After Tomorrow: A CHBB Anthology

by Samantha Ketteman

  Wide-eyed, Lily swallowed. “I don’t know. Can anyone else in your group do it?”

  “Yes, both Sarah and Janelle have learned. It’s really helpful when I’m in hawk-form. I can tell them what I see from some distance away.”

  “That’s cool,” Lily answered, smiling. “I guess I could give it a try.”

  Nicola grinned. “Awesome! Just let me know when you have some free time.” She went to turn back around in the van, but Lily reached for her shoulder.

  “Wait,” she whispered. “What did you mean before? About you-know-who?” Lily gestured slightly with her head to Santo.

  “Oh, right. He’s thinking about you too, only I couldn’t hear as clearly. But he likes you because you’re strong and never let him down. He’ll wait for you, until you’re ready.”

  “Thanks, Nicola.” Lily was truly grateful for the new friendship. She wouldn’t have blamed Nicola for not wanting to be friends with Nadim’s ex, but the woman was nothing but kind.

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad we’re becoming friends too.” Nicola sat down again and Lily slapped her head—she had forgotten Nicola could read her thoughts still.

  I’ll teach you how to cover your private thoughts later, too. Nicola’s words drifted into Lily’s mind. It felt a little uncomfortable at first, but then Lily relaxed and felt the true connection between them, a solid link that made Lily feel safe.

  “Lil, do you have your binoculars on you?” Santo asked.

  “Oh, sure,” Lily answered, shaking her head to pay attention. “What’s up?” She unbuttoned the large pocket in her cargo pants to remove the small binoculars she always carried with her.

  “There’s something on the road up there. A motorbike, I think.” Santo replied, tight-lipped.

  “Hang on.” Lily focused on the image and relaxed. “It’s Danny on the Harley. Wow, Charlie must’ve been in a good mood to let him take it,” she joked.

  Santo chuckled. “Maybe Charlie lost at poker, finally.” He beeped the horn as the bike approached and slowed the van down to wait.

  Lily leaned out the truck’s window to signal the van behind them to stop as well. “I’ll check the area first, you stay ready in the van,” she spoke to Santo once they’d stopped. It looked safe and they hadn’t seen any zombies all day, but she never risked it.

  “Okay. Whistle if you need back-up.” Santo nodded. His eyes never left the tree line on both sides of the road and he kept the engine running.

  She got out of the van just as Danny pulled to a stop on the Harley. “Hey! What are you doing out here?” She called, walking briskly to meet him.

  As soon as he turned to face her, she knew something was very wrong. He smiled, but his skin was pasty-white and he was sweating like he was in a mid-summer heat wave, not enjoying a motorcycle ride on a clear winter’s day.

  Looking closer, she saw how yellow his eyes were and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh no! Danny! No!” Tears fell quickly. “How?” She went to touch him then pulled away at the same time as he stepped back.

  “You know not to touch me, Lil. Stay right there.” Danny was being brave, for her, but she could see he was barely holding himself together. At that stage of his symptoms, he had an hour, maybe two, to live.

  

  She turned back to face the van and screamed, “Santo!” A giant ball of grief filled her throat. She sniffed and forced herself to look at Danny again.

  “How did this happen?” He was the most careful of all of them, he never left the camp alone, and never without a weapon.

  Santo caught up to them and swore several times as he took in Danny’s appearance and Lily’s tears. “This can’t be real,” he groaned, also choking up.

  Lily wanted to hug her dying friend more than anything, but being helpless, she looped her arm through Santo’s and held on tight to his waist. He held her body tight against his, as if one were holding up the other.

  “I knew you two would be pissed at me,” Danny joked. He coughed onto the back of his hand and wiped the phlegm on his dirty jeans.

  “Don’t effing joke about it,” Santo barked angrily. “We just got Nadim back, this is supposed to be the best day ever.” Tears fell on his cheek and Lily let fresh ones fall too.

  “Sorry,” Danny replied more seriously. “Look, two of the kids snuck out not long after you guys left. They got separated and Patrick luckily found his way back safe. I found Adam and got him free of a pack, but one took me down before I could kill them all.” He hung his head, as if ashamed of his actions.

  Lily pulled away from Santo and stepped one pace closer to Danny. “You’re a hero, Dan. I don’t care if there was one Zom or ten. You saved a child. No one will forget that.”

  “Seven,” Danny whispered, his head still down, eyeing the ground. “I killed six of the bastards. Charlie killed the last one and took Adam home safe. He told me to take the Harley and come say goodbye to you guys.”

  Lily and Santo just looked at each other, unable to comprehend how their strong friend was so calm in the face of death.

  “I…” she stammered. “I’m gonna call Nadim and the other squad members. You and Santo can have a minute.” She blew Danny a kiss and squeezed Santo’s arm as she moved past him.

  When she got to the van, Nadim slid the door open from the inside and jumped out, Nicola right behind him. Both their eyes were glistening with tears and Lily realised Nicola had been following her thoughts and knew what happened.

  “He doesn’t have long,” Lily whispered, her voice barely audible. Nadim wrapped his arms around her and she let her head rest on his chest. “Why today? Why at all?” she asked.

  “I’m so sorry,” Nadim replied. “I took your squad away from your people today, so I’m at least partly to blame.”

  “No.” Lily shook her head and looked up at him. “No, don’t do that. Please. Just, go say goodbye to him, okay? I’ll tell the guys in the next van what’s going on.”

  “I can do that for you, Lily,” Nicola offered. “You should spend the time with your friend.”

  “Thank you.” Lily sniffed and pulled away from Nadim. “Someone’s gonna have to…god.” She almost vomited at the thought of killing Danny. But he would want a friend to do it. He would ask Santo, Lily knew. Her eyes flew to Nadim. “Please, don’t let Santo….do it,” she begged. She never asked anyone for anything, never shirked a hard task, and neither did Santo. But Santo would never be the same if he had to be the one.

  Nadim nodded slowly, understanding what she was saying. “Of course I won’t.”

  “Give him your blood,” Nicola urged firmly.

  Nadim frowned, almost angrily at her. “Don’t. You know it’s too late.”

  “Nadim, it worked for Sarah…” Nicola started, pleading.

  “What does your blood do? Are you immune?” Lily asked, a spark of hope lighting her insides.

  Nadim thumped the van door. “Yes, I’m immune. And my blood can kill the virus off if the person is given it quickly. But don’t get your hopes up Lil, Danny looks real bad. His scent, even from here…” He shook his head again, knowing the outcome.

  Before Lily knew what was happening, Nicola grabbed her knife from its pouch on her belt and she swiped the blade across Nadim’s arm. Lily blinked several times, seeing the blood leak from the wound and not believing it had happened in a mere second.

  Nadim slapped his hand over the wound, but he didn’t look surprised or angry.

  “It’ll be healed by the time I get over to him,” he assured Nicola coolly.

  Nicola raised her chin, defiant. “Then hurry your arse over there then,” she demanded.

  “We’ll talk about this later,” he replied, then ran over to Danny and Santo.

  “What just happened?” Lily asked, completely bewildered.

  Nicola shrugged. “Nadim was scared and needed a push, and I didn’t have a knife on me. He’s right though, it might be too late to heal your friend, but at least he’s trying now.”


  “Thank you. Again.” Lily sighed, feeling lightheaded. She took a few sips of water from her flask. “I’m going to check on Danny.”

  “Of course, I’ll go tell the others.” The two girls parted ways and Lily walked, with heavy feet, back over to Danny. Santo and Nadim were both kneeling over him as he sat propped up by a tree and Lily scowled when she realised none of them were alert to potential danger. She picked up her crossbow from the dirt where she had dropped it, and did a quick sweep of the trees before going over to the three guys.

  “Well?” she asked Nadim.

  He stood up. “I gave him my blood, but there’s no change so far.”

  “He’s not worse,” Santo argued, perhaps forcing positivity on the situation.

  “I’m not,” Danny agreed. “Hey, is there any beer on the bus? I’ll take warm.”

  Santo chuckled and stood up. “Yeah, mate. I saw some Fosters in a crate. Be right back.”

  Lily sat down close to Danny, mindful not to touch him. Nadim stayed on his feet, his eyes watching the two vans. A couple of guys from their squad joined them soon, and they all sat chatting and joking, anything to take everyone’s mind off what was happening.

  “Can you see Santo?” Lily asked Nadim, after realizing Santo had been gone awhile.

  Nadim shook his head. “Nope. Want me to go find him?”

  “No, I’ll go. Please watch these guys, they aren’t focused right now.”

  “No problem.” Nadim smiled.

  Lily jogged back over to the two vans where the members of Nadim’s camp were all still sitting in the vans, talking quietly. Nicola came around from the back of the blue van and waved to Lily. “You’re looking for Santo? He went behind those trees there, but he’s been gone longer than I think is needed to pee.”

  “Great, he’s probably trying to get himself killed too.” Lily quipped sarcastically. “Can you stay right here while I go look for him?”

  “Sure.”

  

  Lily walked into the bush-land and called softly. “Santo? Are you decent?”

  “I’m here, Lil,” he answered back from somewhere on her left. She found him leaning against a large Jacaranda tree, his eyes and cheeks red from crying. Hard.

  “He’s gonna die. The one time I leave him alone, he gets himself infected.” Santo sniffed and the look of sorrow in his eyes made Lily’s heart break. She loved Danny too, but he and Santo were closer than most blood brothers even. She wanted to deny it, to claim that Nadim’s blood had worked, but she couldn’t lie.

  “There’s still a chance,” she lied instead, moving close and taking his head in both her hands. “And if not, you need to be strong and tell him you love him.”

  Santo bit his lip. “I will. But I can’t…you know…after…”

  “You don’t have to,” Lily promised. She leaned her body up against Santo’s, giving him comfort but filling her own void too. They still had each other.

  “Lil, I can’t ever lose you. Not you.” Santo whispered, his eyes locked on hers. Before she could promise not to leave him, he leaned forward and kissed her lips. She had always imagined he would be a gentle kisser—yes, she had thought about kissing him before—but he was hurt and angry and he kissed her like he needed it to be hard so he could feel anything at all.

  She liked it, the force of his mouth, the heat that came from his lips to hers. She tensed for only a second as his lips first made contact, then she relaxed and let him have her the way he wanted her. She opened her mouth to him, and his tongue licked her own, opening up something inside her that had long been closed tight.

  Why have we never kissed before? It felt completely natural, better even than any kiss with Nadim that she remembered. Santo’s arm fit so nice around her small frame, she wanted to just pause reality, let the moment be everything they needed for as long as they needed it.

  Lily. Nicola’s voice floated in Lily’s head. If you can hear me, you guys need to come back now…

  “Oh!” Lily pulled away from the kiss and gasped for air. “We have to go!” She blurted out. Santo’s look of disappointment made her curse her abruptness.

  “Sorry, Lil. I shouldn’t have taken advantage…”

  “No. No, it’s not that. The kiss was amazing,” she reassured him. “We just have to go back. I was worried about you being gone, now they’ll be worried about me and you missing.”

  He nodded with a small smile of satisfaction that she wasn’t rejecting him. “You’re right, they need us. I just, needed to be selfish for a minute.”

  “Me too.” She smiled up at him and took his hand. “Come on, Danny’s waiting on that beer.” She pointed to the six pack at their feet.

  “Right.” He didn’t say what Lily knew he was thinking; that they hoped they weren’t too late.

  Chapter Five

  They hurried back to where they’d left Danny, not mentioning the kiss between them any further. Lily was mentally preparing herself to say goodbye, and she guessed Santo was doing the same. It was not going to be easy, but she felt they had given each other a small boost of strength in their private moment together.

  “What were you two doing?” One of the guys asked as they approached the group.

  “Nothing,” Lily snapped too quickly. She caught Nicola’s eye and pretended she didn’t see the little thumbs up gesture her new friend made her.

  It’s for Danny… Nicola’s voice came through in Lily’s head. But I’m happy for you two…

  Lily barely had time to acknowledge Nicola’s last words, she was stuck on the news that Danny was okay.

  “He’s recovering?” She asked, pushing through to Danny. “Oh my god!” She jumped in delight as she saw Danny, now leaning back casually against the tree, still a little pale, but his fever was no longer present. The yellow she had seen in his eyes before had also disappeared.

  Santo stopped beside Lily. “Holy shit, buddy! You’re gonna make it!” He handed a bottled beer to his best friend, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Yeah, man. You’re stuck with me, until we find you your own tent, at least.” Danny popped the cap off the beer and chugged it down as everyone cheered him on. Santo passed the remaining beers around, to be shared, and Lily went over to Nadim to give her thanks.

  “You did it. You really saved him!” She hugged Nadim, then followed up by hugging Nicola as well. “Thank you too. For everything today.”

  “It’s a miracle that my blood cured him, but yeah, I’m so relieved.” Nadim smiled.

  “How does it work, do you have any idea?” Lily asked. “Nicola, does your blood work too?” She assumed not, since Nicola hadn’t offered to try healing Danny, but she had to ask.

  Nicola shook her head. “No, only Nadim’s cures the virus. Blood from other shifters does heal normal human wounds though. But Nadim’s blood is special. Maybe because he is from a more ancient or foreign race? I don’t know for sure.”

  “Without a lab and an expert, we can’t know anything for sure,” Nadim interjected. “But, if my blood can cure the virus, I’ll offer it to everyone in our camp. Maybe we could make some kind of vial or container so that anyone going out in the wild has a dose with them,” he suggested. “It may not work on all blood types, but hell, it’s important to try.”

  “Absolutely! That’s a really awesome idea.” Lily’s happiness rose high in her chest. Danny was saved, and they had a potential cure for everyone. Nadim was back and he had an incredible girlfriend to add to the gang, and finally, Lily had found a way to open her heart and give Santo the chance he well-deserved. She looked around, wanting just to see him smile again and share the joy she was now filled with inside.

  “He’s over there,” Nicola supplied helpfully.

  “Stop doing that!” Lily scolded, then immediately laughed.

  “I read your face that time, not your mind.” Nicola grinned.

  “Did I miss something?” Nadim asked, looking back and forth between the women.

  “Nope, not a thing,�
�� Lily denied, holding back another belly laugh.

  

  Santo’s voice rang out, calling to everyone. “Let’s take this party home, people!”

  With surprising speed, the two vans filled up, leaving just Santo and Lily.

  Santo jangled a set of keys before Lily with a gleam in his eyes.

  “Are you game, Lil?”

  “You want me to drive the van?” As soon as she said it, she realised the keys were a different set—and Danny was waving from inside the passenger seat of the white van, with Nadim behind the wheel. “We get the Harley? Cool!” she made a grab for the keys but Santo yanked them up too high.

  “Yeah, we do, but I don’t think your little arms can reach both handle-grips,” Santo teased, back to his usual brotherly jokes.

  Lily rolled her eyes. “Jerk. I’ll expect some kind of compensation for that remark. You can take my laundry duty for the next two times,” she insisted.

  The vans rolled by and she and Santo paused to wave to the passengers and do a final scan.

  “Shit, there’s a Zom coming out of the trees down there.” Santo pointed behind Lily.

  “I see it.” She kept her eye on the zombie, but it was a fair distance away and wasn’t looking back at them. “It’s too far away to see us yet,” she confirmed.

  “Yeah, but I can shoot it from here. Give me your bow,” Santo asked with his hand out.

  Lily looked back at the zombie again and she felt only pity for it, not fear. “No.” She shook her head, looking up at Santo. “Not today. I know the rule, but not today, after everything. Let’s just go home.”

  Santo stared into her eyes for a moment, just nodding. She reached for his forearms, those strong arms that always fought for her, for all of them, that made her feel protected. She pulled him close. “Not today,” she whispered again, and lifted her face to kiss him. Softly this time, like the world wasn’t ending, but just beginning. They had time to be whatever they desired.