He pulled back so he could see my face. I looked up into his infinite blue eyes and instantly my fears were lessened. “I just told you to be selfish with me. Don’t you think that I’m even more selfish with you? I won’t let that happen. I won’t let something happen to me and I won’t leave you alone to live this life by yourself.”
After several seconds of some sappy but much needed gazing into each other’s eyes, I whispered, “Thank you.”
“Love you, Reagan,” Hendrix promised. “To the very end.”
“I love you, too, Hendrix. To the very, very end.”
He made a sound of approval and kissed my lips. I was too sleepy to reciprocate. “I thought we were going to make out.” He tried kissing me again but got nowhere. I was pretty much my own version of a Zombie. “I thought I had permission to steal third,” he nudged my jaw with his nose.
“Mmph,” I said.
“Fine, Reagan,” his voice was pure sexiness and I let it wash over me, loving every second of his playful teasing. “I’ll let you sleep now but there will be more of this later.”
His words sunk into my skin and soaked into my bones as I drifted happily to sleep. And what a sleep it was. Heavy. Deep.
And for the first time in months, completely nightmare-free.
Episode Four
Chapter One
858 days after initial infection
Haley
I had thirty seconds before this exploded in my face. I had planned out my timing perfectly. She was sleeping off her numerous injuries and all I had to do was retrieve my shoes and my pack full of miscellaneous life-saving, Zombie-killing weapons.
Easy.
Or it should have been.
I tiptoed across the cold concrete floor. My socked feet slid easily along the smooth surface. I side-stepped metal buckets with candles stuck to the bottom and Tyler’s volcanic eruption of possessions.
Escape was in my reach. If I could just-
“Where do you think you’re going?” Reagan’s croaking voice demanded from behind me.
Truth? Or lies? Truth or lies? Truth or lies?
Obviously a whole handbag full of lies.
“Huh? What?” I spun around on my socked foot and tried to appear aloof, unconcerned and possibly bored. “Just out for a jog, I mean, er, walk… inside. I’m going to do some laps inside. I’m feeling…” I stretched my arms overhead, a shoe dangling from each hand. “I’m feeling restless.”
“You’re going for a walk?” She narrowed her eyes on me and groaned her way into sitting.
“Yes.” Confidence was key and I said that very confidently. “I am going for a walk!”
“Then what’s with the weapons?”
Okay, obviously she was not buying this. Time to up my game.
“Duh.” Perfect.
“Duh, what?”
“Duh, you can’t ever be too safe. Besides this is more practice than exercise. I want to make sure I stay in tiptop shape just in case the uh, er, Apocalypse happens… again.”
“What?”
I cleared my throat. “With all the evolving Feeders we’re in danger of a second Apocalypse, I think. I’m almost sure that’s a real thing. It’s safer to stay armed at all times. These Zombies are going to create more Zombies that in turn will create, yep, you guessed it, more Zombies. So…” Unable to think of anything else to say I patted my backpack and smiled at her.
She jumped up from her bed and immediately fell back. She clutched at her head and groaned loudly. “You’re a terrible liar!” she hollered at me.
“I’m not lying! Those are facts! Those are apocalyptic facts!”
She struggled to her feet again, only this time slower. She held onto the wall while she evened out her balance and I slid backwards toward the curtain that would lead me to the hallway and safety.
“Haley Gable if you so much as look at that curtain one more time I’m going to tell Nelson about the first time you tried on a thong!”
I gasped. “You wouldn’t!”
“I would!”
Okay, all of this was friendly courtesy before, but now she was playing dirty. “If you so much as reference the confusion, I will tell everyone about the time you started your period in biology lab and told Mrs. Wolfe you were anemic and bleeding to death so you could go out to your car and get a tampon!” She gasped with outrage. “Besides how was I supposed to know which areas were meant to be covered and which ones were not! The whole thing was very confusing!”
She snorted. “And I was bleeding!”
“You’re still bleeding,” I pointed at her head.
Her hand flew up to the makeshift bandages that Tyler had tied on. While she was distracted I took the opportunity and fled out the curtained entrance. I bumped into King on my way but pushed by him.
I realized Reagan would eventually chase after me, so I shouted over my shoulder, “She’s right behind me! Don’t tell her where I’m going or you’re going to be in charge of babysitting her for the next two days!”
I couldn’t see the finer details of King’s face while I shoved through the stairwell door and jumped down the staircase flights at a time, propelling my body with the handrails. But if I could see his expression, I was sure it would be white and aghast.
Nobody wanted the task of nursing Reagan back to health from her latest Zombie-killing crusade. She had only taken on half the Feeders in Oklahoma last night and barely managed to escape. She claimed a triple concussion, a sprained ankle and about a dozen other minor injuries.
I had my doubts about a triple concussion. I mean, honestly, there wasn’t an award for the most injuries accrued during one single battle. But the rest of her grievances were legit. And she definitely had at least one major concussion. She was supposed to be resting and recouping. Like Reagan even understood what either of those words meant.
She had moxie. I could give her that.
But she also needed to know when enough was enough. And she’d freaking had enough already.
At least until her brain stopped bleeding.
I ran all the way down to the front yard and pushed through the doors without looking back. No way could she keep up with me. She could barely walk straight.
The guys and Tyler were all standing around the beat up Suburban. They talked quietly while methodically checking over supplies and weaponry. They looked up at me, all of them registering surprise. Clearly I had startled them with my bat-out-of-hell exit.
“Let’s go!” I panted. Geez, okay, maybe that whole exercise bit wasn’t an exaggeration. I needed to start working on some 5k training or something. I was seriously losing my bad ass stamina now that we were trapped in the compound most days. My breathing took on a slightly wheezing sound and I dropped my hands to my knees. Managing to throw up one hand and wave at them, I ordered. “We have to go now! We have to get out of here!”
“Hales?” Nelson stepped forward and dropped a lazy pat on my back. “You alright?”
“She’s coming,” I gasped. “She’s right behind me.”
“Oh, shit,” Hendrix grumbled.
No kidding! That was what I was trying to tell them.
The door banged open behind me and out stumbled Reagan into the noon sun. “What the hell!”
I stood up and raised my eyebrows at the slowpokes in front of me. I tried.
“Hey, Reagan,” Hendrix soothed carefully. “What are you doing up? You should probably go back inside and lie down.”
Ha! Good luck with that, Casanova. Welcome to celibacy!
“What is this?” Her dark brown eyes flickered from her boyfriend to my boyfriend to Vaughan, Tyler, Gage and then me. I couldn’t handle the hurt that found me when I could finally see her face in the bright afternoon sunlight.
“We’re going for Miller,” Tyler supplied. “You can’t go because you’re injured.”
She huffed and crossed her arms, then she teetered to the side. Hendrix had to reach out and steady her. “Am not.”
I snorted
before I could stop myself. “Reags, don’t be absurd.”
“You don’t be absurd.” She narrowed her eyes on me while her face turned a sickly shade of green. She was trying not to throw up.
Clearly, this was the top of her game.
“Babe, we’ll be back tonight. Tyler doesn’t want to wait for Miller and I don’t blame her. Someone has to stay with the kids and you’re too sick to go anywhere right now. Besides, you get all the good missions. I haven’t left the compound in forever.” I tried pouting but that only made her angrier. I backed off and threw someone else under the bus. “You’re not alone, Reagan. Hendrix volunteered to stay with you!”
“Volunteered? He volunteered to stay with me?”
“That girl is out of her mind!” King pushed through the door with Harrison on his heels. Page followed after, considerably calmer than her frantic brothers.
“He’s mad because he got beat up by a girl,” Reagan explained.
“A girl with three concussions,” I grinned.
“Haley, I swear-”
I cut King off with a wave of my hand. “I tried to warn you.”
He made a growly sound and shook his head. “Just tell me you’re taking her with you. I think a fourth concussion might solve some of her insanity.”
“If she gets a fourth concussion it’s going to be the equivalent of a lobotomy!” I glared at my best friend, pleading with her to be gracious about this. Alright, I pleaded in a very angry and annoyed way, but still, this was me on my best behavior.
Gage stepped in and I hoped to God she would listen to his reason. “Reagan, you’re not going. You can barely walk. You’ll be a liability out there and you’ll put us all in danger.”
She huffed but I thought she started to see his point. He didn’t wait around to see if she listened or not, he just turned around and started checking the Suburban again. I almost laughed. We weren’t used to that kind of authoritative autocracy. Reagan and I had a much different relationship with the Parkers. Vaughan, Hendrix and Nelson chose to keep the peace in a very founding-fathers democratic kind of way. Gage was a little more third-world dictator.
Maybe that wasn’t fair.
Matthias was very much the military overlord. Gage was like the king of a very small country that loved him and thought he could do no wrong. Gage ruled sternly because he had to, but also because his people did whatever he said whenever he said it.
They spoiled him rotten.
He needed a little fight in his life. Fortunately for him, I believed that was the role Tyler filled.
I walked over to Reagan and smiled patiently at her. Hendrix left us in favor of helping Vaughan and Gage with the car.
Let’s be honest, the boy saw an opening for escape and he took it. Hendrix was nothing if he wasn’t an opportunist.
“It’s not about you, Reagy baby. We have to get Miller. And we need to go now.”
She puffed out a whoosh of air and her wild, sleep-tangled hair went flying. “I know it’s not me. I just… I don’t…”
“Like to be left behind?” I suggested.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t like the idea of half of everyone I love invading Matthias’s camp while I’m stuck here without any form of communication. I don’t like that I can’t protect you.”
My heart clenched tightly in my chest. I had those same feelings whenever she ran off on one of her world-saving missions. I knew what it was like to be left behind, waiting anxiously to see if the other half of your best-friends-forever-necklace survived. “We’ll be back in a few hours. Plus, I don’t like you anywhere near the Colony. If you go in there injured, Kane will kidnap you. For good this time. We’d all get caught, Reagan. We might as well walk in with our hands raised and our guns empty.”
“I would never let Kane hurt any of you.” Her expression flashed with defiance.
She didn’t get it. I wasn’t worried about me. “Even if you might be able to persuade Kane one way or the other about the rest of us, he won’t be influenced when it comes to you. That boy is bananas. As in b-a-n-a-n-a-s. That shit is bananas.”
She ignored my Gwen Stefani reference. “He’s not going to get to me, Hales. I won’t let him.”
“You’re right, because you’re going to stay here. But, if you walk into the Colony like this, he’s totally going to put a collar on you and lock you in some kinked-out cage.”
“What’s that called? That’s like a thing, isn’t it?” She looked up at the bright sun as if it would have all the answers to her depraved curiosity.
Luckily my mind was a steel trap and Google had been a thing of pure, unfiltered addiction before the whole Zombie thing. A few key swipes and all my sexually-deviant curiosity could be satisfied. “BDSM.”
“Right.” She smiled at me and I knew that all was forgiven. “Do you think people still do stuff like that these days? Or is every part of life miserable and mundane now?”
“Let’s not compare sex to Zombie-Apocalypse-induced depression because then I might give up on life altogether. I’m not losing the v-card just because my life hangs precariously in the balance. I’m going to need a little assurance that I’ll make it to the big O or I’ll die a withered shrew. I’m not kidding. If you can really compare sex to… this, then not worth it. So not worth it.”
Reagan barked out a surprised laugh. “And how would you know?”
I blushed and forgot how to continue speaking.
Thankfully, Tyler interrupted me. “What are y’all talking about over here? It sounds dirty.”
“Your brother and whether or not he’s into kinky sex.” I batted my eyelashes innocently at her.
“Oh, my god! I can never unhear that!” She shoved my shoulder and slapped my bicep. “Haley!”
Reagan and I dissolved into laughter. Reagan’s was a bit more hysterical than usual and I blamed her head trauma. But she seemed light years better than when they’d come home yesterday. She had been ghostly white and bleeding from several different places. Now, she just suffered the residual effects of having her brain shaken up. She’d be fine if she’d let herself get some much-needed rest; but per her usual theatrics, she was being difficult.
Tyler glared at us and finally brought the conversation back to reality. Page walked over and wrapped her little arms around my legs. I let my hand run through her blonde curls and smiled down at her. I hated to leave her, but I needed to get out. I needed to get the hell out. This place could be ridiculously claustrophobic. And there was hardly anything to do that entertained me or engaged my ticking time bomb of a brain- which could be dangerous for me. I tended to freak out when I didn’t have steady stimulation.
“Are you alright staying behind, Reagan?” Tyler’s face actually looked affectionately concerned. Maybe the girl did have something of a soul after all.
I said something of a soul, not an entire one… but maybe a small, itty-bitty, miniscule part of one. Or like a recycled or second-hand one.
“Not really,” Reagan sighed. “But I understand why I have to stay.”
“That’s very mature of you,” I grinned at her and looked down at Page. “See how mature your auntie Reagan is being? One day you can grow up to be just like her.”
“Awesome?” Reagan cut in.
Keeping my attention on Page, I said, “Nope. A giant pain in the ass most of the time with highlighted moments of maturity.”
Page broke into giggles while trying to exclaim, “Cuss jar!”
I winked at her. “Go kiss your brothers goodbye and meet me at the car in five minutes!” She listened immediately and ran off to hug and kiss the boys.
“You will be safe. No dinking around. And no going after anything other than Miller!” Reagan pointed a finger between the two of us. “I will come after you if you don’t come back. Concussion or not, you’d better be back here by tonight.
“We’re not going on a day trip to the spa. We know what we’re doing,” Tyler argued.
This seemed to only make Reagan more ner
vous. “We’re good, Reags. We got this. You are not the only bad ass Zombie hunter still alive, you know?” I glanced to Tyler to my left. She looked like a supermodel trapped in a B-rated Zombie cult classic. Her hair was too shiny; her teeth too perfectly white and straight; her skin wasn’t fading to pale and pasty like mine and her boobs were the best out of all three of us. Still, what good were boobs when she couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn door from three feet away? “Some of us are bad ass Zombie hunters.”
“I will punch you again,” she snarled at me.
“Is that what you did before?” I looked down at my bicep and back at her. “That was you punching me?” She rolled her eyes at me like, duh. Reagan and I both snorted another laugh. “You’re right, Tyler. I quake in fear of your bad assness.”
We shared amused smiles and Tyler wandered off to talk to Gage. She wasn’t really the sentimental type when it came to goodbyes. I didn’t know if was because she didn’t feel close enough to us yet to grieve a separation that could easily end in life or death, or if she didn’t let herself think through all the “what-if” possibilities.
It didn’t really matter to me anyway, since I would be spending the foreseeable future with the girl. But I thought it might have mattered to Reagan, although she didn’t say anything.
I carefully wrapped my arms around her still-healing body and squeezed her in a hug. “I’m glad you’re not coming today, because probably at the first sign of danger, your head would just fall off your body. But I’m going to miss you, Sista! Please stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”
She sniffled. “Be safe. Listen to Vaughan and Gage and Nelson, but if you know something’s wrong, listen to your gut. I cannot stand the idea of something happening to you. So make sure that nothing freaking does.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied obediently. “Now you make your promises.”
“What promises?”
“The ones where you promise not to get into trouble while we’re gone.”
“For the record, I don’t even try to get into trouble, it finds me. It’s not my fault!” She sounded less mature than Page with this argument, but I allowed it. Mostly because I wasn’t going to start arguing about responsible-decision-making in the middle of an area where Zombies threatened to overrun us and a few feet from a beat up Suburban that was literally taking us to Crazytown.