Tobias sat down in a chair, his brow furrowed, his gaze distant. His wife was in the fort. Juan had seen her name on the list, but Tobias’ children and grandchildren lived in the town. They were not on the list.
Curtis, looking pale and very tired, walked in and took a seat near the door. Juan felt bad for him. The rookie on the force was the last man standing. It couldn't be easy on him.
The Mayor leaned back in his chair and his fingers picked up a pen from his desktop. He studied it and looked up. "Well, I called all of you in here to talk about the present situation. Peggy, are you sure you want Cody in here for this?”
Peggy gently tried to pry her child off her and he only grabbed on tighter. "He won't budge."
The Mayor nodded. "Okay. Anyway, Travis says Katie still has a fierce fever. He told me in no uncertain terms he plans to stay until she's better or if she is infected to make sure she is at peace."
"He has it bad for her. Too bad she's gay," Juan said grumpily. Travis was his best friend, but had this bad tendency to fall for unattainable women.
His mother smacked him upside the head and he knew he deserved it.
The Mayor blinked. "Oh, then Jenni..." He sat still for a moment, his fingers twisting the pen. "Oh, that makes sense now. How's she acting? " He shrugged. "Anyway, we need to prepare for their return."
Tobias slapped the palms of his hands against his knees and leaned forward. "How do we do that? The infected are filling that street. Most of our townspeople are out there. What we need to do is get ahold of the army and get them out here to treat those people!"
"They're dead. You can't treat them," Juan said. He couldn't believe they were still having this conversation after all this time. Some people took denial way too far.
"That is a ridiculous statement. The dead do not just get up, become rabid and attack people. It has to be a virus like the CDC said in the beginning of all of this," Tobias said firmly.
"They can't be alive," Curtis said softly from near the door.
"And why do you say that?" Tobias settled a fierce look on him.
Curtis shrank under it, but answered, "Because some of them are dragging their innards on the road."
"Adrenaline does strange things to people. If they have large amounts coursing their system like the CDC said in the--"
"CDC took it back and called them reanimated dead," the Mayor pointed out.
"Which is a fancy term for zombies. We are dealing with zombies. You know the living dead. They want to eat us. I thought we all knew that by now." Juan shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. People were so stupid.
"I do not believe we should give into hysteria and superstition," Tobias responded.
The city secretary's kid started to cry, loud and desperate and she tried to shush him.
"Daddy tried to eat us! He kept banging on the window!" The boy was near hysteria. "His guts were hanging out!"
Tobias flinched and said, "Now, son, maybe you shouldn't be in here."
"He's in this, too, Toby," Rosie said softly. "You can't shield a child from this."
Peggy snuggled her son up to her and kissed him on the forehead. He continued to cry softly, his tiny body shivering.
Curtis sat in the corner, hunched in on himself with his arms folded high on his chest. "Let's get back on topic. We need the guns. We can't keep killing them with spears."
"Yeah, blades aren't much help with these kinds of zombies," Juan said grimly. "The handbook did not have these running zombies in it. This is a whole other ballgame, but the basics are the same. We need to make this place as safe as possible and think before we act. We missed out on the whole being prepared thing, so we gotta do the best we can now."
"How do we figure out how to get Travis back in, that is the question," the Mayor said softly.
"Travis suggested we find out what everyone's skills are and figure out how to use them," Rosie said. "Maybe someone on this list has the experience we need to figure that out."
"Like someone has experience with zombies," Curtis muttered.
"The infected people out there deserve better than to be murdered and run down. I do not think murder should be an option to any plan we implement," Tobias declared. "We have been murderers for days now."
"They are not infected!" Curtis voice almost sounded shrill. "They are eating people, Tobias!"
Tobias' eyes were swimming with tears, but he fought to keep his voice steady. "My family needs help. Not to be butchered!"
"They were already butchered! They are dead!" Curtis' face seemed younger now that he seemed close to cracking.
Juan stood up and tried to break some of the tension. "Look. We got construction equipment. We got that much. Now we need to get creative."
"Build a corral," the little one said.
Juan looked at him for a second. "Huh, kid?"
"His name is Cody," Peggy said softly.
"Build a corral. Like I do with my Lego's. When Daddy and I..." He started to blubber, but pushed on, "played with my cowboys and my Lego's, we built corrals for the cows."
The Mayor looked at Juan. "A corral?"
"Fuck me," Juan said and took a step back.
"Juan!"
"Sorry, Mom. I think we can actually do that...yeah...from the mouth of babes...from the mouth of babes!"
Juan didn't even wait to talk this out. He just headed out the door.
Loca was standing near the door, spying of course.
"I want to help," Jenni said, her big dark eyes so beautiful and so nuts.
"No."
"I can help!" She rushed after him.
"You're loca."
"Maybe, but I can still help. I have to help!"
She grabbed his arm and they stared at each other for a long moment. She was nuts, yeah, but she looked determined.
"How?"
"I used to play with my kids with Lego's all the time and build all sorts of-"
"We're not using Lego's," Juan pointed out.
Now the Mayor, Curtis, his Mom, Tobias and Peggy and her kid were pooling around them.
"Yeah, I know that!" Jenni stomped her foot. "I'm saying that I know how to make plans to make things work a certain way. My kids and I built entire cities with Lego's"
"Me, too," Cody said.
Juan looked at both of them.
The Mayor was still twisting his pen in his hands. "Listen to what they have to say. It won't hurt."
Juan hesitated. Well, he actually wasn't sure how he would build a corral, was he?
"Okay, fine."
"I have some Lego's!" Cody ran down the hall.
"It won't hurt," Peggy said to Juan.
Juan looked at everyone gathered around him. They were all loco, he decided. Hell, the world was loco. And for some reason, this made him smile. "Fine, fine, the kid has a good idea."
An hour later, on a conference table, Jenni and Cody had constructed the fort with its wall and its buildings and the surrounding streets. The older kid with the hair hanging in his face had come in with the dog and started to help out. Juan just sat there, flipping through a magazine, not really paying attention.
"So the zombies are all here," Jenni said and put tiny little Lego men in front of the wall and into the street the truck had run out of gas on.
Curtis wandered in and looked it over. "They are all in the front, spread across from here to here."
"It's like they feel that is our weakest point," the older kid said and the dog whined.
Cody, looking more like a little kid than a scared rabbit now, picked up several blocks of Lego's that he had attached together and made a big noise as he dropped it down between two buildings. He made very effective sound effects of the zombies being crushed. Now that he was playing, he was having as much fun as a little boy can with his toys.
Juan leaned forward watching the kid, then glanced up at Curtis. Curtis lifted his eyebrows.
Cody picked up another stack of Lego's and dropped it down between two other buildi
ngs. Now all the fake little zombies were trapped between the first line of defense and two large barriers hemming them into a t-shaped area.
Jenni clapped her hands and high-fived the little boy as Juan and Curtis leaned over to look at the configuration a little more closely.
Cody now commenced to have a plastic Godzilla from his bag of toys stomp the zombies into the ground, but an idea was already in Juan's mind.
Jenni looked up at the men. "We can do this, can't we?"
"Travis can come in from another direction. We can have the zombies all hemmed in here," Curtis decided. "They can come in from over here where there won't be any."
"But how do we get them in?" Jenni frowned at the tiny colored town.
Cody laughed and picked up one of his matchbox trucks. "Like this." He swung his arm like it was a crane and set the truck down in the fort.
Juan grabbed the kid and hugged him. "You've been watching us set up the site. It's the crane he's talking about. Maybe we can't lift the truck in, but if they load everything onto a pallet, we can lift the load and them over the wall to safety with the crane."
Jenni leaned over and snuggled the kid and kissed him. "You're a genius!"
"I just like big trucks," Cody answered and plowed the zombies down with one of his toy trucks.
Juan grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing. He felt Jenni lean toward him and looked up.
"We're all in this together, you know," she said.
"You're still loca," he told her.
She grinned at him and, much to his disgust, he smiled back.
2. Threshold
Jenni slid off her cot and sat at the edge of it, frowning. Jason was asleep, snoring slightly. Jack sat on the floor near her stepson's cot, staring at her quizzically.
Glancing over at Katie's empty cot, Jenni shivered in her nightgown. It was several sizes too big, but it was all she could find in the donation box for the needy. Pushing her dark hair out of her face, she rose and walked to the door.
Jack immediately got up and followed her. She rested her hand on his head and smiled down at the dog. He was a good and loyal friend.
Slipping quietly out, she moved down the narrow stairwell, her bare feet not making a sound. Distantly, she could hear the zombies moaning. The living had kept well out of view of the dead, and now the zombies were just standing around moaning. Juan had been right about that. Staying out of sight kept the zombies calmer, but they certainly weren't going away. A few kept pounding away on the trucks until their hands were a bloody pulp, but most were just standing out there.
Jenni shivered as she thought of Katie. She couldn't bear to see her like that. Empty, lifeless, a mere husk of whom she had been with her spark gone from her eyes. Jenni had been all over the place emotionally all day. Juan had pissed her off by calling her loca, but she had put on her best "I'm just a pretty girl" persona to get him to lay off of her and let her hear what was going on. She knew her initial reaction to the word that Katie was very sick and possibly infected had set her back in the eyes of some of the people, but she didn't really care.
Even now, the thought of Katie not being here was too much to bear. Katie had been the first good thing in her new life and she wanted to keep that. Katie made her feel safe. Katie made her feel like she was okay. Normal, not a dysfunctional battered housewife blundering through life. Katie was everything she had ever wanted to be, but had failed to be when she had married Lloyd at eighteen.
Katie had given her a second chance though. A second chance at life. A new life in a world that had changed all the rules, but that she found she could actually function in. Maybe that did make her loca, but she didn't care.
She brushed a tear away and found her way to the communication center. Curtis sat there, still in his uniform, looking worn out and shell-shocked. He had taken a shower and washed out his clothes and they clung damply to his skin, but he didn't seem to care.
"Avoid Houston at all costs," a voice was saying over one of the speakers. "Stay on the minor roads. I'll meet up with you near Texarkana."
"Come back again, good buddy," another voice said.
Curtis noticed her presence and looked up at her slowly.
"Who are they?"
"Truckers. Looking for a place."
"Did you tell them about us?"
"Too far out. Too little gas. A few may make it here in a day or two, but those things..." He shook his head. "We have to figure out how to make it safe for more people to come here."
Jenni stepped into the room, Jack pressing past her to go greet Curtis. The doggy love actually brought a smile to Curtis’ face and he leaned down to rub the German Shepherd's ears.
"Anything on with Katie?"
Curtis sighed. "Still real sick. Real sick."
Jenni sat down on a cold, metal folding chair and clasped her hands tightly together. "What do they think it is?"
"Travis is afraid it’s the zombie sickness," Curtis answered her, averting his gaze from her.
Jenni sighed. "But he's not sure."
Curtis nodded. "Not sure."
Jenni looked at the little communications center, then said, "Can I sit here? And wait? Maybe they'll call?"
Curtis returned his gaze to her and she gave him her best "little girl lost" look. He nodded. "Sure. You can stay."
Jenni smiled at him and pulled her knees up to her chin, her feet resting on the cold metal seat. "Turn up the CB. Maybe someone is out there that we can talk to."
Curtis gave her a shy smile and nodded. "Okay." He leaned over and turned it up and Jenni watched him, memorizing his actions.
The first chance she got, she would find out what was really happening to Katie.
3. Beyond
Travis sat in darkness. The only light came from a small night light on the far side of the room. Katie lay curled on the bed, her blond curls in disarray around her face. She looked waxen, pale, and frightfully drawn. On the dresser next to him was a revolver. Ralph had instructed him very precisely how to handle it. And Nerit had very intently insisted that he could not falter, he could not flinch. If Katie rose from that bed as anything other than a living breathing human being, he had to put her out of her misery.
Rubbing his hands together, he let out a low sigh. This was hard. Very hard. Harder than it should be. To sit here and wait for this woman to fade from the world into the world of the dead just to put a bullet between her eyes seemed a cruel fate considering the absolute joy he had felt in meeting her just two days ago.
It had been one of the oddest moments of his life. He had just looked at her and knew her. He felt he should know her name and that they shared a past. It was as though they had been friends who had endured much together and then were separated by life. He had felt strongly he should open his mouth and say her name, but he didn't know her. But somehow he did. Even when she had mentioned her wife, and yeah, that had kinda threw him just a bit, in a way he had known.
It was odd considering that Jenni, with her long flowing raven hair, pale skin, and luminous eyes was everything he had ever found desirable physically about a woman. In fact, she looked startling similar to his ex-fiancée Darlene. But it was the tall blond with the long, lean body, intense features, and wickedly sharp gaze that had instantly grabbed his attention. He had even noted how her eyes turned up slightly at the ends, speaking of Nordic blood in her genes.
I know you, he wanted to say. And she had seemed to want to say it back to him.
Raised a good Protestant, he didn't believe much in miracles or the mystical. But he did now. Zombies had pretty much settled that argument. They weren't natural, he knew that much. But seeing Katie and knowing she was important to not only him, but also all those in the fort, that had surpassed anything his logical mind had ever grasped before. But now he sat in this dark room, listening to her breathe, waiting for the end. He was convinced of it now.
At times she called out softly for Lydia. At other times her father. Once or twice for Jenni.
"Please," she had begged Travis once during a lucid moment. "Take care of Jenni."
He knew he would take care of Jenni. And Jason. And all the others. For Katie and her memory. She had endured more than he had. Seen things he could not imagine. His loss had been a Dear John letter left on his pillow. Hers had been seeing Lydia as one of those things.
There was a sharp intake of breath from the bed...then nothing.
Tears, hot and angry, filled his eyes and he picked up the gun.
It was time.
Travis stood in the darkened bedroom gazing down at the gun. His tears were fierce in his eyes and his anger burned even hotter in his throat.
He heard the bed creak and through his lashes saw her rise.
"I'm sorry," he said, and lifted the gun.
"Why?"
He blinked and tears fell down his cheeks. "Katie?"
"Yeah?"
Travis flipped on the overhead light and she sat blinking in the sudden brightness. She still looked pale and frail, but her eyes were bright again. Clear. Alive.
"Oh, God, Katie! I thought-
She kept blinking in the bright light, shielding her face with her hand. "I told you nothing bit me."
"Katie, you've been so sick," Travis looked down at the gun and set it upon the dresser. As the heavy weight of it left his hand, a heavier weight lifted from his spirit. With great relief, he walked toward her.
For a crazed split second, he saw her with empty eyes, mouth opened in a scream, rushing toward him, then it was gone and Katie was giving him a look that said pretty much what she was thinking.
She thought he was nuts.
"Sorry, about the gun, but you were burning up and we couldn't get the fever down for the longest time..."
"That's what I get for not getting the flu shot," Katie pushed a hand through her hair, wincing at the grubbiness of it. "Gawd, I must be a sight."
As The World Dies: The First Days-A Zombie Trilogy Page 16
