by Deb Rotuno
“Jack,” Joel called, giving me a few clips of ammo and securing the compound bow to the side of the handlebars. “Take care of her. I’m not kidding.”
Smirking, I nodded. “You have my word.”
“Three hours,” he reiterated, holding up three fingers. “And it’ll be me coming with Quinn if your ass isn’t back here, so…make it quick, yeah?”
Nodding, I scanned the rest of the group, smiling at Ava when she rushed to her sister with bottles of water. Then she handed one to me.
“Thanks, Half Pint,” I told her, chuckling when she rolled her eyes.
“Hurry back,” she told the both of us, glancing over her shoulder to Sabrina and then Lexie, who wasn’t paying us any attention. “I’m tired of babysitting, and Lexie is no fun,” she whispered.
Ruby laughed, tugging Ava’s ponytail. “Rina looks up to you, so suck it up. As for…” She grimaced. “She’s just…tired, sweetie. Hang in there. We won’t be gone long.”
“’Kay,” she sighed. “Popcorn tonight, Jack? Please?”
I pulled her to me, giving the top of her head a kiss. “Absolutely! Have it all ready to go when I get back.”
Her grin and happy jump were my reward. She was a good girl, smart and funny. She’d chatter on and on when she rode in the Hummer, asking a thousand questions. Abe adored her, and he loved even more that she listened to whatever stories he told her.
I straddled the seat and started the four-wheeler, pulling away from camp. I kept on the main road I’d shown Quinn, and it stayed fairly empty for the first mile or so, until we approached some houses. I pulled off to the side, turning off the engine.
“Okay. I think…pairs?” I suggested.
“You want us to hit these houses?” Tim asked.
“Yeah, just…gather whatever you can find, but gas is the priority, so take a tube and can with you. Each. Try not to use gunfire. Quiet is better.” Turning to Ruby, I said, “You and I are going to cut through the woods, see if there are any rabbits, or…hell, squirrels or something.”
Ruby’s nose wrinkled, but she nodded. “Let me guess…It tastes like chicken.”
“Couldn’t tell you, but at this point, I’d eat just about anything that wasn’t a zeak.”
Sasha hopped out of the trailer, and she followed us as we split away from the other two. Ruby and I stepped into the woods, immediately engulfed in the shade of the canopy overhead.
“You know damn well Lexie isn’t tired,” I finally said after a few paces into the trees.
She laughed, watching Sasha scout ahead, only to wait for us to catch up. “She is tired, so that’s not a lie, but…Her attitude problem is—”
“Me,” I sighed, shaking my head. “Yeah, I know. But there’s nothing I can do about that.”
Lexie had become quiet after Wyoming, opting to ignore me after I’d stopped her from kissing me. However, the closer we got to Oregon, the surlier she became.
“Aw hell, Jack,” Ruby said, coming to a stop and looking over at me. “She’s…I’m with your mom on this one. I think she’s young and deep, deep into hero worship. You saved her life, removed her from someplace she’d never been happy, and you…well, you’re you.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
She shoved me with a laugh. “You’re not exactly hideous, Jack. And then…you’re all about getting back to Sara and Freddie, you’ve got an amazing way with kids, and I swear, Aiden and Rina are like little magnets to you. That’s not exactly a turn-off for a woman. In all honesty, it probably makes it worse.”
“Ah, Jesus,” I groaned, gripping my hair and starting to move forward again.
Ruby giggled, a light sound coming from her. “There’s that too. You have no clue how attractive you are…or can be, really. I’m willing to bet Sara pointed it out all the time.”
“Daily,” I muttered, smirking at her laugh.
“But the kicker is…we’re almost there,” she said solemnly. “Seriously. We’re a day’s drive from your home state, and the closer we get, the closer the possibility is that you’ll get your family back. Your wife.” Ruby looked up at me. “Imagine the guilt. She’s crushing on you really hard, and the only thing you want is your life back. This whole time, it’s all you’ve strived for. To wish differently is selfish and mean, but she wants you anyway. And she’s well aware of it all. That’s some tough shit to reconcile.”
“Oh.”
“She’s young and a little immature, if not stunted by those parents of hers, who kept her on that farm without any regard as to what she wanted,” Ruby went on to explain. “She’s starved for affection, Jack. To her, you’re fucking perfect.”
Laughing humorlessly, I shook my head. “Hardly.”
“Well, right, but take it from someone who knows, yeah?” She grimaced a little. “I thought the same thing once.”
“Tucker?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, glancing around when a twig snapped somewhere off to our left. “He got me out of a tough bind after the virus went crazy, but he was no knight in shining armor, that’s for sure.”
Nodding, I gazed around us, my eyes landing on Sasha, who was tense and alert. Another scan of the woods, and I saw what she was eyeballing.
“Zeaks. Two…maybe three. We’ll do this quietly.”
It was two women and a man. Their stench met our noses before they even caught sight of us. From where I was standing, I aimed the compound bow, taking out the man and reloading the next arrow. Ruby walked swiftly, staying in the trees to keep her distance, but using her knife, she ended the two women. We left them where they fell after grabbing my arrow and then moved on.
A few more yards, and I could see the houses we were behind, but I also saw movement in the bushes. Rabbits. Two of them. I knew one shot would most likely scare one of them away, but one rabbit was better than no rabbit at all. I aimed for the largest one, killing it with one arrow, and Ruby stashed it in the bag across her shoulder.
The two of us stayed pretty quiet the rest of the time. We stepped into the small neighborhood, raiding several houses and killing a handful of zeaks. We were able to siphon almost two large cans of gas from cars parked in garages or broken down in the street. Ruby had even found a partial can stashed by a lawnmower. There were some canned goods and bottled water in one house, a few boxes of cereal in another, and a single jar of peanut butter in the last house.
“I say we head back,” I sighed wearily, hoisting the duffel bag up onto my shoulder and adjusting the compound bow to my back before picking up the two cans of gas. Ruby was just as loaded down, but she was able to keep one hand free to hold her knife as she nodded.
We took the woods back just like we came in, hoping to catch another rabbit. However, as the road came into view, voices also got louder, and they weren’t Tim’s and Nikki’s.
“Give up the key, asshole,” a rough male voice threatened.
“I don’t have the key!” Tim snapped back, and I recognized the sound of fist meeting flesh.
Ruby and I stopped, setting our stuff down behind the trunk of a large tree. I put a finger to my lips, gesturing for her to trade knife for gun, which she did. Carefully and quietly, I led us to the edge of the forest, stopping behind a V-shaped tree trunk. I patted the pocket of my filthy jeans, grimacing at the fact that I had the key.
“Shit,” I sighed, watching as three men pointed guns at Tim and Nikki, who were kneeling on the ground, their hands behind their heads.
“Maybe your girl here has the key,” one said, stepping to Nikki, who was visibly shaking in the grip of a man nearly three times her size. “Why don’t I just check for myself…”
He went to reach for her, and I aimed the compound bow at the tall, thinner man who seemed to be the leader. I heard Sasha’s growl too late, though.
“Ah, ah, ah,” I heard beside me, the cold metal of a gun pressing into my temple. “Don’t do it, motherfucker. I’ll blow your brains all over that hot ginger.”
My whole body te
nsed, but I didn’t lower the arrow, and my lip twitched in hatred as I glanced over at Ruby to see her pretty fucking pissed as she lowered her .45.
“Move it, asswipe,” the man beside me ordered, and I did as he said, stepping out of the woods and back onto the side of the road.
“Well, what have we here?” the skinny fucking leader sang. “Maybe you have the key. Drop the gun and the bow.”
Smiling, I shrugged, letting the man with the gun to my head strip me of my compound bow, and Ruby handed the .45 over. They were dropped to the ground in front of us. I balled my fists up, making the knuckles crack in the process.
“You’d have to check to find out,” I said, but it was a warning. When one man started forward, Sasha’s head lowered, her teeth flashed white, sharp, and menacing, and her growl raised the hairs on the back of my neck. “Sasha, heel,” I muttered, and she looked at me like I was crazy as hell.
“He also stashed a shit-ton of stuff back in the woods, Ethan.”
“Thank you so much for making this easier,” Ethan stated in a sarcastic, sing-song manner as he walked to me and put his gun in the middle of my forehead. “Donnie, why don’t you go ahead and get that stuff from the woods, hmm?”
Donnie stepped away, and Ethan smiled at Sasha’s fierce, low growl. “That dog comes anywhere near me, and I’ll put a bullet in her head. Then I’m gonna see what the ginger over there tastes like. However, I think Nate has taken a liking to the other one. Once we’re done, I’ll leave you for the cannibals.”
I glanced over at Ruby as the asshole dared to touch her, and I saw that she’d broken out into a sweat, but it wasn’t the threat or even the unwanted touch that made her nervous; it was the other side of the road. The woods had movement—slow, wobbling, growling movement—and lots of it. And if my guess was correct, the swarm was pretty fucking big. However, their timing couldn’t have been better, and our captors had no idea.
“Now, hotshot…give up the key.”
Grinning evilly, I said, “You’ll have to take it from me, fuckwit.” I glanced to Sasha. “Sasha, separate.”
Sasha’s head snapped around, and she bolted across the street and into the woods, her bark loud and sharp as it echoed out of the trees. Ethan was momentarily distracted by her, and I used it to my advantage, bringing my head back and slamming it forward. The sharp blow to his temple hurt him more than me, though I felt my skin split open just above my eyebrow. He’d been unprepared for it, and he doubled over, spewing curse words of every kind. He recovered quickly, reaching for me, but I swung my fist hard at his stomach, only to bring my knee to his face.
Ruby moved faster than I expected, throwing my compound bow to me and grabbing her gun. I used the end of the bow to smash Ethan’s head again, but Ruby’s gun popped off two rounds, dropping the guy behind Tim.
The guy behind Nikki snatched her up by the hair, pointing his weapon beneath her chin and giving a kick to Tim’s face, which sent him sprawling across the asphalt in front of the four-wheeler.
“Let her go!” I snapped, aiming an arrow for his face, but I couldn’t get a clear shot. My gaze flickered from him to the zeaks now pouring out of the woods, with Sasha running circles around them. “You gotta move, man!”
“Nate!” I heard behind me, but Donnie, who was loaded down with our shit, wasn’t going to make it to his last remaining friend.
“Don’t shoot him,” I warned Ruby. “You could hit the gas cans and blow us all to hell.” I swung around, releasing the arrow and nailing the thieving bastard straight in the chest. Donnie went down, along with the bags and two cans of gas.
“All alone, buddy,” Ruby told Nate, shrugging a shoulder. “And you’d better move. Just go.”
Nate wavered for a moment, and it was his—and our—undoing. The swarm of zeaks ignored Sasha’s barking and teasing, falling on the closest thing: people. Before I could pull my gun out, they were on Tim, Nikki, and the last thief. Screams rang out loud in the darkening woods.
“God damn it!” I snapped, firing round after round at the zeaks coming our way.
Ruby did the same, but there was nothing we could do for Tim or Nikki. Ethan started to come around, and I kicked him just enough that the zeaks fell on him. It stalled them just long enough for Ruby and me to finish them off, including our friends.
I fell to my knees as the silence fell back around us. “Fuck!” I snarled, shaking my head and gripping my hair.
“We gotta go, Jack,” Ruby told me, pulling at my arm. “We’ve drawn more in.”
That snapped me out of my anger just long enough to order Sasha to separate again. Ruby and I moved as quickly as we could to load up all that we’d had in the woods and what Donnie had dropped when he fell. The trailer had a few more cans of gas and some bags of food, thanks to Tim and Nikki. I pulled my arrow out of Donnie’s chest, wiping it on his shirt before stowing it away.
“Now, Jack!” Ruby yelled, gathering up the weapons our thieves had used against us and tossing them into the trailer.
Rushing to the four-wheeler, I hopped on, starting it up. I called for Sasha, and she gave another loud bark to the zeaks in front of her before dodging the new wave of dead bastards stumbling out of the woods for us. The dog leaped over the bodies and into the trailer as I turned around to head back to camp. Ruby’s arms trembled as she held on to me, and I practically pushed the four-wheeler to its limit to get us back.
Camp was set up when we pulled in. A low, glowing fire was situated in the middle of the circle of vehicles. When we pulled up, everyone came to meet us, but Dad’s gaze was sharp.
“Where’s…”
Shaking my head, I got off the four-wheeler, only to punch the seat. “We lost them!”
“You guys okay?” Joel asked, his gaze falling onto my face. “Jesus, what happened?”
Gentle fingers lifted my chin, and I met the worried eyes of my mother. “You need stitches,” she stated, but I merely shook my head and waved it off. “Well then, at least let me clean and butterfly it.”
Ruby explained to everyone what had happened, but I stayed quiet as my mother did her thing. She was listening to the conversation behind her as everyone sorted what we’d brought and filled the gas tanks with the fuel. I groaned when it was decided to unload the minivan, salvage whatever gas it had left it in, and drop it from the caravan.
“I’m sure you did your best, sport,” Mom whispered.
“I don’t know,” I muttered back. “I just…” I sighed, flinching when the shit she was using stung like a bitch. “Ow, damn it.”
She grinned. “Gut up, Jack. Gut up,” she teased me, cupping my face. “I’m…I’m a selfish woman. I’m just glad you’re back. Now hold still…”
She finished cleaning my forehead, ignoring my pussy complaining and bandaging it up as best she could. When she was done, she stepped back to eye her work.
“He was gonna kill us,” I whispered, shaking my head. “And he threatened Ruby with…terrible things.”
“Then you did the right thing by fighting back. I’m sorry we lost people in the process, but I’m sure you did what you could. I know you, Jack. I’m sure you fought like a lion.”
“I just want to get on the road…first thing. It seems like everything is against us the closer we get.”
Mom leaned forward, pressing her lips to my forehead. “Be still, sad heart…” she whispered the poem against my skin, smiling when I snorted and nodded. “Into each life some rain must fall. We’ll make it, Jack. In fact, I fear for anyone who tries to stop you. Of all of us, you have the most to fight for, okay?”
My heart hurt, but I nodded. “I miss her, Mom. I miss them both so fucking much.”
“I know you do, sweetheart. Your father and I miss them, too. We’ll be in Oregon by midday tomorrow. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Promise me you’ll keep sight of that. Okay?”
I swallowed thickly but nodded again. “Yes, ma’am.”
Sandy, Oregon
Just Shy of 5
Months after
Hurricane Beatrice
I’d never seen anything like it. I’d been in wars and seen what felt like every fucking state from the East Coast to the West Coast since the world fell to this virus. I wasn’t sure if it was simply because Sandy had always represented safety and home or if the small town really was hit this badly.
We drove slowly through town. A few zeaks perked up at the sound of us, but I hardly paid them any attention. I took in Shelly’s Bar, which was a burned-out hollow shell. The police and fire stations didn’t look too badly hit, but the front door to the police station stood wide open. A zeak in a Sandy PD shirt stumbled out the door, and I shook my head at who it was. Nick. He’d been a friend for years. A few blocks down was the nursing home, and scattered about the front doors, side windows, and the parking lot were several dead bodies.
I finally couldn’t take this slow fucking pace any longer. I practically floored it to the next street, the tires of the Hummer squealing when I took the corner too quickly.
“Son, calm down. You told her to get out, right?” Abe asked, putting a hand on my shoulder as I turned again. “You gave her warning?”
I barely checked to see if everyone was following me as I could only nod in answer.
My heart broke at the sight of my neighborhood. I passed by Hank’s house—the house Sara had lived in when I’d met her. His windows were boarded up, the wood on the front door splintered a little but not open, and his truck was still in the driveway. I didn’t stop.
I held my breath until the little two-story house came into view. My heart hurt at the sight of Sara’s car in the driveway, but my truck was absent. I pulled in behind the little blue car, unable to move for just a moment.
“Is that her car, Jack?” Ava asked softly.
“Yeah, but my truck is gone,” I barely uttered aloud.
“Maybe she took that,” Abe surmised with hope in his voice.
I heard the caravan come to a stop on the street, car doors slamming closed. Dad appeared at my door.