He leaned more of his weight on me and breathed next to my face. “If you try that again or keeping making so much goddamn noise, I am going feed you to the zombies myself, you understand?”
I tried to smirk and blow off his threat, but that was hard to do since my cheek was squished into the dirty floor. Instead, I nodded sharply.
“Good. Now I’m going to help you up. Don’t try anything stupid.”
When he pulled me off the ground, he snagged me by my arm and brought me closer to him with a gun pressed into my side. I truly hated the fact that he smelled nice. Soap, something spicy, and just a hint of man. I’d been deprived of normal things for far too long and it was starting to manifest in the oddest of ways. I clenched my jaw as we started walking and I could only assume it was back into the main area of desks and offices.
After a few minutes of being pushed, pulled, and prodded into different directions, and yet never leaving the building, I wondered if we were going in circles.
“Is this the only way you could get a date? Tying up girls and making them play some twisted version of musical chairs with you?” I hissed between my teeth.
“You hear music in your mind? Or little voices, maybe?”
I smirked.
The guy tugged roughly on my arm and then we stopped.
“You are such a pain in the ass, you know that?” he snarled. “No way in hell I’d take you on a date, even if the little voices told me to.”
“So, you do hear voices,” I confirmed with a crooked grin.
I felt him move around me while I stood there thinking what else to say, trying to keep him talking, and wondering what he had planned for me. He grunted, and then I heard a click, followed by a scraping sound.
“Move slowly forward to the stairs. We’re going down.” He gave me a small shove and I barely kept my balance.
“As soon as I get my hands untied, I’m going fuck you up,” I whispered fiercely.
My stomach bubbled and roiled in a sickening dread.
“What’s down there?” I ground out, hating the uncertainty in my voice.
Going down? Where the hell was he taking me? His deep chuckle that rumbled near my arm did nothing to alleviate my fears.
I took a tentative step forward and found the first step down. My captor kept a grip on my arm as we made our way lower and lower. My heart beat faster with every step we took, and it was by sheer willpower alone that I didn’t whimper in fear of the unknown.
“Alright, stop right there for now,” he said. I heard him open something on a wall nearby and it sounded like he was pushing some sort of buttons.
A beep echoed in my brain and it took me a moment to recognize the sound. Clangs and clicks, followed by the loud screech of metal directly in front of us, overwhelmed me and I stumbled slightly, my legs wobbling in shock and anxiety.
My captor, almost gently, put an arm around me to keep me standing. A gust of air fanned my face and a sound I never thought I’d hear again besieged me—the sound of a lot of living humans—talking. It was too much.
My heart hammered and I swallowed several times, forcing myself to remain calm. I could feel a tiny drip of sweat track down the center of my back.
The sounds came to an abrupt halt as my captor, with his arms still around me, walked us forward. The metal door behind us swung shut.
“What’s going on, Jude?” a low, rumbling voice spoke out.
“Found her snooping through things on the base, Sir,” he answered from next to me. I turned my head in the direction of the sound of several people whispering among themselves and strained to hear everything I could.
“Well, for Christ’s sake, untie her already,” he barked.
Jude jumped to do what he was told. My blindfold came off first and I blinked several times, trying to adjust my eyes to the unfamiliar, overly bright fluorescent lighting hanging overhead. My hands were untied, and I rubbed the raw spots around my wrists.
We were in a large cafeteria-like space with folding chairs and tables. The floors were scuffed white linoleum. Clusters of people of all ages sat at each table, watching me unabashedly, their hands busy with their food.
It seemed I’d interrupted lunchtime.
“Am I a prisoner?” I asked sharply, staring directly into the eyes of the man who I knew to be the group’s leader. He was probably in his mid-thirties and he regarded me with interest, a hint of amusement shining in his blue eyes. He also happened to be the man in the picture I’d seen on the desk upstairs.
“Prisoner? Not at all. I’m sorry if you were under that impression,” he said apologetically.
“What impression was I supposed to be under when G.I. Jude here stole my weapons, tied me up, and blindfolded me? That I was an honored guest?”
The guy lifted a brow but didn’t apologize for anything. “We have to be careful. You’ve seen how it is up there yourself, you surely know that the zombies aren’t the only threat we face now,” he said.
Though I wanted to remain angry, I couldn’t.
These people did have to be careful. We all did.
“I understand,” I grumbled. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want my father’s weapons back, or that I’m not pissed off.”
He cracked a huge grin and walked over to me. I took a step back and he stopped where he was.
“How many are in your group?” he asked quietly. “We could offer them a place here too.”
I shook my head and clenched my jaw. “It’s only me,” I mumbled.
A shadow fell across his eyes, a shadow of understanding and loss.
“How long ago did they die?” he asked gently.
I raised my eyes to meet his direct, probing blue stare. “I’ve been alone since the first day.”
His eyes widened fractionally before he looked at me like he wanted to study me under a microscope. “What’s your name, girl?” he asked. I stiffened and squared my shoulders.
“Melody Anne Carter, daughter of Major John M. Carter of the United States Army,” I answered proudly.
The man held his hand out to me. “Nice to meet you, Melody.”
I smiled and went to stick my hand out until I realized I was still caked in all kind of gore and stench. I grimaced when I realized how much of a mess I really was. I seriously stunk.
I glanced up from my hand to the face of the man now looking at me curiously. I held my hands up and shrugged.
“Nice to meet you, Major, but you probably should hold off on that handshake for now.”
His eyes widened at the title and I smiled again.
“I saw the picture on your desk,” I mentioned by way of explanation.
He was the same man in dress blues I’d seen earlier, but he looked like he had aged ten years instead of two. The major’s smile vanished and his eyes frosted over.
I knew that look; I’d felt the emotion behind it too. Heartache and loss. I met his eyes and nodded my head once, my eyes mirroring his own burning gaze. He nodded back stiffly and cleared his throat.
“Jude,” he barked. Jude stiffened next to me. “Take our guest to one of the empty rooms and show her where she can go to get cleaned up,” he ordered, then turned around, dismissing me.
“I have questions, Major,” I interjected, my hand clenched at my side. Who cared about getting clean when these people might be able to answer some of my questions?
“I’m sure you do, but they can wait a few more hours. Besides, you smell like you’ve been rolling around in zombie guts,” he grimaced.
Jude chuckled before the major and I both gave him a death stare, my jaw clenched so hard it ached. After half a year of fending for myself, it was a shock to my system to be told what to do—and to be laughed at.
“Fine,” I muttered.
The major turned on his heel. I glanced over at Jude and put my hands on my hips. He returned my death glare with a smirk and I made my personal mission to knock that smirk off of his clean-shaven face just one time. It would be a pity to hurt his face th
ough, the man had the sharpest jawline I’d ever seen, with a small dimple denting his left cheek to hint at mischievousness.
“Follow me,” he said stiffly. He turned on his heel and strode briskly across the room. I followed, taking in my surroundings.
The common room was large and there were probably twenty people milling about doing various tasks. Some looked like officials or military personnel and a few looked like civilians. The room had several hallways leading off of it, one in the direction the major had gone, one that Jude had taken, which I could only assume led to sleeping quarters, and one leading off in a different direction. I had to jog to catch up to Jude.
I glanced at Jude from the corner of my eye as we walked down a long corridor. His jaw was clenched, and his light brown eyes hooded while he led me along. He looked angry; maybe he was upset he’d gotten the babysitting gig. I smiled at that. The jackass deserved so much worse.
We rounded a corner and he stopped outside of a door at the very end of the hallway. He opened the door and motioned for me to go inside. I walked in and turned around in a circle. The room was sparsely furnished with a cot and a single chest of drawers. A small table and chair acted as a desk area and there was one tiny closet. It looked like the Ritz Carlton in my eyes.
“Alright, let me show you where you can shower and then I’ll get out of here.”
I picked my jaw up off of the floor at the promise of a shower and Jude was striding down the hall and around the corner. I barely registered the number of my room—107—then ran to catch up with him.
The shower area was as glorious as the room. I stood in the doorway staring at the showers, afraid to move and break the illusion. Jude snorted and pushed past me to open a closet at the end of the room where rows of identical army green pants and tops hung. Towels were also stacked on the top shelf.
“Leave your clothes next to the door and someone will pick them up for you.” And just like that, he was gone.
I smiled and ran over to the closet. I swear to God, it felt like I was staring at the clearance rack at the mall. It was heaven. I grabbed a soft V-neck tee shirt and a pair of pants that resembled yoga pants with wide legs and a drawstring waist, but made of a sturdier material, and inhaled the scent of them through my nostrils. They even smelled fresh and clean.
Like a bullet out of a gun, I yanked off my filthy clothes and made a run for the shower stall. I wouldn’t have cared if twenty people were there to watch, or if I had to shower with others, I was not going to miss a single blessed second of running water I could soak up before I got yanked back to reality.
I set my clean clothing, towel, and the knife no one had found on me on a bench outside of the stall before jumping into the shower and turning the knobs. I was expecting the cold, but I still shivered when it spurted out. I turned it up full blast and much to my shock, the water was hot.
“Thank you, Jesus,” I moaned when the water cascaded over me.
I don’t know how long I stood like that, but I know my fingers were pruning up before I had the sense to snap out of my ecstasy and use the small bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo to wash my body and hair. I scrubbed every nook and cranny of my body, spending extra time to work some conditioner into my mass of black, curly tangles.
There was a sound outside the shower area, and I froze. A shoe scuffing against tile.
Someone was right around the corner where the towels and clothes were kept. I left the water running and tiptoed out of the shower to grab my knife off the bench. Something shuffled and I heard the sound of a gun being loaded, the unmistakable sound of a magazine being slid into place. Maybe if I acted quickly, I’d still hold the thread of surprise.
With hesitating to think twice, I ran around the wall with a scream of rage. No way in hell I was going to die in a shower after surviving alone in the woods for over so many months.
I rushed my attacker, brandishing my eight-inch blade like it was a butcher knife.
Jude stood there in such shock that when I had rushed him, he froze. When I collided with him, the gun was flung from his grasp. Much like with the zombie I’d taken down earlier, my momentum knocked us both off of our feet, with me landing on top of Jude’s rather muscular, hard body with a loud and painful thud.
Unlike the zombie takedown, I didn’t drive my blade into Jude’s neck like I had the corpse, but I did bring it close enough to his jugular that if he even spoke too loudly, he would have been choking on his own blood.
I sat on top of his body, my knife to his neck, and my face directly above his. His light brown eyes were wide and shocked; he still hadn’t had time to get pissed off yet. But it didn’t take long.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he hissed through his teeth. I tightened my grip on my knife and he immediately stiffened and then relaxed a fraction.
“Maybe you should tell me why you were sneaking around with a gun while you thought I was defenseless,” I countered.
My hair was still wet, and it was dripping all around me, soaking through Jude’s white tee shirt, bringing his tensed muscles into focus beneath my hand. His eyes flashed angrily, and he clenched his jaw, causing a muscle to tic in his cheek. His cute little dimple, however, was nowhere to be seen.
“You think I’d sneak up and shoot an unarmed, naked girl in the shower?” he growled. “What kind of man do you think I am?”
My mind thought, “one that smells pretty darn good, like warm spices and clean linen.” But my mouth had other plans.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” I said casually. “Oh! Wait, I do know.” I leaned forward until I was able to whisper in his ear. “You’re the type of guy that would tie a girl up, take away all her weapons, making her defenseless, and blindfold her during a zombie apocalypse.” I leaned back a fraction. “What were you doing then, Jude?” I asked.
“I was going to escort you back to your room, but you were still in the shower, so I was just going to leave your weapons here for you and come back later,” he said on an exhale, too tired to care if I’d cut his throat.
I blinked, pulling back my knife a little.
“I was doing my job out there, Melody,” he sighed.
I blinked again and realized how grossly I’d misread the situation.
“Shit,” I whispered, and removed my knife from Jude’s throat. Then it really hit me, I was friggin’ nude and sprawled on top of him. No matter what I did next, I’d show how much of an idiot I was.
Jude must have realized where my thoughts had led me, because the biggest grin I’d ever seen spread across his face. Fuck. He had a charmingly, slightly crooked front tooth.
I raised my chin and removed my naked self from Jude’s now-soaked body, straightened myself out, and stood in front of him without any—well, not too much—shame.
He got up off of the floor and probed his neck with his fingers. I hadn’t broken the skin. I wanted to run for cover, to shield my body from Jude’s now roaming gaze, but I wanted to look tough a whole lot more, so I stood my ground.
I found myself wondering what Jude saw when he was looking at me. I was no longer the curvy, beautiful seventeen-year-old I’d been six months ago. My arms were now more muscular, my stomach flatter, my hips more jutting and sharp. I barely had anything soft and beautiful left. I was a killing machine. A survivor. I’d become hardened. My eyes slipped away from his.
“I’ll be ready in a minute, but I think I can find my way to my room,” I said hoarsely.
A slow, devastatingly handsome smile transformed his military grade, stern face into something altogether breathtaking. I felt myself blush.
It ticked me off.
I marched forward and pushed him out of the room, refusing to take note of how hard and warm the muscles of his chest felt beneath my hand.
“Get out, before I cut your throat for the fun of it,” I snarled. I felt the vibration beneath my hand when he chuckled. When he was out the door, I turned to shut it. Jude stuck his foot in the crack of the door and pushed it ba
ck open.
“Melody,” he murmured.
I shivered slightly at the sound of my name rolling off the tip of his tongue. Damn.
“I am sorry about all that upstairs. I had to think about everyone’s safety down here first,” he said sincerely, then grinned widely again.
“Though, I gotta say . . . this . . .” he gestured to my body, “this made it all worthwhile.”
I could feel my face flaming. He smiled at me again, his eyes scorching every part of my body and I realized for the first time since he’d stuck a gun in my face, exactly how sexy Jude was.
If I had met him under different circumstances, back before the end of the world, I would have been itching to run my fingers through his short, dark brown hair, to taste his sensual lips . . . but this wasn’t under normal circumstances and I wasn’t a naïve little girl anymore.
I smiled widely at Jude then and the change in his face was instantaneous. I knew exactly how my smile could render most men speechless. I rarely used the little weapon, but it was in my arsenal and I knew when and how to use it. I just hadn’t done so in a very long time. I was glad to learn I still had it in me.
His pupils dilated and his hand came up to push a strand of my black hair out of my face. I opened the door just a little wider, placing a hand on his rock-hard abs and then gave a quick push. He stumbled a step back out of the doorway.
When my fist flew, he never saw it coming. His head jerked back, and he sprawled on his ass, blood spurting from his nose.
“Apology accepted,” I said. I slammed the door and locked it.
I considered it not only a payback for terrifying me and stripping me of all my defenses, but also a lesson for the future: Never let your guard down during a zombie apocalypse.
Guys, sex, and love were a thing of the past. Besides, I’d take a zombie showdown over a romantic entanglement any day of the week. Lucky for me, there was a plethora of them waiting for me to kick their undead asses.
And I planned to do just that.
Life Sucks & Then You Die. . . If You’re Lucky
My breath fanned out before me in a cloud of frigid air. I inhaled sharply and my lungs inflated painfully from the freezing cold. I pressed my back against the trunk of a tree that I’d ducked behind. All around me I heard sounds, sounds I hadn’t heard only a few moments before. Groans, shuffling, and the telltale gurgling of the undead surrounding me in the forest.
State of (Book 1): State of Decay Page 7
