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

by J. Thorn

  “I am,” I answered. He reached out and I handed him my trash so he could pass it around to the communal trash can.

  “It was good, wasn’t it?”

  I turned half way around so I could face him. I crossed my legs in front of me and picked up one of his hands so I could play with. He stared down at me with something so warm, something so scorching and consuming my body felt on fire from his attention.

  I laughed, “No, it was awful.”

  “Sounds awful,” he sympathized with the hint of a smile. His eyes were dark in the low light of the lantern.

  I leaned into him- because I couldn’t help myself…. because I couldn’t stop myself.

  “It’s been a pretty awful day,” I admitted. No bath. Zombies. Rats. Tuna. All things smelly and gross.

  “I can make it better,” he whispered with his face just an inch away from mine.

  “You can?”

  “I can,” he confirmed seriously. He reached over and grabbed my shirt in fistfuls and pulled me toward him.

  I rocked onto my knees with the momentum he gave me and then continued on into the warm nook of his arm. He leaned back against the cold metal wall and wrapped his arm around me. I pressed my cheek against the firm muscle on his chest and bravely wrapped my arm around his waist.

  The thing about this was that there was no going back. Cuddling wasn’t exactly saying our vows or even close to something as simple as a good old fashioned make-out, but it did make a statement.

  I should have held back more.

  But I couldn’t deny this felt right.

  I listened to the beat of Hendrix’s heart as the he stroked a soothing path up and down my spine. His body was warm against my skin, solid and coiled with muscle in every place. My arm stretched out across his rippling stomach and my hand rested against the smooth line of his side. He smelled like dirt, sweat and antibacterial soap, but underneath that was something so unique and Hendrix that everything together was heady and intoxicating and completely alluring. His stomach would occasionally gurgle from either lingering hunger or as it worked to digest his dinner, his breathing whooshed in and out of his body, and his heart beat rhythmically in his chest. And all I could do was smile to myself and just enjoy all of his vibrant, living…. life.

  Everyone else seemed to have settled down around us. I could hear Haley and Nelson talking quietly to each other and trying not to laugh too loud. Tyler was speaking quietly to Miller, reassuring him they would be alright. King and Harrison were discussing something sports related and that would never get resolved in the world we now lived in. And Vaughan was holding Page and telling her a bedtime story- making it up as he went along.

  I breathed a contented sigh and ignored the misting of my eyes. I had almost lost this…. this family I’d somehow become a part of. I’d almost been ripped away from all these beings that had become so important to me, made me love them so fiercely. The thought alone was almost unfathomable to me.

  And while there was this haunting fear of Kane that I couldn’t seem to shake, I knew he could never come through with his threat. As determined as he was to find me- if he still even cared, although some secret instinct whispered he was- I was just as committed to staying with this family, to protecting this family as he was to finding me. He could come after me all he wanted, I would not leave them and I would not let anything happen to them.

  They were life to me now. And not just my waking moments and daily duties. No, they were literally life- they represented the only good things left in this dead world, they were bright and full of vitality and color. They were shining with everything good and pure and beautiful and I would never give them up.

  “We’re not going to fight anymore, are we?” Hendrix’s chest rumbled against my cheek and I found myself kissing his breast bone through his shirt before I could stop myself.

  I had drugged myself with happy thoughts and the butterflies Hendrix was sending into my stomach. I couldn’t help myself. He needed to be kissed.

  “You and me?” I laughed, even while his breath hitched a little at my gesture.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m not sure it’s possible for us not to fight, at least every once in a while.”

  “But about losing each other briefly.” He dropped his head so that his lips spoke against the top of my head, his breath hot and slow against my hair. “I don’t want to fight about that anymore. I won’t let it happen again, so there’s nothing to stay angry at me about.”

  I couldn’t stop my amused smile- he was just so cocky!

  “I believe you,” I whispered with all sincerity.

  “Then you’ll forgive me?”

  “Yes.” My eyes were misting again and I held on tighter to his waist. “And you’ll forgive me?”

  “Yes.” He kissed the top of my head and then sighed for the perfection of our moment.

  Everything was right again. And while I didn’t think either of us needed forgiveness and it was only our anxiety for each other coming out in the heated arguments and outrageous behavior, “I forgive you” felt a lot easier to say then, “Never leave me again.” That was too much, too soon.

  Even if it was what I meant.

  Even if it was whispered in every breath I took, in every beat of my heart.

  I knew he saw beyond our easy words and casual statements. This was Hendrix- the boy had seen me and demanded I make a place in his life before I even knew his last name. He always saw beyond the surface, beyond my contrasting actions, almost beyond me- but not quite. More like all of me, every single, insignificant and significant part.

  Pretty soon I was nodding off, asleep against the safety I found on his chest. I hadn’t slept in so long- not real sleep anyway. And he was more comfortable than anything I could remember recently. His body kept me warm, his arm held me securely and his steady breathing rocked me to sleep before I knew it.

  Someone must have kept watch all night, or a few someone’s, but they let me sleep all the way through. I woke up yawning with a stiff neck and a pliant, relaxed body that felt like jelly since I hadn’t moved once on Hendrix.

  I snapped my mouth shut as soon as I realized I was yawning right under his nose. I was pretty sure that my body should have evolved into a condition in which my breath didn’t smell like Zombie feet every single morning, but that was not the case. Apparently I was not the missing link.

  This was maybe the first time in history that a person was actually upset they couldn’t claim that great honor. Oh, brother…..

  I kept my mouth closed but continued to stretch out across Hendrix. I scratched my fingernails lightly up his side and arched my back, pressing my body into his. I was mostly trying to irritate him, but he grabbed my waist with two hands and flipped me over so that he loomed above me.

  “Are you trying to kill me, Reagan?” he demanded in a husky morning voice that revealed he was just waking up too.

  I shook my head and pressed my lips together. Someone would have to threaten to shoot me before I spoke to this man without brushing my teeth first.

  “Then what are you doing with your body?” Hendrix demanded sounding a bit strangled. His hands lightened their grasp and his fingers brushed against my hip bones. He lowered his forehead to mine and rubbed his nose along my nose. “We’re in a room full of people. Reagan, I haven’t even kissed you yet. Probably it’s better not to turn me on violently first thing in the morning.”

  My stomach jolted awake, followed by the thousands of butterflies that had apparently fallen asleep in my stomach. His leg slipped between my thighs and his whole rigid, glorious body pressed down on mine. His breath was stale from sleep, but oddly I found it even more endearing.

  I had to close my eyes against all of the sensations he was flooding my body with. Vaguely, I remembered those other people with us in the freezer, but just barely.

  He leaned down and kissed my cheek before he pulled back and moved away from me. I heard him groan into his hands. I tilted my head and then
watched as he scrubbed his face with his hands roughly. He noticed me watching him and shot me an evil scowl.

  I smiled. This boy was more than any girl was capable of resisting. I was falling for him, despite my better judgment.

  Or maybe because of my better judgment.

  It was still too early to tell.

  “I’m going to go brush my teeth,” I explained with a hand over my mouth.

  I didn’t know exactly what time it was, but my body was pretty in tuned with day versus night, so I was assuming it was at least close to morning. Besides, everyone else was starting to stir too. Everyone, except for Nelson who was sitting, staring at the door like he was just as inanimate. He must have had the last watch.

  “I’ll go with you.” Hendrix was really not going to let me go anywhere without him.

  Which sucked because I also had to pee.

  We stood up and grabbed our bathroom necessities and a few guns. We had checked out and used the bathrooms last night. They were smelly and a few stalls were closed for the rest of eternity, but at least in the girls’ bathroom I could hover like a port-a-potty and the sinks still drained. Plus there were both toilet paper and paper towels left, so that was double bonus.

  Nelson stood up so we could leave and then immediately fell into Haley’s lap and was asleep. Vaughan was staring blankly into space too, with that freshly-awakened look and waved us out. Apparently he was back in command.

  The outside was smellier this morning- ripe and stifled from the long night marinating in freshly killed Zombies. I gagged immediately and pulled up my shirt over my nose. At least the front of the store remained intact and no Feeders lurked about waiting to pounce.

  Still we kept our guns up and readied and our still groggy senses as alert as we could get them. We split ways into separate bathrooms. I was relieved he didn’t intend to follow me inside. I couldn’t bring myself to pee with the stall door closed, and our relationship was so not even near the whole peeing in front of each other arena.

  And if there was a God, it never would be.

  I used the facilities as quickly as I could and then walked over to the sink to brush my teeth in the dark. The only light that lit up the room was from the opened door and whatever filtered in from the dirty storefront windows- which wasn’t much.

  I was just rinsing my mouth with a bottle of water when Tyler walked in, carrying her own kit of morning necessities. Her and Miller hadn’t left their colony with a whole lot on them, so we had been sharing ours and picking them up what we could find.

  I nodded at toothbrush package she was opening and smiled, “Did you get that here?”

  “Yes, thank God,” she moaned. Her voice was hoarse with sleep and her eyes looked confused as she concentrated on getting the toothpaste onto the bristles. “Nelson grabbed more if you need one and I think there’s more toothpaste, you know just in case you’re running low.”

  “Thanks.” I didn’t need a new tube, I still had plenty in my current one, but it was nice of her to tell me all that. In fact, it was the most generous I’d seen her.

  “Sure.”

  I left her to brush her teeth while I tried to comb through my filthy hair. I wanted to wash it so bad, but I couldn’t waste the meager bottled water ration I had left. I would just have to be on the lookout for a natural body of water that wasn’t saturated in blood or surrounded by flesh-eating Zombies. Easy….

  I did allow myself the luxury of pouring a little bit of my water onto a washcloth and scrubbing my face with it.

  Tyler groaned and I looked up to see her watching me. She explained, “I feel so disgusting!”

  “Me too,” I nodded enthusiastically. “But don’t worry, we don’t usually go this long without baths. I’m sure Vaughan will find us a place to stop soon.”

  She snorted derisively, “Vaughan.”

  Ok, clearly a sore subject.

  “Can I ask you something, Reagan?” she asked, her voice was suddenly quiet and serious.

  Nerves jolted my blood awake and I instantly looked around, wishing Haley was here to deflect wherever this conversation was going. I had this terrible feeling she was going to talk about Vaughan with me and I had no idea how I felt about answering her questions or listening to her bitch about him.

  Finally, she shot me a sheepishly small smile and asked, “How did you get away from my brother?”

  So that was a completely different direction than I anticipated.

  My eyes grew big at her question, and I wasn’t sure how to answer. I realized I’d never exactly explained how I got away, but nobody had really asked me. The Parkers had always expected me to escape and so when I showed up they just moved into action. I had always expected to be able to get free too, so the fact that I did, wasn’t exactly a surprise.

  Kane was not an option for me. The only option was here, with this family. But I supposed to someone else, an outsider looking in, it might seem impossible for a girl my size, going up against a man, Kane’s size, loaded and with me handcuffed to a bed and all, that I could not only get away but make it almost all the way through town without getting caught.

  It might seem impossible or like a miracle.

  I chose to believe it was a miracle.

  “I got a little lucky and he got a little stupid. It worked in my advantage.” I shrugged casually, but her serious expression turned into one of annoyed disbelief.

  “Kane is never stupid. Not even a little bit. He’s just like my dad. And it’s the reason Miller and I could never get out. It was like they were born for this whole Zombie thing. They just know how to be smart, how to survive, how to keep people under their thumb. I don’t believe he messed up with you.”

  Her adamant disbelief bristled and I didn’t even know how to respond. “It wasn’t like he messed up. Plus, you gave me that key, remember? After he locked me up for the night, I figured out how to get the handcuffs unlocked but I was still trapped in that room. He padlocked it from the outside and all the windows were barred. I heard him coming down the hall as I was trying to shake the steel bars loose. I know, not my most brilliant plan, but when he barged into the room I hid in the closet. He saw that the window was open and I think he panicked. He went immediately over to it to check it, even though the bars were in place. I jumped out then and held my knife on some very vital organs; he saw the value in keeping them attached to the inside of his body and I handcuffed him to the window. The rest was pretty easy. I left the house immediately and kept to the shadows. I probably would not have made it to the bleachers though if Miller hadn’t released all those Feeders. They were actually getting ready to detain me when Miller burst out of the school building screaming at the top of his lungs with those disgusting things crawling after him.”

  “So you held Kane at knife point, he handed you his gun and then you just walked out of his house?” she clarified, looking more confused than ever.

  “Yep.”

  “Did he say anything to you? Did you talk at all?”

  “I don’t know,” I deflected, not wanting to go over all his asinine threats. “Why are you asking me this, Tyler?”

  She shook her head and went about dampening her own washcloth with bottled water. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted slowly. “It’s just…. well, I don’t know. Neither Kane nor my dad are capable of letting things go very well. And Kane just looked…. he looked so possessive of you. I have a hard time believing he’s going to let this drop or that he’s not out there right now looking for you.”

  “But why? Especially after how I embarrassed him.”

  “Because he’s incapable of not getting what he wants, of being denied. Because he doesn’t ask for much or ask often, but when he does it’s with a fierce conviction that terrifies most people. And Reagan…. I don’t know, he just seemed, I mean, the way he looked at you…. I just don’t want him to ever find you.”

  Wow.

  Thanks for all that confidence Tyler. Yeesh!

  “I don’t want that ei
ther,” I whispered. I was fine in this dark, dingy, smelly bathroom until Tyler walked in and reignited my childhood fear of the boogeyman.

  “Just be careful, Ok?” she asked me in a way that made me even more nervous. She was dead serious, her eyes heavy with shame, her expression heated and flushed.

  “Ok,”

  I shook my head and left her alone to what thoughts still haunted her and kept her up at night. According to Tyler my fears were justified, my worst nightmares part of real life.

  Now I didn’t only have to dodge Feeders and terrible human beings, but I had just been put on the radar of the worst stalker in the history of stalkers and would have to dodge him for the rest of my life too.

  Just perfect.

  Chapter Three

  I walked back to the freezer with Hendrix, who had been waiting outside the bathroom for me. He watched me as I walked out of the bathroom with dark eyes that let nothing out of them.

  He heard Tyler’s warning.

  But there was nothing I could do about that. I was crazy to worry about a guy I would never see again. There was just no way he could find me.

  Once back in the freezer, we helped pack up and ate a quick breakfast of protein bars and more Gatorade.

  As often as I was around athletic events whilst the world was still right and sane, I had never acquired a taste for any sports drink. But suddenly I couldn’t get enough. It didn’t matter what flavor or how warm and old it was, Gatorade tasted amazing. I downed mine in one solid guzzle.

  I was going to have to pee again before we left, but that was Ok with me too. Better to hover and feel like a human being than squat along the side of the road and pray a Feeder didn’t catch you with your pants down.

  Page stood up on her own and waited for us to put our remaining possessions in our backpacks and collect our spoils. That was a good sign. Her eyes were still sunken in and blue with fatigue, her color still ghostly white and I could see her fingers trembling from here.