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narrow its origin to somewhere west, but there’s a lot of west out there. All I knew was that if there was a chance to stop this thing, I was going to go after it. I didn’t survive war to be killed by zombies.”
    The room was silent as everyone mulled this over. There were plenty of bases to the west, Haven for one, but Alice couldn’t let herself get her hopes up. Thinking about Haven was dangerous. Thinking about her brother always led to tears, and right now was not the time to cry.

    5

    Haven Medical Base

    Simon accepted the binoculars while a heavy thudding continued building in his chest. He couldn’t see the zombie without them, and seeing it would make it real. He wished desperately for it to not be real. Simon sat for a moment without lifting the binoculars, only staring off over the fields. Wind ran through his hair, tugging it gently to the side and reminding him how much he needed a haircut. He had a brief, but vivid memory of his sister ruffling his hair and saying it needed to be cut. Simon swallowed hard and pushed that thought away. She was gone.
    “Um, you gonna look?” Noah asked, his voice unsure as Simon continued to stare at the barely discernible form in the distance.
    Simon wanted to say no. He wanted to hand Noah back the binoculars and leave the wall. Seeing the zombie out there had brought back flashes of the nightmares he had after he woke up. What if it was his dad out there? He knew that was next to impossible, but the thought almost paralyzed him.
    “Yeah.” Simon gave Noah a brief, forced smile and pushed his glasses to the top of his head. When he lifted the binoculars, he fought the urge to close his eyes. There was no use putting off what was inevitable.
    It took a second to adjust the lenses to his eyes, then another few seconds of searching over the sea of grass before he caught the figure in his sights. It wasn’t his dad. As Simon watched, Noah began speaking beside him.
    “It could be a survivor, right?” His voice sounded more hopeful than convincing. Simon watched the figure shambling through the grass, stumbling as it moved forward with the grace of a drunk on stilts. There was no question in his mind, he was seeing a zombie.
    It was barely three in the afternoon with the sun blaring down, and one of the zombies was out for a stroll. Granted, it wasn’t moving quickly and didn’t look like it had any grand ideas about climbing the base walls, but it was out and it was the first they had seen in full daylight. Simon dropped the binoculars back into Noah’s small hands and slid his glasses on. Noah placed the binoculars on the wall beside him. They watched the figure in the distance as it became clearer.
    “It’s not a survivor,” Simon said. He swore he saw Noah’s thin shoulders drop a little bit at that.
    “They don’t come out in the sun.” Noah forced his voice not to quiver.
    “This one does.” Simon shrugged; he hated how cold his voice sounded. Noah nodded. He pushed himself up to his feet on the wall and looked around. “Do you see any others?” Simon asked. He didn’t stand. Sitting on the wall was more than he was comfortable with.
    “No. I don’t see any other movement, but the others might report something at switch.”
    “Maybe.” Simon bit his lip. The younger kids usually kept watch during the day, mostly because everyone assumed nothing would happen. That was all about to change. Noah sat back down, his legs dangling over the outer edge of the wall in a way that would be ill-advised if the zombie made it to them.
    “This is shit.” Noah threw a loose stone out into the field. Simon winced at the word, hating the way it slid so casually from Noah’s mouth. Noah sighed heavily. He pushed his dreads out of his face, and shook his head. “Sometimes I wish I had just died and become one of them.”
    Simon sat silently, letting this idea wash over him. To have died sometimes seemed like the greatest gift to him as well. It didn’t seem