Love in the Time of the Dead

by Tera Shanley

  Laney cleared her throat in search of anything that would clear her head of her persistent thoughts of Jarren. Mel’s home wasn’t the place to cry.

  Hello, leader of Dead Run River. It seems you have heard a lot about me. I’d like to squash that by blubbering uncontrollably on your shoulder. Nope.

  “Beautiful house you have,” she said instead as Mel gestured for everyone to take a seat on the comfortable looking couch and chairs around a great stone fireplace.

  “Thank you. I decorated it myself. Believe it or not, this is the house I lived in before the outbreak. I used to be a ski instructor in the winters and I would pick up a couple of jobs in the summers down in Breckenridge. For me, this place was paradise. Still is in some ways.” She took a seat in a large dark leather chair across from them. “I think being a native and a survivor and knowing the area so well is what established me as leader of the Dead Run River colony.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” Sean interjected. “You are the leader here because you are capable. People flock to your colony, and even choose to settle right outside of it because you are a natural at providing structure and safety for them.”

  “Flatterer,” she laughed.

  Sean shrugged unapologetically.

  “I must say,” Mel said, turning her attention back to her. “You look so much like your picture. Whoever drew your likeness must have had real talent.”

  What in Hades was that woman talking about? Laney looked to her team, who seemed to be exactly as confused as she was. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you saying you have a picture of me?”

  Mel smiled attractively. “Follow me. I have something to show you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  MEL LED THEM TO AN OFFICE SPACE, which was exactly as one would expect such a room to look like, except for one thing. The largest wall of the rectangular room was completely covered with lists, pictures, letters, and pleas. Organized chaos at its best. Most colonies had a bulletin board to try to reunite friends and family members that had gone missing or been separated. Most went sadly unanswered, but everyone living had heard a tale or two about the success stories. The boards gave people hope.

  Mel walked directly over to the left hand side of the wall and plucked a small, gray piece of paper from the pin that held it securely in place. She handed it to Laney. On it was a simple picture of her and Adam. It had brief descriptions of them both and a short plea that gave directions on how Adam Leary could get in contact with Laney Landry, who was searching for him.

  She crumpled the paper against her chest as her heart shattered into a million shrapnel fragments. The picture of the man she thought she’d marry was so unexpected that for a split second, all she had been through promised to become too much.

  Mitchell had drawn the flyers up in the beginning, and they had sent them with everyone they knew to be traveling in different directions. All had gone unanswered.

  If she talked quietly, maybe the shake in her voice wouldn’t be so noticeable. “May I please throw this away?”

  “But why? I mean—” The woman opened her mouth to say more but seemingly changed her mind and switched directions. “This drawing made it to the Breckenridge colony. When Breck fell, we recovered the board and it was the beginning of our own.”

  She nodded and swallowed hard as she handed the picture to Mitchell. History or not, she didn’t want it. “You can do whatever you want with it, Mitchell. May I use your restroom?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Mel said. “There’s an outhouse in the back.”

  “Thanks.”

  She ignored Mel’s directions and veered toward the river. Darkness had fallen, but the moon was full and enough light filtered through the thick trees for her to see. She washed her hands and face in the frigid snow-melt waters. She wiped her face dry on the bottom hem of her shirt and pulled clean, pine-scented air into her lungs once. Twice. She clasped her shaking hands together to steady them. The gooseflesh on her arms told her that though it may still be early autumn, the nights in the mountains would be bone chillingly cold.

  A deep and familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. “Guist and I are going to work for a jacket for you first thing. You’ll get sick in weather like this.”

  She tried to smile her thanks to Mitchell, not bothering to stand. His tiny, perfect nipples were puckered tightly against the thin shirt that covered them. “You need one too.”

  “True, but you are more important. You know, being the cure and all.”

  She snorted. “I’m nobody’s cure.”

  “You okay?” he asked her after a few moments of contented silence.

  Genuine concern from Mitchell was new and uncharted territory. She must have looked even more pathetic than she felt. “It was just unexpected, you know? I haven’t seen Adam’s face in so long.”

  “I know,” he said simply. “Come on.”

  He pulled her hand and held it as he led her through the back door of Mel’s house. His hand was strong and warm, and somewhat disturbingly comforting. When they were back in Mel’s great room, Mitchell motioned for her to take his seat closest to the fire and he took her seat on the couch next to Finn and Guist.

  Guist filled them in. “Sean is speaking with Mel in private to talk about what happened to his colony. Mel said her second in command is coming in to give us housing assignments and take job assignment applications. She’s going to set up a meeting with the colony doctor first thing in the morning and she’ll hand out our official job assignments tomorrow.”

  Finn leaned forward. “Guist asked Mel where they should trade for a jacket for you and she said to grab one out of the front coat closet before you leave. She doesn’t want you catching cold.”

  “Lucky,” murmured Mitchell. He stood and walked briskly to the coat closet near the front door. He rifled through an impressive selection of winter jackets before he held up two for her to choose from.

  She tried them on and settled for a simple, fitted, navy blue one that hugged her curves. It was surprisingly warm for feeling so lightweight. She peeked in the closet to find a plethora of pink and leopard skin printed coats. She gave Mitchell a nod of approval before she sat back down, cuddled snugly into her new jacket. He was a jack-wagon ninety percent of the time, but that man knew her tastes and didn’t tease her for it. Usually.

  The second in command, Nick Creedy, made his appearance a few minutes later. He was a grizzled man with a long, full, graying beard and deep wrinkles covering skin leathered from time spent in the sun. After they all put in their applications for guard duty, Nick pulled out a large clipboard with a list of available housing. He assigned Sean and Adrianna to a detached cabin and Finn a trailer that was located a short distance away from it. Mitchell and Guist would be roommates in one of the larger attached cabins, and Nick assigned her to a single room in one of the long cabins a little farther down the mountain. Her room was located closest to the doctor’s cabin.

  She would have a room all by herself. She couldn’t even name the last time she had privacy or a space of her own.

  Nick provided them with a packet of information and maps to everything in the colony including a mess hall, gardens, doctor’s office, outhouses, and showers. There were short papers on the history of the Dead Run River colony and surrounding areas and a schedule that listed their times to do kitchen duty. Nick also handed them little welcome bags containing a bar of handmade soap, a small tube of lip balm, a disposable razor, and a plastic baggy containing three chocolate chip cookies.

  “Sorry,” Nick said with a sheepish grin. “The welcome bags kind of just have whatever we can get our hands on.”

  “Don’t apologize,” Laney said. “This is the nicest reception we’ve ever had at a colony.”

  Nick highlighted their housing assignments on the maps. Before he sent them off he told them, “At your job assignments, you will be paid every Friday in credit to the general store and market located here.” He highlighted it on Laney’s map. “They’ll have
everything you need, and if they don’t you can put in a request to get it. We always see what we can do on supply runs.”

  Sean came out of Mel’s office as the rest of them were finishing up with Nick. He took his offered packet from the second in command and shook his hand in greeting. Sean looked pale and drained, but he talked to Nick cordially for a couple of minutes before he met up with the rest of the group. “I’m familiar with the housing in this colony if you want me to show you where you’ll be staying.”

  Mitchell looked like he’d rather lick a toilet seat than accept Sean’s help, so Guist was the one to speak up. “Sounds good, man. We could use the help, especially in the dark.”

  As they started down the main trail that led back down the mountain to the housing areas, Finn swerved off toward his own trailer. It was located right beside Sean’s cabin, which was about two hundred yards away from Mel’s house. He said his goodnights and left the group for the first time since he had been assigned as her guard in the Denver colony.

  The trail looked different at night, as all things did. Small solar lights had been stuck low to the ground every few yards, and the dim blue light reflected off vegetation that edged the dirt path. The noise of breeze and river and bugs singing into the night air made the place feel like magic. If only Jarren had lived to see this place. He had been so close. The group walked quietly as if they were also affected by the weight of such a perfect night. Or it could have been that they were all in different stages of despair and exhaustion. The latter was more likely.

  Adrianna asked to be held, and Sean picked her up. Laney followed behind him, and the little girl smiled sleepily over his shoulder. Mitchell and Guist, accustomed to forest footing, followed behind her as quietly as a whisper. If she weren’t so attuned to their movements, she wouldn’t have even guessed they were there.

  Lantern light swung lazily back and forth up ahead. Sean didn’t miss a step, so they must have been common when the colony’s inhabitants chose to walk the trails at night. The dim light coming from the gently rocking lantern was quite mesmerizing, so other than a quick body count when the small group of five passed by them, she didn’t catch faces or genders. They were talking easily as they passed and one of the women greeted Mitchell, but she barely registered their conversation.

  “Adam,” Mitchell said quietly.

  The context was confusing. She most definitely didn’t want to relive their earlier conversation. In fact she wanted to stop thinking about her past altogether.

  “Mitchell, I don’t really want to talk about him anymore.”

  Mitchell had stopped and was looking back toward the group that had just walked by. “Adam,” he said a little louder.

  His exclamation brought a man in the middle of the passing group to a halt. He froze so quickly, the two women behind him ran into his back. The man swung his head around, and his gaze landed squarely on Mitchell. Laney’s heart stopped.

  The man was at first unfamiliar, though she could never forget his face. His blue eyes had aged a hundred years since she had seen them last and weren’t quite as bright as she remembered them. His blond hair was thinner, and he wasn’t as tall as she remembered, but she still thought him a handsome man, made more attractive by the wit and humor that hid just beneath the surface of those pooling cerulean eyes. The light from the lantern in his hand danced across his face, and his nostrils flared ever so slightly as recognition lit his features.

  “Derek? Is that you?” he asked in shock.

  Her hand rested on Mitchell’s still back, but she couldn’t recall how it got there. His muscles were tensed, and she brushed his back lightly, searching for softness where only brute power resided. She was sure that if she took it off, the beast in Mitchell would escape. Her hand was the only thing that kept him frozen in place, of that she was certain.

  At his failure to respond, Adam approached slowly, as if his mind had convinced him he was dreaming. Every step he moved closer to Mitchell moved him closer to her. She stood, shocked into complete silence, behind the hard planes of Mitchell’s back.

  Adam was alive.

  When he was close enough to see Mitchell and Guist clearly, he let out an excited yell. He grabbed Guist in a rough hug. “Oh, man! I thought I’d never see you guys again. I thought surely I’d never see anyone I knew again,” he said with exuberance.

  Guist patted Adam on the back stiffly and pulled away without saying anything. He walked past Mitchell, and stood loyally by her. He looked as if he had no idea how to react to the situation, and the questioning glances her teammate threw her out of the corner of his eye snapped her out of the trance she was in. When Adam approached Mitchell with his arms out to embrace his old friend, Mitchell side-stepped to reveal her presence.

  Adam froze in his advance. He let his outstretched arms fall limply to his sides.

  “Adam,” she whispered. Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she didn’t care. Adam was alive. Her Adam.

  She threw her arms around his neck and felt his hands gently slide up her back. “I thought you were dead, Adam,” she said quietly. “I tried to find you. I’ve searched dozens of colonies for you, but nobody had ever seen or heard of you. I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead.”

  “Who the hell is she?” a woman spoke up from behind Adam.

  Adam pushed Laney away, and she wiped her eyes in confusion.

  “She’s—” Adam started. Unable to explain her away, he gave up with a shrug and looked to her for help.

  “I’m Laney Landry. Who are you?” she asked the woman, who had stepped into the lantern light to reveal she was very pregnant and very pissed.

  “I’m Adam’s wife,” she growled.

  Wife. He was married and very nearly a father and Laney couldn’t seem to remember how to shut her gaping mouth. That was supposed to be her. Silence stretched on as she fumbled for any words to relieve the maddening embarrassment that consumed her under the woman’s murderous glare. “Oh, of course,” was all she could think to whisper. She wiped her eyes and gave a trembling smile. The lantern light flickered across the harsh planes of the woman’s face, which only served to make her look angrier. Was she pretty by daylight?

  “For three years I’ve watched Laney pine for you,” Mitchell ground out.

  “Mitchell, please. It’s okay. Let’s just go.” She tugged at his arm, but he wouldn’t be moved. She had one too many helpings of embarrassment, and to make matters worse, Sean was staring in bewilderment at their humiliating reunion.

  “No, Laney. He should hear what he did. Why should a man not be held accountable for doing this to a woman?” Mitchell rounded on Adam again, who was trying unsuccessfully to pacify his seething wife. “Do you know how hard we searched for you? And you couldn’t even send word? I want to know why!” He pulled the crumpled piece of gray paper from his pocket and flung it at Adam’s chest.

  Adam looked at the wrinkled, hand-drawn picture on the ground without surprise.

  “That’s what I thought,” Mitchell said with a cruel and humorless smile. “You’ve probably seen this a hundred times. What, you couldn’t be bothered to send a notice out? Too much effort for you? You moved on, so the girl you left behind doesn’t matter anymore?”

  Adam looked from her to Mitchell and back again. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking wholly uncomfortable. “I met Sabrina when the outbreak first happened. We came here together, and I knew she was it for me. I’m really sorry.”

  “We were still together, Adam,” she said through her acute disappointment in a man she thought she knew. “If you’d found another woman, fine, but you could have sent word and let me know what was happening. You kept me from moving on.”

  Adam slumped his shoulders and looked miserable. He looked from one face to the other and tried to look through them to Sean. “Jarren, you have to help me out here, buddy. I know you understand why I had to cut myself off from her completely.”

  Who did he think he was talking to? She looked around in
confusion, and Mitchell spoke up with an unmitigated fury. “That’s not Jarren, ya dick. Jarren died. Yesterday.”

  Adam’s wide eyes darted from face to dimly lit face, and his eyebrows furrowed in pointless apology. “Man, I’m sorry, Derek. It was an honest mistake. It’s dark out here.”

  “Don’t do that,” Mitchell said, shaking his head.

  “Don’t do what?”

  “Don’t call me Derek. You can call me Mitchell. You don’t know me anymore. You don’t know any of us anymore. Your choice,” he said jabbing a finger in Adam’s direction.

  “Look, Laney seems like she’s doing all right without me, so it all worked out. Right?”

  She stopped mid-scurry, effectively putting a halt to her retreat to the shadows where the men hopefully wouldn’t be able to see how badly she was affected by it all. Mitchell’s eyes looked black with anger in the dim lantern light, but they softened when they fell on her.

  “Yep, I’m awesome,” she called out overly cheerfully. “Congrats on the baby. And the wife. She seems super nice.” She was probably hysterical.

  “Shhhh,” Sean said quietly, interrupting her awkward tirade. He put his arm around her and pulled her back to continue on the trail. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

  “Do you think Mel knows?”

  Sean sighed and squeezed Laney’s shoulder before he released her to adjust a sleeping Adrianna in his arms. “Mel knows everyone in her colony.”

  The betrayal stung. Why hadn’t the woman told her? Given her some kind of warning that a horrible encounter in the woods with the ghost of her past was a possibility. Without a heads up, she’d been shamed in front of two men she was completely confused and torn over. Damn that woman.

  The hike back to the cabins felt like it took a hundred and thirty-seven years. Realistically it was only a fifteen minute trek at the slow pace they adopted because of the darkness, but it was tinged with a shade of desperation to escape the witnesses to that ghastly ex-boyfriend scene. Did no one want her? Adam was married, with a child on the way, so she had wasted three good years looking for a man who was happy with another. How silly she had been for having imagined that man to be more than he was.