ZOMB-POCALYPSE BOOK 2

Chapter Nine

Sunny falls asleep pretty quickly. The poor kid had been living on the street for the last two days since her Mom turned from a bite, and I have no idea how she managed to survive this long. She's so exhausted that, as soon as she eats, her full belly knocks her out as effectively as chloroform.

I hold the little girl in my arms as the truck eats up the miles. We are out in the middle of nowhere, off the beaten path, but I can still see signs of zombies everywhere. The biggest thing is the few that shuffle around in the middle of the road near crashed and abandoned cars. I stare at a zombie slowly staggering across the field and shake my head. I don't know how the world will ever recover from this.

I hear a rustle and then a schwick kind of a sound, but it doesn't register with me right away what it is until the sweet scent of tobacco starts to tickle my nose. Ryan is driving now, since he made Silas switch with him outside the last town, no longer trusting him to follow the map. I turn to Silas who's stretched out in the back puffing away on a cigarette.

"You can't smoke in here," I blurt out, getting angry with him.

Silas gives me a blank look, and I'm honestly stunned. "Second hand smoke, there's a kid in here!" I hiss at him, trying to be quiet so I don't wake Sunny, but Silas just laughs, igniting my temper even more.

"It's the end of the world, zombies are more deadly than anything coming out of this cigarette," Silas drawls stubbornly, and I look to Ryan for help. He has his eyes on the road, but I can see a frown on his face and I know he agrees with me.

"So help me, Silas, if you don't put that cigarette out right now, I'm going to come back there and feed it to you," I warn him, ready to set Sunny down and do just that. Silas has been getting on my nerves more than usual the last few days, and I welcome the opportunity to dig an elbow or two into his ribs.

"It's okay, Jane," Sunny says suddenly, surprising me. "Please don't fight." I look down and see that she's wide awake, even though she hasn't lifted her head off my shoulder. "My mommy smoked too," she says, wrinkling her nose up. I pat her gently on the head.

"It's okay, Sunny, we aren't fighting," I lie. "Just go back to sleep," I murmur, trying to stroke her hair the way my mom used to do to me when I was younger.

She's quiet for a few minutes, and I think maybe she's gone back to sleep, but then she lifts her head and I see how pale she looks. I'm concerned with the way she just went from a pink, healthy shade to being white as a ghost.

"Jane," she moans, crossing her arms over her stomach. "I don't feel good."

I'm instantly on alert. "Are you going to throw up?" I ask, and she nods vigorously, looking like she's already struggling to keep it down.

"Ryan!" I yell, barely keeping it together. Maybe I'm a freak, but the thought of someone vomiting on me right now somehow seems worse than zombie guts. Ryan is already standing on the brake pedal, and I manage to get the door open just as chunks spray out of Sunny's mouth. I carefully lift her down, patting her on the back and holding her hair out of the way. "It's okay," I tell her, even though my eyes are scanning the area for zombies.

Silas jumps out of the back seat and stands protectively with his gun up, his cigarette dangling from his lips.

I reach up and pull it out of his mouth and throw it on the ground, crushing it viciously beneath my foot. I am so furious with him right now!

"What in the hell did you do that for?" Silas demands, looking away from the road for a second to glare daggers at me before turning his back on me and scanning the tree line.