Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three) (14 page)

Mostly free
wasn’t exactly good news,
but it was better than
completely overrun
.

“You could come with us,” Vaughan offered.
“All of your people could. We could help you get some place safe.
Some place less… hopeless.”

The Rat King took another long pull from his
tequila bottle and grinned stupidly at us. “Why would I leave this
place? I used to be a rat, but now I am a king.”

I didn’t remind him that he wasn’t actually a
king.

If he had run drugs before the infection, he
would have been fourteen or fifteen at most. That meant his child
had been stripped from him and sold to corruption and danger. I
understood the appeal of running a place like this.

He wanted control of his life.

He wanted the power to make his own decisions
and call his own shots.

But his power wouldn’t last because this
place couldn’t last. I couldn’t stomach the idea of what they did
for food. Clearly he didn’t need water to drink when he had bottles
of tequila lying around.

This was not a sustainable lifestyle, but
somehow I knew that wouldn’t matter to him.

He was right, he was a king here. Out in the
rest of the city he would be nothing but bait.

I knew that feeling all too well and I hated
it. I hated that we were constantly hunted and threatened. I
completely understood his reasoning.

If I had the chance to set up someplace
stable, where my life and the lives of my loved ones, weren’t
forever at risk, I would take it in a heartbeat.

It was exactly what I was trying to do by
getting through this city.

“
Gracias
,” Vaughan said sincerely.
“Thank you for your kindness.”

The king pointed at Page. “What about her?
Can I have her?”

I resisted the urge to punch the idiot in his
stupid face. King and Vaughan stepped next to her and glared at
him.

“No,” Hendrix bit out. “None of our women are
for sale.”

The king tipped the bottle to his lips and
staggered back to his bed without acknowledging us again. We were
dismissed.

Miguel started walking again. Adela followed
him and gestured for us to come too. He said something to her in
Spanish and hitched his thumb back at us.

“He is going to collect Flora and Luis, then
he will take us to the tunnels,” she explained.

“What are these tunnels?” Nelson’s fear was
evident in his voice.

Haley had managed to get Lennon back to
sleep. He nestled into her body, but she wouldn’t be able to keep
him asleep forever. He would be hungry soon.

And then he would poop. Because that was all
he did. He ate and he pooped. Haley had been fashioning diapers out
of clean clothes donated from Andy and Joy, but they wouldn’t last
forever. And so far we hadn’t had enough clean water to wash them
out and reuse them.

“From what I’ve gathered, they used to be for
drugs,” Adela answered. “They would run the drugs out of the city
or into the city this way. Miguel has never been in them before,
but he knows about them. Everyone knows about them.”

“And they’re safe?” Nelson pressed.

Adela thought about her answer for a minute
before she said, “They’re safer than running through a city filled
with Dead.”

Nelson didn’t reply to that. She was right.
If we had to fight our way to Tomás, we would never make it. This
seemed like the perfect solution to our problems.

I still mourned the van and had no idea how
we would get beyond Tomás and his
catedral
, but I had hope.
If we’d made it this far then we could keep going.

I would not give up yet.

Or ever. If I had learned anything over the
last three years, it was that it wasn’t in me to back down or walk
away.

I was incapable of doing anything else but
fighting until the very end for my survival.

Miguel stopped by two different houses and
picked up the people that knew the way to Tomás. Luis was a spindly
boy, maybe a year older than Miguel. He had ridiculously curly hair
that stuck up all over his head. He was missing two front teeth and
had a jagged scar that ran the length of his right arm.

He listened to Miguel explain their mission
with a thoughtful expression on his face. I waited for the anger or
bitterness at having to guide us, but it never came. When he
answered Miguel, he had a huge smile plastered on his goofy
face.

“He thinks this is their opportunity to get
out,” Adela whispered to us. “He wants to leave this place, but
they couldn’t before. They think we’ll help them.”

Vaughan nodded once. His mind was made up.
“We will,” he said. “Of course, we will.”

My heart swelled with pride at his certainty.
I couldn’t ignore this nightmare. I couldn’t pretend it didn’t
exist. These kids needed help. They needed us.

They needed hope.

Next, we picked up Flora. I had no idea how
old she was. She looked extremely young, but it was hard to tell
because of how undernourished she was. Her hair had been pulled
into a braid over her shoulder, but it was limp and greasy. Her
clothes were too big and ill-fitting. Her face was streaked with
dirt, hiding her features and possible beauty.

Miguel and Luis teamed up on the poor girl.
They waved their hands around as they spoke and plastered big
smiles on their faces. I had no idea what they were saying and by
Flora’s blank look, I wasn’t sure she knew either.

When they were finished giving her their
spiel, she shrugged one shoulder and started walking.

They chased after her, clearly undaunted by
her lack of enthusiasm.

The three of them went on to ignore us as we
approached the tunnels that were built into the floor of a
house.

I could see how this tunnel would have been
handy during the pre-infection days. You know… from a drug dealer’s
perspective. Now, it would hopefully keep us out of harm’s way and
get us somewhere safely for a change.

The air changed as we descended into the
earth. Wooden beams kept the ground from caving in on us. Luis had
grabbed a big flashlight from the house and used it to lead the
way.

I shivered from the cool air and tried not to
freak out over how bad I smelled. This was a new low for me.

Thankfully, Hendrix was just as bad,
otherwise I would have been really self-conscious about it.

The rest of our group gave us plenty of
space. We helped them out by walking in the back and not touching
anybody.

I couldn’t shake my nerves as we snaked
through dark passageways underneath the city. This was too close to
our experience with the cannibals. I kept expecting one of them to
jump out and try to eat us.

Thankfully, nobody ever did.

Miguel, Flora and Luis laughed loudly at the
front of the crowd. They didn’t seem afraid of anything jumping out
at us or trying to eat our brains.

That should have helped me relax, but I just
kept expecting one of them to turn around and threaten to slow cook
one of us over an open flame.

Rotisserie Reagan.

Yum.

My body protested the long walk. My leg
burned and shook from my still-healing gunshot wound. My appendages
in general were exhausted from lack of sleep and our Zombie battle.
To make it worse, my boot’s heel flopped oddly whenever I took a
step thanks to the Feeder that tried to eat it.

I was already too tired to walk miles in the
darkness with the hope that a Zombie didn’t accidentally stumble
upon us. Add that to the lame shoe and I was in the worst possible
mood ever.

“You okay?” Hendrix asked in a low voice.

“Just ready for this day to be over,” I
sighed.

Hendrix leaned in closer and whispered,
“Sorry to let you down, but I’m pretty sure it just started.”

I pouted. There was nothing left for me to do
but pout.

Hendrix nudged me with his elbow. “Do you
know what
catedral
means?”

His question seemed out of the blue, but I
answered anyway. “I think it means cathedral.”

“Right.” He was silent for a little bit as we
navigated the cold tunnel. “Cathedral is like a church, right?”

“Um, right. Pretty sure. Although I doubt
people still attend services.”

I felt him smile next to me. I didn’t even
have to look to know that he thought that was funny. “Okay,” he
said, grinning. “Just keep that in mind.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Okay…”

“It’s important. I just want you to
remember.”

“Why is it important?”

“It just is.”

I had no idea where he was going with this.
“Are you trying to confuse me?”

He laughed in a low voice and I swear my toes
curled in my boots from the delicious sound. “Nope. I’m trying to
prepare
you.”

Before I could question him further, Haley
declared that she needed to feed the baby. Adela translated for our
tour guides. I watched Flora, Luis and Miguel’s faces all fall. I
couldn’t tell if they were jealous of the meal the baby got or if
it had to do with their missing mothers. Either way, they tugged at
my heart strings and made me thankful for the unexpected blessings
I had in my life.

We spread out on either side of Haley so she
could have privacy and we could protect her should anything happen
upon us. Baby Lennon started screaming while Haley set up, but
eventually settled into eating.

Adela stood next to me, fidgeting
nervously.

“Are you all right?” I asked her in a
whisper. Low conversation rumbled around us. We kept our voices
soft so we could hear intruders.

She looked at her hands. “Yes.”

“Liar,” I teased her.

She let out a puff of air and went back to
examining her dirty nails. “I don’t know if I made the right
decision when I left Diego,” she whispered. “It’s eating me
up.”

Oh.
Oh.
Oh, geez.

“What is the story with you two?” I couldn’t
help but be nosey. I had been dying for details since we met the
girl. Now was my chance to feed my unhealthy curiosity with other
people’s love lives.

She lifted her eyes slowly, but shied away
from looking at me the minute our gazes met. “He loves me,” she
admitted.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “I
picked up on that,” I said instead. “You don’t feel the same
way?”

“No! Of course not!” She sounded so sure of
herself, I immediately started doubting her.

A smart girl would have let this conversation
drop right there. But… it was just too tempting. “Not even a little
bit?”

She sputtered trying to come up with a
denial. A frustrated sound vibrated from the back of her throat.
“He is… he is…
was
Cartel. When the outbreak happened, he
had a chance to leave that life behind. Instead, he chose to follow
my father yet again and jump right back into the lifestyle he knew
I hated. Instead of selling drugs, he started to sell the Dead and
people. He became a slave trader, something he always promised me
he would stay away from.” Her dark eyes glistened with unshed tears
that I knew she would hold back. “He looked up to my father until
the last minute. Then, he became just like my father.”

“Who was your father, Adela? Before all of
this happened?”

“He was Diego’s boss. He was everyone’s boss,
but Diego was like a son to him. When Diego left him to start his
own territory, my father nearly died of heartbreak. Diego had asked
for me, but my father refused. I wouldn’t have gone with Diego
anyway, not after so many broken promises. But my father refused
for different reasons. He wanted to bargain with me. He wanted
Diego back under his thumb and he was willing to use whatever it
took to get him there. Instead, it backfired on him. Diego
kidnapped me instead. My father took part of Diego’s land as
retaliation and told everyone he sold me. Neither man cared what I
wanted. Neither cared about me at all. They only wanted what I
represented or what I could do for them. Diego might love me, but
his love comes with a price. Just like my father’s.”

“But you care for Diego?” I asked gently.

She shook her head, “Against my better
judgment. He did take care of me. He never treated me poorly.”

“Why did you leave with us then?”

Her mouth turned down into a frown. “At
first, I wanted to teach him a lesson. I wanted to show him how
much I meant to him and that he couldn’t simply take what he
wanted. But then… there is something about your family, is there
not? There was a promise of freedom. Real freedom. I couldn’t… I
couldn’t turn this down.”

“Thank you for coming with us.” My words were
as sincere as they could be. “We wouldn’t have made it this far
without you.”

She didn’t hesitate when she said, “You would
have. There is something with you. God is protecting you or
something. You should be dead. All of you should be dead, but here
you are.”

Her words impacted me in a way I hadn’t
expected. “Here we are,” I repeated.

“I’m ready,” Haley called after us. We filed
into our lines again and started walking through the darkness once
more.

Our mood was more subdued the longer we
wandered beneath the streets of Mexico City. This tunnel went on
forever.

How had they even created anything this
long?

The good news was that there were no Feeders
down here. The bad news was that by the time we reached the exit
for Zócalo plaza, my legs were burning and my stomach had started
screaming its hunger.

We emerged in a small building that had once
been some kind of tourist shop. The windows to the store were
shattered and the entire store had been overturned by looters. The
afternoon sun glittered off every surface. After hours in the
longest-tunnel-ever, it took me way too long to adjust to the
daylight.

By the time I did, I had just enough time to
modify my messenger bag, check the magazine in my handgun and flick
the safety before it was time to start shooting.