by Jill James
Her cry of joy brought Jack to her side. “It’s Juan’s. I recognize his writing. It’s a Bill of Sale.”
“I can’t believe he sold her,” Jack added. “He wasn’t a great guy but I never would have believed he’d stoop that low.”
“He did it to hurt me,” Lila said, her eyes scanning the rest of the page. “He sold her to Toby Hill of the land below Mount Diablo.”
She shook her head. “The land below Mount Diablo. That could be a million places,” she said, her mind traveling to the large mountain and all the land nearby spread out in all four compass directions. Hell, that covered at least three or four good-sized cities. The tears came and flooded her vision. They would never find Selena.
Jack’s arms came around her and surrounded her with his strength. She sniffled and sucked up her tears. She was done with crying. It didn’t solve anything and it didn’t get anything done. Time to pull up her big-girl panties, as her friend, Karin used to say. She was probably out in the world somewhere. If anyone could survive the end of the world, it would be Karin.
“No. No, you bastardos. I will not be your breakfast.”
Jack grabbed Lila’s hand and they ran toward the flood of Spanglish coming from an apartment nearby. The moans of the undead and their pounding of fists on a door made them easy to find.
Lila watched his back as Jack waded through the group, his knife flashing in the sunlight. The only sound in the hallway his slightly heavy breathing and the thumps of the skinbags as they hit the floor in a graceless heap.
“Ma’am?” Jack spoke at the door. “They’re all taken care of. Can you open the door?”
“How do I know you don’t want to kill me or rape me? Angela Ramos is no one’s fool.”
“Let me,” Lila said as she stepped over the dead and stood by the door. “Tia Angela, es Lila Morales. Can we come in, por favor?”
Jack raised an eyebrow as the multiple locks clicked open on the door and a small Hispanic woman filled the small crack. A smile brightened her face as she swept the door open to let them in. Lila felt Jack’s hand on her back as they moved in quickly and Angela shut the door with no sound except for the turning of locks.
Lila looked around the darkened room. She jumped as Angela hugged her tight enough to take her breath away. The small woman started jabbering away in Spanish faster than Lila could keep up, although she did catch Juan’s name and several colorful curses in there.
“Slow down, Tia. You know I only know a little Spanish.”
The woman grabbed her hands and squeezed until the blood left them. “Where were you, mija? A mother is supposed to protect her baby?”
Lila gasped and would have fallen to the floor if Jack hadn’t caught her and pulled her to the couch. She fell into the cushions and as if she’d fallen into a deep mine of darkness, all around her was black.
Angela sat beside her and rubbed her hands with her own. She had so many questions and she didn’t know where to start. The most important question fell from her lips.
“Did you see Selena?”
“Yes, the niña was here. But that perro, Juan, sold her. The little one was so afraid.”
Her heart broke. “Why didn’t you stop him? Why didn’t Tio do anything? Why didn’t Abraham stop Juan?”
“Abraham? May Dios have mercy on his soul because I don’t. My husband is the one who arranged all the auctions. He started selling our children into slavery months ago.”
Her mouth dropped open. Abraham had always been the patriarch of the Morales family. He’d taken care of all of them well. He’d been a hard man, but not an evil one. What had all the devastation done to him to turn a good man bad?
The paper crinkled in her hand. She held it up to Angela. “Who is Toby Hill? Where can we find him? This paper says he has Selena. He has my baby.” Her voice cracked and she coughed to clear it.
Angela shook her head and tears fell down her dark, wrinkled face. “Don’t go there, mija. The little one is lost to you. Better that you never find her. The young ones don’t last long when the men get a hold of them.”
Lila stared at the woman. Her dark eyes were dead. They held memories of worse things than the undead roaming the Earth. She was getting a clearer picture of what this enclave had become than she wanted.
Her gaze swept to Jack standing by the coffee table. His face was stone-cold but his eyes held a fire she took strength from. “We will find Selena and get her back.”
That was all Lila needed to hear. She turned back to Juan’s aunt. “Tia, you have to help us. This man could be anywhere. How do we find him?”
Angela ran shaking hands through her gray-streaked hair, pulling it from the braid to fall around her face. “Toby Hill lives by Mountainside, a gated community they built in the shadow of Mount Diablo, on the edge of Concord. That is all I know. I’ve never been there.”
“Is there anyone else here, ma’am?” Jack’s deep voice rumbled in the room. “Are you all alone?”
Lila sighed. She knew she should care about the lonely old woman, but a dark side in her heart burned at the woman just letting the men sell not only Selena, but the other young women and girls they had in their care. She didn’t know what Angela could have done against the male-dominated center of their group, but she could have tried something, anything.
Like you tried at the church. Her inner voice mocked her for taking Juan’s abuse and not leaving there with Selena. She ripped her mind away from the past she couldn’t change.
“Thank you for your concern,” Angela answered in the quiet room. “But I don’t have long to be alone.” The woman pulled up the side of her dark blouse and exposed a deep bite mark to them.
It wasn’t long, but she wasn’t alone as Lila sat beside her and held her hand until her breathing stopped. Jack stepped forward and made sure she didn’t turn.
He put his hand out to her. “Let’s go get our child.”
Chapter Fifteen
Cody, Miranda, and April
Ran’s Journal
Returned to the RV yard
Spring, 1 AZ (Will be Autumn 1 before we ever leave!)
The zombs moved on after dark and Cody and I were able to get back to the others. This morning we were supposed to leave but one of the twins was fussy all night and we are letting Emily and babies rest today. Again. No babies. Ever.
The hairs on Ran’s neck rose. She whipped her head around and found April leaning over her shoulder trying to read her writings. Reaching out, she slammed the notebook shut.
“Personal space, chickie.”
The young woman giggled like a little girl. “Oops, my bad.”
Really! Who talked like that anymore? Maybe it had been okay when your greatest fear was missing a test.
She sighed. And counted to ten in her head. If anyone should have sympathy for the woman’s turmoil, it should be her. She might have more empathy for what she’d gone through if April hadn’t tried to latch onto Cody and acted as if she was thirteen instead of almost twenty.
Ran snatched up the notebook and pencil and threw them into her go bag. She sniffed deep as she caught a whiff of pancakes and smiled.
April smiled back. “Came to get you. Michelle is making the last of the blueberry pancakes. If you don’t hurry, that guy of yours will eat them all.”
Her smile grew. April had acknowledged Cody was hers. She swung an arm around the woman’s shoulders and pulled her in close.
“He better save some for me.”
At the picnic table she took the spot next to Cody and watched with amazement as April seated herself on Ran’s other side instead of snuggling up to her boyfriend. Maybe their time away from the group had clued the chickie into how things stood.
The bench on the other side groaned as Teddy took his seat. April giggled and Ran allowed herself a small smile. The man really was a mountain of muscles. That he had been a bodyguard pre-Z came as no surprise.
He scooted over a bit when Seth came to the table with plates and utens
ils. Michelle arrived seconds later with a platter of pancakes that the group made gone in short order.
“Did Emily get some?” Seth asked about his wife.
Michelle nodded and attacked her own short stack of pancakes. “I took hers to the trailer first. She needs to eat for three.”
She swallowed. “Little Jed is sleeping well. His fever is gone. We should be able to leave in the morning, no problem at all.”
Michelle tried to sweep her hair out of her eyes and grimaced at the out-of-control short ends she wasn’t used to yet. Teddy handed her a bandana that she rolled and placed across her forehead, tying it in the back.
“Thank you,” she whispered to the large man. A blush washed across his dark face.
“I’ll get used to it,” she said, looking across at April.
The woman shuddered beside her and looked down at her plate. Ran nudged her with a shoulder. “Just makes it easier to hunt zombies.”
April shuddered harder against her side. “Why can’t we just leave the monsters alone?”
Michelle spoke from the other side of the table. “Because the monsters won’t leave us alone. It’s us or them.”
“But they’re dead. Won’t they fall apart someday?” April said, looking up.
“Not all monsters are undead,” Michelle replied, gathering plates and utensils and getting up from the table.
April started crying and Ran was left with nothing to do but put an arm around her and squeeze tight. The bench moved slightly as Cody got up and gathered the rest of the stuff on the table. A squeal issued from the other bench as Teddy and Seth beat a fast retreat.
She sighed. A few female tears and men became babies. Trying to change the subject, she racked her brain until she hit on the trip tomorrow.
“Are you excited to leave here?”
April stared at her with shock in her eyes. “How can I be excited? We have cement walls to protect us and instead we’re going out there.”
“We’ll protect you.”
The woman shook her head. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You and Cody went down the street yesterday and you could have been eaten and never returned.”
Ran moved back and took April’s hands in her own. “We will protect you. With our lives. You are one of us now.”
April’s smile grew as fresh tears ran down her face. She leaned forward and gave Ran a deep, warm kiss.
She jumped back. “Hey, I don’t swing that way.”
A deep chuckle emerged from April. “I don’t either. But if I liked girls, I would love you.”
Ran laughed and put her arms around the other woman. “Let’s just be sisters. I’ve never had one.”
“Me either,” April whispered back.
* * *
Cody watched from a distance as Ran and April went through a gamut of emotions; tears, laughter, smiles, and a hot chick-on-chick kiss that pumped blood to his groin and led to the universal male vision of two girls and a guy.
The dream whisked out of sight at Seth’s loud words in his ear.
“We have work to do, dude.”
He blushed and turned away from the women at the picnic table and brought his mind back to the tasks at hand. They were to leave in the morning and there were still decisions to make of what they were taking and what they would be forced to leave.
“I think everyone should have several weapons. As many as they can comfortably carry,” Teddy stated as he piled their arsenal on a spread-out blanket.
He thought back to the two women. “What do we give April? She doesn’t know how to use anything yet.”
Seth went into the armory trailer and came back with aluminum poles. “We’ll add some blades to these for her. For Emily as well. They won’t have to do close fighting and they can push the skinbags away if nothing else.”
Teddy grinned. “Miss Emily is gonna miss that crossbow of hers.”
Seth smiled. “She can’t use it and carry a baby too. We’ll let Ran carry the crossbow. She’s gotten good with it in the past few months.”
He scratched his head. “Who is carrying the other little one?”
Seth pointed at Cody. “What? Why me?”
“You and Ran will protect the babies, Emily, and April. Teddy and I will be able to roam further and deal with skinbags and any other troubles before they even get to you.”
He grimaced at the thought of carrying a wiggling, crying baby, but Seth’s plan sounded like the right thing to do for the group. But, man. A baby?
Seth patted him on the back. “I’m trusting you with my child and his safety. It’s not something I do lightly.”
Standing taller, he smiled. “I’ll guard him with my life.”
“I know you will,” Seth replied, his eyes watering as he turned toward the weapons pile.
The rest of the day passed in a whirlwind of activity. By the time the sun set Cody was more than ready for his bed, especially since there was no telling the next time they would have a bed and the privacy to use it.
He opened the door to their trailer and stepped up inside. Flickering candles sat on every flat surface. Turning in a circle, he spotted lights from the other trailers. So, the electricity was still working, just not in use in their trailer.
All thoughts of the outside world dimmed as the bedroom door opened and Miranda stepped out wearing a T-shirt and nothing else. Her soft, brown hair was slicked back and wet from a shower. Ran hadn’t bothered to dry off at all, as the fabric of her shirt clung to her damp body.
Cody swallowed and swallowed again around the lump in his throat. His woman was beautiful. Inside and out. And she was all his. He whipped off his shirt and flung it to the floor, his pants following in seconds. His erection pulsated against the cloth of his underwear.
“Dude,” he whispered.
Her eyebrow shot up and she grasped her breasts. “Really? Dude?”
“Dudette,” he stammered back.
“Miranda,” he choked out as she slithered toward him, dropped to her knees, and kissed him through his underwear. He went from hard to stone hard in a nanosecond.
Her fingers rubbed up and down his length and he grabbed her under her arms and yanked her up. “I would rather do this in bed. A nice, comfortable bed.”
“We can do this here and in bed,” she whispered, just before she whipped his erection out and knelt in front of him. Her hot lips slid over the flesh of his erection in a silky, sexy glide.
Between her lips and fingers sliding up and down he was unmanned in seconds. His yell echoed in the trailer.
He caught her up in his arms and her legs wrapped around his hips. He carried her to the bed and proceeded to prove her right. He proved her right several times.
Chapter Sixteen
Paul, Suz, and Josh
Paul Luther’s Log
Fisher farm
River Road (New base still further down the road)
Spring, 1 AZ
“It’s not as bad as it looks, Suz,” Paul said with a smile. “We can help Brandon and his friends set up a compound and then we’ll be on our way.”
Suz spread out her arms as if to encompass the whole flat land surrounding them and huffed out a breath. “There’s no way to protect this place. Only God in his kindness has protected the guy so far.”
Paul looked around at the well-run farm and the hills of dirt the man had piled around his house. As a barricade it sucked. Why the clueless man hadn’t been swarmed by a horde of skinbags was anybody’s guess.
Paul wrapped his arms around his wife. “We can help the man for a few days. Ryde is just down the road. If it hadn’t been for Fisher, we wouldn’t have gotten across the levee break.”
His gaze swept past Fisher’s farm to the flooded fields beyond. Everything out beyond the farm’s stables under two to three feet of water. Brandon’s farm was spared by the slight mound the house and outbuildings sat on.
He turned Suz around and took her hand as they walked from the house to the barn. Sweeping his
arm out, he told her of taking the dirt and surrounding the house, the barn, and the stables to corral the area into a defensible position.
Josh walked up and gave them both a hug as Paul finished. “We’ll do trenches in reverse, defending the area from above. Use the roofs as well. Some two-by-fours and plywood and we’ll have guard towers.”
Suz punched his arm. “What is this we you speak of?”
He smiled. “Sorry. Sometimes I get carried away with army stuff.”
Josh laughed. “Our own GI Joe.”
They were laughing together as Brandon trotted up to them with a scraggly cat draped over his arm like a damp rag. What fur they could see was matted and dirty, a little of the marmalade coloring peeking through.
“This is Tabby,” Brandon announced, holding up the cat and presenting her to the group. “But don’t tell Tabitha I named the cat after her. When she gets mad, she gets really mad.”
Paul nodded. “That’s one of your friends down the road, right? Will we get to meet them?”
The man looked at his watch and moved his lips as he talked to himself. “Today is Tuesday. They’ll come with fresh eggs because it is Tuesday.”
He racked his brain trying to come up with a not suspicious way to ask about numbers of unknowns when Suz spoke up.
“How many friends do you have down the river?” Her smile and friendly voice got the man talking. He really needed to work on his people skills. Not everything was us versus them.
The man’s brow furrowed and he held up fingers. “There’s Billy. He’s my best friend. Then Grace, his wife. They have a baby with no name yet last time I saw them. And Tabitha.”
He blushed as he said the last woman’s name. Suz reached and patted him on the arm. “Is that all?”
“They did have more people at Billy’s house but his mama died and bit his father and a couple of his brothers. After that, it was a mess until just my friends are left.”
