The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

Juan grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing. He felt Jenni lean toward him and looked up.

"We're all in this together, you know," she said.

"You're still loca," he told her.

She grinned at him and, much to his disgust, he smiled back.

2. Threshold

Jenni slid off her cot and sat at the edge of it, frowning. Jason was asleep, snoring slightly. Jack sat on the floor near her stepson's cot, staring at her quizzically.

Glancing over at Katie's empty cot, Jenni shivered in her nightgown. It was several sizes too big, but it was all she could find in the donation box for the needy. Pushing her dark hair out of her face, she rose and walked to the door.

Jack immediately got up and followed her. She rested her hand on his head and smiled down at the dog. He was a good and loyal friend.

Slipping quietly out, she moved down the narrow stairwell, her bare feet

not making a sound. Distantly, she could hear the zombies moaning. The living had kept well out of view of the dead, and now the zombies were just standing around moaning. Juan had been right about that. Staying out of sight kept the zombies calmer, but they certainly weren't going away. A few kept pounding away on the trucks until their hands were a bloody pulp, but most were just standing out there.

Jenni shivered as she thought of Katie. She couldn't bear to see her like that. Empty, lifeless, a mere husk of whom she had been with her spark gone from her eyes. Jenni had been all over the place emotionally all day. Juan had pissed her off by calling her loca, but she had put on her best "I'm just a pretty girl" persona to get him to lay off of her and let her hear what was going on. She knew her initial reaction to the word that Katie was very sick and possibly infected had set her back in the eyes of some of the people, but she didn't really care.

Even now, the thought of Katie not being here was too much to bear.

Katie had been the first good thing in her new life and she wanted to keep that. Katie made her feel safe. Katie made her feel like she was okay. Normal, not a dysfunctional battered housewife blundering through life. Katie was everything she had ever wanted to be, but had failed to be when she had married Lloyd at eighteen.

Katie had given her a second chance though. A second chance at life. A new life in a world that had changed all the rules, but that she found she could actually function in. Maybe that did make her loca, but she didn't care.

She brushed a tear away and found her way to the communication center. Curtis sat there, still in his uniform, looking worn out and shellshocked. He had taken a shower and washed out his clothes and they clung damply to his skin, but he didn't seem to care.

"Avoid Houston at all costs," a voice was saying over one of the speakers.

"Stay on the minor roads. I'll meet up with you near Texarkana. "

"Come back again, good buddy," another voice said.

Curtis noticed her presence and looked up at her slowly.

"Who are they?"

"Truckers. Looking for a place. "

"Did you tell them about us?"

"Too far out. Too little gas. A few may make it here in a day or two, but those things…" He shook his head. "We have to figure out how to make it safe for more people to come here. "

Jenni stepped into the room, Jack pressing past her to go greet Curtis.

The doggy love actually brought a smile to Curtis’ face and he leaned down to rub the German Shepherd's ears.

"Anything on with Katie?"

Curtis sighed. "Still real sick. Real sick. "

Jenni sat down on a cold, metal folding chair and clasped her hands tightly together. "What do they think it is?"

"Travis is afraid it’s the zombie sickness," Curtis answered her, averting his gaze from her.

Jenni sighed. "But he's not sure. "