Love Starts With Z

by Tera Shanley

  “Aaah,” a Dead yelled, as it stretched its neck toward Adrianna, who ran directly in front of it. The Dead was tangled in the vines, but Adrianna stumbled in her shock, and Soren lurched forward, thrusting her readied knife upward, through its jaw.

  It hung limply from its forest prison, and Adrianna stood clutching her chest, frozen. “Geez, I didn’t even see that thing.”

  “Come on,” Colten said in a grim tone. “This place is peppered with trapped Deads. It’s creepin’ me out.”

  Lauren tugged on her sleeve, and what Soren saw in her face froze her blood. Following to where she pointed behind them, she cursed softly. “Guys?”

  “What?” Mark griped.

  “We have company.”

  The fence had broken, and the newly freed Deads were loping toward them faster than they were hacking a path. Soren looked around, panicked as they stumbled through the small opening. The brambles were still so thick, there was no way to run for fear of being ensnared with an ill-placed foothold.

  This way, the wind repeated, and the hair on her arms electrified. No, it wasn’t the wind directing them to safety. It was an emaciated boy, eighteen or so, with dark hair and bottomless eyes. He stood twenty yards ahead and pointed to the west.

  Ben didn’t hesitate. Bolting in the direction the boy pointed, he shoved his way through the vines, hacking a pathway.

  The boy didn’t move, just stared with those empty eyes, and the uneasy feeling in her gut intensified. The monsters were coming, but Dad had taught her something valuable. Something she drew on right now, in the heat of the moment when a split second decision would save or kill them all. Deads weren’t the only monsters. Humans could be even more dangerous.

  “Ben,” she yelled. “Don’t!”

  He turned, only yards from the boy with a confused frown on his face.

  “There,” she said, pointing her battle sword the opposite way.

  The boy’s face transformed into something fearsome, and a slow, yellow toothed smile took over his face before he bolted for the dark shelter of the vines.

  “That boy doesn’t have salvation for us,” she hissed, turning to check the horde’s progress. Too close. “Let’s go.”

  “But he’s human,” Ben breathed. “He could have a shelter around here.”

  “Soren just saved your life, newb,” Adrianna said, slashing at the brambles in front of her. “Not all humans are helpful.” And Adrianna would know because she’d told Soren horror stories about the humans they’d fought when Sean took the Denver colony back.

  Over and over Soren tripped on the looping, thorny foliage, but at least it seemed to be slowing the Deads as well. The disadvantage? Deads didn’t feel anything and just kept coming, crawling over each other in their attempt to reach the team.

  “Come on, come on, come on,” Colten said, sweat pouring down the sides of his face.

  Soren dropped back and brained the two closest Deads to give the others more time. Holy fuck, the forest was thick here. This was a fighter’s worst nightmare—being trapped without an easy escape route. Hopping over heavy cords of brush, she could almost feel the Deads breathing on the back of her neck. The sound of their groaning excited others who’d been hung up in the vines and were now struggling and reaching for them.

  “Through here,” Kaegan said, hacking away at the growth. An old road cut directly through the woods, and as Soren followed the others out of hell, she turned at the opening and waited. The last thing they needed was a group of hungry Deads trailing them, and the opening had created a bottleneck.

  A woman stumbled out of the fray, rotted teeth clacking and filmy eyes riveted on Kaegan, who’d come to stand beside her. Fury filled her, pumping through her blood until she couldn’t see anything but the Dead’s kill zone. She wanted to end the life of anything that looked at him like that, gnashing its teeth with the need to kill him. With a grunt, she pinned the creature against an old tree just as the second Dead emerged. The Dead was old and her bones brittle, and Soren barely had to use force when she jammed her knife downward. Kaegan beheaded the next, and as the third and fourth Dead stumbled out of the tree line, Adrianna and Colten had joined the fight.

  Lauren kicked in the clacking heads they’d severed with a grim look of acceptance.

  When no more Deads came through the opening, the team stood there, panting and waiting.

  “The rest must be caught up in the woods,” Kaegan said, shooting her a wide eyed glance.

  “Well, let’s make tracks,” she said. “The more space we have between them and us by evening, the better a chance we’ll have for them to lose our scent if they escape.”

  Mark was already farther up the road, jogging away like he didn’t give two waltzing horsefly farts about their fate. MVP did not go to him today.

  Kaegan shook his head, his mouth set in a grim line. As her strides lengthened to catch up with the rest of the team, he placed the barest touch of his fingertips on the small of her back and looked over his shoulder with a wary frown.

  “I feel followed too,” she admitted quietly, as the warmth of his touch spread through her back and settled her roiling stomach. It was impossible not to feel safe when he was so close.

  Their boots made matching echoes off the cracked concrete as she matched her pace to his. Dark hair had fallen out of its binding and fell forward into his face, but it didn’t hide the haunted look there. “We’ll feel better when we get away from the city.”

  His voice rang strong with confidence, but he tossed another worried look at the woods they’d just escaped.

  At least she wasn’t going crazy.

  Kaegan felt it too.

  Chapter Seventeen

  SOREN HACKED AWAY at the magnesium fire starter with the blunt end of her knife until a nickel sized pile of shavings sat under a small pile of tinder. It was strange to be away from Kaegan now, but the separation was necessary. He’d volunteered to go with Mark and Ben to refill the canteens at a nearby creek while the rest of the team set up camp.

  Colten was rifling through his pack, Lauren was tying a rope between two trees to set up a shelter, and Adrianna had gone off into the trees because she had to piss like an aquatic camel. Her words.

  Turning the fire starter over, Soren rammed the striker down the ferro rod in a practiced motion, igniting the small pile of shavings to a blinding, tiny flame. Pulling the dry tinder and small twigs over the top, she blew on it lightly, shielding the newborn fire from the bigger breeze with her cupped hands.

  “Nicely done,” Colten said.

  “Thank you. I think that is the nicest—”

  “I thought for sure I’d have to watch you try to start a fire for the next hour and a half.”

  “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath. The man just couldn’t let her keep a compliment.

  Lauren seasoned dried beans while Colten boiled a pot of water over the growing fire. She scoured the nearby woods for dead, dry branches and made trips until the pile was big enough to last through the night. Adrianna returned and scaled a large pine, took her time securing a harness where she’d be sleeping that night, then jumped down just as Colten dropped slivers of ham into the simmering beans. He tossed Soren the bone, still heavy with meat, and she caught it deftly. She chose to ignore that he’d thrown it to her like she was a dog. At least he wasn’t shoving cooked food down her throat or insulting her while he was at it. Baby steps.

  Night had fallen while dinner cooked, and the only light in their camp was from the flickering flame. The murmur of conversation was soothing as they gathered around the warmth of the fire. Lauren sat next to her and watched intently as she picked meat from the bone and devoured it unashamedly. She’d get used to her eating habit eventually—probably.

  Licking the iron flavor from her fingers, she looked up just in time to catch the movement. Reaching back, she drew her battle blade and stood.

  “What is it?” Adrianna said, scanning the woods.

  Lauren stood beside he
r and drew her own knife, then pointed.

  She saw it. Two eyes reflecting in the wavering orange glow. A wolf. No. The animal slunk closer, eyeing the bone in her limp hand. Not a wolf, but a dog. The dog that had been near the museum.

  She almost laughed out loud. Of course he was following them. That’s why she and Kaegan had felt hunted the entire day.

  “It’s the dog from Castle Rock,” she said as Colten drew his Berretta. “Don’t shoot.”

  Bending at the waist, she offered the bone the animal couldn’t seem to take his focus from. It still had enough left on it to feed a hungry stomach, and she could share. No other dog had ever come this close to her. Attack or run was usually the reaction she got.

  The dog growled and backed up as she approached slowly, and she paused, offering the bone farther in front of her. Crouching, she waited as he eased toward her on his belly. His ear was flopped, and his mouth set in what seemed to be a permanent grimace. His teeth were bared, but his dark eyes were still on the bone. He was big, but she could count his ribs, and his hip bones stuck out. A deep pity took her. She’d known hunger like that too. “Easy,” she crooned, stretching her arm as far as she could.

  In a rush, he bolted forward and took her offering in his powerful jaws, then disappeared into the forest like he’d never been there at all.

  She remained, the stretch through her heels feeling good after a long day of walking, and Colten said, “I thought you didn’t eat dog meat.”

  She was able to contain her eye roll, but just barely. “I’m not hunting the dog. Just feeding it.”

  “Great, well now he’ll follow us around looking for a hand out.”

  “I’ll share my food if he does. You won’t have to share a single bean.” Standing, she said, “It’s been a while since the boys left. Do you think they’re okay?”

  Adrianna shoveled a steaming bite into her maw and said around it, “They’re probably bathing in the creek. They’re armed to the teeth, so we’ll hear if there is a scuffle. Settle, Soren. Your man is fine. I mean, hell, he’s built like a freaking mountain. It would take a horde to do any damage.”

  Adrianna was right. Colten didn’t look worried at all as he leaned back against a log he’d dragged up and set his plate on his lap. And she didn’t know what Mark was to Lauren, but she looked as if she couldn’t care less if they stayed out all night. She was just anxious and for no good reason. Kaegan fought with the violence and unleashed fury of a storm. The man could more than take care of himself.

  But as an hour came and went, and then two, she couldn’t help the feeling that something was wrong. Even if they’d bathed and filled the canteens ten times over, it should not have taken this long. She tried to stay in the here and now, joining in the soft conversation when she could and helping Adrianna sand the fire until it was nothing but embers to keep dinner warm for the others. Nothing took her mind off Kaegan. What if they’d got trapped somewhere and hadn’t had time to pull their weapons, or what if they were treed and needed help?

  Her heartbeat had been pounding a steadily climbing rhythm for the better part of an hour, and at this rate, the damned thing would just fling itself from her chest. She stood abruptly. “I’m going to go find them.”

  She turned and came face to barrel with the north end of Mark’s pistol. “No need,” he gritted out.

  “What are you doing,” Colten barked out.

  “That’s close enough,” Mark said, raising what looked like Kaegan’s sawed off shotgun in Colten’s direction.

  “Where’s Kaegan,” she whispered.

  “Don’t you worry about him, Dead. He’ll probably live. And if he doesn’t, well, you won’t have to mourn him where you’re going. Lauren, don’t fucking move, or I’ll blast them both.”

  Dread socked her in the stomach, threatening to bend her in half.

  Mark leaned forward, his dark eyes churning and a muscle in his jaw twitching under the tight clench. “Do you even know what you did to me all those years ago, Dead? You ruined everything. I had to drop out of school because of the nightmares. Because you were there, haunting me except you weren’t a ghost. You were sitting in the seat next to me while I tried to control the panic that seized me every time I saw you. I’ve played Drew’s death over in my mind a million times, and for the rest of my life, I’ll remember the savage look in your cold eyes as you ate him. He was a kid. I was a kid. And everyone just went on like nothing happened. Like someone didn’t die inside colony gates to the gullet of a monster. Didn’t matter what he did to you. You know why? Because you’re a Dead. You don’t count. You never did, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why everyone rallies around you like you’re some hero of the apocalypse.” He cocked his weapon, but it wasn’t the pistol in her face that drew her attention. It was the caress of his finger on the trigger of Kaegan’s shot gun. The one pointed at Colten.

  Oh God, he didn’t mean for any of them to make it out of this. They couldn’t if he was to join civilization again. Massacring teammates couldn’t be hidden if someone still existed who had witnessed what he’d done. His secret would have to go to the grave. Their graves.

  The dog barked from behind Mark, so loud it echoed, and she took the split second of his orbiting focus to jam her hand upward, jerking the shotgun’s shell into the branches above. The sound was deafening in the quiet of their intended graveyard. Twisting out of the path of his pistol, she rammed her shoulder into his stomach and slugged him across the face before he even hit the ground. The air whooshed out of her lungs as she landed hard on top of him, but she recovered enough to pin his wrists with her knees, and wrap her hands around his throat.

  He bellowed in pain and bucked her off of him with surprising speed, and just as Colten and Adrianna reached Mark, he pulled the pistol to her temple and growled, “Don’t. Move.” The full weight of him pressed against her chest as he settled over her.

  “Mark, think about what you’re doing,” Adrianna pleaded. She, Colten, and Lauren all had weapons cocked and pointed at him. “If you pull that trigger, you’ll die within seconds. Is this really how you want your life to end?”

  “Oh,” he said, panting. “I’ve thought about this for a decade. If I die tonight, I can die happy knowing I took her with me.”

  Chaos and yelling broke out around them, but all Soren could focus on was the dark, empty smile that stretched Mark’s face until it was almost unrecognizable. She’d die here in the woods, never knowing if Kaegan was okay.

  Mark slid his fingers around her throat and tightened them until she couldn’t inhale. “Is this how Drew did it, Soren? He was only a boy and didn’t know you’d need a bullet through the head, but I’ll avenge him and do one better. I’ll do both. Good-bye, Dead.”

  Panic seized her as she fought for breath, and just as blinding pinpoints of darting light blurred the edges of her vision, Mark pulled the trigger.

  Nothing happened.

  His smile faded, and he pulled the trigger again.

  Silence. Not even the wind dared whisper through the tree branches above. And just like that, his weight was gone from her chest.

  Kaegan towered over her and lifted Mark until his toes scrabbled for solid ground. Blood ran rivers from a deep gash over his eye, and his hair had come loose from its tie and was littered with leaf matter. He didn’t have a weapon, but from the unwavering grip he had on Mark’s neck, it was a safe bet he didn’t need one.

  “You should’ve killed me,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.

  Mark pulled a knife from a sheath on his hip, but Kaegan threw him down so hard, his body made a dull thud against the earth.

  Gasping and crawling like it would help his lungs recover, Mark tried to escape, but Colten stood in front of him and kicked the knife away. “You’ll pay for your treachery, Mark.” Colten jerked his head back toward Kaegan. “Be a man about it, yeah?”

  “Or,” Adrianna chimed in, “a woman about it.”

  If Soren wasn’t still trying to co
nvince air molecules to force their way into her crushed throat, she would’ve laughed. No it wasn’t a funny situation in the least, but she was pretty sure she was in shock.

  Kaegan pulled a length of rope from his pack and approached Mark with the look of a Death Bringer in his gray eyes.

  “What’re you going to do?” Mark asked.

  “A life for a life. It’s only fair.”

  “But I didn’t actually kill anyone!”

  “You killed Ben!” Kaegan roared. “He bled out while you were bumbling around the woods trying to find the camp again. You didn’t have to tie him up, Mark. You bashed his skull in.”

  “Oh my God,” Adrianna said in horror.

  “No. No, no, no,” Soren chanted softly as tears stung her eyes.

  “I removed the firing pins from your pistol last night,” Kaegan said, hauling Mark upright.

  “What? Why? What if I needed the weapon in a Dead fight?”

  Kaegan shrugged like he couldn’t care less and pulled a hidden knife from Mark’s ankle. “I told you I’d let you turn. Warned you if you touched Soren. I don’t bluff, Mark. I’m going to tie you to a tree in the woods, and then I’m going to cut you to attract the monsters you hate so much. And when they’ve had their fill of you, you’ll spend the rest of your miserable undead life tied to a tree. You’ll starve to death, but the rate is…what?” He frowned at Colten.

  “About three years,” Colten said with a nod.

  “Three years.”

  Mark’s face went pale and sweat dotted his forehead. The whites of his eyes were visible in the muted ember light, and a small whimper wrenched from his throat. “I want her to do it. I want Soren to bite me, it’s my last request.”

  “You don’t get a last request, asshole,” Colten murmured.

  “Please,” Mark begged. “I know she won’t eat me, and I’ll go quickly. Have mercy.”