Begin and End - a zombie short ⚒

Part 3

Shauna didn't wanna talk. Not at first. That came later.

They walked until the sun set. Eventually, the smoke and pikes were dots on the horizon. At the new camp site, Gavin set up his bedroll and drifted to sleep in minutes. Shauna and Brian roasted the leftover meat, with her staring into the flames, avoiding eye contact.

He offered her a tin cup full of his finest, a whiskey he had stashed on his way out of the apartment months ago. Initially, she sniffed it and pulled a face, but a moment later, she surprised him by downing it.

"Drink with your dad, too?" Brian poured another cup, this time three-fourths full.

Shauna accepted, took a swig, and pronounced, "Don't trust a woman who can't imbibe."

He chuckled. "My dad used to say that one, too."

He left out that his dad was fond of a shorter version of the phrase, don't trust a woman.

Chicks never liked to hear that.

The firelight flickered off what he assumed must be an attractive face. She had chocolate skin, brown eyes, and dark straight hair. She had to be a mix of somethin', like black and Mexican maybe.

"So, what's your story?"

He had asked her before, but she always deflected, or just straight up walked away. Now, her soft mouth opened as if to answer candidly.

Then she shook her head. "We don't need to know about each other. We just need to get there alive."

"But where are we going?"

"If I don’t tell you, are you going to leave the group?”

Her posture emitted a challenge, one that she knew he wouldn’t take up.

“It would be nice to know,” he said.

“I’ve spent my adult life at levels of not knowing. If I could get through it, so can you. G'night." Just like all the other times, she left rather than talk, settling onto her bedroll with her back facing him.

Uppity bitch.

As she squirmed a bit to get comfortable, he experienced a flash of desire. Her face might not be that great, but the rest of her shapely body was nothin' to laugh at.

Instead of imagining useless fantasies, he took out another journal, and read until he fell asleep. 

~*~