Broken World (Book 6): Forgotten World (26 page)

“What exactly are we going to blow up?” Joshua asks. “Obviously there’s no gas or we’d be able to drive out of here, so gasoline is out.”

We all sit in silence for a few seconds. Joshua has a point. We might be able to come up with a little gas, but enough to make a big explosion? Doubtful.

“Can’t be the only thing that’ll explode. Shit. There’s all kinda stuff ‘round the house that’ll blow up,” Axl says, shaking his head. He tears his eyes away from the ceiling and looks my way. “That book Al gave us got anything to say ‘bout it?”

“Good point.” I turn to Angus. “It’s in your pack now.”

He digs the book out, and Joshua flips the flashlight back on, passing it to Axl, who is closest to his brother. Angus flips through the book, and we all lean forward. I know we’re missing something obvious here, but we’re all running on empty. Emotionally and physically drained, hungry and exhausted. There’s an obvious solution that we just haven’t thought of, and thanks to Al, we may not have to use the little bit of mental energy we have left to figure it out.

“Here we go,” Angus says. “Flammable items.”

He doesn’t say anything as he scans the page, and even though I’m dying to know what it says, I keep my mouth shut and let him read it.

“Shit.” Angus shakes his head as he looks up from the book. “We’re a bunch of dumbasses, you know that. Aerosol cans. We get ‘nough of them and put them in a house, start the thing on fire. They’ll explode before long.”

Angus is right. We are dumbasses.

Axl gets to his feet. “Good. Let’s search the place, see what they got. Anything’ll work, right?”

“An aerosol can is pressurized,” Joshua says, standing as well. “So in theory, if it gets hot enough, it will explode. There are no guarantees, but I think Angus is right. If we get a lot of them, we’re bound to have some kind of explosion. Whether it will be big enough to get the attention of every zombie in town is the part I’m not sure about.”

“Don’t hurt to try.” Angus tosses the book down and stands.

“Unless we burn the whole town down,” Parv says as she too gets up. “If the fire spreads but doesn’t draw the zombies away, it could trap us here.”

Once again, none of us move.

Parv is right, but we’re at the point where we may not have another choice. The longer we stay here doing nothing, the more trapped we could become. These things don’t just get tired and go away. Something has to draw them away. Noise, maybe even a smell—it’s hard to say for sure—but something has to happen to get them to decide to move on.

“We’ll deal with that if and when it happens,” I say, holding Megan close to my chest as I stand. “For now, let’s find some aerosol cans.”

We spread out, Angus and Axl heading for the garage while Joshua goes to the kitchen. Parv moves toward the bedrooms, so I take the laundry room. Aerosol cans are less common than they used to be, but that doesn’t mean we won’t find a few. And, if we’re quiet, we might even be able to check out a couple of the other nearby houses. Joshua is right about one thing: if one can explodes it might not be loud enough to attract the zombies, so getting a lot of cans is the key.

I hold Megan close as I dig through the cabinets in the laundry room. It’s small and cramped, and there aren’t a lot of places to look, but I do manage to find a can of starch. Why someone in this day and age would need starch is beyond me. I never knew anyone outside reruns of
Leave it to Beaver
who used the stuff.

“What’ve you got?” Angus calls when I come out of the laundry room.

“One. You guys?”

“Found us a couple cans of spray paint.” He sets them on the counter, and I head over to put mine next to his. “But that ain’t all. We also got us a propane tank.”

“Oven cleaner,” Parv says from behind me.

I don’t look away from Angus. “Will that explode? Don’t they take measures to make sure something like that won’t happen?”

“Sure, but anything’ll explode if you do it right. Just need to apply the right pressure.”

“Makes sense.”

Axl comes in from the garage, lugging the propane tank, and Parv comes out of the kitchen with her oven cleaner. A couple seconds later, Joshua is back with two cans of hairspray. That’s it, though.

“We’d be a helluva lot better off if this was the 80’s. Back then they had all kinds of shit in aerosol cans,” Angus says, shaking his head.

“We could check out a couple other houses,” Parv says. “We’re going to have to pass them on our way to starting the fire, anyway. Might as well.”

“That’s a good point.” I bounce Megan as I look back and forth between Axl and Parv. “Have you figured out which house you’re going to blow up?”

“Gotta be far away from the bike shop,” Axl says. “Don’t want them bastards anywhere near us when we’re headin’ out.”

My stomach tightens when I think about Axl going out there without me yet again. I have to hang back now that I have Megan—she’s my responsibility—but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. And I don’t. I don’t like sending Axl off to do the hard work while I wait on the sidelines, and I don’t like not knowing what’s going on out there. Wondering if I’m ever going to see him again is torture.

But I also refuse to repeat the mistakes I made with Emily. Back then, when all this zombie bullshit was brand new, I thought the best way to take care of her was to go out and get things done. Now I know that isn’t true. I should have stayed by her side. Made sure she was safe every second of every day. Been there to protect her. That’s what I’m going to do with Megan. It’s what a mom does.

“When?” I say, turning to face Axl. “We need to get some rest first. It would be stupid to head out when it’s dark and we haven’t had any sleep.”

“We ain’t leavin’ yet,” he says, his eyes holding mine. “We’ll rest up and do a little more surveillance in the mornin’. I ain’t runnin’ out there unprepared.”

“Good,” I say, but I swallow when my throat constricts. Just the thought of him running anywhere without me makes me sick. “Then let’s get some sleep.”

“Sounds good,” Joshua says, yawning. “Unless somebody has a problem with it, I’m going to take the couch.”

“There are two bedrooms,” Parv says.

Joshua waves her off. “Take the bed.”

“Thanks,” Parv says as she turns and heads back toward the bedrooms.

Axl crosses the room to stand at my side. His eyes go from me to Megan, then back up to my face. “She doin’ okay?”

“She’s perfect as far as I can tell,” I say, studying the baby in my arms.

She already feels like mine. It’s odd how quickly a bond can form. Part of it is that I know this little baby is the only thing left of Ginny, but I also feel like I’ve somehow been handed a second chance at motherhood. I screwed up with Emily so many times I probably couldn’t count them all, but I won’t do it this time. Not after everything Ginny and Jon fought for. Not after they gave their lives for this baby. I’m going to get her to Atlanta and keep her safe. Forever.

“I’m beat, though,” I say, looking back up at Axl. “I need some rest.”

“Go on and sleep. I’ll take first watch,” Angus says.

He holds his hands out, and it takes me a second to realize he’s waiting for the baby. I hand her over even though she isn’t much of a bother and I could probably sleep with her in my arms.

“You call if there’s trouble,” I say. “Not just for her, but for yourself.”

“There ain’t gonna be trouble,” Angus says, bouncing the little bundle when she stirs. “But don’t you worry. I ain’t gonna put her at risk.”

Axl slings his arm around me, and I give Megan one last look before allowing him to pull me back toward the bedroom.

23

THE SLEEP I get doesn’t feel like rest. It’s more like tossing and turning, waiting for someone to attack or for a baby to start crying. But I must have slept more soundly than I thought, because I’m alone when I wake up.

Outside, the sun is just coming up, so I roll out of bed. My body is stiff from the restless night, but at least I feel a little more refreshed than I did yesterday. Hopefully, everyone else does too.

“You sleep?” I ask when I walk into the living room and find everyone else up.

“We all caught some shut-eye,” Angus says from the couch.

Axl sits next to him, feeding Megan. It’s the first time he’s done it, and something about the image makes everything in me feel warm and tingly. She looks natural in his arms. And perfect. More perfect than I ever could have imagined.

“We got us a plan,” Axl says, not looking up from the baby. “Picked a house. Parv and me even found us a couple more cans next door.”

“Now all we have do is start a fire,” Parv says.

“And make it across a zombie-infested town,” Joshua reminds her.

Parv frowns. “And that.”

Megan’s eyes are closed, and her face is peaceful. Calm. She has no idea that the world outside this house is anything but safe. She doesn’t know how it used to be and what’s changed, and she doesn’t know that we might not make it out of this alive. To her, everything is perfect and clean and pure.

If only it could stay that way.

“It kills me that one day she will see the reality of this world,” I say, smoothing down the fuzzy hair on her head. “That things won’t stay perfect for her.”

“We just gotta keep her safe.” Axl takes my hand in his, balancing the baby and the bottle with his other one. “Which means gettin’ outta here and to Atlanta.”

I nod, unable to speak.

Angus gets to his feet and picks up the book Al gave us, tossing it my way. “We wanna be sure to take this. Just in case.”

I catch the book midair and hold it in my hands, pressing it between my palms as I think about Al and Lila. Wondering where they are and if they’re alive. If they drowned or died horrible deaths at the hands of zombies. If they’re dead, I can only hope it was fast for them.

“I wish I could thank Al for packing this,” I say, shoving it in my bag. “Everyone laughed at him, but he knew what he was doing.”

“He was a smart kid,” Joshua says. “And tough.”

“Balls of steel,” Angus replies, nodding. It’s the same thing he said the day Joshua had to cut Al’s arm off.

Parv gets up, not saying anything but nodding as well, and she too gathers her things. I follow her lead, moving through the house and taking anything that might help us along the way and won’t be too much of a pain to carry.

“She’s ready,” Axl says from behind me.

I turn, but he doesn’t have the baby, and I look past him to find Joshua changing her diaper. Before I even have a chance to look back, Axl has pulled me into his arms. His hand moves up my back to my head, and his grip tightens on me as he presses his lips to the side of my face. Right next to my ear.

“We’re gonna make it. Today. We’ll reach Atlanta. All of us. And we’ll be safe. We’ll have a life and a family, and things are gonna be better.”

My eyes fill with tears even though I nod. He’s right. I know he is.
We
will make it and life will be better for
us
, but not for all of us. Not for Jon and Ginny, not for Al and Lila. Not for Winston or Jess or Darla or Trey or Jim or any of the other people we lost along the way. Not for Emily, who would be standing next to me right now if I hadn’t been so naïve about what this world had turned into. If I had been stronger, things would be different.

“Do you really think we can start over?” I ask. “That we can forget everything we’ve lost and build a life that means something?”

Axl pulls back so he can look me in the eye, his hands still on my shoulders. “We don’t forget. If we did that, we’d have nothin’ to keep fightin’ for. We remember everybody we lost and we live for them. Every day.”

He’s right. I would never want to forget our friends or the things we went through together, no matter how much it hurts. They made me who I am right now. Stronger and smarter and braver than I ever thought I could be.

“I love you,” I say.

Axl kisses me, pulling me against him so tight that it’s hard to breathe. When he finally lets go, I gasp, filling my lungs with air and life and hope for the future.

“Parv and me are gonna head to the house on the farthest side of town,” Axl says. “We’ll set up all the cans and the propane tank, then start a fire.”

“Then you’ll come back?” I look them both over as Parvarti pulls a backpack full of aerosol cans over her shoulders.

“We’ll take cover in a house one street over until we know for sure the fire is spreading,” she says.

I shake my head. “No. You need to come here, and if there’s no explosion you can go back out. If you’re close to the fire when the cans explode, the zombies will be all over the place and you’ll be stuck.”

Axl exhales and looks everyone over. “That what you all think we oughta do?”

“You gotta,” Angus says. “Blondie’s right. You’re there when those cans light up, you might not make it back here alive.”

“Or you could draw the whole horde our way,” Joshua points out. “They could decide to follow you instead of heading toward the fire.”

“Shit.” Axl nods once. “Fine. That’s what we’ll do, but if things get sticky, we’ll head to the bike shop. If we don’t come back right away, you go there. We’ll meet you.”

“We don’t even know where it is,” Joshua says.

“Cut through the houses and go three streets over,” Parv says, pointing to the back of the house. “When you get to Main Street, take a right. The bike shop is at the end of the road. You can’t miss it.”

My heart is pounding like crazy as Parv’s words sink it. If we need to use the directions, it will mean she and Axl haven’t made it back. That they ran into trouble. Trouble means zombies, which could mean death.

“You’ll be at the bike shop, though,” I say.

Axl’s gray eyes search mine, and I know he can see my worry. “We’ll do our best, but you gotta go if we don’t show up. Five minutes, that’s all the time you got. If we ain’t there by then, you get on them bikes and you head out. You get away. Understand?”

I nod even though I don’t know why. I don’t understand. Not this. Not leaving him behind and never knowing what happened to him.

“But you’ll be there.” My voice is thick with tears, and it makes me feel pathetic.

“We’re gonna do what we gotta.” Axl picks the propane tank up off the floor. “Right now, we gotta go. Get this done so we can move.”

He heads for the back door with Parv right behind him, and I’m on their heels. In the sling, Megan’s body is warm against mine, but it doesn’t help ease my pounding heart.

“Be careful,” I say when they reach the door.

“Always am.” Axl doesn’t look back before pulling the door open and heading outside. Parvarti follows him without a word.

I shut the door and lock it, watching them through the window as they disappear around the side of the house. If this doesn’t work, we’re going to have to come up with another idea. The thought of doing the same thing we did at the farmhouse makes me sick, but I have a strong suspicion that’s what Parv would suggest. She’s doing better, acting like she cares more, but I think she’d see it as her duty. Axl and I have each other and the baby, and Angus is necessary to the survival of the human race. Joshua is a doctor, which we might need if we run into trouble, and Parv would argue that she’s disposable. That it’s logical for her to be the one to stay behind.

She’d be right and wrong. I don’t think anyone as strong as she is can really be disposable these days. The world needs people like her.

“You gonna stand there the whole time?” Angus asks.

I turn away from the window. Angus is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching me.

“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I just think I should save the energy.”

“Then take a load off.” Angus jerks his head toward the living room. “Let’s sit.”

I follow him out to the couch, where Joshua is already sitting. There’s nothing for us to do but wait. Our backpacks are ready and waiting by the door so we can grab them on our way out, and Megan is fed and changed so we don’t have any last-minute things to take care of. When Parv and Axl get back, all we’ll have to do is make a run for it—assuming the zombies take the bait. But it could be a half hour or more before they get here, and even longer before the fire is big enough to make the cans explode. Between now and then, I could go crazy.

“Settle down,” Angus says, his voice gentle.

I’m still not used to him having such a soft side.

“I’m fine,” I say even though my legs are shaking. “How long do you think it will take us to get to Atlanta? We have forty miles to go?”

“Something like that,” Joshua says. “I doubt we’ll be able to ride it all in one day. Sitting on a bike that long takes too much out of you.”

“So you’re saying we’re going to have to stop tonight. Again.”

Joshua shrugs. “Probably.”

“Shit,” Angus says before I have the chance.

All I can think about is going through this again tomorrow morning. Being surrounded by zombies, trying to draw them away or risk dying. Again. No matter what we do, it always seems to come down to this.

I hold Megan tighter and lean back, staring at the ceiling. Maybe we’re closer than we think. Maybe we’ll run into a group from Atlanta when we’re still ten miles or more away. Maybe they send groups out just like Hope Springs does. We can hope. Can’t we?

The silence drags on as each of us gets lost in our own thoughts. Outside this house, I don’t know what Axl and Parv are dealing with or how soon they’ll make it back, but in here, the three of us are already on our way to Atlanta. Already fighting zombies we haven’t even encountered yet. Already walking through the gates.

Just a little bit longer. That’s what I have to keep telling myself. Just a little bit longer and we’ll be safe.

A soft boom penetrates the walls of the house, making me jump to my feet. Angus and Joshua are up only a split second after me. We stare at each other for a moment, not moving while we wait. For Parv and Axl to show up or for another explosion. It’s hard to say for sure. Maybe both.

Nothing happens, so I move.

“That was an explosion, right?” I ask, heading for the kitchen.

“Sure as hell sounded like it,” Angus says from behind me.

I reach the door and pull the curtains aside, but the backyard is empty. Of course. The yard is fenced in, which is why Parv and Axl used this door instead of the front one. Easier to control.

“Can’t see a thing.” I mutter.

I head back into the front room, passing Joshua and Angus, who are just coming into the kitchen. I don’t wait for them to catch on but instead rush to the front window. The curtains are drawn, and I move the fabric aside carefully. I don’t want draw any unwanted attention our way. There are few zombies headed down the street, and in the distance, a trail of smoke billows into the air.

“I see smoke,” I hiss when footsteps come up behind me. “Why was that the only explosion? And where are Axl and Parv?”

My heart is pounding like wild, and I can’t move, expecting them to come into view at any second. They don’t, though. There’s nothing but zombies trailing down the road.

Another explosion rips through the air, this one louder. It could be more than one can, or maybe the propane tank. Whatever it was, more smoke joins the little bit already billowing into the sky. Still there’s no sign of our friends.

“We should go,” Joshua said. “Axl told us to go if they weren’t back by now.”

“They could be trapped!” I say, finally dropping the curtain and turning to face the two men. “What if they’re trapped?”

“What if they just can’t get back here?” Joshua says. “What if they’re at the bike shop already? Waiting for us.”