Chapter Eighteen

PEELING HIMSELF AWAY from Dead Run River, from Vanessa, was an impossible task. After the intimacy they’d just shared, all Sean wanted to do was remain in the sanctuary of her arms. A sick, dark wave washed over him every time he thought about pulling the loaded RV out of the front gates. Every mile he put between them would batter his soul like hurricane waves against a rocky shore.

“Daddy, where’s Vanessa?” Adrianna asked as he hoisted her into the door of the camper. She clutched her little pink bunny and looked at him with such beseeching brown eyes, he almost couldn’t stand it.

“She can’t come, baby. She has to stay here with her brother. She has to stay and protect this colony.”

Her little bottom lip poked out, and her eyes filled with heart wrenching tears. “I know how you feel, kiddo. We’ll get along okay though. And you’ll have Laney there—”

“And Eloise,” the waddling redhead called from up the trail. “Don’t leave without us.”

“What are you guys doing here?” he asked in shock.

“I just got my best friend back, so heck no am I hanging around a colony that exiled Laney. Besides, rumor has it you could use my husband’s special skills.”

Guist shook his hand roughly and helped his wife into the escape vehicle. He carried three backpacks and a duffle bag loaded with supplies. Maybe, just maybe, they’d survive this little adventure after all.

Mitchell sat in the passenger seat with a flashlight, pouring over a map, and Laney sat on a bench seat in the back beside a scrambling Adrianna. The whole gang was there. He scanned the woods for the last time. Well, almost all of them.

The metal of the door handle was cold in his grip.

“Wait!”

He jerked his head at the imagining.

“Wait for me,” Vanessa called breathily. Like an angel, she appeared out of the shadows. If angels carried copious amounts of luggage and dragged a pink, four-wheeled suitcase through the woods.

Her fair hair hung in front of her face, and her cheeks were flushed from the exertion of toting the heavy load such a distance, but she was here.

“Vanessa?”

“Yeah I know. It’s a lot of luggage, but it’s not all for me. Look.” She ripped into the suitcase and pulled out a small burlap bag. “Seeds. I snatched them from the storage shed in the gardens. I prepared most of the danged things so I think I’m entitled to some. Dead Run River will have plenty for next spring, even without these.”

He wrapped her up in a hug that lifted her from the ground, and she giggled against his neck.

“I couldn’t imagine you leaving without me. I talked to Nelson, and he said I can go as long as I come back for him when we are all set up.”

He inhaled her feminine sent and buried his face in the space between collar bone and neck. “I promise, if we survive this, we’ll come back for him.”

“Okay then,” she said pulling back to look at him. “I’ve got your back then. Always.”

Kissing her would never get old, but time wasn’t on their side. He made quick but thorough work of it and patted her firm little backside as she climbed into the back with the others.

“Whoa,” Eloise murmured. “You and Sean?”

“Nah,” she said with a wink into the rearview mirror. “I’m just playing with his mind for a little while.”

“You can play with my mind as long as you want,” he muttered as he pulled the RV onto the road that would lead out of the Dead Run River gates.

The next time he looked back, Finn was sitting in Vanessa’s place with a stern look. “Aw crap,” he said as Finn strong-armed Vanessa up to the front.

“What is it?” Mitchell asked, twisting in his seat. “Oh man, Finn looks pissed. Escape tactics,” he muttered, dodging the angry giant headed their way. “Evasive maneuvers!”

“Thanks for the backup,” he sang as Finn plopped Vanessa in between the seats.

“Any time,” Mitchell said from the safety of the bench seat in back.

“Once upon a time, a few days ago, we had certain rules set in place that got us home alive.”

“Not all of us,” Sean argued.

“My point,” Finn growled, “is you mess with each other’s heads and right when we’re headed for a freaking rattlesnake den of Deads.” He sighed. “I’m not trying to be a dick, and Vanessa, stop glaring at me like that because I’m actually happy for you guys. But Sean’s tactical mind is imperative to this mission. It’s why I didn’t want you guys going after each other like rabbits until we got back to Dead Run River.”

“Finn, what do you want us to do? Just never be happy because of missions? There has to be life in between.”

He pointed at Vanessa with an excited arch to his dark brows. “Exactly. Between missions, but right now, we’re all in big trouble. We’re low on manpower, and half of our team is out of commission or they’re children. The odds of survival aren’t exactly stacked that high in our favor if you haven’t noticed. Vanessa, graduation ceremony or not, you’re a guard, and what have I taught you all throughout your training?”

“Keep my head on straight in the thick of it.”

“Yep. And do you think you can pay attention one hundred percent of the time while you’re making googly eyes at Sean? With your friends’ lives in jeopardy?” He lowered his voice and hissed, “With Adrianna’s life in jeopardy, do you think you can function without thoughts of Sean tripping you up?”

Vanessa stared at the vents with such a troubled look.

“And, Sean, this mission is heavily on your shoulders. Now, I’ve never envied you for having to bear the burden of so much, but no one has been given the natural ability or instinct to get your team to safety like you, so it’s yours alone. We’ll back you up, and do everything we can for our cause, but the big decisions will fall to you. Can you say with certainty you can make the decisions that are best for the team with Vanessa factoring in there? I’m not asking you to hate each other until we’re safe. I’m asking you to cool it so Sean can lead us in taking back this colony. Without his full focus, this mission fails, and we walk as Deads by morning.”

“He’s right,” Vanessa breathed. “Sean, I saw it on the supply run. You shoulder us. If you aren’t focused, we put the others in danger. We put Adrianna in danger.”

Sean pulled the RV to a stop and threw it into park. “Finn, you’re a dick. We’re past the point where we can turn it off and on, and the same argument could be made for all of us. Guist has Eloise to protect, I have Adrianna, Mitchell has Laney and vice versa on all of us. You’re going to have to give us more credit than this. And if I have to hear your pointless lectures all the way to the Denver colony, I’m going to throw you off this bus myself. You’re dangerously close to stepping over the line. Have I ever lost my head while on a mission? No? Your point has been made, now lay off.” He spun in his seat. “I need a minute.”

Pulling Vanessa out the door with him, he strode for the nearest tree that would conceal them and pressed her against it. “Damn it, I can’t do this. I just got you, and I don’t want to go back to keeping my distance. That cock-blocking Bigfoot has a point, but it’s impossible now.” He focused on the pattern of the tree bark behind her shoulder as he tried to imagine going back to the way things were. “I can’t go back to pretending you’re just another teammate.”

“Then don’t. I know you. You’ll make the hard decisions, and you’ll be fair. It’s what makes you a great leader, Sean. We can focus on the mission, and when we get Denver situated, we’ll pick up where we left off. Hey,” she said, placing a gentle hand against the side of his unshaven face and dragging his gaze to hers, “I’ll wait.”

Pressing his forehead against hers he squeezed his eyes tightly shut. “I want you to be the one protecting Adrianna when I can’t. The others can help, but I want her under your care.”

A look of such tenderness washed over her face. “I’ll protect her with my life.”

“I know,” he said against her lips just before he pulled her to him and drank her in one last time.

He was a professional at being professional, and after this stolen moment, he would put all of himself into leading the team. But for right now, she was warmth and serenity and home.

Lacing her fingers with his, she leaned into him once more as he placed his chin on top of her head and glared at the woods beyond. Nothing in him wanted to retreat from her touch. It felt so damned good after so long depriving himself.

“I like you,” she whispered against his chest.

The words filled him with a warmth that started in his torso and spread to his limbs. He knew what she meant—she just wasn’t saying it yet. “I like you, too.”

A quick honk from Finn elicited a delicately placed middle finger from Vanessa, and they trudged back to the waiting RV with a painful distance between them. He’d better get used to it or make a valiant effort to get them settled as soon as humanly possible.

When Vanessa stepped back into the RV, everyone was staring at her.

Sparing a dirty look for the team, she asked, “What?”

“Uh,” Eloise said with a hint of a smile. “Your hair.”

With a quick glance in the rearview mirror, she smoothed the tangles back down. When had Sean even roughed it up? If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, her cheeks were set aflame by the attention of the others. “Well worry not, comrades. No more blatant public displays of affection until we get settled, thanks to Finneas-the-Demon-Cupid over there.”

The RV lurched forward, and she sprawled into Guist’s lap.

“Sorry,” she moaned and rolled off to sit in the space between him and Laney.

“That sucks,” Laney sympathized.

Her saying that actually made Vanessa feel a lot better for some reason. “It’s not so bad. I understand that we both need to focus, and we aren’t going back to ignoring each other completely. I just don’t like outsiders meddling with my love life. This is all so new to me. Finn says I mess with Sean’s head too much and he’s known him a long time. If he’s worried, I guess we should be more careful.”

Laney lowered her voice. “Vanessa, that’s a good thing. I haven’t ever seen Sean act the way he just did with anyone.”

“Not even with you?” The answer mattered more than she’d admit.

“Heck, no. He never acted like that with me. Until we decided we worked better as friends, he acted like he borderline hated me.”

“Huh. That’s good.” She squinted at the back of Sean’s headrest. “I mean, sucks for you, but good for me.”

Soren fussed and flailed her tiny hands out of the baby blanket. With a quick check of the cloth diaper swaddling her little bottom, Laney frowned. “She must be hungry again.”

By the time Laney settled her to her breast, the newborn was in an inconsolable fit and took a while to latch.

“Adrianna,” Vanessa said. “Tomorrow is a big day, and you need to be well rested. Come lie over here, and try to get some sleep, okay? We’ll be there in the morning.”

Sleep would likely elude her, but she could at least get the little girl settled. With Adrianna’s head resting on her lap and a blanket pulled snuggly over her small frame, she rubbed her back until Adrianna drifted off.

Mitchell and Guist played a quiet card game at the small table, and Eloise tried to get comfortable in the twin bed in back among piles of supplies.

Vanessa turned her head and rested it against the cool window glass. It was full dark outside, but the moon lent some of its light to the woods that lined the dirt road they traveled. A lone Dead stood stunned by the road, hunched and limping. He opened his mouth in a silent bellow and started hobbling after the RV, much too late to catch up. The sight of him in the dark would’ve scared her witless before the hunting trip with Finn and the supply run. Now, the monster stirred nothing in her. Just an apathy that said if she were on the ground, and he was a threat, she’d not hesitate to end his miserable life. Who would’ve thought a person could change so much in the course of not even two weeks?

She dragged her gaze to the back of Sean’s headrest again.

Certainly not her.

The RV bounced, and her head flew forward, awakening Vanessa to an early dawn streaming through the windows. Laney and Eloise had been sleeping on the bed, but were looking around with the same confused expression she likely sported, and Mitchell was changing Soren’s tiny diaper on the end of the bench seat. Adrianna still slept soundly in her lap, but Guist had already hopped out of the side door of the RV and Sean and Finn threw their doors open too, letting in twin streams of gray light.

“What’s happening?” Laney asked.

“Have to refuel,” Mitchell said, pulling his newborn daughter to his shoulder. “Plus there’s a road block that we need to clear before we can get over this little bridge. We’ve been driving on the shoulder for a while, but even that runs out sometimes.” He handed Laney the baby and checked his handgun. “Be back in a minute. Vanessa, up on the roof to do some recon.” He twitched his head upward.

Now usually she wouldn’t take orders from someone, and especially a man who’d wronged her in any way, but this was Mitchell’s way of accepting her new guard position. It was a terribly wrapped gift, but a gift just the same.

Gently, she laid Adrianna’s head on a folded blanket on the seat and stretched her back. With her rifle slung across her shoulder, she shimmied up to the top of the camper and lay on her belly. The wind whipped her hair all around, so she pulled it back into a band and yanked a radio and small pair of binoculars out of one of the cargo pockets of her dark pants. Clicking on the walkie, she tested it. “Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” Sean crackled over the air waves. Oh, that voice settled something turbulent inside of her.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out what the problem was. Mitchell stood in front of the RV, pouring various fluids into it, but behind him, Finn, Guist, and Sean were working on a traffic jam. To the side of the bridge was a deep creek that posed a ninety-eight percent chance of the RV getting irreparably stuck if they tried to ford it. The bridge had to be cleared before they could proceed. Most of the cars seemed to be unlocked and were thrown into neutral and pushed off to the side easily enough. Some of the cars, however, had been locked from the inside and still had the remains of their inhabitants in them. Deads had probably tried to claw at them for days, unable to open the door, and not quite smart enough to use their combined force to break the windows. Vanessa swallowed a lump of bile as Sean leaned over a body still buckled into the driver’s seat. What an awful way to die. But then again, every way was an awful way to die these days. Nobody went painlessly anymore.

She scanned the road behind them as far as she could see, but nothing stirred except what the wind picked up. The woods around them were quiet beyond the song of moaning branches, complaining of the wind’s unsavory treatment. Even the birds had fled the eerie woods to find shelter from the storm clouds that churned overhead. A fat snowflake landed on the fiberglass roof in front of her, and she glared at it. Great. Just what they needed was the first snowstorm of the season to lay all of their plans in a grave. Movement pulled at her eyes, but it was just the boys, pushing another car into the ditch.

Wait.

She focused the binoculars onto a spot in the distance. The cars ahead seemed to be moving. No, not the cars. Heads above the cars.

“Sean,” she said into the radio. “We’ve got Deads up the road. They’re headed this way.”

“You have a head count?”

“They’re still a ways off. At least five. No.” She squinted. “More than that. Too many for us out in the open.”

Sean slid out of a car and faced her. “ETA? We have four more cars before we have a shot at moving over this bridge.”

“Five minutes if you’re quiet. They’re walking.”

He spun his finger in the air and said something to Finn and Guist that didn’t reach her ears, and she pulled herself over the front of the RV. “You done refueling, Mitchell? We’re going to have to dodge some Deads here shortly.”

He eased the hood down and wiped grease onto a rag before he squinted behind him. “Stay here and keep a rifle trained on them. I’m going to give them a hand so we don’t cut it too close.” He jogged up the road with long, deliberate strides.

Sean wrapped a rag around his elbow and busted out the driver’s side window to an old sedan. Three cars left.

“Come on, come on, come on,” she chanted as she watched the herd of undead make progress. They seemed to be speeding up.

Two cars left.

The team was scrambling, and an old Dodge pickup seemed to be the holdup. Guist tried to get it into gear and then Mitchell tried. Finally the truck lurched, and all four of them pushed, muscles straining against the massive weight of it until it was rolling.

It wasn’t a figment of her morbid imagination. The Deads had heard, or smelled, or seen them, or all three, and had picked up the pace to a sprint. “Time’s up,” she barked into the radio. “It’ll have to be good enough.”

The engine roared to life below her only to sputter and die. Just as she swung through the side door, Laney tried again, pumping the gas.

“Oh, this is a terrible time for engine trouble,” Vanessa said in a voice much calmer than she felt.

The engine roared again and dropped to nothing, and Laney muttered an oath before she ripped the engine again.

“It’s that crap they use for fuel,” Vanessa said. “Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get her going again. This happened on our supply run a couple times. Keep trying!” she exclaimed as she hopped back out the side door.

The first pepper of gunfire lit into the growing horde as Guist turned and covered the others’ retreat. A Dead sprinted out of the woods on a straight-line warpath for the RV. She pulled the Glock and fired. Miss.

Aw hell, she didn’t need to be wasting the ammo anyway. “Oy!” she called around the side of the camper. The Dead flew toward her as fast as a corpse could with a snapped shin bone on one side. His hair was thin and stuck out in all directions, and gray liver spots coated his pallid complexion. His rolling eyes were sunken deep into the recesses of his rotted face, and he bellowed through a mouth that no longer had lips. She lifted her boot and thrashed it against his chest, launching him backward. Her carefully placed knife was in his skull before he could right himself.

The engine died again.

Hell was coming for them.

Sean running full out was a work of art. Each step was more powerful than the last, and the intensity on his face rivaled the grace of his stride. She stood for them, popping off round after round into the brains of the closest on their tails until they’d all piled inside. Sean’s strong hands pulled her in by the waist just as the monsters reached the RV. The body of a Dead blocked the door, and she kicked viciously at it while Sean hacked mercilessly at the ones trying to take advantage of the opening.

The engine finally roared and kept going, and Laney hit the gas just as Sean was captured in the unrelenting grasp of a monster. With the strength of inhuman hunger, he pulled Sean to his jagged teeth just as the RV lurched forward.

“No!” Vanessa screamed and pulled her gun up. The shot echoed through the cab, and cold moisture spattered against her face.

The Dead went limp, and Sean shoved the freed door closed before pulling her back.

“Hold onto something!” Laney screamed just before they barreled into the last remaining car, a dark SUV.

The impact sent Vanessa reeling, and she hit the corner of a cabinet.

Sean had reached for her a moment too late and flew into the back.

Dizzy, she pulled herself onto all fours and retched at the pain in the back of her head. The RV thumped and bumped as Laney ran over any Dead in their path and pulled to the shoulder to avoid the dense traffic of abandoned cars.

The chaos in the RV blurred in and out of focus. Finn pointed animatedly from the passenger seat while Laney maneuvered the oversized getaway van. Mitchell clutched Soren protectively. Guist had thrown his body across Eloise to keep her in place. Adrianna sat on her knees crying and clutching her bunny by the sink, and Sean lay limp near the bed in back.

“S-Sean?” she slurred. Why did her voice sound so far away?

Afraid to try to stand up, she crawled until she reached him. Her hands felt funny as she shook him, like they were detached from her body. Her ears rang from the pain that spread across the back of her skull, and she closed her eyes against another dizzy spell.

Crimson ran in a stream down the side of Sean’s face, and she touched it with a frown. Red coated her fingertips and terror snaked down her spine. That was Sean’s blood on her hand.

“First aid. Finn!” she screamed, aggravating her headache until it felt like a fire alarm in her face. “Get me the first-aid kit! Sean,” she sobbed, shaking him again.

Guist was closest, and he checked his pulse and then pressed against his spine with a faraway look in his eyes. “I don’t think it’s broken. I think he just got a nasty bump on the head. Here,” he said, holding a hand out for the red backpack stuffed with medical supplies.

Gentle hands tugged her shoulders. “We need space to work,” Mitchell said calmly. “Go on up by Laney so we can fix him.”

The edges of her vision were blurred as she stumbled forward. Finn gave her the passenger seat, and she rolled down the window for some fresh air. Up ahead, a lone Dead stumbled toward the road, and the closer they got, the first inklings of an awesome idea took shape.

“Vanessa, close the window,” Laney said.

“Nuh uh. Watch this.”

The cars on the left of the RV were bumper to bumper, and Laney had no choice but to drive on. Vanessa hung out the window and spread her fingers out like a little star in the whipping wind. And when they were close enough, she leaned farther out and smacked the Dead’s outstretched hand.

“Shit, Vanessa!” Laney yelled, yanking her hair until she was no longer hanging out of the window.

Vanessa frowned as she watched Laney roll her window up and put on the child lock from her side. And then Laney looked down at her hand with a furrow to her perfectly arched eyebrows. The palm of her hand was covered in red. “Mitchell,” she said in a strange tone.

“Yeah, babe? You okay?”

“I’m fine. Something’s wrong with Vanessa.”

He pulled away from Sean’s still limp body and rubbed a sheen of sweat from his face with a forearm. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, she just high-fived a Dead.”

He gave his wife a look that said she’d lost her mind. “What?”

“I mean, she leaned out the window and slapped happy palms with a freaking Dead, and then there’s this!” She held her crimson palm in the air before grabbing the wheel again. “She’s hurt, Mitchell. Can you help her?”

Three long strides was all it took to reach her, and he yanked the hair band out of her tresses before parting it down the middle. “You split yourself like a peach, kid. Stay here while I get something to fix you up.”

She narrowed her eyes at the unsavory nickname. “Don’t call me kid,” she said as seriously as she could muster while the world spun on its axis. Sex goddess or warrior woman or some other such name would fit better. At least that’s how Sean made her feel. “Where’s Sean?”

Laney squeezed her hand and left it there. “He’s going to be okay. Mitchell doesn’t seem worried, so that’s a good sign. He probably just got a bump on the head like you.”

Vanessa’s stomach dropped out of the bottom again. “Adrianna?” she asked, the edges of her vision clearing slightly with the effort to focus. She felt like a drunk trying to sober up too fast.

She stumbled toward the child and slid onto her knees. She couldn’t go any farther without passing out. “Come here, sweetie. Daddy’s going to be all fixed up soon.”

The little girl slumped, sniffling into her arms, and she held her as tight as her twitching muscles would allow. The soothing words she offered didn’t make a lick of sense, but the child didn’t seem to care as she buried her head into Vanessa’s shoulder.

A murmured voice asked a question, and Guist answered. “She’s okay. They both are.”

“Where are they?” Sean asked.

Guist moved to the side, and Vanessa got the first glimpse of Sean’s brilliant eyes, filled with worry and pain. Something heavy and suffocating lifted from inside of her, and she smiled. Or at least she thought she smiled. Her body wasn’t really working like she told it to at the moment.

Mitchell cut off her view and held a needle the size of a miniature saber and a small length of sutures. Oh good. She was wondering when she’d be stabbed again.

He squatted down behind her and told her to sit still before he started sewing humpty dumpty back together again.

Against the pain, she pursed her lips and tried to concentrate on Sean. He was moving his legs, and Guist helped him sit up. She fought the urge to gag each time the thread pulled through the flesh of her scalp, and when it was done, she nearly died of relief.

“I think you need to go lay down,” he said. “Or wait. Guist, if she has a concussion, is she supposed to sleep or no? I can’t remember.”

“No. Don’t let her sleep.”

Sean frowned but winced as the expression pulled at new stitches. “Vanessa, come here.”

She swayed with the effort and then shook her head. “I can’t.”

Mitchell half dragged, half carried her until she and Adrianna sat next to Sean, and then he went to take Soren from Eloise.

“Let me see,” Sean said. He prodded the soreness with tender fingers and shook his head. “I tried to reach out to shield you, but I didn’t have enough warning.”

“I know. Neither one of us was going to get off uninjured when she had to run through that SUV. It couldn’t be helped.”

Guist handed Sean a bowl of water and a rag.

“What’s that for?” she asked.

“Your face. You have that last Dead all over you.”

Gross.

With tender strokes, he cleaned her, and when he was finished, he drank in her face like he was taking inventory. “You’re a fierce woman, Vanessa.”

She nearly glowed around the edges with pride. In fact, she was quite surprised she didn’t look like an actual giant lightning bug. That was until she noticed Finn’s glare of impatience. Him and his stupid made-up rules. Clearing her throat, she held out her hand for a shake and gritted, “Finn’s going to taser me if I don’t leave you alone.”

His warm hand slid solidly into hers, like they were created to touch. A devastating smile touched the corners of his lips, and he shook her hand gently. Oh, Sean could tell Finn to go jump off a bridge if he wanted to. There was no question who was leader here, but he seemed to be enjoying the game. Finn probably didn’t even realize he was just pushing them closer together with his challenge, the oaf.

“Thanks for saving my life,” Sean murmured in that deep, rich voice she’d come to adore.

“Thanks for saving mine.” With a naughty grin and a stolen glance at the back of Finn’s head, she leaned forward and kissed Sean on the cheek before moving off. Sean’s smile expanded until it reached his eyes, and she’d do just about anything to be the cause of adoring looks like those.