Read Trepidation for Free Online Page B

cabinet, I stared into the mirror for a minute. The reflection didn’t even look like me, just a shell of my former self. My face, hair, and clothes were covered with blood and gore. My eyes were bloodshot, and I’d lost so much weight that my face looked almost skeletal.
    In one of the bedrooms that looked like it used to belong to a teenage boy, I rummaged through the drawers until I found something that would fit, and then I headed back to the bathroom. I stripped out of my bloody, wet clothes. The room was freezing, and I started to shiver. I poured water on a washcloth, along with some liquid soap that smelled like vanilla, then washed up the best I could in the tub. I poured the rest of the jug of water over my head, because I knew my hair was matted with zombie chunks and blood. I even found a little bit of shampoo and used it to wash my hair. The black and red sludge that oozed off of my body and down the bathtub drain was disgusting. I dried off with an oversized black towel, and then put the dry clothes on, a checkered shirt and pants two sizes two big. When I tucked the shirt in and used the belt, the pants at least stayed up. Regardless of the fact that I looked like an anorexic farmer, it still felt good to have all that slime and gore off of me. I poured a little alcohol on some of the open cuts on my face, my battle wounds, and I winced with the sting.
    “All done!” Claire called.
    I walked back into the living room and saw that she’d piled her wet clothes by the window. The new outfit just hung on her, a green sweater and some grayish sweats, but we really couldn’t care less how we looked, as long as we were warm and dry. I carefully cleansed and bandaged the zombie bite on her ankle. It wasn’t festering or oozing all over the place like a typical zombie wound; since Claire was immune, the zombie bite wouldn’t kill her, but the hypothermia could.
    “I fought those zombies at the pool so hard,” she said, “but they just kept coming and coming.”
    I squeezed her hand. “You’re tough. You did as well as you could, all by yourself.”
    “But I got bitten.”
    “It doesn’t matter. You’re immune, remember?” I said. “Z’s men didn’t know that. If they did, they probably wouldn’t have let you go. They thrived on you dying back at the apartment building, that way it could send a message.”
    “They couldn’t have cared less that their actions put me in the position to get bitten. I meant nothing to them. Is this what humanity has turned into? Are they as cold and heartless as the zombies?”
    “Not all of humanity, Claire. There are still a few good guys left.”
    “Yeah, well, look at you. You have the biggest heart.”
    “So do you.”
    “Nah, my heart is dead, black, and cold, just like the zombies. Still, I’m not gonna let the past have power over my future. I’ll try to be the best person I can be.”
    “And you show us that every single day.”
    “I try.”
    “I’m so cold,” she whispered.
    “You’ll warm up soon,” I said. “I’ll keep putting wood on the fire.”
    “Dean, you’re so sweet. Maybe I picked the wrong brother.”
    I let out a long breath and remained silent, not sure what to say to that. I sure didn’t want to mess with my brother’s relationship. Claire was tough and funny, sweet and beautiful, and I hadn’t realized what a catch she was until recently, since we’d been spending a lot of time together. Our kiss flashed in my head, but I knew I had to tune that out. Claire is off limits, I kept telling myself, reminding myself that Nick would kill us both and that even if he wouldn’t, it just wouldn’t be right.
    “Dean...” she said.
    “Yeah?”
    “You really could use a haircut,” she said.
    “Well, I hate to break it to ya, darlin’, but I think somebody ate my barber.”
    She smiled weakly.
    “I’ll tell ya what,” I said. “There’s a beautician two doors down from us. I promise to make an appointment the second I get