Free Parish by Nicole Murphy Page A

her shock.
                  “Yes, that much is quite obvious.” Wren spun on her heel and marched back to where Wade was standing.
                  “I can’t believe you just told that lady off like that.” A smile slowly crept across his face.
                  “If zombies eat brains like in the movie, she doesn’t have anything to worry about.  Nothing up there but hot air and organic squash.” Wren raised her eyebrows as she spoke, sending Wade into a laughing fit.  “Now, come one, we need to go over with Dad and Jamie.  You remember what Artemis said?”
                  “Yeah, yeah.” Wade rolled his eyes.  “Speaking of queen of the survivor camp.” Wren giggled.
                  “He seems nice, and he saved Mom so he’s okay in my book.” Wren shrugged.
                  “Yeah, I got that, and I am grateful.  He didn’t just save Mom though, he saved us too.  If it weren’t for him we’d still be sitting on the floor of Jamie’s room listening to those god awful moans outside.” Wade spotted Jack and Jamie and nudged Wren in their direction.
                  “Where were you two?” Jack asked as he handed them each a bowl of the soup.
                  “Talking to some lady.” Wade shrugged.
                  “Well, come over here, I got some news to share.” Jack whispered as he wiggled his finger.  Wren and Wade stepped closer to him.  “I talked with the soldier in charge of the food.  He said this thing is everywhere, it’s global.  New York fell two hours ago.  He said what D.C. fell an hour before that.”
                  “What does that mean?” Wren asked.
                  “He doesn’t know, but ever since D.C. fell their radio has been silent.  No new orders.” Jack shook his head.  “They’re just holding this position because it was the last order they got from Washington.  He thinks that maybe the higher ups, you know the really important people are all heading to their underground bunkers and everything and that once they get there they will receive more orders.  I don’t know but I don’t know if we should stay here.”
                  “But it’s safe here.” Wren interjected.
                  “Yeah, for now it’s safe.  We don’t know for how long though, look, soldiers without commands aren’t going to just stay the course.  At some point one of the higher ranking people around here is going to step up and take over.”
                  “You don’t know that.” Wade shook his head.
                  “Okay, so I don’t know for sure, but I’ve seen enough apocalypse movies to know when to not trust a situation, and right now I’m not trusting it.” Jack glanced over at Jamie who was slowly eating his soup.
                  “This isn’t a movie, Dad. This is real life.” Wren threw her hand up and walked over to her little brother.  Sitting down she smiled at Jamie before turning her attention to her soup.
                  “I got you Dad.” Wade nodded, bringing a spoonful of the weird orange watery soup to his lips.  “We need to make sure we can get to Mom and Artemis from here though, like get to them real quick, if something goes down we need to beat it back to the car before someone else gets in it.  I don’t know about you, but it is not a nice day for a stroll downtown.”
                  “You’re right.” Jake smirked.  “I wonder what they needed your mom for.”
                  “Injuries, probably.” Wade shrugged.
                  “Don’t they have medics for that?” Jake looked back to the medical tent.
                  “Yeah, but maybe they were eaten or bitten, or who knows what.”
                  “Well, they better protect her, that’s all