CHAPTER 13
It’s eerie to hear the fire crackling with no sirens around, even in the distance. No one’s coming to put it out. No one’s screaming. No cars are rubbernecking to gawk at the blaze. It’s weird how something like that is what makes me realize the world truly is coming to an end. But if it has to happen, these are the people I want to go down fighting beside.
Our movement has piqued the interest of a couple nearby zombies. A few blocks away a herd of them grow restless, smelling the scent of human blood. The bus fumes mixed with heavy smoke in the air is all that’s stopping them from honing in on its source. But it won’t take long.
My nerves tingle. We shouldn’t be here. If by some miracle we’re able to get into the building safely, there’s no way in hell two people can hold off a barrage of undead warriors that size. Who am I kidding? It’ll take more than two of us to get enough weapons to even make this kamikaze mission worth our while. But these weapons aren’t for us, are they? They’re for Mr. Buckley.
As if my body knows it before my mind has a chance to catch up, my feet stop moving. The further we get from the bus, the more their heads turn in our direction. The stench of the exhaust masked our scent but we’re out in the open now with no camouflage to disguise us. Four isn’t enough. We’d need an army. We’re going to get ourselves killed.
“Okay,” Tyrone says with a heavy exhale, “I guess I’m gonna have to be the one to bring it up. What the fuck do you mean we’re not getting back on the bus?”
“Did you not hear that lunatic?” Felecia squeals. “There is no way in hell we’re having anything to do with him. He’s lost it. And everyone in there is going to follow him because they’re scared of what he’ll do if they don’t. And they should be. Did you not hear what he said to his own son? We are not going anywhere with him.”
“So then what the hell are we supposed to do?” Tyrone shouts, looking back at the bus. We’re far enough away, there’s no way they could have heard us but we shouldn’t be risking it.
“Run, and never look back. As soon as we make it around the pileup, the flames will block us. We grab a few swords before this whole city turns into a pile of ash and leave that way,” she says, pointing away from the bus. “When we don’t come back, they’ll think we died in the fire. That maniac knows this is a suicide mission, he doesn’t expect us to make it, he’s just hoping one of us is able to bring some weapons back to him. We’re the sacrifice.”
“She’s right,” I say quietly, “he’s beyond dangerous. He snapped. Not like Neil, Neil’s just lost his mind, he’s scared, he’s power hungry, he’s just doing what he thinks he has to in order to live. Not his dad, his dad’s the opposite. He’s enjoying this. Did you see that sick smirk on his face? That power that Neil wants, Joseph Buckley has, and he’s going to abuse it in every way imaginable. We need to get as far away as possible. Let’s grab some swords and make a run for it. We’ll try to find, I don’t know, a van or something. Whatever we do, getting back on that bus is not an option.”
“Yeah, what he said,” Felecia nods. “We don’t have much time. Come on.”
“How are we supposed to trust you?” Tyrone asks, timidly, knowing he has to, but not sure how he can. “We all saw you hug Neil back there.”
“Did you see how his dad treated him? I had to hug him just to keep him from falling apart.”
“You whispered something in his ear,” he says with an accusatory finger pointed at her. “How do we know you’re not plotting against us?”
“I told him to breathe and take his time in there, that I believed in him. And I asked him to get me a certain type of razor because I’d make it worth his while.”
“You’re thinking about sex at a time like this?” Caylee shrieks in a high pitched whisper.
The thought of them together hurts my heart in ways I couldn’t have imagined. His dad’s a dick and she automatically falls for him? My dad barely acknowledged my existence!
“The razors he’s looking for are a Target exclusive,” she says coldly. “My mom’s an electrologist, I don’t shave.”
“Then why’d you send him in for them?” Tyrone asks, confused.
But I get it. “To buy us time,” I answer for her. “He’ll be searching for it forever if it means he gets to sleep with her.”
“We’re gonna need time to get in there, get the swords, fight these fuckers off and find a safe way out of here. If they come to check on us, which they won’t, they’ll see a bunch of zombie bodies, signs of a struggle, the smoke, the fire, they’ll assume we didn’t make it. Because if that psychopath thinks we’re alive, either one of them, Junior or Senior, they’re coming after us. Now let’s get in there and do this before it’s too late.”
“You are one evil, cunning bitch,” Caylee says with a grin.
“Hey, I do what I have to do to save my friends. Believe it or not, that’s you. Even you,” she says to Tyrone with a roll of her eyes. “Despite the fact that you’re a judgmental prick who seems to hate me for no apparent reason. But Noah likes you so, so do I. You two are awesome,” she says to me and Caylee with the smile of a girl who’s ready to take on the world and a look of fear that says she knows she won’t win.
“You’re pretty awesome yourself,” Caylee says sweetly, giving Felecia a side hug that makes my heart melt. She actually leans into it. I half expected Felecia to bite her for getting too close but she literally smiles and leans into it. “One question though.” Caylee looks around at the three of us and I know what she’s going to ask before she opens her mouth. “Evacuation center or not?”
We all stare in silence. This is too much. How are we supposed to make life-altering decisions under these sorts of circumstances? We should be sitting down, discussing it, making pros and cons lists and debating it for days. Heat of the moment decisions lead to trouble. She’s either wrong or she’s right and I’m not sure we can risk either.
“Let’s see what we can find for weapons first,” I say after a long pause. “We get out of this alive, then figure it out.”
We all nod in agreement and jog towards the inferno. My heart is racing already. Nervous sweat is building up and dripping from places I didn’t know a human could sweat from. It’s more than the heat. It’s more than the zombies that are beginning to follow us, not sure through the smoke and flames if we’re edible or not. It has more to do with the fact that the next move we make will change our lives forever, yet again. Do we side with President Snow? Negan? The Mayor? Do we stick with the maniac in power where we’ll make questionable decisions but eventually be safe if we prove our worth? Or do we become renegades, make our own rules and live off the land, answering to no one? I want to make the easy choice. The choice that involves serving someone else, following their rules and not having to do it all on my own. But I’m not so sure I can make that choice. Whether it be serving under our government, someone else’s, or some dictator who put himself in charge. I don’t think I can do it.
The fire hasn’t reached the storefront yet, the apartments above it are a total loss but it must be spreading from top to bottom. Smoke is escaping from every crack it can possibly find. If we open the door, it might let some of it out. Still, the smoke inhalation, I don’t see how we can go in there.
“I’ll go,” Caylee practically whispers. “I’m fast. You three stand guard, those things are coming, they know we’re here. I’ll bring the stuff to the door, we grab as much as we can and make a run for it.”
The splitting of a floor beam above us makes me shake my head without a second thought. “No way. This place is about to come down. No one’s going in there. We’ll find someplace else to get weapons. We’ll just use what we have for now.”
It kills me to be so close and have to turn back. I can see the swords in the display case behind the counter, glimmering in the light from the dancing flames closing in on us. I don’t know where we’ll find more weapons, ones that are actually useful, but this isn’t the place. It’s too dangerous
. We didn’t make it all this way to choke to death on smoke.
We turn after one last look at hope and begin making our way around the other side of the pileup. We couldn’t go back to the bus if we wanted to, there’s too many of them closing in on us, picking up our scent. No way in hell could two people have held them off. If those pussies on the bus would man up and help out we’d be alright. How is my girlfriend out here risking her life yet they’re sitting comfortably in their seats waiting for us to return with the tools that’ll save their worthless lives? They never planned on going into Cold Plus with Neil, I know Buckley, I know my dad, they won’t do anything until it’s absolutely necessary. That’s what they have us for. Well, not anymore.
Without warning, Felecia spins around and sprints back towards the burning building.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Tyrone shouts.
“Damn it! She’s going in.” Before I have time to reconsider, I find myself taking off after her. “Cover us, we’re going in.”
Felecia blasts the window with her axe before I reach the storefront. An explosion of glass rains down and blankets the sidewalk. She hops through and disappears into the smoke as it comes pouring from the broken window in a cloud too thick to see through.
“Noah, wait,” Tyrone calls after me. “You’re both coming out of there alive, we’re making it through this. You got that? Here, trade,” he says, handing me my bat and taking the hatchet. “You’ll need both hands to swing, if it comes to that, you can’t use this thing with your left, you’ll end up chopping your ear off. Both of you are coming out of there.”
“Both of us,” I nod. “Protect Caylee for me.”
“With my life brother. Hey, I know you’re worried about me because I saw the same shit as Darius, but I’m right here Noah, trust me, I’m here. We got this. Get those damn swords and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I rush in after Felecia.
CHAPTER 14
It’s hard to see anything for the first couple seconds. The smoke that’s built up is pouring through the broken window, clearing the air ever so slightly. I pull my shirt up over my nose as if it’ll help.
Across the room, Felecia’s already broken a couple display cases. I follow her lead, shattering a few more. We toss our weapons in the direction of the entrance and grab everything we can, barely looking to see what we have. There’s no time, this smoke is impossible to avoid. The constant cracking above us will bring the fire to our feet any time now.
I grab for a sword so enormous it couldn’t be wielded by anything less than a Viking. My arms are too full, my palm slides across the blade. I flinch out of reflex and pull my hand back, dropping a couple katanas in the process. But there’s no blood. We were right. They’re not sharpened. Harry’s Hardware is a couple stores down, already engulfed in flames. There’s no way we’ll be able to get the sharpening stones. Dull swords won’t do us any good. We may as well be smacking zombies with sticks. Which means we have nothing to fight them off with besides the weapons we brought with us. How the hell are we going to make it out of this alive?
I stumble my way to the broken window, coughing up a storm. My armload of swords clatter against the pile Felecia’s already started. She’s running back into the smoke before I can stop her. We need to get out of here before the building comes down on top of us.
Outside, there are four bodies laying on the ground, none of which belong to Caylee or Tyrone. There’s more coming. We need to get out of here.
After a quick inhale of slightly fresher air, I slink back into the smoke on the search for a sharpening stone. Maybe there’s one in here. They sell knives, I’m sure people want them sharpened. There has to be one somewhere, under a counter or something.
Most of the crap in here is useless. Chess sets, figurines, decorative plates. Wait, on the wall I spot some shields and maces that would be perfect for bashing in skulls. The ball and chain would be hard to master but the spiked bat looking things, morningstars I believe, they’d surely be enough to decapitate a couple corpses with a single swing.
While Felecia’s busy emptying a dagger display, I rip the chainmail from a few knight-like mannequins, trying not to burn my fingers on the scorching steel. Their teeth won’t be able to gnaw through this stuff no matter how hard they bite. I bet these shields would come in handy. Without any sharpened weapons, we’re going to have to be on the defense. We need those damn stones. Maybe if I leave now and make a run for it I’ll be able to get to Harry’s Hardware before there’s nothing left.
I kick a burning coffee table out of my path, it crumbles into a pile of soot and embers at my touch. The smoke, the heat, we can’t do this any longer. The light peeking through the clouds is dimming, blocked out by the sheet of smoke polluting the afternoon sky. The fire’s growing fast. I toss my mess of dull metal through the front window and consider going back for one more armload, ultimately deciding against it. We got what we came for.
“Felecia, come on, this place isn’t gonna hold!”
“Are they ready to use?” Tyrone asks breathlessly, kicking away a detached head.
“We need a sharpening stone. And time to actually sharpen them,” I manage to choke out between coughs. “The fire’s too much, this place is coming down. We gotta go. Felecia! Hurry!”
“I’m coming,” she shouts back, her voice muffled through her shirt. “I can’t find any stones!”
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll figure something else out!”
The building shifts.
I don’t have a chance to look up before a beam crashes through the ceiling, bringing fire and destruction along with it. I cover my eyes to shield them from the flames as the board splits the room in half. Burning ceiling tiles rain down like volcanic ash. Desecrated furniture from the floors above shower the room in an asteroid storm of fireballs.
I get ready to jump through the window until I hear a scream. Then silence. Felecia. I can’t see Felecia.
“Noah,” Caylee screams, “what happened? Are you guys okay?”
“No, Felecia, I think she’s trapped.”
“What? No, you gotta get her outta there. We can’t hold these things off much longer.”
Without so much as telling my body to, I duck down and crawl beneath the crackling beam, holding whatever breath I have left. The heaviest smoke that once clung to the ceiling has blanketed the room. If I stay on my hands and knees, I might be able to avoid it a few moments longer.
I stay low and slither to the other side of the room, weaving between raging pockets of fire. There she is, laying halfway across the shop. It looks like the remains of a sofa or loveseat must have hit her. She’s not moving. Beside her is a hemp dress wrapped around her stash of medieval torture device-like knives. Our window of opportunity is closing, the building’s caving in around us. I can hear Tyrone and Caylee yelling from outside, fighting off an army too large for them to handle. They need us.
The fire is too much. I can’t get through. Flames shoot from the fallen floor beam like pyrotechnics at a concert. There’s no way around. I swear the exploding fireballs have singed the hair from my body.
“Felecia, come on, wake up. We gotta get outta here. We gotta go.” I yell over the cracking of the fire as if she merely dozed off in class. “Damn it Felecia, wake up. I can’t do this without you. You gotta get up.” I feel a tear slide down my cheek when I realize that I really can’t do this without her. I don’t want to. Whatever it is we do. Whatever path we take. I want her walking beside me.
I don’t know what it means for my relationship with Caylee but I need Felecia in my life. I need her in my arms. Now more than ever. And the one thing I want more than anything in this world I can’t have. We’re separated by a wall of fire growing larger by the second. Its ghostly claws reach for us, getting closer with every burst. She needs me and I’m not there for her. I can’t leave her again like I almost did on the windowsill. I almost left her there and it would have been the biggest mistake of my life.
I didn’t know that then but I do now, and there’s nothing I can do.
“Felecia, please, I need you. You have to wake up.”
Her hand. Her hand just moved. She’s alive.
“Felecia! You gotta get up! This place is coming down on top of us.”
She begins to stir. Her eyes flutter open slowly. She whispers my name, followed by a few coughs, then sees the flames. Panic sets in. “Oh god. Oh my god.” She’s with it enough to know what’s going on. “Noah, please don’t leave me.”
“Never. I’m not leaving you. But you gotta get up. We need to go.”
“How? I can’t get to you. Noah, I’m trapped. The fire’s too much.”
“I know, I know. Watch out.” This is crazy, what the fuck am I doing? This is insane. “Stand back, I’m jumping through.”
“Noah, no!” She turns to face me, tears smudging the layer of ash on her face. I watch a few more trickle down through the powdery residue. Strangely, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life. “You’ll just be stuck here too. Do not jump through that fire! You have to go.” She wipes the tears from her eyes like they don’t belong there. “It’s okay. You’ve saved me more times than I can possibly thank you for. And despite all this,” she whimpers, holding her hands over her heart while tears I couldn’t stop if I tried pour from my eyes, “despite everything, spending these last two days with you…”
I know what she means because as crazy as it sounds, being with her makes me feel like I’ve never felt before. I could do this forever if it meant holding her hand. This can’t be it. No, no this can’t happen.
“Noah, there’s a backroom. I’m gonna try to find a way out. If I don’t, you have to know–”
Another beam comes crashing through the ceiling, taking down half the building with it. Part of a bathroom crushes the intricate miniature castle display, water spraying in every direction but it’s not enough to subdue the flames. This place is falling in on us.
Blood Type Infected (Book 2): Fallen To The Flame Page 8
