Love and Decay, Vol. Four

by Rachel Higginson

  Adela was at another table, surrounded by Colombian children. Eventually we convinced Santi to let us help them and she had taken on the task of teaching them to read and write. Haley and I taught them English whenever we had a free moment. It hadn’t been an easy task to find them again, but Harrison had been unrelenting in his mission to better their circumstances.

  I had enjoyed watching him mature over the last four months, even if he had been motivated by saving them from eating dog meat again.

  Hendrix had disappeared into the lab with Oliver and Shay an hour ago. They were working on another development. There had been several since we arrived, but none yet that produced a cure or a vaccine.

  The scientists had stopped believing those goals were impossible though. The right breakthroughs, the right discoveries were within our reach.

  We would keep researching and experimenting and working tirelessly until we had answers.

  Until we had the tools that we needed to save this world.

  King and Miller played ping-pong across the room, shouting their trash talk. Harrison goaded them on with his snide comments, but I enjoyed every minute of their relaxed antagonism. They didn’t always get along, but they loved each other. They protected each other. They were three teenage boys trapped in a research facility with no girls to chase and nothing to really occupy their time. I could forgive their bickering because I loved them too.

  Tyler was curled up in a chair near Page. She sat quietly and would occasionally talk to the baby or Page if she felt like it, but she had withdrawn into herself more than I thought was healthy. Vaughan’s absence still hit her hard… every day. It wasn’t easier on the rest of us, but Tyler had loved him in a way that we hadn’t. I wasn’t sure she would ever recover or ever be able to move on.

  My heart broke for her, but I was determined to make her smile again… to make her truly laugh again.

  I didn’t believe the light inside her was dimmed forever. There would be reasons for her to live and breathe in the future. Time would heal her shattered heart and piece her back together again.

  I hoped that was true for all of us.

  “What’s up, Reags?” Haley plopped down next to me, fresh from a shower. A real shower.

  “Hey, Mama!” I grinned at her. “How was the hunt?”

  She ran her hand through her damp blonde hair and grinned at me. “We bagged two on the north end of the city. Nelson and Hendrix are dealing with them.”

  “I’m impressed.” And I was. It was hard to capture Zombies without killing them, especially since we’d never been able to replenish our guns and ammo arsenal. We’d all learned to fight with different weapons. When we ventured out of the station, we weren’t safe, but at least we were prepared.

  “You should be,” she laughed. “You’re so far behind on body count, it’s a little sad.”

  I glowered at her. “That’s not my fault. The ball and chain never lets me leave.”

  She leaned forward and said, “He has a good reason to keep you locked up.”

  I stuck my tongue out at her. She might be right, but I wasn’t ready to admit that out loud yet.

  “Don’t be a sore loser.” She winked at me and slid a dusty plastic bag across the table.

  Hendrix and Nelson walked into the room just as I fingered the dirty plastic. Nelson hadn’t made it to the shower yet. His shortened blonde hair was disheveled and muddy. His clothes were streaked with black, sticky blood and his right arm had been scratched to all hell. His shirt had been ripped to shreds and his bloody skin told the story of a difficult battle.

  I knew Haley bared her own battle wounds, but they were covered up behind a long-sleeved shirt and long pants.

  We all accepted the risk every time we left this place. We knew acutely what kind of danger we stepped into and how quickly conflicts could go south.

  But we couldn’t stop. We had to fight the evil that still plagued this world and do whatever it took to bring about a cure and vaccine.

  Haley had once made the point that she could not protect those that she loved if she became stagnant and lost her survival skills. We all felt that way.

  We were safe now, but we knew it couldn’t last.

  We had lived through too much, seen too much. We all knew how quickly our sense of security could be ripped from us and replaced with something purely evil.

  So until we had an infallible cure in our hands, we remained vigilant… we remained dedicated to our mission and our survival.

  “What’s this?” I asked Haley. I picked up the plastic sack that felt so light, I wasn’t sure there was anything in it.

  “A gift,” she said with a smile. “I found it today and it made me think of you. I had to grab it.”

  “She really did,” Nelson chuckled. “She would not be distracted. Much like the first time she found it, in fact.”

  Something about his tone and the twinkle in his eye kicked in my curiosity and suddenly I couldn’t wait to dig into the bag. I plunged my hand into the gritty plastic and wiggled my fingers until I grabbed hold of the thin object that reminded me of a pencil.

  I pulled it out and held it up for everyone to see. “Eyeliner, Hales? Really?”

  “I know how narcissistic you are.” She leaned forward and pulled an identical pencil out of her pocket. “But you’re not alone.”

  My smile reached from ear to ear. “This is the best present anyone has ever given me!”

  “Hey!” Hendrix growled. “I gave you a baby! That has to count for something.”

  I looked up at my husband, at the man I loved more than anything in this world. He stood in the doorframe with arms crossed and an amused smile on his handsome face. He had never looked more beautiful. His hair had been trimmed and his beard shaved short. His body had regained the thickness that made him look healthy and muscled. His clothes fit him and his eyes had lost the haunted look that followed him for so long. He still grieved for his brother, he still felt the pain of losing his parents and the damage of the last three years, but he was on his way to healthy. He was on his way to being healed. And he loved me more with each day that passed.

  I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

  My hand landed on my swelling stomach and I rubbed gently over the place where our baby grew. “She’s a close second,” I told him with a pacifying tone.

  He narrowed his eyes and said, “He beats eyeliner every day of the week.”

  “But eyeliner led me to you,” I argued sweetly.

  His expression softened and his blue eyes warmed with affection. “That it did. That might have been the best panty raid of all time.”

  “What’s a panty raid?” Page asked from the couch.

  I pressed my lips together and tried to hide my smile. Hendrix’s mouth opened and shut several times while he tried to think of something to say.

  Thankfully, Oliver walked in and saved the day. “There’s someone at the door.”

  Adela looked up with wide eyes, “One of the children?”

  Oliver shook his head and I finally felt the worry that entered the room with him. “No,” he said simply. “Come see for yourself.”

  Haley walked over to Page and grabbed Lennon and we all followed Oliver to the security closet that had fuzzy monitors. We didn’t keep them on constantly, but if someone rang the blue button outside, we had the ability to see who was standing at our front door. Usually it was children that wanted a hot meal or were here for school. Only one other time had it been a stranger passing through. We’d given them food and water, but they chose to keep moving. That had been a fortunate exchange considering the life of luxury we enjoyed here.

  A man stood in front of the gate with a large hiking backpack strapped to his back. His face was weatherworn and beaten. He looked gaunt and starved, even in the fuzzy image of the small screen. We watched him push the blue button again and wait for our response.

  “Hello?” he shouted at the blinking red light. “Is anyone there?”

  W
e sucked in a collective breath. I looked around, hoping Oliver had a protocol for this. He was clearly as confused as the rest of us.

  “I’m looking for Vaughan,” the man shouted some more. A slice of pain cut through me at the use of Vaughan’s name. How could he possible know who we were or that we’d be here? “Or Hendrix,” the man continued. “Anyone with the last name Parker.”

  Hendrix lunged forward and slammed his finger down on the talk button. “Who are you?” he demanded with a gravelly voice.

  The man jumped back, startled. He looked up and down the street clearly nervous. “A friend,” he finally answered. “I’m a friend.”

  “How did you know to find us here?” Hendrix’s anger became a palpable thing in this small space. I knew him well enough that hearing his brother talked about as if Vaughan were still alive, had rocked him to the core. I slipped my hand into his and squeezed.

  “Andy Carlisle sent me.”

  “We don’t know an Andy Carlisle,” Hendrix bit out.

  The guy ruffled his greasy hair with one hand and let out a slow breath. “He’s married to Joy,” he explained. “They helped you out in Mexico when things got a little tough.”

  “Andy and Joy?” Haley whispered. “Why would they send someone after us?”

  “Let him in,” Nelson ordered. “It must be important.”

  Unease prickled my skin and turned my stomach. I didn’t want to think about all of the different reasons for sending someone after us. It had to be a very bad thing for someone to risk his life and come all the way down here.

  Oliver and Hendrix walked out to the courtyard so they could unlock the gate and let the newcomer in. I paced the common room and tried not to puke.

  With the baby, I tried very hard not to get worked up these days, but nausea assaulted my system and panic fluttered in my chest. Intuition screamed that I didn’t want to hear what this guy had to say.

  I knew better than to ignore my gut instinct.

  I turned around, convinced I had to keep this guy out, just as Hendrix led him into the common room. He met my eyes and held firm. Hendrix didn’t want this newcomer here anymore than I did.

  “You need water,” Haley offered as soon as she took him in. She rushed to the kitchen to pull a Nalgene bottle filled with boiled, safe water from our storage unit.

  The man drank deeply before he said a word. We watched him gulp down every last drop of that water and wipe his face with the back of his hand. He panted heavily when it was finished, out of breath but finally refreshed.

  “I’m sorry,” he croaked with a rasping voice. “I didn’t know… I didn’t expect it to take me so long to find you.”

  “You’ve been looking for a while?” Nelson asked carefully.

  “For months,” he admitted. “Andy sent me to find you, but the directions were vague at best. A research station in Colombia. My horse died somewhere in Costa Rica, I think. It’s taken me so much longer than I planned. I’m sure they think I’m dead by now.”

  “Who thinks you’re dead?” Oliver asked.

  He looked at us like we were crazy for not knowing. “The army.”

  “What army?” I blurted, impatient with his lack of explanations. My heart took off in a gallop and I realized one of my worst fears was about to come true.

  “The revolution,” he explained. “The one fighting the Colony for control of the former United States.”

  The breath whooshed out of me and I staggered back until I found a chair to collapse into. I didn’t know what I expected, but I had hoped that after all of this time had passed, that Andy and Joy were able to take control… that they were able to defeat the Colony and give freedom back to those oppressed people.

  “How big are you?” Hendrix demanded. “How many are in the army.”

  The man’s face fell with disappointment. “Not many,” he admitted. “There were fifteen when I left. There might be less now.”

  Hendrix ran a hand over his face and looked up at the ceiling. “Why did Andy send you after us?”

  “He sent me with this.” The man fumbled around in his hiking backpack until he produced a graying, wrinkled Ziploc bag. There was a torn piece of paper inside, but it was dry and intact. I could make out thick black words scrawled in marker and I held my breath until the paper had been put in Hendrix’s hand.

  I studied Hendrix’s face as he read over the letter. His shoulders slumped and his mouth turned into an angry slash across his face. I stood up immediately and rushed to his side. I wrapped my arms around his middle and pressed my chest into his back.

  He turned the paper so I could see it and read the words. I blinked through disbelief and tempting denial and took in the message Andy had sent this long way.

  It said simply: He’s alive. Find a cure and come help us. We are at war.

  It was signed, Andy, Joy and Luke.

  “How did he know we were alive?” Hendrix asked after several minutes of silence.

  The man looked Hendrix straight in the eye and said, “He didn’t know for sure. He hoped.”

  Andy’s optimism revealed just how desperate the situation had gotten. He had risked this man’s life on the off chance we had made it all the way to Bogotá… on the even more remote chance that we could find a cure.

  “What does it say?” Haley demanded.

  Hendrix passed off the plastic bag to Nelson, who read it aloud to the group. The shock that rippled through us was a palpable burst of energy.

  “Matthias?” Haley gasped again. “It’s not possible.”

  Miller took a step forward, “We killed him! I saw that bastard die!”

  “How?” Harrison grated. “How is this possible? How is he still alive?”

  We all turned to the new guy and waited for his explanation. To us, it couldn’t be true. I had watched him die. I had watched bullets go into his chest and a building collapse on him. He could not be alive. I would not believe it.

  “He’s barely human,” the man said. “He’s confined to a wheel chair and his skin has been severely disfigured by burns of some kind. But he still leads the Colony. He’s more brutal than ever.”

  “No,” Tyler breathed. “No.”

  “What’s your name?” Hendrix asked the man. “How did you find Andy?”

  The man looked a little startled by Hendrix’s questions, but quickly composed himself. “I’m Mark. I, uh, I was there when he shot your friend… at that storage facility. I was part of the problem until that day. It was that moment, when I saw you risk your life to put your friend out of his misery…” he pointed at me and my stomach flipped with the memory of that horrible day. I pictured Gage in my head, changed into a Feeder seconds after he was bitten. I pictured the gun in my hands, felt the pull of the trigger against my finger… “I couldn’t accept the Colony anymore. I couldn’t stand by and let that happen again,” he finished.

  Nelson shook his head in suspicion, “And there’re only fifteen of you that feel the same way?”

  Mark’s face fell. “There have been more. There were only fifteen still alive when I left.”

  “How is that possible?” Harrison demanded. “The country is huge! You could hide anywhere!”

  “He’s trained the Zombies somehow. He’s turned them into an army. We’re hunted day and night and we don’t have the weaponry to fight them. He feeds those loyal to the Colony. They’re safe from the Feeders and his army of men. We have nothing. It’s hard to convince people to join our cause when all we can offer them is starvation and death by infection.”

  “Will you stay with us?” Hendrix asked him. “Or will you head back?”

  “I’d like a few good meals,” Mark answered humbly. “But I’ll get back there as soon as I can.”

  “Is he still looking for us?” Tyler asked. She had gone completely still at the mention of her father. Her voice reflected the despair she felt.

  Mark shrugged apologetically, “I can’t say for sure. But I don’t think his condition will let him travel ea
sily. Besides, it’s common knowledge that Mexico hates him. They would kill him if he tried to cross their borders again.”

  I smiled at that. We were still safe. For now. “Did you have any trouble in Mexico?”

  “I made it through the Territories unseen, but Mexico City is a war zone. I barely survived.”

  “We can’t help you through Mexico City, but if you get into trouble in the Territories, tell Diego that you’re friends with Reagan. He’ll let you through.”

  “Thank you,” Mark replied sincerely. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to finally have found you.”

  I could imagine.

  Oliver led him away to find him a shower and something to eat. The rest of us circled around each other and took comfort that we were still alive… that the news of Matthias’s survival hadn’t managed to kill one of us just by the malicious intent we could feel from here.

  We took seats in the couch area and squished together so we could all fit. We were silent for a long time with only Lennon’s cooing to break up the quiet.

  “We’re safe here,” Hendrix finally spoke. “We need to stay here.”

  I didn’t think anyone disagreed with that until Page said, “Until we find the cure.”

  As if we hadn’t been shocked enough for one day, nobody responded to Page. We didn’t know what to say to that.

  Finally, she continued, “We can’t hide here forever. It’s our job to take him out. We have to kill him and we have to take the cure to the rest of the world.”

  Once again her wisdom astonished me, but this time I was not on board. We were more vulnerable than ever these days. I had my own child to worry about. There was no way in hell I would willingly walk back into that mayhem and risk these lives I loved again.

  I would not.

  “Page, he’s not hunting us anymore,” Tyler said gently. “There’s no reason to go after him again.”

  Page slid forward until she perched at the edge of the couch, “He’s a monster, Tyler. He’s going to keep killing and keep killing until we finally kill him.”

  I willed myself not to cry from frustration. My favorite nine-year-old was right. Damn it, she was right.

  “Not without a cure,” Hendrix said after long minutes of silence. “We don’t go back without a cure or a vaccine or something to fight those goddamn Feeders with.”