The Zombie Zovels (Book 1): Zombie Suburbia (16 page)

“Whatever,” he grumbled and moved away, blowing out the candle on his side. I leaned over and
blew out the candle on the nightstand, then nestled down into the bed with my back to him. I started
shivering. All my hot flushes were gone and I was left feeling cold. I rolled onto my back and
looked over at Lane. It was pitch black so I had no idea if he was facing me or not.
I reached over, expecting to feel his back somewhere in the dark, instead, he grabbed my wrist,
making me jump.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I quickly pulled my hand back.
“I thought you were going to sleep?”
“I was, but it's cold... and you're always warm.”
“Oh, I see, now I'm good for something you want to know me again.”
I muttered under my breath and tried to roll back over, away from him, but he stopped me, grabbing
my shoulder.
“Come here,” he said, opening his arms for me.
I hesitated at first, but then a cold chill in the air made me shiver and I quickly shuffled closer to
him, and wriggled into his arms, with my head under his chin. He wrapped his warm arms around
me and I buried my head into his chest.
“You know this isn't helping,” he said.
He rubbed one hand over my back trying to warm me up while his other hand cradled my head,
holding me close to his chest. Our legs became entangled and I soon started to feel warm again.
“I wish we could stay here.” I said.
“Who says we need to leave?”
“Our food supply does. Not unless you suddenly remembered you're skilled in hunting and we can
live off squirrels and bunnies.”
He chuckled against me. “No didn't think so. The cookies aren't going to last long and you scoffed
half the protein bars already.”
“I was hungry. Be nice, I'm wounded. I need my strength to get better.”
“Next you'll be saying I need to attend to your every need.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth.”
An awkward silence fell over us. He shifted down the bed, and I was suddenly aware his face was
only inches away from mine. He moved closer until our noses were touching... then our lips. His
lips were warm and welcoming. I let my guard down and let him kiss me, and I returned the kiss
this time. He quickly rolled me onto my back and covered my body with his. Every part of him was
warm and I couldn't control my hands from roaming all over his chest, his back, up his biceps. His
hand made its way to my hip, then slowly moved to the front of my panties. I stopped kissing him
and started shaking my head. “No. Don't.” I said.
“You don't want to?”
“It's not that. I do, but this will only complicate things between us.”
“I think things are already complicated between us. I killed someone and broke you out of the Lab
to make sure no one could get their hands on you.”
“Except you?”
“I would never hurt you, or force you to do anything you didn't want to do.”
“I've never done
it
before, and I didn't picture my first time in some abandoned motel in the middle
of a zombie apocalypse with-with... well, with you.”
“Alex, I'm crazy about you! I would do anything for you.”
“I'm just scared I'm going to lose you.”
“You're not going to lose me.”
“You don't know that.” I said, wiping a tear from my eye.
“Are you crying?” Lane asked, concerned.
“No.” I sniffed.
“Alex, it's going to be all right. I'm gonna take care of you... always. You and me together. I'm not
going to leave you. You're not just some girl in the backseat of my car. I lo-”
I pressed my lips against his before he could finish that sentence.
“Can we just
sleep
tonight? Please.”
“Whatever you want.” he said, rolling off me, and waiting for me to get comfortable before
positioning himself behind me, hugging me tightly.
“I've never seen you cry before.” he said.
“That's why I don't want to become attached to you. I don't want to become an emotional wreck if
anything happens to you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me.” he whispered into my hair.
I laced my fingers into his and hugged his arm around me. I closed my eyes and wished I could
wake up tomorrow and realize this whole zombie apocalypse had been a terrible nightmare. All I
wanted was to sit with my mom and dad at breakfast, catch the bus to school, sit in Calculus class
and pretend not to notice Lane Walker watching me from across the classroom. I fell asleep
dreaming of a past life I would never get back.

I woke up in Lane's arms. It was 9.40am and I could already hear Lane's stomach grumbling loudly.
I sat up, stretched, and Lane stirred behind me. I felt his fingers graze against my arm, I looked over
my shoulder and smiled at him.
“Morning,” I said.
“Morning, Alleycat,”
“Alleycat?” I said.
“What? You don't like it?”
“I think I prefer Alex.”
“Nah, I prefer Alleycat. It suits you, you're feisty and live in the wild most days.”
I climbed out of bed and stretched again, opened the curtains and looked out the nets. Every time I
went near the window I found myself peeking outside, expecting to see a mass of zombies. Nothing.
All I spotted was a small bird pecking around the dirt.
“Any sign of a zombie invasion?” he joked.
“Nope. Not unless the birds have turned savage and want a piece of my ass.”
Lane choked on his soda. “What?” I turned to him.
“The birds aren't the only ones.” he said, clearing his throat.
“Hmm,” I mumbled, walking over to our food supply.
“What's for breakfast?” he asked.
“Um, all we've got is the
Cheerios
, one protein bar, a packet of cookies, a canned tin of soup, and a
packet of gum.”
He stood behind me looking at his options.
“We should really save it, we don't know how long we'll be on the road tomorrow. The bike will run
out of gas soon.” he said.
“We have to eat something. How about a small bowl of
Cheerios
for breakfast, and we can divide
the cookies up for the rest of the day and fill ourselves up with soda. Then we've got the soup and
protein bar for tomorrow, and we'll take the rest of the cereal with us.”
“Okay, sounds good,” He held out his hand. “I want those cookies divided equally, or they'll be
consequences.” he said, smirking at me.
“Oh, really?”
I divided the cookies and handed Lane a bowl of cereal, and we both sat on the outside decking,
eating our breakfast.
“Let's have a look around today, I saw a shed around back I still haven't checked out yet.” he said.
“Don't get your hopes up, it's most likely the owner's fallout shelter. There's probably a group of
skeletons sat around a table playing cards... there's nothing else to do around here.”
“It's been nice, though.” he said.
“Yes, but it's a bit lonely down here. I feel as though we're the only survivors left, hiding out in the
middle of the woods.”
“That's not a bad thing.”
“Minus the part where we starve to death.”
We finished breakfast, then took turns in the bathroom washing ourselves down at the sink. The
shower didn't work because the power was out and there was no way I was going to sit in a tub full
of cold water. I left my hair and decided to leave it one more day and wash it tomorrow. I hated
washing my hair over the sink. I left my hair down and let it be, it looked like a wavy jungle, but
there was no way of containing my hair without the proper products. I found Lane waiting for me
on the decking. We walked around and both found suitable tree branches that could be used to
bludgeon a zombie if needs be, but I still had my gun tucked inside my jeans for an emergency.
“What's behind door #13?” Lane said, raising an eyebrow at me, standing in front of the shed.
“I'm still betting on three dead skeletons playing
rummy.
Possibly a raccoon, or maybe it will be
something more exotic, perhaps one of those bats from Mexico.”
“Not funny, Alex.”
I rolled my eyes. It was unlikely. Well, I hoped no bats would fly out at us. Lane carefully twisted
the doorknob.
“Boo!” I said, playfully giving his back a push.
“Shit, Alex, don't do that!”
“Sorry,” I whispered. “Payback for making me jump in the bathroom.”
He pulled the door open and we both quickly dived out of the way, scared of what might be on the
other side.
“Nope. No zombies.” I said, peeking inside.
Inside the shed, there was stacked plastic chairs, a lawn mower, (I wasn't sure why, there wasn't any
grass around here to cut), a moldy parasol, and a box of ball games.
I picked up the baseball bat and glove that was inside the box.
“Do you wanna play?” he asked.
“Why not? If I can find a ball.” I said, searching through the box. “Ah, found it.”

We stayed outside the front of the motel taking turns throwing and catching the ball, we had a go at
batting, but neither one of us was too keen on chasing the ball into the trees. We filled up on sodas
for lunch and took a stroll back to the abandoned car to see if there was anything else useful inside.
I found a lighter and $3 which I had no use for, and Lane found a stash of adult magazines under the
front seat (which he quickly put back where he'd found them). We got lucky with some rope in the
trunk, which we'd need if we were going to be living outdoors again. I saw a deer ambling amongst
the trees but no zombies. I washed all the clothes we would be taking with us and our underwear
using the handwash in the bathroom. Lane used the rope to make me a makeshift washing line
outside our room. Lane kept bringing up the idea of finding the next town, loading up with supplies
and coming back here again, but I knew the gas would run out eventually and we couldn't walk
backwards and forwards forever. When the light started to fade I moved all the washing indoors and
Lane strung a washing line up across the room for me, so we had to duck around the laundry each
time we walked across the room.
We soon drew the curtains and lit the last of the candles, even if we stayed we had no more candles
after tonight. I set the alarm to wake me up early, I wanted to get up and wash my hair and scrub
every inch of my body down with the semi-clean water. The next place I would be washing in
would most likely be a river. We had nothing, though, everything had disappeared from our bags
back at the Lab. No body wash, no shampoo, I was going to have to wash my hair with handwash,
which I was dreading. No toothpaste, just the one toothbrush (which we were currently sharing).
Even I would be needing some female products soon, we really needed to stock up, I only hoped the
next town we hit wouldn't be too dangerous and we could get what we needed.
Lane sat on the floor building a tower out of the deck of cards. I walked over and sat down next to
him and we divided the rest of the cookies between us.
“I want a
McDonald's
,” I said.
“I want a beer,” Lane said, carefully placing another card on top.
“I want some toothpaste,” I said, scrubbing my teeth with my finger “and mouthwash. I'll just add it
to the shopping list.”
Lane laughed and I went to pick up my soda and accidentally knocked the bottom of his tower, and
the whole lot fell down.
“Whoops... Sorry!”
Lane didn't look annoyed, he just picked all the cards up and started again.
“We should get to sleep soon, we have an exciting adventure ahead of us tomorrow, maybe the road
will lead us to a town soon.”
“Did you check the map?” he asked.
“Yes and this section is torn away.”
“Bummer!”
“Yeah, so I don't know where we are or which way will take us to the nearest town. We could be in
the middle of nowhere.” I said glumly, not looking forward to tomorrow.
“We'll be okay, Alex.” Lane reached over and moved a wild strand of hair away from my eyes.
“So this is our last night of luxury.” he said.
“Luxury? We don't even have electricity.”
“No... but we have a bed. We probably won't be sleeping in a bed for some time after today.”
“Or until we find the next town and it's not overrun with zombies.”
Lane looked at me like I was missing something.
My eyes flickered to the bed then back to Lane. He suddenly leaned toward me, taking my face in
his hands, kissing me. I accidentally knocked his tower down again as I moved my leg, trying to
pull away. I quickly stood up and Lane dropped his hands to the floor and looked away from me. I
walked to the other side of the room and ducked under Lane's hoodie that was hung up, I pushed the
pile of clothes off the chair and sat down. I pulled off my boots, and went to look at him, only all
the clothes hanging down blocked my view of him. I pulled my socks off and shoved them inside
my boots, then saw Lane ducking under the washing line, coming toward me. He stopped in front of
me and held out a glass to me.
“Do you want a drink?” he asked.
I ignored his outstretched arm and was about to stand up, but he stepped closer, stopping me. He
placed the glass on the nightstand then dropped to his knees in front of me, placing both his hands
on my legs, looking up at me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He picked up my hand and kissed it. I melted a little on the inside. I stroked the side of his face, and
looked into his eyes, becoming powerless under his intense gaze. The longing in his eyes probably
matched that of my own. He laced his fingers with mine. His hands were larger and his fingers were
longer and my hands looked miniature next to his.
“Alex, I want to be with you-”
“Lane...” I started shaking my head.
“Please, Alex, let me finish.” I chewed my lip and sat still.
It took a moment before he spoke again, and when he did he held my face in his hands.
“I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but just for tonight can we pretend it's only us. Can we
forget about everything else for a few hours? If you want to ignore me tomorrow and go back to
pretending you don't like me then fine, but tonight can you not hide from me.”
“How much have you had to drink already?” I asked, wondering where all this was coming from.
Sure I knew Lane had a thing for me, it wasn't like we could avoid it forever. We lived, ate, played,
survived, and slept together most nights except when we weren't allowed to at the Lab. I had been
trying to avoid it, though. I had a crush on him... okay more than a crush, I was falling for Lane big
time. But I'd never been in love and this wasn't the way I imagined falling in love for the first time. I
tried to hide my feelings from Lane, I tried to be strong for the both of us, but he was making it
increasingly hard. I didn't want to fall for him... it would only end in disaster.
“None, yet.” he replied.
I looked at the glass, picked it up and tipped it back, downing it. Lane grinned at me.
“Do you want another?”
“Are you trying to get me drunk Mr. Walker?”
“Maybe. I thought maybe with a few drinks inside of you, you'll let your guard down and stop
pretending you don't have feelings for me.”
“I don't.”
“Uh-huh,” He smiled at me standing back up and fetching the bottle. He poured another drink.
“Your turn,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow at me, then downed the shot.
“Now we're even. Come on, let's play a game, the loser has to take a shot.”
“What game?” he asked.
I placed the other glass on the floor and sat on the bed holding a bottle cap in my hand.
“Something tells me you're gonna be trashed in an hour,” Lane said, grinning at me, climbing onto
the bed beside me.
After another hour, we were in fits of laughter on the floor. Lane had had way more than me, turns
out I'm a better shot than he is.
He lit another cigarette and playfully knocked me with his leg.
I hated to admit it, but, I was having way more fun than I thought possible. The alcohol was
helping. In all seriousness though we were both being a bit reckless, but we hadn't seen a zombie,
yet, outside the Lab. I was starting to wonder where they all were. I pushed that thought away and
remembered I wasn't meant to be thinking about zombies tonight. Our one night of feeling like
normal teenagers. Lane walked into the bathroom and I stood up and swayed slightly, the drink was
affecting me. I suddenly felt overheated and began tugging my jeans down.
Lane walked back into the room and came over to help me, I had got my jeans stuck on my ankles.
I knew if I was going to do this it had to be now. If I sobered up any more I would be having second
thoughts. I quickly went over my reasons for doing this. I wanted to... I didn't want to die a virgin! I
liked Lane. A lot! He liked me, and life wasn't going to get any better than this at the moment. I
never wanted to go any further with my last boyfriend, it's the reason he had dumped me, but with
Lane it's all I had been thinking about, not difficult when he walked around shirtless, driving me
crazy.
I held onto his shoulder being careful of his wound as I stepped out of my jeans. He laughed at my
lack of coordination before throwing my jeans on a chair. I wobbled, falling backward, Lane tried to
catch me, but we both ended up on the bed, with Lane on top of me.
I kissed him before I could change my mind, surprising us both. Lane was a little taken back by the
kiss but it didn't take him long to respond, running his hand up and under my vest top. His tongue
flicked against mine, his mouth tasted of cool mint gum. My hand moved to his belt buckle, but he
quickly grabbed it before I could get anything undone.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
“I thought this was what you wanted? You kept making all those random bed hints.”
He smiled sheepishly. “I was only saying those things to make you blush, you're really cute when
you're embarrassed.”
“So you
don't
want to?”
“Alex, I don't want to do anything you're not ready for.”
“I'm... it's not that I'm not ready, I just never imagined my first time like this.” I said, sitting back
up.
“Is it me, did I do something wrong?” he asked, sitting up beside me.
“No not you.” I smiled. “I thought I'd meet someone, fall in love and it would happen after prom, I
know that sounds stupid.”
“How do you know that didn't happen?”
“What?”
“Well, we never got to go to prom.”
“Yeah and?”
“You were the last girl I kissed and I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since that time in
the bathtub. Even after everything happened and I was placed in the facility I still thought about
you.”
“Really?”
“Yes really. If things hadn't turned to shit I would have probably asked you to prom the next year.”
“Eric and his tribe of bitch girlfriends would have loved that.”
“It wouldn't have mattered what they thought. I didn't plan on spending time with that lot after we
graduated.”
“We still had a year to go.”
“We would have made it work.” he said, running his hand up my back.
I laughed at how unrealistic that all sounded.
“You would have left for college and soon forgotten all about me. I probably would have never seen
you again.”
“No, I didn't plan on going to college. I'd planned to take a lifeguard course and get a job at the gym
nearest the mall, the one with the extra large pool. I already worked there and they said I was first in
line for the position.”
“The Riverside Hotel is right next to that place.”
“So we would have crossed paths eventually. I'm guessing if we had made it back to school the next
week after Sean's party you would have ignored me.”
“Maybe,” I said, matching his smile.
“And I would have spent the rest of the year trying to win you over. I love a challenge.” he said.
“Oh yeah, I remember now, what was it you said...
game on
, or something like that.” I said smiling.
“I would have worn you down eventually.”
“Hmm,”
We both chuckled.
“What about your parents, didn't they want you to apply to college? You got great grades, you were
one of the smartest students.”
“Nah, college wasn't for me. I was a lost cause as far as my parents were concerned.” Lane said,
half laughing running his hands down his face.
“Well, I think you're pretty amazing Lane Walker.” I said, climbing onto his lap, straddling him.
I half leaned, half fell onto his lips, kissing him. He opened his mouth to deepen the kiss, it was
rough and hungry, not in a bad way, and it took my breath away.
He dug his fingers into my hips and I pulled back, leaving Lane open mouthed. I smiled and lifted
my vest top over my head and threw it away.
“Alex...”
“I want this,” I said. My eyes dropped to my hands in my lap. “I'm a little scared, though, you're
experienced and... well, I'm not.”
I had heard some scary first-time experiences from other girls, but I still wanted to experience this
for myself, only the thought of doing
it
with Lane made it ten times more nerve racking.
“I'm not going to hurt you, Alex... I adore you, and I'd do anything for you. And if you were
wondering, no that's not one of the lines I use to get girls into bed. You're the first girl I've ever said
that to.”
I looked into his eyes, I wanted this so much, and it felt right, Lane felt so right. I wasn't just some
girl to him, I could tell by the way he looked at me. I brought my hands up and laced my fingers
into his hair and pressed my lips against his again. The kiss was slow and gentle this time and made
me tingle in places I didn't know existed. Lane was too good at this.
His hand slipped up my back and unclasped my bra and I stopped kissing him. I bit my lip and
covered the front of me with my arms, preventing my bra from falling down. Lane smiled and
kissed me again, distracting me while he unhooked my fingers and slipped my bra down my arms,
then he pulled away to look at me.
Nervous was not the word. Lane had seen me naked before, but before I didn't care. Now I was
worried about what he thought. I wasn't a supermodel, and I wasn't very tall, my breasts were barely
a handful and most days I felt comfortable not even wearing a bra as there wasn't much to put in it.
He brushed his thumb across my nipple, causing me to shiver. Then he kissed me there, I felt his
tongue, sucking, teasing, and my nipple responded instantly hardening. He did the same to the other
one, and when he was satisfied, he pulled my head back down to kiss him. His tongue pushed its
way into my mouth and I dug my fingers into his back, enjoying every second. Not wanting to
forget this moment... ever.
He playfully kissed me back and I had a flashback to Lane kissing me in Lewis's kitchen. I smiled
to myself.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked, sweeping my loose waves over my shoulders.
“I was just remembering that time in Lewis's kitchen. Do you remember?” I asked, licking my lips.
“How could I forget? It's all I ever think about when I see you lick your lips.”
He touched my nose with his, kissing me again. Lane knew what he was doing, it wasn't sloppy and
unpleasant, it was amazing and perfect, everything I ever imagined a kiss should be.
The kiss soon heated up and within seconds, he had picked me up and laid me on the bed. He
climbed over me and pulled the covers over us, placing his hand on my hip, where he hooked a
finger under the hem of my panties. I tensed and went rigid. He noticed and straight away moved
his hand away. He gently pushed me onto my back. I quickly covered myself with the bedsheets
making sure my breasts were covered, he smiled, amused by my sheepish behavior. He kissed the
side of my neck and nibbled my ear with his teeth.