He suddenly realized what she was playing. Zombie. She was reenacting the attack. The world had changed. Before he could develop the idea, before he could think of what horrors the poor girl had to endure, she swiveled around and bolted down the sidewalk. He followed her on the other side of the street, wheels sticking every now and then in cracks and crevices, pausing when he realized she’d led him to the top of a long hill. It was shallow by any normal standard, but his standards had changed in the last few days. From the vantage of a wheelchair, it looked very daunting. Very daunting, indeed. The little girl scampered to the bottom, and he could hear her voice, thin and high in the distance as she carried on her game.
Some of the houses exhibited signs of life: an open door, a smoking
