The Zombie Plagues: The Story Of Billy and Beth by George Dell Page B

wary and tired-looking. She seemed more alive to him now though, and the smile went a long way towards smoothing out the lines that had seemed to be embedded in her forehead. He supposed that to her he must seem awful young at twenty-two, maybe even immature. The few women he had gone out with in Watertown had been much younger than himself, girls really. He had been in a common law marriage in Mexico that ended badly, and that was his extent of knowledge when it came to women.
    Beth sat on the wooden surface of the small raft and watched Billy turn back over on his back, as he continued to float towards the raft.
    She had liked Billy almost from the first, when he had convinced her to open the door it had been a big deal to her. It was something she would normally never do at all, under any circumstances. Nevertheless, she had let him in. He seemed honest, she told herself, and reminded her of herself. She had started life honest anyway, it was just that she couldn't be as honest as she wanted too, she reminded herself. Life was just that way, she decided.
    Billy was different. She knew it was stupid, here she was entertaining what she had told him to forget, but even as the thought entered her head she knew it wouldn't work. It was comfort she needed. It was sexual attraction. He didn't move her inside like she wanted to be moved. She wondered if she could be moved that way by any man and the thought caused her smile to slip away.
    The meal was excellent. Billy's mind was not entirely impaled upon the world and what it had become. He thought they both just wanted to be part of the whole again.
    He realized, on an unconscious level, that it was even more than that. He wanted some sort of security again. Some kind of normalcy, same old, same old, he thought. The thought made him laugh.
    “What?” Beth asked.
    “Well first, this is so good. And second I was thinking that as much as I used to hate the same old, same old of the world, I find myself wishing I had it back again. Ironic, I know.”
    Beth nodded. She felt the same way. In a world that was constantly cruel to her, she had held out hope that it would not always be that way that somehow, someday, it would all change for her. And it had, and for her this was even better than she had dreamed. She didn't have to pretend about her past, it didn't matter anymore. She didn't have to be anything, or anyone, other than who she had always wanted to be, herself, the woman that she had buried deep within her. She was happier than she could ever recall being in her entire life. It was as if she had been blind, and now through some unimaginable miracle could see. It was so much and so many feelings that it threatened to overwhelm her.
    Billy spoke as they finished eating. He had been thinking non-stop about everything that had happened, in just the last few days, and he was no longer certain he wanted to risk traveling on.
    “Beth?” he began, not quite sure how to proceed with what he had been thinking. “Do you want to go? I mean, do you want to go all the way across this country? It's just that, well, I'm not as positive as I was that it has to be done, or that we should.”
    She thought for only a brief second before she answered him.
    “I think that we have to, Billy. It's not a question of whether we should. We have to,” she paused. “I know it may be dangerous, and I suppose it could mean that we may even die, but to me it would be worthwhile. To me it would be, because I am not the woman for you... And she is out there.” Beth locked her eyes on Billy's as she finished speaking, waiting for him to respond.
    Billy thought over what she had said. It was not really a decisive thinking though, as he knew she was right. It was more of an acceptance of a decision he had already made, and not really wavered from. He nodded.
    “I've changed a lot of that thinking,” Billy told her. “I really have. I don't always pay attention, but I did when it came to you. I don't