by M. J. Haag
“What is he?”
“Help. A friend,” I said.
A low moan sounded from outside.
“Stay here,” Ghua said.
He went outside, closing the door firmly behind him. I faced Nancy, squatting down in front of her to hold her attention.
“Did the men say why they took your kids?”
“They said they were running short on help and liked Zachy’s skill with the bow.”
I wanted to swear. They weren’t running short on help. They were running short on women.
“I want to help you, but we’ll never be able to get them on our own. There’s at least a dozen of those gunmen. The men who took your children will keep them safe from the infected and hellhounds. I promise. Zachy and Brenna will also have enough food to keep them fed through the winter.”
She stared at me a moment, shrewdly focused.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
I looked down, unable to meet her gaze.
“They believe the human race is dying and want to do their part to keep that from happening.”
I watched understanding followed by despair storm into her expression.
“They’re going to rape my daughter?” she said.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I wasn’t raped while I was there. The guy interested in me, Van, kept trying to find other ways to coax me into his bed willingly. Extra portions of food. More shower time. I didn’t take anything from him because I didn’t want to pay for it.”
“But she’s only seventeen.”
“And I’m barely nineteen. Age doesn’t matter to them.”
Her gaze shifted to something over my shoulder, and she cringed.
I turned and found Ghua standing just inside the door.
His gaze remained locked on me, and with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I knew why he couldn’t seem to look away from me. He’d heard. My time at the kiddy table was over.
Now, I’d learn the truth about his darker intentions. Because I was officially fair game.
Twelve
Our gazes remained locked, and my pulse jumped into overtime. Ghua’s indecipherable expression made it hard to know what to do. Just how mad was he? I had no chance of trying to run; he’d proven that. Even the thought of fighting him off was a joke. Was he going to throw me over his shoulder now and take me upstairs?
The image of him naked and swinging free shoved its way forward into my mind, and I glanced to where Dongzilla was thankfully still hidden and undisturbed in his pants. That had to be a good thing, right?
When I looked back up at Ghua, he shifted his gaze to Nancy.
“We will find Brenna and Zachy,” he said.
I glanced at the woman and saw the hope blooming in her eyes and hated that I was about to kill it.
“How?” I asked Ghua. “I mean, I know they’re in the bunker, but I don’t know where that is from here.”
“I remember where I found you. I can take us there,” he answered without looking at me.
“And then what? We wouldn’t stand a chance against the gunmen even if we did find the bunker. They have a lot of guns and are dug in well enough that the hounds and infected can’t even get in. You’ll die trying, then they’ll take Nancy and me, too.”
“I don’t care,” Nancy said. “I just want to be with my kids.”
I turned on her.
“Do you hear yourself? You don’t care that he’ll die or that I’ll be raped, just so long as you can be with your kids; and do what for them? Watch them get abused? You’ve survived this long because you’re not stupid. Stop thinking like a mom and think like a survivor. Your kids will not die while they’re with Oscar’s group. We need more help if you want to have any chance of getting them back.”
“Who?” she demanded. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s a shortage of healthy people around.”
“Ghua said there are more people where he’s from. More people like him.”
I looked at Ghua who still stood by the door, wondering if I was telling the truth. Based on our conversations, I’d gotten the impression they had similar appearances and were all looking for females. Would Nancy’s daughter’s fate be any different with them than Oscar’s men?
“Will your people help us?” Nancy asked, looking at Ghua as well.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go,” she said. “How long will it take to get to them?”
He glanced at the chair he’d set in the middle of the room.
“Three or four days.”
“No,” she said softly. “A week before we can get my children out of there?” A tremble in her voice made her catch on the last word.
“Don’t think like that,” I said. “A week won’t be too long.”
She nodded but looked unconvinced.
“What if we use a car?” she asked. “Could we get there faster?”
Ghua was quick to say we would.
Nancy met my worried gaze. We both know what troubles a car would bring. The infected could hear well and many were smart enough to lay traps along the road.
I glanced toward the window, reluctantly weighing the odds of survival if I stayed versus if I tried to strike out on my own. Going to the place where the grey men kept their harem had always sounded like a bad idea. Heading there so they could rescue kids from the humans who were trying to breed a brighter future was a sure way to end up on my back for someone. Not a position that interested me. Yet, dead on my own didn’t sound so fun either.
Large grey hands settled lightly on my shoulders, and I cringed.
“No, Eden,” Ghua said. “You will not run again. Nancy, watch Eden while I check the garage for a car. Yell if she tries to leave.”
* * * *
It felt so unbelievably normal to be behind the wheel again, despite the static only radio stations, the cars randomly stopped on the roads, and the infected who insisted on running out in front of me. I used my wipers to try to clean the blood-smeared windshield.
“You’d think it would be gas that you run out of first,” Nancy said from the passenger seat. “But it’s the washer fluid. We usually kept two extra gallons in the back.”
Instead of two jugs of fluid in the back of the truck, I had one Ghua. He still hadn’t said anything about my lie, and he’d had plenty of time. Not alone time, though. I glanced at Nancy, grateful for her presence even though I resented her for her unwillingness to quietly let me try to run.
If you run, he’ll waste time looking for you instead of getting the help my kids need.
Her words echoed in my head as I swerved around another car.
Ghua thumped on the roof of the truck. It wasn’t because of my driving. He had amazingly sharp eyesight and had probably seen something in the road ahead that I hadn’t yet. I slowed to a stop and rolled down my window enough to hear him.
“The sun is setting. We need to get off this road and find a place to stay for the night,” he said.
I started up again and took the next road to the right, which got us off the highway. I followed it for several miles before taking a left onto a dirt drive. The narrow lane felt like it went on forever, and when the ruts deepened, I thought it would dead end at a field. Finally, I spotted a small farmhouse around the next bend.
“We’ll be lucky if the roof doesn’t leak,” Nancy said, leaning forward to peer at it. “There’s no way it will have lights.”
I parked by the house and killed the engine, quietly sharing her sentiment. Hints of white paint showed on the grey-weathered, wood siding. One of the porch supports had collapsed and parts of the floor were missing.
“I’ll tell him that we—”
The truck bounced as Ghua jumped out of the back.
I quickly rolled down my window.
“I don’t think there’s going to be electricity here.”
He grunted and kept walking. It was pretty much the same reaction he’d been giving since we left the other place almost an hour ago.
“What is he?” Nancy asked quietly.
“I don’t know. I was on my own a few days ago when he just showed up, killed all the infected around me, and told me he would protect me.”
“Wow. That sounds nice.”
“Yeah, he also pretty much told me that he planned to have sex with me once I was eighteen.”
She looked at me.
“But you said you were nineteen.”
“Yeah. Well, I told him I was twelve.”
Her mouth dropped open a little.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“Still want to run?” she asked.
“Not tonight. I’d never get far on foot, and he’d hear this thing leave.”
A light went on inside the house, illuminating the window right in front of the truck.
“What are you going to do?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know.” I wanted to tell myself that he’d been reasonable so far, but in reality, he hadn’t been. He hadn’t let me leave. He’d said it was because I was a kid and couldn’t take care of myself, but even after he knew my age, he’d told Nancy to yell if I tried. So, what did that tell me? He still had a plan for me.
“You were right,” Nancy said. “It’s not fair that I put you in harm’s way for my kids. But, I’d do the same thing again. I’m sorry.”
“I get it. It’s the world we’ve always lived in. Each person for themselves.”
Ghua rounded the corner of the house and went straight for Nancy’s door.
“We’ll stay here tonight,” he said, only looking at her. He held out his hand toward me, though.
“I’ll take the keys.”
I handed them over and got out to grab our things from the back. The weight of the bag on my shoulder gave me a sense of security because of the knife inside. I wouldn’t be defenseless.
With the mop weapon in hand, I closed the door and followed the pair around the house. A whisper of noise behind me was all the warning I had before something pulled on the bag. Letting it slide off my shoulder, I gripped the mop and turned.
The old farmer’s barely clouded eyes tracked my move. As I jabbed forward, aiming for his throat, he dropped the bag and lifted his hand. The jagged metal end went through his palm with ease. He slowly extended his arm to the side, moving my only weapon out of the way.
His gaze shifted to the right at the sound of a low growl behind me.
Ghua rushed past me and gripped the man’s head between both his hands.
“Look away, Eden.”
I turned my head just in time to avoid the spray of blood.
Nancy was nowhere behind us. Before I could wonder what Ghua had done with her, something thumped on the ground; and Ghua gripped my shoulders.
He jerked me toward him, his fierce gaze sweeping over my face.
“Did it bite you?”
I shook my head as I noted the blood that dotted his cheek and forehead.
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
He shook me ever so slightly.
“You were right there.”
“No, I was not. I asked you to open the door, and you weren’t behind me.”
“Are you seriously scolding me because you weren’t paying attention?”
He growled in my face. It wasn’t the same sound as what he’d done just before removing Old McDonald’s head. This growl sounded like something I would do if I had a can of food but no can opener.
“Go inside, Eden.” Each word was clipped.
I left the bag and rushed toward the house.
Nancy was pulling herself up into one of the kitchen chairs around the table.
“What happened?” she asked, catching sight of me. “You’re covered in blood.”
“An infected found me.”
“Were you bitten?” Suspicion and fear crept into her gaze.
“No. No bites.”
“Then go clean up. You don’t want that stuff on you longer than necessary.”
I nodded, grabbed a knife from the counter just to be safe, and went further into the house. The place looked much better on the inside than it had on the outside. Not clean exactly, just not as run down. Everything looked original from the 1940’s, though.
The bathroom had a sink with two separate taps for hot and cold. I started both and looked at myself in the mirror. Blood was starting to dry on the side of my neck and in my hair. I grabbed the hand towel and wetted it to start wiping the gore away. My effort made a worse mess the further back I worked. I stopped and turned slightly. The back of my jacket was covered with gore, too. That would only mean my hair was the same.
I turned off the water and started to strip. Nancy was right. I didn’t want the infected’s blood on me any longer than necessary.
A shower arm with a circular curtain rod extended over a claw foot tub. I pulled back the curtain and turned on the taps. It took a minute for the water to warm. I didn’t wait. I stepped into the cold spray, turning my back to it. I gasped at the temperature but didn’t step out of the water. Tipping my head up, I let it rinse away the dark blood. When I thought I’d rinsed it all clean, I soaped up everything. By then, the water had warmed and steam began to fill the space inside the curtain.
A whisper of noise outside the curtain made me freeze. I fisted my right hand, wishing I hadn’t been stupid enough to leave the knife resting on the sink’s ledge. I still had a chance, though. A forearm against the throat would keep infected teeth away so I could call for help.
Gritting my teeth, I gripped the curtain and ripped it open.
Ghua looked up from the clean clothes he’d been setting on the closed toilet lid. For a stunned moment, we both just stared at each other. Then, his gaze dipped, taking in the fully nude front view I’d just given him. The dirty clothes that he’d held in his other arm fell to the floor.
I squeaked and ripped the curtain shut. My heart pounded in my chest, and I struggled not to cry as I stared at the curtain, waiting for him to open it again. I’d fight him; I wouldn’t give in. But I knew, in the end, he would win.
“I know why you lied,” he said softly.
I shivered despite the hot water still pounding my skin.
“I heard what you said about the human men who wanted you for sex. You think I’m the same. So you fear me. You fear the infected. You fear dying. You are so full of fear, you’re afraid of living too, Eden.”
The door clicked shut.
I peeked around the curtain and found myself alone in the bathroom. A clean, large t-shirt waited on the toilet along with a pair of men’s once white briefs. I shut off the water and dried off with a towel I found in a slim open-shelved cabinet at the end of the tub.
Ghua was wrong. I wasn’t afraid to live. That’s all I wanted to do. But everything around me was determined to make my crappy life as hard and scary as possible.
I tugged the shirt over my head and held up the underwear. The dingy grey that was once white didn’t bother me. Even the darker stripe on the back didn’t bother me as much as it would have months ago. However, there was no way I could wear them. The old farmer had been a big man. The underwear would never stay up around my waist. Two of me could fit in them. I put them on the shelves by the towels.
The shirt was long enough to keep me decent until I could search through the farmer’s clothes myself.
I opened the door and almost screamed at the sight of Ghua, who waited in the hall. He was missing his shirt but still had his blood-spattered pants on.
“Nancy needs to use the bathroom,” he said. “I need to shower first.”
I nodded and hurried past him down the hall. From the kitchen, I could hear the water turn on and knew he’d left the door open.
“Looks like you got it all,” Nancy said. She lifted a can. “Is this what he’s been feeding you?”
“If you don’t want it, I’ll eat yours.”
I grabb
ed the second can and spoon that waited on the table and started eating.
Nancy made a face, and I turned to look through the cabinets. There wasn’t a whole lot. A few spices, a can of creamed corn, and a stick of butter that stank. I checked the fridge and quickly slammed it shut.
“It’s creamed corn or the dog food. I’d go with the dog food. More calories and you won’t stay awake listening to the hellhounds because your stomach is trying to eat itself.”
She sighed and lifted a spoonful to her mouth.
“Needs salt,” she said after she swallowed her first bite. I found the salt shaker and passed it to her.
“I’m going to check upstairs.”
Upstairs consisted of three small bedrooms. One was full of forgotten pieces of furniture, boxes, and a ton of papers.
The farmer’s bedroom was easily identifiable by the lingering hint of manure smell and the unmade bed. The sheets looked like they hadn’t been changed in ages. Ignoring the bed, I started digging through his dresser. Ghua had honestly brought me the best there’d been to offer. At the bottom of the last drawer, I found a clean set of embroidered sheets neatly wrapped in tissue paper.
They’d obviously been put away as a keepsake. But, the person to whom they would have been important was long gone. Shaking them out, I remade the bed. By the time I finished, Ghua walked past the room with Nancy in his arms.
I hurried after him.
“I remade the bed in here. Nancy and I can share.”
Ignoring me, he set Nancy on the single bed in the adjoining room.
“If you need something, call for me,” he told her.
She nodded, her gaze darting to me before she rolled to her side toward the wall.
I couldn’t exactly be mad at her. She didn’t want to risk pissing off the person willing to help her save her kids.
I turned and went back to the only other room. My heart felt heavy and cold as I stared at the bed from the doorway. I couldn’t bring myself to walk any closer. I liked Ghua, but I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to be left behind and die, either.
Slowly, I moved toward the bed and crawled under the covers. It took several minutes before the bed dipped behind me. Ghua’s arms snaked around my waist, and he pulled me tight against his chest.