Nope, still don't own, but I'm working on a new plan to have my zombies harass SM until she signs the rights over lol.

Oh, and sorry you're getting an alert for this, FF decided to delete my chapter 7 for the too long authors note because I refuse to back down on this shit with the LU. If I suddenly disappear from FF, you can find me on The Writer's Coffee Shop under the same name, Raven Jadewolfe lol

Love in the Time of Zombies

Chapter 11

Isabella Swan-Forks WA

"And Bella here stomps on her head and says 'Never could stand that bitch', I swear, it could have been a scene out of a movie!" Alice cackles, nudging me with her shoulder as the enthralled group looks on, "This girl does not get scared, it's freaky!"

Collin, Jane's boy, is eagerly absorbing the gruesome tale like the twelve year old he is, "Was it really as cool as she said Bella? You weren't scared at all?"

I scratch the back of my neck and shrug, "I was scared shitless the whole time kiddo, but stuff needed done and I had two choices, I could freak out, scream like an idiot, and get us all killed, or laugh at the complete absurdity of the situation and get the job done. I chose the latter over the former because I'm not really in the mood to die just yet."

"Acting recklessly was almost as bad as panicking Bella," Edward chides, his arms crossed defensively over his chest and a clearly disapproving expression marring his beautiful face. "You could have been killed!"

I can't help the 'what the fuck?' look I give him. "Edward, in case you hadn't noticed, we're in the middle of an apocalypse here, we can die at any time, I just choose not to let myself get depressed over it. If you don't like the way I live my life, you and everyone else that doesn't like it can kiss my ass."

"I didn't mean it like—oh who the fuck am I kidding?" he mumbles and stomps off, out of my sight, before my brain has time to grasp what really just went down here.

"I think a certain green eyed doctor might be developing a soft spot for ya shuga," Jasper mutters behind Alice's back, his obvious amusement earning him an eye-roll from me. "He's not the kind of guy to get upset over every little thing someone does unless he's emotionally attached to them."

"You're eyes ought to be brown, because you're so full of shit Jazz," I spit back and steal the cigarette he had been holding between his long fingers. I'd known the guy less than a week and he was already feeling as much of a brother to me as Jake and Jared. I wonder if it had anything to do with his first name starting with a J.

"Whatever you say baby girl, but I've got a feeling about this and I'm seldom wrong," he drawls, a cocky grin gracing his features, "And keep the smoke, I've got plenty right now."

I go to flip him the bird, but I'm suddenly scooped up into someone's arms and then planted in their lap. "Miss me baby?" Jacob laughs after I turn around and smack him in the chest.

"Yeah, like someone misses an STD," I quip and glance around for my best friend's other half, "Where's pretty boy run of to? He finally find a hottie to play bitch for him?"

"Puh-lease Izzybean," he chortles, his arms tightening around me comfortably as I snuggle into his warmth, "My man has all needs right here."

I look at him, a smug grin on my face, then exhale on my nails and pretend to polish them on my shirt," Well, what can I say? I can't help it if I'm so damn good that I can make a through and through gay man at least go bi for me."

"You picking on my girl again Jake? Don't come crying to me if Bellzilla shreds your ass," Jared's infectious chuckle rings out as he sidles up and eases down next to us.

"She knows I'm just playing with her," my improvised recliner replies and removes one arm from around me to take his lover's hand, "Besides, she was informing me that when she finally seduced you, that you kept asking for her to baa like a sheep. I thought only Scotsmen did that."

"I swear, you two share half a brain sometimes," I snark, now oddly beginning to feel apprehensive without a mop of bronze hair to focus on.

After a couple more minutes of raucous laughter and increasingly absurd tales rearing their ugly heads, I wriggle out of Jake's lap with the excuse of needing to use the little girls room. He lets me go after a peck on the cheek and a warning not to fall in. Bastard. It happened one time and I was five. I swear that he's never going to let me forget it.

I wander through the store, trying not to be obvious about what or who I'm searching for, so when I almost fall on Edward, who is curled up on a bean bag chair and reading a book across from the wall of fish tanks, I feel a little less like a complete jackass. A little.

"What the--what the hell was that for?" he growls after I clumsily get to my feet and retreat from his personal space because he looks absolutely livid.

"I was just walking around Edward," I snap, half out of amusement, half out of irritation, and wave my hand in his direction, "I'm not the one lying in wait to kill someone! You could have fucking warned me that your were sitting there you know! I could have thought you were a zed and shot you!"

He glares at me and oh my fucking gods, he looks fuck hot in his wire-rimmed glasses. "I wasn't trying to kill anyone, and I don't think falling on a zombie would kill it Bella, so I'd change assault tactics if I were you," his mesmerizing jade orbs glimmer with a kind of frenzied energy as he rants, "For your information, I was just trying to read in one of the only quiet places I could find in this god forsaken place! And now even that's ruined, since you couldn't be bothered to watch where you were walking, so thank you very much for that!"

"What is your problem today Edward?" I sigh angrily, doing my damnedest not to lose myself in his fierce emerald orbs, "You were so nice to me earlier, and now you're treating me like I kicked your puppy or something," I can feel my eyes beginning to well up against my will, but I push on, "What did I do to piss you off? I thought we were friends...."

Edward Masen-Forks WA

A bitter laugh escapes me despite the morose expression on her beautiful face. "Friends, are you serious? Bella, you're a barely eighteen year old former high school student and I'm a twenty five year old doctor in my last year of medical residency who has just had a marriage fall apart on me; I highly doubt that I'd be a good friend to you. Furthermore, we have absolutely nothing in common, so it would be absurd to even try."

What the hell am I doing?

You know she's different, she's not some bubble-headed girl who does nothing but babble about make-up and what fads are popular currently. Instead of screaming and running away like most people her age would have done, she has fought to help get everyone what they need to survive without thinking of her own mortality. On top of that little gem, she is also smart, funny, unique, strong willed and just....perfect. What?! Where has your fucking head gone Mase--

"You---you don't want to be around me anymore?" her voice is alarmingly frail and uncertain as she interrupts my thoughts.

Immediately I'm afraid that she's going to break down because of me. I have to do this, she's little more than a child and Tanya's already proven that I'm not good enough for anyone. Not to mention, I can't betray the burgeoning trust these people are beginning to have in me by becoming embroiled in a relationship with an eighteen year old girl, even if it's only a platonic one. The aching in my chest flares as I resolve to do what I must.

"Bella, I'm no good for you, I'm not good for anyone right now," I confess, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose to counter the throbbing in my head, "I just split from my wife, what would people say if you and I were seen hanging around one another all the time?"

Her eyes remind me of chocolate pearls, their colors a chaotic maelstrom of emotion as the first tears teeter then fall onto her ivory cheeks. "I really like you and I don't give a damn about what people think about me Edward. Unlike most of these assholes, I actually take the time and get to know someone before judging them."

Shit, she likes me? My mouth tastes like ash as the next words tumble out of my mouth. "Well, I do have to worry about them." I inwardly bow my head in shame when she cringes and her fists curl into tight balls at her sides, "I'm a doctor Bella and the people I treat must be able to trust me to do my job. That means I have to avoid potential problems in my social life as well, especially under the current circumstances."

"Oh, I understand now," the beautiful creature in front of me sighs, her eyes dropping to her feet, "I'm one of those potential problems. An eighteen year old social reject who happens to have two gay guys as best friends. I can understand where an upstanding guy like yourself wouldn't want to get caught slumming it with someone like me. I'd hate to screw up your perfect life." She gives me a bitter smile and is careful not to touch me as she walks by, "Don't worry your pretty little head coppertop, I won't bother you any more. Have a nice life, or whatever this is now."

"No, that's not what—dammit Bella, could you stop for a fucking minute?" I try to grab her arm before she gets too far, but she shrugs me off and gives me a glare that could freeze the ocean. I feel something metallic, cold and hard against my wind pipe. Where the hell did she get a straight razor?

"Don't ever fucking touch me again Masen, or I will slit your throat without a second thought," she sneers, pressing the edge of the blade against my skin a little harder to emphasize her words.

"I'm sorry," I choke out, apologizing for anything and everything I've done in the past few minutes.

"Not yet, you're not," I hear her whisper just before she retracts the razor and stalks off at a furious pace.

"Fuck!" I throw the book I was reading as hard as I can down the aisle, not caring when it collides with the shelving at the end, causing their contents to come crashing to the floor. Why can't I do anything right anymore?!

"Dude, what the hell?" the sound of Jasper's calm voice freezes my rage in its tracks, "I know the first rule is cardio and all, but I think you're taking it a bit far, don't ya think?"

"I think I fucked up Jazz," I mumble and drop back down onto the bean bag, "Scratch that, I know I fucked up."

"Bella is a lot more fragile, emotionally at least, than she lets on," he qualifies while offering me a bottle of Coke, "She has kept the world at arm's length for so long, that when she actually allows someone to get close to her, every emotion is amplified, and it's usually the bad ones more so than the good ones unfortunately."

I take the offered drink somewhat graciously, opening it and taking a long draw from it before asking, "How did you know it was Bella?"

Jasper Whitlock-Forks WA

"The truth? I see the way you look at her when you think no one is watching," I slide myself down the fish tanks and settle onto the floor in front of Edward, "She does the same thing, you know? Even if shit ain't romantic between you yet, it will be eventually if you stop shooting yourself in the foot every chance you get."

"That's just it Jasper," he counters with an exasperated snort, "She is eighteen fucking years old, I'm twenty five and, for all intent and purposes, in the process of a divorce. On what planet does that make me wanting a friendship or something more than just a friendship with her okay?"

"The heart wants what the heart wants Doc, there ain't no way around that," I tell him honestly, "And the more you fight your heart, the more miserable you'll be."

"How did a kid like you get so savvy about relationships?" the clearly exhausted man before me abruptly asks.

"I pay attention," I pull a cigarette out and light it, then take a draw off of it before continuing, "And Edward, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but with the end of the world and everything, we're not exactly living by the old rules now. I mean this in the politest way possible, but you need to get your head out of your ass and recognize that the dichotomy of our lives and everything we've ever known about the world has been irrevocably altered."

"That helps me like none at all," he spits in irritation, "Could you please be a little more vague?"

I sit up and crack my back before snickering, "You know, maybe you aren't ready for Hurricane Isabella yet, grasshopper. She needs someone who can keep up with her and you seem awfully stupid for a guy who is supposed to be so smart."

Edward rolls his eyes, "Gee, thanks for the pep talk there Jasper, I feel loads better."

"Eddie, my man, you have been spouting off shit about being in your last year of residency and that you're in the middle of a divorce like that shit still matters," I really want to smack some sense into him right now, but resist the urge, "The world you fucking knew is gone, adios, sayonara, goodbye. Get used to it or you are going to lose your mind real fucking fast. Your predilection, your steadfast refusal to look passed the things the twenty-first century society has burned into your brain are going to get you killed, probably sooner than later, if you don't throw them away and recognize what you have now."

"But that's all I know," he murmurs, his crestfallen tone only reinforcing what I'm trying to make him see.

"Then adapt Edward, or fall along the wayside like so many other poor bastards that refused to change because those are the only options you have left, unless you want to go offer yourself up as zombie food of course," I finish with a shrug. He's going to do what he wants anyways, no matter what I say, and most likely is going to get himself killed while he's at it. I should probably start hoping that he doesn't take anyone down with him when he does.

"How can you know all of this? You little more than a kid yourself!" the crazed man before groans while tugging at the ends of his copper hair. I wonder if doing that gives him a headache? How long can he do it before he starts going bald?

"I might be young, but I've experienced a lot of shit in my life," I retaliate with a predatory smile, "But it doesn't take much to know more than someone who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth and had everything in their life given to them."

"You don't know anything about me," Edward growls, aiming a stony glare at me, "You have no idea what I've had to do to get where I am today so don't pretend that you do. Being part of a wealthy family isn't all it's cracked up to be, trust me on this."

"Not all it's cracked up to be huh? I bet your life has been a fucking cake walk in comparison to the life I've lived. What have you had to do to survive? To save someone elses' life? And I don't mean as a doctor, I mean as a human being. Have you ever had to kill someone to save another?"

He shakes his head, "I didn't fucking think so. You don't know shit about living a hard life Edward, you've had it too easy and it's turned your brains to mush. Let me tell you how hard life can be and then you can decide if I know what I'm talking about. Deal?"

He nods so I keep going after moving so that I'm less than a foot away from him, "I know that I shot that man in the head point blank to protect my girlfriend because he wouldn't keep his filthy fucking hands off of her. I watched the fucker die right in front of me before stealing his truck so that I had a way to take her away from her misery. I gave up the first fucking set of foster parents I ever had that actually gave a damn whether I had clean clothes or a hot meal that day, and I did it without one fucking ounce of regret because something in me seen that she was worth it and so much more."

"Why?" is the nearly inaudible inquiry to my short rant.

"Because..the moment I first laid eyes on her, I felt something stir in me that I sincerely believed didn't exist anymore. I had abandoned it when I was a little kid foraging for food in dumpsters. For the first time in so long..." I pull my bandanna off and drop it in my lap before scratching my scalp, I hate being this exposed.

"What did you feel?" his eyes are boring into mine, begging for me to answer.

"I felt hope."

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