Instinct told us, it would be a while yet. He needed to get back to The Colony and secure Miller. He would have to take care of Kane one way or the other and he would need time to lick his wounds and organize.
But Gage didn’t want to take any chances and I didn’t blame him.
We had entered into a war that would cost us resources, ammunition and lives- none of which we could afford. And we would fight this all against the ongoing battle with Feeders.
I snuggled my bandaged head deeper into Hendrix’s healthy shoulder and let out an exhausted sigh. The bullet had gone straight through his other shoulder, flesh wound with an entry and exit point. It was still a gunshot wound- but it was the best possible scenario for him. And Gage had three former doctors and four nurses living with him.
I wanted to relax because of how lucky he’d been.
But I felt the opposite. Hendrix hadn’t been lucky, he’d been spared. Kane had gifted him the ability to continue living.
Just like I feared I did the same for Kane.
Speak of the devil, Vaughan broke our silence by asking, “Reagan, do you think Kane’s dead?”
I’d briefed everyone, including Gage, as soon as we’d arrived back at the storage facility. There had been a million questions for Tyler and me and then a long time spent devising a plan to defend against these monsters. Matthias would be back, but even if he wasn’t, we would go get Miller. We didn’t even attempt to devise a plan for that yet, though. We were too tired, too wired and raw from everything else that had happened. And that rescue attempt would be extremely complicated and practically impossible.
There were lots of casualties from the gunfight with Matthias’s men. Gage had been shot in the calf, a bullet skimmed Nelson’s side. Vaughan was black and blue with injuries. And Hendrix was worse off than everyone- on top of the bullet wound, he had two cracked ribs and a suspected broken fist- but his hand was still too swollen to tell.
He clutched at my shoulder with that same injured hand and I didn’t remind him to stop. It felt too good to touch each other, to hold onto each other. We both ignored our aches and pains if favor of never letting go.
“I don’t know,” I finally confessed to Vaughan. “I’d like to believe he’s gone… but I don’t honestly know.”
“He’s not dead,” Tyler scoffed. She sat on the opposite side of the room from Vaughan, despite their rather clutching embrace on the road. “He’s a cockroach. They don’t die from knife wounds and bullet holes.”
“Then what kills them?” Nelson asked with an amused befuddlement.
“Atomic bombs,” Tyler grunted. “Maybe holy water.”
“We will get through this,” Vaughan promised. “Leaving is no longer an option. We owe it to these people to stay here and defend them. We brought this conflict to their front door and now it’s our obligation to save them from it. And we need to get Miller back. Other than training these people, Miller is our first priority.”
We nodded in agreement, all too tired to voice other opinions or even respond verbally. The candlelight in the dark room flickered over our fatigued faces, but there was a serenity in the room. We were still- mostly- together. We were still alive, even Miller.
We had survived another day.
“I made you something, Reagan,” Page whispered next to me. She was wedged between Haley and me on the couch.
I looked down at her just in time to watch her pull something over her head. She held it out for me and I shifted into sitting so I could use two hands to take it from her.
I took the necklace in my hand admiring the silver chain. There were three pendants hanging from the end and I put them gently in my palm and brought them close to my face. I could barely make them out in the dim light, but my heart swelled to bursting with what I could see.
“That’s a compass,” Page explained. I picked up the first pendant and examined the tiny, plastic compass. “It’s so you can always find your way back to us. Even when you go do dangerous things, it’s so you can find your way home.” Tears fell before I could stop them and Page pointed to the second item that hung on top of the compass. “That’s a locket,” she whispered. “Open it.” I did. Inside the oval was a piece of paper with printed writing on it. I squinted, trying to make it out without light but Page filled it in for me, “Haley says it means ‘love.’ We found it in a book.”
“It says, ‘Love always.’ We cut it out of an old romance novel in the storage room. Since we don’t have any current pictures of us, Page thought it would be a good way to remind you of your family.”
More tears streamed down my eyes. “It’s perfect,” I gasped.
The third pendant was less heart-warming than the other three.
Page said, “It’s from a toy. It’s a gun.”
“How sweet,” I laughed at her easy explanation.
“It’s so you remember to always keep fighting,” Haley said. “And to thank you for everything you’ve done to keep us safe.”
“We were worried about you when you were gone.” Page wrapped her arms around my waist and I leaned into her. “We don’t want you to ever go, ever again.”
“I won’t,” I promised. I pulled the chain over my head and let it fall to my neck. The precious pendants pressed against my chest and burned blissfully into my heart. “I love you all too much. You’re my family now.” I lifted my eyes and met Vaughan’s dark gaze from across the small space that separated us. I remembered words he had spoken to me before, words that had affected me then and become my motto ever since. Love is more than enough to survive with; it’s enough to live with. “You’re my life now.”
Hendrix put his good arm around my shoulders and pressed his body against mine. I huddled on this couch with the most important people in my life, surrounded by everyone I loved and cherished- well, except for Miller. But I knew he would live too, at least long enough for us to go get him. He was a survivor. I’d recognized that in him the moment we met. And besides that, his dad hadn’t kidnapped him just to kill him.
We had a long road to go ahead of us. We faced an impossible fight and malicious army of men that didn’t seem to own a conscious to guide them.
But we also had each other.
And I’d fallen in love with that and them. This was my family now, the people that held my fragile but resilient heart. I trusted them with my life and they trusted me with theirs. We would persevere together and we would overcome together.
Because nothing was going to rip us apart, or take us from each other again.
Hendrix pressed a kiss to the top of my head and I made all those same promises to myself over and over and over.
At the core of everything, of my heart, my soul, this conflict and this sometimes ugly, sometimes beautiful life, was this man next to me. If my heart had been pieced off and given to all of these people than he held the biggest, most important part and with it my soul, my future, my thoughts, desires and hope.
They all belonged to him. To Hendrix, this strong, determined, intense man that didn’t belong in a world made out of rubble and death. He was too good, too pure and lovely, too devoted and loyal to be mixed among the debris of a humanity fallen and civilization razed to the ground. He didn’t belong here. Our feelings for each other didn’t belong here. But here he was anyway- with me.
And despite all that had happened. Despite the loss of my parents, of my home, of everything I knew and believed in, despite having lost everything, I felt found. I felt like I belonged to him, to this family, to this small island of beauty we’d created out of ugliness.
And that meant we won, that meant life was worth living. That meant there was a future to fight for…. to hope for.
Because out of this world of death and decay, I’d found love.
Thank you for being a part of Season One and Reagan’s journey! And while this is the final episode of this season, don’t worry, the fight for survival in a world of Zombies and death is not over.
Look for Season Two, Episode
One of Love and Decay coming Friday, February 14th, 2014
About the Author
Rachel Higginson was born and raised in Nebraska, but spent her college years traveling the world. She married her high school sweetheart and spends her days raising their growing family. She is obsessed with bad reality TV and any and all Young Adult Fiction.
Look for more from Rachel in 2013.
Love and Decay is taking a two month break and will begin again in February, 2014.
Other books by Rachel to be released in 2013 are The Relentless Warrior, the sixth book in The Star-Crossed Series and The Fall, the second book in the Siren Series.
Other Books Out Now by Rachel Higginson:
Love and Decay, Episode One
Love and Decay, Episode Two
Love and Decay, Episode Three
Love and Decay, Episode Four
Love and Decay, Episode Five
Love and Decay, Episode Six
Love and Decay, Episode Seven
Love and Decay, Episode Eight
Love and Decay, Episode Nine
Love and Decay, Episode Ten
Love and Decay, Episode Eleven
Reckless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 1)
Hopeless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 2)
Fearless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 3)
Endless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 4)
The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 5)
Starbright (The Starbright Series, Book 1)
Sunburst (The Starbright Series, Book2)
The Rush (The Siren Series, Book 1)
Bet in the Dark (An NA Contemporary Romance)
Follow Rachel on her blog at:
www.rachelhigginson.com
Or on Twitter:
@mywritesdntbite
Or on her Facebook pages:
Rachel Higginson
Or
Reckless Magic
Rachel Higginson, Love and Decay, Episode Twelve
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