Free A Very Good Man by P. S. Power

people couldn't believe it.
  So those people died.
  So did the morose and those that secretly wished for the end of the world. You could still survive, but you kind of had to want to on some level.
  How he'd made it this far Jake didn't know. Honestly, if someone had asked him seven months ago what he'd do if zombies took over the world, he would have said that he'd swallow a gun. Even when things had gotten darkest he'd never felt like dying though. Inside a dam had broken open, something else hardened and closed. Almost in a blink. That was just after he killed the first two. After that he'd had to live, no matter what. Those first kills had done it, broken him somehow. In a way that really fit the new world around him as odd as it seemed.
  Not altogether sane, but adapted.
  At the other table they'd been talking for some time, with Jake ignoring them, but Burt switched to the topic of how much more wood they needed, so he made himself focus. That was his job after all, so it could be important to know the score. Well, Carley's job, but he was helping to get wood.
  “We need about twenty cord of wood by my back of the envelope figures. More if we can get it. The logs will probably be faster and save on fuel. We can set up teams of people here to use the pit saw and then split. At least some of the first stuff is pretty dry. Dead-fall mainly?” This got addressed to his table, so Carley answered.
  “Yes. Jake suggested we take that first, it's a fire hazard where it is anyway. I don't know how much wood we got today, but the getting logs idea will be faster I think.” Harder went without saying, but quicker by far.
  That got the older man to smile and nod at her.
  “My guess? You probably got about two and a half cord. It's a lot more than I thought you'd get the first day really. If you and your people can keep that up we may even have time to get the wood stoves built.”
  Jake nodded to himself and nearly whispered the next bit, quiet even for him, he had to repeat himself, since Nate couldn't hear him at all.
  “Oh. Sorry. I said that we need to go on a scavenging run soon too. To get the supplies for the stoves and to see if we can just steal some. I know at least a few of the houses we've cleared have had them and not all the stoves need to be water heaters or large cooking units. Anything we don't have to make, especially at first, will help. We also need a forge. I know nothing about that. Some kind of brick or rock? I need to know what to look for. I want to get the wood first, but we may have to stagger things, depending on who's doing what and when.” He had a real job to do too, after all.
  After the meal Burt waved to him and drew him over to the library, which was a single book case that no one was supposed to touch except Burt or Nate, that had all the useful books. There were several others with fantasy, romance, regular fiction and even three, very lonely, horror novels. Anyone could read those if they had time. Burt showed him the plans he wanted to use. Basic things, if they had the tools for them, harder without. Still, a steel drum with a tap should be doable. A fill line on the top and one going out lower down, high enough up to build water pressure. Then get a fire under it. Easy. Or it would be with a credit card and a Home Depot. They hadn't gone to the closest one themselves, it being over twenty miles away. All they had in town was the nearly empty... Robson family place. About a third of what they'd had sat out in Burt's shed. They'd have to make do.
  Jake tried to help with the dishes again, which didn't really work too well, the water and grease stinging his hands. He didn't complain, but Sammi looked at them in the near dark and then sent him away after shaking her head for about ten seconds.
  A total Lois move.
  She took care of the kids all day, so that probably had to happen, didn't it? Them becoming more like her? Well, hardworking and capable made a