Before I could reply, Juliet said, “He’s not immune.” She eyed Kellan more closely, her gaze narrowing on his face. “Is he?”
On the bench across from me, Alex’s back straightened while Ash frowned, but neither man said a word. The hand not resting on his leg was now on my knife, and my pulse had doubled as I waited to see what would happen. We were outnumbered. It had been stupid to get into a vehicle with these people.
Logan stood, once again groaning like his body was stiff. “Let me see that bite.”
“Don’t touch him.” I jumped to my feet, my heart in my throat and the knife out as I put myself between him and Kellan.
Logan lifted his hands but said nothing.
“Relax.” Juliet pushed her way past me. “If he were infected with the zombie virus, he wouldn’t have a fever.”
I didn’t strike, but I didn’t put the knife away, and I watched in silence as she took a seat at Kellan’s side and gently twisted his arm so the bite was visible. It was red and angry, swollen and shiny. The infection ran up his arm in the form of red trails under his skin. Blood poisoning.
Juliet met Kellan’s haggard gaze. “How’d you get it?”
“Crazy guy,” he replied, his shoulders rising in a little shrug. “Attacked us. Bit me. When that asshole tried to take Regan, I convinced him I was immune so he’d take me, too. I was afraid I’d never see her again if I didn’t.”
“Smart,” Logan said, sounding genuinely impressed.
I hadn’t moved, but I relaxed at the casual tone in his voice.
“You’re not going to kill him?” I asked, looking from Logan to Juliet.
“We’re not the bad guys.” She dropped Kellan’s arm and stood, reaching for one of the straps hanging from the ceiling when the vehicle rocked. “It looks pretty nasty.”
“Something about the virus supercharged bacteria, too. That’s why the infection has gotten so bad so fast,” Logan told me. “Luckily, we should be able to get our hands on new antibiotics from the CDC.”
When Juliet had moved back to the other bench and taken a seat next to Alex, I took her place on the bench beside Kellan, placing my hand on his arm because I couldn’t bear not touching him. The fear I’d felt when I was certain he was about to die still lingered, but mostly because he wasn’t out of the woods yet. We were no longer in Andrew’s clutches, and the threat of someone putting a bullet in Kellan’s brain had disappeared—at least I was pretty sure it had—but he was still sick and we were too far from home to take much comfort in our newfound freedom.
“Stuff from the CDC?” I asked, looking from Logan to Juliet. “How do you get it?”
“Like I said, we know someone who has connections in Atlanta,” Logan told me. “He smuggles stuff out and transports it to unsanctioned settlements. He’s the reason we know so much about what’s happening in the new capital.”
“And trust me,” Juliet piped in, “he has nothing good to say about Star or the CDC.”
Next to her, Alex’s head bobbed in agreement.
I swallowed.
Jasper had never had anything positive to say about the new government either. We were far out and not sanctioned by the assholes in charge, so we didn’t know a lot, but the little bit of information we did get had always made him suspicious. Of course, I’d taken it all with a grain of salt. Jasper, despite his many good qualities, didn’t trust many people. He’d been a prepper before this whole zombie apocalypse thing had started and was suspicious by nature.
At my side, Kellan shifted and let out a little grunt. His eyes were still closed as he began rubbing the area just above the bite, almost like he was trying to massage the pain away.
Still looking at him, I asked, “How long until we get to this place?”
“It isn’t far,” Logan replied.
I looked his way when he headed for the front of the truck. Juliet and Alex were having a quiet conversation that, despite the close quarters, was inaudible over the roar of the truck’s engine. At their side, Ash sat quietly, seemingly lost in thought and not paying attention to them or to Kellan and me.
In the front, Logan was speaking quietly to Beth. Only one or two words were loud enough to hear, but it was enough for me to know he was asking if she’d seen any sign of Andrew and his men.
I patted Kellan on the arm. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” He cracked one eye. “Not yet, anyway.”
My throat tightened as I stood, but I chose not to acknowledge the implications of that statement. If I had anything to say about it, he wouldn’t be going anywhere but back to Oklahoma.
I had to run my hand along the roof of the truck to steady myself as I headed to the front. Ash seemed to snap out of whatever world he’d been lost in and grinned up at me when I passed. I wasn’t in a smiling mood, but I returned the gesture anyway.
The others’ voices grew louder the closer I got to the front, and I was finally able to make out their words.
“Only two ran behind the building to get away,” Beth was saying. “The zombies were hot on their trail.”
“I hope you had the engine off,” Logan replied, his voice as stiff as his posture.
She shot him a look, a small smile on her lips. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“Don’t you worry,” Hickory said. “Even if she was willing to risk her ass, I wouldn’t have let her put mine on the line. I’ve survived too much to die now.”
Logan patted him on the shoulder, but when he spoke, he didn’t address the older man. “We need to keep a close eye on things and make sure they’re not following us. This asshole is aggressive and determined. More so than anyone else we’ve faced.”
“Andrew?” I asked when I stopped beside Logan. “You’re talking about Andrew, right?”
He eyed me but didn’t turn his face in my direction completely. “I am.”
“You think he’s going to try to follow us?”
“Don’t you?” Logan asked.
“I don’t know.” I exhaled. “Probably.”
“So do I.” Logan braced himself by holding on to the back of Beth’s seat and finally turned in my direction. His gaze moved past me to Kellan then focused on my face. “This guy, whoever he is, is brutal in a way I’ve never seen before. And I’ve seen lots of shit.”
I shivered because I could only imagine what he’d witnessed after all these years on the road.
“What happened back there?” I asked. “Everything happened so fast, and I didn’t know if I could trust you, and all I could think about was getting Kellan away from Andrew.” I swallowed, remembering the gunshots and bright lights, the loud roar that had made it almost impossible to think straight. “They’d just figured out he was sick and were seconds from putting a bullet in his head.”
The interior of the truck went silent, all eyes—and Beth’s ears—focused on me.
The attention couldn’t erase my panic as the chaos of that moment came screaming back. Andrew had been on the verge of killing Kellan, and I’d been helpless to stop it, and then out of nowhere the room had exploded with chaos. Another group—Logan and his people—had attacked. It saved us, had distracted Andrew and his men long enough to allow us to get away. We’d run deeper into the building, hoping to find a way out while the two groups fought. Kellan and I only made it to an office, which was where Logan found us, but by then the fighting had stopped.
“We have a system,” Logan began, drawing my attention to him. “We follow a group for a bit so we can get a feel for how they operate. Once we know what to expect, we hit them at night when they’re most likely to be caught off guard.” He nodded to Beth. “We have a spotlight on the truck, which came in handy with you guys. Beth pulled the truck up to the front of the office building and turned it on, blinding Andrew’s men. It gave us the advantage.”
“What was the noise?” I asked, remembering how it had drowned out every other sound.
“Just a recording.” Logan shrugged. �
�We installed a speaker and recorded the sound of a steam engine so we could play it on a loop. It confuses whoever we’re trying to attack and draws the zombies at the same time. With Andrew’s men, it scared them so much that most took off running before the dead had even showed up. Loyalty isn’t a big concern with groups like this.”
“I can imagine,” I muttered, thinking it all through. “You said you were following Andrew before?”
“We were trailing him a few months back, lost him in this area.” Logan shook his head. “We should have taken him out before he had a chance to kill anyone, but at the time, we weren’t totally sure if he was one of the bad guys. We were trying to catch him in the act when we lost him.”
“Do you think he knew you were following him?”
If he did, he might have recognized the truck—it was pretty conspicuous—meaning he could be on the lookout for us.
“Don’t worry,” Logan said, almost as if he knew what I was thinking. “Those assholes aren’t going to get the jump on us.”
His confidence only gave me a little comfort.
We lapsed into silence, but neither Logan nor I went back to the benches. Kellan was lying down again, his eyes closed—sleeping, I hoped—but I was too on edge to sit with him. I wanted to stay where I was and keep an eye out for Andrew. For all we knew, he could be on our trail right now, biding his time until he made his move.
I hoped we got to this settlement soon.
The truck bumped down the road, rolling over potholes and debris littering the street. It was the middle of the night, and other than the road in front of us—which was illuminated by the truck’s headlights—the world flying by was nothing but blackness. Occasionally, there was movement on the outskirts of the beams, but it was always gone before I could figure out if it was an animal or the dead.
Before long, a light became visible in the distance, standing out among the surrounding darkness and calling to me like a beacon. I leaned forward, trying to figure out how far away it was, but the surrounding buildings and overgrown trees made it impossible to gauge.
“Is that it?” I asked, my eyes still focused on the light.
“It is.” Beth turned the wheel to the right, swerving around a rusted-out car blocking half the road before glancing back at me. “We’re going to be running into more debris as we get closer, so you’re going to want to hang on to something.”
I gripped the back of Hickory’s seat, and his one good eye peered up at me, the expression in it steely and curious at the same time.
“Why all the debris?” I asked when Beth steered us left, driving around a trailer that, like the car, was blocking half the road.
“To slow people down,” Logan said. “To make it more difficult for anyone to get the jump on them.”
The farther we drove, the more I understood what he meant. The road had been blocked on opposite sides by cars and trucks and other large items, forcing Beth to slow as she zigzagged down the street. With each twist of the wheel, the light in front of us grew brighter, illuminating more of the area, and before long, a wall came into view. Like most of the walled cities around the country, it had been created using pretty much anything the survivors could get their hands on. Dumpsters, cars, semi trailers, and a dozen other items I couldn’t name. Steel plates had been welded between them, sealing any gaps. Beyond the wall, an old hotel was just visible.
There were lookout towers at the four corners as well as spotlights—I wasn’t sure how they’d managed to get the electricity up and running, considering neither Altus nor Quartz Mountain had managed it even after all these years—and armed guards on the other side of the gate raised their rifles when Beth stopped the truck outside.
“Don’t worry,” she said, not looking over her shoulder at me. “They’re friendly, but they have to take precautions.”
“Understandable,” I replied. “The settlements near us do the same.”
She nodded as she lowered the window, one hand on a shotgun propped against her seat. In front of us, the gate had opened just enough to allow two people to slip through. They approached, walking side by side, one with his gun aimed at Beth while the other scanned the surrounding area.
“You always act so surprised to see me,” she called out.
The man who’d approached the truck lowered his gun. “Have to be careful. I know at least a dozen people who’d slit your throat if it meant getting their hands on that truck.”
“Slitting my throat is about the only way anyone is going to be able to separate me from my baby.” She patted the steering wheel in a loving gesture.
The man chuckled. “I believe you.” He stepped back and waved, and a second later, the gate began to slide open. “Head on in. You know the drill.”
“Thanks, Paul,” Beth said before throwing the truck in gear.
I studied the settlement as we rolled through. Despite the late hour, there were a handful of people up and milling about, but the spotlights illuminating the gate didn’t help light up the interior enough to allow me to get a good look at things. Still, from what I could tell, the place was well fortified.
“Do a lot of people live here?” I asked.
“A couple hundred permanent inhabitants,” Logan replied, “as well as a handful of people who stop in on their way through the area. People like us.”
Beth pulled to a stop beside a few other vehicles and turned to face me. “They’re going to search us. I know it’s going to make you uneasy. Trust me, we felt the same way the first time we came here, but it’s normal procedure. They’ve never tried to take anything from us that we weren’t willing to trade, and they don’t confiscate weapons. They just want to know what we’re bringing in.” Her gaze moved past me to where Kellan was stretched out, shivering. “That’s going to include him.”
“What will they do about the bite?” I asked.
Beth gnawed on her bottom lip, her gaze moving to Logan. She lifted her eyebrows, and I realized she wasn’t sure what we were about to face, and all the anxiety I’d managed to push down returned in a rush. Why did they bring us here if they weren’t sure we’d be safe?
“Tell me,” I snapped, focusing on Logan this time.
“They’ll be cautious, of course, but they’ll realize he isn’t infected once they notice he has a fever. Plus,” Logan looked everyone else over, “if he’s with us, they’ll assume he’s immune.”
“You’re suggestin’ we lie?” Hickory snarled.
“I’m suggesting we keep our mouths shut.”
“You know what we’re risking if they find out we’re keeping something from them,” Juliet said from behind me, drawing my attention her way. “We’ll be banned, Logan. They won’t let us come back.”
“Why?” I asked, looking between the small woman and the leader. “What do you mean?”
“They have no problem opening their doors and helping people, but they expect cooperation in return,” Juliet told me. “Meaning you tell the truth about who you are and where you’re from. If they find out you lied or misrepresented yourself, they’ll ban you from ever coming back.”
I hesitated, thinking about what these people were risking for us. Groups who stayed on the move the way they did depended on settlements like this one. It kept them safe, gave them a place to rest for a few days when they needed it, and helped them restock when they were short on supplies. Still, telling the truth would put Kellan’s life in jeopardy, and that was one thing I wouldn’t do. We had to keep our mouths shut. It was the only option.
“I know what you’ve already done for us,” I began, “and I hate to ask more, but I have to. If there’s even a slight chance they won’t let us stay because of this bite, I need to ask you to lie. Or at least not tell them the whole truth.” I looked toward Kellan, my throat tightening with emotion. “If he doesn’t get antibiotics soon, he isn’t going to make it, and I can’t live without him. I can’t.”
Logan exhaled, stretching it out as he considered our options, his gaze holding
Beth’s. She was frowning, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Did she want Logan to lie, or was she silently trying to tell him to be honest?
“Right now,” he said, not looking away from her, “I think choosing to say nothing is our best chance. If we’re lucky, they won’t even question us. God knows we’ve been here often enough with other immune people.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Juliet grumbled.
“Me too,” Logan said, finally tearing his gaze from Beth.
Someone chose that exact moment to bang on the back door.
Ash got to his feet and moved to open it. “Here we go.”
3
The others began to file out of the truck, but I stayed back so I could help Logan with Kellan.
“I’ll take this side if you get the other,” I said as I took his right arm.
Logan helped from the other side, but it still took Kellan a lot of effort to get to his feet. He clung to me, and even with a person on each side, keeping him up wasn’t easy. His fever had intensified during the hour drive and almost seemed to scorch my skin as I held on to him. How much higher could it get before it fried his brain? I didn’t want to think about it.
When we reached the back of the truck, Logan climbed down, leaving me to bear the full brunt of Kellan’s weight. He leaned on me heavily, his head resting against mine as we waited for help. He felt like a limp noodle—straight out of the pot and still scorching—as Logan and I worked together to help him climb from the truck.
Once he was down, I scrambled out as well. Several people from the settlement waited with guns, but there was nothing overtly threatening about them. They were relaxed, chatting with Logan’s group like they were old friends, acting like they’d forgotten about the weapons in their hands or why they had them. Even when the man closest to the truck looked Kellan over, there was nothing in his expression to give me pause. Too bad it didn’t stop my heart from beating faster.
“He sick?” the man asked, his tone more curious than anything.
The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 59