“Hey… hey. Listen. He’ll be fine.” I couldn’t speak. My tears were pushing their way through. “Elaina, listen to me. I’ll do everything I can to protect him, as he would me. I don’t want you to lose him. As much as he pisses me off, I know how much you love each other.” He embraced me. “Come on. Let’s eat some breakfast.”
I nodded, still unable to speak. He helped me stand. My knees were weak.
“Lainy…” That was the first time he called me that since we were kids. He guided me to the door. “Take a few deep breaths.” I did. The first breath burned, but I managed to get a few in before I put my hand on the door handle. It took all of my strength to open the door.
I walked in and saw Claire sitting on the couch, staring out the side window. “Go on. Go sit down at the table. I’ll be there in a few.” He gently pushed me off toward the kitchen.
***
Nick sat down next to Claire. She looked down at her interlaced fingers sitting in her lap. He watched the tears drip from her eyes and hit her hands. After several long minutes of silence, Claire whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“Saying ‘playing house’… It was like a knife in my heart. I don’t know what I have to do to prove that my heart is with you. I thought you felt the same.”
“I do,” she whispered again.
“Then why say such hurtful things? You’re pushing everyone away. Do you realize that?”
She nodded. “I do now.” Her voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible. Nick grabbed her face with his chilled hands. He forced her to look into his brilliant eyes.
“I cannot walk this earth knowing that you wish us…this,” he gestured between them, “didn’t happen. I live for you and our little one.” He rested his hand on her stomach. “I know this is scary, but I’m here for you. I’ll do my damnedest to stay alive to make this work.” He pulled her chin up. “I refuse to give up on you, or us. I don’t care if there’s a war going on around us. We must walk through the fire together, hand-in-hand. It doesn’t change because of what’s happening right now, in this moment.”
“But it could. At any moment, you could be ripped from my arms. And with a baby… How am I going to do it?”
“We will make it work, okay? Please, Claire, you have got to stop pushing everyone away because of your fears. We have to live in the now, and try to look forward. It may look bleak, but the sun will rise for us again. It has to.” He leaned in and kissed Claire on the cheek. “Come on. You need to eat. You have barely eaten lately.” He took her hand and walked her into the kitchen.
***
When they walked in, everyone stopped eating and looked at them. He pulled out a chair for Claire and made her sit down. Addie started to stand up, but Nick motioned her to sit. Claire sat still, quiet and full of shame. He fixed Claire and himself a plate of food, and quietly sat down between her and Henry.
The tension filled the room. The only sounds were metal forks clinking against glass plates and chewing. I pushed my eggs around my plate.
“Addie,” Henry was the first to break the uncomfortable silence, “I was wondering if you had a small picture of your daughter that we can take with us.”
“Henry, I don’t want you to do this.”
“I know, but I’m going with or without your blessing.” Addie sighed as she rose from the table and grabbed a small picture off of the fridge. “Thank you.” Henry laid it next to his plate and studied it for a minute. “She’s beautiful.”
“Thank you. Her name is Rosa. Rosa MacEntyre.”
“I will do my best to bring your Rosa home to you.” Addie nodded. As I saw Henry take the last bite of food on his plate, I dropped my fork. Everyone looked at me.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. Henry stood up and I inhaled. It was impossible to exhale.
“I’m going to go rinse out real quick, then get everything ready that we will need.” He picked up his plate and put it on the counter. He walked out of the kitchen, and I finally exhaled. Nick was watching me as he chewed his food.
“Lainy, eat,” he demanded as he pointed his fork at me. I nodded and continued to pick at my food. Thomas finished and got up. It was happening sooner than I could handle. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Thomas headed out to help Henry pack up.
“Claire, eat,” Nick said in a firmer tone. I looked up at Claire, who was picking at her food. I took a bite of my food before Nick could say anything else to me. Claire took a couple more bites and pushed her plate away. I gave in, then stood up.
“Thank you, Addie.” I picked up my plate and sat it on the counter. I went out to where Henry and Thomas were picking through what they thought would be useful.
Henry held up a long-handled, double-sided axe. He smiled. “Remember this? You nearly took my head off with it a couple of times.” He looked up at me. I was far from smiling. I wasn’t reacting to his attempt at humor. He set the axe down and walked to me. “You alright, love?”
I shook my head. “This may be the last time I get to look at you. I have to soak all of you in.”
I picked up his broken hand and kissed it. I lifted his arm where the tracking device used to be and ran my finger down the jagged, pink line. I slowly moved my hands up his chest, remembering what Kellan did to him. I touched his lip where it split open over and over again. I put my hands on his cheeks. I wanted to soak in every ounce that I could. Every cut, bruise, flaw…everything.
He grabbed my wrists and placed them around his neck. His cool touch made me shiver. He pulled me close. His scent was traveling into my nasal passages, and I was trying to commit it to memory. To me, there was no one else in the room but the two of us.
I closed my eyes, picturing him happy and smiling. I pictured us together, his hands running down my body, making love to me all night long. I pictured us with a family, in a house with a white picket fence. Our children would be beautiful, much like he was. I pictured everything from the past, present, and the moments I wanted to share only with him. It was all I could do. I felt it was all that we would have left.
Henry kissed the top of my head. Then he whispered in my ear, “I love you, Elaina. My life, my everything. You keep me whole, no matter how much I fall apart. Thank you for everything you have given to me.” Pain ran through my heart and tore down through my insides like a dull, rusty knife.
He couldn’t be saying goodbye. Please, don’t be saying goodbye, I begged him silently. My river of tears wet his shirt. I couldn’t look at him again, but he forced my head up.
“If I don’t…”
I shook my head. “No, don’t say it.” My voice cracked.
“Say what?”
“Goodbye. Please don’t say it,” I whispered, my voice full of sorrow. He knew, as well as I did, that this could be the last time we ever saw or touched one another, the last time we could hold each other. Our time together could be up.
I felt like our moment was a ticking time bomb. He put my hand to his heart. I could feel it pounding with love…and fear. He pulled my hand to his lips. His jagged, cool breath ran between my fingers. I could feel his eyes boring through me so I opened my eyes and drowned in their beauty.
“I love you.” Again, I was whispering. He kissed me in such a gentle way that his lips were trembling. Like a butterfly fluttering over my lips. He was willing himself to stay in one piece for me. But, as for me, I was shattering before him.
***
I found myself unable to move, Claire standing beside me, experiencing the same turmoil. Several minutes before, we had watched Henry, Nick, and Thomas pull out of the driveway. Our feet felt like they were in hardened concrete. We missed them already. Unexpectedly, I felt a warm arm wrap around me.
“He’s gone,” I whispered.
“He is, but they will be back.” Addie’s voice was comforting, soothing my frightened soul. “Come. Let’s get you girls inside.” She took both of us by the hands and made us go into the house. I collapsed on the couch and curled up into a ball. I had zero intention of moving,
or talking, or even breathing until I knew that Henry was safe and back in my arms.
Chapter 35
I
t was a quiet ride. When Henry, Nick, and Thomas got about a mile-and-a-half down the road from Addie’s house, they still hadn’t seen a single car. However, there were plenty of rotting bodies roaming around, looking for their next meal. Henry skillfully weaved around them.
He came to a four-way stop sign. Across the way was the school where Addie’s daughter was presumed to be. The building was large and surprisingly modern. He stayed at the stop sign for a minute, scanning the area, contemplating his first move.
“What do you think?” Henry asked his small crew. “Should we pull right up front?”
“Might as well. Can’t be any worse there than anywhere else,” Nick sighed.
“Alright then.” Henry drove the truck forward, pulling into the bus lane in the school parking lot. “Let’s use our guns sparingly.” Henry shut off the truck and got out, Nick and Thomas following.
All of them put on packs with minimal supplies. They each put a Sig in the waistband of their pants. Henry and Nick grabbed the double-sided axes, Thomas grabbed a machete.
“Sparingly,” Henry reminded them with a quirked brow. He looked around for the best entrance point into the school. “I guess the front door is just as good as the others.” Henry and Nick began walking forward.
They realized that Thomas wasn’t tagging along. Henry turned around. “You alright, mate?”
Thomas stood still, then he spoke quieter than normal, “Kids. We’ll be killin’ kids my age.”
Henry walked up to the scrawny, gaunt boy. “Thomas, you know they are no longer themselves. It’s just their body being run by a virus. We are helping them.”
“I know. I killed my sister.”
Henry put his hand on Thomas’ shoulder. “Thomas, I need you. Can you swallow it for now and move forward? When we get back into the truck, you can let it all out.” Thomas nodded. Henry rolled his neck. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah.” Henry and Thomas joined Nick, who was standing at the front entrance scanning what he could.
“Anything?” Henry approached with little sound. Then Nick looked at him and looked back. Henry looked into the window when he saw Nick’s frightened look. “Holy shit…”
“I think we may be outnumbered,” Nick whispered. “This must be why Addie didn’t want us to come.” For a short moment, Nick regretted coming on the mission. There were hundreds of undeads tripping over one another in the front entrance alone.
“Alright then, new plan. Let’s find another entrance point.”
Henry began walking toward the left side of the building. The cafeteria was located there. They looked through the windows.
“Holy shit.”
Nick came up behind him. “Christ, there must be twice as many of them in here.”
“Uh, Henry? We have company.” Thomas was just shy of rounding the corner when he saw about a dozen undeads. They were sniffing the air, then began staggering toward them.
Henry ran forward and began swinging the axe. Nick followed close behind. One by one, the undeads’ heads were hacked off their bodies with one vicious swing after another. Thomas was stabbing the machete through their heads to ensure a true death. Henry looked down at the carnage around him and shook his head. Without another thought, he wiped the axe off on the pant leg of the true dead at his feet.
As they travelled further around the school, they saw another door. Henry ran up to it and peered through the window. The hall seemed to be empty, but he knew better.
“I’ll take the lead. Nick, bring up the rear.”
“Alright.” Thomas stood behind Henry, who grabbed the handle. Henry took a long deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He pulled the door open.
The smell of death hit him hard, almost knocking him over. Both Nick and Thomas gagged behind him. Henry closed the door in haste. He bent over, trying to rid his nasal passages of the aggressive odor.
“Okay. That has to be the worst yet.” Nauseated, Henry shuddered as he stood with the back of his hand over his nose. He slipped off his pack and tucked the axe into the largest compartment. He pulled off his shirt and began tearing it up so they could have some sort of buffer between their mouths and noses and the horrific funk that would soon permeate every pore of their body. Once his pack was securely on his back again, Henry put his hand on the door handle. He inhaled every ounce of fresh air that he could before he pulled the door open.
The first hallway only had a few rooms. They opened each door, hoping to find Addie’s daughter right away. Henry would call out for her in every room they entered, but not a single sound greeted him. They cleared room after room in that hallway.
When they made it to the end, he saw it would lead them either left or right. They decided left because they thought that the right would lead them to the front where there were hundreds of undeads tripping and bumping into one another.
They cleared room and after room, hall after hall, until they reached a staircase. There were true dead bodies piled up on the stairs, almost like a barricade. To Henry, that was a sure sign that some people must be, or had been, alive.
They clambered over the decaying corpses. After he slipped several times on the black sludge that was oozing around them, Nick had to stop to vomit. The true deads were piled all the way up to the third floor.
They made it to the landing and stopped for a moment to look around. Henry tried to pull open the door and quickly realized it was chained from the inside.
“Shit!” he yelled. He punched the door, not thinking about his broken hand. He growled in agony. His frustration was at a boiling point after scaling piles of true deads. He put his hands on his hips and sighed in frustration. When he looked up, he saw that there were two small windows at the top of the door. Nick glanced up to where Henry was looking.
“Henry, let’s break those and push Thomas through. He’s the only one thin enough to fit.”
Henry looked back over his shoulder at Thomas, and he shrugged. “You up for that?”
“I guess bein’ scrawny will actually come in handy for a change.” Nick began smashing out the windows with his axe. Once he cleared it, he had Thomas climb up his back and look around.
“What do you see?”
“Nothin’. I don’ hear or see nothin’.”
“Alright. I’m going to bring you down.” Nick squatted down, and Thomas got off his shoulders. They worked out a plan to get him over and shoot the locks, if necessary.
Once Thomas got through the window and landed on the floor, Henry and Nick backed away from the door and pressed up against the side wall. Thomas shot the padlock, then opened the door. They scrambled in and wrapped whatever chain was left back around the handles.
The floor plan looked to be a square, with rooms all around the outer perimeter and again around the inside. There was another door, like the one they had just entered, directly across from them at the end of the corridor. It, too, was chained and padlocked. They decided to start at the end where they were, going through every room until they circled all the way around.
They were halfway around when they heard several soft footsteps near them. Henry put his finger to his lips, indicating to tread lightly as they tried to find the source. Nick stayed in the back and they shuffled toward the faint sounds. Henry stopped at the corner and peeked around it. He caught a glimpse of a younger girl. She saw them and hid back around the corner. Henry signaled for everyone to remove the shirt scraps from their faces.
“We’re here to help, sweetheart,” Henry said loud enough for the girl to hear, but not so loud as too attract attention.
She peeked out from around the corner again. He got a good look at her, and knew right away that she wasn’t Addie’s daughter. She was too young.
“Listen, sweetheart, we’re here to help. We’re looking for a particular girl. Rosa MacEntyre. Do you know her, or where she is?” She continued
to peek around the corner, but didn’t come any further. “I’m going to get closer to you. I promise you that my friends and I will not harm you.” Henry led Thomas and Nick down the hall, toward the girl.
They could hear her breathing. Henry stopped about five feet from the corner. “It’s okay. I promise you no harm. Can we talk, please? Here…” Henry reached in his pack and pulled out a bottle of water and a Power Bar. He set them on the floor and pushed them toward the terrified girl.
She looked to be extraordinarily filthy and close to being emaciated. Henry pegged her to be about seven or eight-years-old. Her blood and gore-stained clothes hung on her, much like Thomas’. She looked at the offering for a moment. Then she scurried over like a wild animal, snatching the packages and tearing open the bar. She ate and guzzled the water like she hadn’t had a thing to eat or drink for days.
Henry, Nick, and Thomas stood and watched her while she drank nearly half of the bottle of water. She let go and took several deep breaths. Henry dug into his pocket and pulled out the small picture of Addie’s daughter. He held it out to the girl. She examined it, then looked up at Henry.
“Have you seen this girl?” Henry asked. She nodded once. “Is she alive? Can you take us to her?” She nodded once again. She slowly walked backward, still facing Henry, Nick, and Thomas.
She continued down the hall until they reached what looked like a storage room. She tapped on the door in a calculated rhythm. The door creaked open, and Henry saw a couple pairs of eyes.
“Rosa MacEntyre?” He heard some rustling around. “Rosa, I know your mum, Addie. I’m here to help you, and take you home.”
Then he heard a scratchy, weak voice, “How do we know you’re telling the truth?”
“Look, I have a picture that she gave me. She has been looking for you, but she hasn’t had the wherewithal to get into the school until my crew showed up on your doorstep yesterday. She desperately wants you home.”
Broken Dreams Page 57
