Deadies: Run for Your Life (8 page)

“
I don’t think your daddy would like that.” Malik grinned and licked his lips. He had really nice lips. I never noticed before.

I stood there and watched the exchange. I had never heard Malik utter so many words. I was overwhelmed by the repartee between Malik and Kait. There are a lot of things going on in this house, with these people, I’m completely unaware of. It’s time for me to pay more attention.

Kait hopped off the couch and from under the blanket. “My dad doesn’t have to know. Jesse can keep a secret.”

“
Can you keep a secret?” Malik asked and it was a total oh my god he’s talking to me moment.

“
Sure, whatever,” I shrugged.

Kait smiled. “My dad’s upstairs with Michelle. They will be up there for a while. I’ll get some scissors.” Kait grabbed Malik’s hand and pushed him toward the kitchen. “I’ll see you in your room.”

“
Why you gotta experiment on me?” Malik asked jokingly.

“
Just go.” She playfully ordered.

“
Ay could you bring me some cereal?”

“
Yeah,” Kait said. Malik walked back toward the kitchen. His bedroom was at the end of hall. Kait bounced up the stairs leaving me standing abandoned.

My day was lonely with Ray and Nick missing in action. I listened to music on my mp3 player, a gift to myself from the Superstore. Naveen had loaded it with music from his laptop. Somehow he was able to escape the zombie uprising with his laptop, flash drives and the Quran. Naveen took guarding the house seriously and he paced, peeked out windows, and had his pistol tucked into his wristband. The doctor was upstairs playing with Michelle. Kait was playing with Malik and I was doing whatever I could to pass the time. After playing Ray’s handheld video game I fell asleep on what I call Kait’s couch.

There was a disturbance that woke me from my nap. Everyone in the house was in the room with me except Joe, Nick and Ray. I tried to focus as I wiped sleep from my eyes. Apparently something had happened when I was asleep. Naveen looked stressed. He had the walkie in his hand and his eyes were pointed to the hall that led to the kitchen. Joe and Nick were coming toward us.

“
Where’s Ray?” Michelle asked as Joe and Nick entered. They were both covered in blood. There was a strange silence and then Joe shook his bald head and looked down at the floor.

“
Fuck!” Nick punched a hole in the wall.

“
Nick are you okay?” I asked as I went to his aid.

He didn’t answer. He sped pass me and sprinted up the stairs. As I followed him, I heard a wave of commotion downstairs, mostly muffled voices.

“
Ray is dead.” Was all Nick said as I chased him up the stairs and down the second floor hallway. His words were lost in translation. My mind swirled with confusion. What?

Nick ducked into the bathroom and I followed him. “I almost died today.” He kicked his boots off. He was in a controlled panic. He started peeling his blood stained clothes off. He reached into the shower and turned on the water.

“
I’ll get a towel.” I raced from the bathroom and went straight for the linen closet. I grabbed a towel and hurried back to the bathroom. Nick was nude. I failed in my feeble attempt to ignore what was below his waist. He stepped into the shower as soon as I entered. I shut the door behind me. I figured he wanted his privacy. “I’ll put the towel on the sink. You’re okay, right?” He didn’t answer so I backed away to leave him alone.

“
Hey,” he called out. “Come here.” Nick pulled the shower curtain back. He glared at me and fire burned in his eyes. A fire I wasn’t sure I could read but it resembled anger, or at least that’s how I perceived it. He reached out and seized both my wrists. I looked down just to make sure he really had ahold of me. He began to pull me into the shower with him. I was too startled to resist, too confused to object. I stepped in the shower fully clothed and in my socks. The downpour quickly drenched my clothing. I was soaking wet in seconds. Nick let go of my wrists to remove my t-shirt by pulling it over my head. I raised my arms again as he removed my denim shorts. We both stood naked in the shower. We were face to face, trying to look through watered eyes and wet faces. Nick ran his hand up my spine. I couldn’t help but to arch forward. He slid his hand up my back and entangled his fingers in my soaked hair. He twisted my hair in his firm grip and tilted my chin up. My mouth opened. I closed my eyes and felt his tongue dance around the fevered bare skin of my throat while his free hand roughly cupped my breast. Nick guided his tongue into my mouth and I gasped for air. My heart raced as I got completely rapt in the moment.

Before I could analyze his actions, he lifted me off my feet. He held me in the air and guided my legs to straddle him. I was being seduced. He slammed my back into to the tiled shower wall. I was being ravished. Then I felt him against the inside of my thigh, first nudging and then poking, then prodding, and finally jabbing his way inside me. The one relentless thrust knocked a moan from my lungs that made its way through my diaphragm and escaped through my lips.

Nick’s shoulders fell at ease and the tension escaped his body with a single word. “Shit.” He moved slowly at first and then he found a rhythm that literally made me hum. I tried to stop humming but my hums turned into purrs. I tried to stop purring then my purrs turned into moans. I tried so desperately not to moan. I didn’t want anyone to hear me but my moans turned into screams. My screams of passion unleashed a fury in Nick that I can only describe as animalistic. My body vibrated with pleasure and I become completely conscious of my surroundings. He grunted as he slammed my body hard against the bath wall. As the third growl came so did Nick. He stayed inside for a moment, savoring our warm, wet connection. As he lowered my legs I shook again, an aftershock, a brief reminder of what we shared.

Nick backed away from me and I could see he probably could go another round. I was spent and I hoped he wouldn’t come after me again. There has to be a recovery period. My legs were like Jell-O. I feared stepping out of the tub, slipping and banging my head. He ran his hands through his hair and just watched me. I didn’t know if I should speak or be quiet. I choose the latter.

I soaped my body as I rinsed off in the now cold water. He intensely watched me. When I thought I was clean enough I stepped out, grabbed the towel I bought in for him. I quickly toweled myself off. I opened the door and peeked out into the hallway. I grabbed another towel for Nick from the linen closet and went back into the bathroom. I placed the clean towel on the sink.

My wet clothes were inside the sink. I gathered them while Nick was washing himself in the shower. I creep out the bathroom in just a towel and hurried up to the attic. What just happened?

I sat in my chair near the window. My mind raced like a brand new Porsche on an autobahn. I had been in a Porsche in Germany on an autobahn with the coked out grandson of an Italian billionaire. That day I thought I would die. Today I didn’t know what to think. Nick would be here in the room soon. Do I say nothing? Do I act casual? Do I pretend we just didn’t have sex? Do I make a joke acknowledging the fact that we had sex? What if he doesn’t come back here? What if he ignores me? What if he acts like nothing happen? Does he think I’m, I don’t know, a slattern?

Nick walked in still wet. He was wearing his pants, carrying his boots and had his t-shirt tossed over his bare chest and shoulder.

“
Hey, are you okay?” He sat his boots on the floor and sat down in front of me in the vacant chair.

“
Yeah,” I couldn’t think of words.

“
You were screaming and I didn’t know if it was good screams or bad screams. Did I hurt you?”

“
No, good screams.” I reassured him.

Nick looked out the window and all my trepidations went away. “Get dressed. You need to show your face downstairs. I don’t want them to think I killed you.”

“
I was that loud?”

“
Huh,” was all he said and I was immediately embarrassed. Nick stood and paced. He looked down at me. “I’m sorry.”

“
About what?” I innocently asked as I stood to face him.

Nick wiped his face with his hands. “Ray is dead. I tried to save him. I swear, me, Joe, we really tried.”

I listened to the words. I had heard them earlier but somehow I blocked them out. How could I consciously do that? Or was it unconsciously? I was going crazy. This world was making me lose my sanity. “What?” I said, hoping he wouldn’t repeat it.

“
Jesse, Ray is dead.”

I gasped for a breath. “Ray is dead.” I flopped down in a chair. I had to comprehend what was going on. Ray was my buddy. “What happened out there?” I asked before I broke down in mildly controlled sobs.

“
We found a building we thought it looked secure. Some asshole had booby-trapped it. We broke in and Ray tripped a wire and the ceiling came down on us. I got stuck under the rubble. Ray got stuck. Joe had to dig us out. The cave-in made a lot of noise. It must’ve attracted the freaks. Ray was free first. He said he couldn’t breathe so he ran out the building and there were freaks out there. I swear Jesse we tried to pull him back through the door. There were so many freaks pulling him out. We just couldn’t hold on to him. After he was bitten over and over we let him go.”

I had heard enough. I threw my hand in the air signaling Nick to stop talking. He did. I wiped my tears but they continued to fall. Nick grabbed one of my t-shirts and pulled it over my head. I let him do it. He was dressing me like I was a baby. I was acting like a helpless child.

“
Jesse we need to go down stairs and talk about this with the group. As much as I want to sit in this room and be sad. I can’t. We lost one of the group. We lost Ray and we have to grieve together.”

Death happened in the old world and it happens more often and more violently in this new world. Get over it, I said to convince myself. I grabbed a fresh pair of shorts out my backpack and finished dressing. I followed Nick downstairs to the living room.

CHAPTER 7

Everyone was in the common area. It felt like they were waiting for us. Maybe waiting for Nick, he was the speaker of the house. Kait was sitting on the couch crying her eyes out. Her face was buried in her father’s chest. Naveen was sitting on the floor against a wall. He was in a comatose state. He wasn’t moving. I’m not sure he was breathing. Seeing Naveen punctured my heart. It was obvious Ray was his best friend and vice versa. I don’t think they knew each other before the deadies came but they were so close you would have thought they were childhood friends. They were genuine friends. Not like Nick and Joe who existed together. They backed each other up but there was no true camaraderie. Ray and Naveen were different, the real deal.

I remember some guy in high school making me watch all three of the old Superman movies. Lois Lane was dead. Superman flew into the sky and around and around the earth as fast as he could to turn back time and have a do-over. It’s amazing how dreadful things like zombies are real but decent good things like Superman are not.

Malik was sitting next to Michelle. He was rubbing her back. Michelle’s eyes were as red as her hair. She had been crying. Why was I surprised by her reaction? Ray was in this house first. He was the postal worker and this is a post office. It was Ray’s keys that opened the doors of this safe haven. Joe looked the same as always, cold, emotionless. Joe had washed the blood from his face but his clothing was still blood-stained.

There was a recount of the actions that led to Ray’s death. I didn’t hear one clear sentence. I just stood next to Nick, spaced out. My brain was not functioning properly. It was like my body was in the room but my mind was on vacation.

The house was in mourning for a week. There was little talk, no disagreements and very little movement. Nick and I talked quietly in the attic. It was our own private confessional. It was the place where we could share our thoughts without fear of being judged.

Nick and I got ready for bed. I felt the need to talk. I missed Ray. I had one less person to talk to and it felt lonely without Ray, like a piece of my family was missing. Nick was sitting in his chair fiddling with one of his handguns as I sat on the mattress.

“
What were you doing before I came.” I asked.

“
What do you mean?” Nick raised an eyebrow.

“
Like for fun?” I was vague.

“
You guys have been here for weeks with just one woman.” Nick continued to load the bullets into his gun. I watched closely. It was the gun he called the Magnum. “Did you have sex with Michelle?” Too blunt but I had already put it out there.

“
No way, she’s a librarian.”

“
Yeah but she’s pretty.” I fished for more intel.

“
Spongebob smarty pants, no way.”

“
So you like dumb girls?” I know I was being weird but whatever.

Nick stopped and glared at me. “You’re not dumb. You’re way smarter than you look but you don’t go around throwing it up in everybody’s faces. If you hadn’t noticed, Michelle’s a bitch. Let the doctor have her.”

I did notice she was a bitch. “Stop making love to the Magnum.” I stood and walked over to Nick. I planted myself right in front of him and pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it. Nick placed the gun under his seat. Nick sat back in his chair. I love the way he looks at my body. He squints his eyes and his top lip curls up. He is so incredibly sexy. In my past life I thought I had a thing for the worldly sensitive artistic type. I never would have thought I could fall for a mechanic.