The Brightest Darkness

by Kate L. Mary

  “Regan!” Kellan’s panicked voice pulled me back to the present, and a second later the zombie was yanked off me, my knife still in its head. Then he had me in his arms, hugging me against him as he whispered in my ear, “It’s going be okay. You’re okay. Everything will be okay.”

  I wasn’t dumb. His hug was about more than comfort. He was trying to cover the bite, trying to prevent anyone else from seeing it.

  As he whispered in my ear, my focus began to return, and my brain registered how silent the night had become. There were no more moans, no more screams, and none of the normal sounds I usually associated with fighting off the dead. The battle had ended, and the zombies were gone, but now I was the one in danger.

  “Relax,” Kellan said, his lips pressed against my ear, tickling the lobe. He pulled back but kept his body curled around mine, covering my throbbing arm. “She’s okay. How is everyone else?”

  The night air was still thick with smoke. Whatever was burning inside the hangar hadn’t let up, and I gave a silent prayer of thanks for the camouflage. Maybe we could conceal the bite. Maybe Kellan would be able to use his charming personality to distract everyone, and we could keep it a secret.

  “She’s not bitten or scratched?” someone asked.

  “No.” Kellan gave me a squeeze, indicating I should speak up.

  “I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. “It was a close one, but I’m okay.”

  Bill stood in front of us, and I couldn’t comprehend the expression in his eyes. It was different, and it looked out of place on him. It was colder. Harder. Terrifying.

  He pulled his gun and pointed it at me. “She’s been bitten.”

  “No.” Kellan shifted again, putting his body in front of me like a human shield. “She hasn’t.”

  “Bullshit. I saw it happen.”

  Bill took a menacing step forward, and another man moved to his side and lifted his gun. He was shorter and squat, in his forties, and wore glasses that had been taped together, but the threat in his eyes was as ominous as the expression on Bill’s face.

  Silence fell over the group. My heart was pounding, and the promise I’d made to Jasper a year ago rang in my ears even as I registered the fact that I was going to have to break it if I wanted to get out of this. There was no other option. This was it. We’d kept it a secret as long as we could.

  “She’s not,” Kellan said, lifting his arms, his torso blocking me from view.

  “Step away from her or I’ll shoot you both,” the man at Bill’s side said, and his cold tone made it clear he wouldn’t hesitate.

  “Calm down, Ernie,” the leader said. “Let us get a look at it first. Make sure.”

  Kellan shifted so he was blocking me more. “Bill, you don’t—” he began, but I cut him off.

  “Stop.”

  I moved to stand, but he stopped me, turning to face me again, his hands on my arms. “Regan.”

  Kellan’s brown eyes pleaded with me, but more than that, there was fear in their depths, and I knew where it stemmed from. Andrew. He was still thinking about Andrew and what might happen if my secret got out.

  But there was nothing we could do to stop it now.

  “There’s no other option, and you know it.”

  This time when I moved to untangle myself from his grasp, he let me. My arm throbbed, but seeing the damage was worse than the pain. People gasped and stepped back like I was contagious, even Bill—his expression now one of regret even as he kept his gun aimed at my head—while Ernie moved his finger to the trigger. He would fire, and I knew it. I had to tell the truth.

  “It’s okay.” I swallowed, preparing myself to reveal the secret I’d kept for more than a year. “I was bitten, but it’s okay. I’m immune.” Gasps and murmurs rippled through the group, but I kept my focus on Bill and Ernie, knowing they were the people I had to convince. “This isn’t my first bite.”

  “Bullshit,” Ernie said.

  Next to him, Bill blinked like he wasn’t sure what to believe and looked past me to Cade. “Is this true?”

  Cade’s mouth was hanging open, and the conflicting emotions swirling through him were as clear as day. He didn’t think it was true, but he also didn’t want to say what he was thinking when the consequences could be disastrous.

  “He doesn’t know,” I said, drawing Bill’s attention back to me. “Only Kellan knows.” I gave Cade an apologetic look. “And Jasper. He made me promise not to tell.”

  “What?” Cade shook his head like he didn’t understand. “Jasper made you promise?”

  I nodded as I took a deep breath, ready to bare the secret I’d hoped to never tell another living soul. “I’m going to show you the scar, okay?” I lifted my hands to let Bill know I wasn’t a threat, waiting until he nodded, and then knelt so I could remove my boot and sock, talking as I did. “It was about a year ago. Kellan and I went out fishing, and while we were there, a horde surprised us. A zombie bit me before Kellan could come to my rescue. Afterward, we managed to make it to a farmhouse.” I glanced back at Cade as I slipped my boot off and saw him nodding as he remembered the day I was referring to. “I told Kellan to kill me, but he wouldn’t. He said we had to wait. I guess I would have said the same thing if the situation had been reversed, but at the time, I didn’t dream I could be immune. What are the odds, right?” I dropped my boot and used Kellan as support so I could pull my sock off. “Anyway, nothing happened. When Jasper came to get us and found out, he made me promise I’d never tell anyone.” Once again, I looked at Cade. “Not even you guys.”

  Bill had moved forward so he could get a look at my ankle, but Ernie didn’t take a step. He still had his gun aimed at my head, but Bill had lowered his a little, and the expression on his face told me he wanted it to be true. It helped me relax. This man didn’t want to kill me. It wasn’t in him to murder someone in cold blood.

  “I’ll be damned,” Bill said when he saw the scar.

  “It’s true?” one of his people called out.

  “It’s true.” He lowered his gun the rest of the way. “Put your gun down, Ernie, it’s okay.”

  The other man stared at the bite for a few seconds longer before finally lowering his gun, and Kellan let out a sigh of relief.

  Like Kellan, the group seemed to let out a collective exhale, as if they had all been holding their breath. The tension eased, and my heart rate slowed. Anyone else might have shot me right away instead of waiting for an explanation, and it was a testament to how good these people were.

  Having decided I wasn’t a threat, Bill switched gears fast, shoving his gun in the holster on his hip and turning to face the hangar. Black smoke still billowed out, thick and noxious, and it was clear to everyone around that whatever was burning wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. We weren’t going to be able to go back inside right now. Maybe never.

  Bill’s gaze moved from the hangar to his people, crowded together on the weed-choked pavement, and almost to himself, he muttered, “We need to find cover.”

  At his side, Ernie pushed his glasses back with his middle finger and nodded. “We get hit by another horde now and we’re going to be in trouble.”

  I sat down next to Kellan so I could put my sock and boot back on and gave him a knowing look. “You know we have space, and you know we can trust these people.”

  He nodded thoughtfully, his gaze moving past me to Cade, who had come over to join us. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  When I looked up, Cade was nodding in agreement, and when Kellan got to his feet, I found myself absorbing the fact that we were about to go from six to twenty-eight. A smile broke out of me at the realization.

  Kellan joined Bill and Ernie, and in a quiet voice began telling them about our shelter.

  While they talked, Cade moved to my side, kneeling so we were at eye level.

  “You’re immune?” He lifted his eyebrows questioningly.

  I swallowed, once again finding it hard to voice the secret I’d guarded so carefully. “I am.
”

  “Emma is going to be…” He trailed off.

  “Hurt,” I murmured.

  “Yeah.” Cade let out a deep breath and shook his head like he didn’t understand what was happening.

  I gave him an apologetic smile. “At the time, I didn’t understand why Jasper wanted me to keep it quiet, but I think I know now. He didn’t want you guys to ever find yourselves in a position where you had to betray me. I think he understood a lot more about human nature than most of us, and even if he didn’t see this exact scenario playing out, he suspected that one day the new government might start searching for people like me.”

  “Yeah. That makes sense.” Cade nodded in understanding. “Jasper always did know best.”

  “He did, didn’t he?” Tears filled my eyes as I thought about the man I’d leaned on over the last nine years, and I had to blink them away. “I don’t know what we’re going to do without him.”

  Cade smiled and lifted his eyes to where Kellan stood talking to Bill and Ernie. “I think we’re going to have quite a few distractions.”

  “More than a few,” I said with a tear-choked laugh.

  It was the middle of the night, and Bill’s group was huddled together in front of the old hangar, dispersed among the weeds that had forced themselves up through the cracks and grooves. Many of them were still coughing. All of them were covered in soot from the fire, their arms and legs streaked in black, their faces coated in the stuff. Tears had made trails through the black on quite a few cheeks, either caused by watering eyes or the emotional night, and nearly everyone’s eyes were red and irritated.

  My own eyes burned, as did my throat, and my mouth tasted like I’d sucked on a piece of charcoal. On top of that, my skin was gritty both from the fire and sweat, and I couldn’t wait to get home and take a shower. More than that, though, I couldn’t wait to share what we had with these people. The hangar had been a nice place and was more than a lot of people had these days, but it was nothing compared to the shelter we called home. Luxury was a word no one but us used anymore, and it was about time we shared our good fortune.

  Bill was nodding as he turned toward his group, and the expression in his eyes reminded me of a father. That was what he was to most of these people, I realized. He’d saved them, kept them safe, and now everything had been ripped away, and all he wanted to do was take care of them.

  At his side, Kellan and Ernie stood in silence, but it was the smaller man I focused on. He and Bill had both pulled guns on me, but there was something about Ernie’s reaction that bothered me. Still, he’d been trying to protect his people, trying to keep them safe, and I got that. A zombie bite was a scary thing, and it was normal to overreact. Hadn’t I begged Kellan to shoot me the first time I was bitten? Wasn’t it normal to assume there was no coming back from a bite?

  “Listen up.” Bill raised his voice so it echoed across the smoky night. “We can’t stay here, and odds are we won’t be able to come back for a long time. Maybe never.” Around me, people sniffed and a few even began to cry, and Bill held his hands up as if trying to reassure everyone. “Kellan and his people have graciously offered to give us shelter.”

  All eyes turned to Kellan, and he cleared his throat. “It’s a drive, but we have enough space for everyone.”

  I waited to find out if he would tell them more, but he didn’t. I wasn’t sure if he’d even filled Bill and Ernie in completely, but even if he tried telling everyone gathered here about our shelter, they wouldn’t be able to grasp it completely until they saw it with their own eyes.

  “Okay.” To my surprise, Ernie was the one who called out to the group. “It’s late, and everyone is beat. The sooner we get loaded up, the sooner we can get somewhere safe.”

  All around us, people started pulling themselves to their feet. I was already up, but when Kellan moved to my side, his focus on the throbbing bite, I didn’t move. He studied it, his expression dark and intense, but I couldn’t look at it. The ache was bad enough without studying the damage.

  “It’s going to be a lot more difficult to hide this scar than the one on your ankle,” he said.

  “Yeah,” was the only response I could manage.

  “We’ll have to clean it when we get back.”

  He used his knife to cut a sliver of fabric from the bottom of his shirt, which he then twisted around my arm. The contact with the open wound stung, and I let out a low hiss of pain.

  “Sorry,” he said, giving me an apologetic smile as he tied it tight. “This will have to do for now.”

  I grunted, but he didn’t apologize again.

  When he’d finished, he pulled me against him, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m glad you’re okay. When I saw that zombie on you…” He held me tighter. “It was like that day all over again.”

  “I’m fine,” I said even as the painful memory throbbed through me, twice as intense as the aching bite on my arm.

  “Remember,” Kellan whispered in my ear, “if something ever happened to you, it would kill me.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me,” I assured him.

  12

  The group had a total of three vehicles, and in case we ran into trouble, we decided it was best if Cade, Kellan, and I each rode in a different car. There was a beat-up old minivan with sheets of metal welded to the sides like something ripped right out of Mad Max—we had the movie in the shelter, and I couldn’t help feeling like it was a comedy now that we lived in an actual apocalypse—that we were able to squeeze eight people into. A sedan with a faded, black paint job and more metal sheets attached to the sides sat five people, and then there was Bill’s truck, which was where I ended up. The cab only sat three, but there was enough room in the back for the remaining five survivors and the few supplies we’d been able to grab on our way out of the hangar.

  Loading up took no time at all, and once everyone had gotten settled in, the sedan—where Kellan sat shotgun—took off, leading the way.

  Bill’s truck took up the rear, while the van carrying the kids and Lilith drove in the middle. In the bed of the truck, Bill’s people had armed themselves, and as we left the Air Force base and headed through Altus, they stayed on their feet, ready in case we ran into trouble—living or otherwise. The night was dark, but the moon high and bright. Lights were visible to the south, in the direction of the downtown settlement, but beyond that was only blackness upon blackness.

  It was nearly an hour drive to the shelter from Altus. We’d filled Bill and Ernie in on everything we’d been through with Andrew and what we might face once we reached home, and everyone was ready, in case. I wasn’t sure if Andrew would be there waiting for us, though. Part of me thought there was no chance in hell—how many times could you lose something and still want it back—but another part of me felt sure he wasn’t going to give up until he’d gotten revenge for his injured pride.

  The sedan pulled over when we were still a good mile from the shelter, signaling to the van it was time to hang back. Cade was behind the wheel while Ernie sat in the passenger seat, gun loaded and ready. The car started driving again, and Bill followed, nodding to Ernie as we drove by, who dipped his head in return. Once we knew for sure the coast was clear, someone in the sedan would radio back and let them know.

  The closer we got to the shelter, the more my stomach clenched. I leaned forward, hoping to get a better look even though everything was pitch black. We had no lights on the surface—it would have attracted too much attention—but we did have solar panels, and the light from the moon glinting off them was the first thing I noticed when the shelter finally came into view.

  I blinked, trying to get my eyes to focus, and then did it again to be sure what I was seeing was really there. Or not there. The fence stood as it always did, the gate closed tight and the chain in place, and beyond it a few mounds of fur told me the goats were sleeping for the night, while the small cement building sat waiting for us, untouched. Unchanged. As small and insignificant looking as usual.

>   “No one’s here,” I said, the words coming out like a sigh of relief.

  “That’s good.” Bill was nodding, but his hands still clenched the steering wheel.

  Beside me sat his wife, Jessica, who gave my knee a motherly pat that made me like her more than I already did. “We’re all going to be okay now.”

  The sedan slowed to a stop in front of us, and Kellan jumped out. Even though no one was in sight, my heart still pounded like a drum in my chest as he worked to get the lock open and chain undone. It took less than a minute, and then he was pushing the gate open and waving for the car to drive through, and when it did, Bill followed. I turned to look out the window, craning my neck to see through the legs of Bill’s people standing in the back, and after only a few seconds, I was rewarded by the sight of the van’s headlights.

  By the time I turned back around, the sedan had parked next to our beat-up old car, and Bill pulled the truck up beside it. By the time Jessica shoved her door open, people were already jumping from the back of the truck and climbing from the car, and the van had pulled to a stop just as I was climbing from the car.

  “Doesn’t look like much,” twenty-one-year-old James said doubtfully as he scanned the small fenced-in area.

  Kellan jogged up, heading for me instead of the door. “You’ll change your tune when you get underground.”

  Ernie, who had just climbed out of the van, gave him a cynical look, but said nothing.

  No one else spoke as the group unloaded the few belongings they’d managed to scavenge from the hangar. The hope was that they’d be able to go back in a day or two and find more supplies and personal items untouched by the fire, but with the way the smoke had been rolling out when we left, it didn’t seem likely.

  Kellan moved to the shelter door, my hand gripped in his. Everyone was out of the vehicles now, but Cade and Harper practically had to herd them toward the building. They were scared. Unsure. We were little more than strangers and we’d dragged them into the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t a surprise that no one had put away their weapons, and I said nothing about it, trusting that our instincts about these people were right and knowing they’d relax as soon as we were underground and they saw we weren’t full of shit.