by Kate L. Mary
I tried to jerk away, but Helen kept her hand wrapped tightly around mine. Then we were at a vehicle that looked like it hadn’t been used in a dozen years and she was urging me to climb in. Her shove was firm but gentle at the same time, and I did as I was told, finding myself wedged in between Helen and Dragon. When the engine roared to life it made me jump.
“Where are we going?” I asked, suddenly imagining that they were taking me back to DC, back to the prison colony I’d worked so hard to get away from.
“To Meg.” Helen patted my knee. “Sleep if you can. It will take us almost an hour in this piece of shit.”
I nodded and leaned my head back. My brain felt like it was swimming and I was shivering and drenched in sweat at the same time. My teeth chattered and my joints ached. Images that made me want to scream ripped through my mind but sleep refused to come, and even though I had a difficult time clinging to reality, I did my best to hold onto one thought: I was going to be able to say goodbye to Meg.
Eleven
Meg
Jada was a badass. That was all I could think as she pulled a leather jacket on. The rays of the Georgia sun were sweltering as they beat down on her from above, but she didn’t even blink.
Jim was at her side, and even though most of the time he seemed more like a spectator in everything happening around him, at this moment he didn’t. He came alive as they prepared to leave the walls of Senoia. Not because he was excited or in any way pumped to go out and kill some zombies, though. No, it was subtler than that, but I noticed it. Noticed the way he watched Jada pull on her leather gloves, how he zipped her jacket up further as if wanting to cover every inch of her flesh. How he counted the weapons she had strapped to her body, eyeing each one like he needed to be sure it was sufficient. He may have held back when it came to committing to her, but he cared. I could see it in his eyes and body language.
I was watching them, sitting on the front steps of the house we’d crashed in last night and holding a weak cup of coffee, when Luke slid onto the step at my side. I stiffened and he let out a deep sigh that reminded me of our childhood, the way he used to get exasperated and roll his eyes at me.
“You going to be mad at me forever?” he asked.
I sipped the coffee and kept my eyes straight ahead. “I don’t know. No.” When I glanced his way out of the corner of my eye, keeping my face forward in hopes that he wouldn’t notice me looking at him, he was staring right at me. “You should have told me.”
He nodded but said, “Maybe. Maybe it wasn’t my secret to tell, though. Maybe I had to think about the big picture.”
“Maybe,” I relented.
“But maybe I’d be pissed too if our situations were reversed.”
When he put his hand on mine, which was resting on the steps between us, I didn’t pull away. Instead, I leaned my head against his shoulder and exhaled. Luke hadn’t been around much lately, but I wished he had. I could have used the support. With everything going on—Dad going missing, Joshua dying, Mom nearly losing her mind—I’d felt so alone. Charlie was the feel good person, the one I turned to when I wanted to have a good time and drink my troubles away, but Luke was the one who actually listened to my problems.
I kept my head on his shoulder as I scanned the town, watching the people who lived here go about their day, seeing my family blend in. Mom and Angus were sitting under a tree talking, and the sight of him still gave me a jolt.
“Twenty years,” I whispered and Luke shifted until I was forced to lift my head and look up at him. “Did you know about Angus?”
He gave a little shrug. “I found out the day before you did. I’d met him, but no one told me who he was. I think they were afraid I’d spill the beans earlier.” Luke let out a hard little laugh. “Maybe I would have. That’s a pretty big revelation.”
“No shit,” I muttered, and then asked, “Are you living here now?”
Luke nodded, but I didn’t miss the flush that spread across his cheeks. “I have a place to crash when I come in. A bed, really.”
I tilted my head so I could study him. He looked so much like Charlie that they could pass for twins even though he was a year older than her. They both had their mother’s good looks and their father’s almond shaped eyes, as well as his dimples. Luke’s dark hair was longer now that he was living in the wild, but it suited him. Made him look tougher.
We’d grown up as cousins, Luke and I, but I wasn’t blind and even if all the girls our age hadn’t had a thing for him, I would have noticed that he was attractive. Whoever had stolen his heart, she was lucky.
“Good for you,” I said.
“Don’t tell Mom, she’ll want to meet her and I’m not ready for that.” Red spread across his cheeks yet again, and when he laughed I knew he was trying to distract me so I wouldn’t notice that the thought of his family meeting his girlfriend embarrassed him. “It’s not serious and out here people don’t really worry about getting married or even defining their relationships. Anyway, Jim and I don’t always make it back to town, so we end up crashing in old buildings a lot.”
A shiver shot through me. “That sounds terrifying.”
“It can get scary, but I like knowing how to handle myself, like understanding what’s out there and what I have to do to stay alive.”
The idea of living without a wall to keep me safe scared me, terrified me actually, but he had a point. Hadn’t I just been thinking about how capable Jada was compared to me? Didn’t it make sense in this world to know how to handle yourself, especially faced with zombies?
“I get that,” I said, and then frowned when a thought occurred to me. “Is that why you left? You were doing the apprenticeship with your dad one day, and then the next thing I knew you were running off to be a zombie slayer. What happened?”
He tore his gaze from mine and I could tell he was hiding something. “It was nothing.”
“Luke,” I said, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at me. “What happened?”
“I heard a rumor when I was at work.”
Even though I now knew those rumors about Dad had been true, the thought that Luke had heard one still made my heart skip a beat. “About my dad?”
He nodded, and then shook his head. “And about Colton.”
The mention of my dead boyfriend’s name made everything freeze. Rumors about Dad and Angus were normal, but this was something I hadn’t expected.
“What was it?” I whispered.
“The day after your dad went missing, I heard these guys talking about it. About how there was no reason he should have been outside, but how stuff like that always seemed to happen when someone got in Jackson Star’s way. So I asked them who else had gotten in his way.”
Jackson. I should have known, but until now it had never occurred to me that he would have had something to do with my boyfriend’s untimely death. “What did he do?”
“From what I hear, when Colton went outside the wall alone it was on Jackson’s orders. We both know he never came back from that trip.”
The truth felt like a sledgehammer hitting me in the stomach. It made sense, so much sense that I felt like an idiot for not seeing it before. Those months that I was with Colton were the only time since Margot’s disappearance when my relationship with Jackson had suffered. Even back then I’d known that he was jealous, but I’d convinced myself he’d get over it, and then he didn’t have to because Colton was gone.
“Did Jackson kill Colton or did he have someone else do it?” I whispered, afraid to hear the answer but needing to know.
“I don’t know for sure. There were rumors, but these guys gossiped more than women. It might not have been true.”
I looked up into my cousin’s eyes, blinking back tears. “Tell me.”
“Someone swears that Jackson drove through the gates only a hour before Colton went out.”
All the things he’d done to me already and yet I was still surprised by his cruelty, by how sick and twisted his mind really was. If I
ever came face to face with him again, I would kill him. I wouldn’t give him the chance to take me out, and I wouldn’t let him have the upper hand. I would rip my gun out and pull the trigger without hesitation.
The only problem with that was obvious: I wasn’t a fighter. I wasn’t like Luke or Jim or Jada. I was soft and coddled and would be totally useless in a fight.
But Jada had offered to help me out.
I glanced over to where she and Jim stood. They were still getting ready, but it wouldn’t be long before they headed out. If there was ever a time to learn or people to learn from, this was the time and these were the right people.
I swiped my hands across my cheeks to get rid of the tears and got to my feet. “I want to go out.”
“Out there?” Luke asked in disbelief. “Now?”
“Yes.” I nodded to the other zombie slayers. “Jim and Jada are getting ready to go, so I’ll have plenty of capable people to watch my back.”
Luke got up almost reluctantly, shaking his head. “I don’t know, Megan.”
The expression on his face told me he was going to take a lot of convincing, so I turned my back on him and instead headed over to where Jim and Jada stood. They were all decked out in leather, but they hadn’t yet headed for the gate.
“Hey,” I said as I jogged up. “I was wondering if I could go out with you. If you could show me a few things.”
Jada’s thin eyebrows pulled together as she looked me over. “You want to go out?”
“I do.” I turned my gaze on Jim. “What do you say?”
He’d known both sets of my parents, the biological ones and the ones who’d raised me. I’d heard enough stories about the beginning to know that all four of them were strong and capable, so if anyone would be willing to take me out there, it would be the man who knew how much strength and endurance ran in my family.
The older zombie slayer didn’t blink as he looked me over. He pulled on a pair of gloves, his blue eyes focused on my face alone. Not on my thin frame or small stature, not on my impossibly unmarred skin. Just my face.
He nodded once before turning to Jada. “You got extra leather?”
She blinked and then shook her head, but she didn’t argue the way I expected her to. “Yeah.”
“Good,” he said, “and we have to get her a gun.”
“I have one,” I said. Things had been so crazy that I’d forgotten all about the gun I’d bought on the black market. “In my bag.”
Jim blinked and Luke shook his head.
“How do you have a gun?” he asked.
“Black market. When things with Jackson got bad, I thought I should be prepared.”
“Your folks raised you right,” Jim said with a nod.
Jada let out a little laugh and waved for me to follow her. “Come on.”
We were about the same size, which made me feel more secure about my decision to go out, even if she did have a huge advantage over me in the muscle department.
“You’re not going to tell me I’m too soft to do this?” I asked as I pulled the leather pants on.
“I trust Jim and he thinks you can do it.” She tossed me a leather jacket once the pants were on and headed for the door, saying over her shoulder, “Just know that if you’re responsible for either one of us getting our faces eaten off you’ll regret it.” She glanced back. “And I’m not talking about having to live with it on your conscience.”
I let out a little snort as I pulled the jacket on and followed her out.
Luke was also suited up and waiting with Jim when we got back outside. Within minutes I was on the way to the gate, so loaded down with knives and guns that I felt twenty pounds heavier.
“Aren’t you going to ask if I can shoot?” I asked Jim as I twisted my long hair into a knot on top of my head so it was out of the way.
He shook his head, not even looking over at me. “Don’t have to. Axl and Vivian James raised you. There’s no way in hell they let you go through life without learning how to shoot a gun.”
“I was seven the first time they took me to the shooting range.”
For the first time since we met, Jada actually looked impressed when she glanced my way. “Seven?”
“My parents wanted to make sure I knew how to handle myself. Just in case.”
She nodded in approval.
After the praise from both Jim and Jada, I was feeling pretty good about my decision to go out. At least until the gates opened in front of us.
Inside the gates, the city of Senoia was neat and tidy, even if it was a little rundown, but that ended at the wall. Outside the streets were littered with branches and debris from the trees, the pavement was cracked thanks to years of neglect, and weeds had sprouted through the holes. It was clear the people in the settlement had done their best to keep all major obstacles off the street, but that didn’t mean the surrounding area didn’t look abandoned and worn. The houses, much like the ones close to New Atlanta, had been stripped of everything useful, and what was left were little more than shells. The same had been done to the vehicles that lined the streets. They were on blocks, their tires gone, the hoods open, most if not all of their engines missing. What was left of them were rusted piles of metal. Weeds that towered over my head, and in some cases even trees, grew up through the now empty engine compartments and even some of the interiors. Animals had made homes in a few, old bundles of twigs or grass a sign that the car was now inhabited by creatures who weren’t meant to live in metal shells.
I studied it all as we walked, so intent on taking it in that I nearly jumped out of my skin when the gate slammed behind me.
Luke chuckled, not looking the least bit repentant when I shot him a glare. “Starting to second guess yourself?”
He spoke too loud, at least in my opinion, but no one else seemed the least bit concerned by the way his voice carried down the street and bounced off the trees and remnants of buildings.
“No,” I said in a tone that was much more defensive than I’d wanted it to be. “It just surprised me. I was too focused on—” I waved to the buildings, at a loss for how to describe them.
Jim glanced back at me but said nothing.
Jada, however, wasn’t as reserved. “It’s the same thing you can see on every street in every city all over the country. Nothing too exciting.”
“To you maybe,” I said. “But I’ve spent my entire life inside New Atlanta. I’ve never seen another street or another town until yesterday.”
Jada’s steps slowed, but the look she gave me wasn’t judgmental or accusatory. “I never considered that.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine staying in one place your whole life. Being out here can be risky, but it’s better than being stuck behind a wall. At least this way you get to experience life.”
I nodded because she had a point, but I also knew that my parents had made the decision to stay in New Atlanta because they’d thought it was what was best for us. They’d been on the road, had struggled to get where they’d thought we’d be safe, and to them that wall hadn’t signified a prison, but a source of hope. Too bad it hadn’t turned out that way.
A moan broke through the air, cutting our conversation short.
“Heads up,” Jim said, pulling his knife free from the sheath on his hip.
Luke did the same, freeing the knife that was strapped to his chest while Jada mimicked the movement. I did too, and it didn’t escape my notice that I was the only one whose hands were trembling.
“Were you scared?” I whispered to Luke as we continued down the road in a close group. “The first time you came out, I mean.”
Luke let out a small laugh. “Shitless.”
“How long did it take you to get over it?”
“Only a couple nights.”
“More like a couple months,” Jim piped in.
Luke flipped his middle finger up, managing to cling to his knife in the process. “You know I was a natural.”
Jada rolled her eyes.
A zombie st
umbled from between a couple old buildings right then and all conversation stopped. Not just that, but so did the three zombie slayers I was with. The zombie caught wind of us and changed courses, heading our way, and my heart beat faster. I waited for Jada or Jim or even Luke to get the thing, but none of them moved. Instead they all stared at me.
“What?”
Jada nodded toward the zombie. “You wanted to learn.”
I swallowed and tried my best not to look like I was on the verge of peeing my pants, but it wasn’t easy. This was nothing, or so I told myself. I’d been out before, had faced a horde with my crew when we’d gone out to patch the wall. Plus, I’d been around some pretty nasty zombies in Dragon’s Lair. Sure they had all either been in cages or fighting Donaghy, but it still counted. At least in my book.
My fingers tightened on my knife as I stepped forward. The air I filled my lungs with was thick with moisture and the scent of decay. I sucked a mouthful in anyway and kept moving, focusing on the creature in front of me.
He was pretty old. His gray skin was ripped and saggy. The black blood I’d come to know so well dripped from the cuts, as well as every visible orifice. He had little left in the way clothes, not that he needed them, and his arms and legs were so rotten that I was pretty sure I could actually see bone in a few places.
He was a walking skeleton. With teeth, but even so, I couldn’t imagine how this bony thing would ever be able to overpower someone. Not even a thin apartment girl who’d spent her entire life inside the walls of New Atlanta.
I took a deep breath and moved.
The zombie was less than five feet away from me, which didn’t give me much time to consider how I wanted to do this. In fact, I was still trying to come up with a plan when the thing lunged. I let out a little squeak as I dodged out of the way and the zombie stumbled past.
Behind me there was movement and I heard Jim say, “She can handle it.” But I didn’t turn to see what was going on. I was too focused on the dead man in front of me.