This Would Be Paradise (Book 3)

by Iverson, N. D.

  “How long do you think this place has before the fire completely takes over?”

  “I dunno, but the sooner we’re outta here, the better. The mercenaries trashed most of the vehicles with fire as well so we only got two workin’ trucks.”

  Shit. “Will everyone fit?”

  “There ain’t many people left,” John said.

  We had reached the medic condo and burst through the front door. Half the people in the waiting area jumped. It looked like an evacuation center. There were people spread out all over the area, some in blankets, some standing, some sobbing quietly. It reminded me of all those months ago when we went to the school emergency center.

  I did a quick tally and came up with fifteen people. The mercenaries really had done a number on Hargrove. I spotted Colin’s blue hair tucked away in the corner of the room. When he saw me, he started to get up so I motioned for him to sit back down. He gave me a hurt look, but complied. I didn’t need him getting involved in what was coming after the examination. John latched onto my arm and dragged me to one of the back rooms. Crystal was inside, patching up a lady’s arm. She looked over at us.

  “Oh, God, what now?”

  “Bailey here needs you to look at her head,” John said.

  Crystal had the lady jump down from the stainless steel table and sent her back out into the waiting area. Everyone looked at her as she passed.

  “She bit?” Rose asked with narrowed eyes.

  “No, another bullet wound,” Crystal answered.

  She motioned for me to come over and I complied. The sooner we got this over with, the sooner I could get to questioning our POW.

  Crystal began poking and prodding at my head. I winced as she touched a particularly sensitive spot. She shined a light in my eyes and had me follow a tongue press with my eyes.

  “I’m not gonna lie, Oscar never taught me much about head wounds. I’d say if you can see and walk straight, you’re okay?” She didn’t sound very sure.

  Too be fair, she wasn’t a trained medical professional like Oscar had been. I got down from the table.

  “But I think Ethan does have a concussion,” she continued.

  “Where is he?” I asked.

  “In the next room.”

  I hurried out of the room we were in and busted into the next room over. The condos only had two rooms each so I knew he had to be in there. Ethan was lying on the hospital bed, throwing up into a small pail. Chloe was playing the part of helper, and I spotted Amanda sitting on the only chair in the room, staring at her feet. She looked up and when she saw me her eyes went wide. She got up and looked around at the others behind me.

  “Where’s my dad?”

  I bit my upper lip. I kneeled down to her level and she instantly teared up. She may have been young and naive, but she wasn’t stupid. Amanda latched onto me, almost sending me to the floor from my kneeling position. I hugged her back as she cried.

  “I’m sorry, Amanda. Your dad was a great man. We will all miss him,” I said in a quiet voice.

  I gently pushed her from me, then guided her back to the chair. She sat and continued to sniffle. I felt bad for her, but there was a mercenary to get to. By the time I approached the bed, Ethan had put down his bucket and was peering at me through half closed eyes.

  I put a hand on Chloe’s head and ruffled her hair. She pushed my hand off.

  “I’m helpin’ nurse him. Crystal said to,” Chloe said with intent, as if she was worried I’d tried to tell her otherwise.

  “Good, looks like he needs it,” I said.

  I looked at Ethan and he flashed me the thumbs up. Now that I’d seen he was relatively okay, I turned to John. “Where are they holding the guy?”

  John looked around the room before answering. “I’ll take you to him.”

  He led me, and the others, outside and to the condo next door. John rapped on the door with his knuckles. It slowly opened just enough for a face to appear. It was Henry.

  “We need to talk to him now,” John said.

  Henry looked back inside the room before letting us in. The mercenary’s hands and feet were bound and he was lying on his side in the center of the floor. His face was battered and bloody, but he was conscious. It looked like Henry couldn’t wait. There were two other Hargrove people inside. One was Sheri, who gave me a grim nod, and the other was one of the men on the council whose name I couldn’t remember. He looked just as pissed as Henry.

  “Jesus, Henry. I thought you said you’d wait for the rest of us,” John muttered.

  “Yeah, well this one had a mouth on him,” Henry spat.

  The mercenary began to stir, a sick smile on his face. “Still pissed ‘bout that little wifey of yours, eh?”

  Henry clenched his teeth so hard I thought they were going to shatter. He ran over to the restrained mercenary and punted him in the stomach. The guy let out a wheeze and curled in a ball. Henry wound up for another, but I intervened.

  “Stop!” I commanded.

  Henry shot me a glare, but lowered his foot back to the ground. “Did you not hear him?” Henry was gesturing wildly at the guy.

  “I need him to be able to talk.” I walked over and kneeled down beside the mercenary.

  “Where would they have taken my friend Zoe?” I asked. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Sheri clamp a hand over her mouth. Henry and the other guy stood there with their brows drawn.

  He cracked a smile. “She pretty?”

  I couldn’t blame Henry for beating the guy up first—I wanted to—but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to work. The mercenary finally opened his eyes. Well, eye—the other one was swollen shut. I watched his good eye look me over.

  “I’m surprised they didn’t take you. Shawn loves ‘em blonde.”

  John was beside me in two heavy footfalls, and with a scary look on his face. “What’d you say?”

  I held up my hand to John. “Answer my question. Where is she?”

  “She could be anywhere, ‘specially if she’s pretty.”

  “That’s sick!” Sheri yelled, pushing herself off of the wall.

  “Life goes on, sweetheart. Dead walkin’ around or not. Some businesses just outlast everythin’,” the mercenary said, this time without a smirk.

  “Where’s your hideout then?” I asked.

  He snorted. “I ain’t gettin’ out of here alive, so what’s the point in tellin’ you?” He looked around at all of us, challenging us to say anything different. His one good eye widened.

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” He grinned at his joke. “Switched teams did ya, Lucas?”

  We all turned to look at Lucas who was standing in the background. Rose very obviously shifted away from him.

  “What the hell is he talking about?” I asked, bolting to my feet.

  Lucas ignored me and flew over to the mercenary. The ground creaked every time his boot-clad foot hit the flooring. “After ya’ll sold me out for bein’ immune, yeah, I reckon I did.”

  Lucas had been a mercenary. John and I shared a concerned look. He sidled up to me and placed my Beretta back in my hand. I gripped the butt of the gun tight and flicked off the safety just in case this got messy. Lucas had a fully loaded weapon. If he decided to start shooting to help his old buddy, I would be able to retaliate.

  “You know it was nothin’ personal, just business, right?” The mercenary was trying to play Lucas’s past.

  “Yeah, nothin’ personal,” Lucas said flatly. He lifted his gun and shot the mercenary twice.

  “No!” I yelled, lurching forward. He was my only option for finding out where they had taken Zoe!

  The mercenary gurgled for a few seconds before he stopped moving—and breathing. Sheri let out a squeaking sound and turned away. I whirled on Lucas and punched him square in the face.

  “You asshole! I needed the info he had!”

  I launched myself at Lucas again but John caught me around the waist and yanked me back. I struggled as I watched Lucas right himself and massage his ja
w. He glared daggers at me, then took a step forward.

  “Try somethin’, I dare you,” Rose said with her gun pointed straight for Lucas. Leo followed her lead and leveled his own shotgun at Lucas.

  The room was tense. No one said a word or moved for a few moments as everyone tried to catch up with what had happened.

  “You good?” John asked me, still holding on.

  “I’m good,” I said and he released me. I looked between Lucas and the dead mercenary. Lucas used to be one of them; maybe he knew where their hideout was.

  I got right in Lucas’s face. “You killed my only lead. Now you’re going to take me to the mercenary hideout, whether you like it or not.”

  Lucas opened his mouth wide, but Rose spoke before him. “You best do what she says or you’re not goin’ to like what happens next.” She still had her gun trained on Lucas.

  His jaw shifted. “What’s in it for me?”

  “Well for one, Rose won’t shoot you right here for being one of those scumbags,” I said.

  “I haven’t been with their crew in over four months,” Lucas growled. “They’re the reason I was in that hospital.”

  “Think of it as revenge, then. If you take me to their compound, or wherever they hide out, you can get them back for handing you over. Hell, I’ll even help!” My desperation was showing as my voice rose with each word.

  “Bailey,” John said, sounding as if he was warning me.

  “They have Zoe and you heard what that guy said!” I barely suppressed a shiver. My poor best friend.

  Sheri walked over to us and pointed a finger at Lucas. “Were you ever part of whatever they do to the girls?”

  “No,” Lucas said with conviction. “They have different … branches? I was with the crew who rounded up immune people.”

  “Pretty ironic, eh?” Rose quipped.

  Lucas scowled at her and she just smirked. I was glad she was on my side. I couldn’t tell if Lucas was telling the truth or not, but right at that moment it didn’t really matter. I needed his intel to get to Zoe, and we could always take care of him later if it turned out he was lying. It was a cold way to think; I was well aware of that.

  “You going to take me there or not?” I prompted.

  Lucas looked around at all of our faces and whatever he saw there, had him say: “Fine. I’ll lead you there, but only so I can take out Shawn myself.”

  “He’s their leader, right?” I asked.

  Lucas made a scoffing sound. “I guess you could call him that. He’s the worst one of ‘em all. Started the whole thing. He’s the one who ordered me turned over to the hospital.”

  “You came in pretty beaten up at the hospital. He do that to you, too?” Rose asked.

  “Some.” And that was all Lucas said about it.

  Chapter 20

  Rose and Leo had agreed to keep an eye on Lucas while everyone else prepared to evacuate Hargrove. The remaining two trucks were loaded with whatever supplies we could scrounge up. It was decided that kids and the injured would ride inside the cabs while the rest would ride in the truck beds. It was going to be majorly squished.

  Colin made a fuss when I told him he would be riding inside the cab as well. I grabbed his arm and steered him off to the side, out of earshot.

  “Before Oscar turned me over, he told me you were sick,” I said quietly.

  Colin’s nostrils flared as he crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I sighed. I had a feeling it would go this way. Colin was too stubborn. “Look, I haven’t told anyone else—that’s up to you to do. All I’m saying is that it’s not good for you to ride in the back of a truck all night. Your immune system already has enough to deal with.” Colin opened his mouth but I held up a finger. “Plus you’re fifteen and technically still count as a kid and therefore, you ride in the cab. Suck it up.”

  I walked away from him before he could argue further. I would bind his arms and legs and toss him inside the truck if I had to.

  The uninjured adults were armed and shooting at the infected still sneaking in while they loaded up the kids and wounded. The fire had crossed the street to the other condos, ensuring that we all had no choice but to leave. Crystal had to be practically torn from the medic center. She grabbed everything that hadn’t been bolted down just before the fire took it over. My own condo had long since burned, taking everything of mine with it. All I had were the clothes on my back and my Beretta. Even my trusty axe was lost to the flames. I shouldn’t complain, I was still alive, after all. That was more than most people had. Most of Hargrove’s population had been decimated. Even kids hadn’t been spared. The mercenaries were a plague and whoever they didn’t get, the infected tried to.

  I triple-checked to make sure Chloe and Amanda—and Colin—were inside one of the truck cabs with Ethan. I had once told Roy that my babysitting days were over. Looks like he proved me wrong—I now had Amanda to look after. I rubbed at my eyes. We were all exhausted from the hellish night and it still wasn’t over. We had no idea where we were going. Obviously we couldn’t all just head to the mercenary compound right now.

  We would need to find some place we could temporarily secure and unload everyone. Once we re-grouped, then the able and willing would come with us to the compound to find Zoe and as I suspected, exact revenge. Lucas wasn’t the only one with a grudge.

  John was currently talking with Henry over a spread out map on the hood of our escape vehicle. They were trying to find a muster point within driving distance that we could fortify for the night. We had extra canisters of gas, but if we had to keep driving around to find a place, those would soon be gone.

  As I approached them, I aimed and shot my Beretta, taking out an infected that had made it through the others protecting the trucks. John turned to see the thing drop and turned back to give me a curt nod.

  “We need to get out of here before we’re overrun. Or use up all our ammo. Or we’re burned alive. Take your pick,” I said grumpily. This evacuation process was nowhere near as fast as it should have been.

  As if to emphasize my words, one of the condos down the street exploded. We ducked as pieces of flaming boards and glass flew into the street. There were screams from the people around us even though it was a relatively small explosion and we were out of range.

  “Must’ve hit the fertilizer and feed shed,” Henry said.

  John stabbed a finger at a spot on the map. “We’re thinkin’ we need to move away from the middle of the city for tonight. This is an industrial area so there should be less infected to worry about. The further we head east, the less city we’ll touch.”

  Should be. Nothing was ever certain.

  “All right, let’s go,” I said.

  Henry took the wheel of one truck, while John took the other. I hopped into the back of the one John was driving. Ethan was in the front seat with him, while Amanda, Colin, Chloe, and one other young boy were squished into the back seat. Rose and Leo joined me, forcing Lucas in with them. He didn’t even look at me as he sat down on the cold truck bed. He just stared back into the inferno making its way through the entire cul-de-sac.

  “Anyone see George?” I asked, looking around to spot him.

  Rose shook her head. “They got ‘im.”

  I paused for a moment before asking Leo, “What about your friend? What was her name … Brittany?”

  “There’s no sign of her. The other two we escaped with were shot but she wasn’t there,” Leo mumbled as he stared at his feet. Rose put a hand on his shoulder.

  I had a sinking feeling the mercenaries might have taken her like they did Zoe, but now wasn’t the time to say anything. She hadn’t looked any older than sixteen…

  A couple other survivors joined us in the back of the truck and then I pounded on the top, telling John to go. The truck lurched forward, rocking us in the back, then went out through the spot where the front gate used to be. We all looked back at Hargrove as we left it for the last time. The flames were tw
ice as tall as the brick fencing, reaching toward the night sky. It looked like a volcanic explosion.

  I shoved a bag full of supplies to the side so I could lean on the edge of the truck bed. It was very uncomfortable back there with all the people, supplies and constant moving about as the truck continued. Infected instantly started toward the vehicles. It was dark so we had to keep the headlights on to see so we would be getting plagued with infected for the whole trip.

  “Only take out the ones closest to us. This is all the ammo we have,” I ordered.

  The armory was the first thing we cleaned out when we’d started to evacuate. We had about two full duffle bags of ammo, but if everyone kept popping off rounds, they would be gone sooner rather than later.

  To my surprise, people listened. They focused on the immediate threats that were banging and scraping along the sides and reaching into the back. John wasn’t going very fast because he was busy maneuvering to avoid hitting the infected gathering in the beams of the headlights. He veered to the left, almost tossing Rose out the vehicle.

  “Watch your drivin’!” she yelled while shaking her fist at the cab of the truck.

  I started to laugh and she shot me a venomous look. Stifling my laughter, I returned to taking out the infected but not before I caught the small grin on Leo’s face. I squinted into the headlights behind us. The second truck was following us with their lowest lights on, but they were still bright on the eyes.

  The further we got away from Hargrove, the less infected we encountered. After an hour, we could no longer see the flames over the rooftops.

  “How long do you think it’ll burn for?” Leo asked.

  “Depends if it spreads past the brick fence or not,” Rose answered.

  “You think it’ll continue and burn down the rest of the city?” Leo kept going with his questions.

  “Depends if it rains or not,” Rose said.

  “What direction are we heading?”

  “Mostly east.”

  “Do you—?”

  “For Christ’s sake, shut up!” Lucas said.

  “Just trying to make conversation,” Leo muttered.

  “Don’t worry ‘bout the Nazi mercenary,” Rose said while patting Leo’s knee. “He don’t know how to be ‘round normal folks. Bein’ raised to appreciate Hitler will do that to a person.”