Z-Risen (Book 3): Poisoned Earth by Timothy W. Long Page A

burped or farted, it was like a bell rung next to my head. Exhaustion usually knocked me out, but today I was still on edge.
    I tried relaxing and thinking of better times: times that involved beer and hookers in some overseas port. I thought of the night Anna and I had spent a few weeks ago. We’d taken an ice-cold shower together, and I for one had felt clean for the first time in ages.
    Although she didn’t want to share our sleeping bags, I’d laid mine out next to her.
    I rolled over and looked at her. She looked peaceful for a change.
    “What?” she whispered, opening one eye.
    “Nothing. Just looking at you,” I whispered back.
    “Go to sleep, Creed. I’m beat,” she said, and rolled over.
    “Are you mad at me for something?”
    “No, Jackson, I’m not mad at you. I just don’t need a boyfriend right now and that’s all there is to it. Now get some sleep.”
    I blew out a breath and rolled onto my back. The view of the ceiling didn’t help. It was white, unfinished, and boring.
    An hour later I still tossed and turned. Joel snored, and Roz snored quietly next to him. The pair had curled into each other and looked rather goddamn cozy.
    Christy had dragged her sleeping pad across the floor and was facing the door. Earlier we’d drawn cards to see who would take first watch. Even though we tried to coddle Christy when we could, she insisted on being treated like an adult. She wanted to take watch every night, and she was good. Christy never dozed off and she rarely ever bugged us, unless she sensed a genuine threat.
    I’d had increasingly bad insomnia as the weeks fled past, and tonight looked like it would be no different. I rose as silently as I could and lifted my backpack. I moved across the room and leaned over to whisper to Christy.
    “Get some rest. I can’t sleep, so I’ll keep watch for the next few hours and then I’ll wake Roz.”
    Christy nodded and wiped at her eyes. I suspected she’d been crying, but she hit me with a hard look that would have made Anna proud.
    “Okay. Thanks,” she said and rolled over.
    I took my pack into the living room and sat with my back to a wall. Then I took out my journal and wrote for an hour.
     
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12:30 hours approximate
    Location: Just outside of Oceanside
     
    My eyes were heavy and the thought of sleep was getting more and more attractive. I’d spent the last few hours alternating between writing and staring outside.
    A couple of creepers had wandered past the house and then into the woods. I let them be. The pair found something on the ground--the carcass of a small animal--and they fought over it. Not much of a battle, because one of the Zs was missing most of an arm.
    I wondered, not for the first time, what their story had been. Had they been married, had kids, were they working-class, were they nice to their families? So many people gone now, and what was the world going to be like in a year? Would we all be mindless, wandering ghouls?
    I closed my eyes a couple of times to let them rest, because they burned. I yawned and decided I could probably sleep.
    Roz rose grumpy and took her place on watch. I curled up next to Anna as close as I could get without touching her sleeping bag, and closed my eyes. Within moments I drifted off.
     
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#26 - In the Crosshairs
     
    08:35 hours Approximate
    Location: Just outside of Oceanside
     
    I woke to the sound of laughter.
    Christy was playing in the living room with Frosty. I rubbed grit out of my eyes and rolled over to stare at the ceiling. I was the only one in the kitchen. The amount of sun streaming in through the window told me I’d done something I hadn’t done in a long time: I’d slept in.
    I peeked around the space that divided the two rooms and saw the source of Christy’s laughter. She had the dog lying on the floor and was trying to teach her how to roll over. Frosty didn’t seem to think too much of the game. She lay with her legs splayed in the air, her tail wagging across the