Savage: The End

by Snow, Jenika

  She looked back at Lucy and gave her an empathetic smile. “I know. I’m feeling it too.” She scooped some water up and dabbed her wet hand over her neck, letting the droplets move along her throat and down her shirt.

  Lucy was tossing pebbles into the creek, giggling when one made a big splash.

  “Take some of the water and try and cool off,” Sasha said and got her hand wet to bring it to Lucy’s neck.

  Lucy squirmed and giggled. “That’s cold.”

  Sasha smiled and watched as Lucy started splashing some water on her face, sighing in relief.

  Sasha lay back and brought her knees to her chest. She was so sensitive and sore between her thighs, a constant reminder as she walked of what she and Malachi had done.

  But all she should be thinking about was the carnage they’d left behind them at the dentist’s office, how this new world was nothing but violence and bloodshed. The only way to survive was to harden your soul and do anything to make it out alive.

  Sasha glanced back at Malachi and saw he was staring at her, his expression fierce, his focus trained.

  She didn’t ask him how much longer it was to get to the bridge, because she knew this was a long trek, and even when they got there, it didn’t mean things would be safe, that going that way was the passage they needed to get to the safe haven.

  But to be honest, Sasha just wanted to say fuck it all. She wanted to tell Malachi that the three of them didn’t need to go north, that they could make a home somewhere deep within the woods. They could live off the land. It had worked for Sasha and Lucy at the cabin, up until they had issues. But they had Malachi now.

  Could it work? Would he go for it?

  She left Lucy sitting by the creek tossing pebbles into the stream, and walked over to where Malachi was. She sat down on the log beside him, and they stayed silent for long moments.

  “How are you holding up?” His voice was deep and calm.

  The steady sound of rocks plinking into the water surrounded them. Tree Man was off to the side leaning against a tree, his eyes closed as he tried to get some rest. That’s what they all should be doing, but there was no way Sasha could sleep right now, not with her mind racing and uncertainty filling her.

  She glanced at Malachi for a few moments and just watched him as he cleaned his gun. His blade was on the ground between his feet, his focus intent.

  “I’m fine,” she said honestly. “How are you?”

  His brows were knitted, and she wanted to smooth her finger between his eyes to wipe the worry away.

  “I’m good.” He sounded sure of that, and she didn’t deny he probably was collected and had his shit together.

  “We have hours to go before we get to the bridge, so we have to keep moving,” he said and looked at her. His dark eyes seemed to penetrate into her soul.

  And then she noticed him glance down at her lips. Sasha licked them involuntarily, thinking about what they’d done the night before, how he’d tasted, felt against her mouth, against her body.

  She started to heat, arousal licking across every single nerve ending. She heard her breathing change, felt her body react. All the while Malachi seemed calm and collected, as if he could play his body like a fine-tuned instrument, not showing how affected he was.

  Or maybe he wasn’t? Maybe he didn’t feel the same way for her as she did for him?

  She pushed that out of her mind instantly. All the things he’d said, how she was his, how he’d do everything and anything to protect them, told her that he cared for her, that he wasn’t going anywhere.

  They were in this together.

  And then he leaned in close and she felt his warm breath move along the shell of her ear.

  “What I really want to do right now is press you up against one of these trees, see if you’re wet, taste you, and then thrust my cock deep into your tight fucking pussy.”

  A gasp left her at his obscenity. God, she wanted to hear more of it. She wanted him to make good on his promise.

  “But I have to get you two safe first. That’s my priority.” Then he leaned back ever so slightly and stared into her eyes. “But when that happens, I’m letting everyone know you’re mine, Sasha. No more hiding or pretending that I can control myself around you, that I haven’t marked you.”

  She licked her lips again and nodded slowly, not sure what she was agreeing to, but wanting to hear more.

  “Or we can just make our own place, Malachi. We can stay deep in the woods, away from everyone and everything. We can make it work. We can do it.”

  He exhaled slowly and looked back at his gun. The weapon seemed small in his large, masculine hands.

  “As nice as that sounds, Sasha, I want you guys to have that ‘normal’ life you once did.” He looked back at her, this almost defeated expression on his face before he masked it quickly.

  “We can have that with the three of us. We don’t need to search for some safe place that may or may not be real.”

  He exhaled as if he were defeated. “We won’t know if it’s real unless we try and find it.” He lifted his head and ran a hand over his beard, looking at Lucy. “She deserves a chance.” He looked at Sasha then. “You both do.” The silence stretched between them. “And if that place turns out to be a big fucking lie…” He looked at Tree Man then. “I’ll fucking kill him and then we’ll find that home just for us. I promise.”

  She had no doubt he’d deliver on that promise …. both of them.

  * * *

  They stepped through the clearing, the sun starting to set, and looked down across the canyon, seeing the lake, spotting the bridge. Her heart jumped into her throat, her stomach cramping, and instinctively she reached out for Lucy. She squeezed her sister’s hand gently, and with her other one, took Malachi’s. His was so much bigger than hers, dwarfing it, encasing it. He twined his fingers through hers and looked at her.

  His jaw was tight, his eyes hard-set, his uncertainty clear.

  Down below it seemed like a hundred tiny little ants. No, not ants. An army.

  Maybe they were friends? But in this new world, they had to assume they were enemies.

  “What are we going to do?” She looked back at the bridge and felt fear spike in her.

  “We go around. No fucking way we’re going to risk walking through that shit.”

  “No, this is the fastest way. The best way,” Tree Man muttered.

  “Do you not see all those fucking people? No doubt they have weapons, the numbers behind them to overtake us if they wanted to.” Malachi shook his head. “I’m not risking the girls’ safety. I don’t care if it takes another week of travel, we go around.” Malachi sounded firm in his decision as he stared at Tree Man.

  Tree Man shook his head slowly. “They could be friends, not foes. They could have open arms. They could give us shelter and food.”

  Sasha stared back at the community and in a perfect world that’s exactly what it was. But they’d gone through too much, seen too much to trust anyone anymore.

  The only people she trusted were Lucy and Malachi. Tree Man was still too new, still too crazy for her to fully trust him like she did Lucy and Malachi. But she was warming to him, knowing that he’d had plenty of chances to hurt them, to screw them over.

  Or maybe that was his intention now? Maybe he’d been planning on bringing them here this whole time? Maybe down there was his real home, his real people?

  Hesitation and doubt crept into her mind once more as she looked at Tree Man. He was muttering something unintelligible. If he thought he could sway Malachi in anything, he was sadly mistaken.

  If Malachi said they went around, then that’s what they did. Because in this instance she was completely agreeing with him. No way she was going to risk Lucy’s safety walking through that shit show.

  Besides, adding a little bit more time to their trip might give her the chance to talk Malachi into forgetting about a safe haven up north, and starting a new life with just the three of them.

  Chapt
er Forty-Five

  Nothing is ever easy

  Just once Malachi would have loved to be able to walk straight across that bridge and take days off their trek. It pissed him off that he couldn’t do it. Lucy was tired. Tree Man was starting to wear on him, and Sasha … he wanted her again. Badly.

  He didn’t know how much more he could take of the constant, never ending battle. There was a time he would have loved the chaos and bloodshed but right now, he just wanted to get to a safe place once and for all so he could sleep. So they all could. Was it really too much to ask?

  He was starting to think that it was.

  Too much to ask.

  Running a hand down his face, he wiped the perspiration off, and knew deep down, he was running on fumes.

  He stared up ahead where Lucy, Tree Man, and her dog were walking.

  The dog didn’t cause much of a problem and he loved to see the happiness shining in Lucy’s eyes as she played with him.

  It was all really sweet.

  “You okay?” Sasha asked.

  “Yeah, you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wish I could say we can make camp and just be done with it, but I don’t know what those people were doing.”

  “You say we walk around, then that is what we’ve got to do, we walk around. Not a lot is going to change that.” She reached out, putting a hand on his arm. “I know you’re only doing what you think is best.”

  “That is true. I do think this is the best. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, or Lucy.”

  “I get it. I do.”

  He took her hand, locking their fingers together. It was only for a few seconds and he wanted to do so for longer. Letting go of her hand, he made sure he was always ready to fire his weapon, to do whatever it took to hurt someone who came at him.

  Ready.

  Waiting.

  “One day we’ll get to have that walk, hand in hand,” she said.

  “You can count on it.”

  “Does it have to be up north though?”

  He knew this was coming. She couldn’t stand his plan, and to a point, he got it. They were possibly walking into a trap.

  “We’ve got to take our chances.”

  “I was once told that if something sounds a little too good to be true, it probably was.”

  “You’re too young to be this pessimistic.”

  She chuckled. “Look around us. I think even the most positive person would suffer here.” She breathed out a sigh. “It’s so freaking hot. I smell bad.”

  “Me too.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re not going to want to kiss me with the way I smell.”

  “Baby, it’s going to take a lot more than some bad smell to keep me away from you.” He reached out and pinched her rear.

  She let out a gasp. “Look at you, teasing me.”

  Tree Man suddenly stopped and all trace of peace left him. He shouldn’t be doing this. His focus should be on keeping them safe.

  “What is it?” Malachi asked.

  “Friend or foe, I don’t really know. Huh.” Tree Man spun in a circle. Lucy watched him.

  They all watched him, but he looked a little strange.

  “Nothing. Maybe nothing,” Tree Man said, and started to walk again.

  Lucy, not seeing any problem, continued to walk with him.

  “Okay, let’s be clear on something right now,” Sasha said. “We’re going up north because that crazy person says so. He just spun in a circle. The only thing he was missing was one of those hoop things you had as a kid.” She put a hand to her face and shook her head. “We have to go back.”

  “You saw what happened in the dentist’s office. You’ve seen what trouble we face at every single turn and corner. I would go back with you if I thought it was safe. If I thought I could keep protecting you against all of those forces, but the truth is, we can’t keep getting lucky. One day, our luck is going to run out, and when it does, we’re screwed. Completely and totally screwed.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” she said. “We can have each other’s backs. You can trust me.”

  “Sasha, I do, but look at Lucy. Look at her with her dog. Don’t you want that kind of life with her every single day? Where she could walk down the street and not have a care in the world?”

  “What’s to say this new world would give her that?” she asked. “You ever thought about that?”

  “If there are a bunch of people there, willing to help, offering their services and coming together like a community, then we have to take our chances.” He wanted to stop, to console her, to do anything that meant he could convince her this was the right thing to do.

  “You’re right.” She let out another breath. “I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

  “You’re scared.”

  “I’m not scared.”

  “It’s okay to be scared. I get it. We both have a lot riding on north being the right place.”

  “And if he’s leading us into a trap?” Sasha asked.

  “Then we have no choice but to kill him and hope we make it out alive. That’s the plan. The only plan I’m going with right now.”

  “It sounds like a good one.”

  They didn’t stop walking once.

  Lucy and Tree Man seemed happy enough to keep on going ahead of them.

  Malachi held his gun a little tighter. That army, it looked like it meant business and he had no idea what that could mean, not to women.

  He hated not knowing.

  Even before shit like this happened, he struggled with the not knowing. It pissed him off so fucking much.

  Taking a deep breath, following Sasha’s lead, he tried to think of a way that could speed this up.

  Where he could take them that wouldn’t be certain death.

  He came up with nothing.

  In the distance he heard a twig snap.

  He knew he heard it because Tree Man stopped and moved in front of Lucy. The dog also looked behind them.

  With his aim straight, he stared into the woods. It was getting dark, so he couldn’t see clearly.

  Sasha didn’t make a sound or a movement.

  “We’re being followed,” Tree Man said. “So close. I can smell her.”

  “How do you know it’s a woman?” Sasha asked.

  “Because she smells like a woman. Kind of like you.”

  Sasha looked toward him. Um. Okay?

  “I don’t know.”

  The dog started to bark and Malachi’s heart raced. If they made too much noise, it would draw that army straight here.

  “Wait, wait, wait, I’m so sorry. Get the dog to shut up.” A woman suddenly appeared out of the bushes. Her hands were raised in front of her. “I swear I come in peace, and I have no reason to harm you, any of you. Okay, I just, I got away and I’ve been on the run for days and they’re hunting me, and I don’t want to be hunted, and I saw you guys, and figuring you’re all still alive, I may as well follow you. It’s not often you see two girls with two men and they look safe. I’m rambling right about now, aren’t I? Yeah, I’m rambling, and I really should just shut my mouth.” She slapped a hand right across her face. “See, I should just stop talking.” She pulled her hand away enough to speak and then laughed. “See, loser.”

  Lucy giggled. “She’s funny.”

  “You’ve got no weapons?” Malachi asked.

  “I can do a full circle for you to see that I am completely free and clear.” She started to turn and he held his gun ready.

  He wasn’t going to fall for any tricks.

  “See, all clear.”

  “What’s your name?” Sasha asked.

  “Millie. Wow, I’ve not used that in so long. They normally call me woman, or bitch, or some other combination that I don’t think is polite in front of present company.”

  “You got away from the army?”

  “Yes. They are not exactly friends. They are on a search to build a new world. Something to do with having a base camp in the middle, but they’
re searching for women. The only way to start this new world is to have women they can use. I was discovered heading north, and well, let’s just say they didn’t like that.”

  “North?” Malachi asked.

  “Yes, I figure that is what you guys were hunting for, right? The north camp. The base that is supposed to be a safe haven for all, not just women. It has the only sane people left. It hasn’t escaped my notice that the world is shit. Can I put my hands down? They are really starting to hurt.” She pouted.

  “Yes, put your hands down,” Tree Man said. “She poses no threat.”

  “What do you want?” Malachi asked.

  “I want to head north. I won’t be a bother. I don’t have any weapons. They took all mine but I can be a good scavenger. I’ve lived off the land for weeks, and well, I’m still alive. I won’t be a bother. I promise. I just, I don’t want to become some man’s incubator. This is not the world to start having babies,” she said.

  Malachi glanced over at Sasha.

  This was his problem with Sasha. The sex between them had been amazing, but he could have gotten her pregnant. What if the north camp wasn’t a safe haven, as he’d been promised?

  He didn’t want to tell her his concerns, but he wanted to have a family with her.

  Inside, his evil part was laughing at him. For the first time in his life he wanted to have a safe place to live, to have a family, to thrive, and yet, he wasn’t going to have any of that if he didn’t get his shit together.

  His new family needed him.

  Everyone needed him, but all he wanted was Sasha and to provide a good space for Lucy.

  “Please, can I join you? We’re going to have to keep moving soon. You don’t think they heard you with the dog barking but they did. They’re coming and we need to get moving,” Millie said.

  “Yeah, you can join,” Sasha said. “It’s nice to know someone else is aware of this special north camp.”

  “You don’t think it exists?” Millie asked.

  “I’ve had my doubts and let’s just say, I’m still going to have them,” she said.

  “I can see why. I have to say up until I was captured I was having my doubts but I heard the men talking and I just knew it had to exist. Nothing that scared a big bunch of men could be imaginary.” Millie put a hand on Sasha’s shoulder.