“This can’t happen,” she breathed.
Colin shook his head and leaned back in frustration, cursing under his breath.
The atmosphere in the room had noticeably changed, and she didn’t know how to fix it. She pretended not to notice and busied herself by loading up grocery bags with canned goods. They had gotten too close. What was she thinking?
Houston’s face kept flashing through her mind, and even though she and Colin hadn’t kissed, she felt guilty for letting him get so close to her in that moment.
If she gave Colin the green light, he would take their relationship to a place that would no longer remain purely platonic. Haven couldn’t deny that there was a certain chemistry between them, but she was also aware that chemistry could be found with many people over the course of a lifetime. Love, on the other hand, was unique and sacred, and she knew that she loved Houston. Colin had been a wonderful friend in the short time that she’d known him, and she wanted to maintain that friendship. The camp needed him. She needed him.
But he could never be more than a friend.
Chapter 27:
By the time Haven and Colin loaded up the car, snow had started to fall again, and by nightfall, there was another foot on the ground. Brett was gathering fallen tree branches, placing them into a pile a good distance away from the house when Haven pulled the Jeep up to their hideaway. Colin got out, slamming the door rather noisily as he exited the vehicle. Brett shot him a look for making unnecessarily loud noise, but seeing Haven’s battered face, his expression shifted to horror.
“Haven, what the heck happened?” he exclaimed, running over to her.
“Basement zombie,” she replied, wincing as she touched her nose. “It’s not a big deal though. We got some solid supplies to last us a while.”
Brett bent down, picked up a small mound of snow, and held it to her face.
“So, what’s up with Colin?” he asked.
Haven scuffed her boot through the snow.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled around the snow against her tender skin.
He shrugged. “We’ll have a nice fire tonight, just for a little while. We wanted to put it far enough away from the cabin. Didn’t want to risk burning it down.” He found a cardboard box full of sweaters and opened it. Without looking at Haven, he said, “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but if you’d like to talk, I’m here.”
Haven sighed and leaned against the wall. “I don’t know. We had an awkward moment when we were scavenging for supplies.”
Brett sighed. “You do know the guy’s crazy about you, right?”
She gaped at him. “Brett, no. We’re just friends.”
He nodded and pursed his lips. “Maybe to you. I don’t think he feels the same way though.” He looked at her incredulously. “You seriously haven’t noticed?” When she shook her head in earnest, he continued, “For what it’s worth, I think he’s a good guy. I like him. I like how he looks after you, after all of us. You know—”
“I don’t need looking after,” she responded sharply. “You’re right; Colin is a good guy.” She stopped, taking a deep breath. “But I have Houston, remember? And he will find us.”
***
Brett and Faith huddled close to the fire, shivering in spite of their new winter attire.
“Where did everyone go?” Faith asked quietly, looking around as she stoked the fire.
Her brother shrugged. “I’m sure they just wanted a little time to talk. I’m not worried about them. They’re both capable of defending themselves.”
“He likes her,” she whispered, almost to herself.
Brett nodded in agreement. “Yep.”
Faith pulled her sleeves over her hands. “Do you think she’s always going to hate me?”
He looked up from the fire and scooted over to her. “Hey, she doesn’t hate you. She just misses Grandma.”
Her nose started to run, and she bit her lip to hold back the tears. “It’s more than that. She blames me. And she’s right. It’s my fault Grandma is dead.”
Brett hadn’t heard Faith speak this much since before all of the chaos broke out.
“She’ll come around.”
He wrapped an arm around her and absentmindedly reached up to wipe his eyes. Faith followed suit.
“Ugh, my eyes are so itchy,” he complained after a while.
“It hurts,” Faith responded, her fingers violently rubbing at her eyes. They were puffy and swollen.
“I can’t see anything!” she cried. “What’s happening?”
His eyes felt raw. A story his grandmother had told him about his great-grandmother popped into his mind, and he gasped. “When you got the firewood, did you pick up anything green along with it?”
“No,” she uttered, scooting away from the smoke. She shook her head, but she didn’t seem certain.
Brett grabbed her and stumbled backwards into the snow. “Get away from the fire. You remember that story about our great-grandmother who was temporarily blinded after putting some logs in the fire? Well, that’s what’s happening now. The wood we gathered must have had poison ivy on it.” He scooped up handfuls of snow, handing some to his sister before feebly attempted to cool the pain in his eyes. “Here. Put some of this on your face. It’ll help.”
Faith was bent over on the ground when her body suddenly froze and straightened.
“Did you hear that?” she asked fearfully.
Brett was too busy rubbing snow in his eyes to notice. “Hear what, Faith?”
“That.” Her voice was terrified.
Brett felt his way towards her. “Hold on a sec. I can’t see anything.”
Faith blindly reached for his hand, clawing the air in desperation to find him.
A low moan echoed in the distance.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Brett hissed, his eyes burning as he scrambled for his Glock. He kicked around the snow urgently. “I can’t find my gun!”
Faith wobbled to her feet, trying to ignore the burning sensation searing through her eyes. She had to get back to the house and hide, but she couldn’t see two inches in front of her. They’d gotten away from the smoke before possibly suffering severe respiratory damage from inhaling the toxic fumes, but they didn’t know how long they would be blinded from the pain.
The moans became louder, closer.
Brett’s hands were red and icy from searching in the snow for his gun. Faith began to stumble towards where she believed the house to be, her hands reaching, searching, grabbing nothing but air. She whimpered softly, the tears stinging her delicate skin.
The flesh eaters were near now. Maybe a few dozen yards at most. The zombies had the benefit of sight on their side. Brett and Faith were nowhere near the lake house, and until he found his gun, they were completely defenseless.
His fingers brushed across a thin log near the fire. He covered his face with his hand, holding the log as close to the flames as he could without burning himself. When he was sure it was lit as it popped and sizzled in his grasp, he waved it in front of himself, backing up until he bumped into his sister.
“No,” Faith said, hiding behind him. “Not again.”
“Sshhh,” Brett growled. “Listen.”
They strained to hear the faintest of noises, some sign to tell them how close they were to danger. The nearby sound of uneven footsteps crunching through the snow alerted them that the threat was only mere feet away.
“Stay back!” Brett commanded, pushing his sister further behind him. He whirled the branch in the air, making contact with something squishy and unsteady. Seconds later, a human torch stumbled by them. They felt the heat of the flame-ridden zombie on their skin as it shambled along, unperturbed by the fact that it was on fire. After a few moments of wandering around aimlessly, hands flailing, it collapsed in a flaming heap next to the house.
A thin woman dressed in white pajamas shuffled along in the front of the pack, grisly features contorting into a scowl
as it neared the family. The zombie grasped at the air in front of it, clawing and straining, white eyes bulging in their sockets at the sight of the fresh humans.
The ravenous creature was only a few inches from Brett’s outstretched arm, its jaws open and teeth poised to break skin, when a bullet whizzed through the air, hitting the zombie solidly in the forehead.
The siblings turned towards the sound, Faith tripping on the undead woman as she shifted clumsily in the snow. She landed roughly on her knees, screaming hysterically as her hands touched the zombie’s cold, leathery skin.
“Don’t move, guys. I got you covered,” a voice said with calm resolve.
Brett felt a wave of shock hit him.
It couldn’t be…
“Houston?” he called out, hope and awe mingling in his voice.
Houston let the approaching zombies edge out of the trees, closer to the family.
“Round ‘em up, Tex,” he ordered.
They heard a dog bark ferociously, growling and tearing at clothes and limbs as it pushed the zombies into a circle. Houston was calculated as he moved among them. Not wanting to waste bullets, he went right up to each zombie and put a bullet in its brain, granting it permanent rest and peace.
Soon it was all over. He ran over to Brett and Faith.
“Is everyone okay? No one was bitten?” he asked, anxiously examining their skin for bite marks or scratches.
Brett faced him, the blurry lines of Houston’s face slowly coming into view. “H-how did you...?”
Houston put his hand on Brett’s shoulders and grinned. “A very long story for another day, buddy.” He suddenly looked around, and his expression became serious. “Where’s Haven?” His heart skipped a beat, fear threatening to consume him.
Faith threw her arms around him. “Thank God you’re alright. Haven was so sure you’d come. You did!” Her eyes filled with tears, and she shuddered. “Oh, no, it even hurts to cry!”
He embraced her warmly and then leaned back from her, eyeing the others. “Where’s Haven?” he inquired again.
“I don’t know. We haven’t seen her in a couple of hours,” Brett answered him. “Last I saw, she was fine, safe and sound.”
Houston impatiently ran a hand over his face. “I’ve got to find her.”
“Those things... they found us. We shouldn’t stay outside where they can see us,” Brett emphasized.
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but this place is off limits. That house you’ve been staying in... it’s on fire,” Houston informed them. Brett and Faith groaned in despair. “Looks like one of your flame-ridden friends set it ablaze.”
A sudden gasp made their heads turn.
Haven stood at the edge of the trees, her mouth agape in shock. Her mind was on overload as she took in the corpses strewed about next to her family, the house as it slowly smoldered in the flames, and her lover standing at the bottom of the hill. She didn’t know which one to react to first.
Colin paused mid-step a few feet behind her. “What the—”
Seeing that her brother and sister were unharmed, Haven dropped the dead rabbit she was carrying and ran to Houston, who broke into a run. She leapt up in his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist as he enveloped her, desperately kissing her face, running his fingers through her hair, over her lips.
She held him tightly and buried her face in his shoulder as sobs shook her body.
“I knew you’d come! I knew it,” she whispered.
He leaned back and gazed at her, holding her high in the air. “Baby, I-I can’t believe it!” he gasped, his own eyes moist with emotion. The happiest of smiles was on his face, and he pulled her to him again. He exhaled in unimaginable relief.
If he ever believed in God, it was right then.
Haven gently held his face with both of her hands and pressed her forehead against his. She didn’t want to let him go. She wanted to hold him and love him and stay by his side during every moment of this new, ravaged world.
“How?” was all Haven could finally manage a few minutes later.
Houston managed to laugh, and her heart warmed at the sound. “It’s been quite the journey. Most of it on foot, which I gotta say, I’m not in any rush to repeat that experience.” He kissed her again. “It’s all worth it though. I’m here with you. Haven,” he said earnestly, “you’re the most beautiful thing a man could ever lay eyes on. I kept hoping and praying I would find you. Half the time I didn’t know what I was even praying to, but I knew I would see you again.”
She stared at him in awe. “How did you find us?”
“Well, it’s all thanks to you. I made it to your neighborhood, got to your house, and no one was there. The place was decimated. Windows broken, doors torn down, blood everywhere. It looked like a bomb had gone off, and I’m not gonna lie, I feared the worst. But then I saw your sign that read ‘We’re having a picnic’ hanging from the roof of your grandma’s.” Houston winked at her, and she blushed, recalling their moment of passion before being swarmed by mosquitos. “I automatically knew to find you across the lake.” He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re so smart, baby.”
Brett frowned, feeling out of the loop. “You’re going to have to share with me sometime how you put two and two together with those clues.”
“Hmmm. Let’s not and say we did,” Haven mumbled. She was impressed that Houston remembered her clue. The connection they shared was far beyond physical. She crouched down and petted the Border Collie at his feet. “Who’s this little guy?”
Houston recounted with gusto how he found Texaco and the perils he had encountered fighting the undead.
When he finished, Haven stood up and took in the chaos around them. She shook her head, angry with herself for leaving the lake house. “I can’t believe I wasn’t here to protect you guys,” she said. “What happened?”
“I think I have an idea,” Houston offered. “When I got to your grandma’s, I was in the kitchen rummaging around for something to eat when Tex here started growling. I was trying to listen to what he’d heard, and I picked up on the moans. There was a small herd of zombies passing through, maybe a dozen at most, marching down the main road. They seemed to be in pursuit of something. Trusting my instinct, I followed them, and sure enough, I caught a glimpse of the tail lights of a white Crown Vic, right there at that cul de sac that dead ends into the forest. I followed the zombies out here, making sure to keep my distance so they couldn’t smell or hear me. By the looks of it, I got here just in time.”
“They must have followed Colin and I,” Haven realized, her eyes wide. “I thought that we’d been careful.” She gazed up at Houston, admiration sparkling across her features. “You saved them. You’re absolutely incredible.”
As soon as she said this, dejection and disappointment flashed across Colin’s eyes, and he quickly turned, silently walking away from the group.
Brett groaned as he rubbed his eyes viciously. Noticing the light pink blisters popping up along her siblings’ faces, Haven regarded them in confusion.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you... what’s wrong with your eyes?”
“We must have thrown poison ivy into the fire by accident when we were gathering wood to burn. I don’t know how we missed it, but in truth, we weren’t really paying attention, just grabbing whatever was within arm’s reach. It’s a miracle we realized it when we did. I’ve heard horror stories of people being hospitalized for inhaling the urushiol.” When everyone looked at him quizzically, Brett explained, “Urushiol is the poisonous oil from the plant. It’s really toxic if you get it in your system.” His expression saddened. “Grandma taught me that when we’d go for walks in the woods.”
Houston squeezed Brett’s shoulder kindly, his other arm wrapped securely around Haven. “Where’s your grandma? Did she...?” His eyes were filled with concern.
Haven’s shoulders slumped at the mention of her grandmother. Her thoughts flew to Faith, and she clenched her fists together, trying to s
uppress anger towards her sister. “Grandma... she was... she’s not with us anymore.”
Houston hugged her closer. “I’m so sorry, baby,” he said softly into her hair. He noticed Faith immediately make a bee-line to the still-smoking remains of the house. Texaco trotted behind her, already choosing to protect the most fragile member of the group.
Brett put one arm around Haven and another around Houston. “Grandma’s gone. I’m going to be sad about that for a long, long time. But she’s in a better place. She doesn’t have to live in a world like this where people are eating each other. Everything else, it doesn’t matter now. The house is just a thing. You can replace those. You can’t replace people. We can’t forget what we do have... that we’re really blessed to still have one another.”
“That’s right,” Houston agreed. “We are blessed.” He planted a tender kiss on her cheek.
Haven had never heard him say that before. Houston was a firm believer that everything was up to chance. You make your own luck, he’d remind her. She had a feeling his solo journey to find her had changed him.
Houston looked beyond them to the woods. “So, you said that guy in the kilt saved you?”
Haven nodded. She knew that Colin would be upset upon Houston’s arrival. They had argued sporadically on the journey back, mostly about Haven being foolish enough to wait for a guy that was surely dead. When Colin muttered something about Houston not even being real, that he was some fictional character Haven had made up in her head, Haven had nearly decked him. Being a nice guy, Colin apologized to her on the way home, clearly feeling guilty about what he’d said. In spite of her fiery temperament, if she received a sincere apology from someone, Haven forgave rather quickly, eager to put the past behind her and move forward. Colin was a good friend, a true friend, and she wasn’t going to let one lousy comment ruin the friendship that the two of them had built. Friends like him were kind of hard to come by these days anyways.
She turned to him. “He’s been phenomenal. He’s a wonderful man, Houston. I know—I think you’d like him.” She glanced in the direction Colin had left. “Let’s gather up what we can and move out of here. We don’t know how many of those things are on their way now.” She grabbed her weapons. “I’m going to find Colin.”
The Good, the Dead, and the Lawless: The Undoing Page 30
