by Jenny Penn
Panicked more by the thought of being burned up than shot, Lacie began to pant as her heart began to race faster and faster. The blood rushing through her veins left her dizzy and lightheaded. Everything started to spin as she began to slip backward.
Davis caught her. His fingers dug into her arms with a rough grip, matching the forceful shake he gave her. “Come on, Lacie, stay with me.”
Blinking she tried to clear her mind, to do as he wanted, but it wasn’t easy. Smoke was already beginning to flood into the closet, making it harder for her to breath, to think.
“Come on.” Davis gave her another jerk. “I need you to focus, honey.”
“But the fire—”
“Isn’t a problem.”
Shoving her back against the wall, Davis pounded his heel into the floor with a hard kick, five more and the wood planks started to crack. It only took another stomp and Davis managed to kicked a hole straight to the crawl space beneath the cabin.
“Come on.”
He didn’t wait for her to obey, but latched back onto her arm and all but shoved her through the opening. He kept her going by cramming his own massive frame down on top of her, forcing her all the way under the burning house. Lacie didn’t think that was much better of a place to be, but at least she could crawl to freedom without getting shot.
She headed straight for the closest exit without thought of what might await her on the other side. Barely five inches from sunlight a hand clamped down on her ankle and drug her back.
“Not that way.”
Davis showed her the way by switching his hold to her wrist and dragging her off in the direction he wanted. The wrong direction in Lacie’s mind because they were headed for the center of the cabin. With the heat of the fire already making the joist overhead crackle, Lacie really didn’t want to linger beneath it.
“We’re going to be crushed.” Lacie couldn’t stop that worry from voicing itself or the reflex that had her pulling back on Davis’s hold. “We need to get out from under this cabin.”
“Or deeper beneath it,” Davis corrected, coming along the edge of a massive metal disk.
“What the hell is that?” Momentarily distracted by confusion, she gawked at the large manhole cover. Except it wasn’t black and it came with a very sophisticated looking locking mechanism.
“Bomb shelter.” Davis punched in a series of numbers into the little digital pad on top. The devise beeped twice and then with a sudden groan the lid started sliding back.
“My God,” Lacie whispered, lifting up slightly to stare down the long throat that was revealed. Florescent lights flickered to life, slowly glowing brighter to reveal what looked like an endless ladder affixed to the side of the tunnel. “Is there a bottom?”
“Down.” Not bothering to answer her question, Davis nodded toward the entrance.
Lacie didn’t have to be told twice, but she hesitated as she turned to lower her legs over the first set of rungs. Slithering like a snake on her belly, she paused to look up at Davis before committing to obeying him.
“You’re coming, right?”
“I’d never abandon you.”
Lacie nodded, accepting that vow as the truth and lowered herself over the edge. Exhaustion and worry kept her muscles trembling as she slowly worked down every one of the more than a hundred rungs. It felt like there was double that number, but she lost count as numbness began to set in.
Barely aware enough to do what she had to, Lacie had no energy left over for thinking. Instead she simply obeyed the command of necessity. She had to get to the bottom. Once there she had to wait for Davis. Where else could she go but through the door he opened.
Lacie had never been in a bomb shelter. Under normal circumstances her curiosity would have been sparked by the round room. Instead of taking in all the unique features the shelter had, Lacie simply stumbled toward the large bed taking up one half of the room.
Bumping into its side, her legs gave out and she crashed down onto the mattress. All over she could feel the cool, bubbling blood beading along the multitude of scratches and cuts covering her arms and hands. Covered in dirt and grime with bits of glass and tile hanging in her hair, Lacie needed a bath now more than ever.
“Shower,” Davis barked at her, as if reading her mind. Lacie rolled her head to the side, glancing with one eye in his direction only to find him standing in front of an open door.
“Bathroom’s in there. There’s bandages and ointment in the cabinet. I want you to clean those wounds and get them sterilized.”
Davis took a step to his right and popped open another cabinet to reveal a whole closet full of apparel. “Clothes. Weapons.”
Another door revealed a whole arsenal, most of which Lacie didn’t have any clue how to use.
“Let no one in. Anybody who is safe knows the code. Don’t leave unless someone is succeeding at breaking through a door.” Strutting over to another door, he pressed a button and it clicked open. “This is the exit.”
He shoved the door all the way open to reveal another tunnel. This one shot straight out. “It’s half a mile and dumps into an open pasture. You arm yourself, you press the button, you go through, shut the door and shoot the console. They’ll have to tear through the door to get through. Understand?”
No, but Lacie nodded because she knew that’s what he wanted to hear. Still operating in remote-control-mode, she didn’t have the ability to process anything he said but instinctively understood that she had to obey his every command.
“Don’t leave unless you’re in imminent danger. Repeat that.”
“Don’t leave unless you’re in imminent danger.”
That earned her a smile. The gesture softened Davis’s features, lending to the warmth of the kiss he swooped in to drop on her forehead.
“You’ll be safe here, honey. I promise, but it might be a while before Chance and I get back here. I need to know you’ll be here.”
“I will.” She might very well be right there, passed out filthy on the bed.
“I love you, Lacie. Now I got to go.”
“Okay.” Lacie nodded. Sensing the conversation had finally come to an end, she didn’t even bother to watch him leave. Closing her eyes, she let the exhaustion finally consume her.
* * * *
Davis jogged the whole way to the end of the tunnel, hoping he wouldn’t be too late to get in on some of the action. The holes all those bullets had carved into his chest had already started to heal, but his temper over having endured taking the hits hadn’t.
Davis didn’t like getting shot. He did like taking retribution. His hope grew that he’d get a chance to take some when he shoved through the exit and stepped out into the late afternoon sun to be greeted by Chance. His buddy was not covered in blood. That had to be a good sign.
“How is she?”
“Fine. Safe.” Davis gave Chance the two blunt answers he knew his partner needed first. “I think it was all a little much for her. She probably passed out in bed the second I left, but with any luck she’ll sleep until we get back.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Always the pessimist, Chance never could accept the easy answer.
“She knows not to leave. I told her, and I made her repeat it back to me.”
“Good.” Breathing out a deep breath with his sharp nod, Chance turned his gaze eastward. “I don’t know how they got in so close, but we’ve traced the shots back to four separate points.”
“Got us boxed, huh?”
“Lucky we didn’t take any real causalities standing out in the open like we were.” Chance smirked, casting a glance over at the commanders waiting behind him. They were all much older and loyal to Ron.
That’s how the pack worked. The new Alpha returned first to claim his mate and take his place as head of the pack. After the issue of leadership had been settled, the next generation of commanders would start to return from their service to the nation.
Slowly bit by bit the old pack members would gather up their mates
and move onto the next world, leaving this one in the hands of their children. Today, though, they had to make do with an army where the average age was sixty, which explained Chance’s concerned look.
“Watch yourself,” Davis warned softly. “Or one of them will take offense. They might not let us get the joy of being the ones to kill these bastards.”
Cranky old men liked to prove a point. Davis knew any one of them could. They might not be as spry as Chance and him, but lycans didn’t begin to slow down and show the wear of age until at least two hundred.
“We’re not going to get to kill anything anyway,” Chance muttered. “The Kragens are on their way, and they want to have a conversation with these fuckers.”
“Is that why we’re standing here dawdling?” Davis knew better than to argue with an order from the kings, but just because they couldn’t kill them didn’t mean they couldn’t hurt the bastards. Davis would settle for that if he could just get a little taste of blood.
“Dad doesn’t trust us to obey the kings’ orders.” Chance nodded to the men behind him. “So say hello to our babysitters.”
Chapter 11
Lacie floated toward awareness with the nagging certainty she had to get up. Rousing by slow degrees, she started to remember bits and fragments. Arguing with Chance, running through the fields, stealing a truck, the water hole, faster and faster the memories began to roll through her mind until it finally locked down on the one it had been searching for—the moment when all hell had broken loose.
Davis! He’d been shot multiple times. His chest had been a bloody mess. And Chance had been out in the front yard when the shooting had started. He could still be lying there dead or dying.
Lacie’s chest exploded with pain the instant her heart stopped. For several seconds she thought she might die right there, but she couldn’t go yet. She needed to find Chance and Davis first. If there was any hope that they could be saved, Lacie had to do something.
Scrambling off the bed, she’d already started to head for the door when several things hit her at once. She was in a bomb shelter, wearing nothing more than a shirt, covered with dirt and scabs littering her arms and hands.
A vague memory of Davis telling her to clean up floated through her mind, but Lacie focused instead on the end of it. He’d left through the door to the right and not the one she’d been marching for. He’d also told her to take a gun if she left. Given everything, that seemed like good advice.
Not bothering to waste time washing, Lacie turned toward the open closet and started searching through the stacks of jeans piled on two shelves. There was a pair in every size, both men and women’s. There was also a whole array of colored T-shirts along with unopened packages of underwear and socks.
The only thing missing were shoes. Since she couldn’t find any, she pulled on three pair of thick, white socks, hoping that would be enough protection for her feet. For the rest of her, she looked toward the weapons cabinet.
Skipping over the assault rifles and whatever the thing with the big cannon barrel was, she focused her attention on something she knew how to shoot. Pulling down the shotgun, Lacie loaded it before packing her pockets full of extra rounds and marching toward the door Davis had used.
Ready for anything, she pressed the button and waited for the door to swing open. A trail of tiny droplets of blood led the way out of the shelter and down the seemingly endless tunnel. The long, silent walk had the nerves in Lacie’s stomach tightening to the point where she started to feel sick.
By the time she reached the door at the end of the path, she had to take a deep breath and brace herself before reaching for the latch. With the gun aimed straight out as a lethal greeting for any bad guys lurking on the other side, she kicked the door wide open.
Nothing but a warm breeze waited for her, not that Lacie let the calm tranquility of pasture fool her into lowering her guard. Moving slowly from under the mound of dirt molded over the exit like a small hill, Lacie let the tip of her gun lead the way.
Scanning all directions with each step, she searched the tall grass for any kind of blood trail. The droplets had thinned out, nearly fading to nothing by the end of the tunnel, and trying to find any sign of the tiny drops amongst the weeds quickly proved impossible.
By the time Lacie gave up the hunt, she’d waded a good hundred feet from the door. At a loss of what to do next and feeling strangely vulnerable out in the open, she was hit with the overwhelming urge to run for cover.
The panic flooding her system, sharpened her hearing. Every rustle of the grass echoed with a threat that had her turning in circles as Lacie tried futilely to cover her own back. It couldn’t be done, and she’d waited too long to flee.
A high-pitched battle cry pierced the silence with its bloodcurdling shrill. Somebody or something smacked into her from behind, knocking Lacie to the ground with its momentum. Before she could recover from the hard blow her chin took as it cracked over a stone buried in the dirt, a set of hands wrapped around her neck and began squeezing.
Lacie didn’t try to defend herself, too lost in the overwhelming pain that exploded through her chest. Desperately her lungs tried to expand and drag a breath past the constriction tightening around her throat. Reflexes kicked in as her hand lifted to claw at the fingers digging into her neck.
Growing weaker by the moment, she didn’t have the strength to peel back the fingers but could only cling to them as she choked on the coughs trying to force their way out. The pound of her own heartbeat echoed loudly in her ears, sounding like a roar that popped as a sudden rush of air seared over her swelling throat muscles.
Caving into the ground as her lungs rushed to catch the breaths it’d missed, Lacie shuddered under the wrenching coughs that racked her body. As unbearable as the pain was the fear of what still lurked behind her wouldn’t allow her the time to wallow. She didn’t have the time because she could be attacked again at any second.
Rolling over to face her fate, Lacie went still, her breath catching all on its own at the sight of Chance dangling a scrawny woman from one hand. Her clothes were torn and filthy with the same grime coating her skin.
Even as the woman jerked and snarled in Chance’s grip, Lacie could see the intricate cuts carved over her arms and up to the broken fingernails she used to try and dig her way free of Chance’s hold. With a sharp crack the woman’s twisted nest of blonde curls fell to an odd angle, her neck going as limp as the rest of her body.
Lacie wanted to scream but nothing came out as she stared in wild-eyed horror at Chance. Hardened like stone, his features betrayed no emotion, no guilt or joy at having just taken a life. Neither did he look numb, though that was the only thing Lacie could feel right then.
It wore through to terror as her eyes traced back to the woman. No longer flushed with life, she was decomposing at a rate too fast to be real. Without thought, Lacie retreated from the sight, crawling back through the grass as she tried to lift herself up.
It was time to run. From what or who, Lacie didn’t know, but she couldn’t deny the overwhelming rush to flee and escape the reality she now found herself trapped in.
“Zombies,” Chance sighed, chunking the now almost fully rotted corpse into the ground. “God, I hate zombies.”
“You know what I hate?”
A large hand followed that question, latching on to her edge of Lacie’s shirt and jerking her right up to her feet. In an instant she found herself facing Davis, who didn’t look any less threatening than Chance.
“Mates that don’t obey. Didn’t I tell you to wait for us?”
“We’ve got to call dad. They’re waiting on the kings with the rest of them, but the Kragens aren’t going to get any of the answers they’re coming for.”
Davis ignored Chance as he brushed past, moving off toward the men rising out of the tall grass. For the second time that day, Lacie found herself surrounded by a sea of naked men. Only this time she didn’t have it in her to be embarrassed.
Davis dom
inated her attention with the anger growling out of him. “I’m still waiting on my answer, Lacie?”
Answer? He wanted an answer to what? Why there were zombies attacking her, because Lacie would really love it if somebody would explain that to her.
“I told you to wait.”
“And you said you wouldn’t abandon me.” Lacie scowled as that memory surfaced, bringing with it a rush of emotions. “But that didn’t stop you from leaving, did it?”
“Don’t you—”
“What? Get mad because I’m mated to a bonehead who rushes into a spray of bullets? You could have been killed?” A damn broke inside her as all the fear and worry swamped her reason, leaving her at the mercy of the outrage detonating through her.
“I wasn’t—”
“Just because you weren’t doesn’t mean you couldn’t be! How could you?” Unable to control the sudden rush of adrenaline that flooded her muscles, Lacie gave in to the urge to become physical and shoved Davis back.
“I swear to God, Davis, if you ever run into the path of another bullet, I’ll shoot you! Right in that big, dumb head of yours, because if I have to watch you stupidly die, I should at least get the pleasure of being the one to kill you.”
“I didn’t—”
Lacie cut his defense off with another hard shove to his chest that sent him stumbling back a good foot. “Your chest was riddled with bullet holes! Then you dump me in some bunker and abandon me? I don’t know what the hell is going on, if you’re alive or not.”
“Or if that idiot over there,” Lacie waved to where Chance stood murmuring with the other men all watching the show, “managed to get himself killed, too? Do you know how scared I was? How worried? And you expected me to just sit there and just wait for you?”
“I expect you to know we can take care of ourselves,” Davis shot back, only getting a full sentence because Lacie needed to pause for a breath.