Chapter Two

 

An hour later our backpacks were packed. Kane had been summoned to Matthias and left shortly after I told him we were leaving. But he knew I wanted out, and he hadn’t tried to talk me out of it, so I had to assume we were a go.

I had expected Matthias and his men to storm in here and drag me by the hair out to the courtyard so he could reenact his brutal way of killing with me.

They never came.

And since Kane hadn’t rushed back here to tell me someone else was going to be punished in my place, I had to believe Matthias didn’t take me seriously.

Our packs were sitting by the rolling door, and I was dressed, armed with whatever Kane had lying around and mentally prepared to kill anything and everything that got in my way.

It was almost eerie how silent the last hour had been. I hardly expected Matthias to let us just waltz out of here. And so my nerves were about as intolerable as they could be.

I’d made him look foolish.

I’d belittled his authority.

I’d called him a coward.

Retaliation was on its way. I knew that without any doubt.

But this time instead of fearing Matthias and his wrath, I looked forward to it. He’d succeeded in breaking me. I was officially broken. Goodness, mercy, forgiveness… All of those things had been ripped from me and replaced with a blood-hungry need for revenge.

I didn’t want anyone I loved hurt, of course, but I was starting to believe that was unavoidable. Maybe that was pessimistic, but I couldn’t help it. If casualties were unavoidable, I wanted to start now. I wanted to shed the first drops of blood and get this epic battle of the ages started.

Bring it on, Matthias.

Despite whatever adrenaline-fueled rage I’d worked myself up into, I still jumped when a gun firing on the other side of the door burst through my simmering solitude. The gun went off three times in very quick succession. I pulled a firearm from the back of my pants and held it at the door. I was ready for whatever was on the other side, whether friend or foe. The loud, metal door slid open with a crash and blood immediately seeped inside what had been a relative stronghold and sanctuary for me over the past few days.

Kane stood on the other side with his gun still drawn, hovering over the guards he’d just dropped without warning.

“Ready?” he said with the smallest hint of a smile.

I felt breathless watching him like that. He was the sexiest version of a knight in shining armor I’d ever seen. His black cargo pants hung low on his hips. His gray Henley hugged his chest and molded to his biceps. And his glasses were so mysteriously alluring perched on his strong, masculine nose that I just wanted to run to him, leap over all that blood and kiss his face.

I replayed that last thought in my head three more times and found some much needed, much saner perspective.

Leap over blood?

I’d lost my innocence, not my morality.

Yeesh!

“You killed them,” I croaked.

“It was us or them.”

“Why?”

“Because Matthias is coming after you.”

“He’s your father.”

“And you’re you.”

I lost my breath at his words. I had trusted Kane for a while now; probably even longer than I wanted to admit. But hearing his words, seeing him take steps to keep me safe and save my life, clicked the last piece of my emotions into place.

I had feelings for Kane Allen. Strong ones. Loving ones.

This man was the last person on the planet I believed I could love. And he was certainly the last person I wanted to love. But it had happened anyway.

Maybe he didn’t deserve my devotion. Maybe I should have wanted to kill him as much as I wanted to kill Matthias. But I’d stopped trying to make sense of these feelings for a long time now. It just wasn’t possible.

But I still didn’t love him as much as I loved Hendrix. I ached for Hendrix. I missed him with a gaping hole that hurt me deeper than anything else ever had.

Kane wasn’t there yet. But if he got me out of this alive… he might be a whole lot closer.

“I’m not leaving without Haley and the Parkers. And we are not leaving Tyler or Miller behind.”

Kane glanced over his shoulder quickly and back to me. I knew he was impatient, but he needed to know. I loved that he was here to save me, but I wasn’t going anywhere without the other people I loved. He would have to deal with that.

“Reagan,” his voice was growly, his eyes intense, “Do you know what it means when I tell you I love you?” I shook my head too emotional for words. “It means I give you everything, every part of me, every word, every thought, every action. It means I give you the world. And if I can’t just hand that over, then I’ll do whatever the hell it takes until I can. It means, you own every part of me, and I will not give up until I have every part of you. Even if that means rescuing my competition and all the people that want to kill me. I will do anything to make you happy. And I will do everything to keep you safe. Even if it means saving the Parkers.” He paused and rolled his eyes. “Can we go now? Please?”

I smiled with something like awe and a deeper love than I’d felt a minute ago. “Yes.” I pointed casually at the wall. I packed for you.”

Kane let out a burst of laughter. “A week under Matthias’s thumb and look how domestic you are? Maybe he’s doing something right after all.”

“I’m going to kick you in the shin.”

“There she is.”

He grabbed his pack and I shouldered mine. He didn’t even look around the room to check if I’d forgotten anything. He just took off down the hallway, and I sprinted as quickly as possible to keep up with him.

There were two more dead men in the stairwell. My stomach twisted at the sight of their lifeless bodies, but I couldn’t help but feel hope that we had a fighting chance.

“Where’s Matthias?” I asked as Kane jumped the last several stairs to the second-floor landing.

“There was a huge Feeder attack near the creek. Matthias sent a good portion of his men to contain it, but he just got word that it’s worse than we originally thought. He was forced to go out and try to help, along with the majority of his other eligible, capable men. I came straight here as soon as he took off.”

“Where’s he keeping Hendrix and his family?”

“First floor,” Kane told me.

At that point, Kane shut his mouth and jumped down the rest of the way, taking several steps at a time until we were on ground level. Kane seemed to know exactly where he was going, and where bad guys would be more heavily populated.

Like around the Parkers.

But security did seem lighter than usual. And the guys that stayed were not the guys that wanted to die from loyalty to Matthias. Kane let them live if they dropped their weapons and took off.

All of them decided they would rather live.

“They’re going to tell Matthias,” Kane whispered after a few guys raised their hands compliantly when Kane ordered them to dropped their guns at our feet and then took off running for the front door.

“Thank you for not killing them all.” And I meant that. There would have been a lot of dead bodies around here if he had. And I didn’t want to be the judge that said they all deserved to die.

Unless they were members of the Allen family.

That was an entirely different story.

But the rest of these men, were real men. This wasn’t a movie where extras got blasted in the face with fake blood and blanks shot off in the background. This was real life. These people had families, and futures and souls. I couldn’t take that from them. Not unless they tried to keep me from someone I loved or from getting the hell out of here.

“I probably should.”

“Then why don’t you?” I asked quietly as we prepared to round another hallway.

He looked at me with those steely gray eyes, his gun loaded and ready in his hands. He looked at me like I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, like I was his sun, moon and stars and the reason his world went around. He looked at me like it was finally okay for him to feel the way he did for me, that what was between us was healthy and natural and so much better than what it used to be.

“I can’t kill in front of you unless it’s absolutely necessary, unless it would be to save you.”

“Why not?”

He took a step closer to me and dipped to press a kiss to my temple before he said, “I never want you to confuse me with my father.”

Emotion clogged my throat. “I won’t.”

His fingertips brushed over my jaw. “Then there’s still a chance you might love me.”

I opened my mouth to tell him that I did love him. That I already loved him. That he didn’t need to wait for me or work harder to get my attention or prove to me that he wasn’t his father. I knew that already. And I wanted to tell him. I wanted to shout it at him and hold up banners and hire an airplane to write it in the sky. But life doesn’t work out that way.

Loud crashing sounds barreled through the hallway and I quickly jumped away from him. I thought about Hendrix, Haley and Page immediately and prayed it had nothing to do with them. The din of male voices shouting over the crash demanded my attention. I forgot all about declarations of love and heart-warming confessions.

Hendrix still trumped Kane. That was obvious.

Kane turned away from me and raced off down the hall, calling for me to follow. I obeyed. My pack was heavy, but it was the good kind of heavy. It was full of guns I’d picked up as we’d made our way to this part of the storage facility and supplies that would actually last us a while if we got out of here alive.

The only thing I didn’t have anything of was food. But if we actually escaped, I would worry about that later. Food and water seemed so inconsequential compared to fighting for everyone to survive and escape.

We turned a sharp corner and nearly ran into a few guards sprinting toward us.

“We’re going to figure out what’s going on,” one of them shouted at Kane. “Can you stay with the prisoner’s for a few?”

Kane nodded. “No problem.”

And off they went.

“Well, that was easy.” I shook my head and fought a premature smile. We hadn’t left the compound yet. And there was apparently a Zombie infestation outside. We had a lot of battle left to fight today.

“Too easy,” Kane mumbled.

I had to agree, but I didn’t want to say that out loud. I followed Kane to a bay of four narrow garage doors. We were in a section of short hallway with the smallest storage bays. The floor was lined with lit candles and a few scattered guns. The doors were all padlocked shut.

“Can you shoot the lock?” It seemed like such a small obstacle, but the padlock kept us from my friends, making it the biggest problem we’d faced yet. “Or like karate kick right through it or something? Maybe use the butt of your gun and hammer through it?”

“I could,” he chuckled. He walked over to the wall and pulled a ring of keys off a nail hook. “Or I could just use the keys.”

“Or you could just use the keys.”

And he did. The first door he opened revealed the two remaining scientists. They cowered in the corner when the dim light poured into their cell. They looked haggard and beaten. They huddled together, their faces grimy and streaked with cowardly tears. Their clothes had been ripped and their bodies obviously mistreated.

I felt a grim satisfaction that scared me. I reveled in their suffering. I was glad they’d been beaten. They deserved so much worse.

“Do you want to finish them?” Kane asked me with a cold, flat voice.

Did I want to? Yes. Without a doubt.

But could I do it?

I looked down at the gun held in my trembling hand. I glanced back at those broken, pathetic bodies and felt my vehemence dwindle. Could I end their lives? Had I lost that much of myself that I would murder to feel better?

No. I was too weak.

Or maybe I was too strong. Maybe I still had a soul. Maybe I still had some integrity or virtue or innocence.

Or maybe I was still afraid.

I shook my head. “I just want to find Haley and the Parkers and leave.”

He nodded once and growled at the scientists, “Don’t move.” To me, he said, “You might not want to, but Vaughan or Hendrix will.”

He was right.

Kane moved to the other bays. The second door opened to reveal King, Harrison, Page and Haley. The next bay held Vaughan and Nelson. And the final bay held Hendrix.

I held my breath as Hendrix’s eyes adjusted to the soft light. He absorbed me in one sweeping look that seared me with his intensity.

Once the gate had opened completely, I nearly laughed at the trapped animal look Hendrix wore. He was an African lion locked in a too-small cage, a Great White shark trapped in a tank made for goldfish. He was pure energy and virile male and dangerous predator.

He was Hendrix Parker.

And he was beyond pissed.

He also looked like hell.

His beard was longer and scruffier than I had ever seen it. His hair was greasy but thick enough to not be matted to his head. It stuck up in messy tufts as if he’d been yanking on it. His eyes were bloodshot and black and blue beneath. His clothes, filthy and damp from sweat, stuck to his body and hung low on his hips. He was dirty from head to toe.

He left the confines of his prison in angry steps that ate up the ground between us. His family stood to my left, hugging each other, overjoyed to be with each other again. But Hendrix didn’t look at them. He looked at me. He only had eyes for me.

In the midst of this crazy turmoil, he stared at me like there was nothing left. My stomach flipped and my body became alive in a way that it hadn’t been since he left me. My blood buzzed beneath my skin and every atom and particle in me woke up from a hazy sleep I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen into.

He breathed life into me with that look.

He pumped through my veins and beat a rhythm with my slow-starting heart.

He stopped just an inch in front of me. His hands reached out to cup my face and I felt the grit that caked them, the rough pads of his calloused fingers and sandpapery palms. They trembled against my face not from fear, but from something so much more intense no word could describe it.

His deep blue eyes captured mine and held me in a far more secured prison than anything that had caged him.

“You’re okay,” he told me. He demanded from me. It was not a question.

“I’m okay,” I echoed.

“You’re going to stay by my side until I tell you you’re safe.”

Something bitter-tasting and feminist boiled up inside me, something at complete odds with the way he looked at me. But we didn’t have time to argue. We had to get the hell out of here. So I nodded meekly and decided to let my actions speak for me.

“Will I ever be safe?” I deflected.

His eyes darkened and his expression turned stormy. “When you’re with me, you will be.”

But that wasn’t true. Maybe physically I would be fine. Maybe I would always stay alive. Maybe he would protect me in every situation.

But my heart was not safe. My heart could suffer in a thousand different ways.

Tyler burst like a shotgun from around the corner. She stumbled to a surprised stop when she found us all milling about in the hallway. I turned around to meet her wide, determined eyes and she gave me a hollow nod.

I snapped back into the moment then. I tore my eyes from Tyler’s and found Haley in the middle of the Parker brothers. I took off for her and she met me half way. I threw my arms around her neck and held her so tightly that it hurt. She squeezed back equally hard.

“Oh, my god, I didn’t think I’d see you again,” she cried into my hair.

“We’re leaving,” I promised. “Right now.”

She pulled back, met my eyes and nodded. “Never again. I’m done with this shit.”

“Me too.”

Both of our attentions were drawn to the left again when Tyler’s hoarse, furious voice cut through our subdued reunion.

“Give it to me,” she demanded from Kane.

I watched as Kane handed over the gun in his hands. I had no idea what she planned to do with it, but a gun in Tyler’s hands always made me nervous. Nobody moved to stop her though. Nobody even suggested she hand it to someone who was more proficient.

She looked at Vaughan for a long moment while the rest of us observed their silent conversation. Something I didn’t understand passed between them. Vaughan seemed both more nervous and more resigned when she was finished.

With a small nod, she turned around and walked to the first storage bay.

It was then that I realized her intention.

Kane had suggested that maybe Vaughan or Hendrix would want to carry out some justice for Gage’s undeserving death. That made perfect sense to me. I had no doubt that those two boys would find retribution for Gage’s death.

What I did not expect or anticipate was Tyler’s reaction- an unadulterated rage and vengeance.

She walked to the edge of the storage bay and pointed her gun. I could see her hand shaking and her body trembling, but the expression on her face read murder clear as anything I’d ever seen.

She let out a steadying breath and walked into the storage bay.

We all rushed to watch what was going to happen next, except for Haley, who held Page back and covered the little girl’s entire head with her arms.

Tyler continued to shake, but her mouth pressed into a grim frown and her eyes did not waver. They glared at the traitorous scientists with so much hate and malice that I could feel the waves of her emotion as it thickened and poisoned the air around her.

“You deserve this,” she told them in a soft voice. “We were kind to you. You betrayed us and killed my friend. You deserve this.”

They cried pathetically as they sunk as close to the ground as they could. For a moment, they glanced at the entrance but we stood in their way of safety. There was no point to fight Tyler because Kane stood behind her with his own weapon raised. The Parker brothers had grabbed weapons by now as well from either the hallway or Kane’s pack and stood in a line of support and protection.

Tyler didn’t glance back for our approval and she didn’t hesitate a second longer. For as terrible a shot as she was when it came to Zombies, she had no problem placing a bullet directly in the foreheads of the people at her feet.

One.

Two.

The shots went off in easy succession. The two scientists, one male, one female, were already in hunched over positions on the floor, so their bodies had nowhere else to go. Brain matter and blood exploded from the back of their heads as the bullet punched through.

And that was it.

They were dead.

Gage had some justice.

Except I didn’t feel a marked change or significant difference. I didn’t feel better about the way he’d died or the betrayal that had cost us so much. In fact, I felt emptier than ever before.

I prayed that Tyler felt different than me. I prayed that her actions gave her some much-needed peace and resolution. I prayed that her hollow brokenness didn’t expand inside her chest like it did mine, or eat away at what little morality I had left. I prayed that she felt good. That she felt some justice.

And that to her, Gage’s death meant something more now.

Her hand dropped to her side and her head hung down to her chest. I knew my prayers were in vain and my hopes for her peace and justice went unanswered.

Vaughan was behind her then. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her firmly against his body. In her ear, he whispered words I couldn’t hear and soothed her distraught spirit.

I knew. I knew this was just the beginning. I knew we had a long way to go before we were free and clear of Matthias and his Colony. And for whatever reason, I felt like we were off to a very bad start.

I felt it in my bones.

This was only the beginning of our heartache.

Vaughn had given Tyler another minute before he coaxed her from the small room. We stood there silently, all of us trying to collect the remnants of our shattered selves.

Watching Tyler kill someone, not just for survival, but also out of retaliation, had unnerved me more than anything thus far. And it wasn’t just the act of violence from such a gentle, usually pacifist person; it was the reason she did it. It was that Gage was really, truly gone. It was that my friends had been locked in these dark, tiny storage bays for days on end, without bathrooms, without food, without hope. They smelled like bile and sweat and worse things. They smelled like suffering.

And I hated it for them.

I hated it for us.

“We are leaving,” Vaughan announced. “I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care who we have to kill. We are leaving this godforsaken place and we are never coming back.” His eyes swept over our group, including even Kane. “And we will not leave anyone behind.” He paused and looked at me and then at Tyler and Haley. “Not anyone that belongs to us. We are not taking anyone else with us. Do not feel sorry for someone here and jeopardize our escape. Do not let your bleeding heart get in the way of us leaving. I mean it. I will shoot anyone that slows us down. Do you understand that? We are not taking anyone else with us?”

I nodded, but Tyler raised her chin in defiance and growled, “We’re taking Miller. That’s nonnegotiable.”

Vaughan let out a weary sigh. “Of course, Miller. I didn’t mean Miller. You know I didn’t mean Miller.”

“Just making sure,” she said with a slightly sweeter tone.

“Kane,” Vaughan moved on. “What’s the best way out of this place?”

Kane didn’t hesitate for a second. “Out the front. Matthias has most of his men out back. There was an onslaught of Feeders near the creek. We could walk right out the front door and maybe get a head start.”

“Are their vehicles out front?” Hendrix asked.

Kane nodded. “At least four. I don’t know how much gas they have or what condition they’re in. But they’re out front. The keys will be just inside the front door. And we have some weapons. We might be able to pick up some more on our way out.”

“We’ll work with what we have,” Vaughan said decidedly. “We’ve been in a position like this before. We make do. We survive.”

Those were orders too. Not suggestions. Not a recount of our history. They were orders to follow, instructions to obey.

And I would.

Gladly.

“Where’s Miller?” Hendrix asked.

“Unconscious,” Tyler replied. “He’s in my parent’s apartment.”

“Heavy security?” Vaughan asked.

Tyler and Kane both nodded. “At least there was. I don’t know what it will be like right now. Matthias has everyone on lockdown. Depending on their instructions, they might let me get him. I could go up alone and meet y’all down here,” Kane suggested.

To my surprise, Vaughan shook his head. “No. We’re sticking together. I’m not going to let us split up for a second. We’ll all go.”

No one objected so we took off. Kane led the way and we all followed closely behind him. With Hendrix on one side of me and Kane in front, we ran through the storage facility hallways with one mind and one purpose.

The halls and stairwells were eerily silent. Like Kane said, Matthias had everyone in lockdown. People moved around quietly behind their locked doors, but nobody dared contradict Matthias’s orders.

They’d seen what happened to people who disobeyed him.

At the third floor, we followed Kane to a room guarded with four men. All of us had our own weapons, including Page, but barely enough ammo to give us all full clips. Three handguns still remained in my pack and Kane had an assault rifle in addition to his small handgun. We could take these four men easily enough, but it would deplete what precious resources we had.

“I need in there,” Kane announced.

The men looked at him with as much fear and loathing as I had held for him at one time. I imagined their knees shaking beneath their worn jeans and their hands clutching their weapons defensively.

“We can’t let you in there,” one of them said with an obvious squeak.

“Then I’m going to kill you.” And they knew as well as I did that Kane would follow through.

“He’s not even in there,” another one of them rushed to explain. “I can show you.”

Kane nodded and the third guy pulled open the door. The room was extravagantly decorated for the end of the world. The furnishings were in the best shape I’d seen in years and were lavishly decorated. Matthias even had things hanging on the wall, like two pieces of hotel-worthy artwork and a gilded, oval mirror. His dressers were made out of shining wood and had glass figurines on top. Their massive sleigh bed had a deep red and gold comforter with pretty pearl stitching that glistened in the lit lantern light. An old fashioned trunk sat at the end of the bed, piled with dry and canned food and bottled water. There was a rack against the wall that held a dozen bottles of wine. This was luxury, even in the Zombie Apocalypse.

Still, the men hadn’t lied. The room was empty.

“Where is he?” Kane demanded, whirling around and pointing the gun directly in one of the guard’s faces.

He swallowed nervously. “I opened the door. That’s all I can do.”

Kane switched his gun over to his left hand and pulled his fist back. He let it go before the guy could figure out what was happening. Kane’s fist connected straight with his nose sending blood gushing out of it. The crack of shattering bone resounded through the echoing hallway.

All five of the Parker brothers stepped forward with guns raised and pointed at the other guards. They had guns too, but obviously didn’t want to risk their lives for this.

“Where is he?” Kane repeated.

The guy didn’t answer. He cupped his nose as blood overflowed his palms and dripped down the back of his hands and forearms. Kane pulled his arm back and punched him in the face again. This time he knocked him out. The guard slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Kane turned on one of the other guys. “Where is Miller?”

The guard scrunched up his face and readied for a hit. Hendrix let out an exasperated sigh and shot the guy in the foot. I gasped at the abruptness of his actions, but agreed with them. This was taking too long. And hopefully he could survive a foot wound.

“Where is he?” Kane repeated, clearly approving of Hendrix’s initiative.

“With your dad,” one of the other guys volunteered. “He’s out with your dad.”

“Is he conscious?” Kane asked in a very low voice.

The two remaining men collectively took a step back. One of them, apparently the bravest of them, said, “Not when he left.”

Kane and Tyler both let out a string of frustrated curses. We turned as one unit and sped off. I didn’t expect the guards to follow us.

Back on the first floor, we had two options. We could leave Miller and take off. We’d have a head start and an advantage with all of the vehicles. Or, we could go after Miller. We’d have to fight not only Matthias’s men, but Feeders as well. Instead of having some kind of advantage, we would be severely disadvantaged.

But we’d also have the chance to kill Matthias.

Decisions, decisions…

“Listen,” Tyler started. “I’m not leaving without Miller, so y’all can go ahead if you-”

“I said we wouldn’t leave without all of us, Ty,” Vaughan interrupted her. “And I meant it. So if you’re not up for this, you can wait for me out front, but I’m going after Miller with or without you.”

“You’re real cute,” Tyler groaned. “Real cute.”

And the decision was made.