by James, Jill
“We want to go to church,” Dylan’s voice piped up from the open door of their trailer.
Michelle got up and rushed over. “You aren’t going.”
He stomped his foot. “It isn’t fair,” he said, marching off to his bed.
She shut the door and returned to her seat. Anger rumbled through the group. “We can take our kids if we want to,” Juan complained.
Jack stood up. “We will make a decision as a group on whether we go or not. But the children are non-negotiable. They are the future. They are staying here.”
Juan sat down in a huff. His wife, Lila put a hand on his arm, but he shook her off. The woman sat back and huddled in her chair.
Another man stood up. Michelle wasn’t sure of his name. “Maybe all the men should go. Give this preacher a show of force.”
The women protested loudly until Jack put his hands up again. “An all-male group would look suspicious, like an ambush or raid. We need a mix of the group to go and represent us, while still leaving a group to protect the kids and the camp. You can decide among yourselves who goes and who stays. As your chosen leaders, Paul and I will be going. Thank you.”
***
“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.”
Chapter Eight
"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 w
eapons 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.”
