Love in the Time of Zombies

For those of you who have read my "Seducing the Neighbor Girl" series, this is a major departure from that style of story. In that series, I always try to keep the sex at the beginning, middle, and end of each story. For this one, there isn't a lot of sex and it takes a long time to get around to it. So, please be patient.

This is a romance story set in a zombie apocalypse world. But mostly it is a romance story.

It is my first try at writing in this style so be kind.

Please enjoy.

*** *** ***

Vickers woke to an unusual sound coming from the back storage room. He was the only person watching the compound while everyone else was out on a mission, so all of the obvious causes of a disturbance that came to mind where bad. Likely one of the mindless zombies had found a way in. He grabbed his M4 shotgun, slipped the combat sling over his head, made sure it was fully loaded and silently moved to the door.

He grabbed the door handle with his left hand and the pistol grip of the shotgun with his right. He closed his eyes and thought about the layout of the room on the other side. The door opened on the far right of the room so no one would be able to hide in the corner on his right, but that still left the other three quarters of the room to cover by himself. This was going to be dangerous. He hoped it was nothing and he was imagining things.

The noise again. Vickers thought, "Crap. Someone (more likely something) was in there."

If there was more than one creature, he decided he would shoot whoever hid in the corner to his left then retreat behind the doorway for cover and shoot everyone else from there.

He took a deep breath.

Now! He opened the door fast and swept the shotgun from left to right.

No one was in there.

The room only held shelves and dry goods. He repeated a sweep of the room and began to look for hiding places. Then he noticed the top half of a petite girl hanging in from the small high window above the top self. She was on her stomach with her chest resting on a box on the top shelf. Her butt was stuck in the window. He had always thought the window was too small to fit through and a bit high for one of those little unnatural monsters to get up to. "Apparently, I was wrong." He thought. Or maybe not she was pretty well stuck.

Vickers walked up keeping the muzzle of the shotgun trained on her head. He was getting ready to dispatch the little monster but something in his head was telling him to wait. She had put out her hand defensively and in a way that was imploring him to stop. This was off. The former-person zombies and their offspring did not communicate at all, not even at this simple level. And it finally occurred to him she was wearing a dress. They did not wear clothes either.

"How on earth did you get yourself into that position?" He asked. Her response was to kick her body and to push against the wall below the window with her hands. The box below her rocked a little producing the light rubbing sound that had originally drawn his attention. He lowered the muzzle and considered going outside to push her through, but she finally breach through. Her torso landed on the box as she huffed. In one fluid motion she brought her legs in the window rolling onto her side and gracefully swung her legs around and dropped to the floor.

"Who are you?" He asked and got no reply. "Speak up." She just stood there. This was unnerving. One of the sure fire characteristics of the zombies was there lack of vocals. She was a bit too tall for the second generation rascals and the first generation of zombies have been dead for two years at least. But still the silence was a troubling.

She didn't move, just looked at him. Her face was grimy and her feet were bare and grimy too. She had long black hair that had not been washed for ages. She wore a filthy long sleeve dress with a high neckline. What color it had originally been was a mystery. Now the only word for the color was muddy or maybe earthy because there were grass stains to go with the dark crusty mud stains. Her eyes were a piercing bright blue in stark contrast to the rest of her. She was thin and petite, five foot tall, tiny for a human, but a giant for a second generation zombie. They never topped four foot tall.

Vickers ordered, "Close the window." This was a test really, to see if she could show some ability of high level thinking. She turned and climbed up to the window and slid it closed to the side and hopped back down.

"Do you talk?" She shook her head side to side. "Mute then." She just looked back. "In to the other room." He motioned the way with this shotgun.

She marched through the door with him following. "Stop there" he commanded when she reach the center of the room. "Lift your dress above your head." She sharply turned her head and glared at him. "I'm not kidding around. Now." She complied and he saw from the back that she only had a pair of knickers, no weapons, or bra for that matter, hiding under there. But she was filthy even under the dress too. "Cute little ass though", he thought. He glanced at her sides and front as well but nothing was out of place, just cute little boobs. She was flat chested really. "Okay, you can lower it."

He sat at one of the dining tables, turning the chair to face her. Resting the shotgun across his knees, he waved with his hand for her to sit on the sofa across from him. They sat regarding each other without speaking. She played with her hands in her lap uncomfortably. She attempted a smile at him.

"Are you hungry?" She nodded. "Come sit at the table." As he watched her hands, he had a second thought. "Let's clean you up a little first."

He stowed the shogun in the gun rack wondering if he would die for being unarmed with her. Then he took her to the wash room where he soaped up a rag and scrubbed her hands and face. Three times. The rag was turning black but her hands and face were turning white. When he was done, he regarded he face for a moment. He thought it was quite beautiful. After washing, he gave her some stew and they ate in silence.

They spent the rest of the morning not communicating. It was descent enough though she just smiled at him trying to be friendly. She had been terrified when he pounced on her with the gun while she was helplessly trapped. He was so fierce, so strong. When he looked at her bare body she was sure rape was coming next (she would have killed him before allowing that to happen to her again), but he was civilized with her. He seemed to have gentle side to him. That was a nice change in her life. She wanted to stay, this was the best situation she had found since everything went bad years ago.

***

Just as Vickers and his new friend seemed to find comfort in their mutual silence they both sensed something wasn't right outside. In unison they stood and looked toward the barred door.

Vickers motioned for her to follow him up into the watch tower above the house. On the way up he grabbed an M14 with a scope and a couple of 20 round magazines. When he got into the tower he began to scan the yard left to right. But before he got far he felt her hand on his arm. He looked over and she was pointing to his left. He saw some small figures trying to get into the chicken coop. He wondered, "How did they get within the outer wall?" Damn, he didn't have a clear shot. He would have to get closer.

As they both went back down into the house his new friend stopped him and pantomimed that she wanted some kid of stabbing weapon. Vickers went into the armory and picked up a large knife there. She declined indicating with her hands she wanted one much longer, more than three feet. He was at a loss, he couldn't think of anything he had like that. Then he remembered a katana sword he had looted from a military surplus store. When he dug it out of the armory and handed it to her, her eyes lit up. It had a loop of cord tied to it that she threw over her head and one shoulder. When they walked to the door she again stopped him and indicated with her hands she would go outside and he would go back up to the tower with the rifle. He opened the door and she ran outside. He bolted the door behind her and went up to the tower.

He had no idea what the plan was. He had just given a girl he had caught breaking in the house a sword and sent her outside. He thought it was crazy. Sitting in position he still had no shot on the monsters and no idea where his little lady was or what she was going to do. In fact, there was no sign of her anywhere.

Then he caught sight of a stone that flew through the air over them and clanked against a wall. Immediately, five small, naked figures ran toward the noise.

"Good plan." he thought, "You get them in the open and I knock them down."

Just as he was leveling his rifle he glimpsed a small figure gliding behind the monsters' backs as they move to where the stone landed. When the sneaking figure closed in on the rear of the zombie line she began to gracefully dance with the sword, the last guy in line's head came clean from his body, then an instant later the next to last lost his head, and another moment later the third from the rear was liberated of his head as well. She was a machine of death it seemed, and he just gave her a sword.

But then the two lead zombies noticed something was up and were turning to look back. Vickers felt like he was letting her down by sitting and watching. He raised his rifle and in quick succession shot the remaining two in the head. Five headless bodies laid on the ground and one very beautiful girl in Vickers' eyes was running back to the house. She was cute before, now he thought she was smokin' hot.

He went down and let her in the door, she gave him a quick hug. "I could get used to this." He told her. She was all smiles.

"Don't get settled in, we are going out to see how they got over the wall. Otherwise, we will have a yard full of the devils in no time." He traded the rifle for the shotgun and they went out.

Walking around the perimeter outside the outer wall they found a very tall pine tree that had fallen from the perimeter of the forest toward the wall. The top section had hit the wall and landed such that in formed a little ladder up.

Vickers told her, "Keep an eye out I'm going to push this thing off the wall." He got his back against the broken tree top and pushed it to the side hoping gravity would do the rest and it did. The tree top crashed to the ground next to the wall making way too much noise. Any little demon within earshot would be drawn over immediately.

Vickers heard a squirrel alarm that intruders were close. This probably meant that monsters were in the area. Now he could sense them. Several figures were in the forest closing in. He prayed it was deer instead. They had multiplied in numbers over the past couple of years. Deer were everywhere now.

He turned to tell his friend to hide, but she was gone. He crouched into the tree branches and hid himself. Where was she? He looked desperately around for her. She had been standing by that clump of earth. He noticed that her sword was lying on the clump in its sheath. Why would she leave it behind?

On closer inspection he saw that her hand was still wrapped around the grip of the sword. His eyes had had trouble understanding what he was seeing. Then he realized the clump of earth was her. Her dirty dress blended her form to the flat ground perfectly. Her chest was flat to the ground with her knee spread to the sides (it reminded Vickers of how a frog would sit) and her head tilted forward spilling her hair in front of her face. Had he not washed her hand she would have been invisible except for the sword. He would need to paint the sword sheath to make it look like a branch.

Four small zombies stepped out of the forest, all males. Luckily their eye sight was terrible especially in bright light. I was not likely they could see him or the girl in their hiding places. He went to un-sling his shotgun but found it in his hands already. As he was trying to figure out how to best end this without him or the girl dying, there was suddenly a huge explosion less than a quarter mile away. The shock wave made both of him and his new 'girlfriend' flinch. The monsters flinched too and fled back to the forest at full speed.

He suddenly remembered the errand his cohorts were on. They were blowing up the dens these zombies bred in. The pregnant females stayed in the dens and birthed new pups while everyone not birthing or nursing went out to kill. Vickers had tracked and located three dens within a mile on the compound. Unbeknownst to him, this was when the mute girl had found him. She was hiding from a group of zombies when he appeared from nowhere like a ghost and killed them. Then he was gone. She had trouble tracking him back to the compound but she did it. Luckily he hadn't killed her when he caught her breaking-and-entering.

By occasionally going on search and destroy missions for the dens they figured they could keep the local zombie population under control. The group decided that it would take everyone to destroy each den one by one. But they were not comfortable leaving the compound unguarded, so by some odd logic, the strongest was left to guard it alone. If things got out of hand Vickers was supposed to abandon ship and find them so they could all come back together and reclaim their home. Vickers was the only one who was ever trusted to be outside the compound alone. So if someone was to be left alone it had to be him. They also decided they would do all three dens in two days camping in the security of the old power sub-station not too far away for one night. Better to get it done in one shot. They would be back tomorrow sometime.

Vickers was brought back from his thoughts when gravel and dirt clods thrown up by the explosion started raining down from the sky around them. He hoped nothing big was coming down on them. He whistled a call that a local male songbird used to locate his mate. She turned her head slightly and peered from under her hair towards him. She warbled the appropriate call a female bird would use in response. He tilted his head to indicate they should head back in.

When they were back inside the main house walking side by side she made the squirrel warning cry that had alerted him while they were out. She was the one who had made the alarm that saved him. He responded by making the sound a male squirrel if he were feeling randy and trying to seduce a female. She hip checked him in a playful way telling him to knock it off.

He took the sword from her and stowed it in the gun rack next to his shotgun. "It will be here if you need it." She nodded.

He repeated the songbird call from earlier and she responded again. Then he moved on to more complex bird calls. She seemed to know the proper call and response to most. She would occasionally steer to squirrel sounds. Other than the warning cry and horny male call, he didn't know how to do squirrel chatter. So bird calls it was. But he wanted to talk.

"My name is Vickers. Well that's what everyone calls me anyway. What should I call you?"

She still wasn't speaking, just smiling.

"Since you are my little songbird, I'm going to call you Wren until you tell me something different." She seemed okay with this.

He placed a bowl of stew in front of her and several large buckets of water on the stove. "Sit tight Wren, I'm going to get some things for you." He went into a supply closet. He returned with a blue dress and some other odds and ends.

Wren's eyes lit up when she saw the dress. She went to grab it, but Vickers pulled it away. "No way young lady. You need a bath first."

He grabbed a bucket of water off the stove and led Wren to a bathtub. He poured the water in and was going to leave her to herself, but Wren pulled her dress over her head, discarded her underwear, and sat in the tub looking at him expectantly.

Vickers got the wash cloth soapy and started to scrub her head to toe. He stopped to get fresh hot water after the first scrub down. The water was turning dark brown. After changing the water he washed her hair, then he needed to change the water again. "How did you get so dirty?" He asked. She just looked back a little embarrassed. "Sorry." He apologized.

With the fresh water he began to scrub her again. This time he spent more time on her breasts. He enjoyed the feel of her small mounds and she seemed to respond positively to the attention. She responded by groaning and writhing around, but he felt like a cad. He wanted her to ask him for attention or to say yes at least, so he stopped.

"Just say you want this and I will continue. Nod your head or something." He pleaded. She looked at him longingly but silently and unmoving. "The water's getting cold anyway. Let's get you dried off and dressed."

The truth was Wren didn't know what she wanted. She had been with men, raped that is, and she knew that she was not interested in that kind of contact. Being sexual had no appeal to her. But she liked Vickers. He was powerful and deadly yet had been tender and nice to her, and she had been enjoying his touch. It was confusing. She wanted to stay, so she figured that at some point she would have to submit to his 'needs' physically. At least he seemed more worthy of her than the others before.

She decided she would let him do as he pleased as long as he didn't beat her. She didn't expect that to be a problem, he had a good heart from what she had seen. She decided to just go along with whatever was happening for now. She couldn't wait to wear the dress, it was the most beautiful thing she had seen in memory and she dreamed about how the silky material would feel against her skin. She had not worn something so divine in longer than she could remember. She thought that it was obviously a gift to make her more available in bed.

He dried Wren and helped her into the dress. She spun around the room showing off the dress. It was dark blue came down to just above the knee. The top had wide shoulder straps. It was the kind of dress a lady might wear to a picnic or on a casual date. Then he showed her the other present he dug out for her. He presented her with a pair of new white lacy panties. She giggled and blushed but slid them up her legs and held her dress up for him to see them. She spun around for him. He thought her firm little butt was definitely beautiful. She lowered the dress and danced around the room again.

She was a happy carefree spirit. Vickers hadn't seen anyone this cheery in years. It was a delight.

When it was bedtime he changed her into one of his pajama shirts and tucked her into his bed. Vickers laid on the floor beside the bed. He kept feeling her hand touching his shoulder as though she was making sure he was still there.

Wren had expected him to share the bed. When he made his spot to sleep on the floor, she was disappointed that she was not appealing enough for him to want her. She had gone from reluctantly anticipating his advance to being sad he wasn't interested. Her mind was in turmoil. There must be someone else he preferred in the hunting party that was due to return? She felt jealous, but was happy to have him close by. She would try harder to be attractive to him tomorrow.

Wren was sound asleep first, just as Vickers was drifting off to sleep Wren awoke with a start, coming out of a bad nightmare. Vickers sat up on the bed next to her and soothed her back to sleep. He understood that sleep could be a place of terrible nightmares for everyone. It was just a fact of life now, but everyone still needed to sleep. She fell asleep in his arms. After awhile he didn't want to leave her but he need to sleep too so he laid down beside her.

When she woke in the middle of the night to find him holding her, she purred and curled up into his chest. She felt safe and secure for the first time, ever. She would definitely stay close to him tomorrow. She would make him notice her and want her.