by Nord, K. C.
"I still think that he's a jerk," I huffed and felt my face flush in shame when I saw Nick standing in the doorway.
"That just means I'm doing my job," he answered with no expression as he helped himself to the coffee.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
This morning I came downstairs ready for our run only to find that there had been a change in plans. Nick needed to do a wellness check on a few residents who lived in the area. And so when he'd asked me if I wanted to go with him, I'd jumped at the idea.
True, I would be spending most of the day with Nick Monroe; however, after the last three days of him running with me every morning without a single complaint. I was starting to think that perhaps I'd misjudged him. Sure he could be a pain in the butt at times, but then again, I had been pretty hard on him. Besides, this was my chance to get out of the house for a few hours, and nothing was going to mess that up if I could help it.
I ran back upstairs to change into my usual daily attire of jeans, boots, tank, and a flannel shirt. When I got back downstairs, Celeste handed me a lunch that she'd packed for the two of us before Moose, and I headed outside to meet Nick, who was standing in the courtyard with two horses, saddled and ready to go. For some reason, I'd just assumed that we would be driving, but horseback riding sounded more fun.
Today was starting out a little cooler than usual, and there was a definite hint of fall in the air. It was one of those misty dreary mornings that just made you want to curl up in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. Still, I knew that the afternoon sunshine would burn away the fog soon enough, turning the countryside into a steaming jungle.
I handed our lunch to Nick to stow away in his saddle pack and went over to meet my horse. His name was Pepper, and as horses go, he was very friendly and inquisitive as he checked both Moose and me out before bumping me gently with his head.
"He's looking for a treat," Nick said and handed me a sugar cube for him.
"He's a smart boy," I replied and held my hand out for Pepper, who eagerly lipped it from my hand before bumping me with his head for another.
"Sorry, boy, that's all we have," I said with a smile and rubbed his velvety soft nose.
"He's just a little bit spoiled," Nick said as he handed me the reins. "So I would imagine that the two of you will get along very well."
Struck speechless for once in my life, all I could do was glare at him.
OUR FIRST STOP OF THE morning was to check up on a very independent older couple Mr. and Mrs. Ford, who lived on a small farm a few miles west of Celeste's home. Mr. Ford (Joe) was having problems with some run-away cows, so while Nick was helping him fix some fences, I spent some time visiting with Mrs. Ford (Clara) while she baked cookies and sweet rolls for her grandkids. The morning passed by quickly, and spending time with Clara reminded me of all the good times that I'd had helping my grandma in the kitchen. Afterward, they insisted that we stay for lunch before sending us off with some fresh homemade cookies and a promise to visit again.
Later that afternoon, as we were riding side by side down a winding trail and talking about mundane things from our childhood, I realized that we'd managed to go several hours without bickering, which had to be a new record for us.
I turned my head and started to say something to Nick when I heard something whiz by my head; seconds later, it was followed by the sound of a gun being fired.
Nick yelled, "watch out." And the next thing that I knew, he'd crashed into me, and we both fell from our horses into the tall grass beside the trail which somewhat cushioned our landing.
"Stay down," he ordered and pushed me down as he crawled through the grass to reach his binoculars that were hanging on his horse's saddle.
"Did you see anything?" I asked, popping my head up to study the treeline a few hundred yards away from us.
"Don't you ever listen!" He exclaimed in exasperation, pushing my head back down.
"Stop it!" I pushed his hand away and popped back up. "Look over there by the big oak tree; I saw something moving."
Nick trained his binoculars on the enormous old tree in time to see a flash of movement. "Dammit," he swore under his breath. "I didn't get a good look at him, but he's on the run now."
"Well, what are you waiting for?" I said and ran for my horse.
Nick reached out and grabbed the reins for a minute, "I don't suppose you'd listen if I told you to wait here?"
"You suppose right," I replied with a smile.
Nick shook his head in defeat and handed me back the reins, "just try and stay behind me, and if I say get down, you're to do it with no questions asked." With that, he wheeled his horse around and took off into the wooded area after the fleeing figure.
Because of the thick shrubbery and timber, we were forced to slow to a walk before long. Finally, just as I started to fear that we'd lost the elusive figure, the growth began to thin out a little. And in the clearing ahead, we saw a magnificent old mansion.
It appeared to be abandoned as the area around the house was unkempt and overgrown. However, despite its neglected appearance, the large two-story house framed by a row of old oak trees was still beautiful with its tall, stately columns and air of mystery.
"Did you know this place was here?" I breathed.
Nick shook his head, "I've lived here my whole life and never heard a word about it."
"Let's check it out," I said and headed for the front door.
Nick reached out and grabbed my arm, "hold on a minute, are you forgetting that someone just took a shot at us?"
"And that is why we have to check it out," I said the words just slowly enough to irritate him and saw by the slight flush on his cheeks that I'd succeeded.
Nick scowled, "just stay behind me and try not to cause any trouble."
"And when have I ever caused any trouble," I quipped with a smile and reached for the doorknob.
I STEPPED THROUGH THE door, and my eyes widened in awe. Everything around me, from the marble flooring to the beautiful chandelier overhead and the double staircase leading up to the 2nd-floor, screamed luxury and a lifestyle that was almost unimaginable in today's world. I had read some about how the wealthy and elite lived before the apocalypse, but it was hard to relate as their lives were so different from the way we lived today.
Sure, things had gotten better for us over the years as the zombie outbreaks had become smaller and happened a lot less often than before. But, that was most likely because there were fewer people left in the world and not because of something that we had done to stop it.
"I can't imagine living in a house this large," Nick remarked.
"Me either, it is beautiful though," I replied, opening the door to an ornately decorated drawing-room.
"I don't think that anyone's been here for a long time," Nick said, indicating the thick layer of dust on the floor.
"They were probably all killed during the outbreak."
Nick nodded in agreement, glancing around the room," this part of the house seems to be free of zombies ." He walked further into the room and started looking at some pictures on the wall as I checked out an elaborate set of dollhouses that any little girl would love that was sitting in one corner of the room.
"Hey Kaley, come here and take a look at this," he called, motioning to one of the pictures on the wall.
"What about it?" I asked, glancing at an old painting that looked to be from the 1920s of a beautiful young woman, her fiery red hair was cut in a short bob, and she was wearing a jeweled emerald green gown with a matching headband that almost matched the color of her eyes perfectly.
"Don't you see it?" He asked in surprise, " except for the fact that her hair is a brighter red and cut short, she looks exactly like you."
"What, no," I protested. "I look nothing like her, and my hair is ginger, not red."
"It looks red to me," he said and laughed when I scowled at him.
I looked doubtfully at the picture, "I've always heard that everyone has a twin somew
here, but I just don't see it."
"If you think that is weird until you see this," he said and nodded at a picture that was sitting on the fireplace mantle.
It was a family photo of a mom and dad with their two kids; a teenage boy and a girl. This photo, which was a lot more recent than the painting, had probably been taken shortly before the zombie outbreak. The boy had a familiar look about him, but what really stood out about the image was the girl; without all of the fancy clothes and makeup that the woman in the first picture (probably her grandmother) had been wearing, she looked enough like me to be my twin, right down to her light ginger hair and the scattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
"That is weird," I breathed in astonishment.
"Very much so," Nick echoed. "Do you or did you have any family from around here?"
I slipped the photo into my backpack, "Not that I know of but, I'm just starting to realize that there's so much I don't know about."
"What do you mean?"
"I've never really thought about it all that much, but I know virtually nothing about my dad's past. All that I was told is that he was estranged from his family. So much so that he even took my mom's last name when they married. And he completely refuses to talk about his family."
Nick nodded his head, "So for all, you know, the people that lived here could have been your relatives."
"Maybe,"
"Let's look around some more and see if we can find some papers or something that will tell us more about them," Nick offered.
"Let's look for the study," I replied. "That's where most people used to keep their important papers."
After trying several different rooms, we found the study, and after searching through the desk, I found a few bills and letters addressed to Dr. Gordan St.James. Realizing that this might take a while, I sat down to take a look at some of them.
"Except for their last name, none of this even tells us anything," I remarked in frustration.
"We're going to have to leave before long if we don't want to get caught out after dark. So why don't you bring some of the letters back to read later," Nick suggested.
"You know, that sounds like a good idea," I replied. "Just give me a couple of minutes."
"No problem, I'll be outside getting the horses ready."
After he left, I gathered up a few of the letters and stuck them in my backpack before wandering around in the garden as Nick watered the horses and Moose, who could never resist the chance to get wet from an antique well pump over by the barn.
I slipped my backpack on and started to join them when I heard the faint sound of someone crying. It was coming from deeper inside the overgrown garden. I walked around a large scraggly bush to see a young girl sitting on a bench and crying as if her heart was breaking.
"Hey, are you ok?" I called.
Immediately she stopped crying, and I saw her whole body stiffen in surprise before she raised her head to look at me.
I gasped in shock and took a step backward at what was revealed when she raised her head; the entire left side of her face was missing. Actually, it was there, but it looked as if it was either burned or rotted away, exposing the bone and muscle. But, the right side of her face looked identical to mine. It was impossible; she was the girl from the photo somehow untouched from time.
"Oh, no," I whispered, knowing that she must be in so much pain to have to live with an injury like that.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A bright white light exploded from behind my eyes, and just before everything went black, I saw the girl on the bench get up and run towards me as I fell seemingly in slow motion to the ground.
The next thing that I became aware of was an almost blinding pain in my head. I groaned and opened my eyes without moving from where I lay on the hard rocky ground. My head was pounding so hard that it was hard to think, and I felt that if I moved, I might actually break as I frowned up at the dark-haired man who was leaning over me.
"Kaley, what happened?" he asked with concern darkening his blue eyes.
"Who's Kaley?" I asked before drifting off on a wave of pain.
The next time I awoke, I remembered who I was, and I recognized the dark-haired man who gave me a drink of water, but his name for some reason escaped me. My head was still pounding so hard it felt as if it was pulsating with each wave of pain. I groaned, and he gave me a pain reliever, which helped to dull the throbbing somewhat and settle my queasy stomach.
He kept asking me annoying questions like "what's your name?" and "where are you from?" until I finally just closed my eyes and refused to answer any further. Just as I drifted off to sleep, I heard him mutter something to himself that, for some reason, struck me as extremely funny, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
"Even when you're injured, you still manage to be the most annoying woman alive."
I OPENED MY EYES AND blinked in the dim light from a lantern in the corner of the room. I frowned, trying to remember where I was and what had happened. I was lying on a sleeping bag on the floor of what looked to be a tack room. Nick was sleeping a few feet away, and Moose was lying in the doorway as if guarding the two of us, but I had no idea how I'd gotten here. The last thing that I remembered was being in the garden. So how did I end up here with a bad headache?
I sat up slowly and gingerly touched the back of my head; it felt almost as if a horse had kicked me in the head! But that was impossible because I'd been in the -. That's when it all came rushing back. The sound of crying and then finding the girl who looked like me, and her face! Except for the injury, she'd looked almost exactly like me. It was all just so strange and confusing. I laid back down and tried to go back to sleep, but my mouth was just so dry. I remembered the old well pump with the icy cold refreshing water just outside the barn and knew that there was no way that I could go back to sleep without a drink.
I was still a little dizzy, and standing up was more challenging than I'd anticipated, but taking small careful steps, I made my way over to the door. The funny thing was it should have been a straight path to the door, but as it was, I veered drunkenly to the left and instead ran into the doorframe. I staggered a little and grabbed the door frame while trying to keep my balance. Looking down at the floor, I smiled at Moose, who'd woken and was looking at me with his head tilted sideways as if trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
After standing there for a moment or two, I started feeling a little better and tried once more to go outside but again found myself held up, this time because Moose had grabbed hold of my pant leg and stubbornly refused to let go.
“Let go, you silly dog,” I whispered and tried to pull away only to lose my balance when Moose yanked on my pant leg. My arms windmilled, and I gave a small shriek as I crashed to the floor.
"What the hell is going on?"
I looked up to see an annoyed-looking Nick standing over the two of us, "I just wanted a drink of water, but Moose wouldn't let me go."
"Let me help you back to bed, and I'll get you a drink of water," he stated, bending down to help me up off the floor.
"I'm perfectly fine and don't need any help," I replied, irritably brushing his hands away and attempting to stand on my own only to stagger sideways and almost fall on the floor.
"No, you're not fine," he said and caught me before I hit the floor. "Either you're drunk or you have a concussion, and since you weren't drinking, that leaves a concussion."
"Don't forget nauseous," I said and laid my head on his shoulder as he gently set me down on the sleeping bag.
Nick swore under his breath," are you going to throw up?"
"Just let me lay here a bit," I mumbled and closed my eyes, desperately hoping to not humiliate myself further by vomiting in front of him.
"Ok, don't move, and I'll be back in a minute with some water and something for that headache," he ordered.
I drifted off to sleep for a couple of minutes, waking up when he brought me some cold water and a couple of pain relievers. After
a bit, I started to feel a little more like my old self when my stomach unexpectedly gave a loud growl, and I realized that I was starting to get hungry.
"I'm starving," I complained.
"All that we have is some jerky and the cookies that Clara (Mrs. Ford) gave us," Nick replied.
"Look in my backpack; I always keep some freeze-dried food in case of an emergency. There's even some extra in there for Moose," I said.
"Moose is fine; I gave him our leftovers from lunch," Nick answered while digging through my backpack. "It looks like you're prepared for almost anything," he commented, setting out several packs of freeze-dried food, a large hunting knife, and my first aid kit.
"My mom and grandma always taught us to be prepared."
'Well, I think that they did a good job," he remarked, handing me a serving of macaroni and cheese before taking one for himself.
We ate in silence for a few minutes before Nick sat his dish aside, "can you tell me what happened to you earlier?"
"You didn't see anything at all?" I asked.
"No," he replied. "I had finished watering the horses when Moose and I noticed that you were missing, and I followed him deeper into the garden where he found you unconscious."
" I saw a girl sitting on a bench and crying; she looked almost just like me," I paused for a minute as I tried to process everything that had happened. " But half of her face was missing; it looked like it was burned or eaten away," I whispered with remembered horror.
"She wasn't a zombie?" Nick questioned.
"No, I called to her, and I could tell that she was self-aware."
"Was she the one who attacked you?"
I frowned, trying to remember; my memory of the previous hours was still a little fuzzy, "No, it was someone else. They must have hit me from behind. One minute I was looking at her, and the next -"
"But you didn't see anyone else?" he asked.