The Dead Saga | Book 7 | Odium 7

by Riley, Claire C.

  I already knew that I couldn’t live at Haven anymore, not with those people that had lied to me for so long. I didn’t expect Aiken to let me stay there anyway. O’Donnell was his right-hand woman, and I had no doubt it would hurt her seeing me with Nina every day.

  We looked around us, taking in the bodies and the abandoned weapons, the zombies and the Savages and the smaller mine that we had earlier pulled the door in front of to keep them inside. The door to it was nowhere to be seen now and the entrance was now a gaping hole strewn with zombie parts and heads that still twitched.

  Clearly the Savages had been building an undead army to protect their camp with. But the thing about an army of the undead was that they couldn’t be trusted not to turn on you when their only goal was the desire for brains. Maybe that had been the Savages’ ultimate downfall. Or maybe it was that God had had enough of their bullshit and gave us a helping hand in finishing them off. Whatever it was, I was glad for it.

  “Together, or not at all,” I said, taking her hand in mine.

  She looked down at our entwined fingers, our palms pressed together tightly, and she gave me a hesitant smile and nodded. We started to walk, and as we did we passed more dead Savages and deaders strewn across the ground, blood and gore pooled beneath their skulls. No one was coming back from this.

  “I hate this place,” she said, her voice soft, and I nodded in agreement.

  “Me too,” I replied. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Aiken said he was leaving a truck at the top of the hill for us. It’s just through the trees.” I pointed up where I had come in earlier. Up when I had come face to face with Shooter and Aiken, unaware of the secrets they both held and what they would do to protect those secrets.

  We turned and began walking away from that place, glad that it was finally over. Though I knew there was so much more to come for us both.

  “Hello?” a voice called from behind us and we both froze, fear clenching in my gut. “Please, help us.”

  Nina’s hand gripped mine tighter as we turned around, my eyes widening as I saw the small group of huddled people standing together. Her fingers were threaded through mine as my eyes widened.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I mumbled, taking them all in one by one. They were practically walking corpses, looking more skeleton than human. My hand went to my mouth as I gasped.

  “Mikey?” Nina said my name, but I was too in shock to speak right now. Instead, I gripped her hand tighter.

  38.

  Mikey

  “Hold on,” I called back to the people in the back of the car.

  I looked in my mirror at the other people that had stumbled out of the caves. Some of them looked like they would pass out at any moment, but I couldn’t have helped them there. Men and women, a girl who looked like she was more child than woman—all of them had faced death and had somehow miraculously survived it, though there was no denying that none of them would ever be the same again. I’d only been with the Savages a couple of days, Claire and Tim even less, and I had been traumatized and haunted to the point of insanity. At least that was how it felt at times. How would they recover? How would they now live with all they had gone through? All they had seen, heard and lived… I thought of the things I had witnessed, the things I had almost done, and I knew that most of these people wouldn’t make it. They might have been saved, but they would always be trapped there.

  Most of them had injuries, pieces of them taken God only knew when, and Nina and I had wrapped clothing around the worst of these injuries so they didn’t bleed out on the way to Haven, but there was only so much we could do. They needed doctors and nurses. We needed Stormy and Alfie if these people were going to survive longer than a few hours. Though, as I watched them squinting into the early evening air, dusk settling over the tops of the trees, I wondered if they would make it back at all, and worse, I wondered if it would be better in the long run for them if they died here and now.

  I glanced across at Phil, his long, bedraggled hair covering half his face as he stared numbly out the window. He blinked slowly, his head drooping on his shoulders, and I wondered if it was because he was exhausted or just too weak to hold it up.

  He’d been stuck inside for so long that his skin seemed almost translucent, his cheekbones jutting out painfully, like they might split through the skin at any moment. His gaze was haunted, his eyes holding so much pain that I couldn’t look him in the eye.

  “Get me back to her, Mikey,” he said, his voice cracked and faint.

  “I will, I promise,” I called back to him as his eyes lifted to meet mine.

  Six people had stumbled out from those mines…from hell. But I wondered how many would, at least in their hearts, never leave that place. I knew a piece of me had never left.

  *

  “We’re here,” I said, thankful as Moo called down and then gates began to open so I didn’t have to stop.

  We’d already lost one person along the way, another trauma to add to the list for everyone in the car. The person, a man, had seemed like he was sleeping. He’d slipped away without us realizing, waking only when his need for flesh had awoken in him and had begun attacking us. Then I’d had to tell them that no one could sleep. They all had to keep their eyes open.

  It was cruel, but necessary.

  I skidded to a stop just inside the entrance instead of heading to where we parked the cars, and as I dove out Moo was already there, giving me shit for it.

  “Get your mom,” I called to her as she started stomping over. “And get Aimee, now!”

  “Why?” she asked, her eyes darting to the inside of the car and the people there. “Who are they? You know we don’t let just anyone in here, Mikey. You know the rules.”

  I turned on Moo, my look full of worry and anger and desperation all coiled into one. “Get Aiken and Alfie, Moo. Now. I need them all!”

  I turned away from her, ignoring her smartass remark about kicking my ass, and I opened the door, helping the first person out. Nina was already on the other side of the car helping a very weak, sick looking Phil out of the car.

  A couple of Haven residents had made their way over to us, and I looked between them all, wondering which of those people knew about the lies I had been told.

  “Aimee!” I roared. “Aimee!” I held an arm out for a woman to cling to as she stepped out of the car, her gaze filled with terror. “It’s okay, you’re safe here, I promise.”

  The Haven residents that had been watching finally came over and began to help, and from somewhere Alfie appeared, his hands going through his hair as he looked at the new arrivals. He was already bloody from fixing up the people who had come back, and now I was bringing him more. He looked at me, his eyes going wide as I gestured to Phil.

  “Phil?” he said, the single word getting stuck in his throat. I nodded quickly.

  Phil looked up, his head seeming too heavy on his bony shoulders. He was leaning on Nina and we all began to walk. Alfie glanced at Nina, a small frown on his face as he wondered who she was and why I hadn’t been with the group when they came back. There were a lot of questions to be answered, but none of them were important at that moment.

  We guided the people to the doctor’s clinic and helped each of them on to beds and into chairs. Freddy had been lying in a bed, his arm strapped up when we got there, but he’d gotten up and tried to help settle everyone when we came in. Aiken had been there too, his shoulder strapped, and his eyes had gone wide as he watched us all come in.

  “Mikey?” He said my name as a question, though it was more than just one question, it was a hundred. His eyes, like mine had, and like Freddy’s had, went wide when he saw Phil. “Jesus, Phil?”

  Phil forced a smile as we helped him into a chair, his entire body creaking and groaning as it relaxed into the soft material. Aiken dropped to his knees in front of Phil, reaching for his hands.

  “You’re alive,” he said. He glanced up at me as I headed to the door.

  Nina looked up fro
m helping a woman onto a bed. She made a move to follow me but I shook my head and she accepted the small gesture and continued with what she was doing.

  “Get Aimee,” Phil said, tears flowing down his face. “Get Aimee, please,” he gasped, putting his face in his hands as his whole body began to shake.

  I ran from the clinic, my feet pounding the ground as I ran through Haven, not stopping until I was at Phil’s house. Aimee had been there since he’d gone missing. Caring for his animals, keeping the memory of Phil alive. I pounded my hand on the door, trying the handle only to find it locked, and then pounding on it again.

  “Aimee!” I yelled, pounding and pounding and wishing she’d open the door.

  I heard footsteps and yelling from within, but I didn’t stop yelling and pounding on the wood until the door was flung open and Aimee’s furious and blood-speckled face looked out at me.

  “What are you—” she began.

  “It’s Phil,” I gasped, out of breath. Her eyes narrowed into slits. “He’s here. I brought him home to you.”

  She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears, and then she went to close the door in my face. I slammed my foot in the gap and pushed it back open.

  “He’s here, Aimee, and he’s asking for you. Come on!” I jogged back down the three small steps, looking back to see her staring after me in shock.

  “Is this a joke?” she asked, her voice trembling, and I shook my head.

  Aimee took off from the house, the door left wide open as she ran past me and through the center of Haven. She headed straight to the clinic, with me hot on her heels. I was a fast runner, but I was nothing compared to her, and by the time I got there she was already hugging Phil, tears pouring from both of their faces.

  Nina glanced at me, worry and love in her eyes, and I swiped away my own tears and looked around me. Everything was finally as it should be. Phil was home, Nina was back, and we were all safe. The Savages were gone, finally. The world beyond Haven was still blanketed in death and destruction, but in this place, my small slice of Haven, I had found my part in the world.

  Kelli and Carl pushed into the room behind me and I took a step back, giving everyone space to do what they needed to do. To keep these people alive. To see Phil, alive and back where he belonged.

  Nina walked to me, resting her head on my shoulder as I took her hand in mine.

  Nina…she was there too, and she was alive. Not a figment of my imagination, or a memory. But there, in the flesh and blood. I squeezed her hand and turned to look at her, seeing the same look on her face that no doubt was on mine, and then she smiled and everything else faded away.

  39.

  Nina

  Thump, thump, thump…

  Mikey’s heart beat steadily in his chest. The low throb reverberated against my ear as he slept, and I stared at him.

  Three weeks had passed, and they had been both long and slow at the same time. We’d taken each day for what it was, a gift, and we’d taken each night slowly as we’d become accustomed to one another’s bodies again.

  I was thirsty and I reluctantly slid out from under the covers and moved quietly around the bed. Mikey didn’t stir. He lay on his back, his arms behind his head as he faced the ceiling, his mouth open ever so slightly. His face looked peaceful and I smiled at that, glad that he had found that peace.

  Downstairs I took a glass from the drainer and filled it from one of the big cannisters of water we had. I drank long and slow, letting the water wash down my throat and fill my empty belly. We’d have to go hunting today, I knew. We were running out of basic rations, something that I wasn’t accustomed to anymore. At the clubhouse, supplies had been plenty—and flavorsome too. Canned goods a standard, home-baked goods a necessity. It had been the same at Haven too, from what Mikey said. But now it was just him and me out here, surviving on basics.

  It was all I really needed anyway—though bread wouldn’t ever be turned down, of course.

  I paced the kitchen, my hand running along the surface of the kitchen counter. It was a home like any other. Like the one I used to have all those years ago with Ben. Only this one was our home. No more running. No more fighting. No fear and bloodshed. Just me and Mikey living out our lives together as best we could.

  Standing by the window, I looked out at the world beyond. At how green and lush and vibrant it was. It was healthy, despite the evil that walked it, and I wanted to be like that too. I wanted to be healthy and vibrant, a shade of the woman I once was. I didn’t want to hate anymore, but despite that my heart was still filled with it.

  Anger blossomed in my dreams. The resentment for the deaders, for the people that inflicted cruelty, for anything and anyone that tried to squash out my slice of happiness.

  My arm throbbed, a low, dull ache, and I put my glass down and rubbed at it self-consciously.

  “You’re up early,” Mikey said from behind me, and I turned to look at him. He held on to the top of the doorframe, his lean body flexing as he fixed me with one of his smiles that always made me turn to goo in his arms.

  “You were snoring,” I lied.

  “I don’t snore. You snore.”

  I snorted on a laugh because we both knew that was the truth. I either slept hard or I didn’t sleep at all. My body had grown accustomed to getting everything it needed from three hours’ sleep per night, but it meant I sank into oblivion once my eyes closed.

  He released the door and came toward me, and I wrapped my arms around him as he pulled me close. I felt his lips on the top of my head and I breathed evenly, a sigh on my lips at how right everything was, finally.

  God, but it had taken us so long to get to this place. Our slice of heaven in this bleak world. It seemed almost unreal.

  “You okay?” he asked, his arms still tight around me, and I nodded and breathed in the scent of him one more time, letting all that was Mikey take me away from my troubles.

  I looked up at him, my face sliding along his hard chest. His eyes still held that haunted look, but it was going, day by day, fading just a little, and that was all I could hope for.

  Mikey leaned down and I pushed up on my tiptoes so our lips could connect. We kissed soft at first, but it grew more insistent as the moments drew on. Urgent hands stripping the clothes from my scarred and worn body. Desperate kisses sliding along my neck and chest. Mikey lifted me with both hands, and my legs locked around his waist automatically, drawing our bodies closer together, knitting us as one as he walked us back upstairs to bed, his mouth on mine again.

  *

  “We need to hunt today,” I said on a yawn, my voice quiet as sleep tried to suck me back under.

  “Yeah,” he replied, already drifting.

  “We might need to go further. Maybe take the truck so we can try to find basic rations.” My eyes were closed, already planning which direction we’d go in.

  The house Mikey had brought me to the day we got back from the fight with the Savages had been perfect: secluded and abandoned, but also adapted for protection, with fences and traps made. It had held a few rations in the cellar, canned goods and such, so we had food for a couple of days, but what little was there was quickly depleted. Mikey said there had been a whole cellar full of food when they’d found the place, and I could tell he was pissed that they hadn’t left more behind. But it didn’t matter. We had enough to get by, to see us through while we talked and got to know each other again. While we hunkered down and rested.

  Our bodies were now naked and entwined. My leg flung over one of his. His arms around my thin, pale body. He kissed the top of my head again and I squeezed him tighter, not being able to get enough of him, despite being tired now.

  I’d never have enough of him, I knew. A smile played on my lips at that realization.

  “You keep doing that and we’ll be going for round two,” he mumbled, his voice thick with sleep but his hands already roaming up and down the slight curves of my body.

  “Sleep. There’s time for that later,” I murmured ba
ck, giving another yawn. But my fingers continued to stroke up and down his chest either way, feeling along the soft grooves of his muscles. Feeling the low throb of his heart in his chest.

  He grabbed me suddenly, sleep darting away from both of us as he rolled me onto my back, his body trapping me beneath it. I giggled. Giggled, like an honest-to-God schoolgirl, as he pushed my legs apart with his knees and peppered my face with kisses.

  “God, I love you, Nina,” he said in between kisses, his arms on either side of my head, boxing me in.

  “I love you too,” I replied, meaning every single word.

  Mikey pushed into me in one slow, delicious thrust and I groaned. He captured my groan with his lips, rocking into me over and over as my hands slid up and down his back, over the arches and ridges and the raised scars on his skin.

  “I’ll never get enough of you,” he sighed against my mouth.

  “What about when I’m old and wrinkly?” I teased.

  “Not then,” he said, his hips rocking and making me call out.

  “What about if I shaved all my hair off?”

  He groaned. “God, Nina…how did you know?”

  “Know what?”

  “That I love a woman with a crew cut,” he replied, thrusting harder. I hooked my legs around him, pulling him in deeper. “It’s like my kryptonite.”

  “What about,” I laughed, and then pleasure began to build in my core, my body tightening around him. “What about…” I moaned as he swallowed my words with his mouth, kissing me long and deep. Mikey was relentless. His kisses never ending. His thrusts persistent, nudging my body to the brink of pleasure and over the precipice as stars exploded behind my eyes.

  “Never, Nina,” he said, his hands cupping my face, his eyes looking into mine. “I’ll never have enough of you. Not ever. So don’t ever go anywhere without me ever again.”