by Jenika Snow
The sound of groaning was becoming more apparent, and the noise from the men shouting, of their death cries, and of the banging and breaking of shit in the store had the infected coming out of the damn woodwork.
“Listen, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but we need to get the hell out of here,” he said with determination in his voice. Truth was, she could leave without him, but he’d track her, follow her, and convince her that they needed to be together.
No matter how long it took him to do it. She didn’t respond right away, maybe thinking about what she wanted to do, or if she should try to kill him too. He glanced behind him, saw ten or so infected slowly making their way toward the grocery store, and faced her again.
“I’d love to sit here and get to know each other, but we need to leave. Now.”
She seemed to snap out of whatever haze she was in, nodded once, and then turned to head out the rear door that could be seen through the back of the store. He moved in front of her, stopped for a second, and held his hand out, touching her abdomen with his forearm. He wanted to make sure she was safe, and although a horde of infected were coming toward them, he didn’t want to be ambushed either.
When it was clear to move forward, he grabbed her hand, held the knife with his other one, and was pleased when she didn’t fight him on it. Her hand was much smaller than his, and she was cold, her fingers like icicles.
He knew it was because of what happened and not because of the weather. She was breathing heavily, and the sound of her jacket moving up and down from her rapid respirations had Collin wanting to turn around and just hold her. But they would have time for that later. Right now, he needed to get her away from this place, somewhere safe, and then they could talk.
They ran out the back door, and he kept a tight grip on her hand as they moved across the back parking lot and into the woods. There was an infected that staggered out of a gap in the trees, but Collin was ready for him. He wasn’t very decomposed, so that told him this one had been turned recently, and the bite mark on his neck was proof of that. His face was ashen, his eyes milky-white, and he groaned as he tried to swipe at them. But Collin already had the blade plunged into one of his eyes.
The infected fell to the ground, but Collin didn’t stop pulling the woman through the woods. They ran for another five minutes before Collin finally slowed. He pulled her behind him, scanned the woods, and then breathed out. He sheathed his knife and faced her.
She was breathing heavily, her eyes wide as she scanned their surroundings, but she didn’t look as frightened as she had in the store.
“You’re okay?” he asked.
She nodded, breathed out roughly, and then put her own knife back in the little loop of her pants. They stared at each other for a moment, and then she turned behind her, scanning their surroundings, making sure she was safe. When she faced Collin again, there was hesitation in her eyes.
“What’s your name?” he asked her, hoping to prove to her that if he intended on harming her, he could have done so already. When she didn’t answer, he spoke again. “I’m Collin Suthers.” He held his filthy, bloody hand out to her. She looked at it for a second before grabbing it and shaking it lightly.
“Rebecca Shaw.”
Rebecca.
He rolled the name around in his head, loving the way it sounded, how it made him feel, and had this proprietary sensation moving through him.
“So…” She looked at him, stopping what she was about to say. “If you want to come back to where I have been staying, maybe to rest or eat something, you can.” She licked her lips, glanced around again, and then looked at the ground. She was nervous, really fucking nervous.
He could hear it in her voice and see it in the way she held herself. It was the same reaction he’d seen on hundreds of people when they’d been around him and feared the situation.
She shrugged. “If you want, that is. I owe you my life.” She rubbed her hands over her dirty jeans and breathed out. “Thank you, by the way.” She looked at him with just her eyes, and Collin was struck by the vivid green color of them. “I figured if you wanted to hurt me, you could have done so already. But you saved me, and a little post-apocalyptic hospitality is the least I can show you.”
She was even more attractive up close, even though dirt covered her face. Her skin was this pale, luminescent shade, her eyebrows as dark as her hair, and he could tell by her slender-shaped face that underneath her bulky clothes she would be tiny.
Most likely starved, because in this day and age, there wasn’t enough food to keep someone a healthy weight, let alone overweight.
Before he could respond, she turned and started moving through the forest. He followed, keeping his ears open for any sound or movement from the infected or rogue humans like they encountered back in town. He scanned left and right, keeping his eyes trained on everything around them.
After about half an hour of hiking through the thick foliage of the woods, the trees parted, and a rundown and deserted warehouse came into view.
It was strange seeing this building out in the middle of nowhere, but the broken and hanging sign on its side said it once manufactured farm equipment. It made sense because of the small Colorado town they were currently in and the land that surrounded them.
The dirt ground gave way to cracked and uneven pavement. There was a large gap in the fence that surrounded the ten or so acres of property that the warehouse sat on. It wasn’t an overly large building, certainly nothing that would have been seen in New York, but for this town, it was probably very substantial.
“I stay up there.” She pointed to the highest level of the three-story building where a broken-out window was. She moved through the opening in the fence, and he followed closely behind. He didn’t see any infected on this side of the property, but he could hear their moaning and groaning echo off the pavement and the building.
She might think this place was safe, but it wasn’t, not with the amount of sound he heard and the access anyone had to the building. It wasn’t secure and certainly not safe. She might not know this yet, but he wasn’t just coming here to rest and eat. He was coming here to make her see she was his and that he’d be taking her away from this place.
They made their way into the building without coming in contact with any infected, but Collin knew that was just luck. He stopped at one of the windows that showed him the other side of the property, saw at least thirty infected walking around aimlessly, and cursed low.
“Are you coming?” she asked softly.
He turned away from the horde of infected corpses only separated from them by the dilapidated warehouse. He followed her toward the back of the building, around one corner, and stopped when she came to a halt.
There were a few pieces of machinery that were rusted and aged from time and the weather that came through the various holes in the ceiling. Collin watched as she moved over to the corner. It was darkened from the shadows, and when she started pulling a piece of machinery out from it, he moved forward.
“I got it,” she said without turning and facing him. The sound of the metal scraping against the concrete was loud, and he knew the infected would be able to hear it. But she stopped after a second and pulled out a ladder.
When Rebecca placed it against the wall, he looked up and saw there was a narrow loft above them. It was pretty well hidden because of the rafters crisscrossing in front of it and the thick layer of shadows blocking it from view.
There weren’t any holes in the ceiling right above it to shed light on it and reveal its location, and although he knew there was a small window somewhere up there from when she pointed it out to him, he couldn’t see any light.
After adjusting her backpack and tote over her shoulders, she started climbing the ladder then stopped and glanced at him over her shoulder. Collin had to admit he was damn impressed by her ingenuity and that she was smart enough to find this place to stay in.
He adjusted his own bags, nodded, and started after h
er, knowing this woman might very well give him a run for his money when it came to her stubbornness and strength. But she’d realize Collin never gave up, and he wanted her pretty fucking badly.
8
Rebecca pulled the ladder up and onto the loft once Collin cleared it. She moved it out of the way and stared at him. Although the loft was small, it was big enough to have been used as storage when this place was up and running.
There were a few bales of hay that had been up here when she first found it, and although she thought about tossing them because they stank from mold and dust, she kept them as a kind of wall for half the loft.
“You’ve been staying here long?” he asked and looked around.
“A couple weeks. It’s served its purpose, and even when a few of the infected managed to find their way in here, they couldn’t reach me and didn’t know where I was.”
He nodded, walked over to the small window, and looked outside. “It’s not safe here,” he said almost absently.
“It works for me. You’re free to go though.” She hated saying that, because even if it was stupid to have brought him here, shown him where she stayed, the simple fact was he saved her life. Sure, those men may not have killed her, at least not right off the bat, but they would have raped her to the point she would have gladly welcomed death.
He turned around and faced her. The ceiling was high and arched enough that they could both stand fully straight, but this man was immensely taller than she was, well over six feet. She was not tiny in any sense of the word, or she hadn’t been before the contamination hit.
Before all this had gone down, she had been full and thick, a healthy size sixteen even. At five-foot-seven she wasn’t short either, but with the lack of proper nutrition, she felt thin, almost frail. Now she was trying to keep a size twelve on her without them falling off.
But this man still looked so powerful and strong, like he took care of himself despite the lack of… everything in the world.
“It’s not safe here,” he stated again. She didn’t care what he thought. She found this place, lived here for the last couple weeks, and no one found her yet. It was safe, elevated, and she left when she needed things.
Rebecca was familiar with the area, and although she knew that maybe she couldn’t live here forever, because the town would only provide so many supplies, she was afraid to go anywhere else.
“Maybe not, but it’s worked for me so far, and what’s left for me out there?” she asked the genuine question, knowing that unless there was some kind of safe haven where people banded together, she had nowhere to go.
He didn’t respond right away. She watched as he picked up his backpack and sat down a few feet from her. He took out a small battery-operated lantern-style flashlight and turned it on. It was daylight, and although there was a good amount of light coming through the holes in the ceiling across from them and the small window behind Collin, it was still dark in the loft.
The glow from the lantern washed the small area in a yellow light. She stared at his face and noticed his dark hair was on the longer side, brushing the tops of his ear, with a disheveled look to it. Despite the fact that he clearly cut his own hair, it looked good on him. He didn’t look very old, maybe a decade or so older than her own twenty-seven years.
“You hungry?” His deep voice had her coming out of her thoughts. Rebecca nodded and turned to grab the tote she shoved a few bags of chips into. The bottle of water she snagged was next to come out, but when he made a noise, stopping her, she glanced up at him.
“We can eat some of my stash.” He took out a can of baked beans, a package of turkey jerky, and a small box of crackers. It wasn’t five-star dining, but it looked damn good to her.
She handed him the bottle of water, and the smile he gave her totally changed his hard exterior. She noticed it did seem kind of forced though, as if he wasn’t quite comfortable with the expression. This man was dangerous, and not because he had killed three people right in front of her with little to no effort.
He was dangerous in the way he looked at her and in the way he scanned his surroundings and took every little detail in. The air around him was charged with violence.
This man was used to this world, used to killing without even blinking, and knew how to survive on his own without fearing anything. Rebecca could tell that just by looking at him and by the way he moved, as if he were a wild animal stalking his prey.
They started eating in silence, and just when she was growing comfortable sitting here not saying anything, he spoke.
“This place isn’t safe for a permanent home, Rebecca.” He stared at her and then took a chunk out of his jerky. He pointed behind him at the window. “There are thirty-plus infected out there, and if they realize the sound you make every time you move that ladder is coming from in here, and that coming in here would be easy….” He paused in speaking, maybe for effect, but it had her straightening and thinking of what he just said.
She stared down at her lap, thinking about the times those few infected had come into the warehouse. She had stayed down, tried to be as quiet as possible, because even if they couldn’t see her, any kind of noise this close to them would have sent them into a frenzy.
After what seemed like forever, one of them finally wandered off. Rebecca had taken out the other one with her knife. Yes, she knew she needed to find a place that was safe and protected from not only the elements, but these sick assholes too.
Lifting her gaze back to his, she licked her lips, stared at this ruggedly handsome man who seemed to be able to read her as easily as if he had known her forever, and hated going down this road. She didn’t want to have to air her dirty laundry, didn’t want him thinking she was weak and couldn’t handle herself, because she had, since the world ended in fact. “Even after all this time, after everything… this is still the safest place for me.” She licked her lips, watched him hold his composure, and wondered what he thought.
Was it wrong that just looking at Collin had this warmth consuming her? She shouldn’t want him, shouldn’t want any man for that matter, but he saved her life, acted as though he cared about her safety, and up until this point hadn’t been anything but a gentleman. Well, as much as a gentleman as the end of the world allowed.
“You seem pretty young but have survived being out here alone all this time. What did you do before all this went down?” he asked her and took another bite out of his jerky. He was changing the subject; that was obvious. But Rebecca felt herself start to grow relieved and blew out a breath.
“Nothing that is of much use now.” She stared at him for a second before continuing, “I’m not really that young. I’m twenty-seven, turned it this past summer, although I couldn’t tell you what day.” She thought about how her birthday had come and gone, yet she had lost track of time and didn’t even know what day it was. “I was an accountant for a small laundry service.”
He still didn’t respond but nodded.
“I managed their books for the last three years, and then my boss was the first in the company to get the new flu vaccine. He had made it mandatory for all employees to receive it, but before I got my shot, the news was coming out with the symptoms, the concern, and then the outbreak.” She remembered that day it seemed the world had crashed in around them. “My boss started acting funny at first, like he had gotten the flu, as ironic as that is. But as time went on, he was acting more crazed, manic even.” She pictured that day, the one when she killed her boss. She zoned out as she remembered him coming after her in his office. “He was a pervert anyway, so even though he got infected, I couldn’t feel bad for him.” Gritting her teeth, she thought about all the times he hit on her, threatened to fire her if she reported him. “I could have slapped him with a sexual harassment suit so many times,” she said almost to herself. He had known she needed that job more than she needed anything else. “I was supporting my brother at the time.” She looked up at Collin again, coming back into the present. “It was just the two of
us after my dad passed away, and our mom ditched us when we were little.”
God, why was she telling him all this? It was like a dam had just been opened ,and all these things came from her without her being able to stop them.
“Go on, Rebecca.”
She stared at him and loved how he said her name so softly that it seemed to go against the way he held himself, the way he acted and reacted back at the store. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I don’t even know you.” She gave this awkward little laugh.
“Sometimes, we just need to get it out.” His voice was deep, coarse even, but his words made sense.
She nodded and continued. “I killed him—my boss, I mean.” Rebecca focused on the wall behind Collin. “I stabbed him right in the eye with his letter opener.” She closed her eyes, picturing that day when she heard about the infected turning into these crazed cannibals who attacked without thought.
They had been told to run from them, tell the authorities so they could handle it, and to not engage because of how dangerous they were. But others had been saying they were already dead, and damaging their brains would bring them down for good. So, Rebecca had taken out the asshole and not thought twice about it.
“I killed him, and when his blood covered me and his lifeless eyes stared up at me as he lay there bleeding out all over his cheap carpet, I felt… nothing.” She was still focused on the wall, thinking about that day, picturing the way it felt to stab him through the eye, to see the life drain from his rotting face. “He had already started decomposing,” she said, still picturing George’s face. “I think he had died in his office, and when I went in there to bring him a stack of reports, he had already changed into one of those infected assholes.” She stared at Collin, seeing how his eyes seemed hard as he watched her, and how he didn’t move a muscle.
“We have to do what we need to in order to survive,” he said slowly, confidently.