Within These Walls: Series Box Set

by Tracey Ward

  I can think of one very important time, but no matter how mad or confused or hurt I might be, I’m not cruel enough to say that. I love the man sitting across from me, whoever he is.

  “Why are you telling me this now?”

  He looks at the bodies burning in the yard and says solemnly, “Because this might be my last chance.”

  “Why did you leave?”

  “I told you, your mom asked me to. She was scared about having a baby. She was terrified what that would do to her, having to take care of another person. She was stretched thin already. She knew she couldn’t take care of you and handle a relationship with me at the same time, so she made a choice. She chose you.”

  I frown, feeling tears sting my eyes. “You must have loved that.”

  “No,” he says seriously. “But I loved her and I love you so I agreed. I went away, but not too far. I told her I needed to know you. I had to be in your life and she knew I was right so she let me say I was your uncle. I was allowed to see you as often as I liked, but I had to promise that I knew things between her and I were done. It was hard seeing her all the time and not being able to love her the way I wanted, but I knew I could have you both if I played my cards right so I did.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say weakly, not sure what else to say. I cost him the love of his life and I can’t imagine what that was like for him to see her every day and not be able to be with her.

  “Don’t be. She gave me everything she could, including you. How could I ask for more than that?” He pauses and clears his throat gently. “Are you angry at me? Should I not have told you?”

  I smile sadly at him and shrug. “You’ve loved me all my life and I’ve loved you. It doesn’t make much of a difference what your title is, does it?”

  He grins and nods in agreement and we fall silent, listening to the night.

  “What exactly is Huckleberry?” he asks suddenly.

  I chuckle. “It’s a safe word we worked out.”

  “A safe word.”

  “Not like that. For situations like the one you saw. For when I don’t know what’s what.”

  He chews on that for a moment before asking, “Have you seen anything like that before? I mean this time around, not before before.”

  “Not that exactly, no,” I say lowering my head. “But something else… Yeah, I’ve seen something else. Something similar.”

  “You’re gonna see the things you’re afraid of, Al. Things that terrify you. A lot of them are probably going to involve him because that’s what worries you. It’s a mess, but it’s what it is. Keep that in mind the next time your nightmares come callin’. Remind yourself it isn’t real.”

  “I know,” I reply softly, embarrassed by the conversation.

  “And if you see me turned into a zombie,” he says, casting me a sideways grin. “Don’t go doing me any favors.”

  I smile and nod in agreement. We sit in silence together for the rest of our shift. When Jordan wakes to take over I’m tempted to stay up with him. I’m eager to mend whatever I’ve broken, to show him that I’m not insane and he doesn’t have to be afraid of me. I see him for what he is now. I see his face exactly as it should be and I can’t believe I ever thought it was any other way. But my mind plays wicked tricks on me, something I’ve known for a long time, and I need to find a way to deal with it again. At least for a little while, until the pills put my demons to rest.

  I go to bed and I sleep soundly. Maybe it’s the comfort of being home or the fact that I know Uncle Syd or just Syd or my dad, whatever I’m supposed to call him now, is nearby and has never let me down. Maybe it’s even because Jordan is out there keeping guard, and despite the fact that I put a gun to his head tonight, he’d never let anything happen to me. I think the real reason, though, is that I’m too far beyond tired to fight it.

  When I wake in the morning it’s to the sound of the TV and the guys talking.

  “They aren’t denying it now,” Jordan says bleakly.

  “They never really did. Just refused to confirm or comment.”

  “Hm. Well, there it is. Won’t change people’s minds, though. They’ll still run straight for it.”

  “Won’t do ‘em any good. It’s there for a reason. They aren’t letting any of us out of here.”

  “We’re too much of a risk. They’ll have to come up with a cure.”

  Syd snorts.

  “Yeah, I know,” Jordan agrees, his voice dark.

  “The quarantine?” I ask, not opening my eyes.

  “Yep,” Syd confirms. “They’re showing pictures of it. It’s real.”

  “Set up just outside of Eugene. It’s running east to west and stopping us from going any further,” Jordan tells me.

  “Every last military service member and public servant in California, hell even private contractors, they all dropped everything to come up our way and cage us in.”

  “It’s happening in the north too, up around Tacoma where they stopped it. People who ran that way are hitting the same barriers.”

  “What about the east?” I ask, not holding out any hope at all.

  “Not sure, they don’t really say. The coast guard is all over the coastline and they’re being backed by Russia and Japan. The east is still a mystery and they don’t mention any barricades,” Syd pauses then sighs heavily. “They’ve got something though. No way they’ll let us wander right into Idaho and out into the rest of the world.”

  “Still,” Jordan says sounding surprisingly positive. “It’s our best chance. Even if we just make it to the mountains, at least we’re away from other people and more outbreaks.”

  “Agreed,” Syd says, and I hear his footsteps thumping toward the door. “I’m gonna go check the roads, see if we can make it out of here today.”

  I hear the door slam and I know he’s gone.

  “How are you feeling this morning?” Jordan asks casually, and I can tell from his tone he’s not asking about my episode.

  “Rested, which is a nice change. How about you?”

  “Hungover, and surprisingly, that’s a nice change too. I think I missed it.”

  I smile and open my eyes to look at him.

  “There have been more infected this morning and your uncle is anxious to get out of here,” he tells me, glaring at the walls around us. “I’m with him on that.”

  “There were more here? How did I not wake up to the gunshots?”

  “Because there were none. We used our bows. Syd didn’t want to draw more attention to us than necessary.”

  “Yard full of flaming death is sort of an eye grabber, isn’t it?”

  Jordan snorts. “It’s like bug repellant. They didn’t start coming around again until the flames were dying out.”

  I pause to admire again that his face is fully intact. He looks handsome and relaxed standing in the early morning light in this place that’s so familiar to me. I feel a growing panic when I think about what I almost did last night, the terrible mistake I almost made, but I tamp it down. I feel better this morning, stronger and more myself, and the confusion I felt last night seems miles away. It’s a feeling that I hope will last.

  “Do me a favor?” he asks suddenly, taking a step toward me.

  “What?” I ask nervously, afraid he’ll say something about last night.

  He grins and lowers his face to mine. “Kiss me quick. Your uncle is coming back soon and he scares the crap out of me.”

  I smile and reach up for him, pulling his face down to mine. “I have a secret to tell you.”

  “I like secrets,” he breathes warmly against my lips, putting his hand on my hip and sliding his fingers under the hem of my shirt.

  “He’s not my uncle,” I whisper. “He’s my dad.”

  Jordan freezes then drops his head defeated against my shoulder.

  “He just got so much scarier,” he groans.

  ***

  When Syd returns, the news isn’t good.

  “The road is a mess. I didn’t get too clos
e, but there are cars everywhere and most of them don’t have anyone in them.”

  Jordan curses but nods his head. He was expecting this.

  “We’ll have to go another way,” he says thoughtfully. “Are there any back roads we could take? Even a bike trail would help.”

  This is true farming country. There indeed are many back roads. They sit in front of the computer for the better part of an hour, plotting a track out on Google Maps until they are convinced we can make it to the mountains without hitting a single major city, highway or interstate. Our only goal at this point is to get away from people and infected alike. We’ll figure the rest out once we know we’ll live longer than a week. Life expectancy here is dwindling fast, as evidenced by the pillars of smoke rising into the sky from the city center. It’s in flames and it would shock me, but I’ve seen it before.

  We load the RV, the quad securely on a trailer towed behind, and Syd and I say goodbye to our home for what is more than likely the last time. It doesn’t feel as painful as I thought it would, though. It’s not my home anymore. Home is where I feel safe, protected and loved, where people have my back with a loaded weapon and a bowie knife. My home is Syd, my dad, my pillar of strength. My home is an easy smile and vibrant blue eyes.

  “Do you have everything you need?”

  Jordan stands behind me as we wait for Syd to pull the RV around. I’m looking at the house, but I’m not seeing it.

  “I have my pills,” I tell him quietly.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “But it’s what I meant.”

  He pauses then asks the million dollar question. “What happens when you run out?”

  We don’t hold out hope that this will all blow over before that happens. In reality, I think we all know this is our world now. Whether they cage us in for all eternity or they wipe us out in an attempt to end the plague, this is the world we know and will continue to know, until the end.

  “We find more. Or we don’t. It doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with it either way.”

  Jordan turns me around and looks into my eyes, searching for something I can’t imagine.

  “I’ll be with you, no matter what.” He licks lips and his eyes nervously dart between mine. “I’ll stay with you, Ali, because I—“

  A horn sounds twice, telling us to get a move on. Syd waits impatiently at the wheel and Jordan takes my hand as we walk toward him.

  We find an obscure road that’s clear of traffic and zombies, thanking God for small favors, and we head east. We choose east because to the south is a barricade and a death sentence. We choose east because to the west is a red sea and a shore overrun with the undead. We choose east because the north itself is dead and we watched it die. In truth, it doesn’t matter what direction we choose. All that matters is that we keep moving forward.

  Because behind us, the world is burning.

  In The End

  The Quarantined Series

  Book Two

  By Tracey Ward

  In The End

  The Quarantined Series

  Book Two

  By Tracey Ward

  Text Copyright © 2013 Tracey Ward

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover image by Tracey Ward

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author, except as used in book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, events or incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to places or incidents is purely coincidental.

  For my best friend, Freedom. She saved this book countless times.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Epilogue – 9 Years Later

  Chapter One

  What’s a good way to tell a man with a gun that you do not have carnal knowledge of his daughter?

  Short answer – there isn’t one.

  Long answer – there isn’t one, dumbass.

  I’ve been trying for the last hour to make conversation with Uncle Dad here but I’m coming up dry. He’s a nice enough guy, I guess, but ever since Alissa laid down in the back of the RV, he’s started silently shooting me the Evil Eye. I know what he’s thinking. He’s thinking I’ve taken advantage of a horrible situation with a mentally unstable girl. Nothing could be further from the truth. But since he refuses to outright accuse me of sleeping with her I can’t easily defend myself. To bring it up on my own, to open my mouth and say I’ve never joined in sexual congress with his daughter, that’s a mistake. It’s as sure a sign of guilt as having him walk in on us and find me with my pants around my ankles.

  “Where are you from?” Syd asks suddenly.

  I glance at him, startled.

  “Boston, sir.”

  “You don’t have to call me ‘sir’. Syd will do just fine.”

  “Okay. Thank you, s—Syd.”

  Now he probably thinks I have a stutter. Nice.

  “I want to thank you,” he says, his voice low. “I don’t think she would have made it here alive without your help.”

  “Neither of us would have. I couldn’t have done it without her,” I tell him honestly.

  “So you being from Boston, you must not have any family around here.”

  My skin suddenly feels tight. Itchy. Of all the topics to bring up. Why couldn’t he be a sports guy or into motocross? Something I can talk about intelligently. My family… I don’t think about my family if I can help it.

  “No, sir, I’m alone,” I mutter. I rub my tingling hands together briskly, trying to relieve the tension.

  He frowns at me again. “I told you not to call me ‘sir’.”

  “Right, yeah. Sorry.”

  “You alright?”

  “Sure.”

  Syd’s frown is permanently etched on his face.

  I don’t blame him. I’m acting like a freak. I’m not this guy; nervous and unsure. I hate it. It’s the stress of the end of the world. Well, the end of the world for us. Outside this place is a world carrying on as usual. ‘Nother day, ‘nother dollar. No bigger worries than whether the barista got your coffee right and who will get who in the draft come June. Wait, what day is it? Has Spring Training started? I pull out my phone to bring up my ESPN app. We might be trapped in a nightmare in here but if the outside world is going to continue on, I may as well keep up with it.

  It takes forever to load the page but eventually I get a “Signal Lost” notification. My stomach drops. I had full bars an hour ago.

  “Do you have a cell phone on you?” I ask Syd.

  “It’s in my bag turned off. Why?”

  “Here, Jordan. You can have mine,” Alissa says.

  The sound of her voice right beside my ear makes me nearly jump out of my skin. My injured arm aches as the muscles clench reflexively. I’m wound so tight it’s a miracle I can sit still. I miss the river and the rowing. It kept me sane. Kept me even.

  “I thought you were trying to sleep,” I say calmly. I take her offered phone, trying to act like I didn’t almost die of heart failure.

  “Yeah, I can’t.”

  When she kneels in the empty space between Syd and I, I can see the fatigue still with h
er. It’s in her eyes, in the set of her shoulders. She has to sleep more but I don’t say anything. If she told me I needed to sleep I’d shrug and tell her I’m fine. In fact, I think I’ve done just that. Probably more than once. I imagine I’ll get a similar response from her if not just to spite me.

  “When was the last time you used your phone?”

  “Last night when I checked the news. They hadn’t updated their information from a couple days ago. Why?”

  “I think the cell towers are down.” I bring her phone to life. No bars. “Do you usually have service here?”

  “Yeah, of course. Why? Do I not have any?”

  “No. Neither do I.”

  “The power plants are probably shutting down,” Syd says. “People will have stopped going to work the last couple of days as the town flooded.”

  “And now they’re almost all dead,” Alissa agrees grimly.

  I nod, handing her phone back to her. She tosses it carelessly onto a seat in the back.

  “The government has probably cut us off.”

  I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist here but facts are facts. In the information age where everyone’s phone has a camera linking it to the rest of the world through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (insert social media of choice here) they can’t afford the PR nightmare of us showing the rest of the world what’s really going on. People might have already seen too much as it is. If every citizen in the world was able to see what this illness is doing, there would be mass hysteria. Imagine the pages on You Tube full of shaky videos showing families eating each other alive in the yard. Parents attacking children, kids chasing down grown adults. People would take one look at the opaque eyes of an infected and they’d forget all about us survivors. Losing access to the outside world is annoying but if it keeps people from writing our death warrants I’ll deal.

  “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Syd agrees. “They can’t let this get out because they can’t save us. It wouldn’t look good. People wouldn’t accept that.”