Love in the Time of Zombies Read Online Free PDF

woke up too damned fast.
    One circuit around the roof’s perimeter showed all was satisfactory. Everyone was asleep and no one was climbing the wall to the temporary sanctuary.
    He snatched up a towel and a clean T-shirt to trade for his sweaty one and hit the shower. Cleaning off quickly, he dressed and walked over to Nick’s cot to check out the boy himself. Nick tossed and turned on the cot, mumbling wordlessly except for the name of Beth.
    Emily looked up at him. “His girlfriend back at the base.”
    “Oh,” he whispered, remembering the young girl.
    Hours passed with him and Emily switching places between sitting at Nick’s bedside and walking the perimeter. He caught a few catnaps in between. As far as he could tell, Emily stayed vigilant through the night.
    Finally, about six a.m. by his watch, Emily sat back in a folding chair and nodded off. He stayed by Nick. The fever raged in his body. The cot was drenched with the boy’s sweat. The sickly smell wafted on the breeze. His skin lost its ruddy tone and faded to gray. Breaths came farther and farther apart until they stopped altogether.
    Seth said a quick prayer begging God to take care of Nick’s soul. He stood up and placed his rifle against his shoulder, aiming it at the boy’s head. His vision blurred with sweat running into his eyes. I can’t do this. This isn’t a zombie. He’s a boy. I know his name.
    His finger tightened on the trigger. He applied pressure. He fired.
♦♦♦
    The absence of sound woke me up. I’d been hearing Nick’s labored breaths in my subconscious for hours. I knew he was going to die, but sleep let me take the coward’s way out. If I slept, he would be fine in my dreams; he would still be there when I woke up.
    Moving like an old lady, I pushed out of the chair. In tiny steps, I walked toward the cot. Halfway there and the blast of the gunshot pierced the quiet dawn, shattering it like glass. Nick’s body was hidden by the broad shoulders of the man wielding the gun. A sob broke out. I tried to stop it but the tears poured down my face as I rushed to Seth.
    I pounded my fists against his back. Incoherent words flew from my lips. The gun fell with a metallic clang and I found myself wrapped in warm, solid male. The last place I wanted to be. In the arms of Nick’s executioner. This man who’d taken my responsibility as his own.
    My knees gave way and Seth’s arms held me as we collapsed to the rooftop. “You didn’t let me say good-bye,” I screamed to the sky.
    His breath tickled as he whispered into my ear. “I didn’t want you to have to see him turn. It’s better this way. His soul is at peace.”
    I pushed him away and fell on my butt. “He didn’t turn? You killed him?”
    “He was dead. I didn’t kill him. Those creatures did.”
    “Maybe he was in a coma or something.” I scooted away, my mind frantically searching for an answer, any answer, but the truth. “You’re not a doctor. You don’t know.”
    He moved to a squat, but didn’t come toward me. “He didn’t have a pulse. He wasn’t breathing. He was dead, Emily.”
    My arms wrapped around my legs and I put my head on my knees. “I know,” I whispered. My heart ached with the rest of my body. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
    “What?” his voice carried to me in the hush of the early-morning world.
    “Live.”
    “Don’t say that. Where there is life, there is hope. Someday this will be a chapter in a history book and the survivors will be remembered along with the dead.”
    A half-sob, half-laugh bubbled up my throat. “Do you really believe that? That we will win? Because, I don’t. Not anymore. There are too many of them and too few of us.”
    My voice broke. “And now, one fewer.”
    He’d scooted closer and grabbed my hand. “Of course I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t bother getting up in the morning. I wouldn’t bother delivering supplies to camps and bases. If I didn’t believe, I would think I was just