Love and Decay (21 page)

In the next second two more Feeders latched
on to the right side of the vehicle. The SUV jerked from their
weight.

Hendrix pushed up on his knees and looked
back at me, “You got this?”

I nodded. “Always.”

He smiled at me briefly. “Then go get ‘em,
little sister.”

Hendrix and I cranked the windows down at the
same time. I pushed through the resistance because of the pressure
on the other side of the glass.

A Feeder’s body lay over the window, holding
onto the bar on the top of the car. As soon as there was space, a
decaying hand swiped through the narrow opening and nearly caught
my nose. I leaned back just in time and lifted the blade I’d
retrieved from my holster.

I poised my long dagger, ready to slide the
hand right off, but Luke’s voice cut through my intentions. “No
blood in the car! We’ll attract every Feeder between here and
home!”

I dodged another swipe. The Zombie was at an
awkward angle, so its movements weren’t the most nimble, but he was
still dangerous. Still deadly. And it didn’t look like he planned
to retract his hand any time soon.

My original plan had been to cut his hand
off. But that wasn’t going to work if I couldn’t get blood in the
stupid car!

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I had to shout
to be heard over the rushing wind and straining engine. The Feeder
screamed on the outside of the car, further obscuring my words. “I
can’t
not
get blood in the car! There’s no way I can keep
this clean!”

“You have to!” Luke hollered back. “Their
blood is like catnip! Every Feeder we pass on this highway will
find us!”

I growled at the door. And at the Feeder. And
at Luke for being everything I didn’t know he was. Turning around
to Reagan, I ordered, “Hold on to the boys!”

Without waiting for her reply I unlocked my
door, held the handle open and kicked out at it as hard as I could.
The sound boomed through the car and Hendrix and Miller both
shouted to see if I was all right.

I kicked out again, rattling the Feeder. His
hand dropped in, but with the rocking door he couldn’t get a good
hold to do any real damage.

I wrapped my arm around the seat and kicked
again and again. The door flew open, the wind taking it and
slamming it wide so it hit the Feeder Hendrix was fighting. Tyler
grabbed my arm before my momentum could carry me out the door.

My Feeder tangled with Hendrix’s before
losing its grip completely. It let go of the roof and dropped to
the ground, ending its plight with a sickening crunch on the harsh
highway.

I could finally tell that our SUV was picking
up speed. But we still had at least three Feeders attached to the
car like sucker fish.

I pulled my arm free from Tyler’s stronghold
and jumped up on my knees. The wind whipped at my hair, pulling it
from my braid and tangling it in front of my face. I pawed at it
uselessly.

Blade in hand, I leaned out the door, hoping
to aid Hendrix when the upper half of another Zombie dropped from
the roof. I screamed from sheer surprise, but quickly
recovered.

Its feet were anchored above and it clawed at
me while I scrambled back, half crushing Jagger and Reagan beneath
me. I wanted to stab at it, but the no blood in the car thing was a
serious problem.

The Feeder, terrifying as all the rest,
revealed his crazed, black eyes and peeling flesh. I heard Luke
shout something at me but I couldn’t make it out over the pounding
of my heart.

I tried kicking at it first, but the Feeder
grabbed my leg and dug its claws into my shin. I kicked it in the
head with my other foot and it snatched that one too.

Panic blinded me as I fought and kicked at
the stupid thing. Tyler simultaneously beat it with her fists while
she scrambled to reach a blade. And Luke continued to yank the
wheel from one extreme to the other.

I wanted to scream at him to stop because I
couldn’t get settled enough to do any real damage, but in truth it
was probably the only reason the creature hadn’t bitten me yet.

Its vicelike grip tightened on my legs and my
eyes watered from the pressure of it. Another window opened and
wind blasted across the interior of the cab.

My mind had gone black with confusion and
hysteria and all I could manage to concentrate on was getting the
Feeder off my feet.

Suddenly something heavy landed on the top of
the car. In the next second the Feeder jerked and wailed in anger.
Its claws stabbed my skin, sinking deeper and deeper until I
couldn’t bare the pain a second longer.

“Grab her!” Someone shouted from above.

Tyler threw her body over mine just as the
Feeder’s body flew off the top of the SUV. Its arms still wrapped
around me, the momentum nearly dragged me from the car. The impact
knocked the wind out of me completely as my entire body jolted like
it was going to be ripped in two.

Tyler’s grip started to slip and I made my
peace with death.

Tyler held tightly and someone else grabbed
me. The Feeder slipped instead of me, nearly taking my tightly
laced boots with him. When he finally let go, I pulled my legs back
and fought to stop the heart attack happening in my chest.

Miller’s head popped down from where the
Feeder had just been and I almost screamed again from surprise. We
shared a very intense look before he reached over, jabbed his blade
into the head of the last Feeder on the front passenger’s side
window and dislodged it from the vehicle.

I looked over to find Hendrix had been the
other person to grab me. The look in his eyes said everything. It
showed me how close I’d come to almost getting bitten again… to
almost flying out the open car door… to almost losing
everything.

“I’m alive,” I whispered. “I’m okay.”

There was no way he could hear me over the
roar of wind and engine, but he nodded. He knew. He understood.

He leaned down and pressed a swift kiss to my
forehead. Then he turned to his wife and sons to make sure they
were all right.

Tyler jumped out of the way just as Miller
landed in that seat. He just swung in like he was used to climbing
around on moving cars.

“Goddamn,” he murmured as he crushed me to
him in a violent hug.

I clung to him, grasping at his damp shirt
and windblown hair. My hands trembled and I couldn’t stop
shivering. The wind was cold as it whipped through the car, but
that wasn’t the reason I shook.

There had been plenty of close calls before,
but never had death been such an obvious picture as that Feeder
glued to my legs, desperately trying to drag me from the car. It
felt like the very hands of death had immerged from the pits of
hell to drag me back down to the fiery depths.

“Page, no more,” Miller growled against my
cheek. “I can’t take any more of those. You’ve got to stop.”

I pulled back so I could look him in the
eyes. I had to raise my voice to be heard, but I didn’t care if
anyone could hear us. The haunted look in his eyes and grim
expression across his face pulled at my heart.

I was used to surviving for my family. I was
used to making sure my family survived. And in a detached way, I’d
always felt like that about Miller. But recently… recently I had
started to take him into consideration.

Don’t die because it will destroy Miller.

Don’t get hurt because Miller won’t survive
it.

Don’t tip Miller’s scales any closer to the
dark side.

Survive for him.

Live for him.

If he can’t find the light, be the light for
him.

I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a
bad thing. I didn’t know if I’d started to lose my identity in him
or start to find my identity in us.

I didn’t know if I should be so concerned
with saving him.

Or if I needed to let him do that
himself.

I didn’t know.

“I’m okay,” I promised him. I put his hand
against my cheek. “I’m okay.”

He dropped his forehead to mine and let out a
long exhale. The car had finally straightened out and we could sit
there for a moment without rocking wildly back and forth.

I breathed in and my fear started to
dissipate. Miller’s warmth flooded me. I let it wrap around me and
erase my fears. Yes, he was worried about me.

Yes, he would do anything it took to protect
me.

But I would do the same for him.

It was less concerning when I knew I would do
whatever it took to see him happy and alive.

“Thank you,” I told him. My fingers tangled
in his shirt and I took my first deep breath.

“Always, Page. Every damn time.”

I had just started to smile, when Luke turned
around and ruined the moment by barking, “You broke the door!”

Miller chuckled when my entire body snapped
tight and I hissed a curse word beneath my breath.

I turned my head to face Luke, even though
his eyes were on the road. “You’re welcome!” I shouted at him. “You
ungrateful little-”

He cut me off before I could finish my
sentence, “You can fix it when we stop.”

My eyes bugged and my mouth dropped. He
wasn’t serious.

He couldn’t be serious.

This time when Reagan started cackling it was
at my expense.

Chapter Three

We stopped just before dawn. The sky had
lightened, turning a hazy gray so that it could hide the stars and
wash away the moon.

Luke and his people apparently had a series
of safe houses between the Mexican border and their home base. If I
had to guess, I would assume they had even more than that. Little,
inconspicuous dots of shelter mapped out all over the Midwest…
maybe farther.

They were not stupid about how they did
things. Or reckless. Or careless. Or forgetful. His team of men and
women were relentless. Every moment of every day.

And if he wasn’t such a douchebag, I would
have been able to appreciate that about him.

As it was, we were barely twenty-four hours
into finding each other again and I wanted to strangle him.

Or push him out of his broken door and feed
him to the Feeders.

Okay, that was probably an exaggeration. I
wasn’t homicidal.

At least not yet.

I had expected another dilapidated heap of
rubble, like the barn we’d gone to the night before. But this time
Luke pulled up to an abandoned store I heard Reagan call Wal-Mart.
The glass was mostly intact and the parking lot had only a few
abandoned vehicles cluttering the space.

I didn’t know if we’d crossed into another
state yet or were still somewhere in the middle of Texas, but this
area of the world had been abandoned for a very long time.

We didn’t pass a town or other stores or
anything other than overgrown or dead farmland before we came to
this place.

Luke and the caravan pulled around the back
of the building, even further out of sight. The first ray of
sunlight had just streaked across the sky when we all jumped down
from our respective vehicles.

Nobody made much noise. Luke hadn’t given any
specific instructions to be quiet, but he also hadn’t let us know
if it was okay to talk. So we just did what his people did.

That seemed like the safest bet.

Everyone moved toward a steel door that
appeared to be sealed shut. The woman named Trish reached it first
and brushed her fingers along the door and wall before retrieving a
brownish colored strap tucked in the seam. She pulled the strap and
the door swung open.

Tricky.

She held it wide and everyone looked to Luke.
He stepped forward and ran his hand over his face again. When he
looked at the crowd, I thought he seemed especially tired. Black
and blue bags appeared beneath his eyes and his actual eyeballs
were as bloodshot as possible.

“Inspect the cars,” he told his people. “Look
for blood. Look for spit and puss and anything they might have left
behind. Then stock up. We’ll head out for recon in about six hours.
Be ready.” When his succinct speech was finished he took three long
strides to the open door. Trish held it for him like a good
soldier. He turned back at the last second and barked, “And someone
see if they can fix my goddamn door.”

With that he disappeared into the dark hall.
A few people followed quickly after him while others stayed to deal
with the cars.

I didn’t know where to go and it didn’t
appear my family did either. We stood there awkwardly until Trish,
still holding the door open, said, “Just go inside already. He
would have told you if he wanted you to wash the car. He wasn’t
talking to you. So get out of our way.”

Trish looked as hard and rough as she acted.
Her very short, bright blonde hair could have been masculine if it
weren’t for her overtly feminine face. She reminded me of
Tinkerbell from when I was a kid and Zombies were only something
Scooby Doo could pull masks off to expose evil librarians and
greedy grounds keepers.

That is if Tinkerbell wore leather from head
to toe and carried a sawed-off.

Haley walked by Trish first and said, “We’re
nice people. You’ll learn to like us. I promise.”

Trish did not verbally reply but the look on
her face said that she thought she would too, she just needed time
to get to know us.

Just kidding.

The look on her face said she was super
disappointed the Zombies hadn’t eaten us all yet.

Reagan walked by next with a massive smile on
her face. She even stopped to introduce Trish to Jagger and Halen
who she was trying to herd inside the building.

Trish was polite to the children, but not
excessively polite. Reagan stood there for a while chatting with
her, forcing her to answer inane questions.

I watched my sister-in-law with awe. She had
nerves of straight steel and was not afraid to piss people off.

“Ten bucks says that girl punches Reagan in
the next ten minutes,” Harrison chuckled.