State of (Book 1): State of Decay

by Martinez, P. S.

  “What will you do if I don’t agree?” I asked.

  Jessica tilted her head to the side again, tapping a slim finger on her chin as she considered this. After a moment, she clucked her tongue and stood up straight. “I’m sure whatever it is, I’ll even surprise myself.” She said with a huge grin.

  My eyes widened. Gone was the girl I’d just joked around with a few moments earlier.

  Standing in front of me was a you woman who was completely unhinged and extremely dangerous.

  Had all that we’d just shared been an act?

  I felt the room around me tilt. I put a hand on the table and took a deep breath. My ears were ringing with the truth of my situation. Jess was out of reach. Had been for a very long time I imagined. I choked back a sob working its way up my throat.

  “You always did have a superhero complex, Melody,” Jessica said as she walked towards the door. She turned and met my stare with a glare.

  “But you’re too late. No one here needs fucking saving anymore.” The expression on her face was somewhere between a snarl and smirk.

  I stood there for several minutes after Jessica had flung the door open and stomped out.

  My best friend had died long before I’d ever made it to Charlotte.

  And part of her blamed me.

  *****

  “Mel?”

  I stumbled into the room and locked the door behind me.

  “Melody?” Jude asked again, softer this time.

  I glanced up into his eyes. Tears began spilling over and I couldn’t stop them.

  He made a noise of hurt and frustration and yanked me into his arms.

  “It’s all my fault,” I said. “If only I’d have come for her sooner. If only I’d—”

  My words were cut off, my breath robbed from me as Jude gathered me into his arms and hugged me to him so forcefully that I thought my back might crack. His face and nose were buried into the sensitive area between my neck and shoulder and his hands roamed my back, trying to pull me closer, as if to absorb me into himself.

  My tears slowed and I hugged Jude back with everything I had in me. I moved my face off of Jude’s chest a moment later to look up into his concerned eyes. I put a hand on his cheek, feeling the two days worth of stubble there, rough under my hand. His eyes widened as I reached up and let me hand twine into the dark brown hair as the nap of his neck. I pulled him to me and pressed my lips to waiting ones.

  I could smell Jude and spices and soap. I moaned as he pulled me in closer, his hand grabbing my ass to pull me further into him. I could feel him hard against my lower stomach. When he pulled back, we were both breathing heavy. Jude’s eyes were the most attractive shade of molasses when he was passionate.

  “I’m sorry. We should sto—”

  I cut him off with my mouth and by rubbing myself against him, suddenly feeling the need to drown everything else out with the one thing that was real to me. Jude.

  Jude came up for air, his hand entangled in my hair that had slipped out of a ponytail.

  “God. You slay me, Melody Carter,” he murmured against my neck, biting the sensitive skin there.

  I gasped and leaned even further into him.

  “You’ve completely invaded me, Mel,” he said gruffly.

  I pulled him gently until we were next to the bed.

  “I want you, Jude,” I whispered.

  He eyes dilated slightly and his hand tightened on the back of my neck.

  “Are you sure?” he asked huskily. I nodded quickly.

  He didn’t need any other encouragement. His mouth crashed down to mine and we stripped out of our clothes, never losing contact with each other in the process. He kissed me as he yanked both of our pants off. I ran kisses along his abs, his pecs, and his neck as his shirt slowly lifted over his head. He replied in kind, paying special attention to my navel and breasts.

  His eyes never left me for a second when we stood entirely naked in front of each other. I could feel a blush working its way over my cheekbones. I’d never stood like this in front of a man.

  Only Jude.

  “You’re a fucking goddess,” Jude said in a growl.

  I smiled and took a single step forward into the circle of Jude’s arms. My nipples grazed his bare chest and he sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.

  “You’re not so bad yourself, Agent,” I murmured huskily, reaching down to take the length of him in my hand.

  Jude picked me up and laid me on the bed and showed me in vivid detail exactly what kind of weapons a special agent had in his arsenal.

  It’s All so Fucking Hysterical

  I woke up in Jude’s arms early the next morning. I breathed in deeply, taking in the smell of him, the way his arm felt draped across my hip. I never wanted it to end. If only we didn’t have to worry about everything else, I would have been content to lay there forever.

  Reality is a bitch.

  A few moments later we were both up and dressed. I felt only a teensy bit awkward after what we’d just done. After all, it had only been my second time, and I still wasn’t sure where we stood with each other. What was Jude thinking?

  “So, what’s the plan?” Jude asked, interrupting my thought of him and fabulous sex.

  I looked at him curiously.

  He asked, “What?” His grin titled a little to the left and made him even more handsome. “You know more than I do.”

  I smiled, despite myself. “Well, I’m not really sure.”

  Oh! The note. I’d forgotten all about it. I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out the note Tex had passed to me.

  “Looks like we’re supposed to have some help.” I handed the note over to Jude.

  “Watch for my diversion.” Jude read aloud. He raised a brow. “What diversion?” he asked.

  I shrugged. Hell if I knew.

  “Can we really trust him?” He muttered under his breath. He wasn’t asking me, not really. So, I didn’t answer.

  “He did tell me about the prisoners,” I offered.

  Jude let that sink in.

  “Still, you didn’t trust him enough to ask him about our people,” Jude said.

  I’d give that to him. My gut said that Tex was on our side, but my gut also had said Jess would listen to reason. I knew now how fucking wrong I’d been there.

  We were still considering our options, talking softly to each other, when a hard knock on our door a few hours later shut us up.

  Jude and I glanced at each other uneasily. There really was no telling what we were getting ourselves into. I could only hope and pray that whatever Tex had up his sleeve would be good enough to give us an edge for what was in store for us.

  When we passed through empty hallways and an equally empty rec room, I felt a stab of apprehension in the back of my skull.

  Where is everyone?

  What was worse was that we climbed the stairs that had led us into the base the first day, the ones that led back out into the toy factory and then out into the open city. I shuddered.

  By the time we entered the toy factory, my uneasiness had tripled, and I wondered if I should make a move to take the guard down. I glanced over at Jude and he shook his head once. No.

  It took me a moment to realize that we were headed to the very back of the factory instead of through the front sliding doors we had entered through two days ago.t

  I didn’t see what we were headed into, but I could hear something.

  When we went through the double doors in the back of the factory, it took me a full minute to really grasp what I was seeing through the blinding sunlight, to understand what it was I was hearing.

  Jude sucked in a breath next to me and it was only his presence that made me feel grounded, like I wasn’t dreaming or imagining the awfulness that was reality.

  The scene in front of me made no sense, but then again, neither did a world chock-full of the living dead. We had walked out into what appeared to be a fenced-in shipping and receiving area for the abandoned toy factory.
All of the semi-trucks had been arranged in a circle, bumper to bumper, and on top of the trailers sat tons and tons of people. There was Trunchbull sitting next to Nondescript Guy, both of their eyes following us as we entered.

  Everyone was screaming and cheering. Alarm raced up my back. What the fuck were thinking? This much noise would draw the dead for miles!

  I took a step out of the doorway that I was standing in and realized they had lined the trucks up out of the shipping area in such a way that people could walk out of the factory and up a ramp, straight to the tops of the trucks. The short, stocky African American guard that had led us out of the base nudged me. I took another step forward with Jude right beside me.

  When I reached the top of the first truck, I stopped, feeling dizzy from the view before me. Two semis divided the circle in half, parked with the back bumper of each one touching one another to make a bridge of sorts across the circle.

  Over a hundred zombies roamed freely in both sides of the circle. I immediately stepped away from the edge, my hand going to place that my knife should have been.

  “What the fuck?” Jude hissed.

  The guard made us keep walking.

  I glanced across the circle and spotted barbed wire poking out from under each truck. Large, wooden pikes pointed straight out toward the arena of undead to keep them corralled within the circle of semis. These people thought that made them safe, they thought they were in control of the situation.

  A small bubble of laughter worked its way past my lips.

  “Finding something funny again, Mel?” Jessica’s voice threw a bucket of ice-cold realization in my face as I turned to face her. She had traded in her all black getup in favor of black leather pants and a blood red jacket with a black sequined tank top underneath. The jacket had a very circus ringmaster quality to it. All very theatrical. Her eyes bore into mine.

  “Well, it kind of tickles me to think of all the arrogance the person who built this must be burdened to walk around with on a daily basis.” I shrugged. “Yeah, I find that funny.”

  I didn’t see her hand whip out, but when I turned back to meet the hatred in her eyes, I wiped the blood away from the corner of my mouth and smiled.

  “Oh, that wasn’t you, was it?” I asked, my eyes wide in mock horror.

  The second openhanded slap was well worth the look on her face. Besides, she still hit like a girl. I barely bit back another laugh. I didn’t want to goad her into pushing me over the side of the bus too early in her day’s planned festivities.

  “What is all of this?” I asked, motioning towards the screaming and cheering people and down to the gurgling, moaning zombies right below us.

  Her smile told me everything I already knew but didn’t want to believe.

  “This is just a little entertainment that I’ve prepared for our guests,” she said loudly.

  Everyone nearby cheered at her words. The blood in my veins chilled.

  “Let’s go.” The guard behind me gave me a shove and it took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to turn around and smash his nose into his skull.

  When we reached the center of the circle where the semis formed a bridge, Jessica and Dax were given folding chairs to sit on. Dax’s bald head glinted in the sunlight and his ensemble somewhat matched Jessica’s. Someone else set a third chair in between the two of them.

  “Come and sit by me,” she purred from her throne.

  I glanced over at Jude and then back at the chair. Jessica laughed loudly and motioned for me to take the seat.

  Jude nodded at me.

  When I sat down between them, I saw several more armed men heading our way. They also had a familiar face with them, the man who I’d threatened with a knife the day before. Scarface.

  What the hell?

  “We’ve been having troubles with Hosea here for a while now. After your little altercation day before yesterday, I decided to make an example of him and have him punished.”

  I narrowed my eyes and waited for the other shoe to fall. Jessica smiled when she spoke the next words.

  “I’ve decided to let Jude do the honors.” She nodded over at Jude as if she were bestowing some great honor upon him. “A fight to the death,” she finished.

  I jumped to my feet only to find myself with Dax’s hand around my throat and his knife biting into my jugular. He made a clucking sound of disappointment.

  Jude lunged at Dax, his brown eyes feral with unrepressed anger.

  It took three men to hold Jude back and even then they had a hard time.

  “Stop fighting, or I will cut her throat,” Dax spat, his goatee quivering.

  He dug his knife into my throat to make his point and I hissed at the sharp pain.

  Jude immediately stilled. Jessica laughed again. She stood up and walked over to Jude to run a hand up and down his chest. I stiffened, feeling an unreasonable amount of rage rush through my body.

  “Ah, so that wasn’t all a show, you do have a thing going on with Melody,” she said gleefully. “That makes this so much more fun.”

  My hands balled into fists at my sides and Jude mirrored the action. I almost smiled.

  “You will fight, or she will die, either by my hand or by the undead ripping her to pieces,” Dax said against my temple and then placed a small lick there. Jude strained forward before catching himself. I shuddered.

  “I’ll fight,” Jude said. His body was calm, but his eyes. . . his eyes were another story.

  Jessica nodded to the men holding Jude. They led him to the edge of the bus and one of them jumped down to the hood of the first semi. One of the guards shoved Hosea and he scrambled not to fall off of the top of the truck and into the nest of hungry zombies below.

  I closed my eyes when Jude was similarly shoved. He landed easily on the hood of the truck and then followed behind Hosea as he made his way to the top of the two truck trailers.

  One of the guards took Hosea all the way to the end of the second trailer and then handed him a knife before jumping down to the hood of the truck at the other side of the circle. Jude was also given a knife and left alone at his end of the trailer.

  I stood at the edge of the arena, looking out at the two men, each grasping a knife, each standing on the roof of their truck trailer. Then, a shot landed near Jude’s feet, a warning that he could be shot at any time if he chose not to play their little game. Jude glanced back at me for one second but seeing me at the edge of the truck’s roof with Dax’s arm around my neck and the zombies below thrashing wildly to get at us was enough.

  Jude ran.

  And my heart stopped.

  Jude and Hosea met in the middle, both swinging their knives and trying to avoid the slashing of their opponent’s steel. Jude ducked as Hosea slashed out high, aiming for his face.

  Hosea’s leg caught Jude behind the knees and Jude rolled close enough to the edge of the trailer to cause the undead to writhe and moan at the promise of a fresh meal. I bucked against the restraints of Dax’s arms, only to realize how close we were to the edge of the pit. If I did pull myself free, I would likely end up plummeting off of the trailer and right into the welcoming hands of dozens and dozens of zombies.

  “Looks like Jude underestimated his opponent,” Jessica said with her eyes still on the fight. “That’s so like a soldier,” she spat.

  I turned my eyes back to the fight just in time to see Hosea’s blade slice across Jude’s stomach. I cried out while Jessica stood there and smiled.

  “Why are you doing this? What happened to the girl I used to know?” I asked.

  Jude stumbled to the side and drove Hosea back several feet.

  “The girl you knew is dead,” she said calmly. “The Army made sure of that.”

  I shook my head, unable to take that for the truth. “You may wish the girl you once were was dead, but I know better. She’s there somewhere, hiding in the recesses of your conscience. This person you’ve become isn’t you, Jess,” I said, my voice pleading, begging for her to acknow
ledge the truth.

  She turned her face to me, and I shrunk back from the force of her gaze.

  “Jessica is dead. Germain is who I am now.” Her voice whipped across my skin, raising goose bumps along my arms.

  I opened my mouth to argue, but the crowds cheered loudly, drawing my attention back to Jude. He was blocking Hosea’s attack.

  Just as Hosea plunged forward, Jude moved to the side at the last second and pulled his knife across Hosea’s stomach. Blood blossomed on Hosea’s white shirt and he stumbled, lost his footing, and teetered over the edge of the trailer.

  It all happened so fast and yet it seemed like it all happened in slow motion at the same time. Jude leapt forward, reaching for Hosea, grabbing for his arm with his blood-covered hand, only to have Hosea’s hand slip right through his as he plunged into the middle of the zombie mosh pit. The crowd held its breath for an extra-long second before they once again erupted into applause, cheers, and whoops of delight.

  “Well now, that’s a bit of a surprise,” Dax said. “Hosea was one of our best knife fighters.”

  I shook my head, trying to clear the buzzing there. Jude was heading back across the tops of the semis, his eyes on me and Jim with a look of such calm and clarity that it was a hundred times more terrifying than his rage.

  When he reached the end of the semi, a guard was there waiting for Jude to hand over his knife. His eyes met mine, his hand clenched around the hilt of the knife. The guard visibly stiffened and raised his gun, and Jude threw the knife at the guard’s feet with a sneer.

  “That was a bit anticlimactic,” Jessica said when Jude joined us. “I guess it’s a good thing I have more fun planned for you both, now isn’t it?” Jessica took her seat once again and then nodded to a soldier still on the hood of the semi that Jude had just fought on.

  He ran across the bridge and continued back toward the shipping and receiving terminal until I lost sight of him.

  “Now that we’ve seen what Uncle Sam’s finest can do, let’s see what the offspring of Uncle Sam’s finest can handle.” Jessica smiled over at me, her blue eyes narrowed and pleased with herself.