by Jenika Snow
Mason murmured against his mouth, “The three of us will be fine.” He pulled away. Their breathing was fast and heavy. “We can’t let them live or they will just come back, all right?” Asher had already planned on killing every fucking one of them. He nodded, and Mason grinned. “I’ll start taking them out while you go to Sparrow. Kill anyone who stands in your way.” They kissed once more, and then Mason was moving silently toward the guy still puffing away at his joint. Asher stood and moved around the trees to make sure he wasn’t seen by his target. Mason was a military man, trained for these kinds of things. Ash may not have been trained by the government, but he knew how to kill a man with just a quick hit to the face. He squeezed the handle of his knife once more, and when he was close enough to smell the weed the guy was smoking, he took a second to assess his surroundings.
The sound of a soft gurgled grunt told him Mason took down his target, but the noise didn’t go unnoticed by the guard a few feet in front of him. Before he could call out to see if his buddy was okay, Asher struck. He moved swiftly behind him just as the guy realized he wasn’t alone. Throwing an arm around his throat, he slapped a hand over his mouth and brought the blade to his neck. In one quick move, he sliced the guy’s neck from ear to ear, feeling absolutely no remorse for taking his life. It was either kill or be killed.
These assholes deserved to die, just like the sick that wandered around aimlessly. They were humans who strayed from being decent. Killing them was doing a service to everyone who was trying to survive.
He let him fall to the ground in a silent lump and wiped off his blade on the back of the guy’s shirt. He lifted his head and saw Mason tilting his chin toward the group still huddled around the fire. Asher moved forward, parallel with Mason, until he was hidden behind the trunk of a thick tree.
“This whole drawing straws shit for the pussy isn’t going to happen with Collin or me.” The “leader” they had seen back at the shop spoke in-between guzzling a bottle of liquor. “I have first dibs, and then my right-hand man, Collin, gets my sloppy seconds.”
He slapped Collin on the back, but the guy didn’t even crack a smile. Asher did notice he glanced over at Sparrow. The blond who rubbed Ash the wrong way just by the way he looked suddenly stood.
“What’s up, man?” the fuckwad leader said and looked around at the group of guys. They all started laughing at nothing, but Ash didn’t miss when Collin reached behind to the small of his back and grabbed the gun stationed there.
“I’m not getting sloppy seconds, Todd,” he spoke to the leader, and everyone stopped laughing instantly.
“What the hell, Collin?” Todd started laughing again. “All right, you can have her last then. You can get everyone’s fucking sloppy seconds. And I’m sure it’ll be all tore up by then.” He started chuckling, and a few of the other guys did too, but there were some who glanced around hesitantly. “Besides, it isn’t like you aren’t accustomed to used-up pussy, not with the profession you used to have before the infection.” There was another round of laughter.
“It’s obvious you aren’t listening to what I’m saying. No one is getting her except me.”
Asher straightened, looked over at Mason who was a few feet from him, and saw the same rage coming from the other man. Before anyone else could say anything, Collin had his gun pointed at the center of Todd’s head.
“You fucking disgust me.” Collin pulled the trigger before anyone could respond, and the spray of blood and brain matter coming out the back of Todd’s head was like a fountain. For a second, no one moved, and then like a blast from a cannon, there was movement from all corners. The shouting was earsplitting, and so was the sound of guns being fired. The gunfire blazing was sure to attract the infected from a mile away.
As it was, these guys had been relatively safe so far out in the woods. With the sick staying more in the once populated areas, seeing as that was where the infections circulated, it wasn’t a surprise these humans lasted this long, but now with the noise, gunshots, and blood scenting the air, the infected were sure to come. Asher cut his eyes to Sparrow, but she was no longer tied to the tree. He scanned the area, praying he didn’t see her bloody, lifeless body.
“Where the fuck is she?” Mason asked right beside him, and Asher didn’t miss the slightly frantic tone of his voice. A bullet ricocheted off the trunk right by their heads, and they both ducked. Putting their knives away, they reached for their guns at the same time.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to go find her. Cover me.” Mason was up and moving through the trees toward where they’d seen Sparrow. Asher stood and started picking off guys. He got two before anyone realized he was shooting them from the cover of the trees.
The guy named Collin was fighting hand-to-hand with another guy, but Collin took him out only seconds later. Ash ducked behind a tree when one of the men fired off a gun in his direction. Asher leaned to the side, aimed his gun at the shooter, and put a bullet right between his eyes. The blond looked right at Asher, but his attention was diverted when someone tackled him to the ground.
Ash ducked when another bullet flew by his head and swiftly ran toward where he knew Mason had gone. But when the sound of a gun going off close enough to him that his ears rang, he stopped and watched in horror as Mason fell down to one knee. The bullet had gone through his shoulder, and Asher turned on the fucker who shot Mason. He shot twice into the guy’s chest, and he fell to the ground in a heavy, bleeding heap.
Asher lifted his gun, and when he saw Collin grappling with another guy, he aimed, not caring which one he hit but knowing one of them would go down. He fired, and saw it land in the man Collin was wrestling with. The bullet hadn’t killed him, and by the rage on the man’s face, clearly he thought Collin fired, since he renewed his fighting tenfold. Asher turned to Mason. They needed to get out of this carnage. Mason stood and braced a hand against a tree.
“Fucking asshole shot me.”
Ash looked at his shoulder, saw the entrance and exit wound, and thanked whoever the hell was listening for small favors. “Come on. I don’t know how many other guys they have stashed in this camp, and I know the infected have to be on their way.” Everything that happened since they fired off that first shot had gone by quickly. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, but fuck did it feel like it lasted a lifetime. “We need to get to the cabin.”
“We have to find Sparrow.” Yeah, they did, but Mason was no help right now when he was barely holding himself up and the blood was a steady flow from his arm.
“We will.” And they would, because that was their girl, whether she knew it or not.
Chapter Ten
Sparrow dragged herself out of the lake and immediately collapsed on the rocky shore. She gasped for air and blinked back the water that was steadily dripping down her face. Her hair stuck in clunks to her cheeks and forehead, and even though she knew she had to keep going, she was exhausted from running through the woods and swimming across the lake. Survival was grueling and painful, but it was worth it to stay alive. By some miracle, she still held the gun Blondie had given her.
Hauling herself off the ground, she stumbled forward once and caught herself before face-planting on the rocks beneath her. She looked over her shoulder, saw the fire still burning brightly across the water, and heard the gunshots as if she was still standing in the thick of it. Once she heard that first shot go off, she pulled away from her bonds and headed for the water. She contemplated heading into the woods, but Collin warned her there were men lying in wait. Whether that was true or not, she didn’t know, but she wasn’t stupid enough to find out. So, she dove into the frigid water.
She turned back around, held onto the butt of her gun even tighter due to her involuntarily shaking body, and made her way quickly through the trees. Her limbs felt still, her muscles aching from the exertion and the cold that seeped into her body, but she forced herself to keep going. It was dark, and no moonlight pierced through the thick branches overhead. Sparrow had
no idea where she was going, or where she would end up, but anything was better than what was behind her.
Keeping straight, she had to right herself several times as her feet kept catching on branches and vines. Her heart was pounding fast, filling her ears, clogging her throat, and drowning out everything aside from the fact that she needed to keep running. A flash of white to her side caught her eye, and she turned to look, but before she could see anything, she fell over a fallen log. Head slamming against the hard, unforgiving ground, she groaned and immediately gripped her temple.
The throbbing pain was intense, and she tried to shake it off and stand again but stilled when she heard the low, gurgled groan coming from right behind her. Pulling up all of her strength, Sparrow crawled onto her hands and knees, and pulled herself into a standing position. The feel of warm wetness sliding down her temple didn’t distract her from the fact that an infected man was shuffling toward her. His shirt was grungy but white enough that she saw him in the thick darkness. He was missing an arm, and the sight of his radius and ulna protruding from what was left of the limb had bile rising in her throat.
He opened his mouth and made a low, hungry sound. His arm was swinging from side to side as he came closer, and she blinked away the dizziness from her fall, lifted the gun, and pointed it at his head. Parts of his flesh were missing from his face, and the oozing wounds that covered him from head to toe were a grisly visualization of what the world was coming to. Sparrow wasn’t that good at shooting, so she waited until he was at least close enough that there wouldn’t be any way she could miss.
Right when she was about to pull the trigger, the sound of another moan coming from behind her had her spinning around just in time to see an infected female with half her jaw missing lunge forward and tackle her to the ground.
They fell as a heap, and the stench of decay was enough to have vomit rising in Sparrow throat. The gun slipped from her hand, and she placed both hands on the female’s shoulders—ones that had bone protruding through the skin—and pushed her away as hard as she could. The infected fell backward, and the sickening sound of her head cracking against a rock echoed through the trees. Sparrow scrambled up, searched for the gun amidst the dead leaves and foliage on the ground, but had to give up her search when the male grabbed her arm. Kicking her leg out and connecting with his stomach, she gagged when her foot went through his abdomen. He fell backward, and she went with him, since her foot was caught under his ribcage.
Her leg twisted painfully from the fall, but she pushed it to the side. The infected snapped its teeth and tried to reach for her. Their angle was awkward, and all he managed to do was claw at her jeans with his long, jagged nails. She dug her nails into the ground, turned her foot left and right to try to dislodge it, and finally she freed it from where it was stuck. She moved backward, sawing her legs on the ground until she got leverage and moved farther away from him. The moon chose that moment to slice through a gap in the trees, and that was when she saw the glint of the barrel of the gun.
Lunging for it and wrapping her hand around the semi-automatic, she rolled onto her back, pointing the gun at the infected. She pulled the trigger, and the bullet went right through his forehead. He slumped to the ground on top of her legs, and she quickly kicked his body away. The nausea she felt as soon as she’d been taken by those men, and then from facing off with the two infected, suddenly came up like a turbulent wave. Sparrow rolled over and threw up everything that was in her belly, which wasn’t much. When the dry heaves stopped, she stood, wiped her mouth off with the back of her arm, and turned.
Her heart stopped and then beat double time when she heard twigs snapping. Turning in every direction, she couldn’t get a grasp on where the sound was coming from, since the noises bounced off the trees over and over again. Oh, God. Were there more infected coming toward her? Before she could run, two bodies stepped out from between the elms. She lifted her gun, her hands shaking and unsteady but ready to start shooting. Her finger was on the trigger, and her adrenalin pumped fiercely through her bloodstream, but right before she added pressure and started firing in the dark, a deep voice stopped her.
“Christ, Sparrow?” Asher’s voice had everything in her stilling. Relief filled her when she realized it was really him. She squinted, and finally her vision became clearer and she saw Asher holding up Mason, who even from the distance was as white as a ghost. Darkness spread from his shoulder and dripped down his bicep and forearm.
“Oh my God. Was he…?”
“No, he was shot, not bitten,” he explained, and she exhaled. “Sparrow, sweetheart, can you please lower the gun? I don’t want to have to drag my shot-up ass and Mason’s back to the cabin.” Suddenly, her arm felt far too heavy, and she lowered it to the side but kept her finger on the trigger. She didn’t know if more of the sick would come, or if Collin would deliver on his promise and find her.
“We came back for you. We came back for you, but you were gone.” Mason’s voice was low but deep. “You were fucking gone, and then all hell broke loose.” She also heard a slight slur mixed with his words, distorting them.
She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even think.
“Sparrow? Are you okay?” Both he and Mason moved toward her, but she could see how much work it took for Mason to stay upright. Seeing him wounded snapped something inside her, and she tucked her gun at the small of her back and rushed toward them. Taking the other half of his weight, she heard Mason sigh and felt him lean into her.
“You said something about a cabin?” She addressed Asher but was looking Mason over. The nurse in her kicked in when she got a look at the wound on his shoulder. Holding onto his waist a little tighter, she finally looked up at Asher. He watched her intently. “What?” He didn’t seem the least bit worried about Mason, which made her feel slightly better, but not by much.
“You’re worried about him?”
“Of course I’m worried about him. He was shot, and the longer we sit here and talk about it, the more he bleeds.”
Asher grew serious and nodded. “You’re right, but he’ll be fine. We’ve been in worse shape than this.”
“It’s true, little bird.” She snapped her eyes to Mason, and her pulse sped up at the endearment that came from him. He tilted his head to the side, just enough that he could look at her, and gave her a smile that looked slightly drunk. “Much worse.”
“Come on, he’s going to pass out soon, and I want to get this cleaned up.” Shit, if she still had her bag, she would have been able to use the first aid supplies she grabbed back at the pharmacy. “I wish I had my bag.”
“Here.” She looked up at Asher and saw him holding her backpack. “Mason grabbed it before we left.”
Her chest squeezed tight, and she realized that although it had only been four days she’d been with these men, she cared for them. It wasn’t love, and although she found them both immensely attractive and wanted them, she couldn’t even say the reason she cared for them was because of lust.
She cared for them as humans, as two men who helped when she had been in trouble, and men who shared their food and water with her when she had nothing. They hadn’t killed her and taken what little she had like others would have. She had never felt safer than she did with them, and that was saying a lot. A hell of a lot. When everything was going on and she had been hit by Fat Ass in McMillian’s, and all the way up until she was here with them right now, all she had thought about was them, even when she thought they wouldn’t come for her. They had gotten hurt for her, trying to save her, and tears of gratitude filled her eyes, but she couldn’t deal with that right now. She needed to make sure Mason was okay.
“Yeah, I saw a cabin about half a mile north. Not sure the state of it, but it’s our best bet for shelter for tonight.” There was a hardness in Mason’s voice, and she knew he was trying his damnedest not to show that he was in pain.
“Well let’s stop talking and get there before…” She saw the way Asher looked over at her, and then s
aw the crease formed between Mason’s eyes. “Let’s just get there before anymore of the infected show up.” What she wasn’t saying was they needed to get the fuck out of there, because Collin might show up, and if he did, she knew there would be another fight between her two guys and that asshole. The state Mason was in wouldn’t bode well for them.
Chapter Eleven
Fortunately, when they reached the cabin, it was vacant. Mason had seen the cabin when he had been hiking a few times with... when he had hiked, but he had never known who lived there.
Apparently, the owner had gotten out in a hurry, because when they went inside and a sweep had been done to make sure the cabin didn’t have any unexpected inhabitants, they noticed the opened drawers, the cupboard doors that hung open, and the bleakness in the cabin. It also smelled musky, and it was clear from the boarded-up windows that it had been closed off since the infection hit.
He didn’t know what happened to the owners, but it didn’t really matter now. Either way, it was empty now. Mason was laid up in the master bedroom with Sparrow hovering over him. He had taken off his bloodied shirt, and he didn’t miss the way she looked at his chest.
But he also noticed the way she eyed the tattoo on his side for a very long time. The questions were in her eyes, but she hadn’t said a word and instead had been minding the bullet hole in his shoulder. Luckily, she had the supplies from the pharmacy.
“You sure you’re doing okay and you’re not in any pain?”
He smiled and shook his head. “I’m fine.”
Of course she didn’t believe him, and that was clear by the way she looked at him, but he had been in a lot worse pain than this. After his tour with the Navy SEALs ended a few years back, he still couldn’t get rid of the images of the bodies surrounding his feet, the screams of help that filled his ears, or even the way the smoke and blood thickened the air so much he choked on the shit with every inhale.
