Wake the Dead (8 page)

“You sure you don’t want me to come?”

“I could use the alone time,” she said curtly. It seemed to sting Alex more than he let on, but he did his best to hold that smile until she turned and proceeded out the door, saying nothing more to him. He watched out the window as she proceeded down the path and out of sight.

Maybe we aren’t quite there yet
, he mused.

***

Alex spent the next few hours working out and practicing with the bow. He set up the target again with the pillow and proceeded to spend many hours hitting the mark, while Shadow disappeared completely.

He was alone.

His anger and frustration slowly faded though as he realized that Liv most likely needed to blow off some steam or get some space. They were getting to know one another pretty well this past week, and he was thankful for the company.

He found himself thinking about her as a woman and not as an asexual companion and admitted that she was attractive to him, which surprised him, as he hadn’t really thought of her in that light before now.

He pulled the string on the bow and let the last arrow fly, missing the target and splintering the shaft. “Well, shit,” he uttered to the empty air as he collected his arrows.

After he retrieved them all again, his peripheral vision picked up a small game animal out of the corner of his eye. In one motion, he set an arrow and loosed it, accurately hitting what he would find to be a possum. “Shadow’s gonna love that!”

He spent the rest of the day inside, reading his dictionary, thinking about Olivia, and then Sara, and pondering his own humanity.

Twilight was quickly approaching and Shadow returned, padding up to him and panting heavily. Alex removed the possum and tossed it to Shadow who tore at it ravenously.

He was more tired than he cared to admit and went inside, nightfall in full effect, but Olivia wasn’t back yet. He tried to wait up for her, but dozed off under the physical and emotional weariness of the day‘s events.

Sometime later, Alex heard the door open and saw Olivia come in. He recognized that she was okay, but seemed melancholy and heard her sobbing quietly again. He did not want to intrude upon her, and instead, let her have her necessary privacy as he fell asleep once more, rather uneasily.

***

Alex awoke to the sound of the floorboard creaking. He saw a shadow from behind him and spun to face the source.

It was Olivia, half-naked, topless, wearing only panties. Her hair was loose and hanging, no longer contained by her hair tie and it framed her face in a way that made her look altogether different. But, Alex did not have much time to ponder it as she closed the gap between them quickly.  “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s no bother, I wasn’t really sleeping anyway. Just startled me is all. Not used to having company other than the wolf.”

She dropped to the floor to lie beside him and her arms draped around his chest. He glanced over his shoulder into her blue eyes and she smiled warmly again.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m just cold,” she said, hugging him tightly. She seemed to be exploring his body running her hands all along his chest and shoulders at first. But, shortly after, he felt her hand as it began moving gradually down his abdomen and she proceeded further, stopping and feeling him over the top of his jeans, rubbing him gently and slowly. “And I haven’t been with a man I’ve truly wanted to be with in a very long time.”

“Are you sure about this?” Alex asked reflexively as she rubbed the shaft of his growing erection. It was becoming more difficult for him to give thought to anything else, but he listened as intently as he could.

“He was an ass, I already told you. We were…not intimate very often this past year or longer. Can’t even remember,” she admitted agonizingly. “I found out he was having an affair with a co-worker just before all this shit went down and I did nothing about it. I was stupid,” she added, her hands working along his shaft gently as they locked gazes. She started kissing him on the neck as he turned to face her and kissed her back, tugging at her panties, swept up in the moment, trying ineffectively to remove them, until finally she assisted him.

She helped him off with his pants and he climbed on top of her. He worked his hand inside of her and felt the familiar warmth as she continued to stroke him.

He stared at her and a fleeting thought of Sara entered his mind’s eye, stealing some of his libido, before disappearing altogether just as quickly. She grabbed him and placed him inside of her, oblivious to his brief, inner turmoil.

She was so wet and warm, and he closed his eyes, allowing himself to enjoy this brief and pleasant respite from this hell of a world.

He thrust inside of her and she moaned with delight. He started out slow, savoring the sensation, and gained momentum as she grabbed his ass and pulled him in harder. Repeatedly, he thrust himself into her while she grabbed at her own nipples, tugging on them and moaning as he did.

He felt the end coming and didn’t even hold it back as he let go with a groan of his own. She wrapped her legs around him and let it happen, watching him, soaking it in.

A moment of silence ensued and she smiled at him as he looked down at her and smiled back.

“I’m not done with you yet,” she said, sitting up and shoving him to the ground as she put her mouth around him. He wiped the sweat from his brow and allowed himself to enjoy it all. He felt her tongue and the wetness of her mouth on his resurgent erection and basked in the pleasure, her tongue cascading over the tip and then shifting gently over his balls. It wasn’t long before he was hard again.

He thrust inside of her once more and she threw her head back and moaned in ecstasy as he pumped in and out. He began a slow and steady pace, but she encouraged him to go faster this time and he obliged.

“Oh, yes!” she whispered delightedly and convulsed as an orgasm overwhelmed her. A moment or two passed and he allowed her to enjoy it, seeing beads of sweat against her skin in the moonlight of the window. It wasn’t until moments later when she stopped her gyrations and stared up him.

“I want you to cum again,” she said, pushing him out of her, turning to face away from him, getting on all fours. She backed into him as he remained on his knees, spread her legs again, and guided him inside of her as she threw her head back. Alex cupped her breasts in his hands as he leaned over her and began again. His hands moved over her back and ass, grabbing her thighs firmly as he drove inside of her hard. He continued to thrust in and out of her, faster and faster, until his legs and back ached from it. He felt an intensifying orgasm approaching and grabbed her hips tightly, pulling her against him and holding her fast as he climaxed. She smiled, looking back at him over her shoulder with a sidelong glance, her damp hair falling loose over her shoulders.

“Feel better?” she asked, collapsing to the hard floor and flipping over to face him. Her breasts were perfectly still, her nipples still firm as she wrapped her legs around him again and pulled him to her.

“Now shut up and just lay with me,” she asked as he was about to offer her a thanks, which would have sounded quite silly. “Don’t say another word.”

He obliged happily and allowed the weariness and relaxation to claim him as he closed his eyes.

Alex awoke, naked and bundled up beneath a few blankets. He hadn’t remembered the last time he slept so soundly. Olivia sat up staring at him and smiling. “Wasn’t expecting that, eh?” she said, holding his gaze.

“Not exactly that,” he said, matching her smile.

“Me either,” she admitted. “It kind of just happened. We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, though, so don’t go buying me an engagement ring,” she added as she sat up. Alex could not tell if her tone was serious or not, so he said nothing.

They got dressed and shared a freshly picked cucumber and a can of beef and bean chili mix in relative silence.

“Got anything to read here?” she asked, wiping gravy from her face.

“Yep, there’s a few books still in the back room and, I found a newspaper the other day. It’s still inside. They hadn’t got to that one, but they sure stained my dictionary,” he said, referring to the invasion of the zombies a few days prior. He went into the living room and fished out the paper and handed it to Olivia.

She opened it up and started rifling through it.

“I’m going to put together that bike I found in the attic and check out the map,” he said, swallowing the last of the cucumber. When he looked back at her, she was looking distraught, staring at one page in particular.

“Hey, what’s up?!” Alex asked with concern.

“This was my paper. I thought I lost it,” she whispered through a sob. She tried to hold tears back and turned to the obituaries. She then handed him the paper and he read a name that he did not recognize at first. Then as he read the description, specifically the names of the loved ones she’d left behind, he understood.

“That is your mother’s obituary,” he stated rather than asked. Again, she nodded. A long bout of silence passed as he tried to comfort her with a hand on her shoulder, which she grasped in return. He allowed her the time to cry once again, saying nothing as she did.

She grasped the paper and turned to the crossword puzzle, staring at it. “I started this puzzle, too. Couldn’t get three down! Drove me nuts,” she said with a laugh. Alex matched her smile and they sat again in silence a bit longer as she folded up the paper and placed it aside on the table next to her.

She looked at him with a furrowed brow suddenly. “Bike? What map?”

“Oh, yeah, I found a bunch of stuff up in an attic crawl space. Fishing gear, a bike, maps, some tools, stuff like that. I might even go fishing if I can find a river or lake around here,” he added excitedly.

“You do that. I’m going to go to the meeting point again today to try to find my sister.” He looked at her sympathetically and wondered if she would ever see her sister again—alive. He took a few steps away and turned to regard her once more.

“You sure you don’t want me to go with you?” She shook her head. “Then take the pistol again,” Alex offered, going into the cabin and retrieving his Beretta and a full magazine, and handing it over to her. “Be careful out there.”

“Thanks,” she said, tucking it in her belt at the small of her back. “What about you?”

“I’ve got a twelve gauge, Shadow, and my trusty bow. I’ll be fine. And if I get attacked, I’m on a bike,” he said with a laugh. “I should be able to outrun ‘em even if they just fed.”

“Just fed?” Olivia echoed.

“Yep. They are stronger and faster if they’ve recently…eaten. Did you not notice that?”

“Not really. I guess all of the ones we’ve run into, for the most part, seemed to be moving at a normal pace…until they caught sight of us…or smelled us. Once that happens, they run after you wildly. I’ve even seen a few of ‘em knock each other over trying to get at one of us.”

“Right, those would be the ones who…I guess they are starved, you know, ones that haven’t fed on flesh recently. I prefer ‘em that way,” Alex said with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, slow and weak, eh?”  He nodded to her.

“Well, they aren’t weak, just strong and strong-
er
. You sure you wanna go this alone? Again? I don’t mind taking the trip with you.”

“As always, Alex, I appreciate the offer,” she said, and he realized that her snubbing was affecting him, as he evidently soured notably at her. He hadn’t even realized he was doing it.

“It’s okay, man. Really!” she added, trying to boost him back up. “You do your thing, I’ll be back later tonight,” she said with a smile. Alex meekly grinned back at her. He still couldn’t help but feel unwanted in that moment.

“Meetcha back here for a roll in the hay?” she added, smacking him on the ass. He nodded and let it go, not wanting to pursue it. He also became very much aware that, based on what she had divulged of her past, that she had something of a heightened sexual appetite. He shook all of that away, not wanting to analyze or judge her in any way and realized instead that he had other things to do.

He made his way inside the cabin with that lingering thought, climbed up into the crawl space, and retrieved the map and the fishing gear. Then he pulled down the bike parts and assembled it quite easily. He was pleased to discover that it even had a wicker basket behind the seat to carry items.

“This dude had to be ex-military,” Alex said aloud, pondering how the man who lived here had known so much about surviving alone. “It’s more than a bit ironic that the man who planned for everything could not survive the zombie virus.”

He paused at seeing the foot snares and pulled them all down. He set them up around the perimeter, seven in all, and spaced them out in plain view. A human would see them for sure, but for a zombie, it would make no difference. He quickly dismissed the thought of camouflaging them, as he wanted Shadow and Olivia to avoid them.

“Good idea?” he asked her as placed the last one. She glanced up at him as she checked the magazine and the chamber to make sure the gun was ready to be fired.

“I guess so. What about Shadow?”

“I don’t think he will get caught. Too smart,” he said pointing to his head. “I’m more worried about you.” She laughed at the joke as he went back inside, gathered his canteen and knife, and strapped the blade to the scabbard on his belt.

When he got back outside, she was gone. Only Shadow remained and he had a dead groundhog in his jaws as he stood by the garden. “Nice work, buddy.”

He opened the map next and it was indeed of the local area as he had guessed. He noted with delight that there was indeed a river running north and south about eight or so miles to the west. It snaked east and west a bit, but mostly was north and south in its gait. He immediately packed up his shotgun, bow and quiver. Then he put the fishing gear in a duffle bag, placed it inside the wicker basket on the back of the bike, and looked over to Shadow. “You stay here, all right? No sense coming with me today, boy.” Shadow lay down, shaking the groundhog in his jaws and letting it go, and then looked up to Alex for a long moment as if he understood. “Guard our cucumbers. I’ll be back tonight.”

He decided at the last minute that the shotgun would suffice. He placed the bow and quiver back inside the cabin, but put them in the attic for safekeeping, and gathered a few more shotgun rounds. He opened the box and stared inside, and then decided to take a plastic drop cloth for wrapping, just in case he caught any fish.

He ran back outside, jumped on the bike and pedaled off to the west, down the hill, quickly finding a worn bike trail and sticking to it. He encountered none of the living dead along this path and was relieved at that, as he had to take frequent stops to adjust the gear in the wicker basket as it kept shifting.

A few hours later, he was relieved to hear the familiar sound of a rushing river in the distance and smiled, excited to drink in the setting…
and
the fresh water.

As he arrived, it was even better than he’d imagined. He bent low where the river ran over rocks and fell into line again, flowing south. He scooped a canteen-full into the container, believing it to be somewhat clean, and tasted it, savoring the cold liquid. It seemed to be clean to the taste, but certainly different from the well water.

He found a nice area with a stone bridge overlooking the water and made his way up to that vantage that overlooked the river. He took out the line and a lure, dug up a few worms in the moist soil beside the river, and tossed the line in. He was happy to enjoy such a once-simple pleasure as this and relished the activity.

As Alex tossed his line into the water and waited for a nibble, he thought about his most recent confrontation with the zombies. He could use a stick, or a spear to keep the undead at a distance. Using the knife was allowing them to get too close, he admitted, especially those who had recently fed. He considered that idea for several hours and pulled in a lone trout, which he was more than happy to have caught. It was a decent size and he hoped he could return to catch a few more before too long now that he found a nice place to fish. He immediately gutted it, and could not wait to cook it, he thought, as he tossed the gutted trout into the duffle bag, after first wrapping it in the plastic drop cloth.

Have to work with what we have
, he thought as he used some of the insides as bait and tossed the line into the water again. He also removed the shotgun from his back, placing it beside him. His thoughts shifted from Sara to Olivia and back again, feeling very odd about the arrangement. He was even feeling as though, in some way, he was cheating on Sara. After a few more moments, he understood the absurdity of that sentiment. However, it also brought to mind that he had no closure with his once and former wife.

He considered for the next hour or more, how they met, how she seemed to do everything in her power to make him happy, and the complete and utter love with which she showered him. She was always willing to do what he wanted to do, even though the only reason she did it at all was to make him happy. She always put everyone’s needs above her own. It was the reason he loved her and the reason that she would make an excellent mother to their child.

Now they were gone, taken from him in an instant, leaving him to fend for himself in this terribly cold and violent world.

Perhaps she sent Olivia to him for companionship, he considered for a moment. The irrationality of that thought again brought him to a sincere laugh. Olivia was so different from Sara in so many ways. But, he had no idea what Olivia was like before the world became…this. Perhaps she was very different. He believed that she only sought the same thing he craved in this world: companionship.

He wasn’t even sure if he believed in a higher being anymore, not after what was taken from him. He angrily renounced any beliefs he had that fateful day when Sara died. He also questioned the existence of a supreme being after seeing what happened to these innocent people. Ultimately, he knew deep down, that it was humanity’s fault that this plague occurred. He was unsure of the details, but he knew it was man-made.

Alex was always a believer in karma. He believed that if you did good things, good things would happen to you…eventually. He stared out at the water and chuckled again. “I’m alive and surviving. I guess you can consider that ‘good’,” he mentioned absently to the air as he stared skyward. He decided at that point that moving forward was exactly what Sara would want for him. She would always encourage him to do the right thing and never quit. And so, he decided that, to honor her memory, he would never quit on himself or anyone else from then on.

He reeled in the line and had another fish there. He was thankful to have even caught one, let alone a second. In that moment again, he believed that Sara had sent him this blessing and that she was looking down on him, favoring him.

But, before he could finish removing the fish from the line, he heard a groan followed by the sound of something no living being could utter. He turned to see a handful of undead heading up the trail toward him. He quickly retrieved his shotgun and the duffle bag and then jumped on the bike.

His heart sank as he realized there were at least a half dozen of them. There was no way he could kill them all, and they were approaching quickly.

He pedaled away, leaving the tackle box, fishing pole, and his latest catch behind, but had managed to put the first trout safely away inside the duffle bag. He pedaled hard, barely outpacing them as the off-road bike sped off along the trail.

He pedaled furiously, riding in one direction, which he believed to be northerly, as he followed the riverbank. After what had to be miles of riding, and ultimately leaving the pursuing zombies behind, he came to a bluff overlooking more of the countryside.

What he saw next amazed him.

Below in the valley, he could see a mass of tents. Past those tents, in the distance, was a gated area with building and flags, decorated like a carnival or something.