Dying Days 6 Read Free Page A

path. The last thing she needed was for the group to realize the zombies (not smombies, never smombies) were ignoring her.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    “I can sense her at the football stadium,” Hayden said to Bri. “I think she knows you’re here but doesn’t understand exactly who you are.”
    “Who am I?” Bri asked.
    Hayden looked back at her with his gray eyes and smiled. “You are someone worth protecting. I will get us through Jacksonville and north, where we’ll be safe. My parents have a cabin in the woods.”
    “I’ve heard of that movie and it wasn’t a romantic comedy,” Bri said.
    “We have a long way to go,” Hayden said and turned back to the dirty window.
    Bri stared at the sleeping baby and sighed. He never made a sound, even in his sleep. She’d checked his mouth to see if there was something wrong with his throat, but she couldn’t see anything weird or wrong. She had no idea. She was still a teenager. She didn’t want to be a momma and an adult just yet.
    “What if I told you I didn’t want to walk to Canada?” Bri asked. She didn’t, either. Hayden was from Montreal. He was one of the first to be attacked in the initial outbreak in the hospital. His brother was there for a broken ankle suffered while playing hockey. Before Hayden knew it, he was a zombie and in Florida.
    At least, that was the short version of his very long story. Bri liked Hayden but he never shut up. He was always making comments, even just to himself.
    “Canada is lovely this time of year. Besides, all of us zombies are heading to the southern regions. It might even be clear to the north by now,” Hayden said.
    “I don’t understand why you’re all crowding into Florida. I hate it here,” Bri said.
    Hayden turned back to her and sat on the floor. He smiled at the baby.
    “Not just Florida. Texas and Louisiana and Mexico, I guess. Southern California. There is an invisible line and we can sense it. I can’t explain it, but we’re all being summoned to this strip of land for some purpose, I guess,” he said.
    “Then how can you leave and go north?”
    He shrugged. “I guess once we completely turn and have our thoughts and free will back we can do whatever we want. Maybe that’s the point. We come here to gain the power and then we can go off and find our own little corner of the world.”
    “Then why is one of you staying at a football stadium in the middle of this magic zone?” Bri asked. None of this made any sense. She’d kidnapped Darlene and John’s baby and run away. She still didn’t understand why, only what Hayden had told her.
    “Turn me into a zombie,” Bri said suddenly.
    Hayden didn’t stop staring out the window. “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “We’ve been over this. Even if I wanted you to be a zombie and spend the rest of your life with me, it would take, like, a year for you to change,” he said.
    “So fucking what. All we have is time, and eventually another zombie is going to kill me. I don’t want to be eaten. I want you to turn me into a zombie so you’ll be gentle,” Bri said.
    Hayden shook his head. “There is no gentle. I don’t even have the bloodlust anymore. Frankly, the thought of tasting blood in my mouth is gross. I don’t want to keep talking about this. I’m not going to bite you, or let anyone else. Got it?”
    Bri gave him the finger before returning to her staring contest with the baby.
    Blink once in awhile , she thought.
    “Do you think the baby is retarded?” she asked.
    “You don’t use that word. It’s offensive,” Hayden said.
    Bri laughed. “You’re a fucking zombie. You’re telling me I’m being offensive?”
    “You use too much profanity. Is it because you want to act all grown up?”
    Bri put the baby on the floor and jumped up, pushing Hayden to get his attention.
    “Fuck you, zombie dickhead. How dare you tell me what to do with my life or how to talk? You’re the pussy who got