Free The Hunt Chronicles (Volume 1): Awakening by J.D. Demers

one of the living.  I waved her over and she bolted toward my house.
    I pushed the door open and took a few steps out into the rain to give her enough room to get past me and provide cover for her just in case one of the dead jumped out at her.  She ran through the door without even a glance in my direction. 
    I backed up into the house, and checked all angles to make sure nothing saw her or me, and then I quickly shut the door.

Chapter 5
    Dave
    March 21 st   Afternoon
     
     
                  “Thanks,” the woman said with a shaky voice.  I would have guessed she was about my age or a little older.  She was short, somewhat chunky, and her face was pretty, but haggard and tired.  She was shivering and her soaked clothes were dripping on the carpet.
                  “No problem,” I said, as I moved over to the window.  I wanted to make sure nothing took notice of us going into the house.  The street was still deserted.  “Where did you come from?” I asked her.
                  “I live down off Jupiter,” she stammered.  That really didn’t mean much to me.  Jupiter was a road that cut through half of Palm Bay, but I guess that really wasn’t important.  She stood there with her arms wrapped around her body, and trembled. 
    “Do you have a towel?” she asked evenly.  She had a hollow, frightened expression on her face.  I thought she may have been in shock or lost in thought because she wasn’t looking at me when she spoke.                           
    “Yeah, sorry,” I said.  “I’ll get you a change of clothes, too.  You can get dressed in my room.”  I moved to the hallway closet and grabbed some towels and then ran into my room to get her some old sweat pants and another shirt.  She went in and thanked me as she shut the door.
                  “What-what’s your name?” I asked through the door.
                  “Sarah,” she responded after a couple of seconds.
                  “I’m Christian.”  I paused for a moment and thought about what to say.  “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked.  “I haven’t heard anything.  You’re the first person I’ve seen since… well, since the dead started walking.”  I really didn’t have another way to say it.  But I will tell you, the first time I said it out loud to another living person sounded awkward.  It’s funny, today we say it like it’s normal, but at that moment, it sounded very unnatural.
                  “We had a radio at our house,” she started to say and then stopped.  I could hear her sniffling.  I guess with all the rain and how wet she was, I didn’t notice her crying.  I just sat there and waited until she pulled herself back together.
                  “We had a radio at our house.  They must of-of heard it.  A mess of those things… zombies or whatever… they surrounded the house.”  She started crying, sucking in quick breaths as she spoke, “They just kept on pounding and pounding, trying to get in.  Then one of them got through a window, and the rest followed.  They were everywhere.  Coming through the bedrooms, the living room… they killed everyone!” she cried. 
    This may sound a little selfish, but I was irritated that she didn’t answer my question.  I was completely lost with what was going on.  I only knew what the news had said a couple of nights ago.  I decided to open the door, hoping that she had finished changing.
                  She was curled naked, next to the bed.  Her face was buried in a towel that was only partially covering her.  I wasn’t sure if I felt guilty or not at the time, but she didn’t seem to care because she just kept crying and repeating, “They’re all dead!  They killed them all!  I have no one!”
                  Believe it or not, I felt uncomfortable.  I wasn’t sure what to