The Zombie Whisperer (Living With the Dead) by Jesse Petersen Page B

David. And my duty is to keep everyone safe from all threats.” At that, his gaze shifted to me again. “Are you pregnant?”
    “Yes.”
    He arched a brow as if to encourage me to continue.
    “About three months, if my math is right,” I said, blushing a little. I wasn’t a blusher, but this was all so personal.
    “Are the symptoms unusual?” Nicole asked and the lack of color on her face somehow made up for the steaming heat of mine.
    I shrugged. “I’ve never been pregnant before, so I don’t know.”
    Before the outbreak, Dave and I had talked about kids. But then things had gone so sour between us, and the topic had left the table with a clanging finality that had scared me at the time.
    “You can be snippy,” Nicole said softly. “But you know what I’m asking.”
    I cleared my throat. Okay, so the time had come for full disclosure. Awesome. I was soooo looking forward to this and to Dave’s reaction and to the fact that I might be soon put in a cage for observation. But I’d made this bed. Accidentally, but still. I guess it was time to lie down.
    “I have had some mild nausea, but not very often,” I started, easing into the worst. “In fact, I’d say my appetite has been increased rather than decreased.”
    The Kid was scribbling down everything I said like a Bart Simpson/secretary, nodding and hmming along with every word.
    “And what else?” he pressed.
    I looked at my hands, clenched in my lap. “Um, I have been… stronger.”
    Dave squeezed his eyes shut, I could see it from the corner of my vision. His jaw was clenched and his hands kept opening and closing like they were on a timer.
    “What about your sense of smell?” he asked.
    “What about it?”
    He glared at me. “Is it more attuned?”
    I swallowed. Hard. “Yes.”
    Dave shoved his chair back so hard that it bounced off the wall halfway across the room. He ran a hand through his hair as he paced off toward the door.
    “I want you to test her. Test…
it
. And if it can hurt her, I want that thing out,” he growled, a bit zombie-like actually.
    “Wait-” I started. No one had talked about anything getting out of me. At least not in enough depth for him to be ordering people around about it.
    “No!” He spun around and faced me, one finger extended toward me. His hands were shaking. “If that
thing
in you, a thing I put in you, could hurt you-”
    “That thing,” I said, getting to my own feet. “Is your child. And mine. I’ll take whatever tests anyone wants to do to me. But I’m not agreeing to anything to my baby beyond that until we know more.”
    “Wow,” Nicole breathed. “That is very motherly.”
    I stared at her and slowly sank back into my chair. “Well, it’s the first time since I found out that I’ve felt motherly. And it’s weird.”
    It really was. I had this raging tiger inside of me, ready to pounce. To be fucked with, I was definitely
not
. Because I would flip a car on someone right now.
    Dave leaned against the door for a moment, letting out a long sigh. Then he moved back to my side and reached down to place a hand on my shoulder. I felt that touch all the way through me. It was his support, his love.
    I smiled as he said, “Will you just set up the tests? Everything else we’ll talk about later.”
    The Kid nodded as he got to his feet and motioned for the door. “Yes, of course. We can do everything we need to do right now.”

Chapter Seven
    Rock-a-bye Zombie…
    “Am I really about to get an ultrasound from a teenager?” I asked as I watched The Kid collect all the vials of blood he’d taken in the last few minutes. He glanced up at me with a heavy blush and a dark glare.
    “No,” he said. “
Ew
, that’s not my thing.”
    “Actually, it’s mine.” Nadia said as she came in through the cracked door. She smiled at me as she rolled a couple of machines up next to the table, but it was filled with false brightness. Like a ‘sorry, you have cancer’ smile from a doctor. “I