Jason's hair hung in wet, long strands in his eyes and he looked at her and blew them up out of his eyes. "Eh, maybe I do need a haircut."
She giggled and they helped maneuver another spike into place.
Soon the forest of spikes was ready; all of them angled at a deadly slant to capture anyone attempting to jump down. It would likely not kill the zombies, but it would slow them down.
Finally, they clambered back into the fortress and got a round of applause. The storage containers that had lined the back of the old building with the faded advertisement on it were now rigged with chains as a harness.
Juan walked toward Jenni and the rest of the crews and said, "Okay, so far so good."
Jenni giggled and pulled off her heavy gloves. 'Piece of cake."
"So far, Loca, but we have more to do." He walked past her and up onto to the stairs that led up to a sentry post in the corner of their makeshift fortress. He looked out over the crowd of zombies and turned around to motion to the crane operator high above them.
With a whine, the huge crane snagged the first of the storage units and lifted it high into the air. The forty foot long container that stood almost ten feet tall was used for storing a lot of the materials that were to be used in the construction of the building. But now it would serve another purpose. The crane arm slowly swung the unit over the construction site and Juan continued to motion and direct the operator.
Jenni joined some other people standing on a pile of cement bags to try to watch.
Slowly, the arm swung into position and the container was carefully aligned to fit into the road below. Juan motioned again and the container lowered slowly over the heads of the zombies reaching for it. Finally, it descended, smashing them beneath its weight. It was almost a perfect fit.
The crane arm swung back into position as Jenni ran across the site to where Juan was. She just had to see what was going on. Running up the steps, the sea of zombies came into view and she gasped.
Some were beating on the storage container that almost completely cut off the street to the right of the fortress. Most were reaching toward the people that were visible on the platform, screeching, howling, and pushing hard against the large trucks in front of them.
The crane arm swung overhead again, but this time dropped large bags full of earth between the end of the storage container and the storefront it had settled in front off.
Now the road was cut off.
Juan turned to Jenni. "Not bad, huh?"
She grinned and looked over the crowd again.
Tobias stood nearby, shaking his head. "We slaughter them instead of helping them."
"What do you suggest we do, huh? Give them some vitamin C and some aspirin and tell them to get some rest?" Juan shook his head with disgust.
That was when Jenni noticed that the crowd was shifting slightly. It was almost as if they knew they were about to get trapped in a narrow space with nowhere to go unless they backtracked up the road.
"Shit!" She watched some moving toward the zone that Juan said they needed to keep clear. Frowning, she watched some of them looking up at the container now being hefted into the air.
Jenni took off running, down the stairs, across the site, toward city hall.
Rushing up the back stairs, she wasn't sure what she was doing until she saw the staircase to the second floor. She ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, then turned down another hallway. The third floor had a small narrow balcony that was forbidden to everyone since it overlooked the street. She ripped down the "do not enter" sign and pushed open the door and stumbled out onto the balcony.
It gave a warning creak, but held her weight.
"Hey, dead fuckers! Up here!"
The ones that were moving toward the forbidden area turned their heads upwards and looked straight up at her. Immediately, they began to screech and reach for her. They pushed up against the truck barrier.
Jenni noticed a few that were not paying attention so she danced along the balcony screaming, "Over here, stupid fuckers! Hey, dead ass! Up here!
Fine quality human flesh up here!"
Jenni waved her hands over her head and flipped off the zombies as they looked up. Seeing she had an audience, she showed them her ass, wiggled it, and did the most annoying faces she could think of. The zombies howled in response as she whipped them up into a frenzy.
She noticed the container was on its way down so she got to the end of the balcony and nearly hung over it, getting as many zombies as she could to move directly under her.
"Hey, freaks, hey, guess what? I'm not for dinner!"
The container came down. There was a mighty thank as it settled down onto the road and a gush of blood and gore came out from beneath it as Jenni managed to get almost ten taken out with one blow.
Laughing almost maniacally, she grabbed hold of the rail and taunted the nearly completely trapped zombies to follow her away from the slight gap between the storage container and the wall of the store. She kept taunting them until the crane arm delivered the bags of dirt that completely cut off the left-hand side of the street. The zombies were now trapped in a t-shaped corral.
Dancing across the balcony, Jenni laughed her ass off. The balcony gave a loud moan and Jenni realized the show was over.
"Oh, shit!" She dove back in the door and the balcony shuddered, but stayed in place.
Juan stood in the hallway just inside the doorway. He looked past her into the corral, seem satisfied with what he saw, then looked back at her.
"You're loca," he said simply and walked away.
Jenni grinned, turned and held her hands over her head like Nixon flashing the victory sign and retreated into the city hall.
Behind her, the zombies moaned and groaned.
2. Family Ties that Bind
Jason trudged across the construction site, Jack at his heels, his hand wiping the sweat off his brow. He was exhausted. He had been helping with defenses all day and his body hurt with every movement he made. His long bangs were soaked with sweat and he had finally borrowed a rubber band and managed to get most of his hair into a stubby ponytail. Now a few wisps fell around his face and he flicked his hand at them with annoyance.
Jenni was sitting at a table with several of the townspeople. He was proud of her. He knew how hard it was for her to socialize with more than one or two people at a time. But she seemed to be changing, getting bolder.
Hell, that dance on the balcony had proven that.
His dad had been a shithead. Pure and simple. Jason hadn't realized that for years. His Mom had told him horror stories of her marriage to his Dad, but he hadn't believed her. Even when numerous family members told him that the reason his Mom had custody of him was because his Dad had sent her to the hospital too many times for the Judge to ignore, he hadn't believed it. When his Dad had come for his supervised visits, he was always charming and kind and brought Jason the coolest new things for a kid his age. There was no way his Dad was an abuser.
It wasn't until his Mother died that he had finally been able to meet his half-brothers, Benji and Mikey. For a long time he had refused to meet them or his stepmother out of loyalty to his Mom. He was all his Mom had after all.
But when she had died, he had been packed up and shipped off to his Dad's house a state away. Jenni had sent him a very sweet email asking him about his likes and dislikes and he had hated her for it. When he arrived at the house, he had been shocked to see how much Jenni looked like his Mom.
More shocked when he had been shown his new bedroom and everything he had told Jenni (some of it bullshit) was in the room. She had decorated it in his favorite colors with his favorite band posters on the walls. He had hated her more for that. He had gone down to dinner to find his favorite dish on the table. He had fiercely hated her then.
And then that fateful day came. His perfect father had suddenly become irate at something Jason had done and his face had contorted with a rage that terrified Jason. He had lifted his hand to strike Jason, but Jenni had thrown herself in front of him and had taken the blow. Jason had watched in horror as his Dad beat her without mercy for interrupting his "discipline of my son.”
Mikey, who everyone said was growing up to be a football player, had launched himself across the room and onto his father. And then all hell had broken loose upon their household.
When Jenni had come into his room several hours later to put a glass of water on his bed stand, her lips puffy and cracked, her one eye swollen shut, limping slightly, Jason had flung his arms around her bruised body and wept uncontrollably. It was then that he had realized that all those years his Mother had been telling the truth. And he had wept tears of guilt over his doubt.
After that, he didn't hate Jenni at all. He, in fact, loved her very much.
And he had loved his siblings. In some weird way, he had loved his dad still.
But their home had been violent. He and Jenni had worn bruises. Sometimes, even Mikey. There were times all of them, even Benji, were in the brawl. That their home had ended in violence was not surprising. In fact, Jason was sure Mikey had turned back to launch himself at their zombified Dad screaming,
"Don't touch my mom!"
He winced at the thought and walked into city hall. Several people, older people, were carefully cataloging all the food that had been moved into one room for storage. Taking inventory had been something Travis had told them to do during one of the long conversations with him over the CB.
