I have a true-to-life serial on the way, but here's a quick note from a guy who's lost his love to... he's not sure what.

This one's bloody, though nothing too graphic.


Whenever I see a pool, I think of your green eyes. It radiates, shining, the pool and your eyes.

I have to keep moving these days, so I see so many pools. They have all been abandoned, of course, and so they are more green these days than blue; it's still too early for the scum to form, so the sun still shines off every ripple like it might have when the owners were still living.

I think some times about what it must have been like for those owners: spending each day looking at the pool or (wonder of wonders!) taking a swim. Of course I'm not talking about Jimmy the busboy or Donna the hairdresser. But I think of them coming home after a hard day of work, kneeling down to pet the hound, then suddenly, in a fit of absolute abandon, jumping sideways into a blue, cool pool.

But the owners are almost surely dead now. I creep over the walls each day, making my way across the city, and I always fear the blood. It's like a maze: go this way and see blood? Take a right turn. Blood there? No? Good, go on to the next if you can. Have to keep at least one building between you and the blood, although, really, they'll most likely get you while you're sleeping if they're in the next house, so I keep going as long as I can each day.

Luckily it's been days since I've seen blood: I think a lot of the people in this neighborhood were gone when the change happened. I had to work my way through a few places on my way up here; you remember the old neighborhood, right? Mostly service industry, sleeping during the day and out at night. I woke up to you gone. Then it was a crowd of these damn monsters, shambling along. Blood on their legs, blood on their arms. Shirts sleeves ripped off, knees torn out of their denim pants. Most had huge bites visible somewhere: some had entire parts of their faces torn away. I knew a few, but hey, I've seen the movies, you know? I ran as soon as I got a wiff of their decay.

Crap. What's ...