Love and the Undead (gxg)

Chapter 6

"Hey, Raine?" Iris asks me.

"Yeah?" I say, looking over at her.

We've been walking down this gravel road for awhile in companionable silence. The sun shines brilliantly through the leaves of the trees that surround the road, and I cant help but admire their beauty. The leaves are a gorgeous dark green color, and the sky a brilliant orange because it's still early.

"Where are we going?" She wonders.

I love hearing her say "we", it feels nice knowing that wherever we go, we'll go together.

"Well, a family member of mine had a cabin surrounded by a privacy fence out here somewhere in a little town called Creedence. I was thinking we could head there and check it out, see if it's safe enough for long term living? If that's alright with you of course." I look at her hopefully.

I didnt really stop to think if she'd had another destination in mind. I mean, who am I to just expect her to change all of her plans according to mine?

"Of course that's fine. I was just curious." She says happily. "I think I'd go anywhere that you were." She adds softly.

At that my heart fills with happiness and I grin from ear to ear. Looking over at her, I see her blushing as she looks quickly away from me.

"I didnt mean to say that out loud." She mumbles embarrassed and I giggle at her cuteness.

We continue walking for a bit, enjoying the fresh air. Then we hear a low growl and look up to see Erebus's hackles raised and his head lowered in a snarl. We both stop in our tracks, muscles tense, eyes darting around the surrounding woods. I pull my knife out of the holder on the strap of my bag, and have it ready while I pull my pistol out of my waistband and hand it to Iris. She takes it silently, switches the safety off, and holds it in a grip that looks experienced. I'm excited to see just how well she can use it. We hear rustling from the leaves to the left, and turn to see 3 zombies already at the road and more emerging from the trees behind them.

"Don't shoot unless you absolutely have to. I dont want to waste bullets on something we can handle without them." I tell Iris.

She nods, keeping her eyes on the infected while I head towards them. Erebus shoots past me at the group, snarling and ripping at their flesh. The nasty monsters are oozing puss and a blackish blood from sores that cover their skin. I almost gag at the smell of rotten flesh as I plunge my knife through an infected's eyeball and straight into it's brain. I don't stop to wait for it to drop to the ground, I just spin and launch myself towards the next monster. I twist around so that I'm just behind it, and then shove it to its knees by its shoulders. It struggles until I plunge my knife down through its skull, silencing it for good. Suddenly I get yanked back by my hair and hear Iris yell,

"Raine!"

I'm jerked to the side and then set free. When I turn around, I see Erebus lock his jaws around the infected's head, yanking it violently back and forth until the thing stopped moving.

"Good boy, Erebus." I say to the dog, patting his head.

He wags his tail once in recognition and licks my hand before bounding off and attacking the next zombie. I pause to look around, and see about 10 of them left.

"Iris!" I shout. "Just use the gun!"

I snap my fingers and whistle, causing Erebus to run back to me so that he will be out of the way of the bullets.

Pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop!pop!

10 shots in quick succession, and every infected left in the field drops dead. I turn and look at Iris surprised. Where in the hell did she learn to shoot?? I think to myself. She laughs at my facial expression, clicks the safety and holds the gun out for me to take back.

"I think maybe you should hold on to that. It'll be much more useful in your hands than mine." I tell her.

She blushes at the compliment, but nods and tucks the gun into her waistband. We take off in silence, once again just admiring the view on our journey. I pull out a cigarette and put it between my lips, reaching into my back pocket for my Zippo to light it. I take a long drag, and exhale slowly before putting my Zippo back in my pocket. I look out of the corner of my eye, and catch Iris watching me with a small smile.

"What?" I ask her, amused.

"Nothing." She said. "Its just with the back pack, and the cigarette, and the skateboard.. you look like the traveling bad girl. Like one of those girls your mom tells you to stay away from."

"And is that a bad thing?" I ask her laughing.

"Oh, no! I didnt mean that" she explains. "It just.. Fits you perfectly. It makes me want to draw you."

I look at her, surprised.

"You like to draw?" I ask her.

"Well, yes." She says shyly. "I love it."

I look at her, glad to have learned something new about her. She makes me very curious.

"Why do you want to draw me?" I ask.

She looks surprised, like she didnt expect me to ask.

"Well, um.. I mean, I just think that, you know, you would look good drawn in pencil."

"So you dont think I look good already?" I ask, pretending to be offended.

"O-oh no! No, that's not what i-"

"Ooh so you do think I look good?" I ask, smirking at her.

She gets flustered and blushes even more.

"No! Well, yes, but- ugh!" She says.

I start giggling non stop while she mumbles at me.

"Not funny." She says, smacking my arm.

"Aww dont be mad! It was really cute." I tell her.

She stops mumbling and smiles up at me a little, before looking down at the ground. God damn, this girl is so beautiful. And she has no idea. I wish I could find every person who treated her wrong and kick their asses. She deserves nothing less than the world, and I intend to try my absolute best to give it to her. She looks up at me and I look away fast, trying to hide the fact that I was staring.

"What were you thinking about?" She asks me.

"Well, I was just thinking about how I want to give you the world." I say shyly but honestly.

She blushes and replies "I don't want the world. I just want you. Just being in your presence is like a wonderful dream I don't have to wake up from. Everything about you, your body and your personality, it just amazes me."

Now, its my turn to blush. I stop walking and turn towards her, causing her to stop as well. I step in close, closing the distance between us. She looks up at me with those wide, grey blue eyes that I get lost in so easily. I lean forward and kiss her on the cheek, whispering

"Thank you."

I pull back and smile at her shocked expression. Her face is so red from that, you'd think I had just tried to make out with her. I chuckle and grab her hand as we continue walking. She lets me, which im grateful for. Hopefully I can take that as a sign that she's trusting me more. I love the feel of her soft hand in mine, and the warmth it creates. As we continue walking in silence, I feel perfectly content; because no matter where this journey takes us, we will be together.

- Next chapter soon -
Much love,
Me