Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) by Raymond Lee

around two in the morning, snoring loudly next to her in the bed. Janjai quietly rose and slipped on her houseshoes. She’d worn a T-shirt and lounge pants to bed, not daring to change clothes before escaping. The pajama set would have to do. It might be a strange outfit to arrive on her sister’s doorstep in but it beat a nightgown.
    She tiptoed around the foot of the bed and out the bedroom door, standing still in the hall to listen for sounds. Otis was staying with them, the two men having decided this house was safer than Otis’s trailer, and if she ran into him it could blow everything.
    Hearing nothing, she crept down the hall. She found Otis on the living room couch, asleep.
    Unsure how deeply the man slept, Janjai cautiously tiptoed across the kitchen and snagged the keys to Hank’s truck from the peg next to the door, careful not to allow them to jangle. She’d never driven in America but she’d been with Hank plenty of times when he had. It couldn’t be that hard.
    She twisted the lock and reached for the knob on the back door, freezing as a howl rent the air. Coyotes. She was used to the sound, given they lived in a heavily wooded area, but the coyotes usually howled from up in the mountains. This one sounded close. She didn’t know enough about them to know if they attacked people so she grabbed a knife from the knife block, just in case she needed it. She doubted she’d be able to harm an animal but holding the weapon in her hand made her feel a little bit safer.
    Now somewhat armed, she again reached for the doorknob and turned it slowly, fearful of making any noise. If either man woke up and saw her leaving the house, she was in deep trouble.
    The door opened as an animal nearby yelped. The coyote? Janjai peered through the screen door and saw nothing in the darkness blanketing the yard. More sounds came, growls and whimpering, and she reconsidered her escape. But she couldn’t see anything and animals were killed out there all the time. If not by hunters, then by each other. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she unlocked the screen door and opened it.
    “Where in the hell do you think you’re going?”
    Janjai’s blood turned to ice as Hank’s voice came from behind her. She gripped the doorframe and thought of her options. She had the keys in her hand. All she had to do was make it to the truck. But if he caught her, he’d beat her, probably worse than he’d ever beat her before.
    She could turn around, but the result would be the same. With the truck keys in her hand, she couldn’t pretend that she’d been doing anything other than escaping. With the knowledge she would be beaten whether she ran or not, Janjai found the courage to flee, to at least attempt to get away from her tormentor. She had a chance if she ran and it seemed better than just turning around and surrendering.
    She quickly found that houseshoes weren’t suitable for running. She tripped as the fuzzy slippers seemed to fly off her feet, but quickly righted herself. The truck was so close, sitting there in the driveway like the Statue of Liberty, promising freedom, if only she could reach it and unlock the door before Hank could get his hands on her. 
    Rocks and sticks cut into the soles of her feet but she pressed on, knowing the pain was worth it if it meant saving her life. She heard Hank huffing and puffing behind her between threats, thankful the man thirty years her senior was out of shape.
    “Get in that truck and I’ll kill you!” he screamed at her and she could imagine his face flooded with red color. “I own you, dammit! The only life for you here without me is as a whore. Is that what you want?”
    She knew all too well that many mail-order brides found themselves as prostitutes after escaping abusive husbands, or worse, being pimped out by the very men they’d thought would give them a better life here, but Janjai was not those women. She spoke the language and she had family. She would make