A Time to Kill Zombies

by Jill James

  “Noooooo,” the voice carried from the depths of the boat.

  Ran shoved the journal and pen into the bottom of her backpack and rushed down the stairs. The below decks was just as Teddy described it—not much to look at, but bone-dry.

  A new scent covered the musty one of long, neglected wood and carpet. The smell of death. Emily sat in a corner, rocking back and forth with a small bundle in her arms. Ran swallowed before she could vomit on the floor. She didn’t want to go over, but her feet seemed to move of their own accord.

  April sat beside the woman with a bundle in her arms. Light, pale hair peeked from the edge of the blanket. That was the girl baby, Carla Beth. That meant Emily held the boy, Jed Robert. She forced herself closer.

  “Emily,” she whispered, her lips and mouth dry, knowing the baby was dead. “Do you want me to take him?”

  “Not yet,” she cried. The tears fell down her face and splashed onto Jed’s little head, wetting his mat of dark hair.

  Ran stared as his chest didn’t move, his skin turned gray, and he opened his eyes, now glazed and opaque. She reached for him and stopped with a jerk.

  His chest rose and fell rapidly and the pink rushed back into his face and small waving arms. Dark-brown eyes stared back at her. She shook her head.

  “What the hell just happened?”

  Her words echoed in the boat as Seth came up behind her and repeated them. She shook her head. Not sure if it was in denial or disbelief. “It’s not possible,” she muttered to herself.

  “He was dead and now he’s not,” Emily stuttered out between sobs. “He turned and then...”

  “Then what?” Seth demanded.

  “Then he turned back,” Ran finished.

  Seth shook his head and his eyes went wide. She knew exactly how he felt. She wouldn’t have believed it if someone told her someone could turn and then come back. Bile rose in her throat at the thought of all the skinbags she’d put down. What if they could come back? Had she killed—people?

  Emily moved her hand over the little one’s face and chest. “He was burning up before and now he’s as cool as can be.”

  Ran turned and met Seth’s gaze. They both stared at his gloved hand. The one with the missing fingers. The ones she’d cut off to save his life. Ran had been there when Seth had been out of his mind with fever. One so high she’d been sure every hour of the day would be his last. But the man had passed through and recovered.

  Cody came thumping down the stairs. “Teddy wants to know if everyone is okay.”

  She rushed and swept him into a hug. “Everything is fine now. I’ll tell you everything later, just let Teddy know we are okay.”

  “Wish we had Doctor Shannon here,” Emily said. “She might know what was going on.”

  Ran shook her head. “I don’t think anyone knows what is going on anymore. We played God and this is what we got.”

  Seth moved to sit beside Emily and April got up with Carla and came to her side. They all watched in horror and tears as Jed turned and turned back several more times until he snuggled in close to his mother and seemed to go to sleep.

  Ran kept one eye on Carla, but the girl baby seemed oblivious of all the drama and slept soundly with her thumb tucked into her mouth. She made little sucking noises and wiggled against April’s chest from time to time as if looking for food.

  A million thoughts sped through her mind. Was he sick? Was he fighting becoming a zombie or some other illness that would kill him and make him a zombie? She stared at Seth from under her eyelashes. Did the man have some immunity and he’d passed it on to the babies? They could be the cure. They could get their lives back, their world back. Her thoughts slammed to a stop. What would someone do to get the cure for the zombie apocalypse? After General Peters. After Reverend Bennett. The answer was... anything.

  * * *

  Cody stood by Teddy as he navigated up the river. The water was almost as crowded as a freeway. Boats sat askew on sandbars and shoved up riverbanks. Boats were only some of the debris of civilization the big man had to maneuver around. Sometime during the last year and a half there had been a flood or something, as Cody watched a sofa float by, complete with a cat sitting on the back.

  From time to time a thump sounded below water. Not loud as if they had hit a sunken boat or water-logged tree. Each time Teddy winced and Cody knew they’d hit a body—either undead or dead dead.

  A splash sounded on the riverbank and he stared as a border collie doggy-paddled toward the boat. By the time the dog reached the halfway point, he heard the moan coming from its torn-out throat. He reached for Emily’s crossbow and shot. With a bolt to his head, the animal turned over and floated away.

  “Darn, it would have been nice to have a dog of my own,” he said, putting the weapon back on the seat cushion.

  “They’re probably all feral by now. Cats too,” Teddy added.

  “We domesticated them before, couldn’t we do it again?”

  Teddy nodded. “Maybe. If you got a really young pup, it might work.”

  “Nickie wasn’t a pup,” Cody reminded him.

  “Miss Emily had luck on her side when Nickie found her. He could have been as wild as a wolf or coyote.”

  Moans echoed across the river up ahead. The waterway narrowed and the undead on each side looked close enough to touch. Not that he was doing any touching. No way, Jose. Their hands reached out and their moaning rose as the boat slipped by. A few fell into the water but they couldn’t even doggy-paddle as well as the zombie dog had. Most sank below the waves or floated away behind them.

  The stench of rotted flesh lingered long after they’d passed them. Teddy’s head swiveled back and forth.

  “What you looking for, dude?”

  “Was hoping to find a place to stop for the night. Don’t really want to just drop anchor,” Teddy explained as he turned off the motor.

  “Aren’t we safer in the middle of the river? The zombs are on the land.”

  “Zombs aren’t the only thing to worry about. We can’t be the only people to think about using a boat and hitting the river.”

  Cody nodded. He hadn’t thought about that. “Guess we’ll have to stand guard all night.”

  Teddy turned the motor back on and navigated around a sunken tree with skinbags tangled in its branches, the wood spearing them through the body.

  “Like to find a wider place to stop. Might be one up here a ways, if I remember and it hasn’t shifted.”

  He turned to Cody. “So, what’s going on down there?”

  Shrugging his shoulders, he stared at the water on his side to try to help Teddy spot problems. “Ran said she’d tell me later, but everyone was okay.”

  “Didn’t sound okay. Miss Emily doesn’t cry for just nothing.”

  Seth came up the stairs with Nickie. The dog turned circles in a spot and plopped down on a worn rug. The man put a hand on Teddy’s shoulder.

  “Emily’s okay now.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “Jed died, we think, damn, we don’t know. He turned and then turned back. He seems fine now, but who the hell knows.”

  Cody plopped down beside the border collie and ran his hand over the dog’s thick, soft fur. Man, that was all kinds of messed up. Turning and turning back. Whoa.

  He’d been in college when the shit hit the fan, but they hadn’t covered any of this mess in Science 101. He’d only been taking General Ed classes. He hadn’t known what he wanted to be yet, but it probably wouldn’t have been a scientist. They were probably lower on the trust scale than used car salesmen and politicians now.

  Teddy must have found the spot he wanted because he turned off the motor and sat in the chair. It creaked with his large frame.

  Cody looked around and didn’t see any overhanging trees and didn’t hear any moans so that was probably it for the night. He stifled a yawn. The day had seemed to go on forever. The boys they’d run into and watched die, the loss of Teddy’s boat and the rush to find another one, and Ran’s deadly dunk in t
he river. Now they had babies that turned and turned back. He almost thought what more could happen but pulled the thought back in time.

  Almost back in time, as something hit his arm and the echo of a gunshot wafted over the river. He looked down in surprise as red spread across his shirt sleeve. Seth hit him with a hard tackle and air whooshed out of him as they slid to the floor.

  “Whoa, someone shot me.”

  “Stay down,” Seth commanded and Cody didn’t think to argue. He didn’t think much of anything other than it hurt to get shot.

  He watched as Teddy gunned the motor and the boat went bouncing over the waves faster than he thought it was capable of and surely faster than was safe. As the sound of more shots reached him, he prayed Teddy went even faster, safe or not.

  Nickie whimpered and tried to lick his arm. Cody pulled him in close and wrapped his arms around the dog and held on as the boat skimmed the water. Time passed in a whoosh until Teddy slowed down their speed and stopped the boat completely.

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs and Ran’s blanched face came into view. “Is everyone okay?” Her gaze stopped at him and his bloody arm. She rushed over in a hunch and slid down to his spot on the deck.

  “I really need to remember Karma is a bitch,” he muttered just as his vision went to gray and then to black. He thought he heard Nickie yelp and then he heard no more.

  * * *

  Miranda thought she’d used up all her fear as a prisoner to General Peters and escaping and surviving on her own. But nothing prepared her for the fear that crawled up her spine and settled in her brain at the sight of Cody being shot.

  Seth said it was just a flesh wound, the bullet grazed him. Ran shook her head. His sleeve was coated in the red stuff until they cut it off and washed the gunshot wound. Michelle rinsed and rinsed until pinkish water flowed over the deck.

  An ugly gouge ripped across his bicep. Her vision grew faint and gray at the edges until the woman smeared antibiotic cream across it and wrapped it in gauze. Could she be the same person who’d cut off Seth’s fingers and cauterized the wound herself? It was different when the injured person was the man you loved. Why had no one told her that?

  When the shots were fired she’d tried to rush up the stairs, but Michelle grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down. They’d both fallen to the floor when the boat motor was gunned and the boat skipped over the waves, bouncing them into each other until thankfully the racing stopped.

  Now the man was grinning like a fool, showing off his injury like a vet returning from war. She turned away with a huff. It was only a flesh wound, Seth had told her so. Familiar arms came around her and he leaned his chin on her shoulder.

  “No kiss for the wounded soldier?”

  She pulled away. “You aren’t a wounded soldier; you’re a boy too stupid to duck.”

  Her feet pounded on the steps as she ran down below decks and threw herself into cleaning the kitchen. The only sounds were the clanging of pots and pans and the small cries of the babies.

  “Are you okay, Ran,” Emily called from the folded-out bed.

  “Of course I’m fine,” she said, wiping angry tears from her cheeks. “Why wouldn’t I be? I wasn’t up on deck while bullets were flying everywhere.”

  “Oh,” Emily replied, knowing in her voice.

  She whipped around. “Don’t ‘oh’ me. Like I care if Cody is too stupid to know to duck and he got hit and he could have died…” Her voice cracked and ended mid-sentence as the tears came in a flood and she covered her eyes with her hands.

  Warm fingers pulled her hands from her face. Cody stood in front of her. His gentle eyes gazed at her and she wondered if her own eyes were red and puffy and her nose was running.

  “Miranda Stevens, I love you. Obviously I need someone to watch over me, like seriously. Will you marry me?”

  Her tears stopped and her mouth dropped open. “What did you say?” she whispered.

  “Marry me,” he said, swooping down and stealing her lips in a kiss. It tasted of salt and sweat and Cody.

  Her heart raced and beat out of control. She started laughing and couldn’t stop. Cody pulled back from her with hurt written all over his face.

  Ran grabbed his hands, yanking him in close. “I’m sorry. But I imagined this day a million times when I was a little girl and never in my wildest dreams could I have envisioned it would be on a boat in the middle of zombies and shooting and the man of my dreams would have a gunshot wound when he asked the question.”

  “Will you marry me? Don’t make me ask again, please.”

  “Yes, Cody Taylor. I would love to marry you. Right here. Right now.”

  She giggled at the stupefied look on his face. Did every man who asked the question look like they were hit by a two-by-four when the woman said yes?

  “Wait. Now? You want to get married now?”

  “Yes,” she said, jumping up and down in his arms. “I don’t want to wait another minute.”

  “But, who’s going to marry us? Not like there is a drive-thru chapel on the river.”

  Emily coughed from the bed. They turned at the sound.

  “I believe maritime law allows a captain of a vessel to officiate at weddings.”

  It seemed to take a moment for Cody to catch up. Ran slapped him on his uninjured arm. “She means Teddy. He’s captaining the boat right now.”

  He smiled and Miranda felt a matching smile on her face.

  “Duh, Teddy.”

  Ran raced up the stairs, pulling Cody along with her. All their friends were on deck except for Emily and babies they’d left below. Ran pushed him toward the big man.

  “Teddy, would you do the honor of marrying us?”

  A grin brightened up his dark face. “I’d love to, but why me?”

  “Emily says the captain of the ship can marry couples.”

  Teddy slapped his head. “Of course. Let’s do this.”

  Ran held up her hand. “Wait.” She walked over to Seth and held back her tears as memories of her father’s death and turning at the hands of Peters zipped through her brain. Her body shuddered as she pushed the bad thoughts away. Not today, she told herself.

  “Seth, if it wasn’t for you, I never would have found Cody. My father is gone, but could you please give me away?”

  He swept her up in a hug. “Sweetheart, I would be honored. But only because I’m giving you to a good man,” he teased with a kiss on her cheek.

  Before he was finished, Michelle grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a hug. “I have a surprise for you.”

  Her friend pulled her back down the stairs and over to the backpacks. Michelle looked over to Emily. “That dress you saved. Which pack is it in?”

  Emily smiled. “It’s in the green one.” The woman looked down at her post-baby body. “Not like I’ll be wearing it anytime soon, or ever,” she said with a sigh.

  Michelle started digging into the backpack and stood with a rolled up multi-colored dress. She shook it out and Ran gasped. The swirls of colors looked like they were brushed on with oil paints. Rich burgundy, emerald green, and burnished gold swept over the fabric like a sunset in a forest.

  “You can keep it, sweetie,” Emily whispered as the twins stirred on the bed. “Let me know when everything is ready and I’ll come up with these guys.”

  She stripped to her bra and panties and cleaned up as best as she could with a washcloth before pulling the soft dress over her head. The material hugged her like a second skin. She’d never owned anything like it before. Her dresses had been cotton and polyester, nothing like the lush feel of this dress. Even her prom dress had been lace.

  Michelle ran the brush over her hair, but the curls just sprang back in place. She couldn’t sigh for what was lost, because she’d gained so much from the experience. Her only regret was the absence of her parents on this day, but looking at Michelle and Emily and thinking of the others on deck she knew she was surrounded by people who loved her.

  Teddy’s deep bar
itone sounded from above. “We’re ready, Miranda.”

  Michelle nodded at her and went up ahead. Seth came down the stairs.

  “Let me get Emily and the little ones settled and I’ll be right back for you.”

  She nodded, suddenly at a loss for words. They were really going to do this. Her and Cody. Married. From the library, to the RV yard, to here. So much had happened in between. Standing lost in thought, she didn’t realize her friend was back.

  “Are you ready, Sweetheart?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He took her hand and walked her up the stairs. A million flickers greeted her on deck. Night had fallen and they’d found a string of twinkle lights for the boat. It was as if the stars had fallen to the river and tangled in the ropes around the edge of the vessel.

  Teddy stood at the rear with Cody to his side. April stood by herself on the edge of the group. Ran waved her over. “Stand up with me, okay?”

  The young woman beamed and rushed to Teddy’s other side. A few steps carried her to Cody, the man she loved with all her heart. Seth kissed her on the cheek and put her hand in Cody’s and stepped away to be at Emily’s side. He took a baby from Michelle to hold.

  She looked up at Cody with his hair wet and slicked back, but the bleached blonde streaks shone through. His blue eyes shined as he stared at her. Her face heated with the lust and love she saw there.

  “There is no more important event than finding the one you were meant to be with,” Teddy intoned with a glance at Michelle before he pulled his gaze back to Ran and Cody. “I am thrilled and honored today to unite Miranda and Cody in holy matrimony.

  “Cody has said he wants to say some words of his own.”

  The tall young man stood before her, his shaking hands in her not-too-steady hands, either. “Miranda Stevens, I have wanted you since the day I first laid eyes on you. You came into that dark and lonely library and became my world. I will spend every day of my life letting you know how honored I am to be your husband.”

  Her heart stopped and jumped several beats before she could catch her breath. Warm, happy tears rolled down her face. “Cody, I said all the words I wanted to the other night on the rooftop of the gas station. I was broken and you’ve made me whole. Together we are more than just you and me, we are us.”