The Zombie Zovels (Book 1): Zombie Suburbia (17 page)

“Lane,” I whispered.
“Hmm,” he murmured against my neck.
This was all new to me. The only other boy who had ever gotten this close to me had been Mickey,
a boy who also worked at The Riverside Hotel with me. During the last winter party, we had both
been tipsy and Mickey pulled me into a cupboard where he stuck his hands up my top and
forcefully pushed his tongue into my mouth. I had kissed other boys as well, but that's all it had
been-kissing.
“I-I don't know what... I've never done this or anything... I don't know what you want me to do.”
He stopped and looked at me.
“I don't want you to do anything. Trust me, you're doing enough already,” he said, prodding me in
the side to prove his point. “I just want you to lie there and try to relax.”
I nodded and he kissed me again, his hand glided over my breasts and I placed my hand on his
biceps, gradually moving it higher to the back of his neck. His hand began to roam around again
and started moving lower down. I panicked a little and grabbed his wrist with my other hand.
He looked at me and I felt silly for overreacting. “I'm sorry, I'm nervous, like
really
nervous!” I
said, releasing his wrist.
He kissed the end of my nose, and I let him move his hand to where he wanted. I chewed on my lip
as he slid his hand into my panties. He touched me and my breath caught in my throat. No one had
ever touched me
there
, and now Lane Walker was touching me there... and I was liking it. I couldn't
believe this was happening. Random thoughts suddenly filled my head.
We should stop.
I quickly pushed those thoughts away, deciding just for tonight I would let myself fall into Lane and
let him consume me. I moaned a little and slipped my hand over his arm and down his back,
avoiding his shoulder. Another moan escaped my lips. He gave me a look and a lopsided grin.
“I must be doing something right.” he said, before crushing his lips against mine again, hungrily
kissing me.
My fingernails dug into his back, and he kissed a trail of kisses along my jawline, all while my
breathing was getting louder and speeding up. I barely felt him nibbling my neck as I was on the
verge of exploding from pleasure.
Fuck... oh, my... I think I'm gonna...
I moaned loudly, temporarily forgetting we were meant to be keeping quiet, hiding out in the motel.
I panted loudly resting my head back on the pillow. My insides tingled like never before. I was still
on cloud nine and hadn't even noticed Lane slipping my panties down my thighs. I kicked them
away and he laid back down next to me.
“Was that okay?” he asked hesitantly, before kissing me softly.
“Oh, yeah!” I replied, breathing heavily.
He moved his hand back down there and I felt his finger inside me this time. I gasped a little and he
smiled at me and brought his hand back up.
“Well it certainly feels like you enjoyed it, and I needed you to relax.”
He leaned across me and grabbed the condoms. He sat up and tore open the pack with his teeth,
took one of the foils out and chucked the box on the floor. I nervously covered myself over with the
bedsheets again, not able to tear my eyes away from him.
He looked back over his shoulder at me. “What's wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said, looking away, busying myself reorganizing the pillows.
“You've seen me naked before.” he said, dropping back down beside me.
“Not like
that
. It's going to hurt isn't it?”
He kissed my shoulder, then my lips. “Alex, I would never hurt you intentionally.... if it hurts too
much I'll stop, okay?”
“Okay,” I mumbled against his lips.
He nudged my legs apart with his knee and covered my body with his. I think my brain had frozen
as I lay there unable to move, staring up at him. His body was mouth watering, he was perfectly
chiseled and muscular in all the right places. How could someone look so good when they didn't
have access to a gym? He lifted one of my legs up and I snapped out of my daze and pulled the
other one up.
“Ready?” he asked.
I giggled a little.
“What?”
“Sorry, it's just you say that when we enter abandoned buildings or open random doors.”
He chuckled.
“I'm sorry, I'm babbling. I'm so nervous.”
“Okay, how about, are you ready for me?”
I bit back a laugh. “Okay wait a minute, I'll try that one more time... Are you ready for me to be
your first?” he asked.
He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “And your last.”
I must be dreaming.
I thought.
I was about to say something when he covered my mouth with his, and I forgot what it was I
wanted to say. A few moments later he started to push inside of me, I tensed, all over, and he
stopped.
“Alex,” he murmured.
“S-sorry,” I stuttered.
He kissed me again and ran his hand down my side and over my thigh. Distracting me with his kiss
as he pushed all the way inside of me. It stung, and felt strange. I bit down on my lip and dug my
fingers into his biceps.
He rested his forehead against me. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I'm okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Uh-huh.”
He waited for me and I nodded reassuring him. He was worried he was hurting me. It did hurt, but it
was bearable. He kissed every inch of my neck, and with each kiss, the pain started to subside. He
moved inside me and after awhile, I started to get used to the way he felt inside me. Before long he
started making his own noises, moaning against my mouth as he dipped down to kiss me. It didn't
last too long and soon he made one final sound of ultimate pleasure and collapsed on top of me. He
kissed my collarbone and turned to look at me.
“You all right?” he asked, panting.
“Yessss!! That was amazing!” I grabbed his face and pulled him toward me.
I was dangerously close to falling in love with Lane Walker.
He moved off of me and pulled the condom off. I straight away noticed the blood, even in the dimly
lit room.
“I'm sorry,” I said, sitting up, holding the covers to my chest.
“What are you sorry about? I should be sorry, I did this to you.”
“I wanted you to, though.”
“Was it that painful?”
“A bit at the start, then after awhile it wore off.”
He turned to me and rested his hand on my leg.
“Alex, I lo-”
“Don't say it.” I said cutting him off.
“I'm not allowed to tell you I lo-”
“Lane, no! It changes everything if you say it.”
“We just had sex! You don't think that changes everything?”
I shifted around under the covers, looking for my panties.
“Why have you always got to be so stubborn?”
He stood up, pulled on his boxers, I ignored him and grabbed a soda from the nightstand.
“Fine! Have it your way. I won't say it. I think it's pretty obvious how I feel about you anyway. I
don't need to tell you.” He stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door. He re-emerged in his Tshirt. I had since found my underwear and my vest top. I went into the bathroom and freshened up
and splashed my face with some water to cool myself down.
I walked back into the bedroom. Lane sat against the headboard, with his knees up, resting his arms
over his knees, a lit cigarette between his fingers.
I climbed into bed and neither one of us said another word. When Lane finished his cigarette, I
heard him gulping down a soda, then he blew out his candle and leaned over me to blow out the one
on my side. He hovered over me for a moment longer than necessary, then moved back to his side
of the bed. I felt bad, for upsetting him, but it was for his own good. I didn't want him risking his
life for me. I didn't need him risking his life for me. Maybe he was right, I was stubborn. I sighed
louder than necessary.
“I'm not even tired,” I said randomly, not expecting him to respond.
“Me neither.”
“I'm hungry,” I complained.
“Do you want me to get you the protein bar?”
“No... save it.” I said.
Rain started to fall outside and fell heavily against the roof.
“I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. We'll get drenched on the bike.”
“The weather's not going to get any better. It'll probably snow soon. What did you do last winter?”
he asked.
“I dunno, managed somehow. Found shelter where I could and tried not to stay still for too long in
the cold weather. Remind me to pack a couple of blankets tomorrow.”
“Shame we don't have a car.”
“Even if we did it would eventually run out of gas.”
“Do you think we'll find another safe house... a proper one?”
“I hope so. That's the plan... keep going until we find somewhere safe.”
“There must be more facilities still withstanding.”
“I've only ever come across three, and they were all abandoned and in a bloody mess, full of dead
bodies... zombies and humans.”
“What do you think happened to the survivors?”
“They moved on, like you. Looking for other survivors. Did you check the reception for another
map?” I asked.
“Yeah, nothing, just leaflets for some luxury spa down the road. It looks even more secluded than
this place. We could check it out if we find it.”
“Yeah perhaps, I don't want to travel too far away from the main roads, though, and not on foot. We
need to be heading toward a town or, at least, a gas station so we can check for gas and food
supplies.”
“I don't think the bikes got much gas left in it.”
I let out another frustrated sigh and Lane moved closer to me under the covers. He hooked his arm
around my waist and hugged me. “Don't want you getting cold,” he said, close to my ear. “Maybe
want to get some bigger panties to keep you warm, I don't think those lacy ones are gonna cut it this
winter.”
“Stop it,” I laughed.
“What? It's true.”
“Okay, just stop mentioning my panties, you're gonna get yourself all worked up again.”
“Too late.” he said, even I could hear the smirk behind his voice.
“Sleep.” I said, firmly.
“Yes, ma'am.”

The alarm buzzed loudly, making me jump. I reached over to make it stop, the same time Lane did
and he ended up squashing me.
“Sorry,” he said, grabbing the alarm, looking for the button, and pressing it down.
“That scared the crap out of me.” I said, lying back down and closing my eyes again.
“I thought you wanted to get up early?” he asked, cuddling up beside me.
“Five more minutes.” I murmured.
When I opened my eyes again I soon realized I had fallen back asleep. Lane had one of his legs
entangled with mine and his arm was draped across me. I sat up and his arm fell away. I spotted the
clock lying on the bed.
“Lane,” I said, shaking his arm.
He rolled onto his front, ignoring me, burying his face into the pillow.
“C'mon, get up, it's gone eleven. I can't believe we fell back asleep and slept for another four
hours.”
“Maybe we should just stay another night?” he said, barely audible with his face in the pillow.
“We can't, we're running out of food, we have to start moving.”
I climbed out of bed and opened the curtains. Outside the rain had stopped and left behind muddy
puddles.
“Lane, time to wake up.” I said.
He rolled onto his back, yawned, and tucked his arm behind his head. “I'm... awake.” he mumbled,
before closing his eyes again.
“Don't fall asleep again.” I laughed, jumping up and down on the bed. I climbed over him,
straddling him. “Wake up, sleepyhead!” I leaned closer, and my hair fell into his face.
He opened his eyes, sat up, and wrapped his arms around me, preventing me from escaping.
“I'm awake.” he said, moving my hair aside, softly kissing my shoulder, then my neck.
“We need to get washed and dressed.” I said, kneeling up.
He spanked my ass and grinned at me. “Owww!” I said, quickly climbing off him and sliding off
the bed.
“I'll be there in a minute.” he said, reaching for his pack of cigarettes.
I filled the sink with cold water and began by washing my hair. I rinsed it the best I could in such a
small sink, then I wrapped it up in a towel and filled the sink again. Lane walked in, yawning, and
lifted the toilet seat. I waited until he was finished.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Waiting for you to leave the bathroom.”
“Why?”
“So I can wash myself.”
The thought of Lane seeing me naked again had my heart thumping unevenly and my cheeks
burning.
“Have you completely forgotten about last night? I saw you naked, made you-”
“Lane!” I said embarrassed.
He laughed. “I've seen you naked before, Alex.”
“Yes, but everything is different now?”
“Yeah, you're being really weird now.”
“Just give me five minutes.”
“What? I thought you woke me up because you wanted me to get washed and dressed, now you're
telling me to get out.”
“Five minutes. Go and open the canned tin of soup.”
Lane rolled his eyes at me before leaving me alone and closing the door. I washed my body
thoroughly, then dried myself and put on some fresh underwear, and attempted to de-tangle my hair.
The door opened and Lane walked in with a bowl of soup and a spoon.
“Five minutes?” he said.
“What can I say? I'm a girl, I like to make sure I'm properly clean, it takes longer... and so does the
grooming.” I said, yanking the brush through my hair.
“I think you should give up on that idea.” he said, watching me fight with my hairbrush.
“I need conditioner
so
badly.”
“You need breakfast as well,” he said.
“Ugh. I hate cold soup!” I said.
“Well, there's a saucepan in the kitchen if you really want to warm it up. But you'll have to build a
fire first, then stand out in the cold weather waiting for it to warm up-”
“Oh, give it here.” I said, taking the bowl from him.
I sat on the edge of the bathtub and Lane dropped his boxers to the floor.
“Lane!” I said, diverting my eyes away.
He laughed. “You can look if you want, just bear in mind this bathroom is a little bit nippy and the
cold water isn't going to help the situation.”
I stood up to leave and he held his arm out in front of me. He leaned down, kissed me lightly on the
lips, then pulled away to look at me. I smiled at him, trying not to look down.
“You're really naked.” I stated.
He dropped his arm letting me pass, smirking at me. As I left he spanked my ass again.
“Jeez... Lane! I'm gonna get you back for that, and the one before that.”
“I look forward to it.” he said, filling the sink.
We sorted through what we wanted to take with us, blankets, one towel, soap, spare T-shirts. We
couldn't take too much as we couldn't fit much in our bags. I did manage to squeeze in two toilet
rolls and packed a bowl with a few pieces of cutlery for us to share. We were almost ready to leave,
I used the bathroom one last time, walked back into the bedroom and Lane chucked something at
me. I caught it and looked at the item. It was the box of condoms.
“Pack those.” he said, picking up his smokes and lighter from the nightstand.
“Fine, but they're going in your bag, just in case you hook up with some hot zombie girl, I don't
want you catching an S.T.D.”
“That's cute.” he said, winking at me, before walking out of the motel room.
I packed the last few items and grabbed the map. As I folded the map up to fit into my bag, I noticed
Lane wandering around the ground outside the motel. I watched him as he walked around in a
circle.
What is he doing?
Five minutes later I was ready. I stepped out the door, loaded down from the weight of the bags.
Lane was already waiting on the bike, leaning on the handles bars. He flicked his cigarette away
and pulled his skeleton neck tube up his face. I adjusted his rucksack on my shoulders, watching
him. Lane looked so good sitting on a motorcycle, like he was born to ride one. As I stepped off the
deck, I could see what Lane had been looking at. Footprints covered the muddy ground, going
round and round in aimless circles. There appeared to be more than one set of footprints as well.
Maybe it was a good thing we were leaving.
Lane nodded his head at me to hurry up. I took a few steps toward the bike, but stopped, deciding I
wanted to take a few more sodas with us, worrying we wouldn't find anything else for a while. I
hurried back to the vending machine and filled up the empty space in our bags with extra soda cans.
I turned back to Lane making sure my messenger bag was securely done up when movement in the
trees caught my attention.
It looked to be only the one, but if there was one there could be more. I walked across the deck
toward Lane, trying to tread as lightly as possible. I pointed at the trees and he looked over his
shoulder. He waved me over and I quickly climbed on behind him. The roar of the motorcycle
notified the zombie of our presence. The bike started to move forward and I looked behind us,
watching the zombie stagger out of the trees, tilting its head as it watched us drive away. It was a
short, fat, male zombie, dressed in a blue fleece, dark trousers and was missing a shoe. Its face was
smeared with blood and I think he was missing an ear. It didn't bother to chase us, not that it would
have got very far. I turned back around and held on tightly to Lane as we drove away.
We turned left when we reached the main road, heading in the opposite direction, away from the
Lab. The cold air swept over my face, so I leaned closer to Lane, burying my face against his back.
We drove for some time, during which, it started to drizzle and the air grew chillier. I flipped my
hood up and hid my face. I soon looked back up when I realized the bike was slowing down.
“What do you think?” Lane called over his shoulder as the bike idled.
In front, there was a large sign with,
Serene Oaks Spa,
decoratively written across the front in large
letters.
“There might be something useful up there.” he said.
“Or it could be a zombie hotspot.” I said, only half joking.
“Well, I'm driving, and I think we should check it out.”
We drove along a narrow, windy road, that didn't look too bad to start with, but the further we went,
the worse it got, with debris and garbage littering the road. With each bend in the road, I became
more and more anxious. I had a bad feeling about this place.
The building finally came into view and the scene before us was gut churning. Random body parts
littered the ground and there was garbage everywhere. The place was surrounded by trees, but there
was a chain-link fence up to keep the wildlife out. I don't think it had kept the zombies out, though.
Lane parked the bike beside the fencing.
I reluctantly climbed off the bike and looked around.
“What do you think happened here?” Lane asked, pulling his neck tube down.
“I don't know, something bad. This might have been used as a fallout shelter or something.”
“You think they got attacked?”
“I dunno, Lane, I'm just seeing everything you are, but I don't think we should stay here.”
“If this place was used as a base, then the previous people would have brought supplies with them.
There's probably food supplies in there.”
“I don't think I want to go in there,” I said, eyeing the building, even from this distance I could see
the red bloodstains down the front steps.
“You really want to go in there?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“We might not come back out.”
“Don't talk like that.” he said, pulling his rucksack from my arms.
We had brought the baseball bat with us, it stuck out the top of the rucksack. Lane pulled it out.
“How is your shoulder today? You didn't give me a chance to look at it this morning before you got
dressed.”
“It's good. Now stop stalling.”
“Lane, I'm hungry as well. I just have a bad feeling about this place. I can smell the death in the air
from here.”
I looked at the building, one of the main doors was smashed and wide open.
“You coming with? Or am I going in alone?”
A bird flew overhead and landed in the parking lot, pecking at some sort of body part. My stomach
rumbled loudly making the decision for me.
“All right, but I'm gonna leave my bag here, it's heavier than yours and will only slow me down if
we have to run.” I lifted it over my shoulder and sat it on the ground beside the bike.
“Do you want to bring your valuables?” he joked.
“I only have two valuables, one is the photo of my parents inside my jacket pocket and the other is
tucked into my belt.”
And my third valuable possession is standing in front of me.
I took his rucksack from him, pulled out the flashlight and slipped the bag onto my arms.
“Ready?” he asked. I nodded.
We navigated our way across the parking lot. I had to cover my nose and mouth, resisting the urge
to gag when I saw the rotting intestines strewn across the parking lot. They didn't look too old
either. I searched the parking lot for anything I could use as a weapon, seeing how Lane had
commandeered the bat.
As we got closer I spotted a wooden trolley, maybe a towel trolley previously.
“Wait a minute,” I said, stepping over a pile of soggy cardboard and a spa dressing gown.
The trolley was already broken in places. I grabbed the longest part I wanted and broke it off using
my foot. I lifted it up to inspect it. Not bad, it was sharp and sturdy. I walked back to Lane swinging
my new weapon beside my leg.
“I thought you were gonna pick up that arm for a moment then,” he said, pointing at the arm lying
next to the trolley that I had completely overlooked.
“Oh, gross! I didn't even see that.” I took a deep breath. “Right, let's do this.” I said, taking charge
of the situation. “We need to locate the kitchens as quickly as possible, okay?”
“Right, kitchens!” he repeated.
I wanted to get in and out pronto. I had only one destination-the kitchens. I walked up the steps,
Lane close by my side. The glass from the smashed door crunched under my boots, and there was
more blood on the jagged shards of glass still inside the door-frame. We walked straight into the
main reception area (or what was left of it). Upside down chairs, dirty bloodstained towels,
paperwork covered the floor with bloody shoe prints zigzagging everywhere. I moved closer to the
desk, taking in the scene before us. There was a bloody handprint and a smear along the side
paneling. As I got closer I saw more bloodstains on the floor as though something had been dragged
along it.
“What's that smell?” Lane whispered, close to my ear. I jumped, bumping into him. I had nearly
forgotten he was here as well.
It was the smell of decay, slow rotting, decomposing flesh. Did he really need to ask?
“I think it's coming from behind that desk.” I said.
Lane gave me a concerned look and stepped around me. I took a guess as to what was behind the
desk, I don't know why he wanted to even look. He held up his bat, as if ready to swing at a zombie,
but I was pretty sure whatever was over there was way past dead.
He walked around the edge, peering over, whatever it was must have been hidden from view
because he walked all the way around to the other side.
I watched as his face dropped. He gagged. “Fuck that's... nasty,” He quickly covered his nose with
his neck tube.
“What?” I said.
“I think I'm gonna be sick. It's fucking disgusting!”
“Lane, what is it?”
He ignored me and shook his head at whatever was down there.
Great, now I want to see what it is.
I edged closer to the desk and he stuck his hand up.
“Alex, don't. Stay there.”
“Well, what is it?”
He gagged again but didn't move away.
I quickened my pace and walked around the desk. Regretting it.
“Oh... my... Ugh!” I gagged, covering my nose with my sleeve.
“What happened to it?” he asked.
By
it
he meant him. It
was
human from what I could tell, wearing a checkered shirt, ripped at the
sleeves. The bottom of the shirt was in tatters, as was the bottom of his torso. Everything from the
waist down was gone.
“Come on,” I said, pulling Lane away.
We walked back around the desk.
“What... I mean what did that... How did that... did a zombie do that?”
I thought about it for a moment, a single zombie couldn't cause that much damage, it would get fed
up after awhile and move on to the next victim or when it was so full it started up-chucking. It
looked to me as though more than one had got to him and had a field day, more like a large group. I
was sure parts of the man were out in the parking lot. I tugged Lane's sleeve and pulled him further
away from the desk. He looked like he was either going to throw up or pass out, and I didn't want
him doing either. There were three different routes to take leading off from the reception area. Each
corridor looked dark and horrifying.