The Brightest Darkness

by Kate L. Mary

  “No one,” I said, not lowering my gun. Not taking my eyes off the room in front of me. “Go for Harper.”

  Cade moved without a word, and I watched his progress from the corner of my eye as he headed for the back room where they’d kept Kellan. I held my breath, praying they hadn’t changed things up, or worse, that a group had driven off in the missing vehicles, taking Harper with them.

  The second Cade had the door open, the girl stumbled out, and I finally lowered my gun, letting out a sigh of relief as I did.

  5

  Harper threw herself into Cade’s arms, her shoulders shaking from her sobs. “I didn’t know if you would come. I didn’t know if you would come,” she said over and over, her words barely discernable thanks to her quivering voice.

  Cade tried to comfort the girl, making shushing sounds and patting her back, but she didn’t let up.

  “We’re here.” I shoved my gun into the waistband of my pants as I crossed the room to them, freeing up my hands. “We couldn’t leave you. We wouldn’t.”

  Harper, still clinging to Cade, turned her big, blue eyes on me. “You promised you wouldn’t turn me over to Andrew before, but you did.” Her voice sounded impossibly musical considering the way her bottom lip was trembling. “You did.”

  “I’m sorry.” The words were useless compared to what had happened, but I needed to say them, needed her to understand that we’d had no real choice in the matter, not if we’d wanted to hold onto our sanity. “We didn’t want to do it. We didn’t. Andrew—”

  Too bad explanations were impossible at the moment. The memory of how Andrew had gotten his way came barreling back, threatening to crush me with its magnitude, and I found it impossible to talk. Even swallowing didn’t help, and I lapsed into silence under the weight of what had happened and the accusations in Harper’s eyes.

  “We’re here now.” Cade finally managed to pry himself from her grasp. “And we’re going to make sure you get out of here and never have to come back.”

  Harper swiped the back of her hand across her cheeks, wiping the tears away. “I heard gunshots. Did you kill them?”

  “A couple,” I said, “but not all of them.”

  Cade started walking, pulling Harper with him. “Which means we need to move.”

  He released her when he reached the front of the chapel, shoving her behind him as he pushed the first set of doors open a crack, allowing him the opportunity to peer into the small foyer. Somehow, I found my arm around Harper, and when her small body trembled, I pulled her closer.

  She was only a child, seventeen, and even though I wasn’t much older, I felt like we’d been born in different worlds. Yes, our apocalyptic families had worked hard to protect both of us, but mine had at least taught me how to shoot and allowed me to go out from time to time. Harper’s group, on the other hand, had sheltered her, and it made her seem like a child still, and more innocent than anyone had a right to be these days.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered, keeping my voice low while I followed Cade into the foyer.

  Harper tugged on her blonde braid—which was messier than usual—as she turned her big eyes on me. “I will be if we can get out of here.”

  “We will.”

  I gave her a reassuring squeeze as Cade pushed the front door open a little. Damp air rushed in, as well as the roar of the rain pounding against the ground, blocking out any other sound and making it impossible to know if Andrew was still in the parking lot, still sitting in the idling car.

  After only a second, Cade turned back to face us. “Looks the same. Kellan is keeping an eye on the parking lot, and Andrew still hasn’t moved.”

  “Andrew?” Harper squeaked out.

  “He’s in a car.” I gave her another reassuring squeeze. “He made a run for it when we opened fire, but he didn’t drive away. We’re not sure what he’s doing.”

  Her already large eyes seemed to double in size. “We’re going out there even though Andrew is waiting?”

  “It might be our only chance to get away,” Cade said.

  He didn’t wait for us to respond before shoving the door open and stepping out, motioning for us to follow.

  The rain was coming down harder than before when I dragged Harper from the building, and we were soaked in seconds. It seemed darker than it had when we went in, too, like it was the middle of night even though it was still early evening, and the air was warm despite the heavy rain. Cade led the way through the storm, with me following, pulling on Harper to get her moving, my attention alternating between Kellan and Andrew. In one hand I held my gun while I clutched Harper’s wrist with the other, urging her forward, but she was dragging her feet, hesitant and still crying.

  The car’s engine was still running, but it was impossible to see through the windshield with the rain this heavy. He was there, though, of that I was sure, except I couldn’t figure out what he was waiting for.

  Kellan was still crouched behind the crumbling wall, his focus on Andrew. The storm had drenched him, and every few seconds he reached up and pushed his soaked hair back or ran his hand over his face to wipe the water away. Nothing worked, though, not with how thick it was coming down.

  Not that I was doing any better. I’d pulled my hair into a ponytail before leaving the shelter, but tendrils had broken free during our hike and now hung in my face, dripping and tickling my skin. Cade, too, seemed to be struggling because of the rain, and more than once he had to reach up and shield his eyes like he thought it might help him to see through the deluge.

  We were only halfway to Kellan when Harper’s feet slid through the mud. Somehow, against all odds, I managed to let go of her wrist as she fell, avoiding being taken down with her. She let out a cry of pain when she hit the ground, but through the darkness and rain, I couldn’t tell if she was hurt.

  I crouched beside her, pushing more wet hair out of my face. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She was holding her knee, clinging to it like a child who’d skinned it falling off a bike, and at that moment, staring up at me as water slid down her face, that was how she looked. Like a frightened child.

  I had to protect her.

  Harper didn’t try to get up, and she was still clinging to her knee, so I pushed her hand away, hoping to get a look at the injury. Her pants were ripped, but it was impossible to know if they’d been that way before she fell—holey knees were all too common these days—and through the tattered remains of the fabric, all I could see was mud. No cut and no blood.

  “Regan!” Kellan grabbed my arm before I could inspect Harper’s knee further. “We need to go. Now!”

  He was trying to pull me to my feet, but Harper was still down, still staring at me with wide, child-like eyes. Kellan tugged again, and I looked over my shoulder to find Cade standing behind him, his blond hair plastered to his head by the rain and his rifle aimed at the parking lot.

  That was when I noticed the headlights in the distance.

  Andrew’s men were coming back.

  “Move!” I screamed at Harper.

  This time when I pulled on her arm, she stood, and even though she was limping, she moved when I tugged harder.

  Cade was already heading back the way we’d come, his focus half on the parking lot as he ran, his gun still aimed in that direction. Kellan had waited for me, and the second both Harper and I were on our feet, he reached for my hand. Only, it was the one I was holding my gun in, and we were moving too fast, too panicked and desperate to get away, and somehow as Kellan’s hand hit mine, he knocked my gun from my grasp. It fell to the ground, right into a huge mud puddle, where it disappeared from sight.

  “Shit!” I shoved Harper in front of me before dropping to my knees. “Keep going. Run!”

  She did, limping after Cade, but Kellan stopped. “Leave it, Regan. We have to go.”

  I ignored him and ran my hands through the muck, searching for my weapon, the muddy water squishing between my fingers but turning up nothing
.

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  The screech of tires drew my attention to the parking lot. A second later Andrew threw the driver’s side door open and stepped out. He was on the other side of the car, but his gun was up when he rounded it, and Kellan threw himself over me just as a gunshot rang through the air.

  We hit the ground in a heap of limbs, and my head slammed into the ground. Thankfully, it was soft from the rain, and the impact only left a minor throbbing behind.

  Kellan rolled off me, his gaze flicking over me from head to toe. “You’re okay?”

  “Yes,” I said. “You?”

  “Yeah.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Run! Don’t look back.”

  We took off through the rain, our feet splashing through puddles while my heart pounded and my head throbbed, and even though Kellan told me not to look back, I couldn’t help it. I glanced over my shoulder to find zombies stumbling from the back of the truck, heading our way.

  They would be fresh.

  We knew that from Andrew’s plan. He and his men raided camps and released zombies but made sure no one died from the attack. Then they waited to see who turned and who was immune. They loaded whoever turned into the truck and kept them locked up until the next camp, where the whole thing started over again. They’d killed dozens of people in the area, and who knew where else they’d been before coming to Oklahoma.

  There was something evil living in Andrew. I’d seen it in his eyes, reflecting back at me like a spotlight. It was the brightest darkness I’d ever seen, bright enough to snuff every one of us out if we let him get hold of us, something I had no intention of doing.

  Kellan and I made it behind the chapel and started climbing. Cade and Harper were already on their way up, pulling themselves over slick boulders, holding onto one another for support, while the rain pounded down on them. It seemed like an impossible task in the downpour. The rocks were smooth, making it easy to slip when they were dry, but now they were soaked. By the time we made it to the top we’d all be covered in bruises, assuming none of us fell and broke something.

  Kellan pulled himself up before turning to give me a hand. We did this to varying degrees as we climbed, our feet slipping, our shins banging against stone, our fingers desperately seeking purchase on smooth surfaces that had none.

  When we were halfway up, I snuck a look behind me. The zombies had reached the mountain and were still trying to get us, but they were uncoordinated, and even during ideal conditions, climbing boulders like these wasn’t an easy thing for them to do. Now, though, it was downright impossible.

  “They can’t get to us,” I said.

  Kellan tugged on my arm, urging me to keep moving. “But Andrew can.”

  I allowed him to pull me forward, part of my focus still on what was happening behind me. It would have made sense for Andrew’s men to come after us, but it didn’t seem like they were. Why? And why weren’t they shooting? It couldn’t be because of Harper. He wanted to take her back to Atlanta, but that shouldn’t have stopped him from trying to kill the rest of us. Except he’d only taken one shot.

  Something else was going on.

  I didn’t know what, but I wasn’t going to wait around to find out.

  We made it up two more boulders before Kellan’s feet slipped. He reached out and somehow managed to catch himself on the smooth surface of the boulder, stopping himself from falling, but in the process his rifle slipped from his shoulder. I watched through the pouring rain as it tumbled down, banging against rocks before finally stopping only an arm’s length from the zombies.

  “Shit,” Kellan muttered before grabbing my hand and pulling me. “We have to go. We’ll be okay without it.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure himself or me.

  Working together, we finally made it to the top of the mountain where Cade and Harper sat waiting, catching their breath while the rain pounded down on them. I knelt at the teenager’s side, taking the opportunity to examine her knee. The rain had washed most of the mud away, revealing a small gash. Thankfully, it didn’t look bad.

  “We’ll clean it when we get home,” I called.

  Kellan crouched at my side, keeping his body low while he stared back down the mountain, and I followed his gaze. The zombies were stumbling away from us, heading back to the truck, lured there by Andrew and his men.

  “He’s collecting them,” Kellan said, “putting them back in the truck.”

  “Why didn’t he try to shoot us?”

  Kellan shook his head, and while the expression on his face told me it bothered him as much as it bothered me, he said nothing.

  After a few minutes, he got to his feet. “We should keep moving. The hike was bad enough when it wasn’t raining. Now it’s going to take twice as long.”

  He was right. From here we had to climb down, and while the slick rocks made it easier in a way—we could slide down one boulder onto another—it also made the journey more treacherous. One wrong step and you risked falling, possibly landing wrong and breaking something. Not to mention the fact that watching out for things like rattlesnakes would be more difficult.

  Cade stood and slung his rifle over his shoulder before offering Harper a hand, who took it while Kellan helped me up.

  When we were all on our feet, Cade looked us over and frowned, his focus on Kellan. “What happened to your gun?”

  Kellan shook his head, his wet hair flopping into his face, which he shoved aside. “Lost it when we fell.”

  Mine was gone too, meaning Cade was the only one armed with anything other than a knife. Not good odds if we ran into a big horde.

  “We’re going to have to be careful,” I said, not caring that I was stating the obvious.

  Kellan and Cade only nodded in response.

  The rain hadn’t eased, and I felt like I was breathing it in. I ran my hand over my head, pushing my wet hair out of my face so I could see better, but it was no use. With the downpour, visibility beyond a few feet was nearly impossible.

  “Take it slow!” Kellan called as he lowered his body and slid down the first rock, making it look easy.

  Cade copied him, and then Harper and me. We repeated the process as we slipped our way down the mountain. The rocks alternated between slick and gritty with dirt, but the muddy earth covering them did nothing to provide traction. If anything, it made finding solid footing even more difficult.

  We were halfway down when my boot slid forward. Kellan turned when I let out a cry, but by the time he reached for me it was too late. I rolled more than fell, banging my arms and legs against the stones jutting out of the mountain, trying to grab hold of something but failing. It wasn’t until my leg made it into a crevice that I was able to stop myself. Thankfully. If my body had kept rolling the way it was, I could have broken my leg. As it was, both elbows and knees throbbed, and my shin ached like someone had kicked me with steel toe boots. My ribs ached a little, too, but it wasn’t bad enough that I thought anything had gotten broken.

  “Regan!” Kellan slid down a rock, landed on his feet, and crawled the rest of the way until he was at my side.

  “I’m okay.” I pulled my leg from the crevice where it was wedged and twisted my body so I was sitting on the boulder my shin had slammed into.

  “Let me look you over.” He ran his hands over my legs like it would somehow help him see my bones.

  “I said I’m okay.” I lifted my right arm and inspected my elbow. It was bleeding, but the cut was small. “Just bumps and bruises. I’ve had worse.”

  Kellan looked like he didn’t believe me.

  “I’m serious.”

  I stood, groaning out loud as Cade hopped down. He made it look easy. Effortless, even. At least I’d almost rolled my way to the bottom of the mountain. Of course, we were going to have to climb down a second one before we reached the truck. My muscles and aching limbs throbbed just thinking about it.

  6

  We reached our destination without hitting any
other bumps and found the truck sitting right where we’d left it. The interior was soaked due to the missing windshield, but when I slid into the passenger seat next to Kellan—after fighting off another attack from the surrounding weeds—I found I didn’t mind sitting in a puddle or having the raindrops pelt me in the face. Not after a couple hours on my feet, and not when my body still throbbed from my fall.

  In the back, Cade pulled the door shut and said, “We made it.”

  Kellan grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze while I looked over my shoulder. Harper’s hair was flat against her head, accentuating her big eyes and full lips, and next to her, Cade looked like he’d almost drowned, but he was right. We’d made it out of there and with little resistance.

  Which still bothered me. Why hadn’t Andrew shot at us more than once? It made no sense after everything else he’d done, and I couldn’t help wondering—

  Shit. What if he was hoping to beat us back to the shelter?

  Maybe that was why he and his men hadn’t opened fire. They knew where we lived, and their vehicles had been right in front of them while we’d had to hike for more than an hour through a torrential downpour to reach ours. Meaning he might already be at the shelter.

  “I can’t wait to get home and take a shower,” Cade said just as that thought went through my head.

  “We can’t go back.”

  Everyone, even Kellan, looked at me like I was a stranger who’d somehow managed to join up with them on the hike back and they hadn’t noticed until this moment.

  “Why?” Kellan asked.

  I was oddly exasperated at having to explain myself, as if they should’ve been able to read my mind or draw the same conclusions I had. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange that Andrew didn’t try to kill us?”

  “Did you miss the gunshots?” Cade said.