by Bale, Sarah
I should have expected it, but when they pulled the sack off and I saw Elijah, I gasped. He was bloodied and bruised, much like I had been a few weeks ago. My heart ached seeing him like that, but I had to focus!
“Fuck,” Kat muttered. “They have Boss. Who else do they have?”
I replied, “We have to assume they have everyone.”
Because I knew Air. This is what he had wanted the entire time.
I said, “We have to take him out. If we don’t, we’re going to end up playing another game with him.”
I looked through the scope, steading my shot.
“Hands up.”
Guns cocked from behind us and I let out a curse.
One of the men said over a radio, “We have more of them.”
Air’s voice came over. “Is she there?”
“She is.”
My skin crawled. There was no need for him to say my name. We all knew I was who he was referring to.
“Good. Bring them down, brother. You have done well.”
The man actually looked pleased with himself.
He said, “Leave your guns on the ground and come with me.”
Kat shot me a look and I slightly shook my head. With a curse, she put her rifle down. We all followed suit.
The man said, “Head toward the ladder. The man will go first.”
Theo led the way with Kat behind him. She reached for my hand, pressing it against her back, letting me know she had a pistol.
I said in a low tone, “I have mine, too. When we get to the bottom, we show no mercy.”
Nikki touched my back, where my pistol was. “No mercy.”
We reached the ground and I looked up. The three men who had found us were climbing down, which was pretty reckless of them.
Theo whispered, “I have a silencer.”
I nodded once and he pulled his gun out, firing three shots. The men fell to the ground, dead. It was crazy how satisfying the sound of their bodies hitting the ground was.
I turned and said, “We have to hurry. If Air comes over the radio and they don’t answer, he’s going to know we’ve done something.”
Kat nodded. “We need to split up. Two of us go to the back and two to the front.”
We all agreed and Nikki and Theo took off toward the back. I had a moment of panic. What if this was a trap? What if we really hadn’t gotten the upper hand?
Kat turned to me. “Are you ready for this?”
Inhaling, I replied, “Yes. I am.”
We readied our guns and made our way toward the front of the building. Air and several of his men stood in the font, but Elijah was nowhere in sight. Where had they taken him? Kat held up her hand and I stopped. More people were being pulled from the van. I recognized Grey’s voice right away as well as Dave.
Kat met my gaze and said, “That fucker is going to regret this.”
We watched as the men were ushered inside, too.
I muttered, “I don’t like this. At all.”
Air lifted his radio and said something. He waited and then let out a string of curses that carried on the wind.
“Guess he knows now,” Kat said.
Air looked around frantically, as if trying to see us. We leaned against the building to conceal ourselves as best as we could. In that moment, I knew that Air hadn’t planned a trap for us. They were running scared and had gotten sloppy. This was our last chance to kill him, too. I was certain of it.
I said, “We need to move now. Before he gets inside.”
Kat nodded and we rushed forward. Men came from the building, surrounding Air, but we didn’t stop. They raised their guns, aiming at us. In a million years I never thought I’d be okay running toward men who were firing right at me. But I guess that’s what the apocalypse had done to people – making them do things they never thought they were capable of.
Nikki yelled out from the other side of the building, “We got your back. Go!”
Shots fired around me, but I was focused on Air. He gleefully laughed as I rushed toward him.
“I knew you’d come back to me, lady. Our union is meant to be!”
“Fuck you,” I said, lifting my gun.
His eyes widened at the same moment I pulled the trigger. Time seemed to slow. The bullet made a whizzing sound as it fired. Someone shoved me from behind and I fell to the ground, but they were too late. I’d done it! Air grabbed his chest as red stained his shirt. He, too, fell, and he met my gaze in shock. I smiled as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Two of his men rushed to his side, but his gaze never left mine.
Something buzzed past me and the two men fell, dead. I stood, brushing my scraped palms on my pants. I think someone may have called my name, but I had my sights on Air.
When I stood in front of him, he wheezed out, “Why, lady? We could have-”
I silenced him by stomping my boot into his throat. Blood oozed from his mouth, nose, and eyes. It was the most satisfying thing I’d ever seen in my life.
“Fuck you.”
I spit in his face before turning. His frantic attempts for breath filled the air and I simply smiled. He was going to die. There was no way he could overcome this. This was finally over.
Theo ran into the building. A moment later, he came out with Elijah and the others right behind him. Elijah called out my name, rushing toward me. For the first time in months I let myself feel as I threw myself into Elijah’s arms.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head. “Are you?”
“I’ll live.”
Leaning back, I looked him over. He was bruised, but he was right. He would live.
“Daisy-”
“I don’t want to fucking hear it, Elijah. You should have let me come with you!”
He nodded. “You’re right. I was going to say that I’m sorry. I really am.”
I blinked away more tears. “Let’s end this and then go home.”
Some of Air’s men had already fled, but those left behind were gathered, hands up in surrender. Some faces I recognized from my beatings, but others I didn’t. There was a moment where I wanted to lift my gun and kill them all. But that isn’t how I wanted our lives to be from now on. This moment was going to define the way we lived.
I said to the men, “Air is dead. This is over. Go home and don’t ever come back here again. If you do, you’ll die.”
The men were stunned as they stared back at me. I glanced over my shoulder to find Elijah nodding in agreement.
One said, “We can’t go back. We have nothing for us there.”
“Then I suggest you get the fuck out of Oklahoma,” Elijah said. “There’s no place for you here, either.”
He was right. These men had stood by Air, going along with whatever he wanted. They weren’t the type of people we wanted living amongst us. But, they deserved a second chance to start over somewhere far away from us.
Kat said from behind me, “Air is starting to turn.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Air’s skin had turned a greyish color. Every once in a while, he would jerk and make a groaning sound.
Elijah said, “Let him suffer the same fate he gave to so many others.”
I shook my head. “No. I won’t live with his ghost haunting me.”
Pulling the knife I had hidden in my boot, I went over and shoved it into Air’s temple. His entire body slumped, as if relieved to be dead.
I said, “I want to go home. Now.”
Because I meant it. This was over.
13
Elijah
I followed Daisy to the truck she’d come in. My shoulder was killing me, but I’d suffered through worse. Daisy held the door open while I climbed in. Outside, Nikki and Dave held onto each other. Jeff and Hunter stood next to her, each touching her. They were lucky to be alive. I wondered if they knew it? I wonder if any of them knew how close we’d coming to dying tonight.
Grey and Kat climbed into the truck.
Grey pulled Kat onto his lap and said, “Let’s go home.”
Daisy started the truck and we left the mall behind us. I glanced at her. I hoped it would really be that easy. I knew better than anyone that ghosts had a way of showing up when you least expected it.
When we arrived home, I felt a huge sense of relief as it finally hit me. Air was dead. But was it really that easy?
Cooper waited at the gates, eyes wide. “Where’s Theo?”
Daisy replied, “He’s in the van behind us.”
“It is over? Did we win?”
Daisy glanced at me before saying, “We did.”
It didn’t seem real that it was over. We’d fought Air and his men for so long and now it was just… done?
We reached the hospital. Grey and Kat rushed away to find baby Hilly. Daisy turned to me.
“We need to talk.”
I nodded. “Yes. We do. But we need to let everyone know this is over first.”
She dipped her head once and went to the intercom, asking everyone to meet in the cafeteria. I limped, following her down the hallway. Air had beat the shit out of me in less than an hour. Daisy had been with him for forty days. I couldn’t even comprehend what she had gone through.
When everyone was gathered, I cleared my throat.
“Sorry to wake everyone, but we have news. It’s over. We won.”
There were cheers throughout the room, but there was also sorrow. Marshall sat with an empty spot next to him. A spot where Marianne would have sat if she hadn’t died. Dave, Nikki, Harper, Rocco, and Jeff sat together. But, they too were missing someone. Nancy met my gaze across the room, nodding her head once. Andrews would have been so proud to see us victorious and to know that we would move past this and thrive.
Someone asked, “Did you kill them all?”
Daisy came to my side and replied, “Many died, but there were some who lived. They know not to come here or else they will die.”
Murmurs filled the room.
Daisy said, “Their leader was a cruel man, but not everyone there was bad. They deserve a second chance.” She paused. “We are alive. Things will get better here and life will go on. What we did today has set the course of our future. Our gates will still welcome those who cross our paths, but we also will show no mercy to those who wrong us.”
She was right. I hadn’t seen it before, but this was the dawn of a new era. From this point on, we were starting with a fresh slate.
Grey called out, “I think it’s a damn good idea. We have to give new people a chance since the living are dwindling and the Dead continue to grow.”
Kat added, “But we have to be smart about it.”
Daisy nodded. “I was thinking that we could all come up with rules, together, as a community. Elijah has said that he’s not the leader anymore, but someone needs to be in charge.”
“I agree with this. We need a checks and balances system,” I said. “And once that’s in place, we’ll vote a leader in.”
“Does this mean someone will be president of our group,” someone asked.
Dave grinned at me, “President Elijah? I think I like the sound of President Dave better.”
“Fuck that,” Grey said. “I like the sound of President Grey.”
This got a round of laugher, but I meant it. After we had established the new rules there would be a vote for a leader. And I’d be okay with it.
Daisy said, “We’ve taken up enough of your time. Rest easy tonight, knowing we’re safe.”
People stood, talking amongst themselves. Daisy took my hand into her own.
“Let’s go talk.”
She led me to our room. My pulse pounded as we walked. Before, she had said she wouldn’t forgive me if I lied to her. And I had lied. What if she was going to tell me she felt the same way now that she had time to think things over?
She went into the room first and I closed the door behind us, locking it. She faced me and I couldn’t read the intense look in her eyes. My chest felt tight, as if something heavy was on top of it, making each breath painful.
“It really made me angry earlier when you wouldn’t listen to me,” she began. “I had finally got the courage to tell you what happened to me and you just didn’t want to hear it.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that I didn’t want to hear about it, Daisy.”
“Oh? Because it sure as fuck felt like it.”
Running my fingers through my hair, I said, “Daisy, I thought I was protecting you. I was wrong.”
“How does not listening to me protect me?” She shook her head. “I guess that doesn’t matter now that Air is gone, but we have to figure out where we go from here.”
My knees felt weak, like they might give out.
“What do you mean?”
“While I understand that you thought you were keeping me safe, it also brought an ongoing problem in our relationship to light. You don’t see me as an equal, Elijah, and I’m not sure if I can continue living this way.”
Each word struck my heart like a hot iron.
“You’re right. I fucked up.” I paused. “It’s not that I don’t see you as an equal. I do it because I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
She snorted. “And you think that I don’t feel the same way? That I would want to live if something happened to you?”
“Daisy-”
“Do you know why I went out there that night? I thought that I could talk to Air, to reason with him, because I could see that we were running out of options. And I knew that you would do whatever it took to get rid of him, even if that meant dying.”
My throat felt tight. “I was so scared when we couldn’t find you. And then when he came over the radio-”
My voice cracked and I blinked tears away.
“That’s how you make me feel all the time when you do something without talking to me.” She sighed. “I should have told you what I was doing that night, but I knew you’d say no. And I know now that I shouldn’t have gone out there.”
It gutted me that she felt this way.
“Daisy, it’s not your fault. It’s mine. If I had been a better leader and had protected everyone, then none of this would have happened. Hell, maybe you would be better off without me.”
Saying the words out loud hit me harder than I realized. It was true. I hadn’t been able to protect my people and the woman I loved. I wasn’t good enough. I could see that now.
Daisy
The look on Elijah’s face broke my heart. I closed the distance between us.
“It’s not your fault, Elijah. I was the one who went out there, trying to reason with Air. That had nothing to do with what kind of man you are.” I paused. “And you are a good man. I hope you can see that.”
He shook his head. “I should have tried harder to get you back. You were gone for forty days, Daisy!”
“Believe me, I know how long I was gone, but none of that matters anymore. Air is dead. You’re alive. I’m alive.”
But we had lost so many people to get to this point. Friends. Loved ones. I knew that their deaths were partly my fault, since I had put myself in danger. I wondered if there was any way we could move past all the hurt left behind from this war. Could Nikki forgive me for Noah’s death? Would Marshall’s community recover from the loss of so many people? Would we stop expecting their faces to appear as we rounded corners in the hallways?
There was a flutter in my stomach, something Elijah still didn’t know about. Something that gave me hope.
I stood. “Elijah, we’re going to get through this. He didn’t break me, even though he tried. And as long as we’re honest with each other, then I know our love can withstand anything.” I inhaled. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
He stilled. “What is it?”
I tried to find the right words, but couldn’t. Finally, I took another step away from him. He flinched, as if bracing himself.
“I wanted to tell you so many times, but then the whole incident at the airport happened and I was afraid it was all over.”
&n
bsp; His forehead creased. “I don’t understand.”
I went on, “If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone out there that night. I hope you know that. Ironically, that was one of the reasons Air didn’t kill me. He said time would tell and I think he knew it would devastate you when you found out.”
“Daisy, what are you trying to say?”
I looked into his brown eyes and said, “Why don’t I show you?”
I lifted my shirt, revealing my stomach. Reaching, I took his hand, cupping the rounded flesh. His gaze met mine before going to my stomach.
“Are you – Daisy, what are you saying?”
“I’m pregnant.”
His eyes widened and he closed the distance between us. “Are you certain?"
I nodded. “I had my suspicions around the same time Jo announced she was expecting, but then I wasn’t sure. I felt the baby move while I was being held prisoner and that gave me hope. And it hasn’t stopped happening.”
He pulled me into his arms, kissing the top of my head. “Daisy, this is a miracle.”
I held him back and replied, “It’s the perfect start this new world.”
And it was. No matter what happened from here, we would be okay.
He looked me in the eyes and I thought he was going to kiss me, something I very much wanted. But instead he pulled away.
Elijah’s face became neutral and he said, “I better go shower. I’m sure I smell awful.”
He limped to the bathroom, starting the water. A memory of my first night here, with him, crossed my mind and I stood. There had been a distance between us for too long. That ended tonight.
14
Daisy
Undressing, I went to the bathroom where he was already in the shower. Steam filled the room, warming my skin. For a moment I wondered if I was doing the right thing. What if Elijah was the one who needed time?
But, I was tired of questioning every move I made. I was exhausted from worrying. It was time to live in the moment with the man I loved.
I stepped into the shower behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. His muscles tensed for a moment before he glanced over his shoulder.
