Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three) (19 page)

“I’ll go!” Haley shot up in her seat and slid
to the edge. “I, uh, I need to shake out some of this rust. I’ll go
too.”

“No,” Nelson disagreed. Only his one word
held the weight of a planet. It was one of those non-negotiable
declarations that made me nervous for my friend.

But it was too late. She’d all but dropped
Lennon in Nelson’s confused arms and hopped out of his reach. She
swooped down, under the pew closest to her and strapped weapons to
her body with scary speed.

“I can’t sit here for another second,” Haley
announced. “I’m going stir crazy. And I need a break from the
baby.”

Nelson blinked at her. “You need a break from
the baby, so you’re going to go kill Zombies?”

I pressed my lips together to keep from
laughing at Nelson’s dry tone.

Haley was undeterred by his sharp sarcasm.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I haven’t killed anything in way too long. I
can’t live like this. I can’t let all of my hard-earned skill go to
waste.”

“What about Lennon?” Nelson asked, completely
baffled by her behavior.

“I’m doing this
for
Lennon,” she told
him. “Nelson, I can’t forget how to fight… how to protect him. I
have to stay alert and deadly or he dies.
We
die.” She
paused to give Nelson a chance to respond, but he watched her
silently, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “It’s small, right
Reagan? It’s not a big deal.”

Nelson’s fierce glare swung to me. I held my
thumb and pointer finger up in the universal gesture for small.
“Tiny.”

“We’ll be fine,” Haley assured everyone.
“Reagan and I survived two years on our own. We’re like Cagney and
Lacey.”

“We’re like Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in
Bad Boys
. We’re so badass together. It’s unreal. Honestly.
It’s… crazy.” I tried to sound as confident as my words made me out
to be, but I wasn’t fooling anyone.

“When we found you two, you were seconds from
getting eaten,” Hendrix reminded us.

“Over eyeliner,” Nelson put in
unhelpfully.

Haley and I shared a look and tried not to
laugh. “Look how much we’ve grown!” She threw her arms wide and
squared her shoulders. “We haven’t risked our lives over eyeliner
in like…”

“Months,” I finished for her. “I mean, years…
A year. One whole year. Or maybe a little less. But you get the
idea. That was the one and only time we ever risked our lives over
eyeliner.”

“One of the only times we risked our lives
over eyeliner,” Haley clarified.

Hendrix looked helplessly at his brother. “I
can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I don’t think we have a
choice here.”

Nelson shook his head in disbelief. “She’s a
new mother. I mean, I get an opinion, right?”

I grabbed onto Nelson’s point and spun it in
our favor. “She is a new mother! That’s why she needs to go. No one
will keep a better eye on Harrison and King than Haley! She has
hormones and maternal instincts by the gallons! She could
out-mother a bear right now.”

Hendrix’s attention returned to me and with
not even a hint of humor he said, “I can honestly say that I have
never heard that expression before.”

“Because
mama bear
. Get it? Because
she’s mama bear.”

Hendrix stared at me.

“Oh, my god! Let them go!” Tyler snarled.
“Please, let them go. They’re driving me bananas!”

As if he agreed, Tomás reappeared and called,
“Reagan,
vámanos
!”

Nelson looked at his wife and resigned
himself to her willful nature. “Whatever you do, please don’t lose
a boob. Lennon needs those.”

She grinned at him. “Keep the boobs at all
costs. Got it.”

Hendrix looked back at me. “You too. Your
boobs are your top priorities.”

Surprised laughter bubbled out of me. “I love
you,” I told him, stepping close to him again.

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “You love me, but
not enough to do whatever I say.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck again and
licked his earlobe playfully. “You like my independence. Secretly
you find it sexy.”

His hands drifted over my forearms before
clutching them tightly. “I find everything about you sexy. One day
soon, I’ll show you just how much.” The teasing and humor dropped
from his voice when he said, “If it’s more than a small fight, you
get back in here, you get back to my side. If there’s a hint of
danger, you get back in here. Do not lose King or Harrison for even
a second. Do not let them do something stupid. Do not let Haley out
of your sight…” he trailed off, but then seemed to think better of
the whole thing. He pulled away from me and jumped to his feet.
“Screw this, Reagan. I’m going with you.”

I slammed my hands on his chest and held
strong. “Stop. Right there. Stay with your brother. Stay here. I’ll
be right back.”

He glanced back at Vaughan and I watched him
flinch with indecision. “Reagan…”

“He needs you, Hendrix.” I dropped my voice
to a whisper, “Your sister needs you. This is a small thing. Trust
me to handle it.”

“But, I can’t just let you-”

I looked into his beautiful blue eyes and
promised, “You can.”

“You’re supposed to stay by my side.”

I smiled gently. “I’m always by your side.
I’ll never leave your side again.”

His expression crumbled with resignation. He
didn’t really have a choice in this, but I needed his support. I
wouldn’t be the same out there without it.

He tilted his chin toward Tomás. “Go, then.
But don’t be gone long.”

My smile turned into a grin and I kissed him
fully on the mouth. “We’ll be right back.
All
of us will be
right back.”

He kissed me quickly, passionately, with so
much force and intention I staggered away wearing a blush. “I love
you,” he swore.

“I love you too.” Then I bent down to tuck
weapons into all of the places they would stay and keep. When I
finally joined Tomás, Haley, King and Harrison in the hallway, they
were as equally armored as I was.

The rush of adrenaline heated my blood and my
fingers tingled with the sick anticipation of future kills.
Harrison had been on to something when he said he needed to kill
something.

I felt it too. I felt it in my gut, deep in
my bones.

“
Vámanos
, Tomás,” I ordered.

Chapter Two

Guns in hand and more tucked away in every
secure crevice of our bodies, Haley and I followed Tomás to the
back of the church. A group of armed men waited for us at a cluster
of backdoors.

“Are you sure you’re up for this, Hales? You
don’t have anything to prove. We can handle this without you. You
should go back… take it easy or something.” I couldn’t shake my
worry for Lennon. What kind of friend was I to let Haley leave her
new baby behind? I felt nauseas with concern.

“Reagan, I can’t sit back any longer. I had
months of taking it easy. I’m so over taking it easy!” She ran a
frustrated hand over her face and dropped her voice to a whisper.
“I cannot let Nelson do all of our fighting. Eventually… I know
what kind of world I brought Lennon into. If I lose this,” she
waved a shaking hand at her body. “How long will I survive? How
long will I be able to keep Lennon alive?” She cleared her throat
and blinked away tears. “What happened to Vaughan could happen to
any of us, okay? God forbid it happen to Nelson, but if he’s the
only one fighting to protect our family, then it’s only a matter of
time. I have to get back into shape and find my inner-killer again.
I have to protect my family.”

Emotion clogged my throat. I knew exactly
what she was saying. “You know you have a family protecting your
family, right? We’re all here. We’re not going to leave you.”

She shook her head. “I refuse to be the weak
link. Lennon is enough of a burden already. I can’t add to
that.”

“He’s not a burden,” I whispered
fiercely.

“He is,” Haley insisted. “He’s a blessing.
He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. But he’s also an
extra burden.”

“He’s worth it though.”

She shot me a furious glare. “I never said he
wasn’t worth it. I just know that I can be doing more. That I
have
to do more.”

Tomás launched into a conversation in
Spanish. Since we left Adela back with the rest of the family, we
stood idly by and waited for someone to fill us in.

“Twenty,” Tomás finally told us. “They’ve
counted twenty. We will take them all out. Do not leave one
survivor.”

Those were instructions he did not need to
give us. We knew this drill well.

I looked back at Harrison and King. “You guys
ready?”

Harrison flashed a wicked grin, “Ready to
murder these bastards.”

Someone shoved the door open and gray light
filtered into our dim sanctuary. I craned my neck out the door to
see overcast skies and streaks of lightning.

Not the best conditions, but hopefully the
sky would hold back its oncoming downpour until we were safely back
inside.

I looked down at my new tennis shoes. They
were a size and a half too big, but they were clean and
functioning. I loathed the idea of getting them wet or walking
through mud or caking them in Zombie blood.

This was why we couldn’t have nice
things
.

Tomás shouted something in Spanish that I
took to be a war cry of some kind; then we pushed through the
narrow door and jumped into a fight right away.

Tomás had said twenty feeders waited for us,
but either he couldn’t count or his English had gotten
confused.

I counted at least sixty right off the bat,
with more catching up in the distance.

And there were twelve of us.

Clearly, I would use Tomás’s definition of
twenty when I told Hendrix about this later.

The cobblestone street stretched out in front
of us in a wide plaza before buildings sprouted close together on
the other side. I saw a tourist shop that had once upon a time sold
t-shirts and other souvenirs from this magnificent cathedral. A
tipped over food stand lay smashed to pieces fifty feet away.
Shattered glass littered the streets and sidewalks.

And Feeders filled every other space.

This was the definition of the Zombie
Apocalypse.

And wasn’t I lucky to be a part of it?

We jumped into battle, shooting Feeders and
staying out of each other’s way. Harrison, King and Haley stuck
close, which was a good thing because I was too busy to keep a
close eye on them like I’d promised Hendrix.

Adrenaline pushed through my body, a violent
force of super-concentrated senses and rapid heartbeats. My limbs
were slow and sluggish at first. I hadn’t done anything but sit
over the last few days and it took me a few minutes to get into my
groove.

“To your left, Reags!” Haley shouted.

I followed her order without question and
blasted a pasty, rotting Feeder right in the mouth. His head
knocked backward with the explosion and blood and brain matter
splattered the ground around him as he crumpled to his final
death.

Bang. Bang. Bang
. I systematically
took out Feeder after Feeder as we held our ground on the cobbled
portico. Unfortunately, in order to hit them they had to get
close.

Too close for comfort.

Feeders flooded the area. They scrambled over
rooftops and raced around the long stretch of buildings across the
wide street. Cars had been abandoned at some point and created
natural barriers to the attacking line of Feeders.

The ground we stood on was perfectly flat and
gave us no advantage against the incoming, greedy horde. They
popped out at unpredictable places, their jaws working up and down,
slobbering black ooze that reflected their dark hunger.

I didn’t know if they consciously ducked
behind cars and the remains of what used to be pretty landscape or
if it was all coincidental. I didn’t want to believe they could
think ahead or recognize danger, but they appeared to be cognizant
enough to duck out of the way just in time.

Or maybe that was my frustration playing
tricks on me. My kill count wasn’t nearly as big as I wanted it to
be.

“We need to get higher!” Harrison shouted
over the roar of gunfire. “We can’t see them all from here!”

I agreed, but there was no place to go. We
could climb parts of the intricately designed church, but we’d have
to back up in order to do that. We were trying to push the Feeders
away from the church doors, not bring them closer.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about any
doors but these. The Feeders had caught our fresh flesh scent and
would be drawn to us. They wouldn’t waste time beating down one of
the other huge doors when there was a promise of something warm and
delicious just around the corner.

They weren’t that smart.

Or at least I hoped they weren’t.

King rushed forward and Haley and I struggled
to keep him covered. His accurate shots saved his life more than
once, but when he put his gun down to climb on top of a mid-sized
sedan, I nearly shot him myself.

Stupid boy!

The metal groaned beneath his weight, but
once he was firmly planted on top, he had the best perspective.

His weapon flew back into action and Feeders
started falling left and right.

“Genius idea!” Harrison yelled before
following after his brother. Harrison picked a cab that had crashed
into a landscaped tree.

Haley and I cursed as we ran to catch up with
him. He leapt onto the trunk with one running jump and then vaulted
straight to the roof. The metal bent beneath him and he stumbled to
the side, arms waving wildly to catch him.

“Hang on, Harrison!” I screamed at him.

A Feeder followed him up, leaping from one
parked car to the trunk he’d just vacated. I focused my weapon and
shot it in the side of the head. It fell forward and smashed
against the cracked back window.