Page 9 of Creepy (The Zombiepidemic #1)

Holy fuck. He’s being attacked by a zombie.

I acted quickly. Busting into the room, aiming precisely where I expected his enemy to be, pinching my eyes shut tight, as to not get any zombie splatter in my eye, I swung the bat like it was the ninth inning, and I was hitting a home run.

Only I missed my mark. My eyes sprung open.

No one was there. To my surprise, the weight of my bat, not making an impact, propelled me around as it continued its motion. I hit the man square in his stomach.

He doubled over.

I dropped the metal bat, making it clack on the floor.

Cradling his stomach, the man held out his other arm, his hand palm out. “I’m unarmed.”

Rushing to him, I helped him to the floor. “I thought you were being attacked. What the hell are you doing in here?”

“Name’s Arlo, nice to meet you too.” He sat up on his elbows and held out his hand again.

I took it but let go of it promptly. “What were you doing in here?” I tried again.

“It’s called Kar..a..te.” Channeling Mr. Miyagi, he pronounced the word totally different than I would. His accent dripped surfer dude. Handsome, he reminded me of a young Matthew McConaughey circa Dazed and Confused. But he sounded like Keanu Reeves’ Ted.

“I thought there was a zombie. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”

“Yeah, I taught self-defense, and now I’m down on my ass. Hey, do you need a lesson?”

“Karate, no, what good will that do me?”

“The zombies. You wouldn’t have to use a bat.”

“What good would it do me to beat up a zombie?” My hand going to my pistol, I pulled up the fabric of my legging to show him. “I’ve got a gun, a Rugar, a nine-millimeter. And more where that came from.”

“There’s no need to kill them. They’re not amazingly fast. They used to be people, our loved ones.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t believe it.” I hadn’t been talking to him but myself.

He replied anyway, “Really, if you’re immune, even if they bite, you’re okay. Clean the wound though.” Arlo yanked up his t-shirt to reveal a beautiful set of abs, an eight-pack I didn’t know was possible. “Here.” He took my hand, having me feel a scar.

Impressive, but more impressive, I brushed my fingers along the muscles, feeling heat rise in me.

It’d been a while since I’d had any contact with flesh that hadn’t been Dillon’s.

Snapping out of it, I remembered we were talking about zombies.

I asked him with a laugh, “What do you do with them then? Just let them eat you?”

“I fight them off. I leave...”

“What if you decide to stay somewhere?”

It took him a moment. “I guess I’ve been moving from place to place. I’ve kept moving. Just got here last night. Arlo Fernsby, from California originally, settled in Seattle later. Been on the road for a while.”

Figures, he wasn’t from around here. “What brings you to Creepy of all places?”

He sat up into a full-blown lotus position. His blue eyes met mine. “I heard about this place on the road.”

“You wouldn’t happen to drive an Amazon truck, would you?”

“You saw it out front?”

I smiled. I hadn’t. As usual, I’d used the side entrance. I started to ask him how he got in the gate.

“Yeah, I’m partial to the Prime trucks. There are so many. Keep picking up another when one runs out of gas. And bonus, they’re full of packages.”

“Who told you about this town?”

“Real cool dude gave me the scoop. Figured it’d be a great place to hide out until all this blows over.”

“Blows over? Impossible.” Where’d he been?

He took my hand. “Anything is possible when you have inner peace.”

Party on, dude. Retrieving my hand, I got to my feet. Dusting off my leggings, I wondered what dumb fuck told him about Creepy.

Standing, he joined me. “I rode on ahead, but I’m expecting the others any day now.”

“More people coming,” I huffed.

“Hey, if this is your pad, I can tell the others we have to move along. Or we could coexist here. The more the merrier.” When I didn’t answer right away, thinking of what to say, he continued, “It didn’t look like anyone lived here. But that house down the road...”

Figuring I couldn’t keep the secret long, I said, “I live down the road. That’s my house.” I didn’t plan to give it up. My voice conveyed as much.

“So, what’s the problem?”

“I’m storing some of my belongings here. This used to be a dear friend’s house.” I’d call Mr. Jules a friend, I guess.

“Am I understanding, you don’t mind having neighbors?”

“I’ll want to get my stuff out, you see.”

“There’s no rush.”

My ass there was no rush. Fuck. I’d been collecting and storing for so long, planning to move in here this winter. Mr. Pacifist here may not steal my supplies, but I did not know who else was on their way to Creepy.

“I better be going. It’s getting dark.”

“I’ll give you a ride.”

“No, it’s okay, truly, I’ll walk.”

“I’ll walk you.” He placed his hand on the small of my back, urging me along.

“Thanks, but no thanks.” I turned into him, putting my hands on his chest. Our eyes met.

His lips parted as he was about to say something. Damn. He was beautiful. Warm breath hitting me, he hesitated. His hand went to stroke my hair. “How about dinner?”

Clearly, something was going on here. Absolutely not my type, Surfer dude was making me blush. “Not tonight.” Then I thought about Troy, the ballplayer, I’d blown him off and nearly got him killed. “A raincheck?”

“Tomorrow night?”

“Sure. I’ll make you dinner tomorrow.” I checked to make sure he was wearing a watch. Taking his wrist, I read it, noticing it was hours off. Turning the tiny wheel, I set it. “Be there at five, central time.”

Having a date, I practically skipped home. Too bad I had another surprise waiting on my doorstep when I arrived. Dillon glared up at me. He held the radio I’d left on the back porch between his knees. “Where’ve you been?”

“Not far...” What was he doing here? I squinted my eyes in confusion.

He stood and stretched. “I told you I’d be back.”

“I thought you said you were heading back.”

He handed me my radio. “Poor connection. Said, my crew headed back.”

“Y’all find anyone?”

“Nah. But I just realized I didn’t check the end of your lane.” He started toward his motorcycle.

Thinking fast, I said, “I just did.” I twirled the radio and shoved it in my backpack, all nonchalant. “No sign of anyone at the Jules’ Estate either.”

“Good. So, it’s only you and me.” He came back to the porch. “I’m due for a payment.”

“I’m due for a bath.” Hot from my oh-so-easy encounter with Arlo, it would be a cold one.

“Me, too. We can kill two birds with one stone.”

“But...” I began to say, it wasn’t Monday, then I remembered I was having dinner with Arlo tomorrow on Monday. So stupid of me not to realize. I’d have to get rid of Dillon tonight. “I’m taking a bath first,” I told him. And afterward, I thought.

“I’ll join you.” Dillon followed me into the house.

I lit some candles. “Yeah, right. You can wait here,” I said, motioning to the living room. I shooed him to the couch and went to grab my bucket from the kitchen.

“Seriously, Sissy, let me help you.” Dillon had followed me through the dark. He stole the bucket from my hands. “I’ll fetch some water. You go get undressed.”

Either way, I’d have to get my payment over with.

Picking up the candles, I took them to the bathroom.

The small room lit up too much. I blew one of them out.

That was better. Any other time, I’d think about how sex with my ex-fiancé, blackmailed sex with him wasn’t the worse thing in the world now that it’d pretty much ended, but meeting two eligible bachelors changed my perspective.

The prospect of people in fact coming back to Creepy and life returning to some semblance of normal was not conceivable to me just last week.

Although Dillon had warned me. Having second thoughts about our arrangement, I thought of ways to get out of it.

I could tell him I was on the rag. No, I’d already done that two weeks ago.

Reluctantly, I disrobed. Watching my body in the mirror, I noticed all the ways the days of hard work had made me more attractive.

My arms and legs’ toned muscles danced as I moved.

My midsection, tiny and flat, sported a four-pack.

All my voluptuous bits were even more so thanks to the muscle underneath.

Nice as it was, I didn’t feel this body belonged to me.

I would’ve never worked hard just to achieve it.

It was as if my face had been photoshopped onto an Instagram model who cared about her looks.

It was alien. I was the body snatcher. A shame there’s no man to appreciate it.

Besides Dillon, and he didn’t deserve it.

Before the epidemic, I’d not had the confidence to date many men.

But who knows what I would’ve done with a body like this?

Probably been a whore.

Since then, there had been no men to choose from. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, YOLO and all. Recalling the look on Arlo’s face when I’d placed my hands on his chest made me almost convulse. Damn, I was easy.

Dillon returned with a bucket of rainwater in one hand and the pot I’d used to can tomato sauce cradled against him. “This water good?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s clean too.” I hadn’t thought about bathing in my canning water.

Once it cooled, I always drank some, saved some to wash up my evening dinner, and brushed my teeth.

I’d usually heat some more to bathe. Thinking of Arlo, I told Dillon to get naked.

I didn’t have to tell him twice. “You wash me, I’ll wash you. ”

He wasn’t expecting that. “I like that idea.”

Once he was naked, he positioned himself beside me in the mirror. “Look at us. Who’d have thought we both survived?”

“You look like a mountain man with that beard.”

“You don’t like it?” Dillon rubbed it and tugged it down. “Look at your body, Sissy. You could’ve been a model with that body. But I liked you softer.”