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The air smelt putrid as the summer heat made the stench of rotten flesh worse. Dana missed having air-conditioning and ice cream. Every day she thought of something she missed from the world before.
Half a body dragged itself across the ground outside the hospital. If they had more bullets and it wouldn't attract more of them, she'd put the poor soul out of its misery.
“I'll be glad when winter gets here,” Robby commented, standing far to near the edge of the roof. In the winter he'd complained about wanting it to be summer. Dana doesn't remind him of this though. “Things smell a lot fresher in winter.”
“True,” Dana agreed, she'd kill for a cigarette. It'd been months since any scavenging parties had brought any back. “But then we have very little food, flu outbreaks and everyone wanting to throw themselves into a horde of zombies because they miss the sunshine.”
“I threatened to do that one time,” Robby muttered under his breath. He'd done it three times and Jack two times if Dana recalled right. Robby took a step back and began to move closer to where she stood. For the first time in weeks Dana catches him smiling a little.
But then again it wasn't like there had been much for him or any of them to smile about.
Dana can't sleep alone. She's tried. As a child she had shared a room with her siblings, for most of her adult life with her husband until the outbreak. She's always been close to Robby. Before the world went to shit.
It made sense to sleep in a makeshift bed with him when neither were on night watch. She trusted him. There nights like tonight where he tossed and turned that made Dana want to shove him out of bed.
“What's wrong with you now?” Dana asked, resting her head on his shoulder to stop him fidgeting. It doesn't long for him to bury his head in her hair. She can't remember the last time she washed it.
“Nothing,” Robby said, trying to avoid talking. It'd always been his way, if he didn't speak it out loud maybe the bad thoughts would go away. They never had.
“Don't lie to me, Robinavitch,” Dana warned, tapping her foot against his leg softly. “I can and will hurt you.”
“Trinity and the others should be back by now,” Robby sighed, his hand went to her hip and drew lazy circles there.
“She never keeps on schedule. You know that and let's be fair to her, she always comes back with something we need.” Dana would be lying if she said she didn't worry when people left the safety of home. Trinity and those who went with her made it this far because they had common sense, they wanted to survive.
And the zombies were less now than they had been in the beginning. Some fled to other cities to hunt for food, others began to decay when they couldn't get that food. The lifespan if they didn't eat was usually six months from what they had gathered.
Dana suspected the reason there were any survivors at all was because somewhere in their rotting bodies and decaying brains was intelligence, at least enough to not wipe out their food source completely.
“Last time she brought back that bloody goat.” Dana doesn't need to look at his face to know he's frowning. For whatever reason the goat had taken an instant dislike to Robby.
“That goat has provided milk for us,” Dana said in between a yawn.