brought us sandwiches and apple slices. I thanked her, wondering when my next chance would come to ask her about what she didn’t say that morning.
“That was Jesse Biggins,” Walter said, biting off a piece of apple. He shook his head. “He’s a big hunter. Has quite a few guns at his place. Maybe we should visit?”
“Does he have any family?”
Walter shook his head. “His wife died several years back. His kids moved to the city. It’d be a worth a try.”
I nodded. “Maybe we should hit a couple of places for supplies?”
“We just have the one general store. Not much a store, really, but it’s all we got. I don’t know who else isn’t sick. Maybe everything is already gone.”
“How many people live here? Just a ballpark figure.”
Walter breathed from his nose while he thought. “A hundred. That’s a generous number.”
“Gauging from the group on the road, I’d say less than half are left.”
Walter nodded and his eyes fell. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
After I spoke to Zoe at length about where we were going and why, and exactly what time we would return, Walter and I decided to set out on foot carrying several empty bags and two gas cans. Joy stood behind Zoe with her hands on her shoulders as Zoe waved good-bye. The store was only a few blocks away, and Jesse’s house a few more, so we assumed it would be a quick trip.
Just as I suspected, the general store was nearly stocked full of supplies, but empty of anyone else. Keeping the sick’s attraction to noise in mind, Walter and I brought our guns—his shotgun and my semi-automatic—as a last resort. Walter had a couple of hatchets in his shed, and we both carried one with us for protection.
Walter went straight to the coffee aisle. I put as many bottles of water in my bag as I could carry and some nonperishable foods. Matches, every lighter they had, flashlights, batteries, pantyhose, and maxi pads.
Walter gave me a look.
“The hose are good for tie-offs, filters, you name it. The pads stick to you, and they’re absorbent. Good for wounds.”
Walter nodded. “I thought maybe you were a cross dresser,” he said, and then picked up a couple of first-aid kits. “I’m not that creative. I’ll stick to these.”
I smiled. My bags were nearly full, and we hadn’t been to Jesse’s. “Maybe we should head back to the house? Drop these off and then get the guns, or make the trip tomorrow.”
“It’s just up the street there. Let’s just get it over with.”
“Famous last words. Have you ever seen a zombie movie? What you said would be a clear signal that something bad was going to happen if the characters continued on. My mind is made up. We’re going back.”
Walter’s eyebrows pulled together, but he smiled. The bell over the door sounded, and Walter’s smile went away. We acknowledged to each other the sound of something dragging, slow and clumsy, across the tile floor. I pointed to the back, mouthing the word
Walter nodded quickly, and I followed him through double swinging doors to a storage room. I kept my hatchet ready, and he did the same. We escaped through the back door without even seeing what else had visited the store.
“Do you think it knew we were in there?” Walter said, walking more quickly than he had before.
“Maybe it smelled us?”
“You, maybe. I’ve showered.”
I laughed once, and tried to keep pace with the old man.
Miranda
MY EYELIDS WERE HEAVY, EVEN though we were preparing to carry Skeeter’s wife outside amid dozens of dead just waiting to bite us, time seemed to have stopped. The faucet was leaking, letting one drop at a time fall into the sink, creating an irritating beat inside the silence.
Bryce and Skeeter were discussing strategy while the reverend and the other men listened intently. Ashley was busy trying to talk Cooper out of baiting the dead ones away from the church, and the women were trying to keep the children warm and comfortable on their pallets in the hallway so they would sleep through it all.
Jill had been rolled in a couple of plastic tablecloths once Skeeter was finally okay with it. It bothered him at first to see her covered, complaining that she couldn’t breathe. He knew as well as we did that she was gone, but his mind was still getting used to it. No one blamed him, waiting patiently until he was ready.
I was sitting in a metal folding chair at the table with my chin resting on the heel of my hand. It was ridiculous, but the only thing running through my head was how stupid it was that I didn’t get more sleep the night before the apocalypse. I’d stayed up late cramming for a test that I didn’t even get to take because the school let out early due to the pandemic. Now I had double and triple integrals running in my brain. I would never have used them before. Now I
I could have been backpacking across Europe. Now there was a very real chance I might never see it.
“Miranda?”
I sat up, blinking. “Yeah?”
“You ready? The sun is coming up. It will be light enough in a couple of minutes for us to move Jill.”
“Yeah. I’m ready. Just waiting on you.” I stood, watching the reverend fidget and take big enough breaths that, to him, made him look something other than nervous.
Before I made it the few steps across the room to help Bryce and Skeeter with Jill, a quiet moan reverberated upstairs. Every pair of eyes in the room slowly moved upward to stare at something they couldn’t see on the other side of the ceiling. In the next moment there was a loud bang like someone had fallen.
Gary looked to Skeeter. “I told you. It’s Annabelle.”
Skeeter glanced down at the sheet covering Jill, and then grabbed a gun from his duffle bag. It looked pretty mean. Something my dad would love. “We need to take care of Jill, first.”
The mother, April, wrapped her arms around her middle. “You’re just going to leave us in here alone with that thing walking around upstairs? What if she gets through the door?”
“It’s boarded,” Gary said.
“My husband boarded the windows of our house. Notice he’s not here,” April said, her voice raising an octave.
“All right,” he said quietly. “We put Annabelle down, and then I’ll take care of Jill before we take her outside. They were bit about the same time, and she’ll hate me if I let her hurt anyone.”
“Not in the church! Reverend, tell them!” Doris said.
Reverend Mathis nodded to Doris. “We can’t take the risk of trying to get Annabelle outside, but Skeeter . . . maybe you could wait to put Jill to a final rest until we get outside.”
“If they were bitten at the same time,” Bryce began, but Doris cut him off.
“Poor Annabelle,” she said, tears spilling over her cheeks.
Skeeter took the safety off his rifle. “Let’s get it done.”
Bryce kissed the corner of my mouth quickly before following Skeeter, Gary, and Eric upstairs. At some point during the discussion, Evan woke up and lumbered into the kitchen from the hallway. It didn’t take him long to figure out something wasn’t right, and he clung to Bob’s arm.
“What’s going on, Grandpa?”
Bob rested his hand on Evan’s shoulder. “Annabelle woke up.”
“Woke up?”
“She’s like one of those things outside now.”
The dread the rest of us felt played out on Evan’s face. At that point we’d all seen the dead walking, but to witness someone’s death and then watch—or hear—them reanimate was something entirely different. A person could go from someone you trusted and loved to an animal waiting to eat you alive. I didn’t know Annabelle and had never seen her, but hearing the story of how she’d made it to safety and then didn’t hesitate to risk everything to save Connor, she must have been a sweet soul. Hearing her clumsy footsteps upstairs as the sickness told her braindead body to move to find food was unbelievable. Annabelle sacrificed her life to save Connor, and the creature she’d become wouldn’t hesitate to strip his flesh from the bone.
