Finally we reached the other alley only to find it empty.
“Where are your brothers?” I shouted over the roar of gunfire, Zombie screaming and general mayhem.
“We’re going to Plan Z!” Vaughan shouted.
Plan Z was basically the last safety net we set in place.
Plan Z, aptly called that because we ran out of other options, was our Panic and Flee alternative. Plan Z meant we were supposed to say hasta luego to Diego’s village and get the hell out of Dodge.
Andy’s van waited at the front edge of town. We just had to get there.
Vaughan reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me along with him as we sprinted for the quieter side of the village. I still didn’t see anyone else and I sincerely hoped they were already waiting for us.
Just when I thought we were in the clear something swooped out of the alley and knocked me down.
I frantically crawled away, clutching my gun and misfiring accidentally. I glanced up, horrified, searching for damage. Thankfully I’d only hit a building. When my eyes unintentionally fell to the alley next to it, I saw a half-eaten man propped on his side. His insides had been completely gutted and his eyes stared unseeing in my direction.
I gagged at the sight of his guts spilling out into the dirt and the open mouth that showed how shocked he’d been that he’d gotten caught.
I had seen plenty of Feeders before and I’d even killed my fair share, but usually we were lucky enough to escape. This sight was more gruesome than usual.
Scuffling in the dirt pulled my attention away from the victim to find Vaughan fighting for his life on the ground. I shouted his name and tried to do something about the Zombie trying to eat his face.
Vaughan had shoved the barrel of his gun in the Feeder’s mouth and kept its head held back by planting his hand directly on the creature’s forehead. It was clever of him to avoid getting bitten, but it wouldn’t last long.
I kicked the Feeders side as hard as I could, hoping to pull his attention toward me, but the damned thing didn’t even look. I kicked again and again; my heart beat pounded so frantically I could feel it in every part of me.
My foot sunk into soft, mushy skin and cracked several bones, but it wasn’t enough damage to make Vaughan safe. His body jerked all over the ground while he dodged the Feeder’s mouth. It was only by a miracle that he hadn’t been bit yet.
I pulled out my gun, but I was terrified that I would miss and shoot Vaughan instead.
My entire body quaked with a fear so strong I could taste it. It tasted like vinegar on my tongue, like acid in my stomach.
“Shoot it, Ty!” Vaughan huffed at me.
I tried to aim just right, but my hands were trembling too forcefully. I kicked at the Feeder again, but it never acknowledged me. It was focused on its prey and wouldn’t stop until it got to taste Vaughan’s flesh.
“Now, Tyler! I can’t hold it back for much longer!” Vaughan was pleading with me and I realized I would do anything in the world to help him.
At that exact time I dropped to a squat and pressed the barrel of my gun directly to the Feeder’s temple, my feelings for Vaughan burst into bright focus and I realized exactly how I felt about him.
I wouldn’t let him die.
I refused to let him even come this close again.
I aimed the gun to shoot through the Feeder’s head and come out the other side rather than down where it would tear through its head only to end up in Vaughan’s.
I didn’t hesitate a second longer. I pulled the trigger and didn’t wait long before the bullet did the job it was designed for.
The Feeder stopped biting and lashing out and fell heavily on top of Vaughan. He let out a grunt of expelled air. I quickly worked to help him shove the already dead thing off him.
He jumped to his feet and pulled me along after him. There was no time for happy reunions or thank yous. Vaughan pressed on like nothing had happened.
Like he hadn’t almost died.
Like my entire world hadn’t just tilted and then righted itself again.
Like I hadn’t just realized that I could not live without this man that I loved so incredibly much.
I didn’t think this was possible. Logan hadn’t been perfect by any means, but we had been perfect for each other and our good qualities far outweighed our negative ones.
The same was true for Vaughan. He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was everything I needed.
Everything I wanted.
I could feel the pursuit hot on our heels. Zombies and Matthias’s men alike chased us down the street, gaining on us little by little.
But we were almost there.
Finally we rounded the corner and the van came into view. Hendrix and Reagan stood at the bumper, waving at us to hurry. I could see King, Harrison and Miller’s head poking through the rolled down window.
They screamed at us to hurry, to run faster. My body felt entirely renewed at the sight of my brother safe and tucked away in the van.
I pushed my body beyond its limits. I stretched my short legs and pumped my arms. I refused to slow us down. I refused to get caught.
Vaughan never took his arm off mine. He kept me tight to his side, urging me to keep going with every step.
My lungs burned from the effort to run this fast and my muscles ached. I felt a cramp work its way through my calf. We didn’t eat well enough. We didn’t drink enough water. My muscles felt like shriveled pieces of rubber and they screamed their protests as I pushed them beyond their limits.
Something swiped at my back and I pushed impossibly harder. Reagan and Hendrix took wide stances with their weapons raised and as soon as we were close enough they started firing.
I ducked a few times, afraid they would forget to aim around us. I heard bodies drop right and left as Vaughan and I got closer and closer to the van.
Andy hung from the driver’s seat shouting at us. I felt the presence of Feeders drop away. Hendrix and Reagan had gotten the few that followed us from the main road, but something was still pursuing me.
I wanted to turn around and see what it was, but I couldn’t afford to lose focus.
Andy slipped back inside the van and slammed the driver’s side door shut. The engine was running; Andy was ready to go.
Gunshots launched from behind me and I nearly face-planted. I thought they were meant for me until I realized that whoever was shooting was aiming for the van.
No!
They were trying to ruin our escape vehicle.
I wanted to turn around and shoot them back, but I could feel someone close on my heels.
I watched Hendrix spin around and shout something at Andy. More gunshots fired. One pinged off the back bumper, another shot out the back window.
I realized what Hendrix was telling Andy to do and I joined in, “Go!” I shouted to him. “Go!” I shouted to Hendrix and Reagan.
They didn’t listen. They kept firing shots at those behind us until Reagan’s gun clicked empty.
Andy’s eyebrows rose to his hair and I watched the moment he decided he had to get out of here. His surprise and resignation flashed over his face and he peeled away, puffing up a cloud of dust in his wake.
A body as heavy and strong as a missile hit my back and launched me to the ground. My hands flew out to brace my fall, but they were crushed beneath the weight of the man on top of me.
My mouth opened in agony as my body scraped along the unforgiving desert floor. Rocks dug into my open palms and my shirt pulled up as I skidded along, tearing apart my stomach and leaving it raw. The rips in my jeans became huge holes as the uneven ground destroyed whatever denim had been left to protect me, shredding my knees in the process.
I lay on the ground with a mouth full of dirt, my eyes stinging miserably and the front side of my body sizzling with pain and realized we had failed every one of our plans and backup plans.
We had planned for every scenario and yet Matthias had managed to trap us anyway.
I looked up
and squinted through the sting in my eyes, blinking away sweat, dirt and frustrated tears. Reagan and Hendrix had their hands in the air and their heads bowed low. Matthias’s men surrounded them, holding them at gunpoint and tossing out insults.
Vaughan laid next to me, an equally large man sitting on his back. Vaughan’s hands were already bent behind his back. The guy holding him hostage had his thick hand resting on Vaughan’s head, pushing it into the ground.
I glanced over my shoulder as my assailant worked to restrain my arms. I didn’t fight him. There was no point. We had fought a good fight, but we were clearly captured.
Zombies and men alike littered the ground behind me. We hadn’t had that far to run, but it had felt like a marathon standing between the edge of town and freedom.
And we hadn’t made it.
Gunshots still crackled back towards town, the rest of the men cleaning up the Zombie mess. There were six men with us now and I knew some remained in town.
How many men had Matthias brought with him?
Had any of Diego’s men survived?
My assailant hopped off me and yanked me from the ground. I tried to hide my wince while my arms were forced into painful places, but by his snicker, I knew I hadn’t been successful.
“Let’s go,” he demanded.
We were shoved back toward the main street. Loaded guns surrounded us on every side. We didn’t attempt to escape this time. The gun on my ankle had been removed and I knew my friends had been searched too.
“The boss is going to be pissed you lost the other ones,” one of the jackasses proclaimed.
The guy pushing me along gave me an extra rough shove and said, “What did you want me to do? Chase after the van like a dog? We tried to shoot out the tires. It didn’t work out.”
“You lost his kid,” the first guy complained.
My captor pushed me even harder so that I tripped over my own feet, just barely managing to catch myself before I landed on my face. “You were there too, asshole,” he growled. “I’m not the only one to blame here.”
“Yeah, but you’re the only one with a family.” The first guy’s voice had softened almost with sympathy.
My stomach started churning all over again, wondering what kind of motivation Matthias had started to use with his men. I didn’t recognize any of these guys from my time at the Colony, so that meant he had picked them up along the way.
Was he blackmailing them now?
Were they forced to fight for him so he wouldn’t hurt their families?”
I shook my head and tried not to feel empathy for them. They still had a choice. They didn’t have to just go along with whatever he said.
And he really didn’t have to keep pushing me in the freaking back! I was about to start foaming at the mouth.
Everything in my body hurt. My palms burned so badly I wanted to scream. The filth from everything today and all that dirt and grime against my fresh rawness worked as the worst kind of torture on me. I sincerely hoped Diego didn’t have some kind of weird blood disease. Or any of the other guys that had died today.
My stomach and knees were in the same kind of condition. I briefly closed my eyes and imagined a hot bubble bath and soap. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for those things.
We stumbled back into town and I had never felt like more of a failure. Dead Zombies were everywhere. There had been probably close to thirty in that horde and I had to admit that if Matthias’s men and Diego’s men hadn’t been with us to help fight them off, we would be dead by now.
We were probably dead now anyway.
Matthias wouldn’t wait long to kill us.
We marched back to the small jail that Diego worked out of. Matthias waited for us inside. He had taken a seat in Diego’s chair and sat there impatiently rocking back and forth. His gaze passed over us quickly forcing his brows to scrunch together with disappointment.
“Where is everyone else?” he demanded. He shoved to standing, tipping the chair backwards as he rose. It clattered to the floor and made my heart jump in my chest. “Where are the other brothers? Where is my son?”
“They escaped,” the guy now holding my wrists with one hand and my shoulder with the other explained. “There was a car running and waiting for them. The kids got in it and it took off.”
Matthias’s focus dropped to me. “They didn’t want to wait for you?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t think I could have answered if I wanted to. I was exhausted and in pain and I was so frustrated with my current circumstances I thought I might be able to murder Matthias with just a glare at this point.
“You’re a mess,” Matthias sneered.
I still didn’t respond and I could feel my silence fuel his rage. He turned to his men, “Throw them in there and make sure they don’t have a key.”
We were pushed and prodded toward the same cells we’d left not even an hour ago. They threw us in the same cell that Diego still occupied. We were crammed together, but it felt comforting given our circumstances.
The door slammed with a final clink and I knew that this bad day was just getting warmed up.
Vaughan’s hand slid over my shoulder blades before he pulled me against his chest and wrapped me in a super tight hug. I let myself sink into his comfort and for just a moment I erased the rest of the world and let only us exist.
I never wanted to leave this place; I never wanted to step away from Vaughan. At this point, I needed his warmth to keep breathing and his intuitive affection to stay sane.
If he weren’t here right now, I would have already lost my mind.
I had fought so hard to get away from my father and yet here I was, back at the beginning.
Matthias moved to stand in front of us, his hands clasped behind his back again, his beady eyes watching us carefully.
“You’ve been a great inconvenience today,” he started. “But that’s nothing new. You haven’t stopped being an inconvenience since I met you.”
“You should have just let us go. We’re not worth this.” Reagan leaned forward and stared him straight in the eyes. She sounded exhausted. She sounded so weary I thought she could tip over and fall right to sleep.
I felt it too. This man, my father, brought on such a soul-deep exhaustion I felt it in the center of my bones. I felt it in my spirit.
“You killed my wife.” His voice dipped low, tattered and torn, scraping over the bars of the cell with raw agony. “You are worth it.”
I lifted my chin and felt the first moment of true bravery all day. Say what you want about my dad, but he loved my mother. For whatever feelings he was capable of having, he loved her. But what about his children?
“Well, you killed Kane, Daddy. So what are we going to do about that?” My hand rested on my hip in a show of defiance, but my bicep trembled with fatigue.
His cold eyes snapped to mine. I met my father’s serial killer stare, the one I had associated with him since I was a small child. He wanted me to suffer, but that was nothing new. “Excuse me, Darlin’?” he snapped. “How do you figure I killed Kane? These fools are the ones that poisoned his mind. This… this… girl is the one that manipulated him, convinced him to do things he did not want to do! He died because of her. I had nothing to do with it!”
“You had everything to do with it!” I shouted. The breath I inhaled scratched at my chest and burned my lungs. “You drove him away! You drove all of us away! Kane wasn’t manipulated, Daddy. Kane was redeemed. And that was thanks to her. She somehow saved the mess of a man that you made. She brought him out of the darkness you submerged him in and gave him a second chance. You should be thanking her, not trying to kill her!”
“She killed your mama, Tyler Sue! She and that awful little child. Your mama is dead because of these people and here you are defending them! There must be something wrong with the way we raised all of you because you have no loyalty! You’ve turned your back on your family in the worst ways and then you have the audacity to stand there and yell at me? I suppose
you think you’ve been redeemed too? You’re disgusting. You ain’t no daughter of mine.”
I swallowed against words that hurt and stabbed at soft places of me I didn’t know still existed. I shouldn’t have been bothered by his ugly words, they shouldn’t have made me feel the very things he accused me of, but they did. Regardless of everything that had happened, this was still my father. I couldn’t help but feel that bond stretch and thin, then finally snap in two.
“And you’re not any father of mine,” I finally said. The words were harsh whispers, dragged from my throat and thrown in the air with heartbreaking decisiveness. I had said it a hundred times before now to Vaughan and Reagan, to the rest of my friends, even to Miller. But this was the first time I meant it with everything inside of me. This was the first moment I found perfect clarity and used it to speak the truth against the man that had abused me my entire life, the man that tried to kill people I loved, the man that twisted and misshaped my brothers until they were both confused, broken men, the man that raised me.
Vaughan’s hand settled on my lower back, offering comfort and sympathy. He somehow sensed what this moment meant for me.
My father’s gaze snapped to that small connection between us and flashed with fury. “Take her,” he sneered. “Go ahead and redeem her. She chose you? Then you can both burn together.”
Hendrix stepped forward and laid it out for him. “You’ve started a war. One that you will not win.”
My father’s chin lifted with pride, “Let it come. I’ll take you all back with me and make an example out of you.” The surprise must have shown on our faces because Matthias’s mouth split into a satisfied grin. “Did you think I was going to waste this opportunity here? No, sir. Not while I can put you on a platform for all the world to see. Not while I can show them what happens when you cross Matthias Allen. Cross me and you pay. Cross me and you don’t just die, you burn for a hundred years.”
I shivered against the evil, malicious glint in his eyes and felt my mouth go dry. Death would be too easy for us. He wanted us to suffer. He wanted to torture us until the entire world heard our screams.