The stories continued, one after another. We all had memories of him that we wanted to share, beautiful moments or meaningful advice that he’d given to us. We told stories until we were all laughing and then longer, until we were all crying again.
By the time the four brothers had pushed Vaughan’s body beyond the tide, I had a headache from the tears and a deep soul ache, I wasn’t sure would ever go away.
Hendrix came back and wrapped his arms around me. I held him, dripping with saltwater and smelling like the ocean, until Vaughan’s body was out of sight or it sunk… I wasn’t sure which.
I didn’t want to think about either.
Hendrix pulled back from me and stared down with a deeper intensity than I had ever seen from him. “Save me from this,” he pleaded with a rough voice.
“I can’t,” I sniffled. “But I can walk through it with you.”
He nodded, accepting that answer. The lost look in his eyes slowly turned to determination and purpose. He took his attention from me and looked around at the rest of his family.
“We need to keep going,” he announced. “We’ll drive the van as long as we can until we find something new. We’ll keep going until we can’t, then we’ll walk until we can’t. More than ever before, our goal is that research station. We’re going to help find a cure for this goddamn disease if it’s the last thing we do. We’re going to save other people from going through any more of this shit. I’ve had it. I’m done with it. Together, we’re going to stop it.”
Page sprinted from Nelson’s arms to Hendrix’s. He wrapped his arms around her and for a brief second, I watched the tough-guy demeanor crack and fall. He replaced it quickly, but kept Page close.
The rest of his brothers moved into action. They took every remaining supply or random item they thought we could use and packed it in the van.
Hendrix had to carry Tyler to the van and while the guys went through whatever remained of this small resort, I held Tyler in my arms and let her weep.
I knew her grief had been doubled since she had already lost someone she loved. I hated that she had to go through this twice. I hated that she had fallen in love with him only to lose him.
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t fair that Hendrix, Nelson, Harrison, King and Page had to lose their brother after they had already lost their parents. It wasn’t fair that they had to watch him die slowly and suffer so much. It wasn’t fair that they had to go on living, go on fighting through this world without him.
It wasn’t fair that Vaughan had fought so hard and so well and still been caught in the evil. It wasn’t fair that he was immune from turning into a Zombie, but not from dying from the infection. It wasn’t fair that he had to leave the ones he had promised to protect and love, the ones that he would have done anything for.
It wasn’t fair that he had offered up his life to save his siblings and the world had taken it. This monstrous place had accepted his sacrifice like it was its right.
It wasn’t fair that we had to move on, that we couldn’t find a more permanent place to bury him or a marker to come back and visit one day.
It wasn’t fair that our greatest work potentially lay in front of us, but we had to leave our greatest man behind us.
By the time Hendrix and his brothers returned to the van, I had built up a bitter armor against this world. I couldn’t predict it or plan for it. And I sure as hell couldn’t trust it.
Vaughan had been more than a friend to me; he’d also been my family. I was going to miss him.
I would always and forever, from this day forward, miss him.
I moved to sit in the passenger’s seat next to Hendrix and said another useless prayer over the engine. The engine shivered but slowly rumbled to a start.
Hendrix reversed the vehicle, turned it around and moved back to the highway.
“We’re going to make it,” I promised Hendrix. The sun had started to sink low in the sky again. We were going to have to find another place to stay and quickly, but I knew none of the Parkers could stomach the idea of staying at the same bungalow again. I didn’t blame them.
“How do you know?” he asked in a soft enough voice that I was the only one that heard.
“Because you know how to kick ass,” I told him playfully. He squeezed my hand. He wanted a serious answer. Okay… “Because you love this family more than anything. Vaughan was the best at keeping us together, but you learned from the best. You know what to do. You’ll make smart decisions and you’ll keep us together. You can do this, Hendrix. I trust you.”
“Have I told you lately that I love you?” One corner of his mouth curved up with adoration.
I smiled tenderly at him. “I’ll never get tired of hearing it, so feel free to tell me as often as you need to.”
“Thank you for helping me keep it together,” he whispered. “It’s not easy, and it’s not over, but I need you.”
“Thank you for taking care of me,” I told him. “I need you too.”
His hand reached out and I put mine in his. “Tell me we’ll survive this one more time.”
“We’ll survive this, Hendrix,” I whispered with weighted words. “We’ll survive this because we’re survivors and that’s what we do. It’s not going to be pretty, and it’s not going to be easy, but we can make it. We have each other. That’s all we need.”
He nodded slowly, letting the words sink in and take hold. “Don’t let that happen to us,” he added like an afterthought. “Don’t let them get to us. Or take you from me.”
“I won’t,” I swore. And I wouldn’t.
We had a lot of fighting left to do, but we couldn’t let this happen to us. We couldn’t get separated again, by life or by death.
It was devastating to lose Vaughan, but it was incomprehensible to lose Hendrix.
I refused to let that happen.
No matter what it took or what I had to do, I would keep him safe.
I would fight to the very end to keep us safe.
Episode Twelve
Chapter One
1153 Days after initial infection
We had been quiet for hours. There had been nothing to say until Harrison groaned, “Your foot looks delicious.”
“If you so much as lick me, I’m going to punch you in the face,” King growled in return.
“What happens if I like it?”
“Hendrix!” King whined.
I responded before Hendrix could open his mouth. “Oh, my god, shut up. Both of you.” I dropped my face into my hands and pressed my fingers against my temples in an effort to keep my head from exploding. Harrison and King had been after each other since Veracruz and I could not take it anymore.
“I can’t,” Harrison whimpered, sounding much younger than he was. “I’m too hungry. I’m not kidding. I would eat King’s stupid leg if I thought it could make my stomach stop hurting like this.”
King flung himself against the dingy couch he lounged on and puffed out a breath of air. “If I thought donating my leg would make you stop acting like a little girl, I would gladly give it to you.”
“It might,” Harrison pouted.
King rolled his eyes. “It won’t.”
“I resent that,” Page sighed.
Her brothers looked at her for a moment before turning their attention back to each other. Harrison opened his mouth to argue… some more… because he never shut up… when Hendrix stepped in between them.
“Enough,” he said simply. But it was enough to silence them. “Harrison, you can’t eat your brother. King, stop calling him a little girl.”
Neither brother had another response. They turned away from each other and got busy bothering other people.
Hendrix walked over to me and flopped down on the dirty mattress I’d claimed. It wasn’t much. And it wasn’t clean. Actually, it was the opposite of clean. I couldn’t decide if I was going to end up with an STD or Tetanus. Neither were good options for me. But it was better than the floor of this abandoned house w
e’d found at the edge of Bogotá, Colombia.
That’s right, Colombia.
We made it.
We made it to the country, and then a week later, we made it to the capitol.
I still couldn’t believe we were here.
That we made it.
That our happiness had been stolen, our sanity questioned, our foundations rocked to the core, but we were here.
Finally.
There had been continents in our way, countries we crossed and so many cities that I lost count. We had been through every kind of climate, temperature and terrain. We’d left mountains, driven alongside ocean front beaches; we’d seen rain forests and regular forests, abandoned towns and desolated ones, Zombies from all places and men who wanted to chop off our heads and stick them on top of spikes in the ground. We had bargained our way out of tight situations, gone days without seeing anyone, stolen maybe two hundred cars along the way and dealt with a bout of the flu.
It had been hell.
It had been hell, but it had been no worse than what we’d already faced. So we pushed forward, we made progress and somehow we made it to our final destination.
But we were running out of steam.
We’d rolled into town, or the edges of town, earlier this morning. Our latest ride, a monstrous, rusted El Camino from the nineties, painted bright pink at one time and sporting a fuzzy steering wheel cover and sheepskin seat covers, ran out of gas just as we passed the city line.
It was like a miracle.
Or a curse. Depending on your perspective.
Although it had lasted a few days for us, we were now trapped at the fringes, in a house that had been long abandoned, without food, water or anything else we could need or want.
While the last six weeks had been marginally better than getting trapped by cannibals, fighting off Matthias and watching someone we loved die… we were starving, dehydrated and completely exhausted.
We had fought the armies of hell to get here and the battle still wasn’t over.
Hendrix’s hand slid over my shoulder blades and wrapped around my shoulder. He tugged me against his side where I nuzzled up willingly and prayed he had the answers to all of our immediate problems.
“I guess I imagined they would roll out the red carpet when we arrived,” I admitted. “My only goal so far has been to get to this city. Now that we’re here, I have no idea what to do.”
Hendrix inhaled slowly and held it for a beat. “I’m not sure I believed we would ever make it here alive.”
So much for Hendrix and his trick bag of answers. “Me either,” I admitted.
“We should probably look for the research station, but first we need to make it through the night.” He squeezed my arm. I could tell he wasn’t in a hurry to get up and that worried me.
Without enough food, we were alarmingly without energy. The last week had been the worst. As we worked our way through the Colombian mountains, and closer to Bogotá, every possible place to find food or water had been ransacked.
Once populated and booming with life, the landscape was now filled with ghost towns and emptiness. We hadn’t seen a person or Zombie in over two weeks.
“We need to eat something,” I whispered. My throat burned from thirst and my stomach heated with hunger. I had never been so miserable in my life and the weight of Vaughan’s death only intensified my feelings of despair. We’d made it to our final destination, but I couldn’t celebrate our circumstances.
This might as well have been the gates of Hades.
Maybe it was.
Hendrix nodded slowly. His eyelids drooped and he slumped against me.
We really needed to eat something.
And maybe take a ten-year vacation from this forsaken world.
I glanced around the dim room and mourned the loss of light. We should have pushed further into the city, but we didn’t know what we would find and it was too late in the day to take chances. Now we were trapped in this crumbling shack and we were falling apart at the seams.
Lennon fussed across the room. Haley tried to feed him, but he fought her with a toss of his head. Soon his wails filled the dead space between us. He screamed out his frustration and hunger, demanding that his mother feed him.
He had been like this for days, almost inconsolable because of how hungry he was. His voice would go hoarse with his screams until eventually he would fall asleep for hours. His small chest would barely lift with his shallow breaths. I worried about him the most.
Hendrix groaned and dropped his face into his hand. “I can’t take much more of this,” he mumbled. “I have to do something. I have to fix this.”
My chest tightened. “We have to fix this,” I reassured him. “You’re not alone.”
His head turned until his deep blue eyes found mine. His lips were turned down and the light in his eyes had nearly disappeared. I had never seen him so anguished… so desolate. “I’m all they have, Reagan,” he rasped. “I might not be alone, but it’s up to me to figure this out.”
His words hit me like a physical blow, the breath rushing from my lungs. I swayed forward until I pressed my forehead against the bridge of his nose. “We’re in this together. We have always been in this together. Vaughan would never have let you take this on yourself. That’s not what he wanted.”
Hendrix pulled back and dropped a quick kiss to my forehead. “Maybe it’s not what he wanted, but it’s what he left me with.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he stood up and walked away before I could. My heart squeezed again and I would have started crying had there been moisture to spare.
I tried to keep the anger at bay, but I felt abandoned and dismissed. I knew Hendrix was hurting, we were all hurting. I knew he was tired and hungry and thirsty. I knew he was disappointed with life and angry at God, but I hated that he took it out on me.
We were partners. We were in this together whether he wanted to accept my help or not.
My stomach churned with my emotions and I tried not to let this moment hurt too deeply. We were at our worst physically and emotionally. I tried to understand where he was coming from.
I jumped out of my seat when frantic barking put Lennon’s screams to shame. A pack of wild dogs raced down the street in front of our temporary shelter. They yipped and growled at something they chased.
My tired, abused heart started pounding in my chest. The dogs were running from something. I could hear the fear in their barks. I moved with the Parker brothers toward the front door. A picture window had been boarded up at one point, but we could peek through the slots and notches in the wood.
We couldn’t see anything at first through our limited visibility, but the snarling and barking grew steadily louder.
“What the hell?” Harrison mumbled next to me. He reached for the knife in his back pocket and brought it in front of him.
I pulled out my knife and pressed the flat side into my thigh, reassuring myself I had some protection. We ran out of firearms a few weeks back and hadn’t been able to find anything to replace our arsenal. We’d picked up an assortment of weapons along the way, but everything we had with us was hand-held and meant for hand-to-hand combat.
We weren’t the worst fighters alive, but it was always better to kill a Feeder from a distance.
In fact, that was my motto for life.
Footsteps pounded the pavement and joined the cacophony of animal sounds. My stomach twisted with more nerves. If we had to engage in a fight, it would get bloody.
I didn’t want to get bloody. I was filthy and smelly, but I wasn’t covered in Zombie carnage for once.
Shouting joined the footsteps. I couldn’t reconcile the voices with the world I lived in. They didn’t make sense.
I hunched over and tried to get a better view of the street. Everyone leaned in with me. I wasn’t the only one confused.
They ran in front of us and I stared with wide eyes at a pack of small boys and girls. Children. They were younger than the Rat King’s army
and just as dirty as we were if not more so. Their faces were streaked with black marks and their black hair caked with dirt. The tangled clumps hung in matted curtains in front of their small faces. Their clothes were torn and tattered, barely hanging onto their small frames.
But they weren’t emaciated. They weren’t starved and barely hanging onto life.
Their short limbs were corded with strong muscle and their feet moved swiftly across the cobbled street. They were fast, faster than the pack of wild dogs chasing them.
The dogs gained on them while we watched. Their snouts dripped with drool and their eyes gleamed ferociously.
It struck me how strange it was to see animals, even if they were rabid. For the most part wildlife of all kinds had vanished when the infection swept the planet. Living things of every species disappeared into hiding.
In our worst moments, when the starvation had become too much over the last few years, I had often wondered what I would do if I came across something I could kill and eat. But there had never been an opportunity. We had never been given a chance to hunt something down and learn how to eat from the land.