Page 21 of My Undead Love Life

I pulled my shirt over my head with trembling hands. The cold air in the cramped service closet immediately prickled against my skin, raising goosebumps along my arms. My fingers fumbled badly with the clasp of my bra before I finally unsnapped it, the tiny click sounding deafening in the quiet room.

The candle flickered weakly nearby while I slipped my leggings, panties, socks, and shoes off as quickly as I could.

Then, I stood there. Naked in front of the first man who wasn’t Keith.

The realization made my chest tighten painfully. Keith had always looked at me like I was something precious. Something beautiful even when I felt filthy after supply runs and covered in zombie blood.

Now, he was gone.

My heartbeat slammed violently against my ribs as I wrapped my arms around myself instinctively. Heat burned across my face despite the freezing room. The closet suddenly felt too small, and the candlelight was far too bright.

“Just real quick,” Maddox said quietly, his voice careful and measured. “Then, you can get dressed again.”

I nodded stiffly before forcing myself to uncurl my arms. Humiliation and grief twisted together inside me while I turned slowly beneath the wavering candlelight. Shadows shifted across the concrete walls while distant groans echoed faintly outside the door.

Maddox’s golden eyes stayed entirely clinical. He was just checking for a bite or wound.

That made it easier for me to breathe.

He crouched slightly when he noticed a dark bruise blooming along the outside of my thigh from where I’d slammed into the subway floor earlier. His fingers hovered briefly before lightly brushing across the skin there, careful enough that it barely hurt.

“Just a bruise,” he murmured after a second. “You’re clear.”

Relief loosened something tight in my chest as he turned around to face the wall like the others. “Thanks,” I whispered hoarsely.

I bent immediately to grab my clothes, dressing as fast as my shaking hands would allow. My cardigan felt cold when I tugged it back over myself, but at least it covered me again.

The entire exchange had been clinical. Respectful and safe.

“I’m dressed,” I said quietly while tugging my sleeves down over my freezing hands.

Luck and Oxi turned back around while Maddox finally stepped away from the wall.

“What did your boyfriend—Keith, right?—say about an Oasis of some kind?” Luck asked as he sat cross-legged down onto the makeshift floor bed of layered sleeping bags and blankets.

Oxi lowered himself beside him while Maddox leaned against the shelves nearby, exhaustion weighing visibly on all three of them now that adrenaline wasn’t the only thing keeping us moving.

My head throbbed painfully as I slid back down against the wall in the corner, keeping a few feet between myself and them.

“Three years into the apocalypse,” I began quietly, “two men came across our farmhouse.” The candle crackled softly while the others listened. “They warned us there was a horde coming. A real horde.” My fingers twisted tightly into the sleeves of my cardigan. “We’d never seen anything like that before.”

The memory felt distant now somehow. Like it belonged to a different life—and it had. It was a life before my sister found love, and I had been too young to understand the severity of the world.

“They offered us sanctuary, so we followed them to the Oasis.”

“What is it?” Maddox asked.

“A survivor community,” I explained softly. “Hidden deep in the woods. Treehouses. A huge garden. Livestock. A shower.”

Luck blinked. “That sounds fake.”

Despite everything crushing my chest, the corner of my mouth twitched faintly. “It feels fake sometimes.”

“My sister and parents are there,” I continued. “Everyone works. Hunts, farms, patrols, builds…whatever’s needed. As long as people pull their weight, they’re welcome.”

“You made it three years into the apocalypse without seeing a horde?” Luck asked incredulously while tossing me a water bottle from one of the bags nearby.

I caught it awkwardly against my chest. “We were sheltered,” I admitted quietly. “In a bubble.”