This Would Be Paradise (Book 1)-A Zombie Novel

Chapter 25

A shadow moved across the inside of my eyelids. Something was blocking the morning light and I was a little too hungover to deal with this. I stiffened and cracked an eye open, readying to attack. The smirking face of Zoe peered down at me. She uncrossed her arms and produced the now empty bottle of Jack Daniels.

"You couldn't have saved even a little bit for me?"

I had to swallow a few times before I was able to reply. It felt like I had just been standing in front of an air-conditioning unit with my mouth open for hours.

"Kill me."

My head was pounding and I felt like death warmed over.

Zoe laughed, "Come on, we'll get you some Tylenol and water."

I started to sit up; trying not to jostle the hammock too much, but with it being a hammock and all, that attempt was futile.

Ethan's eyes flew open as he was rocked back and forth, "Wha?"

I chuckled at his complete disorientation, "I think we're being told we have to get up."

He scrubbed his hand over his face and hauled himself to his feet.

"You need some Tylenol too?" Zoe grinned.

"Well, I ain't goin' to say no."

We walked back to the cabin, probably looking as bad as we felt. Zoe was grinning the whole time and I could tell she was waiting for us to be alone before she tried to drag all the details out of me.

Darren and Chloe were making breakfast with the powdered eggs we had found, as we entered the cabin. John was nowhere to be seen.

"Where ya been?" Chloe narrowed her eyes at Ethan, then at me.

Ethan shot me a panicked glance and I just grinned, "I dibs the shower first."

Then ran off, leaving him to explain. The shower was luke-warm and had almost zero water pressure, but it beat bathing in a pond out back. The water also had a slight metallic smell to it, which usually meant the well needed more water soften salts. At least we were getting our iron.

I took two pills from the bottle Zoe propped on the kitchen counter and downed them with some instant coffee. I tried to eat some of the scrambled eggs, but my stomach could only handle so much.

"Ethan said ya'll had a bonfire without me," Chloe pouted.

I scratched the back of my head, not sure of what else Ethan had told her, "It was past your bedtime."

Judging from the look on her face, Chloe didn't like my answer.

"I'll tell you what, next time we will all have a bonfire. We even grabbed some marshmallows on our run."

Chloe beamed at that, "What else did ya bring back?"

I was amazed at how well kids recovered. She seemed to be back to normal despite the scene we had witnessed yesterday. I wish I could bounce back like that. Realization hit me that the bookmark making set I had brought back for Chloe was stored in my backpack, which was currently located at the police station.

"Bailey and I brought you back this."

Ethan appeared from his shower holding the My Little Pony choose your own adventure series I had helped him pick out. Chloe squealed and jumped off of her stool excitedly.

"Thank you!"

She grabbed the books from Ethan and gave him a huge hug. Then came back over to me and gave me a hug as well and whispered,