“A few minutes. Let’s storm it now.”
We line up at the door. The guy takes a pistol from his holster and kicks the door open. The house is dark and empty. There is a rotting smell inside. A Muncher stumbles to the door. The guy shoots it in the head.
He goes inside coming back with nothing. A boy with brown hair throws a pebble at the house angrily. “He changed addresses.”
He studies my face. “I’m her boyfriend. It’s a long story.”
“Gavin let her date?” I ask.
Gavin turns to me. “He’s a nice kid. I didn’t see the harm in it.”
“Back to square one. Where the hell is she? Where could he be holding her?” he asks.
A car flies down the road. The guy and the kid glance at each other.
“That’s his car we’re following him,” the kid says.
“You remember the last time we did that?” the guy asks.
We get back into the car. The guy speeds up. He stops abruptly. I get out of the car.
“Why are we stopped?” I ask.
“We don’t have any gas. I wasted it trying to get here and to that house. I’m Dave, who are you?” the guy asks.
“I’m May, Gavin’s mom.”
He nods. “I’m glad you’re alive. They need you.”
I tell Alex our situation. He tells me and Dave that he will get gas. We agree with the plan. Dave tells him about a gas station near a restaurant. It’s twenty minutes away from where we are.
There are stores around us. Some of them are sports stores or small businesses. I make a mental note of possible run locations.
Why did he kidnap Rain? He is as twisted as his father. If she’s safe when we get her I’m happy. I should have told Kevin about this but he needs to help Zane’s group.
Munchers start coming from the store corners. I get in the driver’s seat. The dead close in on us eventually. They bang on the windows and doors. I back the car up and go forward hitting them. They go flying. I run over the ones on the ground.
I shoot some of them through the window. There is a small group left. Dave backs up hitting the rest.
I check the time and it’s been thirty minutes since Alex left. I hope nothing happened to the kid. I walk to Dave’s car. “Call him. See if he is okay,” I say.
The woman presses the button. The radio crackles, there is a scream. A girl says leave him alone.
“That’s Rain’s voice,” I say.
“Nya she’s at the Desert Café come get us, just you Nya,” Alex says.
“There’s space in my car now we need to get there,” I say.
We pile into my car. We’re so close. Xavier sits in the front seat. He holds a blue crystal necklace in his hands.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“I was going to give it to Rain, I forgot to.” He has a sad expression on his face.
I touch him on the shoulder. “You’ve been searching for her, putting your life on the line to save her?” I ask.
He nods. “Yes.”
I put my hand on the wheel. “You will get to give it to her. You guys can date too. I’m okay with it,” she says.
Gavin’s eyes light up. “Does that mean I can date Sarah?” he asks.
I glare at him in the mirror “I’ll see about that,” I say with a smile.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN-ALEX
I come to on the floor. My hands and feet are tied. There is duct tape on my mouth. My vision clears, there are booths and tables around me. I’m in a restaurant.
Blake is standing by me. “You killed my boys, I heard it on the radio. I am glad that you did kill Colt. He was lippy and stupid. That doesn’t anger me. Those escape attempts made me think that you needed to adjust so I forgave you. I’m done forgiving. You said you would be my sister. You lied to me. I’m going to kill your group then you,” he says.
He goes in the kitchen. I hear metal clanking around. I try to tear the duct tape from my hands. The door opens. Alex comes in.
He whispers for me to be quiet. He grabs a knife from the table and cuts the duct tape off my hands. I rip the duct tape off my hands. I untie my feet.
I catch something on his right arm. His jacket sleeve is rolled up. He was bit.
“You got bit?” I ask.
“Yeah. I found you though. It’s going to be okay,” he says.
Blake opens the kitchen doors across from us. He claps his hands. “Good job you found her. Is the group waiting for you or are they on their way?” he asks.
“Nya’s car broke down I was going to get gas,” he says.
Blake pulls his gun from its holster. He aims it at Alex. I get in front of the gun.
“He’s bit killing him is stupid. Let us say goodbye,” I say.
Blake lowers the gun. “I’ll be generous. You can have ten minutes that’s it.”
I step back.
“The others are twenty minutes away. Their car needs gas but I will tell them that you are here,” he whispers in my ear.
“No whispering,” Blake says.
“You stay alive. You’re a good kid. You can make it. You are so strong and your cousin is too. You will make it out of this. You guys have what it takes to endure all of this. I lived in Vegas with my dad. The day this happened I had a fight with my parents about my girlfriend. She wanted to move and I wanted to live with her. They didn’t agree with it.
“I left the house and went to a restaurant where I was supposed to meet my girlfriend. She never showed and the dead were just coming in. I ran to my parent’s house first. They were gone. I ran and found you guys.
“You are family to me. You took me in no questions asked. The kids and Sarah and Gavin are my siblings. The adults are extended family. You get it,” he says.
“I do. I can’t watch this happen to you,” I say with tears in my eyes.
He holds my shoulders, “I can’t kill myself. I’m scared to. Will you do it for me?” he asks.
I’m bewildered. “What?” I ask.
“It’s a lot to ask but I need someone to do it for me,” he says.
The world floats from view. I can’t do this. I can’t do any of it. Alex is my friend. He helped me talk to Gavin about dating, he cooked for us. He told me how to handle things with Xavier. He gave me advice like a big brother.
“Hey, you okay?” he asks.
“No.”
Blake shifts his weight to the other foot. “Are you done yet?” he asks.
Alex lets go of me and turns to him. “Give me some time.”
“I’m scared,” I say.
He holds my hands, “I’ll be okay. Maybe I’ll reincarnate, maybe I’ll visit you as a ghost.” He gives me a weak smile. Blake aims the gun at him.
“I can’t watch anyone else die,” I say with tears welling up in my eyes.
He has tears in his eyes too. “You are going to have to. You’ll learn to live with it. It’s going to be fine. One day you will wake up and not think about all the horrible deaths that happened. You’ll only think about how happy everyone is. The happy times with those who passed on. One day Gavin will have kids and you’ll have kids and it will be okay. You’ll find happiness in this. I know it.”
Alex has his hand on the button of his walkie. “Nya she’s at the Desert Café come get us, just you Nya.” Blake hits him in the head with his gun.
His head is bleeding. “Stop it!” I yell.
He aims the gun at him. “You have one minute,” he says.
This is the last time I will ever see him again. It wasn’t Alex’s fault or the zombies’ it was all Blake. I will ask for the gun then I will shoot him.
“You are my sister. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. Tell everyone what I said.” A bang goes off, blood splatters in my face and Alex drops on the floor. Blake shot him.
“Time’s up,” he says.
Anger surges through me and I’m on him. I slap the gun out of his hands. It slides on the floor. I punch him in the face. He lands on the floor. He goes for the gun and I drag him by his leg
s in the kitchen. He tries to grab things around him but fails to hold on.
I open the freezer from behind and a zombie grabs me. I turn, it grabs my shirt. I grab a butcher knife on the counter by the stove. I stab it in the middle of the head. Blake grabs me from behind and stabs me in the shoulder. I scream from the pain.
He throws me on the floor. I hit my head on the floor. My vision goes black.
I open my eyes. I’m in a field somewhere. I don’t feel anything. Everything is so pretty.
My mom and dad are standing to my left. They are holding hands. “Where am I?” I ask.
“The afterlife,” Mom says.
I’m confused. “I’m dead?” I ask.
Mom shakes her head. “Yes, but you will go back. We want to tell you that we’re not angry at you for the things you’ve done. We are proud that you are so brave. You do what you have to do to protect the ones you love. We wanted you to know that we love you,” she says.
I hug her and Dad hugs the both of us. “I love you. The night I died wasn’t your fault. We play a part in life. We have to be who we have to be. Sometimes it sucks but you are who you are or you change into who you were meant to be,” he says.
“I love you both,” I tell them.
Mom squeezes me tighter. “Wake up Rain. Be happy after this is over,” she says.
I see Alex far away in the field. He waves to me. “Listen to us. I’m okay now. You will be too.”
A tall girl wearing a pink sundress runs to Alex and hugs him. It’s his girlfriend. Her brown hair is blown back from her face by a gust of wind. They smile and walk away holding hands.
How hard did I hit my head?
I wake up lying next to Alex. Blake is pacing in the kitchen. He must have moved me. Blake is barking orders into the walkie. “You bring Kay here or I shoot her. I want Kay. There is no solution or negotiation. You bring her to me or I kill Rain,” he says.
He comes out of the kitchen. He puts the walkie to my face. “Speak into it. They want to hear you,” he says.
I press the button. “Do what he says. He killed Alex,” I say.
He yanks it from my hands. “Bring her to me or Rain dies.”
The windows shatter. Blake ducks behind a table. I stand up and I’m dizzy. The room is spinning. I fall. Blake runs outside. There are a few more shots. I stand up holding on to the table for support. I walk to the door.
A white car is parked in the parking lot. I see Dave inside. He bangs on the steering wheel.
Blake grabs me holding me at gun point in front of the windows. The car goes in reverse in a couple of minutes. They wouldn’t do that to Kay. They wouldn’t trade her for me, right? Do I want them to?
“What do you want from us?” I ask.
“I want you to witness your people dying in front of you before I kill you. You killed my people I’m evening the score. Dave took my girlfriend away from me. They both are going to die,” he says.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN-NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER
May drove the car fast to the restaurant. We all decided to share a car and find Alex.
I was excited as any boyfriend looking for his missing girlfriend would be. I’m even more excited.
Blake made my list a long time ago, from the first second that she was gone. He will get crossed off the list by me if no one else kills him first.
What matters is Rain being alive and hopefully in good condition. We are outside of the restaurant right now. He is standing over her.
Where’s Alex? I didn’t see him when we drove by the gas station. No one did that I know of.
“You bring Kay here or I shoot her. I want Kay. There is no solution or negotiation. You bring her to me or I kill Rain,” Blake says over the walkie talkie.
“Do what he says. He killed Alex,” Rain says.
Dave screams and shoots the windows with his pistol. Nya takes the gun away from him.
She pushes him. “What the hell are you thinking?” she yells.
The windshield shatters and Dave yells. I look in the middle seat where he is sitting. There is a bullet hole in his shoulder. Blood is soaking through his shirt.
May puts it in reverse and parks by the gas station. Dave is groaning. Nya is holding her hands over his wound.
“What are we going to do?” I ask.
Dave leans his head back. “We are going to go get Kay and we will come up with a plan to get Rain.”
“We are here all ready. We kill him now,” I say.
“No. We are out of ammunition and we can’t go in there or she dies. My shoulder needs to patched up. Sierra can fix it for me,” he says.
I shake my head. This is crazy. “Go, go now! Damnit!” I yell.
May speeds away.
Sarah is surprised by us coming here so soon without Rain. She asks what happened. I tell her.
“I’m going with you guys. That son of a bitch is going to have to fight me too,” she says.
I didn’t know she could talk like that. I mean I knew she could I just thought she didn’t. You live with a shy, sweet girl for weeks, almost a month and you think you got her figured out.
Gavin is shocked by her use of words. “Sure,” he says.
Kay walks in the house. She is wearing a purple sweater, jeans and black boots. Her outfit disguises the fact that she is way too thin. “Where’s Dave?” she asks.
“Next door. He was shot in the shoulder. Sierra is helping him,” I say.
“Oh my god!” she goes to run out of the house. Nya grabs her arm. “We need your help with something. Blake wants you. He is threatening Rain, the girl who found you in the closet. We need a plan,” she says.
“No, I can’t. I’m sorry.” She turns to leave.
Nya pulls her back. She locks eyes with her. “I know what you’re feeling. I know you are afraid of him. He will kill that girl if you leave. She needs all our help. She saved you. You owe her this.”
“She helped almost all of us,” I say.
Kay wiggles from Nya’s grasp. She smooths her hair. “What’s the plan?” she asks.
I shrug “We don’t know.”
“He is an evil person obviously. He wants to exact revenge and then some. He likes to toy with people. He wants me because I left him. He’s obsessed with me. He is obsessed with control. He is a wacko. He wants to play a game let’s play it,” she says.
I walk up to her. “How?”
“I will go in wearing a bullet proof vest. We fill it with fake blood. He thinks I’m dead. When he isn’t aware I get the girl to safety. You guys will be parked behind the store. I shoot him and I bring her to you. Plan B if I can’t make it to the car. You come in and get her and me.
I nod. “That could work. I’m in,” I say.
If we bring guns with Blake’s standoff This is a good plan if he doesn’t know what hit him. This guy is clever. He might surprise us or trick us but we could pull it off.
Dave walks in the house. Kay hugs him asking him if he’s okay. He hugs her and tells her he’s fine. Kay tells him the plan. He pulls back and tells her not to go. She insists mentioning that Rain is the one who let her out of the closet. That she knows how bad Blake is and that she has to rescue her. She tells him that he has no choice. He agrees to it reluctantly.
Dave plans to go to a gun store and a Halloween store to get fake blood.
Our plan is crazy but who says crazy plans don’t work sometimes.
I ask Craven to come along. He is set up in another house. He opens the door, letting me in. I stare in amazement at the armory he has built. All the walls have guns hanging from them. He puts some guns from his arsenal in the car. He tells me he goes prepared. He also said that while we were gone he grabbed some guns figuring they would be useful.
I go in the house where everybody else is. May is talking to Melissa on the couch.
“Let me go too,” Melissa says.
“I’m sorry we need muscle here,” May says.
May notices me. “I’m from a group at a bulk food sto
re. The leader has two sisters that were kidnaped by Blake. I have to get them back. I got so caught up in getting my niece that I forgot,” she says.
Nya joins in “The girls were held in the same place; Rain will know where they are.”
She nods. She bites her nails. I put my hand on her shoulder. “We have this,” I say.
“Yeah, I know. You just don’t have them.” She walks away.
The ride there is intense. A weight is weighing on all of us. If we mess up or if something goes wrong is scaring us. I’m shaking uncontrollably. My hands are clammy. I clasp them together on my lap to keep from shaking.
We have Nya, May and Gavin in the backseat and Dave and I in the front seat. Craven is driving with Sarah and Kay. Sierra, Oliver and Melissa are at the community watching the kids.
Dave parks behind the store. Craven parks behind us. Kay runs inside.
My heart stops and I won’t expect or be prepared for what happens next.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN-SURPRISE!
Blake let go of me after Dave left. He went into the kitchen for food. I can hear him moving things around. Metal is clanking, dishes are being moved. I try to twist my arms to tear the tape off them. I twist one way then the other. I chew on the tape too. The ruckus in the kitchen stops. I hold my breath waiting for him to walk in here. The ruckus begins again. I exhale with relief. I get a small hole on the tape in between my hands. I chew through it some more. I rip the tape right down the middle. I peel it off my hands. I grab a knife from one of the tables. I sit behind the left wall that separates the kitchen and restaurant. I crouch, I grip the knife in my hand tightly.
I don’t care if I die. I don’t care that he has a gun. I’ll kill him for Alex, for Pam. God knows if she is still alive. I hope she is alive. She didn’t deserve to die like that. Alex didn’t. None of us do.
I hear footsteps walking to me. I hold the knife ready to stab. Someone jumps in front of me. I go to stab and Kay grabs my arm.
“It’s me! It’s me! Calm down! Where is he?” she asks.
“In the kitchen.” I lower my hand.
She looks at the kitchen then me. She nods. “Dave is outside. I had an idea but let’s just leave,” she says.
We Are The Survivors Page 20
