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Katie rubbed her face and looked at him "You think so"

"Too many of them now," Ralph answered

Katie wiped a tear away and looked back at the screen A reporter was sobbing as he read off the overrun shelters that people should not report to

Ralph flipped a channel to show Chicago on fire Morethe infection Their area, she noted, was free of any of the ured since they were out in a sparsely populated area The cities and larger toere deathtraps She was relieved that she had ht choice to run into the hills

A hand tenderly took hers and she turned to see Jenni sitting next to her She sether, they sat and watched

"The President is being evacuated froo to Camp David and will soon release a statement to the nation," the local Texan anchorwo our station to go to a shelter Anyone who is still watching this, stay where you are, be happy if you are with your fao into the cities Don’t risk it Don’t listen to what anyone says on these shows anyht to live until you don’t want to go on anyot the word Do you understand?" She was crying openly now and her co-anchor reached out to calm her "I don’t want to die like that I don’t want to be one of those things! It’s all over!"

The ca saw her lift the gun she had been keeping on her lap to her chin The sharp retort and blood splatter hitting the co-anchor was vivid evidence of her suicide

Jenni sobbed beside her and Ralph switched off the TV

"She had soot ht picture show," he said

Katie nodded and stood up shakily Nerit caly Jenni continued to sob loudly and Jack whined as he tried to soothe her with little doggie kisses Katieroom and pushed back a heavy brocade curtain

The sun was setting slowly behind the hills Below her stood a ht over and over again She knew if he looked up and saw her that he would start that horrible shriek

She left the curtain fall back into place Standing before the , she felt herself let go of the old world and eo on There was all there was to it She couldn’t give up without a fight She would do whatever it took to survive

Turning to Ralph, she said softly, "When’s dinner?"

Chapter 4

1 Purgatory

Jenni was bored

Her finger clenched

The head with the long blond hair burst and the body tumbled forward

"That ayne Emory," Ralph said behind her

Nerit crossed another na store oncesky spread out above them a lush panorama of cold stars and velvet darkness

The zombies of the s et the one over the corner," Ralph said and pointed

Jenni aier squeezed, and another head popped like an overripe toh A delicious dinner with good conversation followed by cheesecake had made her feel better than she had all day

Afterwards, they had trudged downstairs into the shop at Katie’s insistence

Jenni glanced over at Katie who stood next to her Nerit was instructing Katie on the finer points of the rifle she was holding She had tucked her blond curls up into a ponytail ly Katie radiated strength and it made Jenni feel safe Ralph and Nerit were capable, but Katie was the one to follow

Nerit had found a skirt and T-shirt for Jenni to wear and she felt oith disgust, never wanting to see theain The color pink would forever haunt her She wanted to forget about this ers…

She squeezed the trigger again