Time of Zombies (Book 2): The Zombie Hunter's Wife (12 page)

Michelle stood at the gate with her
hands wrapped around the metal bars. Teddy and Beth knelt by the graves in
their growing burial ground. The row with Beth’s baby already held two more
gravesites; one was a young man who’d gotten gangrene after an injury and the
other was his mother who couldn’t go on without him. They’d heard her moans in
the motor home she occupied and gone in and made her dead dead.

She brought herself back to the
present as tears flooded her eyes watching Teddy make what she assumed was a
new cross to Beth’s wishes. Her mind turned away from any thoughts of what the
girl had birthed and they had buried. She hoped this would end the sad chapter
in the young girl’s life. Jed was a wonderful man who adored Beth and would do
anything for her. Her ears caught the sound of shooting practice from the other
side of the walls. The radio operator had taken to learning guns and the
crossbow in an effort to prove he could protect Beth. From the smiles she’d
seen between them, it wasn’t a wasted effort either.

A gust of wind from the north
carried the unmistakable scent of rot and decay. It couldn’t be a horde, the
sound was working, she could tell with the constant hum in her head. Her next
thought was of the deaf skinbag not so long ago.

The stench came and went with the
breeze. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her. An undead female in
running shorts and what was left of a sports bra. The earbuds she wore
explained it. Although the batteries on whatever device she’d been using were
probably long dead, just having them in the ears was enough to hinder the repel
signal.

She went to yell to Miranda, but the
girl had moved away, toward Teddy and Beth. Their backs were to her and she
couldn’t yell without alerting the skinbag who was oblivious of them at the
moment. Maybe it would just shamble along.

Please. Please. Please.

Prayers seemed to go unanswered
these days, as the thing must have seen the group in the cemetery, or caught
their scent. Her steps sped up, but no moans sounded to let the group know they
weren’t alone. Michelle looked around and found no one. It took a split-second
to realize it was only up to her.

She rushed to push the button to
open the gate and ran out of the opening. Miranda looked up and began to pull
her gun, but Michelle was faster.

The pistol bucked in her hand, the
skinbag fell to the ground with a hole in its head, and the echo rang in her ears.
She shoved the weapon in the holster and whipped around to make sure they were
safe.

All of a sudden, what she’d done
sank in. She was outside the gate, in the middle of the road. She’d opened the
gate and run out without thinking. Her teeth chattered until she clenched them
together and breathed deeply. She’d done it. She’d willingly exited the yard. She
wasn’t going to wimp out now.

Walking toward the cemetery, she met
the others by the fallen body. Teddy turned her over with a push of his boot
and Michelle saw in an instant why the thing hadn’t alerted them with the trademark
moans they all used. Her windpipe was gone, hell; most of her throat was gone.
She wasn’t sure how the skinbag’s head had stayed on.

“Why don’t you girls get some men so
we can take care of this?”

“Girls? You have got to be kidding
me?” Michelle put her hands on her hips.

“Really?” Ran added. “I’ll go get
some gasoline so we can burn this mess.” The young woman turned away and
stomped across to the gate.

Beth looked from Teddy to Michelle
and swallowed loudly. “I’m going to go see if Jed will give me some gun
practice so I can shoot like Ran and Michelle.”

When Beth turned and left, silence
fell over them. Teddy wore that look that men have perfected when they have no
clue.

“In case you failed to notice it, and
I’m sure you did, high-and-mighty King of Pittsburg, I ran out that gate to
save you. I shot that thing to save your ass and all I get is ‘you girls.’ This
is not the Church of fucking Fruitful Harvest and you are not that bastard
Bennett.”

“Ah, Michelle, ma belle. Don’t be
that way,” he crooned as he reached to hug her.

She pulled back and his arms fell
away.

“You said you’d be right back.”

“I was right here, you could see me
though the gate.”

“You promised you’d be right back and
then you died,” she yelled, the tears flooding her eyes and running hot down
her face.

He spread his arms. “I’m not dead.
What are you yelling about?”

“You died and then you came back.
Just like you promised,” she whimpered, wrapping her body in her arms, rocking
back and forth as reaction set in. “Just like you promised.”

“I am not your husband, Michelle.
I’m not Mitch.”

She glared up at him and he stepped
back. “No, you’re right. You’re not. He came back like he promised and I killed
him.”

Teddy stretched out his arm, but
Michelle had already turned and walked away across the road and through the
gate. It slid closed and locked with a loud clang that carried across to him,
like the slam of a prison door, except he was on the outside.

He couldn’t help smiling a little.
She
had
rushed out the gate. Rushed out to save him. Damn it! He wasn’t
her husband Mitch. He would never have gone to work and not been there to
protect his woman. Family had to come first. His dad taught him that. Among so
many other things.

The opening clatter of the gate cut
into his thoughts, but when he looked up it was Ran with a wheelbarrow and a
gas can. She pushed it over and they got the skinbag into the barrow and he led
the way to the side field where they were burning bodies so they were downwind.
Ran followed with the can and her endless ramblings. At any other time he loved
listening to the girl who could go off on twenty tangents at one time. Now, she
grated on his last nerve as she droned on about his failings as a man.

“Everyone knows you don’t call us
girls anymore. Like, duh.”

“Now you sound like Cody. That boy
is rubbing off on you.”

“Don’t call him a boy. He is all
man, if you know what I mean.”

Teddy found himself blushing. “I do
know what you mean and I don’t want to. What is it you kids say, TMI?”

“It’s so lame when old people try to
sound hip.” She did the L sign on her forehead with her fingers.

“You’re like forty, Teddy. Z days
are going to be like the old times, when people died young. It’s already
happening. We’re going to die of colds, and accidents, and heart conditions we
can’t treat anymore.”

That sobered him up quickly. Ran was
right. In the ZA he might be an elder. He shook that thought away. Hell, no.
Maybe decades from now the live expectancy might be way young again, but he
still had a pre-Z mind and body. Flexing his biceps, he dumped the zomb’ out of
the barrow and yanked the gas can away from Ran.

He poured the fluid over the former
female, the fumes rising in the still air. Setting down the can, he lighted a
match, tossed it, and stepped back.

“I never get used to the smell,” Ran
said, grabbing her bandana and tying it across her mouth and nose.

He followed suit. “Me either, Ran.
Me either.”

“The ZA sucks.”

He couldn’t agree more. He glanced
sideways at the figure up on the wall. Her blue shirt like a bright painted spot
on the gray cinderblock expanse. Her glance slid over him.

“Yes, it sucks.”

Rule #9   
Don’t ruin
relationships for no reason. In the ZA, someone has to have your back and you
have to have theirs. At all times.

The man trudged up the sidewalk, his
gait shambling and stumbling. The once-pristine uniform caked with blood and
gore. She raised the gun to shoot and the uniform changed to jeans and a
T-shirt, Mitch’s face changed into Teddy’s. Her finger tightened on the trigger
and she pulled. The man fell to the ground, not breathing, not moving.

Michelle jerked up out of sleep. Her
heart pounded in her chest, the whoosh of blood thumped in her ears. She pushed
her sweat-drenched hair off her face. The darkness of the room hid the shadows
in the corners. Every creak of metal was the scrape of bone on steel.

Steady footsteps thumped by overhead
as the watch stood guard on the scaffolding. Whispered comments and a muffled
laugh carried on the still, hot air. Summer had come early to the East Bay.
Michelle kicked the tangled sheet away from her legs and swatted at a buzzing
mosquito.

“Great,” she mumbled. “I’ll die of
West Nile virus instead of the Z virus.” A slap killed the bug against her arm.
She wiped it away and swiped her hand across her shirt. With a sigh, she turned
her back on her bed. She wouldn’t be sleeping the rest of the night. Maybe she
could trade watch shifts with someone and start her day now.

In minutes, she was dressed and
checking the watch schedule on the door of the solar battery room. She trotted
over to Jim Evans’ trailer and caught the man before he finished coming down
his stairs. He patted her on the shoulder and smiled as he turned back to get a
few more hours of sleep before the next watch change.

“I’ll be taking Jim’s place
tonight,” she informed Ran and Cody once she climbed the stairs. They nodded
and headed off to their trailer and sleep as Edward Gonsalves showed up and
took a spot at the wall as well.

“Do you want us to say hi to Teddy
for you?” Ran added over her shoulder as they started down the stairs.

“No, that’s okay. Don’t bother him,”
she said, wishing her tears weren’t so close to falling.

The girl ran down the rest of the
stairs and caught up to her boyfriend. Even as they moved away, Michelle still
caught Miranda’s words.

“Some people make it so hard.”

She turned away and walked to the
wall. Her gaze swept the field and beyond. A full Moon gilded the trees and
bushes with a silver edge. A stark reminder that the Moon and the Earth didn’t
care what happened to the puny humans depending on them for everything. The sun
came up; the sun went down, day after day, no matter what they all did. A moan
wafted over the still air. No matter if they were living or undead.

Raising the rifle to her shoulder,
she scanned the area with the night-vision scope. The full Moon blazed enough
light for day, albeit in a greenish tint.
Was she making it hard? For
herself and Teddy? Was it too much to ask for some stability in this crazy
world? She just wanted to feel safe. For people to be reliable, dependable, and
stable. To not be constantly reminded they could go off to work and not come
back alive.

She swung her weapon to the south
and eyed the skinbags standing and swaying by the red line on the road. Why
didn’t they all just fall apart? She didn’t know how long it took to decompose
in a grave, but it had been over a year and still the undead walked and moved
across the Earth. The latest news broadcast on the radio said they’d made some
headway and reclaimed part of the capital, but Sacramento might as well be the Moon
anymore. It wasn’t an hour and a half ride in a car anymore and probably
wouldn’t be again for years. Travel would be like pioneers on the Oregon Trail,
not knowing if everyone would survive the trip west.

The hours of her watch duty passed
as she covered her area and then traded places with the men on the south wall.
A twinge of guilt fluttered through her at the thought of Lila and her daughter
at the mercy of the church and Bennett, but she couldn’t find an ounce of
regret for the absence of Juan Morales. The man had no friends of those who
remained at the RV yard. The watch was peaceful and uneventful without the
drama the man had seemed to cause wherever he was.

She was back at her favorite section
of south-east wall as the sun began to tint the sky a pale pink and the
nighttime shadows died. The camp stirred and sounds carried as people came out
of trailers and motor homes to start their day. The boys of Rogue Vantage
whistled and waved at her and she turned to face them.

“I’ll see you at breakfast,” she
yelled down. “Make sure you wash up first.”

“Oh, Mom,” echoed from four
different voices.

A scream pierced the peaceful
morning. She whipped around. A woman stood by the well with the cover off. A
bucket lay in a bloody puddle by her feet, and her hands covered her mouth as
she tried and failed to not vomit. As the woman, she thought her name was
Maggie, turned to the side; Michelle sighted her rifle on the bucket. Her
stomach heaved as she saw what had to be an arm and a hand lying in the puddle.
A zomb’ had fallen in their only source of water.

Straddling the wall, she turned back
to yell again to the boys. “Get Jack and Paul. A skinbag is in the well.”

She gripped the rifle and jumped
down to the dusty field, landing in a cloud of dirt. In a few long strides she
was at Maggie’s side. “Are you okay?”

Michelle spun, but no one and
nothing was in the field with them. She put the strap on her shoulder and gave
the woman a hand. The padlock sat on the dry grass and the lid was half on the
opening.

“Did you unlock it this morning?”

“No,” Maggie mumbled, shaking her
head. “The lock was broke and on the ground. I thought someone did it last night
and didn’t have time to replace it yet.”

Michelle sidled past the bloody body
part and kicked the cover aside. Leaning over, she gazed down into the well.
What was in there was so twisted she couldn’t tell if it were parts or a whole
body.

“What are we going to do?” Maggie
cried, wringing her hands together.

“I don’t know,” Michelle said. She
leaned down and picked up the padlock. The hasp had been cut with bolt cutters.
This wasn’t an accident, with someone forgetting to put the lock back on and a
zomb’ stumbling in. This was deliberate.

She squeezed the metal in her hand
until the sharp edge cut into her palm. Didn’t take much thinking to know
exactly who had done it.  A mile or so south sat the Fruitful Harvest Church
and its twisted followers, along with a very pissed off Reverend Bennett.