“Oh my God! Jess?” The room spun slightly. Jude put his arm around my waist to keep me upright. I stared with undisguised shock. It was her. Her long, straight blond hair had been chopped short and spiked up on the top of her head and she had several ear piercings. Her arms were more muscular and her face was hard. She had traded in her pink, designer clothing and heels for a black button up shirt and black leather pants. She’d changed so much that I could barely see the old Jess at all in the young woman standing before me.
Then my mind caught up with everything. Germain. Germain wasn’t a first name … it was a last name. Jessica Germain. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Jessica was the leader of an underground militia.
My laughter, bordering on hysteria, echoed throughout the room. Jude and Tex glanced at each other and then at me, clearly at a loss. I laughed so hard I cried. I laughed until my sides cramped.
What had the world fucking come to?
JESSICA’S EYE BORE INTO MINE, her jaw clenched, and it seemed by sheer will alone that she didn’t launch herself across the room to choke the life out of me. My shock began to wear off halfway through my bout of hysteria and then the numbness and betrayal began to set it. Still, Jessica didn’t necessarily know that we had come to Charlotte to seek the leader of the underground militia out. I could still hope that 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 even 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.” I raised my brow at that and she clucked her tongue as she began walking toward us.
“Did you?”
“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 asked softly. A flicker of pain was blinked away and replaced with rage. A white-hot rage so intense and all-consuming that it terrified me.
“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. 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 was a long time ago now anyway.” 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 smart and intuitive. I couldn’t pull off much of a lie without her sniffing it out. So I didn’t over think it, I just went with my gut.
“Jude and I ran across a guy—half dead—that kept mumbling incoherently 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 with a raised brow. “We were obviously not needed. You all seem to be doing fine here.”
“Yes we do, don’t we?” she murmured, her eyes searching my face.
“Where are all the soldiers? Who’s in charge?” I asked wide-eyed, watching 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. “And to answer your other question … Jim 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 just a little too easily. Ole dead-eye-Jim 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 shot-gun spot next to Jim, 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 Jessica, but it was Jim who spoke this time. Evidently Jessica 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,” he asked Jim.
“We’d be glad to pull our weight while we’re here,” I interjected. Jessica and Jim both stared at us for a moment, making my insides all jittery.
“We’d be glad to have you for a few days,” Jim 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, didn’t match his words or his smile. Jude’s hand tensed behind my neck as we both smiled back pleasantly.
“We appreciate the invitation and the hospitality,” Jude said through his forced smile. Jim 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 as we walked quickly through the compound. My mind was still trying to catch up to the day’s events and my body was just plain tired. Tex opened a door 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. Tex was already gone and the door was closed. How long had I zoned out? I relaxed and leaned into Jude, allowing myself the comfort of his arms.
“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 last two years have changed people, Mel, and not for the better.” I knew what he said was true, but could the last two years 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 Jim guy creeped me out. Something about him just isn’t right and they both are hiding things.” 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 are even still alive,” Jude said. I flinched. Could she have killed them all or kept them prisoner? Why would she even do such a thing? They probably could have just stayed as guests with the soldiers in charge. So, why the power move? It didn’t make sense,
unless Jim had her brain washed. 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 as I sat down on the bed. I hadn’t realized how bad my arms and legs were hurting from our day’s activities. We both kicked our shoes off and without even the tiniest bit of hesitation, Jude crawled into the bed and I spread out next to him. I fell asleep almost immediately.
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. Of course, once everything came back to me in all its awesomeness, I instantly wished I could just 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 and I was still clinging to a faint hope that things weren’t what they seemed 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 just in over her head and I could somehow talk some sense into her.
The bed beside me was empty. I made myself as presentable as possible, which meant throwing my hair back in a ponytail and scrubbing my face, before heading out the door to find Jude to 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 and 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 the door. Unless shooting the locks off or a 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. Just as 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 body. I was yanked backwards and even though I tried to put up a fight, 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 small, 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 as 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 quietly. “You understand?” I nodded as I narrowed my eyes. 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 as he stepped back and released me. I turned quickly 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 through clenched teeth, with my hands on my hips. “Scaring the crap out of a woman will not likely get you on their sweet side,” I snapped. 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. I swallowed in the darkness, feeling my heart rate pick up. Tension made breathing in the small space almost impossible.
“If I wanted on your sweet side, you would know it, Melody,” he said gruffly. His hand came up and gently caressed the side of my face. For some reason unknown to me, I allowed it. “I don’t normally have to kidnap women to get their attention.” I smiled 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 just 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, that I rate a kidnapping?” I asked with a smirk. A single word wiped the smile of my face.
“Germain,” he answered softly.
“What about her?” I asked with a sigh.
“I know she was once your friend. But, you need to understand that that time might as well have been a different life time. 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. Let go right 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 don’t understand what happened to her. You never knew her from before … if you had, you would understand why I can’t believe that she is responsible 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 on my shoulder as he began telling his story.
“I knew Jessica’s dad,” he said so softly that I didn’t think I’d heard him correctly.
“How?” I asked.
“I was in my third year in the Army and had just moved to the 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. Another chill swept my body and Tex absentmindedly rubbed his hand up and down my arm to soothe himself as he spoke.
“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.” He sighed and continued once again. “The Germains were also off base at the time. Everything was in chaos here and all around the globe. Cities were trying to evacuate, but that just clogged all the exits out of the city and made 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.” My head buzzed and my eyelids fluttered shut as he spoke, his hand still stroking my arm in a gentle motion. “Jessica blames the military for the death of her entire family. If they had been let through, if they had allowed them in, they would probably still be alive today. Instead, she had to not only watch her family die at the hands of the undead, but she also had to take down her own little brother and survive out in the infested and overrun city for over a year by herself.” I gasped. Now I could see it. She had so much hurt, so much loss, and so much blame. Now it all had come to a head. A head of pure, undiluted rage. She was a ticking time bomb. She was dangerous. I gritted my teeth.
“How do you know all that about Jessica?�
� I asked wearily.
“About six months ago we had heard through some of our scouts that there was a group out in the city that was planning a takeover, planning to try and take the base here. We didn’t really believe it was possible, of course. We’re well fortified and you’ve seen what it is like outside of the fences. Even if a group made it past the horde of zombies, we’d have seen them coming a mile away.” I nodded. That’s what I didn’t understand. How had it been possible for any sized group to take over the base? “My commanding officer sent me to see what I could find out.” I gasped. They sent him out into the city? I could feel Tex’s smile more than see it.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m good at scouting, evidently even in the middle of hordes of zombies. Anyway, I easily found my way into Jessica’s little ragtag group. At that time, they only had about twenty-five people and I was quick to dismiss Jim and his followers as not having a chance in hell at taking the base. I was just about to make my way back when I spotted Jessica as she came back from a supply run. She looked so different, but I immediately recognized her. I spoke to her often over the next few weeks and when I thought I could trust her, I asked her to come back to the base with me.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, sighing deeply. “I guess I just thought maybe if I could save her, then I could let go of some of the guilt for failing everyone else. You know? Just a little. Instead of helping an innocent young woman, I ended up bringing the leader of the group right into the middle of the base. I didn’t suspect her … no one did. Not until it was too late and she had snuck her entire group into the base and took it over in the middle of the night.”
State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) Page 12
