Life After Z

Chapter 16 - Everett

I swallowed the bile at the back of my throat as I grabbed the sorry ass Z that Coop had downed with a straight shot to the forehead by his nasty ass feet. Just like all of the Zs, his feet were modeled deep red and bloated with all of the fucker's pooled blood. No heartbeat meant no circulation so all of the blood drained to their feet when they reanimated and stumbled around.

Black mucus oozed out of the fresh bullet wound and for the thousandth time I wondered if that black shit was what made Zs what they are. Not that it really mattered. Scientific or fucking science fiction, this was our reality. Understanding the hows and the whys wasn't something I needed to concern myself with.

What I did need to be concerned about were willful women. One in particular.

Ivy.

Not that she didn't do anything that I had done a hundred times over at this point. She had been right on the money with how she handled this morning. Zs were slow. Our best defense against them was to avoid them. Go around them. Run away. Don't engage unless you have to and use guns as a last resort.

Yet none of that mattered when I was jolted awake this morning by an emergency signal to find her riding directly into danger, alone. Fucking alone again.

I thought she was going to talk to her people.

I pulled the last Z into the pile and Cooper poured diesel over the sorry fuckers. We were taking time to burn them because if we didn't they would be a problem again in a couple of hours. And this sort of problem only grows if you let it. Another reason why we were always on the move. There were just too many Zs to fight them. If we tried to burn all of the Zs we downed, we wouldn't have time for anything else.

But we couldn't move on till we figured out what was going on with Ivy and her people. Thus we were burning the Zs. Ivy had wanted to help but I shut that shit down in a second. There was no reason for her to have to deal with this shit.

Cooper set the pile ablaze and I stomped back towards camp intent on getting some answers. Seems like all I do around this chick, ask questions and get half-ass answers. Ivy had a sleepy Sebbie in her lap as she sipped on a mug of coffee, her eyes trained on me. Exactly as I liked them.

"I thought Rio was coming with you today. Where is he?" I demanded in a harsh tone that she really didn't deserve.

"Oh," she said, sounding surprised. "No. Rio doesn't go out. He is terrified of the dead."

Seriously? Her best friend was a pussy? Then who the fuck was watching her back?

"What about that Milo dude?"

"He is busy doing guard duty," Ivy replied easily as if it wasn't a big deal that she had gone out solo again. "I brought breakfast."

"Darlin' you can't be traipsing around by yourself. It's not safe," I tried to explain as she pulled her pack over and started pulling paper bags out.

"It's fine Everett. I do it all the time," Ivy argued but I was distracted from my ire when she pulled a perfectly ripe tangerine out of one of the brown bags and held it up to me. I blinked down at it for several moments before allowing myself to touch it, too afraid it was some sort of illusion.

"That is my point," I tried to continue scolding her but the heavenly smell of fresh citrus overwhelmed my senses and I sounded distracted. "You shouldn't be going out alone at all."

"Is that what it looks like? Fresh fruit?" Lucas asked. Ivy smiled at him and tossed him another perfect-looking tangerine. I abandoned my argument and dug my fingers into the tender flesh, splitting the fruit open. I inhaled the intoxicating smell before peeling off a wedge and shoving it in my mouth,

"Oh my god," Lucas moaned and I couldn't help silently copying him in my head. This tasted better than anything I had ever eaten. Hands down.

Cooper and Jen came to investigate and Sebbie questioned why we were so excited. Damn, we had been living off of canned food and any game we managed to hunt for over a year. Sebbie probably didn't even remember fresh fruits and veggies. And it just got better. Ivy produced a bag of fresh strawberries, a dozen eggs, and an honest to god loaf of bread with raspberry jam and soft cheese.

"What the fuck, Darlin'?" I questioned, too fucking dumbfounded to do anything other than stare at the food. "How is this possible?"

That sly smile was back on her face as she explained. "We have a garden with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Chickens keep us in eggs and we even have a goat. Goat milk only keeps for so long so most of it we process into cheese. We scavenged the flour and yeast from the store. Our oven is gas, so it wasn't too difficult to bake the bread. The eggs are hard-boiled. I hope that is okay. I didn't want them to break on my way over here."

We were all silent, having no idea how to respond.

It was just starting to turn awkward when Cooper came to the rescue. "Of course. Hardboiled is excellent. All of this is so much more than we ever expected. What an incredibly generous gift. Thank you, Ivy." Ivy's eyes lit up at his gratitude and we all echoed his sentiments.

I cut a slab off the loaf of bread and slathered jam on one side and goat cheese on the other before stuffing it in my mouth. This time I really did moan. Fuck this was heaven. No question about it. I looked up to see Ivy's heavy gaze on me, her eyes burning with heat. Okay, so maybe I could think of an even better heaven.

Ivy spread open and begging.

Sounds of overall enjoyment were prevalent and I tried to slow down enough to actually enjoy the food instead of just inhaling it. My favorite was the bread with goat cheese but the strawberries were just about the sweetest thing I have ever tasted. They were small bursts of flavor that Sebbie quickly fell in love with.

"Do you eat like this all of the time?" Jen asked and I narrowed my eyes at the hint of accusatory tone within her words.

"I mean I don't bake bread all that often, but the majority of our diet consists of the fruits and vegetables we grow from the gardens. And the chickens lay eggs whether we need them or not so they are my main source of protein," Ivy relayed, not picking up on the tension.

"If you have extra food and a safe place, then why the hell are we sitting out here in the open? Why haven't you invited us in yet?" Jen asked, taking for granted the half-eaten egg in her hand. Ivy had been nothing but generous with us. Almost anyone else would have just left us to our plight and kept everything to themselves. Instead, Ivy had given us priceless medicine, access to fuel, and a beautiful meal not to mention saving Sebbie's life twice.

Jen was being a greedy bitch when she should be nothing but grateful like the rest of us.