A Dead Man's Tale

Chapter 3 (Jessica)

Jessica's foot was being shaken and her mind was beginning to break through the stupor of sleep. Reading Howard's journal entries about the corpses that surrounded his home had given Jessica brief dreams of infected bodies surrounding her. Blurs of dead hands reaching out. Their moans drowning out her cries for help. She sat up with a startled cry and searched around her for any threats. Her sweaty hand reached for a weapon.

Standing at the foot of her cot was a stocky man that was as thin a healthy person could be. The dim lighting of the room gave his bald head enough of a sheen to it that acted as a beacon in the room. He had a wide grin with several teeth missing as he looked down on her.

"Morning, Jessica," said the man. "Hope I didn't spoil your dream."

Jessica swung her feet over the edge of her bed and pushed herself up. Some of the cots in the classroom were still occupied with everyone else either on guard duty or on the breakfast line. She pushed the events from Howard's journal aside to prepare for the duties she would have today.

She was still tiered from her uneasy sleep, "What do you need, Craig?"

Despite the sudden wakening, she wasn't unhappy to see him. Craig rarely left his post, the HAM radio tower that was constructed on the roof of the school. He was a radio operator before the outbreak and continued his task to coordinate things with the outside world. His skills had made him a valuable asset to the colony but he rarely left his cubicle, preferring to spend his time working and maintaining his equipment.

Craig looked puzzled. "Do I need a reason to visit my favorite person during the apocalypse?"

"I'm not going to go out with you Craig. I will not sleep with you either. I don't even pity you enough to throw you a bone." Jessica's tone was straight and steady.

"Fine, that's your loss." Craig wasn't fazed by the rejection. He had been rejected before. "There's something I needed to discuss with you anyway." He stood up from the cot and waved her to follow him.

Jessica was confused, it was next to impossible to keep secrets at Ridge Mount. There were too many people living closely together that rumors and news spread quickly. Often growing in proportions like all secrets do. If Craig was attempting to cover something up it had to be important. They went to a janitor's closet down the hall where they could talk with some security.

"So what is so important that we had to talk here?"

"What do you think about leaving this place?" His voice was ominous. "I spend all day up in that radio room listening to every scavenger reporting that nothing can be found. So I'm asking you what you what you think, you're the best scavenger we got on the teams."

Jessica knew that times had been bad but that's not to say that it was worth leaving the school. Or maybe she was just deluding herself from the truth. Even on her routine expeditions, supplies had been harder to find forcing her and others to go further out from the colony. The longer they spent out on the world exposed them to risks, the previous month three scavengers were killed by the infected.

Things had gotten harder and it would be a matter of time before people started to act aggressive towards each other out of frustration. It wouldn't be too long before riots broke out over food and medicine. They'd seen it before. That pure animalistic nature to survive when the fear of death was clinging to their shadows would drive them to commit unspeakable acts.

To leave the relative safety of the school would mean having supplies and a plan.

"What gear do you have?" She asked.