In a post-apocalyptic world where almost nothing makes sense, can two former undead find love and happiness? Below is an excerpt from Love & Other Cures for the Recently Undead by HJ Ramsay:

Chapter One

Something twitches and the sound of teeth grinding in her ear annoys her.

Stop it, Teddy.

CeCe tries to push her brother away, but her arm scrapes against asphalt and the unfamiliarity jolts her awake. Her heart pounds as she opens her eyes to blackness. A tart scent and an overwhelming stench of rot fills her nostrils. She blinks, trying to focus her vision, but her eyelids itch like they’re brushing across sandpaper.

Where am I?

Last thing she remembers she was in downtown Chico at Mason’s Restaurant with her best friend Leyton celebrating her eighteenth birthday.

“L…L…” she calls and her throat stiffens as if encrusted from lungs to larynx. “L…Ley…”

A strained whimper answers.

Her fingers grope the darkness and her breaths come in burning terrified gulps. She drags herself closer to the noise until she presses against someone’s back. She hears whimpering again.

Leyton? Are you okay?

She can’t tell what, or who, it is. Her fingers tingle with numbness as she searches for any signs of her friend. Her palm brushes the short, cropped hair of a man and she lurches backward. Her muscles scream in agony as she knocks into another body, motionless and rancid with death. Then a wail erupts nearby, followed by another and another.

She tries to move, but every way she twists herself, she’s met with flailing arms and legs that crush and squeeze. She tucks into a ball, her sobs joining the cacophony of the crying, and shrieks, and the unseen mass that slithers and moans around her.

__________

CeCe wakes to the beeping and purring of devices. She hears other noises too. The creaks of metal, footsteps crisscrossing the floor, and low murmurs. Gauze covers her eyes. She wants to remove it, but can’t lift her hand any more than a hover before giving up. Everything aches like a bruise that keeps getting pressed. She clenches her teeth and moans. A strange hand circles around her numb fingers. Out of instinct, she jerks away.

“It’s me,” her dad says. He’s trying not to cry. She can tell by the way his voice cracks. “I’m here.”

She tries to say, “Dad,” but all she manages is a raspy exhale.

His hand squeezes tighter. “You should sleep,” he says. She hears him get to his feet, the clink of a tray moving, and the flicking of his fingers against metal. He leans next to her. “You might feel a sting.”

When he’s done, she hears the rattle as he sets down the syringe.

Feel what sting? She didn’t feel anything.

She doesn’t want to sleep. She wants to know where she is, what’s happened, and why her body is numb. Was there an accident? Is Leyton okay? She wants to ask, but a fog creeps along the edges of her mind. She tries to hold on to her thoughts, but they slip away as her eyes close.

“N…” Her lips form a word, but her throat burns with the effort.

Over and over again, her father puts her to sleep like a hypnotist’s spell she can’t escape. She has no idea how long she’s been out. The next time she wakes her eyes are unbandaged. She blinks. Everything’s blurry, as if the world is underwater, and she manages to see what looks like a spider’s web of tubes running into her arms.

She turns her head. Her dad is sitting nearby working on a laptop.

“D…D…Dad,” she says in a voice she doesn’t recognize.

He shuts the computer and grips her hand. She’s still numb and uncomfortable, but his face is close, and tears roll down his cheeks.

“W…w…where?” she asks, her throat aching.

“You’re safe,” he says, but she doesn’t understand why he’d say that. Why safe? She looks past him. Where’s Mom? And her brother? Was Leyton hurt too?

“M…m…” The word sticks against her cracked lips, but it won’t come out. “W…where?” she manages again.

“A hospital. Kind of a hospital. We had to make do with the Costco.”

She tries to sit up, but her dad gently pushes her back down. “Not yet, Cees. Your body’s been through a lot. Let it rest.”

“Wha…what…h…h…hap…” Her voice gains strength, but the words she wants to say won’t come out.

“You were Infected.”

Related: Undying Love: 5 Must-Read Zombie Romantasy Books

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