Dead: Winter by TW Brown Page A

Nickie. I didn’t see any tears so I assumed her friend was still among the living. One point for the good guys.
    I was about to ask where Thalia and Emily were when the door flew open and the girls came in with a flurry of squeals and laughter. I guess they were over last night. Once more I had to marvel at the ability of children to hit some sort of internal reset button and go back to normal.
    “There is lots of snow outside!” Emily announced as she bounded up to me. “Jake and Jesus made me and Thalia a sled!”
    Both girls had pink cheeks and runny noses. I glanced around the room at everybody else, wondering if I might be the only person who cared that Ian, Brad and Billy were gone. I also noticed that Jamie was nowhere to be seen.
    “Dr. Zahn?” I called as I crossed the room, patting each of the girls on the way. They were both holding up mugs for Sunshine to fill with what smelled like some sort of tea that she was pulling from the woodstove.
    “Good news, Steve,” the doctor announced. “That young lady is going to be okay it would seem.”
    “My blood helped, Papi!” Thalia chirped after a noisy sip from her steaming mug.
    “Huh?” Then I remembered that she had been one of the donors yesterday. Had it just been a few short hours ago? I didn’t know about everybody else, but the last twenty-four felt like a month of Sundays to me. “Oh, that’s great, sweetie,” I said. “And what about Teresa?”
    “Probably some fatigue,” Dr. Zahn replied.
    At least that made sense to me. If I was this worn out, and not pregnant, then she had to be wasted. I knew for a fact that, despite her age, and despite her pregnancy, Teresa took the management of our little growing commune very seriously. Hell, she’d been more on the ball than I was on more than one occasion early on.
    “She is going to be confined to bed rest for a few days,” Dr. Zahn continued. “I think she just needs to sit back and be pregnant for a while.”
    “G.I. Jane isn’t gonna like that,” Sunshine quipped.
    “Any word on Billy, Brad, and Ian?” I asked.
    “Nothing yet,” Jake said. “Jesus and I followed their tracks, and it looks like they are headed east.”
    “Speaking of that,” Jesus spoke up. There was something about the way he was talking. Then I noticed his eyebrow raising and head nodding. I looked around to see who he was gesturing to—
    “Papi?” Thalia tugged at my sleeve. “Can me and Emily go with Jesus and Jake to reset the flares and check the traps?”
    “What!” The tiny girl jumped back from me like I’d slapped her. A look of uncertainty and…was that fear?...filled her eyes. “What in the world?”
    “They’ll be with us, Steve,” Jesus said.
    “We ain’t gonna let them get hurt,” Jake added. “It’s just that when we were out there watching them play on the sleds, we got close to the edge of the perimeter and we popped a zombie that was stuck in one of the pits. That reminded me that we needed to take care of the resets today. The girls asked if they could come help.”
    It was bad enough that they’d taken them out the other day, now it was becoming a regular event. What was next, putting them in the tower?
    “Maybe we should put them in rotation for scavenging runs,” I quipped.
    “I think you’re getting carried away, Steve,” Jon said. “Nobody is talking about having the girls do anything crazy. It is just some of the simple stuff around here. They would be with one of my men at all times.”
    “You can’t go around bitching at everybody about not taking this serious and then be upset because the girls are involved in some of the work.” Great, now Melissa wanted to join in on the fun.
    “I understand that they can be helpful,” I said, “I just don’t see why they need to be out in a dangerous situation.”
    “Dangerous situation!” Jesus exploded. “In case you forgot, every single fucking minute is a dangerous situation these days.”
    “Keep your words in