Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (135 page)

The man had long, blond hair matted
with dirt, blood, and who knows what else. He was groaning, loudly.
Finally, the realization that we were under attack snapped Cage out
of it. There were more slow walkers coming at us now. It all
happened so quickly, and they were moving faster than some we had
seen previously. The shattering glass showered over me, from the
passenger side window, as another re-animated body tried to get to
Trent.

As he slammed into the woman
previously known as Mrs. Whiteside, she disappeared under the truck
and we bumped over her. The people trying to get to us, through the
window on the side, were dragging along with us, as he was able to
punch the gas. We needed to lose them, and the guy in the back
still had his clutches on Trent. Trent was screaming at us to get
him off, and Cage was driving, swerving around cars and debris in
the road. Nothing was throwing him from his position, as he
frantically tried to pull Trent, one-handed, through the back of
the truck.

"Take the wheel Cassie," Cage yelled
over the groaning and yelling.

I did as he said while he fumbled
beneath the seat for something. It was all I could do to maneuver
around the obstacles in the road from my position. I was terrified
we would wreck soon. Finally, Cage found what he was looking for
and plunged a screwdriver into the hippie's hand. Blood shot all
over Trent and Rose as the man finally released his shoulder and
growled angrily at Cage.

Cage slammed on the brakes, throwing
him so hard against the tailgate that he toppled over the back to
the ground. Speeding off down the road, Cage turned the truck
around so quickly we were all thrown into one another. He sped back
towards the hippie zombie, who now lay in the road.

He gave a strange, satisfied victory
cheer as he ran over the zombie and headed back to the four lane
highway, dodging some of the walkers and hitting others. There was
blood spread across the window and he simply turned on the
windshield wipers and hit the spray button, smiling his ass off. I
wondered if he was losing it.

Back on the highway, he calmed down a
bit, and no one wanted to say anything. It was pretty obvious that
Evelyn was not going to be found alive. The church van being turned
over, and the church member, currently flattened on the road, told
us the story. No one wanted to say anything, and it was hard to
imagine that just a few hours before we had been trying to pass the
time with a road trip game. It was around three o’clock in the
afternoon, and I wondered where we were going. The road was still
littered with abandoned cars, but it wasn’t anything like the
dozens of them we had seen on the exit to Alexander. Something told
me Cage was just driving so he didn’t have to think and Trent was
thinking too hard.

When we finally stopped, it was at an
actual rest area, and Rose and I went inside to check out the snack
situation. We found that the machines had been turned over and the
fronts of them were busted. Nothing had been left behind so we
headed back to the truck for some jerky and bottled water. I chewed
on the tough jerky and waited for someone to say something. After
stretching our legs a bit, we all crammed back into the truck and
continued on the path down the highway to the next safety camp
Trent knew about. His goal had switched from finding his wife to
saving his son, or so I thought. After a couple more hours, he
announced that we needed to find somewhere to camp because the
safety camp was still two hours away and he was tired.

The air between everyone was awkward
after the events of the day. Even the uncomfortable truck bed
seemed welcoming as a way to escape. It didn’t matter that it
wasn’t even supper time yet, I was sleepy. Exhausted and
emotionally drained, I fell asleep, hoping to erase the day from my
memory.

***

Someone was violently shaking me
awake. It was dark, meaning I had slept the afternoon away. It took
me a minute to figure out what was happening to me.

“
Cassie, get
up.”

I sat straight up in the truck bed,
trying to remember where I was. It was Trent that had woken me and
he looked frantic.

“
What’s wrong?”

He pulled me up out of the truck bed
and down to the ground, with Cage’s sleeping bag still around me. I
almost fell trying to get my legs out of it to walk behind him. He
was pulling me away from the truck, by the arm, and he wasn’t being
gentle.

“
We don’t have much time
before Cage or Rose wake up.” He stopped and released my arm. I
rubbed it to try and get the blood flowing freely again. He wasn’t
making any sense.

“
What are you talking
about?” I watched in horror as he took off his shirt and started
towards me. I froze where I was, not sure what he was going to do.
I started to feel like he had snapped after the trip to the safety
camp.

“
You have to bite me,
Cassie.” He was trying to pull my head towards his chest. “You have
to bite me now.”

I was shocked, and even though I
didn’t know what to expect, this was far from what I thought he was
going to say.

“
Trent,” I hissed at him,
angry that he had suggested it, “I am not going to bite
you.”

“
You have to, Cassie; I
can’t let Cage go through this alone. And if you don’t do it, then
it is just a matter of time before another one of the walking dead
latches on to me. I am begging you, don’t resist. I will have to
make you do it, and I really don’t want to.”

I stared at him, for a minute, with
my mouth open. I understood that he loved his son, but who would
willingly become infected? I still didn’t know what was going to
happen to me. I wasn’t going to bring my curse on someone who had
been lucky enough to escape.

“
No, Trent.” I turned to
walk back to the truck, but he tackled me. He flipped me over on my
back and held my arms above my head, getting in my face.

“
I don’t want to, but I
will hurt you. I need you to bite me, and I am not letting you up
until you do. My wife is gone, and my son is dying” He was a
desperate man, and desperate men could be really scary.

I struggled against him but he had me
pinned with his body and I couldn’t move. Flashbacks of the man
doing the same in Kelmart jumped into my brain and I started to
feel like I couldn’t breathe. I was beginning to panic, and part of
me wanted to bite him to get him away from me. I still couldn’t
bring myself to do it, so he sat up and put his knee in my stomach,
causing me to cry out in pain. He kept the pressure there and then
reached down to where my wrist was infected. He stuck his finger
inside the wound and pressed. I screamed in agony, just wanting it
to stop.

I made the decision to bite him if he
would just get off of me, but the pain was making me woozy. I was
going to lose consciousness. I tried to call out to Cage but my
voice was a whisper. Trent started to become blurry and my head
rolled back, uncontrollably.

Chapter 11

An Impossible Situation

I felt Trent lift off of me and
struggled to breathe, until the pain eased off. Sitting up and
hugging my knees to my chest, I tried to process what had
happened.

“
What the hell are you
doing, Dad?” Cage was my rescuer, and he was unhappy. I started to
focus on what was going on around me. I saw Rose kneeling next to
me with concern in her eyes. Trent was pushing his son away as he
stormed off into the night. Cage was running his hands over his
face as he walked back over to where I was. Rose moved to the side,
as he knelt in front of me. My finger was on fire where he had
pressed his finger into the wound. I wondered briefly if he could
become infected that way.

“
Cassie, are you okay?”
Cage put his fingers under my chin to tilt my head up towards him.
I felt the sting of tears and turned my head away from him. I
pushed myself up off the ground so fast I fell right into him. He
held me up by wrapping an arm around my waist. I was not able to
walk yet apparently, and I was more embarrassed than
anything.

“
I’m fine.” He helped me
back over to the truck. “Cage, don’t be too hard on your Dad.” He
looked at me with disbelief. Rose gasped as if that was the last
thing she thought I would say.

“
Cassie, he just attacked
you,” he was saying, as he paced. “What if he has really been
infected the whole time and it’s starting to show?”

“
He’s not infected, Cage;
he wanted me to bite him. When I refused, he tried to make me. I
wasn’t going to do it until he pressed on this.” I held my hand up
and showed him the gash that spread across my wrist and was now a
bloody mess. Cage shuddered and pulled his shirt to the side. He
didn’t have to tell me his was getting worse too. It was a lot
wider than it had been. He pulled up his shirtsleeve and I saw that
it had spread to his arm. The edges of it were starting to turn
black and grey.

Sitting next to me on the truck bed,
he sighed and placed his hands in his lap.

“
Who would want to be
infected? That just sounds crazy.”

I agreed that it did sound crazy. I
also thought the fact that I could infect him was crazy. The
possibility of becoming one of those slow-walking groaners was
getting more likely. As the infection spread, I was sure that it
would be taking over.

Trent didn’t come back for a while. I
knew he was frustrated. I had already forgiven his attack on me.
When he did come back, he stopped by the truck and mumbled
something that sounded like, “Sorry.” Cage and Rose had climbed in
the back of the truck and were on either side of me. I guess they
were worried they should protect me. I was aware of how close Cage
was to me. I was glad I felt no desire to bite him. It had to be
because he was infected as well. I had wanted to bite Trent when he
was attacking me.

Fortunately for him, I still had some
control over my urges. I fell asleep, finding solace in this
miniscule silver lining.

When I woke up, the sun was already
shining down on me in the truck. Cage was no longer beside me. Rose
was snoring loudly in my ear. She had her leg thrown over me and
her head completely off of the pillow.

I sat up and looked around for a
minute. Cage and his father were standing a few feet away,
discussing something. I wiggled out of my sleeping bag and jumped
down from the truck. I assumed, somehow, no walkers had happened by
while we slept, but I saw two dead ones lying just feet away from
the truck and knew I was wrong. Knives were sticking out of the
heads, and I figured Trent had taken his frustration out on
them.

“
Good morning.”

“
Morning, Cassie.” Cage
turned his bright smile towards me. “Would you like a cheese
sandwich?”

“
Sure.” I tried to smile
at Trent. He looked uncomfortable and shoved his hands into his
pockets, turning away from me.

Cage walked to the front of the truck
and pulled a knapsack out. He set it on the ground and kneeled
beside it. I watched him pull out a loaf of bread and put the bag
back in the passenger seat. He went into the cooler in the
floorboard and pulled out some cheese. He handed me the sandwich,
after putting the cheese on the bread for me. It was the simplest
sandwich in the world. It was delicious and I asked him to make
Rose one.

As he made it, he started to tell me
about his conversation with his father. “He thinks we can find a
safety camp that will help us find the cure.”

I thought about that for a moment. “I
assume we don’t have a choice. What makes him think that the other
safety camps won’t react the same way that those did? “

Cage handed me Rose’s sandwich after
I finished eating mine. “I don’t think he knows, Cassie. I think he
is just desperate to help me. His two choices are helping me, or
becoming like me.”

Cage looked like a young boy caught
in between two hard places. His eyes told a story of a guy who
loved his dad. I knew he wanted the best for his Dad, but he also
knew that his infection was causing his father a lot of pain.
Without thinking, I pulled him into a hug. I stood on my tiptoes,
wrapping my arms around his neck. He stood stiff for a minute but
then encircled my waist with his arms. I realized, too late, that I
had smashed the cheese sandwich into the back of his neck. I heard
Rose snoring, as the sandwich dropped to the ground. At least we
could make her another one.

When Cage buried his face in my neck,
I felt the wetness of his tears. I fought back my own waterworks
simply to be strong for him. We really were in an impossible
situation. I didn’t want the hug to end, but Rose sat up at that
moment, letting out a loud sigh as she stretched. We jumped apart
and I could still feel the heat from his body on mine.

“
Rose, would you like a
cheese sandwich?” Cage grinned at me, as he went to get the bread
out again.

“
That would be nice.” I
wondered if Rose noticed the blush that was burning my
cheeks.

Trent decided that was an opportune
time for us to hit the road. We all piled into the truck and he
took off. I didn’t realize, until Cage asked why we were going back
towards Alexander, we were headed in the wrong
direction.