Love in the Time of the Dead

by Tera Shanley

  “Ms. Laney?” Adrianna said from the doorway.

  She tore her frown away from the direction Sean had disappeared to. “Yeah, sweetie?”

  “Where did Daddy go?”

  “He just had to go check on something real quick.” She shifted her weight and glanced inside Sean’s cabin. She couldn’t just make herself at home without him in there. “Hey, do you want to go on an adventure?”

  Adrianna nodded slowly. “Mm-hmm.”

  “You want to go fishing?”

  “Yeah!” Adrianna squealed as she jumped up and down excitedly.

  Laney laughed. “Okay, let’s go check and see if Mr. Finn is home. See if he wants to go too. And then we’ll go get my pack with my fishing line in it.”

  The girl was already tugging her hand down the steps. Laney slowed her down enough to retrieve her jacket from a hook in the front hallway and shut Sean’s door behind them. When Adrianna was all bundled up, they knocked on the door to Finn’s trailer.

  He was home and opened it with a surprised but happy grin. “Hello, ladies. To what do I owe the honor?”

  “Mr. Finn! We’re going fishing,” Adrianna exclaimed breathlessly. “You come too?”

  “Heck yeah, I’m coming. A fishing trip with two pretty ladies? I’m in.”

  “Heck yeah!” Adrianna repeated.

  Laney burst out laughing. “That one’s on you. I’m not getting in trouble for it.”

  “Did you girls eat already?” he asked them.

  At a shake of their heads he invited them in to wait at the small table inside while he made three cheese sandwiches. With their picnic in tow they headed to Laney’s cabin and she explained Sean’s absence to Finn.

  “Do you think those Deads could have traveled here from the Denver colony that fast?” Finn asked as Adrianna scrambled ahead to look at a huge exotic-looking plant that was growing on the edge of the trail.

  “I don’t know. I guess it’s enough time. Do you want to go check to see if you know any of them?”

  Finn shook his head vigorously. “I don’t even want to know. I wouldn’t want to see them like that. I just want to remember them like they were when they were human.”

  After she had grabbed her pack and lantern, given a swift tour of her room, and latched the Mini securely to the strap across her chest, she followed Finn and Adrianna to the widest part of the stream. It had a small gravel beach, and they ate their picnic just as the setting sun kissed the horizon.

  She didn’t know anything about night fishing for trout, but even if they didn’t catch a thing, Adrianna would still have fun.

  Finn found a long, sturdy stick while Laney showed Adrianna how to unroll the line and tie a fly on the end. Adrianna picked a tiny yellow feathered fly, and Laney complimented her fly-picking abilities. It was her favorite too.

  They tied a substantial length of the line to the end of the stick, and she showed Adrianna how to flick it back and forth so the fly landed on top of the water for a few seconds at a time. The little girl needed constant help and supervision, but she stayed focused enough and was rewarded with a small cutthroat trout. They didn’t have a reel, so when the fish was on the line, she helped Adrianna back up the bank until Finn was able to pull the remaining line out of the water. Adrianna was elated, and Finn couldn’t seem to stop grinning. The little girl giggled and screamed happily as she held and dropped the flopping fish in the grass.

  “We’re going to cook this up back at my place,” Finn told Adrianna. “Have you ever tasted fish before?”

  Adrianna shook her head, her little black ringlets bobbing and her grin infectious.

  “Come on,” Laney said as she wrapped up the line and put it in her pack. “Let’s go see if Daddy is home and then we can show him your fish.”

  The threesome headed back to Adrianna’s home with their catch, but as they approached the cabin, an eerie calm came over Laney. Something was off.

  Sean barreled toward them off of the porch he had been uneasily pacing. He scooped Adrianna up in his arms.

  “Where were you? I was worried to death! I asked you to take care of her, Laney. Not kidnap her.”

  A cloud of anger seemed to waft from his very skin, and she was shocked into silence.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Finn said with his hands out in front of him. “We took Adrianna fishing, not across state borders.”

  “Daddy, I caught a fish,” Adrianna said quietly. The child seemed confused over the fuss.

  “Surely you can understand,” he spat. “There were Deads at the gates. Twenty of them! I thought Adrianna was safe inside my cabin, but she wasn’t.”

  “I trusted you guys to handle the Deads,” Laney said. “Deads outside of the gates are a constant thing, Sean.” Her own anger was a slow boil in her gut. “Do you honestly think I would let anything happen to her?”

  “How would I know that, Laney?”

  “Because I brought Finn and a small arsenal with us. And because I have already thrown my body at a Dead to keep Adrianna safe. Twice!” She turned and stalked off. She didn’t have to listen to his ridiculous accusations.

  Sean sighed loudly. “Laney, wait.”

  She quickened her pace to escape him. Unnecessary as he didn’t come after her.

  Why on earth she let that man get to her was beyond her comprehension. Sean’s reactions always left her disappointed, yet she always hoped the next time would be different. Was she insane? Einstein had once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Maybe her habitually bad taste in men did in fact confirm she was crazy.

  She knocked at Vanessa’s door. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t be home. Her luck hadn’t changed. Vanessa opened the door almost immediately.

  She handed her the list of names and shook her head. “He doesn’t remember seeing any of these people in the auditorium.”

  Vanessa’s face fell.

  The girl’s sadness reminded Laney of her own. She knew all about loss at the Denver colony. “That doesn’t mean they didn’t survive somehow, though,” she said sympathetically. “We were only in the room with the survivors for a minute and some were still coming in.”

  “They’re dead, Laney. Spare me your pity.” Vanessa slammed the door.

  The force of it pushed cold air into her face and rocked her weight back on the heels of her feet.

  “Cow,” she grumbled before retiring to her room for the night.

  Gunfire woke her from a deep sleep, and she lay there in the dark listening to the pepper of ammo as it made contact with the herd of Deads scratching to get into Dead Run River gates. She lay awake for a long time. What had taken the guards so long from the initial realization that there were Deads outside of an unfinished gate to taking care of the problem? Colony defense strategies were always drastically different from her own views. It was simple to her. See Dead. Shoot Dead. Colonies, however, always seemed to want to study them, their behaviors and patterns, as if it would give them the upper hand to know their enemy. Maybe this time was different though. From the way Mel spoke, it seemed like they were taking descriptions of the Deads at their gates. What they looked like and the clothes they wore. Maybe Mel was trying to give closure to people who might have known them.

  Morning came quickly, and as she sat down with her tray of food, she was quickly joined by Guist, Eloise, Finn, Mitchell, and Vanessa—the latter of whom was giving her the beginnings of an impressive eye twitch with her snide remarks. She did her best to ignore the girl. There was no point in engaging with a personality like that one. She was one part wolverine and two parts rabid badger.

  Finn didn’t mention the night before, and she was grateful. She in no way wanted to rehash the Sean debacle in mixed company.

  “Laney,” Sean said in a quiet voice behind her. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  She froze in mid-stab of a piece of sausage link.

  “I have to get to work,” she said without turning a
round.

  “Can I walk you to the gardens, then?” he asked.

  “Look,” Mitchell said through a cold glare, “it doesn’t sound like she wants to talk to you, so piss off.”

  “It’s okay, Mitchell,” she said in efforts to avoid an argument. Or another well-placed punch to Sean’s face by Mitchell’s unapologetic fist. “That’s fine,” she told Sean as she stood to put her tray away.

  She left without waiting to see if he followed. He could come or he couldn’t. Either way, she was astonishingly unaffected.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” he said as he caught up with her quick pace. “I was wrong to get so angry. I didn’t tell you the rules before I left, and I had no right to take my fears out on you.”

  Why were half of their conversations arguments and the other half apologies?

  “It shouldn’t be this hard, Sean.”

  “What shouldn’t?”

  “Getting along with another person.”

  “Look,” he said, pulling her to a stop beside him. His impossibly blue eyes searched her face. “This is a really crazy time for me. And not the good kind of crazy, just the crazy kind of crazy. I don’t know how to handle all of this. Losing the colony, Aria, my life in a new place. I’m just treading water here, Laney. And then you come along in the middle of it and part of the time I just want to strangle you, and then the rest of the time I can’t stop thinking about that damned peacock tattoo on your back.” Sean’s sigh tapered off into a growl and he ran his hands through his hair. “I guess I just want to spend some time getting to know you better, but I don’t want it to mean anything. Not right now. Does that make any sense?”

  “No! It doesn’t! And you’re so confusing that I just want to give you a swift punch to the spleen!” Or at least that’s what she wanted to say, but didn’t. Though from the way Sean took an involuntary step backward, she suspected that much was written on her face anyway.

  Maturity was best. “So, you think of me naked but you just want to be friends?”

  Sean looked miserable and, after a loaded moment, he nodded. “Can we call a re-do on dinner?”

  “I don’t know, Sean,” she said, picking up her pace again to get to the gardens. She had to get to work, preferably before Vanessa verbally assaulted her for being late.

  “When is your day off?” he asked, unperturbed.

  “Friday. Tomorrow. I’m off tomorrow.”

  “Perfect. Dinner tomorrow then. I won’t forget this time,” he said with a boorish grin.

  “Ha,” she said without humor. “Maybe I’ll show up and maybe I won’t.”

  “Maybe be there around six.”

  “Bye, Sean.” She threw a little wave behind her. He didn’t follow. At least the man could take a hint.

  “What did he want?” Eloise asked in breathless excitement as she caught up to her at the colony gates.

  “To apologize.”

  “For what?”

  Laney waved to the guards at the gate, both of whom she didn’t recognize, and filled Eloise in on the disastrous almost-dinner with him as they walked the quarter mile to the garden gates.

  “Ooo-wee, the drama. The intrigue!” Eloise exclaimed.

  Laney snorted. “The drama at least.”

  “Hey, I heard something about the Denver colony falling. Is it true you were there?”

  “Yeah, it’s true. Did you know anyone in the Denver colony?” she asked cautiously.

  “No, I didn’t personally. Lots of other people at Dead Run River did, though. It’s so sad. And scary!” Eloise snapped her fingers. “Just like that everyone could be gone.”

  A vision of Jarren’s last moments flitted across her mind. “Yep,” she agreed somberly. “We have to live our lives as best we can while we have them.”

  “Landry!” Vanessa screeched.

  Laney hunched her shoulders against the grating sound. “What?” she asked at a more reasonable volume.

  “No more fertilizing for this week. I need that area tilled and prepared for next spring. Cold weather is coming and we need to get the gardens ready for snow. Eloise you help her, but keep your traps shut. I want you actually working today.”

  “I’ll show you what to do,” Eloise told her.

  Thank goodness for Eloise’s know-how. Laney could identify any handheld weapon with a glance, but “tiller” was new to her vocabulary.

  The girls dragged handheld tillers out to the area Vanessa had pointed to and worked diligently for the rest of the day, only stopping for water breaks and lunch. When they were done, they removed clumps of plant material from an old crop and tossed them in a big pile. At the end of the work day, Vanessa had her load the huge pile of old plant clumps into the trailer on the back of an ATV with instructions to take them outside of the garden gates and throw them over the electric fence.

  “Hey,” she said, stomping down the shiver of excitement that came with seeing Mitchell open the colony gates as she pulled the four-wheeler up. She had full intentions of swindling some help tossing the plants from one of the guards. She didn’t even have to ask. He saw what she was doing and jogged over to help.

  “What about your post? Will you get in trouble?” she asked him.

  “Nah, we just changed shifts. I’m off duty.”

  They worked in companionable silence until the trailer was almost empty. Mitchell stopped and looked toward the garden gates. She followed his glance and saw Eloise, Nelson, and Vanessa heading their way.

  “I’m going to go hit the showers before dinner. You got the rest of this?” Mitchell asked with a frown in the unwary group’s direction.

  “Sure,” she said, baffled by his quick exit.

  He left, and a few armloads of plant bundles later the trailer was empty. Laney rubbed her itching nose. The smell of plants was overpowering. When she pulled her arm away from her face another smell struck her. Deads.

  She looked around and caught movement through the trees. He was a big monster, with the bones of his skull showing through strips of hanging flesh. All of his teeth were exposed as his lips had rotted away and his mouth was open in anticipation of a meal. He was running full out with startling speed. When she swung her head in the direction of his target, her horrified gaze rested on the slow moving and completely unaware threesome meandering between gates.

  “Dead at nine o’clock,” she yelled the guards at the gate behind her.

  A guard talked rapidly into a radio, but the Dead was getting close to his targets. It wasn’t going to be enough.

  “Eloise!” she screamed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “ELOISE!” LANEY SHOUTED again as she pulled her nine millimeter from the holster on her thigh.

  Eloise and the others snapped their heads up in confusion over the panic in her voice. The barbed wire fence would hold the beast, but only for a few seconds. He had caught their scent and wouldn’t be put off by the damage the fence did to his body. Eloise looked on in terror as the monster came crashing through the trees directly for them.

  Laney aimed her gun and fired. Miss.

  She let out an expletive and ran forward a few steps, then inhaled slowly, training her sights on the Dead. Her arms swung in a graceful arc as the gun followed its target. He was getting too close. She couldn’t miss again. She held her breath and pulled the trigger lightly, as a finger brushes forbidden frosting off a birthday cake.

  The Dead’s legs buckled under him and he flew forward. He landed on the fence and went rigid as the electricity filled his body. Bells jangled as the fence rocked under the new weight, and the monster’s gaping mouth was frozen only a few feet away from Eloise, who was screaming in terror.

  The electricity stopped working as the force of its energy drained the limited power source. The Dead hung limply across the labored fence, the hole in his head confirming her last bullet had found its mark.

  Vanessa was bodily dragging Nelson to the safety of the colony gates, but Eloise remained frozen in place. Laney scanned the w
oods for more Deads and sprinted for her. The girl sank to her knees as Laney approached and slid to a stop beside her.

  “It’s okay. You’re okay,” she crooned, propping the crying girl up beside her.

  “Laney!” Mitchell yelled. The fear in his voice made the fine hairs on her neck stand on end. It had been too close and they both knew it.

  He ran through the colony gates, unwavering dark eyes trained on her.

  “Mitchell, I need help,” she said, struggling under her friend’s weight. She was pretty sure Eloise had fainted on her.

  Mitchell didn’t say a word. He scooped up Eloise’s slight frame easily, and Laney covered him as they ran for the safety of the gates.

  After the guards closed the heavy gates behind them, Mitchell laid Eloise down gently onto the grass beside the path. In one fluid motion, he stood and crushed Laney to his chest. She could hear his heart as it threatened to hammer right out of him. Strong, and so loud against her ear it almost seemed tangible. Thump-thump-thump-thump.

  “Mitchell, I’m okay,” she said, finding it hard to breathe in his crushing embrace.

  He pulled her back and put his hands on either side of her face. His dark eyes oozed concern, which melted to fury as he pointed his gaze toward the two guards.

  He released her and exploded. “Why the hell didn’t you help her? Even I could hear she missed that Dead on the first shot. There’s no way there should have been only one gun trained on him! Where was her backup?”

  “We have protocol we have to follow. No Deads are killed without Mel’s permission.”

  “Hang your protocol! You have unarmed civilians out there and you didn’t lift a finger. This would have been the time to bend the rules!” Mitchell shook his head in anger. “Laney deserves that guard uniform more than any of you guys and they’ve got her working in the freaking gardens.”

  “We didn’t make the rules,” one of the guards said defensively. “We do have to obey them if we want to live here, though. If you don’t like the way things are run, you can complain to Mel.”