Authors: LJ Baker
Dan picked his bloody knife up from the counter and wiped it off on his discarded shirt. I knew he was thinking of going out there to help Derek, but he was in no shape to do any such thing.
"Hey." I grabbed the waist if his jeans and held on with the little strength I had. "Stay here."
"I'm fine, love. All patched up." He waved his hand across his chest and smiled. "See? Good as new."
I held back a laugh because I knew it would hurt. "You're a mess, you idiot."
"I'll be fine." He tried to pull out from my grasp but I held on.
"Don't leave me."
His smile fell and his face softened. "I'm not leaving you."
He pulled the other chair over and sat next to me. A moment later the door opened and Derek walked back in.
"It's all clear. Whoever else was here, is gone now."
Will peeked his head in behind Derek and smiled when he saw me. "Hey you."
His face was almost as bad as Dan's, minus the gashes.
"Okay, well we need to finish getting you guys patched up and figure out what we're doing. If there's another one, then we don't know if he's coming back, or if he will have friends with him when he does."
Apparently, Will's arm was broken and Derek went about putting a cast on it. Unfortunately for Will, the only cast bandages we had were hot pink.
"Maybe you should give him the pony shirt back, Andi. It will match his pretty new arm bling." Dan laughed and immediately regretted it as he grabbed his ribs in pain.
Will narrowed his eyes and smirked. "Keep it up assjacket and I'll crack jokes every chance I get. How's the ribs feeling funny guy?"
I grabbed my middle and groaned. "Uh mine aren't doing so good. Can we lay off the torture for a bit?" I pulled myself up and took the few steps to the med cabinet, making sure to hold on to the counter for support. I found the pain medication and held up the bottle to Derek for approval.
He nodded. "Just take it easy on those. They'll make you sleepy. Oh and none for you." He motioned to Will. "Give the concussion a couple days to subside."
"Aren't you going to be here?" Will asked.
Derek shrugged. "I'm not so sure you guys should be here. Besides, I could drop dead five minutes from now. You should know what to do."
"But, you're not leaving yet, are you?" The thought of Derek leaving with the three of us in that condition made my heart jump up to my throat and flip around a few times. "I mean, you can't just—"
"Andi, I'm not going anywhere. Calm down. I do think that we should rethink staying here though. With you guys in this kind of shape, it's probably best to get out of here right now. Maybe even come back to the base until everyone is all healed up."
I sighed. I didn't want to think about going back to the military base. It wasn't that it was an awful place. It wasn't, but it wasn't where we wanted to be. Though I couldn't help but think that if we had just stayed there and not left, we would have been better off. Except that I wouldn't have found Dan. But then again, Janet would be alive.
"You don't have to move back, but consider staying a few weeks until you are all back on your feet." He patted Will's back and tossed another set of gloves into the trash. "You're all set."
Will hopped off the table and looked over his new pink cast. "Couldn't I just have broke some ribs instead?"
"Dude, you don't wish that. I've had both and I can assure you that a broken arm is much better." Dan ran his hand over the bandages that wrapped around his middle. "Besides, pink is your color." He tried to hold back laughter, unsuccessfully, and groaned in pain.
Will smirked. "This might be more fun than I realized."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Derek re-secured the basement so we could pack up what we needed to head out in the morning. We didn't really discuss where we would go, but we all knew we couldn't stay there. There was no sign of Tim, and even though he wasn't nearly as scary as John, I didn't want to be around if he returned.
Derek set himself up in the living room area to keep watch at the door. I was pretty sure he wasn't planning on sleeping, but just having him there made me feel safer. I wanted to stay out there with him and the boys, keep us all together, but Derek insisted we try to get some rest after what we'd been through. I wasn't budging on staying together though, and insisted that Dan stay in the same room as me and Will.
Derek dragged John and Ben's bodies outside, but my bedroom looked like a slaughterhouse. Blood splattered the walls and soaked the rug. It was the last place I wanted to be, so we stayed in one of the other bedrooms. Before heading off to rest, we gathered up whatever we were going to bring and set the bags near the door to grab in the morning.
There wasn't much I needed to bring. My usual bag had already contained anything that was most important to me, but I grabbed some of the new warmer clothes I'd recently picked up and the things I'd taken from my old bedroom upstairs.
The guys packed some of the food we stocked up, tools, and other things they thought might be important if we were to be on our own. I knew it was going to be the last time we could come back to the basement for a while and I was sad to leave. It was the one place, home, that I could always come back to regardless of how bad it got out in the world.
After everything was set, Derek settled in on the couch and the boys and I headed to bed. There was only one bed, so we had to share, but after what we'd been through, none of us was going to complain.
"How are you feeling, love?" Dan asked and climbed into the bed next to me.
"Uh you were the one shot. I'm fine." I wasn't, but I didn't want him to worry.
"Wait, what?" Will propped himself up and looked over me at Dan. "When did you get shot?"
"Right after they got in. I can't believe you slept through that, Sleeping Beauty." Dan shrugged his arm out of the top of his shirt to show Will his bandaged bicep. I knew it was going to become one of those scars men bragged about having.
"Damn. I'm still not sure what happened at all. Pretty sure I was out cold for most of it."
I looked over Will's bruised face. It broke my heart to see him that way, but he had gotten off easy compared to Dan and me. The extent of my own injuries was starting to really come to my attention. My whole body was sore. It was as if I'd been trampled by a stampede of wild animals. Every inch of my body ached, in addition to the sharper pain in my side where I'd been stabbed. The cracked rib made it difficult to breathe and any movement or slightly deep breath, sent what felt like a hundred razor-sharp daggers through my chest. The pain pills took the edge off, but there wasn't anything that was going to give much relief.
Dan looked over me and frowned. "There are some things you never want to see. You can't unsee."
I reached down and squeezed his hand, knowing how difficult it was for Dan to see me hurt. To watch him get kicked in the face, or savagely beat, hurt with a pain that no words could describe. It was at least that bad for him. He felt like he was responsible to protect me, so watching someone hurt and nearly kill me, had to have been beyond difficult.
Will's eyebrows furrowed and he glanced over me. "What did they do to you?"
"Not as much as they could have. I'll be fine." I thought back to when Will had saved me from the cousins shortly after Will and I met. He'd sat at my bedside and cried, broken over what had happened to me, knowing he couldn't stop it sooner. There was no reason to make him feel that way all over again. It was over and I would live.
"Andi, I know you're not fine. Have you even looked in a mirror?"
I hadn't. It didn't even occur to me to get a better look at the damage to my face. The rest of me was bad enough and honestly, I didn't even want to see it.
"It can't be any worse than the two of you." I smiled and stretched up to kiss his lips. "I'm just glad we're all here together. I'll heal."
Will slid his arm under me and pulled me closer. I tried my best not to wince from the pain, but it didn't go unnoticed. Comfort wasn't going to be possible until some of the injuries healed, but being close to Will trumped any injury. The three of us, broken and bruised, did our best to settle in. And eventually dozed off.
The next time I woke, it was to a faint beeping that told my brain to pay attention, even if I had no idea what it was. I nudged Dan's good arm and he immediately sprang up, looking around.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" He pulled a gun from under the pillow and flipped on the lantern.
Will sprang up with a knife and climbed over me and Dan, to get out of the bed. "Who's there?"
"Hey, chill out. No one's there."
Both guys lowered their weapons and stared at me with a 'what the hell' look.
"Do you hear that beeping sound?"
Derek barreled into the room, gun drawn. "What's going on?"
I rolled my eyes. "Sheesh. Pop a xanax. I hear a beeping. Don't you guys hear that?"
Derek paused and looked around. "Yeah, what is that?"
"I don't hear a thing." Dan pulled himself out of bed and shoved the gun into his jeans.
"That's probably because one of your ears is nearly swollen shut. Dude, I think your face looks worse than it did earlier." Will held the light up to Dan's face and shook his head. "Damn. That's gotta hurt."
"That's gotta be coming from upstairs, and if we can hear it down here, it's got to be loud. I think we should check it out." I wasn't particularly excited to go back up there, but we didn't need it getting the attention of a few dozen flesh eaters hours before we were going to need to go out there.
"Derek nodded. "Yeah, I agree. I'll go."
"I don't think anyone should go alone. I'll come with you." Dan was certainly in no shape to go and although Will was probably in better shape than me, I just wanted him safe.
"I can manage, Andi. You stay here."
Yeah right
.
I followed Derek down the hall and slipped into my new boots as quickly as possible. As soon as he opened the door to the upstairs, I knew exactly what the beeping was.
"The smoke alarm!"
A thick plume of gray smoke blew into the basement and Derek slammed the door shut again.
"Get the guys, we have to get out of here."
Will and Dan were already making their way out to the living room and right away noticed the alarm on my face.
"What is it?" Will asked, his hand ready to pull the gun from its place on his waist.
"The smoke alarm. There's a fire upstairs. Grab your shit. We have to get out of here." Derek slung his massive pack over his shoulder and checked his gun and other weapons. "Now. Move."
I ran for the bedroom and grabbed my hoodie and quilt. My backpack and bag were by the door already so I just needed to grab it on the way out.
There was a fire.
It wasn't quite sinking in, but I knew we had to get out.
The boys had their stuff and were waiting by the door in less than a minute. Derek drew his gun, since we had no idea who might be waiting up there, or if it was some sort of ploy to get us out into the open, and we followed him up the stairs.
Flames shot up all around us and we held onto each other to avoid getting separated in the thick smoke. I held my nose and mouth inside my sweatshirt to avoid taking in too much soot, but it was impossible to breathe without coughing. We crouched down and I led the way out since I knew the house well enough to get around without being able to see or feel my way around.
The smoke alarm blared throughout the house and I was afraid of the attention it would draw. We had to get out of there fast. Will held on to the back of my hoodie, followed by Dan, with Derek in back. Within a couple minutes, we were at the front door. Derek stood, and pushed us behind him. If someone set the fire to draw us out, they could be waiting outside for us. His military training kicked in, and he took over once again.
There were plenty of places someone could hide out and not be detected, so I was pretty sure having him scan the area wasn't really going to mean much. It couldn't hurt though, so we let him go first and have a look, before we all got some distance from the front of the house.
Flames jumped from the upstairs windows, with black smoke billowing up toward the sky. The windows to my old bedroom were completely engulfed and it looked like that might have been where the fire started. The fire had already spread to the first floor by the time we made it to the front lawn. There was no containing it. My home, my safe haven, had not only been violated, but was about to be gone for good.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I stood in front of what used to be my family home and watched flames engulf the frame, stripping it down to the bones. The heat from the fire beat against my face. Bright yellows and oranges lit up the neighborhood and burning ash and soot danced in the wind, covering everything in its path.