Kimberly opened her eyes... and immediately regretted it.
"EEK!!!" She screamed, as she saw a face looking straight down at her. Somehow, Kimberly fell out of the bed. Hitting her head, she became slightly dazed, and became aware of her surroundings.
It was Jen. She had been sitting right next to her on the bed, staring down at her.
"Jen! WHY."
Jen simply jumped off the bed and sat next to her. "Rose sent me inside. I'm bored, Kimby."
Kim sighed. "Well... I'm going to get dressed. Have you had breakfast yet?"
Jen nodded quickly.
"Course you have... kay gimme a minute." She stood Jennifer up, walked her out of the room, and closed the door. "I'll be out in just a sec Jenny."
Jen smiled. "Kay kay!"
Kimberly was half tempted to just go back to bed. She didn't want to deal with Jen. and she didn't want to deal with today. She'd been dealing with this past week already, and it was wearing on her. Running around, killing dead things, looking for food and supplies... it was so exhausting. Why couldn't this all just be a dream or something? Sure, it'd be a traumatizing nightmare, but at least none of it would be real.
But it was. It was a living nightmare. And she couldn't do anything about it.
She quickly got dressed, threw her hair up in a pony tail, and grabbed her bow. She could take Jen hunting today. Maybe she could teach her how to be quiet.
She went downstairs and in to the kitchen. Blair had breakfast on the counter: waffles. "Morning, Kimberly." she said.
"Morning." Kim replied. She grabbed on of the plates set out and threw a couple waffles on. They were good enough to have just by themselves, so she just ripped off little pieces and popped them in her mouth.
"Goin' hunting today?" Blair asked.
Kim simply nodded. "Gonna take Jen with me."
"YAY!" the scream of excitement came from the living-room. Jen came bursting in, just about running into a wall. "I'm gonna go hunting!"
"Good luck." Blair said, knowingly.
"Yeah, I'll need it." Kim said sighing. She turned to Jennifer. "Alright look... today I'm going to take you hunting. But that means you have to be super duper quiet. Whispering and such. No loud noises. That means no chainsaw."
Jen cocked her head.
Kimberly rolled her eyes. "No chainsaws."
Jen still looked confused. The her eyes widened. "Oh! You mean George!"
Kim nodded, making sure she stayed patient. "Yeah, we don't bring George when we hunt."
Jen nodded. "Okay."
Kim sighed once more. "Come on."
***
The man in the field slowly walked over. Rose regretted going outside without a weapon of some sort, but she was confident she could manage this.
"Hi." she said, when he was within talking distance of her. "What's your name?"
"Jeremiah!" he said. "Yours?"
"Rose."
He was just across the street now, and that's where he stopped. "I'm not here to cause trouble."
Rose nodded. "Well that's good, if you really aren't." she heard the door open and close behind her.
"No. We cook them first, then we eat them." Kimberly was saying as she walked up next to Rose. She was addressing Jennifer. She turned. Upon doing so, she flung out her bow and notched an arrow. "Who's that, Rose?"
"His name is Jeremiah. He says he doesn't mean us any harm."
"Right..." Kim said, "But is that true?"
Rose shrugged. "Jen. Go fetch Trevor."
In moments, Trevor was outside. "Jeremiah, eh? I'll go have a chat." He said this, letting his machete swing freely.
Kimberly sat on the bench. She hoped this 'Jeremiah' would be on his merry way soon. She didn't want anyone new. She was just now getting a handle on how many there were in the group already. Before she knew it though, Trevor and Jeremiah were walking towards the house together. Oh terrific...
***
Everyone sat in the living-room, Jeremiah standing in the center. "I'm a scout. For the government. I'm out and about trying to find anyone under the age of 9 - 12 to take back to our secure facility." He looked intently at the younger audience. "We can do safe, non harming tests. Nothing is done to the children, other than taking their blood once, and they'd be very safe."
"Why the kids?" Cody asked.
"They're not infected."
A silence hit the room.
Jeremiah continued. "There are scientists who were in a concealed environment, and have not had contact with the infected. They're the ones working on a cure. Their theory is that they can find it in non-infected blood."
"Hold on. Hold on just a dang second." Jordan said, his hand up. "What do you mean? I'm not infected..." he swept his hand across the room. "No one here is infected. Do you see anyone trying to eat flesh!?"
"Oh yes you are. And so am I." Jeremiah said sternly. "The minute you die... you start to turn. The only way you don't turn is a bullet through the head."
Again, the room became silent.
"The cure... if we can find a cure... we can fix everyone up. Make everyone immune to the infection. Stop the spread. Save the world." Jeremiah smiled at himself. "So here's my offer: I take those four..." he pointed to Tyler, Rose, Jack, and Lucy, "And we take a little blood and give them a safe, secure place to stay."
Cody sat back. He had a decision to make: keep his siblings in a dangerous cruel world run by the dead... or give them a better chance to live.
Kimberly frowned. She was sure that Cody was ready to wake up from this nightmare, just as much as she did.
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