Time of Zombies (Book 2): The Zombie Hunter's Wife (15 page)

Rule #12   
Sacrifices are made
every day. Simple ones and hard ones. Never more than in the zombie apocalypse.
If it’s not worth the sacrifice, it’s not worth having.

There was normal dark and then there
was a moonless night in the zombie apocalypse. The Milky Way was clearly
visible in the night sky and a billion stars shone down on Earth, but their
brightness did nothing for navigating the way down a lonely street.

After seeing to the kids, she’d
grabbed a knife to add to her belt, a large pistol in a holster, and her small
gun to put down her boot. Ran and Cody grabbed theirs as well and met her at
the gate. Aiden opened it and let them through. She took a second to hug him
again. “Watch over your brothers. I will be back if I can. I’m sorry I can’t
promise more than that. If we aren’t back in two hours, go to Beth’s father and
tell him everything.”

He’d hugged her tight and rushed to
shut the gate and get back to the safety of the office.

The clang of the metal gate was so
much louder when you were on the outside of it. She held her breath until her
chest ached. Ran and Cody came up to either side of her and she took another
breath. She wasn’t alone.

In the silence, the sound of their
boots on the asphalt carried down the road. Crickets chirped and cats meowed
just as they had since the beginning of time. The moans of the undead at the
edge of the repel zone had become as commonplace as the other night sounds.

Ran stopped several feet away from
the line of skinbags. “I only see four, maybe five. Cody, get the one coming
your way from your three. Michelle, you stand back and we’ll take care of
this.”

She locked her jaw. “I’m not going
to be babied all the way there. It’s going to take all of us to get our people
back. I can do this.”

As if to prove the point, she pulled
her knife out of the sheath, stepped up to the nearest zomb’, and pierced it
though the temple. The undead didn’t hit the ground before she strode up to the
next and dispatched it as well.

She stepped back as Ran and Cody did
their job and the moans stopped. Holding her breath, she listened to the now
truly silent street. Ran touched her arm and whispered. “We have to make sure
Beth and Jed aren’t here.”

“I don’t under ... oh,” she
whispered as the realization struck her that the couple might have only made it
this far and she’d just made them dead dead. Bile rose in her throat as they
turned the bodies over and had to lean close in the darkness to see who they
were.

Relief filled her as she turned over
the last body and it wasn’t Jed or Beth. Standing, she turned to Ran. “You’ve
been out here. What next?”

The young woman leaned in close.
“Once we go forward, there is no protection from the sound. No talking except
as a warning of incoming zombs. Follow my lead. If I say run, run. If I say
stop, stop.”

She put her hand on Ran’s arm and
whispered. “I can do that.”

Time passed slowly as they made
their way down the street. Ran and Cody would disappear from time to time and
the only sound was the thud of a body hitting the ground. The first few times
her heart stopped. After a while, she continued walking, believing they would
be okay and back again.

After what seemed an eternity, they
reached the end of the road, and trashcan fires appeared across the way in the
church’s parking lot. The moans of their caged undead echoed in the air.
Michelle’s hands fisted at her sides as they peered around the corner of a
house.

Voices and laughter came and went as
the men moved around the church building on patrol. She stared at their
movements but no pattern displayed itself. The guards seemed to just wander
around the blacktop, stopping from time to time to tease the caged zombs or
throw some wood on the fire.

She jumped when a woman’s cry came
from the building, but she couldn’t tell if it were Beth or someone else. All
too easily, she could picture the wounded and battle-scarred women she’d seen
at the church service. Maybe women crying out for help were a nightly event.

“I counted eight men. Maybe nine,”
Michelle whispered in Ran’s ear.

“Ten. One on the roof,” she replied.
“I don’t think we can take on that many. It isn’t like the skinbags.”

A knot came into her throat. She
didn’t think she could kill a living human being. Not unless her life was in
danger. Or one of her friends. Could she do it then? She wasn’t even sure of
that.

“We can’t stay here all night,” Ran
whispered. “Sooner or later one of them will see us or the skinbags will sniff
us out. We can’t let them get the upper hand.”

She bit her lip. The girl was right.
They needed a plan. They needed a guinea pig to get into the church and find
out if Beth and Jed were there.

“I’ll go,” she muttered under her
breath before she lost her nerve.

“What?” Ran voiced a tad too loud.

“Who’s there?” A man called as he
ran toward them, his boot heels thumping on the ground and the sound echoing
across the night.

She pushed Ran and Cody back to the
darkness on the house’s porch. “If I’m not back in thirty minutes, get back to
the compound. The others should have returned by now.”

“I’m not letting you do this,” Ran
argued.

“I’ll be fine.” She shuddered from
head to toe. “I think Bennett has the hots for me.”

“That just makes it worse,” Ran
grumbled as she faded into the dark.

She limped into the trees as Cody
pulled Miranda against him. She stumbled and made as much noise as possible to
let the man find her and not her friends.

“Help,” she croaked in a weak,
hoarse voice. “Help me.”

She crashed into the man as they
both reached the sidewalk. Grabbing his shirt, she fell, taking him with her.

“Please, help me. I don’t want to be
out here. I need to see Reverend Bennett.”

The man grabbed a handful of her
hair and pulled her to her feet. “We’ll just see about that. Maybe he’ll let us
have some fun with you before you’re Resurrected. You can’t all be pure enough
to be wives.”

By the time he’d dragged her to the others;
it felt like every hair on her head had been pulled out. Like a bullying in the
schoolyard, he pushed her into a circle of men, each one grabbing and pulling
at her. She cringed as buttons popped off her shirt and the fabric ripped with
a loud sound. Her heart pounded and urged her to run, but she forced herself to
stay.

“Please,” she begged, holding her
ripped shirt to her chest. “I need to see Billy Joe. Please. Tell him Michelle
is here.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she
spotted an enormous man leave the group and head to the church door. He opened
it, went inside, and slammed it shut. She could only pray he was going to get
Bennett.

The men moved closer, pushing her
from man to man. She didn’t dare pull her knife; they’d stab her to death. Her
heart leapt in her chest. Or undead. She could only hope Bennett was coming.

The door reopened and Billy Joe
Bennett filled the space. She shivered, not from cold, but from the lust she
saw in his ice-cold eyes. He didn’t just want sex with her, he wanted her body
and soul, and when that wasn’t enough, he’d kill her.

He marched over and pushed men aside
like they were paper dolls. Reaching her, he stopped as if noticing all at once
that her shirt was hanging on by threads, the tank top beneath just as tattered
and torn. The look he turned on his men made the one she’d received downright
pleasant.

Bennett grabbed her chin and stared
into her eyes. “Who did this to you?”

Her gaze shot right and left. No
words came to her dry mouth. How could she blame one when they’d all taken
part? She just shook her head and stared over his shoulder.

Bennett turned to the big man.
“Elias, sort it out. But by morning I want two dead men, one dead wife, and the
children banished from the church. Bring the remaining wife to me.”

“Yes, Reverend Bennett,” Elias
replied in a deep baritone.

She shivered. Hades at the gates of
Hell couldn’t sound more terrifying. The big man was going to do exactly what
Billy Joe had ordered, no questions asked. She’d studied cults in college, but
she’d never been this close to the drenched evil they spewed. It was surreal to
hear a man order others to death and see another man having no problem with
doing the deed.

Bennett unbuttoned his shirt, pulled
it off, and draped it over her shoulders. The stench of musk and sex clung to
the cloth. She wanted nothing more than to rip it off and fling it to the
ground, but that wouldn’t get her inside safely.

“Thank you,” she whispered, trying
not to clench her teeth.

“Anything for you, fair Michelle.”
His hand ran over her tangled hair and down her back.

“Let’s go inside,” he uttered as he
held open the door for her. As it slammed shut and silenced the outside, the
sounds from within became clear. Whimpers and cries filtered down the hall. The
sound of slapping flesh echoed louder and louder as they reached the church.

Michelle stumbled into hell. She
tried to take it in all at once, but her mind refused to process what she was
seeing. Medieval torches in wall holders flooded the room with flickering
light. They only added to the feel of a torture chamber in a dungeon. The
coppery scent of blood filled the room. The sound of leather on naked flesh
filled her head.

Please let Ran and Cody get help.
I can’t do this all alone.

She swayed and a gray mist pulsated
from the edge of her vision. Bennett clasped her to his side. She tried to pull
away, but the man only held on tighter, his fingers clenched on her shoulder.

“Seems it is a night of visitors
from your compound. Young Beth and Jed make an unlikely assassination team, but
it appears they did come here to kill me.”

He grabbed her by the nape of the
neck and turned her to face him. A bloodstained bandage covered his shoulder,
with scratches marring the pale skin on his chest.

Her heart thumped in her head. She
looked up at him. “I didn’t know they were here. I ran away from our camp to
get to you. I had no idea anyone else was coming.”

His glare softened. She could tell
he wanted to believe her; it was evident in his relaxed shoulders and the small
grin on his face. The grin died as Beth cried out and she flinched.

He whipped her around, her back to
his chest, with an out flung arm holding her tight. He leaned down, his hot
breath bathing her ear.

“Where’s Teddy, your protector?”

“He’s back at the compound. I asked
him to marry me, but he refused. I knew ... I mean, I hoped, that you wanted
me. I thought I saw something in your eyes when I was here for church. I had a
husband once. I want one again. I want a man who is willing to marry me to have
me.”

“I’ll marry you, Michelle. Play your
cards right and I might even make you wife number one.”

She took a deep breath. He’d
believed her. In his lust for her, he’d believe whatever she said. All she had
to do was get her friends released and take care of Bennett.

He leaned in closer and nibbled her
ear. A shudder ran down her spine. “Just as soon as Jed and Beth die and join
the Resurrected.

This morning

Fruitful Harvest Church

“Let me go. I don’t want to go
outside,” Maya cried, pulling away from him.

Billy Joe tightened his hand on her
wrist and slapped her with the other. Her cries died as he yanked her down the
aisle of the church and flung open the door. Sunlight flooded his eyes. The
moans of the Resurrected sang in his ears.

“Do you hear them, sweet Maya? They
know I am anointed as their leader.” He pulled her arm and dragged her to the
cages. She pushed back and huddled against his chest. Her whimpers and pleas
tightened his erection. It ached and pulsated with his heartbeat.

This is what it feels like to be
God. To play with human lives like so many toys.

“Come, my angel. We are going on an
adventure,” he crooned to Maya.

Her feet plodded against the
pavement as he dragged her along in his wake. The undead rattled the metal bars
and huddled inside their prisons.

“Let me show you that I’m master of
this kingdom. Lord of the Resurrected.” He pulled her against his raging
hard-on. “Master of you.”

Tears spilled down her face. Her
dark eyes and dark hair made her a younger, weaker version of Michelle Greggs.
For now he would be content with the imitation, but one day soon he’d have the
real thing. Maya would be until then.

She stumbled as he strode through an
open field to a shack beside some railroad tracks. He glanced around; satisfied
they were far enough from the church for her screams to go unheeded by the
church followers. Not that his men cared what he did with his women, but
appearances must be kept up, he confirmed to himself, sweeping his hair back
from his face.

He shoved the girl until her back
slammed against the wall with a thud. His hand came to her throat and squeezed.
Terror widened her eyes and her hands beat against his chest. He leaned in
close and inhaled her gasping breaths.

“Say it,” he ordered, loosening his
grip enough to allow her to talk.

“I’m Michelle. I want you Billy
Joe,” she muttered between sobs.

His erection turned to stone. He
ripped her dress, baring her breasts to his sight. He reached out and grasped
one, tightening until the flesh overflowed his hand and Maya screamed. He
flipped her around and shoved her back up against the wall. He yanked her dress
up and exposed her bare bottom. He’d taken her panties away weeks ago, so he
could have her whenever he wanted.

He controlled what she wore.

He controlled what she said.

He controlled whether she lived or
died.

Unzipping his pants, he slammed into
her. His yells filled the air with the young woman’s cries.

“You are mine, Michelle.”

“You are mine, Michelle.”

“You are always mine.”

“You are mine.”

A roar sounded from the corner of
the shack. Billy Joe yanked back and pulled himself into his pants and zipped
them up. He yanked Maya up against him and faced the intruder. Teddy Ridgewood
stormed around the building to face him, murder in his eyes. The man’s teeth
were bared in a growl like a wild animal.

“Mr. Ridgewood, it is poor manners
to disrupt a man making love to his wife.” He smiled and tried to put any
amount of sincerity in his voice he could muster up. To do otherwise was to
take the chance he was a dead man.

“That wasn’t making love. You were
abusing that poor girl. Someone needs to stop you.”

Billy Joe grabbed his gun out of the
holster and held it to Maya’s head. “Gonna stop me? I don’t think so. One step
closer and Maya dies.”

The girl sobbed and tried to hold
her torn dress together.

Teddy held his hands up. “Reverend
Bennett, it don’t have to be like this. Don’t hurt her. I’ll stay right here
and you can go on back home.”

Billy Joe almost believed the man,
except for his tense body ready to spring and the look in his eyes. The man
heard him calling out Michelle’s name and he meant to kill Bennett for it.

“I think we’ll play this my way,
instead,” Bennett yelled, moving the gun to Maya’s back and shooting her. Before
Teddy could move, he had the gun pointed at the big man’s chest.

“You killed her,” Teddy screamed.

“No I didn’t. I’ve given her
resurrection. We just have to wait a little while.” The gun in his hand stayed
steady as he grasped Maya’s long braid and held her up. Her cries weakened as
her blood splashed onto the dry, hard ground. A sigh left her body and she went
limp, only Billy Joe’s hand in her hair holding her up. In less than a moment,
her body twitched and her legs jerked and straightened. A moan rose from her
throat. Her hands reached out for Ridgewood, the only thing stopping her was
Billy Joe’s hand in her hair. She moaned and her jaw snapped, her teeth
chomping together.

“We’re done here,” he uttered,
pulling the gun again to the Resurrected’s back and sending a bullet laced with
blood and guts into Teddy’s leg.

The big man fell with a groan and
his hands grabbed his leg. He let go of the thing that had been Maya and shoved
her in Teddy’s direction. As she stumbled and fell on him with a loud groan and
a grasping of hands, Bennett turned and walked away.

“I’ll take care of Michelle for you,”
he yelled over his shoulder.