“I thought we had that back in North Carolina,” Levi told her. “I was wrong.”
“Yes, but I could be right. I’m willing to take that chance. What do we have to lose?”
Levi looked off down the beach at those who walked before them. Jem and Melissa, Jesse Tauchee, Diane Stapleton and her children. And Kate and Tyrone, walking hand and hand.
He also thought of those who had been left behind, either alive or dead. The Mendlebaums, Auntie Rose, the Newman family, Michelle and Avery, Billy Tauchee… and Nell.
“Chances are hard to come by these days,” he told her. “I reckon we’d best grab one when we can.”
Enolia smiled at him. Just seeing it warmed Levi’s heart and gave him hope.
Together, they followed the others.
The collective cry of seagulls shrilled from overhead…. growing from several to many.
“We’re in the Zone, folks,” he called out. “Look sharp.”
“We see ’em, Papa,” Jem called back. On the beach ahead were Biters… twenty or thirty, maybe more.
Together, they fanned out, drew their weapons, and walked southward.
The salty ocean sky churned with frenetic shades of blue, gray, and white; surging, flowing like the crashing waves below. It was not an ill turn of the weather promising rain or storm or hurricane. It was keenly alive. Ever moving, ever watching.
Ever vigilant for what was commonplace in those dark and dangerous days.
Always with its scavenging eye upon death.
The Buzzard Zone Page 28