Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella

by Mary, Kate L.

  “Al’s beside himself. I thought he’d be freaked out when I told him, but he started jumping up and down. He’s so cute, talking to my stomach every night when we lay down.” Lila rolled her eyes, but the grin on her face grew wider, giving her true feelings away. “I sure did get lucky.”

  “We all did,” Vivian said, nudging the girl with her hip.

  “Yeah,” she mumbled.

  But her voice dropped and her smile faded, and Vivian knew she was thinking of the people they’d lost along the way and how their luck hadn’t extended to their friends. Jon and Hadley, Winston and Jessica and Darla. Angus. The shock of losing him, of losing all of them, had eased, but the pain hadn’t disappeared completely yet. Maybe it never would.

  They walked a few minutes in silence and Vivian found herself trying to focus on the good things about being in Atlanta, hoping to push the melancholy away so it didn’t ruin the happy news Lila had just shared. It wasn’t tough because she was living a life she had never really thought possible. She and Axl had an apartment and a baby, and a warm bed to sleep in. There had been so many nights since they’d arrived here that she’d laid awake long after he’d gone to sleep just so she could listen to the heavy sound of his breathing, taking it in and allowing herself to accept that this was all real.

  “I heard this ridiculous rumor at work yesterday,” Lila said, breaking the silence that had stretched out between them.

  “What’s that?” Vivian asked almost absentmindedly, still thinking about the man she had come to love so much and how unreal it was that they’d managed to carve a life out of the hopeless lot they’d been handed.

  “I heard that a man is being held in the CDC against his will.”

  Vivian’s steps faltered yet again. “What?”

  Lila stopped too and turned to face her. “I know it sounds nuts, which is why I didn’t want to bring it up, but I just couldn’t keep it to myself. You don’t think—” Lila hesitated, swallowing before she said the next words. “It can’t be him, right?”

  “No,” Vivian said, but the word was mumbled and uncertain.

  They’d seen Angus with their own eyes, hooked up to machines. Brain dead. He couldn’t be alive. Plus, why would anyone hold him against his will? He’d come to Atlanta voluntarily. There was no need to lock up a cooperative man.

  But how would they even know if he hadn’t actually been brain dead? They had just taken Dr. Helton’s word for it, assumed that she’d have no real reason to lie because Angus had offered himself up for them. But what if? What if he—

  “No,” Vivian said again, shaking her head as she continued down the street. They had enough to worry about without throwing crazy conspiracy theories on top of it all. “It can’t be true. Let’s not mention it to Axl, okay? He’s having a hard enough time getting over the loss and if he thinks he abandoned Angus, he’ll never forgive himself.”

  Lila scurried to keep up with her. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

  They turned the corner and a commotion at the end of the street caught Vivian’s eye. There was a group of guards standing at the gate and they were dragging a man and a woman toward a truck. The woman was small, closer to a girl maybe, but the man was tall and broad and had dirty blond hair that was on the long side. He pushed against the men who were holding him, and something about him hit home with Vivian.

  She walked faster, narrowing my eyes as she tried to get a better look.

  “Vivian?” Lila called, practically running in an effort to keep pace with her friend.

  “It’s him,” she said, just loud enough for Lila to hear. “It’s Jim!”

  They’d only made it another ten feet before both the girl and the man Vivian thought was Jim were pulled into the back of the truck. The vehicle sped off, but she didn’t slow, instead rushing to the group of guards who were still standing around talking.

  “Who was that?” she asked when she stopped in front of them, panting.

  The man at the front of the pack turned and his eyes swept over her before going to Lila, making the hair on Vivian’s scalp prickle. He grinned as he nudged the guard at his side and nodded their way.

  “Hello there.” The second man said, smiling as he pushed his hat back so it was out of his face. “What can we do for you on this fine day?”

  Vivian’s back straightened and she had to bite back the urge to snap at the men. Before the apocalypse a reaction like this wouldn’t have made her think twice, but now, after the days she’d spent in the Monte Carlo, looks like this made her want to run. Or punch someone.

  “Who was that?” she repeated, firmer this time.

  “Just a couple survivors who climbed the wall trying to get in. No big deal.” The first man puckered his lips as his eyes zeroed in on her breasts. “They’re going to quarantine.”

  She shifted her bag of rations, hoping to block his view. “Did you get his name?”

  “We think we know him,” Lila added.

  “No name, but he was yelling that he knew some people here.” The second man turned to his friend. “Who did he say his friends were?”

  “Didn’t really pay close attention to the name. Alice?”

  “No,” the other guard said, “that wasn’t it. It was something weird.”

  “Axl?” Vivian’s heart leapt, pushing away the uneasy feelings the men’s looks had conjured up.

  “Maybe.” The first guy shrugged like he couldn’t care less, and then grinned again. “You ladies interested in joining us in the entertainment district this evening?”

  “I’m married,” Vivian snapped as she turned her back on him.

  “I’m pregnant,” Lila said as she followed.

  Vivian didn’t hear their reply.

  The women hurried down the street side by side, Vivian holding her bag tighter than ever before.

  “It has to be Jim,” Lila said.

  Vivian wanted to agree, but after weeks of no word from their friend, she didn’t want to get her hopes up. “There’s only one way to find out,” she said instead. “Let’s get home and give the CDC a call.”

  The apartment was quiet when she slipped inside, balancing the bag of rations on her hip. The shades were drawn and the only sound was the quiet tick of the clock on the wall. Megan was probably taking a nap, and Vivian had no doubt that Axl had joined her. He’d been working hard on the construction crew, a lot of late nights and early mornings, and between that and the baby she could tell it was starting to catch up with him. Sleep had never really been his favorite thing—he was too often greeted by nightmares of the day his mother died—but she’d been telling him for days that he couldn’t go on like this forever. Hopefully, he’d finally listened.

  She set the bag on the kitchen counter before heading to the back of the apartment, keeping her steps light. Their daughter’s bedroom was empty, so she headed further down the hall to the room she shared with Axl. The door was cracked, and she pushed it open to find Megan and Axl curled up on the bed together, both of them out cold. The baby was snuggled in the crook of Axl’s arm, her tiny head resting against his bare chest, and the sight of it was so beautiful that Vivian suddenly found it hard to breathe. It was too good to be true, finding this man in the midst of such a disaster, then being handed this child in the midst of tragedy. Nothing in her early years of neglect and abuse had made her believe that she would one day have happiness, but she did.

  She watched them for a few minutes before heading back to the kitchen to put their supplies away. Axl needed rest and if it was Jim, which Vivian was almost certain it had been, there was nothing they could do about it at the moment. He’d be in quarantine for forty-eight hours, anyway.

  They were waiting in the lobby two days later when Jim was finally released from quarantine. It hadn’t even been necessary for Vivian to call the CDC, because guards had shown up at her door before Axl and Megan had even woken from their nap. It turned out that they were the first things Jim had asked about when he was questioned.


  They hadn’t seen or heard from him since he ran out of that farmhouse more than two months before, sacrificing himself for the group by drawing the zombies away so the others could make their escape, and they had no clue where he’d been or who the woman was that he’d brought with him to New Atlanta. Vivian had pretty much given up hope of ever seeing Jim alive again, so having him pop up now after all this time felt like a miracle. There was a lot of that going around lately, though.

  Megan was in her arms when Jim walked out with the woman Vivian had seen him in the street with two days earlier. She was pretty, but small and youthful-looking. Her dark skin contrasted with the sun-kissed tint Jim’s had taken on, and her eyes were bright despite the deep brown of her irises.

  Axl stood at Vivian’s side, and next to him Lila and Al looked so excited they were practically bouncing. Their eagerness almost made up for the lack of emotion Parvarti and Joshua exuded. In Vivian’s opinion, those two were perfect for each other, and the sooner they realized it the sooner they could get past this funk they were in and start living their lives. They’d made it this far alive, and to not even try and start something new now felt like a waste to her.

  “You made it,” Vivian said when Jim stopped in front of them, barely able to contain her excitement at learning that something had finally gone right.

  “It was touch and go, but I’m a fighter.”

  He slipped his arm around the shoulders of the girl at his side, and despite her size, Vivian could now see that she wasn’t as young as she’d originally appeared. Twenty perhaps, which was very close to her own age.

  “We almost gave up hope,” she replied, trying to mask the fact that she had actually given up on the idea that they’d ever see him again.

  “Made a detour.” He nodded toward the woman at his side who was looking back and forth between them with a wide, observant gaze. “This is Amira. I’d be dead if she hadn’t found me.”

  Amira smiled as Jim introduced her to his friends, her gaze focusing on Jim when he spoke, and then looking the others over one by one before returning her gaze to him. She was quiet, but the silence was more intense than just a person who was busy taking in her surroundings, and something about it felt off to Vivian. She found herself really studying the girl as Jim talked, trying to figure out what it was.

  “I can’t imagine what you went through,” Lila said, leaning into Al like the thought chilled her to bone and she needed comfort. “The world out there is terrifying.”

  Amira shuddered and scooted closer to Jim, but she remained silent. Even after he gave her a little squeeze, she didn’t talk.

  “You don’t have to tell us,” Jim said solemnly. His eyes, which had clouded over, moved to Axl. “I heard Angus didn’t make it.”

  Axl’s gaze flitted to the floor and by the way he pressed his lips together, Vivian could tell he was fighting to keep his emotions in check. “Got the chance to say goodbye, that’s somethin’.” He shook his head. “He was in a coma, but they say people can hear you when they’re like that. Hope so.”

  Amira perked up at Axl’s words, and Vivian suddenly remembered what Lila had told her two days ago about the man being held in the CDC. In all the craziness of Jim’s return, she’d forgotten all about it, but something in the newcomer’s gaze had her thinking about it again.

  Jim shook his head and mouthed something to Amira that Vivian didn’t catch, but the girl seemed to get it. That’s when it hit her. Amira hadn’t said a thing and she concentrated on everything the others were saying like picking up the words took a great deal of effort, and Jim spoke extra slow when he was looking at her. Amira was deaf.

  “They say we’ll have an apartment?” Jim asked.

  “Right down the hall from us.” Vivian shifted Megan further up on her hip, still studying Amira. “We can show you.”

  “So this place is really as good as they claim?” the woman asked. It was the first time she’d spoken, and not only was it louder than necessary, but her words were slightly distorted, confirming Vivian’s suspicions.

  The others seemed to do a double take, but Vivian barely blinked before replying, keeping her face toward the other woman so Amira didn’t miss any of the words. “It’s not perfect, then again, nothing ever was. The important thing is that they’re trying. Not just here, but in other areas. One day we might have something real again.”

  Jim slid his hand down Amira’s arm and laced his fingers through hers as he turned to face her. “You and I, we have something real right here. Right now.”

  Vivian hadn’t known Jim that well before they’d left Colorado, he’d been living in Hope Springs while they had found a home in a gated community about twenty miles away, but his words still surprised her. He hadn’t seemed like the type of person to want to settle down and start a life. Then again, people who had known Axl before probably would have said the same thing. This world changed people. Made them realize what was important.

  “I’d love to see that apartment now,” Jim said after a moment, “if you don’t mind.”

  By the time Jim and Amira showed up at their apartment later that evening, Vivian was anxious to hear what he’d been doing for the last two months. They had spent the last few hours alone, getting settled into their new place, and even though they seemed happy when she opened the door, there was something in Jim’s eyes that caused anxiety to pool in her stomach. She didn’t like the way he was looking at her husband, almost as if he was dreading telling Axl something.

  “Come in,” she said, trying to push the uncertainty away and enjoy the fact that Jim had practically come back from the dead.

  He nodded as he walked by and Amira gave her a shy smile, but neither said a word. Despite her attempt to control her fears, the coil of dread wound tighter inside Vivian.

  In the living room, Axl was in the middle of feeding Megan a bottle, and Jim’s expression relaxed when he stopped next to him. He stared down at Megan and his eyes seemed to shimmer, but not with tears. It seemed to Vivian that it looked more like hope or relief, or maybe even nostalgia. The older Megan got the more she began to resemble her parents, and with every passing day, Vivian was able to see more and more of her dead friends in the daughter they had left behind.

  “So how’s fatherhood?” Jim asked Axl.

  “She don’t let us sleep, but I never slept all that much anyway, so I can’t complain.” He grinned down at the baby. “Plus, she makes up for it by bein’ cute.”

  Jim’s smile was a little sad, but he nodded. “She sure is.”

  He and Amira settled onto the couch next to Joshua. On the other side of the room Parvarti sat, separating herself from the group as usual. Al was hovering over Axl’s shoulder and Vivian knew he was just dying to get his hands—hand—on Megan once she was done with her dinner. The kid—Vivian knew she needed to stop thinking of him like that, but it was going to be a tough habit to break—had baby fever big time.

  The men talked while she went back to the kitchen where Lila was busy throwing a salad together. They’d had to combine all their fresh rations for it, but Vivian had no doubt that it would be worth the sacrifice. She’d never really been a salad person before, but it was amazing the things she savored after a year of living on almost nothing. Now she’d gladly scarf down an entire spinach salad and love every bite. Fresh food was a luxury that she would never again take for granted.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked Lila as she sliced a loaf of bread, keeping the pieces thin so it would last as long as possible.

  “Better. I haven’t been sick, but I was pretty tired at first.” She looked over her shoulder like she wanted to make sure no one else would overhear her. “I had no idea all the problems that came with being pregnant. I’ve been so constipated.”

  Vivian snorted out a laugh, then shook her head. “Sorry, but that was about the last thing I expected you to say.”

  Lila laughed too, and the sound was so light and free that it felt unreal after all the struggles and hearta
che they’d endured over the last year. “Sorry. I guess I was just wondering if you had the same problem. You know, back when you were pregnant with Emily.”

  Vivian’s smile faded, but only a little. It had been over a year since she’d lost her daughter, back in the beginning days of the apocalypse, and the pain had faded enough that she was able to think about their brief time together and be grateful that they’d had the chance at all. She’d never really thought she would, not after giving the little girl up for adoption and moving across the country, but for some reason when the virus began to sweep the country, the only thing Vivian had been able to think about was finding her daughter and making sure she was okay.

  “Honestly, I don’t remember a whole lot about the pregnancy. I was sixteen and scared out of my mind, and mostly I just remember trying to figure out what I would do if my clothes didn’t fit after she was born.” Vivian paused in the middle of slicing so she could look Lila’s way. “It wasn’t like my alcoholic dad was going to cough up any money to buy me new clothes.”

  Lila frowned and her hazel eyes moved to the carrot she was chopping. “Oh yeah, sorry.”

  Vivian had grown up in a trailer with nothing. Her mother had run off when she was only ten, leaving her alone with an abusive drunk of a father. It hadn’t been a happy childhood and she’d felt alone most of her life, which was probably one of the main reasons she’d found herself pregnant at sixteen. Back then she’d been willing to take any kind of attention offered to her, even the negative kind.

  In contrast, Lila’s family had been wealthy. So rich, in fact, that they’d owned a condo in the underground luxury shelter the group had hijacked. Even though it didn’t matter much these days who had once had money and who had been forced to scrape by, Vivian knew that at times Lila felt guilty about how easy her early years had been. But in Vivian’s opinion they’d pretty much been in the same boat. Lila’s parents had given her everything but their love, and just like Vivian, she’d been alone when she should have had parents to lean on.