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the deaders go down, one by one. I was glad Chrissi wouldn’t be among them.
    “ Turn left out of the drive,” I told Jeff. “We’ll make the twenty miles extra.”
    That we did as fast as the rig would go, loaded down as it was. We stopped at the intersection outside Buda and grabbed the extra pickup. By the time we got home, we were exhausted. The adrenaline had run us through, and we all felt wrung out. Seemed like all Jeff could do just to get the rig backed up into its little warehouse. We stood back and watched while the rest of the group unloaded the trucks and buttoned up tight. We'd made it home.
    I walked to my pickup, dug the keys out of my pocket, and climbed in. Jennifer climbed into the cab opposite me. She didn’t say a word; she just rode with me to my place. We washed up in a bucket of room-temp water I had in the bathroom, then we collapsed into bed together.
    “ If I ever get bit, do the same for me as you did for Chrissi.”
    “ Okay.”
    It was the last thing I remember before we fell asleep.
     

Chapter Two
     
    “ I love the way that sounds,” Jennifer said. Thunder rolled again though our valley. Lightning cast her face in silver as she snuggled down against my chest, nearly asleep. “It sounds so normal.”
    “ Yeah,” I agreed. We'd discovered a few weeks ago that thunderstorms turned us both on. She lay half across me as I played with her long, brown hair. We stuck to one another from our lovemaking, and the sheets stuck to us. Thunder boomed again.
    “ One of these days, you’ll have to pull out, or you’ll get me knocked up.”
    “ Didn’t hear you complain.” I was nearly asleep, too.
    She giggled.
    “ No, I like it. Warms me up.” She turned her face to me and gave me a small kiss. “But I don’t know if I want to have a baby right now, Danny.”
    I kissed her back. “I don’t, either, but it’s not like we can run to Wal-Mart and get you some pills or me some rubbers.”
    “ I know.” She rolled over and lit a candle beside the bed. “I’m going to wash up. There’s water in the bucket for you, too.”
    I sat up. “Yeah, I know.”
    I watched her stand. Her hair brushed the middle of her back. The small braids I put there waved across her shoulders. Her bush now grew almost to her navel. The rest of her had gone back to nature, too.
    “ You’re such a hippie chick.”
    She giggled. “Don’t hear any complaints from you. Besides… not much sense in trying to shave with dull razors and cold water.”
    “ True.” I followed her into the bathroom. Six weeks after our first big raid, two months after the viral outbreak in our little town, and few of the women of Snareville still shaved, from what I could see. Same with the men, but the extra hair was one of the ways we identified ourselves and one another. Zombies don’t grow hair.
    But at least I trim my beard.
    Jennifer lathered up a washcloth in the five-gallon bucket of sterilized creek water. She turned, grabbed me, and washed my cock. I started to get hard again.
    “ You’re a horny goat tonight, aren’t you?”
    I kissed her. “You have that effect on me.”
    She rinsed the cloth, finished washing me, and threw me a towel. I dried, and she handed me the washcloth with a wicked little smile. “Your turn.”
    I chuckled as I returned the favor. She dried, pulled on a pair of panties, and led the way back to the room. We remade the bed and crawled in. Jennifer blew out the candle. Thunder raced down the valley, shaking the house. I spooned her with a hand under one breast. She felt so good and normal on nights like this.
    “ It’s our turn to check the fences and ditch, right?”
    Cold revulsion twisted my guts. Thunderstorms drive the deaders nuts. They blunder around, looking for shelter and trying to get into town.
    “ Yeah. Our turn.” I was in charge of one of the four platoons of fighters in town. We manned the southeast quadrant. Two other couples slept in the upstairs bedrooms with us.