by Deb Rotuno
Dad laughed, shaking his head. “Damn, I’d never seen a man so happy to be a dad, except maybe me.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, giving them a squeeze. “And we both ran frantic the day our kids were born.”
“He was,” I said with a giggle. “Seeing me in pain…He couldn’t take it.”
“No…No, he couldn’t,” he agreed with a light laugh. He sobered quickly but shook my shoulder gently. “You still think…?”
I smiled sadly, shrugging a shoulder. It had been five months since I’d last heard Jack’s voice in a panic on the phone. It had been even longer since I’d seen his face, been wrapped in his arms, and kissed his lips as he promised me he’d be home soon, that he’d be careful, and that he loved me more than anything.
“No, don’t do that, Sare,” he chided. “Don’t give me the answer you think I want to hear. I know you hate the pity, kiddo. I know I was out of line about Derek, that it’s none of my business. Just…Tell me what you think.”
“I think it’s a long damn way from Florida,” I stated simply, starting to get up, but he tugged me back down.
“Finish.”
“I think it’s a long way, and…” I sipped my coffee, but Jack’s dog tags caught my eye, and I wrapped a hand around them. “I think…” I met my dad’s gaze. “If you could survive, knowing what you know, then imagine what my husband and Joel and Rich and Dottie could do.”
I expected pity from him, simply because anytime my husband or his family were mentioned, people reacted as if I was in denial, like I couldn’t face it. I could face the reality that was around me, but I had more faith in my family than that. To just assume they were dead seemed like a slap in their faces, a disgrace to who they were. However, Dad simply nodded, kissing my forehead.
We both heard the sound of Jack’s truck. I’d told Derek to use it because four people couldn’t all fit with supplies and whatever they could possibly catch. Mose tugged the gate out of the way just barely in time for him to pull through. Derek was flying down the damn road.
The big black truck skidded to a stop, and Josh bounded out over the side, yelling, “We’ve been spotted…” He ran up to Dad and me. “They were on the same road and saw us. Two cars, dunno how many people, but they followed us.”
Dad turned to me. “Get the older ones and the kids in the bunker. Now, Sara!”
I turned toward the table, calling Freddie and Janie. Jesse and Lucy were arguing, but I grabbed her arm. She was due any minute, so we couldn’t afford for her to get hurt. Hannah shoved Mallory my way as well. I could hear my dad giving orders as I slammed open the door.
“Derek, Brody, you’ll stand with me. Travis, I want you down and low on top of Jonah’s RV, covering us. Mose and Tina, you’ll take position at Sara’s cabin; only show yourselves if you have to. Ivan, Margaret, Hannah, and Martin, I’ll need you to cover us from the woods and my cabin. Josh, I want you with Sara.”
Josh nodded, trotting up the porch steps as everyone else got into their positions. I gave the bunker a quick look as I followed everyone inside, making sure Millie and Jonah had made it down into the bunker okay, along with Lucy.
Before I closed the door, I said, “Stay quiet. We’ll get you when it’s clear.”
“You be careful, Sara,” Millie warned.
Nodding, I closed the trapdoor, rolling the rug partially over it. Joining Josh at the window, I watched as a car and truck pulled in through the gate.
“Sara, here,” Josh whispered, shoving a rifle into my hand. “Take it. We’ll cover them from here.”
We both aimed through a space between the windowsill and the boards Derek had nailed to the outside.
Dad stood between Derek and Brody. Not one of them drew their weapons, but Derek’s compound bow was strapped to his back, and Brody had his rifle the same way. However, my dad stood calmly, gun belt on, arms crossed, and completely emotionless.
There were six of them, from what I could see. Four men and two women. All of them got out of the vehicles, walking to my dad.
“This could go really bad,” Josh sighed, shaking his head. His eyes didn’t leave the scene on the campgrounds, but he kept talking softly. “See the girl…younger, with hair color like yours? And the guy with the blond hair?” he asked, giving me a quick glance. When I nodded, he said, “They’re the ones I gave the rabbits to that day Derek and I caught that doe. Remember?”
“Okay…”
Josh tsked. “Derek came back to tell Hank about them. The reason we gave them the rabbits was because Derek didn’t trust them any farther than he could throw them. He said something about them was off.”
“Like how?”
Josh swallowed but turned to the window. “I don’t know. He just said his gut told him not to bring them back here. I mean, we’re all about keeping people alive, but he did not want them here.”
The leader of the group seemed to be a middle-aged man with graying hair and broad shoulders. He had a slimy smile and an automatic weapon strapped to his back. In fact, all of them were carrying heavy weapons, almost military grade.
We couldn’t hear what was being said, but I took in Derek’s and my dad’s body language. Both seemed calm but tense. The people started back toward their cars, but one guy near my truck pointed inside the bed.
“What’s in the truck?” I asked Josh.
“We snagged four rabbits and a wild turkey,” Josh said, grinning my way. “That bad boy is my doing.”
Grinning his way, I gave him a high five. “Nice job.”
Our celebration was cut short, though, when voices were raised and weapons were drawn.
“I think the answer is no, asshole,” I heard Brody’s voice growl.
Groaning, I shook my head but readied my weapon, as did Josh.
“Everyone needs to calm the fuck down,” the leader ordered, standing with arms spread between our people and his. I noted he hadn’t drawn his own weapon.
“You’re not taking our food. We’ve already fed your people once,” Derek told him, pointing between the couple. “There’s plenty of woods, plenty of game, and it looks like you got weapons to hunt with.”
“Oh, I don’t think you understand, archer boy,” the leader taunted. “We’re not taking just your food. We’re taking everything…”
When the leader pulled his automatic weapon to his front, my dad shifted, taking Derek and Brody with him. Bullets in rapid fire followed them all the way across the camp and underneath Jonah’s RV.
Josh and I raised our weapons at the same time that Travis started firing. The girl with my hair color went down, and her boyfriend didn’t take two steps before an arrow was lodged in his chest. I fired toward the leader, which made them all panic because bullets were coming at them from every direction. They scrambled for their cars, but I aimed for the leader again, finally nailing him in the leg. He hobbled to his truck, falling into the back as another guy got behind the wheel.
Two of their people were dead, and one was rolling on the ground holding his stomach, which had an arrow in it. The truck peeled out, almost backing into the lake, and the last remaining guy dove for the car. Bullets pinged off the trunk, shattered the back window, and destroyed a tail light, but it followed the truck out of the driveway.
“They just…left their people?” Josh asked, standing up.
“No honor among thieves, I suppose,” I muttered, shaking my head. “If there’s more of them, they’ll be back, but not for their people.”
“Revenge,” Josh surmised.
“Yeah, or to finish what they started,” I sighed, pointing to the trapdoor. “Check on them, but don’t let them out just yet.”
When I opened the door to the cabin, it was to chaos. There were calls of clear, but there were also calls of names that went unanswered. My only focus was Derek and Brody…and who they carried between them.
“Dad?” I yelled, leaping from the porch to the grass and running as fast as I could.
“Aw hell, Sara,” Dad grunted,
looking more pissed off than in pain, but there was blood staining the leg of his jeans. It was low, down on his calf, but still, it was red and seemed to be flowing freely. “I’m okay. It’s straight through. It looks worse than it is.”
They settled him down onto the picnic table. I took my knife from my leg, cutting his pants. Immediately, a rag was shoved into my hand, and I tied it just below my dad’s knee.
“Get him into the cabin. We’ll have Margaret look at him,” I told Derek, who nodded solemnly.
The light was slowly leaking away from the day, giving a pale glow around us. The smell of rain weighed heavily in the air, wet and cool.
I stood up, turning to Brody. “We need everyone inside. Make sure to do a head count.”
“We…um, lost Travis,” he stated, rubbing the back of his neck.
Mose and Tina ran up from my cabin at the same time a piercing scream came from the woods.
“Shit, that’s Hannah,” Tina whispered.
“Damn it! Where’s Ivan and Jesse? Weren’t they with her?” Dad asked, wincing as he tried to stand when gunfire echoed out of the trees.
“I’m on it,” Derek stated, smacking Brody’s shoulder. “C’mon, Brody…”
“Hank,” Mose rumbled, wrapping my dad’s arm around his big shoulders. “Let’s get you inside.”
“Those bastards will be back. They’re…” Dad groaned, pausing his steps for just a second. “He said they had about twenty…”
“Yeah, and he coulda been lyin’, sir,” Mose argued. “We’ve got to—”
Margaret’s heartbreaking cry for Ivan and Hannah met my ears, and I knew what had just happened. She fought Jesse as he pushed her toward camp, and Brody and Derek were right behind them.
“We lost ’em,” Derek said, pointing to Mose. “Get him inside. We’ve got a pack out there! The gunfire drew them in…”
Mose gave up guiding my father and finally just reached down and picked his ass up in order to get him into the cabin. The sounds of growls, snapping twigs, and groans made my skin crawl. Even worse was the sound of Margaret’s utter heartbreak as she cried out for Ivan and Hannah again.
I could hear the pack breaking through the trees, and when I turned to look, about ten burst from the woods, some catching on Mose’s spiked fence and some getting pushed around it. They found their mark in the would-be thieves, who were still lying in the grass, and Travis, who I now could see had fallen to the ground from his perch on the RV.
“There’s only a handful. We could do this,” Tina said, and I nodded.
Both of us raised our rifles, and Derek loaded an arrow. We took out the few that emerged from the trees, and we stopped the ones from feasting on Travis and the bodies the thieves left behind. A large hand landed on my shoulder, and I looked to Mose.
“Let’s cover Travis. We’ll bury him come morning. We’ll also pile up those infected off to the side and burn them in the morning too.”
“What about—” Tina started, but Jesse joined us.
“I’ll help with Hannah and Ivan. We’ll put them all behind Jonah’s RV.”
By the time we’d piled up the infected and covered our lost friends, nighttime was just about upon us and the rain had started to fall. It was light and misty, but I could feel it in the air that it would grow heavier soon.
We started for Rich’s cabin, hearing my dad’s curses, but Derek’s hissed curse made me spin around.
“Headlights. Look,” he whispered, pointing toward the driveway.
Bright lights flickered through dense trees, growing closer and closer.
“I want everyone inside. Lights out. Got me?” Derek ordered, spinning Tina and me around and pushing us up into the cabin. “We’ve got company comin’,” he announced once inside. “I want lanterns out, candles out. Margaret, if you’re workin’ on Hank, take it down into the bunker. You can use the lanterns down there.”
Once my dad was safely taken downstairs, I called Freddie to the trapdoor.
“Baby, I want you to watch over Grandpa while Margaret bandages him up. Okay? And make sure everyone stays quiet.”
“Okay, Mom,” he promised with a nod.
The trapdoor shut, killing the last of the light. Derek was at the window on the left; Mose and Brody were watching out of the window on the right. Jesse was pacing. Martin was by the back window with Tina.
I stood next to Derek, trying to see. Headlights beamed across the lake but didn’t come far into the camp. It looked like three large vehicles plus a few people milling around. Two large silhouettes ran for my cabin, but I couldn’t see much more from where I was.
“Oh, my sweet God,” Martin muttered, and I spun to see that he was looking out the back window. “Guys, we have a pack moving through. And it’s…huge.”
Brody laughed. Actually laughed. “Well, maybe they’ll take care of the assholes at the gate for us.”
“They’ll still smell us, you fuckwit,” I snapped. “If you can’t hear, the rain’s picking up.”
“Yeah, well, your loud mouth ain’t helping, princess,” he countered, turning to Josh and then Derek. “Just keep the bastards from breaking in.”
The rumble of an engine and then rapid gunfire met my ears. I could hear yells and voices outside, not to mention infected meeting an end. But one voice rang out above the rest.
“Watch for friendly fire!”
My heart stopped.
“No…” I whispered, shaking my head. “Jack?” I barely breathed the name aloud before Derek’s head spun to face me.
“You’re one delusional bitch, Sara,” Brody chortled, shaking his head and firing a round right outside the window. “That motherfucker’s dead…and good fucking riddance.”
“Brody, I will fucking kill your ass! I swear to God!” Derek snapped, bringing his gun up.
“Derek! Hold your fire!”
“Fuck me,” Derek muttered, reaching for the door. “She’s right.” When Brody started to argue again, he yelled, “Everyone, stop!”
The door swung open, and guns aimed in every damn direction. Two pointed inside, and three pointed out, though Derek lowered his, giving Brody a glare. I was aware that the handgun pointed at Brody was Joel, but it was the other man stepping into the room who made me lose it.
I backed away a couple of steps as I took in the one thing I’d been hoping to see for the past five months.
Jack.
“Sara,” he rasped, and the mere sound of his voice was my undoing.
The gun in my hands fell to the floor. Tears blurred my vision, and my legs trembled. Before I could fall, though, I was wrapped in the one set of arms I’d missed so damn much.
“Jack?” I cried, gripping him with everything I had.
He was leaner but stronger. His face was scruffy, his clothes wet from the rain and stained from fighting. But he was there. He was real and alive and beautiful.
“I knew it, I knew it…I knew you were coming…” I rambled, pushing back so I could see his face. “You’re here. You’re real.”
His tired brown eyes watered, and he barely nodded, but he turned his face to kiss my hand as words tumbled out of my mouth and probably made no sense.
“Where’s Freddie?” he asked.
I was just about to tell him when the door burst open. I struggled down to the floor just as a handful of infected tried to force their way in at the same time something outside exploded, lighting up the entire camp.
Jack fell forward when a piece of wood shattered from the door and hit his head. He shook his head as gunshots rang out, but I grabbed him as the guys tried to force the reaching pack back outside.
Patting the side of his face, I made him look at me. “Jack?”
“I’m okay…I’m okay,” he chanted, squeezing his eyes closed and shaking his head, but he stood up.
“This door’s not gonna hold!” Mose yelled, and even with Joel holding it with him, it was starting to bend forward, cracking down the middle where it had busted in.
&nbs
p; “It has to fucking hold!” I argued.
Derek glanced over at me. “Actually, it doesn’t. We can lead them away from here. They can’t get at them.” Another explosion rattled the windows. “Jesus, Jack…Did you bring hell with you?”
Jack grinned briefly, eyeing the trapdoor, but Joel merely nodded, saying, “Yeah, pretty much.”
Jack ran to each window, looking out, only to go to the next. “Joel, the only way to do this is to let the door fall and then push our way out. They’ve got a bunch rounded up over by the lake.”
“Got it.”
Derek seemed to understand, and he turned to the rest of us. “As soon as that door falls, shoot every-fucking-thing you’ve got.”
Grabbing up my rifle, I stood between Tina and Jack.
He leaned over and kissed me quickly, whispering, “Some welcome-home party, Shortcake.”
Shaking my head and aiming my gun, I merely said, “Oh, this isn’t the party, Jack…”
JACK
My ears rang with the blow I’d taken to the head, but I’d live. I felt almost giddy at the fact that Sara was standing next to me. I wanted to wrap her up, kiss her and never stop, but the timing was all fucking wrong. We were trapped inside my dad’s cabin, and we needed to get out in order to clear the camp.
Derek’s compound bow aimed out the broken section of the door, and he released it, loading another arrow and saying, “On three…Ready?”
He glanced around at us but then smacked the large black man’s arm. I hadn’t recognized him at first, but now I remembered him from Sandy. Moses. He and Joel looked to each other and then counted down, jumping back from the doorway.
Bullets and arrows assaulted the zeaks at the door, giving us just enough space to push through. Joel and Moses took the lead, using their strength and size to push the assault back. There had to be ten of us in my dad’s cabin, and unfortunately, I couldn’t focus past the fight.
When we all were able to spill out onto the porch, everyone split off in separate directions, and I took in the camp to see what my group had done. They’d thrown a few of our diesel-filled bottles at what looked like two different swarms, or maybe Sasha had split them up, but the fires burned, drawing in the idiot zeaks, which caused a few to spread the flames. It also lit up the camp bright enough to see.