Time of Zombies (Book 2): The Zombie Hunter's Wife (18 page)

“We were kidnapped by Bennett’s
men,” the young woman started talking. “They gave me to Elias. Said we were
married.”

She stared over Teddy’s shoulder,
the flash of flames brightening her green eyes. “He is dead, right?”

Wrapping her arms around her body,
she fidgeted from foot to foot like a spooked animal. He wanted to pat her on
the back and let her know it would be okay but she looked like a piece of glass
that would shatter at a man’s touch.

Michelle obviously felt no such
concern as she rushed forward and enveloped the girl in her arms. Sobs broke
and filled the air with devastation and anguish. The girl’s shoulders shook
with her cries.

Teddy’s jaw clenched and his teeth
ground together. No human being should know such despair. Marriage was a sacred
bond, of love and understanding. Not abused by psychopaths for sanctioned rape.
The heat at his back and the smoke billowing in clouds around them were a vivid
reminder that Bennett and his twisted beliefs were done.

But nothing could bring back Jed and
Beth. Two young lives lost in an instant. His hands clenched into fists and
tears blurred his vision. The thought of telling Jim his young daughter was
dead almost sent him to his knees.

“What’s your name?” Michelle’s
hushed voice reached him.

“April. April Reynolds,” the girl
replied, her voice cracking. “We were in Antioch, trying to get to Sacramento,
but our car broke down on the freeway. Bennett and his followers showed up and
we thought we were saved. Saved. What a joke. They killed Aunt Mary. Said Terri
was a liar and chopped off her head. Bennett took Maya and gave me to that
bastard Elias.”

Teddy’s heart broke at April’s bland
retelling of her ordeal. The words recited in a monotone, as if the girl were
reading a book about someone else’s life. If those men weren’t dead already, he
would have marched back in through the heat and flames to kill them again. He
stared down the road. He could only pray the rest of the ‘church’ would be
harmless without the head of the snake leading them.

Michelle’s head came up. “Maya,” she
said, staring at the inferno.

He shook his head. “Bennett killed
her when he shot me.”

“Everyone else left before we went
in,” the young couple explained together.

Ran and Cody stepped forward and
introduced themselves. Michelle stepped back to Teddy’s side, her shudders
vibrating through her body.  He swept her into his side and wrapped an arm
around her shoulders as the kids chattered about the RV yard and the people
there.

Teddy swallowed harshly. The RV yard
was no longer the safe haven they had built. At the end of the road in front of
them they might find it abandoned and desolate. His gaze swept over the woman
at his side. Her chopped hair did nothing to diminish her beauty and strength,
but her arms wrapped around her torso as if it were cold instead of the muggy,
hot night it was, brought his anger forth again.

He yearned to grab her into his arms
and carry her to safety, except safety didn’t exist anymore. Certainly not back
at the compound, probably empty by now. They wouldn’t know until they checked
it out.

“Okay, guys,” he called out. “We
aren’t out of here yet. Check your weapons and stick together. The living
aren’t the only things to worry about.”

The three young people walked in
front of them, their chatter dying away as they left the parking lot and church
inferno behind. Michelle strode at his side, her pea-shooter held at her side.

“You know that thing won’t kill
anything, right?” he whispered.

“It took care of Billy Joe Bennett
well enough,” she hissed back.

He held out his hand and took the
small gun, looking even smaller in his large hand. Putting it into his pocket,
he handed his machete to her.

Moans gathered strength on the road
ahead. Ran and Cody rushed forward and took out most of them, a few slipping
through to be dealt with by Teddy’s gun. Looking around to make sure he hadn’t
missed any, he spotted Michelle decapitating a rotten skinbag on the sidewalk. Its
head rolled one way and its body dropped to the ground with a wet splat.

She turned toward him. “This is
cool. No wonder Emily likes it so much. You can take out all your anger on
these things.”

“Not so fast, zombie-hunter woman,”
Teddy said, shaking his head. “You can never forget these are people. Or, at
least, they were. Someone’s mother, father, sister, or brother.”

“Or husband,” she whispered, her
face turning white.

He pulled her in close, knowing the
kids had the lookout. “Or husband. You did what you had to do. Would he have
wanted to stay undead?”

“No,” she mumbled against his chest.

“Jed and Beth would thank us if they
could. We do this for the families that wouldn’t or couldn’t do it.”

Michelle brought her head up and
gazed at Teddy’s serious face. “For the families.”

“For the families,” he intoned back.

“Let’s go home,” Michelle said,
turning to continue walking. Her heart rate sped up at Teddy’s silence. He
hadn’t seemed excited to get back to the RV yard at all. He was hiding
something, but her fear and sadness kept her silent. Whatever it was, they
would know soon enough.

They tramped down the road, their
boot heels making the only sound in the coming dawn. She gazed at the sky as
the sun rose and painted it with a wash of pink and orange. The trees gleamed
with sunlight instead of being black blobs in the dark. How could such simple
beauty still exist in the evil world she’d seen?

Stopping at the painted red line,
she whipped her head back and forth. “Where’s the hum?”

The others spun around, weapons
raised. No zombs huddled along the repel barrier, although their moans could be
heard further down the road from the direction of the camp.

Her heart rose in her throat. Were
they all dead? Emily? The boys? Tears blurred her vision until she scrubbed
them away with the heel of her hand. Not her boys. Not her friend Emily.

Teddy started jogging to the
entrance of the RV yard and the rest of them followed. About a dozen skinbags
pressed against the gate, moaning and rattling the barrier with the squeal of
metal.

Michelle swung the machete as one
zomb’ shambled toward April, the only unarmed member of their group. Ran had
tried to give her a knife earlier, but the girl informed them she had no idea
how to use it.

April jumped back as the first one
hit the ground and Michelle was already on the next. A zomb’ was headed for
Teddy’s back, but she took it out with a swipe of its calf. The thing fell at
Teddy’s feet. He turned and grinned at her.

“Thanks,” he yelled.

“No problem,” she yelled back.

Ran and Cody finished up the rest
and walked up to the gate. With the skinbags now dead dead, silence filled the
morning air.

Where was everyone? Had they all
died?

Teddy turned to her. “When I left to
get you, a bunch of folks had been sick earlier. They turned and we had to put
them down.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “Emily?
Rogue Vantage?”

Teddy shook his head. “No, Emily and
Seth were fine. The boys too. They demanded I go get their mom.”

She smiled slightly, still worried
about the total silence. “So where is everyone?”

“The group was headed to Ryde,” Cody
added. “Should we yell, Teddy?”

Ran rolled her eyes at her
boyfriend. “No, Doofus, just climb over and open the gate. We can’t stand out
here all day.”

As if to punctuate the problem, a
moan rose from the field beside the RV yard walls. She watched with one eye on
the young man scaling the fence and one on the area around them.

Cody jumped down on the other side
and raced to the controls. In seconds the metal barrier rolled back and they
hurried inside. The gate shut with a clang.

She caught her breath. They were safe
inside. It didn’t bring the rush she’d expected and anticipated. The yard stood
dark and silent, not the bustling hive of activity she’d grown used to in the
past year. Safety was an illusion, just as Emily had said.

“Hello? Anyone here?” Teddy called
out in his deep baritone.

“Over here,” came the reply from the
firepit, now unlit with a wisp of smoke curling into the morning air.

They strode over and found Seth
huddled over Emily, her cries building in intensity until she ended with a
scream loud enough to bring every zombie in the area running for mealtime.

Her emotions warred inside her; did
she rush to help Emily or find her boys? Emily’s groans settled it. She had to
help her friend. Teddy would find out about her little ones, she was sure. The
big man loved them as much as she did.

Teddy started peppering Seth with
questions and the man answered as best he could with her friend trying to crush
his hand in hers.

“Everyone left with Paul, Suz, and
Josh for the next safe zone. Jack left with Lila. He gave Paul command until he
makes it back ... if he makes it back.”

He caught Michelle’s eyes. “Paul
took the boys and the Madison twins with their group. We stayed for you guys. Emily
wouldn’t hear of leaving without you. I was going to make her leave if you
didn’t get back today.”

She coughed on a held breath she
didn’t know she was holding and brought her attention to Emily, crying and
panting on a cot.

“Where’s Doctor Shannon?”

“She had to go with Jim. He isn’t
doing well and she had to drag him out of here. He wanted to go after Beth, but
Shannon stopped him,” Emily got out between moans.

“Where are Jed and Beth?” Seth
asked, looking around.

Teddy just shook his head.

Michelle stared down into Emily’s
face. “I did it all for nothing. Jed and Beth are gone. Bennett killed them.”

Emily grabbed her hand. “It is never
for nothing. Could you have lived with yourself if you hadn’t at least tried?”

A scream erupted from her friend as
Emily’s body bucked on the cot. Tears for the dead would have to come later. Now
was for the living.

She wiped the tears from her eyes
and squatted at her friend’s side. Michelle tried to keep her voice light and
cheerful. “You weren’t supposed to have the baby yet. I go away for a few hours
and look what happens.”

Emily reached up and grasped her
shorn hair. “Look at you. You’ll be a zombie-hunter yet.”

Teddy leaned over. “She already is. You
should have seen her, Miss Emily. Whacking skinbags right and left. Protecting
my ass. I might have to become the zombie-hunter’s man.”

“I’ll settle for being the
zombie-hunter’s woman who occasionally saves his butt,” she whispered, staring
into Teddy’s eyes.

He leaned in and his mouth swept
across hers. “What about the zombie-hunter’s wife?”

She kissed him back. “That too.” Her
voice caught and wavered. “Yes, I’d like that very much, Teddy Ridgewood.”

“Yo, lady having baby here,” Emily
butted in.

They laughed and got down to the
business of birthing a baby. Men could joke about killing zombies, but giving
birth was tougher than slaying the undead any day.

She’d quickly sent Ran, Cody, and
April on chores to gather what she needed to help Emily and what they would
need when they left. Looking around between Emily’s contractions, she knew for
sure that this was no longer home. Glancing over at Teddy talking to Seth, she
knew just as sure home was wherever that big, beautiful, wonderful man was.

“Can I fucking push already?” Emily
growled at her.

“Let me look,” she growled right
back at her.

Emily started crying and Michelle
started apologizing.

“Just get it out of me,” her friend
screamed.

Michelle took a peek under the sheet
the kids had brought over for Emily. “I see the head.”

Seth ran over and took Emily’s hand.
“You can do this, sweetheart.”

“Don’t you sweetheart me. That’s
what caused all this.”

Michelle smiled in spite of the
situation. Emily had been declared infertile in her old life and she’d been
over the Moon to discover she would have a baby after all.

She turned back to the sheet and
reached to guide the baby as best she could. She’d taken a class years ago
about emergency birthing, but all she really could do was guide the baby and
catch it and pray it was enough.

“Hand me a towel,” she ordered and
found one quickly in hand. As the baby slid out, she grasped it firmly and set
it on the towel. Him on the towel, she saw just as she wrapped him up and
brought him to Emily’s chest.

“You have a son,” she declared, her
smile wide enough to split her face. Emily’s was just as wide and full of
wonder.

“I have a baby,” she whispered, her
fingers touching his cheek.

Tears slid down Michelle’s face as
she reached to deal with the afterbirth. She wrapped it in another towel. They
could cut the cord in a moment; she just wanted to watch Emily and Seth with
their miracle. In the normal world, birth was a miracle. In the Z virus world,
it was proof that life went on. Human life.

“It hurts,” Emily screamed. “What’s
happening?”

Michelle’s heart raced.
Please
don’t let her be hemorrhaging. I can’t lose her too. Please, God.

Sometimes God heard prayers, she
thought as it wasn’t a gushing river of blood she saw between Emily’s thighs,
but another head.

“I hope you have another name picked
out,” she said, getting another towel from Ran and bringing out another wrapped
bundle. “For your daughter.”

Seth took the baby and held it by
Emily’s face. “Twins,” he whispered.

Emily turned her face to her
daughter. “Carla Beth. You are named for your father’s mother and the sweetest
girl I’ve known.”

Seth reached and touched his son. “Jed
Robert. You are named for two brave men.”

She started in her seat. There was
only one Robert among their friends. Wincing, she realized in an instant that
wasn’t true anymore. Wiping her tears with her forearms, she smiled, wanting to
believe their friends and loved ones lived on in these little namesakes.

Michelle finished up and gathered
the soiled bundles. She stumbled to a water barrel and scrubbed her bloody
hands. She ached, but it was a good ache. Out of all of the tragedy of the last
couple of days, there had been a miracle. She smiled. Two miracles.

Someone walked up and wrapped big
strong arms around her. She leaned back against Teddy’s broad chest. This was
safety. This was security. The only kind that lasted. The kind that didn’t rely
on walls and gates.

“We need to wait here a day or two
to let Emily rest, but what do you want to do after that? We could stay here,
rebuild, or we could join the others in Ryde.”

She stared at the gray concrete
walls that now seemed more like a prison than a sanctuary. She turned and gazed
at a man willing to be right here where he belonged. She smiled at a man who
put her needs and safety first.

“Let’s go get our boys, my
zombie-hunter husband.”