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“You’re not supposed to be out here, Harlow,” Waylon said, as he approached us.
“I only came to help,” I said.
“Nobody needs your help feeding the King.” Waylon made a shooing motion at his brothers. “Looks like the show is over anyway. There’s plenty of work to be done elsewhere on the ranch.”
“Come on then,” Wyatt said, and he nudged Kimber with his boot.
“She can’t go back to work,” I insisted. “Not after witnessing that, not when she’s covered in blood.”
“Well, we’ll hose her off and throw her back in the stall then,” Bly said. “She’ll be fine.”
“Can I go with her?” I asked.
“You’re needed elsewhere,” Waylon said.
He led me back toward the house, but we walked slowly down the road together.
“How are you doing with the King’s feedings?” Waylon asked at length. “I know they aren’t pleasant to watch, but he won’t eat anything but live food.”
For once, I was too upset to be polite, and I snapped at him, “Why do you care about how I’m doing? Do you even care?”
“I do, and maybe I shouldn’t,” he said, responding to my indignation with consideration. “I can see you’re smart and trying to make the best out of everything. You remind me of my wife a bit. She died before all this zombie mess, thankfully, but I still miss her.”
“Well, I’m not your wife. I’m a teenager, and I’m not here by choice,” I reminded him coldly.
“I know,” he admitted. “Is it wrong that I want to keep you safe anyway? Or would you rather I leave you to my brothers?”
“No, of course not,” I said, and I softened a little, because I did need his protection from his sadistic siblings. “I appreciate your concern. Today has been… brutal. I’m probably in shock. I mean, how do you have a zombie gorilla? I didn’t think any animals could even be infected with the zombie virus outside of humans.”
“It turns out that it’s not just humans – it’s all primates. Chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and the like,” Waylon clarified. “Mama heard about it from folks we were trading with, and she knew some circus people that used to have a gorilla, so she went to work tracking it down. Would you believe that Mama traded a steer and a cow, four horses, two of our best hunter zombies, and all of our house servants for that guy? “
“Why did she even want a gorilla zombie?” I asked.
“She figures that if we can get him to be a trained guard zombie, nobody would ever be able to hurt us,” he said, like it was totally reasonable logic to get a zombie gorilla. “No matter that we’ve never been able to train any of the zombies well enough that they can free roam our property without getting hurt or hurting someone. Or that since the King is so fucking big and powerful that we can’t get anywhere close to him to even attempt to train him.”
He let out an exasperated sigh before finishing with, “But Mama is that way. Once she gets an idea in her head, she won’t ever let it go.”
“Persistence and resilience benefit those in a zombie apocalypse,” I said.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “That’s why I branded you.”
I looked up at him. “What? What are you talking about?”
“You’re always looking on the bright side.” He smiled down at me. “And I would hate to lose a spirit like yours so that Bly can feed that damn gorilla.”
While becoming the child bride to a grown man with a sadistic, enmeshed family had never been my dream, his fondness for me was something that I had to use to my advantage.
35
Harlow
While Kimber had gotten the worst of the splatter from Gacy’s death, some blood had gotten on me. Once Waylon took me to the house, I went straight back to the kitchen to wash my hands, and he left me alone to finish my chores.
When I heard footsteps behind me as I scrubbed my skin raw, I assumed it was Tallulah or Buddy, so I didn’t bother to look back. They were usually in the kitchen this time of day to start prepping for dinner.
But then someone grabbed me by my braid and yanked me backward, so I went flying across the room and crashed into the refrigerator.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Bly sneered, and he stood over me, towering above me with disgust and anger burning in his pale eyes.
