Nobody did.
Ryder and I slammed around in the backseat as Hendrix did another U-turn. I collided with Kiran’s shoulder and when I opened my mouth to apologize he waved me off. He held Eden tightly to his chest and braced his feet on the floor.
“Faster,” he growled at Hendrix.
“I’m trying.” Hendrix swerved violently and took the car off the road into the ditch.
We bounced around in the grass, dirt and rocks for a minute or so before we made it back onto the highway. I tried holding a hand to the ceiling to keep from getting so jostled, but nothing about my body was prepared for this kind of ride.
“Come here,” Ryder ordered in a surprisingly gentle voice. His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into the strength of his body.
I immediately felt anchored, tethered to home in this foreign place.
“Almost home,” he murmured into my ear so I could hear him over the revving engine and screaming Zombies in pursuit.
“What happens when we get home though?”
Ryder’s arm squeezed my middle and his forehead dropped to my shoulder. He didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t tell me.
My heart plummeted to my stomach and suddenly I didn’t want to leave the Zombie Apocalypse.
I wanted to stay here where we worked together and he risked everything to protect me. I wanted to stay in his arms, even if that meant running from Zombies for the rest of my life and never showering again.
I wanted to stay here. With Ryder.
Nothing else mattered.
Ryder lifted his head and spoke over my shoulder, “We have to get to the water. That’s the only way we can get out of here.”
“I know,” Hendrix snarled. “But right now getting you home means that the rest of us die.”
“We won’t,” Kiran put in. “We can’t die.”
“Thank you, Kiran!” Reagan practically shouted. “That is just super helpful right now.”
He tried not to smirk. I watched him struggle with it, but in the end, the smirk won. The smirk would always win.
I thought maybe the smirk controlled him. He was just a puppet behind the smirk’s ultimate, unfathomable power.
Hendrix made a sharp turn and changed our direction. We were now headed toward the ocean in a very general way. It wouldn’t be good enough. Hermes wouldn’t come to me. I had to go to him. And he was miles in the other direction.
And it wasn’t like we had a GPS that could take us back by a different route.
“Son of a bitch,” Hendrix hissed. “Ivy, I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to do.”
I felt despair replace fear. My heart had been hammering in my chest, my blood rushing in my veins. The memories of that Zombie transition crawled around in my head as if they had eight legs apiece. My entire being resisted the very idea that Zombies could touch me again. And yet, with every second that ticked by, it looked like my ultimate fate was tied up in this awful infection.
I would die by them eventually. Or become one of them.
I whimpered before I could stop myself.
“We will get back, Red,” Ryder promised. “Nothing will stop me from keeping you safe. You should know that. Whatever happens to us, here or at home, I’m going to keep you safe.”
A small fissure of relief crackled through my near hysteric-panic.
“Thank you,” I told him and ignored the tears pushing against my eyes.
“Glad you two are having a moment, but I’m serious! I really don’t know what to do! Or where we’re going! Or even if this road goes anywhere! I could really use some freaking advice right now!”
Okay, Hendrix seemed on the verge of a breakdown.
It was at this point that Eden decided to wake up. She jerked and then jolted upright on Kiran’s lap. Her black eyes glittered in the dark night, but they met mine right away. She seemed to take me in for a while, absorb me sitting here next to her. Then her focus turned to Hendrix and the dark road in front of us. We’d managed to gain some distance on the Zombies, but not much.
If we slowed down now, they would be on us in no time.
“There’s a boat,” Eden whispered. “I dreamed of a boat.”
“Where?” Kiran asked as if that wasn’t the strangest declaration ever.
“Right after we crash,” she answered smoothly.
“What?” My question was made of broken confusion.
She ignored me and looked at Ryder. “Hold on tight to her.”
“Why?” Ryder asked. He sounded truly panicked for the first time all night.
“I already told you,” Eden smiled patiently at him. “Because we’re going to crash.”
“Oh, shit!” Hendrix yelled seconds before Eden’s premonition came true.
Oh, shit! I thought. And then we crashed.
Chapter Six
Reagan
Pain. Pain and panic and this loud ringing sound made me want to curl into a ball and die.
What happened?
My head swam with confusion and my stomach swirled with a burning sickness that pushed bile up my throat and made me want to lay back and never get up again.
Why did everything hurt?
The sound of screeching metal made me jerk in my place. I didn’t make it far though. Something had caged me into something else.
I winced against the pain that seared through my head when I tried to use it. Thinking was out of the question right now. And I didn’t want to fight it, so I sunk back into a place of survival and protection. If my mind needed to be blank right now, then by all means, be blank.
Except there was this nagging feeling of urgency that kept pushing itself into the hazy darkness of my drowsy consciousness.
I needed to do something.
Or go somewhere, maybe?
Did someone need something from me?
More screaming metal shouted at me from every direction. I tried to cover my sensitive ears, but my hands were pinned to my side. I needed to see why I couldn’t move them. If I could see the problem, I could fix the problem.
Or that was what my high school guidance counselor had told me once upon a time.
But that had more to do with drama on my cheer squad than being trapped in a full-body-suit of… of something.
It was time to take Mrs. Wesslund’s advice. See the problem. Be the problem. Fix the problem.
Or something like that.
That was the moment I realized my eyes were closed. Well, I could fix this problem first.
I opened my eyes, which took a surprisingly forceful amount of work. At first, all I could see was twisted metal and shattered glass. Light brown vinyl lay to my left and that meant something to me. Speckles of a dark liquid seemed mildly familiar, they made me feel uneasy. Dread flared in my compressed gut and I felt desperate to move.
It was that tan seat cover and those flecks of blood that snapped my reality back into place. Abruptly the confusion was gone and I could remember everything.
I had been in a car accident and that was why I couldn’t move. The sounds of metal shredding apart by some kind of supernatural strength meant my new friends were trying to pry me free. I truly hoped they were using their weirdo Magic strength to dig me out of here because I also figured out why I felt panicked.
I felt panicked because I was panicked.
We’d barely started to get a head start on all those Feeders and now I was trapped in the wreckage of our only means of escape.
“Get me out of here!” I hollered at them. My croaking voice echoed off my small prison and I started to worry about my limbs for the first time. The pressure of my prison constricted my chest and I felt out of breath simply trying to make myself be heard. That was the only physical signal I had that my body wasn’t at its finest. Everything else either felt numb or I couldn’t move it enough to discover any damage.
More hysteria bubbled in my stomach and buzzed through my body. I felt the overwhelming need to move something. I scrunched my eyes closed and tried to
breathe evenly. I couldn’t think about the possibilities of what had happened to my limbs, my back… my neck. I banished thoughts of broken bones and potential paralysis but I was alone in my prison and I couldn’t push my fears far enough before they crept back in and assaulted my courage.
What if I had been seriously injured? I wouldn’t be able to protect these people if I couldn’t walk. Or run. Or throw grenades at oncoming hordes.
“We’re working on it,” Eden called back. “Give us a few more minutes.”
“Hendrix?”
I held my breath until I heard his loud, “I’m here. I’m not hurt.”
Oh, thank God. I sucked in a fortifying breath.
My heartbeat slowed down from a frantic run to a steady gallop. A shot of peace and trust pulsed alongside my fears. If Hendrix was all right, at some level, that meant I would be all right too. No matter what happened to me. That was a promise he’d made to me that I trusted, that I hoped he still meant after everything that had happened between us.
“And everyone else?” I felt a little guilty that I hadn’t immediately thought of everyone’s safety and well-being, but it couldn’t be helped. I cared about my life because I had the potential to keep a lot of people safe and alive.
And I cared about Hendrix’s life because… well… because I didn’t want to talk about it right now, so stop asking.
“We’re fine, Reagan!” Ivy’s voice sounded strong and confident.
I didn’t know where she got all that cool, calm, collectedness when a huge horde of Feeders were bearing down on us with plans to rip us apart and make a buffet out of our mangled bodies, but I liked her spirit.
She was so strong. Nothing seemed to be able to get her down or force her to give up.
Well, except when she’d been bitten and started to turn into a Zombie.
But, hey, who wouldn’t have been depressed when facing those odds?
Kane, my brain whispered. Kane went willingly.
To save you.
And you thank him for his sacrifice by regretting how things went with Hendrix and hoping you can force yourself to move on.
Maybe this wasn’t reality.
Maybe this was purgatory.
I certainly deserved it.
Ugh.
Finally, the sound of tearing metal happened so close to my face that I gagged. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten anything today, so there was nothing that could be thrown up.
The awful sound of metal as it ripped apart was high-pitched and groaning, much like the Feeders, with loud protests and a reminder that metal wasn’t supposed to be able to bend and tear like this. And it happened right by my ears. The force of it vibrated in my bones and scratched at my spine.
And when it stopped, the silence of the night was more poignant than any other sound had been so far.
The cool night air hit me in my face. Drops of sweat had formed all over my hairline and neck, but the cool breeze felt amazing. I tilted my face toward the sky and let the gentle caress of the wind go to work on my heated body.
I waited as patiently as I could to be dug out.
I knew Eden and Kiran were struggling with their own weakness and inability to conjure up what they had a few days, or even hours, before. But they did an amazing job of keeping us all safe and together.
We wouldn’t be able to stay together forever, but I was grateful we’d crossed paths and gotten to know each other. We each had a different story to tell and a different war to fight. But we couldn’t have survived today without each other.
Not that the day was over.
And really, I could blame this entire fiasco on Ivy. But if I ignored those two minor details, then we weren’t doing so badly.
I liked these girls. I could easily see myself sipping coffee with them on sunny afternoons and discussing all of our broody, serious, alpha-male problems.
In a different world, of course.
Coffee was like the Holy Grail around here these days. Nobody had it or could find it, but every single person would have traded entire appendages for just one strong cup.
Me included.
I just hoped I had appendages to trade.
Hendrix stepped into my line of sight and blocked out everything else. He was all I could see. He was all I wanted to see. He was the cool breeze that made it possible to breathe. He was the night sky that blinked with millions of hopeful stars. He was the salvation that would rescue me from this nightmare.
“Reagan.” His voice was a whisper of relief and emotion.
He leaned into me and for a moment I thought he would kiss me. My poor heart went into shock and stopped beating completely in anticipation of that sweetest of feelings. I licked my lips nervously and watched his face, afraid that if I even blinked he would disappear and this would turn out to be a fantasy.
His hands fell to my shoulders and gripped me tightly. I could feel his desire to touch me, to hold me, to press his lips against mine vibrate through him. He wanted to kiss me as badly as I wanted to be kissed.
But in the end he pulled back and his lips fell to my forehead.
Disappointment made my entire body deflate. If I hadn’t been so firmly pinned in place, I probably would have collapsed on the ground.
“You’re okay,” he whispered into my blood and sweat soaked hair.
I’m not. I thought. I’m not even a little bit okay.
I grunted a noncommittal reply and tried to wiggle. “I’m not exactly mobile though. Can you get me out of here?”
Hendrix pulled back and dropped his hands. “That’s the plan.”
“This is what I get for staying by your side.” I meant for that to come out teasing, but bitterness laced my words. Hendrix gave me a fast scowl before he turned his back on me and walked away. We both knew I meant more than the car accident. And even if I had only meant this particular incident, it wasn’t a fair accusation to make.
He would do anything to keep me safe, even after I crushed him.
Even after my time with Kane.
And instead of being grateful for his protection and care, I threw it in his face and blamed him for circumstances he couldn’t control.
It wasn’t his fault he’d crashed the car. I didn’t see the giant crater in the road until he did. It was too dark and these roads were too unfamiliar. Hendrix did what he could.
It also wasn’t his fault for what happened with Kane. That was all me. I could take the blame for that one hundred and ten percent.
I just didn’t want to.
I wanted someone else to blame.
A Zombie howl sounded in the distance and I shook my head to rid myself of the demons haunting me. Zombies were bad enough. I didn’t need my memory-monsters attacking me as well.
I looked up at Eden, “Get me out, please.”
“Anything feel broken?”
I grimaced. “Let’s find out.”
She sucked in a big breath and then swiped her hand at the metal casing me in. Metal tearing from metal screamed through the night. I winced from the pain and violence to my body, but I started to feel the give.
All at once, she pried it apart and I would have fallen into the jagged pieces except that she kept my body upright with more of her crazy cool Magic.
She gave me an expectant look. I gathered some courage and gingerly stepped through the debris to a clear patch of grass. My legs didn’t give out and nothing hollered in pain or protest.
Somehow my body had remained uninjured through the wreckage.
“I don’t think I’m hurt,” I announced.
I felt Eden’s Magic pull back. I braced myself for something terrible to happen, but I stayed upright and no bones snapped or crumbled.
Whew.
“Good.” Kiran’s gaze was fierce and expectant. “We’re going to need everyone if we have any hope of surviving this.”
“Surviving what?” I asked.
I didn’t need to ask. I didn’t even know why I asked. I guessed it was habit.
But my curiosity was fulfilled as soon as the first wave of Feeders crested the hill. We’d flown off road not fifteen minutes ago. This particular area resembled a war zone. Buildings that lined the road had been destroyed, crumbled to pieces of dangerous debris. The road itself had been bombed or something. Not even a tank could make it through the rubble that remained where smooth highway had once provided a scenic view of the Gulf.
I looked around frantically for some kind of weapon.
There wasn’t one.
Kiran picked up a crowbar. “This came out of the trunk,” he explained.
I nodded. Of course, it did. “I’m more of a firearms kind of girl.”
“You’re only a firearms kind of girl when you have firearms. Try to be flexible.”
I looked to Eden for support.
I didn’t find any.
“Do you want to complain about what you’re comfortable with or do you want to survive?”
“I want to survive,” I grumbled.
Eden smiled at me. “I’m glad to hear that. I want you to survive too.”
Hendrix stepped up to me. We shared a meaningful look. I noticed he held a long piece of wood that had several nails protruding from the end.
Yikes.
“I’m sorry,” I said after a long time.
He didn’t say anything. I could tell that he wanted to ask what I was sorry about. My words? Kane? So many other things?
For everything?
If he had asked, I didn’t have an answer for him. I was glad when he didn’t ask.
“I won’t let you get trapped in a car again, Reagan,” he said instead. “Stay with me.”
“I will.”
“Let’s go!” Ivy yelled as the Zombies raced down the hill at us. “We have to make it to the water.”
I chanced a glance over my shoulder and peered through the darkness. The moon was now high in the sky and provided enough light that our plight wasn’t completely in vain.
A boat sat at the end of a long dock that ended a ways past the biggest waves close to the shore. A ladder hung at the end of it and led down to a small speedboat tied to it.
This must have been Eden’s “vision.”
If we could make it there, we might have a small chance for survival.
A very small chance.