Surviving The Aftermath (Book 1): The Dead Linger

by Roberts, Liz

  Days later, sore, bandaged, bruised, but no worse for wear Jill wandered around the complex in a trance. If people talked to her and she answered she had no idea what was said. She was on auto pilot. Kurt, Oscar and the others had come back, from the HH, they brought more guests. They both seemed to be distant towards one another. Jill noticed the bruises Kurt was sporting, she wasn’t sure if that had anything to do with it, or if it was Kurt keeping his distance from Oscar for something else. Most people were revived with new chores and goals. It’s like as long as they had something to do people were ok. She heard and saw that Beth, had allowed Meghan and Jack to get on the apartments for their own. She seemed apprehensive, but they were both young adults growing up fast in this world, and who knew how long anyone’s happiness would last from day to day. Jill knew she and Jack still needed to have a talk about that. Jill wandered around the complex aimlessly until she stumbled across Tom and Susie, they were having a moment and she wanted to sneak away quickly.

  “Jill?” Tom said having caught sight of her. She turned back around to face the two of them, at a loss for words. What did they expect from her? What could she give? She suddenly felt responsible for Vikki’s death and she could feel her eyes stinging with the unshed tears.

  “Thanks. For helping with Vikki.” He paused in between each little bit. “For being there for her, … . . when I wasn’t.” He stood and walked towards her.

  “Tom I . .” He cut her off with a sudden hug that very much shocked Jill. She slowly put her arms around him too and hugged him back. No other words were spoken, tears flowed down there cheeks as they stood that way for several more seconds before Jill turned to kiss his cheek and Tom just nodded and went back to Susie.

  “What was that about?” Casey asked cupping his hands on Jill’s shoulders as she walked up to him.

  “I think him and I are ok.”

  “Well I’m glad, because I have an important question for you, I’ve been thinking about expanding are little family.” Jill stopped and stared at him blinking.

  “You know all these new people need a place to stay, what if they stayed here?” She slugged his shoulder.

  “Ow. What was that for?”

  “You jackass, you know exactly how that sounded.” He just smiled.

  “I know, I couldn’t resist.”

  He just put his arm around her and they walked away.

  Fall was in full swing, the figured it had to be October now. The wind picked up and was so cold some days it seemed to knife through your clothes. They had bulldozed the buildings in the front finally, making a natural break, they finally got some distance from the zombies in the front of the buildings and coming and going was a bit easier now. Putting his hands on Jill’s shoulders he was careful not to squeeze her right one.

  “Still sore?”

  “Not really anymore.” She placed her hand on his. Everyone was in the midst of pre-hibernation. They worked on squirreling away as much food for the winter months as possible. The greenhouse was still able to produce and the offsite farm was almost functional now, but they would still be cutting it close if they weren’t careful. Carlton and Tom jogged over to Casey.

  “We just had an emergency radio transmission, from some survivors, sound like they’re 30 or so miles north of here and they are in trouble.” Carlton said exasperated.

  “Well that’s good, at least we know there are more people out there.” He said getting ready to get people into action for some sort of rescue.

  “Jill let’s gather everyone and decide . .” Tom cut him off.

  “Stop. Casey, the woman calling, she said her name was Sara.”

  The End?