Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) (33 page)

This door was also unlocked, he discovered as he turned the knob slowly and pushed it open. It led to what appeared to be a stockroom with boxes of various sizes stacked on metal shelves. Their eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that they could make out the shapes.

He crept forward, knowing they’d follow behind. Light spilled from ahead so he walked toward it, knowing that was where he’d find the person or persons staying there, if they were still alive. He kept his rock hammer in his hand just in case he needed it, the pistol he’d taken from the house was in his waistband in case he needed to grab it too.

They reached the light. It spilled through the windows on two swinging doors which led to the store. He peered through one, seeing nothing, so he pushed through, careful that the door didn’t swing back on his friends. They were in the sporting goods section, bikes lining the wall behind them and aisles filled with exercise and tennis equipment on either side.

As they moved in farther, they heard music. “What is that?”

“The
Veronica Mars
theme song,” Cruz answered in a hushed voice.

“Well, I guess that’ll be in my head all night.”

“It’s catchy.”

Damian glared at him for five seconds before getting back to task. “So there’s a crap load of zombies outside and someone’s just hanging out watching
Veronica Mars
up in here?”

“Beats chewing your nails down to the nubs worrying about it. The windows looked blocked from outside so I’m sure they got this place sealed up tight.”

“Really? We walked right in.”

“Well, they weren’t expecting a helicopter to land on the roof, were they?”

“Point taken.”

“That’s far enough.” An older Hispanic man with a thick mustache stepped out from the shelving unit to block the aisle. “You got them, Elijah?”

“Yeah, Dad.”

They froze, turning their heads to see a younger Hispanic male, around seventeen, give or take a year, pointing a shotgun at them. His arms trembled. They could take him if necessary, but he might fire a bullet before they reached him.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Cruz spoke up. “We’re just looking for a place to stay until we can get a vehicle and get to the camp in Lincoln.”

“Holy crap, Dad. It’s Cruz Thomas!”

The father frowned.

“From the
Action X
movies and Mom liked him in
Bleeding Heart
.”

“You are an actor? Why are you in Kansas?”

To kill his already dead mama and get one of us killed in the process
, Damian thought, but said nothing.

“We were headed to Lincoln, Nebraska, to the camp there. We found a helicopter but it wouldn’t make it much farther in the condition it’s in so we saw this place and landed on the roof while we could still land safely.”

The man seemed to think about this. “Why are you armed if you do not want trouble?”

“Because shit’s crazy out there,” Damian blurted. “Why the hell you got your boy holding a gun on us? You already know.”

“The gun is to keep you from robbing us … or worse. We don’t know you.”

“We know Cruz Thomas,” Elijah said. “I doubt he’s going to just kill a person.”

Wanna bet?
Damian almost laughed but knew it was the worst thing he could do at the moment. “We’re good people. We only use these weapons on those things out there.”

That much was true. Cruz had killed Cliff with his hands.

“Are you with these men on your own free will?” the man asked Raven.

“Yes,” she answered, the first time she’d spoken since she quit screaming for Jeremy. “You can trust them.”

“Why do you look so upset? What did they do?”

Raven shook her head as tears streamed down her face. The man’s expression showed suspicion.

“We lost someone today,” Damian explained. “A young girl. We got surrounded by zombies. We tried to save her but there were just too many. They were on her and we couldn’t do anything to save her at that point so we got in the helicopter and we looked for a safe place but everywhere in this area is crawling with those things. We started having engine trouble and Cruz was struggling to keep the helicopter up so we landed on the roof here. It was the safest place we’d seen for miles. Raven’s taking it the hardest.”

“Women and children often do,” he said sadly, the hint of a haunting memory in his eyes. “So you’ve been out there in that mess all this time? Why didn’t you stay somewhere safe?”

“This is the first somewhere safe we’ve seen,” he answered. “Some of us had family out here we wanted to check on so thought we’d check on them on our way to Lincoln. They were dead already when we found them. The zombies got to them. Now it’s just us together right here looking for a place to stay or a vehicle that’ll get us the rest of the way to Lincoln.”

“Good luck finding a vehicle,” the kid said, lowering the gun. “Last I checked there were about a thousand zombies surrounding the one we came here in. I say they stay here.”

“Oh, is that right?” the man asked.

“Relax, Dad. It’s Cruz Thomas. Personally I like having a badass action hero on my team during the zombie apocalypse.”

“Those are movies,” his father reminded him, “and watch your language. There are ladies present.”

“Oh, we’re not offended,” Damian said.

Elijah laughed. His dad did not.

“I can’t in good conscience send anyone out there but if any harm comes to my son I have a gun too, one I’m going to start carrying.”

“We understand.” Damian smiled. “We appreciate this.”

“I don’t understand nothing,” came another voice and a red-headed white man with tattoos adorning every inch of his arms and a white T-shirt stepped out beside the Hispanic man, gun in hand. “I don’t understand how you think you can just invite these people in here without even asking me.”

“They need help, Kurt.”

“That’s the difference between you and me, Carlos. You see people that need help. I see conniving leeches that wanna suck us dry. That’s four extra mouths to feed and our supplies are limited.”

“We have a whole grocery,” Elijah said.

“Watch your mouth, kid. You don’t make the rules.”

“Neither do you,” Carlos snapped, “and you watch your tone with my son.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“You mean what are we going to do about it?” Damian asked, picking up on the situation. He’d known plenty of Kurts in his life, but in Oakland they were usually gang leaders.

“This ain’t your problem, boy.”

“Boy?” He looked at the hooded figure tattooed on Kurt’s bicep above the KKK letters and laughed. “I ain’t your boy, bitch, and a whole crew of your hooded friends couldn’t make me.”

Kurt stepped forward. “You need to leave.”

“We were invited to stay.”

“Come on, Kurt,” Elijah pleaded. “This place is huge. We have plenty of food, water, and everything else. It’s not like the generators are going to use up any more fuel with extra people.”

“They’ll eat our food.”

“The food will not last forever, with or without them,” Carlos said. “Eventually we will need to leave for a military camp or at least forage elsewhere. It is best to have more people for that. These people have been out there all this time. They are skilled. I’d say they are a help, not a hindrance.”

Kurt glared at them as his eyes raked them over. He took a particularly long moment sizing up Pimjai and Raven. “Well, we wouldn’t want women out there, would we? What are your names, ladies?”

Raven glared back at the jerk. Pimjai stood there, looking confused.

“Your names?” he asked again.

“Little English,” Pimjai said, adopting a heavily accented timid voice as she averted her eyes. “Sorry.”

Damian looked at Cruz and the other man shrugged so slightly only he would pick up on it.

“Fucking foreigners,” Kurt muttered. “She ain’t some infected mail-order bride, is she?”

“Does she look Russian?” Damian asked.

Kurt pointed his gun at Damian’s face. “Don’t give me no attitude.”

“Everybody cool it,” Cruz said. “You help us and we can help you. Fighting against each other is stupid.”

Kurt ran his tongue over his teeth as he smiled, lowering his gun. “That’s right. We share things here. We have food and shelter we share with you. You share what you have with us.”

“Of course,” Cruz said. “We don’t have much though.”

“Oh you got a treasure here.” Kurt ogled Raven. “I’m usually not into blue haired punk girls but this one will do.”

“Oh hell no,” Damian said, stepping forward.

Cruz reached out an arm, holding him back. “Raven’s not shareable.”

“Raven?” Kurt laughed. “Hell of a name. Hell of a woman. Oh, I don’t really want to share her with you. You see, she’s mine.”

“Wrong again.”

“Well, so much for us helping each other out.”

“Come on, Kurt,” Carlos said. “Leave the women alone.”

“Hey, I was leaving them the Chinese one. I just want the wild haired one.” He stepped closer and before Cruz could make a move, Raven unsheathed the katana and placed its tip at Kurt’s throat.

Kurt immediately aimed his gun at her chest. Cruz pointed his at Kurt’s head as Damian pulled Cliff’s pistol free of his waistband and aimed for Kurt’s face as well.

“Everyone relax!” Carlos reached out. “Elijah, give me that gun.”

“Elijah, you don’t listen to your daddy,” Kurt growled. “You point that gun at this sonofabitch’s head.” He glared at Cruz.

“Elijah, you know who I am,” Cruz said calmly. “You don’t want to shoot me.”

“Put your gun down, Kurt.” Elijah’s voice shook but the tone was firm.

Carlos pleaded with his son. “Elijah, get out of here. Go hide.”

“I’m not letting Cruz Thomas or his friends die, Dad.”

“Cruz Thomas?” Kurt sneered. “You think this rich fucker gives two shits about you, boy? Famous douche bags don’t give a crap about real people.”

“I care about my friends and I
will
kill for them,” Cruz countered. “I’m not an actor now. I’m a survivor just like the rest of you. Nobody’s better than anybody.”

“How sweet. Somebody write those lines for you?”

“Enough of this,” Carlos shouted. “We have plenty of room. We can make this work. Kurt, you can not claim a woman. It isn’t right.”

“Why the hell not? We’re giving them food and shelter.”

“Because you can’t own another person like they were a possession.”

“Oh yeah?” He grinned, looking at Damian. “My great-great-granddaddy owned a whole bunch of people.”

“Sonofabitch.” Damian aimed between Kurt’s eyes and started to squeeze the trigger but a tall black man with facial hair stepped out from the shelves lining the aisle, the barrel of his gun resting flat against the back of Kurt’s head.

“Everybody drop their weapons,” he ordered, his voice deep and brooking no room for negotiation as a young blonde girl covered in blood and stuff Damian didn’t want to think about stepped out from behind him, gun pointed.

A woman then stepped out, petite and Asian like Pimjai.

“Janjai!” Pimjai nearly squealed as she rushed forward. The women hugged and began talking in fast, excited tones, in a language Damian couldn’t pinpoint. Chinese, Japanese, it all sounded the same to Damian.

“I said lower them,” the tall man said again.

Slowly, they all lowered their guns. Raven kept her blade tip against Kurt’s throat.

“You too, sweetheart,” the man said.

Cruz placed one hand on her shoulder, using the other to grab her wrist and make her lower the sword. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he promised.

“So that’s it,” Carlos said, finishing up his tour of Wally’s Club, which included a grocery with aisles and aisles of canned and boxed food, still good, and a whole aisle of bottled water. It also included a selection of guns and ammo and a small shooting range which they could use for training, a pharmacy which likely held the drugs Cruz needed, a camping section and furniture. They would have beds to sleep in, camp stoves to cook on and even a regular oven was hooked up, powered by the generators. Wally’s Club had an automotive department so they had gas, but they only used what they needed, knowing once it ran out, there went their power.

“Kurt is a pain to deal with,” he went on, referring to the man who’d went off to fume after being stopped by the people Pimjai’s sister had been with, “but other than that, this is a good shelter. We blocked the front windows and the doors are kept locked. Those things aren’t smart enough to figure out how to pick locks, which I guess you all were, or land on a rooftop for that matter. You are all safe.”

He frowned, looking at the young brunette girl. Raven frowned too. She favored Sky.

“Was she bitten?” he asked the black man who’d entered the building with her and Pimjai’s sister.