Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Conflict by Joshua Jared Scott Page B

or make any noise that might
attract the shambling dead. On two occasions they saw towns, places that likely
held the supplies they so desperately required. Both times, the number of
zombies was such that they didn’t dare approach. Despairing, they pushed on.
    Kenneth
doesn’t know how they lasted as long as they did, and his memory is spotty
about the latter weeks just before we found him. Barbara died along the way,
somewhere on US-20, which they’d been following east at the time. Roughly
following is probably the better description. In no condition to fight, and too
terrified to try, the couple spent most of their time in the countryside where
the zombies were less common. And, as much as it hindered their own movement,
the deep snow slowed the zombies even more. Lacking coordination of any sort,
the dead just pushed their way through, always moving and never tiring, but
also making even slower progress than the survivors.

 
    Chapter II
     
     
    “Kenneth
isn’t doing well.”
    I used
the back of my hand to shove a particularly evil hen to one side. The vicious
avian made an attempt, as always, to tear into me with her beak, but I’d
learned to wear leather work gloves while in the coop. I often wonder if all
chickens, the entire world over, are as unpleasant as ours. The clucker’s
efforts didn’t stop me from recovering the egg she was sitting on or the one
hidden beneath the straw. That discovery was greeted by a loud, indignant
squawk.
    “In what
way?”
    Steph
was filling her basket without any apparent difficulty. How did she manage
that?
    “He’s
been here for nearly a month, but Kenneth hasn’t put on any weight. Well, maybe
a few pounds, but he still looks terrible. He skips half the meals and doesn’t
eat much when he does join us. He almost never says a word either.”
    “But he
does help out,” I countered. “He’s participating that way.”
    “Yeah,”
agreed Steph, “but mostly by keeping watch, sitting on the battlements day
after day. I’ll admit he still can’t walk too well, but he’s doing that because
he wants to be alone.”
    “Doesn’t
complain, which I like. That’s a new one for our group.”
    She
shook her head. “Our group does not complain. Briana bitches about being stuck
in the castle. Mary whines about not having any new episodes of her favorite
shows ever again. Lizzy is Lizzy and can’t help but yell at everyone. We are
way past simple complaining.”
    “Gotta
love Lizzy.” I smiled to myself. “She is consistent.”
    “True
enough. You know Jacob, I might go into shock if she was ever positive about
anything for more than, oh, seven minutes straight. But as to Kenneth, he’s
creeping me out, the way he always seems to be staring at nothing.”
    “He saw
some horrible things,” I pointed out, slowly. “Maybe it’s stuck in his mind.”
    “We all
saw stuff we’d rather forget.” Steph gave another shake of her head. “This is
more. Kenneth has real problems, the kind that might cause him to put the
barrel of a gun in his mouth.”
    “You
think so?” There always had to be something to darken my day. “I would have
thought he’d do that back when he was alone on the run. He’s safe now. Kenneth
should be getting better.” I began to reconsider the words almost as soon as I
said them. I had zero knowledge of psychology.
    “Maybe.
I don’t know. He’s dwelling on things, and that can’t be good. Did you know
that he and Barbara had been talking marriage?”
    “I did
not. Had they set a date?”
    Steph
reached for the door to the chicken coop, took a look at the snow outside, and
allowed her arm to drop. “No. They’d been together for like ten years and were
considering making it official. Nothing serious according to Kenneth, but I
think they were really going to do it. Then she dies on the hike here. That has
to be eating away at him.”
    I began
to massage my forehead with one hand, after checking to be certain there wasn’t
any chicken