No.
I shook my head as I moved around the bar, my gaze on the tall zombie. The handlers pulled the levers, releasing the creatures from their chains, but the tall zombie’s back was to me and I couldn’t see his face. I needed to get a good look at him.
“Meg?” Glitter called after me. “Come back!”
I ignored her and pushed my way through the crowd, trying to get closer to the ring. All around me, men cheered, but I was too short to see what was going on. Suggestive comments were thrown my way, but they barely sank in as I shoved the stinking men and women aside with only one goal in mind. I had to know if it was him.
By the time I reached the edge of the ring, one of the two smaller zombies was already down, his head smashed into a putrid puddle of black blood and bone. Donaghy had the other one pinned to the ground, his foot pressed against the thing’s back as he wrestled with the tall one. This one wasn’t as decomposed as the other two were, meaning he’d been turned more recently. His blood was still thick and black, though. Thankfully. If it was brown, it would have meant that his heart could still be pumping, struggling, clinging to life even though he was already beyond saving.
Donaghy had the tall zombie by the neck as the thing snapped his teeth in the fighter’s direction, but his back was still to me. His hair was shaggy and dark brown, with just a hint of gray at the temples. Just like Joshua’s had been. Still, the color alone didn’t prove anything. Lots of people had hair that color. It couldn’t be my uncle. I was imagining things.
Still not satisfied, I pushed through the crowd, keeping close to the ring as I worked my way around to the other side. I turned the corner just as Donaghy twisted the creature around, and everything froze. The monster’s face was decayed and his features distorted, his brown eyes milky and unseeing.
Still, something about his face was familiar.
No. It couldn’t be. I was letting my imagination run wild. All the crazy things going on around me recently had me seeing things that weren’t real.
I gripped the side of the ring, my fingers aching from the pressure as I looked the zombie over, trying to find something that would dispute the evidence in front of me. His shirt was torn and stained, and there was nothing familiar about it. His pants, too, were simple and common.
Donaghy twisted the thing away, once again turning the creature’s back to me. The struggle increased in intensity, and somehow the zombie managed to get his hand wrapped around the fighter’s arm. His fingers dug in and I took a deep breath, praying he didn’t break the skin. Donaghy twisted him again, and the lights from above flashed off the band on the zombie’s ring finger, forcing all the air out of my lungs.
I knew that ring.
“No,” I moaned just as Donaghy managed to get the zombie down.
People shot me looks of disgust, which only got more threatening a second later when the fighter slammed his boot into the zombie’s head. A scream of agony ripped its way out of me, and my legs wobbled. If the crowd hadn’t been pressed against me so tightly, I would have collapsed for sure.
Tears streamed down my face and my body shook, but some-how I managed to make my legs work. I pushed my way through the crowd, heading for the door to the cage as Donaghy moved to finish off the zombie that used to be my uncle. The heel of his boot slammed into Joshua’s head and the splintering crack of bone echoed through the air. Somehow with the stomp of his boot, the fighter managed to crush my heart as well as the zombie’s skull.
Donaghy turned to take care of the third and final zombie just as I reached the door. I grabbed for the clasp, my fingers shaking as they tried to get it undone. I was out of my mind. Clueless about what I planned to do. I just knew that my uncle was there. That he was dead.
Someone grabbed me from behind before I was able to get the door open, wrapping their arms around me. “Not so fast,” a deep, male voice whispered in my ear, his tone firm but not threatening.
I was shaking and crying, but I didn’t fight him when he pulled me away from the ring. I couldn’t look away from the rotting corpse of Joshua, practically smeared across the floor of the ring. My legs wobbled, but the man at my back held me up.
“Easy now,” the voice said in my ear. Soothing and calm. “I ain’t gonna let you fall.”
The third zombie went down and the crowd around me roared. The man holding me stepped back when Dragon pushed his way past us. Then the door was open, and even though I wanted to move, I couldn’t.
“Gotta calm down. Don’t let ‘em know that you know.”
I nodded as I swallowed down my anguish.
He was right. Whoever the man at my back was, he was right. I had to stay in control. I couldn’t let anyone know that I recognized the zombie in the ring.
Running my arm across my face, I wiped away the tears. The man at my back loosened his grip, but didn’t let go. Almost like he wanted to make sure I was able to hold myself up before he stepped away. My legs wobbled, but stayed firm when I put weight on them.
“I’m okay,” I said, twisting to face the man.
Gray eyes almost hidden behind a mop of equally gray hair greeted me. The beard on his face was as thick and wild as the hair on his head was, masking his features. Still, something about him was familiar…
The note!
“You,” I gasped just as the crowd pushed forward.
The man took a step back, leaving me alone as the crowd around us shifted and moved. I pushed against them, trying to stay next to the man who seemed to know everything going on in my life, but the current of bodies surrounding me was too strong. I blinked, and just like that the man was gone. Swallowed by a sea of people.
“Meg!” Donaghy was at my side a second later, concern written all over his face. “What the hell just happened? I saw you try to open the gate.”
I swallowed and my gaze moved past him, to the ring where men were already cleaning up the mess that used to be my uncle. The crowd around us thinned, but there were still too many people who might hear what I had to say, and the gray man was right. I needed to be careful.
I leaned forward, pressing my lips against Donaghy’s ear. “I can’t tell you right now, but I need you to do something for me. Can you?” I pulled back long enough to meet his gaze, and he nodded. “Get the ring off the tall zombie’s finger for me. Please.”
Donaghy was frowning when I pulled away, but he only hesitated for a split second before heading back into the ring.
I watched as he said something to the men cleaning up the dead. One of them slapped the fighter on the back, and I recognized him from the day outside the walls. For the first time, found myself wondering what had happened to the other guy. The one who had been bitten. I hadn’t seen him since then, and it looked like Dragon had already hired his replacement.
“Want a trophy, huh?” The man in the ring laughed and Donaghy gave him a rare smile. “Go on, then.”
The fighter dug through the remains, his broad back and shoulders blocking my view. Less than ten seconds later, he was standing. When he climbed out of the ring, he grabbed my arm and wordlessly pulled me toward the back room.
Neither one of us said a word until we were inside the holding room and the door was shut behind us, and even then the only thing I could mutter was, “Did you get it?”
Donaghy nodded as he slipped the ring into my hand, his eyes holding mine and seeming to penetrate the darkness of the room.
I curled my fingers around the little band of gold, feeling like it weighed a hundred pounds. It was cool against my palm and moist with the black blood of the zombie Donaghy had ripped it from. Logically, I knew that creature wasn’t my uncle. Not anymore. Of course, knowing that didn’t ease the ache in my heart. It was like losing him all over again.
“You going to tell me what’s going on?” Donaghy finally said.
I took a deep breath through my nose, then blew it out of my mouth, hoping to ease the pain in my chest. It didn’t work. “That was my uncle.”
Donaghy to
ok a step back. “What?”
“There were all kinds of unanswered questions surrounding my Dad’s disappearance. Questions I now know were justified. At the time, though, it was mainly my mom who was asking them. Add to that the many rumors we’d heard over the years about my uncle still being alive, and she seemed to come unraveled almost overnight.
“I don’t know if Joshua believed the rumors or if he was just humoring Mom. He worked at the CDC—he was a doctor—and he started poking around. I wasn’t even sure what he was doing, and I guess at this point none of us will ever know, but less than a week after Dad disappeared, there was an accident in one of the labs and Joshua was exposed to the newest strain of the virus.”
“An accident?” Donaghy said, and I nodded. “And he died?”
“This new strain works faster than the others, and by the time Parvarti, my aunt, arrived to tell him goodbye, Joshua was past verbal communication. Since he was infected with the virus, they couldn’t allow her to bury his body. They swore they would dispose of him humanely—”
My voice broke and I tightened my grip on the ring. I had no clue why Parv hadn’t gotten it when she went to say goodbye, but I knew I had to give it to her now. And tell her—as well as everyone else in my family—what happened here tonight. I didn’t know why the government delivered Joshua here, but it had to be a message. A very nasty one.
“Were you here when they brought him in?” I asked, tearing my gaze away from the floor so I could look at Donaghy once again. “Helen said someone brought him. Told Dragon he had to be added to the fight tonight.”
“Yes.” Donaghy let out a deep breath. “I thought they were trying to get rid of me. It was the only thing that made sense at the time.”
“Maybe they were,” I said, shrugging. “Two birds with one stone.”
Donaghy was nodding when the door behind us was thrown open, and I spun around to find Dragon standing there.
His eyes were narrowed when he stepped inside, but when he saw us, confusion clouded his vision. “What the hell is going on in here? I expected to walk in and find you two going at it.”
I slipped Joshua’s ring onto my thumb even though it was covered in blood. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Dragon stepped closer. “You’re supposed to be working and you tell me nothing. You almost rip the door to the ring open during a fight, and all you have to say is nothing.”
I slunk back, but Donaghy stepped in front of me before I could respond. “She was scared. Thought the zombie had gotten his teeth into me.”
Dragon’s eyes narrowed even more as they moved back and forth between the two of us. “Something going on here that I need to know about?”
“Just killing some time before I get shipped back to DC,” Donaghy said, not looking at me. “Can’t blame a guy for wanting to get laid by somebody who isn’t covered in lice and losing most of their teeth. Right?”
I tried to curl into myself so I looked hurt by his words, and it was much easier than I expected it to be. My insides were raw and achy, only the pain had nothing to do with the implication that Donaghy was just using me for sex. It was because all I could think about was how I was going to tell my aunt what happened here tonight.
Dragon exhaled as he jerked his head toward the door. “Whatever you do, do it on your own time. Got it?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” I slinked past Donaghy, not looking up to meet his or my angry boss’s gaze.
Dragon didn’t follow and neither did the fighter. The place was nearly empty, and the few patrons still at the bar were crowded around Glitter, hanging on her every word. The girl sure knew how to work the crowd. It got her tips, too.
She caught my gaze as I stepped behind the bar, and the look of pity in her gray eyes reminded me of the man who had stopped me from opening the cage. In the middle of everything, I’d totally forgotten about the sudden reappearance of the mysterious gray man. Where the hell had he come from and why? Was he watching over me like some fairy godmother of the apocalypse?
On the other side of the bar, Helen was watching me closely, almost like she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to fall apart. Her concern made sense now. Like Donaghy, she probably assumed they’d brought that zombie in to finish him off and she thought I’d take it hard. I would have too, although probably not as hard as this.
I looked away from the older woman and tried to focus on my job for a change. It would have been nice if it weren’t such a mindless task. A distraction would have been welcome right about now.
Chapter Twenty-One
Donaghy
I tried to head after Meg, but Dragon stepped between me and the door, blocking my way.
“You listen here,” he said, speaking so low that I almost had to lean forward to hear him. “I’m the last person who would normally try to stop someone from getting his jollies, but the girls in my bar are off limits. Understand?”
“Off limits?” I repeated the words like I’d never heard them before.
Dragon nodded and I clenched my hands into fists, having to stop myself from punching him right in the damn face. I knew he was screwing Helen, so it only made sense that I’d have suspicions about his relationship with Glitter, but this was too far. Even if it meant a ticket back to DC, there was no way in hell I was going to let this asshole put his hands on Meg.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I growled, stepping closer.
Dragon’s right eyebrow shot up, and his eyes narrowed to slits. “You telling me what to do in my own place?”
I clenched my jaw, holding back the angry words I wanted to hurl at him. If I got sent back to DC, I wouldn’t be able to help Meg do anything. Not look for her Dad, and definitely not keep this asshole off her.
“No.” The word shot itself from between my teeth with so much force that it felt like I’d spit in Dragon’s face.
The bar owner grinned, showing off the gap in his mouth where his teeth used to be. “That’s what I thought.” He slapped me on the arm and I flinched when my fist almost shot out. “Besides, I have no intention of laying a finger on her.”
I relaxed even though I wasn’t sure if I believed him. “You don’t?”
“No.” Dragon rolled his shoulders back and the muscles popped. “I’m keeping an eye on her for someone. Making sure she’s safe. Same as Glitter.”
The conversation I heard this morning ran through my head. Maybe he was telling the truth. “Who?”
“Nobody.” The other man waved his hand like he was trying to brush my question away. “Just an old friend.”
Something wasn’t sitting right with me, though, and it wasn’t just the old friend or the fact that I suspected it was the same man who’d given that note to Meg. It had to do with what Dragon had said this morning, after the zombie got dropped off.
He turned to head back into the bar, but I stopped him in his tracks when I said, “You knew that zombie was Meg’s uncle.”
Dragon turned, slowly, his eyes once again narrowed.
I lifted my hands. “You’re the one who said it was a message, then Meg told me it was her uncle and I connected the dots. It wasn’t hard. What I want to know is: How did you know it was her uncle?”
Dragon’s jaw ticked. “Helen works at the CDC.”
That I hadn’t known, but it still didn’t explain much of anything. “So?”
“So I met the guy. Everybody knows the family, and everybody knows about the bullshit rumors going around. It made sense that they sent him here as some kind of message for the girl. What that message is, I don’t know. Who knows what she’s gotten herself mixed up in.” Dragon took another step toward me. “What I do know is this: You better watch who you talk to about all this. You claim to like this girl, but you’re not going to do anybody any favors by running your mouth. Least of all her.”
Dragon’s words were steady and his gaze even as he held mine, but I didn’t buy it. He knew more than he was letting on, and it had something to do with the man he’d been talking to
this morning.
At this point, though, I couldn’t let him know that I was suspected anything.
“No worries.” I matched his tone. “I’m just trying to look out for her too.”
Dragon held my gaze for a few seconds longer before turning away. His jaw was clenched like he was holding in a barrage of curse words as he headed out into the bar.
I followed him, silently. Thinking it all through. I didn’t know where this man fit into the puzzle that seemed to be Meg’s life, but I was positive he did. According to everything I knew about her, the first time Meg had set foot in this place was the night she was attacked. I found it hard to believe she’d met Dragon anywhere else, and she’d never indicated that they knew each other outside this bar. But he had an old friend who wanted to make sure Meg was safe? Why? And who?
I needed to keep my ears open.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Meg
The Atlanta evening was hot and muggy when I stopped in front of the gate. Overhead, the moon was tucked behind a blanket of clouds, barely allowing any rays through to illuminate the wall. I didn’t need it. I’d climbed the ladder to the guard towers hundreds, if not thousands, of times over the years. Between Dad, Parvarti, and Al working the fence, there had been no shortage of people for me to visit, and I liked sitting up there. Watching the darkness of old Atlanta and imagining that life might one day be able to spread beyond these walls again. That there still existed the possibility that we could start over.
It seemed like a lost cause now.
The metal ladder groaned under me, its rusted rungs chafing my palms as I pulled myself up. The heaviness that had settled inside me this afternoon was not only still present, but worse than ever before. It grew with each rung I climbed, every inch bringing me closer and closer to my aunt.
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