“No, here.” He reached into his shirt pocket.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” She took the stick from him. “Can I borrow your light too? I’d use mine, but it’s in my pocket and I don’t want to make you nervous.”
He pulled it out and lit the cigarette for her. “Thanks.” She took a long drag. “So, what ya doing out here this early?” The smoke billowed out of her mouth.
“Patrol,” he responded.
“Ah. Do you want me to move along? Am I bothering you?”
The guard shrugged one shoulder and opened his mouth to speak. He never got the chance. Kyle approached him from behind and smacked the back of his head with the butt of his gun. The man crumpled, but they didn’t let him hit the ground. Pam relieved him of his M4 before dragging him to a bush and placing him under it. They quickly scanned the area again before heading to the Hummer.
Pam approached the driver’s side door and placed her hand on the handle. It was going to be locked, I knew it. Liet wasn’t dumb enough to leave a vehicle containing guns open to anyone and everyone. She lifted, but the door didn’t open. She walked to the back passenger door. It popped open. I let out the breath I held. I didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that she got into the vehicle so easily, but it did make it faster. The pair disappeared into the interior.
Time slowed down, and everything moved in slow motion. Sweat dripped down my forehead and back, my vision blurred. I wiped the moisture on the inside of my shirt and blinked furiously. How long did it take to hotwire a car? A Jeep drove by, slowly. It turned into the parking lot.
Oh, no! I thought. The jig was up. We were gonna have to shoot someone. It stopped behind the Hummer. My chest felt tight, the sweat dripped more intensely.
Quinn raised his rifle over the top of the wall and lined up his sights.
A woman jumped out, dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt. She blew a kiss to the solider behind the wheel before turning and heading into the school. Neither one of them gave the Hummer a second glance. The Jeep drove off.
I sighed deeply, black dots danced in front of my eyes. I looked at Quinn.
“That was close,” he commented. “They’d better hurry up.”
As if they’d heard him, the Hummer roared to life and backed out of the space. It traveled across the road to the coffee shop. Tanya and Bill emerged from the building, guns in hand. Pam jumped out, and they formed a line. Gun after gun was loaded into the vehicle.
Minutes passed. More sweat dripped into my eyes. Eventually, they finished and climbed into the Hummer. They slowed in front of the store, and a hand waved at us before they disappeared down the street. Quinn and I looked at each other.
“Well, that part is done.” Relief flooded through me. “Now we wait for the signal.”
“Where are we going to wait? If I stay on this roof any longer, I’m going to melt.”
I bit my lower lip and glanced around. Then, it hit me. “We can stay in Tanya’s apartment. No one will think to look for us there.”
“Unless they go looking for Tanya.”
“Why would they look for Tanya? They have no idea what she’s doing. They think she’s on their side.”
“Is she?”
The question caught me off guard. I wanted to believe she was helping us, but what if she didn’t? What if she double crossed us again? I wanted to put Quinn’s fear at ease, along with mine, but I couldn’t. I honestly didn’t know.
“If she tries anything, you know Bill will take care of it. Or Pam or Kyle. She won’t get away with anything.”
“Let’s just hope she’s not stupid.”
“I agree.”
We walked across the rooftop to the ladder and proceeded down. There was about a twenty degree difference from the roof to the ground, and I was never more thankful to be out of the sweltering heat.
Cautiously, we headed toward the coffee shop and tried the door. Tanya locked it.
“Let’s head back to the alley,” I suggested. “Even if Tanya locked the back window, we can break it open.”
Quinn nodded his agreement, and we walked around the building.
Not only was the window still unlocked, it was still open. No one thought to close it after I climbed inside. But you’d better believe Quinn and I did afterwards. We also closed all the shades and propped chairs under the doors. We weren’t taking any chances. We stood in the kitchen, staring at each other, Quinn’s rifle propped on his shoulder, my hand on my hip.
“Now what?” I asked.
“We wait. You heard Tom, we can’t do anything until we get the signal. We should make the most of our downtime.”
I scowled. “I feel weird doing that. I feel like we should be doing so much more. I hate sitting around and waiting. It’s so pointless.”
Quinn shrugged. “Maybe, but we have to. Patience is a virtue, you know.”
I sighed. “I guess. Well, first things first then. I’m going to take a shower. I feel like a dirty dish cloth.”
Quinn smiled. “Enjoy. I’ll go after you.”
I showered as fast as I could. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with Quinn. I went back into the living room, my hair dripping wet, and noticed Quinn had turned on the TV. He sat on the floor with the sound off, closed captions scrolled across the screen. He watched Looney Tunes. He looked at me as I walked into the room, his eyes wide, a boyish smile on his face.
“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve watched cartoons?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “At least two years.”
“At least.” He patted the floor next to him. “Watch with me.”
I sat down, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I snuggled into him, putting my arm around his waist, and sighed. Daffy and Bugs were on the screen, talking to one another. Daffy’s beak opened and closed, and the words scrolled across the screen.
“And I told you we weren’t going to be nice to the neighbors,” it read.
Quinn chuckled.
“I remember when I used to do this after school.” I commented. “I’d jump off the school bus, run to the house, drop everything in front of the door, and plop down on the couch. I sat there until Mom called me for dinner.”
“It’ll be like that again, Krista.”
“It’ll never be like it was.”
Quinn moved so he faced me. I sat up but refused to look into his eyes.
“It’s going to be different, for sure.” He put his hands on my knees. “But we have a chance to start over. To learn from the past and make things better.”
I snorted and looked at his face. “Utopias never work. Didn’t you learn that in school?”
He cocked his head to the right and regarded me. “I don’t expect the world to be perfect. But I do expect things to change.”
“Of course they are going to change! They’ve already changed. Why do we have to be the ones to make it change again?”
Quinn leaned forward and placed his hand on my cheek. “Krista, what’s wrong?”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to risk losing you again. If I had my way, you and I would head back to your ranch and disappear. I’d tell you to forget about all these people.”
His hand slid into his lap. “What?”
I sniffed. “After my parents died, I became extremely angry. I wondered why they abandoned their only daughter. Sometimes, I wished they were damned to wander the earth as zombies. In reality, I missed them horribly. I missed them so much, it hurt. It felt like I had a deep black hole in my chest. The only way to make the hole go away was to fill it with anger. I figured if I went to North Platte, having to watch my back and fight for my life would help me forget about Mom and Dad. But when Liet starting acting crazy, it only made me miss them more.” My voice cracked and I took a couple of ragged breaths.
Quinn sat silently, gently rubbing my knees.
“After meeting you, I didn’t feel so lonely or angry. You showed me the world still had beauty, that there were things
worth fighting for. The hole shrunk. Then, when I thought Liet killed you, that world ended. The hole returned, and I had to fill it with anger again. But—” I choked on the word. I contemplated not telling him the next part. I wondered if I should bury it deep down. But then I looked into his eyes. They were moist with tears, and sadness shrouded his face. I averted my gaze toward the TV. I stared at it but didn’t see what was on.
“But I didn’t miss you as much as I missed them.” I dropped my gaze to my lap. “I wanted to, but I couldn’t. There was a numbness, and my brain told me I didn’t know you well enough…” My voice drifted to a whisper.
I couldn’t go on. My throat was tight, it was hard to breath. He hated me, I knew it. He thought I didn’t care that he was killed, that I went on with my life like nothing happened. He was going to leave. I couldn’t blame him. He needed to know he would be missed, and I couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. I didn’t want him to go, but what could I do to stop him? I cared about him, I truly did, but not more than my parents. Surely, he understood that.
“So, when you found out I was alive,” Quinn said softly, “you didn’t want to lose me again. You didn’t want to deal with the pain.”
I nodded but didn’t look at him.
“When my dad went missing, I lost the only family I had left. Like you, I felt hollow, lonely. I desperately wanted to look for him. I had to fight my heart and conscience to stay at the ranch like he instructed. I still hope one day he’ll show up. Even if he’s a zombie, at least I’ll know what happened to him.” He took a deep breath and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. “Helping others aids in filling the void. When I met you, it was the same thing you felt. You reminded me of the beauty in the world. I wasn’t alone with you. When Liet took you, my world ended. I wasn’t going to let you disappear without knowing what happened to you. I expected to find your body on the side of the road. Sadly, I was okay with that. At least I’d know what happened to you.”
I looked into his face. His cheeks were wet. He touched my face again.
“It’s what we do to survive,” he whispered. “It’s how we protect ourselves. I know you care about me because I care about you.”
“Will the pain ever go away?”
“I don’t know. But I dull it when I fight for others, when I put myself at risk for them. Whether you believe it or not, these people and this country are worth it. Even if they aren’t grateful.”
“It does help a little, I guess. Especially knowing I’m doing it with you.”
Quinn pulled me forward and wrapped me in a hug. It felt great to be in his arms. His heart beat in his chest, right next to mine. He smelled like sweat and dirt, but I liked it. I tightened my grip around him and hoped he would never let go.
“Your parents would be proud of what you’re doing,” he said.
I forced a smile. “So would yours.”
CHAPTER 20
Quinn eventually took a shower, and I made us something to eat. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had macaroni and cheese? I ate an entire box by myself. It was delightful! And I downed it all with an ice cold glass of milk. It had been a long time since I was able to do that, too. We had refrigeration in North Platte, but with electricity being spotty, I never really trusted that the milk was all right. Trust me, you don’t want to drink a glass of bad milk, makes it hard to want to ever drink milk again.
We settled back in front of the TV with our bowl of mac and cheese and other munchies. Tanya’s cupboards were loaded with chips and pretzels and donuts, and they were fresh. The packaging wasn’t from brands I remembered, so I hoped the people figured out how to manufacture new products. It would come in handy when we repopulated the U.S. With nothing else to do, we stayed there all day. It was the best way to stay out of trouble and gave us something to do. Eventually, we fell asleep.
My head was on Quinn’s chest, drool flowed out of my mouth. I sucked in the spit and stretched. I noticed the puddle on his shirt. Crap! How gross was that? Quinn was going to freak when he woke up. I tried to wipe it away. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. His eyes opened slowly and he extended his arms over his head.
“What time is it?”
“Um, uh.” I fumbled for the remote. “I don’t know.” I hit a button, hoping it would display the time. I glanced back at Quinn. He wiped at the wet spot on his shirt. “Sorry.” I cringed.
He chuckled. “It’s fine. It’ll dry.”
“Looks like its six thirty.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the TV blinked off. It stayed off for three seconds before coming back on. Ten seconds later, it went off again. I turned to Quinn. He glanced from the TV to me, eyes wide.
“I think that was the signal.”
My heart rate increased. “Really? That fast?”
He shrugged. “He told us the power would go out. Unless it’s a huge coincidence, I say we need to pay Mrs. Johnson a visit.”
I nodded. “Right. Okay. We can do this.”
Quinn pulled the right half of his mouth into a grin. “It’s going to be fine. Just remain calm, stay alert, and we’ll come out of this alive.” He ran his fingers through my hair before planting a kiss on my lips.
I kissed him back, wrapping my good arm around his neck. We stayed like that for several minutes.
Eventually, he pulled away, but not far. The tips of our noses almost touched.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he assured me.
“I know. I won’t let anything happen to you, either.”
He pulled away and stood. Grabbing his handgun off the couch, he placed it in his holster. Then, he grabbed his rifle and placed it on his shoulder. I fastened my one arm sword onto my good arm and put my Zigana at the small of my back. I didn’t bother with the holster. The gun wouldn’t have been in it much anyway. I didn’t realize how much I missed my sword until it was gone. The weight had become comfortable, secure. I felt naked without it. Both of us would have preferred more weapons, but we couldn’t carry much more weight. We were going to have to make do with what we had.
“How do you want to do this?”
I took a deep breath. “Well, walking through the front door is out of the question. There’s probably a service entrance. We could try that.”
Quinn nodded. “We’ll have to assume with the power out, her bodyguards are going to be extremely cautious. So we need to be too.” He leaned forward and gave me another kiss. “Good luck.”
“Pfft! We don’t need luck! We’re that good. We can do this with our eyes closed!”
I wished I felt as brave as I sounded. In reality, I was scared to death. My stomach cramped, my palms were moist. I hadn’t been that afraid since the first time I went into the West.
He smiled and headed for the window. I sighed and followed behind him. My heart rate was incredibly rapid, my legs felt like jelly. It was one thing to go up against a zombie, you knew what to expect. They wanted to kill you and eat you. They were simple. Humans were not that simple. Their motivation varied. They also carried weapons. Zombies had numbers on their side, but they weren’t going to shoot at you. There was comfort in knowing that.
We climbed down the fire escape and side-stepped to the edge of the building. Quinn looked around the corner toward the high school. It was still pretty early, though a few teachers showed up for class. They wouldn’t stay long once they realized the power was out.
“How do we get in?” I shrugged.
“You used to go to school here.”
I frowned. “Yeah, but I lived in the building.” I thought for a moment. “Oh, wait. If I remember correctly, the doors leading to the monorail never locked properly. Or the smokers propped it open so they could sneak out. We could try there.”
“Sounds good to me.”
We walked across the street. We kind of tried to stay hidden, but didn’t want to look suspicious. Security still seemed heavier than normal, but they would be focusing on the power issue. Hopefully.
&n
bsp; We tiptoed to the monorail track, getting as close to the building as possible. It wasn’t going to be easy to climb, but there were service ladders. Quinn had me go first so he could catch me if I fell. It was slow going, but I finally made it to the top and stepped onto the platform. Quinn pulled himself up beside me.
“It’s at the end of the hall.” I pointed. “From there, we just find the stairs.”
Quinn nodded, and off we went.
Surprisingly, there weren’t more soldiers around the building. For someone as paranoid as Mrs. Johnson was, she didn’t stock up on extra guns or human protection. Of course, they probably didn’t believe we were still in town. And it was a high school, no sense freaking out the students. There were several people behind the front desk, but they were more concerned with the power than who came into the building. We snuck to the stairs and closed the door gently behind us. The stairwell was mainly concrete with metal stairs. We risked our voices echoing if we talked. I pointed upward, grabbing the gun out of my waistband. Quinn nodded.
We took our time going up, checking every door and keeping our eyes on the floors above and below us. Anyone could have burst through those doors. They wouldn’t expect us to be there, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t sound an alarm. We had to have surprise on our side. We were incredibly outnumbered. Plus, Liet was somewhere in the building. I didn’t want to run into him. I was pretty sure if I did, I wouldn’t take any prisoners. But he probably thought the same thing. Surely a struggle would ensue, and I wasn’t in any shape to fight back. I had to stay calm; I had to keep anger out of it. If I didn’t, I would make mistakes. Potentially deadly ones.
The air was thick and heavy in the confined space, especially since the air conditioners were off. It smelled faintly of dust and mildew. I sucked in deep breaths and wiped sweat from my forehead. How many more flights? I glanced up. Not many. Almost there. Then what? We burst through the door, guns blazing? That wasn’t a good idea. Innocent people could get killed. How many soldiers would be in the suite? Would we run into the bodyguard? I shuddered at the thought. On my best day, I couldn’t take that guy out. There was no way I was getting anywhere with my arm in a sling. I shook the thought out of my head. I had to try. We didn’t make it this far to roll over and surrender. I had Quinn with me. He could help. Please don’t let there be a lot of soldiers up there.
Life After The Undead Omnibus [Books 1-2] Page 42
