Love and Decay

by Rachel Higginson

  I couldn’t help myself. I shoved his shoulder and met hard resistance. There was nothing but muscle and steel hidden beneath his shirt. I ignored that and said, “I’m not going to die. I’m going to keep him from dying. Trust me.”

  He shook his head again. “That’s the thing though. I don’t trust you.”

  I admired his honesty even if his words stung. “Then learn. Fast.”

  The corner of his lips kicked up in half a smile. “You’re going to do this with or without me, aren’t you?”

  “You’re damn right.”

  “And your brothers?”

  I rolled my eyes. “They know I’m like this. You’re not going to have to explain anything to them.”

  The second half of his mouth joined the first. “You owe me for this.”

  He turned around, jerking his head for Trish to follow him. I whisper-shouted after him. “If this works, it’s going to be you that owes me!”

  “Where are they going?” Crash demanded.

  “We’re saving that man,” I told him. “They’re going to cause a little redirection.” I turned to hold his gaze. “Be ready.”

  “Be ready?” His head jerked back and his hand shot up. “You’re kidding?”

  “I’m not. So be ready or get out. If you’re not going to help me you can go wait at the car.”

  “You wouldn’t even know how to get back to the car!” he argued. “There is no getting out. I’m in this whether I want to be or not.”

  “Do you want to be?”

  He turned back to face the man on the brink of death. “Of course I want to be. Micah is a good guy.”

  “That’s his name?” Crash nodded. “I hope so. Because we’re probably going to have to carry him out of here. Which means we’ll be moving slowly. Which means we’ll probably get shot.”

  “Girl, you are full of positive energy. Just stop already.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Just want you to be prepared.”

  He looked at me and rolled his eyes. “I’m prepared. Trust me. I’m prepared.”

  Ten minutes later gunshot peppered the air. I leaned forward, careful to stay in our hiding spot, but anxious to see what Luke had come up with.

  More gunfire rent the air, pulling the attention off the helpless victim in the square. A low murmur rumbled through the crowd. At first they hadn’t thought much of it, but now their curiosity was peaked.

  The first guard stopped pummeling Micah and slowly the second one stood up as well. A scream pierced the air. “Fire!” Shouted someone else.

  More gunshots.

  I couldn’t see the fire, but the way the crowd reacted encouraged me that something big was happening.

  Soon I could smell the smoke and see it billowing overhead. Several of the guards leapt into action, racing for the building inferno.

  The air felt dry and the ground had been nothing but dirt and dust the entire way over. I crossed my fingers that the conditions were just right for a challenging distraction.

  I gripped the blades in my hands more firmly. I was ready to rescue Micah as soon as I could get to him.

  The guards had stepped away from him as they watched all their other guard buddies race for the fire. Micah sagged against the post that held him captive. His shoulders hunched over his bloodied torso and if it weren’t for that bound leg, he would have collapsed on the ground.

  “Another one!” Someone shouted.

  A Colony soldier yelled, “Stay where you are! Don’t move!”

  The crowd huddled together. They weren’t silent anymore. They were terrified. The fire caught quickly and soon even I could see the flames as they licked at the two story building. Across the square, on the other side, another building was just beginning to burn. The guards on the wall started rushing to help and soon everyone but the two hovering over Micah were working to put out the fire.

  I heard one of the guards shout, “Get the people to help or this whole place is going to burn!”

  Guards filed back into the plaza and grabbed at men and women, forcing them to pitch in and help extinguish the burning buildings.

  The guards that had beaten Micah senseless soon had to give up their fun job of torture to help out with the spreading fire. Water stores were wheeled in on wagons and buckets were passed quickly around. Wet blankets were thrown around the perimeters and angry shouts boomed above the roar of the fire.

  I turned to Crash. “Ready?”

  He jerked his chin. “Let’s go.”

  We sprinted into the open, heading straight to Micah. He didn’t even notice us which gave me hope. But unfortunately he was the only person that was oblivious to us.

  By the time we’d reached him and his post, several of the bystanders had turned around to watch us. I heard a spike in volume and knew they were talking about us, but my mind was completely absorbed with cutting Micah free and getting the hell out of here.

  Crash immediately started working on the leather straps that bound Micah’s leg and I went for his hands. Micah jerked away. His eyes were nearly swollen shut, so he struggled to tilt his head back to see us.

  “We’re friends,” I mumbled quietly. “We’re here to get you out.”

  His voice was weak and his mouth was so swollen it sounded like he had stuffed his cheeks with marbles. “This is because of you?”

  “Yes.” I reached for his hands again and this time he let me. The leather binds constricted his wrists to raw, angry bleeding. I slashed them straight down the middle where his hands separated. The leather straps fell to the ground and Micah wobbled from relief.

  “This whole town is going to burn to the ground,” he struggled to say.

  I hunched over so I was sure he could see my face. “But you’re not going to die. At least not today.”

  He wheezed. He had to lean over to suck breath through broken ribs and all manner of pain. “Okay,” he panted. “Okay.”

  I bent over to help Crash with Micah’s leg. We worked our sharp blades through the thick leather ties. We remained as quiet as possible, but people had started to notice us.

  It would only be a matter of seconds before the Colony guards lifted their heads from their tasks and saw us.

  The pressure built in my chest and adrenaline spiked in my blood. We needed to go.

  When Micah’s leg was free from the tight bonds, he neared collapse, but Crash had enough foresight to stand up quickly and catch him under the arm. Both men grunted from the effort to stay standing.

  “I can’t move my leg,” Micah winced. It was the leg that had been tied up. His pant leg as well as his whole body were drenched in blood as well.

  I clutched his other side until I could slide under his arm, supporting him. Obviously he was a grown man, but it was hard to tell how old he was when his face looked like… well, like that… but his body was as tall and thick as any of my brothers.

  I sagged under his weight and tried to stay on my feet.

  “We have to go,” I hissed at Crash.

  We stumbled the first couple steps while Micah’s leg dragged behind us. I made the mistake of glancing back at the crowd and cringed when I found eyes on us. The guards were still busy… but it would only be a matter of-

  “Hey!”

  “Hey there!”

  “Shit! We gotta move!” Crash picked up his pace, shoving Micah and consequently me into the closest alley. The echoing sound of gunshots followed after us.

  A voice screamed in the distance and I wasn’t sure if it was because of us or the fires, but I pushed on. I didn’t have time to do anything but run and focus on running.

  The alley was barely wide enough to accommodate all three of us. I bounced off the brick wall next to me, jostling Micah who would wince and groan every time.

  At the end of an alley, we rushed into another. Crash took a sharp turn and then another sharp turn, always keeping to the shadows.

  Twilight turned to dusk, which was quickly turning to night. The sun wasn’t visible anymore,
so the shadows from the building broadened over the ground and hid us in them.

  Footsteps pounded nearby and Crash had us press into an alcove of a building for several minutes. Angry guards ran in every direction. I closed my eyes and tried not to panic.

  Crash and I continued to support Micah in an upright position. He faded in and out of consciousness and every time he blacked out his body would weigh us down.

  A shout from the square forced the footsteps to run in the opposite direction from us. I let out a breath of relief and wiped at the sweat dotting my forehead.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Crash whispered.

  “Don’t think like that,” I ordered. “We don’t have a choice. We have to make it. If we don’t make it we end up like this guy. Do whatever it takes. But we freaking make it.”

  Crash huffed out a breath. “Okay, yeah. Alright, let’s go then.”

  We started off again, navigating the maze of buildings and streets as best we could. Sometimes Micah was awake and could struggle along with us. Sometimes we had to drag him. A few more times we ducked into hiding and waited out the search party.

  Our saving grace was that most of the guards were fighting the fire. And by the sounds of things they’d be dealing with those fires for a while yet.

  I could hear the roar of the inferno from where we were. Smoke saturated the air and the smell trailed us everywhere.

  “That way,” Crash grunted. “We’re almost there.”

  I took the lead on a corner and stupidly didn’t check if the way was clear. A guard stood there as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

  Thinking as quickly as I could, I dropped Micah’s arm and shoved him back into the alley. Crash never made it around the corner.

  The guard raised a gun and looked me over. “You did this?”

  “Yes.”

  He stared at me with an unbelieving, wild look in his eyes. It was too dark to make out his distinct features, but I got the gist. Man, tall, middle-age… gun. “You’re a girl.”

  “A girl that will burn every single Colony settlement to the ground if I have to.”

  His gun didn’t waver, but his resolve seemed to. “Why? For power? For revenge?”

  “For peace.”

  “You’re not going to-”

  A gun shot rang through the air and the victim made a horrific gasping sound and fell to his knees. His gun jumped from his hands and landed a foot from me.

  I lunged for it, picking it up quickly and trying not to be traumatized by the man bleeding out at my feet.

  Luke stepped from the shadows, “Let’s go!”

  Crash appeared around the corner hobbling with Micah. Luke sprinted over to take Micah’s free side and dragged him toward the wall.

  “Page!” Luke hissed as they passed me. “What are you doing?”

  I realized I had been frozen in place, staring at the guy I didn’t believe would shoot me. Blood spread out over his back, soaking his shirt in deep crimson.

  I shook my head but it wasn’t enough to break the shocked trance I’d slipped into.

  “Page, damn it, let’s go!”

  “You killed him,” I whispered.

  He grabbed my wrist and pulled so hard it hurt. “I shot him in the shoulder. I didn’t kill him. I wounded him.”

  When I looked again, I could see the man was still alive and still conscious, even if he was also in a lot of pain.

  “They won’t be so nice though if they find you standing here like this. We have to go now.”

  I listened this time. Just when we’d slipped through the wall, I heard someone shout, “Man down! Man down!”

  I breathed a stupid sigh of relief for an enemy that would not have shot to injure. He would have killed me. Maybe in the next second.

  Luke had saved my life and I was worried about a man that wanted all of us dead.

  We plunged into the brush. On this side of the wall, there wasn’t a path to guide us or moonlight to illuminate the way.

  We stumbled our way through tangled overgrowth and a dense pocket of old trees with snarled branches and exposed roots. I could hear gun shots in the distance and if I looked over my shoulder, the city seemed to be lit from within as the fires continued to blaze.

  “Did we destroy that entire town?” I asked mid-run.

  “Isn’t that what you wanted to do?” Luke questioned. “Wasn’t that your whole plan?”

  I didn’t answer. It hadn’t been my plan. The only thing I’d wanted to do was rescue Micah… was to end this man’s suffering and take away another victim of the Colony’s disturbed law.

  But instead, I’d likely burned an entire settlement to the ground.

  Nerves blistered through me as I wondered how many people would have to pay for my actions. How many of those townsfolk would be punished because of me?

  Not long after we’d put distance between the city and us, we could hear men rushing toward us. There was a search party headed our way. We pushed deeper into the forest and moved as fast as we could. Limping. Struggling. Pressing on despite our capabilities and dwindling energy and skill level. Mile after mile grew more difficult until we could barely make progress.

  But still we pushed forward, refusing to give up.

  Refusing to get caught.

  We eventually came upon a refuge in a pre-apocalypse hunting shed. To gain entry to the locked door Crash took off his shirt, wrapped his fist in it and broke the window. Once the glass was cleared out, Luke and Crash helped Trish and I inside and then we caught Micah as they tossed him in after us.

  Once everyone was safely tucked away, we moved to the far side of the little shed and sat low to the ground against the wall. Shadows engulfed us, but if the guards found us here, we would be easy pickings.

  “Does anyone know where we are?” I whispered.

  Luke sat to one side and Crash sat on my other. Crash supported Micah while Trish checked out some of his surface wounds.

  “I know the area,” Luke answered in a low voice. If we can make it through the night, I can get us back to the car.

  I looked over at Micah covered in blood. Now I was covered in blood. And Crash was as well. And if Trish kept messing with Micah, she would be covered soon too. Plus, we were well into the night by now.

  If the Colony guards didn’t find us… Zombies would.

  I looked at the broken window and tried not to panic. “Did I mess up?” My voice was so low that I wasn’t sure anyone could hear me. I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to hear me.

  Luke’s hand landed on my knee and I flinched from the contact. His hand stayed where it was though. He didn’t move it. He didn’t relinquish the pressure. “No,” he said firmly. “You saved a man’s life today.”

  “At the cost of all of ours.”

  I felt him more than I saw him shake his head. “All of those people will be driven from the walls. Feeders are attracted to the light at night. They won’t be able to resist that fire. I think we have a chance.”

  “Yeah, but what happens to those people?”

  Luke made a sound in the back of his throat and I could tell he was already impatient with me. “Fine, Page. You made a snap decision that might have terrible effects. But you made it. You went with it. And you saved one man’s life. I don’t know what’s going to happen to those other people and right now that I don’t care. I have this mission to focus on. These lives to worry about. If I started thinking about all the chain reactions from all the decisions I made over all the days that I have to make them… I’d go insane. I’d lose my mind to the infinite potentials for disaster and death. When you’re a leader you have to make tough choices. When people follow you, you have to make decisions that will get some people hurt. That will save some people. That will inevitably affect everyone’s lives. But you can’t let that stop you from deciding. You should understand the weight of it, the power of your decisions. But you still have to decide.”

  I ran a hand over my mouth and tried to stay the sick
feeling bubbling inside me. “I’m not a leader though. I’m just here to help you. I have one mission. One. That’s it. I just… I-”

  Luke turned to face me more completely and his hand slid to my thigh. “You’d better stop thinking like that right this second. I watched you cut Micah free. I watched as all the people in that town watched you cut that man free. Don’t tell me you’re not a leader now. Not when a hundred people can identify and describe you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  His voice held a smile I couldn’t make out in the dark. “You’re the official face of the Resistance, Page. We’ve managed to stay hidden for a decade and on your first day you walked right out in the middle of the day and gave a big middle finger to the Colony.”

  I was speechless. I was actually speechless. My mouth opened and closed, but I couldn’t force words out. I couldn’t even make sounds.

  Luke’s voice was a low chuckle when he said, “And here I thought you were nothing but a spoiled princess. You have defied all of my expectations.”

  Warmth crept through me, settling some of my nerves, but inciting entirely different ones. “You’re not really what I expected either.”

  His voice and tone softened when he leaned in to say, “I could tell.”

  “I would just like to remind you that I told you I could take care of myself. You had absolutely nothing to worry about.”

  Luke snorted. “I have absolutely everything to worry about. Don’t even get me started. The least of which is you showing up with two of Matthias Allen’s children.”

  Fear turned to ice in my veins. “They’re good guys,” I quickly defended. “I swear to you on everything I am, that they hate him as much, if not more, as we do. They want him dead. I promise.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. His back settled against the wall again and he stretched out his legs so he could cross them at the ankles. His voice dropped even lower when he asked, “So you’re a couple with, uh, what’s his name again?”

  “Miller,” I whispered, doubting that Luke had actually forgotten his name.

  “Yeah, Miller. You’re with him?”

  I shrugged, but then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”