He needed a haircut. Bad. He usually kept his hair long, but what he was rocking was borderline boy-band long. It wasn’t a good look for him. Maybe Lindsay or Rachel could cut it for him. He had almost thought about Selena, still not used to the fact that she was buried in some dude’s backyard in the middle of inner city Detroit.
Poor girl.
Nicky sighed. Selena’s fate, as junky as it was, was better than her sister Vivienne’s. They had left her body on the floor of the firehouse because a swarm of zombies had showed up. Vivienne didn’t even get a burial.
Sucked.
He splashed cold water on his face and headed back to the living room to find Lindsay. Ever since Peabody Dorm, he felt anxious if she wasn’t in his direct line of sight, especially after what happened to Selena. He wanted to be there to protect Lindsay in case something crazy happened.
Because crazy was bound to happen.
It was dark outside and Manny only allowed one lighted lamp in the living room. Manny said he didn’t want to attract any attention, but they had already attracted a ton of zombies when they buried Selena.
There had to be about twenty or thirty zombies surrounding Manny’s fence. Cage, Rachel and that jerk Jorge were working on them in the backyard, but the moans were carrying through Detroit’s deserted streets. Nicky would’ve been out there helping them, but they wouldn’t let him because of his shoulder injury.
Oh well. He’d rather be inside anyway. He hated looking at those things. Hated the way their eyes were that glassy shade of blue. Hated how the drool pooled from their lips and how they smelled like rot.
Nope, it was better inside on baby duty.
Everyone was gathered around the coffee table. A stack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and another pitcher of lemonade, courtesy of Carmen, filled the table. Sweet. He could down about three or four sandwiches right now.
Rachel and Cage came in from the hallway. Nicky knew something was wrong by the look on Cage’s face. They were holding hands, so they weren’t fighting. It had something to do with that creeper Jorge. If Nicky was good at one thing, it was judging people. He could sniff out a scumbag through all the bullshit like a terrier sniffing out a rat. And Jorge smelled like a rat.
Adam sat alone in the corner chair. Someone had given him a beer and he was gulping it down like it was water and he was in the desert. Adam hadn’t said a word to anyone since he announced he was going to bury Selena come Hell or high water.
Adam hadn’t said anything through all the digging or even afterward, when they actually buried her. Nicky expected someone to say a few nice words about Selena. It was a funeral, right?
Nothing. Not a single syllable.
Adam glared at the grave while they huddled around the dirt pile. Rachel had to quietly step out of the circle to kill the first zombie that crashed the funeral. What an insult to Adam. The very thing that killed your girlfriend shows up at her funeral. Salt to an open wound.
Rachel raised an eyebrow at Nicky. She nodded toward the backyard and made a face. He was right. Something had happened outside with Jorge.
Jorge was a gangbanger. Nicky recognized the tattoo bearing Jorge’s gang on his inner forearm. Not that tattoos – even those bearing your gang’s name – automatically meant you were in a gang, but Nicky felt certain about Jorge’s affiliations.
Nicky rubbed his own tattoo between his thumb and forefinger. The small star enclosed in the triangle was another one of the countless dumb decisions that he’d made in his life. It wasn’t the symbol of a hard-core gang like Jorge’s, just a group of stupid dropouts that thought they were tough because they broke into people’s houses when they were gone. Nicky had only been in the gang for a year before he was caught red-handed.
Nicky’s first arrest promptly ended his gang career. After being carted off to juvy for a month, he had no interest in being put in a cage again. Juvenile detention was bad enough — there was no way Nicky would make it in prison. So, he straightened out his life. All that remained of his old gang days was the stupid hand tattoo because he didn’t have enough cash for laser removal.
Nicky tossed a sandwich on a paper plate. His stomach growled, but he walked over to the corner of the room and placed the plate on Adam’s lap. “You need to eat, dude.”
Adam’s red-rimmed eyes stared at Nicky for a long moment and then he blinked. “Thanks, Nicky.”
“No problem, dude.” Nicky patted Adam on the shoulder and went to get himself a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
~ ~ ~
Cage carefully watched Adam’s face as Nicky handed him a sandwich. Thankfully, Adam was eating it. Cage was all too familiar with what Adam was going through — he’d been in shock, too, after his parents turned into zombies.
“Here.” Rachel handed Cage a plate.
He wasn’t hungry. He was too pissed off at what had happened in the backyard with Jorge. That guy was bad news. Manny seemed like a decent guy. Why would he be friends with someone like Jorge?
Cage and Rachel sat on the floor beside the kids.
Manny reappeared with an armful of blankets. He placed them on the rocking chair. “We all must sleep in the same room for protection.” Manny looked at each of them until his eyes landed on Adam. “I am sorry for your loss, Adam.”
“Thank you,” Adam mumbled.
Jorge stumbled into the living room, his machete stained red.
Manny placed a box of bullets on the table. “For your guns. You are welcome to stay, cousin, as long as you want, but your friends must leave in the morning.”
Carmen was silent.
Morgan turned to Rachel and grabbed her hand.
“There are too many of you,” Manny said. “We only have a limited amount of supplies and we don’t know how long we’ll have to stay bunkered down here. Too many people make too much noise. We already have a problem growing out back. They must leave tomorrow morning.”
“Fine,” Adam said.
“Will you stay with us?” Manny asked.
“I don’t know.” Adam grabbed a pillow and blanket and lay down in the corner of the room with his back turned to everyone.
Cage took two blankets and two pillows. He gave one set to Finn and Morgan and the other was for Rachel and him. Everyone settled around the room — Manny, Carmen and Jorge on the other side of the invisible border that popped up in the living room.
Adam was already asleep, slightly snoring. Nicky propped his axe against the coffee table and squeezed on the couch with Lindsay.
Rachel crawled under the blanket beside Cage. “I can’t wait until morning,” she whispered.
He pulled her close. “Me, too.”
“Do you think Adam will stay here?” A deep crease formed between her eyebrows.
“I don’t know. Now that Selena’s dead, I’m not sure he has a reason to go with us. This place is secure and Manny is his cousin.”
Rachel frowned. “I hope he comes with us.”
Cage closed his eyes. The zombies’ moans had grown to white noise. It took a while for him to finally fall asleep.
He wasn’t exactly sure what woke him up in the middle of the night. Maybe it was a sound or a feeling that something wasn’t right. He reached to pull Rachel close, knowing that her nearness would comfort him.
Cage stretched his hand, but he couldn’t feel her. He stretched further, his eyes popping open as he realized she hadn’t rolled away from him.
Rachel was gone.
His heart pounded in his chest as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He peered across the room. A deep feeling of dread snaked through his body.
Jorge’s pile of blankets was empty, too.
Chapter Sixteen
Somewhere in the muddle of his fear-driven mind, Cage had grabbed his gun and reloaded it with the bullets that Manny had placed on the coffee table. He stepped over Morgan and Finn and stalked through the dark living room.
He didn’t know where to start. Where had Jorge ta
ken Rachel? He was sure he’d taken her, because his bed was empty. She would never go anywhere willingly with that monster, especially in the middle of the night.
Cage tiptoed around the coffee table.
Nicky moved. “Dude, what are you doing?”
“Rachel’s gone.”
“What?” Nicky sat up. Lindsay mumbled something in her sleep.
“Shh.”
Was she outside? Upstairs? He didn’t know where to look.
Nicky appeared behind him. “Dude, did you say Rachel was gone? Where’d she go?”
“And so is Jorge.”
“Shit.”
Cage moved down the hallway. He expected the floor to creak, as it had done upstairs, but it didn’t. Cage and Nicky moved soundlessly into the kitchen. Cage pressed his face against the boarded window. The zombies’ moans had died down, but he could make out the silhouettes of a handful of them straggling around the fence. He didn’t see Rachel or Jorge.
“Did you hear that?” Cage whispered.
“Growling? There’s a fifty-fifty chance that what you heard was either my stomach or the dead people out back.”
“No.” Cage tilted his head. “Not growling.” He heard the sound again and his heart plummeted to his toes.
Rachel.
He moved toward the sound, Nicky on his heels. “The basement,” Cage said. “I think she’s in the basement.”
The sound came again, louder this time.
Nicky’s neck twisted. “I heard it. It sounded like —”
“A muffled cry.”
“There’s a door in the laundry room. Maybe it leads down to the basement.”
Cage ran down the hallway and into the laundry room. He pulled open the door. The basement light was on. He heard the noise again. Cage pulled out his gun and raced down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he saw them.
Rachel was gagged with a dirty rag. Her hands were crudely tied together with nylon rope. Jorge had her against the wall, holding her bound hands, with the bloodstained machete positioned at her throat. Her green shirt was ripped, exposing a light purple bra underneath.
Frightened blue eyes flickered to Cage.
Jorge glanced over his shoulder at them. “No one invited you two to this party. You’ll have to wait your turn.”
“Let her go.”
Jorge pressed the machete’s blade against her throat. The skin broke and a few drops of blood spilled down her neck. “You’re not in a position to be making demands,” Jorge said. “I’ll slice her neck open and not think twice about it.”
Cage pointed the gun at Jorge. “This is your last warning. Let her go and I’ll let you live.”
Jorge flashed a grin. “You’re going to shoot me? I doubt it. Now go back upstairs, little boy. We’ll be up in a bit. I think I’m going to take my time with this one.”
Cage squeezed the trigger.
Jorge must’ve been stunned because he didn’t move. He didn’t try to get out of the way. He didn’t scream. He didn’t slice Rachel’s throat. Jorge just stood there, with his mouth slightly open, as the bullet spiraled out of Cage’s gun and planted itself under his right eye. The machete clanged against the concrete as he collapsed to the ground.
“Holy cow,” Nicky whispered.
Footsteps pounded on the floorboards above them.
Cage ran to Rachel and pulled the gag out of her mouth. His fingers fumbled with the rope around her wrists. “Are you okay?”
Rachel nodded, pulling her eyes from Jorge’s body. “I’m fine.” She fell into his chest, unable to hug him because her hands were still tied. She nuzzled her head under his chin.
“Did he —”
“No.” Rachel shook her head. “Good timing on your part. Thank you.”
Cage wiped at the blood on her neck. “You’re bleeding a little.”
“I’ll live.”
Nicky nudged Jorge with his foot. “I can’t believe you actually shot him. I mean, you didn’t even hesitate. He was like inches from Rachel and you shot him.”
“I’m sorry,” Cage said, finally freeing Rachel’s hands from the nylon rope. Red rope burns encircled her wrists. “I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t think he was willing to negotiate.”
“No, dude.” Nicky grinned. “That was awesome! Badass! You took that piece of shit out!”
“Yeah, well that piece of shit’s best friend is about to come downstairs. Get ready.” Cage positioned himself in front of Rachel. Nicky stood beside him holding his fire axe.
He tried not to look at Jorge’s body. He’d just killed a man. Not a zombie. Or someone infected with the virus. A human being.
Manny was the first to reach the basement. His eyes dropped to Jorge. “What did you do?”
Adam, Lindsay, Carmen and the kids followed. They gathered in a crowd at the bottom of the stairs.
“Jorge attacked Rachel,” Cage said.
Adam moved to the front of the group. “Rachel, are you okay?”
She nodded.
“What?” Manny fell to his knees. He placed a finger on the smoldering hole below Jorge’s eye socket as if not believing that it was actually there. His eyes flashed. “You killed him.”
“He had a machete to her throat,” Cage said.
Carmen looked at Rachel and then down to Jorge. She swallowed.
“If he’s threatening your friend, then you come and get me!” Manny roared. “You don’t shoot him in my house!”
“We didn’t have time,” Nicky said. “He was about to —”
“He grabbed me.” Rachel stepped out from behind Cage. “I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and he came up behind me with his machete. He dragged me down here. He tied me up and gagged me.”
Carmen’s hand went to her mouth.
Manny wasn’t listening. His eyes locked onto Cage. His breathing accelerated. “You son of a bitch, you killed him!”
“Calm down, Manny,” Adam said.
“Calm down?” Manny glared at Adam. “Calm down? I let you and your friends into my home and this is how you repay me? You eat my food and attract zombies to my house and shoot my best friend?”
“Dude, your friend was a psycho,” Nicky said.
“Nicky,” Cage whispered.
“Look at Rachel’s shirt.” Adam pointed. “It’s torn. Look at her wrists — they’re bruised from where Jorge tied her up. Cage isn’t lying and he sure as hell wouldn’t shoot someone unless they deserved it.”
Manny’s nostrils flared. “Get out.”
“Manny, it’s dark outside,” Carmen said. “You can’t send them out there. It’s a death sentence.”
“Get out of my house!” Manny turned to Cage. “You have five minutes to get out of my house before I shoot every last one of you.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Nicky grabbed Rachel and Cage and pushed them past Jorge’s body. “Go, go! Upstairs!”
They ran upstairs and down the hallway to the living room. Cage grabbed his backpack. Rachel kneeled beside him and laced up her shoes with trembling hands.
Cage laid a hand over them. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Despite her shaking hands, Rachel’s face was hard. Angry, even. “That was quite the shot you took.”
“Were you worried I was going to hit you?” Cage asked.
“Not for a second.”
Lindsay handed Rachel a blue scoop-neck shirt. “It looks like you need a new shirt. Here. It’s the only plain thing I had in my bag.”
“Thanks, Lindsay.” Rachel quickly pulled off her torn shirt and put on the new one. “We have to get to Ford Field.”
“What time is it?” Cage asked.
“Three forty-seven in the morning.” Finn stood quietly by the door holding his lead pipe. “The sun isn’t going to come up for a few hours.”
They would have to make it through Detroit in the dark. Cage stood up. “Adam?”
Adam sat in the corner chair staring at the floor.
“Are you coming with us?” Cage asked.
Adam looked at his hands. “What’s the point? We’re all going to die anyway.”
Rachel placed her hands on Morgan’s shoulders. “Adam.”
“It’s the truth and you know it.” Adam’s face was blank. “We’re just dragging out the inevitable. Soon we’ll all be dead or walking around dead. Every single one of us.”
“Dude, do you have to be so depressing? We’re getting kicked out into the streets of Detroit in the middle of the night during the zombie apocalypse. We have enough on our plate,” Nicky said.
“I’m sorry, Nicky,” Adam said. “But it’s the truth. There’s no point. It’s over.”
Rachel kneeled on the ground in front of Adam. She placed her hands gently on his knees. “Don’t do this, Adam. Selena wouldn’t have wanted you to do this.”
“Selena is dead.” Adam’s eyes filled with tears. “Dead. She’s in a hole in my cousin’s backyard. So don’t tell me what Selena would’ve wanted.”
Cage moved to pull Rachel away from Adam, but Lindsay stopped him. She shook her head.
Rachel placed a palm on each side of Adam’s face. “I am sorry that Selena died. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
Adam closed his eyes. He covered one of Rachel’s hands with his own.
Cage bit the inside of his cheek. She’s just trying to convince Adam to come with us. We need him. We won’t survive without him.
“You and I both know that she wouldn’t have wanted you to give up,” Rachel whispered.
Adam opened his eyes. “Everyone’s gone. I can’t keep anyone alive.”
“We’re still here.” Rachel cradled Adam’s face. “We love you and we need you. We will not give up on you. I will never give up on you.”
Adam’s eyes came into focus and settled on Rachel’s face. Something in it changed Adam. He swallowed. “Okay.”
Rachel’s hands lingered on Adam. Cage noticed Nicky’s head turn to look at him. Cage unclenched his fist from his side.
Adam exhaled. “You’re right. I can’t quit. Too many people are depending on me.”
Rachel pulled Adam to his feet.
“Let’s get out of here before Manny comes up.” Adam reached for his backpack. “He wasn’t bluffing when he said he’d shoot us if we weren’t out of here in five minutes.”