Read Online Z Children (Book 1): Awakening by Eli Constant, B.V. Barr - Free Book Online
Authors: Eli Constant, B.V. Barr
Tags: Zombie Apocalypse
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the
pictures, my mom was smiling softly, her hairless head covered in a pale pink
bandana.
***
We were standing
on deck now and everything seemed like a fleeting dream as the boat cleaved
through the water and away from land.
I thought about
our hasty escape and all the stuff left behind.
I looked at my
children and realized that things could be replaced, stuff didn’t matter.
Marcel was
smiling and standing next to my dad. Sophia was staring at the water, her mouth
a straight line. Her face was flushed and she looked tired. I thought back to
the black blood on her face and a lightning bolt of worry shot through me, but
then she smiled a sad smile, her gaze still focused on the navy blue wetness,
and the worry melted.
I walked toward
my daughter, ready to offer comfort. But, in the end, my daughter comforted me.
All I needed was her small hand in mine to settle my soul. We sat quietly,
looking out onto the water and admiring the sun as it sank closer to the wet
horizon. Everything was so momentarily peaceful that I startled violently at
the sound of my cell phone ringing in the pocket of my jeans. I’d just turned
the darn thing back on to see if Sherry had called; I’d had it off forever,
trying to conserve the little battery life I had left.
Eyes wide, I dug
out the phone and stared at the caller ID. It was a Texas area code, but the
number wasn’t in my address book. Not wanting to hope, I pressed the small green
answer icon, held the cell to my face and whispered uncertainly. As I spoke, I
heard my phone ping in warning. The battery was dangerously low.
“Sherry?”
2
SHERRY LELAND
The day had started normal
enough.
Make coffee. Pour
coffee into a thermos- the black, thick sludge smelling like charcoal and
chocolate. Skip breakfast and head into work. I was a little on the heavy side
and always employed the backwards wisdom that a skipped meal equaled a smaller
waist. Given my feast-and-famine metabolism, this mentality was especially
counterproductive.
My stomach
rumbled on the way to work while my bright yellow Neon puttered down the
streets in all its underpowered, four-cylinder glory. I’d once called it daisy;
now I called it a POS.
“Hush, you.” I
patted my stomach when it grumbled again loudly for food. I’d break my
faux-fast and suck down a nasty chocolate protein shake from the mini-fridge in
my office as soon as I got to the shop. Not that those things really helped you
lose weight, despite the obvious names. Slim Up: waist-shrinking vitamins
and 15 grams of lean protein that will satisfy your hunger! It’s like fat
chick propaganda- ‘drink me, lose weight.’ Who needs exercise when you can sit
on your duff drinking your way to skinny? That kind of shit never worked. If it
did, I wouldn’t have a closet full of equipment and gimmicks. No one ever went
in that closet… I called it the diet graveyard, where dreams of skinny go to
die. Queen of self-deprecation. Welcome to my castle.
The boutique
windows smiled cheerily at me, decorated for fall with grinning scarecrows
dressed in warm jackets and plaid berets, funny pumpkins with long cornstalk
legs donning fashionable kiddie kicks and one, very comical, felt turkey. I was
quite pleased with the way it had turned out. I loved fall, in all its glory.
Of course, I also lived in a small condo and never had to worry about falling
leaves and lawn maintenance.
As I turned the
key in the lock and pushed open the mostly-glass door of my shop, I was greeted
by the soft jangle of bells and, as if on command, my eyes read the scripted
words across the upper surface of the door- Baby Bliss, for all your newborn
and infant needs. And, just like every other morning, I realized that I needed
to modify the name and slogan. I’d been carrying toddler and big kid clothes
for a long time now. The name-change was always something I put off. I’ll do it
tomorrow. Mostly, I hadn’t changed the name
pictures, my mom was smiling softly, her hairless head covered in a pale pink
bandana.
***
We were standing
on deck now and everything seemed like a fleeting dream as the boat cleaved
through the water and away from land.
I thought about
our hasty escape and all the stuff left behind.
I looked at my
children and realized that things could be replaced, stuff didn’t matter.
Marcel was
smiling and standing next to my dad. Sophia was staring at the water, her mouth
a straight line. Her face was flushed and she looked tired. I thought back to
the black blood on her face and a lightning bolt of worry shot through me, but
then she smiled a sad smile, her gaze still focused on the navy blue wetness,
and the worry melted.
I walked toward
my daughter, ready to offer comfort. But, in the end, my daughter comforted me.
All I needed was her small hand in mine to settle my soul. We sat quietly,
looking out onto the water and admiring the sun as it sank closer to the wet
horizon. Everything was so momentarily peaceful that I startled violently at
the sound of my cell phone ringing in the pocket of my jeans. I’d just turned
the darn thing back on to see if Sherry had called; I’d had it off forever,
trying to conserve the little battery life I had left.
Eyes wide, I dug
out the phone and stared at the caller ID. It was a Texas area code, but the
number wasn’t in my address book. Not wanting to hope, I pressed the small green
answer icon, held the cell to my face and whispered uncertainly. As I spoke, I
heard my phone ping in warning. The battery was dangerously low.
“Sherry?”
2
SHERRY LELAND
The day had started normal
enough.
Make coffee. Pour
coffee into a thermos- the black, thick sludge smelling like charcoal and
chocolate. Skip breakfast and head into work. I was a little on the heavy side
and always employed the backwards wisdom that a skipped meal equaled a smaller
waist. Given my feast-and-famine metabolism, this mentality was especially
counterproductive.
My stomach
rumbled on the way to work while my bright yellow Neon puttered down the
streets in all its underpowered, four-cylinder glory. I’d once called it daisy;
now I called it a POS.
“Hush, you.” I
patted my stomach when it grumbled again loudly for food. I’d break my
faux-fast and suck down a nasty chocolate protein shake from the mini-fridge in
my office as soon as I got to the shop. Not that those things really helped you
lose weight, despite the obvious names. Slim Up: waist-shrinking vitamins
and 15 grams of lean protein that will satisfy your hunger! It’s like fat
chick propaganda- ‘drink me, lose weight.’ Who needs exercise when you can sit
on your duff drinking your way to skinny? That kind of shit never worked. If it
did, I wouldn’t have a closet full of equipment and gimmicks. No one ever went
in that closet… I called it the diet graveyard, where dreams of skinny go to
die. Queen of self-deprecation. Welcome to my castle.
The boutique
windows smiled cheerily at me, decorated for fall with grinning scarecrows
dressed in warm jackets and plaid berets, funny pumpkins with long cornstalk
legs donning fashionable kiddie kicks and one, very comical, felt turkey. I was
quite pleased with the way it had turned out. I loved fall, in all its glory.
Of course, I also lived in a small condo and never had to worry about falling
leaves and lawn maintenance.
As I turned the
key in the lock and pushed open the mostly-glass door of my shop, I was greeted
by the soft jangle of bells and, as if on command, my eyes read the scripted
words across the upper surface of the door- Baby Bliss, for all your newborn
and infant needs. And, just like every other morning, I realized that I needed
to modify the name and slogan. I’d been carrying toddler and big kid clothes
for a long time now. The name-change was always something I put off. I’ll do it
tomorrow. Mostly, I hadn’t changed the name
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