'Don't worry about it, the little prick deserved it. Besides I think Jensen is really lucky to have some one fight for him like that,' Marcel smiled at her graciously.
'He'd do the same for me, in fact he did once,' she replied thoughtfully.
'What happened?' Marcel asked. Frankie told us the story of how my mum and Maggie (Jensen's sister) had been captured by a group of slave traders, Tom who I'd known for years had died trying to rescue them. When they had met Finn, they took the men on and engaged in a deadly battle. Frankie had been captured and stabbed while she had to watch those she cared about be beaten, thankfully they enlisted the help of the other women and managed to beat those bastards.
Frankie had been stabbed, and remained unconscious for a good while. Jensen rarely left her side, he had been a mess during the whole thing. I hated hearing about the awful things that had happened to them and my mum, I would speak to my mum about it later as she had neglected to tell me these things. I couldn't imagine Jensen being out of control or bursting with anger, he always seemed so collected and calm much like Frankie herself.
'When I woke up, that look of love and joy on his face. I knew then how I felt about him and how he felt about me, but it took us a while to admit it to each other. Wasn't until he tried to sacrifice himself for me that I actually told him how I felt,' she smiled thinking about it.
I was glad that they had each other and I hoped with all my heart that he made it through.
'Sounds like you two were just meant to be,' I said smiling with her.
'You sound just like your mum,' she laughed.
'I guess her influence rubs off on you.'
'You know despite everything, I'm glad it's you lot I'm with,' Marcel told us happily.
'Well I guess we could be worse,' Frankie joked. We sat there for a while just laughing and smiling, telling stories that made us remember that we didn't have it as bad as some people in this world. Though everyone was in the same boat, not all could cope with this life let alone find the time to laugh and smile. It made me feel so lucky to have these people around me, to see everything that they had lived through and know that they were still human gave me hope for the rest of humanity.
My mum called us for breakfast a little while later, we walked back to camp in silence knowing that we had each other's back against whatever this world would throw at us.
We sat together with the others as we ate together, we all kept a good distance from Kyle who was watching Frankie like a hawk. No doubt there was a part of him that was afraid of her, he had good reason to be.
'I want to go back to where you lot went and check the place out properly,' my mum announced. 'What!? Mum are you mad, there could still be live explosives there,' I shook my head in disbelief.
'Whoever put them there wouldn't have done so without reason, they must have been hiding valuables and we need to see what it is,' Mum replied sternly.
I had to admit she was right, but how many of us were in the right frame of mind to be going on a mission right now?
Kyle stood up and was about to say something when my mum cut him off.
'Don't even think about it, your not coming with us,' she barked at him. I expected a witty retort but he just sat back down with a face like thunder, Jensen still wasn't awake so Frankie was staying put. We needed enough people here so that we could keep the peace and take care of any walkers if they came our way.
After much discussion it was decided that my mum, Delilah, Eli, Trudy and Audrey would be going while the rest of us stayed behind. I wasn't happy about the mission full stop but my mum did have a point about the valuables, they told us that if they weren't back in two days to come looking.
While to some people two days for such a short distance might seem a lot but we knew that the others could handle themselves not only that you never knew that trouble they would get into. I sat feeling a chill go through me as they left, it wasn't that I had a bad feeling about them going on the run, more like the bad feeling was about them leaving us. I wasn't sure if Frankie being around Kyle without supervision was such a good idea, he was starting to really push his luck and if he wasn't careful we would all end up joining in next time.
'Are you sure that you'll be alright?' My mum asked concernedly.
'As long as Kyle minds himself,' I replied shortly.
'Do try and keep the peace.'
'I make no promises,' I told her. They left shortly after, leaving us alone with Kyle, I sat just outside my tent looking at Violet as she played in the grass with her doll that Ester had given her. How was it possible that she could be so grown-up about our lives yet still sit and play with dolls? In a way I felt envious of her ability to still be able to be a child, she could fight like the best of us and had helped us out of tight spots before.
'You alright Violet?' I asked her kindly. 'Yeah, I'm okay. When will Jade be back?' She asked with both a child-like innocence and a grownup tone.
'I don't know but I doubt it will be long,' I replied trying to sound cheerful. She continued to play as she hadn't got a care in the world, if only it could be like that for the rest of us. I went to check on Marcel and found that he was sitting thoughtfully by the water, he didn't look sad or angry, he just look as though he were thinking of something profound.
'You all good?' I asked him.
'Yeah, just thinking you know,' he replied thoughtfully.
'What about?'
'If things are this bad between the group now, what will it be like when we're miles from home with no food or supplies?' He said solemnly.
'I know what you mean, but how can we fix this? It's not like it was a small thing that went wrong here,' I told him.
'Do we really have all the facts though?' His words struck me as odd.
For those of us that were there, the events that transpired were pretty damn obvious. Kyle was irresponsible and stupid, he ran a head and got the others killed.
'Well it's pretty darn obvious what happened isn't it?' I asked feeling unsure.
'I'm not saying he wasn't a complete fucking twat, but do we know his motives for doing what he did?'
I had to admit, Marcel had a good point. There was no use condemning Kyle unless we knew that his motives were malicious.
'I'm guessing you want me to find out?' I said unhappily.
'Well you are the best choice, both me and Frankie want to throttle him and everyone else just avoids him,' he replied.
'Fine, just let me check on Frankie first,' I told him.
'Good luck,' he laughed I grumbled a thank you as I went back to camp, I was not looking forward to this but I wanted to talk to Frankie first. I didn't want her to think that I was betraying her or Jensen by being nice to him, in the frame of mind she was in I didn't want to get on her bad side either. I approached her tent feeling somewhat nervous, either she would be completely fine with this or she would bite my head off.
'Frankie,' I called. 'Yeah, I'm in here,' she replied. I opened the tent door to find that Jensen was awake and sat up, seeing the look of joy on her face was enough to know that he would be alright.
'You're awake?' I said with shock.
'Yeah, I woke up not too long ago. Sounds like things have been a little rough around here,' he replied jokingly.
'No kidding, I'm guessing Frankie told you what she did?' I asked before I actually thought.
'ERM no, why what did you do babe?' He looked at her with those big green eyes and I could see her melt.
'I may have, erm gone a bit terminator on Kyle,' she replied quietly.
'You didn't!' He said with a little less shock than I had thought.
'Sorry I didn't mean to get you in trouble,' I told Frankie as we exited the tent.
'It's alright, I was going to tell him. He's kinda used to me going on one where he's concerned,' she replied smiling.
'I'm not surprised, actually there's something I need to talk to you about,' I told her nervously.
'What's up?' She asked. I explained what me a
nd Marcel had talked about, and that we needed to get on in this group if we were to have any chance at surviving this mission. While she understood that, Frankie still didn't care what Kyle had to say, to her he would always be the guy who had nearly got her love killed.
'I know what your asking, and don't worry I understand. I'll be civil with him and if by some miracle he comes up with bloody a good explanation for his stupidity then I'll forgive him. Don't hold your breath though,' she said with flared nostrils.
I found Kyle near the woods sat a log, he looked tired and red faced as if he'd been crying. His face was badly bruised from where Frankie had punched, his left eye was swollen too.
'How are you feeling?' I asked him kindly.
'I've been better,' he replied wiping his eyes.
'Jensen is awake, I thought you should know,' I told him softly.
'Thank God, I'm glad he's alright,' he murmured quietly.
'What happened back at the bomb site? I don't really remember,' I lied, hoping it would make him talk to me. 'I just wanted to find out what was in there, I never meant for anyone to get hurt. If there was something in there that we needed, I wanted to help get it. I went first hoping that if there was any danger the others wouldn't have to deal with it,' he told me sadly.
'Why would you do that?' I asked.
'I didn't want anyone to get hurt, I thought if I could deal with the problem then it would be alright. If I'd known there was a bomb I swear I would have waited,' he said trying not cry. I put my arm round him, not knowing what else to do. It could have been any one of us that went in first, but he did it in a hope that we would be spared. No one could have known about the explosives, it wasn't something we had even thought about let alone prepared for.
'I'm sorry,' he wailed.
'It's alright, it isn't your fault,' I told him comfortingly.
'They all think it is though, they all blame me I know they do,' he cried.
'Everyone is just angry, they don't really blame you. Just give them some time and don't push it,' I hoped I wasn't being too harsh on him.
'Every since my parents died, I haven't wanted to lose anyone else. I was just trying to protect them,' he replied tearfully.
'It's alright, just stick with me and you'll be fine,' I promised.
'Thank you.' We sat for a while and talked, he told me how he'd lost his parents and that he had two twin sisters who had been visiting their grandparents in Leicestershire at the time of the outbreak. He seemed so sad and young to have lived in this world, we had all piled up our losses even little Violet. Yet there was something about hearing his story that made my heart break, he was only fourteen years old and after his parents died he had been alone for almost three years before finding Ester's group. It was no wonder that he found it hard to get along with others, how could a little kid survive for so long? I had wanted to ask but I didn't want to push him to share if he wasn't ready.
He wouldn't tell me how they died but in this world you could pretty much guess, I wrapped my arms around him and held him as he cried. I was relieved when my mum and the others arrived back later that evening, things were a lot better between the group, though Frankie hadn't actually spoken to Kyle she wasn't giving him evil looks any more. Turns out that the old brothel had been full of medicine, it was stocked full. We had all we could ever need, everything from normal painkillers to hospital morphine.
We sat down to eat dinner as a group, my mum was pleased that everyone seemed to be getting on better.
'You did well, getting everyone together like this,' she praised me.
'I didn't do much, besides it was Marcel's idea to talk to Kyle. I was just the only person who didn't want to strangle him,' I said almost laughing.
'Well either way we are now more secure than we were earlier and we have enough medication to last us a few months,' she smiled.
'That's something at least,' I replied.
I felt bad for feeling glad about getting the medication, we'd lost three good people to get it and no matter how many lives were saved with the supplies, nothing could take the pain away.
'I know what your feeling, I feel the same,' my mum said as if reading my mind.
'How am I supposed to feel good about getting the meds when we lost Lex, Dom and Tessa?' I told her sadly.
'I know how you feel, but unfortunately there's nothing we can do about it. We just have to move on, it's the way of the word sadly.'
'Isn't there something we can do, like hold a moment of silence for them? We lost some good people and they deserve better than to just be forgotten.'
She stood for a moment thinking, if there was anyone who could organise a memorial it was my mum.
'You know your right, let me talk to the others and see what they think,' she smiled thoughtfully and wandered off to find the others. I sat next to the camp fire to keep warm while I watched my mum approach the others, I could see the hope on their faces as she spoke to them. How long had it been since we'd held a funeral for those we had lost? Too long, we needed to take the time to mourn the dead otherwise we would become numb to death. From what I had seen those who became numb to things such as death and pain, often ended up becoming cold and heartless. Which then led them to become vile human beings, before long those people became something less than human.
'I spoke to everyone and they think holding a memorial is a great idea, we're going to do it first thing in morning just before we leave for Manchester,' she told me happily.
'That's great, thanks mum,' I told her. I settled down for the night, feeling both happy and sad. On one hand we'd lost some of our family, but on the other we were actually going to get to have a funeral for them. They deserved it, and we needed it. We needed to say goodbye, to let go, and to heal.
Chapter 20
Nathaniel
From the dates we'd worked out, she was early, almost a month early but here we were. It was time, I never really believed this day would come. I'd never been so nervous, so afraid in all my life. I held her hand as she screamed through the pain, I could see the beads of sweat pouring down her face. I'd been preparing for months for this, yet now the time was here, my mind went blank and I felt more than useless. Olivia was barking orders at me, while Maggie screamed and shouted. I ran to get the towels, the water, the thick, warm blankets. I raced back to Maggie's side, holding her hand as I tried to comfort her.
'Oh god, make it stop!' She wailed.
'It's alright, you're eight centimetres dilated, it's almost here,' Olivia said calmly.
'How the hell are you so calm?' I asked bewildered.
She smiled, 'It was my job.' Her water had broken almost ten hours ago, I felt afraid that her screams would bring the dead down on us. Over the last six months, I'd fortified the castle as much as I could. I feared that it wasn't enough, I panicked, thinking that something was going to happen. What if they got through our defences, would they hold, were we really safe, would Maggie and the baby actually survive? Could I man up and keep my family safe?
'Hey, you, stop looking so scared, you've got a woman and child to be strong for!' Olivia barked.
I nodded, trying to get my head together.
'It's alright, love, I'm here,' I said to Maggie.
'It hurts,' she cried.
'I know, but it'll be over soon,' I replied softly.
'You said that four hours ago,' she laughed through the pain.
'At least she's still got a sense of humour,' Olivia joked.
'Oh god, here's another contraction,' Maggie cried. Olivia had a sheet over Maggie's legs, not that it was needed but I guess she wanted to be a professional about this. She had rubber gloves on her hands and her hair was tied up out of her face. She lifted the sheet up to look under it.
'It's time, I need you to push Maggie!' She told her gently.
Maggie screamed and cried as she tried to push our baby out, I kept a firm but gentle grip on her hand as she did.
'You can do this love,' I said.
'Aaaah!'
I saw her energy levels drop, she looked tired, too tired. I brushed her long flaming hair out of her face and dabbed the wet cloth on her sweat filled forehead.
'Keep pushing.'
'Aaaah, fucking hell!' She screamed.
It was then that I heard it, how I heard it through all her screaming, I'll never know but I did. The moans, walkers were at our front gate.
'Shit, I'm sorry love I have to go and deal with them. I promise you I'll be right back,' I told her softly.
'Please don't go,' she begged, crying.
'He has to, we can't let the dead get in here,' Olivia said. I grabbed my axe and fled downstairs, I flung open the front door to see about fifteen corpses clawing their way through the steel gate. I raced over to the gate, just in time to see it fall. I jumped out the way as the dead surged forward, it was lucky that I'd put a car in the middle of the bridge. I opened the back door and pulled out my crossbow, I could take out some of them before they got to me. As I shot them one after another, I saw one that I recognized, my old right hand man, my best friend, my brother-in-law. Maddox. For a single moment I froze.
'I'm sorry old friend,' I said as I raised my crossbow to kill him. I had killed eight of them by the time they reached me, I dropped the crossbow and took out one that was coming round the left hand side of the car. A male walker got too close and almost took a chunk out of my arm, I fell to the floor scrambling about to get hold my knife.
'Aaaah,' I heard Maggie scream. I had to get back to her, I had to see my child being born. I found my knife and kicked the biter that was on me, it went flying over the bridge. I got up and forced my way through the dead, slicing them as I went. I didn't care that I was covered in blood, I just wanted to get back to Maggie.
I grabbed one and smashed its head into the bridge wall, I stamped on another's head until I felt it's brain squelch beneath my feet.
Dead World Rising (Book 3): The Cure Page 20
