CHAPTER TWO

Jay stared at his female companion with a comically befuddled expression for a long moment, and then he smiled, sly as a snake. "Yeah, right," was his only reply to Liza as he tried to sit up but she held him down with a gentle yet firm grip. He started to protest but she gave him a hard stare and he obeyed. When she was sure he wasn't going to try and get up, she went to attend to Bando's wound.

The horse was uncomplaining about the bullet wound even though he had been doubled over in pain just moments before. He was a brave horse. Liza kissed his nose affectionately as she inspected the steed. He had been hit in the left shoulder and it had gone in and then out of his flesh. Ultimately, the horse had taken three bullets in separate places and had survived. He was going to live. Liza just wished she had some tranquilizers or . . . anything, to help her calm the horse down or sedate it while she bandaged or stitched the wounds.

She was about to start bandaging the horse's shoulder wound when she heard an all too familiar loud moaning noise and jerked a little, turning around really fast. Everybody that had survived after the outbreak knew that sound too well. It signaled that at least one zombie was approaching. Liza turned and methodically began trying to Bando very quickly, with gentle but urgent fingers.

Jay's lips twisted into an amused smile as he watched Liza take care of his horse, but since he was smiling through the immense pain radiating through every cell of his body, the smile looked more like a grimace. He knew that the zombies were coming closer and closer with every second and they had to get the fuck out of Dodge, had to leave immediately. The problem was, Jay was critically wounded, as was Bando. They weren't going anywhere really fast at the moment.

Liza finally turned away from Bando, frustrated and frightened. "He's not going to be able to walk, much less gallop, for at least a while," she answered, her sweaty face worried as she scanned the darkness around them for any signs of the zombies. Jay could hear her frantic breathing even from where he lay. He didn't want to die, so he thought of an idea, on the spot.

"Let's head for the farmhouse," he said, nodding quietly at the farmhouse across the long-barren Pennsylvania farm field. "Surely, we'll be safe there. It's already boarded up and all that shit . . . Looks like the door is open, but that's about it." He shrugged his shoulders. "Better than sitting out here in the open, eh?"

Liza nodded and she decided something right there. "I-I'll take you first because Bando . . . Zombies don't eat horses, so he'll be fine out here for a moment. I'm gonna carry you to the house . . . Or try to carry you . . . . I'll find . . . some way to carry Bando." She put the pistol in her waistband and took a very deep breath. She grabbed Jay up in a fireman's carry and began stumbling towards the farmhouse, nearly crumpling under his superior weight, her knees trembling.

Her eyes searched the dark around them for zombies and she was rewarded with the sight of one walker about ten feet to her left, covered in dried blood and chewing on the bloody stump of some poor bastard's right leg. Liza kept going, however, and she reached the open door of the farmhouse and as soon as she stumbled inside, both Liza and Jay crashed heavily to the ground, Liza nearly out for the count from the exertion. Jay looked at her sadly and knew she was going to be able to run back out there to Bando, but she wasn't going to be able to bring the nearly-crippled horse back.

He leaned down and kissed her cheek softly and whispered in her ear. "You know what to do. Leave me a pistol and then go out to my horse. Hurry back." A tear leaked down his cheek as she disappeared out through the doorway.

Liza bit back a sob as she ran tiredly through the field, dodging the occasional zombie. She ominously checked the load in her semiautomatic pistol as she approached the area where Bando's dark shape lay. He raised his head when he scented her, eyes reflecting his happiness that she had come back. But her hands were trembling as she raised the pistol to point at Bando's head and his eyes looked confused now. She pulled the trigger and the bullet plowed through the horse's skull. Weeping like a baby, Liza turned and ran back towards the farmhouse.