Love & Decay, Episode 11 (5 page)

              Sure we had boys now, but they’d only just arrived and we were only twenty. Our hearts and minds were fickle and unpredictable. Hendrix and Nelson might not last, or maybe they would, but it didn’t matter either way because Haley was my constant and I was hers. Even with the boys, she staked her claim first.

              She finally pulled away, her face messy with tears and snot, her blonde hair plastered to her cheeks and across her forehead. “You idiot!” she screeched and punched me in the arm.

              “Ow!”

              “What were you thinking? I thought you were dead!” She railed at me and her bright green eyes flashed with an acute mixture of rage and hurt. “Why would you
ever
go
anywhere
with him!”

              Hendrix choked on laughter a few feet away.

              “So how’s the happy reunion?” Nelson asked with an over the top grin as he wrapped his arms around Haley’s waist and pulled her back from me.

              “How could I have possibly known any of that was going to happen?” I snapped back- mostly because my emotions were worn thin and raw and because she was right.

              “Reagan, for the love of all that is holy, you live in the f-ing Zombie Apocalypse! Kane Allen is the antichrist and you were giving him a bath! You didn’t stop for a moment and think just maybe he’d call upon his minions to come save him and help him kidnap the damsel in distress?”

              “His minions are the Zombies in this scenario,” Nelson explained helpfully. “And I believe you are the damsel. Although, I might be wrong. Maybe Kane’s the damsel? I’m not exactly-“

              “Shush!” Haley elbowed Nelson in the side. “Reagan is obviously the damsel. Why would Kane be the damsel?”

              “Because of the distress?” Nelson was only sounding more confused. “Because he was the one imprisoned?”

              Haley growled at her boyfriend, while I tried to soothe her anger. “I knew what you meant, Hales.” I crossed my arms and gave Hendrix a pleading glance. Apparently he thought I deserved this because he only winked at me.

              “She knew what I meant,” Haley snarled. Her fierce gaze returned to mine and she continued with her rant, “Just so we’re clear I plan on removing his balls with a chainsaw and force-feeding them to him when he gets back here. So if you’re brainwashed into the Allen Cult of Keeping Feeders as our Houseplants then you should speak up now because it might be painful for you to watch. But obviously necessary.”

              “Geez, Haley, remind me never to get on your bad side,” Harrison winced.

              “You’re already there!” she barked back.

              I suppressed a smile when Harrison covered his crotch like men tended to do in basketball games during a pick and roll. She was out of control. Although I couldn’t blame her. If the tables were reversed I would have been out of my mind with concern for her.

              “Hales, I agree that Kane Allen is the antichrist, but you should probably let him keep his balls,” I stated nobly. “There was no brainwashing, no raping or pillaging, in fact, there wasn’t even a bath. I mean, there was a bath. But I had very little to do with it. I let him take care of all that. I’ll admit I should never have been out there in the first place with him, but I wasn’t a complete moron about it, alright?”

              “Oh,” Haley deflated a little bit. “Did he at least try to brainwash you?”

              “Are you honestly disappointed that he didn’t?” I shook my head at her, trying to understand.

              “I wanted a reason to unman him,” she shrugged.

              Vaughan jumped in, “You are a scary, scary woman.”

              “Ack!” Harrison gagged. “What’s that smell?”

              “Feeders,” Hendrix explained, moving back to my side. “They’re burning the bodies. We should go inside.”

              “Plus, Page wants to kick your ass next.” Haley looked at me meaningfully.

              “I doubt that,” I groaned.

              “Those were her exact words,” Haley promised.

              “Really?” Hendrix, Vaughan and Nelson all demanded at the same time.

              Haley rolled her eyes, “No! But you know she’s going to let Reagan the Idiot have it. Where were you by the way? How’d you survive? Was it Gage’s bunker?”

              “Yeah, Gage’s bunker, some good luck and some better aim.” I shrugged it off like I was in life and death situations every day. Oh, wait.

“Gage and Tyler guessed you’d make it to the bunker. Thank God for that,” Haley declared sincerely and then her eyes narrowed and she was back to being mad at me. “That’s your new name by the way. Reagan the Idiot. Get used to it!”

              “If you keep calling me that I’m going to let myself become brainwashed.” I dropped back and let Nelson pull Haley along ahead of us. Hendrix pulled me to his side with a possessive hand around my waist. He could not stop touching me. And I was falling in love with him more and more by the second.

              Haley was shouting something obscene at me, but the only voice I heard was Hendrix’s low and rumbly in my ear. “Over my dead body.”

              I turned toward him, forcing him to stop in the shade of the building. The door was just a few feet from us and the rest of the Parkers and Haley had disappeared into the loading dock area.

              “Don’t even whisper those words,” I demanded. I laid a hand against the rough stubble of his short beard.

              He nodded and pulled me tighter. “Tell me what happened before the Feeders came.”

              This was not an investigatory question of a smart, capable man trying to get to the bottom of a mystery.

              This was a vulnerable man trying to ease his jealous heart. This was the fragile part of the man that I loved trying to absolve the woman he cared about from the something that would rip his heart in two.

              And I would do anything to save that heart from experiencing anymore tragedy or ache. “We walked down to the river. I helped him with his socks and then I cut his zip tie free so he could wash himself. In hindsight, not wanting to touch Kane was probably what saved our lives. His hands were free so when the Feeders swarmed, he was able to fight.”

              “And he never asked you to touch him?”

              Ugh, how to say this? “He wouldn’t have said no if I would have offered. But I didn’t. There was no inappropriate touching the entire time we were together. There weren’t even really inappropriate words. Kane was perfectly distant.” A pang of guilt punched me in the stomach and I felt like puking. The thing was though, I was telling the truth. Kane hadn’t been overly anything. He had stayed on his side of the room until I was the one that needed him close. He hadn’t pressed the bathing thing once and I had been telling the truth about being alive because his hands weren’t free. He hadn’t acted in any way that was inappropriate.

              Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had lied to Hendrix- that something boundary-crossing did happen.

              If only I knew what it was.

              “I still hate him,” Hendrix swore.

              “I still hate him, too,” I promised right back.

              At that exact moment Kane, his dad and Gage walked through the back gate followed by a mixture of Matthias’s men and the men from here. They were tensed and relaxed at the same time so I had to assume they were discussing politics- hating each other but putting a good face on for everyone else. Their voices were low murmurs hidden beneath all the sounds of movement and activity in the courtyard area.

              “It’s time to go in now,” Hendrix declared shortly.

              Kane looked over and saw me standing with Hendrix. I watched his expression narrow and harden even from over here and stood astounded for a minute that I really had escaped that entire fiasco without getting hurt or losing something to me that was very valuable- like my pride and integrity.

              “I think so too,” I agreed quickly.

              We turned our back on Gage and his “meeting” and walked into the coolness of the building.

              “Ten bucks says Page really does kick your ass for leaving,” Hendrix chuckled.

              I didn’t say anything. How could I make that bet? I knew I was going to lose.

Chapter Three

             
Page hadn’t exactly kicked my ass but she might as well have when she looked up at me with those puppy dog eyes that accused me of abandoning her.

              And here I thought everyone had been sitting around worried about me!

              It felt more like I was being blamed for all this being my fault- even though I knew their anger stemmed from worry and concern.

              We were still set up in the activity room since there hadn’t been time to move to our new quarters yet. King had been hanging out with Page and although he didn’t exactly say he was happy to see me, he did smile at me when I walked in the room. So, there was that.

              “We need to talk,” Vaughan declared after Page had finished lecturing me on never leaving Vaughan or Hendrix’s side again. Even the eight year old was smarter than me. “We’re in a little bit of hot water.”

              We gathered around Vaughan in the corner of the sparse room and stayed quiet so Vaughan could keep his voice down and not be overheard by people walking by in the hallway. Hendrix hadn’t taken his hands off me since Kane reappeared and Nelson and Haley were the same way. Haley reached out and grabbed my hand too, while Page pressed her body so tight against my thigh I thought I would fall over.

              So, they had been a little bit angry with me.

              But now I felt loved- so loved my heart was bursting from their affection.

              Not even four months ago Haley and I had nobody but ourselves. And now I was so surrounded by love I wasn’t sure what to do with it all except hold on and never, ever let go.

              Hendrix pushed my hair to the side and pressed a gentle kiss to the nape of my neck. He took a deep breath and his arms tightened around me. We were both dirty, exhausted and he was covered in blood, but there was no place I’d rather been than in his arms.

              “We’re going to have to face Matthias Allen tonight. And I have no idea what to expect of him. Gage and I only had a few minutes to talk during the mission, but he told me Matthias would like those of us that were imprisoned at the Colony back. He would also like Reagan back in his custody since she technically was imprisoned as well. Gage has already told him that’s impossible and plans to protect us no matter what, but Matthias is insistent.”

              “He doesn’t have any actual authority,” Harrison reminded us with a passionate voice that broke a little, making him blush. “He can’t make you go back there.”

              “You’re right,” Vaughan agreed. “But Gage has to play this right. The Colony is better equipped with weapons and their men are actually trained. If they wanted to attack this complex imagine all the people that will die.”

              “Can’t Gage just throw around some legal terms to make Matthias feel better?” Haley asked. “Like amnesty and jurisdiction. He could say we came here seeking sanctuary and he granted it before he knew whom we were seeking it from.”

              We all stared at Haley for a moment until Nelson declared, “God, you’re sexy.”

              “Cuss jar.” Page wiggled her little hand as if Nelson could produce his dollar on the spot.

              “What for?” He tugged Haley closer to his chest and pouted like a child over her shoulder.

              “For the ‘s’ word,’ Page explained very seriously.

              “The ‘s’ word?” Nelson mumbled but we were all thinking over what she could be talking about.

              Haley was the first one to get it, “Oh, sexy.” And then she held her hands up in surrender so Page wouldn’t call her out too.

              “That’s not a cuss word!” Nelson all but bellowed.

              “Yes, it is!” Haley argued. “To an eight year old that is a terrible cuss word. You owe her a dollar.”

              “Traitor.” Nelson went back to pouting.

              “Anyway,” Vaughan drawled. “Back to the more pressing matter of getting extradited…”

              “Nice,” Haley couldn’t help herself.

              Vaughan ignored her. “We obviously need to keep a firm stance. Which should go something like, we left because we didn’t feel the Colony was right for us. We are trying to reach family down south. It wasn’t personal, but we are not ready to settle down. Keep any comments directed away from the inherent beliefs of the Allen’s or the Colony. Don’t mention their mistreatment of Feeders. And whatever you do, don’t mention Tyler or Miller. The official story is we split in Tulsa after we raided our first gun store. If you have to provide an explanation, give them the goriness in detail of what happened and then tell the truth, Tyler was scared out of her mind and wanted Miller with her and away from us.” Vaughan paused for questions, but we were pretty used to his way of organizing and leading so we just accepted the information and let our brains absorb everything important. “Oh, and one more thing,” Vaughan paused to meet us all in the eyes but I could have sworn he stayed on mine for several more seconds than everyone else. And then I was even more sure when he said, “And no, absolutely no martyrs. Nobody is leaving here without the rest of us. There is no scenario in which you are better off with Matthias Allen than you are with us. And furthermore there is no scenario in which we are safer with one of us gone. We stick together. We stay together. And the whole goddamn Allen family can go to hell if they think differently.”

              When he finished we all just stared at him. I mean, he was right- glaringly right and entitled to make that speech. But it was also a little shocking that he had to make the speech in the first place.