Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three) (15 page)

Feeders filled the square from one side to
the other. I could see the cathedral Miguel had led us to across
the plaza, but there were fifty Feeders between here and there.

It was an impossible distance.

There was no way we could make it.

“Haley,” I whispered, hating this moment.

She looked over at me and met my concerned
gaze. “We’ll be okay,” she promised. “I’m not going to let anything
touch him.”

I nodded, but I couldn’t speak. Too choked up
to say anything, I let her promise anchor me. She was his mother.
She would protect him at any cost.

Vaughan scooped up Page and put her on his
back. We had thirty seconds before the Feeders noticed us and we
used the time to get as prepared as possible.

“Straight line,” Vaughan ordered. “So we
don’t shoot each other.”

“Give me the baby,” Nelson pleaded softly
with Haley. “You’ll be able to run faster without him.”

“No,” Haley protested.

“Hales, I promise to keep him safe. Trust
me.”

“I do,” she sniffled. “But I can’t lose you
both.”

Nelson took a step into her and pressed his
forehead to hers. “You’re not going to lose either of us.”

Adela lifted her head from where she’d been
having a conversation with Miguel and friends. “They want to come
with us,” she said. “They don’t want to go back there.”

I didn’t blame them.

“To the church,” Hendrix decided quickly.
“They can come with us to the church. But no farther.”

Adela relayed the message in Spanish and
while Luis wanted to protest, Miguel was on board. In another
second it didn’t matter what Luis thought anyway because we were
forced into motion and our conversation would have to wait.

We sprinted as fast as we could across the
open plaza. A beacon of hope and survival, the huge spirals of the
church loomed over us.

The uneven ground tripped up my tired legs,
but the adrenaline surging through my blood gave me the drive to
keep going.

Feeders converged on us from every direction
and I was forced to slow down in order to shoot at them. We were so
close to safety, yet impossible obstacles stood in the way.

As a group we managed to keep them out of our
way. I leapt over fallen bodies and nearly tripped when a hand
reached out and snagged my ankle. Hendrix’s arms were there to
catch me, his gun there to shoot the Feeder in the head and finish
its death. He helped me pull free and encouraged me to run faster
while we tried to catch up to everyone else.

I felt Feeders at our backs, practically
breathing down our necks. We had a head start, but they were so
incredibly fast it didn’t matter.

If they managed to catch up to us…

We also had to figure out how to get the
church doors open. They looked insanely thick. I didn’t think
anyone inside would be able to hear our screams.

We shouted anyway. My lungs burned as I
struggled to push myself forward and get someone’s attention.

Nobody came out of the cathedral and I
wondered if the Rat King had tricked us. Would he have sent us here
to die? I didn’t want to believe it, but I wouldn’t put anything
past anybody these days.

I forced my body to keep going, for my feet
to keep moving. I had to make it.
We all had to make it.

I focused on the steps of the church and
promised myself that if I could make it to those steps that I might
be okay. If I could just get there, I might live through this
day.

Just as we closed in on the entrance, the
Feeders picked up their second wind and renewed their efforts. A
shrill shriek rang through the air managing to be both guttural and
ear-splittingly high at the same time.

I put one foot on the step and fought the
urge to breath with relief. I took the stairs three at a time,
desperate to get to the top and open the doors.

So close.

Just a few more steps.

A scream rent the air again, but this time it
didn’t belong to a Feeder… it belonged to one of us.

I chanced a look behind me and saw my worst
nightmare come to life.

The Zombies had caught up to us. They’d
managed to wrap their super strong arms around the shoulders of
people I cared about. One of the Feeders sunk his teeth into an
exposed neck and started ripping out flesh and bone.

“No!” I gasped. “
No!
”

I blinked back panicked tears and tried to
make out which body had just been given a death sentence. It took
me way too long to understand it was Flora’s face staring at me
with unseeing eyes.

Oh, god, Flora.
But I didn’t know her.
It wasn’t someone I loved more than myself.

I jumped back a step and used my gun on a
Feeder taking advantage of my distraction. I shot twice and managed
to get it in the head. The creature dropped back and toppled down
the stairs.

“We need to get inside!” I shouted.

Hendrix reached for my free hand and yanked
me along with him.

I put my hand on the door handle, ready to
pull when Page screamed, “No!
Vaughan
!”

Chapter Four

Harrison yanked Page back from where Vaughan
had tossed her. He picked her up in his arms and sprinted back to
the massive arched doors. I should have done the same thing.

I should have let my self-preservation kick
in. Or I should have thought about the rest of our group that still
needed to be saved. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Vaughan. I
couldn’t
not
help him.

I wrenched my arm out of Hendrix’s hold and
sprinted to where he fought the Feeder on the ground. I couldn’t
tell if he’d been bitten yet or not. I just knew I wasn’t going to
let the Feeder, now Feeders make a buffet out of him.

Tyler joined me. Then Hendrix and Harrison,
King, Nelson and Miller. We opened fire on everything headed our
way. The number of Feeders had grown; they sprinted toward us with
salivating mouths and hungry red eyes. Their lightning speed
carried them swiftly across the plaza.

I didn’t have time to count them or worry
about my ammo. All I could do was kill as many of them as I could
and hope that I did enough.

My gun clicked empty and I frantically
searched my messenger bag for more ammo or a loaded gun. I pulled
out the smallest handgun I had, just a tiny revolver that I saved
for emergencies. It was the only thing I had left.

I opened fire and took five more Feeders out
of the race. But that was it for me.

I glanced around for Hendrix but he wasn’t by
my side. Fear flared through me and my breath screeched to a halt
in my lungs.
Where was he?

We had a deal!

It took me a second to find him. He wasn’t by
me because he was at his brother’s side. The bullet exploded
through the Feeder’s head and the beast collapsed on top of
Vaughan, mouth agape, dripping black ooze.

Hendrix shoved the Zombie off his older
brother and helped Vaughan to his feet. They didn’t take the time
to check out his wounds; instead they shouted at us to retreat and
sprinted the short distance to the door.

Just when I thought it was going to be too
late, that the Feeders were going to catch up to us and tear us
limb from limb, the cumbersome door swung open and an army filed
out.

Men with machine guns and automatic rifles
filled the landing. I bounced around between solid shoulders as the
men took their places and started massacring Feeders.

I squeezed through the compacted wall of them
and stumbled the final few feet into the darkened cathedral. Rapid
gunfire crackled behind me, drowning out any other sound and my
frantic thoughts all at once.

I kept my head lifted just long enough to
find Hendrix. Then I collapsed into his arms and we slid to the
floor.

Tears poured from my eyes in an embarrassing
release of adrenaline. I had been consumed with fear and drowned in
panic. My body had reacted with bursts of just enough energy to get
me through the door, but then there was nothing left of me. My
system crashed as quickly as it jolted to life.

Hendrix held me for the second time today
with patience and devotion. I cried into his dirty neck and tried
to pick up the shattered, exhausted pieces of my sanity.

When the men with machine guns came back
inside, I pulled myself away from Hendrix and wiped my eyes with a
cloth Haley held out to me.

I stood up slowly, careful of my aching leg
and tried to look presentable.

At least as presentable as today would let me
be.

A man stepped forward wearing military
fatigues and a gun strapped to his back. He started speaking in
Spanish and I stood still while Adela took over.

“I am Tomás,” he said with rough English
after Adela explained who we were. His sweaty face broke into a
grin. “Welcome to my home.”

I followed his hands as they gestured
animatedly and my mouth dropped open. The cathedral was like
nothing I had ever seen before.

High windows let in natural light and
illuminated the incredible space that had somehow been preserved in
this dark time. Everything seemed to be made from gold or plated in
gold or painted in gold. Massive columns supported pale, domed
ceilings and made the interior seem airy and open, despite the
intricate and sometimes gaudy designs.

People milled about everywhere. They sat in
the many rows of pews or stood around the altar at the other end of
the aisle. They walked between arched doorways or let their
children run around on the scuffed marble floor.

This had once been something sacred, where
people came to pay their respect and behave with reverence.

Tomás had turned it into a fortress that
housed countless families and protected them from the evil outside
these doors.

And yet it didn’t feel sacrilegious. I
imagined God pleased with these people, pleased with their efforts
to protect each other and pleased with their creativity to use
something designed to worship Him.

“You know Diego?” Tomás asked, bringing my
attention back to him.

Adela launched into an explanation in
Spanish. I didn’t know if she thought it would be easier for Tomás
to understand or if she wanted to keep parts of her relationship
with Diego a secret, but either way, Tomás nodded along.

Hendrix’s chest pressed into my back and his
warmth covered me. I finally let myself look around our group and
take stock.

Miguel had made it inside the doors, but his
friends had not. Haley was rocking Lennon and trying to calm his
frustrated cries. Nelson wrapped his arm around her shoulders and
held them close to his body. Harrison and King looked like they
could sleep for the next week. Miller stood over Page while she
curled into Vaughan’s side. Vaughan sat propped against a far wall,
holding his arm to his chest. Tyler sat next to him with a frown
creasing her brow.

Had Vaughan been injured?

Had the Feeder managed to sink its teeth into
him?

“Is your brother okay?” I whispered to
Hendrix.

Hendrix glanced back at Vaughan and his
entire body froze behind me. “Are you okay?” Hendrix asked in a
steely rumble.

Vaughan nodded weakly. “Just got my ass
kicked is all.”

Hendrix didn’t say anything. He turned
around, but the tension didn’t leave his body.

“It is lucky you did not die,” Tomás spoke in
English to us. His words were carefully chosen and slowly
pronounced. “I did not know the tunnels still worked. The place you
came from is not a good place. Many dangers could come out of it.”
He could say that again. His smile softened and he reminded me of
Diego. He had the same nose as my favorite warlord and the mischief
in his dark eyes reminded me of how Diego could be both playful and
deadly. “You are welcome to stay,” Tomás continued. “Carlos will
show you where you can clean up. When you are ready I will explain
how things work here and what will be expected of you. But first
you must…” He waved his hand at me.

Yeah, first we had to not look like this. I
got it.

Harrison held out a hand to Vaughan and
pulled him to his feet. Once there, Vaughan staggered to the side.
Harrison caught him before he tipped over.

“Vaughan,” Hendrix barked.

“I’ve lost some blood,” Vaughan mumbled.
“That’s it.”

Tomás’s men eyed us curiously, clearly not
trusting us nor our behavior. One of them stepped out from the
crowd and jerked his head for us to follow.

Hendrix put his hand on the small of my back
and we walked with the rest of our group to an annex of the main
cathedral. There were quarters here, probably for the clergy that
had once occupied this place. He showed us male and female
bathrooms and gave us a ration of bottled water.

I had a feeling he gave us more than the
normal amount. We were super dirty after all.

I ducked into the bathroom with Haley,
Lennon, Tyler, Adela and Page. We took turns standing over the
shower drains and scrubbing as best as we could. Tyler helped me
get my back and deal with my massive amounts of hair and then I did
the same for her. We had both packed soap in our emergency bags and
used almost all of it to scrub the sewage, Zombie guts and other
filth from the day. I washed three times before I felt satisfied I
didn’t smell like a Feeder anymore.

After Tyler and I were as clean as we could
get, we helped Page clean up. I held a freshly bathed, but fussy
Lennon while Haley washed off. When we were dressed in the only
other clothes we had managed to salvage from our supplies, I took a
good long look in the mirror and bit back a wince.

I tried to remember how long it had been
since I had seen my reflection, but I couldn’t remember. All I knew
was that it had been a long time and I barely recognized the girl
staring back at me.

My hair had grown out of control. It hung in
wild waves down my back and around my shoulders. My skin was darkly
tanned from all of our recent exposure to the sun. My lips were
dry. Black circles puffed beneath my eyes. I was bruised and cut,
battered and beaten. I was too skinny. I was too muscular.