“Not really, when you think about it. No one has seen or spoken of a survivor coming out of those comas. It isn’t so ludicrous to think they could be carriers of some kind, like an incubation host while parasites take over.”
Bellamy held onto every word she said, then chewed them over in his mind. Her analytical analysis might just be onto something. He would think about this in the coming days.
“Any ideas on what you’ll do tomorrow?” Bellamy asked, needing to change the subject. His brain was cooking, and working overtime.
“We were going to head to Sleepy Hollow, remember?”
She giggled before carrying on.
“So now that I know we’re here for at least another couple of days, I thought I’d gather the women and men, and give them a training session with the crossbows.”
“That’s a good idea. It’ll certainly keep you busy, and out of trouble to boot.” Looking at her, he snickered flirtatiously.
Lily licked her lips, fluttered her eyes, and stood and stretched slowly. She put the cups in the sink. Bellamy was immediately turned on by how she moved her body. Like a ballerina, her graceful movements seemed to dance, and it sent him into a trancelike erotic state of mind. Standing up, he wrapped his arms around her from behind. One inhale of his spicy cinnamon scent and she wanted to turn around. His right hand dropped to her thigh and squeezed firmly, and then his fingers rose higher. She couldn’t move even if she tried. It was like his fingers had short-circuited her mind, in the best possible way.
He spun her around and led her to the living room. He couldn’t stop kissing her as they tumbled onto the couch, his eyes searching hers.
Bellamy’s mind caught fire. They’d come close before, closer still another time, and now it was finally happening. This time they were uninterrupted, and they were both ready. It was time to move forward.
Lily felt shock waves heat up throughout her quavering body. Then her lips found his, sending more flaming pulses all over her body. As they kissed softly, then harder as they started to devour each other, they began feeling the electricity of pleasure. They moved in an intoxicated dance of limbs as they took off their clothing and became lost in a breathless paradise. He grasped her hips and pulled her against his muscular body, weakening her with gentle, seductive touches.
As he pulled her onto his lap, his touch on her bare skin sent another burst of heat straight to Lily’s core. She arched her body and a small sound escaped her. Bellamy let out an equally muffled moan as he settled her onto his hardness. With firm hands, he gripped her hips. Together, they moved in synchronized waves. Erotic passion swept through Lily’s mind, rendering her speechless and nearly mindless.
He grabbed her arms and pulled her closer. The contact of skin-to-skin sent a mixture of emotions that shot straight into her soul. Desire, excitement, lust, and longing. Everywhere he touched sizzled. An orgasmic explosion molded them in unison. The room felt hotter, and Lily could taste the salt of Bellamy’s sweat as she licked his neck. The room went in and out of focus as their bodies intertwined like missing pieces of a jigsaw finally put together.
Catching his breath, Bellamy lifted himself off the wet spot they’d just made and went to the bathroom. Lily felt as if she’d just run a marathon. Her eyelids felt heavy through the contentment. Not bothering to dress, she slid over, propped her legs up, and closed her eyes.
Bellamy stood and admired Lily’s naked form, her perfect body glistening with sensual sweat. His eyes were drawn to the auburn river that gently caressed its way down her neck, reaching just below her shoulder blades and brushing just above her nipples. Leaning down, he gave the top of her head a kiss, covered her with a sheet, and got into the chair next to the one where she lay. He soon fell into a peaceful, sound sleep.
Lily woke just before sunup. Sometime during the night, Bellamy had draped a sheet over her. Clutching it to her tingling body, she looked at Bellamy, his silhouetted frame standing by the lounge windows. The sun’s rays peeked through the open curtains and outlined his perfect form, and she could see he was still fully naked. With his dark blond hair neatly covering his perfectly-shaped head, his bulging muscles displaying his ripped V-shaped figure, and his thick muscular legs, he just begged to be kissed. He stretched his arms above his head with a wide yawn, his muscles accentuated by the sunlight and seeming to bulge larger. She watched him leave the room. Hearing the shower, she slid off the couch and dropped the sheet. As if in slow motion, she watched it float to the floor, and then she joined him in the shower.
Just after six a.m. he kissed her goodbye, with a promise of seeing her again within 24 hours. She stood at the doorway waving down the hallway, then turned and sighed as she closed the door. Realization of the world as it is now infiltrated her thoughts hard and fast. No time to dwell, she told herself, which gave her the motivational push to start the day.
She started with getting the girls up, fed, clothed, and dropped off at Anya’s. Just after eight o’clock, she rounded up those who were interested in learning how to shoot crossbows. She gave them a location at the farthest part of town. It was at the back of a long trailer-shaped building that once was used for costume changes, makeup, and sleep breaks during filming. They were to rendezvous there at ten, giving Lily time to get things ready. The trees would be good targets. She’d found some orange spray paint, and she painted an ‘X’ on several trees.
On the grass, she painted lines at 20, 50, and 100 yards. She used one of the golf carts to carry the boxes of crossbows. Now all she had to do was wait for them to show. She loved how the town was once a filming lot. For a moment she just stood picturing a movie being filmed, in which she was the star. She was dressed in a period costume, and she was swept off her feet by a returning soldier. When her mind woke her from her daydream, she decided to practice on the targets while waiting. She hit the bullseye each time, ecstatic with herself for not having forgotten the skill of archery.
Several years had passed since she’d picked up a bow, after spending the previous twelve years competing in tournaments. Her mother had begged her to carry on for world archery, but Lily didn’t like the competitiveness behind it and soon dropped out. After her tenth bullseye, she turned to see Liam with his pregnant girlfriend, Hazel. Following was Keith and his girlfriend, Joanna. Jasper tagged along, though he felt shy, having stayed in his hotel room the entire time until now. About ten minutes later, Emma and her best friend Juliet showed up.
Nakos was patrolling at the front of the town, while Trevor, with his arm in a sling, patrolled the middle section. They were short a man for the area Lily was in.
“Liam, what is it that you do?” she asked. “I’m curious to know how Reed got you guys to come here.”
“I’m a mechanic, but now I know it was my wife that he had eyes on. The filthy bastard’s lucky he’s already dead. Otherwise, I’d blow him up myself.”
“I think he’d have a line of people willing to detonate his brains into the void. It’s cool that you’re a mechanic,” Lily said as she took in the group before her.
“You should see Liam at work. Not only is he the town’s only mechanic, but he really is a detonator, too,” Hazel said in a gloating tone while rubbing her belly and looking up at the sky as innocently as she could muster. Her gray eyes gleamed with a cheekiness that Lily found cute.
“Shall we begin?” Lily asked as she began handing out crossbows.
Emma dug into her pocket and offered a smoke to her bestie, Juliet. They both stood facing one another. Emma lit Juliet’s smoke and they talked, using their arms a lot during the discussions. All that was missing were cell phones, thought Lily. Picturing them at some high school party before the world went belly-up.
“Emma, you’re up first.”
Startled by her name being called, Emma looked up and over at Lily, who was giving her a broad smile. She was wearing cutoff skinny jeans and a white shirt that reminded Lily of a man’s shirt. She had tied it in a knot at the side and was wearing a base
ball cap backward. Her dark eyebrows seemed busy and untrimmed, almost giving her a monobrow. Her nails were dirty and mostly broken or chipped. Dropping the cigarette, she gripped the crossbow and stood facing a tree marked with an ‘X’. Her hands were shaky. She hated being first at anything. Feeling embarrassed, she lowered the crossbow, swung around, and handed it back to Lily.
“No, you don’t get to hand this back to me. You have to learn how to use this for your own safety.” With that, Lily shoved it right back into Emma’s trembling hands.
Emma paid attention to Lily’s instructions, but her first shot landed only two feet away from her. She hurt her shoulder, too, but she kept on going. She fed another arrow into the firing mechanism, squinted her dark olive eyes, narrowed her sight to the target, and let go. This time it hit a tree and bounced off the side. Frustrated, Emma pushed the crossbow back to Lily.
“Emma, you can do this.” Handing back the crossbow and instructing her sweetly, Lily’s babyish talk seemed to reach Emma and she responded. Lily had the others line up with plenty of room for all of them to practice.
Keith watched Joanna struggle with the weight of the crossbow. She came in just shy of five feet tall and weighed less than a hundred pounds, and she had waist-length mousey blond hair that seemed to constantly be in the way. Keith tore off a part of his tee shirt and used it as a headband for her. After some time, she managed to hold the bow in a way that didn’t feel as though she was carrying buckets of water.
Jasper mastered the targets at each distance. Lily put it down to him being a plastic surgeon. She was worried about him, because he was withdrawn and unwilling to make conversation no matter how hard she tried. She knew it was the loss of his wealth and having to come to terms with a life without the luxury he’d once had. Somehow, she’d bring him around. It would be her mission, part of her challenge to help everyone.
Liam managed to nail a few of the targets. He had to restrain his laughter when Hazel missed every single one of hers, hitting the ground mostly or somehow shooting up into the air. With his thick head of hair, dark as the oil he’d drained from the cars he’d worked on, he reminded Lily of a lawyer she’d worked alongside. His voice was like a car moving slowly over gravel and his hands were covered in callouses, yet his soul was as gentle as a calming breeze. Liam and Hazel were well-matched, and playful and obviously deeply in love, thought Lily.
Lily encouraged each of them, rewarding them with praise even when they didn’t hit the target. Making conversation with Emma and Juliet distracted them enough to finally hit a target. She’d found out they’d been hitching across America on an extended break from school when Reed pulled up in his fake sheriff’s car, put the fear into them about the world ending, and got them to go with him. Lily was furious with how Reed had operated. She was more than happy he was dead, so he couldn’t kill anyone else.
Juliet and Emma snuck off to the left behind the trailer-shaped building. They didn’t think anyone saw them leave, but Lily did. She watched carefully, like a mother bear protecting her cubs. She noticed them walking hand-in-hand and chastised herself for not realizing earlier that they were lovers. Casting her eyes back at the remaining group, she found out from Keith that he’d been an arborist before being found by Reed. His girlfriend Joanna was a professional pole dancer. Reed spun the same crap to them about the world ending and him having a secure town, luring them back here.
Two and a half hours had passed, and the group was finally getting the hang of shooting. A noise, a rustling mixed with low unnerving growls, came from the right side of the trailer. All of them snapped their heads in the direction of the noise.
Liam ordered Hazel to get behind him.
“Babe, now’s the time for you to show us your detonation skills,” Hazel almost pleaded.
“Um, babe, I would, but I didn’t bring any of that stuff with me. All we have is these here crossbows. Besides, it could be just a deer foraging.” He was trying his best to ease the panic in Hazel. In her condition, he didn’t need her getting worked up.
Lily couldn’t peel her eyes from where the sound came from. She recognized it all too well, and the smell, too. Loading up a crossbow, she planted herself in a shooting stance on the grass.
Around the corner on the right of the trailer, a bloody nose came into view, and then the remaining snout. It was as long and pointed as a bird’s beak. It was gnawing on something too small for the group to see, but they were not going to wait around to find out what it was. Lily waited until it got to within twenty feet of her. She pushed back on the crossbow’s mechanism and then released, and a gush of air whizzed by her. The arrow landed right in the thing’s eye, bursting it outward like a lollypop on a broken stick.
Ew’s were heard from behind her. She quickly reloaded the crossbow and fired off another arrow. It zipped through the air and went straight through the creature’s forehead and out the other side. The object in its mouth dropped as it fell. Lily walked up to the thing. Then, letting out a high-pitched screech, she turned around fast and ran back to the group.
“I don’t get ya. You take it down like you’re a natural-born zombie killer, but then you scream?” Hazel was confused.
“Well, um, it’s not the thing I was screaming at, it’s what it had in its mouth.”
“Don’t keep us all waiting. Come on, do tell,” Keith said while he ran his hand through his receding brown hair.
CHAPTER 4
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM
Juliet held Emma in a tight embrace, and their lips locked. Through a torrent of giggles, together they began removing each other’s tops. When Emma pulled up Juliet’s top, she got it tangled in her curly shoulder-length golden hair.
“I’m sorry, my little bubble, let me kiss that better,” Emma said as she delicately untangled the top. She leaned in, pressing her breasts into Juliet’s and kissing the top of her forehead. Juliet’s dark eyes caught Emma’s as they worked at removing each other’s bras.
“What was that noise?” Juliet asked breathlessly.
“I didn’t hear anything. Should we stop?”
“God no, keep going,” Juliet said as she unhooked Emma’s bra. She let it fall to the ground and stood admiring her large breasts. Licking her lips, a longing gushed through her body.
“Damn it, I heard it again. Emma, can you hear it?”
Emma stopped kissing Juliet. Her eyes darted toward the group behind the building, and she listened. Hearing nothing, she cupped one of Juliet’s breasts in her hand and lowered her head, planting soft kisses down her supple skin until her lips found Juliet’s nipple. Feeling it harden in Emma’s mouth was all the reassurance Juliet needed. She stopped worrying about the stray sounds and arched her body back, falling under Emma’s spell. With their eyes closed, their lips sang a melody of erotic tunes.
Suddenly, Emma’s eyes snapped wide open as she felt a sharp pain in the back of her leg. She fell to the ground, taking Juliet with her and kicking out at two bull terriers latched onto Emma’s legs. Juliet squirmed further back. Grabbing at her top, she madly threw it on. Then, snatching up a stick, she began whacking the dogs. It did nothing. They didn’t even look at her.
In a quick movement, one of the dogs had locked its jaws around Emma’s ankle. With a single, ferocious jerk of his neck, he tore off a huge chunk of flesh, causing scarlet fluid to spurt everywhere. Emma’s hysterical screaming turned into gasps, her squirming squashed by the power of the dogs. Juliet retreated further back. Stopped by the wall of the building, with nowhere to go, she screamed.
“No! Stop! Sit!”
Again, neither dog looked at her. She could hear screaming from the group behind the building.
“They’re everywhere, someone please help!” she cried.
One of the dogs clamped down on Emma’s face, chomping into the bone above her right eyebrow. He then stuck his fangs into her right cheek, tearing off the flesh so aggressively that it left a five-inch-wide hole. Blood flowed freely, spraying the dog in t
he face and making it madder. It jumped up on top of Emma and dug its claws into her naked chest, puncturing holes in her delicate skin.
When the other dog bared its teeth at Juliet, she began bashing its head with the stick. The dog snapped the stick in half and spat it out like a rotten apple. It jumped on Juliet, and then ripped the skin from the left side of her face down to her chin, causing it to flop over and hang, blinding her temporarily. Then it sunk its teeth into her skull and scalped her like it was peeling a grape. Her screams dwindled until there was nothing but a few gasps of air. She was dead.
The warm crimson liquid fed the dogs’ hunger. The dog on Juliet moved from her head to her mouth, ripping out part of her lips and most of her teeth.
The other dog began gnawing on Emma’s chest. In a frenzy, it bit off her left breast. Every part of her torso was ravaged. Blood gushed from her body with prodigious force, staining everything around her scarlet.
In a succession of quick jerks, Juliet’s dog tore her throat out and dragged her jugular veins along the grass before gulping it all down and returning for more.
Catching the dogs off-guard, Lily shot her first arrow at the dog on Emma. The arrow went straight into its head, and she watched it fall to the side, exposing a mutilated, bloodied body. She quickly reloaded and shot at the second dog that was sinking his teeth into Juliet’s thigh, ripping her flesh off, swallowing, and going back for more. It didn’t flinch when Lily shot it, because she missed its head and got it in the ass instead. She reloaded and shot again. Her shaking hands threw her aim off, and the arrow landed in its shoulder blade. She reloaded again, took a deep breath, aimed, and shot it in the head. It somersaulted off Juliet’s body and lay limp in the sopping, red-soaked grass.
Two more dogs came from behind the building, sniffing at the remains of the first dog Lily had shot. They purposefully made their way toward the group of people. Lily fired another arrow and removed part of an ear from one of them. Jasper loaded his crossbow, aimed, and fired. It flew over the dogs and landed in a tree. He reloaded. Lily fired her second arrow and got one of the dogs in the forehead, the arrow protruding from it like a dart on a dartboard.
Hounded | Book 3 | Hounded 3 Page 3