Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three) (5 page)

Tyler stood in front of me and put her hands
on my shoulders, demanding my attention. “Reagan, are you sure this
is a good idea? We could get away right now. They might not even
follow us. My dad’s lost a lot of men today.”

I shook my head, not wanting to listen to
options. “Ty, you know he will never stop.
You know that
. I
want to be free of this. You want that too.”

She nodded slowly. Her shoulders deflated
some, but I saw the truth flash across her face. “I do. I just… I
don’t want to lose anyone.”

“Me either.”

Gunfire drew our attention. We peered into
the street and searched for our men. They had been pulled across
the street to where their brothers fought off Matthias’s men.

“What are they doing?” Tyler gasped.

“I don’t think they meant to go over there.
They didn’t leave us on purpose.” At least I didn’t think so.

The wind picked up and we had to plaster
ourselves against the building to keep from blowing away. Darkness
blanketed the streets and I couldn’t hear anything over the roaring
wind. A heavy hand on my head pushed down. I peeked over to find
Andy instructing us to crouch down.

I squinted through the dust and wind, but it
was impossible to see Hendrix through the bad weather. I slid to
the ground and buried my head in my knees, throwing my arms
overhead to keep the grit out.

I sat there, huddled into myself, terrified
and furious. I hated that I couldn’t see Hendrix and that I didn’t
know if he was safe. I had no idea how to kill Matthias or even get
close to him again.
And this damn weather.

It made things harder for the other side, but
we were just as handicapped. We needed something else to go our way
today. We needed help from a higher power or maybe a miracle.

That’s what we needed… a series of
miracles.

So… easy, right?

The wind continued to whip and sting until I
was convinced that when I lifted my head I would be buried
underneath a pile of dirt. I pressed into Tyler and waited out the
worst of it.

Five long minutes later, everything
stopped.

The wind lessened into a mild version of the
hurricane strength gusts that had been blowing hard since early
this morning. The sky lightened to a deep shade of green and the
red dirt settled back on the hard ground.

Was that it?

I lifted my head. My ears rushed with the
sudden silence after such a violent onslaught. The handle of my gun
was slick from my sweat. Dirt and gravel had found a way to crawl
beneath every seam of my clothing. I licked at my dry lips and
tasted grit and gravel.

I jumped to my feet and pulled Tyler up with
me. Nothing moved beyond our alley. I couldn’t see Hendrix or
Vaughan or any of the Parkers for that matter.

I wondered if they had been sucked into the
storm?

Where were they?

I joined Andy at the edge of the alley and
tried to shake off the storm. It had been such a consuming part of
today and now everything felt too still. Too quiet.

My heart hadn’t stopped its frantic beat in
my chest and my blood rushed uncomfortably beneath my skin. It felt
too hot beneath my grubby skin. I itched all over, desperate,
anxious and afraid all at once.

“Is it over?” I whispered to Andy.

He shrugged one shoulder. “I have never been
in something like that in my life. I have no idea.”

Looking toward the opposite end of town, I
could see the black wall of cloud that reached from the sky to the
hardened earth. If I had to guess, I would say the storm had moved
on.

“That was intense,” I breathed out
slowly.

His shoulders stiffened, “It’s far from
over.”

My gaze swung in every direction. With the
wind and chaos calmed down, I could see the true destruction the
storm had created.

The entire town was ablaze with hot flames. A
huge fire burned in the middle of the street. Charcoaled bodies
melted together beneath flames that licked at the sky. I could feel
the heat and smell the burning flesh.

More fires dotted the street on either side.
The wind had carried embers from building to building until the
entire town threatened to become a hungry inferno. The rush of the
wind had been replaced with the roar of fire.

The elements were so not working in our favor
today.

I scanned the area for Hendrix, desperate to
find him between billowing clouds of smoke, dead bodies and general
chaos. Men emerged from the other end of the street. The wall cloud
at their back cast ominous shadows on their arrogant posture.

“Come out!” one of them called. “Collect
what’s yours!” Two figures were shoved to their knees.

“Luke,” Andy hissed.

“Nelson,” Tyler echoed.

“They must have come to check on us,” Andy
explained. “I left them with Joy and the girls.”

My chest squeezed. Haley and the baby were
close. Page was close. And now Matthias had Luke and Nelson.

Rage and fear blinded me for a moment. I
couldn’t think. I didn’t know what to do! All I could do was
breathe through the moment and hope something came to me.

I knocked my head back on the building behind
me.
Think, Reagan. Think!

“You have five seconds!” Matthias shouted
clearly. “Five seconds or I blow their brains out!”

I opened my eyes and made a decision. I
turned back to Andy and Tyler. “Don’t let him kill me.”

Then I stepped out to meet Matthias.

Chapter Three

I chose the center of the street to perform
my death march, because that was the safest place from the fires. I
tried not to flinch from the floating embers that landed on my
skin. They burned through my clothes and I wanted to swat them away
like a pesky swarm of insects.

Pieces of the building to my right started to
collapse and the loud crumbling of wood and plaster highlighted the
state of my life.

This was not a good place to be right
now.

I had tucked my gun into the back of my pants
before I stepped onto the street. I walked with my hands raised at
my sides.

I had already decided that if they started to
shoot at me, I would whip my gun out and take them out like I was
John Wayne incarnate.

That is, if John Wayne had made it to the
Zombie Apocalypse and had only about seven bullets against fifteen
men.

Matthias’s men grinned at me, cat-calling and
whistling while I closed the space between us.

“Where’re the rest of your friends, Reagan?”
Matthias shouted. He jabbed his gun into the back of Nelson’s head
to drive home his point.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I hollered
back. “I lost them in the storm!” Not a lie.

“And your help?” he pressed. “Where’s the
bomb maker?”

I liked that. The Bomb Maker. I kind of hoped
Andy stuck with it.

“You want me,” I reminded him. “Just do what
you want to me and we’ll call it even!”

Matthias threw his head back and let out a
hysterical laugh. “You still don’t get it!” He looked at his men.
“The dumb bitch
still
doesn’t get it! I don’t want you dead,
Reagan. I want you to suffer. Like I have. I want to take everyone
you love and murder them while you watch. And then I want you to
live with that pain. I want you to know that it was your fault they
died. I want that reality to weigh on your mind and drive you
insane.” He shoved the gun into the back of Nelson’s head again.
“This… this is just not good enough.”

My mind spun blankly. How did I respond to
that? A small part of me wanted to apologize. I got it. From his
point of view, I got it.

But he was still a sadistic bastard. He
blamed me for losing his family, but I blamed him.

That was something he would never understand.
He was too sure of his greater purpose. He couldn’t see beyond his
arrogance to realize how the destruction he craved spread to his
family.

I opened my mouth to tell him that, but I
didn’t get the chance.

The building closest to Matthias and his men
suddenly crashed to the ground in a deafening break of structure
tearing from structure. The fire erupted from inside and created a
searing explosion that hit me with a blast of heat.

I was thrown backwards. My feet actually
lifted off the ground and I landed on my back three feet away. The
gun I’d hidden away stabbed at my spine and rough gravel cut into
my skull and exposed skin.

I coughed and wheezed, cringing each time my
lungs were forced into use.
Owie.
That hurt so bad.

I tried to push up on my elbows, but my left
forearm gave out with a painful snap and I released an agonized
cry.

Broken. My forearm had to be broken.

Oh, god. That hurts so bad.

I used my good arm to wipe at my eyebrow that
trickled blood into my eyes, blinding me. The cut stung from my
dirty hand. I gritted my teeth and tried not to whimper.

Urgency pulsed through me and overrode my
senses. Thankfully adrenaline kicked in and I somehow managed to
stumble to my feet. I readjusted the gun in the back of my pants,
hoping that I had been discreet, and lifted my chin to meet
Matthias.

Most of his men were still pulling themselves
to their feet too, so I felt less of the threat. That didn’t mean
my adrenaline turned off. I met Matthias’s cold gaze and it
rocketed back into full force.

He had a firm grip on Nelson’s full head of
hair, but his gun had been knocked out of sight or he’d managed to
stow it somewhere.

Before either of us could speak another
building lost integral pieces of its structure. The front façade
remained intact, while we listened to the wood snap and crash
beneath a blazing roof. All of us glanced over with fearful
expressions. Nobody wanted to suffer through another explosion.

This whole town was about to be covered in
flames. We needed to kill Matthias and
get out
.

“Bring out the rest of your friends or I’ll
kill this one where he kneels,” Matthias threatened. One of his men
handed him a gun.

My stomach twisted and I thought I would be
sick. I didn’t want to use Nelson to call Matthias’s bluff. He was
a new father. He was the love of my best friend’s life. I wanted
him to live more than anyone.

But I
could not
give into
Matthias.

Nelson would for sure die then. Matthias
wouldn’t give it another thought.

“No.” I took a step forward.

“Now!” Matthias screamed.

“No.” I took another step.

Matthias’s gun lifted to me. “Maybe I’m not
using the right incentive.” He shoved Nelson’s head and Nelson
dropped to the ground.

Matthias was too blinded by rage to notice
Nelson had let Matthias push him over.

I glanced at Luke. His shoulders shook
beneath his bowed head. I didn’t know if he was terrified or
furious.

Knowing the little I did about Luke though, I
would have bet it was anger making him vibrate and not fear.

Matthias’s gun lifted to point at my chest.
“Maybe we should just get this over with.”

“Matthias!” I expected Hendrix’s voice
calling this off, but it was Miller that stepped out of the shadows
of an alley. “Wait!”

“What are you doing here?” Matthias sneered.
“I disowned you months ago.”

I couldn’t see Miller’s face with blood
dripping from my eyebrow and obscuring my vision, but I knew
without a doubt that was the wrong thing to say to the youngest
Allen.

Miller surprised me when he shouted back. “I
want to come home, Dad! I want to go back home with you!”

Matthias was apparently just as surprised
because he did a double take. “That ship has sailed, Son! You made
your choice!”

“That’s not fair!” Miller shouted. He sounded
like a petulant child, which was not the Miller I knew. He could be
scary… like serial killer scary, but he did not whine. “Tyler
talked me into it! She fed me lies so she wouldn’t have to go
alone! It’s her fault.”

Tyler stepped out from behind me. “You’re a
liar! You know that’s a lie! You wanted to go with me. You couldn’t
wait to get away from, Daddy!”

I felt like I’d entered the land of the
weird. What was happening right now?

“You’re both liars!” Matthias boomed at them.
“You’ve always been liars. I tried to teach you respect, but you’re
both too stupid to learn.”

Miller pressed his palms together in prayer
position. “I promise I’ll try harder, Daddy! I promise I’ll learn
respect. I’ll do whatever you say! Just let me come home! Please!
Please take me away from these people!”

“Shut up, Miller!” Tyler screamed.

A cocky smile spread across Matthias’s face.
“What have you two gotten yourselves into now? And you think
I’m
going to save you?” His maniacal laughter pulled goose
bumps from my arms. “Of course, I’m still going to have to kill
you. But it will feel so much better now.”

I hadn’t noticed that Miller had inched
closer while Matthias was distracted with his gloating. Tyler too
stood only a foot behind me. I could see the silver of her weapon
in my peripheral vision.

Behind Matthias’s group of men, Joy and Haley
lined up with guns. Hendrix, Vaughan, Harrison, King and Andy
filled in the rest of the space until the entire circle was
surrounded.

Nelson rolled over and pulled a gun from his
ankle, popping up to his knee and aiming it at the man that held a
gun to Luke’s head.

We had them surrounded.

Slowly, I pulled the gun from the back of my
pants and raised it to meet Matthias. We stared at each other,
neither of us speaking.

He hadn’t expected his own children to betray
him like this. I could see it on his face. He had thought Miller
was sincere.

Matthias’s gaze moved over my shoulder.
“You’d kill your own daddy?”

“Every day of the week,” Tyler sneered.