Justice (25 page)

Somehow we ended up on the floor of the shower. She sat curled in my lap. We were caught in an endless kiss that I didn’t want to break, but the shower was sputtering. We had used up all the water in the reserves.
 

I grabbed a towel from the rack outside the shower door, and wrapped it around her. I dried her off as she stared up at me with those big blue eyes. She was soft looking right now, so content. I couldn’t rectify this Hannah with the tough soldier, but they were one in the same. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. While I enjoyed this pliable and sexual side of her, the soldier was who I had first been fascinated with. The one whose smile never met her eyes.
 

As if on cue, she smiled at me, her eyes soft, her skin flushed from the hot water. I wanted to pull her to me, put her in my pocket, and hide her away. I wanted this moment to last forever. I wanted to get down on my knees and beg her to stay with me in this tiny apartment. We could scavenge for food half the time, the other half we could spend in bed.
 

But I didn’t say that. We had responsibilities. Or she did, at least. I was along for the ride. I had been along for the ride since I laid eyes on her.
 

With a sickening feeling I pulled the clothes from the dryer and handed them to her. I grabbed my own and began to dress in the warm clothes. It couldn’t have lasted for forever. I knew this, but I couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive about leaving this place.
 

“The batteries should be downstairs somewhere. They probably have them stored in an inventory area. I’m hoping they also have a truck available that we can load up. Once we get those in place, we can drive out of here.”
 

“Drive out of here,” she repeated my words.
 

“We have to go back. We have to let them know you’re okay, and--”
 

“And Murphey and Pratt aren’t.” She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath.
 

“I would stay here with you. I would try my damnedest to make it work– to survive, you and me.” I took her face in my hands and looked down at her. Her eyes had gone hard, but they softened with my words.
 

“Just you and me,” she whispered as she kissed me gently.
 

I pressed her against the countertop, my fingers trailing lightly down her side. The smell of freshly washed clothes in my nose, a smell I hadn’t experienced in a long time. I felt her fingers at my waistband. Her cold fingers brushed across my bare stomach and with a willpower that would make superman jealous, I broke away from the kiss and rearranged my dick so it wouldn’t be so obvious what I really wanted to do.
 

“As much as I want to, as much as I want to march you back to that bed, bend you over and –
damn.
” I ran my hand over my face and got back on track. “We have to go back.”

“I know,” she said, but looked away as she said it. “It’s just that once we go back, I’m, well, I’m the grunt and you’re the…”

“Biker,” I finished for her.
 

FIFTY | Really Good Sex Just Isn't Enough

The search for the solar shit was rather anti-climactic. With the bullshit we went through to get here, I almost expected to have some near death experience in the halls of this solar company’s plant, but it was eerily deserted.
 

We slammed the hilts of our blades into the walls of the metal building to attract attention, in case there were any dedicated worker zombies hanging about. Nothing. It was quiet. We wandered up and down the building hallways until we found the storage area. Everything was neat and in place. We even found the service trucks parked in aisles near the back bay of the warehouse. Some were even loaded, as if waiting to go on a job. We chose an empty one and tried to start it up, but the engine didn’t even sputter. It had been sitting there too long. They were odd looking trucks and a few had cords coming from them.
 

“They’re electric,” I said as Rebel tried to start the next one to no avail. The big start button should have clued us in, but our minds were elsewhere.
 

“The warehouse should be run on solar, like the apartment. I don’t know why they aren’t holding their charges.” He followed the cords to a bank of batteries and bent over them.
 
“Oh, they’re not plugged into an inverter. It looks like they charged up the batteries, drained them and then switched them out.” He unplugged one of the cables and plugged it into another set of batteries.
 

“Check the last one, it should have a light to indicate it’s charging,” he said.
 

I walked to the last vehicle in the line and sure enough, there was an indicator that it was charging.
 

“Yeah, like a cell phone,” I laughed. I missed my smartphone.
 

“Will probably take about six hours to charge, that’s plenty of time to find the parts.”

“But not to get out of here before dark,” I pointed out.
 

“I guess we’ll have to spend the night here,” he smirked.
 

“Shame,” I responded with a grin.
 

We decided it was a good idea to take two of the vehicles and the battery banks that were used to charge them.
 
We couldn’t siphon gas forever. These vehicles would be an asset. We should return and take all of them, but right now we would take as much as we could.
 

We filled each truck with batteries and a few panels, but not much. We didn’t want to take up precious room in these small vehicles. Most of the panels we would be able to get from off the houses in Lakeview. This was all about the batteries and the inverters which were meant for off-grid set-ups.
 

When the last battery was placed in the back of the truck, I closed the door and looked at Rebel who was fiddling with the batter bank.
 

“It’s charged. This must be some powerful stuff.” It had only been three hours. We still had two hours of daylight.
 

I looked toward the stairs and then at him regretfully. He shrugged.
 

“I think we should get back. We’ve already been gone too long.”
 

“What’s one more night?” I said but I knew it wasn’t right.
 

“We’ll have more nights, just not here,” he said but I didn’t believe him. He looked away, anywhere but at me. He knew it too. He was lying. When we got back, everything would be different.
 

I wanted to grab him, shake him, punch him, something to get him to fight for this.
Was he giving up so easily?
Was he ready to go back and just roll over? His usual MO?
 

He had forced me to believe in him, to accept him. And now he was ready to wash his hands of everything. His life. His freedom.
 

“We can stay! We don’t have to go back. we can take one of these trucks and get the fuck out of this city. We don’t have to stay here. We can go anywhere. Make our own life,” I argued.

“No, we can’t.” His voice was stern.
 

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Why are you so scared to go out on your own? We can do this!” I hit him in the chest and he grabbed my hand.
 

“And what? You give up everything you and your people have put together? For what? Me? A guy you just met? You don’t even know my last name, Hannah. I sure as hell don’t know yours. You’d do that? And for what? Because we had good sex?”

His words cut like a knife, which was what he intended. I wasn’t dumb. He was scared. He didn’t think he could make it on his own, even if he did have someone like me at his side. It was the reason he had hidden behind the gang, even before Z hit. Whatever, I didn’t know his last name, but I had him pegged. Reid, Rebel, whatever the hell he wanted to go by, was scared. He was scared of letting people down. He was scared he wasn’t good enough. And at this moment in time, he was right.
 

“My last name is Klink, by the way, which I did tell you. And yeah, it was really good sex, not good enough for you to stop being a fucking martyr though.
 
C’mon, asshole, let’s get you back so you can pay for your sins.” I didn’t stop and wait for him. I unplugged the first truck and loaded up the battery bank into the passenger seat. I saw he was done with his so I went to the garage doors and got them open.
 

Two Zs wandering in the street turned our way and began shuffling in our direction. I let Rebel pull out and then I got in my truck, pulling it forward and through the doors. The Zs were close, but I had enough time to get out and close the doors behind me. Then I got behind the wheel and flattened the two of them as I tore after Rebel.

FIFTY-ONE | Home Sweet Home

My thoughts plagued me the entire way back to the base. I was always in my head way too much and the shit I told Hannah messed me up. I didn’t need her throwing her life away for me. She had already lost so much. I shouldn’t be the reason she isolated herself from the rest of her friends.
 

My mind flashed to the other day, back in Lakeview. Hannah with her friends. I had watched her with Alexis. I had watched as she interacted with the two big guys that ran their base, Zach and Blake. They were more than just her friends. That group was a tight unit, like family. I couldn’t pull her away from that for my selfish wants. Because of the bad decisions I had made. I had to face my sins, as she had called them.