“You're full of shit,” Ross muttered. As he said it, he realized his mistake, and became fully aware that Jamie was staring at him. “I, um...didn't mean you...”
“Are you okay?” she asked, genuinely concerned.
He sighed and stared at the mulch, taking a handful of it and squeezing it as hard as he possibly could. He didn't know for certain if he was ready to share Jill with Jamie. Hell, he wasn't certain if he wanted to share any part of his past with anyone, but he was certain that if he didn't come clean, Jamie would think him insane, and rightly so.
“I...I need to tell you something,” he said.
Jamie immediately put her trowel down, recognizing that something was wrong. She could sense it in his voice. For the first time since he'd come to Westlake, he was about to share something personal, something honest. She wasn't sure if she should respond. This was akin to grabbing a scrap of paper in a windstorm. One wrong move, and he'd flutter off to God knows where.
“I'm not a good person.” he stated very plainly. “I did something...something bad...you're going to hate me.”
“What?” Jamie wanted to reach out and hug him, but that, again, could have been a terrible idea. “I could never hate you!”
“Just wait,” Ross assured her.
He told her his story. He told her about his parents, his life before the apocalypse, and he told her about the decision he'd made to take a .38 caliber revolver to his high school. Her expression stayed the same throughout his story, she did not judge, nor give any disapproving looks. At some points, she simply nodded, but never said a word. As his story came to an end, Jill slowly began to fade. By the time he was finished, she was gone, completely, leaving him alone with Jamie, who embraced him.
***
Though she was asleep, she was more than aware that she was in such a state. Oftentime,s Sarah wondered if normal people knew they were dreaming. She'd always known, even before she was bitten. She was able to control her dreams rather easily, choosing the landscape, the time of day, and even the people who would be present. If she wanted to exist in a dream world laden with cotton candy clouds and pink skies, then it would be so.
There was no one to argue with her choices, not here anyway. As she drifted off into her own personal dreamland and first created an open field, a grass plain like you might see in Kansas. She took great care in forming every single blade of grass. The interesting thing about a dream, even a lucid dream, was the passage of time. While mere hours would pass in the real world, several years’ worth of time could pass. She had all the world to craft her universe – something that she certainly couldn't do in the real world.
After she finished with the grass she turned to the sky. Since they'd reached Ohio everything had seemed so grey! That just wouldn't do. Right now, in her dream world, the sky was a blank slate, dull, and gray, but not the overcast type of gray. It was more like a charcoal gray, or perhaps a canvas waiting to be painted. So she painted it.
With a single thought she colored the sky bright blue and created hundreds of white puffy clouds. She surveyed the rest of the area and tried to decide what else she wanted to place. There were so many different options to choose from, but having been lucid dreaming the vast majority of her life, she had created virtually every combination one could imagine. Though her life outside was lacking, her life inside her head had been fantastic. She'd embarked on epic adventures and created amazing narratives for herself over the years, but tonight, there was no inspiration, no reason to do anything. She sighed and plopped down on the green grass, straightening her dress as she did. She was fully decked out in a green sun dress, a white sweater, and for reasons known only to her, a massive yellow sun hat with a white ribbon tied around the base.
She soon grew tired of sitting on the grass, so she simply jumped to her feet and took flight. It was her world, after all. As she had many times before, she flew up to edge of her bright blue sky, and placed a hand against it. Many times she had wondered what lie beyond the sky, but her world was so beautiful as is, that she hadn't really considered creating a universe. As she thought about this, however, she realized that her world had been irreversibly changed. There was life outside her little world, and her little world was not nearly as big as it seemed.
She dropped back to the ground and landed neatly between two trees, smiling slightly before realizing that she had not actually created any trees in this world yet.
“Hello, Sarah,” a voice said. It came from behind her, and she most certainly had not created it. She spun around to face the mysterious voice, and found that it was an older, African American man, dressed in a brown leather jacket with slightly graying hair on the sides of his head. He was a stranger, no doubt, but something about his face showed that he was trustworthy. Even still, she couldn't trust him. He was inside her dream, after all.
“Who are you?” she asked, keeping her distance.
“My name is Jonah,” he replied. “I sincerely apologize for the intrusion, but I need to tell you something very important.”
“Wait,” Sarah said. “I know you. I know you from somewhere. Where do I know you from?”
“Yes, that might be a side effect,” Jonah nodded. “That bite on your leg did much more than heal you. I need to see you, and soon. It is of the utmost importance that you stay exactly where you are.”
“I know, I came here to wait for someone...I think it was you. Where are you?”
“I'm close,” Jonah assured her, “but I have to take care of something before we can meet. Will you be able to hold on, just a little while longer?”
Sarah nodded.
“I suppose we have a little more time here; do you have any questions for me?” Jonah asked.
Sarah pondered for a moment.
“Can you tell me if--” Her sentence was suddenly broken by a violent shove on her shoulder. She had been awakened. She snapped her eyes open and looked around the room, wide awake. It was Amanda. Amanda had woken her up.
“I'm sorry, honey,” Amanda said. “You were screaming. Were you having a nightmare?”
“Dammit.”
TO BE CONTINUED
In Book 3, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: Zombies become the least of everybody's problems as Major Dunfield has taken charge of the military and goes power-mad. Killing without conscience, he justifies all in the name of the New United States of America. When Jack Frost defies him and deserts, Dunfield goes on a personal crusade to hunt Jack down. His vendetta puts him on a collision course with Jonah, Sarah, Ross and Jack Frost as book 3 of the Zombie Apocalypse Z series comes to a shocking climax that irrevocably changes everything.
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Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Family & Friends - Book 2 (Zombie Apocalypse Z Series) Page 9