Felix sat on the front porch steps with his elbows resting on his knees, his head held low, and the shotgun an easy reach on the porch floor next to him. Things were a mess and he had no idea what to do about it.  Kendra and Rex were missing and his aunt lay on the sofa in the great room with a bag of ice on her face. When he pouted about her condition and declared his remorse over having left the cave and exposing themselves to strangers like they had, she scolded him and said that they should be happy that there was ice to treat it. Had they still been living in the cave, she’d be suffering a lot more.  When he proceeded to express concern over the fact that Kendra and Rex had been gone for two nights, she reminded him of the many times that Kendra had gone out hunting and how it had taken several days for her to return. She’d insisted that it wasn’t yet time to worry.He wished that he had a bow and arrow instead of the shotgun, but Kendra had t

Olga leaned her back against the porch railing as she watched Rex slip through the perimeter fence and headed toward the house with his head hung low.  She could tell by the slumping of his shoulders and his slow, methodical walk that he’d been unsuccessful in his search for Kendra, once again.As he climbed the stairs, she said in a mournful tone, “That girl is like a daughter to me, so it pains me to say this, but it’s been several months… maybe we should stop torturing ourselves.  She’s more than likely in the hands of the alien regime.  All we can hope for is that they entered her into the reproduction program and not done worse with her.”“The regime isn’t all alien,” Rex said in an off-handed way.“The people  in charge are owned by the aliens.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking differently.” “I should have gone after her right away. 

Olga leaned against the tree trunk as she rummaged for her water jug.  The day felt excessively warm with a high humidity factor. It was the humidity that she found the most difficult to deal with. Normally, the atmosphere was almost desert dry, but this new country that they were walking through had an abundance of plant life which promoted the humidity. It was almost as if they’d entered a different world; or a different dimension at the very least.  As she seized the opportunity to rest, she thought back over the last week.They’d taken a few days to deal with the carcasses of the zombies that had wandered into the compound and then reinforce the fencing. During this time, Olga explained to Rex that she’d inoculated him against the zombie virus.  Upon his shocked response, she divulged that she, her brother, and his wife were the scientists who were involved in the creation of the virus. Felix and Kendra knew about her brother and his wife&

Getting past the evening patrols on her way to the stables wasn’t as easy as Kendra thought it would be.   The energy of the village changed drastically from the casualness of her afternoon walks.  Besides the fact that the patrolmen were far more alert when the sun went down, there was no crowd for her to blend with.  She was about to let panic take over when she saw Ari saunter over to a tall, slender, young looking patrolman that was pacing outside of the stable entrance and strike up a conversation with him.  Seizing the opportunity, she quietly slipped into the stables and hid while she listened to Ari and the guard’s jovial interaction.Mild annoyance replaced the panic in her as she counted the seconds of unnecessary small talk between Ari and the patrolman. Thinking she was on a failed mission, her mind worked double time to come up with a way to accomplish escape without Ari’s help. She was about to slip back out of the stab

The trip back to the compound took longer than they would have liked, but neither Rex nor Olga wanted to push the very pregnant Kendra.  Realizing how close she was to the end of her gestation time, Olga feared that excessive stress could bring on an early birth. She actually expressed her concern to her niece about the fact that she’d run away from her captors so close to the delivery date, but Kendra was adamant that she had to seize the opportunity when it arose. Olga couldn’t argue with that logic.  Not one bit.They encountered a few stray zombies on the two day walk home, but Rex handled things quickly and without mishap.  It was as if dealing with walking corpses had become second nature to him.  Kendra thought about mentioning the look in the eyes of the zombies who had surrounded the tree that she’d climbed into for safety, but then thought better of it.  That conversation could wait for another day.The compound had