“Do you think Nick will really be okay?” she worried.
“Yeah, he’s tough. He’ll be back on his feet in no time.”
“Lane told us he was sick before. He got scratched by one of the walkers, right? Do you think that’s why he didn’t turn this time?” Cara wanted to know.
“Yeah, he barely made it that time. It was even worse than this. I guess it gave him some kind of immunity, I don’t know.” She accepted that answer and went to pack up their things.
They spent the day and the night preparing while Nick rested. At dawn, he was awake and ready to go. They were backing out of the garage in the Humvee when he spoke.
“Uh, Jim? I think you should turn left,” he said decisively.
“Uh, Nick, left is opposite of the direction that we want to go.”
“Yeah, but I really think you should go left.”
“Why?”
“Because there is a huge group of walking dead to the right,” Nick said simply.
“What? I don’t see anything,” Jim said, looking down the street.
“They’re close. I’m telling you man. Go left!” Nick finally shouted.
“Okay, fine. I’ll go left! What the hell is this is all about?” he said, seriously concerned at Nick’s mental state.
“I don’t know how I know, but I know there is a huge group of Zs that way. I can feel it! It’s like a tightness in my chest. I know they are there. I can almost tell you exactly how far away too.”
Jim looked in the rearview mirror to make sure the girls were following. They were. He considered what Nick had just told him.
He could sense the damned rotting things now?
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I believe you. However, you may want to keep it to yourself around the others. At least for a little while. All right?” Jim suggested.
Nick nodded and propped his head up with his arm. He still looked pretty bad. The black circles under his eyes were back, and though he wasn’t skeletal like the last time he was ill, he was still deathly pale. He would recover though, and that was the important part.
“I wonder if Cam is back with Ed yet?” Nick asked him as they made a large detour around the herd that was, presumably, near the edge of the town.
“I hope so. I’m anxious to get settled at the cabin. We need to get a fence put up around the place as soon as we can. I don’t like the perimeter being open.”
“Do you think Cam will let the girls stay with us?”
“I don’t see him kicking them out. Not unless they really fuck up. They’ll have to work though. You know he won’t allow anyone to sit around doing nothing.”
“I don’t think they’ll have an issue with that. They didn’t seem like the freeloading type to me,” Nick said.
“Yeah.”
It was silent in the Humvee for a while. Nick seemed to doze off and Jim let him rest. He was driving a bit faster than was prudent, but he was in a hurry. Now that he was on the road home, he was anxious to get there quickly. The trip was uneventful…until they got to the back road that would take them to the lake.
Jim was almost to the stop sign where he would turn when he was flabbergasted by a sudden small convoy directly ahead, passing the road he was on.
As he watched, he saw an SUV pulling a horse-trailer pass by. Next came a pickup truck pulling an enclosed utility trailer. Lastly came a Humvee.
“What the hell?!” he said in sudden surprise.
That was their Humvee!
Who the hell had taken it out? Was Cam back? And what the hell was with the trailers?
He was about to find out. If they done an unauthorized mission, he was going to chew their asses out.
He was seething by the time he got caught up to the other vehicles. He made sure the girls were still behind him, then studied the driver of the Humvee carefully. He pulled over into the left lane and sped up.
The driver’s eyes widened when they caught sight of Jim gaining on him.
It was Brad.
Brad was driving the damned Humvee. Why weren’t they safely on the island? He sped up more, flashing his lights for the two vehicles with the trailers to slow down. He pulled up level with the pickup truck. Monica was gazing impassively at him. When he shook his head at her, she only raised an eyebrow in defiance. He sped up again and caught up with the SUV pulling a trailer.
He saw things moving in the back of the trailer and he had an inkling of just who decided on this little outing. If he was right, then he was going to wear her ass out. For real. She was never leaving the island again.
Cam would freak the fuck out if he caught her out there.
He pulled level with the front of the SUV and looked over. He caught a flash of Angie’s face and saw her face light up with joy when she saw him. Then she must have realized her predicament because she lost her smile and turned pensive.
Jim dropped back and followed them back to the parking lot, watching the trailers carefully maneuvering the difficult stretch of road. Once the nose-burning, stomach-churning stench of their visitor deterrence system made itself known, he knew he was almost home. He hoped by next summer, the corpses would be decomposed enough that they would no longer stink so much.
Enough of that. Right now, he needed to talk to Angie.
Angie
The whole operation had gone off without a hitch.
Angie was surprised and pleased that her idea had panned out after all. She really hadn’t expected to actually find any animals still alive. They had though. There was a model farm nearby, a kind of living history thing, and they had animals. She guessed the Z hordes hadn’t made it there yet.
The caretakers must have died recently or left. The animals were thin, but their pens still had plenty of grass to eat, and a small pond to drink from. They were probably the luckiest animals in the state.
She was glad Jack had decided to let them come, they undoubtedly wouldn’t have made it too much longer untended.
After she and Brad had found them, they had come back and let Jack know. He had Monica come with them and they found a truck and trailer in a nearby barn. They probably kept it there so the guests wouldn’t see it and have their authentic 1800’s experience ruined.
She stayed there and loaded up the cows and goats in the back of the trailer, while Monica and Brad went to find something to transport the chickens and ducks in. There were even turkeys wandering around.
She found plenty of feed in the stock barn.
They loaded everything up and were on their way back to the island when Angie looked in her side-view mirror and saw a Humvee barreling down the road toward her, lights flashing.
What’s Brad doing?!
As the Humvee got closer, she saw that there was a passenger.
That wasn’t Brad! That was either Jim or Cam!
She slowed down and let the vehicle catch up a little. She saw Jim at the wheel and felt a flash of excitement and relief. One of her men had come back, only one more to go. It was then she had seen the thunderous look on his face, and she knew that he was extremely pissed off.
Crap!
She hadn’t expected him to actually find her out here on the road. She thought maybe they could have the animals all transported over to the island and taken care of before any of the men came back. She thought they would be a little less pissed off about it that way. A better-to-ask forgiveness-than-permission sort of thing.
That opportunity was gone now though. She would have to face the music.
She pulled the SUV and trailer up in a wide circle as best she could so that the other vehicles could get in. She saw Monica copying her actions. She caught sight of a strange car pulling in behind Jim’s Humvee and wondered who it was.
She felt a sting of anxiety and supposed she would find out soon enough.
She hopped out, slinging her ruck on her back, and pulling her rifle from where it rested on the passenger seat. She turned back around and was confronted by an extremely irate Jim striding
toward her.
“What the hell is this, Angie?! I come back and find half our people driving around, doing God only knows what, during a damned zombie apocalypse! Why the hell didn’t you stay on the island? What were you thinking?!” he shouted in her face. “Don’t you know what we go through to keep you safe?!
She saw the others gathering around and her face turned red with embarrassment and anger.
“I saw that something needed to be done and I did it! You guys weren’t here! What the hell was I supposed to do? Nothing? It was a simple mission, and it went perfectly!” she shouted back.
“The point is that you weren’t supposed to leave. No matter what! Don’t you fucking remember what happened the last time you left when you weren’t supposed to?” he said vehemently.
That was a low blow.
“Do I remember? Of course I remember! Do you remember what happened the last time you and Cam both left us back at the store? Because I remember that as well!” she yelled back.
She left out the part where she had told Cam to leave.
Jim was silent, his jaw clenched in fury.
Perhaps she had gone too far. The guilt he and Jim felt from that was already eating at their souls. She didn’t need to throw it in their faces.
She calmed down and put her fingertips on his chest tentatively.
“My point is that anything could happen at any time. Whether I stay on the island or leave it, something terrible can happen either way. I put a lot of thought and planning into this mission to get the animals. I didn’t take unnecessary risks and we didn’t go far—just down the road. We needed them, Jim.”
He dropped his head and she felt ashamed that she had ever brought up what happened at the store. He was only worried about her, and she needed to remember that. She was also a lot better off with Jim finding her than Cam.
She was pretty sure Cam would whip her ass and then handcuff her to him for the rest of her life. She wasn’t even kidding.
“I’m sorry, Jim. I didn’t mean to bring up any of that stuff. I just got defensive when you brought up what happened. I’m not sorry for going though.”
She stepped forward and hugged him hard around the middle, placing her head against his chest. His warmth and the beating of his heart calmed her. She had half of her heart back with her, she realized. God, she was completely gone for him. She hadn’t known how much until this moment.
Now, if only the other half would come home too.
“I missed you, babe. God, I missed you,” he said in a low tone. She heard the deep rumble of it and squeezed him harder. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when Cam comes back,” she heard him mutter to himself.
“Don’t worry about Cam. I missed you too. I almost went crazy, sitting around here and not knowing what was happening. Hey! What took you guys so long anyway?” she asked, pulling back to look at his face.
“Well, we got to the pharmacy the first day. On the way there we ran into some people needing help. So, we had to deal with some of that. When we were taking them back to our safe house, we ran into a small group of Zs. Nick ended up getting bit.
Angie turned and searched for Nick. Her eyes were wide. She saw him and covered her mouth with her hands. She ran over to him and grabbed his face between her hands.
“Oh, Nick! Are you okay? I mean, how are you feeling? How long has it been?” she asked, a little frantically.
God, she couldn’t believe Nick had gotten bit! He looked terrible too. Why hadn’t she noticed the minute she had seen him?
“I’m okay, just exhausted. I think I’ll pull through again. This bitch virus just can’t seem to take me down,” he said, holding out his arm for her to see.
She looked down at the mangled flesh of his forearm and could see the remnants of the infection that must have set in afterward. Tears welled in her eyes, though she tried to keep them from falling. She leaned forward, brushing his hair back and kissed him gently on the cheek.
“I’m glad that you’re okay. I don’t know what we would do without you here.” She went back to Jim, then spotted a timid group of women slowing approaching.
“Who are they?” she asked Jim.
They seemed pretty young to be out on their own during a time like this.
“Those are the people we had to help. They were being kept by some pretty bad guys. We couldn’t just leave them there,” he explained.
“No, of course not.” She frowned. “I wonder what Cam will say though,” she said.
“What is it with you guys? You think Cam is some sort of monster? Of course, he’ll let them stay,” Nick said.
“No, I know he’ll let them stay, but what will his conditions be?” she asked with an eyebrow raised.
“I’m sure we’ll find out as soon as he gets home, Angel. For now, let’s get Nick and your little menagerie over to the island. Tell me…just how were you planning to accomplish it?”
Well…
Jessica
Jessica was walking to the kitchen to get some ginger ale when she saw a chicken perching on the rail of the boat deck.
A freaking chicken!
“Jack, there’s a chicken on the boat!” she called out.
She didn’t get an answer. She supposed everyone must be off doing something. She wished she could.
She was so sick of being sick!
She got her drink and decided to step outside for a moment. She opened the door, and warm air rushed over her. She breathed deeply. It was good to be outside, even if it was only for a moment. She walked up to the chicken, expecting it to get scared and run off.
So far, it only turned its head and looked at her.
“Hey there, chickee,” she said softly.
It made a low, prolonged bawking sound but didn’t spook. She reached out a hand and placed it on the chicken’s back. It lowered itself slightly but didn’t attempt to leave.
“Good chickee,” she cooed to it, petting its soft feathers.
She took her hand away and opened her drink, taking a sip. This stuff was supposed to help settle her stomach, or so they said. So far, it just made her need to pee more. Brad said she could only have it if she drank at least sixteen ounces of water first. He didn’t want it dehydrating her further.
She was startled to see a cow wander past, eating the grasses at the edge of the lake.
“Okay, what the heck is going on?” she asked aloud.
“Looks like Angie found her milk,” Jean said from above her.
Jess looked up and saw Jean leaning over the railing.
“What do you mean?” she said.
“Angie and Brad found some cows, goats, and chickens. They went and got Monica to help them load up.” Jean rested her arms on the rail then continued. “Oh, and Jim is back. He brought some sorority girls to the island. Back in my day, sorority girls were all—”
“Sorority girls!” Jess said.
What the heck was Jean talking about? Why would he bring sorority girls back here?
“What do you mean?” she asked again, looking up, but Jean was gone.
Jess left the boat and picked her way out onto the dock. She was going to get to the bottom of this right now. How could he think it was okay to bring people back here without asking everyone first?
She felt weak and a little light-headed, but she wasn’t giving up.
She walked onto the grass in front of the lodge, hearing some light laughter from the back. As she rounded the corner, she saw Nick lying in a lawn chair with several girls surrounding him. He seemed to be content, though he didn’t look so good.
Jack was speaking to one of the pretty girls, who was smiling at whatever he was saying.
Jess couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but she felt some deep emotion burning in her gut. It felt like jealousy.
She was never jealous!
She knew she looked terrible, horrible, and these girls were so pretty and healthy looking. She felt tears welling up.
Ugh. What was wrong with
her?
She saw Jim frown at her in consternation, then motion to Jim. Jim turned from his conversation with the girl and looked back at her.
The conversations all stopped.
“Sweetie, are you okay?” Jack asked, rushing over to her.
He looked down into her face and rubbed her cheek softly. She missed him. She hadn’t been able to spend much time with him anymore since he was out all day, and she was sick all the time.
She felt like crying and had to work hard to swallow down the tears. She was being a freaking weirdo today.
“I saw a chicken…and a cow. Jean said Jim came back. I was hoping for some medicine,” she said.
“Yeah, Angie found her animals,” he chuckled. “I can’t believe she actually did. I never would have expected there to be that many still alive.”
He walked her over to the group, she saw them eyeing her with concern.
What were they looking at? Did she really look that bad?
“Jess, I am so sorry we didn’t get back sooner with these. Here, take one now,” Jim said, handing her a bottle of water.
She took the pill he offered her, gratefully. Thank goodness. Now maybe she could feel a little more normal again. Maybe she could wash her hair and wear real clothes.
“You don’t look very well. I want you to come and sit down, Jess,” Brad said, pulling her to a nearby chair.
She did feel pretty light-headed. It was probably just the lack of food. It was pretty hard to hold anything down. The others moved closer to her, and Jack sat nearby, a hand on her leg.
“Babe, this is Cara, Lily, and Lane. Over there with Nick are Sasha and Natasha. They’re actually twins. Jim found them over in town. They each waved at her in turn. They seemed genuinely glad meet her. Maybe she was getting all worked up earlier for nothing.
“Hi,” she said to them.
“They are going to be staying in the supply tents. We got all that stuff cleared out several days ago, so it’s all ready. They’ll need blankets and things like that though.”
Jess watched as Jim put his arm around Angie and led her away to the supplies. Jess supposed they were getting the girls some things. She saw the three girls go sit beside Nick. Apparently, they had adopted him as their…something or other.
Refuge From The Dead | Book 3 | Dead Fall Page 14
