He was able to use his strength on the woman though and jerk her out of the way just in time. The man wasn’t so lucky. A Feeder lashed out with clawed hands and slashed the man from thigh to kneecap. He collapsed under the pain and loss of muscle only to succumb to the same Zombie in the next second.
I shouted at the other scientists to move out of the way so they didn’t also become Feeder food, but they were tangled in a mess of hysteria.
Haley and I both found creative ways to shoot at the new flow of Feeders as they flooded our space so we didn’t accidentally hit a human. There were too many of them and they were way too close to Page for my liking.
I took a small breath of relief when the traffic of new Zombies seemed to come to an end and no more of their Feeder friends pushed through. Inside still afforded plenty to contend with, but the endless flow of Feeders seemed to finally bottom out.
I took three steps forward and shot at a Zombie that had launched itself at Kane. I caught it right in the ear, although I had been aiming for his temple, and when it landed on hard ground I took two more steps so I could shoot it in the head two more times.
Better safe than sorry. I lifted my arms up again, one hand bracing the other, and continued to attack at a closer range.
“Reagan!” Hendrix shouted down the line. “You told me you were going to be safe!”
I couldn’t stop the smile from stretching across my gore-splattered face. “I’m safe!” I hollered. “This is me being safe.”
“You should have stayed by me!” he called back and my heart took off in a different kind of rhythm.
I shook my head and bit my lip in an effort not to get carried away. I had to keep my head in the game. I had to be smart and not stupidly emotional. Plus, I wanted to sound put-together even if everything under my skin had started to flutter.
“Next time you’ll think of that before I start kicking ass!”
Okay, that sounded relatively not dumb. I could live with that.
His masculine chuckle floated my way and my spirit relaxed. Obviously, my body couldn’t do anything but stay tensed and ready, but inside of me my soul, my spirit, those metaphysical places I couldn’t name, took a big, deep breath and released the anxiety and heartache that had gripped me so completely.
Outwardly, I continued to vanquish my enemy in true video-game-style glory. I had just started to feel really good about my insane skills too, when another victim fell at the gnashing teeth of humanity’s greatest enemy.
My pride and sense of accomplishment were forced sternly back into perspective and I felt a small piece of me die.
Bobbi Jo had been one of the scientists wielding a firearm; she had done a great job of keeping the remaining four of them protected. Just when I thought we might finally be out of the woods, a lagging Zombie jumped through the hole.
I gasped at the same time he landed on her.
Her pretty red hair covered her face and blended with the blood that splattered the rest of her body.
The scientists around her immediately turned and started shooting at the hideous creature but their emotional attack never managed to hit it in the head. He devoured her throat with an addictive hunger that made me cringe and gag in disgust and despair. I could hear the sounds of him devouring her from where I stood and I just wanted it to end.
I moved forward quickly and shot at the creature until it stopped wiggling and writhing on top of her and until he stopped moaning and making those fleshy sounds as his teeth gnawed into her jugular.
I watched in horror as the Feeder’s life drained out of him and he stilled over her. Bobbi Jo’s screams still echoed in my ears, but her eyes were vacant and unseeing now.
I dropped my gun to my side, feeling helpless and frustrated. Her scientist friends looked at the gory remains of their two comrades and then helplessly at the scene around us. With an unspoken agreement, they pushed themselves to their feet and took off through that same hole.
I wanted to yell at them to come back, to convince them that it was safer here than it was out there. But we were parting ways anyway tomorrow and maybe they had the right idea. The blood, guts and dead would draw any wandering Feeder in here and they might have a few hours of free road before they ran into another Zombie.
Hopefully.
If they were lucky.
As mixed up as I felt about their interest in Page, I really did wish them the best of luck and I wanted them to succeed. I wanted a Feeder-free world as much as anyone. And I wanted a vaccine that would keep the rest of us safe in all future circumstances. I just didn’t want them to use Page.
Was that selfish?
I honestly didn’t care. That’s how selfish I was about the whole thing.
The gunfire started to die down around me and when I finally lifted my eyes away from the dead scientists, I realized we had fought the majority of the Zombies off.
I wiped at the sweat on my forehead with the back of my hand and stood there panting and unbelieving for a long while.
We had been planning to leave in the morning, I reminded myself. I just expected a notice before anyone tried to forcefully evict us. Yeesh.
Rude.
Haley moved to stand next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “We almost all made it,” she mumbled.
My chest pinched for the frustrating loss of life. I replayed all the moments leading up to those two unnecessary deaths and couldn’t help but blame myself. Haley and I had managed to yet again pull out of this unscathed, while two other smarter, possibly more important, people weren’t as lucky as us.
She wrapped me in a one-armed hug and sighed. “We did everything we could,” she said, seeming to read my thoughts. “We do what we can. You can’t blame yourself for the rest.”
“What if it was you or Tyler? I have got to get better. Faster. What if it’s Page next time and they don’t stop at one bite?”
“Hey,” she snapped. “It’s not going to be Tyler or me because we’ve learned to defend ourselves. And it’s not going to be Page either. We take care of our own. They weren’t our responsibility. They were supposed to be taking care of each other.”
Her words did little to assuage my guilt, but I nodded because I did see her point. “Okay.”
Strong arms gripped my bicep and whirled me around and out of Haley’s hug. Nelson shoved by me and pulled Haley into his arms. Then they both walked over to retract Page from behind the cash register.
I looked down at the huge hand wrapped around my arm and up into the intense eyes of Hendrix Parker.
“Are you okay?” he demanded gruffly.
I nodded. “Are you?”
Something even hotter flashed in those blue depths. I didn’t understand what it was. I didn’t know why he reacted to my question like that, but something along his rough edges seemed to soften.
“I’m fine,” he said like it was obvious and I should never question his well being again.
Psht. Men.
With a fast glance over my shoulder he accused, “You cut Allen loose?”
I swallowed but talked myself into standing up for my actions. “I thought he should have a chance to defend himself.”
Hendrix snorted.
“I didn’t give him a gun or anything,” I told him with plenty of self-righteous anger.
“Why didn’t you cut his mom free?” He didn’t exactly sound placated, but he did sound… Less angry.
“He told me not to. He said not to trust her.”
“But you trust him?”
“Are we going to do this every time I make a decision regarding Kane?” I yanked myself out of his big hand and slammed my arms across my chest. “And I don’t trust Linley Allen. And I kind of hoped that a Feeder would find her and make lunch out of her ugly face, but obviously I didn’t get that lucky.”
Hendrix’s lips twitched. “Just lucky enough to stay alive.”
I met his gaze. “You too.”
“Glad you made it, Willow. Next time don’t wander off. I
can’t save your life for the umpteenth time if you’re across the state from me.”
And then he walked away.
Just like that.
Our breakup had somehow made him simultaneously more of a jackass and infinitely more sexy. How was that even possible?
Especially when the same tragic event only made me more pathetic?
Dumb. Boys were dumb.
I whirled around to Kane, “Don’t try anything stupid,” I hissed at him. “I’m not in the mood.”
He put his hands up in surrender and smiled innocuously.
I heard a car whiz by on the highway out in front of the store.
“Oh, no,” I groaned.
“Sons of bitches!” Harrison shouted.
“Cuss jar,” Page whispered next to me but she sounded distracted.
When all the Parkers took off through a giant hole in the wall, leaping over dead bodies and slipping through puddles of blood, I picked up Page and took off after them.
Haley, Nelson, Kane and his mom followed behind me. It wasn’t until we’d rounded the corner and saw the one Suburban gleaming in the moonlight that I realized what happened.
“And this is why I hate humanity so much these days,” Gage growled and kicked out at the tire.
“They stole our car?” Tyler gaped. “That is so rude!”
It was a lot more than just rude. I hoped they found what they were looking for after all we’d done for them. Bastards.
“Harrison, King and Nelson, go grab whatever is left in the store. And keep your guard up.” Vaughan ordered tersely. “The rest of you pile in. It’s going to be tight, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.”
We followed orders. Our food and water supply had been all but diminished these days. Vaughan and Hendrix hadn’t planned to be away from the compound for this long and they’d only stocked up for so many days. This left the trunk relatively empty and so we shoved Linley and Kane in the back.
I crawled into the back seat along with Nelson, Haley, Tyler and Miller. We basically sat on top of each other in an effort to fit. Harrison, King, Gage and Page took up the next seat and Hendrix and Vaughan took their regular places as captain and co-captain.
When everything was loaded and the spaces at our feet piled with our packs and remaining ammo, we sat quietly in the car while we processed the events of the night.
We were dirty, sweaty and some of us were covered in blood and guts. We had no place to stay now and people we had chosen to show some degree of trust had just stolen one of our nice vehicles.
The compound had most likely been taken over by Matthias Allen and his soulless militia and I’d just watched two people die gruesome, horrific deaths.
I was so over the end of the world.
“We’ll go straight to the storage units,” Vaughan announced after a while. “Maybe we’ll take them by surprise at a weird time.”
Nobody argued.
“I have a plan,” Vaughan continued. “We’re going to kill the bastard responsible for all of this. We’re going to take back our home and then we’re going to figure out what to do with ourselves. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” we all mumbled with half-hearted efforts.
Although, Vaughan’s speech really did rouse something warrior-like and bloodthirsty inside of me. I really wanted to kill Matthias Allen. Like really bad. I wanted to make him pay for all my recent suffering. I wanted to torture and abuse him for the way he’d treated his children. I wanted to snuff out his life in the same way he tried to destroy every living thing that didn’t bend and conform to his will.
I wanted vengeance and retribution.
I wanted justice.
This short skirmish with Feeders helped put this world into perspective. I wasn’t supposed to be fighting other groups of humanity. My real enemy was a disease that threatened to take all life on this planet and extinguish it.
Matthias was a thorn in my side. A speed bump on the road to my real goal, my real mission. He didn’t belong on the top of the food chain. He belonged six feet in the ground.
Or better yet, a pile of ashes that would blow away with the next strong breeze.
The sooner I got rid of him, the faster humanity could get back on track and remember that we were not the animals; we were not the monsters haunting society and ruining civilization.
We were the good guys.
We needed to work together and overcome our common enemy. Nobody could save humanity but humanity itself. And we couldn’t do that until we ended Matthias Allen’s crusade.
And I would gladly let Linley Allen go down in a blaze of martyred glory with him.
Kane was a different story. While I didn’t believe I was capable of killing him, I didn’t imagine he would be in my life much longer either. After this, I would find a way to say goodbye.
I would find a way to let him go and move on with my life.
If he chose to follow me, I wouldn’t stop him. But I wouldn’t encourage him either.
It would be hard. Letting Kane go would be impossibly hard. Part of me didn’t think I could do it.
But then Hendrix turned around once we got on the highway and for a few seconds our gazes crashed together and his intense blue eyes beat through me with a palpable force. He held me there, suspended in time and space while he worked something hot and consuming through me. And then he released me. He faced forward again and our connection was broken.
After that, I knew which part of me would win out. I knew I would let Kane go just so I could share one more moment like that with Hendrix. I would spend my life for those moments if he let me.
I felt something for Kane. But not what I felt for Hendrix.
And that was all that mattered to me.
My life had decayed into a rotting corpse of its own making, but it would be love that saved me.
It would be the love I felt for that one man.
And the love I knew he still felt for me.
Episode Ten
Chapter One
872 days after initial infection
“I spy with my little eye, something-”
“Dumb,” King grumbled.
Harrison punched him in the arm. “No, not dumb. You’re ruining the game.”
King punched him back. “Pick a different game.”
“The license plate game.”
“And where are we going to find license plates?” King asked dryly.
“Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of beer!”
This time it was Nelson that did the punching. In the throat. Harrison grabbed his neck and started choking desperately.
In my gracious benevolence, I leaned forward and smacked Harrison on the back half-heartedly. “You okay, Chief?”
He garbled something vulgar at me.
King let out a dramatic sigh. “I can’t take it anymore! I can’t stand you people! I need a vacation. A vacation away from my family. Or maybe just a new family.”
I smirked at his teenage theatrics. “Sorry, Kingsy, you’re stuck with us.”
He groaned again and dropped his head back. His wild blonde hair flopped in his eyes, and his knees pushed forward into the seat in front of him. Nelson turned around again and punched him super hard in the thigh. King immediately shot forward and clutched his leg.
“You asshole!” King shouted.
“Cuss jar,” Page murmured sleepily. She turned from one of Haley’s shoulders to the other and immediately dropped back asleep.
“What lovely children you’re raising, Reagan,” Linley snarled right in my ear.
I shivered from the satanic feel of her satisfied voice wafting from her trunk-prison. She sounded straight up evil. And it had been like this for two days. We’d stuffed her in the very back of the Suburban along with Kane. Her hands were still bound and after several frustrating incidents, her feet were now bound as well. And sometimes her mouth.
“I will gag you again if you don’t shut up,” I told her. In another time of m
y life, I might have felt guilty for speaking to an elder like that. Even if I didn’t like her, I would have treated her with the necessary polite manners and respect.
But not Linley freaking Allen.
I had no qualms with treating her exactly like she deserved. Which was dirt. Lower than dirt. Lower than anything I could think of. The woman was poison, plague and a nuclear bomb all wrapped up into one haggard package. She was obviously exhausted, filthy and clearly at the end of her rope.
I would have taken satisfaction with all those revolving pieces, knowing that she was suffering more than she ever had in her life, except, she didn’t know how to suffer in silence. And while her misery made her miserable and irritable and bitchy, she decided she would project all that crankiness onto me.
Over the last two days when necessary, we had been forced to stuff a t-shirt in her mouth and use a rope to tie it in place. Although, I wasn’t sure if that was more work than it was worth. She’d managed to bite me twice and Vaughan once. She spit right in Haley’s eye. And once she even head-butted Nelson’s temple so hard, she knocked him over and drew blood.
And that was only while we were getting the gag on her.
Then she would sit behind me and gag on the t-shirt for hours on end. And cry. And whimper. And scream a muffled, hideous sound right by my ear.
I had pulled out my gun several times, my intentions clearly advertised across my murderous face. But so far, someone had been able to talk me down from the ledge each time.
There had been a lot of times.
The drive to the compound had been frustratingly slow so far. Far more Feeders roamed the roads than when we first made the trip. Or so everyone said. I had been unconscious on the way down.
We had to stop and fight, stop and fight, stop and fight. Plus, Page still suffered from the remaining dregs of her infection. She often felt car sick and needed to pull over and purge whatever food we’d forced her to eat.
The first night we left the antique shop had been rough. We were exhausted and dirty. We were also slightly panicked; we were forced to heap more trauma onto our mountain of psychologically fragile mental states. I thought it would be the worst night for us. I thought we would be forced to get through that dangerous car ride barely holding onto our sanity. The night had been impossibly black, and the road traitorously damaged and debris-filled. I had stayed awake the entire night, staring out the glass window that only revealed my scary reflection. I’d been forced to listen for hours to Linley whisper threats about her husband and what he would do to us when he found us.