Wake the Dead (18 page)

“The wolf is less scary than the zombies,” she remarked slyly, shoving him forward ahead of her.

“Hold up,” Nick called back to them as they turned in unison to regard him. “You and Alexis look to be similar in size. And I'm sure you wanna get out of that get up, am I right?” Alex looked at the ruined outfit, frayed and soiled, which Selina wore, no longer having the flattering influence it had no doubt carried with it at one time in the recent past. “I’ll have her fetch you a pair of jeans and a shirt.”

“Thanks, Nick,” Selina said, shoving Alex forward again and drawing a growl from Shadow, which stole a bit of her merriment. “Well, let’s see what kind of lodgings we’ve got here.”

“Oh, and don’t be alarmed this evening if you see any of us on the wall,” said Nick again as he was suddenly behind the two of them, handing Selina the clothing. “We’ll be posting a man or woman on the wall all evening in case Ben comes home.”

Alex spun and faced him, nodding his understanding, and then watching as Shadow came back toward them, trotting and dropping something at Alex’s feet. It was a partial arm, he recognized, blanching as he fought to keep his meal down.

“Thanks a lot, Shadow,” Alex chastised him.

“Where the hell did he get that?” Selina asked, turning away, too.

“I’m hoping he tore it off one of the zombies,” he said, pointing toward the steel gate where a pile of zombies still moaned in protest against the steel bars of the gate, wanting to get in and feed on their flesh. “Otherwise, we may not be welcome here much longer.” Selina chuckled and gestured toward the zombies crowding around the gate.

“That’ll make for a worry-free sleeping environment!” Selina said, standing before the door of the chapel. She stood in front of the door and threw it open wide. It was very dark inside and Alex removed a flashlight from his pack and shone it back and forth, illuminating the area enough for them to see.

There were a few benches along the walls and the chapel itself inside was long and not very wide. In the center was a replica of a holy water basin and straight ahead was the makings of an altar, though it was unfinished, as was most of the castle. Everything was roughed-in, from a construction standpoint, but hardly anything was finished. Behind the altar was a huge window and there was one on each of the left and right walls, grand in their size and shape, Alex noted, admiring the architecture and craftsmanship. The floor was of porcelain of some kind, he believed, bending low to feel it. It was cold and hard—not the best surface to sleep on, he lamented with a frown.

“Oh, well. This is as good as it gets,” Alex said with a half-hearted chuckle. “At least we have a roof over our heads, eh?”

Selina said nothing more and simply began laying out her blanket and sleeping bag.

“Would you wanna stack our blankets together to see if it is any more comfortable?” Alex asked, shining his flashlight her way. The moonlight was coming in the window to their right, but did not provide much light at all.

“Aren’t you gonna sleep with your wolf?” she asked with a smirk.

“Nah. He’ll probably find a nice soft spot outside.”

“I’m fine over here by myself. No offense,” Selina added, smoothing out her blanket. “Besides, I sleep alone.”

“I wasn’t hitting on you, for Christ sakes. Besides, I’m not in the right frame of mind for ‘dating’ these days.”

“That makes two of us, Alex. Now could you keep it down, I’m exhausted.” Selina moved to the far corner of the room, obscured by the gloom, and preceded to change her clothes.

“Sure thing,” Alex said, fixing his own sleeping area and stealing a glance or two her way, though he could see nothing in the shadows of the corner. She emerged not long after and made to her own sleeping area, saying nothing more to him. As Alex lay down on the unforgiving floor, he found himself suddenly longing for the uncomfortable sofa in the cabin he left behind not all that long ago. He considered if going back there was not in his future as he dozed off.

***

Alex awoke to the nudging of something against his head. It was Shadow, pushing his snout against Alex’s face, trying to wake him, he supposed. It was still dark somewhat, and so he sat up and grabbed Shadow’s snout, which resulted in a snarl, though he did not snap at him.

“What is it?” he whispered. “What do you want, boy?” Alex wiped the sleep from his eyes and stood, trying to get his bearings. He and Shadow were inside the chapel and the door was closed. He did not see Selina anywhere inside.

“What the...?” Alex wondered aloud.

He opened the door, allowing Shadow to run outside freely. A scream followed.

“Shit!” Alex yelled, running out after the wolf, looking for the source of the scream.

He made it outside to see Shadow having Selina pinned against a wall and snarling at her. Zombie arms appeared through the openings of the steel bars of the gate, followed by moaning and growling there, clearly stimulated by the sounds inside the courtyard.

“What the hell?!” called a voice from the parapet above them. Bryan leaned over the side, hat in hand, looking disappointedly at the scene in the courtyard. “We have enough trouble keeping the zombies away when we are quiet. Can you please contain this?”

Alex ran to stand in front of Selina, putting himself between her and Shadow, and then examined her a little more closely, and he could see that she was clearly upset.

“Selina, are you all right?” Alex asked her, trying to shake her into the now. She finally stopped screaming and looked to him as if she finally recognized him, throwing her arms around him suddenly. She was sobbing in the next minute. Alex looked up to Bryan and shrugged and he disappeared from the wall and out of sight again, no doubt walking the top of the parapet once more.

“Selina!” Alex yelled at her, grasping her shoulders and forcing her to face him.

“I’m here, Alex. I’m here,” she said through sobs. After another minute, she seemed to come back under control and slumped against one of the walls of the courtyard while shadow went to investigate the zombies at the gate, snapping at the limbs that appeared through the bars.

“I heard Shadow scratching at the door, and so I figured I would let him in, but once I did, he growled and snapped at me. And so, I maneuvered around him and then closed the door, separating us again. I basically slept here on the side of the chapel.”

“It’s okay,” he said, consoling her and hugging her tight. He let her cry again for a little while before trying to talk to her, wondering if she may have indicated distress toward the wolf. Shadow would certainly react to that fear. “Did you back away from him?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I don’t remember exactly, but probably…”

“Yeah, well, I probably should have instructed you, but you can’t back down from him. I’m not saying to attack him either, just that he needs to respect you…as one of our pack.”

“Like the alpha and omega thing?” Selina asked, seeming to be uncertain of that whole dynamic until now.

“Yep. And he may be treating you as the omega,” he offered with a wry grin. “That’s what I have found out over the short time I’ve spent with him. I’m still trying to figure it all out. I mean, it’s not like I can fire up my laptop and google his behavior. It’s all lost…unless I find a book on wolves, but I am slowly figuring things out by trial and error.”

“Okay,” Selina accepted the explanation. “And I think there might be a library around here somewhere.”

“We’ll have to put a pin in that one…and I am sorry that he snapped at you.”

That apology did seem to give Selina some kind of relief as she made it to her feet again, shaking the fear and anxiety from her expression.  “Is Shadow okay?”

“Yeah, why?” Alex asked, pointing to the wolf as if to show her that he was behaving normally.

“I’m not sure. I felt like I was dreaming the whole time and wasn’t sure what I did,” she admitted somberly. “I am pretty sure that nothing happened between us. It felt almost like an out of body experience.”

“Well, no one seems to be hurt. That’s the good thing,” Alex said. He looked over at the gate and watched Shadow tear flesh and fingers from a zombie that was too foolish to know otherwise than to offer exposed flesh of any kind to the savage wolf. Other than snarling though, Shadow was behaving well toward Selina, he believed. He turned and stared at Selina, who clearly regarded the wolf with anxiety still, watching as he snapped his jaws repeatedly at the zombie arms.

“Shadow will need to accept you as one of us, if you are going to spend time with him and me,” Alex said, staring into her soft green eyes and holding that stare uncomfortably long. It was actually the first time that Alex registered the stunning and captivating color therein. Eventually, Selina looked away from him and fidgeted.

“I know,” she admitted half-heartedly.

“Bryan,” Alex called up to the parapet.

“Yes?” answered the voice from high above them.

“No sign of Ben yet?

“Not yet,” was all that Bryan offered.

“Is there a place where I can find a sword…maybe a place nearby?” Alex called up, causing Bryan to remove his hat and lean over to stare down at him.

“Of course there is. It’s a Renaissance Faire,” Bryan answered sardonically as he smiled a sheepish grin, patting his hat and rubbing the scalp beneath his curly, salt and pepper locks. “Question is: can we find you one?”

“And?” Alex asked, craning his neck to stare up at the man.

“Yep. We can. I’ll take you there just as soon as Phil or Kelly relieves me up here.”

“All right. Thanks,” Alex said, cracking his knuckles .Alex spent the next hour or so introducing Selina to Shadow in a more familiar setting. He had Selina offer Shadow food from the cans and she sat beside him, trying to become more comfortable around him. This went on until Bryan appeared from the drawbridge and strode over to them.

“We’re going to look for Ben. Phil and Liz are coming along, too.”

“How is Phil’s arm?” Alex asked, truly concerned for the big man.

“He seems to be fine. It’s wrapped in actual bandages from what I saw under his chain shirt,” Bryan explained, holding a medieval mace. It was a heavy spiked ball at the end of a handle. It was also smallish in size, seeming to be a devastating weapon, Alex admitted. “I’ll bet that does a number on a zombie,” he said shaking his head.

“I’ve killed more than a few with it,” he confessed with a smirk. “The others are meeting us out here shortly. Would you like something to eat before we go?”

“We are fine. We ate some canned food I brought along,” Alex said.

Bryan tossed them each a small package. “Take these protein bars with you. Might get hungry while we are out there.” Phil, Liz, Nick and Kelly came out of the inner courtyard and joined them all.

Alex had just retrieved his quiver, bow, and shotgun and strapped them on his back, holding the bow in his right hand and belting his knife. He also gathered his pack, just in case and strapped that over the opposite shoulder of the quiver.

“We’ll need to get a good look at the damage to the fence so that we can maybe figure out what supplies we’ll need to fix it,” Nick said, handing Liz a camera. “So, you will be looking for Ben first and foremost. I want you to check the normal routes inside the fairgrounds, maybe he’s holed up there, and then Alex and Selina, you two can go for the humidifier while Liz and Phil check out the damage to the fence. See if you can get close to the car Ben used and if not, comb that area,” Nick instructed. He held up a sword in a scabbard. “This is Tom’s. Since he can’t use it, you might as well take it.” He handed it to Selina, who took it and turned it over in her hand, moving it back and forth with some conviction. Everyone, including Alex, was a bit surprised that she moved so gracefully with the weapon.

“Don’t worry, Alex. We’ll find you one of your own, too,” Bryan said, also admiring the ease with which Selina moved the blade through the air.

“You’ve had some training?” Nick asked her, a wide smile planted beneath his recently trimmed goatee.

Selina nodded, continuing going through what appeared to be warm up exercises and practiced movements. “I’ve had some training with swords for several years now. Kind of a hobby and what initially made me want to be an actor here at the Renaissance Faire. I had one that I left on that roof, but it was dull and in terrible shape,” she said, grunting and spinning and chopping the air like a graceful artist. “This one, though, is very nice. Well-made.”