.
The needle on the gas gauge was dipping dangerously under empty.
Despite the lack of any "zombies" out on the road, she did not want to get stuck walking anywhere.
Beside her Jenni was busy lavishing attention on the German Shepherd.
Katie was having a tough time understanding Jenni. The first time she had seen her, Jenni had seemed to be in a daze. The first spark of life she had shown was when she had blown the zombie's head off. Now she seemed more alive. Yes, that was it. A little more animated. It almost seemed weirder than her trance-like state when Katie had first saved her.
But who was she to judge? What was normal when the world was dissolving around you and reality suddenly looked like a Dali painting.
Pulling into the gas station slowly, Katie leaned forward over the steering wheel to stare across the expanse of the parking lot. There were no cars parked in the lot or tucked under the metal canopy over the gas pumps.
It looked utterly deserted.
"If we're lucky, the pumps are still on. I'll use my credit card, "she said.
Jenni looked up, rubbing her lips against the dog's ear. "You should fill up the gas can, too."
"Good idea. And if we can get into the store, we should load up on food."
Katie slowly released the brake and let the truck glide up to a pump.
Once more looking all around her, she turned off the truck. Reaching down, she picked up the shotgun.
"Here is the plan. I'm going to pump the gas. You are going to keep a watch out and hold the shotgun. Obviously, you can use it. You see any of those things, you tell me immediately." Katie handed Jenni the shotgun, studying her intently. Now that Jenni wasn't looking like a zombie herself, Katie could see she was quite pretty with deep, alert eyes.