Page 15 of Deceptively Dead

“There would be, yes, if we weren’t in a zombie apocalypse.” He says in a hard voice, and I shrink away from him a little, which only makes him scowl harder. “You can consider this a small price to pay for scaring us all half to freaking death, sweetheart. Don’t be fooled, we are all mighty upset right now.” I wasn’t fooled at all; it was very obvious they were upset. I decided to let the fact thattheywere upset withmebecauseIgot attacked by a zombiein a zombie apocalypseslide for now, because I’m mature like that. “Now, give me your arm.” He demands again and when I hesitate a little too long, he sighs, losing a little bit of the tension in his shoulders as he picks up my hand and looks into my eyes. “Trouble, I promise it won’t hurttoo much, trust me, ok? It’ll be over soon.” Then large hands land gently on my shoulders and Nate quickly moves in to jab me in my upper arm. I do my best not to struggle or accidentally stab someone and I’m reasonably successful. I may accidentally elbow Chase in the stomach as those large hands that clamped down gently on my shoulder try to stop me from flailing, but really, who can be sure? He might just be struggling to breathe because of the guilt he feels for holding me down while Nate tortures me.

After the injection Nate sets about thoroughly bandaging my shoulder, placing a poultice on both the front and back to draw out any infection and covering it all with a bright white bandage that drastically restricts my movement. I sit quietly through the whole ordeal, watching Hunter and Chase pace restlessly about the clearing slowly thinking myself in to a funk.What the hell is such a big freaking deal anyway? We are in a god damn zombie apocalypse and I am a motherfucking adult. I can damn well take care of myself, as I clearly just freaking did!

Or maybe,chimes in the snide little voice inside my head,just maybe, they think youcan’tlook after yourself, because really what did you do? You got trapped under a zombie and ripped open your stitches, then you had to wait for the cavalry to ride in and rescue you. Maybe, they’re sick of having to carry your needy ass around all the time.I try to hush the nasty bitch but she has some good points, I did need them to rescue me, again, and that thought chafes a little at my pride.I guess I could just ask them…I reason with myself, but something keeps my mouth stubbornly shut, even when Nate insists on putting my injured arm in a sling after dressing me in an oversized shirt that smells like Hunter. He gives me a funny look when I don’t argue with him but doesn’t seem to want to press his luck, so he just ties the sling in place and starts to pack up his shit. I manage to locate another pair of pants and some fresh socks and I’m readyto go again. No one speaks to me as we get ready to move out and I keep my silence too, not sure exactly what’s happening but knowing that it’s somehow my fault.

Chapter Seventeen

We haul ass away from our little campsite, having drawn way too much attention to ourselves. As we leave Chase bends and tries to haul me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but damn it I can walk! Which is exactly what I tell him. We have a small standoff until he eventually gestures for me to walk on ahead of him, which I count as a win until he stalks behind me so closely that he’s basically stepping on my heels. The other two aren’t much better, setting a blistering pace and tensing at every snapped twig or rustle of animals escaping our quiet stampede. Not that I can blame the guys for being jumpy, I am too. Heck, I nearly blow the head off an unsuspecting tree branch when it moves in the wind. I decide to keep my weapons holstered after that, even though it makes me more nervous.

Eventually, after what feels like (and probably is) hours of nearly jogging through the forest, my body just can’t take anymore. Not even the truck loads of adrenalin shooting intome can keep my legs moving. When I stop suddenly, a massive, hard chest rams straight into me with the force of a steam train. Thankfully, my steam train has excellent reflexes and prevents me from crashing head first into the dirt.

“You all right Angel?” Chase whispers against my ear. I shake my head as my legs finally give out completely and I end up dangling from Chase’s arms. This time when he scoops me up in a bridal hold I don’t even complain, just wrap my arm around his neck and close my eyes. Chase lets out a low whistle and I open my eye just enough to see the guys double back to our position.

They eye me as they approach, but I must look pretty bad because neither says a word just rearranges their positions so Hunter is in the lead again and Nate brings up the rear. Nate does run his hand over my cheek as he passes and I close my eyes to savour his touch, only when he’s gone, they refuse to open again.

I relax myself into Chase’s strong arms and rest, just for a little bit…

The sharp hiss of a sword being drawn startles me awake and I jerk in Chase’s arms. He doesn’t put me down, just holds me closer. I let out a breath of relief and look around to see what woke me. I freeze when I see the old lady wandering aimlessly between the trees in front of us. Her sunflower dress is torn and bloodied and her grey hair hangs in matted clumps around her shoulders. It is clear she hasn’t spotted us yet and my heart gives a little lurch for her, just like it always does when I see a corpse from afar. They just look so lost, soalonewhen they aren’t hunting. It makes me remember, just for a moment, that they used to be alive.This old lady probably had grandkids somewhere. Maybe they were still alive, hoping she was ok? Or, more likely,I think as she turns slightly towards us and I catch a glimpse of her hollowed out and bloodstained face,she ate them.Either way it’s sad.

Nate steps up beside us and accidentally crunches a twig under his boot. I watch in horror as the body’s sightless white eyes turn toward the sound and I realise the reason she hasn’t seen us yet is because she’s blind. She lurches toward us, a low keening noise starting in her throat. Oddly, I’m not terrified, snuggled close in Chase’s arms and I watch her with keen interest as she stumbles forward, whipping her sightless eyes back and forth.

Then I watch in horrified fascination as one of her ghastly, white-blue eyes sprouts a long thin blade.

Wait.

I turn my head in Chase’s arms as the corpse crumples to the ground and catch Hunter casually tossing a twin blade in the air before catching it and replacing it within his arsenal of weapons.

Throwing knives.

Where in the hell does one get throwing knives in an apocalypse? And who actually knows how to accurately use them?

Hunter shoots me a smug smile as he retrieves his other blade from the eyeball of the old lady and cleans it on her dress. Nate grumbles something suspiciously like: ”show off” and puts his katana away with a snappy and totally show-offy flourish.

He then holds his arms out to Chase and makes a ‘gimme’ motion with his hands. Chase does not give. Things get a bit awkward for me as Nate stares at us both expectantly. I have no idea what I am supposed to do in this situation.Do I go to Nate or stay with Chase?I’m saved from making any decision because Chase sighs and passes me off into Nate’s arms as a glowering Hunter stalks up to us. Nate all but preens, like he just won a game I wasn’t aware of. Hunter’s glower intensifies as he watches Nate settle me in his arms.

“Uh-oh, looks like someone wanted to carry the pretty lady.” Chase teases.

“I’m the one that killed the zombie granny.” Hunter mutters as he turns away. “I should get to carry her.”

“Tough shit, I got here first. Maybe if you hadn’t decided to wow us all with your mad knife theatrics you would have been here quicker.” Nate drawls, heavy on the sarcasm.I think he’s upset he didn’t get to use his sword.

Chase laughs and bends down to kiss me on the forehead and then we are moving again.

These guys have a strange relationship, and I have a feeling they are going to make it their mission to ensure I fit right in.

Chapter Eighteen

The guys take turns carrying me for the rest of the day, even when I try to get down and walk, they are having none of it. Eventually, I just give in and let them coddle me, deciding my sore feet could use the break they are offering. After we hike through the woods for the better part of the day we abruptly come to a stop at the edge of an old, cracked, single lane road. It is here that Hunter puts me back on my feet and we cautiously follow him along the asphalt. Nate stays between me and the trees and Chase follows behind us.

After just a few miles of walking along the road Hunter abruptly swings into an overgrown drive, fighting his way through the weeds and shrubs that have sprouted in the absence of cars, and quickly disappearing from sight. I hesitate only slightly before following the sounds of his bulk moving through the thickly tangled undergrowth, Chase and Nate follow behind me in single file.

I struggle around a bend in the obnoxiously long driveway and stop with a gasp at the sight before me. It’s a house, no wait, scratch that. It’s a bloody mansion. The sandstone monster is two stories high and sprawls across an acre or more of what I’m sure would have been perfectly maintained lawn before the apocalypse, but now just looks like an inviting meadow, complete with tall grass and different coloured flowers. All of this is locked securely behind its imposing fence. But maybe fence is too underwhelming a word to use because the gate we come up to is a huge seven-foot wrought iron monstrosity with dancing deer worked into its design that flows seamlessly out into the surrounding infrastructure built of ornate iron spikes and sandstone columns that run the entire circumference of the house and its pretty meadow, keeping the looming forest at bay. The whole place screams money and things worth protecting and I have to physically reach up and shut my own mouth.

To my utter astonishment Hunter pulls a little key from his pocket and fits it snugly into the lock for the small side gate I hadn’t noticed, tucked up against the dancing deer behemoth. It clicks obediently and glides open on quiet hinges. A rattle draws my attention and I see a string with a can attached to it at the bottom of the gate and I peer at it curiously as the opening gate pulls the can towards the bars of the deer gate, stopping just short of making a large clang as Hunter maneuvers himself through the small gap. I’m hustled through next by Nate and when Chase brings up the rear, just managing to squeeze his massive frame through, Nate uses a long stick to slowly poke the can back into its hiding spot as Hunter locks the gate behind us. All of a sudden, a little late I suppose, it hits me that these guys have been here before. A lot by the look of it.Holy shit, am I about to meet the rest of their group?! Is this where they have them hidden? Because honestly, it’s a pretty good spot to stash someone, or a couple of someone’s, while you gallivant aroundthe country side saving random girls from devious would-be overlords. And I’m rambling again. But the prospect of meeting the rest of the guys group terrifies me.What if they hate me? What if I hate them? What if they’re just like Jacob and want me for breeding?All these thoughts have me a little jittery as we creep up the pathway to the front door and I draw in a breath to ask Chase, who’s the closest to me at this moment, what this place is. But he places his finger over his lips then brings his two fingers up to point at his eyes and then around the clearing. Signaling, I think, that I need to be quiet and watchful.I’m so good at reading these finger gestures I should have been in the army, I swear. I respond to Chase with the appropriate one fingered salute and it makes him grin at me. I give him a goofy smile back, completely forgetting the freak out I was just having about meeting the rest of their group.

When we reach the front door Nate holds me back with an arm across my chest as Hunter and Chase enter side by side, Hunter having produced another key and silently unlocked this one too. I wait impatiently as they stalk into the house, guns up.I guess it’s pretty unlikely the rest of their group is here if this is how they greet them, then.I can’t help fidgeting as I wait for the two of them to return. I flick a glance at Nate after a few minutes but he’s busy scanning the surrounding forest. He doesn’t seem concerned it’s taking them fucking ages though, so I try to be patient too.

What feels like an eternity later, a low whistle sounds through the open door and Nate gestures for me to head in with a knowing smirk on his stupid, handsome face.Surely my worry for the other two hadn’t been that obvious. I give him the stink eye just in case as I breeze by him and he responds with a light smack to my butt that makes me jump forward. I come to an abrupt halt as my eyes try to take everything in at once. The perfect cream walls, themarblefloors (like, what the fuck, whoeven has marble freaking floors?!),the ostentatious artwork plastered around every surface and, of course, the glittering monstrosity of a chandelier hanging like a cloud over the large foyer space. On the opposite side from me a breathtaking curved staircase leads to the upper floor, the stairs marble with a cream rug spilling down the middle. Everything is cream and gold. Everything. There was clearly a color scheme and the previous occupants of this house stuck to it like dirt on literally any surface in this house. And everything is glaringly, painfully expensive. I immediately feel uncomfortable here, I want to turn around and camp in the meadow outside. For all its space and splendour this house makes me feel claustrophobic. And it’s soneat.It’s as if the apocalypse has never entered here, never dared to touch the cream and gold décor. Well, except for the two large, armed, dirty men striding around as if they’ve lived here their whole lives. Just then Nate pushes in behind me, gently slipping around me before prowling down one of the corridors leading off the foyer.Make that three large, armed, dirty men then. And little old dumb struck me.

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