The First Days: As the World Dies (11 page)

1. The New World

    

    Travis motioned to an older man standing on the back steps of the quaint little city hall. The older, balding man with the rotund belly nodded and headed back into the building.

    Jenni let her backpack fall to the ground with a thunk and shook out her hair to get all the caked mud out of it. But there was a flare to the movement, a bit of feminine guile tingeing her movement.

    Katie smiled even bigger. Jenni was trying to get Travis' attention.

    He walked toward them, dirty, tired, but smiling.

    "Okay, sorry, things are a little crazy right now. Your arrival really surprised us. We had a truck driver arrive a few hours ago. Honestly, at this point, we weren't sure anyone was left out there that was alive." Travis set his hands on his hips and shook his head. "We were listening to the Emergency Broadcast but nothing made sense. They don't' seem to have a clue in hell what is going on."

    "Zombies," Jenni said with a smile.

    He looked at her, grinned, and nodded. "Yeah, zombies."

    "When did you figure out what was going on? This had to have gone up immediately," Katie said motioning all around her.

    "Well, yesterday we were supposed to break ground. We were going to rebuild a historical building that burned down a few years ago. This whole area is about to undergo a serious-or was going to undergo- a serious reconstruction. A developer was keen on turning it into a tourist attraction complete with the rebuilt vaudeville theater and the hotel," he pointed to one of the tall redbrick buildings "being the focal points. Anyway, I was on my way here to work when the reports started coming in."

    "The race riot story," Katie said.

    Travis nodded. "Sounded weird to me. I couldn't figure out why there would be race riots breaking out all over the country. Anyway, got here and already we were hearing horror stories out of the cities on the CB. Truckers were reporting all sorts of crazy stuff. We were all on edge, not sure what to think. It sounded like an April Fool's joke, but of course, this is March, not April. Juan over there kept saying over and over again it was zombies, but we all just blew it off." Travis shook his head and looked at Katie in the eyes. "I mean, it sounds crazy."

    Katie sighed and ran a hand over her blond hair. "Yeah, it does.

    Completely."

    "Anyway, the Mayor decided that the best thing to do until we were sure of the threat was get everyone in town out to the new high school. He told us we could go ahead and start to break ground, but he wanted the civvies safe."

    Travis leaned toward Katie. "The Mayor is in the back pocket of the developer, you see."

    "Ohhhhhh," Katie said.

    "So we went to work, but kept getting distracted by all the stories pouring in on the CB and on the radio. So, anyway, Curtis over there, that cop, comes by and tells me that there was an attack at a service station down the road and the officer on the scene had to put down the attacker he was so violent. They took the lady this freak attacked down to the clinic. He was real jittery and I didn't blame him. It all felt wrong, you know?"

    Jenni's head was bobbing up and down furiously.

    Travis shook his head and looked past the wall into the distance. "Just fucked up. Anyway, we start to finally get down to moving the equipment into position to start digging when we hear a big commotion down the block.

    Those cars out there just crash. Out of towner cars. And all hell is breaking loose in those cars. And we can see them rocking and hear screaming and what sounds like growling, then suddenly there are these…things…crawling out of the cars and they start running down the street toward us. Now, it's not normal for a man to have his intestines tripping his feet and he still keeps running."

    Katie winced at the thought and vividly remembered the first zombie to attack her. The grievous wounds on the man who had nearly dragged her out of her car had been a clear indicator that things weren't right.

    "Four of them ran straight for us and Juan, he's a crazy son of a bitch, just sweeps them right off the road into that building over there with the arm on the excavator. The whole time he's yelling about zombies and honestly, at that point, we believed him. Two of those things didn't get up. Their heads were bashed in. But the other two, despite having arms and legs that were clearly broken, were staggering toward us. So we grabbed up some shovels and dented their heads in. About that time Curtis is back and tells me that some shit was going down at the clinic and that the dead were walking again.

    The Mayor was out in front of city hall freaking out because he saw us take out the four zombies from the cars. Now, we know the town is up at the high school, so we go over and tell the Mayor that anyone bit needs to be tossed out on their ass." Travis shook his head. "Because in zombie movies…"

    "The bite is what makes them zombies," Jenni said helpfully.

    "Yeah. And so far…well..damn…so far it was clear to me and I think everyone else that ever watched those movies that they got a lot right." Travis fastened his gaze steadily on Katie. "But despite seeing it, I found it hard to believe it. But I couldn't afford not to believe."

    Katie agreed silently, her gaze steadily matching his. "Yes, because you have to survive."

    "Exactly. So we convince the Mayor to call the school and tell them to toss out anyone that has been bitten. Curtis can't get any of the other officers from the town on the horn. Well, there are only four cops for the whole town, but none of them answer his calls. Anyway, things are looking bad. The former Mayor of the town is now the principal over at the high school and tells the present Mayor to go fuck himself four different ways and upside down. Finally, he admits that they have bitten people in the high school and that the school nurse is taking care of them."

    Katie winced and shook her head. "We went through Emorton. The school was completely filled with zombies."

    "In fact, some of them are following us here. They'll probably be here in a little while," Jenni added.

    Travis blinked. "Shit."

    "We didn't mean for them to follow," Jenni said quickly.

    "Yeah, it kinda just happened," Jason said helpfully from where he sat on the ground holding the dog.

    Trying to look as calm and pleasant as possible while delivering bad news, Katie said, "Probably around twenty."

    Travis just ran his hand slowly through his hair and nodded. "Okay.

    We'll deal. The wall should keep them out. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Within 15 minutes we lost all communication with the school. That is when we knew we were in for a shitload of trouble. So we quickly drove all the trucks around to block off any vulnerable areas and packed sandbags and cement bags around them. This hurricane fence here could probably hold back a good number, but if the whole town decided to come visit…"

    "It wouldn't be pleasant," Katie agreed. She looked at the newly constructed cement and brick wall. "So you did start right away."

    "About one o'clock yesterday," Travis said. "Been building ever since. We should have the rest up soon."

    Katie's gaze swept over the three buildings, her back to the road they had driven in on. Directly in front of her was an old building with advertising painted on its wall barely visible due to time and the elements. To her right was an immense building that reached skyward and looked like it was topped by maybe a penthouse, ballroom and some sort of gazebo. Looking over her shoulder to her right was the city hall with its heavy fence. Two portable buildings that were originally offices were now dorms it looked like.

    Construction workers, city workers, and a few children and women were busy helping build the new wall. There were maybe thirty people in all in the complex.

    "I lost a lot of my crew due to them taking off for home. Can't blame them really. With all the badness going down people want to get to their families," Travis said softly.

    Katie shivered as she remembered Lydia.

    Travis took hold of her arm gently and rubbed it lightly. "You okay?"

    She knew her eyes were glistening. "Just…"

    "Yeah, me, too. I'm divorced so…but my parents…"

    "Jenni lost everyone but her stepson. I lost…" she faltered.

    Travis' eyes were so warm, so compassionate. "You lost your husband."

    Katie hesitated, but felt that something was fast developing between her and Travis. A bond…an understanding…something different. It was best to be honest.

    "My wife."

    Travis' gaze dropped for a moment, but his hand did not. He rubbed her arm tenderly, then said, "I'm sorry. She had to be real special to be with you."

    His words unleashed something deep within her and she covered her mouth, tears springing from her eyes. She felt tears on her face. Their gaze met, strong, understanding and he put his other hand on her other arm.

    "But she'd want you to survive," he added.

    Jenni wrapped one arm around Katie's waist and leaned against her, trying to comfort and maybe also trying to edge in on what she saw developing before her eyes. She looked confused and Katie understood why.

    Things between men and women were black and white with Jenni. Travis and Katie just clicking on some subliminal level had to be throwing her.

    Katie nodded and looked down at her feet to regain her composure.

    Finally, she looked up at him once more. "So you're the leader…"

    Travis withdrew his hands slowly. "Nah. The Mayor is. I just advise him."

    Katie slightly laughed and wiped a tear away. "Uh huh."

    Travis leaned toward her and put one finger to his lips. "Shhhh…"

    "That maid is at it again," a tall Hispanic man said from behind them.

    He pointed upwards and drew their attention to a window high above them.

    "That's the old hotel. They were going to open it in a few days," Travis explained.

    Katie noted that the first three floors had no windows that opened up onto the construction site. But further up, windows caught the rays of the setting sun lighting them up with a purple and pink glare. Near the top floor the outline of a woman continuously battered herself against the window.

    "She busts out the window, she's coming straight down," the Hispanic man decided in a thick West Texas accent.

    "Maybe she'll land on her damn head, Juan" Travis said.

    Katie narrowed her eyes and looked back at Travis. "The window is cracked."

    "She's been working on it for awhile. Since sometime last night. Bet she went to hide up there after being bit and… Well…" He shrugged.

    Jenni stepped closer to Travis. "What if there are more up there?"

    Katie glanced at the back of the building with the faded advertising for Coca Cola on the back of it. No windows at all on its back end. Just what looked like a back entrance and that was heavily barricaded.

    "It'll be raining zombies," Juan said with a laugh.

    Then it was raining one zombie. The maid finally broke the tempered glass and shoved her hand through. She worked and worked at it until she pushed herself all the way through and fell. It was a long, graceful sort of fall.

    Her blond hair streaming behind her. Her pink and blood colored dress hitching up over her head and shoulders. She landed feet first on the hard packed soil. Every bone in her legs shattered and she crumpled to the ground.

    Unable to get up, she began to systematically crawl toward the nearest person.

    By now a group of people were standing and watching, mesmerized.

    Juan sighed and started to walk toward her with a shovel in one hand.

    Katie cocked her shotgun.

    "No. No guns. The sound will bring them here if they are out of the school," Travis said.

    "Good point."

    Katie tried to look away, but couldn't. Juan casually drove the shovel through the head of the zombified maid and the drama was over.

    "We need to build a catapult and just toss them over," Juan muttered as he motioned to another man to help him dispose of the body.

    Travis laughed. "We just may."

    Katie turned and looked at him and slightly smiled. "So…"

    "So?"

    Jenni hovered near Katie's side, Jason right behind her. Jack looked at Katie curiously.

    "Got anything to eat around here?"

    "As a matter of fact, there was supposed to be a fund raiser for the local volunteer fire department. There is so much food up in the community dining hall on the second floor of city hall, you're gonna feel like you're in heaven."

    Thank God," Jenni said with relief.

    "So we're staying," Jason said.

    Katie looked at him and then at Jenni. Jenni smiled at her, her gaze flicking to Travis then back to Katie.

    "Yeah, we're staying."

    "Good. Because we need you here. I feel it," Travis said and he put his arms around both Jenni and Jason. "Now, let's get you food, introduce you to the Mayor and hear your stories."

    Katie didn't think Jenni could get any redder or anymore giddy. She followed the little group as they moved toward the city hall not even glancing back once to see Juan and another guy loading the dead zombie onto the arm of the excavator to dump her back among her own kind.

    "Besides," Katie mused. "How the hell would we get out of here?"

    

    

2. Through a Door Softly

    

    Jenni felt rather special walking with Travis' arm around her shoulders.