Read Online Love in the Time of the Dead by Tera Shanley - Free Book Online

meticulous about having their packs together. “Thanks, Guist. You’re the man.” She unzipped her pack and rifled through it.
    Finn glanced curiously at her pack, so she showed him a few necessities he might not have considered, being a guard and not a fighter. Flint and twine stored in a tic-tac case. A small plastic bag of pistachio shells that provided a fast-burning and oily tinder for fires. A small leather pocket of fishing line and colorful hand-made flies.
    Laney came across her newly full clips. “Where did you find ammo so quickly?” she asked Guist. That had to be some sort of record for him. She’d worry about him except he’d been running on robot mode since the day she and Jarren met him.
    “I got lucky and found a good gunsmith right off.”
    “Smith?” Finn asked him.
    “Yeah. Does he do the guard’s ammo?”
    “Sure does. He’s the best. Colony got lucky when he wandered in here.”
    “Wait, wait, wait. Smith?” Laney asked with a grin. “A gunsmith named Smith? Huh.”
    Finn chuckled as Guist started hauling the wheelbarrow toward them. “I’m supposed to meet back with Smith in a couple of hours about some tracer ammo.”
    Laney gulped a bite. “Don’t you tease me, Guist.”
    He laughed as he hauled the soiled hay outside. With Jarren and Mitchell, he always tried to find their favorite available road snack. For her, he didn’t try to track down chocolate, or magazines, or beauty products. Tracer ammo was her favorite treat.
    She yawned so hard her jaw popped. The nap she had taken earlier hadn’t been nearly long enough to make up for all she had put her body through. She was safe enough with her team so near, and the scent of living, furred flesh instead of the decaying stench of death had her comfortable enough to curl up on the hay bale that had served as her lunch table and fall promptly asleep.

Chapter Five
    J ARREN S HOOK H ER G ENTLY A WAKE . “Seems you’ve made an awesome first impression, as usual.”
    Laney sat up and rubbed her eyes sleepily. “What have I done now?” she asked testily as she removed pieces of straw from her hair.
    “I was just notified by a very upset Drake Erhard that our team is supposed to leave immediately. Apparently he is second in command here and can do that.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Well, since I have a dinner date with the first in command at six o’clock, Erhard can suck it.”
    “Oh, so you are going to dinner now?” Finn asked from a few bales to her left.
    “I suppose if it’s the only way to keep us here until morning, I will make the sacrifice.”
    Finn shook his head and sighed. Mitchell and Guist were both eating on a wooden bench, and Jarren studied her with a worried furrow in his brow.
    “We came here for a reason, remember?” her brother pointed out.
    “Well, we better find some kind of scientist and quick because our time in this colony is limited,” she said. “I met a doctor while I was quarantined. Maybe we can talk to him and he can steer us in the right direction. He seemed nice enough.”
    Jarren nodded at Finn. “Your doctor. He’s good?”
    “Yeah, he’s great. Saved a lot of lives, but that doesn’t sound like the type of service you need from him.”
    Jarren looked questioningly at her, but she only shrugged in answer. How should she know if Finn could be trusted?
    “We need a type of science experiment performed.”
    “Well, I’d say Doc would be a good man to talk to about it. He worked as a doctor for the Centers for Disease Control before the outbreak.”
    The team looked at Finn, dumbfounded. How could they be so lucky? Jarren was making an effort to hide his excitement, but the corners of his mouth kept turning up when he spoke. “He’ll do, then. Where is he?”
    Finn frowned. “Uh, let me think. It’s about dinner time. I don’t think he’ll be at the clinic. He’s a self-diagnosed terrible cook, so I bet he’s heading to mess hall.”
    “Great. Let’s go,” Mitchell said,