Jude shouted and only a gun to my head stopped him from morphing Hulk-style and kicking someone’s face in. Dax gave me a slimy kiss at my temple before pushing me forward into the waiting arms of another armed guard.
I was prepared for the push when it came but landing on a metal roof without sliding right off the side was not as easy as it looked, even with well-tread combat boots on. Still, the moaning and gurgling of a mob of undead was motivation enough for me to keep my wits about me.
I found my footing and climbed to the trailer of the semi.
The guard behind me tossed me the knife that Jude had finished with, the blood still fresh on the blade. I picked it up, wiping it off on my pants. Despite the situation, a sense of calm and rightness descended upon me. I smiled at the guard.
His eyes widened fractionally, and his hand tightened around the gun he carried. He should have been worried. I was pissed and I was feeling quite ready to tear someone apart with my bare hands.
He had handed me my weapon of choice, and I knew how to use it—very, very well.
Movement out of my peripheral vision alerted me to the newest surprise that Jessica Germain had in store for me. The guard that left earlier led a rag tag group of men and one woman along the tops of the semis on the other side of the circle from Jessica, Dax, and Jude.
I squinted in the sunlight, wondering if Jessica planned to make me fight all of them. Then, I finally realized something. These were the soldiers that Jessica had been holding captive. She was going to make me fight the soldiers we’d come to free.
How perfectly ironic.
I wasn’t sure I could fight an innocent. Hosea had been one thing. The guy was a slimeball. But an innocent?
What should I do, Daddy? I thought.
One of the guards pushed a disheveled older guy with white-gray hair forward and just by the way he held himself and his eyes raked over the guard, I knew he was probably the highest-ranking soldier of the bunch. His black eyes watched the guard with such a fiery hatred I was surprised he didn’t spontaneously combust into a heap of ash.
They shoved him until he landed on the top of the semi with a thud.
I clenched my jaw and held myself as rigid as possible. Where was Tex and his big distraction when I needed it? I couldn’t fight this soldier—an innocent man. I couldn’t.
I glanced back at Jude, noting the look of disgust on his face. He met my gaze and I knew what he was trying to tell me, but I didn’t know if I could do what he would want me to. Even what my dad would have wanted me to. Survive. No matter the cost. Just survive.
But what was the point of survival if you lost yourself in the process?
I turned my head and met Jessica’s gaze. Nothing in her face said she was human anymore. Before she looked at the world with wide, innocent eyes. Flirting eyes. Happy eyes. Now I only saw hate, revenge, rage, and a power high.
I turned back in time to see the soldier standing on the semi across from me. He held an identical blade to my own, a myriad of emotions crossing his face. Horror, hate for his captors, disgust for the situation, and . . . determination.
I would’ve expected no less.
My arm came up automatically. The eyes of the soldier widened and then cleared as I stood there and gave him the perfect salute. Respect.
I heard the shot. I guess I expected it—expected it to land near my feet like it had with Jude. However, I didn’t expect the explosion of pain to tear through my left arm.
In a haze, I heard Jude bellowing in rage and saw the soldier move forward before a shot stopped him short of coming near me. I glanced down at my arm and raised my right hand with the blade still in it, hovering over the bloody wound on my bicep.
Besides the moaning and gurgling of the undead in the arena, everything was eerily quiet.
I shook my head, trying to snap out of my shock and pain, and moved around slowly until I faced Germain, not the least bit surprised to see her standing there with a gun pointed in my direction. I stared at her until she lowered her gun and sat back down into her chair like nothing had happened. Like she hadn’t stood there and shot her best friend.
I nodded at her and made a promise with that nod. She was mine. She had to die, and I was going to be the one to make it happen. She smiled after a moment and nodded back.
Jude was face down on the trailer with three guys holding him and Dax’s eyes were wide and unblinking, as if what had just happened had even shocked him.
Well, la-dee-fucking-da, that was only one of us.
I snagged the edge of my shirt and cut through the edge, ripping away a large piece of fabric. I wrapped the fabric around my wound and tied it tightly, hissing at the pain and wishing away the gray spots that danced before my eyes. The wound wasn’t as bad as it looked.
I was pretty sure the bullet had gone straight through.
But when I faced the soldier, I saw his look. He was going to refuse to fight me, to put on the show they wanted. I met his gaze and jerked my head once to the side. Germain would put a bullet through his head. I was sure of it.
I held my knife out and walked forward.
He hesitated only a moment before jogging forward to meet me. The crowd around us went crazy and I was glad for the noise. I met the soldier at the end of my truck trailer and immediately struck out, catching his arm with the tip of my blade. His eyes widened.
“Sir,” I gasped, leaning in and pretended to grab him by the arm and hold off his attack, blade-to-blade. “I’m trying to get you and your men out of here.”
He elbowed me in the stomach, and I fell back on my butt with a grunt.
He was good at this. I scrambled back to my feet just in time to miss his forward lunge. This time, though, he knocked me off my feet and I found myself on the receiving end of a soldier’s strength straddling me, his knife pressing down, a wedding band glinting on a dirty finger.
His darkened eyes met mine. A gentleman’s eyes. His face weary and heavily wrinkled. Maybe he used to be someone’s grandpa.
“If you have to kill me,” he gasped, “do it. Just try to get my men out of here.”
I nodded once and pushed up, trying to dislodge his body from mine. I was strong, but not strong enough. The soldier staggered off of me anyway.
I quickly regained my feet, and so did he.
We were both weak, him from being held captive and me from my wound. We were both already breathing hard, and blood was soaking through the wrapping on my arm. I raised my knife and the soldier smiled a very small, understanding smile.
He was ready.
I gulped back my tears and hesitation and leapt forward. The soldier didn’t try to dodge my attack. But right as my arm slashed forward, a series of explosions nearby rocked me off of my feet.
Tex.
Diversion Delivered
I stood up, my ears ringing, unable to hear what was going on around me. But I could see the utter chaos surrounding me, along with sheer devastation. The undead were moving rapidly. People had fallen off of the tops of the semis they had been perched on. Smoke filled the entire area cutting down visibility.
I grasped hold of the soldier’s arm and pulled him in close.
“That’s our cue, Sir!” I shouted. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
The soldier smiled tightly at me and nodded.
We turned to face where his men were, but the semi that led back to his men was mangled and dislodged from its normal spot. There was no way we could go back that way. I couldn’t see through the cloud of black smoke to where Jude would have been, and I felt fear, sharp and bitter.
I knew he would want me to go on with the mission.
I had to believe he was okay, and we would meet up in a few minutes.
Another explosion rocked us back down to our knees and the smell of burning undead flesh permeated the air all around us. We both stumbled to our feet and I saw the only way we were going to be able to get out was to jump into the zombie horde.
The last blast had
punched a hole right in the middle of the undead. We only had a small window of time to take advantage of it. I pointed the spot out to the soldier, and he nodded.
He waved his arms to one of his guys and then waved them back toward the shipping area.
I could see the man trying to round up his group, to keep them moving, but in the hoopla of the grenades going off and zombies running free, people were panicking and trying to get back to the sanctuary of the base.
That made them do stupid things.
Survivors were knocking others off of the trailers and into the arms of the undead in their frenzy to get to safety. Regular people, armed guards, and a few of the soldier’s people fell off of the side of the trailers.
I saw Scuzzy Shaggy as he fell into the pit. He landed badly and I could tell from where I stood that his leg was bent at the wrong angle. A huge female zombie lumbered to him and fell on him without delay. I can’t say that I was sad.
Asshole had it coming to him.
“Let’s go!” I shouted and pulled roughly on the soldier’s sleeve to tear his eyes away from the horrible scene.
He snapped back to reality and we both jumped from the roof of the truck and into the pits of Hell.
We ran full out and even being hurt, the adrenaline was pumping, and the promise of freedom pushed us on. We had to fight tooth and nail for every few feet that we advanced.
My wound was a dull, throbbing pain in the back of my mind while I struck out time after time and ran my blade into the skull of as many zombies as were unlucky enough to get in my path. The older soldier beside me was holding his own, taking down nearly as many as I was. Shots echoed all around us and mass hysteria ruled.
We were within thirty feet of the shipping and receiving area when I tripped, landing hard. My chin rebounded off the pavement hard enough to make me wonder if I broke my jaw.
When I tried to stand, I realized that I hadn’t tripped over anything, I’d been grabbed by a zombie that had been blown in half. The upper half of the almost-incapacitated zombie had a death grip on my booted foot and was pulling itself up my body, looking for a soft spot to sink its grotesque teeth into.
I kicked with all my strength, but I couldn’t dislodge the zombie leech. Another zombie, this one bloated and squishy with opaque skin and blue veins stumbled upon us and decided to get in on the action.
With a scream of terror, I kicked the zombie holding onto my leg in the face until its head snapped back and cracked at such an angle that it twisted around and dangled from its neck.
The second one was on top of me before I could blink, and I held it off by sheer strength and a fist to its throat. My hand kept sliding away from its weirdly rubberized skin. It’s once-blue eyes were now so covered in a milky film that they were all but white.
I could feel my left arm weakening, my strength draining as my open wound began taking its toll.
Just when my arm wavered dangerously, a bullet entered the right side of the zombie’s skull and exited its left side, expelling a large portion of brain matter and bits of bone in the process. More slush than should have been possible landed in my lap.
I shoved the body off of me with the very last bit of strength I possessed. When a hand reached out to help me up, I took it and allowed myself to be pulled to my feet, where I looked into a pair of familiar golden-brown eyes.
I cried out in sheer relief and threw myself into Jude’s arms. His familiar warmth and scent surrounded me, his muscled arms crushing me to his chest.
“Let’s get these people to safety, huh?” He murmured against my hair.
The soldier handed me my blade and as I took it, I found a pair of eyes in the crowd near the place we were all headed fastened on me. Tex. He nodded to me before going back and barking orders out to some of the soldiers we were there to help.
We kept moving amongst the chaos of people killing, people dying, zombies running about freely, and everyone trying to get back to safety made my head spin.
“Melody. I have a truck ready for you at the front of the factory. You’re going to have to hurry though.” Tex tossed me a gun and I tucked into the back of my pants.
“Thank you, Tex. We owe you big time.”
He shook his head. “I owe you both,” he said without preamble. “I’ve been the only one here for weeks. I’d never felt so helpless before.”
“Major Parsons! Thank goodness!” a young female soldier hollered out as she joined us.
I swung around, eyes widening. Major Parsons? Jude’s uncle?
I caught Jude’s gaze. He nodded once in my direction a wide smile splitting his face.
“How many, Renee?” the gray-haired major asked without preamble.
The young woman’s face fell when she answered. “Four, Sir. Michaelson, James, Torres, and Astor. We’re fourteen now, Sir.” She stepped back and let the Major have a second to digest. Her big, brown eyes were downcast. She ran a hand through her shoulder length curly mop and sighed.
“Major, did Manuel or Big Ben make it here?” I asked quickly. The major glanced over at Renee. She nodded.
“They did. They’re among our numbers.” he answered. I sagged in relief.
“We need to move,” Tex said tersely. There would be time to reflect and mourn later. We had to get out of there fast. Tex turned to Jude. “What about Germain?” he asked.
Jude’s eyes met mine as he answered. “I didn’t see what happened to her in the chaos and smoke. I did make sure Dax wouldn’t be bothering us ever again though,” he said hollowly.
I closed my eyes.
Should I go back and search for Germain? Or should I just get the hell out of dodge?
When I opened my eyes and found all the people I’d come to save watching me, I knew I had to deal with Germain later. I needed to make sure these people would be okay. That was the most important thing.
“Let’s blow this popsicle stand,” I said.
We all ran toward the one place no one else was headed, the front of the factory, where only a tall, barb-wire-topped fence stood between us and an open, zombie-infested city.
An eighteen-wheeler was waiting for us when we reached the front of the factory, the engine running. Inside was Manuel grinning like a fool. I nearly cried when I saw him. He looked tired and a little worse for wear, but he was alive and that’s all that mattered.
A few of the soldiers with us immediately loaded up in the back. In front of the semi sat an Army tank outfitted with high powered machine guns.
Jude whistled, taking it in. “Riding in style,” he grunted.
“Only a tank would do to get us out of this mess,” Tex answered soberly.
“What do you think, Melody? Would you like to ride in my tank? You can sit on my lap and . . .” Tex’s teasing voice faltered and he turned to face me.
I stood in the doorway of the factory, not daring to breathe or make any sudden movements. Jessica Germain stood barely three feet away, her gun pointing between my eyes, and blood dripping from a fresh bite on her exposed shoulder. Her blond hair was flattened to her scalp on one side and matted with blood and soot. Her sharp cheekbones that made her the most photogenic girl at in high school were now hollow and shadowed.
I cursed the gun at the small of my back. Fat lot of good it would do me in this moment.
I sensed Jude shift on his feet.
“Fucking move an inch and I will kill her before you get a round off,” she hissed.
Everyone froze, aware that my life was in the balance and that the balance was off her freaking rocker.
“Jessica, just let this go. Haven’t we lost enough? Hasn’t there been enough death and pain already?” I asked with a shaky voice.
She laughed and the sound sent a chill up my spine.
“What do you know about loss? Your father died—so what? He was military. Your mom died in a clean hospital with an IV full of medicine to help ease her pain.”
I flinched at the mention of my mom.
“You want to know
how my mom died, Mel? My mom died in a filthy city street after my dad bit into her jugular and ripped her throat out. Then he turned around and took a chunk out of my baby brother’s arm. We got away though.” She nodded her head and her finger twitched enough to make me flinch. “It wasn’t until later that I realized he was changing into the exact things that were swarming all around us. I didn’t even have a fucking gun to stop him!”
Her scream tore through my heart and a sob escaped me.
“No gun. I did find a crowbar though,” she said calmly. “That’s how I had to bring my sweet, gentle, little brother down. With a fucking crowbar.” Her arm steadied and her voice calmed. “Tell me again, Mel. Tell me how we’ve suffered.”
“I’m sorry, Jess,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
Her lip curled up in a sneer, her hand steadied, and I knew it was the end.
“Oh, I have no doubt you’re sorry, Mel. But not as sorry as you’re about to be. Not as sorry as you’ll be when you’ve lost everything like I have.”
Her arm shifted and I reached back to grab the gun from the small of my back.
Not quick enough, I thought as she swung around and aimed directly at . . . Jude.
My mind screamed out as I pulled my weapon and aimed.
Not quick enough.
I pulled the trigger, but I heard her gun fire a split second before mine did.
Not quick enough.
My bullet hit her right in the temple.
Hers hit him right in the chest.
Not quick enough.
Zombies vs. Tanks
I fell to my knees next to Jude. He was losing so much blood. His face was ashen. His breathing labored.
He can’t possibly survive with so much blood pooling everywhere, I thought. Not Jude. Please no, I whispered to no one in particular.
I still hadn’t told him how I felt about him. How my heart pitter pattered when he was near. I needed to have the chance to tell him that and more.
I sat there stroking Jude’s hair everything around me moving in slow motion.
Major Parsons yelled something at me. An order I was pretty sure.
State of (Book 1): State of Decay Page 22