Mark Clodi - About a Woman, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"We can open that you know." said Dora referring to the sky light. "Then we could get the ladder from the garage and get up onto the roof."

"How about tomorrow? I was up at five today to make my shift, I am dead tired." said Mike.

"Yeah tomorrow. Let's move the bed out of the other bedroom and set it up across the top of the stairs, then we can get some sleep." said Dora, the other two agreed and Paige was yawning by the time they found themselves back in the master bedroom.

"There's only one bed." Mike said.

"It's a king, it'll hold us." said Dora.

"Uh, I dunno.." began Mike.

"What? Still afraid of us women folk? We don't bite. Hard." teased Dora.

Mike's face took on a tone of uncertainty, his eyes shifted back and forth from Dora to Paige, taking in their bodies, until Dora let out a laugh. "Relax sweet pea, Paige here has convinced me to take the high ground. Not to sleep with anyone just because my worthless piece of shit husband did so."

"Don't you still love him anyway?" asked Paige.

Dora thought for a moment, Paige was not asking to poke fun at her, but earnestly trying to figure out how Dora felt.

"Paige…" she began, "Paige, in one day I have found out my husband was cheating on me with my old best friend, I've fought off a horde of zombies who just wanted to eat me and I've made the new best friends I have ever had in the world. Do I love Roger? I guess, underneath it all I do. But right now I am very, very angry with him and I really do not think I will ever forgive him. You know how many affairs I had when I was with him?" Dora paused as both of them shook their heads, she could see them mentally guessing numbers, "None, not one. I had opportunities too, but I never crossed that line. I thought about it, but I never would have. Paige, you stopped me from thinking of Mike as a piece of meat to get back at Roger with, that's good because that is all it would have been. I am emotionally drained right now, some sex would be an awesome tension reliever, but I think, maybe, it would be best if we just sleep tonight." She waited until they digested that then could not help but add, "The bed is big enough for all of us, the only rule I have is we all sleep nude."

Paige laughed, Mike looked perplexed, so she said, "She is joking Mike. Still you better sleep on the floor."

"Okay, fine. Can we still get downstairs? Roger the bastard has a camping mattress in the garage, right where he kept the paint ball stuff. I don't think he ever even used it." said Dora.

The three of them pulled the barricade out of the way and made one more trip downstairs to get the mattress. They also used the opportunity to check on the drying beef and to make sure there were no more zombies in the back yard. It was all clear and after ten minutes they were upstairs making Mike a place to sleep along one wall. Sitting on the bed and floor with flashlights, Dora held the light up to her face and in a spooky voice said, "Now we shall tell scary stories that keep us up all night. Who wants to go first?"

The other two laughed and shut off their lights, leaving only Dora's lit up. She stifled a yawn with one hand and pouted out, "Party poopers!"

"Dude." began Mike, "We were up at, like, dawn. I am crashing." Mike let out a yawn of his own and pulled a blanket up over his head. They had taken all the bedding and pillows off of the barricade mattress so he looked pretty comfortable in his 'Mike Nest'.

"Alright, to sleep we go." Dora stood up from the foot of the bed and made sure the stout wooden door was locked, then got the chair from her vanity and propped the back of it under the handle before returning to bed with Paige. Dora thought she would fall asleep instantly, however the events of the day kept replaying in her head over and over. Paige's soft snores reminded her of Roger, on the floor Mike moaned in his sleep, eventually the darkness closed over her. The digital clock on her nightstand still had power, when Dora fell asleep it was only two minutes past nine o'clock.

Halfway through the night Mike moved into bed with them, on Dora's side. It was with frantic passion that they kissed and began caressing other. It turned into a frenzied, yet gentle, pawing as they tried not to wake Paige. Mike shifted the nightshirt Dora was wearing up above her breasts and caressed them, hardly daring to lower his head until Dora grasped his hair in her hands and forced it to her breast. Once his mouth was busy his hands were free to travel down her stomach and between her legs, the thin fabric of her panties was already moist and his pressure against the outside of her panties combined with his suckling made Dora gasp.

She continued running her hands through his hair and spread her legs allowing Mike more direct access. One of her feet bumped against his groin and he ground against it. She used her toes and slipped down his boxers, he ground his pelvis against her foot, doing so in time with his hands against her groin. Eventually Dora could stand it no longer; she brought his head up to her face and shifted her legs to get Mike on top of her. Sliding her panties to one side she reached down for Mike, guiding him into her, she gasped and a wave of pleasure emanated throughout her body. Mike's frantic thrusts caused her more pleasure heightening it to levels she had never reached with Roger.

' Roger. What was that noise? Roger, why would I think of him at a time like this?' Her fire alarm was going off. 'The jerky! It was on fire! The house was burning! Dora pushed Mike off of her and sat up in the bed.'

Dora came awake slowly, Mike wasn't on top of her; he was still asleep on the mattress beside the bed. She had a tangle of sheets wrapped between her legs and a long, fluffy pillow clutched to her chest. As she came fully awake, Dora untangled herself from the sheets and tossed her pillow back to where it belonged. Paige moaned next to her.

' It was a dream.The house isn't on fire, the alarm isn't sounding off and her clothes were still on.' Sighing, she adjusted the blankets and fell backwards into her pillow. Softly she whispered, "Fuck." It was three fourteen in the morning.

A moment later she repeated the word with more force as the telephone rang. Getting out of bed she stumbled towards her vanity where the land line sat, the ringer was set to low and had not wakened Mike or Paige yet. Dora answered it on the third ring.

"Hello? Hello?" she said into the receiver.

"Dora? Oh, thank God! Why didn't you answer the first time I called? Are you alright? Dora, you gotta get out of the house!" it was Roger.

"What? Roger, what are you talking about?" Dora replied.

"It's the zombies, they are coming from Denver, and there are too many here already, Kansas City is drowning in them! The National Guard can't hold them back. So our neighborhood is in the exclusion zone."

"Roger, slow down, hold on a minute." Dora glanced over and noticed that Paige and Mike were both awake and groggily propping themselves up on their elbows.

"It's on the news Dora, turn on the news! Our house was in the yellow zone until midnight, then they switched it to red, they can't protect you anymore."

"I'll go watch the news. I will turn it on and see what I have to do. Thanks for the warning, Roger." There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

"Dora." Roger began.

"Don't." she warned.

"I'm sorry Dora. I didn't…this wasn't what I had wanted."

Dora grew angry, "I said don't. As in, 'Do Not'. I am not ready to deal with you when I am having to deal with staying alive."

"I am sorry, Marge is sorry too, she, we, didn't mean to hurt you."

"Roger, you and Marge are only sorry you got caught! Fuck her, I mean that literally, go for it, I don't give a shit anymore."