Okay, maybe this is a complete emotional breakdown. But it’s better than crying and screaming, right? Oh scratch that, I’m laughing so hard that tears are spilling down my cheeks.
Harlow sits beside me, whining as she licks the tears from my cheeks while Ketchup looks down at me from her perch on the front of my saddle. Both she and Bean stare at me like I’ve lost my mind and maybe I have because this day fuckingsucks.
Not only is my brother still missing, but I’ve just had tokillsomeone—zombie or not, they were a person at one point—and my entire body aches like a lorry has run over. And instead of acting like a normal human being, I’m giggling like a fucking lunatic.
And that’s how Andy finds me, laughing hysterically to the point of tears with a rotting corpse lying on top of me and unmentionable bodily fluids soaking into my clothes.
Fantastic. Couldn’t have thought of a better first impression.
Interesting First Impressions
Olivia
“Are you going tobe spending all day laughing under there?” The man I assume is Andy stands next to Bean, double-barrelled shotgun lying against his shoulder as he stares down at me with a dubious expression on his weathered face.
The guy is exactly what I expect a goat farmer in the middle of the British Countryside to be like. He’s on the older side, probably late-forties to early fifties, with short brown hair that’s greying on the temples and tanned skin. Built like a brick shit house, he has strong shoulders and thick arms from a life of hard farm work. Hell, he even has the thick West Country accent of a stereotypicalfarmer.
It takes a few moments before I’m able to stop my laughter enough to answer. “I don’t plan to,” I say, although it comes out in a sob because I’m an emotional mess. Glancing down at the zombie still slumped on top of me, I’m relieved to see that it has blonde hair and not Tobias’s chestnut. I’m not sure how I would have coped if it’d been him. “Can you get it off me?”
Andy presses his lips together and nods before bending down to grab the corpse by the arm. He wrenches it off me with one hand, causing more blood and gore to smear across me and the grass as he drags it into the ditch by the hedge. The sight of dark red and black liquid soaking into my clothes is enough to have me gagging and then I’m up on my hands and knees, retching into the grass. My body trembles as I finish losing my breakfast and sit back on my haunches.
“Here.”
I glance up to see him offering me a piece of white fabric. “Thanks,” I say as I take it and wipe my mouth and try to ignore the thick, wet goop clinging to my body. If I don’t, I’m going to either throw up again or the panic that’s lingering in my chest is going to overwhelm me.
“Did it bite you?” the farmer asks gruffly, his hand still firmly on his shotgun.
I shake my head. “No. I, er… stopped it before it could.” Just the idea of that thing getting its teeth into me is enough to have my stomach clenching and more metallic-tasting saliva flooding my mouth.
“I take it you rarely leave wherever you live, huh?” There’s dry amusement in his voice that makes me scowl.
I’m barely hanging on by a thread and this guy thinks it’s hilarious. “What?” I mock gasp. “It’s not normal for people to giggle while trapped beneath the reanimated corpse they just murdered?”
The farmer snorts. “No, and most people understand arrows are supposed to be used with a bow and not at close range.”
“Well shit, I’ll remember that the next time I get thrown from my horse and ambushed by a zombie,” I snap, before wincing.You’re really making friends there, aren’t you, Ollie?
Thankfully, he isn’t put off by my aggressive sarcasm. “I’m Andy, and you must be the elusive Olivia.”
I grimace. “Ollie. I’m only Olivia when I’m in trouble.”
He grins and offers me a hand. “Come on. I’ll put the kettle on while you can get cleaned up.”
A shower and a cup of tea sounds fucking fantastic right now.
I wrinkle my nose at the state of my clothes before accepting his hand. He helps me to my feet, then bends to pick up my bow and hands it over along with Bean’s reins. I take them and follow him toward the pink cottage, being careful to dodge the puddles of blood. Bean and Harlow follow me quietly while Ketchup seems content just to perch on the saddle.
“You can stick your horse in the small paddock next to the house. There’s already some hay and water in there for her.” He points toward a small enclosed field to the right of the cottage.
I lead Bean to the paddock, strip off her saddle and place it on the fence. Ketchup squawks and flaps her wings in indignation at being disturbed. I roll my eyes and ignore her as I slip the bridle from Bean’s head.
Thankfully, the pony was unharmed by her spook and the zombie. She seems pretty over the whole thing because she immediately finds the hay and starts munching. I turn toward the cottage to see Andy standing by the door, studying me with a frown on his lips and his brow furrowed.
“I think some of my daughter’s clothes should fit so you can wear those while you wait for your clothes to get washed,” he says with a nod before turning and disappearing into the cottage.
On some level, I know it’s a bad idea to just blindly follow a strange man into a house, especially in the apocalypse. If this were a horror film, he’d have a creepy basement and a freezer full of dead people.
I snort at the thought. I doubt he has the freezer; it’d be a waste of electricity. But my instincts tell me he won’t hurt me. He could easily have shot me when I was trapped beneath that zombie and from what Tobias has told me about him, he seems like a decent guy.
