The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

The truck sputtered once and died.

They were a block from their destination.

Katie immediately grabbed the CB transceiver, but before she could speak, it cackled and a voice said, "We have a distraction going. Run for the corner where we are signaling. "

"Corner? Corner?" Jenni looked scattered and afraid.

"Calm! Stay calm, Jenni!" Katie grabbed her shotgun, her backpack, and the bag of ammo and leaped out of the truck at the ready. She spotted a man standing next to the big yellow machine waving a Texas flag at her. "There!

Follow me!"

Jenni followed, struggling to get her backpack on. Jason hopped out, backpack on, and the dog leaped out behind him.

"Run," Katie said ordered.

They ran.

Katie was in good shape, but not used to running with so much weight.

She felt slow and vulnerable, but the shotgun in her hand was a comfort.

They raced past empty stores, long boarded up, "for lease" signs faded on their ruined doors. They raced past blood splatters on the sidewalk. They ran past empty cars, frightening with their open doors and windows. They ran across an old, red brick street and aimed for the large yellow arm of the construction beast extending down toward them.

Katie wondered what the hell it was called.

"Get in, get in," a man's voice was yelling.

Katie was finding it harder to run. Her legs felt rubbery from all the time in the truck. Jenni and Jason were huffing behind her.

"Hurry!"

Her lungs hurt, her back hurt, her body hurt, but she ran.

The large scoop of the machine reached the road, encrusted with dirt, its jagged teeth somehow welcoming. They ran for it and heard the screeches of the undead.

"Run!" A man's voice boomed out. "Get into it!"

Katie reached it and whirled around in the direction of the moans and screams of the undead. The zombies were heading around the far corner.

Jenni lost her footing and tumbled forward, but managed to fall into the clawed scoop. Jason jumped in after her. Katie heaved the dog in and Jason and Jenni grabbed him.

The large scoop was pretty much filled and already lifting.

The zombies were close and Katie considered firing, but realized it would waste time. The mechanical arm was lifting with a steady whine of its machinery and she half fell, half jumped into it. She was barely in it, lying on top of everyone else.

Their view was shifted as they were lifted and Katie felt sickeningly vulnerable. She was trembling so violently she was sure she was going to vomit. The moans of the dead surrounded them and a hand, grisly and bloodied, grabbed onto one of the dirt encrusted teeth of the yellow construction beast. The arm was being swept up over the crowd, barely a few feet over the heads of the crazed zombies The hand of the zombie who had grabbed on was trying to get a better hold. Another hand, its other hand, fumbled at her foot. Katie was terrified to move for fear of rolling off Jason, Jenni and poor Jack and into the crowd below. She could only stare at the scrabbling hand in fear.

Jack solved the problem. He grabbed the hand of the zombie, shook his head violently, and it lost its grip and fell. The machinery's arm lifted faster, higher and swung about. Katie felt herself slipping and Jason and Jenni grabbed onto her tighter. And the world tilted and they were being lowered.

Katie lost her balance, slid, and painfully went over the teeth of the contraption. Instead of a plunge into the undead, she landed on soft soil. A man's hand came down and took hers gently and heaved her to her feet.

She stood on the edges of a large construction site. Two enormous buildings flanked its backside and one side. A small, elegant town hall fit into another corner. Only two edges of the site were open to the rest of the town and those were cut off with a hurricane fence. Beyond the fence was a ring of construction trucks that had dirt and bags of cement tucked underneath them and between the cabs and loads, making a secondary wall. But there was a third wall already being constructed within the hurricane fence.

Already it was connecting one building to the city hall. A high wrought iron fence surrounded the city hall and its windows were covered in fancy ironwork.

Katie was staggered by what she saw. The portable office buildings for the site were now residences, that was plain to see, and a lunch wagon was parked in a corner. Construction workers were moving fast to create a small fort the size of a city block for those taking refuge in the site. There were people clustered about to see the newcomers.

"It's not a mall," Jenni sighed with relief as she staggered out of the crane's scoop. She was a bit dirty and rumpled but alive. Jason and Jack followed her, both looking very relieved.