Time of Zombies (Book 2): The Zombie Hunter's Wife

by James, Jill

  Unzipping his pants, he slammed into her. His yells filled the air with the young woman’s cries.

  “You are mine, Michelle.”

  “You are mine, Michelle.”

  “You are always mine.”

  “You are mine.”

  A roar sounded from the corner of the shack. Billy Joe yanked back and pulled himself into his pants and zipped them up. He yanked Maya up against him and faced the intruder. Teddy Ridgewood stormed around the building to face him, murder in his eyes. The man’s teeth were bared in a growl like a wild animal.

  “Mr. Ridgewood, it is poor manners to disrupt a man making love to his wife.” He smiled and tried to put any amount of sincerity in his voice he could muster up. To do otherwise was to take the chance he was a dead man.

  “That wasn’t making love. You were abusing that poor girl. Someone needs to stop you.”

  Billy Joe grabbed his gun out of the holster and held it to Maya’s head. “Gonna stop me? I don’t think so. One step closer and Maya dies.”

  The girl sobbed and tried to hold her torn dress together.

  Teddy held his hands up. “Reverend Bennett, it don’t have to be like this. Don’t hurt her. I’ll stay right here and you can go on back home.”

  Billy Joe almost believed the man, except for his tense body ready to spring and the look in his eyes. The man heard him calling out Michelle’s name and he meant to kill Bennett for it.

  “I think we’ll play this my way, instead,” Bennett yelled, moving the gun to Maya’s back and shooting her. Before Teddy could move, he had the gun pointed at the big man’s chest.

  “You killed her,” Teddy screamed.

  “No I didn’t. I’ve given her resurrection. We just have to wait a little while.” The gun in his hand stayed steady as he grasped Maya’s long braid and held her up. Her cries weakened as her blood splashed onto the dry, hard ground. A sigh left her body and she went limp, only Billy Joe’s hand in her hair holding her up. In less than a moment, her body twitched and her legs jerked and straightened. A moan rose from her throat. Her hands reached out for Ridgewood, the only thing stopping her was Billy Joe’s hand in her hair. She moaned and her jaw snapped, her teeth chomping together.

  “We’re done here,” he uttered, pulling the gun again to the Resurrected’s back and sending a bullet laced with blood and guts into Teddy’s leg.

  The big man fell with a groan and his hands grabbed his leg. He let go of the thing that had been Maya and shoved her in Teddy’s direction. As she stumbled and fell on him with a loud groan and a grasping of hands, Bennett turned and walked away.

  “I’ll take care of Michelle for you,” he yelled over his shoulder.

  ***

  Teddy fought his way out of the nightmare. Again and again he heard Bennett saying Michelle’s name. Again and again he stumbled forward to find him hurting the young dark-haired woman. Again and again the bastard shot her and flung the body at him like so much garbage instead of a precious life wasted. His vision blurred with sweat as he struggled to keep the undead girl from biting him. He reached with searching fingers and found his knife. Pulling it, he stabbed it into her temple with a sickening crunch. Hot blood gushed over his chest.

  He flung the girl one way and the knife the other. Pushing up from the ground, he searched for Bennett, but double and triple versions of the scenery provided no one around him. He got his leg under him, but it folded and he collapsed to the ground. A groan escaped him.

  At the sound of rushing feet, he scrambled to find the knife. He turned to find Josh and Suz running around the edge of the building.

  “Teddy,” they whispered loudly. “What happened?”

  He mumbled a reply of scrambled words and everything went dark.

  Opening his eyes, he found it dark still. He rubbed his face. He remembered light and pain and Michelle. His flung-out hand found no one in the darkness. Noises intruded. Yells and moans and cries filled the compound.

  “Mr. Teddy,” a young voice cried over the pounding of a fist on the metal door of the motor home. “We need you.”

  “I’m coming,” he yelled, pushing up from the bed. Whatever the doctor had given him must have worked. He stood and only swayed slightly. He couldn’t put full pressure on his leg, but limping along seemed to work.

  He pushed open the door and found the RVers huddled in a group there. Dylan wrapped around Bryant like an extra attached limb.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, stepping slowly down the stairs.

  Six voices, because he noticed Sarah and Stephanie Madison with the boys, all talked at once. He held up a hand. “Aidan, you tell me.”

  “At dinner, some people said they didn’t feel so good. Beth and Jed ran away when they were supposed to watch us like the doctor said. Mom went after them, even though we tried to stop her. The sick people are skinbags now and attacking people.” He took a long breath as he finished his ramble.

  His heart sank. He only heard Michelle went after the runaways until the screams filtered through the fog of his brain. “What sick people? Nobody was sick. Never mind. You kids all get in the trailer here. I’ll be back.”

  Dylan started crying harder. “That’s what Mom said too, and she didn’t.”

  He scooted them into the motor home. “One thing at a time. Now, kids.”

  Teddy shut the door and leaned his back against it. Mayhem ruled the yard. Thrashing bodies and gunshots overloaded his semi-drugged senses. In the middle of the melee he spotted Seth. Rushing over as fast as he could limp, he bowled into several shambling, moaning women and sent them to the ground. Seth turned and handed him a machete.

  Once they dispatched the undead near them, they moved to help Shannon and Jim fight off a man trying to drag the doctor to the ground. Teddy waded in, shoving Shannon one way and the skinbag the other. Seth jumped in to put a knife through its skull.

  Except for some crying, the yard was silent again.

  He turned to Seth. “Where in the hell is Michelle?”

  “What do you mean, where is she? She’s with the kids, isn’t she?”

  “The kids came to me. Something about Beth and Jed running away and Michelle going after them.”

  Jim Evans pushed himself up from the doorway of the trailer, coughing like he was about to hack up a lung. “Where’s Beth?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, but I have a real good idea. I’m going to talk to the kids and get the whole story.”

  By the time he got to the hospital trailer, he just gathered up all the children and brought them back to where the others who were still alive were gathered.

  Shannon had gotten a chair and put Jim in it, wrapped in a comforter. Seth had an arm around Joseph Jones’ shoulders. The man was bent over, crying, his eyes red-rimmed and blood coating his hands. His husband, Bob was not at his ever-present spot by his side.

  The boys grabbed a bench and pulled it over. The kids sat down, oldest to youngest, Dylan huddled with Connor and the Madison twins in a sniveling ball.

  Teddy went over and leaned against the trailer with a sigh, his thigh on fire and screaming in pain. “Aidan, start at the beginning.”

  “Jed and Beth were watching us in the office because everyone got sick and Dr. Shannon said we would be safe in the storeroom. Beth told Jed that now was the perfect time to go after Bennett because no one was guarding the walls. They made us promise to stay in the storeroom, but they went out a back window and over the fence. When Mom came to check on us she made us tell her everything too. She took Ran and Cody and they went after Beth and Jed, but they aren’t back yet. Then all the noise and yelling and shooting started and we ran to get Mr. Teddy.”

  “Why would she go?” Jim muttered. “I thought she was all better.”

  “She went to kill that sick bastard,” Dylan piped up, with all the kids nodding along.

  Jim struggled to get up from his chair, falling back and coughing until he was red in the face. “I have to save her.”

&
nbsp; Shannon put her hands on his chest. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

  The man started crying and Teddy looked away. He was a mess too with the slightest pressure on his leg sending shock waves of pain to his head, but no one was stopping him from going and getting Michelle away from Bennett.

  Or die trying.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rule #13 Say what you mean and mean what you say. Your word is the only thing of value you have left in the zombie apocalypse. Unless a lie will save your ass. Then lie your head off.

  Michelle sat on the grimy carpet and shivered as Bennett’s fingers trailed along her bare shoulders. She would throw up if her stomach still held anything to lose after the first two times, the last on Billy Joe’s leg. That got her a backhanded slap to the face and the tearing off of his shirt and her tank top underneath.

  She took a deep breath and held it. Anything she was suffering was nothing to the pain and degradation Jed and Beth had been through. The young man was tied to a pillar, his back a mess of cuts and blood. He’d stopped screaming forever ago, the only sound the lashing of a belt against his torn skin.

  Tears filled her eyes at Beth tied to another pillar, her skin cut in so many places that Michelle wasn’t sure the girl still lived. Someone had carved whore across her slightly sagging post-pregnancy stomach. Her long brown hair covered her face, but wisps of it blew with each ragged breath.

  The coppery stench of spilled blood gagged her as she fought to keep the bile from spewing forth again. A hand dug into her hair and pulled her head back, the wood of Bennett’s ‘throne’ digging into her bare back between her shoulder blades.

  “Do you see what we do to the unfaithful? God has put me in charge of spreading His word, of making sure we are true and devoted to the right way of living.”

  He pulled her head harder, forcing her back to arch and bringing her breasts within reach. He grabbed a nipple with his fingers and twisted. She pressed her lips together but her moan of pain escaped her throat. Her fingers itched to pull the gun from her boot and put one between Billy Joe’s cold blue eyes, but the large man whipping Jed stopped her. She’d never get Bennett and his henchman and she wasn’t any good to Jed and Beth if she were dead.

  His tight hold relaxed, his fingers strumming across her pebbled nipples, hard in spite of herself. The other hand smoothing her hair and fondling the strands. Her gorge rose. She’d rather he beat her or cut her or torture her, not this pseudo-petting he seemed to think she enjoyed.

  “Are you a virgin?” he asked, his silky tone hissing, bringing the serpent in the garden to mind.

  “Of course not,” she huffed. “I was married before the flu pandemic and the Z virus.”

  “He isn’t here now, though, is he?”

  She turned her head to stare at him. “No, he was attacked and turned. I had to shoot him.”

  “What about now? Have you been faithful to his memory?”

  She blushed and looked away. “That is none of your business.”

  His hand twisted in her hair and he yanked her off the ground and into his lap. He grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. She shuddered at his crazed eyes, his fingers digging into her skin.

  “Or have you been a whore like Beth there and spread your legs wide for every man at your camp?”

  She swallowed her inhaled breath and choked and coughed. “Beth is not a whore and neither am I. And even if I were, it is no business of yours. My body belongs to me. I’ll give it to whomever I wish.”

  His hand left her face and latched onto her crouch in a painful grip. “You are a woman. You are weak and willful. Your only place is under a man. Your only place is under me.”

  The laughter came from some hidden place. A reckless side she didn’t know she had. “As if I would have you after Mitch. He was a wonderful man. He was kind and sweet and loving. He had more goodness in his toenail than you have in your whole body.”

  “What about Teddy Ridgewood? Was he kind and sweet and loving too?”

  “No,” she uttered, and then spit in his face. “He is big and powerful and can fuck all night.”

  A look of disgust crossed Bennett’s face just before he shoved her off his lap and she hit the floor with a thump of her hip.

  “I hope you enjoyed his fucking. Unless you have a thing for the undead, as you call them. After I shot him and threw a resurrected woman at him, I’m sure there isn’t much left of Mr. Ridgewood.”

  “You really should learn to shoot better.” Teddy isn’t dead. He was there when I left.”

  He stood up and planted his foot on her chest. Her breath caught and stopped, trapped in her lungs. She couldn’t breathe as Billy Joe pressed his foot harder and harder against her. She pushed hands against his leg, the edges of her vision turned to gray and the blood left her brain, making her light-headed. Dizziness filled her, silence roared in her ears.

  He lifted his foot.

  She sucked in a breath.

  He stomped on her chest.

  Pain surrounded her. A rib cracked. Her screams echoed in the room.

  Blackness beckoned and she ran for it. Anything to escape the pain.

  ***

  “Damn, damn, damn,” he bellowed, kicking Michelle in the side. She rolled over and moaned.

  “Elias,” he screamed. “Stop whipping that boy, he’s got to be dead by now. Go roundup the men. We’re attacking the RV yard. Teddy Ridgewood is going to be dead by the end of the night.”

  The big man dropped the leather belt to the floor and lumbered down the hallway. The sound of a slamming door echoed into the church a moment later. Michelle’s mewling cries irked him. Why did women make you hurt them? All they had to do was know their place. You could treat them like queens if they let you.

  He flung himself into his chair. Jed’s moans and Beth’s sobs indicated they weren’t as dead as he thought. Leaping out of the chair, he grabbed the belt Elias had dropped and added a few whacks to the boy’s lacerated back. The sound of the leather connecting to bloody flesh, the young man’s groans of agony, and the power of dispensing deadly punishment was an aphrodisiac. His erection pounded in his pants, the blood pooled in his groin.

  He dropped the belt and marched over to Michelle’s unconscious body. Undoing her jeans, he ripped them down to her ankles, too inflamed to pull her boots off. He undid his own pants, crouching over her, when the door slammed again and footsteps pounded down the hall.

  Elias slid to a stop at the entrance to the church. “Reverend Bennett, the Resurrected are loose. Someone let them out of the cages. They are all over the parking lot and trying to get in the windows and doors.”

  He stood up and fixed his pants. Whipping around, his face heated, he glared at Elias. “Well, get some men to round them up. You can manage that, can’t you?”

  “They’re gone.”

  “Who’s gone? I thought you said the Resurrected were around the building.”

  “The men, sir. They’re all gone.”

  He paced back and forth, a step in each direction, with the beat in his head pounding a tempo of pain. “I want their women and children. They will pay the price for their men’s mutiny.”

  “The families are gone too. The only women left are these two,” Elias said, his eyes darting to Michelle on the ground and Beth tied to the pillar. “And your wife and mine.”

  “This is a trap. The RV camp attacked us before we could attack them.”

  “Are you sure, sir? I didn’t see anyone outside. Just the undead wandering around.”

  “They are the Resurrected, damn it,” Bennett yelled. “And they didn’t let themselves out of the cages.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Rule #14 Protect the woman you love. She is worth dying for ... even to the undeath.

  “I’m going with you,” Seth said with a growl.

  Teddy put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “You are not. You are staying here with Miss Emily and the children. If I don’t make it back ...” He swallow
ed harshly. “Take the kids and go with Jack and the others.”

  Sweat dripped off his face and ran into his eyes. The effort of dressing had his nerves jangling. He slid a knife into the sheath on his belt and slammed his gun into the holster. Seth handed him a machete.

  “Tell Miss Emily I’m coming back with Michelle, or I’m not coming back at all.”

  Seth nodded and turned away, his shoulders slumped as he walked to his trailer. With them all talking at once, he was surrounded by the Rogue Vantage. Aiden’s eyes were red and wet streaks ran down his cheeks. Bryant took a deep breath and pulled his shoulders back. Connor and Dylan looked up at him with belief shining in their eyes. He wouldn’t let them down.

  “I’ll get your mom back and the others. I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Bryant said, glaring at him.

  He shook his head. “You’re right. I won’t bullshit you. I could get killed. But that is all that will stop me. You understand? I will die to get your mother back to you. If we don’t make it, go with Miss Emily and Seth.”

  The boys swarmed him in hugs. His eyes watered and he blinked to clear them. Stepping back, he patted each on his back and watched as they turned and walked away. Dylan went last, turning every few steps to stare at him, before Connor took his hand and pulled him to the fire.

  “Jack.” A woman’s scream resounded from the front gate. The hairs on his arms rose at the desperation inherent in the simple word.

  By the time he hobbled his way to the entrance, Jack had it open and a petite woman stumbled into the man’s arms.

  “Lila,” Jack whispered. “What happened?”

  “He took her,” she mumbled through her split lips. “Juan took her.”

  Now Teddy recognized Mrs. Morales, even with the rags barely covering her bruised and cut body and her chopped off hair.

  “Juan took who?” the commander questioned, sprawling on the cement with Lila cradled in his arms.