Far Series (Book 1): Far From Home

by Mary, Kate L.

  Miller’s mouth turned down. “He wants to borrow my shirt?”

  “That, or you can go.” I lifted my eyebrows in a silent challenge, knowing how much he’d love the idea of putting his own ass on the line.

  Miller’s body jerked, and he shook his head. “I think I should stay here. These people are depending on me.”

  “Fine.” I had a hard time not rolling my eyes. “Let him use your shirt, then.”

  He pressed his lips together as he thought it through, not speaking. After a few seconds, he sighed but started unbuttoning his shirt.

  “Thank you,” I said as relief flooded through me.

  Miller gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach his hazel eyes. “Are you sure this isn’t just your way of getting me to take my clothes off? If so, you could have just asked.”

  Again, I fought back a shudder.

  “I think there’s a little too much going on at the moment to even think about that,” I said.

  He frowned, but not because of the situation. He was upset that his baiting hadn’t worked. He was an okay looking guy, I supposed, so he was probably used to getting what he wanted. If we’d met under other circumstances, I probably would have even thought he was attractive. But not now. Now I couldn’t look at him without my stomach twisting almost as violently as it did when I inhaled the stink of decay from below.

  “True.” Miller slipped the shirt off, his gaze holding mine as he held it out. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks,” I said, taking it.

  “Tell Devon good luck.”

  I nodded and ground my teeth to stop from telling him what a coward he was.

  I turned to head back to our rooms, but Miller’s door didn’t click, telling me he was still standing there. Watching me walk away. I could actually feel his gaze on my ass, but unlike the night before when Devon was behind me, I didn’t slow. Instead I moved faster, practically running.

  What a creeper.

  In the room, Devon was sitting on the bed, waiting. He stood when I walked in, his gaze moving first over me and then to the uniform shirt in my hand. He visibly started.

  “Miller’s?” he asked when he was looking at my face again.

  “Yeah. I wasn’t sure if he’d give it up, but when I suggested he go instead of you, he seemed a little too eager to hand the thing over.”

  Devon gave a little snort and said, “I’m not crazy about the idea of you asking that guy for favors. He might take it to mean you owe him.”

  “Like it matters,” I said. “We’re leaving soon, remember?”

  “True,” Devon said thoughtfully.

  When I held the shirt out, he took it, grimacing as he pulled it on. I didn’t have to ask why. Miller was taller than he was, but not as fit, and Devon’s muscled arms strained against the material.

  “It’s a little snug,” he said.

  “Nothing a big, strong man like you can’t put up with,” I replied.

  He gave me a half smile that was a little too stiff to be called relaxed, then grabbed me by the belt loop and pulled me toward him. “Come here.”

  I didn’t resist, and when his arms went around me and his mouth covered mine, I leaned into the kiss. It was deep but quick, over before I’d gotten my fill of him. Then he released me, and I was forced to take a step back.

  “I just wanted to do that before I left,” he said in a husky tone.

  “Don’t say it like that.” I swallowed to try to control my trembling voice. “It sounds like you’re telling me goodbye.”

  “I could be,” he reminded me. When I shook my head, he held his hand up. “Listen. I’m going to do my best to get back here, but if I don’t make it, if I’m not back within an hour, you get the cars loaded and go. Understand? Don’t wait for me.”

  The idea of him not coming back had my insides in knots, which was so strange. We’d just met, and I’d barely moved on from feeling irritated every time he opened his mouth. The attraction I felt toward him was new and confusing, but even that wasn’t what made me ache. Devon had helped get us here. Not alone, because the three of us had worked together, but I wasn’t sure if Kiaya and I could have done it without him. Maybe, or maybe not. Just like it was possible Devon wouldn’t have made it this far without the two of us. We were a team, and I wasn’t ready to lose a member even if we were gaining a few.

  “I don’t know if we can make it without you,” I reminded him. “Kiaya and I don’t know anything about survival, and we’re useless with a gun. Devon, we need you.”

  “Lisa and Buck will be with you now. Lisa is a good shot and smart, and she has medical training. Buck’s been a hunter his whole life. They can help you if I don’t make it back.”

  He was right, as much as I hated to admit it. “I know.”

  “Good.” Devon let out a deep sigh and ran his hand over his head. “The sooner I do this, the sooner we get out of here.”

  “I know,” I said again.

  I couldn’t wait until it was over, and I was finally home. Finally, safe.

  Lisa and I stood at the top of the stairs, watching as Devon picked his way down. It wasn’t just terrifying watching his progress. It was repulsive as well. He had to climb over the bodies, clinging to the railing as he slipped in black goo and stumbled over limbs. The thud of Mike and Randall banging on the railing at the other end of the catwalk echoed through the day, nearly drowning out the moans of the dead, but thankfully, it was working. Every zombie in the parking lot had headed to the other set of stairs or was currently on the way, leaving a clear path for Devon.

  “Where’s the kid who got bitten?” Lisa asked, not taking her eyes off Devon’s progress.

  “In the motel room with Kiaya and Lexi. When we first picked him up, I thought he was tough. He saved us literally at the last possible second.” I had to pause and swallow down my terror at the memory. “I’m beginning to wonder, though. He seems to hide every time anything even a little risky happens.”

  “He’s going to have to grow some thicker skin,” she said, “and not just for his own benefit. He’s going to be a liability out there if he freezes up in the face of danger.”

  She had a point.

  I glanced toward Mike and Randall, momentarily taking my focus off Devon. Buck stood behind them, gun in hand just in case any of the dead happened to make it up. Like before, they were trying, but with as uncoordinated as they were, none of them were making much progress. It made the staircase of bodies a better barricade than the dressers had been, but it couldn’t stay this way, and the people here had to know it. How long could they stand to be around rotting bodies? Even if it wasn’t unsanitary, which it was, it was just repulsive.

  Lisa grabbed my arm, drawing my attention back to Devon. He reached the turn in the stairs and disappeared from sight, so together we rushed to a different spot so we could see when he reappeared. A few tense moments of me clinging to Lisa until my knuckles ached passed before he was once again visible. Seconds later, he reached the bottom and scrambled over the dresser blocking the stairs, once again stumbling over the dead we’d taken out the night before. He caught himself, though, and was off in seconds, charging across the parking lot in the opposite direction from where the dead were gathered.

  When he was out of sight, I turned to face Lisa and let out a sigh of relief. “Getting down isn’t going to be easy even after he draws the dead away, so we’re going to have to be ready. We need everything we’re going to take with us out here as soon as possible.”

  “You think Lexi will be able to handle it?” Lisa looked toward the stairs. “I haven’t seen Bethie in a while, but she could be there, and Lexi will be looking for her.”

  “Kiaya will know what to do.” She was with the girl now, packing her things and talking her through what we were about to do. Kiaya was a natural with that kid.

  “She’s a tough one,” Lisa said. “Have you two known one another long?”

  “I’m not sure we even know each other now,” I replied, “but no
. We teamed up to get across the country. Before that, we’d never even laid eyes on each other.”

  “And Devon?” she asked.

  “Met him at another motel after his friends all died from the virus.”

  “So, you’ve only known him for a couple days,” Lisa said thoughtfully. “I never would have guessed based on the way you two look at each other.”

  I rolled my eyes when heat moved up my cheeks.

  Lisa laughed at my reaction. “Let’s get our stuff together.”

  Buck, Randall, and Hank had already headed into the room, and they were almost all packed up by the time Lisa and I joined them. I studied Hank as we finished gathering the few belongings in the room. His wild hair was a mess, covering a lot of his face and casting shadows across it, but even without being able to get a good look at him, I could tell he was terrified. Lisa was right. He needed to snap out of it, or we were going to be in trouble.

  I moved across the room so I was kneeling in front of him. “How are you doing?”

  “Fine.” His trembling voice said otherwise.

  “Hank,” I began, keeping my voice gentle, “I need to know you’re prepared for this. Like you were in Amarillo. You put yourself on the line to save us, but all that bravery seems to have vanished.”

  “I didn’t do it to save you. I did it to save me,” he said. “I needed to get out of the city. I thought once I did, things would be okay. But they aren’t.”

  That explained a lot.

  “I can’t tell you when they’re going to be okay again, Hank. I’m sorry. I wish I could. What I can tell you is that we’re only going to get through this by working together. We need you, especially when things get rough. If we have to worry about whether you’re cowering in the corner when things get bad, it will put us all at risk. Do you understand?”

  He swallowed and nodded, but fear still shimmered in his eyes. “I don’t know how to be brave.”

  “You did it in Amarillo,” I reminded him. “Even if it was more to save yourself than us, you were still brave to set that alarm off and draw all the zombies away. Remember that.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  I gave him what I hoped was an encouraging smile before standing.

  When I turned to face the others, I was met with a nod of approval from Lisa. Beside her, Buck had his hand on the gun at his waist, and Mike and Randall stood at his back while Kiaya had Lexi on her lap. Seeing all of us gathered like this, ready to face the dead and make a go of it, brought the foursome from the other motel to mind. Angus James and his band of misfit survivors. Where were they now? He’d said they were going west, but had they made it, or had the zombies taken them by surprise and killed some—or even all—of them? I’d most likely never know one way or the other.

  I exhaled. “Are we ready?”

  Nods followed the question.

  “Okay. Let’s grab the bags and head out, then,” I said, sweeping the nearest bag up and heading for the door.

  Devon’s, Hank’s, Kiaya’s, and my bags were already stacked at the top of the stairs, and I tossed the one I’d taken from the room down next to them. My plan was to throw anything that wouldn’t break over the railing so we didn’t have to carry them down, which was pretty much all of it. We could grab them once we reached the ground. Now we just had to wait for whatever distraction Devon managed to create.

  In the meantime, I studied the stairs, replaying Devon’s descent in my mind. Getting down was going to suck, especially with Randall and the kids. Then again, I wasn’t sure there was anything that wouldn’t suck just a little anymore. We had no electricity and the world was overrun with zombies. The life I’d always known was gone for good. It was a depressing thought, but I wasn’t ready to give up. It would take a lot to get me to that point.

  Devon hadn’t been gone long—less than twenty minutes—when a shrill wail broke through the air. It was the same rhythmic pattern I’d heard dozens of times throughout my life, and in Amarillo when Hank had come to our rescue.

  “A car alarm,” Lisa said, “he’s a genius.”

  “I think we owe the idea to someone else,” I said, smiling at Hank. “You know you gave him the idea, which means you probably just saved us a second time.”

  For the first time since we got to the motel, Hank squared his shoulders. I could tell he had to work hard to smile, but there was genuine pride in his eyes. Good. Hopefully, the kid would pull through.

  The alarm was distant, but still loud enough to grab the attention of every zombie below us. One by one, they turned and began stumbling in the direction of the alarm, finally abandoning their attempts to get up the stairs. The parking lot began to thin out, but we stayed where we were. I wanted to be ready when Devon got back, but I also wanted to make sure the dead were a good distance away before we made our move.

  Slowly, they disappeared between nearby houses until not a single zombie was still in sight. By then, I’d begun to search the distance for Devon, knowing he’d be making his way back to the motel. Time ticked by and nothing moved, and with each passing second dread began to build inside me. He hadn’t been gone that long, but anything could happen.

  “When do you want to make a run for it?” Kiaya asked, making me jump.

  “Soon.” I swallowed and sucked in a deep breath. Hank wasn’t the only one who needed to toughen up. “We can get everything loaded and ready while we wait for Devon. I especially want to get Lexi down before any of the dead decide to come back this way. If she sees her mom again, we could have trouble.”

  “Yeah,” Kiaya looked toward the little girl, who was currently in her uncle’s arms.

  “You’re good with her,” I said, nodding to Lexi. “Natural.”

  “I don’t know about natural,” she said, her mouth turning down. “If I had been, maybe Zara would still be talking to me.”

  “Zara?” I asked.

  Kiaya’s gaze snapped my way. “My sister.”

  A dozen questions popped into my head, but she wasn’t a big sharer, so I didn’t voice any of them. I did, however, raise my eyebrows, silently inquiring what she meant.

  Kiaya hesitated, and I expected her typical brushoff, but to my surprise, she said, “I was the big sister. I was supposed to look out for her, but I didn’t.”

  It wasn’t a lot of information, but it explained a few things. Why Kiaya didn’t want to talk about it, as well as why she hadn’t tried to call her sister on the road. There was only one problem with her logic though. It was crazy.

  “Kiaya, I’m not going to pretend to understand what you and your sister went through, but I do know one thing with complete certainty. There is no way anything that happened was your fault. You were a kid, too. Not just that, but you are one of the most caring and kindest people I’ve ever met. If you couldn’t save your sister from something, it’s not because you didn’t try. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things don’t go your way.”

  She thought it through for a moment, then shook her head and turned away. “Let’s get the bags down.”

  Kiaya was being too hard on herself. She had to be.

  She’d already grabbed a bag and tossed it over by the time I joined her, and Lisa and Buck moved to help as well. The thuds of the bags hitting the ground echoed through the day, making me pause to look around each time, but the area was still clear of the dead. The distant alarm had been going for so long now that I’d almost gotten used to the sound, but it couldn’t last forever. Those things usually had an automatic shut off to avoid running the battery down. Hopefully, by the time it cut out for good, the dead were long gone.

  Once we’d gotten all the bags taken care of, Buck and I headed down while Kiaya and Lisa stayed with Hank, Randall, and the kids. Just like it had looked when Devon did it, getting over the bodies was tricky. I had to hold on to the railing to stop myself from falling every time I put my foot down. There was just nothing solid to step on, and the bodies shifted under my feet, making it feel like I was descending a slippery mou
ntain.

  Even worse was the way they squished or cracked. Thick black goo would ooze from cuts or orifices when I stepped on a body, or the snap of a bone would sound, making me cringe and my stomach lurch. It was grotesque, and I had to work hard to keep down my breakfast of prepackaged muffins.

  Behind me, Buck swore every few seconds, telling me he wasn’t loving it any more than I was.

  I made it to the dresser without any real problems though and scrambled over the top with Buck right behind me. The second my feet were on solid ground, I pulled my knife and spun around to check on my surroundings and was grateful to see the parking lot was clear of anything moving.

  Buck had his gun up as he, too, glanced around. “Looks clear.”

  “Devon’s plan worked, thankfully,” I said.

  Buck grunted in agreement as we headed to the bags we’d tossed over.

  We grabbed as many as we could before heading for my car. I pressed a button on my key fob, and the trunk popped open.

  Buck let out a low whistle when he spotted the M16. “That’s an awfully pretty sight.”

  “It would have been handy yesterday,” I said, pulling it out, “but Devon was afraid to take it in.”

  “Can’t say that I blame him. I have a feeling Miller would have tried to confiscate it.”

  I snorted. “Sounds about right.”

  We loaded as much into my trunk as we could before heading to the vehicle Lisa had pointed out. Just like she’d said, there was plenty of storage space in the back, and after another trip to grab more bags, Buck and I had everything loaded.

  By then Hank, Kiaya, and Lisa were on their way down, Randall and the kids with them. Buck and I headed their way to see if they needed help, but my focus was only half on them. The other half was busy searching the distance. I was looking both for any sign that the dead had decided to come back this way, as well as for Devon. He’d been gone for too long and should have been back by now, and I was starting to worry.

  “It’s okay,” Kiaya was saying to Lexi, holding on to the little girl with one hand and the railing with the other. “Just look at me. Don’t look down.”