“That’s exactly what I want you to do,” he said without turning as he searched through the glove box.
She was staring uncertainly at the horde of zombies she would have to navigate. “Why me?”
“Because you’re in the driver’s seat and because I have the gun. And if I had to guess, I’d say that I’m a better shot than you are.”
More zombies were closing in around them. A lot more. She pressed her bare foot uncertainly down on the accelerator. Zombies slammed into the car from all directions but she was able to keep the vehicle moving slowly down the center of the road.
“He won’t let go,” she suddenly screamed, cringing from the window as a massive zombie clung to her side of the car.
“Step on it. It’ll eventually fall off.”
She pressed hard on the accelerator. The tires squealed against the concrete, thumped over one body. Two. Three.
“Turn here,” Rafe told her without any warning whatsoever.
She turned too late and bumped across an overgrown yard. She had to back up to make it around a light pole. A new crowd of zombies was closing in on them. She almost panicked, backed into a short section of wooden picket fence and took it out completely. It was stuck to the bumper and when she pulled forward again, the fence hung there in its entirety.
“Just keep driving,” Rafe said as he looked back. “We’ll worry about the fence later.” About a mile down the road, he told her, “Get off the road and take that field to your left.”
“The field?”
“Yes. We’ll be all right. We have four wheel drive. Stay way to your left.”
“But there are less trees over- ”
She wasn’t used to taking orders and so she automatically made her own decision and turned to the right instead.
While Rafe asked what the hell she was doing, she bumped along the uneven ground, swinging wide as she tried to avoid the ditches that she hadn’t seen at first.
“We’re not going to make- ” she heard.
He didn’t finish because she hit a ditch hard. She immediately pushed the accelerator to the floor to try and get across it before they got stuck. He put it into four wheel drive and, miraculously, they cleared that ditch, but she soon went out of control trying to avoid getting stuck a second time and crashed head on into a tree.
Right away, Helice put the car in reverse and backed up, right over the fence. While she gunned the engine trying to get out of the shallow creek, Rafe blasted her with a string of profanities that widened her eyes behind her glasses. It didn’t take either one of them long to figure out that the car wasn’t going anywhere. And neither were they.
He sighed heavily as he sank back against his seat. “You didn’t listen to me. I could have told you there was water over here. A lot of water,” he said as he looked out the passenger side window.
She scoffed quietly under her breath as she looked around from her side of the vehicle. “You couldn’t know that.”
“Oh, but I could.”
The quiet, steely tone of his voice had her turning in his direction.
“Those are willow trees,” he informed her. “They only grow near a water source. In fact, in case you didn’t know it, that’s a willow tree you just hit.”
After a silence, she looked at him and asked, “What do we do now?”
He gave her a brief glance. “Now you’re asking me to make the decisions?”
“We could try pushing the car out of the ditch,” she suggested.
“By that, I take it you mean I could try pushing the car. Have you taken a good look to see how high the banks are here?”
“We’ll have to walk then.”
He looked at her again. When he didn’t say anything, she said, “I’m sure there’s a farm over in that direction. I saw silos.”
He still didn’t say anything.
“We don’t have any choice but to walk,” she told him.
“We’re not walking.”
“It’s our only option.”
“It’s almost dark,” he said. “We’re not going anywhere until daylight.”
“But- ”
“But nothing. Do you know how pissed off at you I am right now? Do yourself a favor and don’t- don’t argue with me. We’ll wait the night out right here.”
“We can- ”
“Don’t,” he warned her again. “Don’t even talk to me right now.”
A few moments passed before she said in a quiet voice, “There’s still some daylight left.”
“Not much. It’ll be dark before you know it. I know people run through unfamiliar woods at night in movies all the time. But look out there. You think that’s even remotely possible?”
The shadows were already deep under the trees. She didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. They would be completely lost once darkness fell.
“We don’t know what’s out there,” he went on. “Hell, those woods could be crawling with the undead for all we know. I have no intention of fighting in the dark, not if I can help it.” He narrowed his gaze at her in the gathering gloom. “What?”
“I hope that if we have to spend the night here, you’re going to at least try to act like a civilized human being and make an effort to keep your profanities to a minimum.”
He continued to stare at her. “I’ll give it my best shot,” he said in a voice threaded with sarcasm.
The situation was not to Rafe’s liking. He was stuck here. He accepted that fact because there was nothing he could do about it. And he knew there was no chance of finding the others in the darkness, no way of communicating unless he sent up smoke signals. They had no choice but to wait out the night here and try to re-connect with the other men in the morning. But spending the night here with this woman made things that much worse.
“I’ll try to keep my caveman grunts to a minimum,” he said facetiously as he settled in for what he knew was going to be a very long, very uncomfortable night. “But I’m warning you, don’t try anything we might both live to regret.”
Chapter 15
“The sun is coming up.”
Rafe started at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. Damn, she was up already? And wide awake from the looks of it.
“I couldn’t sleep at all,” she informed him.
Like that was his fault.
It hadn’t been his most comfortable night, either. He had been folded up like a pretzel for hours and now it felt like his arms and legs were never going to be able to straighten out again. He rubbed the back of his neck and flexed his shoulder muscles, wincing at the pain in the left one. The shoulder had been bothering him all night, especially when he would inadvertently prop it against the seat in his sleep.
“This has to be one of the worst nights I’ve ever spent,” he muttered half to himself as he looked around.
“I seem to remember it was your idea to sleep in the car,” she said tersely.
The night certainly hadn’t improved her mood any, he thought to himself.
“And I remember it was your idea to drive where I told you not to drive,” he reminded her and then added, “Let’s not start the day off with an argument. I’m not in the mood for it.”
When he tried to get out of the car, he was surprised to see just how deeply it had sunk into the mud. It oozed around the tires so that he could barely see them. In fact, he’d had to put some weight into getting the door open. No wonder there were no zombies around. They would have gotten stuck in the mud, too
When Helice tried to exit the vehicle to answer a call of nature, she gasped at first and immediately retreated back into the car.
Rafe looked around, instantly alerted. “What?”
“I saw a snake. In the water.”
“I don’t see anything,” he said, craning his neck to have a look himself. “I’m sure it’s gone by now.”
“Why don’t you make sure?”
“And how am I supposed to do that?”
“Walk around in the water and see if you disturb anyt
hing.”
“I’ll come around to your side of the car, but I’m not going to walk around in the water trying to stir things up. I’m telling you, the snake is already gone.”
She was already glaring at him by the time he reached her side of the car. When he just stood there, she said, “Now go somewhere.”
“Huh?”
“I need some privacy.”
He didn’t say anything. He just turned around and started to walk off.
“Don’t go far,” he heard.
He stopped but didn’t turn around. “This far enough?”
“Yes,” he heard.
Helice waded around a little bit before she found a shallow enough place. She unzipped her pants, staring at the arrogant jerk’s back the whole time that she squatted down, concentrating on keeping her backside above the level of the water and watching out for snakes at the same time. All the while she seethed over the man’s overbearing attitude. What he really needed was to be put in his place, but she hadn’t found the opportunity to do that just yet. But it was coming. It was definitely coming.
“You almost done?” she heard him ask.
“I’m done,” she said after she had zipped up her pants.
Rafe turned around. The beige slacks she had on looked like something his grandmother would have worn. So did the flower-print, short sleeved blouse as she peered owlishly at him from behind a pair of thick, plastic-framed eye glasses. His gaze travelled downward as she sloshed through the water. He was going to have to bind her feet up with something before they set out. She couldn’t walk barefoot like that. They’d never get anywhere. She’d probably fight him on that, too.
Because she just naturally got on his nerves, he couldn’t help himself. He called out maliciously, “See? I told you, not a snake in sight.”
Irritated by the faint smile lingering on his face, she snapped, “Just one idiot.”
The smile faded. “I hope that’s not the best you can come up with.”
She gave him a look that said she could come up with plenty of derogatory words to let him know how she felt about him. He was an egotistical, overbearing male, the very type she detested. He was the last person she would have chosen to begin her day with, but it wasn’t like she had any choice. They were in the middle of nowhere and he did have a weapon.
“I will let you know now,” she began. “If I think even once that you might get me killed, I have no intention of going meekly along with you like a lamb to slaughter.”
She was tired from a sleepless night. She was hungry. And she needed to get her frustrations out somewhere, but he wasn’t cooperating, not in the way she was used to. She heard him muttering something to himself as he walked back to the car, but he was leaning inside and she couldn’t make out a single word, although it didn’t take her long to realize that he was saying something about her feet.
“What the hell happened to you?” Ren asked, greatly relieved when he saw Rafe come around the barn and approach the farmhouse. “I worried about you all night.”
“I got side tracked,” Rafe said as he jerked his chin over his shoulder. “By her.”
The other two men didn’t know what he was talking about. They hadn’t yet seen Helice who had stubbornly plopped her backside down on a rock and said she was going to rest a few minutes before going on to the farmhouse.
“I thought you were alone,” Ren said, searching the woods but still not seeing anyone.
“If only,” Rafe muttered under his breath.
Helice appeared then, still complaining. “It certainly wasn’t my idea to spend a night in a car with a barbarian who- ”
Helice stopped when she saw the other two men. For the first time, she was quiet as she peered harder from behind her glasses.
“Aunt Helice?”
“Liam?” she questioned, her eyes registering her own surprise.
Even Rafe did a double take.
Chapter 16
“Did you walk all the way here?” Lauryn asked her brother as they sat together at the kitchen table. Maddy was standing with her back to the counter, listening, but so far she hadn’t joined in the conversation.
“Part of the way,” Eymann answered his sister’s question. “There’s no law out there. It’s bad everywhere. We ran into one ambush and barely missed another. When we ran out of gas, we had no choice but to abandon our vehicle and start walking.”
“What was it like in the city?” Lauryn asked.
“Chaos from the beginning,” he said. “The food ran out in the first couple of days. The water was gone shortly after that. It was a nightmare just trying to find enough to eat and drink to stay alive. You had to fight both the living and the undead.”
“Were there many of the- undead there?”
“More undead than living it seemed.”
“And there were no organized efforts to deal with it?” she asked.
“I saw no signs of it. Things deteriorated too fast. Everyone was busy just trying to stay alive.”
“And Helice?”
“We got separated. I hope she’s all aright, wherever she is. At this point, all we can do is wait for her to show up here.”
Neither Lauryn nor Maddy had anything to add to that. They had both received scathing letters over the years from Eymann and Helice, although it was hard to know exactly who was responsible for all the terrible things that had been said in the letters. There was a lot of water under the bridge. Consequently, there were still hard feelings. A zombie apocalypse didn’t make all that go away, but Lauryn was willing to forget the past and let bygones be bygones.
“Do you think Grant is on his way here?” Eymann asked.
“Grant?”
“I’m sure he’s worried about all of you.”
“Grant has another family to worry about,” she said. “I’m sure he’s with them.”
“When you got divorced and moved away, I couldn’t help worrying because kids need a father.”
“You’re right,” she agreed. “Children do need a father. But sometimes things don’t work out that way.”
“I was hoping this might open his eyes,” Eymann went on.
“He’s had plenty of time for that.”
“But I thought that his children at least would be important to him.”
“Why would they be?” Lauryn asked. “They weren’t important to him when we were married.”
“Lauryn,” Eymann said in a reproving voice, as if he was a parent reprimanding a child for saying the wrong thing. “You shouldn’t talk that way in front of- ”
Maddy, who was still standing at the counter, said, “I’m right here, Eymann. I can hear every word you’re saying.”
Lauryn carefully folded her hands on the table. “That part of my life was over a long time ago. And as for Maddy, there’s no point in trying to hide the truth from her, Eymann. Maddy lived the truth her whole life. I’m not going to pretend that things were different than what they were. How would that help her?”
“But children should respect their father, no matter what,” he argued.
“I am not a child,” Maddy informed him.
“Maddy never showed her father anything but respect,” Lauryn said. “But respecting someone doesn’t mean being blind, Eymann. Grant was an absent father, and when he was around, he was very hard on his children. Just like our own father was hard on us. I hope that wherever Grant is, he’s safe, even happy. But don’t ask me to hope that he’ll come back here or believe that a zombie apocalypse will turn him into the great father and husband he couldn’t be before. He has a new life now. Just like I do. Wherever he is, I am sure his current family is his priority.”
“But- ”
“I don’t want him back, Eymann. There’s no sense in discussing it further.”
She could see that it didn’t fit in with his structured way of looking at things. Maddy looked like she was on the verge of saying something to him, but Lauryn shook her head. This wasn’t the time or place to get into an arg
ument with Eymann. Not that it would do any good anyway. She’d had plenty of opportunities to learn that he had a very narrow way of looking at things. It was obvious that hadn’t changed.
“So tell me about the people you’re with,” she said to distract him.
“Selia and Caleb were my next door neighbors. I told them you might be willing to take us in. We would work for our keep. Without Grant, I’m sure you could use some men around h- ”
Maddy made a small scoffing sound. “We don’t have to rely on men to protect us, Eymann. We’ve been managing just fine on our own.”
When he had first arrived, Eymann hadn’t recognized his niece at first. But it had been what? Nine years since he had last seen her? He didn’t approve of her leaving off the uncle part when she addressed him. It seemed disrespectful somehow.
“I thought that Liam would surely be here,” he said.
“Liam isn’t here because he was offered a job that he couldn’t turn down,” Lauryn said quietly. “We’re not sure where he is right now. We keep hoping every day that he’ll show up. Just like you are hoping that Helice will show up.”
Seeing the obvious worry in both women’s eyes, Eymann said, “It would take a while to get here. Look how long it took us. I have to ask you something else. Why do you have an ambulance parked in your garage?”
“There are two other people here with us,” Lauryn told him. “A woman and her son who was sick for a while because he was bitten.”
“Bitten?” Eymann suddenly looked alarmed. “And you don’t think he might be a threat to all of us?”
“He’s much better now,” Maddy said.
“You are keeping an eye on him, aren’t you?” he asked Lauryn.
“Yes, we are keeping an eye on him.” We’re not stupid, she wanted to add. Instead she said,
“I’m a mother, Eymann. I’m not going to turn him, or his mother, away.”
When Eymann left the room, Lauryn heard Maddy give a prolonged groan. “He’s still the same.”
Lauryn silently agreed. Eymann didn’t seem to have changed much, but she said to her daughter, “It sounds like he’s been through a lot. And I know he must be worried about Helice. We’ll let everyone get settled in for now. There will be time to establish some boundaries later.”
Deadrise (Book 7): Bloodlust Page 14