Max stared at the grenades in his hand and grinned. “Far enough, sweetheart.”
Jack grabbed Emma’s hand and tugged her down to the other end of the roof. He wrapped his body around hers and gave the go signal. Max took aim at the speeding second truck, ripped the pin from the first grenade and launched it across the open sky. He crouched down for safety. Seconds later, the blast ripped through the truck, stopping it dead in its tracks and scattering dead and wounded zombies in all directions. Max stood up quickly and tossed the second grenade at the truck to finish off the zombies still alive in the truck’s cargo area.
The immediate threat neutralized, Max picked up his rifle and resumed cutting down the zombies flooding the yard. Jack and Emma rejoined him and did the same. He had to give it to those undead bastards. They were some stubborn assholes. They just kept coming and coming and coming without a care for saving themselves. He started to wonder if they were even capable of thinking about self-preservation. Maybe they were being trained but they obviously weren’t as smart as most pets.
They had been fighting off the swarm of zombies for nearly twenty minutes when the house rocked beneath Max’s feet. He swayed off-balance for a second before regaining his footing. Emma wasn’t so quick to right herself and started to fall forward.
“Emma!” Max snatched her arm and yanked her back from the edge of the roof. His heart pounded against his ribcage as he tried not to think about how easily she could have fallen to her death. “Stay back from the edge, baby.”
She gulped and nodded, her hand fisted in his shirt. The house trembled beneath them again and her eyes widened in fear. The supports had been so badly damaged during the collision it was only a matter of time until the foundation of the house buckled. They were going to have to bail and make a run for it. There was just no other way.
I agree.
Max jerked as Jack’s voice paraded through his head. He frowned at his friend. Jack shrugged. The electric interference has faded substantially. Emma’s grid is failing.
Max glanced around and considered their options. The bath house? We hop over and then to the ground. It will be safer for Emma.
Jack nodded and headed toward the other end of the roof, pausing just long enough to grab the duffels of dwindling supplies. As the house shifted beneath them and creaked ominously, Max picked up Emma and swung her onto his back. She didn’t fight him or protest but simply clung to his body. He watched Jack take a running leap and fly off the house. Max patted Emma’s thigh. “Close your eyes and try not to go stiff, Emma. Keep your legs around my waist, honey.”
“Please don’t drop me.”
He chuckled and kissed the arm curled around his shoulders. “Wouldn’t dream of it, baby girl.”
Without giving her warning, he sprinted the last few feet and jumped the long distance between roofs. He landed in a practiced crouch. The impact jarred his joints enough to make him wince. He was used to carrying heavy packs of equipment on his back but that didn’t make it any easier on his body. He stood slowly and reached back to pat Emma’s sweet little ass. “You okay?”
Her fingernails dug into his skin. “I don’t ever want to do that again. I nearly puked on your back.”
He grimaced. “Thanks for keeping it together, Emma.”
“Anything for you, Max.”
He heard the smile in her voice and liked that she could joke at a time like this. Jack shot them an impatient look. The zombies at the house had spotted them and were heading their way.
“We need to hit the ground running,” Jack warned. He eyed Emma. “Can you keep up?”
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Emma replied as she slid off Max’s back. “I gave your people the coordinates for a spot out on the northeast corner of the property. You want to run that way?”
Max nodded. “Our guys will be coming in hot from that direction. Let’s just hope they reach us before those things do.”
Jack handed Max one of the duffel bags of ammo to lighten his load. While Max provided covering fire, Jack and Emma jumped off the shorter building and started running. He gave them a good head start before leaping to the ground after them. When he caught up with them, Jack dropped down to provide suppressing fire with the automatic rifle he had traded out for the long-range sniper rifle. Max and Emma sprinted for a minute or so before Jack stopped firing and ran to them. Max dropped back to provide cover for the other two.
And on and on it went. Max kept an eye on Emma but she didn’t seem to need any help. She ran so naturally, her strides long, her breaths measured. It was obvious she stayed active, and a good thing too. Her ability to outrun those zombies breathing down their necks was going to save her life.
The dull whop-whop-whop of an approaching helicopter filled him with relief. Radio transmissions from the lieutenant leading the assault filtered through Max’s brain. He communicated back before grabbing Emma by the waist and pulling her to the ground in front of him. Jack shielded her side as the attack helicopters raced overhead and started spraying the zombies with bullets. Emma rolled up tight against him and put her hands over her ears. He worried about the noise affecting her hearing and placed his hands over hers, muffling the loud sounds of gunfire and helicopter engines further.
As the attack helicopters pushed the zombies back, another larger transport helicopter landed not far from them. An entire team of black-clad soldiers spilled out and rushed to their aid. Max stood and pressed Emma against his side while he addressed the leader of the team. With the immediate danger diffused, Max was only too aware of how much attention an Original like Emma would draw. It didn’t help that she wore only shorts and a thin t-shirt.
“Major.” The assault team leader, a younger human male he had personally trained, addressed him with a sharp salute. “Any injuries? We have a medic.”
Max shook his head. “We’re fine.”
As he launched into a quick series of orders for the men, Max noticed Emma sliding behind him, as if trying to hide. He reached back to touch her hip, hoping to reassure her. He sympathized with her fear. She had spent a lifetime separated from society. To be suddenly faced with a wall of men, some human and others cyborg, would be disconcerting, to say the least. Jack moved closer to Emma as he talked to one of the team’s sharpshooters. Together, they kept her shielded from the curious looks of the men.
Another transport helicopter touched down and the Zed squad filed out of the large craft. They were the elite tactical and covert ops team with a ruthless reputation. Like Max and Jack, their leaders, Rafe and Butler, were first generation cyborgs. Max broke into a grin as Rafe and Butler strode over and shook his hand.
“Hell, looks like we missed all the fun.” Butler wore a bit of a frown. “Don’t even know why I bothered rolling out of bed.”
Rafe laughed and leaned to the side for a better view of Emma. “I don’t think we’re the only ones who rolled out of bed to fight zombies.”
“Stow it, Rafe,” Max growled, not finding the sexual innuendo at all funny.
Rafe put up his palms. “Calm down, Max. I wasn’t insulting your human.” He leaned over again and addressed Emma. “I wasn’t insulting you. I’m sure you’re a very nice Original girl.”
“Is he for real?” Obviously annoyed, Emma hissed, “Make him go away.”
Max chuckled and shrugged. “You heard my human. Go away.”
Suddenly, an unexpected and incredibly loud explosion ripped through the night, shattering the playful banter. Instinctively, Max spun and gathered Emma to his chest. Jack turned and pressed his back against her front, sandwiching her between their larger bodies. The fireball in the distance lit up the night sky. Max’s stomach dropped at the sight.
Emma shoved out of his protective embrace and squeezed away from Jack. “My house!” Screeching in horror as everything she had ever known went up in blast of flames and smoke, Emma stumbled forward in shock. “My house!”
Desperate to calm her, Max reached for her. “Emma! Baby, com
e here.”
She angrily slapped at his hands. “Don’t touch me!”
Max snapped back as if he’d been hit in the face. The vehemence in her voice rattled him right to the core. “Emma,” he said pleadingly. “Why are you so angry with me?”
She pointed an accusing finger in his direction. “You did this! You gave them the coordinates for my house. This is your fault!”
“That’s not what happened. I did not order anyone to blow up your home.”
“Bullshit! From the moment you met me, you’ve wanted to drag me back to your Outpost. Destroying my house is a damned good way to force my hand.”
Max’s chest constricted. That wasn’t what had happened at all, but he understood how it looked. It was suspicious but that didn’t mean it was true. He fought to breathe as the betrayed expression on her face left him aching inside. “Honey—”
“Don’t.” She lifted her fist and ground out the word. “I’m not your honey. Not anymore. You can go fuck yourself.”
Tears streaming down her face, she pivoted on her heel and started walking back toward the burning house. Two members of the rescue team started to follow her but Max held up his hand. As the ranking member on the ground, he was in charge. “Let her go.”
His gaze shifted to Jack who nodded and slowly took off after Emma. Max set his jaw and pushed down the painful sensation of rejection. He walled off his emotions and turned back toward the men.
“I’m taking my team to follow those zombies.” Rafe’s gaze was unwavering. He didn’t glance away in shared embarrassment like the others and Max respected him all the more for it. “We’ll kill them. Gather intel. That’s a shit ton of zombies to show up out of nowhere. We need to find the source and the reason.”
“Agreed,” Max replied.
Rafe nodded and whistled to gather his men. Butler hesitated and put a hand on Max’s shoulder. “She’ll come around, Max. They always do.”
He wasn’t so sure about that. Emma had a stubborn streak in her a mile wide. To survive all these years alone in the Outlands? She had needed it. Now she had the chance to build a new life with two men who wanted to love and support and provide for her. Would she swallow her pride and break through that stubbornness to accept it? Max honestly didn’t’ know.
As the Zed team faded away into the darkness, Max addressed the lieutenant waiting for orders. “Round up these bodies and start digging pits. We’ve got a lot of meat to burn.”
“Yes, sir.”
Max turned around and scanned for Jack and Emma. They were arguing off in the distance. Apparently Jack wasn’t faring any better than he had. In a perverse sort of way it made him feel better. At least they were both on her shit list together.
His jaw tightened with embarrassment as he remembered the way she had spoken to him in front of the men. That story would spread like wildfire. He had a reputation as a hard ass who didn’t take shit off anyone yet he had stood there and allowed Emma to tell him off. The Outpost rumor mill was going to eat that right up.
If she had been anyone else, he would have dressed her right down with a royal ass chewing for insubordination, but he couldn’t bring himself to yell at Emma. She was hurting and had lashed out at him in her pain. It didn’t make it right, and the things she had alleged were untrue, but there wasn’t much he could do. He sensed that approaching her now would only make things worse. He vowed to give her a few hours to cool down.
Because she had been right about one thing. Now that her house was gone and her fence destroyed, Emma had no choice but to come with them. Even if that meant tossing her over his shoulder and carrying her kicking and screaming back with him.
2 Chapter Two
Jack stepped over a charred wooden board as he made his way toward Emma. Her tiny slumped form sat near the smoking ruins of her home. The sun had risen a few hours earlier and provided the light she needed to sift through what was left of her life.
After the way she had berated Max, Jack had given her a wide berth rather than risk riling her up again. He wanted to help her just as badly as Max did but they couldn’t relate to her. They had never had homes like this, never had families or family ties. He and all the other cyborgs had been lab created and raised in military housing from birth. Only in recent years, with the end of the Last War and the suppression of the zombies, had cyborgs been able to flirt with the idea of a more human existence filled with families and homes and all the other things they had been created to preserve.
Jack’s belly twisted at the sight of Emma’s shoulders shaking. Her broken sobs tore at him. He approached her carefully, as one might a wounded animal, and crouched down at her side. Soot and dirt caked her skin. There was a pile of slightly burned and untouched things between her right thigh and the backpack she had been wearing when they fled.
Exhaling loudly, Jack slid down onto his butt and put his arm around her shoulders. Her gaze was fixed forward on the steaming pile of wood and glass and tile in front of her. He pressed a kiss to her temple. She didn’t fight him this time. He sensed all the fight had left her body. Broken and weary, she sagged against him. Like he and Max, Emma hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. The hell the three of them had survived over the last day was starting to take its toll.
“I’m sorry, Emma.” It was a simple thing and didn’t come close to erasing her hurt but it was the best he could do.
“Whatever,” Emma replied, her voice scratchy. She wiped at the wet streaks on her cheeks but made a mess of her skin, smearing soot and dirt under her fingertips. “It’s done. You two win.”
“Emma,” Jack said as he gently shifted her in his arms and gazed into her beautiful green eyes. “This isn’t about winning. I know it probably makes you feel better to turn your pain into rage and direct it at us but that’s not right. Max didn’t order this. The pilots felt they had no other choice but to fire on the house. They were authorized to use any force necessary and they made a judgment call. Obviously, they feel badly for destroying your home but there was no other choice.”
Emma didn’t say anything but dropped her gaze to the ground. She pulled away from his embrace and reached for the small pile of items she’d scavenged from the house. A plate, two books, a necklace and some random knickknacks. Jack’s heart ached at the meager belongings she had been able to save. He didn’t even know where to find paperbacks to replace the ones she had lost. Everything they read on the Outpost was part of the digital library database.
“Do you want me to help you search some more, Emma? I can withstand the heat better than you can.”
She shook her hand and unzipped her backpack. “I’ve got the most important things in here already.” She started placing the scavenged items into her bag. “I keep an emergency backpack with all the keepsakes that mean something to me by my bed. I never thought I’d actually need to use it.”
She stopped stuffing things into her bag and frowned. Her hand dipped inside and fished out another pair of smaller grenades than the ones she had given Max up on the roof. “Oh! Whoops. Forgot about these.”
Jack’s eyes widened as she handed over the explosives. “You had those rattling around in your backpack all night? Shit, Emma.” He snatched them from her hands and rose quickly. “Corporal!” He shouted at the nearest soldier. “Take these and secure them.”
The corporal carefully took them from Jack’s palm. “Yes, sir.”
Shaking his head, Jack returned to Emma. She had risen to her feet and lifted her backpack onto her shoulders. Her handheld radio was clipped to the waistband of her now dirty shorts.
The defeated expression on her face made Jack feel helpless. He had wanted things to go so differently. He had wanted her to choose life on the Outpost, to be excited and happy about starting a new chapter in her life with them but this? This was a disaster.
“Are we leaving soon?” She sounded resigned and about as excited as someone waiting to go in for a root canal.
He nodded. “Soon.”
“W
hatever.”
Jack tried not to let her annoyed reply grate on her nerves. She’s been through hell, he reminded himself. Cut her some slack.
“Emma,”—he touched her arm—“it’s going to be okay. I know this isn’t easy for you, and I hate that your home is gone, but Max and I are going to take care of you.”
She glared at his hand. “I don’t want someone to take care of me, Jack. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“Are you, Emma? What if you’d been alone last night?”
She swallowed hard and glanced away. “I’d have been dead meat.”
“Exactly,” Jack replied. “Look, I don’t like pointing out the obvious, but it is what it is, Emma. You’ve survived worse. You lost your mother and your father and you gritted your teeth and pushed through, Emma.” He squeezed her shoulder. “You’ll get through this. We’re going to help you.”
Her lower lip wobbled, and Jack couldn’t take it anymore. He hauled her into his arms and tucked her face against his chest. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling the smell of lavender and smoke and sweat. The thought that he could have lost her made him ill. “I’m so sorry, Emma.”
“I’m scared,” she admitted finally, her voice slightly muffled by his arm. “I don’t like being scared. I don’t like new things.”
He clasped her face and brushed his thumbs over her sooty cheeks. “Don’t be afraid, Emma. The Outpost is a nice place to live. It’s safe. We have grocery stores and restaurants and a library and a hospital. You can even work, if you’d like.”
She perked up at that tidbit. “I can?”
Jack smiled, realizing part of her hesitance centered on her fear of not contributing. “Yes, Emma. I’m sure we can find a job that fits your skillset. Unless, of course,” he grinned slyly, “you’d rather play the part of kept woman.”
Emma snorted and smiled for the first time in hours. “Tempting.”
“If anyone deserves to be kept, it’s you, Emma.” Jack didn’t care that the men were looking on or that, technically, he wasn’t supposed to show any emotion in uniform. He would deal with the repercussions when they got back on base, the same way Max would. Right now, all he cared about was Emma and she needed to be comforted.
Emma: Part Two (Outpost Nine Book 2) Page 2
