by Lee, Raymond
“I think you’re getting too much from a name.”
“No.” Pimjai’s eyes filled with sorrow. “I do not blame you. You are not the reason for the death. You are the sign.”
Maggie cried out for Pimjai.
“I must help. Clean up and come back to help me.”
Raven watched Pimjai enter the room and close the door as a cold trickle of sweat dripped down her back. She stood there for a moment, thinking about what Pimjai asked of her, then shook her head, hoping to shake out the images Pimjai’s words had planted there. The woman was just scared and stressed. She was talking crazy, plain and simple. The baby would be born and all would be fine.
She repeated that statement over and over in her mind, hoping the repetition would make it true, and turned to enter the room Jeremy had disappeared into. She found Jeremy sitting on the floor flipping through pages of a magazine. A pile of other magazines rested beside her, some open.
“What are you doing? You should be looking for fresh clothes and shoes.”
“Found them,” she said, nodding her head toward the folded pile of clothes on the bed, not looking up from the magazine. Shoes rested on the floor at the foot of the bed. Comfortable tennis shoes that would allow her to walk.
“Glad you found some good shoes,” she said as she approached to see what held Jeremy’s interest. “They have running water here. Damian’s in the shower now and we’re next.”
“OK.”
“Really? OK is all I get for that? What in the world are you looking at?” She crouched down next to Jeremy and looked at the magazine. Jeremy had it open to an interview with Cruz. “Why are you reading about Cruz?”
“Just learning about him.”
Raven frowned. “We’re with him everyday. What could you be learning about him from these magazines?”
“Just stuff.”
“Like?”
“Like … what he likes. Different things. Did you know he dated Sofia Menendez?” Jeremy twirled a lock of her blonde hair. “Do you think I’d look good brunette? Like Sofia Menendez?”
Raven rolled her eyes. “I think nobody gives a damn what color anyone’s hair is when zombies are out there prowling around, wanting to eat us. And I think Cruz is too old to even be thinking about.”
“When I’m twenty he’ll be thirty-six. That’s not that big of a difference.”
“It’s a huge difference, and right now you’re still a child and he’s a grown man so forget about it.” Raven closed the magazine and walked over to the closet. “Go downstairs. Cruz said he’d let us have the next showers.”
“You just want him for yourself.”
Raven turned to find Jeremy standing, fists clenched, glaring at her. “Are you freaking serious? Jeremy, that’s the last thing I’m thinking about or wanting right now. I just want to keep us all safe and alive. We don’t have time for crushes or any other distractions.”
“He cares about me even if I’m younger. He said he’d keep me safe,” Jeremy said as she grabbed the clothes off the bed, picked up the shoes from the floor, and left the room.
Raven sighed and rubbed her temples. Possible zombie babies and preteen crushes were not what she’d expected when she’d seen the house, nor the nonstop pain-filled wails coming from the room across the hall. She started shoving clothes around in the closet, searching for something in her size. She pulled out a black t-shirt and jeans, going for clothes that wouldn’t show blood because she could no longer see a future that didn’t involve getting bloody.
“Raven!”
She dropped the clothes, startled by Pimjai’s shrill cry, and ran to the room to find Pimjai struggling to hold Maggie down.
“Help me.”
Raven rushed to the other side of the bed to help with Maggie as the woman let loose a blood curdling scream.
Cruz and Damian burst into the room, weapons drawn.
“What’s wrong?” Cruz asked.
“Oh shit that’s nasty!” Damian exclaimed, having stepped far enough into the room to get a full view of Maggie’s most intimate parts. He gagged, covered his mouth with his fist and turned away. “If I wasn’t gay before I sure as hell am now! That ain’t even natural!”
Cruz glared at him as he lowered his gun, the tension easing out of his shoulders. “Everyone OK?”
“I think so,” Raven answered, still struggling to hold Maggie down as the woman tried her best to raise off the bed.
“One more big push, Mags!” Cliff instructed. “Give it all you got now and you’re done.”
They allowed the woman to sit up so she could push better, careful to keep her from raising her pelvis off the bed as she had been trying to do before and Maggie bore down, her teeth tightly gritted as she growled through the pain of pushing.
“It’s a girl,” Cliff said. “You were right, honey!”
Raven let out a sigh of relief as Maggie sank back against the pillows, completely spent, but one look at Pimjai’s pale face and her breath stilled. She turned toward Cliff at the same time Cruz pulled his gun. Damian stood next to him, mouth slack with shock, looking at the baby.
From her vantage point, Raven could only see the crop of dark, wet, curly hair and the back of its grayish-white, wrinkled skin as Cliff held its little body in front of him. The way his mouth trembled and eyes watered told her everything she needed to know before the sound of nightmares came from the baby’s mouth. It didn’t cry or wail. It moaned, the same gurgling, growl-like moan the rest of the zombies made, only this sound was much worse because it was the most innocent victim yet.
“Is she beautiful, Cliff?” Maggie asked, barely able to get the words out.
“She’s gorgeous,” Cliff answered, glaring at Cruz.
Raven walked over to Cruz and pushed his hand down, forcing him to lower the gun.
“Raven.”
“I know,” she said before he could say anything else in front of Maggie. She knew what needed to be done but it didn’t need to be done like this. The baby could be dealt with in a less gruesome way than blowing its tiny little brains out. She looked at it, seeing the face for the first time. Its eyes were milky white, its mouth open and closing as it reached for Cliff. It didn’t have any teeth but already hungered for flesh. She gasped.
“Let me see her.” Maggie raised her arms, the limbs shaking as she reached for the baby. “Let me nurse her.”
“Just a minute, Mags.” Cliff cut the cord with shaking hands, clamped it with a clothespin, and swaddled the baby in a pink cotton blanket before standing. He stepped around the bed.
Raven blocked him. “She can’t nurse it.”
“Why not? It’s our baby.”
“That thing is not a baby,” Raven said, voice lowered. “It doesn’t want milk. It wants flesh and blood.”
“She’s a baby. Our baby. We’ll raise her to be good.”
“She’s dead, Cliff. That baby died inside Maggie and the zombie virus kicked in. I know this must be hard to accept.”
“You don’t know anything!” Cliff bellowed. “This is my child and my wife is going to nurse her.”
“Cliff?” Maggie tried to sit up. “What’s going on? Bring me my baby!”
Raven took out the switchblade she’d found at the pawn shop and flicked it open. “Give me the baby and I’ll take care of her as gently as possible while you comfort your wife. You know this is what needs to be done. That baby will never grow. It’s not even alive.”
Cliff shoved Raven out of the way with a powerful swipe of his meaty arm and handed the baby to Maggie.
As Raven’s palms hit the floor, Maggie let out a cry of anguish. “Oh God, oh God! She’s dead!”
“She’s not dead, honey. See. Her eyes are open.”
Raven turned to see Cliff swing around with a pistol that had been hidden under the mattress. He pointed it at her.
“I think it’s time for you all to go now.”
“I think you need to take that gun off of her,” Cruz responded, his own gun
pointed at Cliff.
“Oh, you like her, do you?” Cliff moved his hand back and forth, but never took the gun off her. Raven stayed near the floor in a crouch, scared he would shoot on reflex if she tried to stand. “Unless you think she’d look better with a hole right through her forehead, you’d best put your weapons away and walk on out of here. I’ll let her go after you do. Pimjai, grab that other girl they brought with them. Bring her in here.”
Damian stepped toward Pimjai but didn’t need to.
“I will not,” Pimjai stated firmly. “Cliff, this is wrong. The baby is not right. These people are not to blame.”
“Do what I said, girl, unless you want to be on your own!”
Pimjai’s eyes hardened as she picked up the shotgun Cliff had left propped against the wall and pointed it at him. “Put the gun down, Cliff.”
“You put the gun down!” He said back.
“Two against one,” Cruz advised him. “You pull that trigger and you’re going to get bullets flying at you from two directions.”
The three continued yelling at each other to put the guns down, threatening to shoot, as Jeremy ran into the room to see what the commotion was about. Damian grabbed the girl and shoved her out of the room.
Cliff swung his gun toward them reflexively and Cruz saw his chance. He squeezed the trigger before Cliff could shoot. Cliff’s pistol dropped onto the bed as a red blossom spread across the shoulder of his shirt.
“You motherfucker!” Cliff screeched as he rebalanced and lunged forward to attack Cruz, knocking him backward. Cruz’s gun went off before it fell from his hand.
Raven turned toward Maggie to see her sitting up in the bed, looking down at the zombie in her arms, tears streaming down her face.
Standing next to the bed, Pimjai held her arm, face tight with pain.
“Were you hit?” Raven asked, standing.
“A scratch,” Pimjai answered, removing her hand to show the torn shirt and a blot of crimson blood staining the fabric. She stepped aside and Raven saw the hole in the wall behind her. She’d barely been missed.
Raven moved to cross the room and help her, but looking down at the men on the floor, she noticed Cruz pounding Cliff’s face in excessively.
“Cruz!” She grabbed on his arm before he could deliver another punch to the defeated man’s head. “He’s had enough.”
“He had a gun on you!”
“He was scared. He thought we’d hurt his baby.”
“His baby’s a freaking monster,” Cruz growled.
“Not to him.” Raven pulled Cruz to a stand, separating him from the bloody, injured man on the floor. “Let’s just let them deal with this tragedy without making it worse.”
“My baby is not a monster,” Cliff growled, sitting up with great difficulty.
A gunshot sounded. Raven turned toward the sound to see Maggie sitting up in the bed, arms limp at her sides, head thrown back, resting along the headboard, shattered as blood poured from the gaping wound left from the self-inflicted bullet.
Pimjai covered her mouth, screaming hysterically as Cliff roared and found renewed strength to pick himself up the floor and ram Cruz.
“You did this!” he screamed, knocking an unsuspecting Cruz down and pulling his good arm back to drive a punch into Cruz’s face. “You called our baby a monster!”
Cruz blocked the punch and rolled, pinning Cliff to the floor with one hand before delivering a series of fast, hard punches with the other.
“Enough!” Raven tried to pull him off the man as Damian entered the room.
“What the fuck?” He gagged, seeing Maggie’s dead body on the bed. “What the hell happened?”
“Just help me make Cruz stop. Where’s Jeremy?”
“Downstairs.” Damian grabbed Cruz and helped Raven peel him off the other man. “Told her to stay in the bathroom and don’t come out until we tell her. Chinese chick ok?”
Having pulled a still swinging Cruz off Cliff, Raven left getting him under control to Damian and crossed over to Pimjai.
“Pimjai.”
The woman had stopped screaming and now sat on the floor, arms wrapped around her raised knees, as she rocked back and forth.
“Pimjai, are you alright?” Raven kneeled next to her. “How’s the arm?”
“They’re dead.”
Raven looked at the bed, doing her best to not look at Maggie’s head. The mini zombie lay in Maggie’s limp arm making that awful gurgling, growling noise, its white eyes seemed to be staring at her.
“Just Maggie. The baby, or whatever you want to call it, is still alive. Well, it’s moving anyway.”
“No, I mean Maggie and Cliff. Your friend killed him.”
Raven turned her head to look at Cliff. His body rested on the floor, his face turning blue and purple, what could be seen of it under the blood. His nose was broken, for sure, set at an odd angle, his face messed up pretty bad, but dead? She looked up at Cruz and Damian.
Cruz shrugged Damian off. “Let me go, man. I’m good. This bastard isn’t going to give us any more trouble.”
“Because you killed him,” Damian said, crouching next to Cliff’s body. He placed his fingers on the man’s neck, checking for a pulse.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Then how else he die?” Damian asked, standing back up. “Because he’s definitely dead.”
“Cruz?”
They all turned toward the door to see Jeremy standing there, eyes wide. Before anyone could say a word she saw Maggie and started screaming.
Cruz grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand.
Glass broke downstairs. They looked at each other.
“You got a cat in here?” Damian asked.
Pimjai shook her head. “It was just us three.”
“All the yelling, screaming, and gunshots brought company,” Damian said as he walked over to the bed and picked up the pistol Maggie had killed herself with.
“You know how to handle that?” Cruz asked, pushing Jeremy toward the women.
“Born and raised in Oakland. I was gun trained long before you were, movie star.”
“Yeah, well, let’s use blades unless we absolutely have to fire,” he instructed as a loud moan found its way up the stairs, indicating their company was of the undead variety. “Ladies, we got this. You stay up here. You stay, Jeremy!”
He pushed the girl toward them again as she started to walk back toward him.
“I want to go with you. I can help.”
“You’ll get in the way. Stay here.”
Cruz and Damian left them to take on whatever had entered downstairs.
Raven knew she should focus on securing the upstairs in case something got past the men, but Jeremy stood there before the door, shoulders sagging, and she knew the girl was hurting.
“He just wants to make sure you’re safe, Jeremy. He cares about keeping you safe.” There, she’d give her that much of a pick-me-up but she didn’t want to feed into the girl’s fantasy of having some sort of romantic future with a grown man.
“He thinks I’m weak, but I’m not.” Jeremy turned toward her. “You’re not the only girl who can swing a knife around. I’ve killed them too. I can take care of myself. I killed that one in the van, not you.”
Pimjai looked between the two of them, confused. Raven shook her head and missed her sister more than ever. Had Sky ever been this jealous? No, Sky had loved her, wanted to be like her. She was Sky’s hero, right until she’d sent her straight to her own death.
“I’m going to help.”
Jeremy’s determined voice pulled Raven back from the awful memory and she looked up to see Jeremy grabbing the shotgun Cliff had left propped against the wall before delivering Maggie’s zom-baby.
“Put that down, Jeremy!” She stood up. “You don’t know how to shoot a gun.”
“It’s not rocket science. You point the thing and pull the trigger.”
“Oh, it’s easy, huh?” Raven placed her hands on her hips. �
�I hate to break it to you but there are tons of videos on YouTube of dumb kids who thought the same thing before injuring themselves playing around with guns. You need training.”
“Good thing I have zombies to practice on.” Jeremy turned for the door.
“Don’t even think about it.” Raven quickly stepped over to her and yanked her arm, turning her around. “Cruz told you to stay here with us so he and Damian can handle this.”
“He thinks I can’t do it. Once he sees how helpful I am he’ll want me at his side.”
“Oh really? You think getting in their way while directly disobeying him is going to make him like you more? What if you accidentally shoot one of them?”
“I’m just going to shoot from the stairs.” Jeremy tried to pull away but couldn’t get loose from Raven’s grip. “You’re not my mom and I’m not stupid. I’m just going to cover for them.”
“Maybe when you learn how to shoot. Until then, you stay away from guns.”
Raven grabbed the gun and tried to pull it free from Jeremy’s grip but the girl was strong for her age, or just really determined.
“Screw you, Raven!”
Or pissed, Raven concluded as she continued to struggle with the girl for the weapon.
“Raven!” Fear laced Pimjai’s voice.
“I’m getting it from her, Pimjai. Don’t worry.”
“No! It’s Maggie.”
Raven turned and swore, releasing the shotgun, which caused Jeremy to fall backward next to Cliff’s body with a loud oomph.
Maggie sat up in the bed, staring at her with white, smoky eyes. Raven blinked, sure she was dreaming. The woman had held a gun to the bottom of her chin and shot, blowing a hole out the back of her head. “How the hell did she miss her brain?” she asked as Maggie swung her legs off the bed.
Pimjai just shook her head and raised her knife as Maggie reached for her.
Jeremy screamed and Raven turned to see a practically faceless Cliff sitting up on the floor, his hands wrapped around her arms.
“Shit!” Raven grabbed the shotgun out of a panicked Jeremy’s hands and rammed the butt of it into the top of Cliff’s head repeatedly, until Jeremy was able to scamper away and Cliff no longer moved.