Love in the Time of the Dead (12 page)

“Not you,” Jarren instructed. “It has to be Laney.”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Please, Jarren. I really can’t. I can’t do it.”

“But you will. We made each other a promise. It’s how I want to go. You can’t argue with a dead man, Landry.” He tried to smile but failed. “Give me the Mini-14 special. Do it now.”

Mitchell backed off to give her space.

“Do it, Laney. Do it. Don’t hesitate. Don’t make me wait anymore. Just do it,” Jarren chanted.

She cried so hard she could barely see through her tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered over and over as she cradled his neck and brought her Mini to his temple. She had made this shot uncountable times, but this one would haunt and resonate with her for the rest of her natural born life. “Goodbye, Jarren,” she whispered into his ear and pulled the trigger.

Chapter Eight

P
INING
S
CREAMS
W
ERE
C
OMING
F
ROM
L
ANEY
. The realization surprised her, but didn’t help to ease her pain as she cradled Jarren’s head in her arms. Later, she wouldn’t remember much detail about what happened in the hour after that. She moved numbly, as if someone else controlled her body. The whispered escape plans caressed her skin like a summer breeze, but she didn’t care so much about the words. They planned to climb the east wall where the Deads so rarely gathered. Guist and Mitchell dug a shallow grave for Jarren in the grove where he’d fallen. When it came time for her to say something beside the newly turned earth that nestled her brother’s body, she found herself unable to speak. She wept for him instead.

Mitchell and Guist half-dragged her in turn as they ran for the twelve-foot wall that had them trapped inside the colony full of Deads. The men hoisted her up to the top of the first wall, and she lowered herself to the ground with a length of rope Guist had found in one of the sheds. The men held the end from the other side to give her leverage. Mitchell was up next, and Adrianna was passed up to him and then down to Laney. After that, she and Mitchell held the rope on their side while Finn, Guist, and Sean scaled the wall. They did the same for the other two walls that led them to the freedom of the woods beyond.

Free of the colony, the team didn’t stop for rest. The distant sound of gunfire provided a constant reminder of what lay behind them. They headed into the woods with urgency until they were well away from the colony walls and all the carnage the gates held firmly inside.

The steady pace led her mind to wonder—a colossal mistake.

Finn and Sean were so loud when they ran. Sure, Finn wasn’t trained for the woods and Sean was carrying a child, but just the same, Jarren would be shushing them constantly if he were there.

Jarren would have shaped them up and quick.

Jarren.

Jarren.

The grief rose to a level that caused her chest actual and poignant pain. After that, she wiped her eyes and pushed all thought, bar the next step and then the next, out of her tortured mind. She had a promise to keep, and dwelling on her sorrow would get her killed for sure. She would give in to her heartache in private. Somewhere she could feel safe, if there existed such a place.

She had taken Jarren’s pack, and the extra weight had been a burden over such a distance. Sean had offered to carry it for her and she allowed it. She told him she wanted the pack back at the next colony, but until then, Sean and Adrianna were welcome to its contents. They were ill-prepared for their escape, and Jarren would have wanted his provisions used if it would help someone in need.

The team stopped running, and Finn pulled out a map. Sean squatted down beside him and pulled Adrianna close before pulling a flashlight from Jarren’s pack. He and Finn quietly discussed their next move with Mitchell and Guist. Mitchell tried to include her, but she couldn’t quite manage to take her gaze away from the pack that sat in lonely silence beside Sean’s leg.

She pulled away. “I’ll keep a look out,” she offered, pressing her back into the trunk of a large pine tree. Like an animal who sought the solace of the forest in the final hours of its demise, her weeping soul also yearned for isolation.

“We trade with a colony about half a day’s drive from here,” Sean said.

“Drive?” Mitchell’s tone was colored with frustration. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re on foot here.”

Finn and Sean glanced at each other, a significant look of decision passing through their eyes.

“We have a truck hidden on a back road not far from here,” Sean said.

“Great,” Guist whispered. “Then what are we waiting for?”

“Colony members only check on it every once in a while to make sure it still runs and hasn’t been found by anyone else. Problem is, Finn and I haven’t ever actually been on the patrol to check on it. We’ve never actually seen it.”

“Fantastic.” Mitchell’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Why are we even discussing this as an option then?”

“Because we know the landmarks to it, just not in the dark. We need to hole up somewhere close to here. I know where we are right now, but if we travel aimlessly I’m afraid we’ll never figure out where the vehicle is.”

“Fine. Up a tree we go,” Guist said as he pulled his pack off.

Sean frowned. “Why would we go up a tree? We need to find shelter for the night.”

“It’s safer to sleep in trees,” Mitchell said with exaggerated patience. “You don’t wake up with a Dead gnawing on your leg bone.”

“Yeah, but I thought she could smell if they’re coming,” Sean said, pointing toward Laney.

“I think she’s earned a good night’s rest, don’t you?” Mitchell growled quietly.

“Okay. I get that, but I have a child. Even if I was comfortable sleeping up there, Adrianna can’t climb a tree, much less sleep in one.”

“Daddy, I’m scared,” Adrianna chimed in.

“Shh. I know, baby. Everything’s going to be all right,” Sean crooned.

Laney spoke up. “He’s right. We have to find some sort of shelter. Even if we rigged up harnesses for Sean and Finn, we don’t have anything that would work for a child.”

“What if we compromised?” Finn offered. He pointed to the map. “There’s a gas station a couple of miles away if we are where I think we are. I know you like to get high up to avoid the night walkers. The gas station has a flat roof at a good height, and it’s only a few miles on foot to the truck from there.”

“Let’s go,” she snapped. She needed action if she was going to successfully continue to avoid her own head.

The gas station, as it turned out, was located in the middle of nowhere. Whoever had scouted out its location must not have been concerned with making profit. It had to have been a miracle that the small convenience store had been able to maintain enough traffic on the dirt road that snaked in front of it to stay open for any substantial length of time. But then again, maybe the old diner with the dilapidated Coca-Cola sign across the street had brought in some customers.

Laney glared suspiciously at the ladder that was attached to the side of the building and led to the roof. A ladder couldn’t be trusted. Though Deads were terrible climbers at best and couldn’t make it far up a tree, she had seen a handful of determined zombies figure out a few of the bottom rungs of a ladder.

She stifled her distrust and scaled up to the roof after Guist. He reached the top and raked his flashlight over the flat and slightly graveled floor of it. He cursed softly under his breath, and she looked around him to see what had stopped him in his advance.

Two bodies lay in each other’s arms near the edge of the roof. They had died some time before. From the age of the sun leathered bodies, she would guess a couple of years at least. There wasn’t even any noticeable smell to them anymore.

“They must have been treed by Deads,” Guist observed. “Doesn’t look like they had any provisions or weapons. Must have got stuck up here and the Deads waited them out.”

Had they been as close in life as their loving embrace in death suggested? She sighed sadly. She should have been used to this. Death happened every day. She was drowning in it. So why, after years of being exposed to tragedy, did the sight of this sad couple etch another painful notch into her heart?

“Hey, Mitchell,” Guist called down.

“Yeah?”

“Open that old Dumpster lid, will you?”

“You got it.”

The thud of the large metal trash bin sounded below them, but she spoke against it. “We can’t just throw them in the Dumpster.”

The sigh that escaped Guist’s lips sounded exhausted. “Laney, burying someone? That’s for the living. These two are dead. They don’t care.”

“They deserve better, and you know it.”

He searched her face for a long moment. “Can we at least bury them in the morning?”

“And store them in the Dumpster tonight?” She didn’t mean to be a pain, but the thought of the couple breaking their loving hold on each other to be thrown carelessly in the garbage seemed really tragic.

“Laney!” Guist rubbed his face vigorously and whispered, “I lost him, too. I just want today to be over with. I don’t want to dig another grave tonight. Please.”

“Okay,” Laney said, meeting his pleading eyes. “Can we just cover them up so the kid doesn’t see them? Then we’ll leave them as they are when we head out in the morning.”

“Cover them with what?”

“I’ll use my blanket.”

“Laney, you are in a tank top and you are up a mountain in Colorado. You were supposed to trade for a jacket two colonies ago. Nights are too cold to go uncovered. I can see gooseflesh all over your arms from here. You can’t gift those corpses your blanket or you’ll be no better off than them by morning.”

“You aren’t throwing them in the Dumpster, Guist,” she decided impatiently. “All clear. You guys can come on up,” she called down to the others while she pulled the light blanket roll from the elastic strings in the front of her pack.

As she spread her bedroll over the two bodies, Guist growled in frustration from behind her. “Okay, but you should take my blanket so you don’t freeze to death tonight.”

“No, thanks.” She stood and scoured the bodies to make sure no shrunken extremities were peeking out from the edges of her blanket.

Guist’s logic often overrode any sensitivity he might have otherwise had, and it had been a long, horrible day. She knew she should cut him some slack, but she couldn’t help how much he was irritating her.

“What’s going on, guys?” Mitchell asked, no doubt interrupting the death glare Guist was probably giving her back.

“Laney’s being stubborn,” Guist gritted out.

Mitchell shrugged like
what else is new
in the dim beams of their flashlights. Ignoring them, she claimed the furthest corner from everyone. She couldn’t explain it, but Guist giving her a hard time made her want to cry, a sure sign that her emotions were fried. Time by herself would be best.

She set her pack behind her and pulled her knees to her chest, curling in on herself to preserve any heat her malnourished body could manage to provide. The group settled onto the roof for the night quietly. Her frayed attention was pulled time after time to Sean as he settled in with Adrianna. He pulled his little girl into his lap and covered them with Jarren’s bedroll.

Exhausted past the normal need to sleep, her arms and legs felt heavy and drained but she still couldn’t manage to turn her thoughts away from the horror she had witnessed that day. The things she’d said and wished she had said to Jarren kept playing on a loop through her mind, her thoughts separated only by the resonating sound of the bullet she’d put through his head.

“Laney?” Sean asked from directly in front of her.

She had closed her eyes to try to find sleep and had utterly failed to hear his approach. Irritating. “What?” she asked, with little remorse for her short temper.

Sean squatted down to her eye level and rested an elbow on his knee. “Were you asleep?”

Thank the old world she hadn’t fallen to pieces in her own little private corner of the roof. “It seems my mind won’t let me.”