Page 32 of Deceptively Dead

“Wait just a damn minute.” I say holding up my hands to them. “You can’t just drag me back to your town with a threat hot on our heels. It is absolutely unfair to bring that to them. I can wait. You should take care of whatever’s out there before we move.” I state decisively.

“Sorry, Trouble. You’re outvoted.” Nate says simply as he slings his backpack on his shoulders and bends to gently lift meinto his arms. I try to stifle my hiss of pain but am only partly successful and Nate gives me alook.

Chase blows out the little candle and stuffs it back into his bag before rolling the bed up as it is and securing it to Hunter’s pack as he follows him out the door. Nate hangs back with me for a few minutes, until Chase reappears in the doorway and gestures for us to follow, then we are moving, and I don’t even get a chance to say goodbye to the adorable treehouse that was my home for the night.

The guys move quietly through the trees in the dark, spread out and weapons at the ready. But the woods remain silent, not even an owl to be heard.Hopefully that means the dead caught up to Jacob’s men and they will no longer be a problem.

We travel slowly and silently in the dark, until the morning sun starts to lighten the woods around us. Nate pauses a moment to hand me over to Chase and I snuggle into the big guys arms, letting him fight off the chill of the dawn air. Nate presses a light touch to my leg and my breathing stutters at how cold his hand feels on my throbbing leg. He makes a concerned sound and then we are all moving, the guys falling into an almost jog that looks entirely military.

They manage to keep their pace for most of the morning, moving me between them any time they get tired, but never taking a break. For my part, I concentrate on trying not to cry out with each step they take as it sends flairs of pain rocketing from my leg straight to my head. I try not to let them see how painful the journey is, because I know how hard it must be for them to carry me this whole way anddamn it, I won’t make it harder. But as the sun settles high in the sky I start to sweat, likereallysweat. Still, I refuse to say anything. Holding in my cries has become the only thing that matters and if I open my mouth to tell the guys I don’t feel well, I’m just as likely to vomit.

It’s not until Nate pulls me form Hunter’s arms that they notice something is wrong.Well, more wrong.

“Fuck. She’s burning up.” Nate exclaims as he presses his blessedly cool hand to my forehead. “How long has she been like this??” he demands of first Hunter then Chase. Neither of the guys can give him an answer and they both shake their heads as their worried gazes search my flushed, sweating face.

Nate places me gently on the ground and pulls out a water bottle, making me take slow steady sips until I feel like I’m going to puke if I have any more. Then he pours some water onto one of his shirts and uses it to clean away the sweat, leaving my skin blessedly cool for a few precious moments until the heat takes over again.

“Why didn’t you say something, Trouble?” he asks me, eyes worried and tone hurt.

“Didn’t wanna worry anyone.” I manage to slur. And then blink at how hard I had to work to talk.

“Ok. It’s ok.” Nate says quietly, panic lacing his words. “You just stay awake, ok? We got you baby; everything is going to be ok. Just stay awake for me.” His voice is pleading, though I think he means it to come out calm.This should worry me…the thought drifts lazily through my foggy brain, but then the guys scoop me up and my world turns back into pain.

I drift as the guys hurry me toward their home, large patches of time missing from my memory as I suddenly realise we are no longer in the same woods, these trees we are passing under are densely packed evergreens and the terrain is rocky with a steep incline. The guys have to stop to rest after a while and they make me drink more water and wipe away the sweat before continuing on with the promise of ‘nearly there’.

When the sun starts to set, I startle awake from one of my blank periods, Nate’s face hovering above mine as he barks at meto wake up. They don’t stop or make camp, though I can see they are clearly exhausted.

I muster the energy to look around me as the light starts to fade, noticing strange, spikey shapes nestled amongst the close growing trees on either side of us. To my fever induced imagination they look like monsters, and I find myself huddling into Nate’s arms with a whimper.

“Easy, Trouble.” He rumbles, “Nearly there, sweetheart.”

I blink my eyes in response, but when I open them again, we are standing in front of a huge metal gate. A guard at the top of the gate looks down on us and whistles low.

“Shit, boys. You look rougher than I’ve ever seen y’all.” He calls down as I study the eight-foot-high wooden wall that flanks the equally high metal gate. The wall is pointy and holds my interest for longer than it should.

“Shut the fuck up and open the gate, Kenny.” Chase snaps at the guard, “Our girl needs medical attention.”

“Your girl…?” Kenny asks in bewilderment, then “Oh, shit!” as Chase steps aside to reveal me in Nates arms.

“Kenny!” Hunter snarls and the kid squeals, diving down and disappearing from view for a moment before the gate starts to open slowly. I must be sicker than I thought because I could swear, I hear the clop of hooves under the groan of metal as one gate swings slowly inward. But then the guys are slipping in through the small gap and racing away from the gate. I manage to get a glimpse of Kenny, standing dumbfounded beside an adorable donkey that is hooked up to some sort of wheel, before the guys are ploughing down a slight decline toward a... a town. An actual honest to God TOWN!

My hazy brain struggles to comprehend what I am seeing spread out below me. The town is moderately sized with cute buildings hanging off the main street that divides it into four parts in a ‘T’ shaped pattern. But what really throws me is thatit’sbustlingwith people. Alive people. Going about their daily chores as though there weren’t murderous corpses just waiting to find this place and pull it apart. And there’s lights, lots of lights popping up all over as the sun sinks below the mountains caging the town.

The illusion of innocence is shattered as someone spots us barreling down the hill. I expect alarm. I expect people to duck into their homes and bar the doors. Instead, each and every member of the community pulls a weapon from somewhere on their person, even the children that had just been playing in the park. They stand together to face a threat they don’t recognise, until one of the children squeals “Uncle Chase!” and pockets their little knife to run right at us as we cross onto the town’s main road. I watch with detached appreciation as all the townspeople put away their weapons and gather to help my guys, firing questions at them at a rapid rate until Hunter thunders “ENOUGH! Mary, where is Thompson?” he barks at a young girl staring curiously at me.

“H-he’s at Jocelyn’s home. Her baby’s due soon and-“

“I don’t care. Get him. NOW!” he demands, and the girl is already running before he even finishes his sentence. “Meet us at the hospital!” he calls after her and she throws up a hand in acknowledgment as she dashes away. Then we are moving again, the crowd of people parting in front of the guys as if they were contagious.

I try to take everything in, but my vison starts to dim and in the next blink the guys are pushing through the door of a neatly tiled waiting room that smells like disinfectant and old people.Hospital.The girl at the desk rises as we enter, takes one look at me and jerks her head to the door at her back. We barge through and Nate deposits me on a sterile white bed before shuffling away at a muted run to collect what he needs. I whimper as he moves away, not wanting to be left alone, and Chase and Hunterclose in on either side of me, each claiming a hand and holding on for dear life as the nurse starts to hook me up to a flashy monitor. The guys move only enough to let her reach me and she huffs in annoyance, but doesn’t tell them to move, giving Hunter the side eye as he hovers over me protectively.If I had the energy, I’d be side eyeing him too. He looks half feral.

I glimpse Nate return just as Chase turns my head to him for a sweet but scorching kiss. A kiss that turns out to be a distraction, I yelp as Nate places a canular in my arm and Chase and Hunter soothe me. Soon I am hooked up to a bag of fluids and Nate seems to be able to relax, moving efficiently around the room. My eyes droop and I fight to stay conscious in my mew surroundings.

“It’s ok now Angel, you can rest. We got you, everything’s all right now.” Chase murmurs into my hair and, as ever, my body obeys his suggestion.

Chapter Thirty-three

Iwake groggy and disorientated, my hands still gripped in both of my guy’s vice like holds, only now they are collapsed into uncomfortable looking armchairs, both fast asleep. I take a moment to study their faces in the harsh light of the hospital and notice the bags under their eyes, even while they sleep.They look exhausted.I leave my hands in theirs, so that I don’t wake them and look around at my surrounds. A heart monitor keeps a steady beat at my back and my clothes have been changed into a papery hospital gown. A fluid bag drips liquid into the catheter in my arm and I immediately look anywhere but at the canular sticking out from my skin.

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