The Turning: A Tale of the Living Dead (23 page)

6

Later, he explored the house and
as he did, he found pictures and paperwork that filled in the details about
Jenny’s family.  Her mother’s name was Edith and her father, Earl, was a
contractor for a military outfit.  He was on a trip to the Middle East when the
Zombie Apocalypse hit.  Jeff wondered if the man was still alive.  He gathered
the documents and sorted through them, picking a few pictures of Edith and Earl
and setting them aside.  If she ever lived to be old enough, Jeff figured Jenny
would want to know what her parents looked like.

He also discovered a crawlspace
underneath the house that was full of lumber and other supplies he’d need.  He
spent one day weather-proofing the windows as best he could, hanging up plastic
over them and fixing the doors to cut down on drafts.

Jeff spent another day hiding the
entrance to the property, hauling fallen logs and spreading brush so that, by
the time he was done, a causal eye wouldn’t be able to spot the road leading to
the house.  He tore the mailbox out and threw it into the forest. 

The next two days he explored the
surrounding woods, gathering fallen tree limbs.  The entire area was blanketed
in thick woods, running uninterrupted for miles in most directions except east,
where it ran into the passing road.  The terrain was fairly rugged but it
provided some good spots to set a few traps for squirrels and there seemed to
be excellent opportunities to hunt other game.  A big creek ran about half a
mile away, cutting west through the property.  The water was fresh and full of
fish.  He’d have no problem finding additional food, if they needed it.

He carried the wood he collected
to the yard and chopped it up using an axe from the shed.  He cleared a wall in
the living room and stacked the wood, filling part of the space.  Jeff knew
he’d need to get more to last the winter, but it was a good start.

Jeff cleaned the books out of the
bookmobile and sorted through them after that.  He found some useful things:  a
few books on mechanics, a couple of child-rearing tomes, some novels he wanted
to read, and a dozen books for kids.  He set those aside and stacked the rest
of them, an assortment of cookbooks and romance novels and other things he
didn’t care about, with the wood for future burning. 

During his work, he often took
Jenny with him, setting her up in a car seat he found so she could watch him
and he could keep an eye on her.  She kept quiet most of the time, her eyes
studying him.  He liked to talk to her as he worked, even though he knew she
didn’t understand him.  And whenever she got cranky or restless, he sang
Beatles songs.  They always calmed her down. 

A couple afternoons it rained, so
he stayed in, letting Jenny tool around the house in one of those walkers for
babies.  She would push it along with her legs, the little rollers squeaking
and rumbling.  He would laugh until his sore sides couldn’t take it anymore as
he watched her zip around like some kind of race car driver.  She knew it, too,
and sometimes he thought she went a little faster than normal, just to get him
to laugh harder.

The air grew chillier by the day. 
Winter was just around the corner.  He took stock of his supplies, pleased with
the food situation.  There was a four-month supply of baby food and enough
canned soups and veggies for one meal a day for about five months.  It meant he
would have to do some hunting to supplement his supply, but that was okay. 
They had enough to get by on.

Some days with Jenny were easy. 
She would eat when she was supposed to and didn’t fuss or fight.  Others were a
non-stop nightmare.  He spent many sleepless nights with her, walking the
floors for long hours, singing songs and holding her and telling her it would
all be okay. 

November rolled away, as quick as
it had come, and December came, ushering in freezing winds and dropping
temperatures. 

7

DECEMBER

The first snow fell a week later,
dumping two feet one afternoon, throwing the entire world around them into a
brilliant white glaze.  It reminded Jeff of the icing on a cake, the way the
snow coated everything, from the ground to the trees to the bookmobile.  It was
like something out of the movies, and Jeff wasted no time getting Jenny out to
experience her first snowfall.

He carried her in his arms,
layering clothes so thick so she could hardly move.  He wore a pair of rubber
boots he’d found along with a parka and a flannels shirt. 

They stepped out onto the porch
and Jeff slipped on a frozen puddle of water, gliding for half a foot.  He
laughed, remembering when he was a kid and he’d go out and play in the snow
with his friends.  He wished Jenny had the same chances, but the world had
changed forever.  No more suburban neighborhoods full of kids laughing and
playing.  Just zombies, and other survivors, both too deadly to deal with. 

He shook those thoughts from his
head.  That was the rest of the world.  Right here and now was all he and Jenny
had, so they might as well enjoy it. 

Jeff stepped off the porch and the
snow crunched under his boots.  Jenny laughed.  Her bright eyes looked around,
amazed and full of wonder.  A few snowflakes stirred and blew in the wind,
swirling around them as they walked out into the front yard.  Jenny pulled her
arm free of Jeff and stuck her little fingers out, giggling when a snowflake
landed and disappeared, melting against her body heat.  She stuck her wet
finger in her mouth, licked it, and looked at Jeff.  She pulled her finger out
and stuck it in front of his face and laughed.

He held Jenny out and swung her
through the air, whooshing like she was an airplane, diving and bombing and
then swooping back up again.  Jenny laughed and squealed.  So did Jeff.

After a while, he set her down in
the snow and let her play.  He put tiny mittens on to cover her hands so they
wouldn't get too cold.  Jenny sat for a moment, unsure of what to do.  She
looked around and up at Jeff as he stood and surveyed the land around them. 

This was just a taste of what was
to come.  The rest of winter had to be harsher than this, and as he stood
there, he tried to think of ways to be better prepared. 

Jenny stuck her hand into the
snow, pulled out a chunk, and plopped it in her mouth.  She yelped as the cold
bit her tongue and stung her lips.  Jeff looked down at her and laughed.  Jenny
glared at him, her brow furrowed, but her pout faded and she laughed along with
him.  She stuck her hands into the snow again and carved small divots, babbling
baby talk. 

At least she was happy.  Jeff
couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like for her, if she ever was so lucky
to grow up.  Worried thoughts coursed through his mind, burying him in an
avalanche of anxiety.  What was he going to do when the baby food ran out? 
What if she got sick?  What if he got sick?  What if he went out hunting and
fell and broke a leg?  What would she do then?  Who would watch over her?

Jenny squealed, breaking his
reverie.  He looked down and saw her rolling on her back, her hands reaching up
to the sky, face bright and clear.  Jeff scooped her up and carried her with
him as he walked the perimeter of the yard, peering deep into the woods,
scoping it out.  A few trees had lost their leaves over the last couple of weeks,
but there were still plenty wearing their evergreen suits as bitter cover from
the cold.  He had a bad feeling about the coming winter.

As he turned to go back to the
house, he noticed the wisp of smoke coming from the chimney as it twirled and
spun in the windy air.  If someone were close enough, they could spot that and
it could lead them right to the house.  He stood for a long time, studying the
smoke, wondering if there was something he could do about it.  When he decided
that there wasn’t, he shrugged and lifted Jenny into the air.

“Ready to fly, my little
airplane?” he said.

Jenny giggled as Jeff swooshed her
through the air, diving close to the ground and back up into the sky.  He spun
her and flew her until they reached the porch.  He stopped and held her out to
look at her red cheeks and smiling face. 

“That’s a good girl,” Jeff said. 

Jenny’s body spasmed and funny
look crossed her face and then she belched and grinned.

“You dirty rat,” Jeff said,
kissing her cold nose.  “Let’s get you inside and warmed up.”

He’d decided to, if at all
possible, limit the wood-burning during the daylight hours.  The sun should be
enough to keep them warm as long as they dressed in layers and moved around. 
He would start a fire in the evening and tend it until they both fell asleep. 
It seemed the reasonable thing to do, and it also stretched out their wood
supply that much longer.  Still, he wasn’t sure if he could hold out, given how
cold it was and how much worse it was going to get.

That night, he got a fire going
and sat down next to it with the baby.  He’d scavenged through the house and
found a dozen candles and a few flashlights, so he kept them near him in the
living room, the place where he’d made their sleeping arrangements.  He kept
her crib right by the fireplace and had built a pallet for him to sleep on next
to her. 

They ate a meal of baby food and
cold, canned soup and counted their blessings.  When they were full and
settling down, Jeff selected a book from the trove of novels he’d taken and
kept from the bookmobile.  It was Hemingway, “A Farewell to Arms.”  He opened
the book and, by the light of a candle and the fireplace, he read it aloud to
Jenny.  She lay in her crib, listening and chewing on her fingers, slobber
dripping from the corners of her mouth.

An hour later, they were sound
asleep, both snoring.

The next day, Jeff took a section
of the floor out in the living room and stored a bunch of things they might
need in case of an emergency.  He created a hidden panel to open it and when he
finished, he nodded grimly, satisfied with his work.

The days passed.  Some were good,
some were bad.  Mostly they were cold, and getting colder all the time.  Jeff’s
vow to only burn the wood at night was severely tested several times and most of
those times, he gave in just so he could remember what his fingers and toes
felt like.  He wrapped Jenny in as much clothing as possible, keeping her head
and extremities covered.  She never seemed to be bothered, not like he was, but
it still concerned him.

Snow came and built up.  It was
manageable, for the most part, and he was able to dig paths whenever he needed
to.  But in the middle of December, six feet of snow dumped down on them from
the sky in a twenty-four hour period.  That day and night had been frightening,
especially for Jenny, who cried through most of it.  The wind swirled and
howled like a pack of wild demon dogs as the windows rattled and trees on the
perimeter of the yard snapped and broke and fell.  Jeff huddled with Jenny near
the fire and held her tight to him, singing songs and kissing her forehead to
reassure her.  The storm broke sometime in the early morning hours and when it
did, the two of them fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.  The next morning
revealed snow drifts that covered the downstairs windows and it was so deep he
couldn’t get the front or back doors open.  Jeff had to resort to jumping into
one of the drifts from an upstairs window.  It was like jumping into a pile of
wet cotton balls.  He had thrown the snow shovel out ahead of his jump and he
used it to clear the snow from the front door. 

They whiled away their time
indoors by reading.  Jeff spent hours a day with open baby books, reading to
Jenny, pointing at the pictures and the words, hoping somehow he was helping to
teach her to read and speak.  Near as he could tell, Jenny was just over a year
old, so he figured it wasn't too early to start.  He gave her some solid food
with her baby food, taking pieces of meat from canned beef stew or chicken
noodle soup and cutting them into tiny parts for her, and mixed them in so she
could get used to solids.  She had her teeth, so she’d already passed the
teething stage, and that was a relief.  He spent a lot of nights walking her
around and singing to her.   She did a lot of crying. 

Sometimes, he’d cry with her. 
There were many hours they’d pace the floor, her on his shoulder, wetting it
with her tears and snot, and him with his head laying against her, wetting her
with his own tears.  They were both orphans, in their own way, and both having
lost the one person that meant the most to them. 

Jenny was moving around better, as
well.  She crawled like a champ, squirting around on the floor, laughing and
exploring the house, weaving between Jeff’s legs as he went about doing tasks
around the house.  He was so proud of her.

On Christmas Day, Jeff was sorting
through the stack of books to choose one to read to Jenny when he noticed she’d
gotten to her feet by gripping the edge of the couch and pulling herself up. 
She stood, wavering, her legs shaking, as she held on to the cushion for dear
life.  Jeff turned and panicked for a second, afraid she was going to fall, but
when he saw the look of pride in her eyes, he smiled.

“Good girl!” he said.  She
squealed with laughter and sat down, hard.  She giggled and crawled over to him
so he could read her a story.

That night he sang Christmas
carols by the fire. 

8

JANUARY

It got so cold at one point Jeff
didn’t think they were going to make it.  Deep into the bowels of January and
the snow wasn’t falling as heavy or often but the temperatures kept dropping. 
For one entire week, all they could do was huddle by the fire and wrap
themselves in as many blankets as they could manage.  He had to move some of
the food over by the fireplace to keep it from freezing and even then he had to
sit it over the flames sometimes just to warm it up enough to eat. 

All care and worry about anything
else ceased as they entered into survival mode.  Jeff held Jenny most of the
time, keeping her inside his clothing and blankets to generate as much heat as
possible. 

It was a trying time, the worst
he’d ever experienced.  Every morning he woke with toes and fingers that barely
wiggled next to a fire almost gone completely out and a sun that shined weak
heat through the windows. 

Jenny held strong through it all,
rarely complaining, crying sporadically.  He used those long hours to talk to
her, to tell her of his life and what the world had been like before the
zombies.  He didn’t care if she understood or not; the talking was just as much
for him as it was for her.  He told her of Jenny, his lost love, and the times
they had together.  He got lost in his stories and they helped to pass the
time.   

He tried not to look at the stack
of wood, so tall and never-ending when he’d first brought it in, as it dwindled
away to next to nothing. 

The freezing spell broke and it
went back to just being cold and Jeff, more scared than he’d ever been in his
life, relaxed.

Just a little.

FEBRUARY

At the beginning of February,
after a snowstorm as bad as the one in December, Jenny walked on her own for
the first time. It happened while Jeff was stoking the flames of the fire.  He
heard her behind him, the familiar baby sounds dribbling from her mouth, when
she got suddenly quiet.  Jeff turned to see what was going on when he heard the
soft patter of feet and there she came, little legs churning fast and out of
control, her feet padding across the hardwood floors, a big grin on her face. 
She reached Jeff and fell into his arms, laughing. 

He swept her up and spun her
around, kissing her face and telling her what a good job she’d done.  It was
one of the happiest moments of his life.

In the middle of February, they
got company. 

The snows had melted down a bit as
an uncharacteristic warm spell hit.  They could see through the windows now and
the coating on the ground was only two feet deep now, instead of the usual
four. 

Jeff went outside, carrying Jenny
with him, so they could get some fresh air and feel the sun, high and cold in
the clear winter sky, for the first time in what seemed forever.

That’s when he saw it come from
between the trees, staggering towards them, its arms outstretched and its teeth
clacking together.  A zombie.

He didn’t panic, didn’t freak out,
but he did feel strange.  It had been months since he’d seen a member of the
living dead and in that time, despite his ever-present memories to the
contrary, he’d almost forgotten about them.  He’d spent so much time with Jenny,
helping her learn to walk and keeping her warm, that the rest of the world
seemed like a vague, hazy dream.

Not now.  Not with a rotting,
stumbling, shambling creature lurching towards them.  The reality came back,
all in one big rush, hitting his chest so hard he felt his heart stop for an
instant.

Jeff took Jenny inside and fetched
his shotgun. 

He came back out, trudging across
the snow, his breath pluming white and hot in the air in front of him.  It was
almost too much to see a zombie now, after all that time being free of them. 

Jeff pointed the gun and fired. 
The zombie’s head exploded with a hollow thunk, brains and bone blasting high
into the air and slapping down on the wet snow with a wet smack. 

Jeff went back inside, his face
wet with tears.

At the end of February, Jenny got
a cold. 

It started with a few sniffles and
turned into a full-blown thing, with crusty snot and coughing.  Jeff wasn’t
sure what to do.  He gave her half an aspirin twice a day used some cough syrup
he found in a cabinet to help quell the hacking.  He gave her tons of water and
after a few days, the snotting decreased and the coughing was nearly gone.

He didn't know what he would have
done if her illness had been any more serious.