Friggin Zombies (12 page)

Before I realized what was happening we were in Connie's room, kissing pretty hotly. As things progressed I realized that I was about to see my dream girl completely naked and ready for some serious contact sports if you get my meaning.

“Wait,” I heard someone say and was shocked,
shocked
I tell you, to realize it was me. (I can say now that I had lost my fucking mind. There's no other explanation.) It dawned on me that she might be doing this because of what had happened. Because she thought it would distract me from killing Methie. (Connie Kane naked in my bed, hell in
any
bed, would distract me from a dinosaur attack. Just thought I'd throw that in there). I was afraid she was doing this just to comfort me. The thought was priceless, but. . .it would be dishonest to take advantage of her like that. As bad as I wanted what she was obviously offering I just couldn't take advantage. And I
really
wanted to take advantage I'm telling you right now. I've never had a lot of willpower and it was strained to the breaking point along with some other things.

“What?” she asked a little breathlessly.

“Connie, you know I want. . .I mean but not because -” she cut me off with another kiss, this one so deep that I think she examined my tonsils while she was at it.

“It's not,” she whispered huskily. “Got nothing to do with it. Now stop talking.”

I stopped talking.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I woke up the next morning to a sun brightened room and realized that I had slept later than I had in. . .well, I don't know how long. There was an entirely pleasant pressure on my chest and I had a face full of wonderful smelling black hair.

Holy shit, Connie was laying on top of me
naked as the day she was born
. The events of the night before came back to me then and I know, I just
know
, that a stupid smile made its way across my face. I had made it with my dream girl.

I will admit to you that my very first thought after that was that I needed to find a preacher and marry her. I'm sure that sounds corny and I don't really care. All I could think of at that moment was that I wanted this to last forever. I wanted her as a part of my life for the
rest
of my life, however long that might be.

The second thought was that I wanted that to be a very long time, which meant I had to make sure that we stayed safe. I knew at that moment that I would give my life to keep her safe.

My next thought was that I had to pee so bad my bladder was about to burst.

Ruined the moment, didn't I? Sorry about that, but it was true. I hated the thought of disturbing her she looked so peaceful and beautiful lying there, but I really,
really
had to pee. I very carefully eased out from beneath her and then out of the room to my own bathroom, gently closing her door behind me. I made my way into my own bath and relieved that pressure, then took a shower. Once dressed I made my way to the kitchen and started some coffee, put some biscuits in the oven and some sausage patties in a skillet. That done I got my laptop and turned on the television to see what shape the world was in this fine and wonderful Sunday morning.

I can't really say I was surprised to see fires burning out of control in most of the major cities. Looting was widespread in the cities that Harold had mentioned as having lost 'containment' the night before and believe it or not there were protesters out in force in many of those same cities. I have no idea what exactly they were protesting and didn't bother to check to be honest. Idiots. All they were doing was making it easier for the virus to be spread.

The smell of my breakfast cooking pulled me away from the tube as I made my way back to the kitchen. I used my tablet to scroll through various news pages looking for anything I didn't already know. There wasn't much other than reports of 'disturbances' in some new areas. None near us at the moment, at least not any zombie or virus related disturbances. The city itself was having its share of problems with looting and such but that wasn't zombies. Well, not
those
zombies anyway.

I probably should have mentioned that I live in a suburb of a much larger city. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I live just across a county line from a major metropolitan area. Just twenty minutes from me was a city of over a million people. My little suburb community had about twenty thousand total I'd guess. I hadn't even considered the impact that the metro area was having on our own little slice of heaven last night but it was entirely probable that Harold and his partners were having so much action because of some metro incursions.

That made me think of Harold and I hoped he was okay. If the phones were working later I'd try to call him maybe.

I heard water running and figured Connie was in the shower. I admit I had to smile again at the thought of her. I'm sure that most of you are snorting at me about that but that's fine. It just means that you've never had a dream come true and I feel sorry for you. No, seriously. I hope you get at least one dream that comes true. It's magnificent.

As everything else finished up I scrambled some eggs and had breakfast on the table as my lovely doctor came into the kitchen wearing a tee shirt and pair of boy shorts. Oh man, I do love those boy shorts.

I had a moment's trepidation as she walked in, wondering if last night was going to make this morning awkward or uncomfortable. I hoped not because I really didn't know how I'd handle that to be honest. I was sure that my heart would break in two if she told me that she regretted. . . .

She walked straight to me and kissed me. I mean like she meant it, know what I mean? And I kissed her back, too. When we broke apart she smiled the sexiest damn smile I have ever seen.

“Morning cowboy,” she breathed. God she smelled wonderful.

“Morning ma'am,” I smiled back. “How are you this morning?” Damn it, that wasn't what I meant to ask. I might as well have asked her 'how was it?'.

“I'm wonderful,” she literally purred and I felt a stirring somewhere south of the Mason Dixon line but fought it down. “How 'bout you?” she asked me, leaning into me and resting her head on my shoulder. I was in heaven. Might not be dead yet but was definitely in my version of heaven.

“I slept like a baby,” I admitted. “I have made you breakfast, my lady,” I added and pulled a seat out for her. She sat down, laughing lightly. I was so grateful for the fact that things not only weren't awkward but were, in fact, just
dandy.

“How are you, really?” she asked more seriously as she fixed a plate.

“I'm really fine,” I told her, knowing what she meant. “I still hate it happened, but honestly that's more because of the girl having to see it. He needed killing,” I shrugged. “If I'd had my druthers it wouldn't have been me that done it, but I literally didn't lose any sleep over it,” I grinned.

“What
did
you lose sleep over?” she asked mischievously.

“Over you of course,” I answered at once. Yeah, yeah, I know you're making a gag motion right now but that's fine. Help yourself. I seriously couldn't have cared less at that moment and still don't.

“I assume you've already checked the news?” she asked as she took a bite of egg. “Oh, that's good,” she added, chewing slowly. Man anything she did was just. . .damn. Just damn.

“Yeah. City's having a lot of trouble this morning. Protests and looting and all that.”

“Protests?” Connie looked shocked. “About what?”

“I didn't check to be honest,” I admitted. “I mean it's just stupid to be out like that in groups, out in the open. Just makes it easier for the virus to spread wouldn't you think?”

“Depends on how it spreads,” she shrugged and even
that
was sensual. I'm stopping, I'm
stopping.

“If it's airborne, then yeah it's a problem,” she continued. “Last news we had was that it was strictly fluid transfer, but it seems that we might have been lied to at least some yesterday so I have to take that with a grain of salt.”

“Well, if it's really zombies then I guess the movie thing is holding true for the moment,” I said. “If it's a true virus though, I remember you saying that it could mutate. Or did Dumbo the Clown say that?” I frowned. I couldn't remember.

“Any true virus can mutate,” Connie nodded. “Since this one at least started as a fluid transfer virus I'm assuming it's blood borne, but that is an assumption. It's entirely possible that once someone is infected that any body fluid can pass the virus. Sooner or later an infected patient's body chemistry may alter the virus into something aerosol, from which point on the virus will be able to spread through the air.”

“How's that work, exactly?” I asked.

“Depends on the level of infection and how virulent, or powerful, the virus is,” she explained. “If it's very strong, can live outside the host for any length of time over a second or so, then a sneeze is enough to infect anyone near it. Evaporating body fluids or scattered body fluids, say from a gunshot wound,” she looked at me pointedly, “can also result in infection. Without details on the virus itself there's just no way to say for sure. The variables are literally endless.”

“Well, that's just great,” I muttered and she nodded.

“That's why I said yesterday's 'medical' briefing was bullshit,” she told me flatly. “Just standard protocol for any infectious disease that's spreading. Come to think of it,” she paused briefly, “the bastard might have already known that the virus was airborne. If he did then that would make his warnings to the general public more understandable.”

“But all that warning did was create panic,” I objected.

“That was going to happen anyway,” Connie shrugged. “You can't announce something like that and expect it not to create some kind of panic attack in most of the population. Not everyone is as smart as you are, Drake,” she smirked at me just a little as I snorted.

“Yeah, I'm a regular Einstein.”

“You cued on this early on,” she pointed out. “You didn't have any information that everyone else didn't have access to, just made good decisions made on sound deductive reasoning. Like coming to see me,” she added, this time with a full blown smirk of self-satisfaction.

“That's one thing that I will be eternally grateful I thought of,” I admitted freely.

“Me too,” she rewarded me with a dazzling smile. You know, the kind of smile that convinces a man that he should do pretty much anything the woman smiling at him asks. Like, oh, kill a rampaging lion with his bare hands for instance. The kind of smile that convinces him he
can
kill that lion. And yes, I know how that makes me sound, but I think I already said I don't care. I did say that, didn't I? Yeah, I did.

“Anyway,” she continued, “if it wasn't for you, we'd both be in that,” she pointed to the tablet laying on the table still showing a picture of panicky people doing. . .well, things panicky people did when they were, panicky. That doesn't sound right does it? Maybe panicking people? Never mind.

“Well, there is that,” I nodded. “And we are pretty well set I think. I'm sure there's something we forgot but I can't think what it is at the moment.”

“Me either,” she admitted. “And that's my point. You put all this together and because you did, we aren't part of the panicking masses that are scrambling around trying to be ready for whatever this might become.”

“Well, since we aren't part of that, what should we be doing today?” I asked.

“Absolutely nothing,” Connie replied at once. “We've been going almost not-stop since. . .Tuesday? No, Monday. Even without the events of last night, all of them,” she added with that sexy smirk she has, “we've earned a day off. I'm technically supposed to see patients tomorrow, too,” she added with a frown.

“Still going to?” I asked.

“I should,” she temporized. “I mean really I should. All my other appointments were rescheduled for next week after this coming Wednesday, but. . .it's irresponsible for me not to see my patients tomorrow. Assuming any of them come in,” she added. “After that, I'll play Tuesday and Wednesday by ear.”

“How likely is that?” I asked. “That they'll show up?”

“Depends,” she shrugged. “I don't know who was on the schedule. Some may cancel, some may be more determined than ever to get in to see me with things being like they are.” She looked up at me. “What are you going to do?”

“I'm off sick,” I smirked a little myself. “My office doesn't expect me back until middle of the week, if then. And considering what's going on I don't know how much demand there will be for cyber security over the next few days anyway.”

“Is that what you do?” Connie asked with her eyebrows raised and I realized that I'd never told her what I did exactly.

“That is what I do,” I nodded. “I travel a lot because of it. My company specializes in protecting databases from hacking and what I call cybernage. Cyber espionage,” I explained. “Cybernage is my own little term,” I told her proudly.

“You're a hacker?” Connie looked astonished.

“No, I am the
anti
-hacker,” I grinned. “I track down hackers and destroy them.”

“Uh,” she started then stopped.

“Computer wise,” I assured her. “I can literally shut down their systems once I turn the hack around on them. I can also trace them for the authorities. Things like that.” She stared at me for another few seconds before she giggled slightly. That giggle became a laugh and before I could ask why it became a full-fledged
fit
of laughter.

“Okay, what's so funny about that?” I asked. Not that it wasn't good to hear her laugh, really. It was almost like musical bells. (Shut up!)

“Yo. . .you're a. . .a ne. . .
nerd!
” she wailed again as she finally managed to get the entire sentence out.

“I am not a nerd!” I said indignantly. “I am a highly trained computer forensics and tracking specialist!”

“That's what I said!” Connie was in tears now from laughing so hard. “A nerd!”

Look, I'm
not
a nerd. If I have to have some sort of title then it should be
geek
. Geeks get things done. Nerds live in their mom's basement and play video games.

“I fail to see the humor,” I told her. “And I am
not
a nerd.” I was trying hard to maintain some dignity here.

“What's so damn funny!” I demanded finally. So much for the dignity thing.

“Oh, my
GOD
!” Connie was literally shaking with laughter. “Of all the things I ever imagined hearing you say, imagined about what you did for a living, being a nerd was
not
on the list!” she busted out laughing again at the look on my face.