Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (32 page)

CHAPTER
10

The
throb of
pain
woke
me. I
didn’t know
how long
I’d
been
asleep,
but
I
knew it
wasn’t
long
enough.
My
eyes
were
dry
and
gritty,
my
head fuzzy
with the
half-
awake half-asleep
feeling. I
rolled
onto
my
back and
stared
at
the
ceiling.

What
were
we
going
to
do
with
Tanya?
She’d
betrayed
us,
jeopardized
everything
we’d
worked
for,
and
turned
in Quinn’s
friends.
Probably
even
sentenced them
to
death.
She
couldn’t
be
trusted.
It
was
as simple
as
that. I
had
such
high
hopes she
had
changed,
that
she
wasn’t
the
same
girl
I
knew in
high
school, but she
hadn’t.
She
was
still
self-centered
and
looking
out for
number
one.

Quinn
was
going
to
be
so
mad.
How
many
times
had
he
told me
we had
to attack
North
Platte
and
Florida
at
the
same
time?
We
didn’t
have
the
numbers,
so
we
needed to
rely
on surprise. I
talked
him out of it. I
convinced him
the
people
in
North
Platte
didn’t
have
time,
that
Liet
was
going
to destroy
them.
Eventually,
he
would have, but he
also
needed
them. The
wall
wouldn’t
get
built. He
knew
how
far
to push them.

In
reality,
the
reason
I
pushed
Quinn so
hard
was
for
my
own
selfish
reason.
I
hated
Liet.
I
wanted him to
pay.
I
wanted
revenge
for
the
way
he
treated
me.
I
didn’t
consider
the
big
picture,
how
my
actions would
affect
others.
I
wanted
results,
and
I
wanted
them
quickly.
I
wasn’t
much
different
than
Tanya,
so it
was
unfair
for
me
to be
mad
at
her.
She
acted
on impulse, like
I
did. The
only
person
who
had
any
right
to be
angry
was
Quinn.

How
was
he
going
to react
when
he
found out what
Tanya
did? He
was
pretty
good
at
keeping
his emotions
in
check,
keeping
his anger
under
control.
Where did he
learn
that?
Did his
dad
teach
him how to
remain
calm
in
adverse
situations? What
would
my
dad
have
said?
Or
m
y
mom?

No doubt they
would have
been
disappointed.
They
would
have
never
actually
said
they
were disappointed,
but they
would have
given
me the
look.
Their
faces
would
have
been
pinched
with a
combination
of
anger
and
sadness.
Dad’s hands would be
on his hips,
and
he
would shrug
and
say,
“Well,
you’re
old
enough
to
make
your
own
decisions,
you’re
old
enough
to
deal
with the
consequences.”

Mom
wouldn’t
have
said
anything.
She
would have
shaken
her
head
and
continued to do
whatever
she
was
doing.
Then,
at
night
when she
tucked
me in, she
would
have talked
about
emotions
and
their
power
over
our
actions.

“Sometimes,”
she
would
say,
“we
get
so
angry,
the
only
way
we
think we are
going
to
feel
better is by
making
the person
who
made
us angry
feel
as bad
as
we
do. We
do
something
mean
and
hurtful. We
don’t
stop
and
think
about
the
consequences
those
actions
will have
in the
future,
we
just act. Sometimes, the
best
thing
to do
when
someone
makes
you
angry
is nothing
at
all.
The
universe has
a
way
of making
people
pay
for
their
actions,
and
you’ll
have
to
pay
for the
bad
things
you
do, too.”

I
remembered
the lecture
well.
She
gave
it to me
after
Carmen
made fun of me
in the
lunchroom
and
I
dumped
my
tray
of
food
on
her.
I’m
sure
they
would
have repeated
it if they
knew
about
Liet
and
the
rebellion.

What did they
know?
They
didn’t hear the
other
kids
laughing
at
me.
They
weren’t
the
ones
chained
to
the
bed.
The
universe
may
even the
score eventually,
but
I
needed
my
vengeance
sooner.
But
then
again,
maybe
they
had known
something.
It
was a shame
it was too late
to know.

Quinn
seemed
to
handle
things much
better
than
I
did.
He
didn’t
seem
driven
by
his
emotions.
He
wasn’t
uncaring,
he
was
just
more logical.
Still, he
was
human,
and
every
person had a
breaking
point.
With
all
that
had
happened
with
Bill
and
Kyle,
I
was
sure
Quinn was
getting
close
to the
edge.

My
shoulder
throbbed more, so
I
decided to
get
up
and
find some
pain
killers. I
opted not to
go
for the
heavy-duty
ones
but for
regular
ibuprofen.
We
were
going
to explore
the
backside
of the
mountain,
and
I
needed
my
senses
sharp.

I
stepped out of the
cave
into the
gray,
cool
morning.
It
was as
I
expected,
I
hadn’t slept nearly
long
enough.
The
fires
from the
night
before
were
still
being
tended.
The
group
set up a
24-hour
watch,
just
in
case
Liet
came back
or the
helicopters
made
it that
far
up the
mountain.
I
figured
either
case
was
unlikely,
but it
was
better
to
be
cautious.