As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Frater, Rhiannon

  Slowly, her son smiled.

  Taking the elevator—it still reeked of bleach—Katie was relieved not to have to climb the stairs again today. Her legs ached horribly.

  Her new room was nice, spacious, and welcoming. The four-poster bed and heavy Victorian furniture were not her cup of tea, but there was something very homey about it. She pushed back the heavy dark pink curtains covering the tall, narrow windows and observed the street outside the fort. A few figures staggered below, zombies too mutilated to run or to pose much of a threat. Closing the curtains, she started to put away her things.

  It was sad how quickly everything was tucked away into its proper place. In this new world, she barely owned anything. Maybe that was good, less to be attached to.

  She turned down the bed and, out of curiosity, flipped on the TV. To her surprise, the hotel’s closed-circuit broadcast was working and it seemed that someone was running Terminator 2. Katie briefly compared her arms to Linda Hamilton’s. All this hard work had her looking pretty buff.

  With a sigh, she headed into the bathroom for a long bath. She undressed, her body protesting every movement. Looking into the mirror, she saw why. There were bruises all over her body. The marks on her arm were the most terrifying, but they were a lesson learned. Time was short. Too short to worry about what had been and what could be.

  Using the hotel’s rose soap, shampoo, and conditioner, Katie washed herself thoroughly and was relieved to finally not smell of death. Feeling refreshed, she sat in the hot water as her muscles slowly relaxed.

  After her bath, dressed in a tank top and pajama bottoms she had claimed from the Walmart stock in the city hall basement, she felt restless and started rearranging the furniture. The bed was far too heavy to shift, but she moved the chairs, desk, and vanity into a more comfortable arrangement. There were a few little decorative knickknacks on the tables; these Katie mostly set aside to be returned to the hotel’s storage space. She switched the paintings around and fussed with a mirror until it was set at a good height on the wall. Partway through her redecorating, Katie found herself glancing at the clock and realized she was waiting for Travis. His earlier comment had been full of promise.

  Finally feeling that the room was hers, she sank into a chair and read a book she had borrowed from Peggy’s makeshift library.

  When the knock came, she tried not to panic. Laying the book aside, she slid to her bare feet and walked to the door. Another knock, quieter now. She knew Travis was giving her time to change her mind, to pretend to be asleep.

  Opening the door, she gazed out at Travis. His hands were resting on either side of the doorway. He was scrubbed clean and his hair was still damp. He looked tired and anxious. She realized he was waiting for her to send him away.

  Reaching out, she tangled one hand in his hair and kissed him deeply. With her other arm, she tugged him into her embrace and into her room. He almost stumbled, he was so startled. Then he came easily and willingly into her arms.

  Together, they shut the door behind them.

  2.

  Letting Go and Moving Forward

  Travis has been a nervous wreck when he knocked on Katie’s door. His stomach had been twisted into knots and his throat was so dry, he couldn’t speak. He had been pretty sure she was going to turn him away. He had begun to second-guess their short conversation up on the patio of the ballroom. He slowly concluded that he had not been clear in his intentions and she had not understood what he meant.

  From the moment he realized he had feelings for Katie, he was sure he was doomed to heartbreak. But he couldn’t stop himself from hoping. Their kiss—well, two kisses—had been enough to stoke the fires of hope within him.

  When she opened the door, his heart skipped a beat. She looked so beautiful, so ethereal, with the light behind her glinting off her blond locks. Her sparkling green eyes regarded him beneath the fringe of her eyelashes and he braced himself, sure she was about to reject him again. Hell, there was a bottle of Jack Daniel’s back in his room to keep him company after she said no.

  Instead, she reached out and kissed him in a way that made his knees weak and the butterflies in his stomach turn into a tornado. He almost fell into the room in surprise.

  The next kiss was everything he had hoped for: sweet yet passionate, loving yet lustful, soothing yet exciting. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and dragged her closer and—

  “Ouch!” Katie grunted.

  Not the reaction he was expecting.

  “Sorry,” he said, quickly letting go of her.

  “Bruises,” she explained with a wince.

  He nodded.

  Again they kissed deeply, her hands trailed down his back, and—

  “Shit,” Travis muttered against her lips.

  “Oh, sorry,” she said.

  “I kinda have a bruise there.”

  Katie laughed and pulled away from him, holding out her discolored arms. She turned around, displaying her back, a patchwork of purple, green, and black.

  Travis grinned and returned the favor, showing Katie his arms and the welt on his side.

  “Well, we match,” she laughed.

  Travis looped his hand around her neck, drew her close, and pressed his lips to hers. He lost himself in a kiss that felt like no other. He was completely enraptured with her. To his great surprise and delight, she seemed just as enamored with him.

  “I love you,” Travis whispered, stroking her curls, gazing into her eyes.

  “Yeah, I kinda figured that out.”

  “I know it’s not the same for you, since you’re gay—”

  “Actually, I’m not,” Katie said, to his amazement. Drawing back, she took his hand and guided him to sit beside her on the edge of the bed.

  “You had a wife,” he pointed out.

  “And I love her with all my heart. I would have gladly and happily spent the rest of my life with her. But I’ve dated men and women; I’m bisexual.”

  “So you’ve been with men before?” Travis asked cautiously. Katie nodded.

  “Oh, thank God,” Travis proclaimed. “I was worried sick about not knowing how to please you.”

  Katie grinned and wrapped her arms around him. “You’re really silly sometimes.”

  Travis laughed with relief. “You have no idea of the performance anxiety I was having. Hell, I was afraid you’d take one look at—” He looked down at his lap. “—you know … and run screaming.”

  Her eyes widened and then she really started to laugh. “No, no, I promise you I won’t. It’s been a while, but I am pretty sure I remember how it all works. Not that you’re getting any—”

  Travis blinked, realizing how presumptuous he had been. “No, I mean, of course not, I didn’t mean—”

  “I’m just giving you a hard time, Travis,” Katie said with a soft kiss to his cheek. “But honestly, this is not easy for me. I’m … .” She sighed, apparently at a loss for words.

  Travis gently stroked her hair and kissed her cheek. “You don’t have to say or do anything you don’t want to, Katie.”

  “I’m just dealing with a lot of guilt,” Katie said after a long pause. “I lived in the gay community for almost a decade. Lydia and I made sure we were both covered legally should either one of us die. We worked hard for gay rights after we decided to live openly as a lesbian couple. We were well known in our community and I dealt with a lot of flack from my superiors at work. Even my own mother and father had trouble with the choices I made. When I broke up with the guy I was engaged to before I met Lydia, my mother told me that I had crushed her hopes and dreams.” Katie paused, pain filling her eyes. “She told me never to speak to her again. Thank God my dad was always there for me even when he didn’t fully understand what I was all about.”

  Travis listened quietly, trying to understand. He knew it wasn’t a good parallel, but a number of years earlier, he had dated a black woman for a short time. Her family had been staunchly opposed to their relationship, and though Travis had worked
hard to keep them together, she opted to end it when the pressure on her became too great. When he told his parents that they had broken up, he was surprised to find that his very liberal parents sighed with relief. He hoped that maybe because of that, he had an inkling of what Katie was talking about.

  “So, the point of all this is, I became very used to living in the LGBT community and sometimes it was very difficult. If I identified myself as bisexual, I was sometimes told I just hadn’t fully accepted that I was lesbian. Lydia always defended me, but I eventually stopped telling anyone that I was bi.” Katie laughed bitterly. “After that, this one woman we knew congratulated me on finally accepting myself as a lesbian and not being in denial anymore.” She gazed into Travis’s eyes. “Lydia understood that I had made a choice to be with her because of who she was, not because her gender. I need you to understand that, too.”

  “I do, Katie. I do. And I don’t expect you not to love Lydia anymore or to think badly of your old lifestyle. All I ask is that you let what we have grow and be what it wants to be. Give me a chance to love you.”

  Katie took a deep breath. “For a long time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that, but now I am. I can’t let my nightmares or my guilt keep me from enjoying what life I have left. I realized that today. After all the death and violence, I realized that in the end, I just wanted you to hold me.”

  Travis felt the heaviness that had been on his heart dissipate as she spoke. He took her face gently between his hands and kissed her very tenderly. “I want to hold you.”

  Smiling, she kissed him back, and then slid away from him.

  In silence, he slipped off his boots and his jacket and lay back on the pile of pillows on the bed. She came into his arms and laid her head on his chest. With infinite gentleness, he stroked her bruised flesh and kissed the top of her head.

  He felt deliciously good.

  Eric emerged from the sparkling tub in the bathroom of the new, comfortable hotel room that he now shared with Stacey and Pepe. It was a relief not to have to stand in line to use the restroom or sign in to take a shower. He grinned as he wrapped a fresh towel around his hips.

  With another towel, he vigorously dried his hair as he wandered into his new bedroom. His attention was caught by Pepe, who was lying in the new doggie bed they had snatched from the Dollar Store, wagging his tail despite his sleepy expression.

  “Hey, isn’t Pepe going to sleep with us?” Eric asked. He was used to the little guy snuggling with them.

  “Absolutely, not,” Stacey answered.

  Eric finally looked at his girlfriend. Stacey was lying across the bed, naked and beautiful. She had insisted on showering first and now he understood why. She was smiling the sweetest, most sultry smile he had ever seen on her lovely face.

  “Sorry, Pepe, you’re out of luck,” Eric said with a laugh. He dropped his towels and strode, transfixed, to the bed.

  Stacey laughed with delight and held out her arms to him. “At last, we can make this official!”

  “And no one will hear us!”

  She plucked off his glasses and tossed them onto a chair nearby. “Tell me you love me.”

  “I love you,” Eric whispered.

  Lenore opened the door to her hotel room and stared out at Ken with her most grumpy expression. He was dressed in new pajamas and held Cher’s cat carrier in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other.

  “Slumber party!” he said with a grin.

  “No,” Lenore answered gruffly, and slammed the door.

  She knew it wouldn’t deter him. She waited for the knock she knew was coming.

  “Lenore, let me in. I’m your best girlfriend.”

  Lenore harrumphed.

  “You love me. Please, Lenore, let me in. I’m afraid of zombies and I can’t sleep alone. Please! I know you have two queens in there.”

  Lenore looked over her shoulder at the two beds.

  “Another one won’t hurt,” Ken pleaded through the door.

  Finally, she opened it and stared out at him. “One word about Daniel Craig, Clive Owen, or Hugh Jackman, and I’m throwing you out!”

  Ken grinned and hurried past her. “Yay!”

  Lenore shut the door, grumbling, but a slight smile crept onto her lips. At least she had her best friend in this stupid world, even if he was tremendously annoying sometimes.

  “Shit,” Juan said as Jenni almost slipped and fell headfirst into the tub. She had been trying to grab the bottle of champagne off the counter when her injured leg gave way.

  Juan took hold of her naked hips with his sudsy hands and held her steady as she finally managed to get into the tub without killing them both. Lowering herself into the mountains of white bubbles until she was straddling his lap, she grinned.

  “See, nothing to it!” She took a long swallow of champagne and handed him the bottle.

  Juan gulped down some of the warm champagne. “Shit, that’s nasty.”

  Jenni giggled and pressed her bare breasts against his chest. “Almost as nasty as me?”

  “Shit, girl,” Juan said with a grin, “no one is as nasty as you.”

  Laughing, she kissed him and they both nearly went underwater before Juan managed to grab the edge of the tub.

  “You’re trying to drown us!”

  “Oh, shut up and kiss me.”

  Juan obliged. The champagne bottle fell off the edge of the tub and onto the floor, splashing the last of the bubbly all over the bathroom rug.

  Neither one of them noticed.

  Katie awoke a few hours later to gentle snoring. She felt a little disoriented by the sound and by the shape of the body she felt in her arms. Lydia snored, but the body pressed against hers was not one bit female.

  She came more awake and smiled to herself.

  It was Travis.

  He was sound asleep. His arms were around her as he spooned up against her. The lamp next to the bed was still on. When she turned her head to see his face, she had to suppress a giggle. He was so deeply asleep that his mouth was hanging open.

  Stretching a little, she managed to turn in his arms and get into a more comfortable position despite her aches and pains. Observing Travis’s arm, draped over her waist, she could see where the zombies had grabbed him. Their handprints were distinctly pressed into his flesh.

  They had both been immensely lucky.

  Stirring, Travis turned onto his back, one arm slung over his forehead. He looked more serene than she had ever seen before. She had really grown to love his face. It was so strong and kind. Propping herself up, Katie ran her hand under his T-shirt along the length of his chest. He was so manly and muscular that she almost felt intimidated. Enjoying the feel of his skin under her hand, she felt a surprising pulse of desire.

  “Travis,” she whispered.

  One eye slowly opened. “Um?”

  She slid up his chest and kissed him deeply. She knew when he came fully awake and was very aware of her body against his. Through her pajamas and his jeans, she could feel him stirring.

  “I promise I won’t run screaming,” she said very softly.

  “I thought we were just going to sleep,” he replied.

  “Well, if you want to,” she answered, feeling a slight pang of disappointment.

  Travis instantly flipped her onto her back and grinned down at her from above, where he was supporting himself on his arms. “Sleep can wait.” He lowered his head.

  Responding hungrily to his kisses, Katie felt her reservations fading. Travis was gentle and tender. His kisses passionate but loving. Any awkwardness she felt faded away as her desire grew.

  Simple things like the width of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist and hips enthralled her. His cheek was scraggly against her skin and she enjoyed the sensation. Travis soon had her gasping and moaning and her bruises were forgotten. She buried her face in his neck and wrapped her legs tightly around him as her body shuddered beneath him. He kissed and nuzzled her neck, stroking her hair as she trembled with ple
asure.

  “Love you,” he whispered.

  “Love you,” she answered, and to her joy, she meant it.

  In the drowsy aftermath of lovemaking, he stroked her skin with infinite gentleness. She ran one hand down his side and rested it on his hip. They shared little kisses and whispers of endearment. It felt good and wonderful. Katie fell asleep smiling.

  When Lydia’s zombified ghost appeared in a dream, Katie was not surprised. Angry and fierce, the specter rose over her and Travis where they lay together in bed.

  “How could you do this to me?” zombie Lydia demanded.

  “If you were really Lydia, you would be happy for me,” Katie answered bluntly.

  The zombified Lydia hesitated. “You left me.”

  “You were already gone. All that is left now is the shell of who you were,” Katie said as firmly as she could, though her voice quavered. “You’re not Lydia. You’re my guilt that I didn’t save her. I’ll always love her, but I need to move on. I need to be happy. And if you were truly my Lydia, you would understand that. You would understand that, because you would love me from beyond the grave. You’re not her, and I’m not giving you power over me anymore.”

  The zombie staggered back, lost its form, and disappeared. The true Lydia stepped out of the darkness. She looked whole and beautiful, her smile as wonderful as always. This spirit was full of Lydia’s wonderful essence. Katie could feel love radiating out of her.

  “You finally let go of your guilt,” Lydia whispered.

  “I wish I could have saved you,” Katie said in a voice that was ragged with emotion.

  Lydia swept Katie’s curls back from her face with a delicate hand. “It was not meant to be. I died minutes after you left.”

  Katie whimpered and clutched Lydia’s hand tightly. Drawing it to her lips, she kissed it. “I’m so sorry, babe.”