"Is this really the only food you have?"

Jimbo stares at a box of uncooked rice that sits on the counter.

"Im gonna assume you don't have a pantry and refrigerator somewhere stocked full of steak and Twinkies," he says, spinning around in the kitchen which consist of two waist-high wooden counters lining the corner with a hole in one where a metal sink used to be. Jimbo sighed and walked over to where I sat in a pathetic wooden chair that makeshifts as a couch.

He kneels down and looks up at me, "I'm sorry. I know, I fucked up. Well, I thinks it more but you get it and..." He looks to the door, distracted. "Hold on..." He leans over and shuffles through his bag that rests on the floor next to us. Once he is armed with a glock, he slowly creeps towards the door.

As he reached the door, he turned his head look back at me.

"Sarah? Did you hear that?"

Suddenly, the door swings open and Jim is knocked to the ground. He looks unconscious at the time but I wasn't sure and I sure as hell wasn't gonna wait to find out. The zombie that had raged in was in full pursuit of me. She upturned everything in her path. The shovel was was by the front door and I couldn't even find the Uzi. I grabbed Jim's back and sprinted to the bedroom, locking the door as I got inside, just in time.

"Seriously?" The only other things he had in his back where knives, and that would mean I had to get close to the zombie, who at the moment threw her body against the door. I took one that looked longer than the others. That means more distance from me and the zombie. I fumbled to unlock the door and when I did the zombie charged me. Continuously, I jammed the knife in her gut but she didn't stop trying to get her mouth around my shoulder.

"Duck!"

I let my legs give in so I would fall underneath the zombie. Three or four shots were fired before the corpse was lifted off of me. Jimbo held is hand out to lift me up, wearing that smile of his.

"Bad time for a nap, I guess, " he said, giving me a wink. He led me out of the bathroom so he could finish the zombie off for sure. After everything I'd seen, I had to close my eyes and ears. I'll kill a zombie when I absolutely have too but I just can't bear to watch things die.

The day I killed my father and cousin I was fueled with rage. Now that I think about it, I can't even remember what was going through my mind at the time. All I knew was I wanted them to stop fucking around with my father and the only was to do that was end Joey and let my Dad stop suffering. I've used all my might to not think about that day.

When I open my eyes Jim is walking past me, dragging the creature behind him.

"I'm gonna have to bury this thing. Ya know, so other zombie's won't smell the body." The backdoor slams behind him while I get an old wet towel to wipe us the zombie juice in the bedroom. The smell takes getting used to but when you live in a world full of it, it doesn't take long to get accustomed. I'd just rather not have rotted brains on the floor of where I sleep.

"All cleaned up." He comes in the room, wiping his hands on his holey cut-off jeans. Bending down to help me scrub the wood floor he says, "You know what I think we should do?"

"Hmm?"

"Fix this shit hole up. And train you."

This makes me stop my cleaning to look up at him. "Train me?"

He smiles, still looking at the floor. "In the art of zombie-killing."

I laugh at him and his preposterous ideas. "I would never in hell do what you did."

"Okay. I know. How about zombie defense?" He takes the towel from me and slings it across his shoulder, reaching out for my hand. We stand up and walk to the back window, looking out.

"I can teach you how to defend yourself against them. I don't care if they take me but if they got to you..." He turns to face me, still holding my hand. "I dunno. I really don't know what I'd do. Can you tell that I worry about you?"

"You didn't seem so worried when I ran away into the world of flesh-eating almost-humans alone."

He sighs. "I was. And... I'm sorry. I'd risk my life for you. And you'll see eventually if the time comes. C'mon. Let me train you!"

He looked so hoping that I had no choice but to agree.

"We start tomorrow at dawn, young lady. But right now, we turn Crappy Shed into Full-on Protection House."