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Chapter 10:
"I guess I'll have to explain." Jennifer said as she lowered her gaze down to her fingers once more. This was going to be really tough on her but she knew she had to buck up and get through it.
Flashback
Jennifer sat in her first grade class as she colored with the other children, her dark hair was still long, only it was braided in two pig tails that her mother had done for her that morning.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Smith, could you send Jennifer Sullivan to the office prepared to leave?" The nasally voice suddenly came on the intercom.
"Of course." Their teacher said in a peppy voice as she was cut off by the sound of the intercom going off. The teacher went to help Jennifer collect her things as the small girl struggled to get her backpack on.
"Look, Mrs. Smith!" Jennifer held up the picture she had drawn to show her teacher. "It's a picture for my mommy." The picture consisted of two stick figures, one short and the other tall, with the words "To Mommy" scribbled at the top.
"I'm sure she'll love it," Mrs. Smith told Jennifer before the small girl scuttled out of the classroom, her book sack covering at least half of her small, childish body. She raced down the hall excited about getting checked out. It was a Friday afternoon and she was ready to get home because her mother promised to take her to the beach that weekend.
As she approached the office, she slowed her pace and walked in with a big smile on her face. She was greeted with something unexpected, in the office stood her Aunt Shelly with a sad look on her face. The principle of Jen's school stood there clutching the woman's hand. The smile Jennifer wore fell from her face and was replaced with confusion as the adults in the room took noticed to the small child.
The principle was the first to approach as she bent over and wrapped her arms around the girl. She let go then walked over to Shelly and hugged her, whispering something that Jennifer couldn't hear. After that, Shelly quickly grabbed Jennifer's hand and walked her to the car as the woman's eyes began to fill with tears.
The small child in the backseat continued adding small details to her mother's picture as they drove to her home. Shelly tried to tell the young girl the news but every time she looked at her small, innocent self in the backseat, she lost all courage and her eyes once again filled with tears.
They made it home and before Shelly could do anything, the young child was already out of the car and running for the front door of her house.
"Mommy!" she yelled as she barged into the house. Upon entering, the young Jennifer was faced with a sight she had never seen before. Her father sat on the couch with a box of Kleenexes next to him and red eyes. Tissues littered the floor and she could hear the sniffling from her father. Jennifer's young mind didn't register what was going on and soon, she was running to her father yelling, "Daddy! Daddy!"
The girl climbed onto the couch and quickly hugged her father, before producing the paper labeled Mommy in messy handwriting.
"Look! Look what I drew for Mommy." She said as she smiled at him.
"That's nice." He said in a raspy voice as he tried to fight back the tears threatening to spill. Luckily, Shelly walked in and quickly escorted Jennifer to her room before her father broke into yet another spell of tears.
Jennifer crept down the hall slowly as she clutched her mother's drawing in her hand. She had been cooped up in her room for hours and she was curious as to when her mother would be home.
"Daddy?" Jennifer asked the hunched over figure on their couch. "When's mommy getting home? She promised me she would take me to the beach."
"What is wrong with you?" Her father spoke in a shaky voice as he looked at his daughter, anger boiling inside of him. "You are so selfish! Your mother just died and all your worried about is your stupid little beach trip!"
By then the man had risen from his place on the couch and now towered over the defenseless girl.
"What do you mean, Daddy?" Jennifer asked in a shaky, confused voice.
"I mean, that your mother is dead and it's all your fault!" He yelled making the girl back up quickly only to have her stumble and land on her bottom. "She was rushing to come get you for your stupid little trip and she was hit full on by another vehicle."
Slick tears ran down Jennifer's face as her father explained what had happened to her mother. Soon, she had a steady sob as she realized her mother wasn't coming home, ever.
"That's right! Cry! Because it's all your fault." This time her father didn't yell it, he spoke in a steady voice that only emphasized the effect of his words on the child.
Quickly, Jennifer got up from the ground and darted for her room, leaving behind the picture she was so excited to give her mother. She closed herself in her room and buried herself amongst her many stuffed animals as she cried herself to sleep.
End Flashback
"From that day on, my father just kind of tuned out and I was left to be raised by my aunt." Jennifer explained looking down at her fingers, as she had done throughout the story.
"That's a sad story now, Jen, but it doesn't explain why you're so attached to some little girl you don't even know." Shane said looking at Jennifer wide eyed.
"I was getting to that," Jennifer hissed as she lifted her eyes. Shane was met with a sharp glare that sent shivers down his spine. The glare left Jennifer's face quicker than it had appeared as she continued on with her story. "After I graduated high school, I joined the military and slowly worked my way up to become a respected Captain. On my tenth year, I got news from my father that he and a woman had had another child. I quickly rushed back home, taking a short break from the military.
"When I returned home, I was saddened to find out that the mother of my father's new child had run off with some other man. Oddly though, my father was the farthest thing from sad, he was happier than I had ever seen him and I was happy for him. With my father working such late hours, I decided to retire from the military and help him raise the child. I spent the majority of 3 years raising her, so we became pretty attached."
The men in the room, Hershel, Daryl, Rick, and Shane took a moment to take in the woman's story. A silence hung in the air as everyone was left to their own thoughts.
"What happened to your sister?" Rick asked breaking the silence.
"Well…" Jennifer said, obviously not comfortable with that topic.
Flashback
"Mackenzie! I'm home!" Jennifer called out as she kicked the door closed. She quickly made her way to the kitchen, setting down the groceries she had just bought. She could already her to loud footsteps as Mackenzie made her way to the kitchen.
"Jenny!" Jennifer heard as Mackenzie threw her arms around the tall woman. Jennifer smiled as she lifted the six year old from the ground and rested her on her hip. The child wrapped her arms around Jen's neck as she kissed her cheek. That's when Jen noticed the large white bandage that consumed her sister's arm.
"What's this?" Jennifer questioned, nodding her head at the bandage.
"Well," the girl began to explain. "I was at Jamie's house and the meanie head bit me! His mommy sent him to his room before she fixed my bobo. And guess what! I barely even cried." She explained as if it were nothing at all.
"Well that's good, but maybe I should take a peek at it just to be safe." Jennifer said in a stern yet caring tone.
"Okey dokey," The child said with a smile.
Jennifer sat Mackenzie on the kitchen counter as she slowly unwrapped the bandage. As she revealed the wound, Jennifer visibly paled. It was more of a gash than a bite mark really; it looked as if the boy had taken a chunk from her arm, a small chunk but it still looked painful.
Ring Ring Ring
The sounded of Jennifer's cellphone ringing brought her back into reality as she whipped it out of her back pocket and answered it, not even checking who it was.
"Jennifer?" she recognized the voice on the other end as her father's.
"Dad?" Jennifer rested the phone between her shoulder and ear as she began to wrap Mackenzie's arm back up.
"Jennifer, where are you? Are you safe? Is Mackenzie with you?" The onslaught of questions took Jennifer by surprise and she had to take a minute to collect her thoughts.
"I'm at the house. Yes. And Mackenzie is sitting right in front of me."
She heard her father let out a sigh before he continued. "Good. Now I'm going to need you to do exactly what I tell you."
Jennifer didn't have time to agree before her father was giving her orders.
"I want you to lock all the doors and keep you and your sister inside. Under no circumstances should you let anyone in." Jennifer was moving from door to door, even checking the windows, to make sure everything was locked down tight.
"Okay, everything's locked up. Now are you going to tell me what all of this is about?"
"Jennifer, I just want you and Mackenzie to know that I love both of you." He whispered before the line went dead.
"Dad? Dad?!" Jennifer shouted to the dead line. She quickly removed the phone from her ear and tried to callback her father, it went straight to voicemail. Jennifer grabbed her sister off of the counter and rushed to the living room flipping on the television to the first news channel she saw.
"For those of you just tuning in, we have reports of dead bodies rising from the dead and coming to life. The cause of these odd disturbances is unknown but we advise all viewers to stay indoors and avoid contact with the infected." The newsman spoke to the camera.
"Jenny?" Mackenzie's scared voice reached Jennifer from her spot on the couch. "What's going on? Where's Daddy?"
Jennifer took her sister in her arms and kissed the top of her head.
"Don't worry, Kenzie. Everything's going to be okay."
Jennifer peeked through the curtains of the living room. The sun had set and now all she could was the dark shadows that slowly creeped through the night. Occasionally, she caught a glimpse of one of the monsters in the dim light of a street lamp.
"Jenny." Her sister groaned from her position on the couch. Jennifer swiftly left the curtain to attend to her sister. Jennifer crept through the dark room to the couch that sat in front of the television. Jennifer had noticed that more of the creatures flocked around the house when the lights were on so she turned off all of the lights and opted to light a few candles. Jennifer was by her sister's side pressing her hand to the child's forehead. "It hurts."
"I know." Jennifer said removing her head from her sister's sweat covered head. Her fever hadn't gone down since she mysteriously got it and Jennifer was starting to worry. She tried to get in contact with anyone she could, but no one picked up, not even 911. Even all of the news station had tuned out hours ago. "Just… Just try to think about something else."
"Okay." Mackenzie whispered as she slowly drifted into a sleep. Jennifer smiled and went into the kitchen to assess what food they had; there was no telling how long they would be there. She made her way into the pantry when she heard a noise. She quickly exited the pantry to find Mackenzie standing in the entrance to the kitchen.
"You should really go back to sleep." Jennifer said making her way over to her sister. The child matched her pace and grabbed Jennifer's outstretched arm with a strength Jennifer didn't know the child contained. Just as Mackenzie opened her mouth to bite the woman's arm, Jennifer retracted it with a confused look.
Mackenzie made another grab at her but Jennifer dodged it. Again, Mackenzie tried to grab at Jennifer and Jennifer was able to successfully dodge but didn't realize how bad her foot placement was until she found herself sprawled out on the floor.
Mackenzie took this opportunity to crawl on top of the woman. Jennifer was shocked at how strong the child was and had a difficult time restraining her. Suddenly, Mackenzie went for Jennifer's neck opening her mouth so she could take a big chunk from her neck.
"No!" Jennifer yelled as she kicked the child off of her. Mackenzie went flying back, successfully ramming the back of her head into the edge from the counter. The sound of skull being broken sent chills down Jennifer's spine as she watched her little sister fall to the ground.
Jennifer stared wide-eyed at the corner that had just punctured her sister's skull. Her eyes filled to the brim with tears and she watched the black liquid, she assumed was blood, drip from the edge to the pool that surrounded her sister's body. Jennifer trembled in terror, in all her years she had never seen something as horrendous as this.
As if seeing the lifeless body of her sister had triggered something, Jennifer quickly realized what she had just done. She collected the bloodied child in her arms, looking her over to see if there was something, anything she could do to bring her back.
The tears that had filled Jennifer's eyes now steadily fell as she gasped for air. How could she have done that?! She just killed her sister! Thoughts like this ran through Jennifer's mind as she clutched her sister's body to her chest.
End Flashback
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