Walter frowned, deep in thought. “So they’re attracted to sound. We’ll just keep quiet. They won’t have a reason to mess around here. I’ll lock the doors. I don’t think they’ll try to get in through the windows unless we draw attention to ourselves.”
It made me nervous to think we wouldn’t have an exit strategy, but it was better than nothing, and safer than sleeping upstairs.
Zoe and I helped Joy bring food and water downstairs to the basement. It was finished, with a couch and a couple of recliners facing a flat-screen television.
Walter laughed once. “Joy bought that for me for Christmas last year. All you can see on it now is snow.”
Zoe and I snuggled up on a yellow and brown plaid couch while Walter nailed the basement door shut, and then nailed a two-by-four across the middle section. Joy covered us with a blanket, also straight out of the 1970s, and in record time, Zoe was relaxed and sleeping in my arms. I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to sleep because we were in a strange place, but she was exhausted. I rested my cheek against her hair. The light-brown strands were stringy and tangled, making me think of all the comforts of home we no longer had. Simple things, like a brush.
“You sure have a pretty girl there,” Joy whispered, smiling. “My daughter Darla lives in Midland. You ever been to Midland?”
I shook my head.
“We were actually packing to go see them this weekend. We were going to leave yesterday, but I wanted to make sure I had someone to water my flowers before we left.” She sighed, and her eyes filled with tears. “I might never see her again, or my grandbabies. Because of the goddamn flowers.”
“You could see her again.”
“You think so?” she said, cautious hope in her voice.
I smiled and kissed Zoe’s temple, and then leaned my head back against the cushion. “Thank you. For letting us stay here tonight.”
“You can stay as long as you like,” Joy whispered, glancing up at her husband still busy securing the door. “Who knows when this is all sorted out . . . or if it will ever be.”
Miranda
Even when my eyes opened, it was still dark. The scratching and padding by the dead ones outside had stopped, and Bryce was awake, staring straight ahead. I sat up and tried to stretch the knots out of my back.
“Did you sleep?” I asked quietly.
Bryce shook his head, and then looked over at me with a smile. “I might have dozed off for a few minutes. I’m glad you did, though.” He leaned over and touched his lips to mine for the first time in twenty-four hours. “You were incredible yesterday. I didn’t know you knew how to drive like that.”
I wrapped my arms around my middle to ward off the early-morning chill. Bryce cradled me to his side. He wasn’t the most muscular guy at school, but he was athletically built, and his sweet smile made staying mad at him impossible. His dark hair was about two months overdue for a haircut, and when he leaned over to kiss me, some of it fell forward into his eyes. He used his fingers to comb it away, refusing to do the incredibly annoying head jerk most guys did to get their hair out of their eyes.
They look like they’re having a seizure, he used to say. I didn’t like it, either, but I would ignore it if it meant I could see his blue eyes. Bryce’s smile was amazing, and he was nothing less than noble, but his eyes were my favorite part about him. I think I fell in love with them before I fell in love with him.
Ashley and Cooper were cuddled together. With just a cardigan, white tee, and baby blue fashion scarf, she wasn’t any more prepared to be without heat than I was in my cotton T-shirt and light jacket. The guys didn’t show it if they were cold.
“What is that noise?” Cooper asked, turning his right ear in the direction of the kitchen. His eyes bounced around as he listened.
Bryce grabbed my hand and stood, leading me to the doorway of the kitchen. It was dark in there, too, but there were a few candles around the room. The small flames provided just enough light for us to see Skeeter McGee on his knees, weeping over a woman lying on the floor. He was trying to keep quiet. If it wasn’t for him sucking in a breath every now and then, I might not have known.
“Oh my God!” Ashley said.
Bryce shushed her, and returned his attention to Skeeter. “Is she . . . ?”
Doris brought a blanket from the hall and spread it over the top of the woman. “God bless you, Jill. May the Lord open his arms wide for you and keep you.”
We all stood there and watched in uncomfortable silence while Skeeter sobbed quietly for another twenty minutes or so. After a while he caught his breath, and then wiped his face. “So I guess uh . . . I guess we better bury her.”
Doris shifted, nervous. “How are we going to do that with those things out there?”
An older man with white hair spoke. “We can’t just throw her outside, Doris, and she can’t stay in here.”
Doris fidgeted, finally putting her fingers to her mouth. “I’m . . . I’m so sorry, Skeeter, but I can’t go out there.”
“I’ll go,” Bryce said. Skeeter looked up at him with wet eyes. “I’ll help you. We’ll need someone watching our backs, and maybe a distraction, but I’ll help you dig.”
I crossed my arms, trying to keep the words I was about to say from falling out of my mouth, but they came anyway. “I’ll help, too. I’ll distract them.”
“You can be the lookout,” Bryce said. “Coop was in track. He can be the distraction.”
“What?” Cooper said, eyes wide. “Me?”
Ashley grabbed on to him. “No,” she frowned, desperation in her voice. “We’re not sending him out there as bait.”
Cooper wrapped both arms around Ashley, his eyes falling on Skeeter. “I appreciate you helping us out back there, man, but going outside in the dark is an unnecessary risk. What if they get inside and we’re all out there digging a hole? There are women and children in here.”
“I’m buryin’ my wife,” Skeeter said, standing. He was just as tall as Bryce, and a lot more intimidating. “I’m not asking anyone for help.”
“I know you’re not,” Bryce said. “Let’s take a minute and think of a plan so that everyone is safe.”
Skeeter wiped his face again and nodded. The white-haired man went over to the woman’s body and began to quietly pray.
“It should be light before long,” I said. “Let’s put together a plan, and when the sun comes up, we’ll bury Jill.”
Skeeter nodded. “Thank you.”
The youngest and oldest of us were fast asleep while we planned Jill’s funeral. The church’s cemetery wasn’t fifty yards away. Skeeter wanted to bury her there. Already my heart was pounding, thinking about standing in the morning fog, in a cemetery, watching for zombies. It didn’t get any more Hollywood horror story than that.
“I’m going to bury her by her grandpa,” Skeeter said. “He was laid to rest on the north side.”
Bryce nodded. “Okay, so Eric and Gary get on the roof and get them away from the back door. Coop can run out and get them to follow him around until we’re finished.”
“How long do you think that’ll take?” Cooper asked, swallowing hard. “To dig a grave, I mean.”
Bryce shrugged. “As long as it takes. We’ll work fast as we can.”