Free Zombies in Love by Nora Fleischer Page B

For a moment she seemed surprised, but then she pressed closer to him, and he became aware of how thin his scrubs were, and that her body heat flew through them as if he were naked.  And the way her mouth tasted!  He could feel it over his tongue, the unique taste of her body, as if it was sinking into his body, changing all of his cells, drawing a little of her into him, forever...
    “You smell like lilacs,” he said, “did I ever tell you that?  Like lilacs and cinnamon.  And you’re so warm.”
    “Wow,” said Lisa, sounding dizzy.  “I wasn’t sure you were still into that kind of thing.  I mean-- God, I think you just sucked my brain out.”
    He grinned at her.  His mind had never been clearer.
    “So,” she said, tugging on the front of his scrubs.  “Want to play doctor?”
     
    #
     
    Ian gripped his gun.  Blood leaked out through Sarah’s clenched fingers and trailed all over the floor. 
    On the plus side, he’d captured another zombie.  On the minus side, everything else in the world had gone wrong.  Because Prof. Leschke wasn’t going to care, as long as there was a zombie in the cage, who it once had been.  And if it came to a choice between getting his degree and letting Sarah go-- what was he going to do?
    Eight years lost forever.  He couldn't leave without his PhD.  He couldn't.  Even if it meant killing Sarah...
    He contemplated the emptiness of a world without Sarah Chen in it.
    “Please let me out, Ian,” she begged.
    “I’ve seen this movie before,” he said.  “I know what’s going to happen.”
    “Yes!  I’m going to bleed to death!”
    Was this just a trick to get him to open the cage?  Well, she was bleeding a lot.  He spotted an ancient first aid kit on one of the lab benches.  Inside was a container of gauze.  Probably there were about a hundred different ways it could be converted into a deadly weapon, but he doubted that Sarah knew any of them.  He tossed her the gauze, and she began to wind it around her wound.
    He wondered when he was going to start to see her change.  “I suppose I should test the anti-virus on you,” he said.
    “I’m still alive!”
    “For now.  Next thing I know, you’ll be after my brain.”
    “What brain?” she snarled.  “I can’t believe he fucking bit me.”
    “Sarah!  You’re swearing!”  He’d never seen her swear before, not even the time she accidently set her shirt on fire.
    “Swearing?  I’ve just been bitten by a fucking zombie, and now my fucking friend won’t let me out of the fucking cage because he thinks I’m going to fucking eat him!”
    “I’m not being irrational.  You’re probably infected.”
    She tied off the gauze and glared at him.  “Ian, don’t you get it?  We were there four years ago.  We inhaled more of the virus than anybody.  We’re already infected, you dolt.  That means you, too.”
    She was right.  And why had Ian never thought of this before?  Because she was a lot smarter than he was.  “Fuck,” he said.
    She stood up, a bit wobbly, but looking determined.  “Now do you want to look for Uncle Fester alone, or do you want me to help?”
     
    #
     
    Lisa stumbled backwards into her bedroom, pulling Jack by his shirtfront.  She broke away from him for a moment to breathe.  "Bourbon," she gasped.  "You've been drinking?"
    "No," he said, and licked his lips, "And no bourbon since I died.  Night I died."
    "Weird," she said.
    "Very," he agreed, and he kissed her again.  His skin felt cool against her, and what was even stranger was the way his mouth felt cool on the inside.  And the way his body smelled, it wasn't quite like root beer, but it was close, sweet and strange.
    She liked it.  She liked it so much she started to unbutton her blouse one-handed, letting it fall open as she leaned back onto the bed.  She wished she'd at least made the bed first, but what the hell, it had obviously been way too long for both of them, and she was getting the sense