Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) (28 page)

“Yes.” Pimjai wiped away the wetness from her eyes, gathering herself. “I am glad you are here. I do not know you, but I may need your help as much as you need ours.”

“I don’t know anything about delivering babies but I’ll do all I can. The men will guard the house and make sure no harm comes to anyone. Jeremy’s just a kid but she’ll help all she can as well.”

Pimjai shook her head. “I do not think Maggie is having a baby.”

“What?” Raven’s voice came out louder than she intended so she quickly lowered it, not wanting to alarm anyone. “What do you mean?”

“The baby stopped moving three days ago. Now, Maggie seems to be in labor and hurting very bad.”

“One generally does hurt while giving birth.” Raven almost laughed.

“I asked questions. I know Maggie was in a car accident before she became pregnant. She was given blood.”

The horror of what Pimjai was implying sent icy cold shivers skating up Raven’s spine. “You don’t seriously think…”

“I do not know but my instinct is telling me this will be very bad. I have learned to trust my instincts. They do not lie.”

The ball of dread growing in Raven’s belly doubled in size. “Why’d you separate me to tell me this?”

“Because I need your help. If what I fear is to happen actually does happen I may not be able to do what needs to be done. I have grown close to Maggie. I felt that baby kick. If her baby is fine she will need help caring for it and herself. As women we are better to do that while the men protect. If she gives birth to something unnatural, I will need you to take care of it in as gentle a way possible.”

Cruz entered the hallway as Raven struggled to process what was being asked of her.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have any washcloths, soap, anything we can use to get cleaned up?”

“The shower is in the downstairs bathroom,” she answered, “and yes, the water works.”

“For real?” Damian’s head poked out of the room. “Shit, I’m first!” He edged Cruz out of the way and ran down the stairs.

“So much for ladies first,” Cruz muttered, watching him go for a moment before turning back to Raven. “You want me to drag him out so you and Jeremy can get first crack at the shower?”

“No,” Raven faked a smile, still shaking inside from the news Pimjai had just delivered. “Why don’t you guard the first floor though until he’s done?”

“Will do, and I’ll save the next two showers for you two girls so come on down when you’ve found clothes.” He took the stairs with less enthusiasm as Damian.

Raven turned toward the woman. “Are you asking me to kill that woman’s baby?”

“Only if it is not a baby.”

“This is insane.” She shook her head. “You could just be assuming the worst scenario possible.”

“I could be,” Pimjai agreed. “I hope I am, but if I am not, I will need you …”

“Raven.”

Pimjai’s eyes opened wide and she stepped back.

“What?”

“It is my dream,” she said, clutching the neck of her billowy red shirt. “For three nights I have dreamed of a black bird bringing death.”

“I think you’re getting too much from a name.”

“No.” Pimjai’s eyes filled with sorrow. “I do not blame you. You are not the reason for the death. You are the sign.”

Maggie cried out for Pimjai.

“I must help. Clean up and come back to help me.”

Raven watched Pimjai enter the room and close the door as a cold trickle of sweat dripped down her back. She stood there for a moment, thinking about what Pimjai asked of her, then shook her head, hoping to shake out the images Pimjai’s words had planted there. The woman was just scared and stressed. She was talking crazy, plain and simple. The baby would be born and all would be fine.

She repeated that statement over and over in her mind, hoping the repetition would make it true, and turned to enter the room Jeremy had disappeared into. She found Jeremy sitting on the floor flipping through pages of a magazine. A pile of other magazines rested beside her, some open.

“What are you doing? You should be looking for fresh clothes and shoes.”

“Found them,” she said, nodding her head toward the folded pile of clothes on the bed, not looking up from the magazine. Shoes rested on the floor at the foot of the bed. Comfortable tennis shoes that would allow her to walk.

“Glad you found some good shoes,” she said as she approached to see what held Jeremy’s interest. “They have running water here. Damian’s in the shower now and we’re next.”

“OK.”

“Really? OK is all I get for that? What in the world are you looking at?” She crouched down next to Jeremy and looked at the magazine. Jeremy had it open to an interview with Cruz. “Why are you reading about Cruz?”

“Just learning about him.”

Raven frowned. “We’re with him everyday. What could you be learning about him from these magazines?”

“Just stuff.”

“Like?”

“Like … what he likes. Different things. Did you know he dated Sofia Menendez?” Jeremy twirled a lock of her blonde hair. “Do you think I’d look good brunette? Like Sofia Menendez?”

Raven rolled her eyes. “I think nobody gives a damn what color anyone’s hair is when zombies are out there prowling around, wanting to eat us. And I think Cruz is too old to even be thinking about.”

“When I’m twenty he’ll be thirty-six. That’s not that big of a difference.”

“It’s a huge difference, and right now you’re still a child and he’s a grown man so forget about it.” Raven closed the magazine and walked over to the closet. “Go downstairs. Cruz said he’d let us have the next showers.”

“You just want him for yourself.”

Raven turned to find Jeremy standing, fists clenched, glaring at her. “Are you freaking serious? Jeremy, that’s the last thing I’m thinking about or wanting right now. I just want to keep us all safe and alive. We don’t have time for crushes or any other distractions.”

“He cares about me even if I’m younger. He said he’d keep me safe,” Jeremy said as she grabbed the clothes off the bed, picked up the shoes from the floor, and left the room.

Raven sighed and rubbed her temples. Possible zombie babies and preteen crushes were not what she’d expected when she’d seen the house, nor the nonstop pain-filled wails coming from the room across the hall. She started shoving clothes around in the closet, searching for something in her size. She pulled out a black t-shirt and jeans, going for clothes that wouldn’t show blood because she could no longer see a future that didn’t involve getting bloody.

“Raven!”

She dropped the clothes, startled by Pimjai’s shrill cry, and ran to the room to find Pimjai struggling to hold Maggie down.

“Help me.”

Raven rushed to the other side of the bed to help with Maggie as the woman let loose a blood curdling scream.

Cruz and Damian burst into the room, weapons drawn.

“What’s wrong?” Cruz asked.

“Oh shit that’s nasty!” Damian exclaimed, having stepped far enough into the room to get a full view of Maggie’s most intimate parts. He gagged, covered his mouth with his fist and turned away. “If I wasn’t gay before I sure as hell am now! That ain’t even natural!”

Cruz glared at him as he lowered his gun, the tension easing out of his shoulders. “Everyone OK?”

“I think so,” Raven answered, still struggling to hold Maggie down as the woman tried her best to raise off the bed.

“One more big push, Mags!” Cliff instructed. “Give it all you got now and you’re done.”

They allowed the woman to sit up so she could push better, careful to keep her from raising her pelvis off the bed as she had been trying to do before and Maggie bore down, her teeth tightly gritted as she growled through the pain of pushing.

“It’s a girl,” Cliff said. “You were right, honey!”

Raven let out a sigh of relief as Maggie sank back against the pillows, completely spent, but one look at Pimjai’s pale face and her breath stilled. She turned toward Cliff at the same time Cruz pulled his gun. Damian stood next to him, mouth slack with shock, looking at the baby.

From her vantage point, Raven could only see the crop of dark, wet, curly hair and the back of its grayish-white, wrinkled skin as Cliff held its little body in front of him. The way his mouth trembled and eyes watered told her everything she needed to know before the sound of nightmares came from the baby’s mouth. It didn’t cry or wail. It moaned, the same gurgling, growl-like moan the rest of the zombies made, only this sound was much worse because it was the most innocent victim yet.

“Is she beautiful, Cliff?” Maggie asked, barely able to get the words out.

“She’s gorgeous,” Cliff answered, glaring at Cruz.

Raven walked over to Cruz and pushed his hand down, forcing him to lower the gun.

“Raven.”

“I know,” she said before he could say anything else in front of Maggie. She knew what needed to be done but it didn’t need to be done like this. The baby could be dealt with in a less gruesome way than blowing its tiny little brains out. She looked at it, seeing the face for the first time. Its eyes were milky white, its mouth open and closing as it reached for Cliff. It didn’t have any teeth but already hungered for flesh. She gasped.

“Let me see her.” Maggie raised her arms, the limbs shaking as she reached for the baby. “Let me nurse her.”

“Just a minute, Mags.” Cliff cut the cord with shaking hands, clamped it with a clothespin, and swaddled the baby in a pink cotton blanket before standing. He stepped around the bed.

Raven blocked him. “She can’t nurse it.”

“Why not? It’s our baby.”

“That thing is not a baby,” Raven said, voice lowered. “It doesn’t want milk. It wants flesh and blood.”

“She’s a baby. Our baby. We’ll raise her to be good.”

“She’s dead, Cliff. That baby died inside Maggie and the zombie virus kicked in. I know this must be hard to accept.”

“You don’t know anything!” Cliff bellowed. “This is my child and my wife is going to nurse her.”

“Cliff?” Maggie tried to sit up. “What’s going on? Bring me my baby!”

Raven took out the switchblade she’d found at the pawn shop and flicked it open. “Give me the baby and I’ll take care of her as gently as possible while you comfort your wife. You know this is what needs to be done. That baby will never grow. It’s not even alive.”

Cliff shoved Raven out of the way with a powerful swipe of his meaty arm and handed the baby to Maggie.

As Raven’s palms hit the floor, Maggie let out a cry of anguish. “Oh God, oh God! She’s dead!”

“She’s not dead, honey. See. Her eyes are open.”

Raven turned to see Cliff swing around with a pistol that had been hidden under the mattress. He pointed it at her.

“I think it’s time for you all to go now.”

“I think you need to take that gun off of her,” Cruz responded, his own gun pointed at Cliff.

“Oh, you like her, do you?” Cliff moved his hand back and forth, but never took the gun off her. Raven stayed near the floor in a crouch, scared he would shoot on reflex if she tried to stand. “Unless you think she’d look better with a hole right through her forehead, you’d best put your weapons away and walk on out of here. I’ll let her go after you do. Pimjai, grab that other girl they brought with them. Bring her in here.”

Damian stepped toward Pimjai but didn’t need to.

“I will not,” Pimjai stated firmly. “Cliff, this is wrong. The baby is not right. These people are not to blame.”

“Do what I said, girl, unless you want to be on your own!”

Pimjai’s eyes hardened as she picked up the shotgun Cliff had left propped against the wall and pointed it at him. “Put the gun down, Cliff.”

“You put the gun down!” He said back.

“Two against one,” Cruz advised him. “You pull that trigger and you’re going to get bullets flying at you from two directions.”

The three continued yelling at each other to put the guns down, threatening to shoot, as Jeremy ran into the room to see what the commotion was about. Damian grabbed the girl and shoved her out of the room.

Cliff swung his gun toward them reflexively and Cruz saw his chance. He squeezed the trigger before Cliff could shoot. Cliff’s pistol dropped onto the bed as a red blossom spread across the shoulder of his shirt.

“You motherfucker!” Cliff screeched as he rebalanced and lunged forward to attack Cruz, knocking him backward. Cruz’s gun went off before it fell from his hand.

Raven turned toward Maggie to see her sitting up in the bed, looking down at the zombie in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

Standing next to the bed, Pimjai held her arm, face tight with pain.

“Were you hit?” Raven asked, standing.

“A scratch,” Pimjai answered, removing her hand to show the torn shirt and a blot of crimson blood staining the fabric. She stepped aside and Raven saw the hole in the wall behind her. She’d barely been missed.

Raven moved to cross the room and help her, but looking down at the men on the floor, she noticed Cruz pounding Cliff’s face in excessively.