Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 (39 page)

“I'm sorry,” I said. “I hope I did the right thing by bringing you with us. I just didn't want you
to die if the plant melted down.”

“No! You did the right thing. You saved my life,” she said. “I just have to get used to the way things are now. Hank, could you do me a favor?

“What's that?” I responded.

“Promise me that
you’ll let me stay with you, Jennifer, and the others. I don't want to be abandoned,” she said.

“I swear to you that I’ll do everything in my power make sure
you’re never abandoned,” I told her.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Now, when you’re able, please go check on Jennifer while I go take care of a few things. Hopefully, we can leave this place soon,” I said.

“I'll go check on her right now,” she said.

I watched as the petite redhead quickly stood up and walked out of the room with the sheet still wrapped around her

I needed to find her a jacket.

My next goal was to talk to Meredith and Robert. I looked around the church until I could find the door to the bell tower. On the door there was a sign that read,
No Unauthorized Entry
. I ignored the sign and started climbing up the flight of stairs which led me to a small room where Meredith and Robert were keeping watch. Each of them held a hunting rifle and a scope. They were ready to snipe any bandit that intruded on church property.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hank!” Meredith said. “It’s so great to see you!”

She put down her rifle and reached over to embrace me.

“I'm glad you’re up and about,” she said.

“Thanks. I appreciate it. Jennifer is awake now too,” I said.

“How’s she doing?” Robert asked.

“
She’s very weak, and needs to get a blood transfusion. We need the equipment at the relocation center,” I told them.

I went on to explain my plan to them. We would put together a convoy of people who were willing to evacuate, and we would rush to lea
ve before anyone could stop us. They agreed to come with us, and I told them to spread the word to anyone in the church they thought they could trust.

After speaking with them, I rushed back to the social hall. I needed to sit and look through the document
s I had been given at the nuclear power plant. I had been told they contained important information. The last thing I needed to do was make a stupid mistake out of ignorance.

As a fast reader, I was able to quickly digest the information in the documents.
Most of them were briefing documents about the alien species that certain branches of government were negotiating with. Others documents were memos about the latest communications from the human-like extraterrestrials. One of the documents was particular interesting. It detailed how we had been warned by the space faring, offshoots of humanity that the species we had been negotiating with had used dangerous biological weapons in the past and had eradicated a number of civilizations.

I then came across a com
munication that shocked me. The human-like aliens had warned of a specific attack, but the military didn’t believe them. It turned out that they were sending a freighter vessel to Earth with supplies, inoculations, and weapons. The ship would land at a set of coordinates on specified date – December 11
th
. All they requested in return was our goodwill and for them to gain status as a trading partner.

Fascinatingly, I learned that the landing coordinates would put the craft down in northern Arkansas, near Fa
yetteville. December 11
th
was less than two weeks away – today was November 31
st
.

Once we got Jennifer well and found my mom, we must head there.

I went over to the boxes in the corner of the room and searched in them for the firearms that had been on my person before I was knocked unconscious. However, they were nowhere to be found. I opened the backpack of ammo and firearms we had acquired from the nuclear power plant. I pulled out a pistol, loaded it, and went to put it into my belt – but discovered I was not wearing a belt. I concluded that it must have been removed while they were patching up my nose.

I put the pistol in my pocket and hurried towards Jennifer's room. As I ran, I ignored everyone who attempted to speak to me. I
didn’t have time to listen to apologies.

Opening the door, I saw that they had been able to put Jennifer in a wheelchair. She was still pale and looked weak, but the fact she was sitting up was a good sign.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her, dropping to my knees.

“I'm a little be
tter,” Jennifer said. “How are you?”

“I feel great now I know you’re still with us,” I said.

I turned and looked at Candy.

“Is she fit to travel?” I asked.

“Not really,” she said. “But I think she will survive the trip.”

“Good,”
I said. “I'm getting things ready.”

“We’ll need a wheelchair accessible vehicle to transport her in,” Candy said.

“I'll find something,” I said.

I started to walk out the door when Jennifer reached out and grabbed onto my arm. Her icy fingers chilled my ar
m.

“Please just sit and stay with me a while,” she said.

I looked at her and I saw tears welling up in her eyes.

“Candy, could you please go and find Meredith and Robert, and let them know what we need to transport Jennifer?” I asked.

“Sure,” Candy said. “But just don’t leave her alone. She’s very weak and needs to avoid anxiety as much as possible.”

“Candy, I'm right here,” Jennifer said. “I appreciate that you have taken care of me, but you can speak to my face.”

“I'm sorry,” Candy said. “You may be feeling better, but you still may have internal bleeding inside. I just need to keep you calm and relaxed so it doesn't get worse.”

“I promise I’ll stay calm,” Jennifer said.

“Okay,” Candy said.

She then rushed out the room.

It was now just Jennifer and I in the room. They had dressed her in what looked like hospital scrubs, and I could see that she was still shivering. I could even feel that the room was colder than it had been. I looked around the room, saw a blanket folded up on a chair, and wrapped it around her.

“I'm not going to let you freeze to death,” I said.

“They say I'm still running a fever,” she said.

“I still don't think it's good for you to sit there without a blanket or something,” I said.

“I remember everything you told me earlier,” she said.

“
What do you remember?” I said.

“I remember you telling me how much it hurt that I didn't give you a chance before this outbreak happened. I also remember you telling me that you loved me, and that you were stupid for not letting yourself get close to me,”
she said.

“You heard everything,” I said.

“I did. I just want to say I’m so, so sorry for hurting you. I think I know now how badly I hurt you. All I can say is that I'm sorry,” she said.

“Don't worry about it now,” I said. “I'm going to be here with you n
ot matter what. I'm never leaving you.”

“I just want you to know that I love you,” she said. “If I die, please remember that I love you, and that I wish I had given you a chance a long time ago, if I
wouldn’t have screwed it up.”

“You’re not going to die,
I promise you that,” I told her. “I don't know when I’ll be ready for a relationship with you, but you’re going to be stuck with me for a long time.”

“I can tell Candy likes you,” Jennifer said. “Do you like her?”

I paused.

“I can't deny
she’s good looking and seems to have a nice personality. But you’re the woman I love,” I said.

“I want you to marry me, Hank. But if you can't find it in your heart to trust me and know that I'm not going to cheat on you or leave you, then you might be
better off with her,” she said. “You deserve to be with someone -- I don't want you to be alone.”

“I'm not alone, because I'm with you,” I said.

“No, you’re still alone. You care about me and I care about you, but we’re not really together,” she said. “So many women have hurt you that your heart needs to be fixed. If you won't let me try to fix it, then please let Candy.”

A rush of emotions filled me as I started to lose control. I started to cry and walked back and forth across the room.

“I feel like I’m in hell,” I told her. “I have tried to pursue relationships with women only to get ignored and walked over. Now, I have the most wonderful woman in the world wanting to marry me, but it’s during the zombie apocalypse.”

“Can I ask you a question
?,” I asked.

“Yes.”

“If I had asked you out on a date a month ago, as something more than just friends, would you have gone out with me?” I asked.

She paused.

“I don't know. Maybe,” she said.

“Yes or no, Jennifer” I said more loudly.

“I don't know,” she said.

Jennifer
started to shiver, and I felt ashamed to have raised my voice.

“I'm sorry to be talking about this now,” I said. “You should be resting.”

“No, we need to talk through this,” she said.

I could see that she looked weaker and was getting paler. I needed to do
something to calm her down.

“I've been around the block a few times,” Jennifer said. “You know that right?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I've dated many men, have married, and have divorced,” she told me. “As far as I
know, you have never been in a relationship. I know that in some ways, you deserve someone else. If you want to date Candy for a little while before you make up your mind about me, I won't like it, and it will hurt me. But I’ll still love you.”

I knew wh
at I had to say. It would be a half truth, but I needed to calm her down.

“If
you’ll hold on until we get you the medical help you need, I’ll marry you,” I told her. “As soon as we get you better, I’ll have someone hold the ceremony.”

“Do you mean it?”
she asked.

“Yes, I mean it,” I said.

“I love the idea of being married to you,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said.

I sat next to her and held her hand for several minutes. Finally, Candy came back into the room.

“I've talked to Meredith,” she said. “There is
a church bus in the parking lot. We’re going to use it to get you to the relocation center, Jennifer.”

“Thank you,” Jennifer said.

Candy could see that Jennifer had been crying.

“I need to go for a bit,” I said. “I'm going to make sure everyone is getting
ready.”

“Let me talk with you for a moment,” Candy said.

We left the room, and Candy put her finger in my face.

“What the heck did you say to her!?” she asked.

“She wanted to talk, and things got emotional,” I said.

“Don't you realize that getting her upse
t could kill her?” she said to me in a hushed tone.

“I just promised I would marry her, if she hangs on,” I said.

“Did you mean it?” she asked.

“I don't know. One part of me wants to marry her very badly, but another part me doesn't know if I should or not
,” I said.

“Well, you better not tell her that,” she said. “If you go back on your promise, before
she’s better, it will probably kill her.”

“I had to do something to calm her down,” I said.

“You did the right thing. But until she’s fully recovered, you need to keep reassuring her that you two are about to get married,” Candy said.

She then stepped back into the room to check on Jennifer.

I walked down the hall to the room that I had awakened in. Searching through it, I found my belt and weapons in a bag in a corner.

With all the weapons at my disposal, I searched the church until I found Meredith and told her to round everyone up for a meeting in the office. We needed to know how many people were coming with us, what vehicles we would be using, and what r
oute we would be taking to Dublin.

Walking down one of the halls, I saw a room with a handwritten sign on the door:
Clothing Closet and Food Pantry
. I looked both ways down the hall to make sure no one was watching, and slipped into the room. I turned on the light, and saw boxes full of clothing. I dug through them and found a couple of hooded jackets for Jennifer and Candy. One was solid pink, and the other had floral patterns.

With the jackets in my arms, I hurried to the room where Jennifer was staying.
I saw that Candy was taking her blood pressure.