“My thoughts were of you, Katie. I prayed you would escape. I prayed you would live,” Lydia said soothingly.
“I love you, I never wanted to be without you,” Katie said, tears in her eyes.
“And I love you,” Lydia answered with the gentlest of smiles. “I wouldn’t want you to be alone. We were so happy together. No one can ever take that from us. Be happy again, Katie. Be happy and live your life.”
“Lydia,” Katie sobbed, desperately missing her.
Lydia kissed her on the lips, then drew away and vanished.
Katie awoke with a start, her hand flying to her mouth. She could almost feel the softness of Lydia’s lips on her own. The sun was higher in the sky. Light was pouring through the slit in the curtains.
Beside her, Travis was on his elbow, looking down at her. He looked worried and he slid his hand over her hair tenderly. “Are you okay?”
“I dreamed of Lydia,” Katie answered truthfully.
Travis nodded, his brow furrowed. “I know. You said her name.”
“It was like she was really here. Not like in my other dreams. I really felt her here, with me. It’s so odd.”
Travis stroked her arm. “She’s a part of you, Katie. Of course she’s going to haunt you in some way.”
She could see the tension in him, his fear that she would push him away. “You don’t have to compete with her ghost,” Katie assured him.
“I don’t?” Travis’s voice was strained. “Are you sure?”
Katie smiled and took his face between her hands. “I’m sure. I’m very, very sure.”
CHAPTER TEN
1.
Shuffling the Deck
Nerit’s morning started as simply as her night had ended. After sliding off the bed, she opened the curtains to take in the first rays of dawn and check the street for zombies. She noted a few wandering around and mentally made a note to deal with them later. Then she took a long, hot shower that helped loosen up her stiff joints and spent five minutes combing and braiding her long hair and applying the only makeup she ever wore, a bit of mascara and some lip gloss.
Dressed in olive green jeans, hunting boots, and a green T-shirt under Ralph’s jacket, she made her way down to the dining room for an early breakfast. The room looked nothing like the scene of bloody chaos of the day before. Under the ornate rug had been a very pretty but faded tile floor that a few volunteers had spent all night mopping and polishing until it gleamed under the chandelier lights.
Old Man Watson and several other elderly people were gathered at one table, eating oatmeal and toast by the look of it. He smiled warmly at Nerit as she passed and gave her a little wave. As Tucker, Nerit’s old dog, wandered along behind her, the old man reached out to pat his head and call him a good dog.
The early-morning breakfast crew had laid out breakfast on a buffet table. Oatmeal, toast, reconstituted powdered eggs, and dry cereal with large chilled mugs of powdered milk greeted her. Nerit served herself some oatmeal and eggs and sighed as she poured out the thin, bluish milk. She missed whole milk and fresh eggs. A glass of orange juice completed her breakfast. While she was doing that, her dog wandered over to one of several food bowls set on the floor for pets and started to eat, looking as weary in his bones as she sometimes felt.
Nerit took a seat at an empty table, but before she could begin to eat, a voice said, “Can I sit here?”
She looked up to see Jason holding a tray of food; she smiled warmly and said, “Of course!” The boy sat, surrounded by a cloud of sullen teenage angst, and stabbed his spoon at a bowl of cold cereal.
Jack strolled over to join Nerit’s dog.
Jason sighed. “Juan lives with us now,” he said.
“Yes, I know. I heard,” Nerit answered, starting in on her eggs.
Jason sighed a little more dramatically. “I don’t understand why.”
“Well, your mother is doing what many people are doing right now, living in a kind of desperate rush. Death could come at any time. When you know that, you want to grab life and enjoy it before it ends,” Nerit explained. “I think you will see many people doing that, especially now that we have what feels like a safe and comfortable home.”
Jason frowned a bit as he chewed his cereal. “I guess. It just feels weird. They talk in Spanish to each other a lot and I feel left out.”
“Ah,” Nerit said. “Well, why don’t you ask them to teach you Spanish or at least translate so you don’t feel left out?”
Jason shrugged again, then said, “It just feels so different now. I don’t like how everything keeps changing.”
“Neither do I, but we have to do our best.”
Jason hoisted a large backpack onto the table and pulled out some notebooks. “I’ve been working on weapon ideas to keep my mind off of … you know … stuff … .”
“Really? Like what?”
The boy opened a notebook to show her his notes and illustrations. “We really can’t use fire in the fort. It’s way too dangerous. We could end up setting our own stuff on fire, and burning down the hotel would not be good. But outside the fort, we could make some sort of firetrap. I was looking into making concussion grenades to rip the zombies apart and maybe doing some stuff with shrapnel to rip up their bodies. I noticed the more fucked … um … messed-up ones are slower and easier to kill.”
“Yes, they are,” Nerit agreed.
“Michelle’s little brother came up with a lawn mower, wood chipper–type machine to chew them up.” Jason showed Nerit the youngster’s crayon illustration of zombies getting ripped apart by a large lawn mower. “It got me thinking. We could take apart some lawn mowers and use the engines and blades. Not sure how yet, but working on it.”
Nerit looked at several pages of the notebook. “These are very good ideas.”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure how to do some of it.”
“Maybe Juan could help you, or Travis.”
Jason peered at her from under his bangs. “I guess so. I just don’t think they’ll listen to me.”
Nerit laughed a little. With her own children long grown, she had forgotten how moody teenage boys could be. “Oh, I think they will. We need all the clever ideas we can get to survive this.”
“Maybe.” He frowned.
“Jason, I really do believe they will listen to you. You’re a smart boy with clever ideas. You should talk to Juan and Travis. I think they will be able to help you figure it all out.”
Jason fidgeted with his notes, then finally agreed. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just used to older guys not listening to me. My dad never gave a rat’s ass what I thought or said.”
Nerit took a long sip of her orange juice, pondering her response. “Well, Jason, I think you need to do what your mother is doing. Make a new life. Get a fresh start.”
Jason stared at her, then ducked his head down. “Yeah. I guess.” Shoveling more cereal into his mouth, he looked up at her through his bangs again. She could tell he was considering her words.
Finished with breakfast, Nerit stood, stretched stiffly, and picked up her rifle. “I will see you later, Jason. I need to get to work.”
“Thanks, Nerit,” Jason answered. “You know, for listening.”
She nodded and walked out of the dining room, her dog falling into step behind her. Today she felt particularly stiff and clumsy. It was hard for her to accept her age, and most of the time she did not feel her years at all, but today she did. She had deliberately chosen not to sit with the other seniors. This was not a time for her to give in to age, but to fight it. With Mike gone, she had a role to play.
Approaching the front desk, she found Peggy typing away on a computer. Amazingly the Internet still existed where there was power. Nerit remembered the mayor saying that several server farms were up and running because the workers had barricaded themselves into their office buildings. They were trying hard to keep the Net functioning so that information could be exchanged among surviving scientists and also so that the living could reach out to others who were still al
ive. Peggy often logged on to monitor other groups of survivors. From time to time, a group would vanish and with each disappearance, Nerit felt that part of civilization was lost. Real news, national or international, was hard to come by. No one had any idea if there was any semblance of the government left. The Internet was rife with rumors.
“Do you have the duty roster?”
Peggy started, then laughed. “God, you gave me a fright. Yeah, right there. I updated it like you asked.”
Nerit scanned the list. If he had reported for duty on time, Jimmy was already on watch, right where Nerit had assigned him. “Excellent. I’ll make sure to get you a new schedule for the next few days as soon as possible.” With Mike and several others dead, the roster would have to look very different.
“I can take you off kitchen duty, since you’ve taken over for Mike,” Peggy offered.
Nerit shook her head. “No, no. Cooking is relaxing. Keep me on it.”
Peggy shrugged, then cocked her head. “Nerit, I was wondering … . Could you teach me how to shoot?”
With a grin, Nerit answered, “Of course. I’m thinking about making lessons mandatory, not voluntary.”
“I just don’t want to feel so useless, so helpless.”
“That seems to be the theme of the day,” Nerit replied, and strolled away. She was halfway across the lobby when she saw Curtis. “Curtis, there’s something I need to attend to. Mind joining me?”
Curtis hesitated, then said, “Sure. What are we dealing with?”
“Jimmy.”
Curtis frowned. “Yeah. I talked to Travis and Juan about what he pulled yesterday. Juan wants him banned from any more dangerous missions.”
“I think he just needs to learn a lesson,” Nerit answered evenly.
She entered the elevator and Curtis followed.
“I don’t know, Nerit. He’s always been twitchy.”
“We’re all twitchy.”
This brought guffaws from Curtis.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“You’re the coldest of us, Nerit, a true killing machine. You’re never twitchy.”
Nerit shook her head. “I’m just well trained.”
“We don’t need cowards,” Curtis said heatedly. “We don’t need people who will sacrifice others to protect themselves.”
“No, we need well-trained people,” Nerit spoke sharply, and Curtis fell silent.
They found Jimmy on duty in a room on the second floor that had been designated as a sentry outpost. He was sitting on a windowsill above the front door with his feet propped up on a chair, looking bored.
“Jimmy,” Nerit said.
Startled, Jimmy jumped up. “Hey, Nerit.” He looked decidedly nervous; his gaze darted between Nerit and Curtis.
“Curtis, can I have the gun you used yesterday to shoot the zombie with the metal plate in his head?” Nerit held out her hand.
“Sure,” Curtis said, sounding confused. He pulled a small .22 from his side holster. “It’s my backup weapon.”
Nerit stepped up to the open window, and fired at the zombie still languishing on the streetlamp. It took four shots, but at last the zombie collapsed into final death. Silently, she handed the weapon back to Curtis.
“Sometimes, with a small-caliber weapon, the bullets glance off hard surfaces. Not just metal plates, but bone. You have to keep firing. If you shoot a zombie through the eye, the bullet will bounce around in its brain and churn it into mush. The lesson here, Jimmy, is keep firing.” Nerit’s gaze grew steely. “Never leave anyone behind. If they are bitten, shoot them, but if they are alive, cover them. Understood?”
Jimmy stared at her sullenly. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Good.” Nerit walked out of the room, her job done.
Curtis shuffled after her. “That’s it?”
Nerit turned to face him. “That’s it. For now.”
Curtis gaped at her, then stepped back. “Okay, but Juan and Travis will not like this!”
“Then they can talk to me,” Nerit answered. She stepped into the elevator and hit the button. The doors closed on Curtis’s frustrated features. Nerit sagged against the side of the elevator and sighed.
2.
Drawing the Tower
Juan and Jenni stepped out of the elevator on the seventh floor, arguing loudly in Spanish. Jenni was limping, her face well decorated with purple and green bruises. Waving her hand in frustration, she insulted Juan thoroughly before knocking on Katie’s door.
Jenni was annoyed beyond words. Juan had ruined a perfectly nice morning by ranting on and on about how he was going to kick Jimmy’s ass. Jenni had planned on stripping him naked and having lots of sex once Jason went down to breakfast and Juan had returned from his early rounds, but Juan only wanted to devise ways of making Jimmy miserable.
Katie opened the bedroom door, clad in a tank top and pajama bottoms. She was obviously freshly showered and behind her, Jenni could see Travis, in jeans, toweling off his chest.
“Damn,” Juan said.
Jenni took a moment to admire Travis’s very impressive chest, then looked at Juan. Lifting her eyebrows, she said in English, “See? They started off the morning right.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “What’s up?”
“Juan is having a hissy fit,” Jenni answered.
“I am not,” Juan protested.
Travis pulled on his shirt and started to button it. “A hissy fit about what?”
“Jimmy,” Juan answered.
Travis made a face and sat on the bed. “I thought we talked about this last night?”
“We came to no conclusion.” Juan flopped onto the couch.
Jenni slid into the room and Katie closed the door behind her, giving Jenni a demure smile that she didn’t buy for one moment.
“Didn’t we agree that Nerit needed to deal with it?” Travis asked.
“No, we didn’t. Curtis was all for finding a way to discipline him.”
“I don’t know if we have to go that far.” Travis tugged on his socks one by one. “We all had moments yesterday. I faltered in shooting Mike.”
“Yeah, Travis, but you did better later. Nerit even told me so. You found your balls when you killed Brenda. And you did not almost get someone killed by locking them in a room with three zombies,” Juan retorted.
“I’m not saying what he did was right, Juan,” Travis snapped, his expression grim.
“He almost got Jenni killed!” Juan’s anger was about to get the best of him again; his face had gotten red and his body was visibly tense. Jenni put her hand on his shoulder, but she knew his Latin temper was building up to an explosion.
Travis shook his head. “Juan, we need to let Nerit handle it.”
“What if it had been Katie locked in a room with three zombies? Huh?”
Travis’s expression when he glanced at Katie said it all.
“Exactly,” Juan said, and stood up. “You know what? I’m going to deal with this man to man. Fuck diplomacy.”
“Juan,” Travis said softly.
“No, fuck it.” Juan walked out and slammed the door behind him.
“He’s having anger issues,” Jenni said.
“Obviously.” Travis stood and grabbed his new denim jacket. “I better go after him and calm him down.”
After a soft kiss for Katie, Travis was gone.
“Juan is really pissed,” Katie said.
“He’ll get over it after he yells at Jimmy for a few minutes. But enough about Juan being a dumb-ass. Let’s talk about you!” Jenni lifted her eyebrows. “Spill it!”
“What?” Katie asked, then broke into a huge grin. Jenni tackled her.
Like schoolgirls, they hugged each other and jumped around, laughing, until they collapsed into a heap on the bed.
“You have FFG!”
“Do not!”
“Uh-huh! Freshly fucked glow!” Jenni howled with laugher, pointing at Katie’s flushed countenance.
Katie looked at herself in the mirror, the
n covered her face. “Oh, God … I do!”
For the first time since they’d met, the two friends laughed together and shared a long moment free of fear.
Missing Juan at the elevator, Travis looked for him in the lobby with no success. Confused and concerned, he walked up to Peggy at the front desk.
“Have you seen Juan in the last few minutes? Did he come by to take a look at the duty roster?”
“Uhmm … no.”
Travis sighed with relief. Maybe Juan wasn’t trying to track down Jimmy. Maybe he had just been blowing off steam.
“Something wrong?” Peggy regarded him curiously. “I saw him stalking around earlier this morning, before everyone got up, bitchin’ about Jimmy. He looked at the roster then.” She offered Travis the clipboard.
“Shit!” Travis quickly found where Jimmy was supposed to be.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Travis lied, heading back to the elevators. Couldn’t they have just a little time with no major drama? Couldn’t they just fucking relax in the hotel without all of this? Hell, he hadn’t even really had a chance to enjoy being with Katie this morning.
The doors slid open on the second floor and he strode out swiftly, heading for the room where Jimmy was supposed to be keeping watch. Juan stepped out into the hall, looking angry.
“Juan, you didn’t do anything—”
“He’s not at his post,” Juan answered sharply. “I told you he was a pussy.”
Travis lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Jimmy’s not there. We have no coverage of the front of the hotel because that fucker is off somewhere picking his ass!”
Travis walked into the room and scrutinized the layout. There was a chair near the window, which was open, and the curtains were pulled back. A nearby table held a full ashtray and several soda cans. Travis looked out the window, spotting a few shambling zombies wandering around below.
“I told you—he’s a fucking pussy who doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything,” Juan ranted behind him.
Travis looked directly down and froze. “Shit, Juan. What did you do?” Below him, in a bush, what remained of Jimmy was struggling to get up.
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 46
