She was alive. I’d prayed for this day for months.
My shock wore off halfway through my bout of hysteria and then the numbness and betrayal set in. We had come to Charlotte to seek out the leader of the underground militia.
And I’d found Jess. My Jess.
Maybe she had been forced into the role she was playing.
“I never thought I’d see you again,” I said into the oppressive silence as I met her gaze.
Her eyes were cold and calculating and I struggled to find the smallest indication that the girl I once knew was still there somewhere.
“I’m sure you didn’t,” she answered with a smile that exposed all her teeth. “I, however, figured you would still be alive.”
“Did you?” I asked interestedly.
“Of course I did. You were a better shot than any soldier when you were sixteen. You thrived on all the stuff your dad taught you.”
I flinched at the mention of my dad.
Her mouth settled into a straight line. “He’s dead then?”
I nodded, a quick, jerky movement.
She shrugged.
“What did the fucking Army do for any of them in the end?” She spat.
I could feel her hate in that moment. It radiated from her, her body nearly vibrating with the force of it.
“Not a whole lot of anything,” I agreed. Her eyes met mine and she seemed to be searching for something there. “Your family?” I gently inquired.
A flicker of pain was blinked away and replaced with anger. A white-hot rage so intense and all-consuming that it terrified me. Her beautiful face, high arching brows, and petite shoulders all contorted and tensed with her rage.
“My entire family is dead.” Her words cut through the room, her voice like a whip.
Her dad, a retired Army officer like my dad, her mom, and her six-year-old little brother Jeremiah, all dead.
Even after everything I’d seen and done since the day the plane crashed into Light Oak, it was hard to believe that all of them were gone.
I swallowed back tears and gulped. “I’m sorry, Jess,” I said gently.
“Don’t be,” she snapped. “You’re not the one to blame. And I go by Germain now.” She shook her head once and flapped a hand dismissively through the air in front of her. “It seems like forever ago now.” She stepped right in front of me and Jude as she spoke, but her eyes were fastened on Jude.
“Why are you here, Melody?” she asked.
I stiffened. “Like I said—”
“And don’t give me any of that I had family and friends I was so worried about bullshit you were trying to feed us earlier either,” she snapped.
I shrugged, trying to think quickly on my feet. Jessica had always been intuitive and very smart. I couldn’t pull off much of a lie without her sniffing it out.
So, I didn’t overthink it, instead I went with my gut.
“Jude and I ran across a guy—half dead—that kept mumbling about a base in Charlotte beneath a toy factory. He kept repeating over and over… Need help. Soldiers need help.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed as I went on, pretending not to notice.
“We figured the base might have been overrun by zombies, that maybe people, probably soldiers, were trapped down here, so we decided to come and see if we could be of any help.” I glanced around the room. “We were obviously not needed. You’re all doing fine here.”
“Yes, we are, aren’t we?” she murmured, her eyes searching my face.
“Where are all the soldiers? Who’s in charge?” I asked innocently.
I watched her face carefully. She gave nothing away. “Most are dead. Some are here in another part of the base.” She walked back to the head of the table and stood beside the man seated there. “I, at the very least, left the civilians alive,” she mentioned offhandedly. “I’m not a monster after all.” She added.
My eyes widened at the implication that she’d killed all the soldiers in the base.
Jude shifted just slightly. His Uncle, I thought.
“And to answer your other question, Dax here is in charge.”
I met the icy stare of the dark-skinned man seated there and shivered slightly. His gaze was unsettling. But there was something in the way Jessica held herself, the way she dismissed him a little too easily. Ole dead-eye-Dax might have been the original leader of this little group of usurpers, but I was very sure that the person who now ran things from her shotgun spot next to Dax was Jessica Germain.
“So, what happens next?” I asked. “Now that we know the base isn’t overrun and that everything is fine here?”
I looked at Jess, but it was Dax who spoke this time.
Evidently Jess was done talking.
“What would you like to happen?” he asked as if we were having a normal social visit between friends.
I glanced over at Jude and his eyes looked a little less confused than they had before. Things were starting to click into place for him.
“We’d like to stay on for a little while, if that’s okay. We’ve been traveling and fighting zombies for a while and could use a few days to recover before we move on.”
Jude placed a hand on the back of my neck and squeezed. I smiled at him and nodded. He’d interjected just the right amount of asking permission and exhaustion into his question to sound believable.
“That is if you wouldn’t mind two more mouths to feed for that long. We’d be glad to pull our weight while we’re here,” I added.
Jessica and Dax both stared at us for a moment, making my insides all jittery.
“We’d be glad to have you for a few days,” Dax said finally. “You might even think about staying on permanently after you’ve seen how things are here,” he added with a small smile. His eyes, however, matched neither his words nor his smile.
Jude’s hand tensed behind my neck and we both smiled back pleasantly.
“We appreciate the invitation and the hospitality,” Jude said through his forced smile.
Dax nodded graciously and then motioned toward Tex. “Show them to a room. We’ll all talk again tomorrow at the assembly,” he said, his eyes shining, and his mouth turned up in the first true smile we’d seen.
It was… disturbing.
Effectively dismissed, we followed Tex back through the door and out into an empty hallway. None of us said a single thing while we walked through the compound. My mind was still trying to catch up to the day’s events and my body was plain tired.
Tex opened a small, wooden door to a room and motioned for us to enter.
The next thing I knew Jude was standing in front of me and pulling me into his arms. I stiffened at first and glanced toward the door, but Tex was already gone and the door was closed. How long had I zoned out?
I clung onto Jude, his muscular chest crushed me but I didn’t care. I breathed in the scent of his skin and Jude stiffened just a bit when my nose tucked into that hollow space between his shoulder and neck. My eyes closed and I knew I should pull away, but I found I couldn’t right away. After a moment, I unwound my arms from around him and cleared my throat awkwardly.
I felt a blush works its way across my cheekbones.
“I don’t understand. She’s not the same person I knew. She’s cold and calculating. I don’t know her anymore,” I whispered against his chest.
“The past six month have changed people, Mel, and most not for the better.”
I knew what he said was true, but could the last six months have wiped out everything I knew of Jessica? Could she have changed so very much that I wouldn’t be able to get through to her or be able to reason with her?
I was going to find out one way or another. I was sure of that at least.
“That Dax guy creeped me out. Something about him just isn’t right and they both are hiding things,” Jude said.
I nodded in agreement. Something was definitely going on here besides the obvious.
“We need to find out where she’s holding the soldiers or if they ar
e even still alive,” Jude said.
I flinched. Jude’s Uncle. Manuel. Big Ben. They were all here before. Alive and well.
Could Jessica have killed them all or kept them prisoner? Why would she do such a thing? The prisoners probably could have just stayed as guests with the soldiers in charge. So why the power move?
It didn’t make sense unless Dax had her brainwashed. Maybe he had taken advantage of her emotional state and used her to take over the compound.
I shook my head. So many questions and no answers.
“This is all kinds of fucked up,” I murmured.
“Yes it is, and I, for one, am hoping to learn something at this assembly of theirs tomorrow.” He pulled me toward the full-sized cot. “For now, we need to get some rest. You’re dead on your feet and I’m not much better.”
I had no idea how he thought I’d be able to actually sleep with everything scrambling my mind, but I guessed it wouldn’t hurt to stretch out for a bit.
I groaned and sat down on the bed.
I hadn’t realized how bad my arms and legs were hurting from our fight into the city and the rough treatment at the hands of men like Tex.
We both kicked our shoes off, and without the tiniest bit of hesitation, Jude crawled into the bed and I hesitantly moved in next to him. It was one thing to wrap myself shamelessly around him when we were standing. But things felt more decidedly intimate when a bed was involved.
I struggled to get comfortable. Worried about how my hip brushed Jude’s, how my hands had no real place to land except on Jude’s, I wiggled about trying to lay without disturbing him.
“Melody, for the love of god, you have to stop moving,” Jude murmured huskily into my hair when I had turned my back to him. I stilled immediately stiffening.
No fucking way I was going to be able to sleep.
I tried one more time to get into a position that I could sleep without touching Jude at all.
“Ah, hell.” Jude threw an arm over my waist and yanked me back into him, until his large, hard body spooned my smaller one.
I stiffened.
“Don’t overthink it, Tiger,” Jude said with a smile in his voice. “Just relax and sleep. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Jude buried his face into my hair and neck and sighed.
I should have been uncomfortable but instead I felt ridiculously happy.
With Jude’s deliciously warm body wrapped around mine, and tingles running the entire length of my body, I briefly wondered if I’d traded uncomfortable for flammable. My thoughts didn’t last long.
Despite the tingles dancing up my spine and wayward thoughts flitting through my mind, my body was lulled into relaxing through body heat and pure exhaustion.
I fell asleep to the thumping of Jude’s heartbeat at my back.
No Paddles Available
I awoke in a panic, my mind fuzzy, and in unfamiliar surroundings, trying to remember where I was and what had happened the previous day. Once everything came back to me in all its awesomeness, I instantly wished I could simply forget it all again, just erase everything from my overflowing reserve of horrific memories.
I couldn’t though. Not yet.
I needed to find out what was going on at the base. Before, I just wanted to save innocent lives, Jude’s uncle, Manuel, and Big Ben included. But now I couldn’t leave until I know what’s going on with my best friend—okay, ex-best friend—and figure out if there’s a chance to stop this insanity and take her back home with me.
I was still clinging to a faint hope that things weren’t what they appeared when it came to Jessica. No matter how bad it appeared, she had been my best friend and until proven otherwise, I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt. I had to believe she wasn’t responsible, that she was in over her head and that I could somehow talk some sense into her.
The bed beside me was empty, Jude’s scent still lingering on the pillow and sheets.
I made myself as presentable as possible, which meant throwing my hair back in a ponytail and scrubbing my face. I opened the door hesitantly, surprised not to find a soldier just outside. I lifted a brow.
Suddenly they trust us?
I doubted it very seriously. Maybe it was a test of some sort. That would make sense. Still thinking about what no guard meant, I left to find Jude and see what he might have found out. Unfortunately, the previous night was a blur in my mind after learning that Jessica was still alive, making my memories of walking to our room unreliable at best.
A few minutes later, I’d become utterly turned around.
I came around a corner and spotted a door that I didn’t remember seeing the day before. From the looks of the locks on the outside, only people with special access could get through it, unless shooting the locks off or using a small, handy-dandy bomb was an option.
It wasn’t.
I knew immediately that I wanted to get inside that room. I glanced around the corner from where I stood and took a deep breath to run across the hall and get a closer look at the impenetrable door.
Right when I moved away from the wall, a large hand covered my mouth and an arm grabbed me about the middle, pulling me back against a rock-hard body. I tried to put up a fight, but I knew it was useless. The arms about me were thick and muscular and all I could do was fight the panic rising up to choke me as I was pulled back into a dark room, my captor never loosening his grip or his determination.
Still, I wiggled and bucked, trying to get free.
“Damn, woman, take a second and chill the hell out.” My entire body froze when I recognized the familiar southern twang. Tex.
“Relax, I’m going to take my hand off your mouth. I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to talk to you,” he said. “You understand?”
I nodded and he slowly removed his hand from my mouth.
“You can let go of me now, asshole,” I snarled.
“If you insist, sweetheart,” he said with a small chuckle. He stepped back and released me. I spun around and found I could barely make out his features in the dark room.
“If this is the only way you can get a chick to talk to you, you have issues, Tex,” I said, my hands on my hips. “Scaring the crap out of a woman will not likely get you on their sweet side.”
I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I could feel his gaze on me, his carefree, laughing demeanor gone. I didn’t need to see him well to know he was serious and staring at me intently, his eyes probably sharper than mine and searching my face as I stood toe-to-toe with him in the tiny, dark room.
“If I wanted on your sweet side, you would know it, Melody,” he said gruffly. “I don’t normally have to kidnap women to get their attention.”
I smiled begrudgingly at that. No doubt Tex would normally have women lined up at his door. He was handsome in a good-ole-boy sort of way and all that southern charm would be an extra bonus in his favor.
No, I seriously doubted Tex ever had any problems in the love and sex department.
“What do you need to talk to me about then, if I’m not here to rate a kidnapping?” I asked with a smirk.
A single word wiped the smile off my face.
“Germain,” he answered.
“What about her?”
“I know she was once your friend. You need to understand that that time might as well have been a different lifetime. Even another dimension.”
I shook my head, closing my eyes and bowing my head. I didn’t want to hear this.
“She’s done things . . .” He stopped and cleared his throat. “She’s killed soldiers, had people killed, even had people thrown out into the city for whatever reason. Tossed out in the middle of all the undead without even a knife.”
Why? I didn’t understand it. Why? We had all lost loved ones, been through things humans should never have to endure. Why had it changed her so much?
“I can’t imagine what happened to make her like this. You never knew her from before. If you had, you would understand why I can’t believe that she is res
ponsible for all this. Her daddy was military just like mine.”
I put a hand over my chest and pressed lightly over the pain radiating from my heart.
Tex put a hand lightly on my shoulder, still whispering in the dark.
“I knew Jessica’s dad,” he said so softly I didn’t think I’d heard him correctly.
We both paused when we heard the sound of footsteps outside. A couple of guys were talking as they passed by. After a moment, we heard their voices and footsteps retreating.
“How?” I shrugged off his hand.
“I was in my third year in the Army and had just moved to the nearby base when the outbreak happened. I’d met and worked with Sgt. Germain several times the week before. When the crap hit the fan, I happened to be on base working.”
A chill worked its way up my spine, making me shiver slightly. Tex’s voice came out monotone, his way of telling the story while trying to stay removed from the emotion of it all.
“I had no way to get to my wife. She called me and said she was holed up with her parents, but I knew deep down they wouldn’t be safe there. I tried, God knows I did, but it was impossible. It wasn’t until much later that I was able to get to their place.” His voice shook slightly.
“It was much too late then. The Germains were also off base at the time. Everything was in chaos here and all around the globe. Cities were trying to evacuate, only clogging all the exits out of the city and making it impossible for survivors to get free. There was no real protocol with how to deal with an outbreak on that scale. No protocol except one: Don’t let anyone in; don’t let anyone out, not even military.”
I sucked in a breath through my teeth. No one in and no one out. Dear God.
“The Germains, like a lot of other military families, did what they thought was best. They headed toward their base and expected to be allowed sanctuary for their family. They were, after all, military. Instead, they found locked gates and changed passcodes.”
State of (Book 1): State of Decay Page 19
