by Kim Faulks
9
They jerked and shuddered, stumbling more than walking, and as they came closer I understood why.
They were thin…too thin. Bones stuck out from underneath saturated clothing. They looked more than emaciated…they looked sick, dying.
Pestilence grabbed my hand as I stepped forward. “Wait,” he urged. ”Let them come to us.”
I wanted to drag my hand from his grip. I wanted to help.
“Careful, Harlow,” War murmured and found my gaze. “You don’t know these people.”
“They were my neighbors,” the young father shoved up from the ground and took a step forward, “before the end of the world happened.”
“Billy!” the older male cried out and stumbled toward the young father.
The weathered and worn older male gave me a careful glance, and then dropped his gaze to my thigh. Loyalty raged in his eyes before he led the others closer. “Show me, Billy.”
But the young father shoved the woman in his arms forward. “Marie’s first.”
Determination raged in the older man’s gaze before he finally nodded. Billy pushed, urging Marie closer. She glanced at me, and then War and Pestilence, as she clutched the torn shirt and advanced. “I’m fine, Seb, honestly.”
But the older man just shook his head. “You know how stubborn he is. Come closer Marie, let me check.”
And then I saw the bump in her belly…and knew the origin of his fear.
She was pregnant.
“No pain?” Seb murmured as he slowly dropped to his knees and probed her belly.
She shook her head as others followed the old guy closer to the battlefield. An older woman…and two more younger ones, huddled close together, but there were some young men, and a little girl.
I tried to count…tried to take them all in.
“There’s twelve,” Pestilence murmured. “If there isn’t now, then there will be.”
Twelve…just like that?
“Seb,” the older woman called and glanced our way. “Are you sure this is safe?”
He gave Marie a nod and a pat on the hand. “If there’s any bleeding, come find me right away, or if the baby stops moving. He’ll be quiet for a little while, but then you should feel him.”
And it was then he shoved up from the ground on scrawny legs and turned to us. There was a second of hesitation before he took a step closer and held out his hand.
But it wasn’t to the two men at my side. It was to me. One glance at Angel, sitting with her paw strapped and my shirt torn to shreds, made up his mind. “Name’s Sebastian, most folks call me Seb. Saw what you did here…took some damn guts.”
I gripped his hand and felt warm fingers close around mine. “My name’s Harlow, and this is…”
“David,” Pestilence answered. “And my brother…Warren.”
Seb glanced at War, gave a nod, and dropped my hand. “They’ll be coming, you know,” he glanced at the dead lying in the middle of the street. “We’ll need to get rid of the bodies, hide the truck, and hope to God they pass on through.”
He lifted his head and stared up at the deluge. “The rains will wash the blood and the scent away. Oliver…”
A young male with sandy blond hair stepped forward. “Here.”
“You’re in charge of this. Pile the bodies in the truck and take it under Shadow Corner. Make sure when you’re done, you drain all the diesel and take all you can. Kurt and Stephanie will help you while I see to Billy, and young Harlow here.”
The young male nodded, taking instruction, and then, with one quick glance our way, he turned and called for the others.
“Harlow?” Pestilence growled. There was a hint of fear in his voice as he stepped closer and scanned my body. “Christ, you’ve been shot!”
He gripped my arm and pulled, trying to get me to sit down, as he bent to touch my thigh. But he’d been shot too, the bullet holes may have been deflected from the flesh, but jagged strips of his shirt flapped in the wind.
I stared at the blackened, singed fabric and tried to pull him to his feet.
“It’s okay.”
Agony raged, grinding and searing, sending a shudder through my body with the unmerciful touch.
“Okay, Billy. No fluffing around, let me take a look at you, then I can go and help Harlow.”
Darkness moved in as Pestilence touched my thigh. I held onto his shoulder, desperate to stay upright, but, with every touch of his fingers, and every beat of my heart, the world swam.
“Hold on to me,” War murmured in my ear. His hands were warm around my waist. Fingers slipped, falling between my own. “Harlow, hold on.”
I flinched with the touch and lifted my gaze. Dark pools held me, desperate and needing—and cold. Unflinching, and unfeeling…maybe to everyone else.
His arms went around me as Sebastian muttered and snarled. “It’s not broken, but it’s damaged. You’re going to need to rest it, and, by rest it, I mean leg up, you horizontal, for at least a week.”
The young father clutched his little boy close. “Not gonna happen. I’ll make a splint.”
A big thud sounded as the first body was heaved through the air and hit the bed of the truck. Another followed, while Oliver stood on the end. I saw him bend low and then stand, picking at the dead like a scavenger, only it was weapons and ammunition he was after.
I took one look at the sad eyes of the child, remembering the screams to protect his dad, and felt the same constant ache resonate in me. “You can take him to my place…I have a building…not too far. If you drove the truck up there and back, it’d save his leg.”
“Harlow,” Pestilence warned as he rose from the ground.
I could hear the concern in his tone, and yet this felt…right. I looked around at the shattered buildings. They were starving out here…and very soon maybe drowning. “There’s plenty of apartments. I’ve got water and some food.”
Though the food wouldn’t last long with twelve hungry mouths to feed.
But it would for tonight and, in the morning, we’d make a new plan.
“If we’re doing this, then Warren’s going with you. I’ll stay and help with the clean-up while the doctor here looks at that leg.” Pestilence spoke up.
There was no room for argument in his tone. I could fight him or fight the pain. My grip tightened around War’s hand…either way, I was losing.
The slow nod of my head felt too much like defeat.
“Then that’s settled. Move the dead over, Oliver, you’ve got one to drop off first.”
Grunts echoed as they scurried. Those who could lift the dead heaved and scrounged, piling bodies on top of one another, until the street was empty.
War’s arm went around my waist, his other swept under the backs of my knees as he lifted. “I’ve been walking a long time to find you. And now I finally get to walk with you.”
And any other time, the words might’ve sent a shiver down my spine. But in this moment, they were comforting. There was something so unusually desperate about him. Intense dark eyes, slick dark curls. I wound my arms around his neck and held on.
The doors to the truck squealed as they opened. Pain flared with the sudden movement, spearing dark tendrils through my vision, as War gripped me with one hand and leaned to place me into the cabin.
Pain ripped through my leg like a hot knife, flaying skin and muscle to find the bone.
“Harlow.”
War called my name…and this time I couldn’t answer.
This time I couldn’t hide.
This time, the night moved in, stealing the ground out from under me. My hold slipped. I was falling, cast into the emptiness of nothing, and that’s where I floated.
Until one tiny star flickered in the distance.
One perfect glint of salvation.
Hold on, Harlow, that deep growl echoed. But it wasn’t War, and it wasn’t Pestilence…it was Him.
And in the space of a breath, that blinding light hit me.
I cried out a
nd tried to lift my hands to cover my eyes, but there was no movement, no pain…no agony. Nothing but a sea of white, bathing me.
Hold on…
Screams echoed, the piercing sound shattering the darkness, and ripped through my mind.
A burn followed as acid spilled.
“Hold on, Harlow.”
Those words resounded as a sigh came at my thigh. Shapes were blurry as my eyelids fluttered open. Hands gripped me, holding on tight, as War moved in.
“Hold on to me, Harlow. We’re almost done.”
The knife was hot, searing as it plunged deep into my leg. I could feel it, carving, hacking, sawing my bones. “He’s cutting me!”
Survival kicked like a shot through my body. I gripped his hand and yanked. The wave of darkness descended. This time, I fought. This time, I held on.
“I’m almost done, Harlow. Two more stitches.”
That voice was faintly familiar. I strained to lift my head and looked down. My jeans were gone. My thigh glistened with fresh blood. The older man worked fast, tightening and snipping, before he gripped a cloth and straightened. “Hold on, kid. This is going to hurt.”
The cloth pressed to the wound on my thigh. Fire lashed like a whip, wrenching a scream free. The grip around my hand never wavered, holding on to me as I swam in blinding agony.
“The bullet went deep. I had to dig to get it out.”
That lash came again, and again…and with each cut of its tail, the pain ebbed until there was nothing but the grinding ache.
“I can give you something for the pain?”
I ground my jaw and shook my head. The sharp bark outside was an anchor. I glanced around the room to find the familiar. My father’s clothes hung beyond the open closet door.
I turned my head to see their wedding photo on the dresser. I opened my hand, spread my fingers wide, felt the soft down of their comforter, and felt that vise inside me let go.
I was home.
I was safe.
The hard, insistent bark came once more.
“She won’t stop, been clawing at the damn door since we brought you in. Won’t even let me look at her paw.”
I blinked with the sound of his voice and lifted my head. The pain was a gnawing ache now, spearing into my hip, but I could think…I could remember.
Seb. His name came to me.
“That’s right. Memory is starting to come back, so that’s a good thing.” He moved close, spearing me with those tired eyes. “Now, there’s no moving. I don’t want these stitches coming undone. You’re not going to cause me problems, are you? ‘Cause I’ve just about reached my limit on bad patients for the day.”
I wanted to fight, wanted to push up from my parents’ bed. But there was an underlying tremble in his voice. One that whispered he was just holding on.
I glanced at his sunken eyes and pronounced cheek bones. The man was running on nothing, giving all he had with no thought for himself.
My grip eased on the covers and I settled against the pillows. “You’re going to have to let her in, she won’t stop, otherwise.”
There was a nod of his head and the glint of a smile in his eyes. The snap of a lock echoed and then thunderous paws before she hit the end of the bed with a heavy thud.
“You’re beautiful, aren’t you, girl.”
Seb rubbed her head as she moved along the bed, sniffing at my leg and nudging his hand.
“Seb…Seb, you okay?”
Concern flooded the room as the old man swayed on his feet. An older woman caught him, holding his frail body in her thin arms. “You push yourself too hard,” she snarled, but there was love in her voice…so much love.
“I’m okay,” he muttered, and patted her arm. “Just need to sit for a minute.”
The hinges moaned as the door opened again and footsteps drew my gaze. Pestilence stepped inside, holding out two steaming mugs, one for the doctor and one for me. “Need to keep your strength up…both of you.”
The old woman gave a nod and reached for the mug. She held it carefully, lifting it to Seb’s lips, “Drink, and don’t you dare fight me.”
The old man gave a small chuckle and bent. The first sip was tiny. But his hands never trembled as he cupped hers, drawing it higher, taking more with a greedy gulp. “You next.”
There was a stubborn shake of her head. “I’ve had my fill. Now it’s your turn.”
“Once everyone has eaten, we’re sending the strongest out to scour for more. We can’t waste one day, not one. Or the little food we have won’t last and we’ll be where you are right now.”
I strangled the sheets as a wave of agony raced through me, mapping out the streets in my head. “I’ve searched east, heading west when I found you.”
“North, that’s where you need to go,” Seb muttered, and drained the last of his mug. “I lost a good man that way, but the trip he made before that was filled with food and medicine.”
A shudder raced. North was dangerous…north ran them right into The Mighty territory. Only death lay north. “No, it’s too risky. South is where you want to go. The pickings will be slimmer, but the streets are safer. I can go, I can lead them.”
“No, you won’t,” Seb growled. “You move on that leg now, and you won’t be moving for much longer. Period.”
I wanted to argue. I wanted to fight.
But the fight was all gone. He was right. There was a risk of infection now, and the rain was pushing the vermin higher, infecting everything we touched. “The rats,” I muttered.
“They’re everywhere,” Seb snarled. “Eating everything we had.”
I lifted my gaze, finding the old man’s desperation. “Then we eat them.”
There was a flinch, that part of our brain that revolted against something that was so ingrained. Five years ago, I couldn’t have eaten anything that wasn’t freshly prepared in front of me. I ate no food from tin cans. I rarely ate anything in packets, and yet, here I was, ready to eat vermin.
“She’s right. With the rains will come the animals. We trap what we can,” the old woman snarled.
And I finished her sentence. “And we survive.”
Energy rushed through the room with a sense of vigor that until now had escaped me.
“The rains,” the old guy muttered. “We thought it’d come to wipe out what few of us were left. We’d given up, if I’m honest. I know I had.”
“You refused to get up this morning,” the old woman at his side whispered, and the pain in those words was sandpaper to my heart. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen you defeated. You scared me…without you, I have nothing.”
Her voice turned thick, gripped with pain and love.
“And now we have Harlow,” Seb murmured.
I flinched with the words…don’t say it…please don’t say it.
“Our savior.”
I swallowed those words. There was a tiny shake of my head as I lifted my gaze. But it wasn’t to the old man, or the woman at his side, it was to the men who’d rescued me…Pestilence and War.
And the resounding answer in their eyes said it all.
Boots scuffed. There was a heave and then a sigh, but, for me, something had shifted in that moment—something so profound that it left me adrift…in a sea where there was no raft to save me…and no person or place I could call home.
“That’s a mighty fine ring you have there,” Seb muttered as he took a step to the end of the bed and focused on Pestilence. “Mind telling me just how you were able to kill a man with it?”
Pestilence lifted his head and looked at Seb.
But there was no answer…not yet.
War was the one who spoke. “Does it matter? We’re here…Harlow is here. We’ve come to this moment for a reason, just like you.”
For a second, I expected a battle…I expected a fight
I expected a line to be drawn in the sand.
But when Seb turned his head and searched my gaze, I knew War’s words had hit home.
There w
as no right or wrong now. Not in this world. No good or bad. There was only survival, and those who you survived with.
Angel gave a grunt and then a sigh. I moved my hand to the hard swell of her head and scratched her ears.
“If you mean us no harm, then we won’t step in your way,” the old guy answered. But there was steel in his tone, a hardness he found out of love. “But the moment you do, then we have a problem. I may be old, but don’t let that fool you.”
War’s smile was filled with admiration. He gave the old man a nod and answered, “I expected nothing less.”
10
I could hear them outside the door, talking, making plans without me. I rubbed Angel’s head and pressed her face into my side as the need wore at me like a pebble in my boot.
I wanted to be out there. I wanted to be planning the raids. I wanted to be setting the traps, not staring at the thick bandage wrapped around my thigh.
There was food to be caught and buildings to be searched and, for the last three years, that’d been the only thing that’d kept me alive.
Now I had to hand over the reins to another and know that when tomorrow came, we’d have enough to survive.
Now I had to trust.
The door opened and War stepped inside before closing it behind him. Angel lifted her head, gave a snort, and dropped her head back against the comforter.
“I wanted to see if you were up for some company.”
The mattress dipped, bedsprings creaked. And, in the space of a heartbeat, he leaned across the bed to cup the nape of my neck and pull me close.
He moved fast, taking me by surprise. Warm lips parted, taking my mouth, turning slow into deep and hungry before he eased back. “I’ve waited so very long to do that.”
I tried to catch my breath, tried to find my voice to speak.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I just…”
“Waited so long,” I finished, lifting my hand. My lips were warm under my fingers.
His dark eyes gave little away, but I was filled with questions…questions that needed answers. “Why? Why find me…why need me?”
Perfect lips parted, curling at the corners with the hint of a smile. He opened his mouth to answer, and I cut him off. “And please don’t tell me it’s because I called you.”