As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Read online

  “Jack?” Jenni smiled. “I like that name.” She wrapped her arms around the dog and pulled him onto her lap.

  “That’s what his vet papers say. Jack Horton. His human daddy was the Reverend Horton. That is the man who saved my life. Jack and the reverend lived out of the city near the lake.”

  “It’s a good name.”

  Katie smiled slightly. “Okay, gas station next. Gas, food, supplies, and we keep going until we figure out where the hell we are going? Sound good?”

  “Yeah,” Jenni answered. Snuggling the dog tight, she exhaled with relief.

  Katie was back in control.

  It would be okay.

  CHAPTER TWO

  1.

  In the Shadow of the Dying World

  Katie was pleased when she saw the gas station sign up ahead. The needle on the gas gauge was dipping dangerously under empty. Despite the lack of any zombies on the road, she did not want to get stuck walking anywhere.

  Beside her, Jenni was busy lavishing attention on the German shepherd. Katie was having a tough time understanding Jenni. The first time she had seen her, Jenni seemed to be in a daze. Now she appeared more alive, more animated. It was weirder somehow than her trancelike state.

  But who was she to judge? What was normal when the world was dissolving around you and reality suddenly looked like a Dalí painting?

  Pulling into the gas station, Katie leaned forward over the steering wheel to study the scene before her. There were no cars parked on the concrete apron or beside the gas pumps. The place looked utterly deserted.

  “If we’re lucky, the pumps are still on. I’ll use my credit card,” she said.

  Jenni looked up, rubbing her lips against the dog’s ear. “If there is a gas can in this truck, you should fill it up, too.”

  “This is Texas, and this is a truck. Of course it has a gas can. And if we can get into the store, we should load up on food.”

  Katie slowly released the brake and let the pickup glide up to a pump. Looking around once more, she turned off the engine. She reached down and picked up the shotgun.

  “Here is the plan: I’m going to pump the gas. You’re going to keep watch and hold the shotgun. You see any of those things, you tell me immediately.” Katie handed Jenni the shotgun, studying her intently. Though she looked frail in her pink nightgown and robe and bare feet, now that Jenni wasn’t looking like a zombie herself, Katie could see she was quite pretty, with deep, alert eyes.

  “Okay. I can do that. But we should leave Jack in the truck. He’s still really groggy,” Jenni responded.

  “Agreed. Now, listen, we don’t take any risks. We don’t shoot anything unless we have to. That box at your feet—those are the only shotgun shells we have.”

  “Oh,” Jenni said, and frowned. “We need more.”

  “I know, but a convenience store is not the place to find them. So no fancy shooting, okay?”

  “Gotcha,” Jenni answered, and slid out of the truck.

  After leaping out of the truck herself, Katie quickly slid her small wallet out of her trouser pocket. In this moment, she was so glad she despised purses; otherwise, the wallet would have been far away in her old car. Swiping her credit card, she watched the digital display anxiously.

  It flashed AUTHORIZING over and over again.

  “You have to come in and swipe it here. That scanner isn’t working,” said a disembodied young male voice.

  Both Katie and Jenni started, and Jenni whirled around, shotgun ready.

  “You have to come in and swipe the card,” the voice persisted.

  Katie realized the speaker on a column next to her was hissing. For a moment, she could not believe what she was hearing. The world was falling apart, Lydia was dead, and some teenager was still working his shift at the gas station?

  “I’ll be right in,” Katie said, and looked at Jenni. “He must not know what’s going on.”

  Jenni just blinked at her.

  Mystified, Katie strode speedily across the parking lot and into the convenience store. The dimly lit interior threw off her vision for a moment; then she saw a tall, scraggly-looking teenage boy and a short Hispanic girl standing behind the counter.

  “The reader outside broke and you have to swipe inside,” the boy explained again.

  “You don’t know, do you?” Katie arched an eyebrow, and the gas station attendant looked at her warily. The Hispanic girl gasped and stepped back from the counter.

  Katie ducked away from the door before realizing Jenni had come in, holding the shotgun.

  “Look, please don’t hold us up! We don’t have that much money!” The boy held up his hands, his eyes huge.

  “We’re not holding you up. You really don’t know what is going on, do you?” Katie walked swiftly to the counter.

  “Uh, no.” The boy was trying to look calm and brave, but he was sweating profusely.

  The girl, behind him, was holding on to his arm so tight that Katie could see blood pooling under her nails.

  “The city has gone insane. It’s burning! People are dead and … and…” Should she tell him that the dead apparently were getting up and eating everyone?

  “Zombies. It’s zombies,” Jenni said.

  Katie rolled her eyes and exhaled slowly. “What she said.”

  “Yeah, right,” the boy said sarcastically.

  “I don’t know if they are really zombies, but there is something going on that has people attacking other people like maniacs,” Katie explained.

  “Kinda like you two?”

  “No. With their bare hands.” Katie watched the look of disbelief on the boy’s face grow deeper. “Look, swipe my card. We need gas to get the fuck out of here.”

  The boy frowned. “You’re really not good with this robbery stuff, are you? You’re not supposed to pay.”

  “Just swipe the damn card already!” Katie waved it in his face.

  “We should get lots of food. And some more gas canisters,” Jenni said behind her.

  The boy took the card and looked at them with growing unease. “You guys are on the run, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, like I told you. The city has gone insane—”

  “With zombies,” Jenni added helpfully.

  Katie didn’t think the teenage girl could get any paler.

  There was a screech of tires outside, and they all turned to see two cars pull up. Both were fully loaded with people. Men with guns leaped out and ran into the store.

  “Papa!” The girl looked relieved and ran toward one of the men. A flurry of Spanish followed, and suddenly the girl looked like a ghost. “I’m leaving! My grandma ate my aunt!”

  And she was gone, running with her family out to their cars.

  Katie looked at the boy, whose mouth was hanging open.

  From behind her, Jenni said, “Told you.”

  “I don’t believe you,” the boy said in a small voice.

  “Then you are going to die,” Katie said firmly, and grabbed her card from him.

  * * *

  The day grew warmer as the sun rose steadily over the hills. The breeze brushing back her blond hair was warm and not very soothing. It felt grainy and harsh.

  Katie sighed and kept looking around as the pump slowly clunked away, filling up the old truck’s tank. Jack sat behind the steering wheel, watching her. She wondered how much he’d seen that morning as he lay in his crate in the back of the truck.

  The dog let out a light woof and she got the impression he was telling her, So far, so good.

  The pump clicked off and she quickly screwed the cap back onto the gas tank.

  Inside the convenience store, her new companion was rushing around filling plastic bags while the boy dutifully scanned every item, charging them to her credit card. Meanwhile, Katie held the shotgun in one hand and kept a keen eye on the terrain around her. Save for a small red hatchback tucked into the hedges next to the gas station, the white truck was the only vehicle around.

  In this moment of re
lative calm, Katie found herself struggling to feel real. The world felt real. The gas station seemed real, with its pumps and store and the teenage boy behind the counter.

  But it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be if zombies walked the earth.

  Katie moved across the parking lot, sweeping her gaze back and forth, at times walking backwards, shotgun at the ready, extra shells jiggling in her pocket. Shoving the door open with her elbow, she entered the convenience store.

  Jenni paused midstride, and Katie saw that she had found some flip-flops somewhere “Do you want coffee? I didn’t get my coffee this morning.”

  “Yeah. Black.”

  Jenni nodded and ran to the dispenser.

  “Look, if you are not holding me up, you better put that away because my manager will be here soon,” the teenager whined.

  Katie considered punching the boy.

  There were at least ten filled plastic bags of supplies piled near the door. Katie was surprised to see that one of them held dog food. Jenni was thinking of everything.

  Jenni rushed up. “Give me the keys. I’m going to back the truck up.”

  “Okay. Take the shotgun.” Katie handed it over and whispered, “I need to go to the ladies’ room.”

  “I already went. Stuff some toilet paper in your jacket pocket. I could only grab half a roll. It’s really way too expensive to buy here.” Jenni was out the door. She rushed across the parking lot, her bathrobe flowing behind her and the shotgun held firmly in her hands.

  Katie looked at the clerk. “Don’t you have a radio or a TV somewhere around here?”

  “It’s against the regulations. Our owner is a man of principles, and he believes that we should not inflict our modern music and bad news on our customers, but greet them with a smile and a friendly conversation.”

  “You had to memorize that, huh?”

  The boy blinked blankly. “Yeah. Look, lady, zombies don’t exist. I think you’re criminals on the run. And Lucy is always flaking and running away from work. I’m not going to leave my shift and get fired.”

  Katie shook her head with exasperation, her hands resting on her hips. “You’re going to end up dead if you keep acting like a good little drone. The world is over. Finished. It’s all different now. You better stop following and start acting.” With that, she escaped into the bathroom.

  After a few minutes, she washed her hands in lukewarm water and gazed at her face in the spotted and scuffed mirror. The lighting did her no favors. She looked washed out and drawn, older and tired. Just about how she felt, now that she thought about it. Reaching for the door, she heard raised voices and felt her body quiver anxiously. Her stomach fluttered and she hesitated.

  What if those things were outside and all she had were two pockets full of toilet paper and damp hands to defend herself?

  She realized the voices were arguing, not screaming, and heaved open the door.

  A man in an expensive silk suit, minus the coat and plus a coffee stain on his shirt and tie, was standing at the front of the store, shouting at Jenni. She stood quietly, head down. Katie saw that the shotgun was hidden in the folds of Jenni’s bathrobe.

  “… and I don’t need a mental case ruining my morning. I have a very important meeting at eleven A.M. in the city, and I don’t need to deal with retarded country hicks.”

  “Is there a problem here?” Katie strode up to the man, hands on her hips, head tilted to one side, and gave him her most direct look.

  The man was in his early to mid-thirties, dark hair, blue eyes, clean shaven in that almost too clean look. He was holding his phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

  “Yes, I can barely get into the store because of some hick truck pulled up to the door. I get inside and this retard spills coffee on me, and now I have a blond bitch giving me lip.”

  Katie motioned to his phone. “Does that work?”

  He blinked, obviously not expecting that response. “No, because we are in Hicksville and there is no signal.”

  Katie slightly nodded. “Or the world has gone to hell and the city is in ruins. Doesn’t anyone listen to their radio anymore?”

  “Look, bitch, I make six figures. I don’t have time for radio or TV. I work constantly. My time is money. I am money. I have a meeting in one hour in the city, and I’m running late thanks to your stupid friend here and that damn truck.”

  “Well, buddy, hate to tell you this, but the world is over. The city is in ruins and you aren’t going to make that meeting and you’re not going to get a signal. Your six figures means nothing now.”

  The businessman moved forward and towered over her, clearly trying to intimidate her.

  Katie looked up at him, her eyes cool, her jaw set.

  “I don’t deal with crazy people. And no one talks to me like that,” he hissed.

  “She does.” There was an audible cha-chung! as Jenni raised the shotgun and cocked it. Her eyes were dangerous.

  The businessman stumbled backwards. “You people are crazy.”

  “If you go into the city, you’re the crazy one. You’ll die. Something has gone wrong. People have gone insane and are killing each other. We barely escaped.”

  The man shook his head at Katie’s words and backed up to the door. His eyes were wide and unbelieving. “You’re crazy, psycho redneck bitches!”

  Katie looked at Jenni, and they both started laughing.

  That was enough. The businessman darted out, narrowly avoiding the back of the pickup, and ran to his Mercedes. Katie noticed he held on to his coffee, and that made her laugh all the more.

  “You really need to put that gun away or I will call the police!” The teenager finished bagging the latest batch of food and supplies and slid it across the counter.

  Katie arched an eyebrow. “Will you, really?”

  The boy ducked his head and mumbled.

  “Thought so.”

  She grabbed several bags and headed out the door. They needed to load up the truck and leave as soon as possible. She felt too exposed and too vulnerable. Jack gazed at her solemnly through the back window and let out a tiny woof.

  “We’re hurrying,” she assured him.

  Jenni slung some bags into the truck bed and ran back into the store. Katie followed and grabbed more bags. A few more trips and their stockpile looked pretty healthy. Jenni huffed past her, lugging several gallons of water, and Katie walked back into the store as her gaze flicked briefly toward the road.

  Still empty.

  “You need to sign your receipt.”

  Would he never stop being annoying? Katie walked over and signed the receipt. It had to be at least three feet long.

  “I will never pay this. The bill will never arrive. You need to understand this,” she said firmly. “I’m trying to save your life.”

  “Look, I just want you to leave before my manager gets here, okay?”

  There was a loud squealing noise outside, and Jack began to bark fiercely. Katie whirled around to see a car nearly clip the truck and slam into the side of the building. The walls shuddered, and the glass windows cracked.

  From the steaming wreckage, a young woman wearing the same color smock as the irritating cashier stumbled out, gripping an older man about the waist. He was barely on his feet, and it took all her strength to carry him. He was covered in blood.

  “Mr. Carver! Rachel!” The boy ran past Katie and out the door to meet them.

  Jenni looked at Katie, and their eyes met. Jack’s barking was frantic.

  The women dashed for the truck.

  Behind them there was a scream of agonizing pain; then the boy shouted, “Mr. Carver! Mr. Carver! Get off her!”

  Katie slammed her door shut and started the engine. Jenni was still standing outside the truck, watching, transfixed as Mr. Carver took another large bite out of Rachel’s spurting throat.

  “Run!” Katie shouted at the boy as loud as she could, hoping he could hear her over the dog’s barking.

  The boy finally listen
ed to her and ran for his car, fumbling in his pocket, probably trying to find his keys.

  Mr. Carver now had Rachel down on the ground and was biting at her savagely as her body convulsed.

  Jenni slid into the cab, shut the door, locked it, and looked at Katie. “We need to go now.”

  Katie shifted gears and drove. She glanced into the rearview mirror to see a bloodied, resurrected Rachel and Mr. Carver pursuing the boy, whose name tag she had never noticed. Apparently unable to get into his car, he was running away from the gas station, into the valley behind the building.

  “You did tell him,” Jenni said as Katie turned onto the highway.

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Coffee?” Jenni motioned to the cup holder fastened to the dashboard. Two cups of steaming coffee sat there.

  “Yeah, sounds good.”

  They drove on.

  2.

  A Taste of the Dead World

  Sometimes the world changes and you don’t even notice. One day slips into the next, and the world subtly transforms around you. A new building goes up. A tree is cut down. Your neighbors move out. The potholes in your street are repaired. A newly elected official takes office. You gain five pounds. Your friend loses ten.

  And then there are stark changes that upturn your world and leave you in shock, breathless, and lost.

  Like hearing chewing noises and your baby screaming.

  Or how at eight thirty this morning, you didn’t even know your traveling companion and now, at nearly eleven, you’re both eating beef jerky and doughnuts with a stiff chaser of cold coffee.

  “I think if we keep to back roads, we’ll be safer,” Katie said to Jenni.

  Jenni peered down at the battered map she had found in the glove compartment. “Okay, I think I can figure it out.” She felt good when Katie made choices. It gave her a role to play again. Mother and wife were gone, but she could be Katie’s helper.

  Katie sat in the driver’s seat, one arm propped on the edge of the door and her head resting on her hand. The dog they had discovered in the back of the truck slept halfway on her lap. Jenni could tell that Katie was struggling not to let her emotions get the best of her. A few times, Katie had touched the cell phone beside her and Jenni could see the internal struggle not to flip the phone open to look at the photo.