Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) (29 page)

“Cruz!” She grabbed on his arm before he could deliver another punch to the defeated man’s head. “He’s had enough.”

“He had a gun on you!”

“He was scared. He thought we’d hurt his baby.”

“His baby’s a freaking monster,” Cruz growled.

“Not to him.” Raven pulled Cruz to a stand, separating him from the bloody, injured man on the floor. “Let’s just let them deal with this tragedy without making it worse.”

“My baby is not a monster,” Cliff growled, sitting up with great difficulty.

A gunshot sounded. Raven turned toward the sound to see Maggie sitting up in the bed, arms limp at her sides, head thrown back, resting along the headboard, shattered as blood poured from the gaping wound left from the self-inflicted bullet.

Pimjai covered her mouth, screaming hysterically as Cliff roared and found renewed strength to pick himself up the floor and ram Cruz.

“You did this!” he screamed, knocking an unsuspecting Cruz down and pulling his good arm back to drive a punch into Cruz’s face. “You called our baby a monster!”

Cruz blocked the punch and rolled, pinning Cliff to the floor with one hand before delivering a series of fast, hard punches with the other.

“Enough!” Raven tried to pull him off the man as Damian entered the room.

“What the fuck?” He gagged, seeing Maggie’s dead body on the bed. “What the hell happened?”

“Just help me make Cruz stop. Where’s Jeremy?”

“Downstairs.” Damian grabbed Cruz and helped Raven peel him off the other man. “Told her to stay in the bathroom and don’t come out until we tell her. Chinese chick ok?”

Having pulled a still swinging Cruz off Cliff, Raven left getting him under control to Damian and crossed over to Pimjai.

“Pimjai.”

The woman had stopped screaming and now sat on the floor, arms wrapped around her raised knees, as she rocked back and forth.

“Pimjai, are you alright?” Raven kneeled next to her. “How’s the arm?”

“They’re dead.”

Raven looked at the bed, doing her best to not look at Maggie’s head. The mini zombie lay in Maggie’s limp arm making that awful gurgling, growling noise, its white eyes seemed to be staring at her.

“Just Maggie. The baby, or whatever you want to call it, is still alive. Well, it’s moving anyway.”

“No, I mean Maggie and Cliff. Your friend killed him.”

Raven turned her head to look at Cliff. His body rested on the floor, his face turning blue and purple, what could be seen of it under the blood. His nose was broken, for sure, set at an odd angle, his face messed up pretty bad, but dead? She looked up at Cruz and Damian.

Cruz shrugged Damian off. “Let me go, man. I’m good. This bastard isn’t going to give us any more trouble.”

“Because you killed him,” Damian said, crouching next to Cliff’s body. He placed his fingers on the man’s neck, checking for a pulse.

“I didn’t kill him.”

“Then how else he die?” Damian asked, standing back up. “Because he’s definitely dead.”

“Cruz?”

They all turned toward the door to see Jeremy standing there, eyes wide. Before anyone could say a word she saw Maggie and started screaming.

Cruz grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand.

Glass broke downstairs. They looked at each other.

“You got a cat in here?” Damian asked.

Pimjai shook her head. “It was just us three.”

“All the yelling, screaming, and gunshots brought company,” Damian said as he walked over to the bed and picked up the pistol Maggie had killed herself with.

“You know how to handle that?” Cruz asked, pushing Jeremy toward the women.

“Born and raised in Oakland. I was gun trained long before you were, movie star.”

“Yeah, well, let’s use blades unless we absolutely have to fire,” he instructed as a loud moan found its way up the stairs, indicating their company was of the undead variety. “Ladies, we got this. You stay up here. You stay, Jeremy!”

He pushed the girl toward them again as she started to walk back toward him.

“I want to go with you. I can help.”

“You’ll get in the way. Stay here.”

Cruz and Damian left them to take on whatever had entered downstairs.

Raven knew she should focus on securing the upstairs in case something got past the men, but Jeremy stood there before the door, shoulders sagging, and she knew the girl was hurting.

“He just wants to make sure you’re safe, Jeremy. He cares about keeping you safe.” There, she’d give her that much of a pick-me-up but she didn’t want to feed into the girl’s fantasy of having some sort of romantic future with a grown man.

“He thinks I’m weak, but I’m not.” Jeremy turned toward her. “You’re not the only girl who can swing a knife around. I’ve killed them too. I can take care of myself. I killed that one in the van, not you.”

Pimjai looked between the two of them, confused. Raven shook her head and missed her sister more than ever. Had Sky ever been this jealous? No, Sky had loved her, wanted to be like her. She was Sky’s hero, right until she’d sent her straight to her own death.

“I’m going to help.”

Jeremy’s determined voice pulled Raven back from the awful memory and she looked up to see Jeremy grabbing the shotgun Cliff had left propped against the wall before delivering Maggie’s zom-baby.

“Put that down, Jeremy!” She stood up. “You don’t know how to shoot a gun.”

“It’s not rocket science. You point the thing and pull the trigger.”

“Oh, it’s easy, huh?” Raven placed her hands on her hips. “I hate to break it to you but there are tons of videos on YouTube of dumb kids who thought the same thing before injuring themselves playing around with guns. You need training.”

“Good thing I have zombies to practice on.” Jeremy turned for the door.

“Don’t even think about it.” Raven quickly stepped over to her and yanked her arm, turning her around. “Cruz told you to stay here with us so he and Damian can handle this.”

“He thinks I can’t do it. Once he sees how helpful I am he’ll want me at his side.”

“Oh really? You think getting in their way while directly disobeying him is going to make him like you more? What if you accidentally shoot one of them?”

“I’m just going to shoot from the stairs.” Jeremy tried to pull away but couldn’t get loose from Raven’s grip. “You’re not my mom and I’m not stupid. I’m just going to cover for them.”

“Maybe when you learn how to shoot. Until then, you stay away from guns.”

Raven grabbed the gun and tried to pull it free from Jeremy’s grip but the girl was strong for her age, or just really determined.

“Screw you, Raven!”

Or pissed, Raven concluded as she continued to struggle with the girl for the weapon.

“Raven!” Fear laced Pimjai’s voice.

“I’m getting it from her, Pimjai. Don’t worry.”

“No! It’s Maggie.”

Raven turned and swore, releasing the shotgun, which caused Jeremy to fall backward next to Cliff’s body with a loud oomph.

Maggie sat up in the bed, staring at her with white, smoky eyes. Raven blinked, sure she was dreaming. The woman had held a gun to the bottom of her chin and shot, blowing a hole out the back of her head. “How the hell did she miss her brain?” she asked as Maggie swung her legs off the bed.

Pimjai just shook her head and raised her knife as Maggie reached for her.

Jeremy screamed and Raven turned to see a practically faceless Cliff sitting up on the floor, his hands wrapped around her arms.

“Shit!” Raven grabbed the shotgun out of a panicked Jeremy’s hands and rammed the butt of it into the top of Cliff’s head repeatedly, until Jeremy was able to scamper away and Cliff no longer moved.

She looked over her shoulder to see Pimjai struggling with Maggie. The zombie version of her friend had managed to block Pimjai’s killing blow and now held her arms. It looked as if they were doing some perverted dance instead of trying to kill each other.

“Raven. Help!”

Raven quickly pulled her katana free from its sheath and crossed over to the pair. The sword cut through what was left of the top of Maggie’s head, ending the dance.

Pimjai let out a loud breath of relief as Maggie’s body fell to the floor, next to the baby she’d knocked out of the bed while getting up.

It had rolled over and looked at them now, drool spilling from its mouth as it pulled itself toward them with its small arms.

“I thought they couldn’t crawl right after birth?”

“That is not a baby,” Pimjai reminded her. “It is strong. It can hold its head up.”

“All clear downstairs,” Damian said, entering the room. “There were only three of them. What the hell happened in here?”

“Cliff and Maggie turned and attacked. Pimjai and I handled it.”

“I could have taken care of myself!” Jeremy snapped before storming out of the room.

Damian watched her leave, eyes wide. “I will never understand girls.”

“Me neither,” Raven agreed.

“Feel better?” Damian asked.

Raven smiled as she continued towel-drying her hair. “Best shower I’ve ever had. I miss anything?” 

Damian looked toward the kitchen door before answering. “I got good news and bad.”

Raven sighed. “Good first, I guess.”

“Pimjai says there’s a house three miles up the road and parked right in the dude’s field is a helicopter. Cruz says he knows how to fly helicopters. We got ourselves a ride to Kansas, one that’s guaranteed not to be blocked by the walking dead.”

“That’s great!” Raven sat next to him on the kitchen island and took the jar of peanut butter he held out to her and an offered spoon. “So what’s the bad news?” she asked as she twisted the lid off the jar and dug in.

Cruz entered the room and Damian chose to scoop a huge mound of peanut butter out of his own jar instead of answer.

“You look great, Raven.” Cruz flashed a movie star smile meant to turn her insides to goo. All it did was cause her stomach to roll. She was not about to be one of those dumb chicks in the movies that got everybody killed because she was better at sleeping with the bad guys than shooting them. Not that Cruz was a bad guy. He was a good egg, but undeniably a little bit cracked.

She swallowed the peanut butter. “Shower is all yours. Thanks for letting me and Jeremy go first.”

“Well, ladies first is the rule,” he said, giving Damian a reprimanding look.

“You saying I’m not a lady?” Damian said around the mound of peanut butter, hand to his chest as if offended. “I’ll have you know that every Friday night at Twisted Betty before this zombie apocalypse thing happened I was the sexiest lady up in the club. You think Raven’s cute, you should see my fine ass in a mini and some stilettos. Lenny Kravitz is not the only brother than can rock gold eyeliner, honey.”

Raven laughed as Cruz shook his head and headed to the bathroom.

“It just figures I’d get stuck with one of the few actors in Hollywood that actually doesn’t go both ways,” he muttered before swallowing the peanut butter with a loud gulp. “Not that I want his crazy ass.”

“I can’t picture you in drag,” Raven commented.

“Because I’m so badass?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Sweetheart, I am not about to be that stereotypical pansy assed gay guy that prisses around screaming like a woman and making sure my lipstick is perfect while zombies are chasing us. Now, if we nip this apocalypse thing in the bud, I will invite you to the club and you can see me in all my fabulous glory. Just don’t get jealous if I’m sexier than you. My legs are amazing and I can stuff a bra like nobody’s business.”

Raven laughed at the thought of it and suddenly became emotional. She wiped tears from her eyes and sniffed.

“Wow. The idea of me in a dress that bad? I thought you were cool with it.”

“It’s not that.” She laughed, embarrassed. “It’s just this, talking about normal stuff, a life after all this. I don’t know if I believe in any of that anymore. Do you? Do you think we’ll ever have a future where we can hang out at a club and have fun, no fear of being eaten?”

Damian sighed. “I don’t know but we have to believe in something or we might as well lie down and die right now. And I’m too fabulous to die dressed like this,” he added, gesturing toward his clothing. A black T-shirt and dark blue jeans with black boots.

Raven laughed again. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.”

“I’m always real, Raven.” He sighed again, dropping his spoon into the peanut butter jar and setting it aside. “Which is why I’m telling you the bad news. Cruz is bat shit crazy.”

“He didn’t intend to kill Cliff.”

“This isn’t about Cliff. To tell you the truth, I don’t give a damn about Cliff. Once he put a gun on one of us I had no sympathy for him. I don’t blame Cruz for beating him to death, especially knowing Cruz has the hots for you.”

“He does not—”

“Yes, he does. I’m a man. I know these things. He feels closer to you than any of us. That man asked to be killed the moment he dared threaten you in front of Cruz. You know I have your back, Raven, but I let Cruz have that one. I’d hoped it would help him get some of that pent up anger out of him, fix his mind a little bit.”