The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

Travis held her in his arms and nodded. "Yes. We'll go home tomorrow.

To Jenni and Jason and the dog and all the others. "

Katie felt tears hot on her face and she let herself relax into his warm embrace. His strength reminded her of her father and he felt so safe and comforting. And for a moment, she let herself believe it was her Dad hugging her and she wept.

"We'll be okay," Travis promised.

Katie looked up at him and nodded. "Of course. We have no other choice. "

Travis smiled at her and said, "Besides, I promised Jenni I'd build her a gazebo so she wouldn't get sunburned. "

"Oh, you did?" Katie giggled at the thought of Jenni relaxing in the shade of a fancy gazebo.

"Yeah. I have a soft spot for beautiful women," he said with a grin.

"Yeah? Then that's something we have in common," she quipped.

They laughed together. Travis slung his arm around her neck and guided her toward the steps.

"You're the prettiest competition I ever had," he teased her.

Katie just smiled at him and they climbed the stairs to join the others.

4. In The Heart Of The Abyss

Nerit put Laura down to sleep in the living room and covered her with a light blanket. She sat with her and stroked her clean hair until the girl finally slept. Of course, Laura still clutched the VCR remote and the VHS tape, but at least she was asleep.

Dinner was a low-key affair. Nerit made a delicious meal and they all enjoyed it. Ralph even opened up a bottle of wine. But at the same time, they were all muted in their conversation. There was a great sense of sorrow at the table.

There was refuge in working hard, planning, keeping alive: a refuge from feeling too deeply. But Laura had brought the reality of this new world starkly into view. It was hard to deny the horror that existed in the world beyond their tiny conclaves of safety. How easily the walking dead had become "them" and the living "us. ” The decaying, mutilated appearance of the zombies made it easy to hate them, fear them, and even kill them. The dead were the enemy and that was a comfort in this world. The lines were clearly drawn.

But Laura brought it all vividly into focus. Her fate was the norm. Not theirs. They were lucky. For one reason or another, they had escaped the initial bloodbath. They had not joined the ranks of the dead in that first horrible day. It was sobering for all of them to realize that they were alive nearly by the luck of the draw. But Laura was also alive, but not nearly so lucky. How many, like her, survived only to slowly starve to death as the dead grew in ranks to dominate the earth? How many, like her, were shells of their former self, their minds broken by the horrors they had seen? And would they, the lucky ones, one day see something too terrible to endure and also slip into that twilight world or perhaps find themselves one of the walking dead?

But all this remained unsaid. They spoke instead of their plans to keep themselves safe, alive, and healthy. They had the rare luxury of being in a remote area far from the cities that were overrun with the dead. And they knew it. It was a blessing and a burden.

After dinner, Katie walked onto the balcony and sat in a chair next to Ralph. She didn't speak, but looked up at the brilliance of the stars above as the fragrant smoke from Ralph's pipe trailed up to the heavens.

"It's not the end, Katie. Just the next step," Ralph finally said.

"I guess we are all acting like we're at a funeral," Katie sighed.

"We are. The funeral of the world. And we're the mourning survivors picking up the pieces and finding a way to move on," Ralph said in one of the longest sentences she had ever heard him mutter.

Katie looked at him and forced a smile. "I feel so guilty. "

Ralph nodded slowly. "We all do. "

Katie looked toward the living room and waved one hand. "I see her and know that I could have easily have been her. Or one of those things. I don't understand why I'm here. "

"To live. Keep going. Rebuild. " Ralph's eyes were unwavering from her face.

"Sounds so easy," Katie said softly.

"But it’s not. This is a new and dangerous world. Got a map downstairs.

Got circles around pockets of survivors. I talk to them online or on the CB.

Have since the first day. Each day less people respond. Maybe the grid in their area has gone down or the Internet has failed. Or maybe they are dead.