“You think someone else found them, maybe heard the gunshot?” Baby said, her voice calm and level-headed compared to my chaotic insanity.
“It had to be unless Clara had some arrangement with another group. Did you come across any other people on your way here? She hasn’t left the compound since she got here, right?” Romeo asked me. I could tell by his calm tone that he was trying to talk me down. I rubbed at my face trying to think. She hadn’t left the compound since we got here. She had been so lazy since we arrived, not doing anything that required manual labor, no supply runs, no clean-up, nothing. I should hate the bitch.
“No, the only other group we came into contact with I took care of. The others we brought along,” I said, surprised at how calm my voice was.
“It could be those men from earlier; maybe they were scouting the area trying to locate our compound. They had to know we were in this part of the parish,” Zach said. He crouched down next to the tire tracks and ran his fingers through the disturbed mud.
“They’re the only ones in the area that we know of other than the family in Venetian Isles,” Romeo added. “It’s a logical place to start.”
“We’ll send someone over to Venetian Isles first thing. We need to ask those people if they’ve noticed anything strange lately or any movement. We need to get a line on this group near Pearl River. If it is them; if they’re the people that took Alexis, I’m going to kill them,” Zach stated calmly.
“Oorah,” I said in agreement.
“Then I’m going to kill Clara.” Zach declared as he caught my eye and didn’t blink. My whole body clenched in denial at his statement. He was talking about a woman I had married, a woman I had known since high school, someone I thought I loved, a non-combatant female to put it simply. No matter what she had done, I couldn’t just sit back and accept his cold declaration. I had no issues with killing the enemy, predators, criminals, especially ones that preyed on the weak. I had even taken down women in the sandbox. They weren’t my proudest moments though. Those had plagued me more than the rest, even though they had been trying to kill our men. They always came in with bombs strapped to their chests on a suicide mission–chaos and death the goal. Those were few and far between, but it didn’t matter. They were still female. I had still taken their lives no matter what the intentions were. I wasn’t programmed to hurt women, regardless of the circumstances behind their actions. I couldn’t let Zach kill Clara, no matter what her intentions were. Yes, if she came at him with a gun, but not in cold-blooded revenge.
But from what I could tell, her intentions had been to take out Alexis, to either force her from the Compound, forced exile, or to bring her out here to kill her. It was the only thing that made sense. For Lex to drive out here, to break down the gates, Clara must have had her at gunpoint or was threatening her with something. God only knew what. All I knew was that Clara had stepped over the line. She had tried to hurt Lex. Clara, my ex, the one I had left Alexis for, the one I had brought into our Compound. The one I had ignored and figured would get the picture. She had attacked Alexis. Alexis, the woman I loved, the woman I wanted to be with, the only thing that had brought me joy in this fucked up world. We couldn’t prosecute Clara. There were no cops, no jails. Killing her would be an eye for an eye, apocalypse justice, but I couldn’t let that happen without some explanation for her actions. There could be something we were missing. We had to implement some kind of order, if not we were no better than the men we pursued. I didn’t want to argue with Zach right now, but I knew if I gave him time, he might rethink his position. So I just held his gaze and stated plainly, “We’ll find them and then we’ll take care of business.”
We would and there was no question about that. There was no way we had come this far to have it end like this.
TWO | Self-Control is for Pussies
ZACH
The humming in my ears, the thick thrumming of my own blood pumping through my veins had finally settled. I had paced the scene for the last hour, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. I had finally centered myself and figured we had gathered as much information from the scene as was possible at this late hour and couldn’t go any further.
Getting behind the wheel of the busted SUV and driving it back to the Compound was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. It was like giving up on Alexis. I wanted to keep going; I wanted to find whoever took Alexis and I wanted to eviscerate them. I wanted to rip out their fucking intestines and feed their shit-packed guts back to them, but I knew there was nothing we could do in this oppressive darkness. The roads were pitch black. Even PreZ, this area of the state had been dark and hard to access. Now without the lights of New Orleans giving us reference, we might as well be in outer space. There was no point of reference, no way of telling how far we had come or how far we had to go. We wouldn’t be able to spot any Z activity or any of the living, even with the assistance of the lights of the vehicles. Unless they put up a big neon sign that said “we are here,” we were out of luck.
The moon was in its last quarter, barely giving off any light, allowing millions of stars to show in the night sky. I made a mental note to get my hands on astronomy texts. In this new world, knowing how to pinpoint your location using constellations would be vital, kicking it real old school. I should have done that when the shit first hit, but there was no use dwelling on it, hindsight, and all that shit.
I didn’t want to study the stars, though. I wanted to beat someone’s face in. I wanted to get my hands around Clara’s neck and fucking squeeze the life out of her. I didn’t want to think about the fact that those rednecks might have Alexis and were doing God knows what to her.
“Fuck!” I punched the windshield, a large crack spider webbing across its face. My knuckles stung, and when I glanced down at them, I saw that they were bleeding. I gripped the steering wheel tightly. The pain felt good.
“Can you see through that?” Blake asked calmly. I don’t know how he could deal with this shit. He was acting all laid back like this was just some normal night, some normal patrol. He had broken down after I had called out Clara and threatened her life. Yeah, that got him all hot in the ass, but now he was all cool and calm…and he claimed he loved Lex, fucking bastard.
I picked up the shotgun next to me and smashed the rest of the windshield out. The destruction and the sound of breaking glass felt good.
“Now I can.” I put the SUV into gear and did a quick turn heading back to the compound.
“We’ll find her,” Blake said quietly.
“This is all your fucking fault!” I yelled, unable to hold it in anymore. I knew it was unfair the moment it was out of my mouth, but I had to blame someone and Blake was convenient. I looked over and he was looking down at the Glock he had in his hand. He wouldn’t look at me.
“It is. I shouldn’t have left in the first place. I know that shit, but I couldn’t–I just couldn’t…and I think the people I picked up are good people. We’ve become close, almost family. I didn’t realize Clara was this fucked up. I should have realized it, but I didn’t. I regret not being more aware of what she was doing. I’ll take the blame for that, Zach. Let me have it. I thought if I ignored her she would move on. I would never have thought she would do this, though.” He still wouldn’t look up from his piece.
“Crazy bitch,” I muttered. But I got it. I should have known there was a threat within our walls. I should have seen that Clara was unstable. But Blake should have known that Clara would take crazy to a whole new level. Why didn't he see it? Why didn’t we both see it?
“Who do you think grabbed them?” he asked.
“My bets are on the Pearl River group, those fucking rednecks. They had to be scouting the area, looking for movement, any sign of our base. The gunshot and the sound of the crash must have led them right to the women.”
“Yeah, there is no one else in the area, it’s gotta be them,” he agreed.
“I don’t know what their intentions are, hold them for r
ansom, or maybe for their own uses. It’s driving me crazy. All I know is someone took her. She wouldn’t have left on her own.”
“Well, whoever took her, it’s going to be the last thing they do,” Blake growled, finally showing some emotion.
“They have no idea what they’ve started,” I said under my breath.
“It’s been awhile since we kicked in doors together, brother." Blake finally looked at me and I recognized that look. I hadn't seen it in a long time. It was hungry, not for food, or sex, or even power, but blood.
“I have a feeling this time it’s gonna be a lot more satisfying,” I laughed and knew I was sporting the same look.
THREE | Fox holes and Assholes
BLAKE
Zach began rounding up the troops the moment we got back to the compound. Martinez had repaired the gate, and the grunts were mingling in the cafeteria waiting for orders. I forgot how good it was to have loyal team members ready and willing to go to bat for you. My badly thought out adventure to Houston had been an eye-opener as I paired up with civilians to get it done. They were good in their own way, but this group of highly trained soldiers couldn’t be stopped if they put their minds to it.
I grabbed a map from a box we had in the corner and laid it out on one of the tables.
“We’ve spotted them here and here.” I pointed to two spots on the map. “Where was the road block, Ito?” Vance stepped up and pointed to a location on the map. They were all within one mile of each other. The only thing in that area that was habitable was the marina and a bait shop. From canvassing in the area, I knew there were maybe four to five camps along the road, a handful more down a backroad. They could be in any of those structures, but it made sense that they would set up in the marina. It had a small restaurant and bait shop and most likely had a lot of supplies for fishermen, which would be very useful.
“They have to be holed up in the marina or one of the camps that line this area.” I circled an area near the Rigolets. “So far we’ve seen five of them, four men, and one woman. We’ll head out before dawn and do recon. I want to get a fix on their location and then go in hard. I want everyone to look intimidating, fully armed, armor and coms on all of us. Ito, Peters, y’all stay back and guard the compound, I don’t want to leave us vulnerable. This is where we hit first.” I pointed to the marina on the map where we first spotted the three people that ran out into the road after that first Pearlington run.
“Get some sleep in the barracks, revelry is in five hours.” Zach marched off without even a backward glance. I assumed he was going to bunk in his office. Clara had been staying in mine. I wasn’t going there. I trudged upstairs and grabbed an empty bunk in the co-ed dorm, threw a blanket down, and lay on the thin mattress fully dressed. I knew there was blood on me; I knew I should probably take my boots off, but I couldn’t force myself to do anything else.
It wasn’t like I was going to sleep. My mind kept fixating on Alexis and what she might be going through. Sleep was a luxury that I couldn’t succumb to, not when my mind wouldn’t turn off the horrors of what could be happening.
I would stop at nothing to get Lex back. But when we got her back, would she be the same? I felt like an asshole even thinking this. She was Lex, she was tough, there was nothing we could throw at her that gave her pause. She was amazing. During our initial escape out of the city, she had blown my mind. Even when she was at the point of breaking, she had kept going, pushing through it. She always kept moving forward.
She would do it again; she wouldn’t let this shit get her down. She was the strongest person I knew. Now I just had to find her.
FOUR | A Good Perv is a Dead Perv
ALEXIS
Bright light shot across my vision.
Whack.
Sharp pain brought me to consciousness.
The smell of body odor and piss had me coughing and jerking away from the sharp sting across my face. I tried to push my body away, but I was held in place, my body heavy, my arms forced to my sides, my back rigid.
I couldn’t move. My back was up against a wall or the back of a chair and I was being held tightly in place. I tried to move my hands, but they were bound. The pain flaring from my wrists clued me in that they were bound too tight. Pins and needles popped up all over my body and I sucked in a large breath of air as if I had been under water. It was hard to take a deep breath and when I pushed my chest forward, I felt tight restraints across me.
The pain came again, hard against my cheek. Words followed, but they were muffled. I could barely make them out. My ears buzzed and my brain was foggy, slow to function.
I blinked, my eyes fluttering, trying to make out the blurry shapes in front of me. Wherever I was, it was dim. I could smell the acrid scent of wood smoke and candle wicks, and a rank smell underneath of dirty humans.
“The bitch is finally awake,” a gruff voice said. This time I could make out the words.
My eyes focused on a shape in front of me. It was a man. He was much older than me and I thought he looked familiar. The man from the truck we ran off. My brain finally connected the shapes and faces with the memory.
“Morning, sunshine,” he said, smiling and revealing rotten, yellow teeth. I had seen better grills on a zombie.
“Fuck you.” I spat whatever was in my mouth at him, either mucous or blood. I couldn’t tell, but it worked. The crack of his hand across my face was almost worth it. It threw my head back violently and I saw stars again, my vision going back to blurry.
“She’s a spitfire, not like the other one,” a woman’s voice said. “This is the one that killed Henry?” A woman came into view; she was just as fugly as the man.
Her words registered. I had killed the man I stabbed. I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. It sounded insane even to my own ears.
“Whatcha laughing at, bitch?” the man asked. I just glared at him. I could feel something dripping from my mouth. He must have split my lip. I wanted to spit it in his face again, but he would probably just hit me harder. There was nowhere I could go, a slight tug at my restraints and I knew they would hold. I glanced around the room. It was some kind of store. There were shelves along the wall, all empty, and I could just make out a counter toward the back of the room.
The darkness flickered from the candlelight and I was unsure if there were more people around me that I couldn’t see. Candles lined the shelves, little tea candles that had fire hazard written all over them. I saw one man hanging out to the side. He hadn’t spoken, and when I glanced in his direction, he leered at me. He had to be at least six feet tall, but his weight and general out of shape appearance didn’t intimidate me. He was just some fat pervy fuck.
“Gimme some ‘lone time with her, she won’t be no spitfire after I have a few minutes on top of her.” The man spit on the floor to emphasize his classiness and leered at me again.
“Shut your nasty mouth, Frank,” the woman hissed back. “I ain’t gonna be no party to that kind of shit in my house. Plus, these girls are worth some really good bartering. You heard what that biker said, you bring ‘em pretty girls, he’ll give us food, a lot of food. I don’t know ‘bout you, but I ain’t had a good meal in a long time. I’d be more worried about my belly than my dick if I was you. You rape this one, they gonna know. They said no spoiled goods.”
“We gotta go all the way into Lakeview for that. We don’t even have the gas for a trip around the corner. Let’s trade ‘em back to their men for some food or something and then we can rough ‘em up a bit,” Leery McPerv argued.
“You ain’t there, you ain’t seen their guns, they was like a fuckin’ army,” Nasty Teeth shot back. “They gonna be pissed to lose their women. They won’t trade with us, they’ll just come in and kill us. We got maybe two shotguns each. I saw them holding shit the military has. Fuck that shit. We can siphon enough to get a full tank for the truck and get the fuck out of here. I ain’t hanging around for those men to come get us. We done with this area, for sure.”
“He�
�s right. I’ll handle the gas. I sent Phil to round us up some. We need to get these girls gone and fast. Those men are gonna be looking for them and I don’t want to be anywhere near these girls when they come to find ‘em. In fact, I think it’s about time we move on from this place completely. We should be moving north up near Mississippi,” the woman said. She turned to me and her hard eyes squinted at me. “Your men gonna come for you, girl, or were you running from them?”
Live (NOLA Zombie Book 3) Page 2
