Love in the Time of the Dead by Tera Shanley Page A

body. My flesh kills them.”
    Sean sat straight up in his chair. “Your blood brings back their mind. You mean they’ll be human again?”
    “Yeah, but just for a minute. Their bodies are decayed, Sean. My blood doesn’t heal that and it hurts. It’s actually really horrible. It’s cruel to put a human mind back in a Dead’s body. Lets them think about the things they’ve done. The people they’ve killed and eaten. We need to find someone who can analyze my blood and figure out why and how I am immune, and then we need to try to give that immunity to others.”
    Laney sat down and pulled the tail of her top back in place. The bandages lay in a pile on the floor. The wound would just have to get some air for a while.
    She had left her pack and most of her weapons with Guist, but she still had a nine millimeter in a holster just above her knee. She pulled the handgun out smoothly and aimed it at Sean under the table. She needed to find out what he knew about the muzzled Deads.
    “I killed your little pets.”
    Sean looked at her with the most peculiar expression. “I’m sorry? I think I heard you wrong.”
    “I found your project monsters by the gardens, and then I killed them,” she enunciated slowly.
    He shook his head slightly like he was waiting for the punch line. None came. “You took care of our rabbit problem?”
    “I’m talking about the Deads you had hidden in the storage buildings behind the gardens, Sean.”
    The full minute of silence that followed was loaded as Sean’s face went through a slew of emotions. It finally settled on anger.
    “Is this your game then? You go from colony to colony and stir up trouble? Do you get some kind of kick out of it?”
    “So you know nothing about four Deads, muzzled and tied and locked in your shed? It’s why the whole damned colony stinks so bad, Sean.” She was raising her voice but found it hard to rein it in. “You’re in charge and you know nothing about this?”
    A slow and chilling creaking sound came from one of the bedrooms, and her attention was drawn instantly to the eerie intonation. Adrianna still played with a small scatter of toys in the living area. Laney’s unobstructed view of the girl as she played quietly made the next words from Sean’s mouth sound terribly confusing.
    “Adrianna,” he warned. “I’ve told you not to ever go in Daddy’s room. Back in here, right now, young lady.”
    The next few moments were the stuff of nightmares. The door that had slowly opened led to a darkened room, and a large Dead’s face loomed out of it. Its face was completely focused on the unknowing child, and the sight ripped a gasp of horror from Laney’s lips.
    “Adrianna,” she screamed. She jumped up so quickly the chair she was sitting in flung violently backward into the wall. The readied nine millimeter came up as if born of pure adrenaline-based instinct, and she popped one round into the Dead, and another to be sure.
    The creature dropped like a sack of flour. The stiff, clawed fingers fell centimeters from Adrianna’s turned back.
    The child turned and screamed in terror, but Laney was already running for her. She pulled Adrianna away from the felled Dead and into her legs, which effectively shielded the screaming child’s eyes.
    Sean was right behind her and pulled his daughter protectively into his arms. “There’s a Dead in my house. There is one inside the gates,” he breathed.
    “That’s what I was trying to tell you. Shhhh,” she hissed, holding up her hand.
    Several people were screaming and a muffled peppering of gunfire sounded from outside. The lights upstairs suddenly flipped off, and when she tried the nearest light switch, she was rewarded with no reaction. Generators were down.
    “Stay here,” she said. “Finn, cover them.”
    Finn already hovered protectively near the child and his unarmed colony leader. She clicked her flashlight on and held it next to her handgun before she made sure the bedrooms were all