by Riva, Aline
“Then I guess you're stuck with me... you're stuck with an old man. A crippled old man.”
“Get it right,” she replied, “You're a pessimistic crippled old man,” then she smiled, “But I still love you.”
As she took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze he felt thankful that she had come into his life – they had formed the most unexpected and unlikely of partnerships, forged in times that no one could ever have believed were possible to unfold, in the blink of an eye the old world had been and gone, replaced by a terrible place full of fear where the living were prey for the starving dead. Yet here they were, together, and he was glad of it. Love had come to him late - perhaps to some it would seem a little too late – but he was just thankful he had found happiness in the end, even if he was crippled for the rest of his days.
“I hope you never change your mind about me, but I'll understand if you do, there's no obligation here,” he reminded her.
She had walked to the doorway, but as she turned back, she still had a look of love in her eyes, along with determination to see a promise through that had been made by her heart.
“I'm telling the others this morning,” she replied, “I won't be going on with them. I'm staying here with you, I've made up my mind, so stop worrying!”
Maxie wished he could get up from the bed and put his arms around her, but all he could do was lay there and smile as that look on her face was very reassuring – yes, he was stuck with her and it wasn't negotiable and he couldn't be happier about it...
“Then I guess I'd better do as you say, Lauren.”
She gave him a wink.
“Too right you will, Maxie! You're all mine now,” she told him playfully, “You think I don't want you laid up in bed? Think again – got you all to myself now!”
Then she blew him a kiss and left the room as Maxie laughed despite his pain, once again feeling thankful for the strange but wonderful hand that fate had chosen to deal him.
Breakfast was quiet in the canteen as the others sat at the table to eat, Rick had just arrived with Lois and they had walked into the room with her human hand holding on to his metallic hand – but he had let go as they sat down, then remarked that seeing a gathering of familiar faces had reminded him of others who were now lost, and with that reference to the mall, the group had fallen silent for a moment.
As Lauren entered the room and the others looked around at her, she had simply taken her place at the table, cast her gaze about those seated around it and then made her announcement as she looked to David.
“When you decide to move on I'm staying here with Maxie. I know we started out together and what happened in the Arctic, how we got away and so many others didn't, that will always stay with me... and I hope you guys will all be okay, but I love Maxie and he needs me and I really do think we will be safe here.”
David and Tara exchanged a glance. Her decision had not come as a surprise given the severity of Maxie's injuries, but hearing her so sure and so soon still came as something of a surprise.
“And you're doing the best thing, the very best you could do for both of you,” Tara promised her.
“Absolutely,” David agreed, “I'm sure Jason will be glad to know you're both staying.”
He looked across the table to Jason, who had just poured a glass of orange juice. He paused to sip it then with the glass still raised in his hand he looked to Lauren as the electric lighting overhead shone on the clear cover that shielded the burnt side of his face.
“I'm very pleased to hear that, Lauren. Welcome to the group,” he said warmly, “And you can be very sure we will all help you with Maxie. He may not be able to make a full recovery but with help I'm sure in time things will get better.”
He smiled warmly at her, and as his eyes sparkled Lois stared at him.
“I get the oddest feeling when I look at you,” she said, her eyes wide as she studied his face but could not place him.
He chuckled.
“I'm sure a lot of people would, with this mask on. I look worse when I take it off too!”
“No,” she shook her head, “I'm not talking about your burns and you know that...Are you sure we've never met before?”
He looked across the table at her, into her eyes and that feeling still gnawed away at her.
“How did you lose your hand, Rick?” asked Jason, as he looked directly at him, choosing not to notice the look on her face as Lois realised he had avoided her question yet again.
“I got bitten by one of the infected...I cut it off to save myself.”
“Where did you get the prosthetic?”
“I made it myself. It's not as astonishing as it sounds, I used to design high end artificial limbs before the outbreak. It was easy.”
“You're Rick Lester,” said Carrie, smiling as she looked across the table, “I've read about you in articles. I was always reading every area of medical science before everything...changed. I remember seeing a piece about an arm you built – very expensive to build, but fascinating work...”
“You're a medic?” he asked.
“Scientist,” she replied, “I was a scientist...” then she looked down at the table, feeling awkward as Ben shot her a look of sympathy and then gave her arm a pat.
“You don't have to feel bad about it,” he reminded her.
“Bad about what?” asked Tara.
Carrie gave a sigh.
“I worked for the SamLi Medico Corporation... the vaccine company. I wasn't responsible for the virus, I was offered a place on the team trying to beat the virus, but by then the world was falling apart and Adrienne White the team leader...she was taken....”
Carrie stopped there, giving a gasp as if the words were barbed and one of those barbs had caught in her throat. She looked down at the table, then gave her plate a gentle push to distance herself from her food, feeling sick now frightening thoughts had crept into her head.
“Not again,” Kit said, and he spoke firmly as Jason looked on, worry reflecting in his bright blue eyes.
“It's just a story, Carrie! The world is fucked up...brand new fucked up world, new fucked up urban legends, Forget about it!”
“Forget what?” David asked, wondering why the atmosphere had suddenly become so tense.
Carrie drew in a breath and let it out slowly, then looked to the others with a haunted expression on her face as she began to explain:
“They say there is a man named Mortiz. He's dressed in black, wears a creepy ass mask to hide his face and he has soldiers that carry swords... It's said that he collects the dead, he keeps them, the risen dead...and he's desperate for a cure to the virus. He has the names of every scientist capable of working on the cure. He hunts them down, he takes them! It's said that he took Adrienne, she was the one who had a theory that she passed on to others as a possible way of defeating the undead, but without her, the work she had drawn up made little sense. But you see I used to work with her as a student.”
She paled as she swallowed hard, drawing in air as fear made her throat go tight.
“I could possibly understand her theory work. But they say Mortiz has her, the Collector has her working for him to create the cure. He wants it for himself, why, no one knows... But he has killed and will kill again...If he has my name -”
“Stop it, Carrie!” Jason said, “It's not proven, it's an urban legend. We live in strange times, expect strange tales.”
Carrie got up from the table, visibly shaken.
“Sorry,” she said in a hushed voice “I should leave you all to eat in peace.. you don't need to hear my crazy ideas...I probably am crazy.”
“No you're not,” Jason reminded her kindly, but she turned away and quickly left the room.
“I wonder if there's any truth in that story?” David said thoughtfully, “If there is, if that Collector guy is real maybe the possibility of a cure for the virus is out there somewhere.”
“If only!” Jason exclaimed, “I very much doubt there's a word of truth to it. Lif
e changes and and people make up stories to fill in gaps, I guess that's where he came from. He's just a myth, right, Lois?”
She looked at him, feeling that same strange jolt as he said her name in a way that felt so familiar.
Then David and Rick began to discuss the subject further with Jason, and Lois remained silent, but her mind was already made up on what she would do when the others had finished breakfast – it was time for some answers...
Rick had thought nothing of Lois offering to stay behind after breakfast and wash up. She was a helpful person, it had made sense...all the same, she felt slightly guilty for using the pretence to linger behind, noticing that Jason was taking his time taking the plates through to the kitchen, a job he had offered to take on as soon as she had said she would wash up...
Now they were alone together in a white tiled kitchen with an old fashioned sink and wooden cupboards, the light was bright, making the room look pristine despite the age of the place, and as he set the plates into the sink, she turned to him and caught his eye.
“Do you like it here?” Jason asked.
“You never answered my question,” Lois replied, “I've asked you so many times and every time -”
“I think you will like it here, we've got a huge storage space filled with food enough to last a very long time...we have a medical area, a heating system, and of course we're secure, which means you're very safe here. I want you to be safe, Lois. I hope you feel safe enough to stay.”
“You're doing it again!” she said angrily, “Do we know each other? I want the truth!”
This time he didn't look away. He leant against the kitchen worktop as she stood beside him, meeting her gaze directly as he finally gave in to her demands.
“New year's Eve. A nightclub in London. Over eight years back... I was off my face and you were very drunk...we shared a taxi and argued over the cost of it because you said dropping me off first would be too expensive. I spent the night at your place...”
Her eye widened as memories from long ago flashed before her eyes:
It was freezing that night, and she had been shivering in her black dress and thin jacket...they had ended up kissing before they had reached her front door. He had told her he was a business man, a millionaire, he had said. She had asked why he didn't have the money for his ride home and he had laughed and said he forgot his wallet. It had been a night she would never forget... He had promised to call before leaving, and then he had simply disappeared...
Her face had paled. He smiled a charming smile.
“Remember me now?”
“You said you loved me and then you vanished!”
“There were reasons, okay?” he said quickly as his charming smile was replaced by a look of dread as it hit him that the truth was about to come out...
“What reasons?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“I was very reckless back then. I was young, I was irresponsible -”
“You were twenty eight years old with a million pound business, or was that a lie?”
He drew in a shaken breath and looked at her apologetically. With the world turned into chaos and the dead walking the streets, it hardly seemed to matter now on the scale of all else, but he gave her the truth anyway.
“I'm sorry,” he told her sincerely, “I lied about everything. I didn't have a business I was unemployed. But I was good looking and fancied myself as a bit of a ladies man and there you were and I couldn't help myself...I did fall in love with you that night, I thought about you for a long time, it drove me up the wall - but I couldn't get in touch with you.”
“Why?” she demanded.
He looked away nervously.
“It doesn't matter now. It was too long ago.”
“It matters to me!”
He stopped leaning against the worktop and straightened up, bracing himself for her anger, but handed her the truth all the same, deciding it really didn't matter at all, not after all these years...
“I was a very good liar,” he confessed, “I'm sorry about that... I was out that night celebrating my birthday...I wasn't twenty eight, it was my eighteenth.”
Her jaw dropped.
“What?” she said in disbelief.
“I was eighteen,” he repeated.
“And I was thirty years old!” Lois said in horror.
He laughed.
“So what? It was all my doing, I couldn't resist you...what's the big deal, we didn't know each other long!”
“LONG ENOUGH!” she yelled, and dealt a sharp blow to the undamaged side of his face that almost sent him off balance as he grabbed at the kitchen sink, then rubbed his face as he looked at her in shock.
“What was that for?” he exclaimed.
She was shaking as she drew in a breath and summoned the strength to speak.
“His name is Brandon. He's eight years old and he's with some other kids and some armed adults protecting them...in an old underground station in London, it's been shut down for years but it's safe and he's safe and I only left him to try and find help so we could go some place where we can live a better life! He's your son!”
Her words shocked him as his face paled, even beneath the mask that covered his burns it was visible as blood drained away.
“I...I've got a kid?”
She blinked away tears.
“No,” she said firmly, shaking her head, “I have a child, not you! Leave me alone, stay away from me!”
“But Lois, we need to talk -”
“Fuck off!” she yelled, then she ran from the kitchen and through the canteen, heading back to the room she shared with Rick, wanting her lover's arms around her as she wished she could wipe out all that Jason had told her. As she wiped her eyes and headed back to her room, even thoughts of the threats that lurked above surface did nothing to detract from the shock she felt at learning the truth – she just wanted to forget, she just wanted to be with Rick and never lay eyes on Jason again...
Chapter 11: Mortiz
The days passed by.
It was a time of rest and recovery, a precious respite from the hell that continued above ground. All who had travelled to the safe house were glad to have found shelter there – except for Lois, who kept out of Jason's way at all times despite his attempts to talk to her. She had avoided him by spending much of her time with Rick in their shared room – a task that was easy to achieve since Rick was perfectly happy to stay wrapped in her arms at every opportunity...
For David and Tara, it was a time to take stock of all that had happened and think about their next move. Where to now? was the question uppermost on their minds as they thought on Lauren's decision to remain at the shelter with Maxie, this meant their group had lost two people they had relied on in times of trouble, two members who had gladly taken on the task of battling the undead as they had travelled across the ravaged land.
Rick had also taken a liking to the shelter, no doubt the welcoming atmosphere created by Jason and his crew reminded him of the days when the mall had been safe and thriving, with such warm companionship and the reassurance of secure surroundings. Sandra had said nothing of her plans and Nick had spent much time with Kit and Ben, even helping out now on night time patrols on the surface. He seemed to be settling too – once again, those safe surroundings has been a lure that was enticing, a great temptation to simply stay put and enjoy a great deal of respite from the risks of travel.
It seemed as if David and Tara would possibly be moving on with a significantly reduced group and where there was strength in numbers, this could only prove to be a weakness in their once strong chain. It seemed the longer they stayed at the shelter, the more the place grew on the others, making it harder to leave and face the world above ground and all its horrors once more.
After a week at the safe house, David chose his moment carefully, waiting until after dinner that evening to announce that he and Tara would be leaving in the morning. It came as a great relief that Rick and Lois agreed to leave too, as Toby added it was time t
hey moved on - and then Sandra looked undecided as Nick's expression also turned to one of reluctance. It appeared that come morning, the group who had arrived would indeed be leaving in a much reduced number...
Later, as night fell and the fog machine clogged up the air thickly with mist to deter the wandering undead, Carrie, Ben and Nick were out guarding the perimeter fencing.
“I'm glad you're out here for once,” Ben said.
Carrie nodded, looking about nervously, the fact that she was armed had done little to ease her jitters as her gaze scanned the mist left and right and then she repeated the search, as if afraid something lurking would pounce at any moment without warning. It was on her mind again, the story of the Collector...
“I doubt if I'll last long,” she replied, “Last time I came out on patrol I had to run back inside and get underground again...the slightest sound and I get thinking...I'm a scientist, not a guard and who knows what's out there in the dark, past the fog?”
“At least you're facing your fears,” Ben added.
“Trying to,” she murmured, shivering as he stepped away and out of sight to inspect fencing past the mist where the gates were secured. The fog swallowed him up and for a moment she was alone until thankfully, Nick came over from the other side of the area and joined her.
“Pretty warm for the time of year,” said a familiar voice as Rick came into view carrying a flask in his metallic hand, “So the fog does look very out of place but I doubt the undead will suss that out! Here, I made you some coffee. I guess I'm still missing the mall, still wanting to check on everyone, look after people...”
Carrie smiled as she took the flask from him.
“Thanks, Rick. That was kind of you.”
Then from somewhere past the mist, there was a strangled cry from Ben. It sounded odd, almost deliberate, and as another cry sounded, Carrie whipped her gun from its holster as the flask clattered to the ground.
“That's not funny, Ben!” she yelled, “I know you're messing around, those gates are locked, nothing can get in but you're scaring me and if I fire -”
