I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my arm. “First of all, quit telling me what to do; secondly, ‘you’re welcome’ would’ve sufficed.”
Bryce stood up straight and gave me a lopsided grin. “Kind of reminds me of the first time we met. Both of us exhausted and doing hand-to-hand combat.”
“I remember. You were just as humble then, too,” I said.
His eyes met mine. “You know, something about the way you swung that hammer was incredibly sexy.”
I burst out laughing. “You’re extremely warped.”
“I never said I wasn’t,” he replied. He took the war hammer from me and examined it. “This worked great. I’ve definitely got to get me one of these.”
“Sure, if you can get past the real nasty part of dislodging it from the zombie’s heads. I had to fight from throwing up each time I used it.”
The dog started barking and we both rushed towards it, almost forgetting why we’d risked our lives fighting zombies in the first place. It was a female and she had a tag with the name “Goldie” engraved on it. Goldie showed her appreciation by licking my face while Bryce worked to free her from the fence.
“What a beautiful dog,” said Bryce, petting her soft, golden fur. She appeared to be smiling back at him with her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.
“Yes, sweetie, you were worth the battle,” I told her as she rolled around on her tummy.
“Looks like we have another soldier on our team,” smiled Bryce.
Goldie barked in agreement.
Chapter Eighteen
We returned to the SUV with Goldie and she immediately jumped into Kylie’s lap, who was delighted. The puppy must have been excited to see warm-blooded humans because she couldn’t stop moving around to greet everyone.
“She’s adorable!” giggled Paige, who received a hello slurp from Goldie.
“Those horrible zombies,” said Kylie in a cooing voice to Goldie, “nobody’s going to hurt you now, puppy.”
Bryce opened the driver’s side door.
“Wait, shirt first, Bryce,” said Kristie, holding up another clean T-shirt. “I’m not sure how you manage to get so full of gore while Cassie hardly gets a spot of blood on her.”
“Easy, I hit much harder,” he replied, removing his shirt.
“You were so awesome, Bryce,” declared Eva, who was staring at his pecks lustfully.
I rolled my eyes.
“Thanks, Eva,” he replied, pulling the new shirt on. He jumped back into the SUV and we began moving again.
“Sorry I couldn’t help you guys,” glowered Paige. “My mother forced me to stay put.”
Kristie turned to look at her. “Face it, Paige, you’re just not the fighting type. You probably would’ve gotten in the way more than anything.”
“Actually, Paige proved herself to be a pretty good zombie destroyer this morning, when we were cornered in her bedroom. She took care of both the dudes,” I replied.
Kristie turned to Paige in disbelief. “You had boys in your room?”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Yes, but they won’t be back.”
I smiled. “Yes, and let’s just say she’ll probably never quite get the cartilage out of the heel of her Jimmy Choos.”
“Oh, my God, that is so nasty!” squealed Kylie.
As we neared the middle of town, we noticed several abandoned cars along the side of the streets and were forced to slow down to maneuver around them. Fortunately, the zombies wobbling by ignored us.
“Bryce, do you have any more rounds left for the rifle?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. I used the last of my ammunition saving Goldie.”
I felt warm breath next to my ear. “Wow, I had no idea you had such cute relatives, Cassie,” whispered Eva.
I stared at her. “He’s my karate instructor.”
Eva’s eyes lit up. “Karate instructor? Oh wow. That’s hot.”
“Stay away from him, Eva,” hissed Paige. “He’s already taken.”
“Paige,” I warned. She just couldn’t take a hint that Bryce and I were just friends.
Eva was silent as she sat back in her seat, a small smile settling on her lips.
“Check out the zombies hovering around McDonald’s,” said Kylie.
There had to be thirty or more wandering around the abandoned building, some of them actually going inside.
“At least they’re not paying us any mind,” said Kristie.
“Wonder if some of them are still having a Big Mac attack,” I joked.
“I’ll bet they can smell raw patties in the back. It might be drawing them here. They’re probably spoiling by now with the electricity off,” said Bryce.