by Siara Brandt
“You ready?”
No. She wasn’t nearly ready.
There was no hurry, Law reassured her. She could take her time. He must have seen the look on her face. He assured her that everything would be all right, that he wouldn’t let her fall. She reached out with trembling hands for the rope. Then, little by little, she pulled herself up what turned out to be a very sheer slope.
There was an indention in the rocks where several good-sized saplings were growing. Sidra stopped for a moment to rest and to get her bearings before finishing the last part of the climb which was straight up. Behind her, Law was afraid she was going to freeze. He scrambled up closer to her, till he was able to steady and reassure her with his hand on her back.
“You’re almost there,” she heard him say close to her ear.
She still grasped the rope tightly in both hands. Her toes were balancing on a thin outcropping of rock.
“I’ve got you,” she heard. Law’s arm went around her as he pressed his body against hers. She instinctively leaned against him, turning as she did so. She felt the pressure of her breasts against his powerful chest. She felt his strong thighs, his belly, his whole body pressed against hers. In a daze of dizzying sensations, she felt his lips brush the hair at her temple. “I’ve got you,” he repeated in a husky voice that sent shivers all the way through her, in spite of the precarious position they were in.
As for Law, he felt the entire universe shift. In a very serious, very unexpected way.
But how could that be happening?
He forced himself to refocus. “If you fall, I’ll catch you. Trust me.”
He wasn’t asking her if she trusted him. He was telling her she could trust him.
They stood there together, body against body, for less than half a minute. Yet it seemed like an eternity to Sidra. At the same time, it wasn’t long enough. It wasn’t nearly long enough. It was time enough, however, for Sidra to realize that her world was never going to be the same again. She was never going to be able to forget the feel of his body against hers, or the look in his eyes when he slowly released her and watched her as she started to climb again.
Somehow she regained her scattered senses and managed to pull herself upwards again. And then she was scrambling over the top and onto flat land. Almost immediately, Law appeared behind her. She heard him swear under his breath. He placed both hands on her shoulders and pushed her down to her knees in the brush.
“Wait here for me.”
He was gone for less than a minute. When he returned, he said to her, “Sidra, you’re going to have to go on without me. There are scavs up there. Lots of them.”
He saw the immediate protest in her eyes but ignored it. “They’re behind a fence. I think it will hold them. There’s a farmhouse off to the left. Stay behind the fence and make your way to the house. It looks clear.”
Law was doing some fast thinking. The house might provide shelter even though he hadn’t checked it out first. He didn’t want her to go alone. He was scared to death about letting her go by herself. But he didn’t have any choice. He had to get Sidra out of the immediate danger. Then when they met up again, they could make a better plan.
She shook her head. “I’m not going without you.”
“Listen to me. I need you to do what I say. When you get to the house, don’t do anything. Don’t go inside if you can avoid it. Just wait there for me.”
She didn’t want to do it, but to his relief, she finally shook her head. “All right.”
“Go now, Sidra.”
She turned to go. But she hesitated. She turned back around. Taking a few steps backwards, she called to him, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
And then she turned and ran.
She kept running. Along the fence. To the very end of the fence. Then across an open clearing. She didn’t stop until she reached the steps leading to the front porch of the farmhouse. She didn’t see a soul, living or dead, anywhere. She listened for any sounds, but heard nothing. Nothing moved in the outbuildings, either. And nothing was following her.
She stepped up onto the porch. Law had told her to wait outside for him if that was possible. But she was too exposed out here. She could just take a quick look inside the first room. She had the gun in her pocket. Then when Law got here . . .
The front door was unlocked. It opened inward with a soft creak. She took one step inside. Should she close the door or leave it open? She still heard nothing, but that didn’t mean she was safe. She stepped into the living room, passed it and looked into the kitchen.
The table was still set. There was still food on the plates. But it had been there for a very long time. The windows were crawling with flies. Huge black flies that filled the window sills with their frantic buzzing to escape. They were on the food, too.
She whirled around.
She had heard something, a scraping noise coming from the downstairs bedroom she had just passed. The door was only partially opened. If something was in there, she needed to know what it was. If it was one of the undead, she might be able to close the door before it was aware of her presence. Law’s words kept re-playing in her mind.
Once you make up your mind, Sidra, don’t hesitate. Hesitating can get you killed.
She slowly pushed the door open, a few inches at a time. Thankfully there were no creaks. She saw it immediately. It wasn’t moving. The dead lay sprawled across the bed. Blood darkened the white bedspread. The top of his head looked like it had been blown off by a shotgun.
The body must have been there a long time. It looked almost mummified but the flies were still buzzing around it.
Sidra was about to back out of the room when she froze. Something fell in the closet of the bedroom. It made a loud metal clank. It sounded like an alarm bell as it hit the wooden floor. The silence that followed was even more deafening.
Something was definitely in the closet. She had half made up her mind to flee the house when she saw the last thing she expected to see. There were two sets of eyes staring back at her from the shadowed interior of the closet. Two children were hiding behind some blankets. Just the top halves of their heads were showing.
The two children obviously didn’t know what to make of her, either. They looked terrified as they stared back at her with huge, shadow-rimmed eyes.
Sidra’s protective instincts immediately took over. She had just opened her mouth, and was about to reassure them when another noise, this one from the back of the house, made her quickly whirl around. Was Law finally here? Or was it someone, or something, else?
She hurried over to the door and looked out into the hallway. As soon as she had done so, a man appeared at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t Law. It was a coarse, filthy-looking man with a mask covering the lower part of his face. There were tattoos across both cheeks. Another man, a smaller one with a sagging face mask, was right behind him. Both men came to a dead stop when they saw her.
Don’t hesitate, Sidra.
She stepped back into to the room and slammed the door shut. With shaking hands she quickly turned the lock. She immediately heard something slam hard against the door. The doorknob rattled violently.
She turned and silently motioned for the children to hide.
They immediately disappeared behind the pile of blankets while Sidra stood there alone in the mess of bloody bedclothes and zombie brains spattered across the bed.
The doorknob continued to rattle and a man’s voice called out roughly from the other side, “Open the damned door.”
.
“I saw you talking to Logan. What did you tell him?”
“Nothing,” the boy said sullenly.
“But you wanted to tell him something.” Galton stared down at the kid dispassionately for several moments before he got down on his heels. He looked closely into Drew’s face. “What have you been saying? No bullshit now. You’ve only been alive his long because I’ve let you be.”
“I don’t wanna die. I won’t say anything.”
<
br /> Galton wasn’t moved in the least by the boy’s pleas to spare his life. In fact, for a brief space of time, he wasn’t even aware of his surroundings. Eventually he shook his head and re-focused.
That’s right. Drew had always tagged along after Logan. There had to be some loyalty there. He was thick with Thayer, too. Both men were gone right now, but either one of them could show up at any time. And then there would be hell to pay. There wouldn’t be any avoiding it this time.
Galton was standing there above the kid, still as a statue when a low, groaning sound came from his throat. As Drew watched, everything that was human seemed to fade from the Galton’s eyes. He looked like a rabid animal that was looking around for something to tear apart. It truly terrified Drew. He didn’t know if Galton was turning, but he knew something was happening to him. Either way, Galton Clune was a dangerous man.
Drew tried reasoning with him again. It was all he had left. “I’ll go away somewhere. I won’t come back.”
“You stay here for a while,” Galton said, almost absently. “And I’ll think it over.”
“You can’t leave me tied up here. What if a dead comes along?”
“Then you’ve got a problem,” Galton said without even looking at him. Right before he left, Galton leaned forward and gagged up a long stream of dark, putrid chunks of vomit. .
Drew Levin flinched from the splatter. He had to make a mighty effort not to puke himself.
Chapter 11
There was a loud commotion outside the door. Grunts. Swearing. Violent pounding. After something heavy rammed it a few times, the door splintered, shattered and crashed inward, banging loudly on its hinges. At first, no one moved. The man who had stumbled headlong into the room first stopped and looked at Sidra. He tore his mask aside so that she could see his hideous grin. He was an ugly, brutish-looking man with a broad, florid face and a straggling, unkempt beard.
Sidra already had Law’s gun in her hands. She raised it, keeping it centered on the man’s chest. “Don’t come any closer,” she warned him.
That stopped him, but she saw that he wasn’t really taking her seriously. Maybe because she was a woman, and maybe because her hands were shaking. “Put that gun down before you hurt somebody.” His eyes roved around the room. “Are you here alone?”
“You can see that I am. Stop! If you come any closer, I swear I will kill you,” she declared, meaning it.
She saw the man hesitate, but something dark and dangerous flared in his eyes as they focused on her. Despite the gun in her hands, he took a step towards her. And then another. He had no intention of listening to her warning, she saw. Aiming for the third button on his shirt, she squeezed the trigger. The gun exploded in her hands.
The man made a guttural, growling sound and a violent spasm shook his entire body. But he continued to move forward. Which terrified her. Had she missed him? That didn’t seem possible. She raised the sagging gun up and fired once more, this time aiming for the same spot below the black scarf that sagged below his throat.
She heard a strangled cry. This time, the man staggered and went to his knees near the foot of the bed. He fell forward, crashed to the floor and didn’t move. Blood immediately began to seep out from beneath him. It spread slowly across the wooden floor.
Sidra tried to back away from the spreading pool of blood, but the other man grabbed her hair and dragged her towards him. She managed to break away from him for a moment, but he lunged forward and reached for her again. She tried everything she could think of to get away from him. She scratched. She kicked. She tried to twist her body out of his grasp. But he jerked her even closer. He was not a big man, however, and she broke away again. When he made an attempt to wrench the gun from her hand, she clawed at his eyes. In a sudden flare of anger, he brutally twisted her wrist, the same one that still held the gun. The weapon crashed to the floor.
Now that the gun was out of her hands, the man became a savage. He grunted like an animal as his arms wrapped around her from behind. She squirmed wildly in his grasp. When she could not get free, she lowered her head and sank her teeth into his arm. He immediately howled but he had loosened his hold for a moment and Sidra took that opportunity to make a run for the door. She fought him desperately, hoping to lead him away from the children. But at the door he stopped her. She tried clawing at his eyes again, but she only managed to scratch his face. Blood welled. Enraged, he grabbed her shoulders, swung her around and slammed her hard against the wall beside the closet. It almost knocked the breath out of her as his body pinned her against the wall. She heard his raspy snarl and felt his rank breath against her face. Then she felt his fingers close around her throat and squeeze. When she tried to fight back, he hit her hard with his fist. So hard that the room became a blur around her.
“Hold still,” he snarled close to her. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She heard a crash, but it seemed to reach her from a distance. She realized it was the sound of the shattered door slamming back on its hinges again.
It was immediately followed by a curse. A familiar one.
She focused on Law standing beside the shattered door with a look in his eyes that both frightened and awed her.
“Take your hands off her.” Law’s voice hissed out from behind his teeth, but it was so quiet that she could barely make out the words. They had an immediate effect on the man who was holding her, however.
He abruptly let her go. And then, without saying a word, he backed away to the other side of the room. He was very different now from what he had been a few moments ago. There was a panicky, trapped look in his eyes.
She heard Law say, “Mogue Hobson.”
The cowering man shrank back, all the way against the wall behind him.
“Long time, no see, Mogue.” There was no mistaking the menace in Law’s tone. “Imagine how surprised I am to see you here.” Law looked coldly at the body on the floor. “I take it that was one of your friends from back at Essex?”
The man was lying on the floor with his face turned sideways and his eyes wide open and staring. There were tattoos on the back of his hands and the dark face cloth was knotted at the back of his neck.
“They made me do it,” Mogue said in a breathless, trembly voice.
“Give me your weapon,” Law ordered him in a voice that was just as hard as the other man’s voice was fragile.
Mogue did what he was told without hesitation.
“Now keep your hands raised where I can see them.”
Mogue lifted his hands till they were on a level with his shoulders. What he didn’t notice was that a few strands of Sidra’s hair were still entwined around his fingers. But Law noticed. Something dark and dangerous narrowed his eyes.
“I- I was wondering where you were,” Mogue began and then licked his lips nervously.
“I’m sure you must have given that some thought a time or two.”
Mogue swallowed hard and breathed a nervous laugh. It died in his throat when he saw the look in Law’s eyes. “Maybe together we could have stopped- ”
“Stopped what? The slaughter back there? The one you helped happen?”
Mogue turned a few shades paler.
“I didn’t say you could put your hands down.”
“My arms are tired,” Mogue whined.
“Better tired than lifeless,” Law said.
“You don’t think that I wanted that to happen back at Essex, do you?”
“So you’re trying to tell me that your conscience is bothering you? Now? I think it’s a little too late for that. Anyway, you didn’t seem so remorseful a few minutes ago when you were shoving her around.”
“I thought she was going to shoot me.”
“The gun was on the floor.”
Law was tempted, sorely tempted to put a bullet in the man where he stood. But Sidra was standing there watching.
“You’re not going to murder me in cold blood?” Mogue asked in a voice that had gone a few decibels higher. “I’m not eve
n armed.”
The body on the floor started moving. The man lurched and eventually flopped over onto his back and breathed out a deep, wheezing groan. Sidra saw then that there were two holes in his chest. She hadn’t missed after all.
Law had no choice but to turn his attention to the man on the floor who was obviously turning.
So Mogue took his opportunity, maybe the only one, to save his life. He bolted through the open door and he took off running. By the time he reached the tree line beyond the farmhouse, he heard a single shot. He didn’t know if it was directed at him. But he wasn’t going to wait for another. He ran like the demons of hell were after him. He ran until they couldn’t see him anymore.
“What were you thinking? Did you seriously think you could take them both on yourself? I’ve told you before not to let yourself get backed into a corner. Maybe I haven’t told you that enough times.”
Law knew he wasn’t being fair. He didn’t know what the circumstances had been. But the truth was that the harshness in his voice was the only way he could cover up the commotion in his chest, the one that he’d experienced when he’d walked in that bedroom to see Sidra being abused by Mogue. When he thought of what might have happened-
“Damn.” It was a wonder his voice came out as calmly as it did, what with his heart still pounding like a runaway freight train in his chest.
That’s when he saw the blood. He swore again as he hurried across the room. “You’re hurt.”
Seeing the look in his eyes, Sidra assured him, “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. There’s blood on the side of your face. You didn’t get bitten, did you?”
She shook her head mutely.
“You’re sure?” He was already checking her over. “Hold still and let me look at you.” He pushed the hair on her neck aside, then brushed it from the side of her face. He gingerly inspected the cut on her cheekbone.
But Sidra wasn’t thinking about her injury. Law’s touch had an immediate effect on her. It got her all fluttery inside. For a moment Sidra forgot everything else around them.