Love and Decay, Boy Meets Girl

by Higginson, Rachel

  They needed us as much as we needed them. And I was just starting to realize how much we needed them. And not for any of my own selfish, a-little-bit-delusional reasons. The boys needed women to soften them and Page needed girls to confide in, to teach her how to be a woman. I would dissect my own reasons for needing them, or at least Reagan… later.

  I trusted my brothers to take care of themselves and Page. And they trusted me to clear the way. This was my job- eliminating the threat. I was the best shot, had the clearest aim and held the highest kill record- if we were counting… which we weren’t. Well, they weren’t.

  I pulled the trigger time and time again. The gun reverbed through my body, making me feel electric, making me feel invincible. Feeder after Feeder dropped in front of me, but it was never enough. They were everywhere, in every direction. There was no end to them, just endless supplies of creatures trying to kill us.

  I pushed my body harder, until my ears rushed with the sound of my breathing and pumping blood. My heart hammered furiously and warred with the panting of my lungs. My legs burned with the stretching pace, but this was a pain I enjoyed. My arms stayed steadily raised and my gun expertly trained.

  They were run of the mill B-roll. I was a skilled assassin, born and bred for this.

  “Reagan, to your left” Vaughan shouted from behind me.

  My gun went with hers. Her instincts took over and she started shooting before she had time to process rational thought. I shot with her, avoiding her kill, but making damn sure there were no other Zombies to fill the space of her dead one.

  She hadn’t hesitated. She hadn’t let a single misplaced guilty feeling cloud her judgment. She had done what was necessary.

  This. Girl.

  I was lost to her.

  When I faced forward again, the Feeder population had somehow tripled. I felt our ranks close tighter together, filling in the gaps, covering all angles. Page started screaming- or maybe she continued screaming and I hadn’t heard her over my own racing thoughts. Guns started firing more rapidly. And all around us Feeders descended upon us with feral, insatiable hunger.

  I ignored their smell, their putrid, peeling bodies and their red, desperate eyes and focused on surviving. Honestly, it didn’t matter what they looked like or who they used to be. The only thing that mattered was that they were a risk and I would never let them touch those I cared about.

  The realization that I had gone from singularly obsessing over protecting “my family” to “those I cared about” was not lost on me. But probably it was better to ignore that Freudian slip until I had a little more time to think it over.

  We reached the old garage where we’d stashed the Hummer and I lunged for the lift gage.

  “Reagan,” I shouted. “Haley, help them cover me!” Although I doubted they needed my instruction. Mainly I didn’t want them to think they needed to help me lift this gate.

  But goddamn this gate was heavy.

  We’d been over this scenario time and time again, but we’d never run through a full practice in which I had to lift the gate by myself.

  “Hendrix, we have to get out of here! Now!” Vaughan ordered.

  I let those frantic words fuel my effort. With one final grunt I jolted the gate upward, propelling it upward with enough momentum to keep it moving up on its track.

  The stagnant, stale air from the sealed garage poured out in a rush of disgusting wind, but it was still better than the stench waiting behind me. I sucked it in deep with a breath of relief and raised my guns again to cover my family so they could climb aboard our vehicle of salvation.

  “For real?” Reagan sounded almost emotional with relief after a fast glance over her shoulder.

  I took a step into her and aimed over her shoulder.

  I felt those same swellings of pride when I answered, “Always have a backup plan, Reagan.” With my free hand, I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping it around her waist and pulling her against my chest. We made it this far. I was determined to get her all the way to safety. She felt both soft and hard against my chest. Her body was a seductive mixture of tight muscle and girlish curves. She needed to gain weight- not to look better, but to be healthy. Still, she was so goddamn beautiful my head swum with her so close; her sweet, slightly sweaty scent intoxicating my abused senses after dealing with Zombie rot and a moldy garage. And the heat of her body just sunk into my skin like she was a knife and I was melting butter. Every part of me reacted to her, tuned into her, begged to be a part of the same space she was.

  I moved her back with me, toward the Hummer and toward safety.

  Vaughan called out the order and everyone moved in one fluid motion. I held onto Reagan for as long as I could and until she was safely tucked in the vehicle.

  When everyone was in, Vaughan and I took our places in the front seat. While Vaughan started the engine and put us in drive, the rest of my brothers and I immediately moved our guns to point out the windows. We started shooting at the horde just as Vaughan took off with a heavy foot on the gas pedal.

  The next few minutes were a blur of dead bodies, loud gun shots and my brother not able to move the Hummer through the increasing number of swarming Zombies. There were just too many of them and not enough bullets on our end.

  I felt the presence of so many people dependent on me heating my back, silently demanding that I save them from this, that I get us out of this mess. Vaughan cursed the ground and the inability of the Hummer to move through this many bodies. Page continued to scream through the bloodshed.

  The Feeders grew increasingly aggressive, stepping into the Hummer, rocking it in order to get to us.

  I’d had enough.

  I let out a battle cry of aggression and shoved my body through the window. I took my semiautomatic machine gun and let loose on every single thing in our path.

  Nothing stood a chance.

  Nothing could survive my will to escape.

  Get the hell out of my way you piece of shit bottom-feeders!

  Blood sprayed everywhere, flesh, bone, pieces of already decaying bodies covered the Hummer like the worst kind of bug goo. The vile stench continued to choke us the more dead bodies piled in the roads. But finally, a path began to clear.

  Vaughan stomped down on the gas and I nearly fell out of the window. I cursed his momentum and him for not giving me some kind of warning.

  The semiautomatic clicked empty, so I traded it for a simpler Glock and began picking stragglers off one by one. Vaughan continued to accelerate and we finally seemed to be gaining ground on getting the hell out of here.

  Finally, after endless kills and too many close calls, the road in front of us cleared and Vaughan could direct the Hummer to clean, Feeder-free highway. Freedom.

  Safety.

  We’d made it.

  Well, at least we’d made it through this night.

  I pulled myself back into the car and Vaughan immediately rolled up our windows to block out the stench and keep the clinging pieces of flesh and debris from flying in at us.

  In the silence of the closed vehicle, the chance meeting with Reagan and Haley, the escape from our temporary haven and the fight for our lives seemed to click into place with one giant shifting of tectonic plates. This felt right.

  This is what was supposed to happen.

  Until Reagan spoke up, shattering my peace and sense of manifest destiny, “You can drop us anywhere, Vaughan. The sun should be up soon and we don’t want to get too far off course.”

  I whirled around but Vaughan beat me too it. “Oh, that’s probably not necessary,” he said.

  “Turns out you sold us on the south, Reagan.” I met her eyes and held her frightened gaze. Now why was it that she looked more afraid staring into my eyes than she had the entire time we fought the Zombie horde? “Remember what we agreed earlier?”

  I watched her chest pick up speed and her eyes grow impossibly larger. She licked her lips nervously and shook her head a little hysterically.

  “You don
’t remember?” I narrowed my eyes on her. “Then we’ll talk about it later. I’ll help you remember.” And I would. This was definitely a conversation we would be having later.

  I let the electric current that attached us from soul to soul buzz in the air between us for several seconds. I let her feel me, feel how I already invaded her space, her thoughts, her lungs. I let her realize she wasn’t going to have to be alone anymore, she wasn’t going to have to fight by herself anymore. And then I turned back around and let the resolution of our decision sink into her the exact same way she sank into me.

  She was stubborn though, and after a few beats of her palpably thinking over our offer she said, “Really, you don’t have to change your entire life plans for us. Haley and I can make it. And you have Page to think about.”

  I slid to the edge of my seat ready to pull this vehicle over and argue some sense into her, but Nelson spoke up with that surprising wisdom he sometimes possessed and did most of my work for me, “Reagan, we’d already decided to stick with you girls before the Zombie’s attacked tonight. We’re safer with numbers, especially knowing that you ladies can actually use those guns you cradle around. There are not that many decent living beings left on this planet, probably best we stick together when we find each other.”

  “And you’re not going to try to convince us to go north?” she clarified skeptically.

  “Not yet,” I answered truthfully. “We didn’t know anybody up there with a firsthand account; we were just reaching at straws. With that phone call you had with your dad’s cousin; you have more than we ever had.”

  “Alright,” she sighed.

  “Alright.” Vaughan echoed.

  “Alright,” Haley laughed. Although I didn’t understand what she found so damn funny. Her friend just tried to leave us- again. Haley really needed to reign her in.

  “At least it will be exciting,” Harrison commented dryly.

  Everyone let out a nervous, high-strung laugh and the general feeling in the van seemed to relax a little.

  The morning sun started to rise in the east and the road in front of us was clear. My family had survived another night and we were safe for now. We’d added a few extra passengers, but they were undeniably assets to our ploy to live and survive.

  This was all I could ask for; but it already felt like infinitely more than I deserved.

  Reagan.

  She changed everything.

  And even if I wasn’t sure how she altered my life just yet, I was very anxious to find out. In this very moment, this life I lived stopped feeling like an oppressive duty and began to feel more like hopeful adventure. My outlook on survival gave up the depressing cynicism that once clouded my every thought and took deep, excited gulps of what it would be like to have a future- to look forward to the days ahead of me, the nights that I could struggle through and fight to keep us surviving.

  Earlier today, survival felt impossible, felt like an unmanageable chore. But now it was a gift, a cataclysmic, kismet design that would bury the decaying, death-filled world at my feet underneath a new kind of life- an optimistic, expectant anticipation. Something that would grow into so much more, into events and experiences I didn’t even have words for yet.

  This thing had yet to be defined, but it didn’t need to be. All that mattered was that it happened- that Reagan and I took this road together.

  We could figure out the logistics later.

  Because most importantly, there would be a later.

  Look for Episode 12, the final episode to Love and Decay, Season One, coming Friday, November 29th, 2013

  About the Author

  Rachel Higginson was born and raised in Nebraska, but spent her college years traveling the world. She married her high school sweetheart and spends her days raising their growing family. She is obsessed with bad reality TV and any and all Young Adult Fiction.

  Look for more from Rachel in 2013.

  The remaining episodes of this novella series will be released twice a month. Look for Episode 12 coming November 29th, 2013.

  Other books by Rachel to be released in 2013 are The Relentless Warrior, the sixth book in The Star-Crossed Series and The Fall, the second book in the Siren Series.

  Other Books Out Now by Rachel Higginson:

  Love and Decay, Episode One

  Love and Decay, Episode Two

  Love and Decay, Episode Three

  Love and Decay, Episode Four

  Love and Decay, Episode Five

  Love and Decay, Episode Six

  Love and Decay, Episode Seven

  Love and Decay, Episode Eight

  Love and Decay, Episode Nine

  Love and Decay, Episode Ten

  Love and Decay, Episode Eleven

  Reckless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 1)

  Hopeless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 2)

  Fearless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 3)

  Endless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 4)

  The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 5)

  Starbright (The Starbright Series, Book 1)

  Sunburst (The Starbright Series, Book2)

  The Rush (The Siren Series, Book 1)

  Bet in the Dark (An NA Contemporary Romance)

  Follow Rachel on her blog at:

  www.rachelhigginson.com

  Or on Twitter:

  @mywritesdntbite

  Or on her Facebook pages:

  Rachel Higginson

  Or

  Reckless Magic