After The Virus (6 page)

“This piece of real estate we’re looking for was sighted heading this way about two weeks ago; she’s on foot, with a dog,” One Ear’s buddy elaborated.

“Haven’t seen anyone except you —” He started in denial, but ended in a scream as One Ear whacked his gun, hard, across his shoulder wound.

He might have blacked out for a bit, because when he came aware, he was on his hands and knees staring at his bile mixed with the Infected’s brains.

“We’ve been gone way long,” One Ear rambled. “I’m real tired of walking ‘cause we got to drag It with us, and we’re super low on blood packs.”

Will really didn’t feel like engaging in woe-is-me conversation, so he kept quiet and listened for a way out, but One Ear wasn’t forthcoming on that topic.

“Point is, it needs feeding, and excepting your blood immunity, you’re no value to us.” One Ear finished with an almost friendly toe nudge.

Will didn’t doubt the truth of those few words, but he’d never heard his self-worth laid out so precisely and with such doom saying before.
One man could repopulate the earth with enough fertile women.
He wasn’t that man. ‘
Course, in a generation, inbreeding would be a problem.
He continued to keep quiet.

The Infected didn’t seem to be doing well without its missing brain chunk. The right side of its face was running down into its neck.

“Shit, this guy don’t know,” the buddy whined.

“Of the two of you fools, why Hal had to be the one to get his head bashed in,” One Ear griped. “He doesn’t ask questions, not about us, who we’re looking for, or It, means he knows or has heard about the Infected, about us.”

“Right.” Despite his agreement, Buddy didn’t get the drift.

As he hunkered down beside Will, One Ear twirled his gun, once, like his wrist ached.

“You’re going to want to bind that bite, before you lose so much blood —” One Ear got his gun grabbed as punishment for his near friendliness. Will twisted One Ear’s wrist to the breaking point, got his own finger also over the trigger and the barrel up One Ear’s rather wide nostril. One Ear was more angry than scared. It bothered Will that, even with the upper hand, he just pissed people off. At least Buddy freaked out.

The Infected, done with the packed blood, sniffed the air and started pawing the ground in his direction. One Ear smirked. ”It takes two of us to hold it.”
 

“How do you know, with me and my bloody wound so near, it won’t take a bite of you by mistake? It don’t seem to hold its relationships too close.”

One Ear looked uneasy at that line of reasoning, and they slowly negotiated a standing position that placed One Ear’s back to the Infected and Buddy.

“I’m just passing through, you’re just passing through,” Will suggested. “We continue on, forget we met, and you two try to not get eaten.”
 

“You don’t get it, Cowboy,” One Ear nasally explained. “The Boss don’t accept no empty hands or, worse, excuses.” He indicated his lack of ear.

“Listen,” Will countered, getting frustrated, “I think we —”

“They aren’t going to listen to your negotiations, Will.”
 
Rhiannon, armed and dangerous, stepped into the alley.
 

The Infected groaned and strained at its neck chain enough that Buddy’s feet slipped a bit in the packed dirt.
 

He felt his blood pressure spike, but not in a good way, at Rhiannon’s appearance.

“Hello, dolly! Remember me?” One Ear practically beamed.

“Sure do,” Rhiannon answered, and then, leveling her shotgun, blew the Infected’s head off.

The close-range blast destroyed what was left of its brain.
 

It crumpled.

Buddy, shrieking, dropped the now useless chain and pawed at the splatter of brain remnants on his face.

One Ear’s mouth hung limp even as his eyes bulged. He shoved the gun away from his nose, and, still staring at It on the ground, let out a keening moan.

In a step, Rhiannon had Buddy knocked down with her foot on his chest.

“Will, have you got the asshole covered or not?” she demanded.

One Ear had fallen to his knees by the Infected and seemed to be having some sort of breakdown. He began wailing and practically foaming at the mouth.

“Jesus, oh, Jesus, oh Jesus,” Buddy, completely terrified by One Ear’s behavior, blubbered. He didn’t get what the hell was going on either.

Even Rhiannon was thrown, and characteristically, she responded with anger. ”Fuck, asshole. It was already dead. I did it a fucking favor.”

One Ear shut up. He just stopped: wailing, moving, everything. Even the echo of his howls abandoned the alley. Then finally, he turned his red, deadened eyes to Rhiannon. She met his gaze.

“It was my brother,” he said. “You killed my brother.”

“You chained him — It — made it eat people, prolonged its unnatural and painful existence, and you call yourself brother?” Rhiannon retorted.

“I’ll have you, bitch,” One Ear snarled. “Own you. Boss or no Boss, not to kill, no, but you’ll beg for a bullet every time I rip you —”

“That’s enough!” Will shouted. “You attack? You better expect people to defend! Now, get your asses out of town before I regret letting you.”

“Watch it, Cowboy,” One Ear sneered, “you’ll find there’s lots of people willing to kill for her.”

“And die, it seems,” Rhiannon, rather inappropriately, retorted.

∞

He watched, for what he was aware was the second time, as morally challenged men left town. The difference was he was pretty sure these guys would be back, bigger and stronger. He figured it was better they assumed he and Rhiannon had settled in this place, but there was no way he’d let them lay eyes on Snickers.

They didn’t take Army with them, and while he figured that was a good deal for Army, he was aware of what it said about One Ear and his Buddy, and how far they’d go to get hands on Rhiannon.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

RHIANNON

Snickers, seated between them, played with the CDs. The girl had the habit of playing certain songs on repeat. She seemed particularly fond of “Landslide.”

The wind tangled Rhiannon’s hair until she pony-tailed it rather than roll up the window, but still Will didn’t speak to her or Snickers.

They’d watched the trackers leave town at gunpoint. They left their army-jacketed friend still out cold in the Drug Mart, and that said something not so nice about them. There was no way Will would’ve let her take care of them, even if she had suggested it.

In moments like these, she was starting to doubt her humanity.

She’d left Snickers, with B.B. guarding, in the attic of the church. They would’ve never found her, but Will didn’t care about that part. Of course, if he never spoke to her again she’d never know if he just hated being rescued or being disobeyed. Neither option was cool with her.

She was worried they would track them, but Will was too smart for that. The drive home ended up taking four hours longer than the drive down.

She’d tended his shoulder before they retrieved Snickers. She knew he didn’t want the girl to see his blood or hear the pain of the stitches.

Rhiannon had never had a man just not talk to her before. They were always talking, always wooing, demanding, or even justifying throwing her away.

She refused to say sorry. She had waited, awhile. He might have made it out or, worse, been eaten, so she checked and found him having a little chat with the bad guys.

She broke the silence first; she always had been weak that way. “So, are you going to be mad through dinner, because us girls need to eat.”

“This is not a conversation I am having in front of Snickers,” Will answered.

“She was safe, Will, with B.B. and a secret safety knock!”

Snickers obligingly demonstrated their code knock on the dash.
 

“She begged me to go,” Rhiannon continued. ”You think she wants to lose you?”

Will snorted doubtfully, but did cast a sideways glance at Snickers. She met his gaze with what were probably wide eyes full of unexpressed worry mixed with residual terror. She saw the first moment Will began to melt — his emotional barrier wasn’t for Snickers — and she instantly decided that she didn’t want to use Snickers as a buffer. Didn’t want him to forgive her, or at least brush his concerns away out of love for the child.

“I’m sorry I disobeyed you.” She laid on the sarcasm. He snorted again.

“You’ve your own mind, Rhiannon,” he gently stated. “And I very much like that, but this isn’t about you and me disagreeing on a plan.” He was managing her again. It should upset her that she was something to be managed, but she felt he did it for her inner peace, not his.

“I will never put her in harm’s way or choose myself or you over her safety to my dying breath,” Rhiannon vowed and meant it. Will looked at her then.

“Truth and promise?” he asked.

“Yes.” Then she reflected, “I’ve never placed someone else’s life before my own.”

“Neither have I,” he agreed.

∞

After that, Will didn’t speak again, not for a long time. And this time she didn’t fight the silence, nor did it haunt her.

As the sky darkened, Snickers tucked sideways between and on them, and slept.

“Chicken or fish for dinner?” he joked, as if life was good and simple, as if they hadn’t just almost had to kill-or-be-killed hours before.

Snickers curled her toes right around the finger she had just softly stroked along her foot. Will’s adoring grin crinkled around his eyes. She realized then and there she was head over heels, from the bottom of her soul, completely in love with both of them.

She was going to have to leave.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

WILL

He knew something was wrong the moment he saw the flickering light through the hotel windows; actually, a few houses were also candle lit. With the girls asleep, he had decided to drive through his village to make sure all was well before heading home. All was not well.

He kept the place stocked, and was always on the lookout for repairs and such, but why, he wasn’t sure. Not visitors, not since Snickers became his priority.

He could have circled, dropped the girls or even come back in the morning, but he didn’t. Maybe he should make “stupid” his middle name.

The U-Haul, hitched to the pickup, gave a grinding groan as he slowed the truck and turned off the headlights. They were heavy with supplies. Why the hell did he compulsively stock and supply the damn village? Now his obsession would put the girls in harm’s way for the second time today.

Rhiannon’s whisper through the dark caused him to violently flinch. “Who do you think they are, Will?”

“Friendlies, I hope,” he answered.

“Well, they haven’t trashed the place, and you do have that vacancy sign hung.”

“For authenticity, not as a welcome,” he muttered.

“You could flip it to no vacancy.”

Normally he was happy to hear her teasing vocal lilt, but right now he didn’t want her laughing at him.

“I’m going to check them out. You’ll take Snickers safely home?” That ended up sounding like a question, which he didn’t like, but she got it.

“I already promised, Will, but…”

“If I don’t come home, then you’ll know… you’ll know to run.” He tried to sound matter of fact about it.
 

Rhiannon climbed over Snickers as he slid out the driver’s side.

“No lights,” he cautioned. She just nodded while not looking at him.

“Ya know how to drive stick, don’t ya little lady?” he drawled to lighten the mood, and got a smile from Rhiannon for it.

“You’ll take B.B.”

Unlike his, her statements never sounded like questions. He nodded, and B.B., who had seemingly followed the conversation, leaped off the back of the truck to join him.

She kissed him then; their first kiss. Her hand was hard, almost harsh, against the back of his neck, and their connection quick and fierce. He brushed his rough thumb against her silky cheek and tried to soften the kiss; she yielded, but only for a moment. Then she turned away.

She started the pickup and again refused to look at him, but B.B. got a laugh and a quick nuzzle when she propped herself up on the door.

As Rhiannon carefully backed away, Snickers' head popped up to look at him through the front window. Her eyes were as hollow as his stomach felt.

B.B., already on alert, stared at the hotel, but he watched until the truck was swallowed in the dark, an image he prayed wasn’t foreboding.

He could hear at least three people talking inside, and, as he approached, a rifle-armed shadow rose from its smoke break on the deck chaise. He paused, his foot hovering over the bottom of three steps onto the veranda, and looked up at the shadow.

“Tex?” a man questioned.

As the shadow moved near the candlelight that filtered through the windowed front doors, it became Stupid, grinning, as if he’d won a prize.

“TEX!” Stupid shouted, and, before he could respond, Big flung open the doors to laugh and clap him on the shoulder like you do to a buddy.

“We thought you’d left us. We brought people for you to meet!” Big crowed. “We’d been telling them, ladies especially, about your place. Well, the ladies said, we’d like to sleep on mattresses and have running water, so why don’t we go visit your friend Tex? I thought, why not, Tex has got all that space and done all that fixing, he must like visitors, nice ones at least, and so we came back.” Big finally paused to breathe and then looked at him expectantly.

“How many people have you brought here, Big?”

Big beamed at the nickname. “Oh, ‘bout fifteen or so… five ladies.“ Even within the shadows, he could see Big’s face grow dark. “We lost two before we turned this way… poachers.” Big must have seen his hesitation, because he quickly added, “Everyone joins us, and stays, by their own choice, not at gunpoint.”

Stupid, who had uncharacteristically been silent, though grinning, up to this point, contributed, “You got it,” to the conversation.

Will suddenly felt he was being pitched, hard and fast, a useless product he never had liked, understood, or wanted in the first place.