Love in the Time of the Dead (23 page)

“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

“E
LOISE
!” L
ANEY
S
HOUTED
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 woods 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.”

Mitchell glared at him through angry, slitted eyes that had darkened to the color of volcanic rock. “That’s a fantastic idea.” He turned and stomped back up the trail.

Crap. She looked between Eloise’s limp figure and Mitchell’s quickly receding back. Where was she needed most?

“I’ll take care of her,” said the guard who slumped as if he felt miserable and inadequate. “We have reinforcements on their way as well as Dr. Mackey. They’ll be here any second.”

Eloise lay peacefully in the grass, pale, but otherwise uninjured. Laney’s instincts warred over which friend to protect. “You let anything happen to her, and you’ll regret it. That’s a promise.” She gave him what she hoped was a Vanessa-worthy death glare and sprinted after Mitchell.

“You can’t go talk to Mel like this, Mitchell. She’ll kick you out of here,” she pleaded. He hadn’t slowed his pace in any way. “You have to at least wait until you calm down.”

Silence.

“Mitchell! I don’t want you to leave,” she admitted as she skidded to a stop.

Mitchell slowed and then stopped. He sighed as if it would expel all of the anger and emotional turmoil from his body.

A small group of guards and Dr. Mackey ran up a nearby trail toward the colony gates where Eloise and the guards were. Mitchell glared at them and then blazed his own trail through the woods. She followed.

He eventually found a place that seemed far enough from civilization to afford him the peace he sought. He sat against a tree, back to the rough bark and a seat of pine needles to cushion him. She chose a tree directly across from him and waited. Mitchell wasn’t an easy man to talk to when he was angry. If she just waited him out, he would eventually talk or just get over whatever was ailing him.

With the birdsong and chilly breeze and distant river waters as a calming music, she relaxed into the tree trunk. The rays of late daylight filtered through the thick branches of the mountain trees, and she searched in vain for the bird that was making the soundtrack to their rare moment of peace. Her body complained as her adrenaline wore off and her side burned with a heat that hadn’t been there earlier. She must have pulled at her injuries in the scuffle.

She pulled her shirt up to check on her half-healed Dead bite and noticed the four cuts Dr. Mackey had made. The butterfly bandages had pulled apart, and all but one were open and bleeding. Dr. Mackey had said he needed to take deep samples so he could test all layers of her tissue, and they were taking longer to close up than she had expected.

“What are those?” Mitchell said, finally breaking his silence.

His voice startled her. “Oh, they are just the skin samples doc took off me a couple of days ago. I guess I pulled them open.”

He scooted closer and examined them. “Here, let me,” he said, swatting her hand away from the bandages. “These look really deep.”

“All in the name of science.”

He reattached the bandages as best he could and sat back on his heels. “I knew you would be undergoing some tests, but I guess I just thought they would be taking some of your blood. I didn’t know it would be like this.”

She shrugged. It was just an unfortunate and inconvenient part of her life now.

“When do you go back?”

“Dr. Mackey wants me to come in for some more samples tomorrow morning. He says fresh samples are the best.”