Nathan faced Alissa. “What can I set you up with?”
“I’ll take a shotgun as well.”
“Are you sure you don’t want one of the semi-automatics?”
“I want to make sure I hit what I aim at. Like Miriam, I’ve never fired anything bigger than a handgun before.” A tidal wave of images flooded her memory as she recalled her escape from the hospital and all the deaders she had to shoot. “Until today.”
“You got it. I’ll get them ready and pass them out later tonight.”
Miriam smiled at Nathan and wrapped her hand around Alissa’s arm, leading her below. “We need to get you a hot shower and a change of clothes.”
“I didn’t bring any with me.”
“Don’t worry about that. I can lend you some of mine. My husband says I have too much anyways.”
* * *
Miriam showed Alissa to her cabin, pulled a facecloth and several towels from the linen closet, and told Alissa she could take whatever cloths she wanted from her wardrobe. Once Miriam had left, Alissa stripped out of her soiled outfit and placed it on the tiled floor in the bathroom. The blood had soaked through to her underwear, so she added them to the pile. She also removed the bandages around her right pinky and waist, leaving them on the counter. A minute later, hot water streamed over her face and down her body. Only this time Alissa did not use the shower to relax and wind down, merely to clean herself. It was too painful to twist and bend due to the bruise on her left side. Once she had rinsed away all the blood, she dried off and re-entered the state room.
Archer sat on the bed with his legs folded under him. Upon seeing his mistress, he meowed once and rolled onto his back, stretching out his legs and exposing his belly. Alissa sat on the bed and slid her right hand across his stomach, massaging his chin with her thumb and forefinger. Archer allowed himself the simple pleasure for a few seconds before wrapping his front paws around her wrist. He gently bit her hand while kicking at her arm with his hind legs, an affectionate gesture on his part. After a minute, Archer let go, rolled onto his paws, and rushed onto the pillows where he proceeded to groom himself.
“I love you, too, asshat.”
Alissa watched Archer, happy that, despite everything, she had saved him. He had been her sole source of comfort since Paul had asked for a separation twelve months ago. Losing Archer would have devastated her. For the first time, she began to realize how lucky she had been. So many families had lost loved ones or were completely devastated by the spread of this virus. Sure, Alissa had gone through her own Hell and had lost her home, yet everything truly important to her had survived. Once they made their way to her cabin, with luck they could ride out this crisis and be able to begin their lives over.
Alissa returned to the bathroom and checked her wounds. The pinky still hurt from where she had dislocated it on the scaffolding while trying to escape from the hospital, but it had full mobility. The skin under the ribcage under her left arm was heavily bruised, a black and blue nearly a foot long and six inches wide, having nearly doubled from the day before. She winced when she pressed against it, the area still being extremely tender. All she needed were pain killers and a few weeks to rest, the latter of which she doubted she would get. Searching through the cabinets, Alissa could not find any new bandages. No big deal. The original ones were still relatively clean. She wrapped the longest gauze tightly around her chest and then shifted to her pinky, reusing the makeshift splint she had made from an old emery board.
Returning to the stateroom, Alissa opened the closet. She slipped on the panties Miriam had given her. The bra, however, was much too big. No problem. She could go without one until they reached the cabin. No one would be paying attention one way or the other. Sorting through the clothes in the closest, she eventually picked out a pair of jeans and a white sweater that were comfortable and durable enough for what lay ahead. She draped the clothes over the back of a chair and prepared to go to bed, then thought about it. Things went south quickly back on Nahant and she and Nathan had only minutes to get to safety. She would hate to have to face another emergency while naked. She pulled on the clothes she had picked out and slid under the covers. The sway of the ship along the waves relaxed Alissa, who feel asleep within minutes.
The last thing she remembered before dozing off was Archer curling up in a ball against the back of her head and purring contentedly.
A Thank You to My Readers
I love telling stories. I have since I was a kid. The best part is having people who listen to and enjoy them. I’m very fortunate that I get to relate some dark, bizarre, and demented tales and have a fanbase that devours them like zombies eating human flesh. You keep reading and I’ll keep writing.
If you liked Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies, please post a review on Amazon. The review does not have to be long—just a rating and a sentence or two about why you enjoyed it. The more reviews Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies receives, the more opportunity other readers have of discovering the book.
The Nurse Alissa saga will continue. Over the next few books, Alissa and the other survivors will face even more deaders, meet human friends and enemies, and encounter situations that make the outbreak seem tame by comparison. There are even plans for a spin-off series that will take the deader outbreak to new and fun levels. I can’t promise that your favorite characters will survive but I can promise some good gut munching, zombie slaying, gore-filled action.
Acknowledgments
I say this in all my books, but it’s true. Writing is very solitary and lonely but getting a book published is a complicated process involving many people, all of whom deserve to be recognized. No writer can be successful without help.
A major thanks goes out to my beta readers: Tammy Michelle Mayberry, Michael Atkinson, Pammy Troupe, Tom Williamson, Marla Dewitt, Dan Uebel, Norma Seitz, Roseann Powell, and Cari Laffrenier Thompson.
Christian Bentulan designed the cover art for this novel.
You would not be holding this book were it not for my dear friend and colleague Alina Ionescu. I hadn’t written a zombie series since Rotter Apocalypse was published in 2015. Alina is a major fan of my zombie stories and kept urging me to go back to writing about the living dead. With some gentle shoving in the right direction and a few well-placed ideas, over the course of a long week on the road I came up with the concept of the Alissa series. If you like this series, thank Alina.
Finally, a major debt of thanks goes to my family, human and furry. It’s hard to maintain my writing discipline. I have a demilitarized zone in my house to keep the cats and dogs separated because by Boxer Bella hates Archer (yes, the Archer in the novel is based on my real cat, who I also call Asshat). Plus, being a stay-at-home dad is not as an ideal life as everyone might think. However, my family gives me the time I need to write, albeit sometimes reluctantly, and never holds my self-imposed isolation against me. I couldn’t do this without their love and support.
About the Author
Scott M. Baker was born and raised in Everett, Massachusetts and spent twenty-three years in northern Virginia working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Scott is now retired and lives just outside of Concord, New Hampshire with his wife and fellow writer Alison Beightol, stepdaughter, two rambunctious boxers, and two cats who treat him as their human servant. He has written Shattered World I: Paris and Shattered World II: Russia, the first two books in his five-book young adult post-apocalypse series about a group of adventurers attempting to close portals into Hell; The Vampire Hunters trilogy, about humans fighting the undead in Washington D.C.; Rotter World, Rotter Nation, and Rotter Apocalypse, his post-apocalyptic zombie saga; Yeitso, his homage to the giant monster movies of the 1950s that he loved watching as a kid; as well as several zombie-themed novellas and anthologies.
Please check out Scott’s social media accounts for the latest information on future books, upcoming events, and other fun stuff.
Blog: https://scottmbakerauthor.blogspot.com/
Facebook:https://
www.facebook.com/groups/397749347486177/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vampire_hunters
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmbakerwriter/
Nurse Alissa (Book 1): Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies Page 13