She began to scream…
Jenni woke and sat up sharply. Her heart thundered in her chest. In the dim light leaking in around the edges of the makeshift tent she shared with Juan, she could see that her hands were not covered in blood. Pressing her fingertips to her lips, she felt their soft, dry fullness and sighed with relief. Laying her forehead against her drawn up knees, she took deep breaths and tried to calm her wildly beating heart.
Juan's hand gently touched her back then withdrew. Jenni knew he was used to her nightmares and knew not to coddle her. She didn't want to be touched or calmed down after the nightmares. It often took her several minutes to gain full control of her senses and convince herself she was truly safe and far away from her dead family.
The blue tarp that made up the tiny tent rippled around her in the night breeze. A light from outside peeked through a tear in the top of the tent and cast a soft beam across her hands. They were clean.
There was no blood on them. All around her, outside the tent, she could hear people softly talking, snoring, coughing, and sneezing, as they, too, dealt with the night terrors that came with sleeping and dreaming.
Shoving her thick black hair back from her face, she took another deep breath. She slowly accepted the moment as her reality. Why her brain tried to convince her that she had not escaped the morning the dead took over she could not fathom. It was Lloyd who had taken Benji's tender flesh. It was Lloyd who had become one of the undead and destroyed their family and home forever. None of it had been her doing. She had barely escaped the house. Had it not been for Katie saving her, she probably would have joined the ranks of the zombie hordes. Katie had heard her screaming and driven up in that battered white truck to rescue her. Together they had escaped into the Texas Hill Country and found safety with a group of survivors holed up in a construction site in a small town.
She had survived. She was alive. She had rescued her stepson from the camp he had been attending, she had found love with one of the construction workers named Juan, and now, free from her dead husband's reign, she was strong and living her own life.
Taking a deep breath, that did not feel forced or ragged, she slowly relaxed. Letting herself fall back onto the cot, she curled up on her side, facing away from Juan. It was uncomfortable sleeping on the twin cots that were bound together, but she liked feeling him near her.
In the gloom, he slid his arm around her waist and she smiled.
In silence, they lay side by side and waited for sleep to come again.
Sleep hopefully free of the past and the terror that came with it.
2. A Moment of Peace
Juan listened to Jenni's breathing become deeper and deeper until he knew she was asleep once more. He didn't move despite his arm falling asleep. She was holding onto his wrist tightly. He didn't draw it away for he wanted to make sure she felt his presence even in her slumber. It was hard to see her struggling with the nightmares about what had happened to her children. It was especially hard knowing that he could not give her any real comfort.
But Jenni kept the dreams to herself, mourning in ways he could not understand. He was convinced that her evolution into a woman who could dispatch zombies with eerie efficiency was her way of coping with her children dying. As far as he knew, she didn't even talk to Katie, her very best friend, about the death of her children. In Jenni's waking moments, she was loving, outgoing, and funny. But in her dreams, she was afraid and shattered emotionally. It broke his heart.
His long body pressed up against hers, he could feel the softness of her black hair against his chest. His body was sore and tired from all the work he was doing on the “fort. ” The construction site the sur
vivors were living in was quickly becoming too cramped. As more survivors found their way to the fort, it was increasingly more difficult to keep things safe and sanitary. There was one shower and one bathroom in city hall for everyone in the fort.
The survivors had to get into the old fashioned hotel that loomed over the construction site. There was a side entrance to the hotel and a front entrance, but no way into the hotel from the construction site without risking being out in the open. And the zombies did tend to appear out of nowhere.
Juan's first major task had been to make a secure way into the fort for the vehicles they were sending out to salvage supplies and find survivors. Finally, the “Panama Canal” was done and it was basically two gated enclosures leading into a walled off area where they could keep the vehicles in an old newspaper building delivery truck garage.
The old newspaper building was completely uninhabitable and would take months to clean out and repair. With the heat of the summer just around the corner as well as the thunderstorm season, the survivors just didn't have the time to repair the building. They had to get into the hotel.
Jenni's grip on his arm lessened as sleep took her completely. He kissed her shoulder hoping and praying that her dreams would not be ones of terror. Closing his eyes, he tried to block out the aching of his body and capture what little sleep he could before tomorrow came and a whole new day of hard work would consume him.
He was so tired in both body and mind. Jenni brought him happiness, but he wanted a rest from the daily terror they all experienced since the zombie apocalypse had started. He wanted to sleep in a real bed with Jenni and not feel afraid. Was it wrong to hope for a little peace for both of them? He hoped not, because that is what he prayed for every night.
Beyond the walls of their little fort, the world was still dying and the dead were walking, but all Juan wanted was a moment when all would feel alive and good. Maybe it was too much to hope for.
Perhaps this moment, listening to Jenni breathing as she slept peacefully, was all he could truly wish for.
With a long sigh, he tightened his deadened arm around her waist and held onto her tightly.
3. The Lurking Past
Katie sat on top of the city hall roof in a plastic chair with her arms folded over her breasts and her head tilted back to stare at the stars.
She was done with sleep for the night. One more nightmare about her dead wife and she would start screaming and never stop. The ache in her chest hurt so bad; she didn’t want to see her loved one’s mutilated form rushing her with clawed hands anymore.
The cigarette dangling from her fingers was burning down slowly.
Raising it to her lips, she took another long drag, then exhaled slowly.
She watched the smoke unfurl against the backdrop of the stunning black sky with pinpricks of stars. She had quit smoking when she had met Lydia. Lydia had hated smoking with a passion. Her fiance at the time had been a chain smoker and she had never even thought about quitting until she had met Lydia. After one look into Lydia's amazing eyes, Katie would have done anything for her.