Love Bites

Cold glazed lifeless eyes focused on her terrified features. She stooped and picked up the claw hammer raised it above Tommy's head. Her vision blurred with tears.

'Oh God, Tommy, I can't. I can't.'

The hammer dropped uselessly to the floor.

Tommy's face was impassive as though she was a complete stranger, her actions irrelevant. The pounding on the door increased to a rapid tattoo, a sound that suggested there was more than one of the dead things trying to get in. Terror flooded Aimee's mind. She was trapped. She backed into the far corner of the room, squatting down into a foetal position, one hand protectively covering her belly were beneath life grew inside her. She tried to push back the rising tide of hysteria and panic that was filling her mind. The swarm mentality of the dead things meant that there might be a dozen or more outside the door. There could be no escape that way. She went to the window again hoping the others might have gone into the house leaving the garden empty, giving her a chance to jump out the window and make a run for it. Her heart sank, as far from being empty there were even more of them there now. Yet more were streaming through the gate, shuffling, limping, lurching to seal her fate.

She wiped tears from her eyes, looking down at Tommy. He watched her silently, without expression. There was a rattle deep within his throat and he strained at the bonds that held him spread-eagled on the bed.

'What do I do Tommy?' she whined, panic stricken.

She closed her eyes trying to think. The sound of pounding was a now a cacophony as many fists rained on the door. It could take hours, maybe even a day, but eventually they would get in. They would swarm over her, ripping and tearing her with teeth and fingers. She would not die like that. She would not let them touch her with their filthy rotten bodies. She knew before they got in she must be dead. All the choices in her life had now shrunk down to the elemental choice of how to die, for the end was now upon her. She looked at Tommy and suddenly her head cleared. The fear ebbed away, for Aimee realised what she must do.

She climbed onto the bed, hands and knees either side of Tommy's body, her face inches from his.

'I'm sorry, Tommy. I'm sorry I let you down. I'm sorry I let our baby down. I should have left when you said.'

Tommy inclined his head slightly and Aimee wondered if somewhere deep down he understood her.

'They're all around the house now, they're trying to get in. They want me and our baby but I won't let them touch us. I need you to make sure they don't touch us. We belong to you - me and our baby.'

As she spoke moved down his body. She began to untie his feet.

'I realise now how tired I am of running, or being afraid all the time. This is no world to bring a baby into.'

Both his feet were free now. He flexed his legs as though trying them out for the first time.

She reached to untie his hands. Her breast hung inches from his face and he slowly opened his mouth, saliva dripping from his lips, he craned his neck, lifting his head to reach her breast, but not quite being able to reach. Aimee noted his attempt. 'Not long now love, I know you need me. I'm here for you Tommy. We both are.'

One hand was free. Tommy looped it around her torso to pull her close. She resisted, as she struggled to untie his other hand. 'Almost there darling, we're almost there.'

Tommy was making a low groaning noise, it reminded Aimee of the mewling sound a dog makes as its owner teases it with some tasty morsel of food.

The scarf came loose. Tommy was free.

The pounding at the door was at fever pitch now, accompanied by a low animalistic moaning sound.

Aimee felt Tommy rise beneath her, his arms close about her. She pulled herself to one side and he followed the movement, so they rolled on the bed and Tommy now lay on top, his heavy body pinioning her to the bed.

The relentless pounding at the door went on but Aimee was oblivious of it, as if it were a thousand miles away. There was only her and Tommy, and within her a small life.

She looked into Tommy's lifeless eyes, saw the hunger there. Keeping eye contact she angled her head slightly fully exposing her neck.

'I love you Tommy.'

Tommy stooped his head, the maw of his mouth opening wide as he took Aimee's throat between his teeth.

Aimee gasped and her body tensed as pain shot through her. She heard the crunch as Tommy bit through skin flesh and tendons. She heard the jet of blood as her jugular artery was ripped. She was aware of one of Tommy's hands claw at her belly, hard fingers seeking to penetrate her stomach, digging in deeply, using nails to cut a way in to her innards. Pain flooded her body electrifying her mind. She had expected instantaneous death, instead her senses seemed heighted and fully conscious to her slaughter. Tommy's fingers broke through skin and his hand slipped into her stomach as he continued to rip and chew through her neck. He pulled out slippery blue coils of her intestines that steamed in the cool air. The coppery stench of blood filled the room. Aimee was finding it impossible to breath. The end was near. She was glad. She knew that in the coming hours Tommy would consume her, strip the flesh from her bones, devour her innards, swallow the small life they had created together, crack her skull open and feast on her brains. There would be nothing left for the filthy decaying things that would eventually break into the room. She and her baby would be inside Tommy. She hoped there was an afterlife and she would soon be with Tommy's spirit, to spend eternity with him -- never to be apart again.

Aimee could feel Tommy's hand deep inside her, reaching up. His fingers clenched around her heart and pulled hard to tear the organ from its arteries. Aimee felt a terrible tugging in her chest then as the light faded and death closed around her there was no more pain. She felt a warm floating sensation, a serene joyfulness. The last image she saw was Tommy, sitting up on her torn ravaged body, his face and torso sheeted with her blood, her still beating heart in his hand as he raised it to his mouth and bit into it.