This is the End 2: The Post-Apocalyptic Box Set (9 Book Collection)

by J. Thorn

  Hendrix and his brothers held their ground in front of the Hummer for as long as they could, and then started making a path forward, trying to end this before one of us became a casualty or we drew more attention from other nearby Feeders.

  Sometimes I felt bad for them, especially after I killed one- I called it the Post-Slay-Guilt. They used to be human; they used to be neighbors, brothers, sisters, parents, and children. Now they were just these savaged, mindless killers and it made me really sad. But then they would do something super grotesque, like pause in the middle of all this gunfire and drop down to eat one of their own dead. And after that all my guilt and shame would magically disappear and I would take the opportunity of their distraction and pop them right between the eyes- boom goes the dynamite.

  I kept my victims to the farthest edges of where the Parker brothers were making progress, but eventually that wasn’t possible anymore. There were still more Feeders than us, but they’d closed their ranks just like Vaughan had closed his.

  “I’m out,” I said evenly to Haley.

  She shot three more times, taking down one more Feeder on her side and nodded. “Me too.”

  “Should we let them clean up this mess all by themselves?” I asked, even while I pulled out the two hand guns I kept with me at all times.

  “We could,” she shrugged. “But why let them have all the fun?”

  “My thoughts exactly,” I smiled quickly and then put my game face on.

  The two of us hopped from the roof to the hood and then to the ground in stealthy movements like we’d been plucked from the set of an action movie and ran forward with guns ready. Our scent caught the attention of more than a few Feeders and as soon as they turned to face us, we started shooting.

  Out of my peripheral I saw Hendrix glance back at us and in that moment he let out a battle cry of fury. Returning to his fight, he started taking them out faster than I had ever seen anything happen. He cleaned up what was left of the battle in less than a minute. His body moved lithely through the crowd, quick and agile. He never missed, never took a bad shot; each pull of the trigger met successful results and by the time he finished, the rest of us were left wondering what the hell just happened.

  Vaughan recovered first, ignoring his brother’s superhero like transformation. “Get back in the car before anymore show up. We’ll just, uh, drive over these. We don’t have time to clean up this mess.”

  We all obeyed immediately. Nobody was really covered in blood, but I felt disgusting and dirty so I was very anxious to get out of here. Besides, Zombie stench was a lot like cigarette smoke, it clung in the air and dug its way to the fibers of every piece of clothing you were wearing. I didn’t want my hair smelling like foul death for the next two days.

  I reached out my hand to open the Hummer door when it was abruptly snatched up by Hendrix. He whipped me around and pulled me to the backside of the vehicle. He was livid with me; that much was obvious from his hard-like-steel eyes and tense shoulders.

  He pushed me back so that I was pinned against the trunk and he towered above me, obviously trying to intimidate me.

  Too bad for him… okay it was totally working.

  “That was stupid, Reagan,” he growled out, slamming his hand on the window above my head.

  Digging deep for more courage than it took to fight Zombies, I bit out, “But it was my decision to make, Hendrix. If I want to do something stupid, that’s my call. If I want you to follow me, that’s my call too.”

  Hendrix’s gaze dropped to my lips for just half a moment before they met mine again, deep blue and concentrated. “I’m already following you, Reagan. You already made that call. The difference between me and you, I listened.”

  My skin was suddenly all tingly and shivery. My breathing became erratic and I swore I could feel the heat from his body wrapping itself around me and seeping into my skin, past my blood and deep, deep down in my bones.

  Obviously, I was incapable of speech at this point, so Hendrix continued, “I’m not trying to play some ownership card here. I’m trying to keep us safe- all of us safe. This isn’t just about you and Haley anymore, you joined a family and we protect each other. Next time either Vaughan or I give an order, you follow it. Got it?”

  I nodded reluctantly, because he was right. I was realizing now how much easier Haley and I had it when it was just the two of us. Well, easier in some ways; there were plenty of ways life was much, much harder- like the never having weapons ways.

  “Thank you,” Hendrix breathed, sounding so relieved that my eyes flashed up to meet his.

  We fell into each other’s intensity and I thought I would drown. He looked down at me, tilting his face toward mine. My hands started shaking and I pressed my lips together to contain the emotion bubbling up inside of me.

  This wasn’t like an almost kiss moment, or even like a surge of lust or anything like that. The emotions swirling back and forth between us were so much more than physical attraction, I couldn’t even put words to them- couldn’t explain them, even to myself.

  Hendrix and I didn’t necessarily get along, but it was mostly my fault because I usually avoided him all together. I’d managed to slip away or find an excuse to leave whenever we ended up being alone- save for the few moments when it was just us and the Zombies. I tended to stick around during those moments. But I never let him have his talk with me, the one in which he wanted to remind me we would always be sticking together. I didn’t want to hear his reasons for changing his mind about going south. I didn’t want to get to know him better, or find out about his past or who he was before he became a Zombie Killing Machine.

  I just wanted to survive. And I wanted to do that while also keeping alive all the people I loved and cared about. At this moment, that list included two people: Haley and Page. And I intended to keep that list short. The statistical probability of keeping everyone I cherished alive shrank if that list grew. So I was determined to keep it short- very, very short.

  Sorry Hendrix, you need to find some other non-infected, relatively young and healthy, still-capable-of-bearing-children woman to repopulate the Earth with. I was so not interested.

  Still, even after all that I was trapped in this emotional moment with him and I didn’t know how to break myself free.

  “Hendrix, get up here,” Vaughan ordered from the front of the car.

  Hendrix let out a long breath of release and dropped his forehead so that it rested against mine. His arms encircled me in a hug as he pulled me tightly against his chest. His scruffy beard tickled my forehead when he rested his chin against the top of my head. And while I kept my hands firmly planted on his chest, I felt his heartbeat slow down, settling back into a rhythmic beat.

  Just as I was about to return the hug, deciding that it felt nice and comforting- he dropped me, let me go. I stumbled back against the trunk and then plopped down into sitting on the bumper. Out of the hundreds of emotions Hendrix just put me through, the one that rang the most clearly was confusion.

  Freaking Hendrix.

  I grumbled a curse and then sucked in a quick breath, holding it so I could listen to the rumble of engines that approached. I sprang up and sprinted around the car to watch the caravan of three SUV’s come to a stop directly in our path- the pile of dead Zombies laid between us.

  Shit- other humans. This might be just as much of a bloodbath as the Zombies we took out.

  Chapter Two

  Eying the caravan of other non-flesh-eating humans, Hendrix held his hand up and I slipped behind him- this time knowing clearly it was for the best. I glanced in the window to my left and saw Haley already down on the ground, covering Page with her body. Nelson, Harrison and King all hovered around them, fresh guns loaded and ready in their hands.

  Out of the lead SUV, a bald middle aged man built like Bruce Willis in the last Die Hard stepped out so that he hung over the open door, staring down at us. He wore dark aviator glasses, so we couldn’t see his eyes- I might have been the only one, but for
some reason his sunglasses bothered me. I got it, we all had our vices, I wanted eyeliner and matching underwear sets and this guy was raiding Sun Glass Huts. But honestly, nobody had time for sunglasses these days and believe me I was just as worried about wrinkle lines as the next former popular girl.

  A cigarette dangled from his thin lips, lit and smoking. In the f-ed up world I lived in, that signified wealth and possessions- as did the shiny black vehicles that must have been filled with gas since they all sat idling in front of us.

  Our Hummer had been left running to, but that was based on a contingency plan. If Hendrix, Nelson, Vaughan and Harrison would have all died, we were to turn around and make a run for it. We did not leave the car running because we had extra gasoline to spare; in fact we were dangerously close to empty.

  Bruce Willis’s stunt double looked us over with interest for a few more moments before saying anything. Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I could feel them on me and I repressed the urge to shudder.

  “These yours?” The man shouted, indicating the body count in the middle of the road.

  “Yes, Sir,” Vaughan called out politely. “Are we in your way? We were just about to be on ours and we’d gladly move our vehicle out of the road so you can pass.”

  I let out a breath of relief when Vaughan seemed to be as wary of other humans as Haley and I had always been. There was no one left to trust.

  Well, except for the Parker brothers.

  BW- that was how I was forever referring to him- smirked down at Vaughan, the cigarette shifting in his mouth. “Nah, we’re not passing through. Just stopped by to check out the new talent.” His smirk grew into a grin.

  Nobody on our side said a thing in response to that.

  After a few awkward moments of silence, BW continued, “We’ve got an outpost. You can resupply there. Get your vehicle gassed up.”

  “No, thank you,” Vaughan replied immediately, authoritatively. “We’re good on everything. Thanks for the offer, but we’ll be on our way.”

  “You don’t want help?” the man asked in a threatening voice.

  “We’re good, but thanks,” Hendrix answered sounding equally as dangerous.

  “Fine, then I’m not so much offering as I am telling.” He pounded the top of his SUV and men from every vehicle, on every side of the car popped out with guns aimed and pointed at us. The sounds of safeties clicking over and clips sliding into place filled our awed silence. The man continued, “We do not offer our help lightly. This here,” he indicated to the Zombies, “has been a problem for us for a while. You solved it, now we want to solve a problem of yours. You will follow us back to our settlement.”

  “Fine,” Vaughan bit out. “We can do that. We’ll be grateful for some help.”

  “Good,” BW grinned again. “Just to be sure, we’ll swap one of ours for one of yours.” He motioned his hand back and forth between us. “And we’ll take her.” He pointed at me.

  I rolled my eyes. I should have started following orders by following Vaughan’s command to get in the Hummer. I could have kicked myself.

  “We’re going with you in faith,” Vaughan countered quickly. “If you take her, we will have no reason to trust you. We’ve got our own guns, so don’t think we won’t protect what is ours.”

  Just to prove his point, Hendrix lifted his semi-automatic machine gun and Nelson and Harrison popped up through the sun roof with their own weaponry. Just because I felt bad ass with all this knight and shining armor-ness surrounding me, I slung a rifle around my shoulder- they didn’t know it was empty- and pointed it in the direction of the caravan, too.

  BW chuckled at our efforts like we were adorable children. “Alright, fair enough.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Hendrix volunteered before another word could be spoken.

  I wanted to release a relieved breath, but I couldn’t. This was stupid, so, so, so stupid. And now instead of feeling relaxed because my own life had been spared, I had to worry about something happening to Hendrix. Grr.

  “Sounds like a plan then,” BW agreed. “I’ll send a man right over.” He went to crawl back in his SUV but then stopped suddenly and looked back at Hendrix. “Probably best you leave all your toys. We got plenty of our own to keep you safe.” He took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it on the blood splattered ground before disappearing into his own car.

  Vaughan, Hendrix and I turned immediately into our own vehicle with the front doors open so we were somewhat protected from their line of sight.

  Vaughan leaned forward and shot Hendrix a hard look, “Next time, you stay quiet.”

  “We both know that’s what needed to happen,” Hendrix countered.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Nelson scooted forward from the middle seat, bringing reason to the tensioned filled space.

  “When we get there, we go in as married couples,” Vaughan instructed, moving past his issue with his brother. “Reagan, you’re with me and Haley you stick by Hendrix.” Vaughan shot Nelson a look that ordered his brother not to argue with him.

  Apparently, Hendrix didn’t understand the look. “Reagan better stay with me,” he announced.

  I cleared my throat, “Vaughan said I should be with him, Hendrix. I just promised to obey the next time Vaughan gave me an order and that sounded like an order.” Laughter lit Vaughan’s eyes, even as misplaced as it was in this situation. I shouldn’t have pushed my luck, but…. “Probably, we shouldn’t argue with your own reasoning.”

  Hendrix looked down at me and narrowed his eyes, “Clever,” he muttered before handing his guns and ammo off to a pissed Nelson.

  I rolled my eyes and noticed the other caravan’s trade walking our way. He was dressed in black military fatigues and had a Yankees baseball cap pulled low over his face. He was probably mid-thirties and just as henchman looking as BW. We must have stumbled into a nest of militia. Fantastic.

  I pulled on Hendrix’s pinky with my whole hand and he turned immediately to give me his full attention. “Be smart, Hendrix.” My warning was simple and to the point, disguising a hundred other things I wanted to say to him, even while I had no idea where they were coming from.

  “Only if you promise to be my pretend-wife next time,” he smirked down at me, obviously pleased I was showing some kind of concern for his well-being.

  Duh, Hendrix. I just killed a shit ton of Zombies just so you wouldn’t die. Obviously, I care.

  “I told you not to make jokes,” I grumbled.

  “That wasn’t a joke,” he insisted and then turned around and met the henchman just as he walked by the Beast from the East- AKA the ginormicon Zombie I’d popped a cap in.

  Apparently, Harrison’s love for all things Jay-Z was wearing off on me.

  Great, that was all I needed.

  “Hey, Reagan, do you mind crawling in the back with Page?” Vaughan asked, breaking into my thoughts.

  “Not at all,” I agreed before doing exactly as he asked.

  Haley helped Page over the seat, just as I climbed in next to her. King slipped over next and Haley threw her body over.

  “I have boy clothes,” Page whispered as Vaughan stopped our new passenger in front of the SUV to have a chat with him. She was already pulling the clothes out of her backpack and slipping into cargo pants.

  “Do you have a sweatshirt?” I whispered. “Don’t try to change your shirt, just put a sweatshirt over it.”

  She nodded and did what I said. She wasn’t old enough to have an overtly feminine figure, but she was very girl-looking. Her eyes were almond shaped with dark lashes and she had perfect rose bud lips. It would be almost impossible for her to look like a boy, but if we could hide her hair, and she kept her face down, she might have a chance.

  She started to pull the hood up over her hair, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough. Pulling loose my own hair I took my last hair tie and wrestled Page’s hair up into a bun on the top of her head.

  “Hat?” I gasped just as the guy started walking a
round the Hummer to take Hendrix’s vacated seat. Page pulled out a knit hat that would hang over her ears. “Perfect,” I mumbled. I swept up the loose strands and whispered that she shouldn’t try to move it and then our new friend was in his seat and eying us all seriously.

  Page was a much better actress than me. While I tried not to freak the f out, she leaned back casually and stared out the window. I counted to one hundred in my head so that I wouldn’t start screaming like a lunatic. Having a stranger in our car while Hendrix rode shot gun with a bunch of hillbilly renegades sat so wrong with me.

  Finally, Hendrix’s replacement flipped his happy switch and shot us a toothy grin. “Y’all done good with that big bastard. He’s been a problem round here for a while now.”

  “He wasn’t that hard to kill,” I mumbled defiantly. These guys had guns to spare, so unless they weren’t really loaded, I didn’t see what the problem was.

  “Yeah, but he’s kinda like an initiation around here. He’s been gobblin’ up most everyone who’s tried to come through. Y’all are the first ones to really put up any kind of fight.” He was so southern, I expected him to pull out a jug of moonshine and start passing it around at any second.

  “What do you mean initiation?” Vaughan asked slowly just as he fell into line behind the caravan of strangers that had turned around. They were leading us back to their den of ammo-hoarding militia and the nerves and concerns that were turning my stomach started clawing their way up my throat in a way that screamed “panic attack.”

  “You’ll see. We got a sweet setup back at the fort. Very secure, very private. We can’t just let anyone inside. We have to wait for those that are worthy, if you know what I mean,” Hillbilly answered smugly.

  “You’ve been letting people die so you could weed them out?” I blurted on a half-shriek.

  “Well, it’s not like we’re their guardian angels. They would have died anyway if we weren’t here, so what does it matter?” he argued with narrowed eyes.

  “But you are here, you could help them!” I was breathing heavily now, my head felt like it could easily spin all the way around. I mean, I’d lost faith in the human condition as well, but didn’t we still have a responsibility to each other to help out if and when we could?