I turned when I heard the door open behind us and took a moment to appreciate the man that walked in through those doors. I might not want to get all complicated with him, but I could eye feast on his yumminess. It was just something about how he walked; it was a purposeful stride, confident, in charge.
“You were looking for me?” Zach walked up to us, nodding a greeting to Bubba and smirking at me. I probably had drool on my chin. He was obviously aware that I was checking him out. It pissed me off.
“Yeah, I need to talk to you. Can I meet you in your office in a second?”
“Alone?” His face broke out into a grin and he raised his eyebrows.
“Stop.” I held up a hand. “It’s about the girl. Just meet me there in a second.”
“No sense of humor,” he huffed and stalked off, which gave me a moment to appreciate his rear assets. I had to stop doing this to myself.
“Couldn’t do much better than that one, cher. I know I done heard about the other one, but he ain’t here. And I ain’t ever seen Zach take his eyes off you. You gotta live. You can be tough and still let a man treat ya right. You get me, cher?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that, Bubba.”
“Seems to me you just making it all complicated in that big head of yours, cher. Take it from old Bubba, craché nen laire, li va tombé enhaut vou nez.”
“I don’t speak French.”
“Course ya don’t, ain’t no one speak it no mores. It just means, cher, that you messing your own self up, spitting on your own nose.”
“I will keep that in mind, I guess.”
“Get out of here. Ain’t no one listens to Bubba unless I talking about dem crawfish. Then everyone wants to listen to Bubba. You make the misere around here and there is quick way to fix dat.”
“Right now I would just like a quick way to fix our food shortage problem.”
“Get me a trawler, Bubba fix dat too.”
“I have no doubt.” I smiled at the older man and tried to make my way out without any more helpful love advice. Bubba had self-appointed himself as everyone’s daddy and took to giving advice to anyone that walked into his domain, welcome or not. It was charming until he directed it at you.
Zach was waiting patiently for me when I finally met him in his office.
“I think you just enjoy making me wait.” His double meaning was obvious. He crossed his arms when I walked closer, showing off his perfectly defined arms and shoulders.
“It’s a possibility,” I laughed, collapsing on the sofa that was crammed in the corner.
“So, what’s so important?”
“Lakeview.”
“You think they’re selling women?” He asked.
“This is the third account we’ve had of human trafficking. There here has to be some basis to it. What’re our options?”
“Ignore it or do some recon.” He shrugged.
“If we ignore it, it will probably bite us in the ass later.”
“True. Not necessarily though.”
“Is that a chance we’re willing to take?” I asked.
“Personally, I’m torn. If we do recon and we’re spotted, it could lead them right to our door, or at the least, alert them to our presence. I think we need to get a bit more information before we head that way. But we’ll make sure that we keep away from Lakeview for our supply runs.”
“The girl should know something more when she wakes up.”
“You think she was held captive by them like Margaret said, or was she just trying to make us take her?” It was a cynical thought, but he had a point.
“Isaiah said there were signs of beatings on her back and legs.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t imagine what it is like out there. We’ve got it good here.” He pushed up from his chair and moved to the spot next to me on the sofa. I tensed up, not knowing what his intentions were.
“We do and we need to keep it that way. This place can be even more,” I said warily.
“You’re a major part of that, Lex. Half the stuff you come up with, I’m baffled by, but it works. I trust you. I trust your opinions. Do you want to send out recon on this group?”
“No, you’re right.”
“Wait, say that again.”
“Shut up.” I pushed at him and he caught my hand. His touch was comforting–I had to admit it to myself. I liked how it felt even though I didn’t want to feel that way, not at all, not from a simple handholding. “Zach, please.”
“I feel like a stalker, but fuck, Lex, I can tell you want it too and it’s killing me.”
“I can’t, I just can’t, Zach. I feel like a fucking broken record. Can’t you understand I’m all fucked up and I can’t add this to the mix? It would be like running a race with a broken leg.”
“I’m sorry for pushing. I just think things could be so good between us.”
“Or they could end up blowing up in our faces.” I frowned.
“You think I’d walk like Blake? I would never do that. You know that, right, or are you still waiting for him to come back? Just talk to me.”
“I’m not waiting for Blake and I know you wouldn’t do that. It’s not about you leaving voluntarily. It’s about…shit, I can’t even explain it. I just don’t want to screw things up. Don’t push me, Zach. Soon it’s going to be too much.”
“I won’t, fine. This will be the last, but, please, just think about it, Lex. We could be so good together. Right now you’re just going through the motions, you are just existing. Together we can live.”
I stood up abruptly. My mind reeling. I did want him, my body wanted to curl into his, wanted to turn my face up to his, invite him to take our relationship to a baser level, but my mind was having none of it. I didn’t want to increase my feelings for him by adding romantic love to the equation. It was a matter of survival, and if Zach left, voluntarily or involuntarily, there would be no bouncing back with a little zombie killing.
I fled the office without saying anything, pissed that he had done this to me again. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? But then that little romantically starved voice in my head broke through my defenses, wondering why he didn’t try harder.
EIGHT
The Other Shoe
When I walked into the cafeteria the next morning, everyone was buzzing about the rescue yesterday.
“She’s up,” Grace said as she walked up to me before I could grab a plate of food.
“She’s eaten?” I asked.
“No.”
“I’ll go get her and maybe she’ll be up for a plate of food. I set my plate down with a sigh and headed to the infirmary.
When I pushed open the door, big brown eyes and a clean face greeted me. She must have taken a shower because her skin was glowing as if recently scrubbed and her hair was still wet and fell down her back. The dirt had hid her good looks well because she was stunning, exotic looking, but so young.
“Lani, I’m Alexis. How you doing?” She swung her legs off the hospital bed and stood. Even though it didn’t make a lot of difference, she barely came up to my chin.
“Fine, I’m much better now. You were one of the people that brought me here?”
“Yes, we brought you here when Margaret asked for our help. You remember that?”
“Sort of, I think something was wrong with me, it’s kind of fuzzy. Isaiah said I was dehydrated and in shock. You saw Margaret. Did she,” her voice cracked, “did she turn?”
“No, she chose her own path. She was a strong woman. Her last thoughts were about you. She just wanted you to be safe. You’re safe here. This is probably one of the safest places you could have ended up.”
“That’s what Grace told me. She said all they expect of us is to help out. We don’t have to do things we don’t want to do.”
“Grace is right, there is a lot of work that goes into keeping this place safe and providing us with food and water, so we do expect everyone to help out…it’s how we
survive.”
“You’re in charge?”
“Zach’s in charge. I help him out.”
“Does he make the women do things?”
“Things,like in sex?”
“Yeah, that–like they did in the Lakeview camp. The leader–” she trailed off, her mind far away.
“No and no. Zach and the rest of the men at this compound are good people. They would never force a woman to do something she didn’t want. And if I even suspected something like that was going on, Zach would have their balls.” She giggled at my statement and I was again aware of how young she was.
“You want to get breakfast, Lani? When is the last time you ate a good meal?”
“Grace brought me dinner last night, it was delicious. Will there be a lot of people there?”
“Breakfast is almost over, so there won’t be a lot of people. We’ll sit together in the corner if you want. I don’t want it to be crazy for you.”
“Thank you.” She slipped her feet into a pair of flip flops and wrapped a sweater around her thin frame and followed me to the cafeteria. True to my word there were only a few people sitting and finishing up their meal. I told Lani to sit down at a table and I would fetch her a plate.
They had gone all out this morning, pancakes and powdered eggs. We needed to find a chicken or something and get some real eggs. I was tired of this powdered crap.
I set the plate in front of Lani and sat down across from her, but my eyes lingered on Romeo who was standing off to the side frowning at us. What was his deal? He took two steps toward us and Lani turned her head to stare at him. As soon as her gaze found his, Romeo froze, his frown deepening. With a quick jerk he turned and walked in the opposite direction in a quick trot. Well, that was a bit off even for Romeo.
“Who was that?” Lani asked.
“Romeo, err Tim Votier, we all call him Romeo though.”
“Like Shakespeare,” she mused. “He was there too., I remember him.”
“He carried you out.”
“Oh,” her eyes somehow managed to get bigger, “yes.” Her lips turned slightly up in the tiniest of smiles.
“How old are you, Lani?”
“Eighteen, I just turned eighteen right before it happened. I might be nineteen now. How long has it been?”
“It’s only been about six months. It’s December.”
“Oh, then no, I’m still eighteen.” She shoveled some pancakes, drenched in syrup into her mouth and sighed in contentment.
“I know this might be hard, but, Lani, we need to know what happened to you just in case we run into these people, the men that Margaret warned us about.”
She closed her eyes as if to ward away my words, but finally she opened them and held my gaze. I saw courage there and suddenly she looked much older than eighteen.
“I know. Grace told me we’re in New Orleans East, that’s not too far from where I was. I went to St. Nicodemus. You know the all girl’s high school on Robert E. Lee?”
“Yes, I had friends that went there.”
“I was there when it all went to hell. We had a summer program to get college credit. I didn’t want to do it, but my father made me. I had already graduated and he made me go back. If I hadn’t been there, I would have been home with my mother or maybe shopping, who knows? But I was at school. So when everything went to hell, my father came to get me–but the soldiers wouldn’t let us leave New Orleans. They made us go to a refugee camp they set up in the parking lot right across from the school.” She paused to take a long pull on her water glass.
“At first, it was okay. We were worried about my mother, but we had very little contact with any of the dead. The soldiers erected a fence and they would go out and kill anything that came close. But it didn’t take long for things to get weird. A large group of the soldiers were called away. The rumors were that they fled to try and find their families. There was hardly any protection. My father and I were about to try and flee to Metairie, try and find my mom, but then this large group of people came in. They were hard, but they were armed and were good fighters. At first we thought it was a blessing. One man, Brandon, he took over. Just walked into the tent where the CO was sleeping and killed him.”
“There weren’t any guards? They didn’t confiscate weapons when you were in the camps?”
“These guys didn’t allow them to take their weapons and the soldiers were outnumbered. They let them stay as long as they helped protect the camp. They were content for two days before they took out any soldier that didn’t fall in line. They separated the men from the women and put all the children near the women, but not in the same room. It was terrifying. Margaret helped me through it, she…she,” Lani suppressed a sob. “When they would come looking for a woman, she taught me how to force myself to vomit and act sick and would distract them.
She always went with them, in my place, for me, always. They thought I was some sick immigrant. They didn’t want to touch me because of what I might give them, but they liked to beat me. What they did to Margaret was much worse, though.” Tears streaked down her face and I handed her a napkin to wipe them away. I couldn’t imagine going through what she described.
“They killed my father for trying to bring me food. They just shot him in front of me. After that, Margaret and I decided we had to leave. She told them that I was feeling better, but it was my first time, so she wanted to go with me. I didn’t want to do it, but she insisted. I–well, they bid on me, a lot. And they took us to some back room where they were drinking and when one finally got alone with us, Margaret attacked him. I don’t know if he died, but we left him there on the floor and climbed out of a window and just ran. It took us two weeks to get to where you found us. Margaret was bit when we broke into that office building.” Her tears had dried up, but her face was still haunted as she recalled everything that had happened to her in just a few months. She was just a young girl about to go to college, about to start her life when everything came crashing down around her.
What she experienced was atrocious, the worst men could do to other men all while the world went to shit. There was a special place in hell for people that preyed on others in their time of need.
“You made it, Lani, you know, you’re safe now. I can’t begin to understand what you went through, but now you’re here with us, and we’ll do everything we can to keep you safe. We’re a family here and we protect our own.”
“You don’t know what that means to me. I almost can’t believe it. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. These men, they’re all so…so…well, military. Do they not expect anything from the women? I can’t do anything like that. I would rather die.”
“They’re good men and women. They’re former military and they all worked for a company that did security details before Z. They protected people. They don’t expect anything. They’re just trying to survive and protect their families.”
“They have families?”
“Some do. Grace, she has children here. Her husband is one of the military types. His name is Cole, he’s a good man, saved my life on numerous occasions.”
“They saved mine.” I just nodded as I watched the relief finally settle across her face. For the first time in what I guessed was a long time, Lani looked at peace.
NINE
Short, Ass-Kicking Blondes
“At some point we’re going to have to deal with the group in Lakeview.” Baby ran beside me on the track that circled the compound. Charlie kept pace at our heels, always on alert.
“I know that,” I huffed. I was up to almost eight miles now, but I wasn’t so in shape that I could seamlessly carry on a conversation like Baby could.
“I spoke to Lani last night like you asked.” I had recruited most of the women to give Lani tours of the compound, eat meals with her and get her settled in.
“She talked about Lakeview?”
“Yeah., I wanted to get details out of her and she has a very good capacity for recall. There are about twelve men that s
he understood were the ones in charge, the men that were allowed weapons. Another thirty or so were there for support and didn’t have any weapons. From what she could tell, they were just there to perform menial tasks, clean, cook, act as laborers. They’ve moved into the grocery store and clothing store and the entire lot is fenced with temporary fencing.”
“Does she know anything about their defenses?”
“She wouldn’t know the difference between a water pistol and a rifle, but she described a good bit of weaponry. All the men that are allowed to carry own some sort of assault rifle and a handgun along with knives, and she said one guy has a few grenades strapped to him like medals.”
“They let people in for trade though, right?”
“Yes, she said they mostly trade liquor and sex for food and weapons. And there are always a few guys streaming in each week, ones that don’t live on the base.”
“So, realistically, we could send over a few of our men and they would let them walk right in, if we had weapons or food to trade?” I asked.
“If what she said was accurate.”
“She seems to have her head on straight. We got a bad impression of her that first day,” I laughed thinking about how I wanted to put her in one of the pirogues and set her adrift. “She seems to be a smart kid and is itching to do something to help out. I don’t want to put her on the schedules for a few more days though.”
“Listen to you, smart kid. she’s only a few years younger than you, bunch of babies around here.” Baby pushed me and I stumbled causing Charlie to stop and growl at her.
“Charlie, fuss!” He backed off and I stopped running to glare at Baby. “Alright, Baby.” I drawled out her nickname. “Your advanced age of twenty-four puts my paltry twenty-one years to shame.”
“Fuck off, Lex.” She laughed and ran off at a fast clip so I had to sprint to catch up to her. “And don’t ever call me Baby again.”
Fight (NOLA Zombie Book 2) Page 5