The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

With a whine, the huge crane snagged the first of the storage units and lifted it high into the air. The forty foot long container that stood almost ten feet tall was used for storing a lot of the materials that were to be used in the construction of the building. But now it would serve another purpose. The crane arm slowly swung the unit over the construction site and Juan continued to motion and direct the operator.

Jenni joined some other people standing on a pile of cement bags to try to watch.

Slowly, the arm swung into position and the container was carefully aligned to fit into the road below. Juan motioned again and the container lowered slowly over the heads of the zombies reaching for it. Finally, it descended, smashing them beneath its weight. It was almost a perfect fit.

The crane arm swung back into position as Jenni ran across the site to where Juan was. She just had to see what was going on. Running up the steps, the sea of zombies came into view and she gasped.

Some were beating on the storage container that almost completely cut off the street to the right of the fortress. Most were reaching toward the people that were visible on the platform, screeching, howling, and pushing hard against the large trucks in front of them.

The crane arm swung overhead again, but this time dropped large bags full of earth between the end of the storage container and the storefront it had settled in front off.

Now the road was cut off.

Juan turned to Jenni. "Not bad, huh?"

She grinned and looked over the crowd again.

Tobias stood nearby, shaking his head. "We slaughter them instead of helping them. "

"What do you suggest we do, huh? Give them some vitamin C and some aspirin and tell them to get some rest?" Juan shook his head with disgust.

That was when Jenni noticed that the crowd was shifting slightly. It was almost as if they knew they were about to get trapped in a narrow space with nowhere to go unless they backtracked up the road.

"Shit!" She watched some moving toward the zone that Juan said they needed to keep clear. Frowning, she watched some of them looking up at the container now being hefted into the air.

Jenni took off running, down the stairs, across the site, toward city hall.

Rushing up the back stairs, she wasn't sure what she was doing until she saw the staircase to the second floor. She ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, then turned down another hallway. The third floor had a small narrow balcony that was forbidden to everyone since it overlooked the street. She ripped down the "do not enter" sign and pushed open the door and stumbled out onto the balcony.

It gave a warning creak, but held her weight.

"Hey, dead fuckers! Up here!"

The ones that were moving toward the forbidden area turned their heads upwards and looked straight up at her. Immediately, they began to screech and reach for her. They pushed up against the truck barrier.

Jenni noticed a few that were not paying attention so she danced along the balcony screaming, "Over here, stupid fuckers! Hey, dead ass! Up here!

Fine quality human flesh up here!"

Jenni waved her hands over her head and flipped off the zombies as they looked up. Seeing she had an audience, she showed them her ass, wiggled it, and did the most annoying faces she could think of. The zombies howled in response as she whipped them up into a frenzy.

She noticed the container was on its way down so she got to the end of the balcony and nearly hung over it, getting as many zombies as she could to move directly under her.

"Hey, freaks, hey, guess what? I'm not for dinner!"

The container came down. There was a mighty thank as it settled down onto the road and a gush of blood and gore came out from beneath it as Jenni managed to get almost ten taken out with one blow.

Laughing almost maniacally, she grabbed hold of the rail and taunted the nearly completely trapped zombies to follow her away from the slight gap between the storage container and the wall of the store. She kept taunting them until the crane arm delivered the bags of dirt that completely cut off the left-hand side of the street. The zombies were now trapped in a t-shaped corral.

Dancing across the balcony, Jenni laughed her ass off. The balcony gave a loud moan and Jenni realized the show was over.

"Oh, shit!" She dove back in the door and the balcony shuddered, but stayed in place.

Juan stood in the hallway just inside the doorway. He looked past her into the corral, seem satisfied with what he saw, then looked back at her.

"You're loca," he said simply and walked away.

Jenni grinned, turned and held her hands over her head like Nixon flashing the victory sign and retreated into the city hall.