Hunter Of The Dead (11 page)

So she didn’t think about it.

Kaede led them, and Eden again marveled at how graceful the other woman was, flowing through the branches in near silence. Eden wasn’t a slouch in the tree-climbing department, but she could never match Kaede for grace, on the ground or off it. Alejandro didn’t have any problems keeping up, but she wasn’t really surprised. He was good at damn near everything. Bastard. She’d yet to find something he was less than excellent at, be it shooting, blades, running, whatever.

Eden snorted softly. Except relationships.

While they moved, she kept one ear on the moans of the infected, trying to judge how far away they were. It was nearly impossible to gauge, but it kept her mind on the present. In all honesty, Eden had no idea what she was going to do once they climbed into the survivors’ camp. Killing the priest sounded all well and good, but those idiots thought he was the Second Coming or something. They weren’t going to be happy to see him dead. Then Eden would have to deal with a mob of angry humans. Killing them all certainly solve the problem.

Eden discarded the thought as soon as it crossed my mind. It wasn’t realistic, was just Dad’s voice whispering in her mind again. He’d have no problem slaughtering a bunch of asshole survivors. But her sister would. And Jordan would think less of her for even considering it.

Even assuming the survivors took the change in leadership with no protests, they still had to figure out how they were going to get out of the valley. There were sure to be children and maybe even elderly among them, people who couldn’t physically make the climb. Which wasn’t even taking into account what they’d find at the top.

Someone had done this on purpose. The thought made Eden break out in a cold sweat and she slipped off the branch she stood on. She caught herself before she fell, but the movement made both Alejandro and Kaede shoot her questioning looks. Eden gave them a shaky smile and started forward again.

Someone has done this on purpose
. She rolled the thought through her mind, tasting it. Someone had blown the only way out of the valley. It didn’t take a genius to figure out
someone
wanted the infection contained and covered up, even at the expense of the survivors. They weren’t going to like a crowd of people climbing out of the valley and bringing tales of the walking dead with them.

But that didn’t make sense either. If they wanted everyone to die, why was there a military-grade fence conveniently cordoning off enough space for the survivors to live? Eden doubted the villagers had anything to do with it. Another unanswered question.

She had not one, but three enemies. It made her tired just thinking about it. The infected were one thing: relatively simple, if deadly, creatures. They wanted warm human flesh. That was it. They would go to extreme lengths to get it but they never surprised Eden with a sudden change in pattern.

Humans were infinitely more complicated. Who knew what the priest’s motivations were? Either he was insane and really thought the zombies were the Second Coming or he was going through a hell of a lot of trouble to get the survivors out of the picture. Either way, he was unpredictable and more dangerous because of it.

The mystery someone who wanted the infection contained...well, Eden would leave that particular problem for Jordan to figure out. One of the nice things about not being the leader was she didn’t have to worry about things like that, didn’t have other people looking to her for answers.

And then there was the problem of Alejandro’s presence. It was something she should have questioned a long time ago, but Eden could admit—to herself at least—that she hadn’t done so because she was glad he showed up. She had the nasty feeling that knowing the why of it was going to piss her off because she doubted he’d come strolling out of the jungle just because he’d spent the last year looking for her. It was too big of a coincidence, one she would address soon.

Kaede stopped and sat down, cross-legged, on a large branch. “Let’s eat.” She pulled off her pack and dug out two protein bars, tossing one to Eden.

“Thanks.” Eden opened it and took a bite. The thick chocolate taste clung to her tongue, making her want to gag. But she needed the calories. Alejandro handed over his bottle of water and she nodded gratefully.

“It would be a lot easier to take out the priest if you still had your gun.” Kaede took another bite, not looking over.

Eden bristled at the censorship in the other woman’s tone. She might have screwed up last night but it didn’t mean she was incompetent. “Maybe you wouldn’t have lost it in a freaking river while you were drowning, but not all of us can be superhuman.” She took another bite. “Besides, I don’t have any ammo for it. So, really, it’s a moot point.”

“Either way, you lost your gun, princess. An amateur move.” Kaede finished off the protein bar and shoved the crumpled wrapper into her pack. “
Besides
, I have a box of your ammo in my pack.”

“It is irrelevant now,” Alejandro cut in before Eden could respond, taking back his water and stowing it in his pack. “Are we finished?”

Eden shoved the rest of the bar into her mouth and stood. Kaede’s accusations hurt, mostly because she was right. Eden
had
screwed up. There had been one moment while she was rolling under the water when she had a choice to fight for Bernice or her life...and she’d let go. Having a gun right now would have been invaluable; they didn’t because of her. Fan-freaking-tastic.

A hand on her shoulder broke through her self-recrimination. “You did what you had to do to survive,
querida
. Never apologize for that.”

Eden shifted out of his grip and followed Kaede. She couldn’t let him comfort her right now because if she stopped moving forward, she might break down completely. She needed to keep her shit together. And what a joke that was. Eden shook her head and kept walking. They didn’t have time for her issues. They had to get their asses up a cliff.

Chapter Sixteen

Leaving the trees was harder than Eden expected. The sun beat down on her face, making her squint and limiting visibility. She felt exposed and vulnerable. Or maybe she was just being pessimistic.

They were less than ten feet from the cliff wall when a twig cracked behind them. Eden spun around as five zombies slid from the trees. The newly dead. The infected turned as one to face them and charged.

Kaede blurred into motion, flowing over the two on the right, sending body parts flying in her wake. Eden felt Alejandro at her left, obviously intending to deal with those two, leaving the one in the middle for her. She gritted her teeth, waiting until it was closer before sweeping its feet out from beneath it and following up with her
bolo
to its skull.

Eden looked over as Alejandro finished his two. It was only then she noticed what her infected was wearing. “Look at this.” The body she stood over was female and dressed in black, but that wasn’t what caught Eden’s attention. The fact that the black clothing looked military-grade was. And the zombie’s face was painted with the good, thick stuff a professional would wear if they were, say, trekking through a jungle and didn’t want to be seen.

“I’ll be damned,” Kaede used her foot to turn the body over. “See that strap. She used to have a weapon, probably an M4.”

“Just like yours.” Eden shivered. The M4 was a common weapon. Just because this infected used to have one and was wearing face paint and a pseudo-military uniform didn’t mean anything. Oh hell, who was she kidding? It was one coincidence too many. This woman was probably a member of the same group responsible for blocking the road. So what was she doing down here, rather than staying up on the cliffs were it was safe?

“Shall we begin climbing?” Alejandro cleaned off his machetes and sheathed them. “We are wasting time.”

Kaede muttered something about Columbian assholes and stalked to the cliff. “I’ll lead.”

Eden was more than happy to let the other woman have the responsibility of choosing their path, especially since she’d apparently climbed it before. “Then I’ll take your pack.”

“That’s the first good idea you’ve had, princess.”

She bit back a retort and simply took Kaede’s pack. Kaede was always snarky and Eden didn’t blame her for the extra dose; Taro was in danger, after all. And she never wanted to get in Kaede’s way if Taro was in trouble. Or visa-versa. The only time Eden ever saw Taro lose his cool was when Kaede was threatened. A year and a half ago, they’d all gone out drinking after an assignment and, true to form, Kaede got sloppy drunk and a group of guys started hassling her. Eden figured she could take care of herself, but Taro flipped his lid when one of them manhandled her while trying to get her to leave with them. By the time Eden and Jordan tackled him, he’d nearly killed three of the guys.

The sun touched the horizon, lengthening the shadows beneath the trees. Eden shivered as a sudden breeze kicked up, cooling the sweat plastering her clothes to her body. She looked sideways at Alejandro. “You go next.”

He laughed softly. “Ah,
querida
, I do not think so. You will go second.”

From the stubborn look on his face, she wouldn’t get anywhere by arguing. Eden shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Kaede was ten yards up so Eden moved to the cliff face and started to climb. Her fingers found the same cracks Kaede’s had and she pulled herself up, trying not to think about how her arm burned with each movement. It wasn’t serious, but the stitches made the skin across her bicep tight. The discomfort didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except getting up this cliff. Either she climbed or she got left behind. The latter wasn’t an option, so she beat back the pain and grabbed another miniscule ledge.

She didn’t look down; that way led to madness. It was better to keep her gaze up, searching for the next place to grip. Eden fell into a pattern and, even if it wasn’t easy, it did keep her moving. At one point her stitches gave, ripping out of her skin. Eden paused for breath, trying to ignore the new wetness trickling down over her shoulder. There was no going back now, only forward.

When a hand appeared in her field of vision, she stared stupidly at it.

“Take my hand, princess, unless you like clinging to the side of a godforsaken cliff.”

Kaede’s voice cut through her daze, pushing her into motion. Eden grabbed the offered hand and Kaede pulled her onto the ledge. It was thin, barely eighteen inches across, but it felt like heaven.

Eden leaned back and closed her eyes while she tried to get her breathing under control. When she opened them again, Alejandro was there. He pulled himself up easily, not having the grace to look the least bit tired. The bastard wasn’t having any problems. Damn it, she was the weak link.

Before she could protest, he grabbed her arm and undid the bandage. “You are bleeding again.”

Kaede wordlessly handed him a gauze pad and more bandages. He set about rewrapping her arm, his gentle touch at odds with the fury on his face. She didn’t know what he was so pissed about. If he hadn’t insisted on stitching her up, she wouldn’t have ripped them out. She ignored him and looked at Kaede. “Does this ledge go all the way around?”

“No. But there’s another twenty feet from this one’s end. It curves around the edge and into the camp.”

Eden nodded even as her muscles shook at the thought of more climbing. Searching for a distraction, she looked out over the valley. Their ledge was thirty feet taller than the trees and it afforded her a view of the area she’d been running all over for four hellish days.

The church stood above the village, looking like a true sanctuary. Too bad she knew better. It had meant death for those who hid there, and now its priest strove for the death of the remaining survivors.

Farther away, Eden could just make out the blocked road, forcibly reminding her of what they would have to deal with when they escaped. Because they would escape the valley. To question that...No, she wouldn’t go there.

To her left was the mob of infected. Eden watched them surge in a united movement and frowned. There were too many of them. Her team must have killed at least fifty, if not more, but there were at least a hundred surrounding the fence. Add to that the roaming groups she’d seen and there were far more than the two hundred people their employer had promised. Which created more questions than she knew how to deal with.

The sun was nearly down. They’d have to move now or risk climbing to the next ledge in the dark. Eden wiped the sweat out of her eyes and looked over at Kaede. “Ready?”

Something like respect flashed through the other woman’s eyes. “You sure you can handle it?”

Eden climbed to her feet, using the cliff wall for balance. “It doesn’t matter if I can or not. We don’t have time to waste.”

Kaede nodded. “I’ll take my pack back now.”

She almost argued, but stopped when she realized it was pride talking. Eden would go faster if she didn’t have the weight on her back so Kaede would take the pack. Simple. She shrugged out of it and handed it over.

They moved carefully along the ledge. In some places it narrowed until it was barely six inches and in others it was a good three feet. They reached the end just as the sun sank below the horizon, creating a false twilight.

Kaede didn’t so much as pause, stepping off the ledge and clinging to the cliff face. Eden shook her head as the other woman swiftly crossed the gap between the ledges and stepped onto safe ground. Of course Kaede would be as fantastic at climbing cliffs as she was at climbing trees, even with her head injury.

She took a fortifying breath and reached for the same handholds Kaede had. Eden moved carefully from one to the next. She barely passed the halfway point when the muscles in her arms began to quiver.

“Rest, Eden,” Alejandro called softly.

Eden ignored him. If she stopped now, she would never start up again—and then she would fall sixty-odd feet to her death. No thanks. Her world narrowed down to her grip, to moving one hand, one foot, second hand, second foot. Sweat poured from her body, obscuring her vision even as she blinked it away.

The second ledge reared up out of nowhere. One minute she was holding on for dear life and the next Kaede plucked her off the cliff and set her on safe ground. Eden collapsed, not bothering to watch Alejandro cross. He wouldn’t have any problems. She was the weak link and she didn’t know how to deal with it. Hell, maybe she’d always been the weak link, sitting safe in her high place and shooting while the rest of them took chances and fought in the thick of things. Maybe Jordan was right to keep her off the front lines, where Eden wouldn’t get someone on their team killed with her incompetence. It was a sobering thought.

Kaede crouched next to her. “You good?”

“I’m fine.”

“Do not be stupid,
querida
.” Alejandro stepped onto the ledge.

“Don’t call me stupid. I said I’m good and I am.”

Kaede shot an amused look at the two of them. “As much as I’m enjoying this lovers’ quarrel, it’s a moot point. We have to wait for full darkness before we can move forward. I’m going to see what the situation looks like down there.”

Before Eden could protest, she was gone, slinking around the corner. Her gray body armor and black hair blended in perfectly with the growing shadows of the cliff, ensuring no one would see her. Plus, she was Kaede. If she didn’t want to be seen, she was damn near invisible.

“Drink.” Alejandro thrust the water bottle into her hands. “Unless you do not need water, either?”

Eden didn’t dignify that with an answer. She drank half of the bottle before handing it back to him and taking the protein bar he offered. If she got out of this hellhole, she was never eating this shit again. “I’d kill for a Lumberjack Slam from Denny’s right now.”

Alejandro choked, spraying water. “That is why I love you,
querida
.”

She shifted, trying to tamp down the joy soaring through her at his words. Maybe he had really meant it when he said it the first time. Maybe. “Because I eat like a three hundred pound man?”

“Because you know what you want.”

Eden had no idea how he got that out of her wanting to clog her arteries with fried food. She felt like he’d thrown her into the deep end of the pool and she didn’t know how to swim. “I guess.”

“You do. It is frightening to see you in motion, to know you will sacrifice everything for your goal.”

Eden glanced down the ledge. Damn it, where was Kaede when she needed her? She didn’t want to have this conversation. It seemed to be a running theme these days with Alejandro. Every time they were alone he started bringing up shit she didn’t know how to cope with.

Finally, she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.” He put the water back into his pack and pulled it closed. “For three years, you’ve been throwing yourself into danger again and again, trying to reclaim what you lost.”

Her mouth suddenly dry, Eden looked away. “You’re crazy.”

He laughed, but not like it was funny. “Am I? Your father wasn’t perfect,
querida
. Nor was your mother. How can the living compete against the dead you hold so close to your heart?” She turned, her fist coming up, but he caught it inches from his face. And the bastard kept right on talking. “The child in the graveyard. You put yourself in danger to save her, despite the odds against you. Not even you,
querida
, can take on nine infected without your gun.”

When he put it like that, it did sound pretty stupid. So she focused on it instead of the other stuff he was saying. “It was a one-time thing. And I had a plan. I was going to get her and climb back on the roof.” When he merely stared at her, she looked away and muttered, “Okay, it wasn’t a great plan. What was I supposed to do, leave the kid to die?”

Yes. Every other member of their team would have, even Jordan. Against those odds and not knowing if the kid was bitten...they would have stayed on the roof and waited for the infected to clear out. It might have killed them to do it, but they would have.

“No,
querida
, no one could expect you to sit back while a child is in danger, not after what you went through with your mother.”

Damn it, how did he even know about that?

It was too dark to read his expression, the rising moon throwing the planes of his face in stark relief but leaving his eyes craters of shadows. She chose to ignore the comment about her mother, to ignore the small part of her heart that softened towards him. “I couldn’t let them kill her, even if she had been bitten. She might have been infected, but she was a child, someone’s daughter.”

The little girl’s cries for her mother echoed through Eden’s memory, making things surface that she’d rather not think about. Like how she’d cried for
her
mother when she was a similar age. Like how her mother never answered her, would never answer her now. Oh hell, maybe he was right. It still didn’t change the fact he shouldn’t have known any of this crap in the first place.

“If you had left her,
querida
, you would not be you.”

Wonderful. Eden made a show of looking at the sky. “I think it’s dark enough now. Let’s get going.”

He sighed. “You cannot avoid uncomfortable conversations forever.”

“Watch me.” She turned as Kaede appeared around the corner. Eden waited until she was closer before saying, “Well?”

“We have a problem. The priest is giving a speech and it doesn’t look like he’s going to slow down anytime soon.”

“That’s good, though, right? It means everyone will be distracted while we climb down.” The thought of climbing down so soon was enough for Eden’s body to shake in protest, but she pushed the weakness away.

Kaede shook her head. “Not with the setup they have going. We wait.”

It wasn’t going to be pleasant if it was enough to rattle Kaede. “Okay.”

They walked along the ledge and into the area above the survivors’ camp. The whole place was lit up as if it were noon. But that wasn’t what gave Eden pause. The man on the dais wearing a priest’s uniform and speaking with a booming voice, capturing the attention of every member of the crowd wasn’t either. No, what caught and held her was the second figure bound and bloodied at the priest’s feet. Jordan.