Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Siren Songs by E.E. Isherwood Page B

one you
gave me. It's just perfect Liam.”
    Liam sat down next to her. He still wasn't bold enough to put his
hands on her, even though they'd briefly kissed earlier that day. It
warmed his heart she wanted to keep the Bible he had found for her,
but he felt compelled to revisit the murder question because it was
so important for both of them.
    “Seriously Victoria, murder is completely different than
self defense. You can't hesitate if someone is truly intent to do you
harm. Please don't ever hesitate to save yourself if you can.”
    Liam thought back to the early days of this crisis, when he froze
several times, unable to adjust to the threats right in front of him.
It almost cost him his life more than once.
    “But if all we do is go around killing bad people, doesn't
that make us bad people too?”
    That was the ethical dilemma. If you kill out of necessity to
prevent evil from doing harm to you and your loved ones, does it
eventually catch up to you—make you evil? Does it depend on how
many people you kill? For what reasons? Does it become easier the
more you kill? That was his real fear. That killing would become
routine and expected. That's why he preferred to think of zombies as
a distinct species—no longer human. Deep down he knew that
wasn't true though. And if what Grandma said about a cure was true,
it meant maybe even the zombies could be brought back. That could
present some moral problems.
    “I think we have to watch each other and support each other
to make sure that doesn't happen. You and I have both looked deep
into the gaping maw of the zombie world. I think we both know we are
going to have to do more killing. We have to be ready for it. I'd
kill anyone without hesitation who tried to do harm to you.”
    He didn't say it to impress Victoria with his bravado, so he was
surprised she took his hand in hers and said “thank you.”
    As they sat there, Liam tried to think of something to change the
subject to something a little less heavy. Victoria beat him to it.
“Phil seems like a nice guy. Kind of intense, but I guess
that's the kind of attitude we need to survive this mess. He seems to
have a connection with Grandma now, which is also good. I hope he
stays with us.”
    “Me too. He's definitely better than teaming up with a
juggler or a writer. Someone who can't protect us.”
    They laughed a little at the thought.
    “If the world really is going to hell, as Phil says, the
next few weeks are going to be really important to our long-term
survival. Phil would be a great addition to our team, but we're going
to need many more Phil's on our side to survive. When I wasn't
playing computer games I was reading books on zombies, and most of
those had good information on how the world would be changed forever
if zombies swarmed the Earth. Single people and small groups had the
most trouble surviving. Evil people are using the chaos to build
their own teams of bad guys. Like finds like. It's the same in nearly
every book I've ever read on the subject. No one survives on their
own for very long. We have to stick with larger groups of people
who—and this is the key to the whole thing—know what the
hell they're doing.”
    “You should lead our group, Liam.”
    “Uh, no. In case you didn't notice I'm only sixteen. And I—”
    “Wait a minute! Grandma said you were fifteen!” She
was smiling broadly as she said it.
    “Well, my birthday is in a couple weeks...” He
realized again that without records to back him up, he could say
anything about his own past, including his age. But he wasn't a
chronic liar. Intentionally deceiving Victoria wasn't something he
wanted to do with any regularity.
    Apparently, she was just enjoying a little good-natured ribbing at
his expense.
    “OK, let me re-phrase that. In case you didn't notice I'm
only fifteen. ”
    “Then you are much too young to be a leader.”
She turned on him and pushed him backward on his bed, then she threw
her arm across his chest and