by Coralee June
“Mmm,” I moaned. I felt jostled and took inventory of my body. I was sore, but my head was what felt the worst. There was a severe pounding in my skull that made it feel like I could crack open my mind and spill out all the bad things I’d done at the feet of whoever was cradling me.
“MAVERICK!” someone yelled. I could hear the intensity of his words, feel the desperation. Another body slid behind me, but I couldn’t open my eyes just yet. “She’s moaning,” the voice said in a whisper.
“Don’t let her move, the impact could have broken her neck. How much did you move her?”
“I didn’t,” the voice holding me said. It was deep and gravely. My brain swam through my memories, and I realized that it was Huxley. “She landed in my lap when we crashed into the dirt.”
“Ash, can you...you hear me?” Maverick asked. His voice was garbled somehow. It sounded wet like he was speaking with water in his mouth or swimming underwater. I still couldn’t see, but the visual confused me. What was wrong with Maverick?
“I’m okay,” I choked out, checking my voice and continuing to take inventory of my spine and shoulders. I rolled my neck, shifting my face so that I could nuzzle Huxley. “I’m tired,” I said, feeling myself falling asleep. I knew it wasn’t the right time to sleep, but exhaustion was pulling me under. I felt safe in Huxley’s arms and couldn’t connect my care for what was happening with my need to rest. “Just a few minutes,” I mumbled while slipping back to sleep.
“No, no, stay awake, little Walker,” Huxley cried out. He sounded snotty, and I felt a large, fat tear land on my cheek. “Stay here. Stay with me.” I willed my eyes to open, and the sight I saw nearly broke me. Huxley’s eyes were red, and tears filled his green eyes. I lifted my hand up and cupped his cheek. I’d never seen him so vulnerable or emotional.
“I’m okay, Hux,” I offered before sitting up completely. Tiredness was still tempting me to give up and sleep, but seeing him so distraught had me pushing through. I rolled my neck and winced when I felt how stiff it was. That was definitely going to hurt for a while. Huxley still cradled me in his lap, my legs were over his, and I blinked a few times to clear my vision as Maverick came into view. I gasped at the sight.
Blood flowed from his nose and dripped off of his lips. I quickly moved to remove my sweater to wipe it, but Huxley kept me still. “Let him check you over," Huxley growled. “Don’t move until we know you won’t cause further damage.” I knew I was okay, but since Hux was so upset, I let Maverick inspect my injuries if only to make them feel better.
I looked around the transport as Maverick checked me over. Everything kept going in and out of focus. I looked behind Maverick and gasped when I saw Jacob hunched over. "Jacob?!" I cried out, but Maverick answered my unspoken question.
"He's fine. He's knocked out but will probably wake up soon," Maverick answered.
"God, I hope so, he's leaning on my shoulder. Fucker is heavy as hell," Kemper growled, and I blinked twice to see his frame. He was clutching his stomach with one hand and holding Jacob up with the other.
I let out a sigh of relief. "Kemp?" I asked.
"Yeah, sweetheart?"
"You okay?"
"Now that you're up, I am."
A groan to my right gathered my attention, and I turned to look at Cyler. He was moaning and letting out little whimpers of pain. I gasped when my vision cleared enough for me to see that his arm was bent at an odd angle. "Don't look, Ash. He broke it. Not something you wanna see."
Bile rose up my throat with a vengeance. "Is he okay?" I asked while tearing my eyes from the white bone peeking out from his flesh. It was gruesome, and there was so much blood that it dripped to the floor of the transport in fat, wet drops. He groaned in pain, and Maverick stopped fussing over me to turn and look at him.
"I gotta help him. Stay here," Maverick said to me just as Cyler tried to garble some nonsense about sticking with me. Selfless bastard.
I turned to glance at Patrick and let out a sigh of relief when I saw that he was in one piece, just frowning at all of us and glancing outside, obviously on high alert. "Patrick?" I asked, just to double check.
"I'm fine. Just making sure no one approaches us. I don't know what caused the crash, and if it was someone, then I want to be ready. The veins in his arms were thudding with adrenaline, and I watched his fists clench and unclench. Huxley finally tore his red-rimmed eyes from me and started looking too while clutching me even tighter to his chest, like the threat would rip me from his arms if he didn't pay close attention. I watched him transition from mourning lover to an overprotective episode as I'd never seen before. His face went hard as stone while Cyler cried out in pain. Maverick had wiped up his bloody nose and was peeling Cyler's jacket off of him.
Patrick eyed Huxley with concern before going back to observing outside with trepidation. “We’re vulnerable here. We need to get out and run,” he said.
“The door is jammed shut, I already tried,” Maverick replied. Huxley gently pushed me onto Patrick’s lap before taking off his shirt. He started wrapping his fist in the cloth and twisted his torso to face the large window behind him, already cracked from the impact. I squeezed my eyes shut as he wound back, every muscle in his back rippling with control and strength. The next thing I heard was the crunching of glass and a quick grunt.
Opening my eyes, I watched as he kicked out the remaining glass before unwrapping his hand. A shard of glass broke through the improvised glove, and I leaned forward to ease it out of his knuckle, wincing when he grunted from the pain. “I’ll get out first. Hand me a knife or something,” he said while outstretching his hand. Kemper handed over the only weapon he had, a knife that was the length of my forearm, with jagged edges. “Fuck, that looks like it hurt,” Kemper cursed. Huxley put his shirt back on after holstering the knife in his pants, then leaned forward to plant a smoldering kiss on my lips. “I’m going to do a perimeter check, then I want Patrick to help ease you out of the window.”
“Okay,” I whispered, my head pounding too hard for loud sounds.
It took some strategic maneuvering to get Huxley’s large body out of the window, but he moved efficiently. The moment he was out, Jacob sat up with a jolt, finally waking up. He rubbed his head, blinking a few times as his mindspeak provided an amusing commentary. “Oh my God, what the fuck happened? Okay. Legs? Check. Dick? Yep. Still there. Arms, stiff, but check. Head? Fuck, what is that goddamn pounding?” He started looking around the transport, but it was obvious he was struggling to see. “Ash? Ash! Ash, are you okay?” His mindspeak was moving in rapid succession, barely keeping up with the questions he was firing off.
“I’m okay,” I whispered as Patrick stroked my hair. He was still looking outside, but neither of us could see Huxley as he did a perimeter check. Jacob sighed and reached out to grab my knee.
“Thank goodness,” his mindspeak said.
“Can you get off me now?” Kemper pleaded. Jacob reeled back as if just realizing he was halfway in Kemper’s lap. If everything weren’t so dire, I would have laughed.
They shifted, but there wasn’t really much room for them to move. When the transport took a nosedive, the front half of it crunched on impact. Thankfully, the only thing that got trapped when the transport collided with the ground was Cyler’s arm. We were confined to the back half. Cyler groaned as Maverick tried setting his arm. “He’s going to need a healing pod,” Maverick said with sadness.
“There was a hospital in Galla about an hour’s walk from Stonewell Manor. Assuming it hasn’t been destroyed, we could take him there,” I said as hope bled through my words. Everything in the empire was destroyed. The healing pod was bulky and awkward to move, so I doubted anyone stole it unless they had a crane. But there was still a good chance that it was no longer functioning, or that the clinic was leveled during the riots.
“We’re about a three hour walk from Galla,” Kemper said while looking at his tablet. Huxley poked his head through the missing window.
“All clear.”
Sighing in relief, I squeezed Patrick’s hand, which was propped on my thigh. I then worked my way through the window, moving feet first as my head pounded. Huxley grabbed me on the outside, and the twins eased me out of the window with care. The moment my feet landed on dirt, I stretched my stiff muscles and helped Huxley get everyone else out of the transport. Cyler was the most difficult to move. Every jolt of his body had him screaming out in pain. I nearly vomited at the sight of his crushed arm, his bone and tendons pushed through the skin in a sickening display.
He crumbled to the ground in agony the moment he was out of the transport, and Maverick looked at his arm, keeping it held up to prevent more dust and debris from getting in it. “We need to move fast. The longer it’s exposed, the more chance he has of infection.”
“Plus it fucking hurts,” Cyler grit out. I immediately went to his non-injured arm and helped steady him, his large frame nearly knocking me to the ground when he went limp. This was so bad. We were still far from Galla, and there was no way we’d get there in time, not to mention that without the safety of the transport, we’d be exposed to Walkers and resistance groups.
Kemper immediately pulled me away with a gentle tug and took my spot to help hold Cyler up. “Do you know how to get to Galla from here?” Jacob’s mindspeak asked Kemper.
“Yes. Walk east,” Kemper replied with a grunt. We’d all have to take turns supporting Cyler as we traveled to Galla.
“Make a circle around Cyler and Ash,” Huxley instructed while pulling Heat from his waist. My men created a wall of muscle around us.
And we walked.
Chapter Fifteen
Every step hurt. My head was pounding as the sun beat down on my back. Although it was cooler from the change in seasons, it was still unbearable, and my skin started to burn. My salty sweat traveled down my cheek and landed on my lip. I kept sticking out my tongue to taste it as it was the only relief my dry throat could have.
“Fuck!” Cyler groaned while bumping into me once again. He had been swaying the last hour, barely keeping steady.
“Huxley,” I called out, concern lacing my words like poison. Cyler wasn’t going to make it much longer. We’d been walking for hours, way more than the three we originally thought it would take us to get to Galla. “Cyler needs someone to help prop him up, I’m not strong enough,” I said through gritted teeth while wrapping my arm around Cy’s waist. The guys were so focused on keeping their eyes out for looters and infected Walkers that they’d almost missed how miserable Cyler was. Despite my best efforts, his knees hit the dirt with a smack, causing the rest of the guys to jump into action.
Maverick propped Cyler up on his right side, and Patrick joined him on the left. Both of them carried Cyler, who was grunting while keeping his arm close to his chest, crying out when Patrick bumped into it.
“Shit, sorry man,” Patrick apologized. “Let’s sit down for a minute.”
“We don’t have time,” Maverick said while continuing to hoist Cyler up into a standing position. This was a shit storm. Oh fuck, we wouldn’t get him to a healing pod in time—that is if we had a healing pod to use.
Although we crashed in the expansive, sandy desert, we were now in the bordering woods surrounding Galla. We were close, I think. We’d found the train tracks leading to the city and were following it east. The sun was beginning to set, and I knew that once it was dark, we’d have a less likely chance of keeping Cyler alive through the night.
I looked at my strong man, biting my lip hard to stop the tears from falling. His shirt was soaked with blood, and I couldn’t breathe. It was like a weight was on my chest. “What’s that noise?” Jacob’s mindspeak said while turning to look off to the left. I followed his gaze and peered at the dimmed sky. The trees in the distance were shifting, but it was hard to hear anything over Cyler’s cries and moans of pain.
“Shhh,” Huxley said while standing to join Jacob in the clearing. They both stood at attention with their fists clenched. They watched the distance with trained eyes. Something felt off; there was a stiffness in the air that had every hair on my neck standing on edge. And then, chaos erupted.
Something slammed into my back, knocking me to the ground. My tongue was coated with dirt as I felt teeth on my neck and heard a snarl in my ear. The smell of death filled my nose as I cried out, shifting my body to get out from underneath whatever was on top of me. I gripped the blades of grass and yanked my body forward as frantic yells and wheezing filled the air. Soon, the dense mass of weight was pulled from my body. And I stood up, orienting myself while placing my fists at my face.
The scene before me was chaos. Cyler was on the ground, passed out and bleeding in the grass. Maverick was fighting an infected Walker. Huxley had Heat out, the weapon stolen from Lenny’s man. Kemper had managed to fix it before we left. Hux aimed at the Walker, but they were moving too much to get a clear shot. Another Walker was stalking closer, his head bent at an odd angle as bursting boils on his arms oozed puss and dark blood. “Watch out!” I screamed just in time for Huxley to turn around and aim Heat at the wandering Walker. These men were more aggressive than others, mindlessly clawing at the world, their nails like infected knives. One prick could kill us all. Huxley aimed and fired, making the Walker’s body erupt into nothing but dust and decay, coating our bodies with the sandy remains.
Shit. My men couldn’t get close. Kemper and I were the only ones immune. I grabbed the knife from my boot and ran towards Maverick as the same Walker that had attacked me kept pulling back and leaning forward to punch him. He was still too close for Huxley to get a clear shot. Kemper surged towards him, yanking Maverick out of the way before hitting the Walker in the jaw. I launched myself at the Walker’s back before he could go back to fighting Maverick, and wrapped my arms around his neck, dragging the blade along his jugular with one skilled swipe. All those lessons with Huxley had paid off.
The infected Walker collapsed, and I fell with him. Maverick took a step back, staggering a bit as he wiped the blood from his lip.
Not his blood.
The Walker’s dark blood.
I stood up and looked around, the infected blood covering my skin and clothes. “Everyone stand back!” I screamed. “Maverick we need to find a stream. Now. We have to wash that off of you.”
“It’s...it’s too late,” Maverick stuttered while staring at his fingers, like the boils from X would suddenly start appearing.
“It’s not too late. Kemper, find me a stream. We have five minutes to wash off. Now!” I screamed, working everyone into action. Jacob rushed forward to pick up Cyler and drag his heavy body away from the puddle of blood collecting in the grass from the dead Walker. Kemper scrolled through his tablet then looked up.
“We have to run. Follow me.”
I glanced at Maverick, giving him a steely look of determination before nodding once. At my slight movement, Kemper took off. I pounded my feet into the dirt, my lungs bursting from the adrenaline and fear as I chased after Kemper. He weaved through the woods with skill and ease, using his tablet as a guide.
“Right!” Kemper yelled.
We eased right.
“Forward ten meters!” he screamed even louder, his lean, long legs straining as he chased the source of water. I could hear the stream in the distance. We were so close. So fucking close.
Hold on, Maverick.
We ran until there was nothing left of us. And the moment we saw the stream, we each stripped out of our outfits and plunged into the water, submerging our naked bodies completely. I knew I was immune, but I couldn’t risk getting the infected blood on anyone else.
Please work. Please, please work.
The river was lazy, but at the riverbed, the force of the water was incredibly strong. I dug my feet into the bottom, curling my toes on the rocks as Maverick stood in front of me. He scrubbed at his skin with frantic movements, using the gritty sand as an exfoliant to get the remains off of him. I emerged from the water and g
asped for air before going back under. I grabbed sand and ran it along his body, making sure every inch of skin was clear.
Sometime during my frantic scrubbing, Maverick went still. We were both underwater, and I watched as his face slipped into something that looked a little too much like acceptance. Cupping my cheeks, he guided us both to break the water's surface. And the moment I gasped for air, he crashed his lips to mine.
I wasn't sure when I started sobbing into his mouth, but my chest rattled with the sadness I felt. Maverick saved me from the Walker that had caught us off guard, and would likely start showing signs of X soon. He cupped the back of my head, crashing our bodies together, and I wrapped my arms around his neck to deepen the kiss, our bodies moving like water against one another.
"Don't cry," he pleaded against my lips. I could feel the pain between us. He started stroking my spine, kissing me so deeply, so hard that I felt like we were the same person. He pulled away for a brief moment to rest his forehead against mine. "I'm gonna be okay," he promised. But how could he know for sure? We were on a hunt for Payne, but even then there was no guarantee that his blood would hold the secrets to the cure. We were going off blind hope.
"I'm so scared," I sobbed. I wasn't sure where Kemper was because all I could look at was Maverick. I felt like I was already losing him, and the boils hadn't even begun to form on his skin. I took in his red hair and haggard expression. I gazed into his brown eyes like they were never-ending. I clutched his arms, digging my nails into his skin like it would keep him here with me. "I would be lost without you. We need to find Payne. We don't have time.” Maverick picked me up, wrapping my legs around his waist as he kissed me and walked us out of the water.