27

Remy

Just before midnight, Stella fell unconscious, and Ripley left her side and cowered in the waiting room. Jovie had her assistant Eden go get Boden and Serg, because they wanted to be here for this. Once they all returned, Jovie sent Eden home, because what would happen here tonight didn't need any more witnesses.

I stayed on the porch, trying not to think of anything. Serg hugged me before heading inside, and Boden lingered on the porch.

"Have you been inside?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No. But I know Max needs me in there."

"I'll be right by your side the entire time, and we will survive this because we have to," he said simply.

And he was right, so I took a deep breath and nodded, and he put his hand on my back.

We went into the house, and the lights were dim. The scent of lye and soap was overwhelming, but somehow it couldn't mask the odor of decay I'd come to associate with zombies.

Max was softly singing a lullaby I hadn't heard in years, the one that our mother had first sung to us, and that I had sung to him and Stella when they were younger.

In Stella's room, she lay in her bed, appearing like a pregnant sleeping beauty. Max knelt beside her bed, holding her hand as he sang.

" Ma petite étoile ," I said, using the pet name that our mother had given him, and I knelt beside him and rubbed his back.

"What does it mean?" he asked. "This song. I don't remember French anymore."

"I don't remember either," I admitted bitterly.

" Il y a longtemps que je t'aime/Jamais je ne t'oublierai , which means, I've loved you for a long time/I will never forget you."," Jovie translated for us.

Max's eyes were swollen and red from crying, and he looked like he'd aged several years since we left the lakehouse. But he was still my little brother, this sweet heartbroken boy, and I would've done anything to take his pain away.

All I could do was hold him close and let him cry. We had lost so much already, and I had held him before as he sobbed after we'd lost our parents. But this was the most visceral, anguished sound I'd ever heard him make, as if his heart was being ripped from his body.

Behind me, Boden quietly asked Jovie, "How long do we have?"

"We can hold off a bit longer, but with her breathing so labored, we shouldn't push it too much," Jovie said.

Max pulled away from me, sniffling and wiping his face with his sleeve. "Will it hurt the baby if we wait too long?"

Jovie cleared her throat. "Yes, the risks are higher if we wait much longer."

He shook his head. "I can't risk the baby. Stella would never forgive me if I did that." His breath caught in his throat. "But I can't…"

Max looked to me then, his face crumpling, and I understood. He knew what needed to be done, but he couldn't be the one to say when to end the life of the girl he loved. He couldn't be there to participate or witness it, even if he knew it was the right thing to do.

"It's time," I said, and I stood up first, so I could help him up.

As we walked by, Boden hugged Max and kissed the top of his head. I led Max out to the waiting room, where Ripley was hiding and Jovie's record player could drown out the sounds. Serg had followed us out of Stella's room after saying his own goodbyes to her, and he pulled Max in for a rough hug.

Boden stayed back to help Jovie. She could use another pair of hands, he had some medic training from the military, and it couldn't be me. I had to squeeze my eyes shut when she brought the sterile instruments in from the kitchen.

The lion abruptly made a distressed sound and jumped to her feet. She ran toward Stella's room before I could stop her, but I ran after her while Serg comforted Max.

"Ripley, what are you doing?" Boden asked. He reached to grab her collar, but she darted away and went over to Stella, chuffing and sniffing her.

"I cannot perform a C-section with a lion in the room," Jovie said in dismay, and she held her hands up and stepped back from her tools.

Stella's dress was pushed up, leaving her full abdomen exposed, but no incision had been made yet. Her skin rippled with the baby kicking and moving inside her.

"Ripley!" I called, but the cat ignored me even more than normal. She put her massive arm protectively over Stella's chest and nuzzled her.

"What's going on?" Max asked, standing in the doorway to her room.

"I don't know. Ripley usually hates zombies," I said. "I thought when she growled and ran out hours ago, it was because she smelled the virus on Stella, but now… "

"Do you think Stella is still in there?" Max pushed past us and went over to her side. "Stella?"

Ripley kept rubbing her giant head against Stella, and Max took her hand and squeezed it.

Her eyelids fluttered, and she mumbled, "Ripley, stop ."

"Stella?" Max repeated excitedly. "Stella, are you there?"

"Max?" Her eyes opened, and they were her eyes, not the glassy rabid ones of a zombie. "Am I still alive?"

He laughed with tears streaming down his face. "Yeah, you are."

"What's happening?" Boden asked.

"I don't know," Jovie said, sounding as stunned as I felt. "I'm just a midwife, and I have never seen anyone come back from the brink of being a zombie."