Tonight The World Dies by Amber White Page A

understand your concerns Todd, I really do, but you have to trust that we don’t hurt the people who help us. And besides, we are currently living with you. You have to put more trust in someone who’s a few room away while you’re sleeping than someone you take with you on a short trip.”
    “If they don’t want our help, why are we even trying to offer it?” Dean asked.
    “Come on bro, let them help out!” Andy said.
    Billie batted her eyelashes as Todd. “Please?”
    “Oh, all right. But we do it my way!” Todd said.
    After lunch, I pulled Billie aside. “Why are you so insistent on going? And what was with the eye thing?” I asked. “You don’t normally flirt with guys like him.”
    “Because Todd’s cute!” She answered.
    I rolled my eyes.
    The expedition rolled out the next morning. My friends and I piled into the RV with Todd driving, and Andy sitting uncomfortably close to me at the table.
    “What’s with all this stuff?” He asked, pointing at the reloading equipment.
    “I use it to reload bullet casings and shells.” I said.
    “You know how to do that?” He said, wide eyed.
    “Yeah, my dad taught me when I was a kid.”
    Where’s your dad now?” He asked.
    “He didn’t make it when the infection took over our town.” I answered.
    “Oh.” He said, and looked away. He stopped smiling, and refused to make eye contact with me the rest of the drive. Thank God!
    Ten minutes later, we slipped into a store, its shelves almost completely empty. Todd and Andy led us to the storeroom in the back, where a few dozen boxes remained untouched. I read the labels as we piled some of them into a cart. Coffee, toilet paper, soap: things that used to be considered common household items, and where now luxuries. Andy grabbed Sully and wandered over to the pharmacy at the front of the store, coming out minutes later with a basket full of bottles.
    We hightailed it outside and loaded the RV quickly. It was oddly quiet. The birds that chirped happily when we had parked were now silent, the wind no longer whistled through the trees. We were all worried.
    “Hear that?” I said.
    “No, nothing.” Todd said.
    “That’s exactly it. Creepy isn’t it?”
    He looked around, suddenly a bit more worried than before.
    Something scraped against the pavement on the other side of the RV. I tightened my grip around my gun. I knew what was waiting for us just out of sight, and I hoped I was wrong. It scraped again, like a shoe dragging across gravel and asphalt. A female moaned softly, like she was calling out to us. I knelt down next to a tire, looking to see how many zombies were headed toward us. Only one pair of legs was visible on the other side.
    “I only see one.” I mouthed at the group.
    Todd sidestepped around the back, his rifle raised, ready to shoot. Billie and I followed closely behind, Andy, Dean, and Sully went around the front. A single female zombie stood between us, her rotted face stretched into a kind of grin, her blackened teeth bared.
    “No,” Todd whispered, horrified. “Oh God, No!”
    She shuffled toward him, and I aimed, ready to shoot. All my insecurities from the start of the outbreak flooded back into me. I didn’t want to shoot her, but I knew I might not have a choice. Todd looked over at me when the safety clicked off.
    “What are you doing? Don’t shoot her!” He yelled.
    The zombie turned toward him, growling as she shuffled forward.
    “What do you mean, ‘don’t shoot her?’ It’s a zombie!” Billie said.
    The zombie turned to us again, following the new voice.
    Todd set his riffle down and walked up to her, his hands held out before him. The zombie lunged, snarling, and Todd backpedaled toward a tree.
    He mumbled something I couldn’t hear, seeming to plead with her. I raised my gun again.
    “Don’t shoot her.” Andy said, rushing to my side. “Let him handle it.”
    The zombie lunged again, her arms swinging wildly.
    Grabbing a broken tree branch, Todd stabbed