Bloody Sunrise: A Zombie Apocalypse Romance Page 13

  “Why don’t you let me take over?” She asked, touch lingering.

  He tilted his head to look at her. “I’m alright, songbird.” His grin was lopsided and just tired enough she knew he was lying for her benefit.

  “I’m better at night now,” she urged, hoping a gentle persuasion might work. “And the moon’s a quarter full now, so I can see okay.”

  Booker ducked to place a kiss high on her cheekbone. “I know. ‘M still alright.”

  Caitlin frowned. “Booker, you’re exhausted. I know you hide it well, but I can see it.”

  He didn’t answer. Simply stared out into the darkness.

  “It’s not a shameful thing to take care of yourself.”

  Booker sighed through his nose. “Not tired right now, Cae,” he said quietly. “You get some rest.”

  She bit the inside of her lip. “Fine, just ignore me,” she muttered as she stood up.

  “Y’tellin’ me you’re mad at me now?”

  Caitlin turned, facing him again. “I’m annoyed, yeah.” She crossed her arms. “I know you, Booker. I know you’re not sleeping. You spend all your time protecting me, but you don’t even realize I’m perfectly capable of protecting you too.” She shrugged, glancing down at the ground as she said, “I don’t know if it’s a trust thing or—”

  Booker stood up in a flash. “Hey, look at me. I trust you.” He closed the short distance between them, stopping only a few inches from her. “It ain’t about that.”

  “Then what is it?” She stared up at him, shadows obscuring his face. “I can tell something is bothering you—since the day we met, you’ve been carrying this weight, and I keep hoping one day you’ll finally see you don’t have to carry it alone.”

  “It’s not…” He shook his head. “I know how capable you are, Cae. Shit, you’ve been puttin’ my ass in line since the start.”

  “Is that your way of telling me I’m bossy?”

  She caught his grin in the moonlight. “Maybe. Didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

  Rolling her eyes, she said, “Now you’re just trying to distract me.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Not enough to make me forget the beginning of this conversation.”

  Booker sighed, hands going to his hips. “Darlin’, what do you want me to say?”

  “The truth would be a great start.”

  “I have never lied to you.”

  “No, but you’re clearly hiding something.” She hoped he could see her earnest expression in the dark. “And it is eating away at you. Booker, this world is hard enough as it is. You don’t need your own demons making it harder.”

  He shifted his weight, staring down at the ground. “I can’t…” He inhaled and let it out slowly. “Cae, what I’ve done… Nobody should have to carry that. Least of all you.”

  “But I can, Jack. You’re not alone—”

  “I can’t stand the idea of you lookin’ at me like I’m a monster,” he blurted out. “Regrettin’ the day we met, the day you ever let me touch you. I couldn’t live with you seein’ that in me.”

  She regarded him a moment before saying, “That’s awfully presumptuous of you.”

  His confusion was palpable. “What?”

  “Thinking you’re the only one among us who’s done terrible things.” She straightened her back, squaring off with him. “We’ve all done monstrous things, Jack. And we carry on.”

  “You sayin’ you’d just accept it, move on?”

  “At least give me the opportunity,” she said. “Wouldn’t you rather me look at you in an honest light, than to treat you like you’re a ticking time bomb?”

  Booker took a step forward, reaching for her. “I’d never—”

  “I know,” she cut him off, hand going to his chest, directly above his heart. “I know. But nothing will kill a man faster than his own mind. So please, Jack, just talk to me.”

  Pulling away, Booker paced back to the stump and sat down. He scrubbed his hand over his face and stared at the ground between his feet.

  Slowly, Caitlin walked over, kneeling a short distance away.

  “When… When we met,” he started. “I told you I was from Dallas.”

  She nodded.

  “That ain’t a lie. I am. But I wasn’t in Dallas when the outbreak happened.”

  Caitlin waited for him to continue.

  “I was in Atlanta.” He glanced up at her, but his gaze drifted. “The company I worked for… I was in private security. All of us ex-military guys who were only good at shootin’ a gun and takin’ orders. I was a team lead, but that don’t mean squat when the assignments are comin’ from big wigs in government offices.”

  His hands wrung together as he stared at his boots.

  “Half the guys were posted at this lab—seemed simple enough. Watch the door, watch the patients, no one in or out without clearance. And then it all went to hell.”

  Caitlin’s breath stalled. They’d been contracted to watch the same lab that created the virus.

  “Except… That wasn’t the worst of it,” he said, fidgeting. “That virus… It spread faster than we could blink. Two days and two hundred casualties. And then they started turning…” His voice was strained as he continued. “Then we had a different job. Got grouped with the active military that got called in and told to clean house. Contain and neutralize. I thought… I thought they meant the sick, the ones that had turned, not…”

  A thread of understanding found its way into Caitlin’s grasp. But she didn’t react, didn’t move a muscle.

  “They put me and two of my guys on Ark transport along with two dozen other soldiers just followin’ orders. We were told it was an evac order.” Booker grew agitated as he spoke. “And then the orders changed. I watched some shithead CO go ‘round, and… We’d just put this family on a bus—Mom and her two kids, the boy was barely outta diapers. And then that asshole who already had his Ark camp bunk paid for in gold, told us it wasn’t an evac order anymore. Everyone who’d been in Atlanta the day of the outbreak was considered contaminated. We were told to ‘neutralize the threat’.”

  He finally looked up at her, and Caitlin swore she saw his eyes glisten with tears.

  “A little boy—a baby, and that CO’s tellin’ us he’s a threat. I just…” Booker shook his head. “I couldn’t. I saw it all start and I…” He cleared his throat. “I couldn’t be a part of somethin’ like that.”

  The story Nicole had told rang in Caitlin’s head. Salvation turned into mass murder.

  And Booker had been there.

  His words kept tumbling over his lips, the dam finally cracking.

  “I made it out before anyone came to hunt me down. Just packed up and started driving. Made it to Jacksonville and just… waited.” He sneered at himself. “Such a fuckin’ coward. Spent my whole life steppin’ up, tryin’ to do what’s right, and what’d I do? I ran.”

  Caitlin couldn’t stay silent any longer. “You did what you could to survive.”

  “I let hundreds of people—women and children, good people—get slaughtered. And I didn’t do a damn thing to stop it.”

  “They probably would have just killed you too.”

  Raking his nails over his scalp, he said, “Oh I know they would’ve. But at least then—” He dragged his hand over his face roughly. “At least I’d’ve died doin’ the right thing.”

  Caitlin’s stomach felt solid as concrete. Just the idea of Booker dying… It was too much for her to take.

  “Instead I ran. I ran, and I hid.” His smirk was ice cold, highlighted by the moon. “Worthless.”

  She snatched his arm, almost yanking him off the stump. “You are not worthless,” she snapped. “The world was ending, and you were afraid. You were human. But Jack Booker, you have never been worthless.”

  He was quiet as he regarded her. He didn’t try to pull away from her, either out of comfort or shock, she wasn’t sure.

  “Guess you’re not the only one who thinks that,” he murm
ured.

  Caitlin frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I spent nearly a month on the run. Swappin’ cars, stealin’ food, hidin’ out and waitin’ to die. Every time I fought a groaner, I hoped—I prayed—it’d get the better of me, and they never did. I’d been in Alabama for only a couple days and I just thought… I can’t do this. I can’t live with this anymore.”

  Her fingers dug into his forearm, but he didn’t flinch.

  “I’d prepared. Left my gear outside the car for someone else to find. Made sure there was enough gas in the tank to siphon. Put up paper in the windows so… So people wouldn’t have to see, if…” He cleared his throat. “I put that revolver to my head and I pulled the trigger.”

  Caitlin gasped, free hand going to her lips.

  “It jammed,” he said simply. “The damn gun jammed.” His laugh was shaky, and Caitlin couldn’t look away from him. “That revolver’s clean as a whistle. It should not have jammed. But it did.” He paused, reliving it all. “I took that as a sign. For whatever reason, I was alive. I was bein’ kept alive.”

  Chills danced up and down her body as the reality of what he was saying sunk in.

  “And two days later, I found you in that bush.” His hand covered hers. “And you told me you’d survived a plane crash, like a goddamn miracle, and I knew… Like it was a second chance at doin’ the right thing. Keepin’ you safe. Survivin’… for you. With you. Hell, you were walkin’, talkin’ redemption.”

  “Jack…” She could barely speak passed the lump in her throat.

  His hand cupped her face, thumb running over her damp cheek.

  Pushing onto her feet, she closed the space between them, crawling into his lap. Booker pressed his forehead to her sternum, clutching her to him with a vice like grip. The quiet noises he made were muffled against her breast, but then she realized… he was crying.

  He’d finally released his burden. They could carry it together now.

  Kissing the top of his head, she whispered to him. “It’s you and me, Jack. It’s always going to be you and me.”

  Inhaling, he nodded against her, more of a nuzzling than anything else.

  They stayed like that for an hour, holding each other’s broken pieces together in the dark.

  Chapter Twelve

  It didn’t take long for them to realize they needed a more suitable shelter than the Jeep. With two people it wasn’t that cramped, but with three it quickly began to feel like a can and sardines situation.

  They roamed for a couple days, collecting supplies and searching for abandoned homes that weren’t overrun with Geeks.

  Nicole was malnourished and dehydrated, and Booker was uncomfortable with the idea of making her trek across the country for days on rationed supplies. They’d find a suitable place to hunker down, rest up, and then set off.

  Caitlin had told him about New York. She felt like a fool, believing she could just go home again. He’d rubbed her back, telling her there was nothing foolish about hope.

  She tried to believe him.

  Finally, they found a farmhouse on a hill that looked untouched. Creeping up to the door, Booker peered in through the gap in the curtain.

  “I think I know why it ain’t been ransacked,” he whispered.

  Before he could tell her not to, Caitlin went to the window to look.

  The whole family lay dead on the floor—Mother, children, even the dog—all with shotgun blasts through the back of their heads. They’d been on their knees when they died.

  Another body was in the corner, propped up in a recliner. His face was missing, shotgun still between his knees.

  It was a scene from a horror movie. Blood and flies and meat spilling out of bodies that used to be a family.

  Covering her mouth and nose, Caitlin rushed to the porch rail, lurching over the side just in time to vomit.

  Booker placed a hand on her back, soothing her.

  “We can’t…” She coughed.

  “We won’t,” he said. “We’ll find a different place.”

  “No, we can’t leave them like that.” She wiped her mouth with a shaking hand.

  “Darlin’, there ain’t much left of ‘em to bury,” he told her. “This house, for better or worse, is their mausoleum now.”

  Closing her eyes, she tried to steady her breathing. “You’re right,” she said with a nod. “It’s just…”

  “I know.”

  Reaching into his pack, he offered her his water to gargle with.

  “Hey guys,” Nicole called from the yard. “I think I see another house up the road.”

  She was right. Another, smaller farm house next to a neglected field looked to be in good condition. The fence was broken but most of it was salvageable.

  Too bad it was surrounded by Geeks…

  “I count ten,” Caitlin said, staring out the windshield. “Booker?”

  “At least,” he agreed. “Look at ‘em, stumblin’ around the yard. Too stupid to know there’s a gap right there.”

  Nicole leaned forward to see. “Do they even have reasoning skills? Do they see solutions to problems like we do?”

  “Nah, they only know when somethin’s there they can eat.”

  Caitlin glanced over her shoulder. “And they don’t have very lengthy attention spans if there’s only one or two of them. It’s when they get into a bigger herd that they’re the most dangerous.”

  She watched as three of them bumped into each other as they shuffled by, not even noticing.

  “We could clear it,” she said, looking to Booker.

  He cocked his head, arching an eyebrow. “We?”

  “I’m better with the revolver now,” she said. “And you know I can deflect a hit—”

  “This ain’t a self-defense class, Cae.”

  “Then why did you teach me all of that, huh?” She shifted in her seat to face him. “Geeks are easy, it’s the humans you have to watch out for.”

  He sighed through his nose, staring back out of the windshield. “Too much gun fire could bring more.”

  “From where?” She glanced around. “We’re smack in the middle of farming country.”

  Booker tapped a rhythm on the steering wheel. He was struggling to find a good argument, and she had to fight not to grin like she knew it.

  Catching Nicole’s stare in the rearview, Booker asked, “How ya feelin’?”

  “Like that third piece of jerky is kicking in.”

  “Feel strong enough to use that crowbar again?”

  Nicole nodded. “Definitely.”

  Booker cast a look at Caitlin. “You stick close to me, you understand, Meadows? I mean it, no runnin’ off, no tryin’ to be a hero, or—”

  “World of hurt,” she said, reaching for the door handle. “Got it, Booker.”

  Booker and Nicole took up the front, using a sneak attack advantage on the first few Geeks. Booker’s knife made quick work of two, stabbing them in the base of the skull and letting them drop. Nicole swung her crowbar at the next, caving its skull in.

  Caitlin fell in line with them, head on a swivel. Three down, at least seven more to go.

  They were doing a good job of dividing and conquering, keeping the noise down and surprising each Geek.

  But Nicole couldn’t read Booker as well, didn’t know his signs. The way his shoulders tensed before he changed directions, the way he’d pause and wait for the right moment instead of barreling ahead. It wasn’t just about putting the Geeks down, it was about strategy and efficiency.

  After the fifth Geek went down, Caitlin saw how Nicole and Booker drifted apart, unaware of what the other was doing. They were getting too much distance between them, setting themselves up to get surrounded.

  Caitlin whistled high like a bird and Booker stopped.

  Too far. Nicole’s not close. Regroup.

  A mostly rotted Geek, who had been fumbling in a rose bush, turned, catching sight of them. Undead eyes locked on Caitlin, dislocated jaw opening wider than humanly possible
as he lurched forward. With arms outstretched, his shuffling picked up speed, jogging at her.

  Follow. Aim. Shoot.

  One shot from her revolver and the creature was down, decaying flesh spilling out from the front of its head.

  The noise brought the remaining Geeks around, hungry stares all recognizing them as their next meal.

  Two fresher undead ran straight for Nicole, but she swung the crowbar like an MLB pro.

  Booker wasn’t as lucky.

  Trapped between two Geeks and the fence, he couldn’t give himself enough space to take one out without the other having ample opportunity to go in for the bite. He was reduced to slashing at them, trying to force them back.

  “Get to the house,” he yelled, slicing into one of the creature’s bellies. Entrails spilled out, but it didn’t slow the thing down for a moment.

  Nicole had just finished bludgeoning her second attacker, and turned on her heel, bolting for the farmhouse.

  “Like hell.” Caitlin stormed over to the corner of the yard, already lifting her revolver. “Jack!”

  Duck.

  Booker dropped to the ground as the first shot fired. He barely covered his ears for the second.

  Both Geeks fell, gaping holes in their rotting skulls. One tipped onto Booker’s shoulder and he shoved it away with a disgusted grunt.

  Caitlin turned, scanning the yard for more. It was clear.

  After a second, he stood. “I told you to go for the house.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I said no heroes.”

  She faced him, grinning. “Is this your way of being grateful? ‘Cause we’re gonna have to work on that.”

  Stepping over the corpses, Booker caught her around the waist and yanked her to him. He tasted like salt and adrenaline and something on the razor’s edge of desperation. She sank her teeth into his bottom lip to teach him a lesson in manners.

  “Thank you.” His voice was a deep timbre that sent promising shivers up her spine.

  “You can thank me properly later.”

  She spotted his grin as she turned towards the house.

  Nicole was standing in the doorway, checking the inside. “I think it’s empty,” she called over her shoulder.

  After a quick sweep they found it was, indeed, empty. And mostly untouched, save for the few things clearly taken by the previous owners.