The only thing I didn’t have anything of was food. But if we actually escaped, I would worry about that later. Food and water seemed so inconsequential compared to fighting for everyone to survive and escape.
We turned a sharp corner and nearly ran into a few guards sprinting toward us.
“We’re going to figure out what’s going on,” one of them shouted at Kane. “Can you stay with the prisoner’s for a few?”
Kane nodded. “No problem.”
And off they went.
“Well, that was easy.” I shook my head and fought a premature smile. We hadn’t left the compound yet. And there was apparently a Zombie infestation outside. We had a lot of battle left to fight today.
“Too easy,” Kane mumbled.
I had to agree, but I didn’t want to say that out loud. I followed Kane to a bay of four narrow garage doors. We were in a section of short hallway with the smallest storage bays. The floor was lined with lit candles and a few scattered guns. The doors were all padlocked shut.
“Can you shoot the lock?” It seemed like such a small obstacle, but the padlock kept us from my friends, making it the biggest problem we’d faced yet. “Or like karate kick right through it or something? Maybe use the butt of your gun and hammer through it?”
“I could,” he chuckled. He walked over to the wall and pulled a ring of keys off a nail hook. “Or I could just use the keys.”
“Or you could just use the keys.”
And he did. The first door he opened revealed the two remaining scientists. They cowered in the corner when the dim light poured into their cell. They looked haggard and beaten. They huddled together, their faces grimy and streaked with cowardly tears. Their clothes had been ripped and their bodies obviously mistreated.
I felt a grim satisfaction that scared me. I reveled in their suffering. I was glad they’d been beaten. They deserved so much worse.
“Do you want to finish them?” Kane asked me with a cold, flat voice.
Did I want to? Yes. Without a doubt.
But could I do it?
I looked down at the gun held in my trembling hand. I glanced back at those broken, pathetic bodies and felt my vehemence dwindle. Could I end their lives? Had I lost that much of myself that I would murder to feel better?
No. I was too weak.
Or maybe I was too strong. Maybe I still had a soul. Maybe I still had some integrity or virtue or innocence.
Or maybe I was still afraid.
I shook my head. “I just want to find Haley and the Parkers and leave.”
He nodded once and growled at the scientists, “Don’t move.” To me, he said, “You might not want to, but Vaughan or Hendrix will.”
He was right.
Kane moved to the other bays. The second door opened to reveal King, Harrison, Page and Haley. The next bay held Vaughan and Nelson. And the final bay held Hendrix.
I held my breath as Hendrix’s eyes adjusted to the soft light. He absorbed me in one sweeping look that seared me with his intensity.
Once the gate had opened completely, I nearly laughed at the trapped animal look Hendrix wore. He was an African lion locked in a too-small cage, a Great White shark trapped in a tank made for goldfish. He was pure energy and virile male and dangerous predator.
He was Hendrix Parker.
And he was beyond pissed.
He also looked like hell.
His beard was longer and scruffier than I had ever seen it. His hair was greasy but thick enough to not be matted to his head. It stuck up in messy tufts as if he’d been yanking on it. His eyes were bloodshot and black and blue beneath. His clothes, filthy and damp from sweat, stuck to his body and hung low on his hips. He was dirty from head to toe.
He left the confines of his prison in angry steps that ate up the ground between us. His family stood to my left, hugging each other, overjoyed to be with each other again. But Hendrix didn’t look at them. He looked at me. He only had eyes for me.
In the midst of this crazy turmoil, he stared at me like there was nothing left. My stomach flipped and my body became alive in a way that it hadn’t been since he left me. My blood buzzed beneath my skin and every atom and particle in me woke up from a hazy sleep I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen into.
He breathed life into me with that look.
He pumped through my veins and beat a rhythm with my slow-starting heart.
He stopped just an inch in front of me. His hands reached out to cup my face and I felt the grit that caked them, the rough pads of his calloused fingers and sandpapery palms. They trembled against my face not from fear, but from something so much more intense no word could describe it.
His deep blue eyes captured mine and held me in a far more secured prison than anything that had caged him.
“You’re okay,” he told me. He demanded from me. It was not a question.
“I’m okay,” I echoed.
“You’re going to stay by my side until I tell you you’re safe.”
Something bitter-tasting and feminist boiled up inside me, something at complete odds with the way he looked at me. But we didn’t have time to argue. We had to get the hell out of here. So I nodded meekly and decided to let my actions speak for me.
“Will I ever be safe?” I deflected.
His eyes darkened and his expression turned stormy. “When you’re with me, you will be.”
But that wasn’t true. Maybe physically I would be fine. Maybe I would always stay alive. Maybe he would protect me in every situation.
But my heart was not safe. My heart could suffer in a thousand different ways.
Tyler burst like a shotgun from around the corner. She stumbled to a surprised stop when she found us all milling about in the hallway. I turned around to meet her wide, determined eyes and she gave me a hollow nod.
I snapped back into the moment then. I tore my eyes from Tyler’s and found Haley in the middle of the Parker brothers. I took off for her and she met me half way. I threw my arms around her neck and held her so tightly that it hurt. She squeezed back equally hard.
“Oh, my god, I didn’t think I’d see you again,” she cried into my hair.
“We’re leaving,” I promised. “Right now.”
She pulled back, met my eyes and nodded. “Never again. I’m done with this shit.”
“Me too.”
Both of our attentions were drawn to the left again when Tyler’s hoarse, furious voice cut through our subdued reunion.
“Give it to me,” she demanded from Kane.
I watched as Kane handed over the gun in his hands. I had no idea what she planned to do with it, but a gun in Tyler’s hands always made me nervous. Nobody moved to stop her though. Nobody even suggested she hand it to someone who was more proficient.
She looked at Vaughan for a long moment while the rest of us observed their silent conversation. Something I didn’t understand passed between them. Vaughan seemed both more nervous and more resigned when she was finished.
With a small nod, she turned around and walked to the first storage bay.
It was then that I realized her intention.
Kane had suggested that maybe Vaughan or Hendrix would want to carry out some justice for Gage’s undeserving death. That made perfect sense to me. I had no doubt that those two boys would find retribution for Gage’s death.
What I did not expect or anticipate was Tyler’s reaction- an unadulterated rage and vengeance.
She walked to the edge of the storage bay and pointed her gun. I could see her hand shaking and her body trembling, but the expression on her face read murder clear as anything I’d ever seen.
She let out a steadying breath and walked into the storage bay.
We all rushed to watch what was going to happen next, except for Haley, who held Page back and covered the little girl’s entire head with her arms.
Tyler continued to shake, but her mouth pressed into a grim frown and her eyes did not waver. They glared at the traitorous scientists with s
o much hate and malice that I could feel the waves of her emotion as it thickened and poisoned the air around her.
“You deserve this,” she told them in a soft voice. “We were kind to you. You betrayed us and killed my friend. You deserve this.”
They cried pathetically as they sunk as close to the ground as they could. For a moment, they glanced at the entrance but we stood in their way of safety. There was no point to fight Tyler because Kane stood behind her with his own weapon raised. The Parker brothers had grabbed weapons by now as well from either the hallway or Kane’s pack and stood in a line of support and protection.
Tyler didn’t glance back for our approval and she didn’t hesitate a second longer. For as terrible a shot as she was when it came to Zombies, she had no problem placing a bullet directly in the foreheads of the people at her feet.
One.
Two.
The shots went off in easy succession. The two scientists, one male, one female, were already in hunched over positions on the floor, so their bodies had nowhere else to go. Brain matter and blood exploded from the back of their heads as the bullet punched through.
And that was it.
They were dead.
Gage had some justice.
Except I didn’t feel a marked change or significant difference. I didn’t feel better about the way he’d died or the betrayal that had cost us so much. In fact, I felt emptier than ever before.
I prayed that Tyler felt different than me. I prayed that her actions gave her some much-needed peace and resolution. I prayed that her hollow brokenness didn’t expand inside her chest like it did mine, or eat away at what little morality I had left. I prayed that she felt good. That she felt some justice.
And that to her, Gage’s death meant something more now.
Her hand dropped to her side and her head hung down to her chest. I knew my prayers were in vain and my hopes for her peace and justice went unanswered.
Vaughan was behind her then. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her firmly against his body. In her ear, he whispered words I couldn’t hear and soothed her distraught spirit.
I knew. I knew this was just the beginning. I knew we had a long way to go before we were free and clear of Matthias and his Colony. And for whatever reason, I felt like we were off to a very bad start.
I felt it in my bones.
This was only the beginning of our heartache.
Vaughn had given Tyler another minute before he coaxed her from the small room. We stood there silently, all of us trying to collect the remnants of our shattered selves.
Watching Tyler kill someone, not just for survival, but also out of retaliation, had unnerved me more than anything thus far. And it wasn’t just the act of violence from such a gentle, usually pacifist person; it was the reason she did it. It was that Gage was really, truly gone. It was that my friends had been locked in these dark, tiny storage bays for days on end, without bathrooms, without food, without hope. They smelled like bile and sweat and worse things. They smelled like suffering.
And I hated it for them.
I hated it for us.
“We are leaving,” Vaughan announced. “I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care who we have to kill. We are leaving this godforsaken place and we are never coming back.” His eyes swept over our group, including even Kane. “And we will not leave anyone behind.” He paused and looked at me and then at Tyler and Haley. “Not anyone that belongs to us. We are not taking anyone else with us. Do not feel sorry for someone here and jeopardize our escape. Do not let your bleeding heart get in the way of us leaving. I mean it. I will shoot anyone that slows us down. Do you understand that? We are not taking anyone else with us?”
I nodded, but Tyler raised her chin in defiance and growled, “We’re taking Miller. That’s nonnegotiable.”
Vaughan let out a weary sigh. “Of course, Miller. I didn’t mean Miller. You know I didn’t mean Miller.”
“Just making sure,” she said with a slightly sweeter tone.
“Kane,” Vaughan moved on. “What’s the best way out of this place?”
Kane didn’t hesitate for a second. “Out the front. Matthias has most of his men out back. There was an onslaught of Feeders near the creek. We could walk right out the front door and maybe get a head start.”
“Are their vehicles out front?” Hendrix asked.
Kane nodded. “At least four. I don’t know how much gas they have or what condition they’re in. But they’re out front. The keys will be just inside the front door. And we have some weapons. We might be able to pick up some more on our way out.”
“We’ll work with what we have,” Vaughan said decidedly. “We’ve been in a position like this before. We make do. We survive.”
Those were orders too. Not suggestions. Not a recount of our history. They were orders to follow, instructions to obey.
And I would.
Gladly.
“Where’s Miller?” Hendrix asked.
“Unconscious,” Tyler replied. “He’s in my parent’s apartment.”
“Heavy security?” Vaughan asked.
Tyler and Kane both nodded. “At least there was. I don’t know what it will be like right now. Matthias has everyone on lockdown. Depending on their instructions, they might let me get him. I could go up alone and meet y’all down here,” Kane suggested.
To my surprise, Vaughan shook his head. “No. We’re sticking together. I’m not going to let us split up for a second. We’ll all go.”
No one objected so we took off. Kane led the way and we all followed closely behind him. With Hendrix on one side of me and Kane in front, we ran through the storage facility hallways with one mind and one purpose.
The halls and stairwells were eerily silent. Like Kane said, Matthias had everyone in lockdown. People moved around quietly behind their locked doors, but nobody dared contradict Matthias’s orders.
They’d seen what happened to people who disobeyed him.
At the third floor, we followed Kane to a room guarded with four men. All of us had our own weapons, including Page, but barely enough ammo to give us all full clips. Three handguns still remained in my pack and Kane had an assault rifle in addition to his small handgun. We could take these four men easily enough, but it would deplete what precious resources we had.
“I need in there,” Kane announced.
The men looked at him with as much fear and loathing as I had held for him at one time. I imagined their knees shaking beneath their worn jeans and their hands clutching their weapons defensively.
“We can’t let you in there,” one of them said with an obvious squeak.
“Then I’m going to kill you.” And they knew as well as I did that Kane would follow through.
“He’s not even in there,” another one of them rushed to explain. “I can show you.”
Kane nodded and the third guy pulled open the door. The room was extravagantly decorated for the end of the world. The furnishings were in the best shape I’d seen in years and were lavishly decorated. Matthias even had things hanging on the wall, like two pieces of hotel-worthy artwork and a gilded, oval mirror. His dressers were made out of shining wood and had glass figurines on top. Their massive sleigh bed had a deep red and gold comforter with pretty pearl stitching that glistened in the lit lantern light. An old fashioned trunk sat at the end of the bed, piled with dry and canned food and bottled water. There was a rack against the wall that held a dozen bottles of wine. This was luxury, even in the Zombie Apocalypse.
Still, the men hadn’t lied. The room was empty.
“Where is he?” Kane demanded, whirling around and pointing the gun directly in one of the guard’s faces.
He swallowed nervously. “I opened the door. That’s all I can do.”
Kane switched his gun over to his left hand and pulled his fist back. He let it go before the guy could figure out what was happening. Kane’s fist connected straight with his nose sending blood gushing out of it. The crack of sha
ttering bone resounded through the echoing hallway.
All five of the Parker brothers stepped forward with guns raised and pointed at the other guards. They had guns too, but obviously didn’t want to risk their lives for this.
“Where is he?” Kane repeated.
The guy didn’t answer. He cupped his nose as blood overflowed his palms and dripped down the back of his hands and forearms. Kane pulled his arm back and punched him in the face again. This time he knocked him out. The guard slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Kane turned on one of the other guys. “Where is Miller?”
The guard scrunched up his face and readied for a hit. Hendrix let out an exasperated sigh and shot the guy in the foot. I gasped at the abruptness of his actions, but agreed with them. This was taking too long. And hopefully he could survive a foot wound.
“Where is he?” Kane repeated, clearly approving of Hendrix’s initiative.
“With your dad,” one of the other guys volunteered. “He’s out with your dad.”
“Is he conscious?” Kane asked in a very low voice.
The two remaining men collectively took a step back. One of them, apparently the bravest of them, said, “Not when he left.”
Kane and Tyler both let out a string of frustrated curses. We turned as one unit and sped off. I didn’t expect the guards to follow us.
Back on the first floor, we had two options. We could leave Miller and take off. We’d have a head start and an advantage with all of the vehicles. Or, we could go after Miller. We’d have to fight not only Matthias’s men, but Feeders as well. Instead of having some kind of advantage, we would be severely disadvantaged.
But we’d also have the chance to kill Matthias.
Decisions, decisions…
“Listen,” Tyler started. “I’m not leaving without Miller, so y’all can go ahead if you-”
“I said we wouldn’t leave without all of us, Ty,” Vaughan interrupted her. “And I meant it. So if you’re not up for this, you can wait for me out front, but I’m going after Miller with or without you.”
“You’re real cute,” Tyler groaned. “Real cute.”
Love and Decay, Season Two Omnibus: Episodes 1-12 Page 65