The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

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

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

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nbsp; "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. "