Love and Decay, Boy Meets Girl (5 page)

A nervous laugh bubbled up in Reagan and
escaped before she could compose herself. They were definitely
making fun of us and now I couldn’t help but feel this obnoxious
need to know what was said.

“We’ll take it,” Reagan said easily. “We’ll
leave first thing in the morning, but we will take your offer.”

“Definitely,” the friend agreed. And then she
made proper introductions. “Oh and I’m Haley and this is
Reagan.”

We nodded in return, trying to play it cool.
I watched Nelson stiffen though, his whole body went rigid and
alert. I followed his gaze to Haley. Maybe I wasn’t the only one
feeling the presence of females for the first time in way too
long.

“Nelson,” Vaughan noticed too and did not
seem pleased. “Get Page. She’ll be safe from these ones.” Then he
turned back to the girls. “I’m Vaughan, you’ve met Hendrix and
Nelson. My other two brothers are Harrison and King. Nelson went to
get our sister, Page. Best you stay away from her. If anything
happens to my little sister, all responsible parties will suffer
before they die excruciating deaths, got that?” Vaughan’s warning
was a little over the top, but necessary. And I was glad he gave it
because somehow I’d forgotten. Page was the only good thing left in
our lives and we would protect her until death. Our entire lives
revolved around defending that little girl and there were a lot of
people in this world, even apart from Feeders, that would try to
hurt her. And no matter how pretty Reagan’s smile was or how dark
and mysterious her eyes could be, she did not get to hurt my
sister. Ever.

“Sure thing, boss,” Haley walked by, tapping
Vaughan on the shoulder. She moved on to King and Harrison and
asked about their accommodations for the night. Both boys were
completely dumbstruck by a pretty girl talking to them and I needed
to remember this so I could use it later to torture them with.

I glanced back at Reagan while she talked
with Vaughan and realized I didn’t have any room to judge. This
girl had done something to me. From the moment I saw her picking
through socks, I couldn’t shake the effect she had on me.

And I didn’t think I wanted to.

So the best thing to do would be to avoid her
until she left.

I didn’t like all these….
feelings
. I
wasn’t used to them and they didn’t belong in my world or in my
body. I didn’t have room in my life for any other people-
especially too-skinny girls, with too big eyes.

So I avoided her for as long as I could.

Well, it was kind of easy. The two of them
got busy with their packs and took their time in the bathroom. When
they emerged after a while, they had clean hair that hung in long,
wet strands around their shoulders and made the entire floor smell
like girly soap and water. Or maybe I was imaging the fresh, floral
smell taking over our entire space.

No I wasn’t.

All of my brothers had tuned into the girls.
Part of it was because they were girls, that had been in the
bathroom together, getting clean. I mean, come on, even I wasn’t
above playing out that fantasy.

On top of that, they were pretty girls. They
would have peeked our interest no matter the circumstances.

But they were also different. We’d been
staring at each other for way too long. They brought a new aspect
of life with them, turning us inside out and reminding us of every
single thing we gave up when Zombies took over the world.

They were fresh air, light in our dark world,
they were the change that would save us from the slow death of
monotony.

But they would be gone in only a few short
hours.

Something inside me rejected that idea-
overruled the notion with a strong riptide of angry emotion. I was
just starting to feel awake again- alive again- and all they’d done
was arrive.

How could I give that up?

How could I give
her
up to the
elements of this world that would fight tooth and nail to destroy
her in one way or the other?

The answer: I couldn’t.

But how to activate my plan….

I looked up to realize I was pacing, wearing
a track in the cold tile beneath my feet. I felt like a caged
tiger, hot with energy and unfamiliar emotion. My neck prickled
with the urge to act, my hands and feet felt restless with
uncertainty. And my attention… my attention pulled constantly in
her direction.

Our gazes clashed together when my eyes
obediently followed the desire I had been desperately trying to
ignore. She had been talking with her friend, eating the peanut
butter we all hated and kept only in case of emergency. She seemed
a hundred years younger all clean and fresh. Her hair was the kind
of hair that would wrap around me, get tangled in my hands, curtain
us in if she were to….

She tore her gaze away and looked down, a
bright blush painting her cheeks that I could see from all the way
over here.

I had to talk to her again.

I had to just be near her.

My opportunity came when Page walked over to
them. I probably should have intercepted my sister- we didn’t want
her to grow attached to people that would only be leaving. But
honestly I wanted my sister’s opinion. Page was wise well beyond
her years and saw things in people we didn’t always catch.

I wanted to see if Page approved.

Because if she didn’t, I could end this weird
infatuation. I could walk away.

But it didn’t seem like that would be
necessary. Page’s face lit up the minute she started talking with
them and all of the girls started laughing and teasing each
other.

Something clicked together in my chest and I
had the distinct feeling that this was what was supposed to be
happening right now. I had thought to test them with Page, but in
some deep part of me I always knew Page would like them. And that
they would like Page.

Now I had my chance to go over there. I moved
quickly, prowling across the space between us like that same
captivated tiger.

“Hey, Page,” I said slowly, using my
leadership and relationship to my little sister to enter their
secret girl circle. Was that wrong of me? Probably. I didn’t care.
“Making some friends?”

“Hendrix,” Page looked up at me with those
adult blue eyes that seemed so out of place on her angelic little
face. “
They
have manners.”

I almost choked on my laughter and then on
something else when Reagan winked at me. Damn it all, she was so
sexy. I shifted uncomfortably as a thousand sinful thoughts flashed
in my head.

I was a tiger. I was the predator.

And she had no idea.

“I think Page has given up on the male
species as a whole,” Reagan explained. “As it turns out boys
everywhere aren’t able to remember their manners.”

I felt a little embarrassed by this. It was
true, my brothers and I had fallen into a kind of barbaric rhythm
without the supervision of our parents or other women. But we
couldn’t be that bad. “We just tease her,” I mumbled.

“And the male species
is
lost as a
whole,” her friend put in- unhelpfully. “Probably best not to get
her hopes up.”

There was something I should say to that,
although I couldn’t think of what exactly without coming off like a
creepy stalker.

Vaughan cut in before I could salvage the
situation anyway, “Is that why you two are traveling alone?”

The rest of my brothers joined us as soon as
Vaughan was part of the crowd. Apparently they’d been as impatient
as me. I didn’t blame them… but damn, they were obnoxious.

“Who’s left to travel with?” Haley growled.
“Everyone we know is dead.”

“Except us,” Reagan added with some
conviction- like she needed to remind herself.

“Except us,” Haley whispered.

That pain in my chest was back and I knew I
wouldn’t let these girls leave in the morning. This, right here. I
needed to keep them safe. Possibly, I had a hero-complex. Or
possibly, Reagan had shown up and unearthed some great piece of
humanity that had been missing in me since humanity went missing.
They had survived this long, but it didn’t mean they would continue
to survive. They were carrying the weight of the world on their
shoulders and I knew exactly how heavy that burden was. I would do
anything to hold it for them, to give them a little more room to
breathe.

“How did you girls survive? How have you
survived this long?” Nelson asked. I wondered if his thoughts went
in the exact same direction as mine.

“We got kind of lucky. Everything fell apart
for us in three days. When Reagan’s boyfriend tried to eat her we
decided it was time to skip town and head south.”

Reagan’s boyfriend tried to eat her?

Too much anger- too late- burned inside my
blood, hot like lava and more dangerous than was acceptable.

“Where are you from?” Vaughan asked.

“Iowa,” Haley answered.

But that was not the question or answer I
wanted to hear.

“What do you mean your boyfriend tried to eat
you?” I demanded.

Reagan looked up at me with lost, helpless
eyes and then explained, “In two days, we’d both lost our parents.
We hadn’t really taken the Zombie threat seriously until then. I
mean, honestly, who could have known Zombies turned out to be real;
they were supposed to just be this thing in movies. Our parents got
off easy. They were in a town assembly, with most of the other
adults, trying to figure out what to make of the military and news
reports and the assembly was attacked. Some were turned into
Feeders, but a lot of them were just slaughtered. Our parents were
the lucky ones.” She paused and we all took in the meaning of that
admission. She meant they died- on the spot. A quick death was by
far the better way to go in this world. It was definitely the way I
hoped my parents went. “We thought about sticking around, making a
haven of the place we’d lived our whole lives, but when Chris came
over to stay with me….”

She trailed off as the name “Chris” traveled
like acid through my veins. What was with this outdated jealousy?
Obviously she’d made it out just fine.

Still.

Haley continued for Reagan, where she’d left
off, “He tried to gobble her up. So she stabbed him in the face
with a butcher knife and then practiced parallel parking on his
body until his head wasn’t attached to his neck anymore.”

Holy shit!

No wonder these girls had survived this long.
They could do what it took to survive. That was the hardest part-
putting your humanity aside and finding a way to commit unspeakable
acts of violence.

“Impressive,” my older brother whistled.

Reagan bristled a little, uncomfortable with
the compliment. “Necessary,” she said instead.

“Definitely,” I assured her.

“And then you guys just booked it?” Nelson
asked.

“First we confirmed that neither of us had
added brains to our daily food pyramid and then we packed up the
still bloody Escalade and drove it till there wasn’t any gas left,”
Reagan answered.

Haley added, “Which wasn’t very long. We’d
only had a half tank to begin with and by the time we needed to
fill up, the gas stations were war zones. We ditched the car and
started walking.”

“Smart of you not to risk gas,” Vaughan
sounded impressed.

And I had to admit, I was impressed too. Gas
stations were some of the most dangerous places when the outbreak
first happened. Man killing man, insane Zombie playgrounds in which
people didn’t stand a chance, and then the wild animals after the
carnage.

“What’s your ultimate plan?” I asked,
mentally daring Reagan to look at me again. She did.

“We’re going south,” her friend said, but I
didn’t take my eyes off Reagan.

“South where?” This didn’t make sense. After
everything I’d learned about Reagan in this short amount of time,
this was the first truly irresponsible thing she’d said.

She cleared her throat and gave Haley a
desperate look. However, when her eyes met mine again, they were
steely, confident and full of conviction. “South America,
compadre
. Or what used to be that general vicinity.”

No. Nope. Not a chance in hell was this girl
going down there.

At least not alone.

No wait, now I was completely crazy.

“You can’t be serious,” Vaughan said. We
shared some more nonverbal communication and I realized these girls
had started to grow on him too. I wasn’t sure how I felt about
that.

“Dead,” Haley smiled innocently at him.
“Serious that is.”

“Why in the
hell
would you want to go
down there?” Nelson demanded.

“Language,” Page reminded him.

“Sorry, Pagey,” Nelson apologized quickly and
then snapped his attention back to Haley. “Why in the
world
would you head south? You have to have heard about the drug cartel?
The slaving? The armies of
Zombies
?”

My thoughts exactly.

I expected some great explanation, but Reagan
just lifted her shoulder and said, “Sure, we’ve heard of those
things.”

I couldn’t hold back, “And you’re still going
there?” Anger built like a volcano inside me. I refused to let
these girls make such a huge, costly mistake. They would die down
there. They’d barely made it out of southern Missouri. Things only
heated up from here. They had no idea what they were getting
themselves into. Or maybe they did and they were just foolish
enough to believe they were better than legions of Zombies and men
who decided human life meant little more than the Feeders that
hunted them. “What’s down there that would make you willing to face
Zombies in
hordes
, or worse, ex-cartel that would
enslave
you
and make you entertain whole
encampments
of men?” My
hands had started to shake at my sides from the frustrated feeling
of helplessness and I
hated it
. I flexed and clenched them
trying to get my emotions under control. But Pandora’s Box had been
opened and I had been completely reawakened with Reagan’s entrance
in my life- a corpse resuscitated, a soul revived, a future
reimagined.