The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

Holding him tightly, she slid him into the cab. As a second thought, she snagged the vet paperwork taped to the carrier.

Jenni, meanwhile, solemnly got out of the cab, released the safety, pumped the shotgun and waited. The zombified man was almost to the truck, moaning, reaching out to her. For a moment, he looked remarkably like Lloyd.

She fired.

The headless corpse hit the pavement.

"What the hell did you just do?" Katie looked utterly shocked.

Jenni looked at her plaintively. "We have to kill them. "

Katie opened her mouth, then shut it. She looked shocked at Jenni's actions, but was more concerned at the moment with the groggy, half-grown German Shepherd. She climbed into the cab and shut the door.

Jenni sighed and climbed in as well, slipping the safety back on the shotgun.

"We don't kill. "

"You ran over the runners back in town. "

"I panicked. I…" Katie faltered.

Jenni sighed sadly. She needed Katie to be strong. She needed her to be the strong one. She hadn't minded shooting the zombie as an example and she would kill them in the future, but Katie needed to lead. Jenni couldn't bear the thought of having to figure all of this out.

Katie stroked the dog's fur as she looked at Jenni for a long moment.

"We'll talk about this later. We need gas now. And Jack here, well, we need to keep him up here. Poor baby just had surgery. Good thing he was knocked out during most of our escape. " She nuzzled the dog and kissed him.

"Jack?" Jenni smiled. "I like that name. " She wrapped her arms around the dog and pulled him onto her lap.

"That's what his vet papers say. "

"It's a good name. "

Katie smiled slightly and nodded to herself. "Okay, gas station next.

Gas, food, supplies, and we keep going until we figure out where the hell we are going? Sound good?"

"Yeah," Jenni answered. Snuggling the dog tight, she sighed with relief.

Katie was back in control.

It would be okay.

Chapter 2

1. In The Shadow of the Dying World

Katie sighed with relief when she saw the gas station sign up ahead.

The needle on the gas gauge was dipping dangerously under empty.

Despite the lack of any "zombies" out on the road, she did not want to get stuck walking anywhere.

Beside her Jenni was busy lavishing attention on the German Shepherd.

Katie was having a tough time understanding Jenni. The first time she h

ad seen her, Jenni had seemed to be in a daze. The first spark of life she had shown was when she had blown the zombie's head off. Now she seemed more alive. Yes, that was it. A little more animated. It almost seemed weirder than her trance-like state when Katie had first saved her.