Kellan must have agreed, because he kept walking.
Cade stopped outside his door and gave us a quick nod before slipping into his condo.
When we reached level four, I finally started talking again. “There are two condos on this level. Blake, who you met upstairs, is in one, but the other is empty.” I faced the group, looking them over. “Any takers? There will be two rooms, both with king size beds, most likely, and anything you find inside is fair game. There should be clothes and things in the closets and drawers. If they don’t fit, we can go through other condos tomorrow and find what works.”
For a moment, Bill’s people said nothing. They were exhausted and dirty and had lost everything they’d managed to build over the last nine years, but they were also in a state of utter shock at what stood in front of them. Comfort and luxury. Electricity. Hot water. I couldn’t imagine taking all this in after the hell of a night they’d gone through.
Finally, Bill cleared his throat. “Janet and Lilith, why don’t you take this one?”
The old woman looked ready to keel over when she and her granddaughter pushed their way through the crowd. They smiled gratefully as they moved to the door but opened it with hesitation. When Janet flipped the switch just inside the door, light flooded the condo, and everyone in the hall leaned forward to get a better view. The living room stood in front of us, sleek and pristine and comfortable, and a round of gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd.
“It’s been a while since anyone lived there,” Kellan said, “so let us know if you need any light bulbs or anything. We have a pretty big stash of them.” He gave a modest smile. “These days, we’re pretty much the only people who scavenge them.”
When the women disappeared into the condo, we moved on, stopping on the next level. For years, Kellan and I had been the only people living on level five, only in separate condos. He’d moved into mine some time ago, though, so I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he offered his old place to the newcomers.
The sisters, Tracy and Becky, took it, and when we reached the next level, the three guys who’d been only kids when Bill found them decided to occupy the three bedroom condo there, while Ernie and a man in his fifties whose name I couldn’t remember claimed the other one—although Ernie stuck with us instead of heading inside, establishing himself as a major part of the group. I’d already suspected it since he’d inserted himself in most of the serious discussions, so I wasn’t surprised, but after the way he’d looked at me when he thought I was infected, I was keeping an eye on him. On level seven, Jessica grabbed a three-bedroom condo, taking the twins and Tiana with her.
She ushered the filthy and exhausted children inside, pausing to give her husband a peck on the cheek. “See you in a bit.”
“Warm that bed up for me, will you?” Bill said, grinning.
Jessica returned the smile, but also shook her head. “You’re insatiable.”
No wonder he didn’t care that Kellan and I showered together.
Bill’s daughter grabbed the other condo on that level, along with Diana, Blake’s future girlfriend if I had anything to say about it. I was happy to see that she’d chosen to bunk with Christine rather than someone else, because there were a few men in the group who weren’t that much older than she was, and I’d worried she was already in a relationship with someone.
When we reached level eight, I learned that there were, in fact, a couple relationships in the group. A man and woman in their thirties—Scott and Ellie—claimed one condo, taking twelve-year-old Stephen with them, while the last two people, another man and woman, grabbed the other one.
With those two condos claimed, we’d gotten everyone settled, and considering the size of Bill’s group, I was shocked to realize we still had three empty levels, which meant six empty condos.
“This is quite the setup you have here,” Ernie said once the four of us were alone in the hallway. He looked around appraisingly, his mouth pressed together in thought. “There are just six of you?”
I didn’t care for the accusatory way he said it, but Kellan only nodded. “It wasn’t always that way.”
“They met with some bad luck a while back,” Bill piped in.
“Shame,” Ernie said, although he didn’t sound like he cared about our bad luck even a little.
Bill let out a breath and slapped Kellan on the arm. “We’re thankful you were willing to take a risk on us.”
“No more of a risk than you took,” Kellan replied.
We started walking, heading back up so we could turn in for the night.
“He’s got you there,” Ernie said.
“Life is full of risks, but without them, we wouldn’t be able to reap the rewards,” Bill said as we reached the next level and he moved to the condo he and his wife would now share. “For now, I’m going to turn in. I’ll see you folks in the morning.”
“Goodnight,” I said, and Kellan nodded, while next to us Ernie didn’t respond.
Bill gave one more nod before slipping into his new home.
We continued up, not talking until we reached the level where Ernie would now live.
Once there, he paused and looked us over, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “Looks like you have an awfully young set of people here.”
“It wasn’t always that way,” Kellan said. “Jasper was in charge for most our lives, but we lost him after an altercation with the same men we rescued Harper from.”
“Shame,” Ernie said for the second time, and just like before, there was no sincerity in his words. “At least you have us now.” He nodded like it somehow sealed the deal. “We’re happy to pick up the slack.”
Kellan didn’t respond right away, instead studying Ernie in silence. I wasn’t sure if the guy was implying that they would help out around the shelter—which would be more than welcome—or if he was insinuating that he and Bill would be taking over. If that was the case, we might have a problem, because regardless of age, Kellan wasn’t the type to sit back and do nothing.
“We’ll appreciate any help you can give,” Kellan finally said, obviously deciding now was the time for diplomacy. “In the meantime, let’s get some rest.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ernie replied.
He nodded twice, once to me and then to Kellan, before heading into his condo.
Now alone, Kellan took my hand and we started walking.
“You think that was Ernie’s attempt at grabbing power?” I asked.
“Not sure,” Kellan said. “I trust Bill, and he trusts Ernie, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.”
“Good, because I’m too tired to do anything else right now.”
With everything important taken care of, I registered the weariness in my body for the first time. My legs seemed twice as heavy on the way up as they had on the way down, and even though we only had to climb two flights of stairs, it felt like the climb of a lifetime.
The condo was quiet when we arrived, telling me Harper had already turned in for the night. I was dying to do the same, but first I had to strip off my filthy clothes and get clean.
Kellan joined me in the shower, and even though we kissed, we were both too exhausted and anxious for sleep to do anything else. The water was gray as it slid off our bodies and swirled down the drain, but it was almost symbolic. After all this time of allowing the grief over our lost loved ones to control us, we’d finally decided to move forward. To allow the past to be washed away so we could start fresh with a new group, a new future. New hope.
Gingerly, Kellan helped me remove the scrap of shirt he’d wrapped around my arm. It stung when the warm water ran over it, and I let out a hiss of pain, but it was necessary. The bite wouldn’t turn me into a zombie, but it could still get infected. The human mouth was riddled with germs when the person was living and healthy, and I couldn’t imagine the bacteria living in a zombie’s mouth. I shuddered just thinking about it.
“Does it hurt?” Kellan asked, eyeing the deep indents
the zombie’s teeth had left in my skin.
“No more than the last time,” I said.
He ran a bar of soap over the bite, and I had to grit my teeth when the sting intensified. Soap would do for now, but later, after we’d gotten some sleep, I wanted to get something stronger. Alcohol over an open wound hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t want to run any risks.
After we’d scrubbed the bite until tears were rolling down my cheeks, mixing with the hot water, Kellan turned the shower off, and we stepped out. I was dragging, desperate for sleep, but my mind was swirling with the events of the past couple days and the fact that we had new people living in the shelter for the first time in years.
“I’m glad we met Bill,” I told Kellan as we dried off. “I think this will be good for us.”
“And not only because Blake and Diane are already together in your mind?”
I laughed but shook my head. “No, because I think we shut ourselves off from the rest of the world for too long. We weren’t living, you know? It was only survival. Just getting through one more day. Now, we can actually have a life.”
He gave me a slightly sad smile but nodded.
Kellan helped me wrap my arm in a clean bandage, and once the fresh bite was covered, took my hand.
“Let’s get some rest so we can start that life,” he said as he led me from the bathroom, flipping the lights off as we went, and over to the bed.
We were both naked, but when we slid under the warm sheets, all Kellan did was pull my body against his and whisper, “I love you.”
I murmured my response, the words barely more than a whisper of breath in the dark room. Already, I could feel sleep was tugging at my consciousness, and Kellan’s warm body wrapped around mine was a comfort as I drifted off.
13
When I stepped into the common room the next morning, I was greeted by the twinkling laughter of children, freezing me in my tracks. The sound was so foreign to the shelter I thought I might be hearing things, then I remembered Jack and Jill, and little Tiana, and a smile broke out across my face. Not only did we have kids living with us again, there were more than a dozen other people as well. It was like facing a new beginning.
Blake and Kellan sat on the couches with Bill, Ernie, and a handful of others, already deep in discussion despite the early hour. I wasn’t surprised when I woke to find Kellan’s side of the bed empty and cold, but it still annoyed me to learn he’d started filling the new people in without me. I hated when he left me in the dark, and he knew it.
“Morning,” I said when I walked up.
Kellan stopped in the middle of telling everyone how we came to be at the shelter and looked up, smiling until the dimple in his left cheek deepened. “Morning.”
“I wish you’d gotten me up.”
“I tried. You don’t think I did?” His grin morphed into the smirk I was more than familiar with, both from childhood and from living with him for the last nine years. “When I shook you, you rolled over long enough to call me a couple names and tell me to get the hell out of your room.”
Blake chuckled, and even Bill and his people smiled, while my face warmed the way it usually did in the face of any emotional change.
“For real?”
Kellan grabbed my hand and pulled me down so I was sitting on the arm of his chair. “Would I lie about that?”
“Well,” I said, shrugging almost bashfully, “I guess it’s a side effect of all those years when you were nothing more than my brother’s annoying best friend.”
“I guess,” Kellan said, still grinning.
Ernie cleared his throat, drawing our attention back to him, and said, “So Jasper pretty much called all the shots?”
The question had me thinking about how he’d acted last night, and as Kellan started talking, I focused on Ernie, trying to get a better read on him.
“Yes and no,” Kellan replied, flipping that internal switch of his and once again turning serious. “We were all so young when we got here, and no one was as prepared as he was. I mean, even the survivors who’d bought a condo were only rich people who thought all they had to do was show up and hide out. Not like Jasper, who’d been a prepper. We deferred to his opinion in the beginning because he seemed to know what he was doing more than anyone else, but over the years he handed more and more responsibility over to others. It just all came crashing down three years ago when that woman killed most of our group.”
“Exactly what happened?” Ernie asked.
Around him, the new people sat in silence, waiting. They were clean and changed, some of them wearing clothes I recognized but hadn’t seen since Laurie killed our family. It was both heartbreaking and welcome at the same time.
“We found someone, a woman, and brought her back. We didn’t think one person could be a real threat.” Kellan paused and swallowed like the words were hard to get out, and I put a hand on his shoulder. “She killed most of our people in their sleep. Went from condo to condo slitting throats.”
Jessica’s hand flew to her mouth when she gasped. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah.” Kellan turned his eyes to the table, focusing on it like it was the most interesting thing in the room.
“After that,” Blake said, taking over, “we were afraid to trust anyone, so we didn’t.”
“I can imagine,” Bill replied, his words laced with sympathy.
He looked his group over, and I did as well. They were nodding, their expressions ranging from sadness to rage, and most likely thinking about their own people. About how devastating it would be if the same thing had happened to them.
“I know bringing us here is a big risk, and I want to tell you how much we appreciate it,” Bill said.
“We’re happy to do it,” Kellan replied.
“I’m glad, but I need to know what your expectations are. Is this a temporary solution? Because, I have to be honest, we thought we had a good setup at the hangar,” Bill looked around, shaking his head like he still couldn’t believe this place existed, “but it’s nothing compared to this.”
“No shit,” Ernie said. “Electricity, running water, real beds. It’s like going back in time.”
“It’s better than we could have ever dreamed,” Bill murmured.
Behind him, a gale of laughter floated from the room, followed by the high-pitched voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, and everyone turned to look toward the theater. The door was open, and the silhouettes of the children were visible, illuminated by the glow from the TV.
“Amazing,” Jessica murmured.
“We’re not going to kick you out,” I said, drawing everyone’s attention away from the kids. “We have plenty of room, and you’re welcome to it.”
Bill looked from me to Kellan, who was nodding, and then to Blake. His head was bobbing as well, and it seemed to me that a collective sigh of relief followed the announcement.
“Thank you,” Bill replied, his voice low and choked with emotion. “Thank you.”
“We do have a few rules.” Kellan’s tone was measured and slow, but the change was subtle, something I might not have noticed if I didn’t know him so well.
“What kind of rules?” Not surprisingly, Ernie was the one who spoke up, and behind his damaged frames, his eyes narrowed.
“Nothing major.” Kellan lifted his hands. “Just precautions.”
“Necessary ones, I’m sure,” Bill said, almost like he was defusing a situation before it had a chance to get out of control.
“It’s a way to protect ourselves,” Kellan replied. “For one, you need a code to open the door on the surface, and for the time being, we’re going to keep that to ourselves.”
“You mean we’re locked down here?” Jessica asked in alarm.
“Not really,” I jumped in. “You can get out, it’s just that once you shut the door, you’re locked out unless you have the code.”
“As much as we want to be able to trust you,” Kellan said, drawing the words out, “trust is something that has to be earned, and rig
ht now we’re practically strangers. A stranger killed most of us a few years ago, and we can’t run the risk of that happening again. Of someone heading out and bringing people back who might try to hurt us.”
“Sounds reasonable.” Again, Ernie’s tone was less convincing than I would have liked.
“Sounds smart,” Bill said pointedly. “I have no doubt that we can earn your trust. And fast.”
“I hope so.” Kellan focused on Ernie, who didn’t miss it.
“Everyone is also going to have to pull their weight,” Cade said. “We’ve been busting our asses to keep this place going with only six of us, and we’ve done it, but adding this many more people means we need to produce more of everything. More food, especially.”
“We don’t have a problem with hard work,” Jessica said.
Bill chuckled. “If we did, we would have died years ago.”
“Good.” Kellan returned his smile. “Then I don’t think we’ll have any major problems.”
Bill nodded, but Ernie didn’t say or do anything to indicate that he agreed. Like Kellan, though, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. No one else in the group seemed anything but friendly—with the exception of Scott, but he came across as more reserved than anything. Not like Ernie, who was obviously used to calling at least some of the shots. Hopefully, he would be satisfied with the routine we already had, which mostly meant discussing major decisions as a group. Kellan had always taken on more of the leader role, but that was mostly because he was more of a planner than Cade and Blake. He wasn’t going to hand everything over to someone we’d only just met. Ernie was going to have to prove himself like everyone else.
After we’d nailed down some of the details about daily life, we showed the new people around the shelter, starting with the clinic and classroom, and then going all the way down to the storage space on level fourteen. There, Blake showed Bill how he made bullets—a job that would rest solely on his shoulders now that Jasper was gone—and I found myself explaining to some of the others how I made soap.
The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 41