“The gate’s open.” Blake shoved the back door open. “Let’s do this!”
We scurried out of the car and moved to join our friends. There were still six zombies up and more than enough of us to take care of them, but with Kellan’s injury, I felt like we were facing a much bigger threat, and it made me sweat even more than the sun pounding down on us.
I kept close to his side instead of going for a zombie myself, ready to help if he needed it. It wasn’t a surprise that the injury didn’t hold him back. When he slammed his foot into the leg of the first zombie he reached, it gave with a crack, sending the creature to the ground. The thing reached up, trying to get Kellan while also struggling to get to his feet, but his efforts were cut short when a blade found its home in the zombie’s skull, and the creature went still.
The thing had barely stopped moving when Cade slammed his knife into the skull of the last zombie, and it went down, putting an end to the fight. Thankfully. The shirt wrapped around Kellan’s arm had come loose during his fight with the dead man, and blood was now dripping down his arm. We needed to get it taken care of as soon as possible.
“Cade,” I called, “we’re going to need you.”
He shoved his knife in its sheath and headed our way, his focus already on Kellan’s arm. “Let me get a look at it.”
Bill moved to Christine’s side, an expression of concern on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” his daughter said, nodding her head in our direction. “It’s not me. It’s Kellan.”
“It’s nothing.” He waved her off with his uninjured arm.
“It’s not nothing.” I gave him a stern look as I untied the shirt. “It could get infected.”
When I removed the shirt, revealing the bite, Cade took a step back. “Holy shit.”
Before anyone had time to react, Ernie raised his gun and aimed it at Kellan’s head. “He’s been bitten.”
21
Cade was the first to move, putting himself between Kellan and the gun. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Are you blind? He’s infected!” Ernie took a step closer to Cade, his gun still up and the same cold expression I’d seen in his eyes the day he held a gun on me.
I moved to Cade’s side, my hands out in front of me, trying to calm the other man. “Put the gun down. It’s not a zombie bite.”
“You think I’m a fool?” Ernie spit the words out like he was trying to expel a mouthful of poison.
“I was there,” Blake called. “The guy wasn’t infected. He was just out of his mind.”
Christine was clinging to her dad’s arm. “It’s true! I saw him, too.”
“You all may be willing to take a chance like that,” Ernie said, “but I’m not.”
“Son of a bitch.” Bill swiped his hand over his bald head, his gaze sweeping from person to person like he was trying to figure out how to defuse the situation. “Put the damn gun down.”
“What are you thinking?” Diane chimed in.
“I’m thinking about keeping everyone safe. If he’s infected and he goes into the shelter, he could kill everyone.”
“First of all,” Kellan pushed his way past Cade and me, ignoring my attempt to grab his arm, “it wasn’t a zombie. It was some crazy guy. Secondly,” he took a step closer to Ernie, his hands up in a gesture that indicated he wasn’t a threat, “even if it was, we all know people can be immune. Shooting me would be premature.”
“The odds are against you, my friend,” Ernie said.
Behind his taped glasses, his eyes flashed, but it wasn’t fear. It was more like…satisfaction. Like he was happy to find Kellan in this position.
“Put the gun down,” I snapped.
Ernie didn’t look my way when he moved, and this time when he stopped, the gun was less than six inches from Kellan’s head.
“What the hell are you doing?” Bill growled.
“Ernie!” Christine cried, while behind her, Diane called out, “That’s enough!”
“He could kill us all!”
I moved, shoving my way between Kellan and the gun so the cold steel was pressed against my forehead. “We have a holding cell!”
Ernie blinked, but said nothing.
My hands were still out in front of me, and slowly I reached up. “You don’t need to worry because we have a holding cell. Kellan can stay there until we know for sure he isn’t infected.”
Ernie’s gaze moved past me, but the hard light in his eyes didn’t fade. He wanted to shoot Kellan, I realized. Maybe not murder him, necessarily, but he wanted a reason to get rid of Kellan for good.
He wasn’t going to get the chance.
Ernie’s focus was still on Kellan when I snatched the gun from his hand, and he stumbled back like I’d hit him. His mouth fell open in shock, but he’d barely had time to do or say anything when Kellan stepped around me and slammed his fist into Ernie’s face.
The guy dropped to the ground, and his glasses went flying. The tape was apparently no match for Kellan’s punch, because they were now in two pieces, lying nearly a foot from one another. Hopefully, for his sake, we had more tape.
“Shit.” Ernie grabbed the side of his face, which was red and already starting to swell.
Kellan knelt in front of him, getting close enough that Ernie was able to hear his words even though they were low. “The next time you pull a gun on someone in this group, the consequences are going to be a lot worse.” His tone was menacing. “We have enough bullshit going on without having to worry about our own people. Do you understand?”
Ernie looked up, his gaze moving from Bill to Diane, and then over everyone else standing around him. The dead we’d just taken out were slowly baking in the sun as flies buzzed in circles over their bodies, and everyone was staring at Ernie like he was the enemy. That was how it felt, too. Like he was against us. Maybe he’d always been against us, and Bill was just too blind to see him for what he really was.
I grabbed Kellan’s arm and urged him to stand. “Let’s get you inside so Cade can look at that bite.”
He stood with little resistance, but he didn’t look away from Ernie, who was still sitting on the ground. I couldn’t read the other man’s expression, but it sure as hell wasn’t friendly.
“I’ll take care of the bodies,” Bill said as we passed him.
Kellan paused long enough to nod. “Thank you.”
Bill patted him on the shoulder. “Just take care of yourself.”
My heart was pounding as hard as the thump of our feet against the stairs when Cade, Kellan, and I headed inside. I wanted to go back up there and kick Ernie in the balls, but that would only make things worse. Hopefully, after this, Bill would be willing to step in and take care of the situation before things really got out of hand.
When we reached the industrial level, Kellan headed for the holding cell.
I stopped walking. “What are you doing?”
“We told Ernie we had a holding cell.”
He stopped outside the closed door and typed the code into the keypad. The red light went out and a green light flashed on, and the door clicked open.
At my side, Cade looked as unsure as I felt.
“This isn’t really necessary, man,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t put anyone at risk. Plus, you have three people backing you up. If you say it was a crazy guy, I believe you.”
“This isn’t just about you.” Kellan pulled the door open and went in.
He flipped a switch, and light flooded the small room, and I watched in silence as he took a seat on the bed, remembering the day Harper showed up and how we’d locked her in here. Kellan hadn’t wanted her here, and I’d known it, but we’d taken a vote, and he’d lost. But he’d insisted we lock her up until we knew if we could trust her, and even though I’d agreed, I’d hated the idea of leaving her in this tiny cell overnight. Even worse, she’d stayed here for almost a week, sleeping in the locked room even after we’d come to realize she wasn’t a threat.
I
’d hated having to do that to her, but seeing Kellan here felt even more ominous, and so wrong. Kellan was more than our leader; he was the glue holding us together.
Cade shook his head like he didn’t agree, but he moved to Kellan’s side anyway. “I still don’t think this is necessary, but if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” Kellan held his arm out.
“Damn,” Cade said in a low voice as he inspected the bite. “He really sank his teeth into you.”
“No shit,” Kellan muttered.
I moved then, heading into the room so I could take a seat at Kellan’s side, and almost absentmindedly, he put his free hand on my knee.
“It looks bad,” I said, studying the bite again.
“Well,” Cade got to his feet, “the good news is you won’t become a flesh-eating monster from it. The not so great news is that it could get really infected if you’re not careful. I’ll head down to the clinic and grab some supplies, but you’re going to have to make sure to keep it clean.”
“No worries.” Kellan gave my knee a little squeeze. “I have my own private nurse.”
Cade shook his head as he turned away. “I don’t need to hear about your sex life, man.”
Kellan only chuckled.
When we were alone, I turned to face him. “What are we going to do about Ernie?”
“Let Bill take care of it.”
“Seriously? He hasn’t been very willing to do anything so far.”
“I could step in, but it would only make things worse right now. The guy doesn’t like me. Maybe it really is the age thing, or maybe has to do with the color of my skin. I don’t know.”
I hadn’t thought about the guy being a racist ass, but maybe Kellan was on to something. Although, Bill wasn’t white…
“Bill’s black.”
Kellan gave a small shrug. “He could just hate Indians. Either way, I’m staying out of it until absolutely necessary. The harder I push, the harder he’s going to push back.”
“I was terrified when he pulled that gun on you.” I moved closer so I could kiss him.
He leaned his forehead against mine. “I was terrified when you decided to be a moron and step between me and the gun.”
“You think I’d just stand back and do nothing while he shot you?”
“So the alternative is getting shot yourself?” Kellan asked, and even though he was working hard to keep his voice light, there was a slight tremor behind his words.
“I just knew I couldn’t watch that happen and do nothing.”
“Just don’t ever do anything like that again. Understand?”
“I’m not promising anything,” I said.
Kellan was shaking his head, but the sound of feet pounding on the stairs stopped him from saying anything else.
We turned toward the door as people filed past. Christine had the cooler, and she was talking quietly to Diane as they passed, not even seeming to notice us, but Emma and Blake stopped just outside the open door.
Emma frowned when she looked at the bite. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Kellan said. “It’ll be fine as long as I keep it clean.”
“What happened to Ernie?” I asked.
“Went with Bill to get rid of the bodies.” Blake crossed his arms, shaking his head as he did. “That was messed up. What the hell was that guy thinking?”
“He was thinking he finally had an excuse to get rid of me,” Kellan said.
“We might have another Laurie on our hands,” Blake said.
He and Emma moved aside when Cade came back, and we all watched in silence as he cleaned the wound and bandaged it. Kellan hissed a few times and his lips scrunched up, but for the most part he stayed silent during the whole thing. I knew firsthand how much it had to hurt, though. I’d been here. Twice.
When he was done, Cade sat back but didn’t stand. “How long do you intend to stay in here?”
“Overnight should do it.” Kellan rubbed the area above the now bandaged wound. “Just until I can prove to everyone I’m not showing symptoms.”
“This is idiotic,” Blake muttered. “I was there. I saw the asshole. He wasn’t infected.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Kellan said. “If it puts everyone at ease, it’s worth it.”
“Don’t do this just to satisfy that prick,” Emma said. “He doesn’t speak for everyone.”
“Just because he was the only to speak up doesn’t mean other people wouldn’t be thinking the same thing. I want to show them I’m a team player.” Kellan pressed his lips together, hesitating before saying, “Especially because I have a feeling Ernie isn’t going to settle down any time soon.”
“You really think he’s going to try to push you after what just happened?” Cade asked. “No one seemed to be on his side.”
“I think he believes he’s better suited to give orders. Hell, from what I’ve seen this past week, he was definitely the one calling most of the shots back in the hangar. Bill’s a laid-back guy, and despite the fact that he brought everyone together, I don’t think he would have cared in the least if someone else stepped up and made the decisions.”
“Yeah,” I said, “I think you’re right.”
“What happens if it comes down to that?” Emma looked from Kellan to me to Blake, and then to Cade. “We all know we can’t kick someone out of the shelter, especially someone who might hold a grudge. Even if he doesn’t have the code, there’s nothing stopping him from coming back. Maybe even with reinforcements.”
Silence settled over the room.
She was right. It would be like Laurie all over again, and that was a risk we couldn’t take. But the alternative was killing Ernie, and just because he didn’t want to play nice didn’t mean he deserved to be put to death.
Kellan exhaled. “That’s something we’ll have to work out if the time comes. For now, I’m just going to hope Bill is willing to step up and lay down the law.”
Everyone nodded, but I could tell that, like me, the weight of what could happen was already weighing on them. I didn’t like the idea of having to be judge, jury, and executioner, but I also knew the reality of this new world. There was a chance Ernie wouldn’t give us a choice, and when that time came, we were going to have to make some very hard decisions.
The others left, leaving Kellan and me alone in the holding cell. The door wasn’t shut, and I wasn’t about to bring it up, because in my mind there was no reason for this to happen. Three other people had witnessed the attack, and we all knew that man had been crazy, not infected. Still, I got why Kellan was doing this, and if he was determined, then I was going to support him.
I also had no intention of leaving him alone in this cold cell.
“Kind of feels like karma after locking Harper in here,” Kellan said.
“You did what you thought was right, just like you always do.” I laced my fingers through his, staring out our entwined hands. Compared to his brown skin, my looked pale, especially under the harsh lights in the cell. “That’s why you’re a good leader. You don’t just think about yourself when you make decisions.”
“No.” He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it, grinning at me over our entwined fingers. “I think about you, and then I think about everyone else. I’m not nearly as selfless as you want to believe I am.”
“You’re more selfless than most people. I know that.”
“If you say so,” he replied.
We stopped talking when the pounding of feet on the stairs echoed through the cement hall. I held my breath, knowing it was going to be Bill and Ernie and anticipating a confrontation. I still wanted to punch the asshole. My blood boiled just thinking about the way he’d pulled a gun on Kellan.
The men appeared at the bottom of the stairs, just visible through the open doorway. They were talking quietly, Bill’s expression serious. I could only see the back of Ernie’s head, but he was nodding. Hopefully, he was agreeing to stop being such a prick.
They stood there for a second before Bill looke
d up, and when his eyes met mine, he startled. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” Kellan said.
Ernie turned—he’d managed to piece his glasses back together somehow—and like Bill, he seemed shocked to find us sitting there. “You’re in the holding cell.”
I had to bite back a smart-ass comment about how observant he was.
“I want to do whatever’s best for the group,” Kellan said. “If it eases everyone’s worry for me to spend the night in here, I’m okay with it.”
Ernie frowned, but only for a second, and then his expression eased. “Look, about what happened up there. I may have gotten carried away. I just—” His gaze moved to the floor. “I got scared, okay?”
“That’s a totally normal reaction,” Kellan said, but his voice was cold. Like me, he wasn’t buying Ernie’s penitent attitude. “Next time, though, you should take a couple deep breaths before you decide to pull a gun.”
The other man’s mouth scrunched up, and he didn’t lift his gaze from the floor when he nodded.
“I hope there are no hard feelings,” Bill said.
“No real harm done,” Kellan replied.
I said nothing.
Ernie looked up, and when his eyes narrowed on me, he frowned. “You’re not planning to stay here with him, are you?”
“I’m not leaving him alone in a cell just because you’re scared,” I snapped.
Behind his taped—and now crooked—frames, his eyes rolled. “Don’t you think that’s a big risk to take?”
“First of all, no, because I was there and saw the guy. Secondly, I’m immune, so if he turns, I’m going to be okay.”
“Assuming you can fight him off,” Ernie grumbled under his breath.
Bill exhaled, and the next words out of his mouth pushed away any hope I’d had about him laying down the law. “I’m going to head down and see if Jessica needs any help cooking up that fish. I’ll be sure you two get some when it’s ready.”
“Thanks, Bill,” Kellan said.
“Sure thing.”
Bill headed down the hall with Ernie trailing after him.
Kellan and I stayed silent until they were out of sight.
The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 48
