Love & Decay (Season 1): Episodes 1-6

by Rachel Higginson

  And in that idiotic moment, I believed him.

  He walked me to a room down the hall from the master bedroom and said, “You can stay here until you’re….. until you’re more comfortable with being around me.”

  I nodded, grateful in that moment that he was giving me this space and that I would be gone by tomorrow.

  “Thank you,” I offered magnanimously.

  He walked me into the room and gestured for me to sit down on the bed. I obeyed, but immediately tensed.

  Out of his back pocket he pulled handcuffs and I gave a resigned sigh. I held them out in front of me and with big, Bambi eyes I asked, “Can I at least keep my hands in front of me? If they’re behind my back you’ll have to cut them off by morning.”

  He shook his head, lips twitching at my unintentional humor. He gestured toward the headboard and this time I let out a frustrated groan.

  “You won’t try anything?” I asked one last time before I obeyed.

  “Not a thing,” he assured me. “Not tonight.”

  “Swear it to me. Swear to me that if I put my hands above my head you won’t touch.”

  “Reagan, I swear to you that I won’t touch you tonight unless you give me permission.”

  I rolled my eyes but accepted his answer. He handcuffed my hands above my head and watched as I struggled to get comfortable on the bed. When he was satisfied he offered the blanket, which I declined and then he offered to take my shoes off.

  “Uh, no, thanks.” He raised his brows at my answer and I saw the paranoia plant a seed behind his eyes. Trying to diffuse his mistrust I assured him, “It’s just that I’ve slept with my shoes on for two straight years. I know you say this town is safe, but I need to see it for myself. I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t have them on. At least not yet.”

  Accepting my answer he walked over to the door and turned around to take me in one more time. “Reagan, I know this isn’t ideal for you, but you are for me. I mean, you are ideal for me. I think you should give this, us, a chance. Your friends would have a chance, too, then.” He left me alone, turning the light off and locking the door from the outside.

  He was way too good at the holding someone prisoner thing and I didn’t even want to think about how many girls had come before me- or where they were today. Still, there was this underlying sweetness about him that promised in a different world, or a parallel universe, he had the potential to be a great guy.

  Zombies had spread their infection to him, just like with everyone else on Earth, their decay touched and polluted everything good and right. Kane’s life had been tainted and ruined. Now his actions were dependent only on what would keep him alive.

  And maybe I was one of those things. Maybe he didn’t have the love and friendship I did. Maybe if he didn’t force it into his life his brain and soul and spirit would fade away into death and decay. Maybe that would be the end of him.

  Coming out of my focused thoughts I finally pushed my body up into a bridge with my head as the anchor, using my former cheerleader flexibility. Forcing my chest as close to my hands as I could, I dug around in my bra with the very tips of my fingers and somehow managed to grab the key with just the pad of my middle finger and the nail of my ring finger. Careful not to drop the precious key, I sank back down to the bed and winced at the sound of creaking underneath me.

  I held my breath and let the minutes tick by while I became positive Kane hadn’t heard me. When I was confident there was no movement outside my door I bent my wrists and forced my fingers to cooperate until I heard the click of the lock releasing.

  With lightning fast speed I caught the cuffs as they fell from my wrists and pulled them free from the metal headboard. I slid to my feet and moved as quietly as I could to the window. I slid the pane up and jiggled the steel bars. Nothing. They were way too solid.

  A little desperate now, I jiggled harder, hating that I was making so much noise, but not sure how to stop myself. I shook them more desperately, growling with frustration.

  I heard Kane’s heavy, rushed footsteps down the hall and then the padlock as he worked the key into it. A plan came to mind and I left the window wide open while I slunk back into the empty closet. I was shrouded by darkness now, hidden and out of plain sight.

  Kane finally got the lock undone and threw the door open so that it banged on the wall next to me. I watched, hidden in the shadows, as his eyes took in the room and fell to the open window.

  “No,” he gasped and sprinted over to see for himself. I heard him curse under his breath, his drawn gun now lowered at his side. He reached out and gripped the bars, shaking for himself to see how I got through them.

  This was my chance, now or never.

  I moved stealthily from my hiding place, my heart in my throat and my breathing so loud I was shocked when he didn’t turn around. With the cuffs still in my hand I slid my hunting knife from my ankle strap and flipped open the blade.

  In two seconds and by the time I had my hunting knife pressed into Kane’s kidneys, he was just turning to find me.

  “Don’t move,” I ordered. “Unless, of course, you want me to take some of your vital organs with me on my way to Mexico?”

  His breathing was heavy and angry, but he didn’t move.

  “Put the safety on your gun,” I demanded. When he didn’t immediately comply I pressed my weapon into his muscled side and felt the knife slice at soft flesh and hard muscle. This time he obeyed. “Throw it back on the bed.”

  “You won’t even make it out of town,” Kane warned. “And if you try, by the time you make it back to me I will be beyond pissed. For your own sake, knock this off. Give up, Reagan. Be smart.”

  “Kane,” I laughed bitterly. “If I don’t make it out of this town, I hope for my own sake you are pissed off and put me out of my misery.”

  “Now, now, Reagan, don’t say things you don’t mean,” he taunted.

  I pushed the knife deeper into his side so that a steady stream of blood seeped through his white undershirt and coated the knife before it dripped down his side and pooled in the waistband of his boxers and baggy sweatpants.

  Finally he threw the gun onto the bed without giving me any sign that I was hurting him. With the knife held in place I flicked the handcuffs around one of his wrists with expert like precision, looped it through the bars on the window and clasped it around his other wrist.

  At the same time I removed the knife I jumped back out of his reach. He couldn’t turn around fully to face me but I felt his angry stare as if he had branded my skin with it.

  “Thanks for the gun,” I said chirpily as I picked it up off the bed.

  “Reagan, I will find you,” he growled out, pulling desperately against the steel bars. The cuffs rattled against them and he continued to stare at them, as if he could cut them off with his laser vision. “I will hunt you down until you’re mine again.”

  “Do not hold your breath for that one,” I answered flippantly. I started backing toward the door; I had to get out of here!

  “Good advice,” he said dryly. “Now let me give you some. Don’t ever stay too long in any town because I will find you. Don’t tell anyone your real name from here on out, or I will find you. And,” with this statement hanging nervously in the air, he finally said, “Don’t ever, ever think you will be safe from me because there is no place in this world I would not go for you.”

  “Now that’s just crazy,” I laughed because I couldn’t help myself. “You just sit tight and I’m sure some other poor, unsuspecting girl will pop up and you can hold her prisoner for the rest of her life.”

  “I don’t think you’re getting it-“

  I held up my hand and shook my head. “I don’t really want to get it. I just want to go.” I stepped through the door and breathed in deeply with relief. His keys were still in the padlock so I closed the door and clicked the lock shut. I heard his struggles as I took the staircase several stairs at a time. He was seriously stronger than me, and I suddenly doubted the
durability of those steel bars.

  Damn it.

  And probably I should have gagged the man.

  Oh well, it was too late to go back now.

  I fumbled with the front door lock but eventually found it. I let the padlock fall away but still opened the door carefully. The dark streets were quiet and stretched out in front of me in utter stillness. But I knew there were guards walking around everywhere and making it through the main part of town was going to be a bitch.

  Fear pelted my insides and my breathing whooshed inside my ears as I struggled not to panic. Somehow I pulled myself together and dug for nonexistent courage. I just had to get to the football field. If I could make it they would be waiting for me.

  Hendrix would be waiting for me.

  And with those thoughts propelling me forward I somehow managed to stay in the shadows of houses, trees and buildings and make it to the edge of the main street. The school was before me and beyond that, the football field.

  I was catching my breath and watching as the guards paced in front of the school and fields. I had no idea how to get there from here, but I had to. I didn’t have a choice.

  And that’s when Kane’s booming shouts broke up the quiet night. For a moment I wondered what took him so long to start yelling, but I assumed it was pride. He thought he could catch me on his own, he thought he could hunt me down no matter what.

  And when he realized he couldn’t, he started yelling. His shouts boomed through the still air with ungodly intensity haunting the night with his inhumane anger.

  Idiot.

  Guards from all around me reacted and started running toward the sound. I clicked on the safety of Kane’s gun and readied myself for a confrontation that never came.

  There were still guards around though and I knew I had only precious seconds to move before Kane would catch up with me.

  I stepped into the light of the moon and took off sprinting for the fields. I mentally prepared myself to shoot at a living, breathing, non-infected human being, promising I would only maim them critically and try not to kill them.

  Two guards saw me moving and took off running so they could intercept me. I didn’t know if they knew who I was or not, or if they just didn’t like random people running around their town at night, but it didn’t matter. I would shoot them if they tried to stop me. I would.

  I had no choice.

  Still my hands were shaking with uncertainty and my palms were sweaty and slick.

  Just as they were about to reach me with guns raised and ferocious looks contorting their expressions, the door to the school slammed open and Miller came running out, screaming and hollering. He was insane with it making as much noise as I had ever heard another person ever make.

  But then I realized why.

  He had released the Zombies from inside the school.

  And he was drawing them outside.

  I didn’t know how he managed to get them all out, or by the looks of it at least most of them, but it didn’t matter, because soon enough this town was going to be overrun with them.

  Granted they could barely run and their bodies were hardly able to carry their weight. Some couldn’t even manage that and they pulled themselves along the grass or cement with their elbows. Still, it was going to take a while to clean them up and the guards that had previously been in pursuit of me were now tasked with rounding up or finishing off the Zombies.

  “Get to safety,” one of the guards ordered me.

  “Sure thing,” I grinned at his back and took off sprinting for the bleachers. Their shiny metal gleamed in the cold night like a beacon of hope, like a lighthouse during a terrible storm. If Miller was on his way, then Hendrix would already be waiting for me.

  I had to assume the Zombies were the last part of the plan.

  And I was right. When I reached the base of the bleachers, a small party of people waited for me. I came to a stop as they stepped out of hiding and all eyed me with intense relief.

  “You made it,” Vaughan breathed.

  “I made it,” I smiled.

  Beyond us, in the forest, we heard the static of walkie-talkies go off and as one, we stepped back in the shadows as more guards came running out of the woods.

  A hand slipped into mine and the warmth and rightness I felt promised it was Hendrix. I looked up at him, into his dark eyes and shadowed face and just stared at his familiar outline.

  Neither one of us said anything, but the hand clutching mine was both desperate and possessive, both needy and demanding. Tears flooded my eyes as I noticed the contrast between the disgust I felt for Kane and the pure safety I felt near Hendrix. He was my hope, my security, my future.

  Kane was vile. And gone. Out of my life for good.

  “We need to go,” Tyler snapped. “Now.”

  None of us hesitated. We just sprinted back through the woods, our feet fast but stumbling over the rough terrain. We didn’t encounter any guards, but only by luck and only by the genius plan to let the Zombies out.

  They would notice we were gone in no time though and we needed to get as much space between us and them as possible.

  By the time we were back on the familiar property of the farmhouse, my lungs and chest burned with the cool spring air and my legs were numb with exhaustion. My hand never left Hendrix’s and I was sure I would never leave his side again. Not when something that f-ed up could happen in the span of twenty-four hours.

  Never did I want to feel like that again.

  Never did I want a shower as much as I did right now.

  Vaughan and Nelson burst into the house through the back door and Hendrix ordered Miller and Tyler to get in the minivan and sit in the captain’s chairs. I had no idea how we were all going to fit in a seven passenger van, but at this point we didn’t have a choice.

  I moved to follow Nelson and grab my backpack and make sure everyone was coming when Hendrix pulled back on my hand and yanked me against him. I crashed into his chest with a force that knocked what little breath I had left out of me.

  My arms went around his waist instantly though and he clutched me to him so tightly it was painful.

  But I never wanted him to let go.

  “I’m so happy you’re okay,” he whispered into my ear. His hot breath floated against my skin and the sincerity of his voice plunged deeply into my chest. “If they hurt you… if they touched you-”

  “They didn’t,” I assured him quickly. “I promise, they didn’t. I’m fine.”

  Then there was movement again. Nelson came out of the house carrying a still sick Page and Haley was right behind him with her backpack and mine. Harrison and King followed with Nelson and Hendrix’s packs and a few bags I didn’t recognize. I hoped they were supplies. Vaughan was last and he ordered us all to get in the van.

  The bags were haphazardly thrown in the trunk and we squeezed in. Vaughan drove as usual, with Nelson in the front seat. Haley sat on the floor, her back pressed against the corner of Vaughan’s chair, with Page stretched out awkwardly in front of her. Past our new additions in the captain’s chairs, Harrison, King and Hendrix squeezed into the backseat and Hendrix pulled me onto his lap.

  I curled up into him, relishing his warmth and savoring his touch. This felt right. This felt…. good. I needed his strong, protective arms around me more than anything else.

  And while Vaughan drove away, leaving the farmhouse and that horrible town hopefully forever in our wake, I allowed myself to breathe again.

  Only instead of the intense relief I wanted to feel, I felt the pinpricks and nauseous tingles of fear. I snuggled deeper into Hendrix, burying my face against the warmth of his skin and throwing my arms around his neck.

  I took even breaths, keeping the panic attack at bay. But in my ears, Kane’s inhuman roar of outrage echoed loudly and in my head all I could hear was his promise to find me.

  Real fear, the realest I’d ever felt, descended on me with a vice-like grip and I began to tremble.

  Hendrix’s soft wo
rds, whispered into my hair were the only thing that tethered me to sanity. “It’s over, Reagan. They’ll never touch you again. They’ll never see you again. You’re okay. You’re with me. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Over and over he whispered promises into my ear, my heart, my soul. And slowly they seemed to make a difference. Eventually I stopped shaking, eventually I stopped panicking.

  I was safe now.

  I was with people that cared about me.

  And they were all safe, too.

  The additions to our group made me nervous, but taking in Miller’s broken, abused body, I knew we made the right decision to bring them.

  We rode in tense silence as we waited for someone to find us or hunt us down. But no one ever came. By the time we hit the Oklahoma border a few hours later, dangerously low on gas and strung out from a night without sleep, we had at least started to believe the worst was behind us.

  My heart slowed its rapid rhythm and I decided about thirty minutes ago I was never leaving Hendrix’s lap. Never.

  “That was a crazy night,” Nelson broke the silence first.

  “Never again,” Vaughan said adamantly.

  “Never again,” Tyler echoed hopefully.

  And in my ear, so that only I could hear, Hendrix whispered, “Never again.” His words were a promise.

  His words were a soothing balm on my torn apart heart.

  I had held out a lot of hope for my fellow humans over the last two years. For as long as there had been people there had been conflict, but there also had been solutions. We were facing the first generation since the beginning of time that had potentially found a problem it could not overcome.

  And instead of banding together to defeat this foe by force, we gave up and turned to tyrants and relinquished our freedom. I saw this first with Gary and his encampment of militia, and now with Matthias and his communist cult of insanity.

  But that could never be me. I could never hand over my free will and spirit and let someone else take control. This world was diseased with poisoned death, but I would never let it touch me. I would choose unrestricted life. I would independently choose love.