by M. D. Massey
“Okay.” They stared at one another, love in their eyes. Henry grabbed her hands. I couldn’t help but feel a small spark of jealousy when I saw the way they looked at each other.
“Listen, I just want to say thank you for everything you have done for us…for me. I promise we’ll find your kids soon and get them away from that fucker.” Sophie’s eyes filled with tears. “Take care of yourself. I know you’ve got this.” She nodded. Henry pulled her close and hugged her.
“Thank you.” She smiled.
“Oh, grab my iPod off the counter. I have the car charger in my truck already. It would be nice to ride with some music.”
“Can do.” She kissed him on the cheek.
A little more than a flicker of jealous rage ran through my body, but I tried to remind myself of her words to me. He loves you so much, Elaina. Do not take him for granted. He never loved me the way he does you. They had a tight bond because of their history together, not because they were once lovers.
I tapped Henry on the shoulder, as if we were at a dance. “May I cut in?” He turned around and smiled. Sophie’s smile vanished. “Um… Shit.” I wrapped my arms around her, surprising her. We hugged for a minute, then I pulled away. “As we have already established numerous times, we started off on the wrong foot. So, um… I just want to say thank you.”
She gave me that grin that I hated so much at one time. “That means a lot to me.” She leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Take good care of him.”
“I will. I promise.” We pulled away from one another. I turned around, seeing Henry with a huge grin. He was thrilled I had finally accepted Sophie. I walked past him and went to Thomas, who had been quietly watching everything around him.
“Thomas, you scrawny little pissant.” I winked at him. He smiled and looked down. “Take care of yourself. I’m glad we met. The circumstances were a little on the shady side, but you saved Henry when you shot that fucker. For me, that made up for holding Henry hostage.”
Thomas smiled. “Thank you,” he whispered. I gave the boney little twerp a hug.
I walked over to Claire, getting a lump in my throat. I would be devastated if anything happened to her. She was like the sister I never had. She grabbed me and we hugged, both weeping uncontrollably. Then we looked at each other and laughed.
“Don’t worry. We’ll be back before you know it.”
“I hope so. I love you, Claire.”
“I love you, too.” She gave me another quick hug, then they all headed to the truck.
“I’m going to walk them out.” Nick ran out after them. He went to the passenger side and opened the door for Claire. They spoke for a few minutes, then embraced. He kissed her on the cheek and helped her in, closing the door. Sophie started the truck, and they drove off.
When Nick came back to the porch, I met him at the top of the stairs, my hands on my hips. “What?” he said, an innocent smile on his face.
“Unbelievable.”
“What?”
“You!”
“What did I do?” He had a ridiculous smirk on his face.
“You have the hots for Claire, don’t you?”
He brushed past me and into the house. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Nicholis Cooper! You better tell me what’s going on!”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He plucked a book off our dad’s bookshelf, sat on the couch, and flipped through it.
“Nick! You two had sex, didn’t you?”
“Shh, baby sis. I’m reading.” He smiled and chuckled.
“Ugh!”
I stomped through the kitchen, finding Henry standing in front of the fireplace, looking at our family pictures. I lingered in the doorway between the kitchen and the family room, enjoying the view of the beautiful man in front of me. When he realized I was there, he said, “You had a beautiful family, Elaina.”
“Yes, I did.”
“It pains me, knowing what has happened to them.”
“Me, too.”
“I hope we can have a family someday.”
I smiled. “That would be amazing. I think you would make a fantastic father.”
“Really?”
I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Yes. But we need to talk about this a bit more.”
He frowned. “Right.” He turned around, sounding disappointed.
“We can’t have a baby any time soon.” I tried to keep my voice down so Nick didn’t hear our conversation.
“I agree.”
“So we’ll have to be careful.”
“Ahh, yes. That.” Realizing where the conversation was going, he said, “Right. Of course.”
“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page.” I nestled my nose into his neck. Even his funk smelled good to me. He kissed the side of my neck and moved up to my ear, licking and nipping. My nerves danced all over my body. I touched and caressed his cool, battered body. Then I pulled away.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“We can’t.” He looked annoyed. “Did you forget the conversation we just had a few moments ago?”
“Hmm…yes. I must have some sort of short-term memory loss. Too many concussions, you know.” I rolled my eyes as he winked.
“Plus, I have questions.”
“About?”
“You, and what you are.”
“All right.” He guided me over to the sofa. “Ask away.”
“Sophie’s kids… They aren’t like you?”
“I don’t know exactly. I can’t imagine he would have lied about that.”
“If you’re infected, wouldn’t you infect me?”
“Like I said before, there has to be a blood/saliva mix in order to contaminate you.”
“So the injection that they forced into you was made with saliva?”
“A small amount of the virus was mixed with saliva, then injected into my blood stream.”
“So the full-blown injection was made with saliva, as well?” I was disgusted.
“Yes, but it was highly concentrated.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek for a second. “Right.” I paused again. “I’m just worried, you know, if I get pregnant…”
“I’m sorry. I wish I knew how it all worked, but that was never explained to me. But, like I said, that fluid is clean.” He looked at me in a bit of a sinister sort of way. Then he wiggled his eyebrows up and down. He sighed when he realized it wasn’t working.
“Is it safe to assume Roger is not infected?”
“Correct. He would never allow it. We were his guinea pigs for this virus.” He tucked my hair behind my ears, smiling. “You do know that, no matter what, I will love you always.”
“Even if I kick you in the tomatoes?”
“Hmm… That might be the deal breaker.” We laughed a little, holding one another, leaning back on the sofa.
“How did I manage life before all of this craziness?”
“That’s simple, my love…” He tapped me gently on the nose with his index finger. “You’re mental, but everybody else is now, too, so no one notices it as much.”
“Henry!” I punched him in the shoulder. He jerked away and hissed. I had forgotten about his ribs. “Oh no! I’m so sorry!”
“No biggie. Just a bit of pain. Nothing I’m not used to,” he grumbled.
Chapter 26
Sophie pulled out of the driveway as Claire stared out the window at Nick waving goodbye. “Looks like Nick has a new crush.” Claire turned to Sophie, her glare so icy, it could have cooled a volcano.
“That’s none of your concern.” She wasn’t ready to give up any information about her and Nick yet.
“Right.” Sophie chuckled as she turned onto the main road, suddenly noticing something interesting. “Well, would you look at that?” She seemed excited, grinning and pointing off to the right. Thomas and Claire followed her direction and saw a black Tahoe, identical to hers and Henry’s, parked at the takeout window of a fast food restaurant.
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“Is that—” Thomas started to speak, but Sophie interrupted.
“Yes, yes, I do believe that is…was Kellan’s truck. Let’s go investigate, shall we?” She pulled up beside it.
“Why wouldn’t he bring it to the house?”
“I have two suspicions. Number one, he was trying to lay low. Or number two, he ran out of gas.” Sophie opened her door. “Let’s be aware, please.” She hopped out, Thomas and Claire following. Sophie tried the handle, but it was locked. Claire looked in the back window.
“There’s a trunk back here!” Claire yanked on the handle, hoping they would find everything they needed in Kellan’s trunk so they could get back to the house sooner rather than later. It took her a couple seconds to realize the door was locked.
Sophie and Thomas came around to the back. Claire looked for a rock or something to break the window. When she heard glass breaking, she turned around. Sophie pounded out the driver’s side window with the butt of her Sig. She reached in and unlocked the truck, Thomas pulling open the liftgate.
“How are you gonna open this? You don’t have the code, do you?” Thomas asked.
“There is an override keypad underneath. Tip it back.” When he did, Sophie pushed a series of buttons. “I’m not supposed to know this. I discovered the code while snooping in Roger’s office one night.”
“Snoopin’?” After everything he had heard about Roger, Thomas felt a bit shocked that Sophie would even take that risk. “Weren’t you afraid of wha’ would happen if he caught you?”
“What did I have to lose?”
Thomas shrugged. “Nothin’, I guess.”
“Exactly. In the middle of one of his special ‘training’ sessions with me, there was an emergency in the complex that he had to respond to. He left me alone in his office for a bit. I used it as an opportunity.” Sophie pressed one more button on the keypad and the trunk unlocked.
“Yes! Get down. Just in case it is rigged.” Thomas jumped out of the back of the truck. Sophie opened the lid of the trunk. She didn’t seem all too worried about her own welfare. “Motherfucker…”
“What?” Claire stood on her tiptoes, trying to see what was in the trunk.
“Empty,” Sophie muttered. She got out and leaned over the gas tank, tapping on it. Empty. “That arse! He left us with nothing! Where did he hide all the weapons? Fucker!” Sophie spent the next several minutes tearing apart the truck, looking for anything they could use for supplies.
Looking around, Claire spotted a small herd of undeads staggering toward them. “Sophie, we have company.”
“Shit. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Sophie jumped out of Kellan’s truck and they all got into hers. She started it up and threw it into gear just as Thomas and Claire closed their doors. She took off back to the main road.
“Shouldn’t we take care of them? What if they wander toward the others?”
“I don’t think they will make it that far. They’ll get sidetracked before they make it down that way.”
Claire was uneasy about leaving them wandering, but Sophie was the boss when Henry wasn’t around. She didn’t want to cause any waves so soon into their trip back to his apartment.
Sophie drove like a maniac back to the highway. The proverbial white knuckle ride with swerving and hard breaking. Everything looked the same as it did when they had passed through there the first time. Across from the convenience store, where they found Thomas holding Henry hostage after he bit Nick, was the off-ramp. Sophie decided to get on the highway by going up the ramp.
“What are you doing? This is the off-ramp!”
“Do you think I don’t know that?”
“You can’t go up this! It’s against the law!”
Sophie cackled. “Against the law?! Who’s going to stop me?” Claire let out a noise of frustration. “I’m going to get on the highway and cut across the median between the north and south lanes.”
“Great.”
“What are you worried about?”
“Getting hit by another car!”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “I don’t think we’re going to see anyone, Claire.” Then she pulled onto the highway and drove a little ways down until she found a division. She drove the truck onto the right side of the highway and headed back toward the city.
It took most of the night, but they finally made it to the exit to get to Henry’s apartment. There were a few traffic jams they had to push through. Some moments were scarier than others, but for the most part, things went well, considering the circumstances.
The nighttime was eerie, dark and quiet. With nothing but the moon and their gore-covered headlights lighting their way, it was difficult to see. Thomas and Claire hung out the windows of the truck, looking for any signs of life…or unlife. The chilly autumn air cut through them.
Slowly, Sophie navigated through the city streets, dodging several herds of staggering undeads, finally making it to the street Henry’s apartment was on. It looked just as they left it…corpses rotting in the street, cars pushed aside, the limo parked right in front of the building.
When Claire saw the car, she flashed back to Marc getting bitten at Elaina’s wedding. Her mind went through all their moments together. Everything from the day they met until his very end.
She felt guilty giving herself to Nick, wondering if she had properly mourned Marc. It had been only a few weeks since his true death, but it seemed like an eternity.
She had given up on her fantasy about Nick and her…for the most part. It was always alive in the deepest parts of her heart. After she met Marc, Claire envisioned a life with him. She wanted to marry Marc, have his children, have a happy life doting on the very man who saved her from falling into a deep depression when her parents died. If it hadn’t been for him, she would never have gotten out of bed again.
Then she flashed forward to the moment Nick first kissed her. It made that flicker of life stir deep in the pit of her stomach. She’d always had a crush on him.
Claire and Elaina became friends in middle school. The first time she went over to the Cooper’s, Nick was lounging on the couch, playing his guitar. She remembered being lost in his rhythmic movements. He sang with his eyes closed, not knowing he had the attention of one girl, who quickly became smitten with her friend’s older brother.
She would never forget the song. “Going to California” by Led Zeppelin. Nick played it with such ease, such talent, such grace. When the song ended, Claire softly applauded, jolting him out of his somber trance. He looked at her with a soft smile. Then Elaina grabbed her arm and pulled her upstairs to her room so they could do what fourteen-year-old girls did best…gossip.
From that moment on, she had a yearning for Nick, but she couldn’t confess her feelings, fearing he would reject her. Every time she saw him with his next fling, a jealousness would run through her body. Claire could never understand why Nick only saw her as Elaina’s friend and never as more.
After Nick’s graduation, he went away to college. Claire’s feelings simmered down when she didn’t see him several times a week. Then, in her senior year, she ran into Marc…literally. She bumped into his car with hers in a parking lot. Once he saw her, he forgave her.
They began dating. A few years later, she stood, daydreaming, in front of the church for Elaina and Henry’s wedding. She hoped Marc would ask her soon. Then Pastor Jones staggered out and tore Marc’s throat open, taking all her hopes and dreams with him.
Claire let out an ear-piercing scream.
“What! What is it?!” Sophie yelled, shaking her shoulder. Claire realized she had been in her own world. She cried and shook all over. “Claire! What’s wrong?”
“Marc… I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“Who’s Marc?” Thomas asked.
“Claire’s boyfriend, well… Christ. He’s true dead now,” Sophie mumbled. They sat in silence for a moment. Thomas decided he wasn’t about to ask any more questions. “Claire, you have nothing to be sorry for.”
> “I do!” she shouted with excessive emotion, clenching her fists.
“No. No, you don’t. You did what you had to do.”
Claire wondered what Sophie knew. She wondered if she knew everything. She was sure Henry must have mentioned what happened to Marc. How could he not?
“You don’t understand,” Claire muttered.
“Me? I don’t understand? You do realize what I am, right?”
Claire nodded, then said through her river of tears, “I betrayed Marc’s memory.” She put her face in her hands.
“What could you have possibly done to betray his memory?” Sophie tried hard to be kind and understanding, which wasn’t exactly her usual M.O.
Brows raised, Claire looked at Sophie, trying to relay the answer without having to say it out loud. If she said it, it would be true. It was like her parents’ death. If she doesn’t acknowledge it, it never happened.
“Ohh, right. I understand.” Sophie took a deep breath.
“Please don’t say anything to anyone. I’m not ready to be open about it.”
Sophie nodded. “You can trust me.” She touched Claire’s cheek with her icy fingers. Claire never imagined she would bond with Sophie. “Now come on. Wipe those tears away. We need to get up to Henry’s flat.”
“How do you do it?” Claire whispered.
“Do what?”
“Watch Henry and Elaina.”
“Ah, yes. That. Quite frankly, it is rather difficult. I loved him, and I still carry a torch for him. But I have to step aside. I originally thought that once we reunited, he would forget about Elaina and be mine again. Henry is amazing, and we were great together. I know there’s a picture of him next to the definition of insane in the dictionary, but there have been some extenuating circumstances. Now I have to wonder if maybe we had just fallen together because of our situation. We could relate to one another. Convenience, yeah?” Sophie took another deep breath. “Anyway, enough about that. We should go.”