Raising the Dead, in Spite of the Natural Order: A Cautionary Tale
Chapter 6
*****
Eli is in a bit of a stupor from his rough, um, treatment, by Eve. It takes a bit for the two of us to shake him out of it. He's dazed, and out of it, but seems unharmed, thankfully. He's just kind of... damp. He insists he's fine, but we both stay close by as we take him upstairs.
"What are you doing, Iga?" I furrow my brow as she takes him by the arm and starts to lead him away, once we get upstairs.
She looks at me like -I'm- the one acting odd, "What? She said she wanted him cleaned up, so I'm taking him to the bathroom."
"You don't take orders from her, Iga!" I shout.
"No, I take orders from my own sense of self preservation. And right now, it says do what the psycho corpse woman tells me, so I don't get brutalized like Eli did," she says.
Eli pipes up, "I don't know that 'brutalize' is really the right-"
"It's okay baby, you don't have to put on a strong front like that," I rest my head on his shoulder and put my arm around him, "I know it must have been terrifying."
He sighs, "I mean, it was, but I-"
"But you, Iga! How could you possibly just roll over like that! We need to be planning how to stop that woman, not appeasing her," I scold her.
"That's fine! Stop her, I get it. But we need time to figure that out. Unless you want to run up and try to hit her with something again," Iga argues, "Besides, do you want to curl up in bed with him while he's still covered in her, erm, juices? She must've leaked a gallon onto him."
"Iga, you are a scientist! Use metric!" I shake my head, "But... you have a fair point. However, -I- will see that he cleans up. You've had quite enough alone time with him naked for one day."
Eli's eyes widen, "Victoria, I don't know what you're-"
Iga's face and her palm connects, "Eli, she knows. I told her about the whole thing with the amnestics."
"Iga, what the hell is the matter with you! You were supposed to keep that shit quiet!" he angrily demands. I do like it when he gets some command in his voice.
"Thank you!" I echo his sentiment, "Can you believe it?!"
"She held me down and forced it out of me! She tried to violate me with a swab! This isn't my fault!" she pleads.
"You held her down and..." he quirks an eyebrow at me, "I'd kinda like to see-"
"Okay, enough! Everything's out in the open, we're all on the same page," I try to put this argument to an end, "Everyone's fucking Eli, and we all know it. Living dead woman included, who is the real problem here."
We all have a quiet moment and calm down, exchanging knowing glances. Good. We need to be a team about this.
"Alright. You get him cleaned, then. I'll be in the kitchen," Iga puts up her hands, finally becoming agreeable.
Eli chimes in again, "Actually, I can shower on my-"
"You're thinking about food now?" I demand.
"She said to feed him," she shrugs, "We've already been through this. Let's just not piss her off for now, okay? Besides, we still need to eat."
Before I can respond she backs away and turns to dart off down the hall. With a sigh, Eli and I go to rinse some of the zombie slut off of him.
--
Eli insists that he doesn't need my help cleaning himself, but I refuse to leave his side, and sit by the shower, while he finishes. It occurs to me that standing guard will probably not accomplish much if Eve does come back, but I stay put regardless. I'm actually not sure where Eve has gone off to. She said she'd bathe and rest, but she certainly hadn't used this bathroom, or any of the bedrooms we passed. She may have secluded herself somewhere to keep me from, you know, ending the experiment prematurely.
I sigh, "Eli... I'm sorry. I didn't know she'd react so aggressively. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'll be fine, Victoria," he says, a little too quick and a little too upbeat. He's being so brave about this.
"You're not mad? She didn't hurt you, did she?" I ask for the umpteenth time.
"No, just a little shaken at the suddenness of it all. And I suppose I'm used to being 'on top', as it were," he jokes, clearly hiding his pain.
"I won't let her do it again, Eli," I make a promise that I realize I'm probably not able to keep, even as I say it, "We should get out of here, go find some help-"
"And tell them what, Victoria?" he interjects as he shuts the water off, "That you made a patchwork woman out of stolen corpses, and now she's gone out of control and gotten all rapey?"
I open my mouth, then snap it closed. He has a point. I stand as he exits the shower, and hand him a towel.
"This is just one of the risks one takes when they fall in love with a mad scientist," he smiles at me, drying off, "I mean, you remember the robot moths? If I managed that, I can manage this."
"They were cyborgs. And okay, but they didn't hold you down and use you like a carnival ride, Eli," I tell him.
"No, but the psychic thing they did was way more invasive. I still get nightmares sometimes. Look, baby, the point is that I've weathered plenty of stuff, and it's always been worth it. You have always been worth it," he leans in and kisses me, "We'll figure this one out. And besides, it wasn't all bad."
I quirk an eyebrow, "Not all bad?"
"Well, in a sense, it was like fucking your genius, itself," he says.
I can't help but blush a little. That was hot. He always knows just what to say. I suppose if another woman takes advantage of him, at least it's one I created this time.
He's halfway into a clean pair of pants when I hear the creaking of floorboards outside the bathroom. We both freeze, but then I realize it's probably a false alarm.
"It's probably just Iga, she said she was going to get us something to eat," I laugh a little and wave my hand dismissively.
"Um, babe, I'm not sure, I'm used to the sound of Iga sneaking up and-"
But I'm not listening, and have the door halfway open before I process what he's saying. Nope, not Iga. Not Iga, at all. Eve's hair is damp, so presumably she did get to the other bathroom. And, maybe bad time to take pride in my work, but now that she's cleaned up, and I'm practically nose-to-nose with her, she -is- really nice looking.
She pushes me forward, for what I assume is a chance to get at Eli again. But I stand my ground. For about half a second.
"Victoria, please don't fight her, she's just going to..." he starts warning me, but it's too late for that.
Eve turns and pins me to the wall in a single fluid motion, as if she was never going for Eli at all. Her iron grip on my throat holds me in place, but she isn't actually choking me. At least not very hard. Instead she tears open the fly on my pants and shoves her hand inside. I cry out a little as I feel two of her fingers curl and force their way up inside me, but the sound barely escapes under her grip.
"Eve, please!" Eli shouts, as if he's going to reason with her, "Let her go. I don't know what it is you're trying to-"
She reaches out with her other arm to gently push him back as he approaches her, "We will mate again shortly. Do not waste your strength," she releases me and examines her, now damp, fingertips, running her thumb and forefinger together, as if deep in thought.