by Emma Shortt
Jackson shook. “I don’t have the strength left. I just want to hold his hand. Let me go.”
“He asked me not to.”
“And I’m telling you that you have to.” A memory came then of a story Luke had told her. They’d been in an old store and she’d nearly fainted when she’d found a stash of canned stewed apples. They’d taken turns eating from three cans, both enjoying the unexpected treat. Afterward he’d held her in his arms and shared stories. Luke had shared so many, she realized, while she’d shared hardly any. If only she could go back.
“You have to because of Lily,” she said.
Pete stilled. “What?”
“You held her in your arms even after she turned, even when she tried to bite you, and you didn’t behead her.”
“How do you know that?” he demanded.
“Luke told me. You did it for her. Let me do it for him.”
Pete sighed and relaxed his grip. “You promise not to behead him? Because there’s more than just you two at stake here. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but it’s true. The whole fucking world could rest on what happens here.”
“I know.” Jackson staggered forward, pain radiating out from her knee, until she could crumple next to Luke. Feeling no guilt at all that she would break that promise if need be. A horrific image of him trapped in one of Sebastian’s cages hit, and Jackson almost vomited. Spending his final days as one of Seb’s experiments?
Never
This was Luke. He was hers. She’d be here for him. That was more important than any cure ever could be.
“Me and you,” she whispered. Until the end. Whenever that might be.
She reached out a shaky hand and wiped at the blood dripping down his face. Was it his blood or hers? Did it even matter anymore?
Her free hand found his and she held fast. “I’m here, Luke. I’m here.”
He screamed and writhed beneath her. His body so clearly racked with pain that she vowed here and then that Sebastian would fucking suffer for this. But it’s not his fault, her mind whispered. I don’t fucking care, she whispered back.
“Careful,” Pete said and Jackson realized he’d followed her over, probably to wrench her away again if need be. She ignored him.
“I’ve got you,” she said softly. “Right here, Luke. With me.”
He screamed again before turning ever so slightly and vomiting all over the floor. The vomit was green, not the color of their pus, and a kernel of hope blossomed in Jackson. She lifted the wipes and ran one along his face. Her hand shaking so much that she almost missed the parts that needed cleaning.
“We’ll hold hands soon,” she whispered. “And go for a walk. You’ll like that, baby. I promise I won’t even take Mandy. I’ll leave her at home.”
“Jackson…”
His word was muffled around a scream and she gritted her teeth tight. “I’m here.”
His body bucked, almost like an epileptic fit, up and down, shivers racing across his skin. Jackson placed a hand on his chest to try and steady him and felt the heat through his shirt. The fever burning.
“No…” she whispered. “No.”
Another scream, this one long and drawn out, and his body seemed to curl in on itself. Just like Two-h-ee…
“Almost done,” Sebastian whispered.
She felt Pete move closer behind her. No doubt ready to grab her away. Jackson knew then what she would have to do if he did.
Luke bucked again, another scream left his lips, and then, to Jackson’s absolute horror, he became completely still. His body locked tight. She gasped and sucked in a shocked breath before reaching out an unsteady hand. “Is he?”
“Move back,” Sebastian said, a warning note in his voice. “Move away from him.”
A groan sounded then, replacing the screams. A groan that lifted the hairs on Jackson’s arms and made everything crystallize. The last few years flashed through her mind at light speed, memory after memory filling her and she let the lump out.
Let them all out.
They erupted one after the other. Mom. Dad. Andrew. Peter. Kelly. Katie. Anne. Fiona. Jayne. Tye. Her family, her friends, everyone she had ever cared about, ever loved. She let them all out, and just like on the observation deck—as they left, a little part of her went with them.
Another little death.
Luke.
The last lump. The only lump. Her throat tightened as if refusing to let him go. Everything shifted into place. He would go and she would not be far behind. It was the only thing that made sense now.
“Move away,” she heard Sebastian say again, but his voice was distant, meaningless almost.
“Come on.” It was Pete, his gruff voice so close to her as he reached out to lift her up, his knees bent.
Jackson didn’t even think. She moved swiftly, with the deadly accuracy that had kept her alive for more time than she could even fathom. The accuracy that had been there from the very beginning, it and the strength, almost like she’d been given the good parts of the zombies, but never the bad.
Almost like she’d been a little bit of them all along.
A flick and a turn and she smacked Pete in the nose, hard. He reeled back, hitting the floor straight on his ass.
Mandy was there, right there next to the obese zombie and Jackson reached across to grab her, the effort making everywhere throb, but in a distant sort of way, as though she was already past even that. Pete staggered up just as Jackson stood, her knee almost failing her.
“Don’t do it,” he roared. “You won’t be able to come back! Don’t!”
But he didn’t even realize, did he? She had no intention of coming back. And so Jackson lifted her arms high, tears filling her eyes, blurring her vision, taking away every single little bit of herself that she had left.
“I love you,” she whispered and then Jackson moved to bring the blade down.
Chapter Thirty-nine
The blade stopped a mere two inches from his head, and Luke’s eyes widened on it, the metal glinting, the gore quivering off it.
A strangled cry. “Luke?” and then the blade was no more and a body crumpled against his. “Oh my God it’s you.”
Everywhere hurt, every single cell within him, but he was him and he knew her and that meant only one thing.
“I’m not…”
Sebastian rushed into his vision, and the doctor was there pulling and poking and prodding before a grin creased his face. “No. You’re okay. Damn it to hell, Luke. You’re okay!” He injected another needle before Jackson could stop him. “Pain relief,” he said. “That’s all.”
“He’s okay. He’s okay.” Jackson chanted the words across him, her hands running up and down, up and down, not even noticing what Sebastian was up to.
Liquid cool raced through Luke’s veins. The pain started to recede. “I’m not one of them. Fucking hell…”
“You’re you,” she whispered. “Just you.”
“You were going to behead me,” he said, the image of Mandy’s blade dancing through his mind.
“Yes.” She planted a kiss on his cheek. “I’d never let anyone else. Just like you’d do it for me. How could I watch someone else remove your head? No, it would be wrong.”
“But you didn’t,” he said and he couldn’t even feel the burn on his shoulder anymore. “Why?”
“I saw your eyes,” she said, and he couldn’t help but notice that her eyes were ever so slightly crazed. What else was new?
“My eyes?”
“The blue,” she said. “The you. And no zombie could ever look like that. Of course it was you. You’re just really lucky that I realized in time and that I’m so weak right now. If that’d been a full-on swing, I wouldn’t have been able to stop.”
“Come here.” Luke raised his good arm and wrapped it around her. She sort of collapsed even further against him and he swallowed unsteadily. How close it had been and how fucked-up that he totally got what she meant? That yes, in the end, perhaps their love in this world
came down to things like that. To being willing to take off the head of your other half because it was the right thing to do.
“I shouldn’t have made Pete pull you away,” he said slowly. “It was wrong to take the choice from you. I just worried that you wouldn’t be able to come back from it.”
“Well I wouldn’t have,” she said. “But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I was only ever going to be a step behind you.”
“Jack…” he whispered. “Don’t talk like that.”
“It is what it is,” she said. “But, Christ, I never want to have to make that choice again.”
“I never want to make it at all,” Luke said. “Never.”
He pulled her closer, holding tight, and all at once he knew that no matter what they did from here on in, it would be together. Beheading and all.
“I love you,” Luke whispered and he felt her smile against him.
“Love you too, baby.”
Their lips touched briefly and maybe if he wasn’t exhausted, and she wasn’t still dripping blood, everything would have dissolved in a haze around them…a haze that had the distinct smell of something…but this wasn’t a romance novel and with their combined wounds all they could do was slump against one another, relief filling them both.
When they finally pulled back slightly Jackson looked up into Luke’s eyes, and he into hers. Those perfect green eyes which would be his forever now—zombies or not, and vice versa, and then she smiled, and he knew he’d never forget the sight of her blood-splattered face, filled with relief and love, not to mention the jagged cut.
Not now.
Not when he was an old man reminiscing about the past.
Not ever.
Not until the end.
“You look kinda crazy,” he said and she laughed, shaking slightly.
“Was teetering on the edge there, baby, not gonna lie.”
“I’d have pulled you back.”
“You’ll always pull me back.”
“We need to fix your cheek,” he said, moving slightly to lift himself up. Whatever Sebastian had given him was fucking fantastic. He couldn’t even feel the bite now. “It could get infected.”
“You both need treatment,” Sebastian said. “As soon as we’re back at camp I’ll sort you out—though I make no claims to being a proper doctor so you’ll both just have to make the best of it. It is bed rest for both of you for a good few weeks though. I can promise that.”
“I think she broke my nose,” Pete said and Jackson turned to him.
“I’m sorry, Pete.”
“No you’re not.” He sighed, wiping away a splatter of blood. “But it’s fine. I’ve been there, remember.”
“I’ll treat you, too,” Sebastian said. “Perhaps some sort of compress? What about Jay?”
“I’ll go look,” Pete said. “He was beheading the last of them.”
Jackson pushed a hand under his arms and helped Luke lift up into a sitting position. He shuddered slightly because though the pain relief felt great, he was exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to curl up with Jackson in his arms and sleep for a week.
“We should get moving when Pete gets back,” he said.
Sebastian nodded and began to pack things up. “That we should. Gonna have to move to my other base as well now. This place is compromised.”
“You have another?”
The doctor nodded. “Never put all your stars in one stellar nursery, Luke.”
“We should…” Jackson paused and lifted her head. “Did the accelerator have citrate in it?”
Sebastian frowned. “Of course not. The formula is made up of—”
She waved his words away. “I don’t need to know.”
“It’s just stuff to make every single part of my body scream like it was on fire,” Luke said, shivering at the memory. He pulled her to him and squeezed because the feel of her exhausted body against his was enough to push it back.
Jackson frowned again and wrinkled her nose. “I could swear I smelled…” She shook her head. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Lynx,” Luke said slowly, taking a deep breath, wondering if the concussion was messing with his mind. “You can smell Lynx. It smells exactly like the stuff you sprayed outside the rec center…”
“It’s useless,” Sebastian piped up. “No good to anyone apart from as a deodorant.”
“Which is its actual purpose,” Luke said.
Sebastian shrugged. “If my own specially mixed citrate spray doesn’t repel them, you can bet the weak amounts of citrate in that stuff won’t. Anyone still hoping it will is dead wrong. Literally. And besides,” he added. “I confiscated all the aftershaves and deodorants from camp months ago.”
“Then how—”
A roar sounded from outside—the noise splitting the air around them. Luke felt Jackson jump. She placed a hand on his and made to stand.
“Wait,” he said, because the sound was teasing around the edges of Luke’s battered brain as he tried desperately to place it.
“I can’t believe it,” Jackson whispered. “It can’t be.”
“What is it, Jack?” he asked, worried for just a moment that more zombies were approaching, maybe even burrowing. How could they possibly fight off more? But…the roar had not been a groan…it was something else entirely.
“The fire,” she whispered.
Luke shifted, remembering the moment the fire had rained down. Where had it come from? What was going on? “I don’t—”
“Look,” she said.
She squeezed his hand and pointed toward the open door, where the flames were still flickering in the distance. Luke narrowed his eyes, trying to work out what she meant, a moment later and understanding dawned. “There’s someone else out there.”
“Someone else,” her words were whispered, her eyes wide. “It can’t be.”
“Can’t be what?” Sebastian asked. “What the devil’s going on?”
Someone screamed, another roar sounded. Luke tried to lift up a bit farther to see, but Jackson’s hand on his shoulder halted him. She turned, met his gaze, shock stamped across her features, and then, oddly, she smiled.
“Tye,” she said. “It’s Tye.”
…
Jackson stood up, wincing as she did so, fucking tears threatening all over again. Her entire body shook, pain radiating out from everywhere, but it was almost as though those feelings were secondary to the alarm going off in her head…the possibility that she was right, that he’d found them at last.
Tye.
She narrowed her eyes against the smoke. Looking, searching.
When a figure emerged from the gloom—illuminated by the last of the flickering flames—it emerged in a way she had not expected at all. It was running, but slowly, because held in its arms was something Jackson had never thought to see in a million years.
Tye. But he was not alone.
She gasped as the light brought his face into focus. Those features, so dear to her, the brother that had helped to fill the hole of those she’d lost. It was almost too much to comprehend.
“Jack?” she heard Luke’s words and swallowed down the lump in her throat. Her knees were shaking, the damaged one in particular feeling like it could go at any moment.
“It’s him,” she whispered. “It’s him.”
Sebastian rushed past her—his limp barely slowing him down—as he too caught sight of the figures. A moment later and they were all in the room. Sebastian. Pete. Jay…and Tye…
Jackson shuffled forward, reaching out, needing to touch him to convince herself he was actually real, but he sprinted past her, blood pouring down his face, and the heavy bundle in his arms bleeding even more.
“Tye…”
Jackson made to step forward, but her knee failed, and she would have fallen. Only Luke was suddenly there, struggling as much as she, but he caught her in his arms and held her fast. His presence was like cold water over a heated wound, and Jackson half slumped against him. The pain, the s
hock, everything overwhelming her.
“Help me! Help her!” Tye’s words were wrenched from him, and Jackson’s heart thudded at the sound.
She looked down at the woman who Seb and Tye were laying on the floor. She was tiny, her cloud of curly brown hair spread out like a halo around her head. She was also covered in blood and pus, her eyes closed tight…and she was curled in on herself.
“Has she been bitten?” Seb demanded.
Tye nodded, his jaw locked tight as Seb peeled back the woman’s T-shirt, exposing a deep bite on the side of her belly.
“I thought it was dead,” Tye growled. “It was in the ground. I thought it was already dead. Oh God…”
“You need to stand back,” Seb said, just as the woman gave a bloodcurdling scream.
“Help her,” Tye demanded. “Fucking fix her.”
The words held so much pain. Everyone in the room felt it. Each looking from one to the other, understanding passing between them. Jackson’s eyes met Seb’s and she immediately suspected what he was thinking. When he gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of his head, she knew for sure.
She stepped forward, Luke helping her to do so. “Tye?”
Tye turned, confusion chasing across his haunted features. “Jack?”
She laid a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, it’s me.”
“I knew I’d find you here,” he said. “Polly promised. The fire was her idea.” He reached out and stroked his hand across the back of the woman’s face. The gesture was so tender, so loving, that Jackson’s heart hitched. Tye had found his Luke…and she was so happy for him, but then she realized what was about to happen and her heart sank.
“How long ago was she bit?” Sebastian asked, pulling a syringe from his bag.
Tye shook his head, pain pinching his face. “I don’t know? Five minutes? Maybe more?”
Sebastian plunged the syringe in and the woman, Polly—where did Jackson know that name from?—let out a shriek. It made them all, all but Tye, jump back, because the sound was so familiar to each and every one of them.
“No, no, no!” Tye leaned across and started to gather Polly into his arms. Despite the screams and the shrieks she was completely limp, her head lolling as he tried to move her.