by Lilly Black
They began driving the knives into eye sockets as the dead were bottlenecked in the hallway, and though effective, the dead just kept coming. Realizing they were going to have to use the guns, Alek was reaching for his when they heard the sound of a motorcycle, and it was coming down the hall so fast, they barely had time to jump out of its path. It was Damon, he had made his way back to the parking lot and had been leading stragglers toward the fire when he saw a group going through the door. He knocked them down as he drove into the shop, then made a u-turn and another pass through the hall, planning to leave the bike in a position to hold the back door closed, but first he had to drive back through a group of five who had come in after him. One grabbed his jacket, causing him to cut the wheel, and the bike skidded out of from under him, slamming the door shut.
With the dead now blocked from entering, even though Damon's leg was injured in the fall, he quickly got his bearings, jumped up, and started fighting, and when John and Alek joined in, they took out the rest of the dead. With Liana and the girls, they ran for the rig, slammed the doors shut, and told Ravi to hit the gas, and finally, they made it out of there with a truck full of weapons and no casualties.
No known casualties anyway.
"Where is he?" Liana fretted as the semi turned onto the main road.
"I don't know," Damon said. "We got separated."
"We have to go back for him!" she cried.
"We will," Alek said. "Let's get the rig back home, and I'll lead a search party."
"I'll show you where I last saw him on the map before you go," Damon offered.
"Oh, my God, Damon! You're losing a lot of blood," Olivia suddenly shouted out as she noticed it pooling beneath his leg.
"It's nothing. It's just a cut," he said, but he knew better. When he crashed the bike, he had been bitten in the few seconds he spent on the ground disoriented, and though he knew he wasn't going to make it, he didn't want the others to know for fear that they would shoot him or put him out of the truck. Holding his hand over the wound to hide it, he was hoping to hold out at least until they returned to the compound, but he was already beginning to feel sick and weak.
Liana felt weak too, and heartbroken. All she could think about was how selfish she had been with Aiden, so focused on her own issues, she'd denied them both something they desperately wanted, and now he might be gone forever.
"He's dead. I just know it," she whispered, and Olivia came close, speaking directly into her ear so no one else would hear.
"Do you love Aiden?" she asked.
"Yes," Liana said without hesitation, surprising even herself.
"Then he can't die. It was part of the spell."
"You don't believe that," Liana bemoaned with a tear in her eye, and Olivia smiled a sad smile because it was true. She didn't. Even after everything that happened and all of the weak moments when she thought she was personally responsible for everything, deep down Olivia believed it was all a coincidence. And Aiden was probably dead.
Liana walked to the back of the rig where Randy's chair was parked by the door. He had been watching the road behind them through one of the bullet holes he was responsible for, and he looked up when he noticed her staring at him.
"Sorry about all this," he said, pointing at the holes letting in rays of light.
"Man, you were gonna shoot me," John complained.
"Damn straight I was," Randy shouted, "but I'm sorry. It's just that..." He paused and sighed. "I served in Vietnam for two years, and that never fucked me up as bad as the past four days."
Just like Bella and Sally, Randy had found out within hours of the first broadcast that there were people in this world who were just itching for a societal breakdown. His daughter and son-in-law had come to the shop to take him to their house, and as they and their two young daughters tried to persuade the stubborn old man that abandoning his shop was the safest measure, there was a knock at the front door. It was four young men, brothers and cousins, who were among Randy's best customers.
He knew at the start that he had to lock things down because a gun shop was a target during any sort of disaster situation, but when a truckload of men he knew showed up, he hadn't yet learned that people he considered friends before the dead came back to life weren't necessarily his friends anymore.
"I knew these guys, John. I'd been hunting with them, drank with them. I mean, they were a little anti-government...hell, so am I, but when the dead get up and start eating people, I'd vote Democrat if they had a good plan to stop this shit. These guys, though? They were getting off on it.
"At first they said they were just there to buy some ammo, which I rang up for them, but then one of them got a look at my granddaughters. He went over and started to touch..." he stopped abruptly when he saw his oldest granddaughter begin to twitch as she stared at the ground. "She's twelve-years-old, goddamn it! And those fuckers wanted to..." He couldn't even say it out loud, skipping over it as he continued his story. "Things got out of hand pretty quick, and we ended up in a shootout. One of them got away, but I killed the other three assholes! I didn't know I had to shoot them in the head, though I didn't figure that out until they came back and bit my daughter and her husband. I had to put them both down, and I had to have the girls help me drag their parents bodies outside.
"I protected those girls for four days, and by the time you all came around, there had been at least a dozen more groups just like them. I sat at the mail slot until I had the best shot, then I'd kill the fuckers. At first, I was shooting them in the kneecaps to make them suffer, then I realized they'd be more use to me if they could get back up and protect the parking lot from the next group, and I started shooting them in the chest. So, I am sorry, John, but I'm a crippled old man and the only defense these girls have against a world of sick motherfuckers. I'd have killed you and not thought twice about it," Randy said. "But I'm glad I didn't."
"I am too," John said with a subtle laugh, and as everyone rode in silence, feeling uneasy at the thought of what the girls had been through, Randy turned away and went back to staring through the bullet holes.
The trip was quiet and morale low until they hit a long, straight section of the road where he noticed something moving behind them in the distance.
"What's that?" he wondered aloud, and hopeful, Liana rushed to find her own bullet hole. Slowly, the image grew larger until she realized they were being followed by a motorcycle.
"It's Aiden!" she cried. "Oh, my God! He's alive!"
Instantly, a sense of joy spread throughout the trailer as everyone realized they had all made it back from their most dangerous mission to date, and even Damon cheered with what little energy he had left, happy to know that at least his friend was going to survive this.
When the rig finally pulled through the inner gate to their sanctuary, the doors were opened, and Liana flew out, tackling Aiden with an enthusiastic hug. Alek told Damon to sit tight as he went to find help to lift the larger man out of the truck while Olivia went searching for June to take a look at his injuries, but before either of them returned, Damon breathed his last as John was setting up the ramp to get Randy out of the rig.
Seconds later, Damon's eyes opened again. Blocked by Randy's wheelchair, no one noticed, not even Randy until he felt a tugging on his jeans and looked down to find Damon biting into his calf. Paralyzed, he didn't even feel it, but when he saw it, he screamed, pulling his gun out of its holster and unloading it in Damon's head.
John rushed into the rig and pushed Randy's chair down the ramp, picking him up and lying him on the ground.
"Someone please take the girls to the lodge!" he shouted. "Then somebody get me an axe and some alcohol! And I'll need something hot to cauterize the wound!"
As Liana led Randy's granddaughters away, Alek grabbed the axe from the woodpile on the side of the lodge, and Ravi pulled out a flask, all while Randy lay there confused, unable to hear what they were planning because the sound of the gunfire in the back of the trailer had temporarily
deafened him. Then he saw John pour the alcohol on the blade.
"No!" he begged as he began to thrash, but with gritted teeth, Alek came to hold him still while John brought the axe down, taking off his leg just above the bite site. Randy howled in agony. He couldn't actually feel it, but he had never had a stronger phantom limb sensation than in that moment. Then Aiden drove his motor cycle over, and John used the hot muffler to cauterize the wound, filling the air with the stench of melting human flesh.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Olivia demanded suddenly as she returned with June, who immediately rushed over to care for Randy. While she and the other men helped him back in his chair Alek apprised Olivia of the situation.
"Thanks for 'rescuing' me, assholes!" Randy hissed, making air quotes as June wheeled him toward the lodge. They set him up with a cot in the office behind the reception desk because the upstairs was not handicapped accessible, and they wanted to keep him sequestered until they were sure that cutting off his leg would stop him from dying.
They were only sure of two things at that point. Everyone who died would rise again regardless of whether or not they had been bitten, and a bite from the dead was a guaranteed death sentence. John surmised that since the cause was somehow present in everyone, the bite either killed through extremely aggressive bacteria or a concentrated dose of the reanimation virus, and therefore he believed that immediately cutting off the limb above the bite site might stop the killing agent from getting into the bloodstream. While June agreed that it was a medically sound possibility, Olivia thought it was completely absurd given the speed at which the heart pumped blood through the body because she knew how quickly she felt pain medication move through her veins when she was in the hospital, but since they would never have a better guinea pig than Randy for this experiment, she was curious to see the outcome on the condition that he be observed under constant armed guard. John volunteered for the first shift, asking that his family be moved to the inner ring in the meantime. Olivia had been urging him to do that since the beginning, but it took Randy's story about his granddaughter's rape to finally scare the stubborn independence out of him.
It was going to be hard to find them a safe, comfortable place because everyone continued to sleep in the main lodge until the trenches were finished, and it was starting to get cramped with even the private guest room in Olivia's residence taken. She gave the Vincent family her living room, and though it didn't have a door, it was more private than adding their cots to those already spread throughout the lodge since she insisted on keeping the office connected to her bedroom as Alek's room. When Reid got back, she would be honest with him, but he didn't need the rest of the group looking at him and wondering how he felt about the fact that his wife had had another man in her bed while she awaited his return.
Things were going to get a lot easier once they could start moving people into the cabins, but for now they all sat empty, which was convenient for Olivia's friends who knew where to find the master keys.
"Come with me," Liana said to Aiden after sneaking away with one. She gave him a sly smile, and his eyes flashed, knowing they were finally going to sate the desire ignited the first moment he had seen her across the median at the toll plaza and decided to abandon his plans to return to Quebec. He had been instantly taken in by her beauty and bravery, selfishly convincing his teammates to follow him into the unknown, and he was certain it had been the right decision. He figured he would probably already be dead somewhere on road by now, but instead he was about to get naked with a hot brunette who had amazing tits, gorgeous bronze skin, and the most delightfully wicked gleam in her amber eyes.
Liana's Journal
Day 4
Aiden and I stole one of Liv's master keys, and we snuck up the hill to the cabin farthest away from everything. It was a little one bedroom unit, but it could have been a tent for all I cared. I just wanted to get Aiden alone...and naked. First, I had to make sure there were blackout curtains in the bedroom because there was no way I was going to take off my clothes in the middle of the day without them, and once I closed them, I could barely see anything.
"Come here," I said to Aiden as I stood by the bed unbuttoning my shirt, and he was quickly on me, his fingers taking over the task, his lips finding mine in the near-darkness. I felt like my body was on fire, every part of me begging for his touch, and I shuddered when he grasped my shoulders, pushing my shirt down my arms as our vision adjusted to the low light, the excitement in his eyes reflecting my own.
My top fell to the ground, and he ran his hands around to the back, working on my bra strap. Just the sensation of his fingers against my skin was electric, and I wished I wasn't going to have to tell him that he couldn't use them south of the equator. As he unhooked my bra, I opened my mouth, but he silenced me, grabbing my full breasts in his hands, his breath audible as he stared at them.
"Damn, Liana, you're beautiful," he whispered, his mouth barely finishing the words as it sought my nipple. He sucked it in, swirling his tongue over it, and I felt the sensation between my thighs as if it were somehow linked. I never even knew I had that sort of connection before, but as he continued to worship my breasts, I could feel a direct line, my nether regions flooding with desire for him, my clitoris erect against the course denim fabric.
God! I wanted to put my hands on his head and push him down...
And Aiden had the same idea. He began to kneel before me, his hand running downward to find the snap on my jeans, and it damn near killed me to do what I had to do next.
"Aiden," I whispered, my voice airy and desperate for the complete opposite of what I was going to say.
"What is it, mon cœur?" he asked, not even looking up as he kissed my navel, unsnapping my pants with nimble fingers, making it even harder to stop him, but I had no choice.
"Aiden," I repeated, taking his hands in mine to get his full attention. "I don't like...I don't want you to touch me below the waist."
"What are you saying?" he asked.
"Let's get in bed," I say, and though I could tell he was confused as hell, he didn't argue, pulling off his shirt as I turned away from him to remove my pants. I looked over my shoulder and caught him watching me, and since my shame can't be seen from behind, I bent at the waist as I slipped off my panties, giving him a bit of a peep show as a distraction. When I was naked, I motioned for him to look away while I spun back around and slid beneath the sheet, then I lay propped up on one elbow to watch him as he took off his pants.
"Uh-uh," he said, shaking his head and instructing me to cover my eyes.
"Oh, come on," I protested, dying to see his beautiful body in its full naked glory. From what I'd seen so far, Aiden was an absolute masterpiece, his chest and abs deliciously defined, a dark pathway of hair disappearing into his jeans, but he was stubbornly refusing to let me see where it led.
"Quid pro quo," he whispered with a smirk, and I rolled my eyes as I gave in and covered them, trying to peek through the spaces between my fingers. He noticed, and though he faced the wall, I still got to see his nice, muscular ass as he took everything off. Then, I suppose just to spite me, he backed into the bed, getting under the sheet before he turned toward me.
"Stop being stubborn," I teased.
"Tell me why I can't touch you," he said, and I decided to make up an excuse in the moment because dealing with this was seriously starting to fuck with the level of excitement that had brought me here in the first place.
"I got all sweaty on the mission," I lied.
"I don't care about that," he said, brushing my hair out of my face.
"Well, I do, so can we just...will you just...you know..."
"Fuck you?" he asked. "Is that what you want?"
"Uh-huh," I said, shyly biting my lip, and he grinned a wicked grin then flipped me over onto my stomach.
"You want me to fuck you?" he repeated as he grabbed my hips and forced me up onto all fours.
"Yes."
"Then say it," he commanded, and I c
ould feel him hard and sliding against my clitoris from behind. He was so...big.
Oh, God!
"Say it, Liana. Tell me you want to be fucked."
"I want to be fucked," I said.
"Hard?" he asked as he began swirling his cock over the tiny bundle of nerves, using it instead of the fingers I'd refused.
"Hard. I want to be fucked hard," I admitted.
"Beg me," he demanded. "Beg for my cock."
"Please, Aiden," I complied, ruled entirely by my lust now, and there was no way it was going to let me screw this up. "Please fuck me. Please shove your cock inside me."
And he did, slowly filling me with every bit of what had to be at least eight inches.
"Oh, Aiden," I moaned as he thrust in again.
"You want it faster?" he asked.
"Oh, yes!" I begged, and with his hand on my hips, pulling me back into him, he sped up. I had come here with visions of making love in my head, but this..oh, my God, this is what I needed! This, but a little something more...
"Harder!" I urged him, and he clutched my hips tighter, his nails digging into my skin as he pounded me fiercely, keeping up the pace and intensity so much longer than I would have expected before I could tell he had reached the pinnacle. His whole body tensed, and I felt his excitement coursing through me, beckoning me to join him in ecstasy. As he grew closer and closer, I cried out, bucking against him, aching for the satisfaction of his release, and finally, he called my name in a tortured voice as I whispered his into the darkness. Then suddenly, he pulled out.
"Oh, my God, Liana," he groaned as I felt his orgasm raining down on the back of my legs, and I fell forward on the bed, collapsing from the weight of a terrifying, stressful morning topped off with the immense satisfaction of finally fucking the man who had been the star of every encounter I had with Bob in the past five years.