The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

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. "