by Deb Rotuno
“Oh hell,” I breathed, my mouth hanging open.
“At first I wondered if it was…” She grimaced, looking to Jack. “Well, he’s your cousin, Jack, so I thought maybe it was that. You know, close enough to the real thing, but…”
Jack waved her on, wearing a disgusted look on his face, and she laughed at him, shoving his shoulder. Their relationship was funny but loyal, like siblings. They teased each other relentlessly.
“And he’s older, so then I wondered if he was using her, but honestly?” she asked, her eyes wide as she shrugged a shoulder. “I think they’re using each other. Or friends with benefits. Or convenience. Whatever label you want to slap on it.”
Jack chuckled. “My cousin is no saint.”
“I’m certain Lexie isn’t either,” Ruby countered wryly, poking his bicep. “She’s young, but she’s not—”
“But they’re both grown. Leave it alone,” I cut her off because we had the attention of the kids again. “They’ll figure it out.” I laughed at Ruby’s and Jack’s silly-ass grins. Personally, I thought it was fantastic—anything to discourage them from Jack and me.
The kids changed CDs, and I ran my fingers through Sasha’s fur as she rested her head in my lap. I glanced out the window, my eyes catching a few straggling zeaks. They were heading the same direction we were, but I didn’t give it much thought until the truck slowed down and Sasha suddenly sat up, glaring out through the windshield.
“Boof,” she huffed, looking from Jack to the windshield.
Ruby and I sat forward as Jack turned down the music. The overpass was just ahead, and it wasn’t clear.
“Aw, damn,” Ruby whispered. “Isn’t that your dad’s truck?”
“Yes,” Jack answered softly and slowed down some more.
The truck we’d left back at the lodge was parked beneath the overpass we’d camped under on the way up there. The hood was smoking and looked a little crunched in, and zeaks were slowly surrounding the whole area.
Jack slammed on the brakes, shoving the gearshift into park. “Christ, it’s Quinn…” When I looked up, the zeaks parted just enough to show he was right. He turned to us. “Ava, run back to Joel and tell him we need to clear them out. Freddie, you run back to Grandpa Hank and let him know we have a swarm.”
The kids were unbuckled and out of the truck instantly, running to the vehicles that had stopped behind us. Ruby and I pulled out our guns, and all three of us piled out onto the asphalt. Jack’s compound bow was just behind the back window in the bed. He pulled it out and looked back when he heard approaching footsteps.
Joel, Rich, and my dad were all arming themselves, along with Josh, Mose, and Jesse.
“How many?” Joel asked needlessly, because he glanced over. “Oh, damn. I’m thinking thirty, but shit… The kid’s wrecked or somethin’.”
Sasha paced back and forth, looking back at us for the word. She whined, then growled, only to whine again.
“She’s losin’ it, Jack,” Joel pointed out.
“I know!” Jack loaded an arrow as he doled out instructions. “Spread out; try not to aim at the cab. Hank, watch the ones moving in from behind us!”
“Already on it!” he answered, and he and Rich, along with Mose, spun to face the other way.
Jack looked to me when Freddie and Ava returned with their guns, and then he gave Sasha’s order. “Sasha, separate!”
We lined up across the road, though I kept Freddie next to me, and Ruby did the same to Ava. The scraping of Sasha’s nails on the road was loud but not as loud as the growls and barks she pushed out at the pack of zeaks. They slowly started to abandon the truck, turning our way. As soon as she had their complete attention, she moved them toward us and out from under the overpass.
“Steady,” Jack ordered, giving silent signals to Joel, who was using his sword. They split apart, flanking the pack. “Now!”
Sasha darted out of the way, circling around and leaping over the dead we were dropping to the ground. Gunshots and arrows tore through the pack. When most of the zeaks were at least on the ground, Sasha ran at full speed to the truck that was still running, with steam or smoke continuing to billow up out of the engine. She scratched, whined, and looked to Jack desperately, but he was busy.
“C’mon,” I said to Ruby, and she and I ran to the truck, only slowing when I saw there was blood on the inside of the window.
“Oh, fuck! Rich! Dottie!” I yelled, opening the door.
Quinn was pale, covered in blood, and barely conscious. He looked younger than I’d ever seen him and so very scared. His usual happy face was pained, his brow sweaty, but the blood was coming from his thigh.
“Sweetie? Quinn?” Ruby called him, reaching for his face.
“Jack!” he gasped, reaching a hand out, and I took it. “I need…”
I turned, calling for Jack.
My husband ended a zeak still writhing on the ground before his head snapped up.
“Now, Jack!”
Jack ran to the truck. “Oh, Christ, kid… What happened?”
Quinn reached for Jack and gripped his jacket. “I tried… I… Jack…you gotta get up there… Survivors. Guns… I tried to come to you, but they…”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Jack soothed, looking over his shoulder. It was the first time in a long time I’d seen my husband panic. His face paled, his eyes sought out his parents, and finally, he turned back to Quinn. “We need to get you out of this fucking truck. C’mon, kid, wrap your arm around my shoulder.”
Jack practically lifted Quinn into his arms, only to set him carefully down onto the asphalt. Rich and Dottie joined them, immediately getting to work on Quinn. They cut open his jeans in order to see how bad the wound was, used a ripped shirt to stem the blood flow, and finally looked to Jack.
“He’ll be okay, son,” Rich told him. “We have to remove the bullet, but he’ll be okay. He’ll be out of it, but at least it didn’t hit the femoral, so…”
Jack nodded, reaching for Quinn’s face to speak to him. “Quinn, can you stay with me?” When the boy nodded, he smiled a little. “How many? Where were they? And Lexie, Derek, and Brody? Tell me what you can, kid.”
Quinn was shaky, but he squeezed his eyes closed. “Um, I don’t know how many… They opened the gate. We tried to hide, but…they surrounded us. Then…then… Zeaks, Jack. Lots of them. They followed them in. I don’t think they meant to, but I saw them come in. The others…Derek… He said they were the same people as before. He told me to run, to go, so I don’t know…” He opened his eyes wider. “I’m sorry, Jack! I tried.”
“Aw, Quinn, you did fine,” Jack soothed, looking up to his parents. “You swear to me he’ll be okay?”
Dottie’s face was sympathetic as she spoke to her son. “Yeah, sport. We’re going to move him to Ruby’s RV and clean him up, but your father’s going with you.” Her smirk was wicked but without a single bit of humor to it.
Jack nodded, swallowing thickly, before he stood up. Oh, he was pissed. He was beyond pissed… He was livid. His eyes locked on to mine as he shook his head slowly. I knew he cared for the boy. He treated Quinn like a little brother, but I was pretty sure my husband’s entire family had adopted him.
“I’mma kill a motherfucker,” Joel muttered threateningly, looking down at Quinn as Rich administered a shot of some sort.
Jack was practically shaking when he walked to my dad. “I need… I want…”
“Jack,” I called softly, walking to him and cupping his face. “Look at me. Calm down. Think. Quinn will be okay; now we just have to worry about the others. I’ll help you. We all will. Okay?”
He nodded a little, though he was still shaking.
My dad eyed Quinn and turned to Jack. “Son, name it.”
My husband’s eyes were hellfire when they locked on to mine and then my dad’s. “I’m going in, and I swear to God, if they’ve…”
Dad gripped his shoulder and nodded but turned to face the others. “Okay, listen up. We’re go
nna set up a temp camp right here. Mose, Jesse, you’ll go with Jack. Tina, Josh, Margaret, if you’ll help clear this road, we’ll set up under the overpass. It’s safe.” My son ran by, but my dad stopped him. “Not this time, Freddie. I need you and Ava and Janie here,” he stated, locking gazes with me, and I thanked him silently. “You’re gonna be my lookouts while we set up.”
The way he said it was not to be argued, and it made my son nod, wide-eyed and nervous, but he readied himself.
Jack finally calmed enough to think, and he rounded on those of us who were going. “Joel, check that truck, see if it’ll at least get us as far as the lodge. Ruby, Sara, we need ammo and weapons. When we get close enough, we’re going in silent. We don’t know where Lexie, Derek, or Brody are, or if they’re hurt… We’ve got survivors and zeaks, so we’ll have to watch our backs no matter what.”
We jumped into action, but just before we were about to get into the truck, Freddie ran to us. “Wait!”
Jack knelt in front of his son, his face solemn. “I need you to stay with Grandpa Hank, Freddie.”
“But—”
“No, son. Not this time.” Jack looked to me. “I need Mom’s help to go stop some bad people, and this isn’t…” He sighed, looking to me.
“Freddie, this isn’t a normal scouting trip,” I hedged, kissing his forehead, but I didn’t know how to explain we were about to do, because if it was the same survivors who had invaded our camp the day Jack arrived, then they were bad news and wouldn’t survive this time.
Jack finally steeled himself, taking Freddie by his shoulders. “Remember what my job used to be?”
“Yeah, a soldier. You fought bad guys.”
“Exactly, kiddo. I have to do that again for Derek, Lexie, and Brody, to protect the new place, and I need you here to help protect the camp. I need you here so that Mom and I can concentrate on getting this done. Okay?”
“How long?”
“If I have any say, not long,” Jack vowed, and he meant it. We were about to go in and open up hell.
“Actually,” Dad said, joining us, “I need a timeframe too.”
“Give me…three hours,” Jack stated with a sneer, which only blossomed into anger when he caught sight of them moving Quinn into Ruby’s RV. “We’re five minutes away, but once we’re there, we’ll be going in on foot and silent.”
“Three hours,” Dad agreed, handing Jack a flare gun. “If you need help, you send up one of these. If it’s clear? Two. We’ll come to you either way.”
Jack handed it to me to stow in the bag of weapons I’d grabbed from the Hummer. He kissed his son’s head, whispering in his ear. Then I did the same, telling him we loved him.
Rich, Mose, Jesse, Ruby, and Sasha were already in the bed of the truck Quinn had been driving. Joel was behind the wheel, and he revved the engine as Jack and I hopped into the back. The poor truck sputtered, but Joel forced it back facing east toward the lodge.
JACK
The truck was barely going to make it the few miles from the overpass to the turnoff for the lodge. The radiator was shot, spewing fluids and hissing out steam. Quinn had to have nailed a few zeaks with it in his escape.
The thought of the boy made my temper skyrocket; my vision practically blurred red. I knew he’d be okay, but seeing him so scared had rocked me. He was such a laid-back kid, easygoing and levelheaded. He’d proven his loyalty time and time again, and even while in shock and pain and bleeding, he’d busted his ass to try to warn us.
A small, warm hand covered my balled-up fist. Immediately I welcomed Sara’s fingers lacing with mine.
She gave my hand a squeeze. “He’ll be okay,” she whispered, and I nodded, leaning closer to her as we drove down the road. I needed her calm, her bright spirit. Otherwise I’d fuck this up, make a terrible decision based on anger and panic. When I looked her way, she reached up, raking her fingers through my hair. “I already put a bullet in the leader once. I’ll do it again.”
Smirking, I nodded. “You’ve already lost people to this bastard. I won’t lose more.”
“You won’t,” Ruby piped up. “You won’t. Quinn’s tough, and your mom’s pretty badass, so…just erase that from your head. Nonissue.” She smiled at my dad when he laughed.
“Jack,” Mose rumbled from the other side of the truck bed. “How’s this place laid out? How you want to do this?”
I glanced around us, knocking on the window. Joel immediately pulled the truck over, and when it shut off, the poor thing gave a final wheeze.
“Motherfucker made it all the way from Mississippi,” Joel muttered once out of the truck, giving the tire a kick. “Not even a month here, and she’s dead as a doornail.”
I snorted, but he was right. “Okay, listen up…” I hopped down from the truck, and everyone followed me to the roadside. In the dirt and with Sara’s help, I drew a basic map of the lodge, the fence, and the woods. “Joel, Ruby, Jesse, and my dad will take the right flank. Mose, you and Sara are with me. I’ll take Sasha. Get off this road, stay silent and out of sight. Stick to the woods and climb at the far corners. Kill only the zeaks in your way. Am I clear?” I asked them.
“Yes, I got it. You want to use them against these survivors,” Dad summed up.
“Exactly. Why make it easy on their asses?” I muttered, going back to the map drawn in the sand. “The lodge is here. There are access doors at the back-left corner—the kitchen. There are doors at the main lobby off a porch, and there’s a window easily accessible in a conference room right here.” I marked an X at the right back corner of the square.
“We’ll have a hostage situation should they catch wind of us,” Joel added, his face fierce and focused. “I mean, we can go in there silent, but we have no idea where the other three are.”
I held up the sniper rifle, securing the silencer on the end. “That’s why you’re going to plant yourself somewhere with a good shot…and you’ll start as soon as you see the first asshole.”
Joel grinned, taking the weapon. “Roger that.”
Dad stood up, shouldering his weapon, but looked at Sara. “Quinn said these were the same people as before. Tell me what you know…”
Sara nodded. “The leader—tall, older, graying hair, broad shoulders, slimy smile.” She gestured to her head. “They carry military-style weapons. Automatic. They seem desperate but unorganized. We took out three of their people the day you guys showed up, but they also killed Travis and shot my dad.”
Dad looked to me. “Unorganized could work in our favor—automatic weapons or not. We’ll have the element of surprise, not to mention the zeaks they’ve attracted. But Jack… No matter what we find in there, we’re taking this back. Am I clear?”
“Sir,” I grunted, kicking the dirt map and scattering it to the wind.
I knew he was worried about Derek and Lexie—and probably Brody too, despite the jackass’s attitude—so this was now…personal. This was protecting our own, protecting the future of the people we’d all managed to keep alive, who’d managed to help keep us alive these past six months. It was family and friends. It was the prospect of a safe future, and it was ours. We wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Spinning my finger in the air and pulling my compound bow around, I grunted, “Move out. We’ll meet at the back of the property. Clean it. Spotless.”
We split up right there, each team disappearing into the woods on either side of the road. The closer we got to the lodge property, the more I could see, hear, and smell the zeaks. I eyed the gate, noting it was open, maybe even broken, but there was no movement other than a few wandering dead.
The woods were quiet up to the fence, though I could hear the fuckers on the other side. I eyed my team, placing a hand on Sara’s shoulder, and spoke to the two of them.
“Sara, you have no silencer, so either stay at my back or use your knife.” When she nodded, I looked to Mose, who was pulling out a machete similar to Quinn’s. “Perfect.”
We moved to the very corner of th
e fence, where we were hidden in shade and trees from the lodge. Kneeling, I dug a space just below the fence for Sasha to squeeze under.
“Sasha, on me,” I ordered in a whisper, rubbing her head when her body tensed, but her eyes were sharp on me.
She sat down, waiting for Mose to scale the fence, and then he spun around and helped Sara to the ground. Once I was up and over, the big dog scrambled under the fence, stopping cold at my side. She was sharp on her surroundings but silent. The dog could sneak up on just about anyone or anything when she wanted to. In fact, her steps were next to nothing as they met the forest floor.
We were met with little to no resistance as we kept to the trees, using it as cover. Mose handled two zeaks quickly and quietly, and I took out two more, snatching my arrows back. The shade and staying quiet were our only hope to keep the element of surprise. Luckily the woods ran straight down to the lake, as did the fence, which also meant that we were covered all the way to the back of the lodge.
I could smell the lake above the stench of the dead. From our spot in the cluster of trees, I could see the other team working silently along the other side of the lodge. Joel positioned himself behind some shrubbery, getting low and completely disappearing from my view. At the back, there were two vehicles—a car and a truck—and both had bullet holes in them, which made me smirk. These were the exact same bastards who had attacked the cabins the day we’d come home.
Ruby and my dad quickly and quietly worked their way to the opposite corner of the building. I smiled when they checked the window of the conference room I’d told them about, and then both slid through.
“Ruby and Dad are inside,” I whispered to Sara and Mose, who nodded. “Jesse’s on the other side of their truck…” I trailed off when Sasha tensed, her low growl merely a vibration against my leg. I glanced behind us. “Shit,” I hissed. “We got company.”
A swarm of zeaks burst through the front gates, stumbling and dragging themselves inside the property. They were aimless for the moment, but eventually they’d catch our scents.