Love and Decay, Volume One

by Rachel Higginson

  Hendrix let out a calming breath. “You can see that I’m fine.”

  “Good.”

  “Good,” he repeated.

  We stared at each other for long moments. His depthless blue eyes held mine with an intensity that I raced to understand. Something hot and electric stirred between us, but I could hardly let myself believe that it might be real.

  Finally, he ripped his gaze away from mine and crawled out of the bed. I heard his stomping footsteps round the truck; the door slammed shut behind him a moment later.

  Geez. He was strung so tight, I didn’t even know how to behave around him anymore! Hendrix was becoming a live wire and I didn’t know whether to avoid him at all costs, or grab on and wait for the most intense shock of my life.

  Tyler moved to fill Hendrix’s spot and once Miller and King closed the back door, we reorganized our supplies so that everyone had a comfortable place to sit. Not an easy chore with Vaughan speeding down the highway but a necessary one.

  Tyler and I sat side by side and watched the remnants of America whiz by out of the side windows.

  “I think he still cares about you,” she said quietly after both of the other boys had fallen asleep. They were like cats, stretched out in the patches of warm sun. I couldn’t help but find both of them absolutely adorable with their innocent, slumbered faces.

  “He doesn’t,” I argued immediately. “He tolerates me.”

  She shook her head. We both leaned against the side of the truck and against each other. Tyler had become just as close as Haley over the last few months. We helped each other grieve Kane and move on from her psychopathic father and mother. She was currently dancing around the Vaughan issue, but I loved that about her. I loved that she took things slowly and did things carefully.

  I could relate.

  But she seemed to be able to keep things careful and slow. My extra steps usually ended in something imploding or exploding.

  Neither were good options.

  “Reagan, that boy is not just tolerating you. He might not know how to act around you while you both play this stupidly naïve and brokenhearted card, but he can more than tolerate you.”

  “You’re just saying that because you’re afraid he’s going to shoot me.”

  “That makes no sense.”

  I didn’t have an argument to that.

  “I’m not saying you should do anything or invite him back to your place or anything. I’m just saying, be careful with him. Be careful with yourself. I don’t think either of you could survive a repeat breakup. Especially with the track record you have. It’s not like you do anything uncomplicated. The next time might be even more dangerous.”

  “There’s not going to be a next time, Ty. So stop.”

  “You’re right,” she said seriously. “Because if you ever get together with him again, it better be for real this time. It better be forever.”

  “Alright, Dr. Phil. I think you’ve been bitten by the love bug. You’re all serious and relationshippy. It’s weirding me out.”

  Tyler’s entire body stiffened next to me. “I have not. Stop that.”

  I grinned at her. “Oh, you can dish it out, but you can’t take it? Don’t be a sore loser. You love Vaughan; it’s totally cool. You should just stop being embarrassed about it.”

  She punched me in the shoulder so hard I jerked to my left and winced. “Ouch!”

  And just like that she switched gears and started preening. “Wasn’t that hard? I’ve really put on some muscle in the last few months. I think I’m finally toughening up.”

  I winced again and gave her a thumbs up.

  “Oh, look! Mexico!”

  I turned my head and watched the truck glide through the border crossing.

  There were no guards stationed these days and whatever barricades had been set up were now pulled to the side or run over.

  We didn’t see another living soul as we said goodbye to America and entered the second part of our journey. In fact, if Tyler hadn’t pointed out the abandoned guard stations, I wouldn’t have even noticed we’d crossed the border.

  Once we were all the way through the series of checkpoints, Mexico officially appeared on all sides of the car.

  I looked out at the dry, dusty landscape and smiled.

  It had been hell getting here, and not just the three years it took to physically get down here, but the last day alone had been trial after trial.

  Yet here we were. Mexico. A new country. A new beginning.

  I could leave behind the bitter memories of losing Kane. I could say goodbye to Matthias forever and the bounty hunters that would do anything to capture me. I could start over with Hendrix and rebuild my relationships with everyone else in this group. I could help my best friend find a safe place to deliver and raise her child. And I could finally, finally start healing.

  Mexico was going to be good for us. For me.

  Or at least, I hoped so.

  Episode Two

  Chapter One

  1067 Days after initial infection

  Dust. Dirt. Dust. Dirt. Dust. Dirt.

  Cactus.

  The Mexican landscape had been a little less than exciting since we crossed the border.

  Not that I had been expecting much after the last few months spent in the American desert. But I guess I had been hoping for something mildly exotic.

  I had never been out of the country before. And maybe this trip didn’t technically count because, well, America had officially imploded and I hadn’t needed a passport to cross the border, but I was more than a little disappointed we hadn’t run into a mariachi band yet.

  “Donde esta el Zombies?”

  I looked up at Tyler and tried not to laugh. “Working on your Spanish?”

  “Trying to acclimate.”

  “You’re doing a bang-up job.”

  She shot me a sultry look. “Muchas gracias, Senorita.” Miller groaned at his sister’s theatrics and so she shouted, “Caliente!”

  “Tyler, enough!” Miller ran his hands over his face and when he pulled them away, my heart squeezed for him.

  “I don’t think that means what you think it means anyway,” Harrison put in.

  Tyler looked at Harrison as if he’d lost his mind. “Duh. It means quiet.”

  Harrison met her patronizing glare and managed to keep a straight face. “Caliente means hot. You meant to say callate.”

  “Whatever, Harrison.”

  I just managed not to laugh. She leaned over and punched him in the thigh.

  “What was that for?” he whined. “I’m just trying to help you! I don’t want you to run after any Mexican children, shouting at them that they’re hot! That might get us into all kinds of trouble.”

  This time I couldn’t stop it. I burst into laughter, imagining that very thing. Harrison and Tyler joined me. Not even Tyler could deny that was hilarious. The only one that didn’t laugh was Miller. He turned his head away from us and kept his permanently straight face.

  He looked way too old for his twelve years. His red eyes had puffy bags bulging beneath them and his mouth seemed to be perpetually turned down into an angry frown. If I were honest, he had never looked more like his father if his father had been stressed out all of the time, depressed and only twelve. I would never tell Miller that though.

  A simple mention of his father might break him. And I was not going to be responsible for another Allen losing his mind or his life.

  “Alright,” Tyler conceded. “But only because that’s all I know. That is my entire Spanish vocabulary.”

  “Well, it’s one-hundred percent more than I know. We’re kind of screwed down here, aren’t we?”

  She gave me a wry look. “I don’t think we need to worry about knowing the native language, Reags. We’re never going to need to use it because we’re never going to see another human being for as long as we live.”

  “Are you honestly missing civilization?”

  She shook her head and laughed lightly. “No, ho
nestly, I’m just amazed. We haven’t seen anything in days. Not humans. Not Zombies. Not even animals.”

  “There have been birds.”

  “I don’t count those.” She shrugged and looked out the tinted window. “I expected lizards and snakes or something.”

  I pushed my booted-toe into her booted-toe. We sat across the truck bed together, enjoying our easy ride through the side roads of Mexico. Vaughan had refused to take any popular highways or direct routes that would lead us through larger towns and potentially populated areas. We had all agreed this was a good idea.

  We left Matthias and his American tyranny machine across the border, but that didn’t mean Mexico was safe. And we didn’t speak the language.

  Plus it would be better to avoid all human contact for the rest of our lives.

  That was something we could all settle on.

  I couldn’t help but ask, “Tyler, you’re disappointed there aren’t any snakes around?”

  “Shut it, Reagan. You know what I mean.”

  I, in fact, did not know what she meant. But I didn’t think it would matter if I told her that or not. She would just keep trying to explain it and I would keep missing her point. This time it was better for me to be the supportive friend than try to understand the complexities that made up Tyler Allen.

  “We should stop soon,” Miller announced.

  I had been thinking the same thing. The sun burned as a perfect half-circle ruling from the horizon. Vibrant oranges, pinks and purples stretched out from its edges like a crown of glory. The clouds had darkened to a deep gray and built up a curtain of night that would curl over us when the time was right.

  It was a most beautiful sunset. And yet I dreaded every second that brought us closer to its completion.

  Last night, we’d been able to sleep in a domed silo. The metal had bled orange rust and every little sound echoed inside. But it had been empty and we’d been able to lock ourselves in for the night and get a decent night’s sleep.

  I was worried that we wouldn’t be as lucky tonight.

  “I think so too,” I told him. “I’m sure Vaughan and Hendrix have had similar thoughts.”

  He frowned at me. “You should remind them.”

  I bristled a little at the patronizing tone to his voice. “I don’t think I need to. They’re smart guys. They’ll figure it out.”

  “Yeah, maybe. But remind them, just in case.”

  “Why are you pushing this? I don’t need to remind them.”

  He pushed himself up to his knees and made a big show of moving forward. “Fine, then I will.”

  “Dude, Miller, chill.” Harrison grabbed his shoulder and stopped his progress. “Reagan will knock. We’ll figure it out.”

  I glanced up at Harrison, surprised that he easily complied. We all knew Miller was making a big deal out of nothing. I didn’t want to encourage this kind of paranoid behavior, but maybe Harrison had a point in easing some of his fears.

  Miller should know better than to question the Parker brothers’ commitment to keeping their family safe. But he didn’t. Or he didn’t want to.

  He pushed everything. He questioned everything. I had this theory that his world had been rocked enough that he felt like he was spinning out of control and needed to grapple back the steering wheel of his life in any way that he could.

  He’d been through hell. And enough situations where people were supposed to keep him safe, but failed.

  I knocked lightly on the window, feeling dumb for my silly question. Hendrix, who always sat in the second row of seating in the cab, slid the glass over and gave me a polite smile, “Hey.”

  I cleared my throat and demanded my eyes not to roll. “Hey,” I returned the smile. “Um, so do you think we’ll stop soon? Or… or keep going through the night?”

  Hendrix’s expression snapped from patient to surprise. I guess he didn’t expect me to question his brothers or him either. “You scared, Willow?”

  Back to the old last name routine.

  I sighed, “No. I’m just curious.” As much as I wanted to resent Miller for making me ask this question, I wasn’t going to call him out in front of everyone. I didn’t want to embarrass him despite the fact that he seemed to have no problem embarrassing me. “It’s getting late.”

  Hendrix sobered some. “Vaughan’s looking. We haven’t seen anything all day that would be a good place to hide out for the night.”

  I turned my head and looked out the window. We zipped by an old billboard and an idea hit me. There had been a few along the highway, but it wasn’t until this moment that inspiration struck. “What about that billboard back there? I bet it has a ladder that’s not too far off the ground. We could probably stand on top of the car and reach it.”

  “A billboard?” Hendrix looked unconvinced.

  “It’s just a thought.” A damn good thought, but I didn’t say that out loud. “I used to climb one and hang out on it back home.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “Small town. There wasn’t a whole lot to do then. Haley was there!”

  He stared at me for a second before nodding his head. “I’ll talk to Vaughan and see what he thinks.” He shot me a patronizing smile as if that concluded our time together.

  I smiled a fake, polite smile right back at him until he closed the glass partition and shut me out of the conversation.

  “Thanks, Reagan,” Miller said quietly as soon as the window locked into place.

  “No problemo.”

  Tyler perked up. “See! You do know Spanish!”

  Vaughan apparently liked the billboard idea, because when we passed another one not even five minutes later, he slowed down and swerved to the side of the road.

  He kept driving, leading us right to the wide base. We bounced and rattled together as he drove over dry-cracked ground and rocks the size of my feet or bigger. Vaughan used a small copse of short bushes near the base of the billboards to shield the truck away from anyone that might happen upon this particular highway.

  Not that there was anyone out here to spy on us or anything.

  The silent air and darkening sky made it seem as though we were the very last people on earth.

  And maybe we were. Maybe the Feeders had eaten all of the other humans and then turned on each other.

  We were at the very least the last decent people on earth.

  I didn’t understand how an entire country of men and women who used to stand side by side in the face of adversity could turn on other humans with nothing but greed for a soul and power for hearts. America was supposed to be about brotherhood, about overcoming incredible odds; it was about lining up, shoulder to shoulder and damning the man!

  Or it was supposed to be.

  So if it were just us that remained… so be it. Haley and Nelson and Tyler and Vaughan could handle repopulating the planet. And I could focus on…

  Anything but that.

  The engine shut off and like usual, I was startled by the dead silent of the night. The truck rumbled ferociously down the open highway. Vaughan pushed it carefully to its limits. We didn’t have unlimited gas and the truck itself hadn’t had decent maintenance in who knew how long. That meant that this ride was a temporary gift. We needed to use it to the best of its performance ability.

  But the desert remained eerily quiet. No coyotes howled in the distance. No cicadas sung to the night. No crickets chirped and no snakes rattled. It was just silent.

  Dead silent.

  We gathered our nightly essentials and crawled from the bed of the truck. My body was tight and sore from riding in cramped conditions all day. My spine didn’t want to straighten out; it had grown used to this curved position. Not good. I needed to work on my posture.

  Was I the only person during the Apocalypse that had ever thought about working on their posture? Possibly. That did not seem like it would be a popular thought.

  I took a luxurious moment to stretch my limbs and breathe in the fresh air. It smelled so clean out here. The air was dry, but the bre
eze had cooled significantly with the setting sun.

  No Zombie rot tainted the atmosphere or poisoned my senses. Whatever kind of plant life existed out here had been allowed to bloom and grow. The dirt was unsoiled by blood and innocent death. This was nature in its purest form. And while dangerous to survivors like us with limited resources, it was still breathtakingly beautiful.

  We moved over to the rusty ladder that hung from the billboards. They made a V, connected at the apex, but with enough supporting legs to make any point safe.

  Hopefully.

  Hendrix and Vaughan lifted their younger brothers and Miller up first. The two oldest Parkers could hoist up the guys until they reached the bottom rung and then muscled their way to the top.

  Honestly, I didn’t think I had the right kind of arms to make this climb. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. The one back home had been closer to the ground. I’d been able to make it with my puny cheerleading muscles.

  “How are you going to get Page up?” I asked carefully. My thoughts also centered on Haley, but I didn’t want her to feel singled out. Page was used to it by now.

  Hendrix and Vaughan shared a look.

  “A little trust, Willow. That’s all we ask.” Hendrix grinned at me and I couldn’t help but give him what he asked for. Instinctively I knew they would get us all up there. And we would all be safe before nightfall.

  At least for tonight.

  Tyler made it up the ladder with a lot less difficulty than I expected. Once the guys lifted her up so she could reach the bottom rung, she pulled up her feet so to give her some leverage and she was able to climb her way to the top.

  It was actually pretty impressive and I started to think she had been a better cheerleader than me.

  Haley went next. It wasn’t as easy with my pregnant friend. She tried to mimic Tyler, but her belly left her awkward and not as flexible as she needed to be. All of the Parkers cheered on her progress though and eventually she pulled up her feet and managed to crawl to the top.