by Nord, K. C.
"I wish that I knew," Norah said with a haunted look.
" They didn't deserve this," I said. "But then again, none of us deserve what this life has dealt us. All that we can do is to make the best of things and try to do what we can to make things better."
Mollie took another deep breath and straightened her shoulders, " Thanks, I needed to hear that." She said with a determined look.
"I just hope that we can make things better," Norah said with a troubled look on her face.
"First, we need to figure out how to get this situation under control. Because right now, they have us pinned down pretty good with only two of us in here who are armed," I replied.
"I will check with the parishioners that are in the chapel," Mollie replied. "Most of them are pretty traumatized, so I'm not sure how much help they will be."
BESIDES MOLLIE'S HUSBAND Adam, who was doing his best to keep everyone calm, there were six women and five men of various ages in the chapel. And it was immediately evident that most were too devastated to be of much help. And I couldn't blame them; seeing your friends and family members turn into vicious feral beasts would be more than most people could take.
Looking around the room, I recognized a young blonde woman standing by a door and supervising some small children playing in the nursery area. It was Penny, the waitress.
"How are they doing?" I asked, crossing the room to look inside the nursery door.
Penny gave a start when I spoke, "Kaley, I didn't know that you were here!"
"We just stopped by to speak with the pastor,' I explained.
Penny nodded; her face was lined with worry, but she still seemed calmer than most everyone else in the room. "It's hard to tell; children are pretty resilient, and most of them were inside playing games at the time, so I think that they were spared the worst of it."
"Did you see how this all started?" I asked.
"No, not really. I was inside with the children; this was my friend Mollie's first time hosting a picnic, so I offered to help out with the kids. Anyway, when I heard the screams and saw what was going on outside, I locked the nursery door so that we were safe inside."
"So, you were with the children the whole time?"
"Yes," she replied. "Several of them are too young to be left unsupervised."
"Then none of them would have been able to lock anyone inside the basement," I mused aloud.
"No, they wouldn't have had a chance," Penny answered.
"Penny, do you know that guy?" Norah asked, indicating a dark haired young man in his early twenties sitting alone in the corner of the room.
"No, I don't think that I've ever seen him before," she replied.
"Why do you ask?" I wondered.
"It's probably nothing," Norah answered. "But I've been getting some odd vibes off him. It's hard to explain, but something seems a little off about him."
Penny nodded, "now that you mention it, I got the same feeling from him as well."
I took a quick look across the room and saw that he was watching us before quickly looking away when he noticed me. "You're right, it's probably nothing, but it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on him," I suggested.
"I'll say something to Mollie," Penny replied and immediately crossed the room to have a word with her friend.
"What about the roof?" Norah asked as we stood there, watching the children play.
"What do you mean?"
Norah grimaced," I didn't mean just to blurt that out, but I think that if we went onto the roof, it would be a lot easier to pick off the zombies."
"It sounds like a plan to me," I replied. " Besides, I just can't see myself waiting around here for someone, however long that might take to come and rescue us."
WE LEFT MOOSE INSIDE with Penny and the children who were really taking a liking to him. Before we crawled through a small window out onto the slanted roof to get a better look around. From up here, we could get a good view of the front and back of the church. There were several zombies in the front and a few just standing around in the back. With no prey in sight, the zombies were standing listlessly in place, making them an easy target.
I raised my shotgun and took aim on the closest zombie's head before firing, "this is almost too easy." I remarked to Norah as we watched it topple over.
"Just don't get too cocky," she replied with a grin as she sighted a zombie just to the left of the one that I'd just killed.
The gunshots were starting to agitate the zombies a little as they began to move around the outside of the church. This made it just a little more of a challenge, and we started making bets on who would bag the most. I know this sounds heartless and even slightly morbid, but you have to understand what it takes to live in a world like this. Sometimes just to get through the day, you had to find some humor in things that weren't funny.
We were both very much aware that these zombies used to be someone's loved ones. Which is the main reason that we came up here in the first place so that they wouldn't have to be put in the position of maybe killing a former loved one or friend.
My train of thought was interrupted when I heard a gunshot from the end of the parking lot, and I turned to see that five horsemen had ridden into the church's parking lot. The local militia had arrived; fascinated, I sat and watched as they waged war on the zombies.
As you may know, animals have an extreme aversion to zombies, so you wouldn't think that fighting one on horseback would be a good idea. But, these horses were so well-trained that they almost seemed as one with their rider, anticipating their every move with a precision that was beautiful to watch.
The horsemen were using guns and sometimes swords to finish off the zombies, and as I watched, one of the men dismounted to finish off a crippled zombie that was crawling across the ground towards him. But what he didn't realize was that while he was occupied with the first zombie, another had come up behind him.
When it was about five feet away from him, I stood up and carefully took aim before taking it out with one precise headshot. Surprised, the man whirled around just in time to avoid the falling zombie's body. He looked up at me, standing on the roof, and raised one hand in acknowledgment before remounting in one swift move.
"I'll go inside and let everyone know that help has arrived," Norah called as she slipped back through the window.
"Sounds good; I'm just going to concentrate on the few that are left in the back since they are taking care of the ones out front," I replied as I moved to the back of the church roof. The three remaining zombies were extremely agitated from the sounds of the fighting out front, but being the typical zombie, they were too stupid to figure out what to do. This made it a simple matter for me to finish them off.
I was turning to go back inside when I saw a flash of movement in my peripheral vision; turning, I noticed that a young boy probably about 12-years-old was making a run for the back door of the church with a zombie in hot-pursuit just a few yards behind him. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the door was locked and that another zombie from the front was making its way to the church's corner.
Hitting a moving target is a lot harder than hitting a stationary one, but I did manage to take out one of its legs and considerably slow the zombie that was pursuing the boy. Unfortunately, because of the angle of the roof, I had lost sight of the other zombie. Realizing that time was of the essence, I jumped over the edge before dropping to the ground between the boy who was beating on the door and the rapidly approaching zombie.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I jumped from the roof and hit the ground just a few feet between the boy who was beating at the door and the zombie who had just come around the corner of the church. My landing was a little harder than I anticipated, and my right ankle twisted, causing a sharp twinge of pain as I fell to one knee and dropped my shotgun in the process.
By now, the zombie was dangerously close; I reached for my handgun, knowing all the while that I might not have time. As I pulled the gun from its holster, a loud shot ra
ng out, and the zombie fell back against the side of the church before slowly sliding to the ground, leaving a gory smear of blood and brains across the side of the building.
Next to the child zombies, I've always found this type (freshly turned) of zombie to be more than a little unsettling. Besides looking a little paler than usual, they could easily be mistaken for a normal person as they hadn't had time to start the slow process of decomposing. But one glance into their dead eyes was usually enough to cue you in.
I shuddered and scooted away from the now-dead zombie that had fallen about a foot away from me. His eyes were wide open and seemingly fixed on me, but the top of his head was completely blown away with brain matter all over the ground and the side of the building behind him.
Looking up, I saw that same horseman that I'd saved from the zombie a few minutes ago had now repaid me in kind. I tried to stand up, but as soon as any weight was put on my ankle, it threatened to give way.
"Here, let me help you," he said and swiftly dismounted before extending a hand to help me stand and hobble over to a stone bench. I gave a faint sigh of relief as he gently slid my boot off my slightly puffy ankle.
"It's just a slight sprain," he said. "I think that if you try and stay off it for a day or so, it'll be completely fine."
"Thanks for the help," I replied. Looking into his deep blue eyes, I mused that he was probably the most handsome man I'd ever seen. And quite a bit younger than I'd first thought. While it's true that I don't get out as much as some people, he was still a very striking looking man, tall and lean yet muscular with chiseled features and an air of authority that seemed older than his years.
"I'm Kaley Black," I said, extending my hand. And then he opened his mouth, after that, my hero became the most annoyingly difficult person that I'd ever had the misfortune to meet!
"I'm Captain Nick Monroe; in the future, I would advise you to leave the zombie fighting to the professionals. Jumping off the roof like that put your life as well as that boy's life at risk."
Angrily, I yanked my hand back, " If I hadn't helped you a few minutes ago, you wouldn't even be here right now."
"I had things under control," he replied evenly.
"Oh, really, well from where I was standing, it looked as if you were about to become that zombie's dinner." With that, I grabbed my boot from his hand and, unwilling to force my still aching foot back into it, gingerly walked barefoot over to the door, all the while praying that my ankle wouldn't give out on me and ruin my dignified exit.
"You really shouldn't be walking on that," he called after me with a hint of laughter in his voice that made me even more annoyed.
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, I was woken by the sound of horses whinnying and the clop of hooves in the courtyard. Climbing out of bed, I peered out the window to see several horsemen milling around outside. One of the men dismounted and gave his reins to another who led the horse around back while he walked up to the kitchen door.
"Oh great," I groaned and headed for the door with Moose at my heels. I'd just finally got him trained to sleep through the night without having to go outside, and here we were again, up at the crack of dawn.
"What do you want," I said rudely when I opened the door to come face-to-face with an equally surprised Nick Monroe.
"I'm here to see Celeste LeBlanc-" he started to say.
"She's not up yet; come back in an hour." I snapped and closed the door in his face. Sure it was petty of me, but something about him got under my skin like nobody else. I yawned and briefly considered crawling back into my warm bed when Moose whined, looking at the door. "Oh, all right, let's go for a walk," I grumbled and walked out barefoot into the garden. My ankle was still slightly sore and puffy so I really didn’t want to try and wear my boots just yet. Luckily, I'd already grabbed my handgun and holster before leaving my room as I vowed never to be caught unarmed again.
I sat down beside the fountain and yawned as Moose noosed around the rocks trying to catch a large toad that had jumped into the water to escape him. I couldn't help but laugh when he stuck his whole head into the fountain only to come back up snorting loudly with a leaf instead of the toad in his mouth.
Hearing a laugh behind me, I turned to see that Nick had managed to walk up without my noticing.
"Your dog is quite a character," he remarked.
"Moose is still a pup," I answered carefully, waiting for his next snarky comment, which surprisingly never came.
"As large as he is I bet he probably eats a lot," he said while letting Moose sniff his hands before the pup flopped down on the ground and started chewing on a stick.
"He does, but he's worth it," I replied, wondering how long this awkward conversation was going to last.
After several moments of uneasy silence, Nick cleared his throat, "I feel like we've got off on the wrong foot in some way."
I gave a sarcastic laugh, " that might have something with you feeling the need to lecture me."
"Well, if you hadn't messed up, I wouldn't have felt the need to lecture you, and like it or not, if I hadn't come along when I did, your carelessness would have gotten you killed."
"That's it," I snapped and jumped to my feet. "It's way too early in the morning for me to have to put up with you!" With that, I walked into the kitchen, leaving him out in the rose garden. But not for long as he followed me inside.
"Why are you still here?" I asked, feeling more irritated by the minute as I slammed down a tray of sweet rolls on the table.
Nick closed the door behind Moose and leaned casually against the wall with one foot crossed over the other, "You might as well get used to having me around."
I looked at him in silence, waiting for him to elaborate, but of course, he made me ask, "what exactly does that mean?"
"We've been assigned for the immediate time being as protection to the LeBlanc household."
"What!"
"Because of possible stalking and some vandalism that occurred the other day when someone tried to take out the generator -"
"Wait, someone tried to take out the generator?" I interrupted, but he kept talking as if I'd never interrupted.
"Celeste sent word to my commander that she needed protection."
I frowned in surprise, "I know that we thought someone was watching us a couple of times, but we didn't actually know for sure."
Nick picked up a sweet roll taking a large bite, and I waited impatiently for him to swallow before answering me. "Hey, these are great! You wouldn't happen to have any coffee, would you?"
I rolled my eyes, "If I make some coffee, will you please answer my questions?"
"As long as there's cream and sugar, you can ask me anything," he said with an engaging grin as he helped himself to another sweet roll.
"What makes you think that someone is stalking us?" I asked while setting out the cream and sugar for him to help himself.
Nick took a sip of coffee, "If you know what to look for, there are plenty of signs that this household has been under surveillance at least since you arrived here and possibly before."
Stunned, I stared at him in silence for a moment, trying to process it all, "what do you think that they want?"
"I have no idea, but we're here to make sure that they don't get it," he answered.
THINGS DIDN'T CHANGE all that much over the next couple of days except for the fact that every time I turned around, the infuriating Nick Monroe seemed to be there. And we no longer had as much freedom as before. Now any time one of us left the house, we had to have either Nick or one of the other soldiers with us as protection. Which is something that didn't go over all that well with me at the time. After being cooped up in the house for several days, I was dying to get out; it also didn't help that I was getting more and more frustrated about not being able to do anything about finding my twin.
So early one morning, I decided to take Moose for a run and get some fresh air. We both enjoyed running but hadn't been able to do so for a while, and this seemed like the perf
ect time when most everyone else was still inside sleeping. There is always something so peaceful about early morning runs that I enjoy.
We'd probably only run about a quarter of a mile when I became aware that someone was following us. I slipped my weapon from its holster and turned to see Nick just coming around the corner on the trail.
"Why are you following me?" I snapped.
He stopped a couple of feet away, and I was amused to see that his breathing wasn't quite as even as he might have wanted.
"Nobody leaves the property without an escort," he replied calmly.
I sighed loudly, "I don't need an escort; I can take care of myself just fine."
"I don't make the rules; I just enforce them."
"Ok, fine," I replied coldly. " I just hope that you can keep up with us."
I was amazed to see that he did manage to keep up reasonably well, but he was breathing pretty heavily by the time we got back to the house.
"I like to run every morning, so I guess we'll see you again at 6:00 in the morning," I said sweetly.
"I'll be looking forward to it," he replied with an infuriating smile that I just wanted to slap off his face. I'm not usually prone to violence, and I'm definitely not one of those silly girls who live to stir up drama. Still, this man could get under my skin like nobody else.
I stormed into the kitchen, and Celeste, who was up making coffee, smiled in sympathy. "Men can be annoying at the best of times, dear, but he means well."
"I know," I grumbled. "But every time he opens his mouth, I end up wanting to kill him."
Norah, who had come in the room in time to hear the last of my sentence, burst out laughing, "I bet I know who you're talking about."
"Who else," I said and mixed a little chocolate into my coffee, which was, I'd decided the only way to drink it.
"I've known Nick all of my life, and if you give him a chance, he's a pretty nice guy," Norah said, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.