by Jenika Snow
Asher straightened, looked over at Mason who was a few feet from him, and saw the same rage coming from the other man. Before Todd or anyone else could say anything Collin had his gun pointed at the center of Todd’s head.
“You fucking disgust me.” Collin pulled the trigger before anyone could respond, and the spray of blood and brain matter coming out the back of Todd’s head was like a fountain. For a second no one moved, and then like a blast from a cannon there was movement at all corners. The shouting was earsplitting, and so was the sound of guns being fired. The gunfire blazing was sure to attract the infected from a mile away. As it was, these guys had been relatively safe so far out in the woods. With the sick staying more in the once populated areas, seeing as that was where the infections circulated, it wasn’t a surprise these humans had lasted this long, but now with the noise, gunshots, and blood scenting the air, the infected were sure to come. Asher cut his eyes to Sparrow, but she was no longer tied to the tree. He scanned the area, praying that he didn’t see her bloody, lifeless body.
“Where the fuck is she?” Mason said right beside him, and Asher didn’t miss the slight frantic tone in his voice. A bullet ricocheted off the trunk right by their head, and they both ducked. Putting their knives away, they reached for their guns at the same time.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to go find here. Cover me.” Mason was up and moving through the trees toward where they had seen Sparrow. Asher stood and started picking off guys. He got two before anyone realized he was shooting them from the covering of the trees. The guy named Collin was fighting hand-to-hand with another guy, but Collin took him out only seconds later. Ash ducked behind a tree when one of the guys fired off a gun in his direction. Asher leaned to the side, aimed his gun at the guy, and put a bullet right between his eyes. The blond looked right at Asher, but his attention was diverted when someone tackled him to the ground.
Ash ducked when another bullet flew by his head and swiftly ran toward where he knew Mason had gone. But when the sound of a gun going off close enough to him that his ears rang he stopped and watched in horror as Mason fell down to one knee. The bullet had gone through his shoulder, and Asher turned on the fucker that had shot Mason. He shot twice into the guy’s chest, and he fell to the ground in a heavy, bleeding heap. Asher lifted his gun, and when he saw Collin with grappling with another guy he aimed, not caring which one he hit, but knowing one of them would go down. He fired, and saw it land in the guy Collin was wrestling with. The bullet hadn’t killed the guy, and by the rage in the man’s face, clearly he thought Collin had fired since he renewed his fighting tenfold. Asher turned to Mason. They needed to get out of this carnage. Mason stood and braced a hand against a tree.
“Fucking asshole shot me.” Ash looked at his shoulder, saw the entrance and exit wound, and thanked whoever the hell was listening for small favors.
“Come on. I don’t know how many other guys they have stashed in this camp, and I know the infected have to be on their way.” Everything that had happened when they first fired off that first shot had gone by quickly. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, but fuck did it feel like it had lasted a lifetime. “We need to get to the cabin.”
“We have to find Sparrow.” Yeah, they did, but Mason was no help right now when he was barely holding himself up and the blood was a steady flow from his arm.
“We will.” And they would, because that was their girl, whether she knew it or not.
Chapter Six
Sparrow dragged herself out of the lake and immediately collapsed on the rocky shore. She gasped for air and blinked back the water that was steadily dripping down her face. Her hair stuck in clunks to her cheeks and forehead, and even though she knew she had to keep going, she was exhausted from running through the woods and swimming across the lake. But survival was grueling and painful, but it was worth it to stay alive. By some miracle she still held the gun Blondie had given her. Dragging herself off the ground she stumbled forward once and caught herself before face planting on the rocks beneath her. She looked over her shoulder, saw the fire still burning brightly across the water, and heard the gunshots as if she was still standing in the thick of it. Once she had heard that first shot going off she had pulled away from her bonds and headed for the water. She contemplated heading into the woods, but Collin had warned her that there were men lying wait. Whether that was true or not she didn’t know, but she wasn’t stupid enough to find out. So, she had dived into the frigid water.
She turned back around, held onto the butt of her gun even tighter due to her involuntarily shaking body, and made her way quickly through the trees. Her limbs felt still, her muscles ached from the exertion and the cold that had seeped into her body, but she forced herself to keep going. It was dark, and no moonlight pierced through the thick braches overhead. Sparrow had no idea where she was going, or where she would end, but anything was better than what was behind her. Keeping straight, she had to right herself several times as her feet kept catching on branches and vines. Her heart was pounding fast, filling her ears, clogging her throat, and drowning out everything aside from the fact she needed to keep running. A flash of white to her side caught her eye, and she turned to look, but before she could see anything she fell over a fallen log. Head slamming against the hard, unforgiving ground, she groaned and immediately gripped her temple. The throbbing pain was intense, and she tried to shake it off and stand again, but stilled when she heard the low, gurgled groan coming from right behind her. Pulling up all of her strength, Sparrow crawled onto her hands and knees, and pulled herself into a standing position. The feel of warm wetness sliding down her temple didn’t distract her from the fact an infected man was shuffling toward her. His shirt was grungy, but white enough that she saw him in the thick darkness. He was missing an arm, and the sight of his radius and ulna protruding from what was left of the limb had bile rising in her throat. He opened his mouth and made a low, hungry sound. His arm was swinging from side to side as he came closer, and she blinked away the dizziness from her fall, lifted the gun, and pointed it at his head. Parts of his flesh were missing from his face, and the oozing wounds that covered him from head to toe were a grisly visualization of what the world was coming to. Sparrow wasn’t that good at shooting, so she waited until he was at least close enough that there wouldn’t be any way she could miss. Right when she was about to pull the trigger the sound of another moan coming from behind her had her spinning around just in time to see an infected female with half her jaw missing lunge forward and tackle her to the ground.
They fell as a heap, and the stench of decay was enough to have vomit rising in Sparrow throat. The gun slipped from her hand, and she placed both hands on the female’s shoulders—ones that had bone protruding through the skin—and pushed her away as hard as she could. The infected fell backward, and the sickening sound of her head cracking against a rock echoed through the trees. Sparrow scrambled up, searched for the gun amidst the dead leaves and foliage on the ground, but had to give up her search when the male grabbed her arm. Kicking her leg out and connecting with his stomach, she gagged when her foot went through his abdomen. He fell backward, and she went with him since her foot was caught under his ribcage. Her leg twisted painfully from the fall, but she pushed it to the side. The infected snapped its teeth at her and tried to reach for her. Their angle was awkward, and all he managed to do was claw at her jeans with his long, jagged nails. She dug her nails into the ground, turned her foot left and right to try to dislodge it, and finally she freed it from where it was stuck. She moved backward, sawing her legs on the ground until she got leverage and moved farther away from him. The moon chose that moment to slice through a gap in the trees, and that was when she saw the glint of the barrel of the gun. Lunging for it and wrapping her hand around the semi-automatic she rolled onto her back, pointing the gun at the infected. She pulled the trigger, and the bullet went right through his forehead. He slumped to the ground on top of her legs, and she quickly kic
Her heart stopped, and then beat double time when she heard twigs snapping. Turning in every direction, she couldn’t get a grasp on where the sound was coming from since the noises bounced off the trees over and over again. Oh, God. Were there more infected coming toward her? Before she could run two bodies stepped out from between the elms. She lifted her gun, her hands shaking and unsteady, but ready to start shooting. Her finger was on the trigger, and her adrenalin pumped fiercely through her bloodstream, but right before she added pressure and started firing in the dark, a deep voice stopped her.
“Christ, Sparrow?” Asher’s voice had everything in her stilling. Relief filled her when she realized it was really him. She squinted, and finally her vision became clearer and she saw Asher holding up Mason, who even from the distance was as white as a ghost. Darkness spread from his shoulder and dripped down his bicep and forearm.
“Oh my God. Was he…”
“No, he was shot, not bit.” She exhaled. “Sparrow, sweetheart, can you please lower the gun? I don’t want to have to drag my shot up ass, and Mason’s back to the cabin.” Suddenly her arm felt far too heavy, and she lowered her arm to the side, but kept her finger on the trigger. She didn’t know if more of the sick would come, or if Collin would deliver on his promise and find her.
“We came back for you, baby. We came back for you, but you were gone.” Mason’s voice was low, but deep. “You were fucking gone, and then all hell broke loose.” She also heard a slight slur mixed with his words and distorting them.
“Sparrow? Are you okay?” Both he and Mason moved toward her, but she could see how much work it took for Mason to stay upright. Seeing him wounded snapped something inside of her, and she tucked her gun at the small of her back and rushed toward them. Taking the other half of his weight she heard Mason sigh and felt him lean into her.
“You said something about a cabin?” She addressed Asher but was looking Mason over. The nurse in her kicked in when she got a look at the wound on his shoulder. Holding onto his waist a little tighter, she finally looked up at Asher. He watched her intently. “What?” He didn’t seem the least bit worried about Mason, which made her feel slightly better, but not by much.
“You’re worried about him?”
“Of course I’m worried about him. He was shot, and the longer we sit here and talk about it the more he bleeds.”
Asher grew serious and nodded. “You’re right, but he’ll be fine. We’ve been in worse shape than this.”
“It’s true, little bird.” She snapped her eyes to Mason, and her pulse sped up at the endearment that came from him. He tilted his head to the side, just enough that he could look at her, and gave her a smile that looked slightly drunk. “Much worse.”
“Come on, he’s going to pass out soon, and I want to get this cleaned up.” Shit, if she still had her bag she would have been able to use the first aid supplies she had grabbed back at the pharmacy. “I wish I had my bag.”
“Here.” She looked up at Asher and saw him holding her backpack. “Mason grabbed it before we left.” Her chest squeezed tight, and she realized that although it had only been four days since being with these men she cared for them. It wasn’t love, and although she found them both immensely attractive and wanted them, she couldn’t even say the reason she cared for them was because of lust. She cared for them as humans, as two men that had helped when she had been in trouble, and men that had shared their food and water with her when she had nothing. They hadn’t killed her and taken what little she had like others would have. She had never felt safer than she did with them, and that was saying a lot. A hell of a lot. When everything was going on and she had been hit by Fat Ass in McMillian’s, and all the way up until she was here with them right now, all she had thought about was them, even when she thought they wouldn’t come for her. They had gotten hurt for her, trying to save her, and tears of gratitude filled her eyes, but she couldn’t deal with that right now. She needed to make sure Mason was okay.
“Yeah, there is a cabin about half a mile north. Not sure the state of it because it’s been years since I’ve been up here, but it’s our best bet for shelter for tonight.” There was a hardness in Mason’s voice, and she knew he was trying his damndest not to show that he was in pain.
“Well let’s stop talking and get there before…” She saw the way Asher looked over at her, and then saw the crease formed between Mason’s eyes. “Let’s just get there before anymore of the infected show up.” What she wasn’t saying was they needed to get the fuck out of there because Collin might show up, and if he did she knew there would be another fight between her two guys and that asshole. The state Mason was in wouldn’t bode well for them.
****
Fortunately when they reached the cabin it had been vacant. Mason had seen the cabin when he had been hiking a few times with … when he had hiked, but he had never known who lived there. Apparently the owner had gotten out in a hurry, because when they had gone inside, and a sweep had been done to make sure the cabin didn’t have any unexpected inhabitants, they had noticed the opened drawers, the cupboard doors that had hung open, and the bleakness in the cabin. It also smelled musky, and it was clear from the boarded up windows that it had been closed off since the infection had hit. He didn’t know what had happened to the owners, but it didn’t really matter now. Either way it was empty now. Mason was laid up in the master bedroom with Sparrow hovering over him. He had taken off his bloodied shirt, and he didn’t miss the way she had looked at his chest. But he also noticed the way she eyed the tattoo on his side for a very long time. The questions were in her eyes, but she hadn’t said a word, and instead had been mending to the bullet hole in his shoulder. Luckily she had the supplies from the pharmacy.
“You sure you’re doing okay, and you’re not in any pain?” He smiled and shook his head.
“I’m fine.” Of course she didn’t believe him, and that was clear by the way she looked at him, but he had been a lot worse pain than this. After his tour with the Navy SEALs had ended a few years back he still couldn’t get rid of the images of the bodies surrounding his feet, the screams of help that filled his ears, or even the way the smoke and blood had thickened the air so much that he had choked on the shit with every inhale. But even those nightmare images weren’t enough to erase the one picture that would forever be ingrained in his head, or the pain he felt in his chest on a daily basis.
She cleaned the wound once more, smeared some kind of cream on it, and then grabbed a square of thick gauze to cover it. “You have a very gentle touch.” She lifted just her eyes to his, and he felt her touch still. “You really do, Sparrow.” The way her cheeks turned pink had him smiling. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It’s just been a really long time since I’ve felt a touch so soft.” She cleared her throat, and he knew he should just shut the fuck up. He rested his head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Maybe it was the pain and blood loss that was making the wall he had erected for his emotions to slowly chip away? Or maybe he was just really falling for this woman, and that it had been a really fucking long time since he had ever thought he could want another female to touch him? Being with Asher was different, sort of. Where Ash was hard and rough, speaking his mind and calling Mason on his shit, Sparrow had this delicate look in her eyes even when she was arguing with him. Asher could handle himself, had proved that one more than one occasion. But Sparrow was so small compared to them, and although he knew she was tough or she wouldn’t have lasted this long, he couldn’t help the male surge that filled him at the need to protect her. But there was a lot of shit he had never told her, and he knew that most likely she wouldn’t be all about being with two men.
He felt like a selfish bastard for wanting both Ash and Sparrow, because he was in no position to have both of them. He had been lucky as fuck when he found Ash, and although he certainly never thought he would have been in a relationship with a man, or even fall in love with one, that was exactly what had happened.
“Can I ask you something?” Her voice was low, and she tried to act like she was busy dressing the wound, but he heard the slight quiver in her voice.
“Yeah, Sparrow, you can.” And he meant it, because Mason didn’t want to hide anything from her, not after what had happened. It pissed him off that his little bird being taken had knocked some fucking sense in him, and made him realize that this chip he carried around on his shoulder was only holding him back. He couldn’t go back to only confiding in Asher when he felt like it, and to keeping even the man he loved at a distance more times than not. He wanted Sparrow, and not just because she was gorgeous and the first woman he had really seen since the infection had spread and he had lost her. Mason wanted Sparrow because she was the first woman that had opened his eyes, and his heart, and showed him that losing the ones he loved didn’t mean he could never feel again, but that he needed to open himself to the possibilities that were right in front of him. She reached down and grabbed her bag, rifled through it until she found what she was looking for, and set the pill bottle on the nightstand.
“I found some Augmentin at the pharmacy. You’re not allergic to anything, are you?” He shook his head, and she nodded. “Good. I’ll have you take one of these three times a day, just in case. The last thing you need is an infection.” A beat of silence stretched between them.
“My allergies weren’t what you planned on asking me, was it?”
She licked her lips and glanced down at her lap. “No, it wasn’t.” Another second passed before she lifted her head and stared into his eyes. God, her eyes were so blue and pretty. “What does your tattoo mean?” She reached for the tape, tore off one more long piece, and secured it on his shoulder. But before she could move away too far he reached out and took hold of her hand. A small noise left her, and he knew she also felt the electrical charge at the contact. He held her hand for probably a moment too long, but her skin was so soft, and her hand so much smaller than his. Reluctantly he let go or her and rested his head against the pillow.
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