“Congratulations, sweetie.” I held open my arms and hugged her. Stepping back, she looked back at Jessica.
“Eric, I don’t know what your plans are or where you’ll be, but would you walk me down the aisle?” The question took me off-guard, and I blinked several times.
“I’d be honored to.” She practically jumped at me, wrapping her arms around me and smiling.
“I love you, Dad.” She whispered, not even thinking. Her head came back as she realized what she had said, worry in her eyes. “Eric, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” I smiled and put my hands on both sides of her face, tearing up unapologetically.
“I love you, too, Daughter.” She smiled even bigger, if that was possible, and ran back to the table to resume talking with Jessica and Hannah.
Matthew came to stand next to me, leaning on the door frame opposite me.
“I think I’ve created a monster,” he joked, grinning at his fiancé.
“Trust me when I say that you haven’t seen anything, yet, Kid.” I held out my hand, and he took it. “Congratulations, Matt.”
“Does this mean you want me to call you Dad after the wedding?” I squeezed his hand and he stuttered.
“We’ll see if you live that long.” I winked and released his hand, which he pulled back to work his fingers. As he glanced at Katherine, I knew the look in his eyes. “I’ll figure it out by then, Kid. Just let me know when to save the date.” He turned, nodding.
“Thanks, Eric, for everything.” The sincerity in his statement was genuine and I nodded. The evening wrapped up nicely, ending with me and Jessica preparing to leave. Hannah stepped close to me, making sure Jessica wasn’t nearby.
“Just so you know, she has real feelings for you, Eric, and I’m pretty sure it’s mutual.” I made a look of denial, but she shook her head. “I know, and now you do, too. What you do with that information is up to you.” She hugged me and walked away, letting Kat approach to say her goodbye.
“You’ll come back again, right?” Worry was thick in her voice.
“You know better than anyone it would take a lot more than a few ferals to bring this old man down.”
“Eric, please be serious.” I knew that tone well, coming from Jessica often.
“I promise I will be here to walk you down the aisle. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” That seemed to ease her mind.
“Matt told me about Hannah. We know where she’s staying, so we’ll stay close and help her.”
“I know. I’ve known for a long time that you’re the best of us, Kat, so I knew you were the best person for the job.”
Jessica came to stand beside me, having said goodbye to everyone else.
“I love you, sweetie.” She hugged Kat.
“Please keep him safe.” Jessica smiled and looked back at me with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ll try, but you know how he can be.” Kat laughed, knowing Jessica was the best partner I could have out there.
“I know.”
“Alright, you two, if we’re all done mocking my survival prowess, we’re gonna get out of here.” I took Jessica’s hand and pulled her into the hallway, saying our last goodbyes before the door closed. I hadn’t expected a proposal on our arrival, but what Hannah had said was definitely something to think about as I watched Jessica’s smile.
Part III
Chapter 19
It’s been a year since we first left San Antonio, that all-too familiar chill back in the air as Jessica and I found ourselves in Kentucky. Murray’s people had set up an outpost in the hills, but they had missed the last three scheduled check-in’s and Murray was past worried. Of course, there was always the chance that something had gone wrong with their equipment, but I wasn’t kidding myself.
The last supply shipment that rode that way hadn’t returned to Mississippi, and that had been weeks ago. Needless to say, Jessica and I were prepared for a fight as we guided our horses up the mountainous terrain. No, that’s not a joke. We’re riding horseback, because, after being idle for almost two years, a majority of the gasoline has gone bad or the vehicles are inoperable. In an effort to conserve what’s left while they figure out how to get more with the limited resources at hand, wayward travel has gone primitive.
I’m so glad now that I grew up in Texas, because riding a horse was damn uncomfortable the first few times I did it, especially over any kind of distance. Now, though, I was back in the saddle with ease.
“Are you good back there?” Jessica called from up ahead, smirking at my assumed inconvenience.
“Never been better,” I replied, my eyes scanning the trees. Being at this altitude, the amount of snow on the ground was respectable, so I was paranoid that infected would spring up at any moment. With no vehicles and fewer people, it was too easy to become lost in the beauty of the scenery as the thick snow softened each stop, but I stayed focused. No matter how nice it would have been to relax, there were just too many possibilities for an attack. It didn’t help that some of the surroundings were reminiscent of the last time I had been here, when I went over the side of the road and crashed.
“The good news is that we’re getting close,” she said, brushing her hand over a wooden sign. The writing on it said, “Outpost #7” with an arrow pointing deeper into the hills. We turned off the main road, staying quiet as we searched the area. Buried sticks, and probably a few bones, added to the crunch as hooves stepped through frozen ground, but nothing attacked. Hell, nothing so much as made a sound save the howling on the breeze, reminding us that we were truly isolated if anything were to go wrong.
Mills whistled and I looked where she was pointing, to a small base camp at the bottom of the hill a hundred yards out. I nodded, clicking my teeth and urging my horse forward until I was next to Jessica.
“Woah, easy.” The horse took another step before I pulled the reins, its hooves sinking into the snow as it stopped. I shifted my weight and the horse exhaled powerfully as my boots landed on cold ground. Patting its side, I reached up and unhooked my rifle from the saddle. Withdrawing a carrot from my pack, I held it out for the horse and scanned our surroundings.
“See any movement?” Jessica had moved her horse closer to a tree before dismounting. I shook my head, opting to conserve oxygen at this elevation. While we weren’t on Mount Everest, the difference in altitude was enough to affect our lungs. There had been a time years ago when my body was calibrated for this type of environment, but it had been a long time since I’d seen mountains of any kind. And, let’s be honest, I wasn’t exactly in my prime.
“It’s too dangerous to bring the horses closer, so we’ll tie them off and leave some food for the return trip.”
“You think someone would shoot our horses?” Mills was skeptical, but she began to tie her reins around the nearest tree. I cleared a patch of ground to lay down some food, my breath clouding my vision as I turned.
“Honestly, I think someone would eat our horses if they got the chance.”
“I think they’d eat us first, with our luck,” she joked.
“Exactly.” I checked the magazine in my Sig and holstered it, leading the way on foot to the outpost. It wasn’t that I had seen movement or anything suspicious that had my gut losing its shit, but the opposite. This was an outpost, and, though the crew had been minimal, I should have seen at least something to suggest habitants.
As we got closer, the trees and foliage no longer obscured the outpost and we both readied our weapons. The gate hung open, parts of the fence bowed inward or missing entirely. I pushed the gate aside with my free hand, keeping my M4 trained on the opening.
“My…god…” Jessica breathed as the gate fell off the hinges and collapsed before her. The reasoning for the lack of response quickly became evident as we entered the outpost, or what had been the outpost, anyway. Limbs stuck out in places, clinging to life as the bodies they were attached to were swallowed up under inches of snow, while some were barely noticeable.
I waved for Jessica to scout
a building on the left, my focus on the supply shed directly in front of me. She disappeared inside, so I cautiously approached the door to the shed. Releasing my M4, I drew my Sig and pulled the door open, quickly fanning the interior with the barrel. Nothing moved inside, so I stepped out of the snow and felt my boots touch solid wood.
Shelving had been constructed into the walls of the small shed, but almost everything was gone. A crate of MRE’s and a sack of canned food was all that remained, which didn’t make sense of a feral attack or a zombie horde. Looking closer, drag marks exited the shed, but something else caught my eye as the door swung halfway. With the snow as a background, several neat bullet holes made the wood look like corkboard.
Alarm bells suddenly went off in my mind as I pieced it together, just as I heard gunshots across the outpost. Rather than charge out from cover, though, I swung around the edge of the doorframe to see two men facing away from me. Leveling my Sig, I squeezed off three rounds and dropped both men, the second barely having time to react before my 9mm round tore open his jugular.
A man in camo came bounding out of the building ahead, blasting with his sawed-off shotgun as he did so. Buckshot caught me in the shoulder, spinning me as I fired. I landed in the snow and rolled over, getting to my feet to find that my round had tagged his leg, likely fracturing a bone. Before I could show mercy and finish the job, though, a fourth man pushed Jessica into the doorway, ducking behind her for cover as he pressed the barrel of a revolver into her neck.
Despite the threat of death, though, it wasn’t fear in her eyes so much as irritation for letting them get the drop on her.
“Let her go!” I switched the Sig to my other hand, losing feeling in my left arm.
“Put down your weapons and back away! I won’t ask again!” The man called out, his eye peeking through her underarm. I lowered my torso and set my Sig in the snow, unlimbering the M4 from my neck and doing the same with it. Keeping my hands up as much as I could raise the left one, I stood and took two steps back.
“I’ve done what you wanted. Now, let her go.”
“I don’t think I’m gonna do that, mister. Between you and this bitch, I’ve lost five good men today.”
“I understand that, I do. Just let her go, though, and we’ll all pretend like this never happened.” He laughed, a wheezing hoarseness.
“Maybe I’m not being clear. You owe me recompense for what you took.”
“Oh, you’re being clear. I was paying you back with your life.” He stayed silent for a moment, erupting in a whistle.
“Hot damn, the balls on you!” He cocked his head to look at Jessica from the side. “You must be a lucky woman.”
“Circle gets the square. I feel so lucky right now,” she muttered sardonically.
“Either way, I’m going to finish getting what we came here for and then I’m taking your woman for a walk. You’re welcome to come after us, but I’ll be taking your guns for good measure.” He pressed his barrel into Jessica and she stumbled out of the doorway, causing a surge of heat to rise in my neck. The man stopped to collect my guns, keeping his revolver pressed against Mills.
“Just remember, I gave you a chance to walk away.” The gravel in my voice caused him to hesitate, looking back at me.
“And I gave you a chance to play nice.” He smashed the grip of his revolver into the back of Jessica’s head, knocking her down. She picked herself up from the snow, clutching the back of her head in pain. He waited for her to stand before marching her further up the path at gunpoint, a sly grin on his face as he faded from eyesight.
Alone, I fell to one knee in the snow, the cold helping to shake me out of my blood loss. Moving fast, I slid off my pack and removed my coat, exposing the wound. Blood flowed from three holes in my shoulder, but it didn’t seem like any arteries had been hit or I would have been facedown a long time ago. Pulling out a thick gauze pad, I packed salt on the wound, pressed the gauze against my skin, and wrapped the whole thing with a bandage. It wouldn’t be good long-term, but it would hold long enough to get Jessica back.
As I pulled my pack on, leaving the strap off my left shoulder, I realized the third man was still writhing in the snow. Standing, and willing myself to stop rocking, I looked at him. The bone of his shin was split, parts of white sticking through the skin of his lower leg.
“Please, help me,” he pleaded, agony in his eyes. I took a handful of his shirt and started dragging him into the house, ignoring the two bodies Mills had taken out.
“I will, but first you’re gonna help me.”
Chapter 20
The man cried out in pain as I lifted him, shoving him into a nearby chair and tying his hands down with paracord. I would have tied his legs, too, but one was useless and if one leg proved to be my downfall I had much bigger problems.
“Look, man, you don’t have to do this. I’m not the enemy.” I looked at him over my shoulder, setting my pack on a nearby table.
“Ordinarily, I would agree with you. You’re not a zombie, and you’re not feral.” He nodded enthusiastically. “But you became the enemy the second you assaulted this outpost and murdered innocent people. Of course, what happens next has nothing to do with any of that.”
“What happens next?” His lip quivered in panic and I couldn’t blame him.
“Your boss took my partner, and he took my guns. Needless to say, I’m going after him and I’m getting her back.” His face shifted from pain to loyalty, choosing the hard road. I nodded thoughtfully, pacing the room. “We’re out here to save lives, you know, try to redeem ourselves for all the people we’ve had to kill.”
“You’re psychotic, man.” I stopped and locked eyes with him.
“All the more reason for you to tell me what I want to know.” I resumed my pacing. “The people we’ve killed, evil men, real sadistic fuckers, put us through so much. I mean, they did things that…well, I’ll save you the gruesome imagery, but it sticks with a person. Just know, I tell you all of this to arrive at my point: How much I remember what they did depends entirely on your cooperation. And if you find yourself wondering if I’m bluffing, because good guys don’t hurt people…” I withdrew my Ka-Bar, setting the tip on his forearm and letting the steel pierce flesh until a tiny line of blood trickled down.
“What do you want to know?” I plucked the knife up.
“That’s the spirit! It’s very simple, really. Where is your camp and how many of you are there, minus the five dead here?”
“You mean four?” I stabbed the Ka-Bar down into his forearm this time, eliciting a scream.
“I mean five if you keep testing my patience. Now, where is it?”
“Just east of go fuck yourself!” His eyes were wild and he grinned, but I had seen this kind of denial many times. Silently nodding, I maintained eye contact as I lifted my knife and pressed the tip against his exposed shin bone. His resolve quickly weakened, his eyes turning to fear as he felt the bone pull against the skin. “Hey, wait, you don’t have to do that!”
I pressed down on the Ka-Bar, the bone splitting further and tearing open skin as my blade pierced his leg, the sickening sound of metal scraping on bone filling the room. He let out a blood-curdling scream, his hands jerking at the ties, but he remained seated. I reached up and grabbed a handful of his hair, forcing him to look at me.
“This ends when you tell me what I want to know!” He clamped his jaw shut, the veins of his neck pressing to get out as his head shook.
“I’m not telling you shit!” He yelled defiantly, more to reassure himself than anything. I stood, preparing myself mentally for what I was about to do.
“Everyone talks.”
**********
The sun was going down by the time he finally gave up their location, his body a heaping, bloody mess in the chair. His shin was peeled to the ankle, a gap of flesh hanging from behind his kneecap as well. He was hunched over, pieces of flesh dangling from various places on his body, but still breathing. I thought I had prepared myself fo
r what I had done, but it still felt wrong and my stomach churned.
Their camp was about a mile up the mountain, their numbers around a dozen now, so I slipped on my pack and readied for the hike.
“Wait,” the man choked out, blood mixed with drool falling from cracked lips, “I told you everything.” I walked over and cut his bonds, letting him fall from the chair. He lay on the floor, barely able to move.
“Yeah, you did.” I stabbed the Ka-Bar between his third and fourth rib, piercing his heart and killing him instantly. He exhaled one last time, leaving me alone to revel in the darkness of my actions. All of this talk of redemption, of trying to find our humanity out here, and I was still able to torture a man basically to death.
Where would it end?
Chapter 21
As the sun faded and night fell, the freezing air cleared my head, a welcome blessing from earlier thoughts as I made my way up the path. It was only a mile in flat distance, but with the untrustworthy terrain it took nearly an hour before I saw the flickering lights of a fire. Approaching silently, I crept close enough to observe the raiders’ camp and waited.
Two men sat opposite from each other, muttering about the new prisoner as a fire crackled between them. I assumed they were referring to Jessica, which confirmed her location. Despite a log cabin sitting toward the back of the camp, several tents had been erected in the space leading to it. I guess some people still wanted their station separate from the masses, even in an apocalypse.
As I watched, my eyes noting every movement, a third man stepped loudly from the forest. The guards reacted quickly, spinning toward the sound with rifles in their hands, before recognizing the man and relaxing. Apparently, some of these raiders had training, which meant things could get messy if I was detected.
“Where’s Sam?”
“He’s talking with that woman Ralph brought from the outpost. I think he’s trying to figure out who the other person was that killed our boys.” The guard sounded disinterested, barely glancing away from the flames after settling back onto his chair. Noting that the third member didn’t move, the other guard looked up.
A Broken World (Book 3): Fractured Memories Page 7
