Find Me (Life After the Outbreak, Book 2)

by Baker, LJ

  Dan stood and walked right up to Will. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

  "It means," Will said, and pushed Dan backward a foot. "That food, or water, or sleeping bags, those are things friends share. Girlfriends are not."

  Dan pressed his lips together and balled his fists at his sides. Will was asking for a fight, and I wasn't sure how much longer Dan would hold off. I tried to squeeze myself in between the two, but Will held his arm out to block me.

  "You two need to stop this." I never had two men fight over me before, but I couldn't imagine anyone actually enjoying it.

  Dan looked at me and took a step back. "No one is trying to share your girlfriend, Will. She isn't a towel. Are you that insecure?"

  Will tensed, and I thought he was going to punch Dan right then. "It's not insecurity when you are trying to steal her out from under me. You don't think anyone notices how you act with her?"

  Dan laughed. "She isn't a prize to be won, Will. She's a girl that we both clearly care about. How exactly do you want me to treat her?"

  Will tried to take a step forward again, and I took the opportunity to slip between them with my back against Dan. "Will, stop it."

  For a moment, I thought he was going to back down, but then Dan put his hand on my shoulder and Will's anger renewed.

  "See that's exactly what I'm talking about," Will hissed.

  He was making no sense. "What are you talking about?" I asked.

  Will's eyes moved to Dan's hand on my shoulder and narrowed.

  Dan threw his hands in the air and shook his head. "You can't be serious? You don't want me to touch her? Two nights ago, you had no problem with her in a sleeping bag with me. What the hell is your problem now?"

  "Will, you're being ridiculous." I took his hand and tried to diffuse the situation. "You have nothing to worry about."

  Will pushed my hand off his. "Stay out of this. It has nothing to do with you."

  He was joking, right?

  "This has everything to do with me. You two need to stop fighting. We are on the same side here. There's enough out there trying to kill us. We can't be at each other's throats, too."

  I turned to Dan for a little back up. He could take Will with one hand tied behind his back, but I hoped for my sake that he wouldn't try. My eyes met his and pleaded for help. Will wasn't listening to me, and I wasn't sure what else to do.

  Dan's face softened at once, and the tension left his shoulders. "She's right. Look man, I'm not trying to steal your girl. Why don't we just calm down and get Andi home in one piece."

  Will looked from Dan to me and for a moment, I thought he was going to argue, but then he let out a breath and nodded.

  Fight avoided.

  At least for now.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The closer we got to home, the more hope I had that we would make it back without any major battle between the guys. Neither of them said anything too antagonistic for at least five miles, and we didn’t have a lot further to go. We were coming across more flesh eaters, though, so we split up a bit and had Will walk ahead a few yards, while Dan hung back with me.

  "You okay?"

  Dan turned his head to look at me with a sad smile. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

  "You know why. You're not mad at me anymore?"

  "Sweetheart, I was never mad at you." He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. "And don't roll your eyes at me."

  "You were so. And don't say stupid shit if you don't want me to roll my eyes."

  "Andi, I seriously wasn't angry with you. Why would you even think that?"

  "You wouldn't look at me. You were being all quiet and sad. Dude, you grabbed my hand to stop me from touching you. How else would you explain that?"

  Dan took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. But, it wasn't you."

  I reached over and took his hand. "I don't want you to be upset with me."

  He glanced ahead at Will and dropped my hand. "Angel, I promise you I wasn't upset with you. I'm sorry I gave you that impression. It wasn't you."

  "You're mad at Will?"

  "I'm not mad at anyone. The situation … maybe, I don't know. I'm fine."

  A group of four flesh eaters came up from the west, and Dan jogged over to Will to help take them out. I let the boys handle it and took the opportunity to stay back and rest on an overturned picnic table. Zombies didn’t flip over tables, and it made no sense to me that the living needed to destroy everything they came across. It would be nice to see people working together and making things in this shit world better for a change.

  That was probably one of the things I liked about Jay and Mira. Even though they lost most of their group, they were trying to live a normal life. Or as normal as anyone could live anymore. They were willing to take me and my friends in and let us be part of their community. They got up everyday, cooked, worked, did all the things that needed to be done, and they didn’t bitch about what was wrong. They just lived with it, as they would have lived before everything went to hell.

  Everything looked clear, so I waved over to the guys and went to find a secluded place to pee. Traveling with two guys definitely had its advantages, but there were certain times when a girl needed to be alone.

  It didn’t take long, but by the time I walked back over to the guys, they were yelling at each other.

  "What the hell is your problem anyway? She's yours. I fucking get it. Why don't you just piss on her to mark your territory?" Dan threw his backpack down and took a few steps toward Will.

  "I really don't think that you do get it. If you did, you'd stay the fuck away from her."

  "We're friends. We're living in the same place. How the hell can I stay away from her." Dan took another step toward Will. "And she doesn't want me to stay away from her."

  The rage in Will's eyes bubbled over, and his whole body tensed. I knew something had to be done, or someone was going to throw a punch.

  "You guys need to stop this now." I tried to get between them, but both of them blocked me.”

  "Stay out of this, Andi." Will gave me a gentle push to keep me out of the way.

  I stumbled over a branch and twisted my ankle. Dan reached out and grabbed my arm to keep me upright. It hurt like a bitch, but I was too angry to acknowledge the pain at that moment.

  "I'm not going to stay out of it, Will. You two are acting like idiots, and you need to stop. You are both too important to me to have you at each other's throats all the time." I met Will's eyes, then Dan's. "Janet would be so disappointed in you two."

  With that, I walked away and left them to kill each other or not. I couldn't stand there and watch it any longer. A stabbing pain shot through my ankle with every step, but there was no way I was going to stop.

  "Where are you going?" Will called out.

  I ignored him and kept walking. Every step hurt more and more, but I needed to get some space between me and them. At first I felt guilty and upset over their fighting, but I was starting to get angry. They were acting like children, and tantrums were best ignored.

  Will caught up to me and pulled at my arm. "Andi, stop. You can't go off by yourself."

  "I can, and I will. If you two don't stop this fighting, you're both going to lose me. Life is too short for this shit. Just frigging stop it already." I yelled the last bit and Will clamped his hand over my mouth as soon as I finished.

  Before I realized what was going on, Dan was by my side and he had his bow drawn. I struggled from under Will's hand and looked around. There was at least twenty flesh eaters coming from the north and another dozen or so from the west.

  Just great.

  Will handed me my bow, which I must have dropped when I nearly fell, and readied his own.

  "We aren't actually going to take them on, are we?"

  Both Will and Dan said "No!" at the same time. There were just too many of them for the three of us. We might be able to do it if we had to, but it wasn't worth the risk if we could manage to get away safely.

  I
glanced around at the oncoming flesh eaters. "What's the plan? Because it sure looks like they are coming from all directions now."

  I wasn't exactly in the mood to die.

  "Shit. There's less over that way." Dan pointed to a spot where maybe six flesh eaters hobbled toward us. "We could take those out and hope there aren't more?"

  Will turned to see what Dan was talking about and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

  I felt my ankle swelling inside my sneaker and I knew I wasn't going to be able to run. "I think there's a little problem with that plan."

  "There's not that many, babe. We can take out the stragglers and make a run for it before the others catch up." Will squeezed my hand. "We'll be fine. Don't be afraid."

  "I'm not afraid, you idiot. I'm hurt. I don't think I can run."

  Will and Dan both turned and looked at me, confused.

  "What are you talking about?" Will glanced over me. "You look fine."

  I tried to put pressure on my foot and pain seared up my leg. "Yeah, not gonna work."

  Dan held onto my arm with his free hand and glared at Will. "You pushed her."

  Will's eyes widened. "You got hurt?"

  I shook my head. " Didn't we cover that?"

  The horde was getting closer, and we had to do something. Stand and fight or make a run for it, and I was in no shape to do much of either.

  "I could carry you.” Dan suggested.

  "Will can't take them all on himself, and you can't fight with me on your back."

  As I watched the dead bastards get closer, part of me wanted to tell them to leave me and get the hell out of there, but I knew there was no way either one of them would ever leave me.

  Dan picked me up and flung me over his shoulder. "We'll see."

  Dan and Will took out the closest three and made a run straight for another six. A few feet from them, Dan set me down next to a tree and helped Will with the next batch. I pulled out my bow and managed to hit one that was about to take a bite out of Dan's shoulder.

  More came out of nowhere, and I did my best to help, but it seemed like we were losing the battle. Three flesh eaters were on their way toward me, and I was out of arrows. I slung the bow over my shoulder and pulled the knife from my belt. The guys were busy with a few of their own, so I needed to handle them on my own.

  I took a step onto my injured foot and almost fell over from the pain. It was swelled up to nearly double its size, and if it wasn't broken, then it was definitely the worst sprain of my life. The tree kept me from hitting the ground, and I managed to stay on my feet.

  With a deep breath and adrenaline coursing through my veins, I lunged forward and buried the knife into one rotting skull. Another grabbed my arm and tried to sink in its dead teeth, but I spun around on my good foot and pushed it to the ground. While it struggled to get back up, I took care of another.

  By the time the one I pushed over dragged it's broken limbs into a semi-standing position, I was able to slam my knife down into its head. There were bodies everywhere, and more flesh eaters were on their way. I unlaced my shoe and pried it from my foot. I wasn't sure whether it hurt more with it on or off. Not that it mattered. Getting it off was bad enough. There was no way it would go back on.

  "You okay, Andi?" Will called over between kills.

  "Sure. Great. So glad we came out here." I shot him a fake smile.

  There was a small break in the horde, so Dan collected some of the used arrows and distributed them around to the three of us.

  "We should push further," Will said.

  "Agreed." Dan picked me back up and threw me over his shoulder.

  We made it a few hundred yards before we had to stop again and fight another dozen off. We weren't all that far from the basement, but we couldn't exactly lead them right back with us.

  It seemed like more were on the way and coming from all directions. I didn't see how we were going to be able to keep up fighting them off. I hadn't seen that many throughout the entire outbreak.

  "They're just getting worse. We can't fight dozens of them at once."

  "We'll be fine, Andi." Will put his arm around me after Dan once again put me down to rest. "It's not as many as it looks."

  Dan raised an eyebrow at Will. He was much less likely to sugarcoat things the way Will did. Maybe he was just in denial.

  We braced ourselves for the inevitable as a patch of undead made their way in our direction. Dan's accuracy with the bow was way above mine or Will's, so he took out a few of them on his own before they could get close. He fired at them, one by one, making every shot, until we were out of arrows.

  Will and I readied our knives, when from the distance, we heard gunshots. It wasn't a sound we heard often so it got all our attention. It got the attention of the flesh eaters as well, and a lot of them turned and started off in the direction of the sound.

  The guys took advantage of the shots and took out at least six that had turned and were going off toward the noise. Dan ran back and picked me up again, and we took the opportunity to get the hell out of there.

  "You going to be able to carry her down the basement stairs like that?" Will asked Dan.

  He put me down on the front steps of my old house and shrugged. "Probably.” Then he turned to me. “What have they been feeding you at that military base?”

  I was about to yell at him for making a joke about me being heavier when I noticed drops of blood dripping from Will’s arm onto the white steps. “Will, are you hurt?”

  Will looked down at the small puddle of blood that grabbed my attention and glanced over his arm. He shrugged one side of the jacket off his arm and pushed the sleeve up to his elbow. It was bloody and clearly cut open. Dan handed him a water bottle to wash the drying blood off and get a better look. A jagged cut about two inches long appeared and Will's eyes immediately found mine.

  Dan took a step forward to get a closer look. “Is that a bite?”

  The whole world spun around me and my stomach jumped into my throat. I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from hurling that last protein bar up onto the porch.

  “It’s not, right?” My voice cracked, and I was practically begging him to agree.

  The color drained from Will’s face and he held his hand over the wound. “Andi, I’m so sorry.”

  Acknowledgements

  So much has changed since I wrote the first book in this series, and I can't even imagine how I made it through without the amazing nutjobs I've met since. The writing community has the most awesome people that will help, offer advice, and tell you you're being a shithead when necessary. Seriously, you guys are the best, yo. Yeah, I said that.

  There are a couple of people though, that I never could have done this without. To Staci, with her grammar-nazi, bootcamp-to-better writing style, you are one of the most amazing people I've ever met. You made me a better writer and held my hand while I sobbed like a baby over edits. I couldn't have done this without you. For reals. You. Are. Amazing. And Orry, who listened to me bitch and complain (sometimes about Staci!) and basically told me to suck it up every time I needed to do just that, though maybe sometimes you could have been a bit more gentle. I would have lost that tiny shred of sanity I have left without you there. Thanks for being you, waffle iron.

  I have to also say a big thank you to my beta readers because I couldn't have gotten it right without you. Especially Vanessa, who wanted to stab her eyes out because I used their names too many times. And Brandy, who had too much wine and way too many dirty thought about Dan. You guys rock!

  I can't forget the people who entered my contest to create a character in the book. To Jennifer Dyche, who came up with the housekeeper zombie, and Tarnya Rutheford, who gave me the idea for the amazing Hadley. Your ideas were great, and Hadley, well, I just love that odd girl. I hope you love the results of your inspiration!

  Not everything changes, though. My family has stuck it out through yet another book. Despite the times I have yelled at them to be quiet, or the many occasio
ns they have had to endure the same song on repeat for three days, they haven't bolted yet. I appreciate each and every one of you. Yes, Roger, that means you too, even if this is the only page of the book you will ever read.

  Author Bio

  L J lives on the Jersey Shore with her husband, four kids, two cats, and an inherited dog from hell (a.k.a. the sewer gremlin). Though writing has always been her first passion, she got a degree in psychological counseling and worked in the mental health field for awhile, which she finds very helpful in dealing with her crazy family. She is a lover of all different types of music and books, switching between genres so wildly it sometimes makes people wonder if she has multiple personalities. She is most likely to be found writing romance stories of all kinds (contemporary, erotic, new adult, young adult, fantasy, paranormal, etc.). When she's not writing, she prefers to spend her time reading, taking photos, watching Doctor Who or Supernatural, or spending time with her family.

  She would love to hear what you think of her work or answer any questions you might have. Please feel free to visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorLJBaker or check out her website at www.lj-baker.com.