me.'
'I'll explain everything to Saint Peter, if I get that far.'
'Do you repent?' Mary asked.
'Oh yes I do. I can see now how everything, everything, I did was such a waste. I wish I could do it over again and make the right decisions. I wish I had more time.'
'Can I…can I pray with you? Say a prayer with you?'
Marge looked over to where the rest of the group was gathered, 'I would like that, but it had better be a short one.' blood was making Marge's lips a bright red color.
Mary took out a silver crucifix and began to recite an 'Our Father' over Marge. She kept it short and then said a personal prayer to Saint Mary to watch over and guide Marge to heaven.
'Why Mary?' asked Marge.
'She is ever merciful. Jesus be with you Marge….I don't even know your last name?'
'Norton.'
'Goodbye Marge Norton. I will pray for you. I will honor what you asked of me.'
'Dora!' Marge cried out, as a spasm wracked her body in pain.
'I am here Marge!' said Dora brushing by Mary as the other woman stepped away. Kneeling Dora took Marge's hand in her own and held it to her face.
'I want nothing to happen to Mary, Dora. Nothing. You don't have to be nice to her, you don't have to like her, but I forgave her and you should too. I was dead anyway. She only stole a few hours from me, a few miserable hours. I had a vision Dora, when she shot me, I blacked out for a moment, I saw things…' Marge's voice dropped off quietly to nothing.
'Marge!' said Dora crying.
The other woman's eyes flickered open, she said softly, 'Not…dead..yet. I will be okay. I am almost free. You need her Dora. You need…Mar…' again Marge stopped talking and again her body trembled in pain. Then, in a loud voice she spoke again, 'and for God's sake be less of a bitch!' Marge's body tensed up and then relaxed, her eyes stayed open and her breathing stopped, a thick wad of slimy, red spittle dribbled out of her mouth to fall on the leather cushion she lay upon.
'Step back Dora.' Kerim said, forcibly removing Marge's hand from hers and pushing Dora back. Dora stood and took a step away from her friend's body. Turning she saw John standing back with the others by the island.
Ned was over by his driver and camera man, helping himself to another cup of coffee. He raised his eyebrow at Dora, lifting his mug. Dora nodded once and he took another cup from the counter and filled it for her.
'How long now? Until she comes back?' she asked Ned, taking the mug from his hands and adding sugar and cream.
'Two, three minutes at most.'
Watching the digital clock on her stove Dara waited until five minutes had passed. 'What now?'
'Kerim?' Ned called.
Dora turned to look at Kerim and Marge. Kerim was standing with his rifle aimed at Marge's head, he stood about three feet away, waiting for the first sign of movement. 'Nothing yet.' he said, his voice was wavering, 'This is, unusual.'
'She isn't coming back.' Mary said, smiling.
'What are you smiling about? You think this is funny?' asked Dora.
Mary's face became serious, 'No Dora. It is wonderful. She told me she was not coming back. She said it was proof that what she told me was true, if she didn't return, I would know she was telling me the truth. It is a miracle.'
'Saint Marge?'
'No saints Dora, God himself.' Mary slid to her knees and bowed her head in prayer.
Looking at the others she asked, 'Do any of you know what the hell she is talking about?'
'Dora we were next to you, right, how should we know?' asked Mike, 'Uh, should we pray too? I mean, Marge did die right? A true death, she should have come back.'
Paige went to her knees and one by one the others did as well, leaving only Dora standing, Kerim still kept his gun pointed at Marge's head.
Mary looked briefly at Dora, smiled again and started praying, John joined her moments later and the two of them recited verses for the rest. Dora snorted, turned and filled up her mug with another cup of coffee.
Chapter 24
'So, what now?' Dora asked of Ned. They were standing at the counter enjoying another pot of coffee. Mary and Alex seemed to be reconciling out on the porch, at one point their reconciling had grown rather loud, before cutting off so abruptly that Dora looked outside to see if Alex had the woman in a head lock. When she looked he was staring right at her, a shocked expression on his face. The reconciling had grown quieter after that.
'We gotta keep getting the news out there. You will make a good case study, we'll edit it up a bit and just interview you, Paige and Mike. Mary doesn't want to be on, I didn't ask Alex, I am going to mention Marge as a cautionary tale to others not to get bit. We go live in…' he checked his cell phone for the time, 'Seven minutes.'
'Fuck.' said Jeremy hurrying past.
'He is the cameraman; he needs to go get the gear.' Ned said to Dora's unasked question.
Jeremy and the guardsmen moved the couch out of the way then shot three zombies that were out on Dora's porch. Jeremy ran off towards the van, where they heard another gunshot. John and Kerim hauled Marge's body out the front door, they moved it off to the side and put it up against the house.
By the time they returned Jeremy, with Cameron's help, had the cameras set up and Ned had a small mic in his hand. He was coaching Dora, Mike and Paige on what to say, stressing them not to deviate too much.
'This is not news, you know that. It is not entertainment either. It is life or death for hundreds of thousands of viewers. Understand, and I am talking to you Dora, no fucking around. Don't ad-lib or give us any of your crap on the air, the survivors need to know they can survive. We will get your story out and I will go over the evacuation points with Diane and Jim back at the station. You three just look confident and maybe, yeah, get your guns over here. It wouldn't hurt to have mugs of coffee, like this is just another day and you are confident in yourselves. You can be a little worried, but be worried with a positive attitude. You got all that?' Ned's phone rang and he answered it, 'Hello?' He held up a hand to the trio and then said to them, 'Be ready on Jeremy's signal.' Turning away he started speaking on the phone.
Jeremy called out from behind the camera, 'Okay see the green light on the front? That means you can talk freely, we are not broadcasting, when it goes red it means we are live on the air and don't fuck anything up, got it?'
'Yes, I think so.' said Dora, she stepped to the island to recover her rifle and a cup of coffee, she thought it might be Mary's. She filled it, added cream and sugar and then stood waiting. 'Jeremy?'
'Yeah?'
'Thanks for having my back there, with Mary. You know, pulling out on her and all. Even if you didn't shoot her.'
'Ah, you are welcome. For the record I am glad I didn't shoot her.'
'Why?'
'Well, it was an accident. The shot that hit Marge was from when the gun hit the ground. Sure it was Mary's fault for starting the whole thing, she started in with all the drama. Marge forgave her, in that much pain, on her death bed, as her dying request. I think I can forgive her too.'
'Too easy, I won't let her off the hook like that.'
