The Decaying World Saga Box Set [Prequel #1-#2 & Books #1-#2]

by Garza, Michael W.

  Mia agreed. The response force had grown to a few dozen men and women. Some were clad in the fatigues of the compound’s soldiers; others were dressed in varying degrees of whatever it was they slept in. Most of them showed signs of the fight, blood and bits of flesh debris clung to clothing and exposed skin. The weaponry was as varied as the clothing, a few armed with rifles or handguns, but most turning to knives, blunt instruments or whatever they grabbed along the way.

  The soldiers out in front managed to put down enough of the dead to build a sizeable gap between the seemingly endless row of zombies and the archway separating hive four and five. Rowan moved up to join them, using his bow to help keep the distance clear. The front line of the dead suddenly broke and the pack was reduced to a scattered few shambling bodies. Mia pushed in through the breach and reached Rowan.

  “This is our chance,” she said. A quick look back didn’t help her find Asher. “Forget the breach,” she decided. “Let’s push them around the turn and into the adjoining hall between hive five and six while we have the chance.”

  Rowan and a handful of soldiers followed her directions, and they’d nearly cleared the entire passageway connecting the hives when a clamor rang out from the frontline. Mia rushed to reach them. The fight had slowed to the point that none of the soldiers were firing. She was by Rowan’s side when she got her first view of what had produced the break in the line of the dead. Light filled the adjoining hall in the distance as a swell of black smoke poured through every opening.

  “Someone lit a fire,” Rowan announced.

  The dark shadows of the dead flashed in and out of the light as the mindless creatures stumbled through the fire, catching ablaze as they went. Mia couldn’t guess the meaning behind the fire. The small group of responders that pushed into hive six were holding at the turn. Her mind came to a single conclusion, it’s now or never.

  “Asher!”

  The name carried back down the hall, and she yelled it again until his familiar face pushed through the crowd near the breach and ran toward her.

  “I got one,” he said holding up a perfectly smooth stick about half the length of his forearm. “It should be enough to bring the tunnel down.”

  He said the last part with a bit of skepticism.

  “Bring it down how?” Rowan asked.

  “It’s a stick of dynamite,” he explained. “You light this wick and we throw it and run.”

  “Then what?”

  Asher’s brow furrowed. “It blows up,” he said, and his hands became animated as he did. “It will blow the hell out of that tunnel.”

  Mia didn’t rightly understand his explanation, but the dying fire told her if they were going to try Asher’s plan, it would have to be now. She set her mind to it.

  “Get everyone back to the breach.”

  The retreat happened quickly, and the result left Mia and Rowan huddled around Asher. He flipped open the side panel of one of the remaining lanterns and slid the wick toward it. The fear of the moment showed in the constant shaking of his hands. The wick was an inch from the flame when a new sound pulled away from the moans of the dead at the end of the long hallway. Asher looked up, frightened by the sudden interruption.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “Hush,” Mia said. “There it is again.”

  She couldn’t be certain, but she thought someone was yelling for help. One look at Rowan and she knew he’d heard it too. Their eyes went to the hallway as the dead pushed past the fire and headed toward them. Mia grabbed Asher’s hand.

  “Don’t.”

  Asher yanked his hand away and as he did, the wick tapped the flame and the sparks erupted.

  “Put it out,” she yelled, but it was too late.

  The fear of the moment pushed Asher to act. He spun around and chucked the dynamite as far as he could.

  “No.”

  Mia felt a painful hint of recognition in the distant cry for help. She couldn’t place the caller, but the impact of the moment caused her mind to fracture. Her legs moved without any consideration for what was happening. She pulled away from both Rowan’s and Asher’s grip as they tried to stop her.

  She ran forward, the walking dead drawling closer to her. Mia saw the dynamite hit the ground, tumble end over end, and then slide farther down the hallway. The cry for help repeated, this time closer and clear. Mia placed it as a girl before a firm pull on her shoulder nearly yanked her off her feet.

  The hallway spun as Mia was turned around. Rowan stood in front of her, not offering a choice. His hand locked around her wrist, and he forced her to run back in the direction of the breach. Asher stood at the turn, yelling something at the masses behind them. Mia reached the turn and her speed took her beyond Rowan. The passageway between the two hives was clear save for the bodies littering the way. The sounds of the chaos didn’t pierce Mia’s thoughts; she was singularly focused on the terror of not knowing who she’d left behind. She was out front when she, Rowan, and Asher reached the breach. Mia nearly forgot why they were running when the dynamite suddenly made itself known.

  The force hit Mia before the sound of the explosion, lifting her off her feet. The hallway walls slipped by in a blur as she lurched forward. A sudden burn flashed across her back a split second before she hit the ground. Her body tumbled across the floor before slamming into the wall. An intense ringing echoed in her head as she tried to right herself.

  Asher’s face filled her vision. His mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Mia tried to get up, and he put his hands on her shoulders to keep her down. The hallway was littered with debris with motionless figures dotting the floor. Mia’s eyes settled on Rowan, and she pushed Asher’s arms away and crawled toward him.

  “Rowan?” She heard herself as the ringing cleared. “Rowan, get up.”

  She reached him and brushed the dirt from his face. A fresh line of blood ran into his hair from a cut above his eye. Mia dabbed at the wound with the end of her shirt and was relieved when his eyes fluttered and then opened. He smiled at her.

  “I’m not sure we thought that through all the way,” he said.

  Mia sighed and sat back. Asher was up and moving, directing the closest responders.

  “Let’s start pulling the wounded back,” he said.

  Mia caught Rowan rolling his eyes and she laughed.

  “My hero,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

  Mia nodded and then stood up. Her concern turned to the cries for help. She still couldn’t place the voice, but she feared they’d made a terrible mistake. A group of responders got to Rowan and she backed away. Asher grabbed her hand and didn’t let go. The forced move surprised her.

  “Let’s go see what’s left,” he said.

  Asher gathered a small group of the remaining armed soldiers and they headed back down the passageway connecting the hives. The destruction was obvious at first glance. The explosion cut off the split in the hallway beyond the breach, taking down the connection tunnel between hives five and six. It took them a while to get past the rock and twisted metal but the result left hope. One side of the branching hall survived the explosion, leaving a way to get into hive five and the generators hidden somewhere in the lower levels.

  Mia stood in the center of the hall, staring at the pile of rock. There was no sign of the plea for help, nothing that could trigger her recognition. Something pulled at her heartstrings. She heard her name and the soft voice cut through her deliberations.

  “Mia?”

  She found Gabriel’s soft, round face pushing between the responders. It was the unmistakable fear in his eyes that instantly frightened her. He rushed toward her, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. His voice quivered when he spoke again.

  “We have to get in there,” he pleaded.

  Mia braced herself. Gabriel’s eyes were wide, his face streaked with panic.

  “They’re down there,” he said.

  Mia’s heart seized up in her chest. She leaned in toward h
im and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Who?” she demanded, “Who’s down there?”

  The blood drained from the boy’s face. His voice shook as he found his answer. “Jonah, Bree, Bale, and Tate.” He swallowed hard. “They all are.”

  7

  “What was he thinking?”

  Mia searched for answers around the room, but no one would look at her. She wasn’t talking to anyone in particular. Asher was close to Sara, the two going over all of the information they were able to gather. The dread on Gabriel’s face hinted that he might burst into tears at any moment.

  “What was he thinking?’ she repeated.

  Mia was madder than she’d ever been in her entire life. Jonah had lied to her and stolen one of the access keys. All of her anger at Jonah was a fraud and deep down Mia knew it. She kept herself furious in order to fight back the terrible fear lurking underneath. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if something happened to her brother, and at the moment, she couldn’t bring herself to even consider it. She remained focused on her anger.

  Mia was aware everyone was avoiding her and that intensified her feelings. She locked onto Rowan as he appeared in the doorway. He had a large bandage covering one side of his head, the gauze wrapped around his forehead to hold it in place. She headed for him, and they stepped out in the hallway together.

  “I’m going to kill him,” she said.

  Rowan took her hands. “Try to calm down,” he said. “Let’s focus on getting them back first.” He looked around the room at the tribal council and the assortment of others hashing through the situation. “What did I miss?”

  “Not much,” she admitted. “They’re going over everything we know.” She paused. “Or at least everything we think we know.”

  “I don’t suppose Gabriel explained why they went down there in the first place.”

  She glared at him. “They wanted to prove they could find the missing crew,” she said. “To show they were just as brave as you.”

  Rowan’s brow rose, and then he flashed an apologetic grin.

  “What the hell are the Knights of Rowan?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “It’s not me,” he said. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  Mia dropped the line of questioning. “There aren’t any good ideas on how we’re going to get them out,” she said. “I have to come up with something. They won’t last long down there.”

  She tried to turn back toward the room, but Rowan didn’t let go of her hands. He waited, forcing her to look at him again.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked.

  “I can’t get my mind wrapped around it,” she said. “I’m sure there’s a way to—”

  Rowan put his hand on her chin, and the gentle touch was enough to get her to stop.

  “How are you holding up?” he repeated.

  The concern in his voice hit her first, and the impact nearly brought down her wall of strength. She clenched her teeth and held her breath to keep from crying. She was suddenly mad at herself and didn’t know why. Rowan kept his hand in place and wouldn’t let her look away until she gave him an answer.

  “I’m barely hanging on,” she admitted. “I need him back, Rowan.”

  He nodded and let her go. She found a seat at the table and then kept an eye on Rowan as he settled in against the back wall on the other side of the room. She allowed herself a moment to gather her thoughts and steady her emotions. Asher had center stage.

  “We must focus all of our energy on securing the generators and getting them back online.”

  The number of nods around the table gave a general sense of the room. Mia felt her head begin to spin.

  “How does this help us find Jonah and the kids?” she asked.

  Her question brought the room to a stop. It took her a moment to realize the safety of the kids had fallen to the wayside. Sara tried to respond.

  “Mia, it is the council’s responsibility to do what’s best for the entire tribe.”

  The shock of the moment overwhelmed Mia. She slipped her hands into her lap under the table to hide the shaking. Rowan took a step toward the table, and she focused in on him as she tried to breath.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “I know we have to get the generators on, but there are four of our own, four children, trapped down there.”

  The sadness on Sara’s face was clear. “We don’t know if they survived the blast.”

  The sound of her response hit Mia in the gut. Asher’s eyes were on her, but the rest of the council broke into quiet conversation. She felt the world spin around her.

  “I’ll go after them.”

  The assertion brought the sporadic conversations to a halt. Mia’s head popped up and locked on Rowan. He stood at the edge of the table looking around the room. Mia ran his comment through her head a few times before she found her voice.

  “How?” she asked.

  “I can climb down the pit, topside,” he said.

  The idea was a ridiculous one and Mia knew it. The pit, or the cavernous gorge, exposed by the explosion of the compound’s security system, dropped several stories down through hive six to the former cage that was used to house Canaan’s slave workers. The moaning howls that still cried up from the massive opening hinted at the dead and possibly infected still thriving in the dark depths.

  “How?” she asked again.

  “A number of platforms that line the shaft are still intact,” he said. “I’ll climb down to one of the landings that still opens up into the hive.”

  The landings were sporadically placed around the wall of the cavern. Mia and Rowan used them to aid in their escape from the depths of Canaan. Following the detonation of the security system and the formation of the tribal council, it was all but decided that hive six would be left closed off permanently. The small amount of detail they’d gained about the makeup of the hive from the former residents didn’t promise enough reward to outweigh the risk of exploration. Mia felt a moment of hope followed by a moment of clarity.

  “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  He stared at her. “Not if I’m smart about it,” he said. “We have a good idea of where they are.”

  “Where they were,” Asher corrected. “After the explosion they would have had to get out of that passage or any of the rooms on that hall.” He glanced at Mia and then around the table. “If they could get out at all.”

  Mia knew what everyone else was thinking. There was a good chance the kids were already dead. If the explosion didn’t kill them, it surely would have trapped them and marked them as easy bait for the dead not wiped out in the blast. Pain rose up from her jaw and spread across the side of her face before she realized she was grinding her teeth.

  She wanted to collect her thoughts. She wanted to give herself time to come up with a plan that wouldn’t put anyone else at risk. Mia knew what Sara would say to her if they could speak in private. The tribal council had to consider what was best for the tribe. Asher cut through her internal deliberation.

  “I’ll go with Rowan.”

  The collective air was sucked out of the room. Several of the council members objected all at once. Rowan joined in with their protest although Mia guessed his motives were more personal than the others. Asher waited until the noise died down before continuing.

  “We can send a good-sized crew into hive five to be safe,” he said. “We still have diagrams for most of the levels. All they need to do is locate the generators and set up a safe perimeter between the breach and the generator core station.”

  “You don’t need to be a part of that team?” Sara asked.

  He shook his head. “No. Once they locate it I’ll gather up the remaining engineers and we’ll get to work.”

  Hinnick shook his head.

  “That doesn’t give you the right to go running off with him on some wild chase.”

  Mia had to bite her lip to keep herself from shouting back at him. The man’s disregard for the safety of the kids tore at her g
ut.

  “Just because you don’t need to be there until we can locate the generators,” Hinnick continued, “doesn’t mean you should go get yourself killed before you have a chance to work on them.”

  The comment was enough to silence the room. Mia watched a grin flash across Rowan’s face and then disappear before anyone else noticed it. She knew Rowan had no interest in teaming up with Asher, but the thought of him going down into that pit alone was too much for her. She spit out a half-concocted plan.

  “We’ll ask for volunteers,” she said. “Surely there are others who would see the value in searching for some of our children.” She stressed the words our children.

  “I’m not asking for permission.”

  Asher’s assertion drew all eyes back to him.

  “I’m going with Rowan,” he continued before anyone else could object. “This needs to be quick and it needs to happen now. There’s no time to ask for volunteers.”

  Mia was overwhelmed and the heartfelt-pain surprised her more than anything else did. The thought of Rowan going down there was enough of a shock to her system, but the idea that they’d both be in danger was more than she could handle. She wanted to say something, anything to get them to think of another way. The look on their faces told her everything she needed to know.

  Rowan started for the door before Mia could get another word out. She hesitated to go after him, and then Asher pushed his chair back and walked around the table. The entire room broke into a loud debate, most of them shouting at Asher as he tried to exit the room. Mia gave up and ran after Rowan with Asher pushing through the crowd to catch up to her. Rowan was already in the hall when she caught up to him.

  “This is crazy,” she said, looking back and forth between them. “You’re going to get killed.”

  Rowan spun around to face her.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “You really want to wait around for them to agree on something? Jonah will be dead by the time they make up their minds.”

  “That’s not fair,” Asher said. “It’s not their job to worry about four kids.”