Wake the Dead (10 page)

“At least we have each other,” Alex said with a half-smile. “That’s gotta count for something, right?”

“Yep. And I’m actually growing attached to that stupid wolf, too,” she admitted as they made their way back to the cabin, avoiding their old camp and where Justin was put down. She asked Alex to avoid that route as she admitted that she did not want to see either again.

It was dusk by the time they made it back to the cabin and they were both famished. After a quick sharing of a meal, the two of them lay on the couch while Shadow remained outside.

They talked for a long while after, and Alex mostly listened. He allowed Olivia to vent and to share some of her happier memories about Jill with him. She seemed to be happy when she finally fell asleep.

Alex considered the real possibility that he might be falling in love with this woman. He cared for her a great deal, he thought, but he wasn’t sure if it was a real emotion, or simply that he did not want to be alone any longer.

Again, his thoughts shifted to his beloved wife of two years, and significant other for five more, Sara. He understood that nothing he did from this point forward would tarnish the feelings or memories he shared with her, as they were all from a different, much better time. He also knew that she would want nothing more than for him to be happy, which in this case meant for him to move on. These thoughts were something he gave serious attention to over the next few hours until he eventually succumbed to fatigue and fell asleep.

***

Alex awoke to the sound of moaning. He shot up, grabbed his hunting knife from the table, and made his way slowly toward the source, unsure as to what he might find. Thoughts of what might be inside the room flooded his mind’s eye as he crept closer. The sounds were coming from the back bedroom, a place that he hardly ever ventured. It was still dark outside, but the sun was threatening to break through, hints of light coming in through the windows, allowing the slightest of illumination inside the cabin.

How could one of the undead gotten in?!
he wondered as his heart rate intensified and he padded softly down the hall toward the source of the sound.

He peeked around the corner and saw Olivia lying on the floor on top of some blankets. He suddenly realized that he hadn’t glanced at the sofa to see if she had been there or not.

As he closed the distance between them quietly, it seemed as though she was in pain.

She was moaning and clutching at her abdomen…or her leg? He could not tell, but he was worried, hoping beyond hope that she wasn’t dying or becoming one of the damnable undead.

Alex swallowed hard and looked to his blade, shaking his head and clenching his jaw tightly.

I don’t want to have to kill another one
, he thought over and over in his mind as he strode forward another step.

 He was about to burst in on her to check her condition when he finally—and disconcertingly—understood the fact that she was in the thralls of pleasuring herself. She was completely naked, he noted, as the blankets fell away a bit to reveal more of her, and he could not help but admit that she looked quite beautiful in the dim lighting.

He felt both incredibly foolish in that instant and relieved at the same time that she was unharmed.

She tweaked a nipple that suddenly presented in the dim lighting, her left working it gently, while her right hand was lost between her legs. He immediately felt uncomfortable and yet, remained frozen, completely dumbfounded by the whole experience. He realized in that moment that she really was truthful in her earlier boastings to him about her enjoying sex. He also guessed that she was quite bold in the time before the zombie plague, and in just about every way.

And it wasn’t like he didn’t do this on occasion, too, he thought with a laugh.

And why not?
he thought.
What the hell else do we have for comfort these days?

As he remained riveted to the floor, wanting to remain unseen and not wanting to disturb Olivia, he felt himself swelling beneath his jeans. He was more than a little ashamed at his own self-indulgent voyeurism to this point. She moaned a bit louder and then louder still, and so, under the veil of those moans, he turned quietly and began to slink away.

“Alex?”

His heart skipped a beat and froze at hearing her voice. He was mortified that she had even seen him. He turned to regard her through the crack of the door, grimacing at her, but instead of showing any hint of anger, she smiled invitingly.

“Why don’t you join me?” Olivia said, as he noted that she was breathing heavily after clearly having reached an intense orgasm herself only seconds ago.

“You’re insatiable,” he accused jokingly, a smile creeping across his face.

“You have no idea,” she said, raising one eyebrow and matching his smirk.

He stood there, again taking in her lithe frame and appreciating her beauty for what it was. She kept herself in very good shape, sporting an athletic frame, firm breasts and a trim tummy that still held a diamond piercing. He threw open the door wider, his mouth turning up with an even wider grin.

“You really are beautiful.”

She held his stare for a bit and said nothing for a moment. “I only came in here so I didn’t wake you,” she said frankly. “I can be loud with my moaning. And you guys think it’s only you who can blow off steam this way, eh?” He merely held his smile and strode in, stiffening a bit more as he stood before her.

“Speaking of blowing….”

She sat up, fell onto all fours and bade him to come closer to her, gesturing with her left pointer. He moved closer and stood looking down on her, her blue eyes staring back longingly up at him, as her blonde hair cascaded down her bare back.

She unzipped his jeans slowly and reached inside, her warm hand wrapping around him tightly. She rubbed her hand over him a few times and gently tugged down his jeans, exposing him fully as her mouth moved over him. She moaned upon tasting him and he breathed deeply, allowing the sensation to overwhelm him.

She continued slowly over the tip and then down the shaft, licking and stroking, going back and forth, until he could not take her teasing any longer. She obviously sensed his desire and took him deeply in her mouth, quickening the pace as he grabbed her hair, threw his head back and guided her with vigor.

He could not help but notice that her own hand would often disappear between her thighs, moving faster and faster, which heightened his own libido even more. 

On more than one occasion, she used her opposite hand on him, rubbing the moisture of his pre-ejaculation over his tip gently, and then beginning again, seeming to savor the entire experience.

Alex cupped her head gently in both hands and helped her along, guiding her mouth over him for long minutes. He suddenly felt a warm hand cup his balls, rubbing them gently in her fingers, and that was all he could take.

He spasmed violently in the thralls of it, grabbing her hair as he did, and she allowed him to enjoy it, not moving or stopping until he released her hair.

“Wow,” was the admittedly understated response that he managed through dry lips as he fell to his knees. She smiled and guided him to the blankets below, stroked his head, and allowed him to give in to the ensuing weariness.

***

Alex awoke some time later to the smell of something sweet cooking. He got to his feet, pulled on his jeans, and stared at Olivia, wearing only a flannel shirt, which she must have found in the bedroom, her shapely legs exposed for the world to see. She stared at him coyly over her shoulders and smiled as she cooked what smelled to Alex like sweet baked beans. He also took note that she had already retrieved a fresh pitcher of water from the well and had evidently been boiling a pot on the stove.

“Whatcha got going there?” Alex asked her, now sensing something nice boiling in the water in the pot.

“Thought I’d use these hazelnut flavored coffee packs and make something with a sweeter taste…you know, since this might be our last day here,” Olivia said with a wink and a grin.

“Well, sure! We won’t be able to take everything with us, so might as well use the good stuff,” he said with a chuckle.

“Even Shadow is eating well today,” Olivia said, gesturing to him as he sat before a pot full of tuna fish, lapping it all up.

She and Alex shared a meal, barely speaking during the whole feast as they simply enjoyed the tastes. Then the two of them began packing up the important things that they would take with them. Alex packed a second set of clothes, a heavy jacket, hat and gloves, a flashlight with spare batteries, all of the remaining medicine, the two rolls of duct tape, and a first aid kit in his backpack. His lighter was out of fluid, but he had a few more books of matches remaining, which he tossed into a zip-lock bag for safe-keeping, and which he tucked away in his front pocket.

He packed the duffle bag with the remaining arrows, ammunition, hammer, nails, his insulated hunting coveralls, and a fishing rod.

Olivia packed up some of the essentials from the kitchen in the empty satchel from the attic, packing some silverware, a few cans of beans, tuna and the like, and made her way outside to the well to fill her thermos with fresh water.

As Alex finished packing and bringing everything outside, his heart thundered in his chest and Shadow growled as he could see a mob of zombies coming down the mountainside above them in the distance to the south, chasing a pack of deer, and they were headed this way. They were at least a mile away still, he figured, resetting his gear in his hands and tossing them down.

“Shit, we gotta go, Liv! Now!”

“What?! She called back, not hearing him clearly over the sound of pumping the water into her thermos.

“We gotta—“ He stopped midsentence and stared behind her as he saw a few more of them, slowly moving her way, but picking up speed as they saw her. He fired an arrow right past her into the closest one, as she finally turned, understanding the meaning of his unheard words.

She put the lid back on the thermos and backed away, just as another pair appeared in between Alex and Olivia. Shadow immediately pounced on one, taking it to the ground aggressively and tearing its flesh away, but Alex was too close to get a shot off and removed his hunting knife.

It came at him in a flurry of arms and snapping jaws, but Alex stepped to the side, extended an arm to redirect the outstretched hands, reversed the grip on his knife and buried in the back of the skull of his undead attacker. He had fought many intelligent fighters during martial arts training a few years back, and to use these zombie’s momentum and lack of intellect against them was a huge advantage, despite their inability to suffer pain or acknowledge any kind of injury. He quickly rushed to Shadow’s aid, though the wolf had his attacker seemingly under control, tearing out its throat.

When Alex could gaze upon Olivia again, the blood drained from his face as he witnessed the disturbing scene before him.

Time seemed to slow down.

He observed Olivia as she grabbed at her left leg and fell helplessly to the earth. She had backed her way into one of his foot snares and she was bleeding from the ankle as she cried out in pain.

“Alex!”

He got to within twenty paces before another half-dozen zombies came into view through the thickets behind her. He removed the shotgun from his back with desperation, pumped a round into the chamber, and fired at the closest one. He repeated this five more times, closing the gap between she and him, and dropping each one he targeted.

When he pulled the trigger the last time though, nothing happened.

He was crestfallen to realize that he had emptied all of the rounds in the shotgun, and despite his best efforts, one of the damnable things fell over her.

His heart sank and he watched in revulsion as the zombie took a piece of flesh from her arm as she lay on the floor, crawling toward him, the thermos falling onto the ground and rolling toward him. Her eyes went wide and she screamed again as more flesh came away. He looked to his right, saw the second mob still approaching, the larger mob that was chasing the deer, and dropped his head in resignation.

“Fuck!” he whispered under his breath, demoralized in that instant at seeing yet another person he cared for fall victim before his very eyes.

He pushed away the despair and ran toward her, put a bullet in the attacking zombie’s brain, kicked it off her and cursed again multiple times. She bled from multiple wounds and he stared into her blue eyes, still wide with terror. He refused to believe that there was nothing he could to help her in that instant. He reached for the snare on her left leg, trying to work it free.