Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three)

by Higginson, Rachel

  He looked back at me for a second, nodding once, before turning back around to fend off the next wave of attackers.

  I dropped to the ground and nicked the loaded handgun from the back of the bleeding man’s pants. My hands deftly went to the safety and I flicked it off before sweeping up and pointing it straight at Matthias.

  Tyler swooped down to grab the gun from the clump of man lodged in the doorway. She tossed it to Vaughan, who caught it, pointed it at the attacker trying to pummel him to death and pulled the trigger.

  The body dropped to the floor in a newly silent room. I kept my weapon trained on Matthias and waited.

  He glared at me through the flickering, dim light, knowing I would shoot him with my next breath.

  My chest heaved with the effort to breath. I felt bruises bloom over my entire body. It hurt to stand. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to just be alive. I wanted to curl into a ball and whimper, but I had to ignore all of that and deal with the pain later. Much, much later.

  “I have more guns than you,” Matthias declared. He ducked to the right and my gun followed him. “You’ll be dead in seconds.”

  “I just have to get one shot off first,” I told him.

  “You don’t have the stomach,” he sneered.

  I hated his arrogance. I hated how sure he sounded, how delusional he was. I hated him more than I hated anything in my entire life and I truly hoped I never hated anything as much as him again.

  I shuddered at the idea that there was something out there worth more hatred than this.

  I ran my finger over the trigger and focused more intently on Matthias and his giant head that would look fantastic with a big hole right in the center of his forehead. The only thing that kept me from pulling the trigger, I mean the only thing, was that he was right about one thing. They did have more guns than us and I wouldn’t risk all of those guns going off and killing my friends. “Let’s find out,” I suggested.

  He remained silent, knowing there was not a bluff to call. I couldn’t wait to kill him. I practically buzzed with the nearness of his death.

  “I suppose you’d like a truce now.” Matthias’s cold tone betrayed the fear I could sense on his skin. For as tough as he pretended to be, for as dangerous and inhumane that he was, he had one fatal flaw that would always be his downfall.

  He valued his life more than anything. Matthias did not want to die. He would do anything to avoid dying.

  Even if that meant he had to let me live.

  Sure, he had an army of men and an unlimited supply of weapons. Sure, he had managed to unite a sinking country and turn an entire people group into his minions. Sure, he had hunted me down from miles and miles and miles away and imprisoned the toughest guys I knew.

  Not to mention me.

  But I had something he didn’t.

  He lived for himself.

  And I lived for everyone else.

  I didn’t have to hold onto my life as long as I could use it to protect those I cared about.

  As long as I could save those that I loved.

  “Reagan, by me. That’s our deal,” Hendrix said under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear. “That means nothing crazy. Yeah?”

  I loved that man, but there was no way I could play this safe. “I don’t want a truce, Matthias.”

  “Then what do you want?” He took a step back and I took a step forward. With just three feet separating us, I watched the rapid rise and fall of his chest. I saw the single bead of sweat drip down his temple. I watched the fear ripple in his soulless eyes.

  I took another step forward; he stepped back and bumped into a desk. “You’re head,” I told him.

  He jerked backwards at the same time I pulled the trigger. I missed his head by half an inch. I tried to adjust my position and shoot again but I was knocked out of the way from behind.

  Strong arms went around my waist; a body twisted beneath me to break my fall as bullets assaulted the air where I had just been standing.

  The desk Matthias bumped into slammed into another desk. They screeched across the floor, battling the gunshots for airtime. Both of the lanterns perched on either of the desks tipped over in the commotion. The thin glass casing shattered on impact and the kerosene from them splattered on useless papers and folders. The flames spread over the desks, covering the area with deep orange fire and thick smoke in just seconds.

  Hendrix dumped me on my side and popped up from the desk we’d taken cover behind. Somehow in that showdown he’d managed to grab a gun. He shot a few rounds, and then ducked down while the gunfire spread around the room and men lost their lives.

  I joined Hendrix at the edge of the desk, letting the thick metal shield us from the attack.

  I thrust my hand in the air and fired without looking. I doubted I hit anything but I needed them to back off while we devised an escape plan.

  I wanted to turn around and check on Tyler and Vaughan, maybe even Diego, but it wasn’t possible at the moment. The constant gunfire prevented it and too many men that had to be held off.

  I lifted my gun again and fired three more rounds. When I went to do it again, my gun clicked empty.

  I looked around quickly for something else to use, but nothing was close enough. There were more dead bodies, but I’d be shot before I ever reached them to steal their weapons.

  I did see Tyler’s wide-eyed gaze though. That was worth turning around for. Vaughan was still alive too. At least for now.

  Hendrix’s gun ran out of ammo a minute later and I knew this was the end of it.

  I contemplated standing up and making it quick… easy. Matthias would keep me alive if he could. If he could torture me forever, he would.

  But if I ended things fast, he would never get the chance.

  Hendrix’s hand reached out and grabbed mine, squeezing it until it hurt. “Not yet,” he pleaded. “Don’t’ give up yet.”

  “Hendrix, there’s nothing left-”

  Suddenly the entire front of the building exploded in a burst of light and fire. Thankfully we were tucked behind a large desk that shielded us from the searing debris that sliced through the air.

  The roar of the explosion momentarily stole my hearing. A high-pitched ringing sound blasted through my head while my skin reconciled the heat of the blast and the whipping wind that followed it.

  Just as I started to come back to my senses, another blast roared through the jail, knocking me back into the bars of the cell.

  I must have lost consciousness for a second because I woke up to Hendrix shaking me. His lips moved but I couldn’t make out his words yet. I felt sedated beneath a heavy blanket of confusion.

  My mind could pull up facts, but they were fuzzy and disjointed. Matthias. Mexico. Diego. Hendrix. Explosions.

  Explosions that freaking hurt.

  All at once hearing rushed back to my ears and I popped up. I ached everywhere. My bones felt tired and brittle, but I knew these explosions. I’d experienced them once before.

  Molotov cocktails.

  Andy had come back for us.

  When another explosion tore through the room, my body slammed back into the bars like I was a boneless rag doll.

  I managed to stay conscious this time, but I really wished I wouldn’t have. Ow!

  When I could see and hear again, I noticed that this explosion had crumbled the wall directly to my right. An exit made way to the volatile weather outside. It was twenty feet away, but there was an exit!

  The men who had managed to survive the attack picked themselves up off the ground slowly, only to be taken out by bullets from unseen locations.

  The cavalry had arrived.

  “Come on,” Hendrix urged. He grabbed my hand and pulled me along in a squat. Tyler and Vaughan sidled up next to us and we darted over big pieces of stucco, straight through the hole.

  No gunfire followed us. I wasn’t even sure if Matthias knew we’d been able to escape.

  As soon as we stepped into the alley, I took the chance to
look back and check out Diego. Javi’s huge, lifeless frame slumped over him. Bullet holes riddled his back and side. He’d died trying to save Diego and I felt a pang of sadness for the stranger.

  He had stayed with Diego to the very end. What kind of evil warlords inspired that level of sacrifice from their men?

  Or were all lunatics this loyal?

  Matthias’s men certainly weren’t ready to give up yet.

  Throwing my arm up to protect my face from the wind, I shouted over crazy weather and popping gunfire. “I’m so pissed I missed him! I almost had him!”

  Hendrix’s strong hand landed on my back, urging me out of the alley. “We’re going to get you a second chance!” I lifted an eyebrow. I wanted to get the hell out of here! Not go back in there for round two. “We have to get a weapon first.” He pointed at a bench down the street a bit.

  I knew there were guns taped beneath the seat and more in a planter that was nailed to the side of the next building. We had strategically hidden weapons all over this small main street for just this purpose.

  We followed Vaughan and Tyler as they hugged the buildings and used the weather to hide our position.

  I looked across the street and blinked through the thick dust that obscured everything around me. I could have sworn I saw Harrison perched on the same low ceiling a Colony sniper had used yesterday, but I couldn’t be sure.

  I refocused on following Hendrix. I choked on the dust that whipped violently up and down the street. The small pieces of gravel it picked up pelted my skin and made me wince whenever it got my face.

  Fires burned all around us, lighting the way. I wondered if they were from Andy’s explosives, but the air smelled like burning hair and Zombie. A roof was on fire across the street. It was only a matter of time before the building collapse and the fire spread.

  I had never seen anything like this. I was used to bad rainstorms and the occasional tornado. This weather was unbelievable. Lightning flashed overhead, its long fingers stretching across the expanse of the sky, revealing the street around us with almost blinding intensity.

  Hendrix’s hand did not leave mine. He kept me close to his body and I pressed against him, unashamed to use his body as a shield from the dust.

  Just as we neared the bench, a bullet whizzed by my head. I let out a scream I was not proud of and sprinted forward. Vaughan reached it first, diving under to grab plastic-wrapped weapons. Tyler, Hendrix and I ducked around the side of the building. There was a slight reprieve from the storm tucked away in the alley.

  This weather was insane. My eyes stung and dirt and gravel layered my mouth. I wanted to guzzle an entire bottle of mouthwash, but I hadn’t even seen mouthwash in at least a year. And I probably wasn’t going to find it in post-apocalyptic Mexico…

  Vaughan slipped around the corner and handed Hendrix and me a gun. There weren’t enough for Tyler, but she shrugged it off.

  “Just don’t let me die,” she told Vaughan.

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” was his gruff promise.

  Gunfire ricocheted off the corners of the buildings as Matthias’s men pursued us. A man appeared five feet from the alley, pointing his guns at us before a bullet pummeled him in the back of the head. He dropped to the ground, arms splayed wide.

  “Ten!” A familiar Parker voice shouted over the roar of bullets.

  “Show off!” King hollered back.

  Hendrix and Vaughan grinned at each other, both of them proud of Harrison and his stellar aim. Even in these nightmarish conditions. Usually we reserved that game for Zombies, but I supposed Matthias Allen’s men were just as worthy.

  I looked down at the weapon in my hand. I needed to catch up.

  “King sounds close,” Hendrix said.

  Vaughan glanced at Tyler. “We need more weapons.”

  “Just one more building over, there’s more in a window box,” I told them. I had hidden them there myself.

  The Parkers nodded before turning to check out the street. Tyler rubbed her hands over her biceps as if she were chilled. I recognized the look of fear mingled with determination on her dirty face.

  I felt it echo in my soul.

  Hendrix turned around and jerked a command with his chin. I pulled my sweaty t-shirt over my nose, but it was too stretched out to stay put as a makeshift mask. Tyler and I followed the boys around the corner and the wind immediately hit me in the face, making my feet stumble. I flailed, but kept upright.

  We had to duck our heads to make headway against the wind. Moving forward was slow and awkward. Thankfully, the wind inhibited everyone, not just us. The men shooting at us couldn’t aim for anything with Mother Nature fighting against them.

  Without this rainless storm, we would have been dead already.

  We made it the length of another building and Tyler and Vaughan dropped to a crouch in the next alley. This one was wider than the last and our position was too exposed.

  I dug through the planter, searching for weapons I knew were just beneath the first layer of loose dirt. My fingernails and palms came away caked with dirt. I reminded myself not to rub my eyes, but it would be hard with the brutal wind kicking up all kinds of debris in my eyes.

  I finally found the milky plastic tarp I’d used to wrap two more guns. I pulled it out, shook of the excess dirt and handed the package to Vaughan to deal with. Hendrix had already turned around to fire back at Matthias’s men. I leaned against the building for support and hoped the prickly stucco would help focus my aim.

  Most everyone had taken cover in the alleys that lined the street. Each building in this town had been built separately. So far that had come in really handy for us, but not every alley was created equally. Some of them were too small to fit into and some of them were way too wide to offer any protection. And now some of the buildings were on fire.

  But we worked with what we had been given.

  A man started to make his way over to us. Hendrix was busy to my left, so I took it upon myself to end his miserable existence. Ash gusted in front of his face, blurring his features.

  I aimed carefully and waited. I didn’t want to shoot too soon and miss altogether. He ran with a purpose as if nothing could keep him from getting to us. My insides knotted with nervousness. Visibility was terrible, but I knew where the head of a man was. All I had to do was point and shoot. I didn’t need to see his face in order to hit him.

  I let out a slow breath and prepared to kill.

  Just as I went to pull the trigger a huge bird landed in front of me. Its black wings spread wide and his black beak opened angrily. The huge crow cawed in my face, flapping its wings wildly. I scrambled back, staring into the beady eyes that looked right at me.

  “Holy shit,” I gasped. The crow took off as quickly as it landed, flapping its wings in my face and fighting against the storm.

  My heart pounded in my chest. I turned back to my gun, preparing to do damage. I fell back a second time when the man stood above me and I realized I was too late.

  He looked straight out of a horror movie with his black, calf-length duster and a red bandana hid his face. A wide brimmed cowboy hat covered his head, sitting low over his eyes.

  I fumbled for my gun, hoping Hendrix would be able to shoot faster than I could get my shit together.

  The guy pulled his bandana down and I flopped back on the hard ground, deflated with relief.

  Andy.

  I had almost shot Andy.

  I sat up quickly and pushed deeper into the alley. Andy joined me inside and when I managed to stand on shaking legs I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

  “I almost killed you,” I told him.

  He pulled back and nodded. “I know.”

  “That bird saved your life.”

  He smiled gently at me. “God saved my life.” When I raised my eyebrows and fumbled for a response, he said. “The bird helped too.”

  “You’re here.” Vaughan’s hand landed on Andy’s shoulder. “Took you long enough.”
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  Andy smiled wider. “We had to go back for supplies and such. Didn’t want to come in here as unprepared as the first time.”

  “The explosives were a nice touch,” Vaughan grinned.

  “Yeah, I’m nearly out of gasoline though. We don’t have many left.” Andy pushed his hat back and rubbed a gloved hand over his forehead. “Do you remember where we stashed the rest of the guns?”

  Obviously. I knew every spot. Every nook and cranny. When you hid weapons because you knew you would die if they weren’t where you needed them to be when you needed them to be there, it was easy to remember those hiding places.

  “There’re more across the street,” Tyler put in. “There’re some on the other end of town.”

  “We need to drive them down there,” Andy instructed. “Get them on one side of town where we can keep them contained. The van is that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction almost completely black from the storm. “It’s out of sight for now, but this storm isn’t going to last forever. We need to get out of here while we can!”

  “We’re not leaving.” The words fell from my mouth with conviction, even though I had been thinking the opposite thing not five minutes before. I looked around at my friends and their wide-eyed disbelief. “At least I’m not leaving. I have to end this. Today.”

  “Reagan, if he gets his hands on you again, he’s going to kill you,” Vaughan reasoned. “There will be no second chances. We’re lucky to have lasted this long.”

  Hendrix stepped back into the alley. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not running anymore,” I told Hendrix. “I want to finish this.”

  He stared at me hard for a moment before looking at his brother. “We need to help Harrison and King.”

  Vaughan immediately responded and the two of them disappeared around the corner. I held my breath, frustrated with their fast departure… with the entire day… with every day since Matthias Allen had overrun my life.