Authors: Armand Rosamilia
Chapter Twenty Eight
"John, I need your help," Tosha said urgently. "I can't do this on my own."
"You think I know what to do?"
Tosha smiled at Darlene, who was on her back on every seat cushion they'd found. She had her legs up and spread, whimpering in pain. "Sweetie, I need you to relax. I don’t think you're ready just yet."
Darlene puffed out two quick breaths. "Don't call me sweetie, you bitch."
"That's just the pain talking," Tosha said. She smiled, knowing it wasn't only the pain. "Feel free to call John a few names, too. He's the one who knocked you up."
"Thanks," John said. "What should I do?"
"I need as many relatively clean rags as you can find and some water. And something for her to bite down on, I think."
"You think?"
"How the fuck should I know? Do I look like I'm a fucking nurse? I have no fucking clue what I'm doing," Tosha said. She turned back to Darlene and put her fake smile back on.
Darlene laughed through the pain. "You're making me very confident."
"Don't be," Tosha said. "I have no clue what I'm doing. Can I ask you a question?"
"Since you have my undivided attention and you're looking down my most private of areas, feel free… unless you have a comment about why I don't shave down there or if it looks funny," Darlene said before grunting again. "I still hate you."
"I'm sure I saw you not too long ago in St. Augustine, right? Definitely less than nine months if I can do the math right. There is no way you were pregnant then. Even a few weeks in."
Darlene closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't get it, either. I should only be a few weeks into it, yet… the zombie who tried to kill us told me I was pregnant, even though John and I had just recently consummated our relationship. There was no way he could've known, yet he did."
"Did he tell you what it was going to be?"
Darlene nodded. "A boy. A tough little male who is ripping me apart."
"Then let's pull him out of you quickly so I can go outside and throw up my lunch," Tosha said. "Holy shit, John, where are the fucking towels?"
This is fucked up beyond all belief
, Tosha thought. Murph was dead in the corner and they were about to pop a kid out of Darlene, all within an hour. This was insane.
"Oh, fuck me now," Tosha said when she saw Mathyu sitting next to Murph's body, staring at the old man as he slowly rotted. Now was not the time to be seeing her dead sister again. "Please just tell me I'm insane."
"You're insane. Now help her with the baby," John said as he ran over and dumped a stack of towels onto the floor next to Tosha and Darlene.
When John took a few steps backwards, Tosha wasn't surprised. "I guess I'll do this on my own," she said in a stage whisper. She glanced at her sister as she gathered some towels. "John, I need some water, too."
Mathyu was staring at Murph. Tosha didn't ever remember her sister not focused on her and her alone. What did it mean? Was Murph going to sit up, his ghost joining Mathyu to haunt Tosha until she died?
Darlene screamed in pain.
"You need to keep quiet," Tosha admonished her. "Every zombie in five miles will hear you. And that isn't the worst of what could hear, you know."
"Piss off," Darlene said, but she said so quieter. "Just get this basketball out of my cooch."
Tosha smiled. "That's the spirit." She was about to yell for John again when he came running with two buckets of water and set them down.
"Have a seat near her head and let her squeeze your hand, John. You don't have to see anything down here but you are going to help," Tosha said.
"Yeah, you're also to blame for this mess," Darlene said between heavy breaths. "Let me dig my nails into your arm so you can taste some of this pain."
"Sounds like fun," John said. He took his spot next to Darlene and winced when she actually did dig her nails into his skin.
"Ok, now, if I remember how to do this from watching television shows, at some point the baby will start to show and I'll need to pull it out." Tosha put a hand on her mouth and gagged.
Just saying that makes me want to throw up
, she thought.
This is going to suck
.
Darlene was pushing again, her hips rising off the ground as she struggled to keep still. Her arms were thrashing and she was gritting her teeth so loudly Tosha could hear them grind.
"Calm down, we're almost there," Tosha lied. She had no fucking clue if this would take an hour or fifteen. She put her hands on Darlene's thighs and tried to keep her legs apart so she could see if the baby was coming.
Darlene turned to John. "Don't you ever touch me again," she hissed.
By the traumatic look on his face, Tosha doubted he'd fight her about it.
All Tosha could do right now was take a hand away from Darlene and gather some towels under her ass and in front of her open legs, hoping this would be sanitary enough. The water buckets were pushed closer but not close enough Darlene could kick them over during a bad thrust.
"Hell, we need something to cut the cord with, right? I need a knife. But it has to be sterile," Tosha said to John. "Get out my knife and heat it up. Hurry."
She had no idea if she'd need it, but it was best to have it ready.
John pulled his arm away from Darlene, a trickle of blood where she'd dug in. He grabbed a towel. "I'll heat it and wrap it in the towel until you need it."
"No time," Darlene said through clenched teeth. "I can feel him moving out."
"Imposs…" Tosha turned her head and threw up on the dirty floor.
The baby boy slid out of Darlene onto the towels without a sound and stared at her with his gray eyes.
At the same time, at least two motorcycles pulled up outside and parked.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Russ sighed. "Are you sure?"
"Sure as my heart is beating. Oh, wait…" Ben laughed. "Can you at least take me out of the car? My ass hurts from all this sitting."
"No. Move around. We broke your legs, not your arms. Make due," Russ said.
He'd parked the car not far from the Pizza Hut when Ben sat up and slapped the seat. "I know where she is, and she's close. Pull over to the end of this lot and angle the car to the west."
Russ was looking through a few dead trees, across the four-lane road, at a diner. It looked like every other building these days: windows shattered, dark patches where a fire had licked at the outside, and debris everywhere. Behind it stood the remains of a motel with only a couple of walls still standing. "You sure she's in there?"
"You like asking the same question."
"Who else is with her?" Russ asked. He didn't want to walk across the street and get shot by someone who had no idea who he was.
"I can only sense her," Ben said.
Russ turned back to the zombie. "I thought you could sense the baby."
Ben shrugged. "I'm not sure. Does it matter? They are together. I just know I can hone in on their location with little effort right now. We're so damn close I can taste it." Ben smacked his lips and laughed. "I'm looking forward to eating the baby."
"Not on my watch. I should shoot you in the face right now. I don't need you anymore," Russ said.
"True enough. Can't say I'd blame you. But you aren't an animal, Russ, and we both know it. I can't do any harm with two broken legs. You'll go across the street and save Darlene and her brat and we'll drive away together and live happily ever after. Isn't that what's going to happen? I've seen enough apocalyptic movies to know there is a safe haven out there for all of us. Humans. Zombies. We just need to work together." Ben pretended to wipe tears from his eyes and then grinned.
"You're quite the sarcastic asshole."
"It is a gift. I'm so glad I kept it, even in death. But you do know how all of this ends, right? We all become zombies in the end. Some of us get shot in the face and die again. But most of us will live. Thrive, even." Ben leaned back in the seat. "I'm not sure why you're even fighting it. You seem smarter than this, and especially as interested as you seem to be with how all of this works. Doesn't every superhero experiment on himself to find the cause and/or solution to these powers?"
"No, every super-villain does."
"Such a fine line, isn't it? All I'm saying is to keep your mind open for the possibilities the future holds for all of us. Not just the living."
"I don't know what you're even talking about," Russ said.
"I'm telling you I can help with the baby," Ben said.
"I don't think eating the baby will really be helpful," Russ said. "You're stalling. I need to go rescue her."
"I am stalling, because someone very bad is coming down the road. But I am being sincere. The baby is… gifted. You will need my help raising him the right way. This close to them, I see the advantage to him staying alive. I would be at his side as he grows."
"Thanks, but even in this mess, I think we can find a better nanny. Nothing personal," Russ said. He scanned up and down the road from his perch. "Where are they coming from?"
"You can't hear the engines? My hearing is even better than I thought," Ben said. "Last chance to help me out of the car before the shit hits the fan."
"I think I'll pass. But I won't kill you just yet, until I see what I need to get her and the baby to safety," Russ said.
"What a knight in shining armor you turned out to be," Ben said. He smiled. "I know you can hear them now."
Russ nodded and took position.
Two motorcycles pulled up in the parking lot of the diner with three people: Jeff with a female behind him, and a man Russ thought he'd seen before, but not on Main Street.
The two men were heavily armed and looking right at the diner.
"Is it time for you to go and rescue Darlene?" Ben asked. "Those two seem pretty bad-ass. I'd be careful."
"How do they know she's in there?"
Ben chuckled. "I don't think they do. The diner is a beacon, don't you think? One of the only buildings on the block still standing. Everyone is going to head for it. Everyone."
Russ didn't like the sound of any of this. He made sure his guns were loaded and he had all the ammo he could carry before stepping quietly onto the sidewalk.
Chapter Thirty
Lilly held onto Jeff because she'd always hated motorcycles. She hated men who rode them and the biker look. She especially hated Jeff. But she didn't want to fall off the back of his bike, and he wasn't making it any easier on her by weaving in and out of abandoned cars instead of finding a lane between them.
When he glanced over his shoulder and grinned, she knew he was being a jerk on purpose, but in the short time she'd known him she wasn't surprised. They pulled into the parking lot and the men killed the engines.
"Why are we stopping here?" Lilly asked.
"Because it is the only defensible position in this shitty town. We can hide out here until we figure out where Darlene is," Jeff said. "She's close. I can feel it."
Lilly knew, if given the chance, she'd get away from these two as fast as she could, but she had no idea where she'd go. There was no way she could survive long by herself. She'd relied on her father for so long. Actually, he relied on her to do everything for him. It had ended up being such a huge part of her life and she loved her father dearly, but… she was sick of slaving away for someone else. And she knew Jeff would be a cruel master.