LovewithaChanceofZombies by Delphine Dryden Read Free Book Online

guilty about
distracting him if she’d thought he really had a chance at a last-minute
miracle cure. As it was, when she allowed herself to think about it at all, she
felt honored to be his final distraction.
    They had sex everywhere, all the time, like randy teenagers.
Every day she got closer to thinking of it as making love.
    No good would have come of saying those words, so they
didn’t. That could only make it worse, the inevitable heartbreak when he died.
It was tough enough as it was.
    Once, after they’d exhausted each other and lay in a
contented, jumbled heap on the bed, Lucas whispered, “I wish I’d known you. I
liked you before, you know. We’d met a few times.”
    She laughed, charmed at the notion that Lucas would think
she needed reminding of this. “I remember.”
    “You seemed like someone… I thought about asking you out.
But I didn’t because you seemed like someone I could really fall for. I didn’t
want that complication, those expectations. It all sounded like such a
responsibility. Now I wish I had asked.”
    Lena twined her fingers with his, squeezing gently. “Good
thing you got around to it in the nick of time, at least.” She kept her voice
light and was glad for the darkness that hid her expression. “I liked you
before too.”
    Not nearly as much as she liked him now though. That part
was even harder, in a way. The sex was fantastic, heroic indeed. But Lena
already knew the laughs were what she’d really miss, and the talks. And seeing
him. And sleeping next to him. And knowing he liked her back. He was somebody
she could have wanted to spend her life with, but she’d found him too late. She
could still want it, of course, but only with the knowledge that she couldn’t
have it.
    Twenty-one to forty-two days—that was the known incubation
period for the virus. Four to five weeks was the most common range. Lena
pictured the calendar in the lab as if she had crossed the days off, and she
saw red X marks mounting. Nine days, ten, eleven, marking off the precious time
they’d spent together. The image stayed in her mind always, haunting her
dreams.
    On the twelfth day of Lucas’ confinement, Watson visited
them in the lab.
    “There’s been another attack,” the admiral said after the
obligatory greetings. “Out at the big farm. In the northwest corner again.”
    “The hemp?” Lucas was intrigued enough to actually leave his
stool. “That’s what, the third time?”
    “Fourth,” Watson corrected. “A few strays came at it three
days ago, but they were picked off. They came just after dawn.”
    “After? They must have been starving,” Lena said.
    “Or just really tempted,” Nye countered. “There’s something
about that location, or about the hemp. Admiral, I’d like to take a look, maybe
collect some samples. Can you get me out there this afternoon?”
    An awkward pause followed as everybody recalled that Nye was
in quarantine.
    “A disguise, maybe?” suggested Lena. “We can throw some
fatigues, a hat and some sunglasses on him, drive all the way to the corner
where the attack happened, and he can scope it out and take samples before
anybody notices he isn’t just a guard.”
    “I’d like to get some fresh air,” Nye added wistfully.
    That seemed to be the deciding factor for Watson, who
perhaps recalled that in the regular quarantine, the “patients” got to spend
time outside every day. “We can make it work,” he said with obvious reluctance,
“but you stay in the back of the van until I give you the all-clear, and you’ll
have five minutes out there at the most. If anybody spots you, you’ll have to
go into quarantine like anybody else, and the lab time will be through. I’ll
leave it up to you, whether you want to take the risk.”
    * * * * *
    They were in the van within half an hour, bumping along the
rough road to the farm. Lena kept checking her weapon, uncomfortable with the
knowledge that she hadn’t fired it in close to two weeks. It felt