by Dia Cole
He stared into my eyes and said, “You are the strongest, smartest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
I gave him a sideways grin. “You haven’t lived very long.”
His expression sobered. “I know you’re the one. I knew it when I was a kid. I know it no—” He broke off at the sound of combat boots thundering down the hallway.
The door swung open, and Dominic and Darcy strode in. Both of them wore dark expressions.
Whatever is happening out front isn’t good.
Without so much as blinking in our direction, Darcy marched over to where Grady lay on his side and cut him free. “Get up.”
“Thanks,” Grady said, rubbing his reddened arms. “I’m sorry about running earlier—”
“Save it for someone who cares, Hillbilly.” Darcy pointed at the vending machines. “Make yourself useful by loading up the food and drinks.”
Dominic scowled at the sight of me cuddled against Reed. He pointed at the duffel bag in front of us. “I need that.”
“Is it bad?” I whispered, moving out of Reed’s embrace.
“Yes.” The unease in his normally calm gaze tripped my internal alarms. He crouched down, digging through the weapons and ammo. “But we’ve sealed the fire door at the end of the hallway. Even if they get through the barricades out front, they’re not getting through solid steel.”
My breath came a little easier.
At least we were safe. For now…
“Can they get through there?” Reed motioned to the windows.
“I don’t think so. The courtyard is gated and, as of last night, was clear of infected. But we all need to be extra vigilant. Rule number four?”
“Always have a weapon ready,” Reed and I said in unison.
Dominic nodded, pulling out several more knives and stuffing them into his vest. “Good. I’m heading out to locate a vehicle. I’ll need you all ready to move out the moment I get back.”
He stood up and called out to Darcy, “Corporal, you’re in charge. If I’m not back by ten hundred hours, assume the worst.”
The worst?
The idea of Dominic getting attacked and killed sat like a hard knot in my chest. He was a trained soldier.
He can survive anything. Can’t he?
Without thinking, I grabbed his hand. “Be careful.”
His lips quirked up. “I don’t plan on dying today.”
Darcy prowled over. “Enough of this middle-school bullshit. Lee, help Grady gather supplies. Sarge, are you getting a vehicle or what?”
Dominic’s half smile died a quick death. He dropped my hand. “I don’t like your tone, Corporal.”
“Apologies, sir.” Darcy said, not looking the slightest bit sorry. Tension and anger wafted off her like heavy perfume. “Trying to survive a siege of undead brings out the bitch in me.”
Dominic straightened his shoulders. “I’m leaving now and Lee is coming with me.”
My mouth fell open.
What made him change his mind?
Reed tried to stand. “No. It’s too dangerous.”
I rushed over and pushed him back down. “It gives me another chance,” I whispered, giving Dominic a meaningful look.
Reed searched my face and nodded. “Hurry back. I love you.” Then he kissed me full on the mouth.
“Reed.” I quickly jerked back, dreading Dominic’s reaction. Thankfully, all his focus was on Darcy.
The two soldiers were nose to nose and looked seconds from drawing weapons on each other.
The tic in Dominic’s jaw flexed along with the muscles in his forearms. “Do you have something to say?”
If Darcy’s eyes were laser beams, Dominic would’ve been vaporized. “The girl should stay here.”
“Your concern is noted, Corporal,” he said, emphasizing her title. “Keep the other civilians alive until we return. I’ll radio in with our status.”
Darcy’s glare followed me as Dominic led me out into the hallway. “It was nice knowing ya, Hooker.”
As we pushed open the back door and stepped into the courtyard, her ominous words stayed with me.
HEAVEN IN HELL: EPISODE 3
Survival has a price that’s paid in blood…
Running out of options and time, Lee joins Dominic on his dangerous mission. Little does he know she’s on a mission of her own—to seduce the cure from him at all costs. Hunted by both the living and the dead, they will face the ultimate choice between love and survival.
1
The damp chill in the air stole my breath. It’d stopped raining, but the Palo Verde trees lining the courtyard hurled their petals at us as if in warning. The sight of the brilliant yellow canopies filled me with dread. Even now the memory of my sister’s sneakers slipping on those same tiny flowers and falling into the zombie horde replayed in an endless loop in my mind. I shut my eyes and fought from being consumed by the pain of her loss.
We hadn’t walked more than a few feet from the office where the rest of the group was holed up, but I was already questioning the wisdom of joining Dominic on what could very well be a suicide mission to find a car.
What do I have to lose?
I opened my eyes and glanced down at my leg. Black yoga pants hid the zombie bite and the evidence of the Z-virus spreading through my body. Soon the virus would transform me into one of the undead.
Not if I steal the cure from Dominic first.
I turned my attention to the handsome, gruff sergeant digging through his pack. He pulled out an aerosol can and strode over.
My heart started beating erratically the way it always did when he stood close by. I licked my lips remembering our recent romantic encounter in the bathroom. Just thinking about how amazing his hands had felt on my body turned my knees weak.
“Stand still,” he said, spraying me down with air freshener.
I coughed, trying to clear my lungs. The chemical smell of Christmas gone wrong scorched my nostrils and made my stomach churn.
Satisfied my scent was masked, Dominic turned the pine air freshener on himself.
I wanted to ask him why he decided to let me come with him, but I was afraid that if I did he might change his mind. He was one of the most mercurial men I’d ever encountered. Trying to predict how he’d act from one minute to the next gave me a headache.
As he sprayed himself, he furrowed his brow and bit his bottom lip. Damn, he looked sexy when he was concentrating on something. Or lifting something. Or bending over. Or just breathing.
Get a grip, Lee.
It seemed as though the longer I was around him, the more attractive he became. I straightened my shoulders. I couldn’t let whatever crazy hold he had over me keep me from stealing the cure from him this time. My friend Reed’s life was on the line too. If anything happened to me, Dominic would ditch him. As severely injured as Reed was, he wouldn’t survive an hour alone. I shivered at the thought of what could happen to him.
Seeming impervious to the cold, Dominic set the empty can of air freshener down and nodded at the cobblestone path in front of us. “This will lead us out.”
The cement benches marching down the path looked like gravestone markers among the rotting foliage. The sinister vibe made me want to run back inside.
I gave one backward look at the break room window.
Reed was peering out the mini-blinds. He gave me a thumbs-up with his good hand.
I waved back. I hated having to leave him, but there was no other alternative. Not if I wanted us both to survive.
“Move your ass,” Dominic said, jerking me back to reality.
I struggled to catch up with his long strides. A weird numbness had spread from where I’d been bitten up to my knee. It was an odd sensation, but at least it didn’t interfere with walking. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll find out. Get your weapon out and follow my lead,” Dominic barked.
Clearly, drill sergeant Dominic was back in charge.
I pulled out my knife and followed clos
ely on his heels. As we traveled the length of the courtyard in silence, I sifted through my conflicting feelings for him. On one hand, his domineering nature made me want to kick him in the shins. On the other hand, the way he’d ordered me around in the bathroom made my inner muscles tighten. I never thought that giving up control would make me so hot. Make me want so much. It didn’t help that, despite being a stripper, I’d never been with a man before. I was so out of my depth.
As if feeling my gaze on his broad back, he looked over his shoulder. “Keep up.”
Arrogant ass.
I was going as fast as I could. “You have legs the size of redwoods, I’d have to be a giant to keep up with you.”
He didn’t turn around, but his pace slowed slightly.
I scanned the glass windows of the offices framing both sides of the rectangular courtyard. There was a law office, a title company, and a dentist office. God. I’d always hated dental appointments.
I’ll spend the rest of my life sitting in that uncomfortable chair if only the world will go back to normal.
One office window had me stopping in my tracks.
What the…
Dominic glanced back. “I see them. Keep going.”
There were at least two dozen people…no…zombies standing perfectly still as if frozen in place. Their eyes were shut. Their blood-smeared mouths were slack. Their bite-covered arms hung limply at their sides. They looked like department store mannequins that had been staged in a macabre tableau that could’ve been titled, Lunch Break of the Dead.
Up ahead, Dominic stopped in front of a large metal gate. He slowly pushed up the latch. He motioned me to stay back, and then peered around the corner.
Overwhelmed with morbid fascination, I took a step toward the window to get a better look.
A silver-haired woman stood with her bloated gray face against the glass. Aside from her throat being torn out, she looked like the grandmotherly type who carried photos of all twenty of her grandchildren with her. Her pantyhose had run in the places where hunks of skin were missing from her plump legs.
A shudder ran through me.
Ugh. Stuck wearing pantyhose for all time. That might be a fate worse than death.
As I drew closer, I could see a cluster of handbags lying near the coffee machine in the corner of the room. A stack of chairs and two rectangular tables had been pushed flush against the door.
The barricade had held.
Death came from inside the room.
The woman’s eyes flew open.
Startled, I jumped back.
Her rheumy gaze sharpened at the sight of me. The dangly cat earrings she wore danced as she swung her head around.
Thunk. Thunk.
The sound of her hands beating against the glass had me stumbling to Dominic’s side.
As if someone flipped a switch, the others came to awareness with the same frightening speed. They rushed to the spot where the woman stood.
“Dominic!” My heart pounded along to the frantic rhythm of hands beating against the glass.
“Damn it. I didn’t want to wake them.” Dominic grabbed hold of my arm and dragged me through the gate. He closed it behind us and then latched it shut.
“What do you mean wake them? Zombies sleep?”
Dominic pulled me around a tangle of overgrown bushes into a parking lot. In a low voice he said, “It’s more like stasis. It only happens when there’s no food and they need to conserve energy.”
I chewed my bottom lip. Not for the first time, I noted that Dominic knew far more about these creatures than any of us did. “How do you know so much about them?”
Dominic held up his hand for silence and then yanked me behind a red sedan.
The only sounds were our breathing and the unmistakable clicking of teeth grinding together. Hundreds of teeth. The noise scraped up my spine and lodged in the back of the most primitive part of my brain. The part that was screaming, Run.
I peered around the car and spotted throngs of infected.
God. There are so many.
The horde wrapped all the way around the front of the peach stucco office complex. They looked like a rioting crowd as they jostled each other to get closer to the building.
If they catch sight of us, we’ll be goners.
Dominic’s hand tightened like a vise as he dragged me over to another car. He pointed south. “We have to backtrack.”
“What about these cars?” I whispered, pointing at the handful of vehicles parked around us.
“The noise would draw the infected and there are no keys. I’ve checked all the cars around here.”
I was momentarily baffled. “Wait you mean you can’t hot-wire them?”
The tic in his jaw flickered. “You think just because I’m an ex-con, I can boost cars?”
Great. Now I’d offended him.
“No…I, uh. You just seem like the kind of guy who can do anything…”
“Just shut up and move.” He pulled me to the back of the lot, and then across a side street.
We kept up a fast pace, pausing only when we saw lurching shapes in the distance. As soon as the Biters stumbled out of view, we moved on.
In the distance, I could see the Western Warehouse. Or what was left of it. Parts of the stand-alone building were smoldering.
We came to the van we’d sideswiped in the SUV.
Dominic tried the doors, a hopeful look on his face. “Damn,” he said when the doors wouldn’t open.
I scanned the street. Something shiny and familiar caught my eye. Without a thought, I rushed into the middle of the road. The closer I got, the tighter the vise around my heart.
Dominic called after me but his voice was lost to the blood roaring in my ears.
I was out of breath when I reached it. The leather dog collar lay on the asphalt. There was blood all around it, but no body.
There is no way Eden could’ve recovered from getting her head blown off. Right?
I scooped Sasha’s collar off the ground and fisted it.
Dominic jogged over and stopped short when he saw what I held. Instead of reprimanding me for not listening, he gave the area around us a troubled look.
I held the collar up in confusion. “What does this mean?”
Dominic knocked it out of my hand as if it was covered in maggots. “It means the Howler is still out there and the world just got a hell of a lot more dangerous.”
My throat grew tight. “Can they be killed?”
He finally looked up at me. “I don’t know.” His eyes briefly flashed an emotion I never thought I’d see on his face. Fear.
My gaze bounced around the buildings around us. Eden could be anywhere. “We have to get out of he—”
The sound of a car engine cut me off.
Blood drained from Dominic’s face. Before I could blink, he dragged me across the street into the alley between the Red Dog Saloon and the Saguaro Valley history museum.
He pulled me into a crouch behind an overflowing Dumpster.
The faint odor of something rotting barely made an impression. My focus was fixated on the street.
The engine got louder and then cut off.
Dominic shifted closer to the tower of wooden crates stacked next to the Dumpster. At the sound of male voices, he peered through the slats of the crates and cursed.
Dying to know what was going on, I leaned over and peered through a slat. An open-top military jeep was parked in front of the Warehouse. Four men wearing military fatigues and machine guns jumped from the jeep.
They must be soldiers from the base.
I let out a shaky breath and reached for Dominic.
He looked like someone had knifed him in the gut.
“Aren’t they the good guys?” I whispered.
Dominic held his finger to my lips and shook his head.
The man in the driver’s seat stood and shouted something at the other men. Unlike the others, he was dressed in black with some kind of weird-looking belt around his
waist.
Strange.
I caught a glimpse of his face and sucked in a sharp breath. His face was painted white and thick black circles had been drawn around his eyes. His nose was stained black to give the impression of a gaping hole. Even at this distance, I could make out the teeth that had been painstakingly drawn across his mouth to the edge of his jaw. I squinted and realized that the men canvasing the building also wore face paint. Their faces didn’t come close to rivaling the artistry and detail of the driver, who I dubbed Skull Face.
“Calaveras,” Dominic said under his breath.
My hands shook as I braced myself against the Dumpster. Even before the Z-virus hit, I’d had run-ins with the Calaveras. Javier, the leader of the lethal gang, had taken a special interest in my dancing at the strip club and even sent his men to collect me the day the world went to hell. I made a fist remembering how his men had threatened us and killed my surrogate uncle. In return, Eden and I had ended their lives.
No doubt, Javier won’t think too kindly of me now.
“We have to go,” Dominic said, his voice low.
He didn’t look like he wanted to go. He’d pulled out one of his knives and was rubbing the hilt with enough friction to light a fire. “I think this might’ve been the same group that ambushed Jen and Hunter on their way through the South Valley.”
His dark eyes scanned each of the men’s faces as though he was looking for someone specific. He focused in on Skull Face and, more specifically, the decorations hanging from his belt.
With a sickening feeling, I realized the decorations fluttering in the breeze were hair. Long ponytails of every color were tied to his belt. One of those ponytails was even close to the same dark brown color as my own.
The veins in Dominic’s trembling arms popped out as if he was fighting the urge to launch himself at Skull Face. He took a deep breath, and slid back behind the Dumpster. “The sound of their jeep will bring the infected. Let’s go.” He reached over, grabbed my hand, and pulled me up.
The sudden movement was too much for my leg. As it crumpled underneath me, I grabbed the crates to try to steady myself. The tower wobbled and teetered forward.