Time of Zombies (Book 2): The Zombie Hunter's Wife (6 page)

“Are you going to the church meeting? You didn’t
say yes-or-no last night at the discussion,” Emily asked as they folded clothes
on the picnic table. The rolling of her downcast eyes said her friend already
knew the answer before the question was asked.

Michelle folded the baby blanket with precise
pressing by her hands. She wanted to say yes. She’d thought about it all
through the group meeting last night after Jack and the others had returned
with the invitation to the Fruitful Harvest Church.

Going to church would be so—so normal. All she had
to do was walk out the gate and get into a truck or car. A shudder jerked her
shoulders. She wadded the perfectly folded blanket into a ball and threw it
into the basket. She couldn’t do it. Staring off into space, she muttered in a
small lost voice she hated. “Not everyone is going anyway. Someone has to stay
here with the kids after Jack said they couldn’t go.”

Emily laughed. “Did you see their faces this
morning? First time I’ve seen children upset that they couldn’t go to church.”

She had to laugh too. Dylan had looked so sad crossing
his arms on his chest and demanding to go. The rest of the kids had followed
his example when told.

“And what was up with Lila Morales and Jack Canida
last night?” Emily said as she smiled.

“What do you mean?”

“They shoot these looks at each other when no one
is looking,” Emily added. “Did they know each other before?”

Michelle shrugged her shoulders and continued
folding. “No one has said anything. Gossip goes around this camp like a
whirlwind. You would think if there was something, someone would have said so
by now. They can’t be fooling around. The commander wouldn’t do that.”

A laugh across the dirt yard had Michelle glancing
up as Beth Evans waddled by with Jed Long, the ham radio operator, his hand
resting on the small of her back. The girl turned and laughed with him.

“Has she said anything about them? Are they a
couple or not?”

Emily sighed as she glanced over to the young man
and woman. “I think she might like him. I know he likes her a lot. But she
keeps comparing him to Nick and Jed is nothing like Nick was. Maybe it is just
too soon.”

Nick had been Emily’s zombie hunting partner and
the father of Beth’s unborn child. He’d been an athlete and the best shot in
the group. His death had hit everyone hard. Jed was Nick’s complete opposite. A
stereotypical, nerdy, comic-book store owner. It had only been six months since
Nick’s death by zombie. Maybe it
was
too soon. Hell, Mitch had been gone
a year now and she still thought of him every day. He haunted her dreams and
she kept thinking he would show up at the gate someday. That killing him had
been a nightmare she still might wake up from as if it never happened.

She nibbled her lip and her face heated with the
thought she wasn’t thinking about Mitch every minute of every day anymore. As
if she had conjured him with her thoughts, Teddy strolled to the picnic table
with a giant grin slashing across his clean-shaven face.

A mischievous twinkle lightened his eyes and his
biceps bulged with his hands hid behind his back.

“Miss Emily, Michelle.”

“I’ve told you that you don’t have to call me
that,” Emily chided him.

He leaned down until they were eye-to-eye. “You
will always be Miss Emily to me.”

“Oh, fine,” her friend added as she went back to
folding clothes. “Now, what are hiding there?”

He laughed and glanced at Michelle. Electricity
shot through the air as his laughter died and he stared into her eyes. A
connection was being formed as clear as if a wire twanged, strung between them.
“I brought something back for Michelle.”

She gave him the once-over. His clothes were as
clean as when he had left this morning after breakfast. “No zombie hunting this
morning?”

“No ma’am. Not a skinbag to be found on our recon.
No undead to make dead.”

Michelle and Emily both groaned at the latest dark
humor making the rounds of the camp.

Teddy continued talking, bringing his arms to the
front and cupping something in his large hands. A matted ball of dark fur sat
there until it meowed so low she almost missed it. The ball of fur moved and
two blue eyes stared back at her and it meowed again.

“His leg is hurt,” Teddy explained as he handed it
over to Michelle.

Her hands shook as she gathered the tiny kitten to
her chest. The front paw bent at an impossible angle on the filthy animal. She
couldn’t even tell what color the fur would be once cleaned, but the eyes
appeared clear and bright blue and it wasn’t hissing at her or acting like it
wanted to eat her so it was probably okay.

With a yelp and a bark, Nickie, Emily’s dog,
bounded up to them. The golden retriever wagged its tail and pushed to see what
she held. The cat hissed and tried to climb to her shoulder, the claws digging
through her sweater to her skin. She didn’t know whether to cry from the pain
or laugh at the hilarity of the situation. Teddy seemed at a loss to either
pull Nickie back or help Michelle. She started laughing harder than she had in
over a year and the cat jumped and bit her on the ear.

It took a few minutes, but Emily got the dog under
control and Teddy managed to herd the cat from her shoulder into a rag he wrapped
around the shaking animal. “Thank you,” she managed to squeak out between
laughing and catching her breath. Her skin tingled when he touched her ear with
his fingertips.

They came away with spots of blood and a frown
marred his handsome face. “Should get that cleaned. We can’t be too careful
anymore.”

It stung as she touched the wound herself. She
hissed. “I’ll have to see if Dr. Shannon has some hydrogen peroxide. She can
look at the cat too.”

She took the still shaking cat into her arms and
Teddy followed her toward the motor homes. He started for the far row and she
pulled him back. “Shannon is usually found at Jim Evans’ trailer these days.”

“When did the doc hook up with Beth’s dad?”

“Last week, I think,” she said, nibbling on her
lip. “I can’t keep up anymore.”

“Tell me about it,” he added with a smile on his
face. “The other day, Paul introduced Suz as his wife to the minister.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said. “Saw that one
coming a mile away.”

“How about he introduced Josh as his husband?”

Her jaw dropped open as they reached Jim’s motor
home and Teddy rapped on the door. She managed to snap her mouth shut as the
door opened and Shannon stood in the doorway. Although Shannon was close to her
own age of twenty-five, she seemed more mature as a doctor with all the
knowledge that entailed.

She was a good match for Beth’s father. The man
would be a grandfather in a couple of months, but he would be the youngest
grandpa she’d known. He was more than twenty years younger than her father had
been.

Glancing over Teddy’s muscular body, she realized
his age was probably pretty close to Jim’s. Neither man seemed particularly
middle-aged, able to be a grandfather. When you had to be in shape or die,
everyone seemed better than they were before. At least body-wise, her mind too
easily traveling to the evil General Peters had perpetrated.

“Need you to look at Michelle’s ear.”

“What happened?” Shannon directed to Teddy.

He held the ball of fur up toward the doctor. “Cat
got her.”

“Come in. Let me take a look.” She moved back.

“We need you to look at the kitten too. I think
her or his leg is broken.” Michelle commented as they stepped up and walked
back to the kitchen area.

“I’m not a vet, you know,” the doctor muttered.
She sighed and scooped the cat out of Michelle’s hands. Jim was sitting at the
table and took the animal from Shannon.

“Why don’t you deal with Michelle’s injury and
I’ll take a look at the fur ball here?”

“Where did he get you?” she asked as she opened
her medical bag and pulled cotton balls and a familiar brown bottle out of its
depths.

Reaching, she pushed the hair back and showed her bitten
ear to the doctor.

“Let’s see what we have.” Taking a soaked cotton
ball, she ran it over Michelle’s ear. Fire exploded on her skin and she hissed.
She bit her lip and muttered obscenities under her breath.

“I wouldn’t be too worried. The bite looks pretty
small and the cat is probably too young to have a disease.” Shannon glanced
over to Jim at the table. The cat was trying to walk away over the table and
falling over as he put pressure on his injured foot.

“His eyes and ears are clear and I don’t see any
mange or signs of flea infestation,” Jim commented back. “Seems a pity to have
to kill him.”

Her breath left in a whoosh and her chest caved in
like she’d been punched. “You can’t kill him. He’s a baby.” She scooped him up
and held him to her breasts.

“Michelle,” Jim said in a calming voice that
raised her hackles. “He’s too little to be without his mother. He needs to be
bottle-fed. At any other time that would be a tedious task. Now ...” He
shrugged his shoulders like it was a foregone conclusion. “Survival doesn’t
allow a lot of time for what isn’t necessary.”

“It is necessary,” she huffed out. “Survival isn’t
everything. If all we do is survive, what are we doing it for? There has to be
love, and caring, and pets, and friends, and music, and laughter. There has to
be more to live for.”

“Well, okay.” Jim grinned. “You put me in my
place.”

“I’m so sorry,” she stuttered out, not sure when
her mothering instinct had kicked in.

“Don’t be sorry. Sometimes we do forget what we
are surviving for. Going out there, seeing what is left. You forget we need to
carry on.”

“Will you help?” she begged. “I have no idea how
to take care of a little kitten. Our cats and dogs were rescue pets, already
all grown up.”

“I’ll round up some supplies for you and—have you
thought about a name?”

“Yes,” she whispered. From the moment she’d seen
him she had a name for the little cat. “His name is Hope.”

“Well. You and Hope stay here and get cleaned up
and fixed up and I’ll get some stuff for you from the supply trailer.” He
turned to Shannon and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “Get the cat cleaned
up and I’ll look at his leg as soon as I get back. I’m sure he’ll just need a
wrap, a splint at the worst.”

Jim left and the door banged shut. Shannon handed
the cat to Teddy and finished cleaning her ear and slapping an adhesive bandage
on it. “Don’t take your earrings out until this heals. I don’t want to risk
contamination in the piercing.”

Shannon moved around as she gathered a plastic
basin and a rag. With water in the basin, she came to the table and soaked the
cloth. “I’m pretty sure we’d all risk injury if we tried to bathe this fellow.
Cats are terrible bathers as it is. If we hit his leg, he’d probably hit the
ceiling. Can you just hold him, Teddy?”

Bathing a cat was good for a few laughs as they
tried to keep the cat still, not spill the water, and watch Hope stumble around
with his wet, ruffled fur. Now that he was clean, his fur appeared to be a soft
gray.

Her breath caught and tears flooded her eyes. “My
dad had a cat just like this when I was a little girl. Her name was Midnight
Shadow. Dad said I named her, but I don’t remember that. All I remember is that
cat following him everywhere. You never saw one without the other.”

Teddy reached and his large hand covered hers in
comforting heat. “Maybe that will be you and Hope too.”

She sighed and stared at the cat. “I doubt it. Once
he’s healed, he can just slip through the gate or hop on the wall and over, and
I won’t follow.”

"Friends, we are gathered here
today to show the hospitality of the Fruitful Harvest Church to the RV-1 group.
We are here in this blessed tabernacle, in the sight of God, to show
companionship to our fellow members of what is left of the human race. We are
here to thank God for his cleansing of the Earth, of its evil minions, of its
wickedness, of the destruction of the gift he gave us, of this beautiful Earth
and all upon it. For giving us a chance to live our lives right this time."

Billy Joe Bennett bowed his head,
the light from the stained-glass windows turning his red hair to flames on his
head. Teddy Ridgewood bowed his head to hide the anger in his eyes. The
minister and his flock had spewed nothing but lies and deception since their
group had arrived for the promised Sunday service.

The morning had started with an
argument when they'd arrived with the women in their party. Reverend Bennett
and the men with him had wanted to force the females to join their own behind a
sheet-covered partition in the back of the church. Commander Canida had refused
for all of them and Bennett acted like it didn't matter, but hatred had burned
behind those cold blue eyes, even as he slapped Jack on the back and said his country
boy 'never minds.'

The service had been just what Teddy
expected; a ranting and raving of fire and brimstone for all who sinned. From
what he could tell, Bennett seemed to think everyone sinned except for him. Not
that you could fault him for the two wives sitting on the stage behind him. All
the rules for what constituted a marriage kind of went out the window with the
fall of civilization. But while wife number one was probably the original Mrs.
Bennett since the Reverend was a good ten years older than Teddy and the missus
was as well, wife number two looked barely old enough to date. The hot looks
she shot at the Reverend implied they were doing more than dating. The young
brunette licked her lips and gazed at Billy Joe like she wanted to take him
right there on the altar of a church. On the other hand, the older missus's
gaze skittered away anytime her husband glanced her way. Her hand rubbed her
neck constantly where a bite showed up clear as day. The woman might as well
have abused wife tattooed on her forehead.

Billy Joe raised his head and
intoned 'amen' loud enough to echo in the church. The congregation chimed in.
Teddy's lips moved but no words came out. He wasn't usually a boat-rocker but
he refused to dignify garbage as a sermon. The man’s words left a bad taste in
his mouth, as if he wanted to spit and couldn't because it was still a church.

He’d been to church as a boy with
his parents. A building blessed and filled with singing and faith and love.
This one was an abomination.

The wooden pew vibrated as Seth
Ripley continued to keep his arm around Emily. Her shoulders shook as she tried
to stand up and leave and Seth held her in place. Random words reached him as
Emily gave Seth a piece of her mind. Teddy caught the end of the discussion as
Seth whispered to her and 'wait until we are out of here' reached his ears. He
caught a laugh before it escaped as Emily folded her arms across her chest and
glared at her husband.

Jack Canida and Paul Luther walked
to the front to shake hands with Bennett. Their leaders had set the ground
rules before they left the RV yard. They weren't there to start trouble but
they wouldn't back away from it either. Obvious weapons were left at the camp,
with knives and guns only carried if they could be hidden. His own gun sat
under his arm in a holster and a knife rested in his boot.

He stood up and moved to the aisle
to find Bennett there. He reached out and shook hands. Afterward, he had to
fight the urge to wipe his palm on his jeans. Even more so with the first words
out of the Reverend’s mouth.

"So, Mr. Ridgewood, what do you
think of this brave new world of ours? Do you believe there is a purpose to God
wiping the slate clean, as it were?"

"Reverend Bennett. Sorry, Billy
Joe. I just don't see it. My momma took me to church every Sunday when I was a
boy. My God is a kind God. One who loves all of his children."

"We agree there, Teddy. But
what about the Flood? Isn't this apocalypse just another wiping of the slate
and starting over?"

"Maybe, Billy Joe. But I see
the skinbags as more of Armageddon than a simple do-over. We brought the
zombies on ourselves, with science and the vaccine, not some vengeful
God." Teddy pushed him aside. The man might look him eye-to-eye, but Teddy
had a good seventy pounds of muscle on him. He turned his back and helped Emily
to the aisle.

She latched onto his arm and
squeezed. Pulling him down to her height, she whispered in his ear. “Don’t you
ever bring Michelle here, you hear me?”

He stood straight. “No worries
there, Miss Emily. That woman would have to come out from behind her castle
walls first.”

Emily shook her head. “Michelle is
stronger than you think. When you see someone on the worst day of their lives
and they still continue on, day after day, then you know what they are made
of.”

“You lost Mr. Carl,” Teddy said.
“You continued on.”

“I didn’t have to shoot my husband
in the head after he left me to go to work,” Emily said. Her face turned
beet-red. “Don’t you dare tell Michelle I told you. No one knew but me and now
you.”

“I promise. I won’t say anything
unless she decides to trust me enough with her story.” He put his hand on his
heart and bowed his head.

She hugged him. At least as far as
she could with that big belly of hers. “You are a good man, Teddy Ridgewood.”

Seth coughed from behind his wife.
“Can we get out of here now? I’ve had enough church for one day, and I never
thought I’d say that.”

Emily snuggled close to her husband
as they walked down the aisle to the open doorway.

Feeling a stare on the back of his neck,
Teddy turned to find the Reverend and his ‘young’ wife behind him. A quick
glance showed the ‘old’ Mrs. Bennett still sat on the stage, her head lowered
in prayer.

Teddy bowed slightly. “Mrs. Bennett,
it was an honor to hear your husband speak today.” The words lay on his tongue
like burnt rubber for the lies they were. He glanced up, waiting for a bolt of
lightning to strike him.

“So nice to meet all of you, also,”
she replied, arching her back until her breasts threatened to spill over the
top of her low-cut blouse.

Teddy stared over her shoulder with
heat rising in his face. He’d joked with Michelle about not being old enough to
be her father, but he was definitely old enough to be this teenager’s father
and Bennett had a good decade more.

The man twirled a strand of the
girl’s hair around his fingers and yanked. She looked up at him and her lower
lip pouted and her eyes watered. “Go sit with Roberta and behave yourself, or
would you like to join the other wives?”

The underlying tension between the
couple vibrated in the air surrounding them. The girl wrapped a shawl around
her shoulders, covering up as she rushed to sit on a chair on the stage.

“Women,” Billy Joe commented with a
laugh. “Such willful creatures. You must constantly remind them of their
place.”

Teddy flinched as if the man had
thrown a punch at him. He gritted his teeth. “And where would
their place
be?”

“Why, at a man’s feet, of course,”
he said, laughing as he turned and walked away.

He shuddered, rushing to leave this
place and these people far behind. The damned apocalypse and people still
needed to degrade someone to feel superior. They were fighting the skinbags.
Why did they have to fight each other?

Spotting Emily, Seth, and Jack
Canida, he took a big breath of cold, clean air. Just some people, he reminded
himself. The zombie apocalypse didn’t pick and choose who lived and who died.

Walking to the cars and trucks, Teddy
kept his eyes on the ground as they passed the cages full of skinbags. His
hands fisted at his side as he itched to pull his gun and put the poor bastards
out of their misery. The moans grew in volume when they walked between. He
shook his head. For some reason known only to the undead and the church people,
the ones in the cages pushed toward them but the bars held them back and at the
same time the ones on the outside pushed against the cages instead of just
walking around them and having the group for lunch. He sighed. He didn’t know
how the repel sound worked at their own camp either.