Dead: Winter by Brown TW

Author:Brown, TW [Brown, TW]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: May December Publications LLC
Published: 2012-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

10

Painful Farewells

and Tough Choices

“…and as we say farewell to our dear friend Teresa, let’s try to dwell on how wonderful she was, how deeply she cared for each and every one of us. Let’s remember the young lady who was a fighter and protector,” I said.

Who was I kidding? Every single one of us was shredded on the inside. Hell, Sunshine had Jamie so drugged up that he was just leaning on Billy staring off into the blinding white that blanketed everything. Which reminded me; one thing we definitely needed if we were able to get out and make a run was sunglasses.

“If anybody has anything they would like to say, please step forward,” I announced.

One by one, everybody came and stood beside the pyre to speak, even the two new girls, Nickie and Christina. I had so desperately wanted to have this all taken care of before Jamie came to, but that had not happened. The worst part was when Billy and Jon carried her out of the cabin. They’d had to walk past the poor guy who was already near hysterics even in his stupor. I’d never heard anybody so grief-stricken in my life.

At last, it was time to light the torches. I glanced at Jamie, but Billy shook his head. Jamie was too far gone. Jon and I set the pile ablaze and stepped back. Melissa gave me a slight nod and guided Thalia and Emily back up to the cabin along with the two children from the newcomers.

And that was another thing. They still hadn’t returned. Jake—who’d only been back an hour after deciding that the abandoned compound was a no go—and Jesus were going to suit up and search for them now that the funeral was over. However, I’d given specific orders to Jon that I didn’t want them out more than twenty-four hours. I didn’t care what they were trained to endure, my people were not going to die searching for folks we barely knew and had just met.

As I watched the fire grow and the smoke rise into the sky, I took one more moment to remember my Teresa, not the one I’d sat beside in that bed and plunged a knife into the eye socket. I felt a huge hole in my soul where she belonged. Try as I might, I could not reconcile her death. It had no known cause, and unless this zombie infection had somehow become airborne, it was inexplicable.

I considered that as the possibility and it gave me chills. That would, in essence, nullify everything that we had done to survive. All of this would be meaningless. I remember back just a handful of months ago, before this unthinkable situation we now found ourselves stuck in, when the news was ripe with stories about the next big illness. They all got catchy names and graphics on the cable news channels. Doctors would make the circuit like a Hollywood star promoting his or her newest film and tell us about all the ways we needed to change in order to prevent the spread of the latest plague.

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