zeds 9 — zombies

Her hair shone in the dancing light of the small campfire. She finished the last bite of baked apple, licked her fingertips and sighed. This was their second night. They swam, foraged and looted an old apple tree and Reaper cut small saplings, sharpened them into spears and showed her how to stand motionless until the big catfish swan nearby. Never had blackened catfish tasted so good.

She smiled as he polished the ever present sword, then shivered realizing she might never leave this camp alive. Her stomach turned over and she ran to the bushes vomiting until heaves were a hoarse rasping moan.

“You won’t… let me turn?”, she begged in a low whisper from her hands and knees.

“Some have the strength to resist. We purged much of the poison, FIGHT IT.”

She looked up at him fear in her eyes. “How soon does it start?”

“Soon, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Later in the moonlight she crept into his tent and lay down beside him resting her head on his shoulder and drifted off to sleep, his steady beating heart in her ears. That was when the dreams began.