Page 19 of The Pale Rider
“Hold on tight, Speedy!” he yelled as we raced towards that death trap in the middle of the road.
I held onto the pommel for dear life and shrieked bloody murder, and Meremoth went sailing over that bloody road trap like he was some sort of Pegasus. I could hear the squelch of bodies being impaled on the wooden spikes, and then I heard wood splintering as it broke.
Gunshots rang out. Most of them were aimed at the Rage Heads, but a few people shot at us at first. I felt a bullet just barely miss my ear before the sounds of men screaming started filling my ears. Scooter’s gang became more concerned with saving their own lives than killing us.
The sounds of gunshots, screams, and wails of the dead were getting further in the distance, but Meremoth was still running like we were being chased. That damned horse never seemed to get tired, and I didn’t think a regular horse could have cleared that roadblock with two people on its back.
Meremoth didn’t slow down until we saw a sign that we had entered a new city. Aeron reached around me and patted his neck.
“Good boy.”
“Are we allowed to talk now?” I snapped. “Because you are fucking insane. You could have got us killed.”
“I’ll never get us killed, Speedy. I’m your best shot at living through this. I told you my specialty was death. Scooter’s gang are nasty people. They’ve either raped or eaten everyone in that city or the surrounding cities. I did the world a favor and saved your life. They would have done worse to you if they had caught you.”
Who the fuck was I spending my apocalypse with?
Chapter 12
W
e ran like the devil getting out of that city, but we took a lazy walk for the rest of the day. Most of the herd of Rage Heads stayed behind to eat Scooter’s gang. We walked in total silence. Aeron never was much of a talker, and I was mad at him about that stunt for most of the ride.
But the more we walked, the more I found my anger dissipating. It worked, and was what was left of humanity really better off with Scooter and his gang in the world? Not really. If they had come at me, I would have killed as many of them as I could, but I saw how many people were living there. There were way more of them than there were of us. Something was still bothering me.
“Was there no other way to get out of that town besides right through the front door of Scooter’s territory?”
“Not without adding two days to our journey, and if we did that, there would be no safe place for us to sleep. We could do it my way and take some evil people out of the equation so some living stood a better chance or we could have tried to go the long way and risked one of Scooter’s men finding us or being discovered by a herd of Rage Heads.”
“You still should have told me that’s what you were planning.”
Aeron let out a chuckle.
“You would never have gotten on Meremoth, and we’d still be back at the cabin fighting.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
“I know.”
“So, what’s next?”
“I have safe houses the entire way to Mexico. Provided they haven’t been discovered, we should be safe there. We’ll have to make sure no Rage Heads have broken the perimeter and gotten in. Some of them are one-bedroom, so we must share a bed unless you want to sleep on the couch.”
This guy right here. Didn’t most guys offer to take the couch when there was only one bed? What a gentleman. Well, I wasn’t sleeping on the couch either. It was the fucking apocalypse. There were walking corpses everywhere, and there would be times I was eating out of a can. I was sure I’d end up sleeping on dirt floors or the woods. If there was a bed, I was taking what I could get. Besides, Aeron seemed way more uncomfortable being around me than I was with him, and I owed him a little payback for that stunt with Scooter’s gang. Apparently, I was a passive-aggressive little bitch before I lost my memories.
“I’m sleeping in the fucking bed, Aeron.”
I felt him sigh against my back.
“I had a feeling you would say that.”
“Youcan take the couch if you don’t want to sleep next to me.”
“That couch is all lumpy and has seen better days.”
“And you wanted me to sleep on it? Dick.”
We rode all day, and we only stopped so Meremoth could drink water and eat. My ass was killing me. We only got off the back of the demon horse so he could have a break. We stopped at a creek while Meremoth drank and grazed. Aeron and I got to eat our haul from the storeroom.
