The First Days: As the World Dies (12 page)
Read The First Days: As the World Dies Online
Authors: Rhiannon Frater
Tags: #Horror & Ghost Stories, #Zombies
His voice was like fine leather against her skin and she felt herself blushing.
Behind her, Katie walked briskly holding her shotgun in one hand and her backpack in the other.
As they neared the back entrance of city hall, Travis said, "Hold a sec" and released his hold on Jenni and Jason. He turned and motioned to Juan.
The Hispanic man, his long, curly hair flowing under his baseball cap, quickly ran over. He was tall, deeply tanned and had the lean muscled build of someone who worked at hard physical labor. His dark hair had glints of red in it and his eyes were a dark green. Tucking his thumbs into his work belt, he looked at Travis expectantly. He looked weary and a little shorttempered.
"We have more zombies on the way. Get the harnesses ready," Travis said.
"Great. It's not like we don't have enough of them out there as it is."
Juan said in his very thick West Texas accent. "Are you sure?"
"They followed the ladies here to Ashley Oaks," Travis assured him.
"They're on their way."
"Well, shit." Juan took a deep breath. His keen eyes flicked to Katie.
"Where'd you pick 'em up?"
"Emorton was overrun. It looked like the whole town was turned. They weren't too messed up so they were fast," Katie answered. "I'm Katie, by the way. This is Jenni and Jason."
"I'm Juan," he answered and shook his head. "We lost a man keeping them off the perimeter before."
"We learned from our mistakes. We need to keep them thinned out or we'll get overrun," Travis said.
"What are you going to do?" Katie glanced toward the barriers then back at Travis.
"We're going to secure some men with safety lines and give them shovels and some homemade spears. When the zombies come up against the outer perimeter, we stand above them on the trucks and stab down through their skulls, jumble up their brains. We took out around a dozen that way before we lost a man the last time. But we didn't have the safety lines the first time out," Travis said, his voice tinged with sorrow.
Juan shook his head and looked up at the darkening sky. "Good thing we got the lights set up. And if the grid goes down, we're on backup power…" He shook his head again. "This is a fucked up situation."
"Just get some men ready and hooked up. First sign of trouble, we yank them back."
"It's like we're dangling bait in front of the zombies, Travis," Juan protested gruffly.
"They're gonna come anyway," Travis answered.
"Yeah. Yeah. Shit." Juan sighed heavily. "Okay. I'm on it."
Jenni waited on the stairs with Jason. She felt anxious at the conversation and Jason looked unnerved. Katie looked the opposite. She seemed comforted by the words of the two men. Jenni slowly realized it was because Katie felt that at last there was a working plan of action.
Travis clapped Juan on the shoulder. "Keep me informed."
"You got it, Travis" Juan said in a resigned tone and walked off.
Travis turned and instead of resuming his comforting embrace of Jenni and Jason, he lightly touched Katie's arm. "I want to hear about what's up with you. How you ended up here."
"Sure, but let’s eat." Katie gave him a slight smile. "We're seriously hungry."
With a nod of his head, Travis took hold of her arm and led her inside.
Jenni hung back for a second to watch Juan order several men off the construction of the wall, then she followed Katie and Travis inside. She felt moody all at once and couldn't help it.
As he had promised, there was more than enough food up in the community-dining hall. Jenni and Jason almost ran to the table and started loading up plates. Katie took her time, talking animatedly to Travis, her shotgun still in her hand. Feeling even more disgruntled, Jenni filled her plate as she tried to adjust to their new situation and environment. She sat down at a long table, one of those folding ones that they always use at social functions in churches and other organizations, to eat a plate full of all sorts of "down home" cooking. Katie and Travis sat down across from her all the while talking about the construction of the wall. Next to her Jason was already eating a plate full of fried chicken. Of course, Jack was under the table, eating all sorts of good scraps.
But Jenni was confused.
Katie and Travis were talking swiftly, voices melding seamlessly. She had been convinced that they knew each other from before all of this. There had been a look of recognition in Travis' eyes when he had stood there holding Katie's hand. But they never said "Oh, hey it’s you!" or anything remotely like that. It was as if some sort of invisible box had sprung up around them locking everyone out.
And Jenni did not like that.
Well, yeah, she definitely liked Travis. He had such a strong presence and had such sweet eyes. And she had already caught him looking at her with that special look men have for women they find attractive. She didn't find Katie a threat in that regard though she was well aware that Katie had the kind of looks men gravitated to. Katie was gay. Pure and simple. That was not even an issue.
But Katie was her war buddy. Her new best friend. Her sister. They had spent a lot of time together. They had wept together. And Travis just appearing and just clicking with Katie-damn it all-it was making her a little nuts. She felt unbalanced by it and kept trying to get Katie to at least look at her. She felt needy and selfish and embarrassed by her feelings. It was foolish to feel this way when Katie had risked her life to help Jenni save Jason. And Jason was alive and well, sitting next to her, feeding bits of chicken skin to the dog because Katie had kept it together and got them out of the campgrounds.
Jenni stabbed at her congealing mashed potatoes and looked up again at Katie. For a wild, irrational moment, she thought that maybe she should make herself gay to keep Katie's affections, but realized that was just stupid.
She wasn't gay and that wasn't what this was about. Katie made her feel safe.
She needed to feel safe.
"…so that is the first and utmost priority at this time. The wall," Katie was saying.
"Exactly. Then we will start to lay out plans on how to secure the two buildings that border us so we can actually inhabit them as well."
"Walling off all the ground floor windows would be a start," Katie suggested.
"And we have the bricks for it. Since the service entrance is on the side and there is no entrance off the backside, which faces our area, we'll have to bust through a wall." Travis was drawing on a piece of paper, more doodling than anything, but was clearly enthralled by Katie's input.
"You'll have to clear the building," Katie said. "But you don't have guns."
"No, we were using our tools to off any zombies that attacked during the first phase of constructing the outer perimeter. A solid blow to the head and they go down."
"We could go get more guns," Jenni said softly.
They both looked at her and she blushed.
"You mean Ralph," Katie said.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I know you said that thing about the guns drawing the zombies, but one day, they are just gonna show up. And they're gonna make it real hard on us to do anything," Jenni said.
"Yeah, Jenni's right. Those zombies are just gonna come here anyway because we're here," Jason agreed. He chewed away on a chicken bone as Jack nudged his elbow.
Travis frowned a little and slowly nodded. "My family originally came from England when I was a boy. They were very anti-gun. We've done all right so far with our shovels. But…"
Katie laid her revolver on the table in front of him. "Discretion was in order for you to get this place secure as fast as you did, but soon this will be the answer. It's fast and more efficient if you got good aim."
"Your friend, Ralph, he has weapons? He just told us he was the Mayor of a small town."
"He is, but he also owns a pretty big hunting and camping store," Jenni said.
Travis rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"It wouldn't hurt to talk to him about this. Besides, I just realized we need to let him know we're okay." Katie looked at Jenni and winced.
"Ralph must be worried sick," Jenni answered. She felt a little better now that she was part of the conversation.
Katie turned to Travis. "I know you're in charge here-"
"The Mayor-"
"I know you're in charge here," Katie repeated "and I'd like to suggest that maybe you should arrange with Ralph to go pick up some weapons. If you really can clear out a lot of the zombies that are out there right now, maybe we can head over to Ralph's."
Travis looked at Katie for a long moment, his gaze steady and thoughtful. "Yeah, you got a good idea there. We got about twenty of those things out there now. More on the way. They may break out of the school soon."
"Then we can't waste time," Katie suggested.
Travis thought for a long moment. "Yeah. I think it’s time to go talk to the Mayor and get hold of your friend."
Katie had barely eaten, but she stood up as Travis did.
Jenni pushed her plate away quickly and followed suit. "I'll come with you."
"I'm going to keep eating," Jason said firmly and Jack seemed to agree with this decision as he licked his chops.
Jenni hurried around the table to follow Katie and Travis, desperate to be included.
Downstairs they entered a large room that was sectioned off into cubicles. The city secretary and her little boy were fixing up a bed for themselves behind her desk while the Mayor sat in a nearby chair listening to the emergency broadcasting channel.
"…as communication with Europe has ceased there is no word on how far the plague as spread. The CDC, operating in a slowly burning Atlanta, continue to issue guidelines for destroying the reanimates…"
The Mayor looked up to see them and turned off the radio. "They are beginning to repeat the broadcast. Not a good sign is it?"
Travis shook his head and sat in a folding chair across from the desk.
"What about the CB?"
"Lots of truckers still out there trying to find safe places, but some are running out of gas. There are not as many out there as there were." The Mayor folded his hands on the desk and sighed. "How is the wall coming along?"
"We still think we'll have the area fully enclosed by morning if we keep working all night. Another batch of zombies are headed our way."
"The school?"
"Not yet. Other zombies following Katie and Jenni here. Maybe twenty. I have Juan organizing some men to kill as many as they can. We'll use safety lines this time."
The Mayor let out a long breath as he ran a hand over his balding head.
"If the school…"
"Yeah. Which brings me to something. That man, Ralph, the Mayor who told us the girls were in route. He owns a hunting store. He has guns." Travis spoke softly with respect, but Jenni could tell he was subtly trying to steer the Mayor in the direction he wanted him to go.
The Mayor took in this information, then said, "I have an idea. We could send someone out to get some guns once we thin out the zombies around the wall."
Travis hesitated and said, "That sounds like a good idea. I can try to get ahold of Ralph tonight and maybe send out someone in the morning."
"See what you can figure out and let me know," the Mayor said softly.
Travis nodded. "I'll get right on it."
The Mayor slowly turned and once more checked on his computer. The CNN homepage was up on the screen. "Still the same page as yesterday. No updates."
Travis motioned to the women and they followed him into a side room.
Curtis, the cop, sat beside a ramshackle set up of communication equipment.
He looked pale beneath his tan and his thin blond hair was matted with sweat.
"Hey, Curtis!"
The cop looked up and said, "It's getting quieter out there."
Travis nodded, walked over and laid a hand on the cop's shoulder. He squeezed it lightly. "What about that man, Ralph?"
"He asked about the women. I told him they arrived safely."
"Good. Think you could get him back on the line?"
"Yeah. Give me a sec."
Jenni stood close to Katie, watching, taking it all in. It felt good to be here. Safer somehow. But she still felt thrown off balance. Katie looked at her, smiled, and tenderly swept some loose locks of Jenni's black hair back from her face.
"You okay?"
Jenni smiled immediately under the attention. "Yeah. Just nervous."
Katie kissed her cheek lightly and slid her arm around Jenni's waist.
"Yeah. Me, too."
And then, outside, the moans and screeches of the dead rose to mingle with shouts of alarm.
The zombies had arrived at the perimeter.
Chapter 9
1. The Night of the Dead
Travis rushed over to a window, pulled back the curtains and swore under his breath.
"You two stay here," he said, and rushed out the door.
Curtis looked at the two women, then lowered his head solemnly. He seemed worn down, tired, and overwhelmed. Katie remembered that Travis said that the police force had been wiped out. She had a feeling Travis had asked him to oversee the communications center they had set up to keep him from the action. Curtis looked no older than twenty-one and Katie bet he hadn't been on the job long.
Jenni grabbed her hand. "If we go upstairs we could probably see out the window."
Katie nodded. "Let's go see."
Together, they ran out of the room and up the stairs.
A small crowd of people clustered around the windows to watch.
Managing to worm their way into a good position to watch out of one of the windows, Katie and Jenni looked down at the men taking position to fight the zombies. Ladders had been used to scale the wall and get up onto the trucks.
The harness lines glinted in the light from the huge lights set up around the perimeter. The men had only shovels and strange spears with what looked like trowels attached to the ends. Since the windows were looking out at the street over the top of the wrought iron fence, it was easy to see the zombies desperate to reach the men. Moaning loudly, some of them screeching, thirty or so zombies clustered under the men, beating the sides of the trucks, demanding the flesh of those above them.
Katie's heart jumped a little, as she caught sight of Travis running up one of the ladders, still fastening his harness, his spear under his arm. Of course he would be part of this. He was not the sort of man to send others to do something he wouldn't do himself.
It was as if his presence on top of the truck was a sign, all the men began to squat down and ram their weapons down as hard as they could on the heads of the dead below. Katie could see the shovels busting open heads as the trowel-ended spears were driven through the eye sockets in upturned faces. Some of the zombies managed to grab the weapons and those wielding them immediately let go and were handed a new one. She wondered if the man that had been lost in the earlier battle had tried to fight with a zombie for his weapon. In this new world you had to learn fast to survive.
In the first few minutes, the construction workers took out at least ten zombies. The crush of the other zombies against their now truly dead comrades became greater, holding up dead. This made the men reach out further to actually hit one of the living undead. One man lost his footing altogether and swung out over the crowd. Juan shouted and immediately his towline was drawn up and back. Zombies tried to grab his feet, but the man was swung to safety.
"Shit," someone said nearby and Katie couldn't agree more.
Her eyes continuously strayed to Travis. He had a greater reach and seemed to be driving his shovel down with a strange, staccato rhythm.
"He is kicking so much ass," Jason said from behind her.
Even Jack had managed to wedge himself between people to get a view out the window. He let out a series of low growls.
Travis yelled something and all the men backed away. Then that great mechanical arm came swinging over their heads, loaded up with what looked like bags filled with dirt or maybe cement. Travis made several motions with his hand, guiding the driver of the machine to just the perfect spot, then made a downward stroke with his arm. The driver released the load of heavy bags right into the center of the remaining throng. Most of the zombies were effectively crushed.
Out of the original throng of thirty zombies, maybe five staggered about, falling over their dead comrades.
Travis made another motion and the men retreated down their ladders, picked up the ladders, walked to the wall, rested the ladders against the wall, and scrambled up and over into the construction site. Once the ladders were back over the walls and everyone was safe, cheers erupted throughout the complex.
Katie turned to Jenni and saw her face was very flushed and excited.
"He's amazing!" Jenni giggled and hugged Katie.
Katie hugged Jenni to her and said, "Yep, he is."
And Travis, at that very moment, looked up at the window they were in, his gaze meeting Katie's, and smiled.
2. Another Moment
Exhaustion hit Katie like a sledgehammer. She almost felt drunk as she finally lay down on the cot set up for her in a small empty storage room on the fourth floor of city hall. The old building's sloped roof made standing up straight a little difficult unless you were in the center of the room. She had a feeling Travis had pulled some strings to get them a place inside the building and not camping out in portable buildings that were now dorms. Evidently the basement of city hall had long ago been set up as a bomb shelter during the Commie scare and loads of cots and musty blankets were brought up for those taking refuge in "the fort".
Jenni had seemed wired and very awake after the zombie attack. After they had talked to Ralph on the CB and he agreed to provide weapons to the fort if they could figure out how to pick them up, Jenni had slipped out with Travis to follow him around on the complex. He had asked Katie, but she was far too tired and had begged off. Now she sat on her cot watching Jason fix a bed on the floor for Jack using a blanket he had pinched when no one was watching the supplies.
She had managed to take off her boots and socks and now sat in her olive green hunting pants and her black tank top. She desperately wanted a shower, but there was a sign in sheet to use the only shower located in the city hall janitor's office. She had a slot for the early morning.
Jason looked up at her and slid onto the bed under the small narrow window. Jenni's cot was against the slant in the roof, forming an L with Katie's.
Jack, the zombie hating dog, examined his bed, circled three times, fussed at it with his paws, circled again, and lay down with a yawn.
"Uh, Katie?"
"Yeah?"
"Um…are you and Jenni gonna hook up?"
Katie double-blinked and said, "Huh?"
"My Mom, after my Dad divorced her for Jenni, hooked up with this girl for about two weeks. Mom was always going from guy to guy and that was the only girl, but I was just wondering…" Jason trailed off seeing Katie's expression. "Sorry."
"No, it’s cool." Katie sighed and ran her hands over her hair, which fell free to her shoulders in soft curls. "Okay, just because I like girls does not mean I'm going to hook up with the nearest girl. In fact, it is my own personal rule not to get involved with straight women. I value myself too much to be someone's experiment."
Jason considered this and said, "Yeah. I guess that is what my Mom was doing since my Dad was such a jerk to her. She made a big deal out of having a girlfriend then it was over in weeks. Then she just went from boyfriend to boyfriend until she died in a car accident a few years ago."
"Is that when you came to live with Jenni?"
"Yeah. I didn't really want to like her. Mom always called her "that bitch", but she's really sweet. Kinda goofy. She's kinda like an older sister. I'm really glad you saved her," Jason sighed and lay on the cot. "I just thought maybe because you're a lesbian you two would end up together."
Katie laughed and shook her head. "I'm not a lesbian."
Jason looked at her shocked. "Huh? But you said-"
"I'm bisexual. Always have been. I dated both guys and girls all through high school and college. It just happened that the person," Katie's voice caught in her throat and she couldn't talk for a moment. "I fell in love with and wanted to spend my life with was a woman. I always figured it could have gone either way, but it was her: Lydia." She pulled out the camera and dared to waste a little bit of the battery flashing the picture to Jason.
"She's hot," Jason decided. "Where is she?"
Waving her hand distractedly, Katie stared at Lydia's beautiful smile, then snapped the phone shut with her other hand. "Somewhere out there.
One of them."
Jason winced. "Sorry, Katie."
"Me, too…me, too."
"So…uh…you like guys?"
Katie laughed and lay back on the bed. "I've had some boyfriends. I was even engaged to a guy."
"What happened?"
"To my engagement?"
"Yeah."
"I met Lydia. And that was that. Six years of heaven with someone that is-she was just everything I needed."
"I bet your boyfriend was mad."
"Um…yeah. But we were together for all the wrong reasons. We worked together and shared ambitions. I think we took that to be more than it was."
"Oh. So why did you say you were a lesbian?"
"So you'd pee!"
Jason frowned at her. "Yeah. Well…" He blushed.
"I often tell people I'm a lesbian just so they're comfortable."
"I don't get it."
"Well, people like absolutes. And it blows most of their minds to try to think that I could find men and women equally attractive and possible mates.
It just freaks them out. They want me to be one or the other. So, since I was with Lydia, it was just easier to say I was a lesbian." Katie held the cell phone against her chest and tried not to cry.
"So you could end up with a guy or a girl?"
"Honestly, Jason, right now, I can't imagine being with anyone. I just…"
She rolled onto her side and faced the wall. "I just miss her."
Jason was very quiet behind her. The minutes ticked by and hot tears flowed, a few dripping off the tip of her nose. How could she even imagine being with anyone ever again?
Lydia…oh..Lydia…
"I just thought if you and Jenni hooked up you would take good care of her," Jason finally said softly.
Katie rolled over and gave him a soft smile. "That was a very sweet thing for you to say."
"Well, you know, if you change your mind…" Jason faltered. "I mean…"
"I know." Katie tucked the phone under the pillow and reached up and flicked off the light. Faintly, she could hear the few zombies moaning out beyond the perimeter. "But, Jason, honestly, right now I just…I loved her.
The mere thought of being with anyone else just feels wrong."
Jason turned his head to look across the small, darkened room. "I know, Katie. You make me feel safe. I feel like I've known you forever and it's just been hours."
Katie smiled at him fondly. "I know. We'll be okay."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
3. Dead Stars In Her Eyes
Jenni wandered along behind Travis, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets. It was cold now that the sun had settled beyond the horizon to slumber. She had finally let her long hair down to flow in the wind. It was a little bit of a ploy to get Travis to admire her and it seemed to be working. She really liked this tall, handsome rather shy man. He greeted everyone they came across warmly and finally they climbed up on top of a truck and took up watching the zombies who had survived the slaughter. The undead kept trying to maneuver their way closer, but they kept falling over their dead comrades. It was almost comical.
"I could shoot them," she offered to Travis.
He shook his head. "No, they're not much of a threat down there. We need to wait to use guns. We don't need to be drawing more of them to us until we are more secure." Stretching, he held his trowel-spear over his head and that stirred up a zombie woman, who tried to run, fell over the dead bodies and slammed headfirst into the asphalt.
"That had to hurt," Jenni decided.
"I don't think they feel pain," Travis said sadly.
The woman tried to get up, but could not find stable purchase on the bodies around her and kept sliding around in the gore and muck.
"Seriously, I could shoot her," Jenni said again, somewhat hopefully.
Travis just laughed. He rubbed his eyes and sat down in a chair someone had put up on the back of the truck. The bed was full of earth and the chair sank down a little, but it was better than standing. Jenni sat down next to him, Indian-style, recognizing he needed the better view for his job.
"So. All the zombies are holed up in the school?"
"Yeah and we considered having someone drive out there to doublecheck, but decided that could end up giving them the incentive they need to break out. Juan noticed that when they can't see humans directly, they tend to just mill around. It's when they spot living flesh that they go ape shit."
Travis watched the zombie woman languishing in the guts of her dead comrades, at one point trying to eat a bit of intestine only to spit it out. She continued to swim through the congealed blood and decaying flesh.
Jenni watched the woman with a small smile on her face. Her fingers were itching to draw her gun and blast a hole through the woman's skull.
Something about her desperation to get to them and eat them, coupled with her bright, candy-pink jogging suit and bouffant hairdo just annoyed the ever-loving fuck out of her.
"Most of the ones I have seen are always running to eat me. I never see them just standing around."
"Because we're back behind the barricades we've had a chance to see them just stand there swaying or milling around until they spotted someone alive. But once they figure out we're back here, they attack and just keep attacking until we kill them." He sighed and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
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