State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) (13 page)

“Let’s grab some food,” Jude said without looking at me. I followed him and knew without looking up that almost every single eye in the room was on us. Jesus, it felt like high school all over again. A woman who looked to be in her mid-forties handed us a tray and I only
just
kept myself from hugging her. Our tray had a small pile of white rice with a ladle of piping hot canned beef stew poured on top. There was a fresh mini bread roll and a cookie with it. I smiled widely at the woman and she smiled back, aware of how much such a simple meal could mean to someone.

We sat in the back of the room and I opted to sit in front of him, instead of next to him, even though that put my back to the exit and almost everyone in the room. Jude raised a brow, but didn’t remark on it. We both dug into our food, grateful for the warmth and the mutual silence. I moaned as I bit into my peanut butter cookie. Jude’s eyes met mine and I steeled myself. He was pissed.

“Jude, I …” He held up a hand and I stopped mid-sentence. His eyes bore into mine, intense and hurt.

“You gave up, Mel,” he said so low I could barely hear the words. “You were just going to stand there and let those fuckers have you.” My eyes closed and I felt a fist squeeze around my heart. He was right, of course. I
did
give up and I hadn’t even given a second thought to how that would affect him. I had been selfish.

“I’m so sorry, Jude. I was being a selfish bitch,” I whispered thickly. I met his eyes and sat up straighter in my seat. “It won’t happen again.”

“You better fucking believe it won’t,” he said angrily. I reached my hand out tentatively and placed it on top of his. When he didn’t jerk his hand back, I gave his a squeeze.

“Is that an order, Agent?” I whispered, my eyes wide to keep from crying. Jude’s intense stare took my breath away.

“Damn straight, woman.” I rolled my eyes at that and pulled back to finish off my cookie. When I eyeballed Jude’s cookie he sighed and broke it in half and offered me the bigger part. I grinned and took it quickly before he changed his mind. He just chuckled and shook his head, muttering something about
females
and
driving him insane
.

“Looks like
Germain
is someone in charge,” I said quietly as I bit into the cookie and then took a swig of water. Jude nodded.

“No telling who this guy is or how in the world he could have taken the base,” he said with his eyes on his plate. “Look at this place, it had to have been damn near impossible to break into. But to take it over completely?” Jude shook his head and clenched his jaw. “It had to be someone already here … someone they wouldn’t suspect.” He met my eyes.
A traitor
. I nodded. Someone dangerous and maybe even unstable.

“We need to find out if there are any prisoners,” I said in a whisper. Jude nodded in agreement.

“They won’t trust me, hell, they already hate me.” I flinched. He said it so certainly.

“Why do you say that?” I asked perplexed. “Maybe they’ll want to recruit you or something.” Jude smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile.

“I know because I have something almost every man in this place already wants for himself,” he said caustically. My mouth popped open to ask him what in the hell he could possibly have when it struck me with the force of a small hurricane.
Me
. Sweet baby Jesus. I was a hot commodity. I fidgeted in my seat and barely restrained myself from turning around to see if all the eyes I’d felt on my back were still there or not.

“Exactly,” he said through gritted teeth. “I hadn’t thought this through well enough.” His hand ran over his face and I could tell for the second time that day he was truly worried for my safety.

“Maybe I can use it to our advantage,” I said gently. Jude drew back, his eyes going wide. “Not like that,” I said quickly. Jeepers. “I meant that maybe I could get some information from some of the guys … maybe from Tex.” Jude eyes hardened and his fist tightened on the table. I spoke hurriedly. “It’s just that he was respectful in a situation that could’ve been very bad, Jude. I don’t think he’d intentionally hurt anyone, so he might be our best bet.” I said as I bit my bottom lip.

“Alright, but be careful and if you feel even a little uneasy, just forget it. It isn’t worth your life. Nothing is.” He waited for my nod. He breathed a sigh of relief when I nodded my agreement. We finished our lunch quickly and left the mess hall to go to the common room and walk the halls without an escort. An armed guard followed us several steps back as soon as we left got up to leave, though. Jude put a hand on my back and steered me into the common room and over to a small seating area. There was a teen boy, a woman with curly, brown hair—probably in her late twenties, and a small girl with strawberry-blonde hair sitting there. The little girl was playing with
a doll on the floor and the teen was looking extremely bored. They all eyed us warily when we sat down in their area.

I glanced around the room, taking note of the sixty or so people walking around, playing games, or otherwise entertaining themselves. I also took note of several people who seemed to be a little bit too interested in me and Jude. I stood up and stretched after twenty minutes of inactivity and pointed to a book shelf across the room when Jude glanced up at me.

“I’ll be right back. I’m just going to check out what they have to read,” I said with a smile. The bookshelf didn’t have much in the way of novels, but it did have the entire Harry Potter series. I picked up the first book and remembered the day my mom had bought me the entire collector’s set for Christmas one year. I smiled to myself and thumbed through the first few pages.

“Hey, sweet
thang, how ‘bout you come over here and play a few games with me and my friends,” the guttural voice came from directly behind me and my good memories immediately vanished into a wisp of thin air. I glanced over my shoulder at Jude, who had already risen halfway out of his seat, and shook my head. His eyes flared in anger, but he sat back down. I didn’t look at the guy who spoke to me.

“I’d rather not,” I said indifferently. A few cat calls and guys laughing at their friend’s rebuff made the guy bolder.

“You think you’re too good for me or something?” he said in a hiss.

“Not at all,” I said with a shrug. “I’m just not interested.” A hand gripped my shoulder and spun me around. The guy pushed me up against the bookshelf with a hand around my throat and brought his face close to mine.
“You don’t know what you’re missing, little girl,” he said against my cheek, his foul breath fanning my face. An armed guard came up next to us and put a hand on the man’s arm.

“Back off, man, she’s off limits,” he said, sounding slightly panicked, slightly scared. I wondered for only a second exactly who he was afraid of, but it was of no consequence. I pushed myself into the guy, catching him off guard when my body crashed flush into his own, knocking him back a step. What he and the guard failed to see soon enough was my hand darting out and snatching the ten inch blade from the guard’s leg. By the time either of them had time to react, I had already swept the septic-breathed dude’s legs out from under him and rode his body to the ground with the blade pressing directly into the hollow of his throat. The guard let out a surprised gasp and that only made me smile. I pressed the blade into his throat enough to draw a line of blood. He whimpered, his eyes wide. The entire room was deathly silent.

“You don’t seem to know how to take
no
for an answer,” I hissed down at the guy I was perched on top of. “Guys like you would be behind bars right now, away from the rest of society and such. But, things are pretty fucked up right now, so worthless, pieces of shit like you think you’re above the law, huh?” I pressed my knife down a little more. The guy didn’t dare breathe too deeply. “Maybe I should drive this into your throat right now. I’m sure it would go in just as easily as it does one of the hundreds of undead I’ve taken out. Maybe even easier.” I smiled, letting the jerk see in my eyes that I meant exactly what I said. “I’d be doing what’s left of society a favor,” I said as if mulling it over.

“Melody, don’t,” It was Tex. I didn’t look up or acknowledge him. I leaned down and brought my mouth up close to the guy’s ear to whisper.

“I swear to God and on all that is holy … if I ever hear of you hurting someone, or even looking sideways at some helpless woman or girl, I will fucking find you and cut your throat without even blinking. You understand me?” A very small “yes” as an answer. I snatched the knife from his throat and removed myself from his prone body in one smooth movement. I held the knife out to the guard and turned to face Tex. Jude was standing there too, like a large storm cloud about ready to rain down a torrent of booming lightening. I shrugged.

“So much for keeping a low profile,” Tex muttered with a sigh. “Follow me.
Germain wants to see you both.” Tex took off, leaving Jude and I scrambling to keep up. So much for stealth … it looked like we were going to be led straight to Germain himself. Time to meet the man who overthrew the secret, Charlotte army base.

The layout of the base was much like the one close to Midtown, but it was a lot larger and a bit more complicated with extra corridors and blocked off spaces. Too much for me to memorize as we strode briskly by.

“So, Germain … he some kind of leader or something here?” I asked Tex nonchalantly. He laughed loudly and turned to wink at me.

“Something like that,” he answered without really answering. I turned and caught Jude looking at me, his expression matched my own. What on earth was going on around here? We stopped in front of a door that had a guard posted outside of it. When we approached the guard moved to the
side for Tex and the rest of us to pass through. Tex was important. Good to know.

We entered a large room that looked like a meeting room with a huge table in its center. At the head of the table there sat a man with a shaved head and a goatee who watched us enter with hooded eyes. I could tell immediately he was someone in charge, someone who commanded authority. I did a quick search around the table and room. There were five other people in the room seated and standing close to the man sitting at the head of the table. Four men and one young woman. I didn’t pay them much mind, I wanted to find out about
Germain.

“Melody Carter,” the man intoned from where he sat. I raised my chin and met his steely, blue gaze. “What are you and this army man, Jude, doing here in Charlotte?” he asked, getting straight to the point.

“I have family and friends in Charlotte,” I said truthfully. I
did
have friends in Charlotte a long time ago. “I needed to see if anyone was left, if we could find any of them.”

“Why wait so long?” he asked. “Why wait two years after the outbreak if you were so concerned?” I swallowed and licked my lips.

“I lived by myself in the woods for almost two years before I met Jude.” I motioned toward Jude and he put an arm across my shoulders. “I didn’t think I could do it by myself. But with him, I thought maybe I would have a chance … but the city was worse than I ever imagined.” I finished softly. A chuckle came from the young woman standing close to Germain. Jude’s arm tightened on my shoulder. Something niggled the back of my mind, something I should have noticed earlier. I sucked in a breath.

“How did you know my last name?” I hissed. Jude’s entire body became rigid beside me. “I only told Tex my first name, but you called me by my last name as well.” I narrowed my eyes at the man whose face hadn’t shown a single ounce of emotion or surprise.

“Ah, Mel, you always were a smart one.”  The feminine voice rang out loud-and-clear through the room from the young woman, who now moved directly behind the man I’d been speaking with. She placed a hand on the back of his chair. “Do you know who I am?” she asked with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Surely, I’ve not changed so much that you wouldn’t recognize your best friend,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eye.

“Oh my God! Jess?” The room spun slightly. Jude put his arm around my waist to keep me upright. I stared with undisguised shock. It was her. Her long, straight blond hair had been chopped short and spiked up on the top of her head and she had several ear piercings. Her arms were more muscular and her face was hard. She had traded in her pink, designer clothing and heels for a black button up shirt and black leather pants. She’d changed so much that I could barely see the old Jess at all in the young woman standing before me.

Then my mind caught up with everything.
Germain
. Germain wasn’t a first name … it was a last name. Jessica Germain.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
. Jessica was the leader of an underground militia.

My laughter, bordering on hysteria, echoed throughout the room. Jude and Tex glanced at each other and then at me, clearly at a loss. I laughed so hard I cried. I laughed until my sides cramped.

What had the world fucking come to?