though, and as the hours passed and no more zombies came, Mr. Jenkins son took a turn to keep watch. I should never have let him…”
“I so don’t want to hear this.”
“So Mr. Jenkins son was taking a watch when I heard a scream,” he continued, ignoring Jackson’s mumblings. “I hadn’t been asleep, not really, just sort of dozing. When I opened my eyes it was to see Mr. Jenkins holding one of the girls in his arms, his son looking on just sort of horrified, almost in a stupor. I don’t know if it was Bethann or Louise. I’d never been able to tell who was who. But she had these lovely blond curls and when he looked up at me, noticing I was awake, he pulled away a chunk of her brain with his teeth. I could see the hairs sticking to his chin, his cheeks, everywhere. I think she was still alive when he broke her skull and started eating her. His little granddaughter. The one he’d been so proud of.”
“Luke, no…”
“He didn’t even stop eating her, just looked at me and kept chewing.”
If there was any memory stored in his brain that Luke would like to lose, it was this one. Of all the zombies and dead people and plain old carnage he had battled, the memory of little Bethann or Louise always pulled at something inside of him. It was the start of the nightmare that had begun his new life, and forever her blond hair would signify that.
“That’s horrific,” Jackson whispered. “And I believe we are being followed. Thank God. I think I’ve had more than enough reminiscing.”
Luke almost laughed. “A pack? You’d prefer to battle a
“Damn right, and it’s a megapack, on the rooftops.”
“Gun it or kill them?”
“I suspect we’re not gonna get a choice. They’re trying to round us up.”
“They won’t catch us.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you want to know what happened to Mr. Jenkins?” Luke asked, eyeing the rooftops.
“Not really. I wish you hadn’t mentioned him. Though now that you have, if I die before I find out, I’ll be mad. But then if you tell me, I’ll be mad because I so don’t need my head filled with any more of that kind of shit.”
Luke slowed the car and unclipped his guns. “The movies again. I used to watch plenty before they came. I loved
“And that would be?”
“That there’s nothing left in them anymore. Nothing to even remember the love they’d once held so dear. They’re animals. Worse than that, even. Family members ate family members without compunction. Hell, they probably still do.”
Jackson wound down her window, took aim, and shot a waking dead straight through the head. It fell from the roof with a splat.
“I know,” she said without so much as blinking. “Just as an FYI, I stomped my brother’s head in before he could eat me.”
Luke started in surprise. “You serious?”
“No, just thought I’d lighten the mood.”
“Your brother…” he said, ignoring her sarcastic tone. “That must have been horrific.”
“Don’t want to talk about it,” she said in a singsong voice before aiming and firing. The bullet missed, lodging in a nearby window.
“But—”
“Don’t make me shoot you, Luke.”
“With that aim? I don’t think I have to worry.”
“Try me.”
He sighed. “Okay subject closed…but you get what I’m saying—”
She shot a second zombie just as Luke took aim, effectively halting his words. “Yes, I get what you’re saying, but that doesn’t mean we know how they think,” she said. “Part of them could be looking on, horrified, watching it all happen, unable to do anything.”
“I don’t believe that.”
She shrugged. “In the end it doesn’t matter, I guess. We kill them all the same.”
“Yeah.”
“And if they are looking on, trapped, they’re probably grateful for it.”
“I suppose…” He sighed and watched as the zombie he was aiming for jumped from building to building. They were so flexible and so strong. How he hated them.
“In the end, I guess nothing really matters anymore,” Jackson said slowly. “Nothing but finding that camp and seeing what’s left. If there’s anything we can do to change things.”
“To change things?”
She nodded slowly. “I’m fantasizing that it’s an army camp. Full of scientists and doctors all busy working away on a cure.”
“You’re not serious?”
“I said fantasizing.”
She sounded so glum that Luke wanted to reach out and grasp her hand, partly because he felt guilty for telling her a story she clearly didn’t want to hear, for making her remember her brother, and partly because he just wanted to. But he was all tied up with the gun and the steering wheel. Instead he shot the jumping zombie, for her, and smiled as it fell to the ground. A quick look in her direction and his heart sort of juddered. She wore her hat covering her pixie hair, her coat zipped right up to her neck, and a scowl split her face. She was probably pissed with him and with them, hell, he got the impression she was pissed with the whole fucking world.
But she was so damn pretty.
“No,” he said after a moment. “You’re wrong. Some things still do matter.”
Chapter Seventeen
That evening they had no choice but to stop and hide. Another super-size pack was out, and they were waiting on the only clear road out of the area. Jackson had spotted them as they scouted the route through and suggested they hole up for a while until the zombies either dispersed, or until they were both rested enough to go for a full-on showdown.
They found a restaurant with metal shutters on the windows, parked the Batmobile out front, and went in through the back door, closing it and securing it with a large table, before splashing it with Gucci Cool. They made sure the front door gave them a clear escape route to their wheels, grabbed the blankets they’d taken from the abandoned house, and settled down on the mezzanine level right next to the window.
Jackson was cold but far from tired. Like she had told Luke, her sleep requirements were minimal. Maybe it was due to constantly being on high alert. She guessed it didn’t really matter. Like everything else, the cause was irrelevant. Only the effect counted anymore.
“Tell me something I don’t know about you, Jackson,” Luke whispered, the moment they were settled, rubbing his hands together for warmth.
“Like what?”
“Anything.”
“Well when the zombies—”
“No,” he interrupted. “Something before them. Something from the real world.”
Jackson paused and searched her mind for something lighthearted, and non-people themed, to share with
