Divided We Rot (One Nation Under Zombies Book 3)

by Raymond Lee

  “Maybe we should have closed the door so no one could sneak up on us,” Damian said.

  “Ya think?” Hal replied, the gun he’d picked up after knocking Cruz out in his hand and pointed on the stranger.

  “Scott?”

  Damian and Hal turned their heads just enough to see Raven leaning forward in the bed, blinking as if she couldn’t believe her eyes, without letting the man out of their sight. Hal looked at him and frowned. Damian shrugged, just as puzzled as he was.

  The man’s mouth turned up at the corners in a slight grin, but his eyes remained hard, the gun in his hands never wavering. “Hey, cupcake. These guys hurt you?”

  “No,” she answered. “Lower your gun. How are you even here?”

  “You kind of asked me to come here,” the man answered, raising an eyebrow at Hal. He waited for Hal to lower his gun then lowered his own and holstered it at his hip as he scanned the room. “You sure these guys didn’t… Is that Cruz Thomas?”

  Raven blinked again as she tried to wrap her mind around the mirage in front of her. It had to be a mirage. Scott Richards? She’d just been through hell and the universe decided she hadn’t been through enough trauma so it sent her the cheating, selfish bastard she’d vowed to castrate if she ever came across him again? “They’re my friends. They’re completely safe. What do you mean I asked you to come here? How could I have even done that?”

  He stared at Cruz’s unconscious body a moment longer, his brow furrowed in confusion before returning his attention to her. “You started coming to me a couple weeks after the outbreak, around the time you lost Sky. You asked me over and over to find you, to save you. You don’t recall any of that?”

  “No, because it didn’t happen,” Raven said, her fever-ridden brain struggling to make sense of things. “How do you know about my sister?”

  “You really have no memory of coming to me in my dreams and asking me to find you, guiding me here?”

  What the hell? Raven remembered her parents coming to her in a dream to tell her about Sky, and she remembered their voices waking her from sleep and urging her to run so she didn’t discount the ability of people coming to people in dreams, but her parents were dead. Scott was… Well, he appeared to be alive. She looked at Damian and Hal, saw them looking between her and Scott in complete befuddlement. They appeared alive. She looked over at Cruz. He looked dead, but his chest rose and fell. He was alive… but she’d also seen black smoke come out of him. She’d been led to the cabin by a dog she swore was the same dog she’d buried years ago. She’d been ignored by monsters who should have eaten her. Nothing made sense after… she’d been bitten.

  “Who is this guy?” Damian asked her.

  “A lying, cheating sack of sewage I’d never ask to help me,” she answered as she rubbed her hot, aching temple.

  “That’s hurtful,” Scott said but he grinned, clearly amused.

  None of it was real, Raven realized. She’d fallen from the truck and been bitten. Cruz had brought her to the cabin but the fever had taken over. It was burning through her, making her imagine crazy things like demons and dead dogs. “I didn’t ask for you to come here,” she said. “You didn’t dream of me.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine how hard it is to believe,” he said. “Maybe you didn’t consciously do it. Sky told me you wouldn’t have asked for my help, but I did see you in my dreams and I followed you.”

  “How would Sky have told you anything?” she asked in a tone far more harsh than she’d intended, fearing he was a ghost and Sky was a ghost too.

  “Well, before you led me here you led me to her.” He entered the cabin as he gestured for someone to follow him. “Come on in, kid.”

  The breath stilled in Raven’s lungs as a small girl entered the cabin, stopping beside Richards. She stared at Raven with eyes full of concern, confusion… sadness and betrayal.

  Raven started screaming.

  “I’m not fully comfortable with this,” Richards said, standing in front of the cabin with his arms folded over his chest. Cruz, freshly scrubbed clean of the paint, blood, and grime coating his skin but stuck in the same dirty clothes sat on the ground, sulking. He hadn’t spoken a word since waking up. He just cried in silence.

  “You said yourself they won’t allow her inside if she’s sick,” Hal replied. “She’s sick. Damian will take good care of her here until she’s better and we can come back for her.”

  “I’d prefer to stay with her,” Richards said. “So would her sister.”

  “Her sister just saw her scream like a nut when she took one look at her,” Damian reminded him, stepping away from the door he’d left cracked open so he could watch the little girl as she sat in the chair Cruz had recently vacated, watching her unconscious sister. “Raven’s messed up. Her sister shouldn’t be anywhere near her right now. Trust me, that woman is like family to me. Nothing is going to get past me to hurt her.” He glared at Cruz, still aching to kick his skull in for what he’d done to Raven, demon to blame or not.

  “Yeah, that whole screaming and passing out thing wasn’t the reaction I expected. You’re sure she wasn’t bitten? She looks pretty bad.”

  “We’re sure,” Hal lied. They didn’t know the man well enough to trust him with the truth. “She’s sick and she’s been through a rough time. She’s spent half a year grieving over a little sister she thought was dead. She thought she was dead because she told her to run and she has suffered through that guilt all this time. Now you show up and you have Sky with you. That’s why she was screaming about ghosts before she passed out. The poor girl must think the ghost of her little sister came back for revenge.”

  “How the hell did you find her anyway?” Damian asked, narrowing his eyes on him. “What was that shit about Raven coming to you in your dreams?”

  Richards shrugged. “It sounds crazy, I know. She started appearing in my dreams begging me to save her, urging me to hurry. Sometimes she pointed. I went in whatever direction she pointed and I came across Sky in Denver not that long ago. She was with some bad people. You saw the bruising on her face. I took care of the people who did that and I’ve been taking care of her since. The next time I went to sleep Raven came to me again, told me she was here in Kansas and showed me an exit ramp. I drove to the exit ramp and saw that note written on the side of the van. You’re Hal. Who wrote the note? Him?”

  Cruz seemed to shrink inside himself under the weight of their collective stares.

  “What the hell is wrong with him? What did he do to her?”

  “He’s a little sick too,” Hal said, pointing to his own temple. “He’s had a bit of a break from reality but we can get him help at that base you told us about. He’ll be fine, and Raven will be fine.”

  “I asked what he did to her,” Richards said, nostrils flaring.

  “He saved her life,” Hal quickly answered, tone firm, temper there but checked. “He’s protected her for over half a year. We’ve been family for over half a year. Both of them are just unwell right now. If you truly care about Raven and want to help her, get us to that base so her sister will be safe and cared for. Allow her the time she needs to heal here so she can join us there later. Get her friend Cruz there so she doesn’t have to worry about him. Help us get back to that farm we told you about and save the rest of her friends. That’s what Raven would want.”

  Richards looked back at the cabin and expelled a heavy sigh. “Yeah, that is what Raven would want. As we already saw, the cabin is hooked up to a well and there’s solar panels around back powering everything so you have running water here. You’ll need food. We have some back in the SUV. I’ll hike back to the interstate and grab some of it, and see what we have by way of medical supplies.”

  “That’ll take too long,” Hal said. “I saw some food and medical supplies in another cabin when we were looking for Cruz and Raven. Cruz and I will go get the supplies. You stay here and keep watch over the cabin while Damian cares for the girls. After we get the supplies for Raven and Damian
we can hike back up to the interstate together. We left a man up there and need to get back to him soon.”

  “I didn’t see a man up there.”

  “You wouldn’t have.” Hal helped Cruz to his feet and ordered the sulking man to walk with him. “We’ll be right back.”

  They watched the men walk away until they disappeared from view, then turned back toward each other.

  “I didn’t see any other cabins between the interstate and here.”

  “Did you follow the red footprints from the interstate?” Damian asked, figuring Hal was taking Cruz back to the cabin he’d kept Raven in. He recalled seeing canned goods and clothes there.

  Richards shook his head. “No. Believe it or not there was a big white wolf at the foot of the ramp. Sky said it was a German shepherd, actually she said it was Raven’s German shepherd that died years ago, and she took off after it and I took off after her. We followed it and it just disappeared a little before we heard all the noise coming from this cabin. I don’t know where the thing ran off to.” He laughed, his face turning a subtle shade of pink. “I know I sound crazier than hell, getting messages in dreams and chasing after ghost dogs.”

  “Trust me, I’ve seen crazier,” Damian said. “Whistle if you need anything. I’m gonna check on the girls.”

  Damian slipped inside the cabin, quietly closing the door behind him. Raven still lay unconscious in the bed, the sheets pulled up to her chin, her chest steadily rising and falling. On the other side of the room, her little sister sat quietly in a chair watching her. She looked up at him, no emotion on her face.

  “Hey. We didn’t get to really meet properly during all the chaos. I’m Damian.”

  “I’m Sky.”

  “I know.” He smiled. “Your sister talked about you. She has missed you so much, I can’t even put it into words.”

  “She left me.”

  Damian rubbed his chest as he walked closer to the girl and sat on the back of the couch in front of her. “Damn, girl, that hurt my heart. Raven didn’t leave you. I realize it might seem like she did, and I know that has to hurt, but honey, this girl has suffered half a year thinking she sent you to your death. The guilt has been eating her alive.”

  “Is that why she screamed when she saw me?”

  He nodded. “She’s really sick and that mixed with the shock of seeing you was too much. I think her guilty conscience made her think you were a ghost come back to haunt her for what she did.”

  Sky studied her for a while. “I looked for her. We stayed in Hollywood as long as we could but we didn’t find her.”

  “You and Richards?”

  She shook her head. “He just found me. I was with someone else in Hollywood, someone better. He took care of me until I had to leave him.”

  “Why?” Damian sat up straighter. “How did you end up with the people Richards found you with? Honey, what did they do to you?”

  “Did Cruz Thomas hurt my sister?” she asked in response. “I don’t care if he’s famous. Did he do something to her?”

  Damian swallowed his immediate reaction to say yes, knowing Hal wouldn’t approve, but more than that, Raven had saved Cruz’s life for some reason. Out of respect for her, he wouldn’t say anything. “Cruz and Raven are both unwell right now. There’s nothing for you to worry about. They’ll both get better.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Is he crazy?”

  Damian looked down at his hands, not sure how to answer the question. He’d thought Cruz was mentally ill but after seeing a demon get exorcised from his body he honestly didn’t know anymore. “I’m not sure, but he’s in a bad place right now. That’s the best answer I can give at the moment.”

  “Grownups never answer anything,” she grumbled before crossing her arms and settling back into the chair. “I heard you talking outside. You’re sending me to the military base with Richards.”

  “Yeah, Raven’s really sick and she needs to get better. I know you want to stay with her, but while she’s sick and not thinking straight it might not be a good idea for her to be around you, not when she’s thinking you’re a ghost. She’ll join you at the base as soon as she’s better. Knowing you’re there and that she’ll be able to see you again will give her a reason to fight through the sickness.”

  “When was she bitten?”

  Damian’s heart skipped a beat. “She wasn’t—”

  “I’m not stupid. I know she has a fever and she got it from being bitten. I know that’s why you want her to get better before taking her to the base where they will kill her because they think she’s infected, but she’s not infected. Or at least she’s not going to turn into one of those monsters. Somehow you know that too. That’s why you’re willing to stay with her until she’s not sick anymore and her wound heals.”

  Damian glanced toward the front of the cabin, hoping Richards was still far enough away from the front to hear them. “Look, kid—”

  “I told you I’m not stupid. I’m not going to tell that idiot she was bitten.”

  He looked back at her. “You don’t like him much, do you?”

  “Raven hated him so that makes me not like him much either, even if he saved me. I trust him to keep me safe, but I don’t trust him to know my secrets, or hers. I think he only cares about keeping me safe because he thinks it will make her like him again.”

  “You’re a pretty smart kid,” he said, smiling. “I think I’m gonna really like you.”

  “Then stop lying to me. When was she bitten? I know she was.”

  Damian leaned forward. “How do you know that? And how do you know she’s going to make it through the virus without turning?”

  “Because she’s my sister so we’re the same,” Sky said, standing up. She raised her sweatshirt and pulled the side of her pants and underwear down far enough for him to see the scar on her hip.

  Damian’s mouth dropped open as he looked at the scar and realized the little girl had completely survived being bitten herself. “Well, glitter my balls and call me Liberace.”

  “She’s going to be fine,” Richards said, looking down as they reached the interstate. “We’ll come back for her as soon as she’s better and the two of you will be together at the base, completely secure.”

  “I know,” Sky said, watching as the man named Hal led Cruz Thomas to a truck and made him sit in the passenger seat. He’d changed out his paint-covered clothes for new ones while on their supply run and his hands were tied behind his back with what looked like ripped pieces of a flannel shirt. “Why is he tied up like that?”

  “Hal said he’s suicidal. He tried to kill himself right before we reached the cabin and then again later when he and Hal went to get those supplies we left with Raven and Damian. His hands are bound for his protection.”

  “Why would he try to kill himself?”

  “Can’t hack the world, I guess.” Richards shrugged. “I saw a lot of celebrity types at Fort Huachuca right after the outbreak. Everyone was scared and stressed the hell out but those celebrity types really couldn’t deal.”

  Sky frowned, sure there was more to the man’s behavior than that. Damian hadn’t told her, but she’d read his eyes and knew in her gut Cruz Thomas had done something to her sister. She’d heard enough before Richards had announced their presence at the cabin, had seen the blood on Raven before they covered her up… She wasn’t a stupid kid. She knew he’d hurt her.

  “I just have to get someone real quick,” Hal said, walking over to a dusty Taurus. He popped the trunk and an angry hog-tied man struggled to get up, cursing and threatening to break Hal’s neck.

  “Settle down before I leave you here hog-tied on the road,” Hal warned as he cut the rope around the man’s ankles and helped him up, his wrists still bound.

  “What the hell?” Richards asked, his hand hovering over the gun holstered at his hip.

  “That cult-like farm we told you about? This guy is part of their security staff. He was supposed to bring us out here to retrieve Cruz and Raven and make s
ure we made it back. Instead, he’s going to help us figure out the best way to strike the farm and save those people.”

  “The hell I am!” the man snapped. “I done told Damian and now I’m telling you, I don’t care what they’re doing to gay people or whatever other sinning people they got in there. I keep my head down and they take care of me. I got food, water, and shelter, even a doctor if I need one. I ain’t doing shit to jeopardize that!”

  Hal punched the man in the stomach, doubling him over. “From the way Damian explains it, you could easily be one of the gay people they’re doing that psychotic abuse on. You either help us by choice or we reveal your secrets and take your choice away.”

  “You’d do that? I thought you were some kind of holy man.”

  “I’m the kind of man that doesn’t stand by and allow others to be abused just because I don’t live their lifestyle.”

  “You think you can win against them? They take everyone’s weapons upon arrival. It’ll be a slaughter.”

  Hal jerked his head toward Richards. “He’s with the military. There’s still a surviving base. We’re not going back alone, and we’re not going unarmed.”

  The man looked up at Richards. “What happens to the community? There’s innocent people there too, people who just want to survive.”

  “If the place is as habitable and secure as Hal described, we’ll claim it,” Richards advised, “but it won’t be some kind of religious cult. It’ll be military-run and no one will be judged by their sexual orientation or who they choose to worship, or not worship.”

  The man straightened and glared at Hal. “It’s not like I hurt any of those people.”

  “No, you just turned a blind eye to it.” Hal grabbed the rope around his wrists and guided him toward his truck. “We’ll follow you to that base.”

  Richards nodded and walked Sky over to the SUV.

  “You’re going to go attack those people?” she asked a moment later, buckling her seatbelt.