Surviving Beyond the Zombie Apocalypse Read Online Free Page B

care of me, Kevin,” Christina said, looking up at me.
         My heart rose up into my throat as I looked down at that little face. I would have lost it completely if not for seeing Kat wipe her nose with the sleeve of her shirt. Christina still had me in something of a bear hug. I looked over toward Taylor, expecting to find some support for the awkwardness I felt. Instead, Taylor was also wiping his eyes and trying not to break down in tears. The whole scene really seemed like something straight out of an afternoon soap opera.
         Finally I found my voice and said, “Okay, now getting all emotional is not going to help us get to the store and get to Tiburon.”
         The others appeared grateful for my interruption. Taylor spoke right up.
         “Okay, let’s get going. We don’t wanna be stuck outside when it gets dark.”
     
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
     
     
         After our emotional break or whatever it should be called, the mood was good. We gathered our few belongings and headed out to the store.
         The store turned out to be farther than I expected. You would expect since I worked in the area I would know the distance to the nearest store. However, I never had any reason to shop around the office so I never bothered to look for the stores.
         We decided to walk the shortcut to the store that Kat knew and check what was there before driving. No sense taking the campervan all that way and wasting gas if there was nothing worth bringing back.
         We headed out the back and into an alley. This opened onto a nearly empty loading area where the delivery trucks usually picked up pallets full of newspapers to deliver around the Bay Area.
         “Sure is strange seeing this place so quiet,” I said to no one in particular.
         Kat made a sort of grunting sound before saying, “You should have seen it on the day things went to shit; an absolute cluster fuck.” She glanced over at Christina. “Sorry.”
         “It’s okay,” the little girl giggled.
         “Anyway, you probably know pretty much how things went down. There were a lot of people gone with the bad cold going around. Seemed like everybody here was coughing and shit.” Kat paused for a moment, remembering something painful. “Paul and I both had it a little, but never as bad as others. Anyway, this one morning things got especially weird. Only a few people were here when I got here. Most days, the crew I work— worked—with gets here about 4. That way we can have the run of the place before the full-day staff of reporters and secretaries and stuff comes in. On this one day, I showed up but…but, well, I was…it was only me. Wait, I shouldn’t say only me. When I got here at a little before 6, one of the janitors was still here; a strange little Mexican guy. I know I’d seen him before…but, I don’t know, he sure was different. Maybe, it’s ‘cuz I’d never seen him outside of a group, you know?” I nodded, although I couldn’t be exactly sure that I did know. “Like I said, only me and this weird janitor were here that morning. I don’t even remember seeing any of the overnight security guards. Those jerks always seemed to be around, acting all macho and shit and getting into everybody’s business like cops or something. Now I’ve never been a big fan of cops or anything, but these security guys were just wanna-be cops, which is worse than the real thing.” Kat stopped herself from going off on a rant and brought herself back to the subject. “Anyway, this little security guy, David, was acting really weird. When he first saw me, the guy acted like we were long-lost buds. I came in the locker room to change into my work clothes, and I must’ve surprised him or something, ‘cuz he sorta jumped and looked at me about ready to shit his pants. He stood there and stared at me until I finally said, ‘You okay?’  His name badge said, ‘David Castillo’ so I repeated, ‘You