Perspective of Jess

Perspective is everything.

Before the apocalypse I worked on third shift, so I was usually awake to see the dawn come, though I almost never had the time to watch it. Now I have to be up before the sun peeks over the shoulder of the world, and I have watched it rise most days.

It's always beautiful, but rarely moving now. It is simply another part of my day, something that happens. Before it was still a rare and glorious thing, given how rarely I could watch. But now that I have to be up and outside when it comes...

It's the same way with people. I've said it before but it remains true--right now human beings are split into three basic groups for me. The dead, living people that are threats, and family. I define family as all of those who live in peace with us, anyone who has come here with a hope for peaceful coexistence.

I am sitting up in the main watchtower, typing while my wife sits next to me in a camp chair. She's looking at the same thing I am, the guards along the wall doing rounds and occasionally picking off a zombie. She is seeing it in a lot more detail through the scope of her rifle.

It's been hell trying to get her to be safe while she's pregnant. She's so far along now, and I worry. But she was starting to go stir crazy not being a part of the defense, which I get. But she managed to convince several people that she would be just as safe in the tower as in the house. I disagree, but I also trust my wife to be careful for herself and our child. She has been a force within the compound since before it existed, and it's hard to deny her the right to defend others.

But all of us still worry, of course. Jess is a different person than she was before the fall, not as emotionally fragile or shy, but now somehow more outspoken while managing to be reserved. I know that seems like a contradiction but it really isn't. Think of her as a dispassionate observer who waits to speak until the facts are in, and just add in some creative swearing and rude hand gestures, and you've got her. It has made her universally known here, respected by most, and loved by many.

She's my wife, but all of us treasure her.