The Dying of the Light: Interval Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, coming to sit across from me on the small coffee table in our equally small living room.
    And these are the big quarters , I thought. “I’m not sure, Kim.”
    “Think it’s PTSD?”
    I shook my head, stood, and began pacing the short length of the room. Pace, pace, turn. Pace, pace, turn. Damn, this is a tiny room . “I don’t think so.”
    Kim sighed. “Is it the kids thing?”
    I stopped pacing. We’d had discussions several times over the last year about having at least one kid, maybe more. Maybe now was the time to hash it out.
    The plan was for everyone to have kids, lots of them. After all, you can’t repopulate a world with a measly hundred thousand people. But I had concerns we hadn’t been able to resolve.
    “I want kids,” I said, sitting down across from her once more and taking her hands in mine. “You know that. I think we’d be great parents.”
    “But…”
    “But… well, look at us! We’re stuck hundreds of feet underground in a hole that we can’t come out of for probably twenty years because the surface of our world is covered with monsters. And I’m not just talking about the walkers. Look at what happened with Tom and his men. This is just… it’s not a good place, at all.”
    Kim kept looking down at our clasped hands, and I could see by the set of her shoulders that she was feeling defeated and saddened by my words. But they were nothing but the truth. How could I lie?
    “It won’t always be this way, David,” she whispered.
    “Oh, babe, I know that,” I said, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. We’d had this same argument too many times. “I know it won’t. But how can we bring a child into this, knowing what we know? And what if Mary finally finds out that I’m infected? Who knows what that would do to a child? I won’t have some zombie baby.”
    Kim choked on her reply. “I know that, David. We’ve talked about this before. But Mary hasn’t been able to find anything out yet. What if she never does?”
    “Then we can’t have kids, Kim!” I snapped.
    Pulling her hand from mine, she turned away. It was only when she started to sob that I realized she was crying.
    Way to go, asshole , I thought to myself. You destroyed one of her dreams and made her cry. Whatcha got planned for an encore?
    I sighed. Then a new idea came to me—something we would have thought of a lot sooner if we weren’t so distracted by the end of the world. “I know what we can do, babe,” I said, stroking her arm. “Why don’t we talk to Mary, and see what she thinks? Maybe, even if I’m infected, it won’t pass on to a baby. She knows more about the prion than anyone; maybe she can tell us if those fears are meaningless.”
    Kim wiped her eyes, and I held out a tissue from the box nearby. She said, “What if she says it’s fine and there’s nothing to worry about?”
    I groaned, remembering all my other objections. “I don’t know, Kim… I just worry about bringing kids into this world.”
    She nodded. “I know, I worry, too. But worrying is what parents do, no matter what. Look, I know the world is a pretty horrible place right now, but it won’t be that way forever. That’s the whole point of the bunkers, after all: to wait it out. We’ve got enough supplies to be down here for twenty years, more if we’re careful and supplement them. By the time any kids we have go topside, all the walkers will have rotted away, and we’re all going to have a fresh start.”
    I nodded, still uncertain, but recognizing that she was making sense. “All right. Fine.” I smiled at her. “Then let’s have another discussion. About what we’ll name them.”
    She smiled back, and kissed me gently, our first real kiss in nearly two weeks. I wrapped her in my arms and kissed her back. Just as things were about to get interesting, the red alert light began flashing in the corner.
    Of course. It’s like they were watching , or something. Bastards .
    I hit the call button,