Affliction

by Amy Miles

  He laughs and pulls me into his chest. “Why does everything always have to be a conspiracy with you?”

  Reluctantly, I allow myself to mold against him. “If you haven’t noticed I haven’t had the best track record with luck recently.”

  “Fair enough,” he presses his lips to the top of my head then tilts my chin back so that he can brush his lips against mine. “Then let’s make sure that we change that together.”

  “Why do you have to be so damn charming?”

  He shrugs and settles his hands on my hips, drawing me closer. “It runs in the family, I guess.”

  The instant the words slip past his lips he goes stiff. “Shit. I’m sorry, Avery. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “It’s fine.” I step back away from him, sad that the moment has been tainted with a reminder of Cable. It feels like every time I have a second alone with him, something spoils it. “He is your brother. It can’t be easy on you either.”

  Nox’s face hardens and his grip on his gun tightens visibly. “I don’t know what that thing is that attacked us back at that hotel, but it was definitely not my brother. The Cable I knew and loved would never have killed innocent people.”

  “I know.” I whisper and look away. I may not have known Cable nearly as long as Nox did growing up as his half-brother, but I knew enough. Cable used to be a good man. Nox is right. It does run in the family.

  Nox quickly closes the gap between us and wraps me in his arms. “I hope you don’t think that I was implying that you are like him.”

  “But I am like him, Nox. You just don’t want to believe it.”

  “No.” His fingers grip tighter against my back. “There is still goodness in you. Cable would never have cared enough to save Liam and Hope, but you did. You risked your life for them and that proves to me that you are still you.”

  I bury my head into his shoulder. “But I’m something more too. I can feel it inside me, Nox. Lying in wait for that perfect moment to strike. It’s like a sickness that is slowly eating away at my soul.”

  “You are stronger than anyone I know and you’re surrounded by people who love you. Well, all except Kira,” he winks at me. “The point is that you’re not going through this alone. You will find a way. I believe that.”

  I really wish that I did, but for the moment, standing in his arms, I can almost convince myself that anything is possible.

  A throat clears from directly behind us and we jump apart to see Flynn and Liam standing a few feet away with knowing grins on their faces.

  “I think someone was getting a little sucky face time,” Flynn coos.

  I drop to the ground in a blink of an eye and grab a pine cone and hurtle it at him. Flynn’s eyes pop open when it pings him in the forehead and leaves a red mark.

  “Okay, that hurt!” He rubs his forehead.

  Nox laughs and grabs his gun off the ground. “Maybe next time you will learn to keep your wisecracks to yourself, kid.”

  “Oh, come on. It was funny. Right, Liam?”

  Liam drops his pile of wood to the ground and raises his hand in defense. “With an aim like that, I have got nothing to say.”

  I laugh when I hear Flynn mutter, “Traitor,” from the corner of his mouth. Nox shakes his head and leans in to kiss my temple before he grabs his gear and hauls it onto his back. Like a true leader, he has chosen to carry the heaviest burden with the bulk of our supplies. I would offer to relieve him of it if I didn’t think he would take it as an insult to his position.

  “Did you tell him yet?” Flynn asks as he drops his pile on top of Liam’s.

  “Tell me what?” Nox turns.

  I shoot Flynn a death glare and then shrug. “It’s nothing.”

  Flynn rolls his eyes and steps around me. “Avery is apparently incapable of telling the whole truth today and since I’m rather fond of keeping all of my extremities intact while I sleep tonight, I’ll tell you for her. She has been sensing some weird mojo for the past few hours out in the woods. Might be a good idea to keep an extra guard on duty tonight just in case.”

  Nox frowns and I can tell that he is trying his best to hold his frustration with me in check in front of the kids. “What sort of bad mojo are we talking about?”

  Shoving Flynn aside with enough force to send him tumbling to the ground, I sigh. “It could be nothing.”

  “Or it’s something and you should have spoken up about a hell of a lot sooner.” Nox rests his gun against his hip. “Tell me.”

  As Liam helps Flynn to his feet, I give Nox a brief rundown of the only intel that I have. It’s not much, but it’s enough to make the vein that runs down his forehead begin to pulse with anger.

  He places two fingers between his lips and whistles. Within a few minutes, each of his men reappear from the darkness.

  “Looks like we might have some company tonight, folks. Let’s light this fire and circle up tight. I want three man shifts at all times. Sit back to back and keep your eyes peeled. Everyone else is to bunk down and rest while you can and tomorrow we will try to push a bit harder to get down out of these mountains.”

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Kira asks.

  Nox looks to me to answer so I step forward. “Whatever it is, it’s not going to be friendly. It’s big and fast and can remain quiet when it wants to. Keep your nose to the air. If you smell anything out of the ordinary you need to stay alert. It has a strong scent but seems intelligent enough to keep down wind, so it’s hard to trace. This thing knows how to track and it has been hunting us all day.”

  “And you’re just now telling us?” Kira spits out.

  Nox steps forward and places himself between his fiery soldier and me. “We know now and that’s all that matters. I want Cyrus, Bo and Phillip on the first watch. Kira, Flynn and Fletcher can take the second. Avery, Gentry and I will take the final round.”

  He pauses to look each one of us in the eye. “Avery says this thing is unlike anything we’ve seen before. I think it’s safe to say that the mutations may have spread or been tested on other things. From what we know of the Flesh Bags, they are intelligent, fast and strong. Do not underestimate anything that comes at you. Shoot to kill. That’s an order.”

  With his speech completed, each of his soldiers moves quickly to either take up their position getting the fire lit or working to find a vantage point for the first watch of the night.

  Nox laces his fingers through mine as we watch the men settle in.

  “Are you scared?” He asks me as the firelight swells and casts a warm glow on the clearing.

  “I know that I should be, but it’s strange.” I turn to look at him, pausing to admire his handsome profile. “It’s almost as if it senses me. I think it’s hanging back to try to get a feel of what I’m doing with you.”

  “So you can read its mind like the zombies?”

  “No.” I shake my head. “It’s different. More of an awareness, I guess. It knows I’m here, just like I know it’s out there. I can feel its curiosity.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes.” I press my palm to his heart and count ten quick beats before I answer. “It’s hungry.”

  SEVENTEEN

  The fire crackles and spits as I lie beside it. Sleep does not come as I stare up at the smoke, which twists and twirls its way up into the sky. The cloud cover is thick tonight, blocking the moon and all of the stars.

  All around me I hear life in the forest, but not the sound that I most want to hear. The thing that hunts us has fallen completely silent and I can’t shake the feeling that it is waiting and watching. I can’t smell it. I can only feel its curiosity battling with its hunger.

  I understand all too well how the hunger pangs can drive someone like me to distraction. If the hunger grows too great, it will attack.

  Rising up from my bed, I look around. Flynn sleeps with
his feet near Liam’s head and his gun tucked against his chest. Bo, Phillip and Cyrus sit back to back in a small oddly shaped circle nearly twenty feet away from the fire so that the glare does not dampen their ability to peer into the darkness.

  Restlessness takes me and I push up to my feet.

  “Going somewhere?” a voice calls and I close my eyes.

  “If I said I had to pee would you believe me?” I turn back to look at Nox where he lies propped up against a tree trunk. His legs are crossed at the ankles and his hands are tucked under his armpits to keep them warm. His eyes are slatted just enough to see me.

  “Not for a second.”

  I rise and move over to him and sink down. “Busted.”

  “I had a feeling you would try to do something stupid.”

  I lean my head down against his shoulder. “Yeah, well I didn’t earn the name Dumbass for nothing.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.” His body quakes with laughter as he frees one hand to wrap around me. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “I was thinking.”

  “About what?” He shifts so that he has easy access to his gun.

  “Do you ever wonder if things can go back to the way they were before?” I ask after a moment. “Not to just a couple of days ago, but to life as we knew it.”

  “No. I think the world will forever be scarred by this mess we made, but maybe it’s not all bad. I don’t know about you, but there a lot of things that I’m glad to be rid of.”

  I press against his chest to be able to sit up and look at him. “Was life really so bad that you would choose this over that?”

  “No,” he laughs and shakes his head. “It definitely wasn’t, but I didn’t have you before, did I? That’s got to count for something.”

  “Oh, that was smooth,” I grin and lie back down against him. “Do you ever just miss the simple things, though? Like the luxury of pulling through a fast food joint for a bite to eat? Downloading music, going to see a summer block buster hit on release day or a million other things that we took for granted before?”

  Nox gently traces circles across my shoulder blades as he thinks it over. “Sometimes I do, I guess. Usually when I’m stuck sleeping against a tree stump instead of being tucked up in my Egyptian cotton sheets and my contour pillow, but life feels simpler now in a way. I don’t have to hurry to work in rush hour traffic, worry about finding a damn cell phone charger that I was always seeming to lose or stress over how I am going to pay my past due credit card bills. None of that stuff matters anymore. Now we have everything we need because we have each other. The other was just superficial nonsense. For the first time in my life I feel like I’m really living. What more could I ask for?”

  “How about a world without zombies trying to eat your arm off?”

  “You got me there. I could definitely do without them.”

  “Would you go back to the way things were if you had a choice?”

  Nox blows out a long, slow breath. “Honestly, no. I don’t think I would.”

  “Really?” That surprises me.

  “I don’t mean for that to sound selfish. I’d give anything to have my family back, to undo all of the suffering that people have experienced, but if I did all of that, I wouldn’t be the same person that I am now. I wasn’t a bad guy by any means but I was different. I mucked around, jumped from relationship to relationship for the hell of it. I hurt people without considering the consequence because I was young and had the world at my fingertips. Now, I know what’s really important. I place value on that people that I love.”

  I press a kiss to his chest and nuzzle in close. “I’d trade you in against a hot shower, flushing toilet, frozen food and a cheesy delivery pizza in a heartbeat.”

  Nox tugs me close and seals me into his arms. “You’re all talk.”

  “Like hell I am! You should learn to never underestimate my love for a cheese pizza,” I look up and kiss him. “But maybe if you were really nice I would share a slice with you.”

  “Just one?”

  I hold up a single finger and he opens his mouth to bite the tip of it and all thought of pizza vanishes. He stares at me in the firelight and I see desire flame to life in his eyes.

  “Too bad we have some vicious beast hunting us right now because I can think of a few things I’d love to do to you,” he whispers in my ear.

  I feel heat swell between my legs as I groan at the thought of his hands on my body. “Trust me, the instant we are out of this mess I am dragging you to the nearest plot of grass and having my way with you.”

  Nox plunges his hands into my hair. “You say such sweet things to me.”

  A rustling behind us makes us jump apart and I turn to see Flynn sitting up and staring right at us.

  “Yeah, uh...sorry to interrupt whatever that was, but I got to pee. Nox would you care to be my ‘let’s go together so we don’t get eaten buddy?’”

  Nox laughs and starts to stand up but I push him back. “I’ll go.”

  Both of them exchange a confused glance that nearly has me rolling in fits of laughter. “Get your minds out of the gutter. I’m not going to watch, for goodness sake. We all know I’ve got the best vision right now so I’m the logical choice as a buddy.”

  “Apart from the fact that you’re a girl and it’s kinda weird.” Flynn rustles his hair and I realize that sleeping on the ground has shoved his mass of curls slightly off center.

  “Afraid I’m going to listen?” I snicker and push up to my feet.

  “Afraid? No. I’m certain of it. Supersonic hearing is a new trait, right?”

  “Sure is, but don’t worry. I’ll hum to myself.”

  “Oh great. That’s so much better.”

  I lean down and kiss Nox once more before I pat Flynn on the back and follow him into the woods. We don’t have to travel far before the darkness is all consuming and Flynn stumbles into a tree.

  “I meant to do that,” he groans.

  “Need me to steer you?”

  “Nope. Just turn around and don’t peek.”

  “Gross.” I turn my back on him and stare out into the woods. An owl flies overhead, swooping gracefully. I watch as it circles several times before making a sharp descent and then shoots back into the air with a small rodent in its claws.

  “What was that?” Flynn calls, hopping as he tries to pull his zipper up but in his panic he gets his shirt caught.

  “An owl, scaredy cat. Sheesh. It’s a good thing Nox didn’t come out here or he’d start to think you were afraid of your own shadow.”

  “He knows I’m tougher than I look.”

  “Oh?” I turn as he begins to head back toward me and see him walking blind with his hand waving out in front of him. “And how is that?”

  “I told you. I’ve changed.”

  “So I’ve noticed.” I shove out my hand and push Flynn to a halt. His eyes go wide with surprise. “It’s time that we have that little chat.”

  “Damn. I knew this wasn’t an innocent gesture of goodwill.”

  He shifts from one foot to the next and in the dark I see him begin to chew on one of his fingernails.

  “Why can’t I feel you in the same way that I can feel Cable?” I ask and I hear the snap of him biting through his nail.

  “So we are going straight for a groin shot? Got it. Well, I guess it’s because I’m not exactly like you or him.”

  I apply a bit of pressure against his chest when he tries to move around me and I hold him in place “You need to tell me everything.

  Flynn sighs. “Okay, but promise me that you won’t get mad.”

  “Mad? Why would I be mad? It’s not like you obviously did something stupid and utterly life threatening while I was gone,” I growl and tighten my grip on him but it barely fazes him.

  “In my defense, none of this was actually planned ahead
of time,” he hedges, wincing as he waits for me to explode, but I keep myself reigned in tight until I hear it all, “and I may have accidentally got myself shot.”

  And there is the clinker that I was waiting for.

  “Accidentally shot?” I struggle to keep my tone low enough so that no one back at the camp will the growing heat in our conversation. “How do you accidentally get yourself shot, Flynn?”

  He at least has the decency to look ashamed when he glances at me. “Well, I may have tried to sneak over the wall to look for you when I realized you were missing and got myself mistaken for a Flesh Bag. In all fairness, though, I didn’t exactly change clothes after that bloodbath so I did look pretty rough. That soldier had every right to be jumpy.”

  Snagging him by the arm, I yank him with me farther into the woods where we won’t be overheard. I know that we don’t have much time. Nox will grow suspicious soon enough and come looking for us, but I know the smell of a rat when I cross one and Flynn is going to tell me everything.

  Once we are out of earshot I push him back and cross my arms over my chest. The rush of adrenaline pumping through my ears is more than enough to compensate for my earlier weakness and I feel a charge of energy surging through me.

  “Where did you get shot?”

  Flynn pulls his shirt down just enough for me to see a bullet wound a fraction of an inch above the top of his heart. It was a near instant kill shot.

  “Damn it, Flynn. I have never met anyone with a bigger death wish than you!”

  “Present company included?”

  I reach out and thump him on the shoulder. “Now is not the time for your humor. You could have died.”

  “But I didn’t.”

  I want to rant and rage at him, to yell at him until I am blue in the face, but one thought trickles through and I feel myself slowly beginning to calm. “Why aren’t you dead?”

  “Wow, it almost sounds like you’re sad that I’m not.”

  “I’m not stupid, Flynn” I take a hold of him. “I know that you must have dosed yourself with one of the remaining portions of my blood you still had in your gun to keep you alive. I can smell it on you now that I know what I’m looking for but why didn’t it kill you like all of the others? What was different about you?”