“Have a drink with me?”
“Sure, why not?”
He opened the bottle and inhaled the aroma from the open rim, then handed it to her.
She held her hands up and shook her head. “It’s your gift. You have to have the first drink.”
“Alright then.” He lifted the bottle to his lips and took a long swig. Wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, he exhaled in satisfaction. “Ah, my old friend, I’ve missed you.”
He passed the bottle to her.
Haven wrinkled her nose. “Here goes nothing.” Raising the bottle, she swallowed quickly and made a face. “Geez, that’ll put hair on your chest.”
Colin chuckled and went to retrieve the bottle, but she held it back and took another swig.
His heart flip-flopped. Somehow, his eyes met Houston’s. Houston had been watching them intently, and in that moment, he knew that Houston knew. Trying to hide his feelings, he pointed to the bottle in her hands, wordlessly offering Houston some of the Scotch. Houston’s expression suddenly blanked, the keen, knowing look in his gaze gone, and he nodded, standing and walking over to them.
“Merry Christmas, man.” Houston clapped the Scotsman on the back.
“Merry Christmas,” Colin responded.
Haven smiled at the two of them and then joined Mark and Brett.
“I never got to thank you,” Houston commented, breaking the silence.
“For what?”
Houston shrugged. “Taking care of them. And yesterday, for saying what you said. You didn’t have to say anything to make me feel better, but you did.”
Waving him off, Colin answered, “It was nothing. Don’t mention it.”
“I appreciate it.”
Colin shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking around awkwardly. “This was a good idea of hers.”
Houston handed the Scotch back to him. “She’s amazing. I’m a lucky man.”
“Aye, you are.” Tilting the bottle back, Colin took a bit of a longer swig than normal.
“Hey, Colin!” Mark shouted. “Come here!”
Grateful for the interruption, Colin went over to the boy.
“Haven,” Houston called to her. When she was beside him, he continued, “Totally random question, but can you straighten that ornament? It’s bothering me.”
She looked at the tree, a little perplexed. “Okay.”
Walking over to it, she reached for one of the ornaments she’d taken from the trailer, a reindeer that hung lopsided from one of the spindly branches.
Leaning toward it more closely, she noticed something strange. She pulled it off the tree to inspect it, then gasped.
A beautiful white gold ring with a round diamond glittered at her from where it hung around the reindeer’s neck.
She stepped back, right into Houston.
When she turned to him, he was already on one knee, and her hands flew to her mouth.
The others stopped what they were doing and shifted to face them. Colin instantly looked distraught, but he quickly recovered and forced a smile.
“Haven,” Houston began, “you have been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. We made it through college together, you traveled the world with me, and now we’re fighting zombies side by side in the damned apocalypse. You even snuck out in the middle of the night, risking your life, to get me a photo of my family. You make me a better man, and you taught me how to love.” His eyes watered. “You’re my best friend, and I couldn’t imagine any other person to have by my side in this adventure called life. Will you marry me, and make me the happiest man in the world?”
She joyfully nodded through the tears as he slipped the sparkling diamond ring on her finger, then threw her arms around him. He lifted her high into the air and kissed her passionately.
Mark made a face while Brett punched Houston playfully. “Welcome to the family, brother!”
Houston hugged him affectionately.
Haven stared at the ring in amazement, shifting her hand a little so that it glittered brightly as it caught the light.
“Do you like it?” Houston asked hopefully.
She was still shocked. “It’s gorgeous. How did you manage to get this?”
Grinning mischievously, he replied, “We all have our ways, right? I know it’s bad timing with zombies constantly trying to take a chunk out of us, but I don’t want to waste time. Every day is precious, and I want to spend any days I have left as your husband.”
“Congratulations, Haven,” Colin said behind her. She turned to him, and he hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I need to check on the team and see what they need today, but… all the best to you both.” He nodded to them and started to leave when Haven called out after him.
“Wait! I have one more gift for you.” She frowned. “It’s not really a gift, I guess, but I wanted to return it to its rightful owner.”
She pulled his father’s sword out from under the bed and held it out for him.
Colin stared at it for a moment, then looked to the side, trying to keep his emotions together.
When he took it from her, he wistfully ran a hand over the blade. “I can never thank you enough for this, Haven.”
She smiled. “Don’t thank me. It’s always been yours.”
After Colin left, they spent the rest of the morning eating breakfast in their cabin and celebrating Haven and Houston’s engagement.
Haven beamed as she watched Mark enjoy his Christmas gifts. He’d been engrossed in them all morning, wrapped up in a blanket with Brett, the two of them reading Mark’s comic books. Even though her brother was much older than Mark, some things, like loving comic books, boys never outgrew.
Haven broke away for a few minutes to use the bathroom, and when she was out of sight, she burst into tears, all kinds of emotions overwhelming her.
She was engaged to the most wonderful man on the planet, even before most of the men in the world were killed off by the zombie plague.
Wiping the tears away, Haven wished Faith was there to celebrate with her. She knew her sister would have been giddy with delight, already planning the bachelorette party, the wedding color scheme, Haven’s wedding dress and hair and make-up.
When she returned to the cabin, she hid something behind her back. “I have one more surprise.”
All three of their heads shot up.
Houston grinned at the others knowingly. “You guys are in for a serious treat.”
She held up the socks, and Brett and Mark stared at her, mystified.
“Socks?” Mark asked uncertainly, less enthused than he’d been with the comic books.
She placed one in his lap. “Not socks, you goofball. Open it!”
“No way,” Brett murmured as the wrapped Reese’s and Kit Kats poured into his hand.
“Merry Christmas, everyone,” Haven said softly, unsuccessfully holding back tears.
Raising the chocolate in a “toast” of sorts, Houston added, “Thank you for making this so special, Haven. We are all truly blessed to have you. We’ve lost a lot these last few months, but there’s also a lot left to look forward to. We can’t give up now or ever. May this be the first Christmas together of many more to come.”
“Cheers!” Brett exclaimed, lifting a chocolate in response.
As they devoured the sweet treats, they smiled and laughed and cried, recounting memories of Christmases past. And by the end of it, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Haven thought about her family, how not having them all there to celebrate the holiday, as simple as it was, was heartbreaking and devastatingly painful. Holidays would never be the same without them.
But all of those tragedies had led her to this, to Mark, to a future not yet determined.
A new year was coming, and as hard as it sometimes was to make it through the day, she was counting on this year to be one of hope, one of faith.
Chapter Twenty
Haven turned her pillow over so that the cooler side was on
her face.
Dull gray light sifted in through the window. She yawned and shifted her body until she was the little spoon in Houston’s embrace. He snuggled up to her and draped an arm over her waist.
Waking up beside him this morning, so peaceful and content, had tricked Haven into thinking the apocalyptic world they lived in was simply a bad dream. She longed for the mornings where they’d had no real worries, the biggest stressor studying for a mid-term or final exam or scoring that coveted job interview.
Now, she was just happy to see another day with everyone she cared about still alive.
“Good morning, fiancé,” Houston murmured into the tangled mess of her hair. He nuzzled her neck. “I like the sound of that.”
“Me, too,” she agreed, lifting her hand up so she could admire the ring on her finger. “You did really well.” The round diamond sparkled and glittered as more light entered the room from the rising sun.
Houston kissed her, then grew serious. “I want to talk to you about something.”
She studied him for a moment. “Okay…”
He propped his head on his hand. “I want to get off this train at the next stop, and I want us to find my parents’ cabin in West Virginia and start a permanent life there.”
Haven’s eyes went wide, and she exhaled slowly. “Whoa. Wasn’t expecting that.”
Houston ran his hands over his face. She noticed gray speckled throughout his beard. “Haven, I want more than this. I want to live. I’m tired of running and killing. Yes, this train offers more protection than what we had at the lake and the farmhouse, but you know what it also represents? We’ll always be on the run. I want something more. And I want to find my parents. I need to know if they’re still alive. Even if they aren’t, I just need to know. But I also know something else. Brett is the brother I never had. I think of Mark like a son. And you...” He pushed her hair behind her ear. “I just want to marry you and spend lazy days in bed making love to you without a damn care in the world. And when you’re ready, I want to start a family with you, have kids who have your spirit and my good looks,” he quipped. “But I want to watch them grow up in a world where they aren’t looking over their shoulders, constantly in fear that they’ll either be eaten alive or hunted down by psychopaths. I want them to be able to go outside without us panicking if we don’t hear their voices all of a sudden. I want all of you to have something better… a home, a yard, even if it’s on the side of a mountain in the middle-of-nowhere West Virginia. The world is different, and maybe we’ll never fully adjust to it. But I’ll be damned if we keep living each day in fear and nothing else. I just want us to live, Haven.” He shook his head as tears trickled down his face.
Haven couldn’t bear to see him cry. She immediately drew him to her and cradled his head against her chest.
“I want you to know that I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. For us,” she said, stroking his hair. “Thank you for coming to get me. I know how badly you want to find your parents. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you to choose.”
“Haven,” he told her, “soon you’re going to be my wife. You will always come before anyone else.”
She gripped him tightly. “You’re too good to me,” she whispered.
Not knowing what happened to loved ones… if they were dead, if they were alive, if they were shambling, soulless corpses roaming the earth in search of human flesh… it was pure torture. Haven had experienced this firsthand. She couldn’t fathom how Houston kept it all together, realizing he’d likely been concealing that pain to avoid causing her further distress.
He had sacrificed so much for her.
Now it was her turn to do the same for him.
Haven leaned against the open door and crossed her arms, proudly observing Brett teach his class.
He was presently reading them The Giving Tree. The book had a good message, and she was impressed that no matter how varied in age the children were, they all gazed at Brett with rapt attention, eagerly looking forward to the illustration on the next page.
Mark, in spite of insisting earlier that he was too old for children’s books, was at the front of the class, his arm around one of the younger students, just as captivated by the story as the little ones.
When the boy noticed her, he waved enthusiastically and gestured for her to join them. She waved back and carefully stepped over the children sprawled out in the room until she got to Mark. The children around her quickly made room for her, and a couple of the little girls bickered about who would sit next to her.
“I thought you were too cool for this stuff,” she whispered to Mark.
Mark looked down sheepishly. “I wanted to set a good example for the younger kids. And the story is alright, I guess.”
Haven nodded, pretending to believe him. One of the girls crawled into her lap, nestling the back of her head on Haven’s chest. Another rested against her arm, absentmindedly twirling Haven’s dark hair between her fingers as she sighed contentedly.
A half hour later, after finishing the book and discussing what it meant to each of them, class was over. Haven hugged the little girls before they rushed out of the car, then walked over to Brett and Mark.
“Do you guys have a minute?” she asked them.
Brett pulled up a chair and motioned for the others to do the same. “Sure, what’s up, sis?”
She took a deep breath, unsure how the news would be received by them. “Houston wants to leave the train.”
Brett and Mark both gaped at her, their mouths wide open as they stared at her in astonishment.
“Why?” Mark finally squeaked.
“Well,” she began, “he wants to find his family, and he thinks they might be in a safe place in the mountains, a place where we could make our home, too.”
“This place is safe,” Mark protested.
Brett shook his head. His expression darkened. “I don’t get it. Why would we leave the train? We have everything we need here.”
Haven paused before responding. Brett and Mark had become intertwined with the other passengers, trying to carve out a normalized life from the chaos beyond the train. “I know you both have grown to like a lot of things about this train. But wouldn’t you like more space to play? A dog?” She nodded to Mark. “Or how about having a home, a real one?”
Brett shrugged. “I don’t want to leave. Here we have a community, people who can keep us safe. The things out there can’t get us in here.”
“Nothing is safe forever, Brett—”
He held up a hand, interrupting her. “Yeah, and no one should know that better than you. We can’t go back to pointlessly wandering around, searching for people. We were starving before we found this train. And what’s the point? The people we’re looking for don’t end up alive anyways!”
“We still have to try,” Haven insisted.
“No. No, we don’t need to try. We need to stay on this train where we are all together and safe.”
Mark watched them, his head turning from Haven to Brett like he was following a tennis ball during a match.
“I don’t want to leave, Haven,” Mark emphasized. “I like this place. I like the people. We have friends here.”
“I know your friends are important, buddy. But we’re a family now, and we have to think about Houston, too.” She looked at Brett. “He came all this way to find us, choosing to make sure we were safe before even knowing if his parents were alive. We owe this to him. And besides, before we found this train, we were heading to West Virginia anyways. Why are you digging your heels in now?”
Brett jumped up suddenly, his chair clattering to the ground with a loud crash. Haven and Mark leaned back in their chairs, startled by his outburst. “I’m your brother, Haven. He became your fiancé yesterday, but before that, he was just your boyfriend. I’m your family.” He pointed at his chest. “If you want to go back to that hellhole outside, that’s on you. You and your fiancé can prance around the country, looking for his parents when we
all already know they’re dead. I am done being chased, scavenging for food, trying to keep us safe when there are just a handful of us and thousands of bloodthirsty zombies trying to eat us. And sure, we were planning to go to West Virginia then. But it was just the four of us, and before we even got on the road, we were ambushed by Cade’s men. There’s power in numbers, Haven. We have a good thing going here. You’re my big sister, and I love you. But if you choose him over me, if you choose to put a kid’s life in danger so your fiancé can chase a pipe dream, then you’ll have to do it without Mark and me.”
He lifted his chair off the floor and set it upright.
Haven stared at him, her eyes watering. Just as she opened her mouth to respond, Brett whirled on her. “This isn’t up for discussion.”
She stuck her hands out defensively and stood. Mark tugged on her shirt, and she looked down at him.
“You’re not going to leave us, right, Haven?” Mark implored quietly.
Someone knocked on the wall behind them. They all turned to see Colin standing at the entrance.
“Hey, guys. Everything okay in here?”
Brett glowered at Haven, ignoring Colin. “You lost Faith. Looks like you’re going to walk out on the rest of us, too. If you leave with Houston, don’t even bother coming to say goodbye.” He turned to Mark. “Come on. Let’s get lunch.” Mark lowered his head, and the two of them walked past Colin and rounded the corner.
“What the hell was that?” Colin asked. He narrowed his eyes at her. “You alright?”
Every part of her wanted to confide in Colin in that moment, to help her work through the impasse in which she found herself. Hastily wiping her eyes, she nodded. “Everything is good. Just working through some family stuff.”
“You sure?”
She tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Yeah,” she replied and touched his arm with gratitude as she passed him. “Thanks for checking.”
Colin watched her leave. He hadn’t heard enough to put the full picture together, but he was fairly confident they’d been talking about leaving the train.
Rubbing his eyes, he wished he had a cup of coffee, something to give him the burst of energy he desperately needed. Last night had been a restless one; Colin had tossed and turned thinking about Houston proposing to Haven and what that meant for him. And now, the fact that the two of them appeared to be planning to leave the train would likely mean he could look forward to another sleepless night.
The Good, The Dead & The Lawless (Book 2): The Hell That Follows Page 27
