Free Darkest Days: A Southern Zombie Tale by James J. Layton

very night. Despite her body’s preparation for physical love, she knew that the risk was too great. Lacking any kind of contraceptive and surmising that Bryant would not have any on hand either, she debated broaching the topic of purchasing some with him. Truthfully, she did not trust condoms and remembered reading somewhere that prophylactics had a thirty percent failure rate.
    Upon the successful completion of cooking, both teenagers sat down at the table with delicious smelling dishes resting in front of them. Bryant picked up a mushroom with his fork and dipped it into the marinara on his chicken. “They’re really good like this. You should try it.”
    Cara gave a half-hearted smile. “I don’t really like eating fungus.”
    “That sounds so sexy when you say it.” Bryant chewed quickly and stabbed another. “They have to be eaten first because they cool off so fast.”
    She watched him relish every bite of his fried mushrooms and finally gave in. “You really want me to eat one, don’t you?”
    He shrugged. “More for me.”
    She picked up her fork and speared a small one. “Okay, are you happy now?”
    “I’m neutral on this one. I love you no matter what you eat.” He paused, shocked by his own words.
    “What did you say?” Cara quietly asked in stunned disbelief.
    “I said ‘I love you’.” He sounded unsure of himself. He repeated it with more confidence a second later. “I love you.”
    She leaned forward and brushed his lips with the very tips of her fingers. “Wow.” She could not manage to recover. Her mouth opened and then closed like a fish struggling to breathe. Every time words came to her, the traitorous mouth rushed to cooperate, fumbling every utterance. Finally, the lips, tongue, and jaw synched and she could articulate again. “I can’t believe this. How can you know you love me so soon?”
    Bryant set his utensil down and looked into her eyes. “You can’t ask me how I know I love you. I just do. I know it reflexively, the same way I breathe the air or know when I’m sleepy. I just know.”
    She reached out and held his hand. “I’m not going to say it right now, but I will. It’s still too soon for me.” She knew at that moment deep down she loved him. Being in love frightened her to the point that she did not want to admit it to him. However, looking at his innocent face, she could not doubt her feelings.
    Bryant let fear rob him of his volition. Instead of leaning forward and kissing her, he sat petrified. She had not reciprocated his statement. No matter how empathetic he was to the enormity of what he wished her to say, he still could not help but feel hurt.
    Slowly, Cara mustered her courage. She had engaged in battles of wits with people twenty years her senior. She had faced down schoolyard bullies who had singled her out for being different. Even with her inclination towards confrontation, she was frightened by what was about to happen.
    “What if I said it back?” She asked in the dead silence of the room.
    “I would be very happy,” he meekly spoke, “but I don’t want you to say it because I did and you feel guilty.”
    She reached out and took his hand. “I don’t do things because of other people. I do them for myself.” She gave a brief squeeze and decided that it was time. “I love you.” Those three powerful words hung in the air. She thought to herself as a postscript to that statement, “I will sleep with him, not tonight, but soon.”
    ***
     
    A day later, Cara had her mother drop her off at the Gutherie Smith Park. Jean Creed obliged, not knowing that her daughter had engineered the outing so she could meet a boy. A wooden fence composed of rounded slats bordered the narrow entrance road which forked, creating an extended loop through the park. From the air, the automobile’s path resembled a teardrop. A thick mixture of hardwoods and pines surrounded the road, while on the inside of the loop sat four baseball fields, a basketball