State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) (6 page)

“Well, for Christ’s sake … untie her already,” he barked. Jude, presumably the name of my captor, jumped to do as he was told. My blind fold came off first and I blinked several times, trying to adjust my eyes to the unfamiliar, overly-bright florescent lighting hanging overhead. My hands were untied quickly and I rubbed the raw spots around my wrists.

“Am I a prisoner?” I asked sharply as I stared directly into the eyes of the man who I assumed to be the group’s leader. He was probably in his
mid-thirties and his eyes were shrewd as he regarded me with interest and a hint of amusement shining in his blue eyes.

“Prisoner? Not at all. I’m sorry if you were under that impression,” he said apologetically.

“What impression was I supposed to be under when Jude here stole my weapons, tied me up and blind folded me? That I was an honored guest?” I sneered. The guy lifted a brow, but didn’t apologize for anything.

“We have to be careful. You’ve seen how it is up there yourself, you surely know that the zombies aren’t the only threat we face now,” he said in place of “we’re sorry”. Even though I wanted to remain angry, I couldn’t … these people
did
have to be careful.

“I understand,” I grumbled. “But, that doesn’t mean I don’t want my father’s weapons back or that I’m not pissed off,” I hissed. He cracked a huge grin and walked over to me. I took a step back and he stopped where he was.

“How many are in your group?” he asked quietly. We could offer them a place here as well. I shook my head and clenched my jaw.

“It’s just me,” I mumbled. A shadow fell across his eyes, a shadow of understanding and loss.

“How long ago did they die?” he asked gently. I raised my eyes to meet his direct, probing, blue stare.

“I’ve been alone since the first day,” I ground out. His eyes widened just fractionally before he looked at me like he wanted to study me under a microscope.

“What’s your name, girl?” he asked. I stiffened and squared my shoulders before I spoke.

“Melody Carter, daughter of Major John M. Carter of the United States Army,” I answered proudly. The man held his hand out to me.

“Nice to meet you, Melody.” I smiled and went to stick my hand out until I realized I was still caked in all kind of gore and stench. I glanced up from my hand to the face of the man now looking at me with his brow raised. I held my hands up and shrugged. 

“Nice to meet you as well, Major, but you probably should hold off on that handshake for now,” I grimaced when I realized how much of a mess I really was. I seriously stunk. His eyes widened and it was my turn to smirk. “I saw the picture on your desk.” I mentioned by way of explanation. He was the same man in dress blues I’d seen earlier … but he looked like he had aged ten years instead of two. The major’s smile vanished and his eyes frosted over. I knew that look … I’d felt the emotion behind it as well. The look of heartache and loss. I met his eyes and nodded my head once, my eyes mirroring his own burning gaze. He nodded back stiffly and cleared his throat.

“Jude,” he barked. Jude stiffened next to me. “Take our guest to one of the empty rooms and show her where she can go to get cleaned up,” he ordered as he turned around, dismissing me.

“I have questions, Major” I interjected, my hand clenched at my side. Who cared about getting clean, when these people might be able to answer some of my questions? He paused and turned to answer.

“I’m sure you do, but they can wait a few more hours … besides, you smell like you’ve been rolling around in zombie guts,” he grimaced. Jude chuckled before the Major and I both gave him a death stare. I was clenching my jaw so hard it began to ache.

“Fine,” I muttered. The Major nodded and turned on his heel. I glanced over at Jude and put my hands on my hips. He returned my stare with a smirk and I made my personal mission to knock that smirk off of his face just one time.

“Follow me,” he said stiffly as he turned on his heel and began walking briskly across the room. I took a moment to take in my surroundings before I followed. The common room was large and there were probably twenty people milling about doing various tasks. Some looked like officials or military personnel and a few looked like civilians. The room had several hallways leading off of it … one in the direction the Major had went, one that Jude had taken, which I could only assume led to sleeping quarters, and one leading off a different direction. I had to jog to catch up to Jude.

I glanced at Jude from the corner of my eye as we walked quickly down a long corridor. His jaw was clenched and his eyes hooded as he led me along to my room. He looked angry … maybe he was upset he’d gotten the babysitting gig. I smiled at that. The jackass deserved
so
much worse. We rounded a corner and he stopped outside of a door at the very end of the hallway. He opened the door and motioned for me to go inside. I walked into the room and turned around in a circle. The room was sparsely furnished with a cot for a bed and a single chest of drawers. A small table and chair acted as a desk area and there was one tiny closet. It looked like the Ritz Carlton in my eyes.

Alright, let me show you where you can shower and then I’ll get out of here. I barely picked my jaw up off of the floor at the promise of a shower and Jude was striding down the hall and around the corner. I barely registered the number of my room—107—before I had to run to catch up with him.

The shower area was just as glorious as the room. I stood in the doorway staring at the showers afraid to move and break the illusion. Jude snorted and pushed past me to open a closet at the end of the room where rows of identical pants and tops hung. Towels were also stacked on the top shelf.

“Just leave your clothes next to the door and someone will pick them up for you.” And just like that, he was gone. I smiled as I ran over to the closet. I swear to god, it felt like I was staring at clearance rack at the mall—heaven. I grabbed a soft
v-neck tee shirt and a pair of pants that resembled yoga pants … with wide legs and a drawstring wait, but they were made of a sturdier material, and inhaled the scent of them through my nostrils. They even smelled fresh and clean. Like a bullet out of a gun, I yanked off my filthy clothes and made a run for the shower stall. I wouldn’t have cared if twenty people were watching, or if I had to shower with others … I was not going to miss every blessed second of running water I could soak up before I got yanked back to reality. I sat my clean clothing, towel, and the knife no one had found on me, on a bench just outside of my stall, before jumping into the shower and turning the knobs. I was expecting the cold, but I still shivered as it spurted out … I turned it up full blast and much to my shock, the water was hot.

“Thank you, Jesus,” I moaned as the water cascaded over me. I don’t know how long I stood like that, but I know I my fingers were pruning up before I had the sense to snap out of my ecstasy and use the small bar of soap and shampoo to actually wash my body and hair. I scrubbed every nook and cranny of my body, spending extra time to work some conditioner into my mass of tangles. My little bubble of vacation burst abruptly when I heard a sound just outside of the showering area. Someone was right around the corner where the towels and clothes were kept. I left the water running and tip-toed out of the shower to grab my knife off of the bench. Something shuffled and I heard the sound of a gun being loaded … the unmistakable sound of a magazine being slid into place. Maybe if I acted quickly, I’d still hold the thread of surprise … with that thought in mind, I jumped ran around the wall with a scream of rage. No way in hell I was going to die in a shower after surviving alone in the woods for over two years.

I rushed my attacker, brandishing my eight inch blade like it was a butcher knife. Jude stood there in such shock that when I had rushed him, he froze up. As soon as I collided with him, the gun was flung from his grasp. Much like the zombie I’d taken down earlier, the my momentum knocked us both off of our feet, with me landing on top of Jude with a loud and painful
thud
. Unlike the zombie take down, I didn’t drive my blade into Jude’s neck like I had the corpse, but I did bring it close enough to his jugular that if he even spoke too loudly he would have been choking on his own blood.

I sat on top of his body, my knife to his neck, and my face directly above his. His light brown eyes were wide and shocked … he still hadn’t had time to get pissed off yet. But it didn’t take long.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he hissed through his teeth. I tightened my grip on my knife and he immediately stiffened and then relaxed a fraction.

“Maybe you should tell me why you were sneaking around with a gun while you thought I was defenseless,” I countered. My hair was still soaking wet and it was dripping all around me, soaking through Jude’s white tee shirt. His eyes flashed angrily and a he clenched his jaw, causing a muscle to tick in his cheek.

“You think I’d sneak up and shoot and unarmed,
naked
girl in the shower?” he growled. “What kind of man do you think I am?” he ground out.

“I’m sure I don’t know,” I mentioned casually. “Oh! Wait … I
do
know.” I leaned forward until I was able to whisper in his ear. “You’re the type of guy that would tie a girl up, take away all her weapons, making her defenseless, and blind fold her during a zombie apocalypse.” I leaned back a fraction. “What were you doing then, Jude?” I asked.

“I was going to escort you back to your room, but you were still in the shower, so I was just going to leave your weapons here for you and come back later,” he said on an exhale. He seemed too tired to even care if I’d cut his throat. I blinked and then pulled back my knife just a little. “I was doing my job out there, Melody,” he sighed. I blinked again and realized how grossly I’d misread the situation.

“Shit,” I whispered, just before I removed my knife from Jude’s throat. Then it really hit me … I was friggin
nude
and sprawled on top of him. No matter what I did next, I’d show how much of an idiot I was. Jude must have realized where my thoughts had led me, because the biggest grin I’d ever seen spread across his face.
Fuck
. The hell with it! I raised my chin and removed my naked self from Jude’s now-soaked body. His eyes widened as he watched me straighten myself out and stand in front of him without any—well,
too much
—shame. He got up off of the floor and probed his neck with his fingers. I hadn’t broken the skin. I wanted to run for cover, to shield my body from Jude’s now hungry gaze, but I wanted to look tough a whole lot more, so I stood my ground.

“I’ll be ready in a minute, but I think I can find my way to my room,” I said hoarsely. A slow, devastatingly handsome smile lit up his face and I could feel myself blush. It ticked me off. I marched forward and began pushing him out of the room. “Get out, before I cut your throat for the fun of it,” I snarled. I felt the vibration beneath my hand as he chuckled loudly.
When he was out the door, I turned to shut it. Jude stuck his foot in the crack of the door and pushed it back open.

“Melody …” he murmured. I shivered slightly at the sound of my name rolling of the tip of his tongue. Damn. “I am sorry about all that upstairs. I had to think about everyone’s safety down here first,” he said sincerely just before he began grinning wildly again. “Though, I
gotta say … this …” he gestured to my body, “this made it all worthwhile.” I could feel my face flaming.  He smiled at me again, his eyes scorching every part of my body and I realized for the first time since he’d stuck a gun in my face, just how sexy Jude was. If I had met him under different circumstances, back before the end of the world, I would have been
itching
to run my fingers through his short, dark brown hair, to taste his sensual lips … but this wasn’t under normal circumstances and I wasn’t a naïve little girl anymore. I smiled widely at Jude then and the change in his face was instantaneous. His pupils dilated and his hand came up to push a strand of my black hair out of my face. I opened the door just a little wider and then put a hand on his rock-hard abs and gave a little push. He stumbled a step back out of the doorway.

When my fist flew, he never saw it was coming. His head jerked back and he sprawled on his ass as blood spurted from his nose.

“What the hell?” His outraged yell made me feel more like myself.

“Apology accepted,” I said as I slammed the door and locked it.

I considered it not only a payback for terrifying me and stripping me of all my defenses, but also a lesson for the future …
never let your guard down during a zombie apocalypse
. Guys, sex, and love were a thing of the past. Besides, I’d take a zombie showdown any day of the week.

And lucky for me, there was a plethora of them just waiting for me to kick their undead asses. And I planned to do just that.