Run (Nola Zombies Book 1) (8 page)

We chopped and sliced our way through about ten of them. It was hard work. They came running at us and you had to avoid fingernails and mouths, aiming for the head. My ax embedded into their skulls with each forecful chop and I had to yank it out over and over again.
 

By the fifth zombie my arms were aching and I was covered in gore. I took two seconds to catch my breath and wipe the gore from my face when another few zombies shambled toward us. I glanced at Blake and he jerked his head to the right. He ran. I followed.
 
When one of the dead would get near us, we would stop and chop and slice until they lay at our feet. We were dispatching another small group of zombies when I looked up and realized we had made it to Tchoupitoulas Street. We were almost there. Our pace quickened. We couldn’t get off the street fast enough.

As we rounded the corner, the sound hit us, the groaning and shuffling of what had to be hundreds of zombies. Unfortunately, my estimation was right as we slid to a stop gaping at the magnitude of zombies that were just shuffling along Tchoupitoulas toward Audubon Zoo. It looked like a massive group of tourists going on some macabre stroll. Men and women in shorts and elaborate Hawaiian shirts, bags still slung over their shoulders, fanny packs at their waist. There were even small children zombies that shuffled along with their dead parents, their hair pulled back in pigtails and spiked up in faux hawks. The sight of them was what disturbed me the most. Their little bodies covered in sticky dried blood, their lips pulled back in a grimace as they gnashed their teeth and sniffed the air for the smell of living flesh, their movements jerky, their expressions vacant and hungry.
 

None of them had spotted us yet, but we didn’t have long.
 
We had very little options available.
 

“Blake, what do we do? Can we hole up in one of these houses? Is that safe?”

“This way,” his hand gripped my upper arm and he urged me forward, across the street. We took a few tentative steps and then broke off into a “zombies are chasing us” run. He headed straight for what looked to be a corner grocery. It was a two-story building and I hoped to God there was nothing living or dead in it as Blake slammed into the front door. It was open and he quickly shoved me in, then turned around to secure the door as several dead bodies slammed into it. They just kept on pressing against the door as more piled behind them.
 

I could hear their moaning and the muted sound of their fists as they pounded on the walls and door.
 

“This isn’t going to hold,” I hissed and he nodded in acknowledgment.
 

“We can’t stay here long, that door is going to break.” The words slipped out of his mouth just as a body hit us from behind, knocking us both off-kilter. It was pressing against me, trying to bite down on any exposed flesh.
Oh my God, it was all over me.
Its teeth, its nasty teeth were inches from my face. Blood dripped from its mouth as if it had just snacked on someone recently. I managed to press my arms against its neck, I kept the teeth away from my exposed skin. If I slipped one inch I was toast. I didn’t know how long I could hold it off as it struggled to get closer to me and I struggled to keep it away from my face. I was going to die. I knew it. I could sense my death was imminent. It was going to rip me apart and there was nothing I could do about it.
Where the fuck was Blake?

Suddenly its weight was lifted off of me and I could breathe. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath, but now with the relief of pressure I began to hyperventilate as I sucked in air too quickly. I drew in a few quick gasps to calm my breathing, after a few seconds I finally got myself under control and then I got to my feet. Blake had dispatched the fucker with a knife to the cranium. I noticed there was another body on the floor which must have been the reason for his delay.
Shit, he just saved my life.

I looked up and his eyes met mine. I hoped they conveyed my gratitude because there was no time for thanks. The door at the front of the store was splintering. I could hear the tell-tale screeching sound of wood giving out under pressure. We didn’t have long before those dead fuckers were in here and on us.
 

“Get to the back of the store. There has to be a way upstairs.” He yelled as he pressed against the door, holding back the mass of zombies. I did as I was told and found a narrow stairwell in the storage area, behind the cash register. It was a converted home and this looked like it used to be a kitchen. Blake joined me, out of breath, slamming the door that led to the store area to put one more obstacle between us and them.

“They are right behind me,” he pushed a large storage shelf in front of the door and motioned for me to go upstairs. I wasn’t ready for more of these things, but I did it. I forced myself to move and made my way upstairs. There was one up here. I didn’t let it surprise me though. I wonder if it was taken unaware when my ax split open its brain? The split and crunch of skull and brains was becoming cathartic. I was going psycho.
 

The upstairs seemed to be a living area for the owners of the store. The one I had just taken out was only a teenager and I guessed the two adults downstairs were the parents. From the pictures on the wall that I really didn’t want to acknowledge, there were only three of them. Smiling. Happy. Now dead. That was until I saw a few new pictures that were added to the end of the hallway picture collage. I realized that this family had a new addition.
 

Holy fuck. I couldn’t face this shit.

Blake’s hand gripped my shoulder when he saw the picture I had focused on.
 
A tiny baby held in the arms of its mother as she gazed at the camera with joy evident on her face.
 
We both tensed up when we heard a weird cry. The sound came from a room down the hall.
 

“I have to check,” I choked out. All Blake could do was nod before he followed me to the open door at the end of the hall.

The walls were done in a cheerful yellow with pictures of ducks and teddy bears smiling all over the place. The smell didn’t fit the cheerful room, it was rotten. There was blood splashed on the wall above the crib and that sight told me that there was no way the child could be alive. But I had to look anyway.
 

It took two blinks, two quick looks. Two quick passes with my eyes to assess the torn open stomach, the blood, and the fucking kicking feet. The little fists reaching, hungry.
 
Then I turned and I began to vomit. Protein bars don’t taste that good going down, much worse coming up.
 

The weird cries were silenced. Blake must have done something with that big knife that he kept on his hip. I was grateful and horrified at the same time. But those feelings were washed away when he turned to me and handed me a bottle of water. Now I was just grateful and embarrassed.
What did I expect?
To find a goddamned baby in this mess, take it with me and become the Cleavers?
I was an idiot.
 

I wiped at the stupid tears that were leaking from my eyes, hiding my face so Blake wouldn’t see.
 
When they were dry I turned around and noticed Blake had opened a door and had walked out onto a balcony. He motioned for me to come over to him.
 

“I think we can get out of here,” he whispered, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention. He pointed to the backyard where there weren’t any zombies. “See that low-hanging oak tree limb? We can climb onto that and actually make it to the neighbor’s roof. It looks like they have a side exit and the street seems clear in that direction. My house is only a block down. We can make a run for it. We just have to stay quiet.”

He didn’t give me time to protest before his leg was over the balcony and he was shimmying out onto the branch, which didn’t seem that sturdy. He quickly made it to the crook and hurriedly motioned for me to follow. If it could hold his weight, it could hold mine. I didn’t think about it, just focused on one foot going over, one foot moving forward, one hand gripping the branch above me and then I was in Blake’s arms.
 

With a turn, he swung onto the next branch and then he was on top of the neighbor’s roof. I was trying to follow silently as he was.
 

The grade of the roof made it hard to keep my footing. I slipped once but managed to regain my footing and I slid to a seated position next to Blake at the edge of the roof. We both looked down. This was the lowest point, but it had to be about a 15-foot drop.
 

“We gotta jump.” Blake said.

“I know.”
 

“I’ll go first.” No prelude, he just went for it. And he was no worse for wear so I followed. I don’t know how I remained upright or managed to not twist my ankle, but I did.
Go me.
 
Blake didn’t give me time to catch my breath, he pulled me upright and urged me to start running. We were off. We were running as fast as we could. We were out the fence, and then we were down the street.
 

I looked behind me frantically as our pace increased.
Were they chasing us?
Nothing. They were probably all inside the store.
 
When Blake turned and headed for a fence, I knew we had made it. We had gotten to his home. I could have cried, I could have puked again—but really all I wanted to do was chug a bottle of water.
 

NINE | Shock and Oh Baby

The run from the store was excruciating. When we finally made it into his house I bent over with a cramp in my side as Blake closed the door quietly behind us.
 

He kneeled down in front of me, “Hey baby, you okay?” Out of breath I could only shake my head. I wasn’t a very fast runner. I had always done a slow jog whenever I forced myself to get out and run. Blake looked like he hadn’t even broken a sweat,
jerk
.

Me, I was a mess. I was shivering. I had probably pissed my pants, I couldn’t breathe. And Blake was just there all put together. I couldn’t help it, I might have cried a little bit. He was right there though. He pulled me into his arms and he didn’t let go for a long time. Even though I probably smelled like a rotting zombie, puke and maybe piss. I felt safe there and soon I stopped crying, but I couldn’t stop
 
shivering.

“Lex, I’m going to go secure the house. We have to stay here tonight, I don’t think we can’t make it back to the boat today, not with all the dead out there. I have to make sure this place is safe.”

“Okay,” I whispered.
 
I wished I could help him, but the only thing my body could do was sink to the floor and wait for him to come back. It took him a long time and I wondered what he was doing to make this place safe.
Would it hold? Could we possible withstand an attack by those things?
I couldn’t deal with this anymore.
Was it really worth it surviving in this world?
 

When he returned I pushed all those negative thoughts away. He picked me up as if I was a child and carried me to the bathroom.
 

“Let’s get you cleaned up.”
 

I let him undress me and put me in the warm shower. I let him soap me up and clean my body. I still wasn’t back to normal, but I was trying hard to come out of the state of darkness I was falling into. Each moment was being replayed over and over again in my head and I couldn’t stop it. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to stop. I knew I had to pull myself together, I just didn’t know how to put everything into perspective.

His touches weren’t sexual, they were to help and heal. The wonderful man even dried me off. By the time he showed me to his room with the big ass bed, I was so grateful for finding him I could have cried.
 

Instead of thank you and crying, I showed him how much I appreciated him with what we did best. Passion. I pulled him to me and tried to kiss away everything
 
that happened earlier.

Kisses turned into touches. Touches turned into strokes. Soon our desperate kisses and strokes turned heated and he pushed me onto the bed.
 
I was soon spread out on my back with his face buried between my legs. Everything forgotten. For now.

His naughty tongue licked me while his fingers circled and pulled on my clit. Up and down he licked every part of my me, thrusting his tongue inside my vagina along with his fingers. He took me with three digits until I came around them.
 
He lapped up my juices with enthusiasm and I couldn’t contain my shouts of pleasure. I barely had time to recover before his body was above mine and his dick was pushing into me.
 

His kisses tasted of me, but I didn’t care and our tongues tangled as our bodies slapped together. It didn’t take long for us to be right on the edge. I needed to speed things along, I needed to come. I couldn’t help myself, my fingers dipped down and I touched my clit as his dick pushed inside me, thrusting hard.
 

“Oh yeah, Lex, touch yourself.” He looked down at our joined bodies, his dick buried deep inside me, my fingers pressed to my clit. I was desperate to come. I needed to forget.
 
He stiffened and then pumped hard into me with his orgasm. The feel of his release triggered my own and I cried out as wave after wave of pleasure overtook me. When we were sated, we didn’t move away from each other. He stayed inside me and we fell asleep still in each other’s arms.
 

Three days into the apocalypse and I didn’t want to leave this room or the comfort of his arms,
ever
.

TEN | Domestic Goddess

When I woke the next morning, I came to not knowing where I was. A quick glance over at Blake had me blushing as I remembered my behavior from the day before. I had to use the restroom so I slipped on a t-shirt from his drawer that was nice and big and padded on bare feet to the toilet. Luckily the water was still running and I managed to clean up, brush my teeth and even got my hair in some semblance of order.