Love and Decay, Vol. Two

by Rachel Higginson

  He knows. He knows. He knows. He knows.

  “They’re dead,” Vaughan announced. His voice was flat and devoid of emotion, but his jaw flexed in an attempt to make his declaration real.

  My heart pounded louder in my chest. I felt the whirling tension prickle and snap.

  “Dead?” Matthias clarified, a slow smile growing across his face again. “How convenient.”

  “Convenient?” Hendrix shot forward in the cell. “My little sister… my brother are dead and you think that’s convenient?”

  Matthias matched his move step for step. “My wife is dead! Because of you! My son is dead! Because of you! Yes that’s convenient! Yes I want your family dead!” He was shouting at the top of his lungs; spittle flew from his mouth and sprayed the air around him. His face turned a choking red and his beady eyes bulged in their sockets. He sucked in a rasping breath that rattled his lungs but when he spoke again, his words came out calmer, more controlled. “It would be very convenient if they were dead. It would save me bullets and time. But not for one second do I believe they are. Not for one second do I believe you let that child out of your sight where something bad could happen to her. Now I will ask one more time. And if you do not tell me the truth, I will call in my firing squad and paint that back wall with your blood. Where is the child?” When nobody answered him immediately, he resorted to screaming again. “Tell me where the child is!”

  Reagan pulled the gun from her waistband and shoved it through the space between the bars, capturing Matthias in her sight. “Somewhere you will never touch her.”

  Reagan going rogue. This scenario had actually been built into one of our later plans. Hendrix strongly suggested we prepare for this moment right here.

  The rest of us stepped forward, pulling our weapons and aiming them at my father. He glanced around quickly, taking in the scene with his sharp intelligence. His gun lifted and he aimed it directly at Diego- his best option for escape.

  “This is a trick,” Matthias growled. He didn’t ask a question, he stated facts.

  It was a trick. We had hoped the trick part wouldn’t come out until later, but then we were used to things not going our way.

  “This is a death sentence,” Vaughan stated clearly.

  With Vaughan’s words, I could hear it. I could feel it. War had finally found us.

  We had been running from this for so long, but it had finally caught up to us. We were ready. We were tired of running, tired of making enemies. It was time to end this once and for all.

  I sucked in a breath and braced for the impact.

  Matthias pulled the trigger of his gun and dropped to the floor. Diego wasn’t as fast to shoot his own weapon, so by the time his bullet sailed from his gun, his arms were pointed toward the ceiling and the gun exploded in the plaster overhead. Gritty white debris rained down on him as Diego’s lanky body crashed into the desk behind him. Papers and office equipment exploded off the metal desk and whatever remained was quickly coated with Diego’s sticky blood.

  “Get him!” Diego roared over the sound of bullets erupting from their guns.

  Matthias’s bullet hadn’t landed anywhere fatal. At least not yet. But his plan had worked. His men opened fire on the room and Matthias somehow managed to push through the door before we could take him out. Two of his men made it through after him. Two of them landed on the ground, lifeless and riddled with bullets from Diego’s men.

  Vaughan ran forward and pulled the keys from his pocket. It had been pointless to be locked in here after all of that. We should have waited for him out in the open and started this gun fight off on the right foot.

  The cell door swung open and while I waited for Vaughan to unlock the other doors and release his brothers and Reagan, I rushed over to Diego.

  I didn’t know if he was friend or foe, but I couldn’t let him bleed out because of my father. I searched his torso for the wound and found the majority of blood at his shoulder.

  I went to unbutton his shirt, but he hissed at me, pulling his gun up with his free hand.

  “I’m here to help,” I promised him.

  His eyes told me how much he didn’t trust me. I ignored them and went for his buttons again.

  “I have to see,” I told him gently. “I have to know if it’s still in there or if it went all the way through.”

  He cursed in Spanish but finally nodded. One of his men had stayed behind and shifted nervously from foot to foot on the other side of the desk. The rest of the men had rushed outside in pursuit of Matthias.

  I could hear the crackle of gunfire and the shouts of men as they died or got hit. I needed to be a part of the battle outside this door.

  The Parkers hovered by, unsure what to do. “Go!” I told them. “I’m going to check him out, do what I can and follow you.” I looked at my little brother and said, “Except you. You stay with me.”

  Hendrix led Reagan, Harrison, King and Miller through the door. Miller completely ignored my order. Vaughan stayed by my side.

  “I’m not leaving you,” he said simply.

  “I never thought you would.” I shot him a sassy smile despite our grim circumstances. He raised his eyebrows impatiently. “Help me lift him,” I told Vaughan, getting back to business. I ignored Miller’s abandonment and promised myself I’d deal with him later.

  I finished with the buttons while Diego’s soldier and Vaughan helped raise him to sitting. Diego cursed the entire time, barking foul words in two languages. I peeled the shirt off, careful not to pull at his wounds too much. The blood-soaked shirt stuck to the hole on either side of his body, pulling at raw, tender flesh.

  By the time we’d pulled his shirt down to his elbows, I could see that the bullet had gone through the back of Diego’s body.

  He was very lucky.

  “I need to wrap this,” I said, more to myself than my helpers. “Help me get his shirt off all the way.

  They did and soon I had the black cotton button-up for gauze. It was the best I could do and I needed to use it fast.

  Pulling as tightly as I could, even though the angle was awkward and Diego’s body continued to leak blood from either side, I finally managed to wrap the shirt around the wound.

  I had hoped that it would stop the blood flow, but his shirt was soaked in under a minute.

  Vaughan glanced wildly at the door, his body shaking with the need to find his brothers and make sure they were okay. I knew I needed to move on, that this was not the reason we came, but I couldn’t let this man bleed out because of my father.

  I nodded toward the cot in one of the cells. “Let’s carry him in there and see what else we can do.” When neither man moved right away, I snapped, “Quickly!”

  My hands were sticky with blood that dripped to my elbows and I left droplets of blood on our way to the cot. By the time they laid him down, Diego had passed out.

  I made sure his body weight rested on the exit wound and took the top sheet from underneath him and stuffed part of it under his tight but useless bandage.

  That was as good as it was going to get.

  “Are you going to stay with him?” I asked the man with the gun.

  He shook his head and shrugged one shoulder. He didn’t understand me.

  “Donde estas… donde estas ir?” I knew I had spoken complete gibberish, but this guy needed to figure out what I was trying to say.

  His eyes clouded with my broken Spanish, but then all of a sudden he seemed to get it. He jumped on his toes and pointed to Diego. “Aquí!” he said. “Aquí!”

  “Good,” I breathed. I was already exhausted from the day and I knew, I just knew, we were just getting started.

  “Let’s go.” Vaughan put his hand on my shoulder and nudged me toward the front.

  We ran through the office, stepping over papers, random office supplies and dead bodies. I took one last fortifying breath at the door and stepped straight into hell.

  Chapter Three

  As soon as I opened the door, I wanted to shu
t it. The only thing that kept me moving forward was my friends.

  I wiped my blood soaked hands on my pants and tried to get a better hold on my gun, but the blood made it difficult. I was a little worried about making the trigger sticky, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now.

  “Do you see Hendrix?” Vaughan asked from behind me.

  I surveyed the battle torn street. Men dove for cover up and down the small village, taking sanctuary wherever they could. The street was already littered with the bodies of the dead. If my dad’s men had them surrounded, I wondered how many were able to survive the initial wave of gunfire.

  I couldn’t see Reagan or Hendrix from here. Our friends seemed to have disappeared. I couldn’t see my father either and I had to wonder where had decided to hide out while his men did his dirty work.

  Diego’s loud moan drove me from the building. If he woke up, I didn’t want to have to take care of him.

  It was more important we find Matthias than deal with Diego. I honestly couldn’t say if the war lord would make it through the night. I mean… he had just been shot. Although, I had seen worse.

  I slipped outside with Vaughan right behind me. We stayed plastered against the building. The stucco siding dug into my back and snagged my sweaty shirt, but I ignored the discomfort so I could stay alive.

  My gun felt extra heavy in my hand today. I usually hated it. It wasn’t as though I had an issue with killing, because obviously I didn’t. It was them or me and I really preferred it to be them.

  I did however have an issue with being bad at things, and I was really bad at shooting. I had trouble aiming and keeping my eyes open. I was constantly afraid of shooting myself or someone that I didn’t want dead. And so, if I could, I would avoid holding weapons and trying to fit in with the rest of the homicidal maniacs I hung out with.

  However, today, for the first time, this weapon felt right in my hands. It felt at home. I felt like I was going to serve a better purpose with it.

  We slid around the corner of the building, into a narrow alley. It smelled like urine and trash back there, but now wasn’t the time to be picky. We listened carefully while the whiz of bullets sped by and then found purchase in something. The bullets made their own soundtrack to our deadly mission quickly followed by the explosion of a building, the shattering of glass, as it pounded into the ground or the unique crunch or spurt whenever one hit a person.

  “Where is everybody?” I spoke just loud enough for Vaughan to hear me. I didn’t want to give away our position.

  He gave me a sideways glance. “My guess is trying not to die.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “We also try not to die.”

  I slapped his bicep and left a streak of Diego’s blood on his shirt. “Stop being a smart ass.”

  His lips twitched with the effort not to smile. He looked up and down the street one more time, then pulled back in and leveled me with his bright blue eyes. “I see Colony men up the street a ways. I’m going to take them out first and hopefully draw more men to me. We have to figure out where Matthias is. If we can kill him, we might have a chance to finish this before everyone ends up dead. For now, we’re going to work our way to Andy. I’m hoping that’s where Hendrix took everyone else.”

  “How are we going to find out where Matthias is?” I licked my lips and tasted salt and copper. The summer sun beat down on us with unrelenting strength. Sweat beaded on my forehead and trickled down my temples. Some of it got in my eyes and I tried to blink it away.

  “My guess is that he’ll be the most guarded. That’s why I want to draw out more men. If I can see them coming from a certain destination, we’ll know where to go.”

  I stared at Vaughan, at this man that had pulled me into his gravitational pull and refused to let go. I looked at his face and all of his intimately familiar features and I wished that we were somewhere else. Anywhere else.

  I didn’t want Vaughan to go shoot bad guys. I wanted to curl up in his arms and feel the strength of his body and the warmth of his life. I wanted to kiss his lips and taste his mouth. I wanted to run my hands through his wild hair and wrap my legs around his narrow waist and never let go.

  I wanted to show him how much I cared for him. I wanted to make oaths with my body and promises with my soul.

  I wanted to get him as far away from my daddy as possible.

  “We’re going to die aren’t we?” I whispered. I couldn’t bring myself to say those words louder.

  He nodded his head, looking absolutely bleak without hope. “There is a solid possibility we won’t survive this, Tyler. Are you sure you don’t have anything to say to me before I go risk my life?”

  I tilted my head to the side and glared at him. “Yes, Vaughan,” I replied wryly. “There is something I’ve been meaning to say to you.” He tried to play it cool, but I watched his eyes light up with anticipation. If he hadn’t been trying to manipulate me, I might have taken this whole thing more seriously. “I like you a lot. I mean, a whole bunch. I like you so much I really hope you don’t die today.”

  “You like me?” He did not sound pleased.

  “So much,” I whispered seductively.

  He pointed his finger in my face. “You’re going to pay for that, Tyler Allen.” I grinned at him before I tried to bite his finger. He pulled it back and narrowed his eyes on me. “Behave.”

  “You first.”

  He leaned over faster than lightning and swept a sweet kiss on my sticky lips. “Don’t leave my side.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  Once he had my promise, he turned around and headed back into the fray. I crouched down and stuck as close to him as I could.

  The first guy we came upon had his back to us while he shot at another man down the street. Vaughan took in his outfit of black fatigues, army boots and blonde hair and made the critical decision that this was our enemy.

  He raised his gun and shot the man in the back of the head. He dropped to the ground while we ducked back around the side of another building.

  I thought we would catch our breath but I was surprised to find two of Matthias’s men also hiding out back here. I sucked in a sharp breath, readying myself to die, when Vaughan lifted his gun and let off two quick shots. Pop. Pop.

  The two men dropped to the ground, blood leaking out of a small hole between their eyes.

  My stomach rolled. I was going to puke.

  It was one thing to kill Zombies. They were already dead. We were doing them a favor.

  Killing a man was an entirely different ball game- one I didn’t think I was prepared for. I looked down at their lifeless corpses and had the very misplaced urge to weep for them. I slammed my eyes shut and tried to hold back the tears stinging the corners of my eyes.

  My chin trembled and I cursed at myself for having this stupid reaction in the middle of a war. I had to be tougher or I wasn’t going to survive.

  When I opened my eyes again to blurry vision, I watched Vaughan sweep down and pick up their discarded weapons. I somehow managed not to let a single tear fall while he checked them each for ammo and then handed me one. I slipped it into my waistband and pulled my t-shirt over it.

  “You okay?” he whispered. This time he was more rushed, a lot more urgent. He didn’t have time to babysit me and honestly I didn’t want him to.

  I wanted this to be over with as soon as possible.

  “We need to find Miller,” I told him.

  “Working on it, Babe.” He spun back around and poked his head out so he could see up and down the street.

  The gunshots had started to space out. Either most of the men were dead or they’d found a better place to hide.

  “This way,” Vaughan instructed before heading off back into the street.

  I felt a little useless following him. He was basically a super hero, while I would always be the stupid damsel in distress. I was just glad they hadn’t left me back at the bungalow.

  I picked up my pace just
at the right moment. A shot hit the building right behind me with a sharp ping and exploded stucco everywhere. I lunged forward and covered my head with my arms.

  “Move, Tyler,” Vaughan growled. He half turned toward the street and started shooting, but we had no idea where the shot came from.

  I had never run faster in my life. The corner of this building was another ten feet in front of us. Bullets soared around me and I couldn’t stop the scream from wrenching from my throat.

  I made it around the corner of the building and plastered myself against the wall. My chest heaved with the effort to catch my breath. My entire body started shaking so uncontrollably that I almost dropped my gun.

  Another shot hit the very corner of the building and I screamed again. Vaughan’s warm hand tugged on my arm, pulling it down from over my eyes before leading me deeper into the alley, away from where bullets could reach us.

  With his gun still filling one hand, he cupped my face and tilted my chin with his thumb until he could look into my eyes. “You’re okay,” he promised me. He leaned down for a fast kiss and I found strength in that small gesture.

  I nodded once and allowed one tear to escape before I wiped it away with my shoulder.

  He left me as soon as I knew I wasn’t going to collapse on the ground or start weeping. He stayed next to the wall and craned his neck to see as far as he could. When another bullet shot right by him and landed on the inside of the alley, I knew we were in trouble.

  The shot created a larger hole than the other ones I’d seen. Whoever was shooting had something more significant in their hands than a handgun.

  Vaughan tried peeking out again and another bullet came buzzing by. They weren’t close enough to hurt him, but the message was clear. We were trapped.

  I could not regulate my breathing as I stood there, waiting for someone to attack us. I had no idea how we were ever going to get out of this alley.

  Vaughan looked back at me with a frown on his lips and fury in his eyes. “He climbed up on the roof. He’s taking out everything in the street.”

  “One of Matthias’s?”