Read Sometimes We Ran (Book 1) for Free Online

was coming from the dark room. This did not look good. I paused for a minute to listen for any danger. It was so quiet I could hear my heart beating in my chest.
    The smell turned out to be the owner. He shot himself. The gun, a small pistol, was lying at his feet. He had put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Shot himself while sitting on a toilet. What a way to go out. A closer inspection revealed why he offed himself. A zombie had ripped a good portion of his neck out. He must have known he was doomed and shot himself. I backed out of the bathroom, closing the door on my way out. The bathroom became his tomb.
    I walked back into the showroom to retrieve Claire. She had disappeared.
    “Claire, where are you?” I whispered loudly. I wondered if she had left. Maybe she didn’t trust me after all. I was looking all around the showroom, when I heard some moaning. I spun around, looking for the source of the sound. It sounded like a zombie looking for a quick meal. In the process of looking for my adversary, I tripped over Claire lying on the floor.
    The moaning was not coming from something dead. It was Claire. She must have passed out and fallen into the showroom. Poor girl. She must have held on for as long as she could.
    I carefully secured my rifle, and picked up Claire. I couldn’t believe how light she was. As I scooped her up, she babbled incoherently. I think she called me Dad a few times.
    I cleared a spot and laid her down. I found something to raise her feet. It was the only cure I knew for someone passing out. I checked her pulse at her neck; steady, but a little slow. Her skin was very white, almost the color of paper. Her full lips had taken on a weird purplish bruise color.
    She looked like she was about to die. I unzipped my backpack, and prepared to force some food down her throat.
    After what seemed like an eternity, she came around. I helped her up slowly, as she still looked a little woozy.
    “What happened?”
    “You passed out. Did you hurt yourself?”
    “No, don’t think so. I think I need some food.”
    I pulled out some gas station beef jerky, my peanut butter supply, and some crackers. For dessert, I settled on an oatmeal pie with cream filling. As I unpacked what might have been her first good meal in weeks, she eyed it like a full steak dinner with salad bar. I’d never seen a human salivate like that. She looked a little like those things outside that were trying to kill us. I pushed the image of a Claire-zombie out of my brain.
    I ripped some of the beef jerky into smaller pieces, and offered her a piece. “You have to eat slowly. If you eat too fast, you’ll get sick.” She nodded, and I fed her the dry, salty snack. She chewed slowly and thoughtfully. For the first time all night, Claire started to look human. At least her lips were returning to their proper color. “That tastes good,” she said.
    Claire must have been hungry. My experience with the beef jerky was that it smelled like ass and tasted terrible. The meal continued for about thirty minutes. She seemed to get stronger with each bite. As she ate, she even started to smile and laugh a little bit. The oatmeal pie did the most good. By the time she finished it, she looked well enough to travel. I breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t going to die in my care. Not this night, at least.
    After the meal, I handed her a bottle of water from my shrinking supply. She took a few swigs.
“Thanks. I thought I was going to die. I was so hungry,” she said, drawing out the “so” into a few extra syllables for emphasis. She leaned back against one of the jewelry counters.
    I put the food back in my backpack. “Don’t mention it.” I instinctively put some distance between us on the floor. I still didn’t trust her.
    She noticed. “Still don’t trust me, huh?”
    I tried not to look too threatening. “Sorry. Force of habit. I’ve had some bad experiences with survivors lately.”
    She smiled. “That’s okay.