Love in the Time of the Dead

by Tera Shanley

  “Thanks for cooking again, Mona. We’ll see you later tonight. Don’t get too crazy on the moonshine though, huh?” Sean said with a wink.

  “Scoundrel.” Mona laughed as she waved goodbye and headed for the stairs.

  “I’ll grab the plates,” Laney offered, only to be waved back down by Sean.

  She watched him as he gathered their dinner in the adjoining kitchen. He wore the same black T-shirt he had on earlier but had changed into more comfortable-looking dark gray cargo pants. He had removed his weapons. Was it because he was in for the night or because he always removed them when he was around his little girl?

  He was statuesque and fit, and the musculature of his back showed easily through the thin cotton shirt as he worked. She needed to get a grip, and fast. He could be harboring Deads in his own colony for all she knew.

  Sean brought a plate and drink out and handed it to Finn. “You’re welcome to join us. It’s the least I can do for strapping you to this one all day.”

  “Aw, she’s not so bad.”

  “Please, she has the demeanor of a deranged grizzly bear,” Sean quipped.

  “I can hear you, you know,” she gritted.

  “I wouldn’t turn down a plate of Mona’s lasagna, but do you mind if I eat at the kitchen table?” Finn asked, ignoring her.

  “Whatever you want.” Sean grinned and turned to her. “One day with you and he’s already wanting to eat alone.”

  She rolled her eyes and padded into the kitchen to retrieve her own plate and water. One look at a fidgeting Adrianna had her setting the food in front of the child and heading back to the kitchen again. Sean didn’t say anything when he came in with food for his daughter, who was already digging in. He just sat at the head of the table and went to work on the plate in his hands.

  “Slow down, little bear,” he said after a minute of watching his daughter eat with a concerned furrow between his brows. “Here, let me cut it up for you.”

  Mona had made lasagna with thick garlic bread and fresh green beans. The lasagna was made with goat cheese and had a much different taste than the kind Mom used to make, but it was easily the best food Laney had tasted in months. If she could completely ignore the stench of Deads, she might have been able to enjoy it more. As it was, she was only able to get a few bites in her before she felt queasy and started pushing food around her plate.

  His eyebrows shot up. “What, the food isn’t good enough for you?”

  “No, it’s not that.” She really should’ve tried to eat more out of politeness. Her stomach did another flip flop.

  “You one of those girls that doesn’t eat? Is that why you’re so scrawny?”

  His observation pricked at insecurities she tried her damnedest to keep buried. That lash of hurt he caused, that obnoxious little affectation against her pride, was too much. “I wasn’t meaning to be rude.” She had to find a way to explain without giving too much. “I guess I just need certain conditions to eat.”

  “Like what? Filet mignon? You don’t like the house? A different colored table? What?” Sean’s serious blue eyes pierced hers. He wasn’t going to let her get out of this conversation.

  “She has a smelling problem, sir,” Finn spoke up from the doorway.

  “You’re saying it smells in here?” Sean was only growing more offended if his tone was any indication.

  “Daddy? All done. Can I play?” Adrianna asked sweetly.

  Saved by the three-year-old with fresh tomato sauce all over her face.

  “Yes, you can, but I want you to bring your toys in there.” He pointed to a small sitting area at the entrance to the bedrooms, within easy view.

  When Adrianna had disappeared to her bedroom, Sean looked back at Laney with exaggerated patience. He waited.

  Stalling, she took a drink of water and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I smell Deads. The smell of them is overwhelming for me sometimes and it makes it hard to eat when it is like that. I didn’t mean to offend you. The food is delicious. I just don’t feel very well.”

  “It’s true, sir. She was eating just fine in the barn, but as soon as she came out of there she got pretty sick.”

  “Finn,” Sean warned.

  “Yes, sir.” Finn disappeared into the kitchen.

  “Seems you’ve bewitched him,” Sean said.

  “I’m much too scrawny and unwomanly to bewitch anyone.” She took another bite and chewed it slowly, focusing on the pattern of her plate instead of the dizzying smell and the churning of her stomach.

  Sean sighed and let his fork drop. The tinkle of the metal against ceramic sounded quite beautiful.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “For this morning. The way we handled the gate check in front of everyone. And for your face, too.” He gestured in the direction of her newly stitched cut. “Losing Reynolds—” He cleared his throat. “Well, I didn’t handle things like I should have.”

  She nodded her acceptance, impressed with Sean’s ability to apologize but unable to trust her voice enough to respond.

  “The tattoo on your back,” he started. “Did you have it done before or after?”

  His eyes never veered from her face as she answered quietly. “After. I had it done the first year of the outbreak.”

  A thoughtful look crossed his face as he chewed another bite. He seemed to find her answer interesting, though she couldn’t fathom why.

  “Laney Landry, is it? Do you mind if I take another look at that gunshot wound?”

  She stood and lifted the hem of her shirt until Doc’s new bandage was exposed.

  “Do you mind?” Sean asked, gesturing to the gauze.

  “Go ahead.”

  Sean unwrapped it slowly and gently before removing the pad of gauze from the wound. When the injury was uncovered, Sean leaned back in his chair and rubbed his jawline. “So you weren’t shot. You were bitten.” It wasn’t a question.

  “I have the same mark on my leg where I was bit for the first time two years ago,” she admitted.

  “And being able to smell them, that’s been helping you and your team avoid the Deads when you are between colonies?”

  “More or less. It isn’t an exact science.”

  “Could you always smell them?”

  “No. Right after I was bitten the first time, I noticed I could smell them from a distance.”

  “So you are the cure.”

  “No. Not the cure. I think the most they’ll be able to get out of me is some type of vaccine. Something preventive if we’re lucky.”

  “You think, but you don’t know.”

  She sighed. How much should she admit to Sean? Could she even trust him? “I know enough. We’ve done experiments. My blood can bring the mind back but not the injured body. My flesh kills them.”

  Sean sat straight up in his chair. “Your blood brings back their mind. You mean they’ll be human again?”

  “Yeah, but just for a minute. Their bodies are decayed, Sean. My blood doesn’t heal that and it hurts. It’s actually really horrible. It’s cruel to put a human mind back in a Dead’s body. Lets them think about the things they’ve done. The people they’ve killed and eaten. We need to find someone who can analyze my blood and figure out why and how I am immune, and then we need to try to give that immunity to others.”

  Laney sat down and pulled the tail of her top back in place. The bandages lay in a pile on the floor. The wound would just have to get some air for a while.

  She had left her pack and most of her weapons with Guist, but she still had a nine millimeter in a holster just above her knee. She pulled the handgun out smoothly and aimed it at Sean under the table. She needed to find out what he knew about the muzzled Deads.

  “I killed your little pets.”

  Sean looked at her with the most peculiar expression. “I’m sorry? I think I heard you wrong.”

  “I found your project monsters by the gardens, and then I killed them,” she enunciated slowly.

  He shook his head slightly like he w
as waiting for the punch line. None came. “You took care of our rabbit problem?”

  “I’m talking about the Deads you had hidden in the storage buildings behind the gardens, Sean.”

  The full minute of silence that followed was loaded as Sean’s face went through a slew of emotions. It finally settled on anger.

  “Is this your game then? You go from colony to colony and stir up trouble? Do you get some kind of kick out of it?”

  “So you know nothing about four Deads, muzzled and tied and locked in your shed? It’s why the whole damned colony stinks so bad, Sean.” She was raising her voice but found it hard to rein it in. “You’re in charge and you know nothing about this?”

  A slow and chilling creaking sound came from one of the bedrooms, and her attention was drawn instantly to the eerie intonation. Adrianna still played with a small scatter of toys in the living area. Laney’s unobstructed view of the girl as she played quietly made the next words from Sean’s mouth sound terribly confusing.

  “Adrianna,” he warned. “I’ve told you not to ever go in Daddy’s room. Back in here, right now, young lady.”

  The next few moments were the stuff of nightmares. The door that had slowly opened led to a darkened room, and a large Dead’s face loomed out of it. Its face was completely focused on the unknowing child, and the sight ripped a gasp of horror from Laney’s lips.

  “Adrianna,” she screamed. She jumped up so quickly the chair she was sitting in flung violently backward into the wall. The readied nine millimeter came up as if born of pure adrenaline-based instinct, and she popped one round into the Dead, and another to be sure.

  The creature dropped like a sack of flour. The stiff, clawed fingers fell centimeters from Adrianna’s turned back.

  The child turned and screamed in terror, but Laney was already running for her. She pulled Adrianna away from the felled Dead and into her legs, which effectively shielded the screaming child’s eyes.

  Sean was right behind her and pulled his daughter protectively into his arms. “There’s a Dead in my house. There is one inside the gates,” he breathed.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you. Shhhh,” she hissed, holding up her hand.

  Several people were screaming and a muffled peppering of gunfire sounded from outside. The lights upstairs suddenly flipped off, and when she tried the nearest light switch, she was rewarded with no reaction. Generators were down.

  “Stay here,” she said. “Finn, cover them.”

  Finn already hovered protectively near the child and his unarmed colony leader. She clicked her flashlight on and held it next to her handgun before she made sure the bedrooms were all clear.

  “What’s happening?” Sean asked when she returned.

  “I’d say someone just made an impressive attempt at assassinating you.” She held up a muzzle and a short length of rope she had found in his bedroom. “That Dead’s been in there for a while from the smell of it.” She kicked the body of the Dead with the toe of her boot. “I think he finally wised up and figured out how to open the door to let himself out.”

  The screams outside were becoming more frantic, and the gunfire more frequent.

  “I have to help them,” Sean said.

  Laney nodded. “Weapons.”

  Sean flew into action. Any hints of shock or indecision vanished. He set Adrianna on his bed and strapped himself into a small arsenal of weapons he kept on a shelf in his closet. Laney provided the light from her flashlight and waited. The want for action pulled at her, too. Her team was out there.

  Sean finished strapping in and rushed into Adrianna’s room. He grabbed a small pink stuffed bunny in a floral dress and handed it to the little girl. Shoving handfuls of her clothes into a small pink backpack, he placed it snugly on her back.

  A guard came flying up the stairs, talking so fast he couldn’t be understood.

  “Breathe!” Sean yelled. “Now tell me. What happened?”

  “Sir, someone has opened the gates.” He panted for air. “They let a bunch of Deads in and then closed the gates again.”

  “Which gates?”

  “All of them, sir.”

  Sean cursed under his breath. Laney could almost see his mind racing, analyzing a hundred different ways to save his people.

  “Sean,” she said quietly. She picked up Adrianna, who was still wide-eyed and sniffling. “We have to get her out of here.”

  “Adrianna,” Sean said in a rush. “You’re going to go with Laney, okay? I’ll meet up with you in just a little while.”

  “No, Sean. That’s not good enough! You’re all she has left, and you know as well as I do that if you go out there you won’t come back. Not alive.” She swallowed back all of the hurt and memories of her father not being around when she was scared. She couldn’t allow that for Adrianna. Not if she could stop it.

  “Sir,” the guard said. “Colony is gone. Most are turned or turning. Any unbitten are gathering downstairs in the auditorium.”

  “You can’t save them, Sean. But you can save her,” Laney pleaded. “Come with me. My team and I can get you out.”

  “Follow me,” Sean said, flying down the stairs. The man had an apparent penchant for ignoring sage advice.

  She scooped up Adrianna, who was surprisingly light in her arms. Sean led them to a door opposite the bottom of the stairwell. The door opened to a small room with a wall of one-way glass. A dated diaper changing table with cartoon kangaroos was pressed against the furthest wall. The room must have been a baby room, built for moms with fussy infants to view the church services without interrupting. The lights were still on in the auditorium, making it easy to see everything. The acoustics were impressive. She could hear almost everything that was being said.

  The majority of survivors were armed guards, not surprisingly. A thin stream of people were filing in through the double doors leading to the outside. A group of armed men were checking each survivor for bites, and Laney jumped and hugged Adrianna tighter when the men brutally shot a woman after finding a suspicious wound on her arm. There was no emotion involved and they went to the next survivor as if nothing had happened. Her stomach lurched, and she turned away from the horrifying scene. A figure stood in the pulpit. Erhard leaned across a podium as he gave orders and tried to rally the men.

  “We have been a defensive colony for too long,” he yelled. “We watch the Deads at our gates. We study their habits, and for what? A cure? They should never have lived to threaten us in the first place, but that was the will of our fallen leader. He made us weak. He kept our colony without proper defenses. He was a Dead sympathizer who gave specific orders not to shoot them, and now it is up to us to salvage what is left of our home. To avenge our fallen brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and friends who have all fallen because of Sean Daniels’ weakness. Grab your weapons. It’s time to learn to defend yourselves.”

  “I think you just found your attempted assassin, sir,” Finn said solemnly.

  The fury on Sean’s face was indescribable. He was perfectly and utterly still as he watched the scene before him. Laney took an instinctive step backward until her back brushed the wall of the small room. She had been the victim of his furious wrath before and had the stitches to prove it.

  “I have to talk to him,” Sean said. “He’s going to get all of these people killed. Finn and Greer, guard Adrianna with your lives. If something goes south, you get her out. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” they chimed in unison. Finn took Adrianna from her arms.

  Sean left the small room and checked his weapons. “Landry, this isn’t your fight. You are free to find your team and go.”

  She knew where the exit was. She could just go. Leave and live. Find her team and forget this horrible day like she had forgotten so many. She had to live with herself, though. She sighed and checked her ammo. “Look, I understand why you have to do this. You feel responsible for these people, so you have to try. Damned right it’s not my fight, but you saved my hide th
is morning and I owe you one. So let’s stop wasting time and get my debt paid, shall we?”

  “Fair enough.” Sean used his body weight to push up on the large bar over the doors that connected his living space to the auditorium. The bar groaned its discontent but conceded to the determination of the now former leader of the Denver colony.

  “Erhard,” Sean roared.

  The room grew eerily quiet. The only sounds were the faint screaming and occasional gunfire coming from outside.

  Erhard’s eyes narrowed to dangerous-looking slits. He jumped down from the pulpit and headed directly for Sean. “Well, look who decided to seek our protection. The traitor himself.”

  “I’m no traitor. I’ve done nothing to earn that title.” Sean turned to address the hundred or so gathered survivors. “Someone opened the gates and let the Deads in. Someone was hiding Deads inside the gates even before that, and someone hid a Dead in my bedroom, feet away from where my little girl was playing. Someone betrayed you all, but it wasn’t me.” Sean snapped his attention accusingly back at Erhard, who stood to the side with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

  “No one here is interested in listening to your lies and excuses. Shoot him.”

  A few guards drew their weapons on Sean, but most just swung their heads from side to side in confusion, like milling cattle waiting for the first to stampede.

  Laney drew her handgun on Erhard. The barrel of the gun fell decisively onto the pulsing vein at his temple. She hadn’t the reserve Sean did. It was amazing how the barest touch of cold metal could wipe the cocky grin right off of Erhard’s face. Several guns rotated to her direction in turn. Worth it.

  “Can you not see,” she gritted out, “that Sean is trying to save your lives. Like he has done for three years.”

  “Then why did he let the Deads in the gates?” Erhard asked calmly.

  “He didn’t. You did.”

  “Says the girl who got Reynolds killed. What a coincidence that the day you arrive, the Deads get in.”

  “Enough,” Sean said. “We could stand around all night pointing fingers, but we’re running out of time. Anyone who would like to get out and come with me to another colony, you are welcome. I’ll do my best to protect you. We are leaving immediately.”