“It was the only way to give her a chance,” I said through clenched teeth. “Just like this is the only way to save her.”
The day had flown by, and the sun was beginning to set. On top of the mountain, the air had grown chilly, and I shivered.
“Look, Dante. Just wait until Nick and John come back.” Carson, always logical, tried to reason with me, but I knew what would happen when the others came back. It would be five against one, and if I refused to listen to them, they’d tie me to a chair.
It was what I would have done if any of them decided on my course of action.
Nick had taken the car to the rail yard, which meant I’d be on foot. I wasn’t bringing anything with me, and I wasn’t sure how far I’d have to go until I came across Dexter and Karlton.
But it didn’t matter. I had a feeling they’d find me.
Isaiah grabbed my arm, stopping me when I strode toward the road leading down the mountain. “Will you just listen?”
“No!” I yelled, my patience at an end. “I won’t. Our girl is dying in there, Isaiah. Dying! And the longer you keep me here, the more likely it is I won’t be able to save her.”
“She wouldn’t want you to do this,” Carson said quietly.
“Tough shit,” I answered. “Because if any one of us was sick, she’d be the first one down the mountain. No one would be able to stop her.”
The fight drained out of my friends. “And if you don’t come back?” Isaiah asked.
I stared at the road. The leaves were dappled by the sunlight. It was beautiful, but it shouldn’t have been. Gray clouds. Rain. I needed the outside to be as ugly as the feelings growing in my chest at the thought of leaving Whitlee.
“Tell her I love her,” I said to Carson and Isaiah. I turned back once, holding their gazes with mine. “And take care of her.”
“Always,” Isaiah said. “But don’t give up so easily. We won’t give up on you.”
“I’ll send the medicine as soon as I’m able,” I told them, and Carson nodded. “I’ll be seeing you.”
I didn’t answer, merely turned my back and left.
I didn’t tell them what they’d have to eventually figure out. If I didn’t come back, they’d have to cut me out of the circuit. The strain of me so far from the rest of the energy source for so long would kill them all.
They’d do what they should, and they’d save the link. Even if they couldn’t fathom it now. I knew they would.
It would kill me, but I would do it, to save her.
16
Nick
I guessed John didn’t believe me when I told him just how off this community of people were. Maybe he thought I was being overdramatic. Maybe he hadn’t really listened, his thoughts were back in that bedroom where Whitney lay looking like death warmed over. But he was certainly seeing this place for what it was now.
We were all pale, thanks to the sort-of being dead thing. But as soon as John took in the scene, he’d paled even further.
Wendy stood in front of us. When we’d first met, I’d called her a wilderness woman. It seemed fitting given she was carrying herself like someone who was older, and it wasn’t just the personal arsenal. She was young but she was old enough to defend herself and others.
Now, as she stood next to the man she’d identified as her husband, I had to force myself not to puke.
She was a child-bride.
And as we stood there, she was joined by other girls and children. And their husbands.
Husbands. Fuck. They were thirty if they were a day.
I was going to be sick. Right here. I swallowed hard and bit my tongue. We needed shit from these people. My absolute disgust at the way they lived their lives had to wait until we got out of here.
John cleared his throat, addressing their leader, a rotund bag of shit named Jeremy who seemed to do all the talking for the group. He was probably approaching forty and his wife was sixteen. Maybe. She might still be fifteen. I could hardly stand to look at this mess.
“We want to trade for some medical supplies.”
Jeremy chomped on chewing tobacco and then spit it on the ground. Where did the man get the chewing tobacco? I couldn’t even find antibiotics.
“Yeah.” Jeremy nodded. “I’m not in the habit, usually, of doing business with the zombies. But you is something else, ain’t ya?”
I almost laughed. Instead, I let John answer. “Yes, we’re Uncontrolled now. Originally we were like the horde. Now we’re more like you than them.”
“Uh-huh.” Jeremy nodded again. “And that’s why you need these medical supplies.”
Help. A pain above my temple nearly put me on the ground, and I touched my head to rub it away. John was still talking, but I couldn’t pay attention.
Help us.
I let out a breath. Fuck. This was supposed to be a supply run, not a rescue mission. And I was nobody’s hero, but the thought of leaving these people, these kids, with this…
Not even I was that heartless.
Jeremy spat again, and the decision was made.
Dante had said I was a receiver, but there was only one way to do this when there was me and John, and a bunch of ankle biters. You’ll have to help. I pushed the thoughts toward the voice and was hit with a burst of words so loud it nearly bowled me over.
Guns. They have guns.
Surreptitiously, I studied the group. Behind Jeremy, standing next to a man who’d slung his arm around her shoulders, was Wendy. She lifted her eyebrows, like she was challenging me.
I sent her a thought. There are more of you than there are of them.
Wendy’s lips thinned, and she suddenly nodded. She tapped the man next to her on the shoulder and spun around. As she walked away, the kids followed her with their eyes. With a snap of her fingers, they turned on their heels and hurried after her.
In the world before, she’d have made a hell of a babysitter.
“We’re not real inclined to give outsiders our medicine.” Jeremy crossed his arms. “What all you got up the mountain?” he asked, and spat again.
This guy deserved to die for the spitting alone
“Zombies,” I said with a smile and snapped my teeth at him. “Lots of zombies.”
Jeremy paled, and John threw an annoyed look over his shoulder. He wasn’t sending me messages. We’d been friends long enough that I knew exactly what he would say.
With the kids gone, only the perverts and teenage girls were left. It gave me a chance to figure our odds. Less than a dozen men, all of them armed. I had to hope that the girls they kept at their side were like Wendy.
Bloodthirsty and ready for mayhem.
“How about we make a trade?” Jeremy said. “We’re always looking to expand our numbers. Grow our family. What do you think?”
Did he mean what I thought he meant? Apparently so because John drew himself up and opened his mouth. Aw, shit. I moved fast, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the dirt bag.
“Give me a moment with my associate, will you?” I asked.
Jeremy spat. I guessed that served as an affirmative, so I dragged John away.
“Let’s go,” John said. “We’re not going to get anything here.”
I shook my head. “You need to use your powers of persuasion.” I spoke low enough that none of them could hear me.
“What?” John whispered, staring at me. His eyes opened wide. “I should have thought of that. Why am I trying to reason with this idiot?”
He straightened his shoulders and before I could stop him, faced Jeremy again.
“John wait.”
A rumble built from somewhere behind the containers left on the tracks. The men glanced back, shifting. A few who didn’t hold their weapons in their hands, reached for them.
“John!” I yelled. “The weapons.”
“Put your weapons down!” he yelled.
He spoke in the nick of time. A swarm rivaling any zombie horde I’d seen raced toward the men. The children, Wendy, all of t
hem barreled toward the men. They held weapons in their hands. Not guns or knives, but the sorts of things a person would find in a camp. Pans. Brooms. Baseball bats.
Okay. Maybe baseball bats weren’t typical of an outdoors camp, but a baseball camp would have bats.
It no sooner occurred to me that the kids intended to attack the men here than a second thought invaded my mind. If we got hurt, even a scratch, Whitney would feel compelled to fix it. We’d managed to hold off the flow of energy but the need to heal an injury might be more than she could handle, especially with John and me away.
If she tried to help us now, it might kill her.
I swallowed.
This was hell. I wanted to help get the kids away from the sickos in this camp. Any other day, I might have found a gun and just started firing, but I couldn’t let myself be hurt right now.
Fuck.
John must have registered the same thing. He stared at me for one moment before he turned back to the crowd.
“Stop. No one is fighting.”
They all turned to look at him. I hadn’t seen him use this particular gift all that much and he’d certainly made it clear that he didn’t like doing it. But I was glad he was pulling out the mojo right then.
He visibly swallowed. Having delivered that speech, he turned to the men. “You’re going to let these kids all go and never bother them again. Also, we’re going to take any antibiotics you have. Better yet, you’re going to give them to us.”
He wasn’t that good at this yet. That was okay. I didn’t have a fucking clue what to do most of the time either. Jeremy and the others ran off, coming back with the medicine, which I gladly took from them. They were shaking their heads, as though they knew they were doing something they’d rather not do but didn’t have a choice.
John took two steps back, and the kids followed him. I groaned. “What are you guys doing?”
I addressed Wendy. She seemed to be their leader, and she turned to regard me even though I could tell from the way she kept looking at John that she’d prefer to speak to him. Maybe it had to do with the compulsion he’d put in his voice.
“We’re coming with you.”
John shook his head. “This is why I never use my ability. There are always… unintended consequences.”
I laughed. Yeah. “If you come with us, you’ll be surrounded by zombies.”
Her gaze darted between me and John before she glared at me, every inch a teenager. Maybe if she stuck around long enough, I’d gain some insight to the inner workings of Dexter’s mind.
“We have lots of supplies here,” someone said. “These cars are full of stuff. Canned goods. Medicine. Bandages—”
“Furniture!” someone else yelled, and I grinned. Our home could use some sprucing up. A plan formed in my mind. One where I organized and scavenged to my greedy heart’s delight. All I needed was a trailer and enough gas to go up and down the mountain a dozen times.
“I don’t suppose any of them have gas?” I asked.
Wendy jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward a tank car. “That one does. But once we leave here, we’re not coming back.”
“John,” I said. “This place has everything we need, but we might not be able to come back.”
“Hold them still,” Wendy interrupted, “and I’ll shoot them. Just stop them from running away.”
John’s face paled, but I could see him contemplating it. I thought it was a great idea. But why not just have them turn the guns on themselves? I snapped my fingers. “I like how the creepy girl thinks!”
“Unintended consequences, Nick,” John got out between clenched teeth.
“Then send them away,” Wendy said. “Split them up and send them into the woods. Make them leave their weapons. You can’t leave them here, and you can’t let them do—” She stopped, leaving what was unsaid hanging in the air.
My friend squared his shoulders and faced the men. “Drop your weapons.” There was a collective thunk as each man dropped his gun. I hoped John never turned his power on me. Wendy’s gun hit the ground as well. “Not you,” he said to her, and she quickly picked it up again. John walked to the first man, Jeremy. “When I say go, you’re going to run toward Salem and you won’t stop until you get there.”
Damn. That was impossible. Jeremy would either drop dead of a heart attack or be eaten before he got there. John influenced one person at a time, naming towns that used to be within driving distance, but on foot? Well. It may have been kinder to shoot them.
Stepping away from the last man, John surveyed the group and uttered one word. “Go.”
And they did.
They ran like the devil was chasing them, but Jeremy never made it past the rail yard.
Before I knew what was happening, Wendy had aimed her gun and pulled the trigger. “Jesus Christ!” It went off so close to me my ears rang.
The large man had fallen, and now rolled on the ground. Wendy approached him, fired four more shots at his twitching body and then holstered her weapon.
Not one of the children flinched, and while I wasn’t easily shocked, their impassivity disturbed me.
“Now we’re good.” The girl spared a final glance at the dead man before facing the children. “Help them load what will fit into the SUV, and then we’re going to—what is your camp called?” She stared at me and raised her eyebrows in question.
The word caught in my throat so I cleared it. “Zero.”
John held up his hands. “Look, I don’t know how you figured out what I could do.”
She shrugged, interrupting him. “I’m smart. I know things. Lots of things. And I survive until I can make things better. That’s what I do.”
I wouldn’t want to face this girl in a dark alley. “That’s respectable.”
John ignored me, still addressing the teenager. “Okay. You don’t want to go to Zero. You really don’t. We are constantly at risk from the horde. There are former zombies everywhere.” It wasn’t lost on me that he used the z-word. He was really trying to make an impression. “You and I both know I could keep you from going there easily. I could force you to choose a different direction. You’re smart. And you shot that man in the head. As you said, you survive. I don’t want you taken by the horde, and I’ve got to believe that we are more at risk there than most other places. Go somewhere else. Choose that. Don’t make me decide it for you.”
A muscle ticked in her jaw. She didn’t like what he was saying, but I didn’t see death in her gaze. She wasn’t contemplating shooting John, so there was nothing for me to get involved in right that second. Like this kid, I was a survivor.
But she might give me a run for my money.
“All right. Then we’re staying here.” She spit on the ground. “This is our home and no one’s taking it from us. Take what you need and get out.”
John looked at me. “We need to leave them a lot to survive.”
“Agreed.”
We’d take what Whit needed and get on with our lives. Although I strongly suspected we’d run into Wendy again. People like her… they’d survive the end of the world when the rest of us were long gone.
The sound of screeching tires caught my attention, and I whirled around as John called out, “Don’t fire!” to Wendy. Isaiah jumped out of a rusted SUV we kept in Zero. It wasn’t a great car, but it would run in emergencies.
“That’s my brother.” John said to Wendy again. “Don’t use that gun on him.”
Isaiah jumped out of the car. “What in the hell is going on?”
Wendy looked between them. “You don’t look like brothers.”
“Well, you don’t look like the type of person who walks up and shoots people in the head, but we’re all full of surprises. They’re brothers.” Whether they liked it or not. “What’s up, Zero?”
“I need you guys back. Dante says the situation with Whitney is dire. He’s turning himself over to the Dark Side to save her.”
If Mr. Zen Master was pulling out Star Wars references the
n we were in trouble. “To Dexter?”
John shook his head. “To the doctor? The one that was in Nick’s head?”
Fuck. That might have been even worse.
Isaiah nodded. “There’s no talking him out of it. We just need to be ready. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Another day. Another crisis. But Whit was worth it, and I wasn’t losing the only real family I’d ever had.
17
Carson
It sucked being left behind.
Whitney told me how smart I was, how I came up with solutions, thought about problems from different angles. But with John and Nick gone, Isaiah off to get them, and Dante about to sacrifice himself, I was feeling pretty worthless.
Powerless.
Brandon stalked the room, prowling from one side to the other. When I let myself look away from her, I usually caught him staring at the girl in the bed.
I tried to hone the feeling I’d had only once. It had happened before we’d gone to war with Dexter, an overwhelming urge that we couldn’t waste time and had to move immediately. I couldn’t feel anything now.
Except fear.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. It was getting long. Usually, I kept it sheared pretty short, but with so much craziness, leaving Zero, establishing a new Zero, I hadn’t been too worried about how I looked.
I stared at Whitney, for the first time seeing some of the changes that had happened in the time she’d been with us. Not this sick time, just… time. Her hair had gotten long, too. When Brandon first found her at the Roanoke River, it had curled in long, soft, layered waves around her shoulders.
God. She was fucking beautiful. My brain supplied an image of her, pale skin flecked with gold as her head tipped back and her sunset colored hair spilled down her back. How many times had I run my fingers through her hair, fisting it gently to hold her to me? To anchor me.
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