Axl might not be in his cell.
Jackson could be waiting with a trap.
Helen could be a CDC spy out to lure us inside.
Jane could have been lying about the failsafe.
We might not get the vaccine in time to save me.
I might kill Meg.
The failsafe could destroy my brain.
There were too many possibilities, which made it impossible to relax, and the longer I lay in bed, the more the ache inside me increased. It was still nothing like it had been before, and I wasn’t delirious either, but it was there and it wasn’t going to go away until we had the vaccine.
Dawn came, the sun rising outside and eventually penetrating the thin curtains that covered the window. In the early morning light I was able to stare at Meg, to memorize her face, her body, and the feel of her next to me. Then my brain moved on from all the horrors of the world to the miraculous few moments we’d spent together. On the cot in the back of Dragon’s stinking bar, her body under mine as we kissed and explored one another. In the shower, both of us naked under the cold stream of water. I remembered how she’d felt in my grasp, how small she’d seemed when I’d lifted her, how close we’d been when she’d wrapped her legs around my waist. I wanted that again, to be close to her, to explore her body.
She woke slowly, shifting so she could stretch, and her eyes flew open when her hip brushed against me. “Good morning,” she said, lifting her eyebrows. “Good dreams?”
“I didn’t sleep,” I said, scooting closer and pulling her small body against mine. “I couldn’t, not when all I could think about was you.”
“Don’t torture yourself,” she said. “You know we can’t risk it, as much as I want to.”
“There are other things we can do,” I whispered.
I pressed my lips against her neck, and then moved them down to her chest. The tank top she wore was cut low and thin, making it easy to caress her skin through the fabric. I ran my tongue across her chest, right over the swell of her breasts that barely peaked out above the neckline of her shirt. She shivered under me and I moved my mouth lower, kissing the soft skin of her breasts through her tank top while pushing the hem up. Then my lips moved lower, down to her bare stomach before making my way back up, following her shirt as I pulled it higher. It was over her head in seconds, and then she was naked in front of me except a pair of black cotton panties. I cupped her breasts and ran my tongue between them. Her nipples were hard points, and when I flicked my thumbs across them, I was rewarded with a gasp of pleasure.
I looked up, meeting her gaze to find her watching me as I dragged my tongue across her breast to her nipple. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, sinking her teeth into it in anticipation. Waiting. Begging. I closed my mouth over her nipple and sucked it into my mouth, and she let out a low moan that went straight to my groin. She grasped my head between her hands as I teased her, her fingers threading through my hair and pulling me closer. The way she squirmed told me she was as excited as I was, so I took the hint and ran my fingers down her body and over her thigh, not stopping until I’d almost reached her knee. Then I moved them back up, this time over her inner thigh.
“Donaghy,” she gasped out my name. “I want you. You won’t infect me.”
“It’s not happening,” I said. “But this is.”
I pushed the fabric of her underwear aside so I could slide my finger into her. She gasped once, and then a second time when I closed my lips over her nipple again.
“Don’t,” she moaned. “Don’t stop.”
I didn’t, but not because she begged me to keep going, but because I wanted to. I wanted to kiss and feel every inch of her, to make her beg for more. Not just now, but for the rest of our lives.
I moved my lips up her neck, wanting so badly to devour her lips but holding back as I teased her with my fingers. Every gasp, every moan she let out sent a jolt through me. I moved my hand faster, paying close attention to her body’s cues, and it wasn’t long before she was holding onto me while she gasped out her pleasure, her body quaking around my fingers.
My heart was racing by then, and from out of nowhere pain spread through me that I didn’t understand. It was like lava in my veins, like a fire spreading through me. Meg was still coming down from her orgasm, but I was suddenly paralyzed by fear. I’d gotten swept up in my lust, had taken for granted that Angus’s blood had bought me time, but the sudden pain coursing through my body brought everything into sharp and startling focus. I was risking too much, pushing my luck too much, and putting Meg in danger in the process.
She reached for my pants, but I pushed her hand back, my eyes still closed. “No.”
“I want to,” she whispered.
I wanted it, so much, but the ache in my body had gotten worse and I was finding it difficult to sit still. “I can’t.”
Meg pulled back and I finally opened my eyes to find her staring down at me. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“It’s back. The pain.” I shook my head, afraid to say the words but even more afraid to stay here with her a moment longer.
“No,” she said. She put her hands on my face so she could look me in the eye. “No. You have to hang on. We still have hours until we can get the vaccine.”
The fire that had spread through began to subside, but I had to swallow before I could speak. “I’ll be okay. It’s—it’s not as bad as it was. I can make it.”
Tears filled her eyes and she pressed her face into the crook of my neck. “I just want all of us to get out of this safely.”
“Me too,” I said, clinging to her even as I told myself I needed to leave. “That’s what I want too.”
Chapter Sixteen
Meg
By the time Donaghy and I dragged ourselves downstairs, the house was a whirlwind of activity. We still had hours before we left for the safe house, but everyone who was going with us was busy getting ready for the trip, and even a handful of people who weren’t. Extra leather had been brought in so we’d all be covered, as well as guns and knives. The dining room table was overflowing with the stuff.
Donaghy sat in the corner, away from everyone. He was in pain still, I could tell by the expression on his face even though he tried to downplay it, and he acted like he didn’t trust himself to be around anyone. I sorted through the stuff on the table even though I still had the leather I’d borrowed from Jada and a gun, looking for anything else I might need, but I was keeping an eye on him at the same time, so I saw it when Helen knelt in front of him.
Their conversation was too low for me to hear over the hum of voices filling the room, but I watched as she took his vitals, checked his pulse, his temperature, even listened to his breathing with a stethoscope like this was a doctor’s office. She nodded before standing, and even though it was impossible to know what they’d said to each other, I felt like it was an indication that everything was going to be okay. Or maybe I was trying to convince myself.
I stopped Helen before she left the room. “He’s okay?”
“For now.” She twisted the stethoscope in her hands, rolling it into a loop. “He knows the signs, but it could come on quickly, so you need keep an eye on him.”
“What am I looking for?”
Helen pressed her lips together before saying, “If he’s not acting like himself.”
I swallowed when her meaning hit me. “You mean if he’s staring at me like he’s considering taking a bite out of me?”
She didn’t even blink when she said, “Yes.”
Fear gripped me, but I pushed it down and told myself we could do this. We had time. Angus’s blood had given us time.
We were all decked out in leather now. Even Donaghy, who seemed to be hanging on despite the pain. I’d expected some pushback about the idea of him coming, but no one said a word. Not that it mattered; I would have fought any decision to leave him behind. I wanted to be able to inject him with the vaccine the second I got my hands on it. The sooner he got it, the sooner we’d be a
ble to release the brain-eating bacteria that would hopefully wipe out the zombies once and for all.
The mood was even more tense than it had been before. No one spoke, not even Jada and Jim who didn’t look the least bit nervous but whose silence indicated that they were more on edge than they were letting on. As for the rest of us, we all seemed to find it impossible to hide the nerves buzzing through us. Mom was chewing on her bottom lip like crazy, and at her side my Uncle Angus seemed to find it impossible to stand still. Even Parv, who I’d always thought of as the least emotional person I’d ever met, was showing cracks in her normally calm exterior.
“Everyone know their jobs?” Jim asked as he hooked a knife to his belt.
Around the room, everyone nodded.
“Good.” Jada reached back and pulled her dreads into a ponytail, reminding me that I needed to do the same thing with my own hair. “We’re taking two vehicles, that way Vivian will be able to get Margot and Axl to safety when we get them out. For now, ride wherever you want to.” She started to head to the door, but was stopped by Bonnie, who grabbed her hand on the way by. Jada’s gaze held her adoptive mother’s for a moment before she said, “Take a moment to say your goodbyes.”
Lila reached out to Mom and gave her hand a squeeze.
“See you soon,” my aunt whispered. Then she turned to Luke and pulled him into a hug. “Be careful out there.”
“I will,” he told her.
When he stepped back, Lila shook her head as she wiped at the tears in her eyes. Her gaze moved to Kelly, who was standing at Luke’s side. “Watch out for him.”
“I promise,” Kelly replied.
Charlie hugged Luke next, and then did the same with her father. When she stepped away, there were tears in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her chest like she was trying to keep herself together.
Lila and Al’s hug was longer, and so intimate that it almost made me feel like I was intruding.
“Bring our son back in one piece,” she said.
“He’ll be fine.”
Lila pulled back so she could look up at her husband. “And don’t you leave me, understand? I’m not ready for that.”
Al kissed her gently and whispered, “I plan on being old and gray by the time I leave this planet.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Lila said.
At the back of the group, I saw my Uncle Angus hug Glitter.
“I’m afraid I’ll never see you again,” she said as she pressed her face against his chest. “I want to go too.”
“If you’re there, I won’t be able to focus. I’ll be too worried ‘bout what’s happenin’ to you.” He closed his eyes like the thought of her getting captured physically hurt him. “Don’t you worry ‘bout me. I ain’t gonna let them take me out now.”
“You promise?” she said.
“I promise.”
Her face was streaked with tears when she said goodbye to Dragon and then to Helen, the woman who had raised her since birth. The four of them stood together for a few minutes, talking quietly. They were an odd little family, one created by this crazy world we lived in, one forced together by Star and his sick plan to dominate the world, but they were a family and it was obvious that they loved each other.
A few other goodbyes were said, Britt and Tony both had family to see them off, and then we all headed out.
It was early evening and the sun was low, giving us a couple hours until it was full dark. The safe house was a few streets away from the wall, but close enough that our headlights could be spotted in the total darkness that had taken over old Atlanta, so we wanted to move in while it was still light out. It would take about an hour to get there from Senoia, and then we’d have to wait until after the sun had set completely to head to Dragon’s where there would be even more waiting. We couldn’t make our move until the city had converged on the square for the festival or we risked being spotted.
I sat in the back of the same truck I’d ridden in on the way to Senoia, this time feeling less in the dark but probably even more terrified than I had before. Beside me, Donaghy seemed to be made of stone. His body was tense from the pain coursing through him, and added to that was the worry that he might turn and hurt someone, which I was sure made it impossible for him to relax.
There was nothing I could do to help him other than hold his hand. Having him with me had been a comfort back when I’d been uncertain about where my dad was and if my mom would ever snap out of it, and I could only hope that the support of having me at his side was in some way a comfort to him.
The drive seemed to take no time at all, and when we rolled into old Atlanta, the sky had just begun to darken. We parked down the street from the safe house in a driveway so obscured by bushes and weeds that the branches scraped against the sides of the truck. When we stopped, the thick greenery made it impossible to see out onto the street.
We climbed out, careful to be quiet so we didn’t draw too much attention from the dead that now ruled this city. The sound of the truck’s engine had no doubt drawn some of them this way already, so before I’d even set foot on the ground I had my knife out, as did everyone else.
“Keep your eyes and ears open,” Luke said.
He was the only zombie slayer with us at the moment since Jim had driven one truck and Jada the other, but we were quickly joined by the rest of our group. Once we were together again, we headed out, pushing past the branches that concealed us until we found the street. Like every other road in the old world, it was covered with debris and had weeds sprouting from the cracks.
I sniffed as we walked. Old Atlanta smelled like a totally different world than the city inside the walls, and it had nothing to do with the stench of death. Inside, the air was ripe with human misery. The stink of poverty, the smell of hopelessness, the odor of waste that coated the people who’d long ago given their lives over to drugs and booze. But out here the air was fresh as long as none of the dead were around, and the smells of nature called out to me as we walked, telling me that there was a better alternative to what New Atlanta had to offer.
It had been like this in Senoia, too. The settlement was thick with the smells of life—cooking meat and fires burning into the night—but had also had moments when nature was the most prevalent scent. The air there was fresh and clean, and not tainted by the hard life the people in New Atlanta knew. The inhabitants of the unsanctioned town may have worn scars on their skin that illustrated how brutal their existence could be, but the marks also branded them as free. Free to roam the world as they saw fit, free to leave the walls when duty called, free to take care of their families in the ways that they wanted to instead of the ways that were dictated to them by the government.
These were the thoughts going through my head when a breeze blew and we were suddenly engulfed by the scent of death. Jim and Jada, who were leading us through the city, didn’t slow, but I noticed that the steps of those around me did falter a little. No one stopped, and since we were all already armed and ready there was no need for anyone to pull a weapon, but the eyes of everyone surrounding me began to sweep the area.
There was nothing for us to see but the shells of old houses and the rusted skeletons of cars. Weeds and other plants that had long ago grown out of control covered everything, making the world a sea of green. Anything could be hidden in their emerald depths. The dead or feral animals just waiting to attack, or even raiders who had taken cover in the middle of scavenging when they’d heard our approach.
The unknown had my heart racing, but despite that my opinion of this world hadn’t changed. This was a life. Out here people were able to fight for themselves away from the confines of a corrupt government. This was a world that forced people to be strong or die, but one that was also ripe with possibilities.
“Just keep moving,” Jada said, her husky voice barely over a whisper.
As usual, I was impressed by her ability to stay so calm and in control.
We reached the safe house without any trou
ble, although I did catch sight of a few figures shambling down the street in the swiftly fading light.
I could see into the house through the gaping holes that had once been windows. The main floor had been stripped bare, freed of everything useful years ago, and I had no doubt that the second floor was equally naked. I didn’t get to find out though, because we didn’t go inside but instead pushed past the overgrown bushes and made our way into the backyard. Once there Jim and Jada worked together to move a moldy, old mattress, revealing a cellar door.
The hinges screeched through the silence when the door was pulled open, revealing stairs that disappeared into a dark abyss. Jim walked down without hesitation, and seconds later a light flickered on, flooding the stairwell with light.
“In here,” Jada said, waving for us to follow Jim as he continued into the basement.
We shuffled down in a mass, so close that the air was stifling despite the chill of the basement. Below us more lights flickered on as the sound of Jim’s footsteps echoed through the room.
Jada had told us that the basement was only used in the most severe situations, like when someone got cornered and couldn’t make it out of the city, and when we made it to the bottom of the stairs I could see why. It was a hole. Rugs had been spread out on the floor that were damp from years of moisture leaking into the space, and the walls were splotched with mold. Cobwebs and bugs had taken over every corner, and the only furniture was a handful of wooden chairs.
Since people who were about to reverse a two decade old apocalypse couldn’t really complain about where they hid from zombies, I settled onto the floor with Donaghy and tried not to think about the toxins we were breathing in. He was shivering, but his skin was only slightly warmer than usual, nothing like it had been before, and I found myself praying that the fever would hold off long enough for us to get into the CDC. If he was delirious, we’d have to leave him behind.
Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella Page 85