Rising to her feet, she turned to see Roger, Linda and Bill taking Communion as well.
Walking on leaden legs, Jenni strode out of the chapel.
*
Katie’s expression when she saw Jenni enter the staging area broke Jenni’s heart. Jenni walked straight up to her and hugged Katie hard. She could feel Katie trembling and she buried her face in Katie’s soft curls.
“If you don’t come back, I’ll be really pissed,” Katie said finally, a catch in her voice.
“I know. But I gotta go.” “I know.” Katie pressed a string of fierce kisses to Jenni’s cheek. “You love him. I would do the same for Travis. And for you.”
With tears in her eyes, Jenni drew back. “I would do the same for you, too.”
Katie wiped her tears away and shook her head. “I just can’t believe all of this.”
“It’ll be okay,” Jenni said, her voice firm. “Juan will live.”
With a small smile, Katie said, “Of course he will. He’s tough.”
Jenni pushed her hair back out of her face and lifted her chin. “I’ll be back. One way or the other.”
“I know. I can’t help but worry. You’re my best friend.”
Jenni flung her arms around Katie again and snuggled her. She kissed Katie’s forehead firmly. “And you’re mine.”
Travis walked up, looking a bit awkward, trying not to interrupt. Jenni slung her arm around his neck and kissed his cheek, too. “I’ll be back.”
“You better be. Juan needs you,” Travis said.
“Yes, he does. He’s lost without me,” Jenni declared with false joviality. Her son staggered up to her and flung his arms around her, holding her tightly. “Mom,” he whispered in her ear. “Mom, don’t go.” She squeezed him so tight it hurt both of them.
“I have to go,” Jenni whispered. “I have to do something to save him. I couldn’t save your...brothers. I have to try to save him.”
Jason backed away, ducking his head, trying to hide his tears beneath his bangs. From the agonized look on his face, she knew he understood. “Be careful, Mom.” “I will be,” she promised. She grabbed him close again and kissed him firmly on the forehead. “I love you.”
Jack pawed at her knee. She leaned down and kissed his furry head. “I love you, too.”
With a fake grin and trying not to look scared shitless, she walked toward Roger and Bill as they waited for her by the truck. Pivoting on her heel, she turned and waved to her small family: her best friend, her stepson, and a dog named Jack.
She tried not to think of Juan lying in that bed looking so vulnerable.
Climbing into Ralph and Nerit’s red truck, she nodded at Bill. “Let’s do this.”
“Just like old times,” he answered her, gunning the engine.
Jenni sighed. It felt nothing like old times and it scared her to death.
But she would come back. She had to.
2. Beer and Strawberries
Bill drove in silence. Jenni sat in the back of the truck’s cab, staring out the window at nothing. He doubted she was seeing anything other than Juan’s face in her mind’s eye. Felix was passed out asleep beside her, slightly snoring, while Roger was deep into a Star Trek novel.
The drive was over an hour, so maybe it was good to be silent. They were heading into a highly dangerous situation. They all knew that hospitals were death traps and had been from day one. Bill was eternally grateful his wife had passed on by the time the dead rose. If she hadn’t, he knew she would have been one of the first to rise. That would have destroyed his will to live. It was hard watching her die of cancer, but seeing her as a member of the revived living dead….
No, he couldn’t think about that now. Despite the fact this hospital was very small, it didn’t take away from the fact it was probably a deathtrap. They had two, four-member crews going in. The odds weren’t with them, that was for damn sure.
Bill gripped the steering wheel harder and concentrated on the road. In the first hours of the infestation, he hadn’t even been sure he wanted to survive it. The first zombie he had seen had freaked him out so thoroughly, he could barely move. Luckily, he had been in his patrol car. It had banged on the window for a good ten minutes before he got the nerve to do something about it.
A six-year old zombie just wasn’t right.
He could still remember how it thrashed under his foot after he had knocked it flat on its back and pinned it so he could get a good shot at its head. It was one of the worst moments of his life. With a weary sigh, Bill concentrated on the road. He could see a few zombies moving through the dried brush. They seemed disoriented and sluggish. Charlotte was right. They were slowing down as the elements got to them. That didn’t keep them from being fiercely terrifying if they got close to you.
Glancing in the rear view mirror, he could see Jenni leaning her head against the window, staring blankly.
He felt for her. All too clearly, he understood her distress and why she had to be part of the rescue group. It was just something she had to do. He would have done the same for his wife.
Once more, he had to admit to himself that just living had been hard when his wife had passed. He was just back to work and on patrol when that dead little boy banged on his patrol car window. He had almost given in and let the zombie take him, but then he had started to worry about Ralph and Nerit and that had been the end of that. Those two had been friends through thick and thin with his wife’s illness, and he had to make sure they were okay. Now he was glad he had made his way to them. He had found some incredible friends in the fort. They made this life worth living.
Behind him Felix let out a snort in his sleep and Bill smiled to himself. “Check that out,” Roger said.
Bill glanced over to see a commercial plane rammed into the side of a barn. There was no sign of life or unlife. “Bet they’re trapped in there,” Roger went on. “What a way to go.”
“I’m sure jets went down all over the world. I heard, right before the TV went black, that the planes over DFW were going down into neighborhoods. Just dropping right out of the sky,” Bill said.
“So many ways to die,” Jenni said with a sigh.
“Yeah,” Bill answered, and they all fell silent again.
They passed an overturned car. Inside a figure was flailing around. They drove on.
A figure darted out in front of the moving truck behind them and it was immediately flattened. How easy it was to kill them now. So very easy.
Katarina again came to mind. He had seen her right before they had left. She had been walking into the hotel as he exited.
“Good luck,”she had said.
“Thanks,” he had answered grimly.
“Come back, okay?”
“Try to,” he said, then hesitated. He wasn’t sure where he had gotten his nerve, but he had actually said, “Hey, Katarina, want to have a drink with me when I get back?”