Angered Seasons: The Worst Birthday Ever (Volume One) (7 page)

“You guys are too good to us,” he
mumbled.

I smiled. “You guys think too little of
yourselves. Everyone makes mistakes, Max; it’s whether or not you
learn from them that makes the difference.”

All of us jumped as the front door rattled in
its frame.

“Gabby! Lane! Come on, you guys! Open
up!”

I rushed to the door, rifle in hand, and let
the twins in before slamming it shut and locking it again. They
stood in front of me, two of the same. The twenty year old twins
were identical. Body structure, height, facial features… everything
from the light brown hair and the hazel eyes to their
personalities. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t shoot!” Brent held his hands up in
mock surrender.

“I’d hold my hands up, but these backpacks
are heavy!” Grant shoved one at his brother. “Dude! What did you
pack in yours?”

“Nothing! Just clothes.”

“And a bowling ball,” muttered Grant.

“Ok, ok. Enough of that. Are you guys
hungry?” I sidestepped to avoid being trampled on as they rushed to
the little kitchen.

Pete smiled. “Some things never change.”

“What? Just because we’re stuck in some lame
ass zombie movie does not mean we have to starve to death.” Brent
bit into a muffin and grinned. He looked around the shop. “Where’s
Lane?”

“He went with Jason into town to see if they
could gather up more supplies and to see what things were like out
there today.” I frowned and looked at the clock. They’d been gone
an hour.

“What about John?”

I shook my head. “We can’t get a hold of
him.”

Grant choked down the mouthful of muffin he’d
been chewing. He flipped his cell phone open and dialed.

“Johnny, dude, it’s Grant. Let me know when
you get this. We’re all hanging at the shop. Get your ass over
here.” He put his muffin down, clearly disturbed by the fact that
his friend was MIA.

Brent’s gaze fell on Max. “Where’s your other
half?”

“Upstairs.” Max gestured with his head to
where Lizzy had disappeared.

Brent raised an eyebrow at Max’s tired tone.
“Troubles in paradise?”

Max closed his eyes, took a deep breath and
we all watched his lips move as he counted slowly in his head,
something he did when he was upset and knew he was reaching a
breaking point. While others had crying fits or fell into a
depression, Max turned violent. A breakdown on his part usually
meant a trashed room and a trip to the first aid station to bandage
his hands. He inhaled once more, opened his eyes and nodded a yes
to Brent’s question.

I smiled. “Good job.”

Grant, Brent, and Pete all rewarded him with
a pat on the back and Marie smiled.

“I made more coffee,” she announced.

I looked up the stairs as everyone made their
way to the coffee pot. Brent took Ashley from Marie and settled on
the couch with her.

“Well, hello, there, baby girl. Have you been
a good girl for momma and dadda?”

I watched as he cooed to her and the rest of
them made their way over to stand around the pair. I smiled softly.
They were good kids, all of them. All they needed was for someone
to believe in them. I glanced at the clock again. An hour and a
half.

Pete came over and gave me a hug. “He
promised you he’d be back. He’s never broken a promise in his
life.”

I rolled my eyes. “What makes you think I’m
worried?”

He raised an eyebrow at me.

Marie nodded. “You have nothing to worry
about. Like Pete said, they’ll be back.”

“Aww, is mommy worried about daddy?”

Everyone turned to frown at Lizzy.

“What the fuck is your problem, Lizzy?” Max
came to stand between us.

“See! I knew you’d take her side!”

“What side? What are you so upset about? I
don’t understand!” Max was clenching and unclenching his fists. He
looked around wildly and I knew he was looking for something to
hit. His eyes met mine. “I have to go.” He pushed past Lizzy and
left the shop.

“Max! Stop!” I ran after him. “You can’t go
out there!” I swore, ran back in for my rifle, and sprinted back
out. “Lock this thing till I get back!” I yelled over my shoulder.
I heard the door slam shut behind me.

The sound of Max grunting as he punched
something with all of his might came from the side of the building.
I watched as he hit some old bales we’d set up to use as target
practice. Whatever was wrong must have been more than he’d been
letting on. Ten minutes later, he finally collapsed to the ground,
his knuckles bleeding, tears running down his face. I knelt beside
him and let him bury his face in my chest like a child. His sobs
raked through him and I swallowed hard to keep from crying along
with him. I smoothed his hair until he got himself under
control.

“I haven’t seen you do that for a good six
months.” I waited until he looked at me. “What’s going on,
Max?”

He cleared his throat and looked at the
ground. “She’s using again.” His voice was just a whisper. “I tried
talking to her. I tried getting her to come ask you or Lane for
help… she said she doesn’t want to stop. I don’t know what to do,
Gabby. I can’t be around it. God! I watch her and I start to miss
it. But I don’t want to be there again. I can’t go back to how I
was… Jesus, I almost killed a man. I mean, I know I still freak out
and I’d gotten into fights before, but that time… I was so out of
it I didn’t even realize I was killing him until they told me what
had happened when I woke up in a cell the next day.”

I stayed quiet, waiting for him to start
talking again.

“I love her. I do. I told her I’d stick with
her through anything, but this…” He shook his head and ran his
hands over his face. “I can’t do this.”

“Ok. It’s ok. Look, does she have anything on
her right now?”

He shook his head. “She was supposed to meet
her dealer today sometime cause she was out.”

“Alright. Let’s head back inside and when
Lane gets back, we’ll sit down the four of us and have a talk,
ok?”

He nodded and gave me a pitiful attempt at a
smile.

As we walked back to the shop, I thought to
myself, why? Why today. With everything else that was going on, why
were we going to have to deal with something like this? I caught
Max’s glance as his eyes darted to our surroundings. He looked
scared.

“Come on. You’ll feel better when we lock the
door behind us.”

“How are you so calm?”

I snorted. “I’m not.”

The snapping of a branch behind us made us
spin around. My heart pounded in my chest while I scanned the
woods, my rifle half raised in case I should need it. Max started
to laugh.

“It’s a rabbit.” He pointed to where he’d
spotted it.

I let my breath out in a huff. “Holy shit…
let’s get back to the shop.”

We jogged the rest of the way to the front
door.

Grant frowned. “Max, dude, you can’t just run
out like that.”

I gave a shake of my head. “It’s not an
issue, guys. It’s done and over with. We didn’t see anything out
there except for a rabbit.” I glanced up at the clock. Two hours.
My phone vibrated and I jumped over the chair to get to it.

‘Stop worrying. We’re alright’

I punched in a happy face. ‘Where are
you?’

‘I’m at the house checking on Iggy. Be there
in fifteen.’

I sat on the couch, relief making my whole
body tingle. I looked up and found the others looking at me
expectantly.

“They’re ok. They’ll be back in about fifteen
minutes.”

My phone vibrated before kicking to my
favorite Irish song. All it said was ‘private number’.

“Gabby here.”

“Gabby! I need help!” John’s voice
cracked.

“John! Where are you?”

“Oh, shit.” His voice was a shaky
whisper.

I grabbed the boxes of ammo from the table
and looked at my crew. I could see Lizzy looking at us from the
railing upstairs.

“Max, you’re with me.” I didn’t need a
situation while I was gone.

“Gabby, dude, I’m the one with the high speed
chases under his belt. I’ll drive.” Brent grabbed the keys form
Pete.

“No. I’ll explain later, but I’m taking Max.
The rest of you stay put. You do not open that door for anyone but
me or Lane. You do NOT go outside. I don’t care if Jesus himself
knocks on the door and tells you it’s safe; you stay inside!”

Brent shrugged and tossed Max the keys. Grant
was already opening the overhead door.

Max peeled out of the yard and looked at me.
“Where to?”

“John! John! Are you still there? Where are
you? We’re coming to get you!”

I strained to hear as he whispered something
into the phone.

“What?”

“Kinsmen Park.” His whisper shook. “By the
kiddie pool.” His phone beeped to indicate it was about to die.
“Gabs. Please.”

Max accelerated and our tires left the ground
as we crossed the intersection of fifteenth street and fifteenth
avenue.

“We just got into town, John. Just hang on
and try to stay quiet.” My heart pounded in my chest. Max ran red
light after red light and turned left onto central. I had a
fleeting thought that it sure was empty on the streets. The truck
jumped the curb and Max drove straight into the park.

I screamed, sure we were about to hit a tree.
Max managed to maneuver between the two pines without killing us. I
scanned the park. “There!”

Max swerved so he was on a straight collision
course with three Yellow Eyes. He glanced at me quickly and I
nodded, knowing he was asking my permission to run them over. I
still had no clue what the hell was going on, but if anyone with
yellow eyes came anywhere near me again, I wasn’t giving them the
chance to try and kill me. The truck thudded over two of them and I
swore under my breath as the third one managed to get out of the
way. Max screeched to a halt and I jumped out, taking aim at the
man who stopped short.

“I will shoot you,” I warned. I frowned at
the confusion in his yellow eyes. Was it possible this one had a
clue about what was happening? His clothing was covered in dried
and wet blood and his blond hair was matted to his head.

“Gabby!”

I heard John start down one of the trees
behind me and cringed as he lost his footing and fell to the
ground.

“Are you ok?” I kept my eyes and gun trained
on the man in front of me. The Yellow Eyes went from confused to
terrified.

John sucked in a breath. “Max, are you
ok?”

I frowned, torn between the need to keep the
man in my sights and the urge to look at Max.

“Max?”

The man in front of us decided to take
advantage of our slight disorder and charged us. My heart pounded
against my ribs at the same moment my finger squeezed the trigger.
My target flew back into the ground and I took a deep breath,
turning around just in time to see Max’s bewildered expression. His
eyes were transformed, the green coloring now a shining silver. He
blinked rapidly which seemed to cause the silver to quickly blend
back into the green until it disappeared. He was staring at me,
fear clear on his face.

“Please don’t shoot me!”

My jaw dropped and I started to object, but
was forced to stop when I realized I had started to bring up the
rifle. I quickly lowered it and took three long strides to him so I
could hug the look off of him.

“What the hell was that, Maxy?” I took long
deep breaths to calm myself.

“I don’t know!” I heard him count to
himself.

“Did it hurt? Do you feel alright?” I stepped
away from him and looked up into his eyes. They were the same green
I was used to seeing there.

“I feel… I feel fine. What happened? Why were
you guys looking at me like that?”

“Your eyes, man! They were silver!” John
seemed reluctant to get too close to his friend.

Max frowned and looked to me for
confirmation. I nodded.

“Before you shot him, I felt…” His frown
deepened. “Strong.”

“Strong?” I glanced around and waved to the
truck. “Let’s go. We can chat on the way back to the shop.”

Max got back behind the wheel and we drove at
a much more legal speed back out of town.

“What did you mean, strong?” Johnny was
sitting in the back seat.

“Like I could take on that Yellow Eyed freak
with my bare hands. I was going to do it, but then Gabby shot him.”
He glanced at me. “What do you think it was, Gabs?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have a clue.”

Max honked the horn as we pulled up to the
shop and I grinned at the sight of the one ton as the overhead door
was pulled open.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Lane’s
voice wasn’t any louder than usual, yet everyone fell silent. I
turned and glared at him.

“I was thinking that Johnny was in trouble
and someone should go get him before he got killed.”

Lane’s dark blue eyes bore into mine. “I told
you to stay put. You could have phoned me and I could have gone to
get him.”

I felt the anger spark in my belly; this
whole ‘keep Gabby at home’ routine was quickly getting old. “He
didn’t have his cell, the number came up unknown, and I had no clue
where he was!”

“So you just left and what? Thought you’d
drive around till you found him?” His jaw clenched.

“Yes! That’s exactly what I thought I’d do
until he could tell me!” I could feel the tears threaten to spring
to my eyes. “You know what, Lane? I’ve had enough shitty dads in my
lifetime. I don’t need another one.”

Everyone stared as I walked away toward the
back room. Once there, I hid myself in the broom closet. I heard
Lane’s familiar steps as he walked around all of the material we
had back here.

“Gabby?”

I swallowed hard, but kept quiet.

“Gabs, I know you’re in there.”

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, not
wanting to see the anger that had been in his eyes. He squeezed
himself into the closet and sat beside me. I felt him reach up and
turn the light off. I leaned into him as he wrapped his arm around
me. Since our very first major argument, we’d always found a small
dark room to talk. If one wasn’t available, simply laying with our
eyes closed usually did the trick.