Shattered World (Broken World Book 2) (12 page)

12

I’VE ONLY TAKEN TWO STEPS when she screams. The sound goes straight through me, breaking through the bitterness and piercing my already shattered insides. It stops me in my tracks. My legs won’t move another step no matter how much I want them to.

I look back just as she slams the bat into the side of a dead man’s skull. The black ooze sprays everywhere, spattering her and the dead surrounding her. She lets out a scream that reminds me of a battle cry.

“Shit!” I yank my hand out of Axl’s and turn back toward the bar, tossing my pack on the ground as I take off. What the hell am I doing? She never gave a damn about me, and here I’m ready to risk my life to save her. I’m an idiot!

Axl is right on my heels when I reach the bodies. I slam my knife into the skull of the nearest one before they even notice us. When it falls to the ground, I move on to the next. Black splatters against my face and arms, but I keep going. Taking out one after the other as fast as I can. Axl does the same.

I’m gasping for breath when the last one hits the ground, but even then I can’t look her in the eye. There’s no way she recognizes me. I was ten when she left. But I’m still too terrified to meet her gaze. I focus on her mouth. It looks exactly like mine.

She’s panting, and her lips turns up into tense smile. “Thanks.”

The sound of her voice after all these years makes my insides twist painfully. I hate that she still has the power to make me feel so small.

“No time for that,” Axl says. “We’re leavin’ now. You come with us or not. Your choice.”

He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the door. I barely have time to grab my pack off the ground as I run by it. He’s pulling me so hard. The alarm is still blaring outside, but it isn’t loud enough to drown out the sound of the footsteps behind me. She’s coming with us. It fills me with dread and doubt and fear and too many other emotions to process in the middle of all this shit.

We rush out the front door and head to the street. I have to squint against the sun after the darkness of the casino. The area is pretty clear thanks to the alarm and the explosion, and when we get to the sidewalk, I have the urge to jump with joy. The Nissan is parked about twenty feet away, not too far from our abandoned Explorer.

The back door flies open before we’re even halfway there, and the driver’s window rolls down. Angus sticks his head out. “Where the hell you been?”

I laugh. I’m so happy to see his ugly face I could kiss him. “Waiting for you!”

His eyes go past us, probably to the woman trailing behind. He grins.

Axl pauses at the car and tosses his pack in. “The road’s pretty clear. Gotta get somethin’ outta the Explorer before we take off.”

Angus purses his lips. “Leave it! We gotta git!”

Axl shakes his head and takes off toward the Explorer. My mom stands next to the Nissan awkwardly, looking back and forth between Axl and Angus. I can’t even think about getting in the car with her, so I toss my bag in and run after Axl.

He has the back door open and I get there just as he pulls out a body and tosses it on the sidewalk. It lands at my feet, and the milky eyes stare up at me. Flies circle the open areas, and the stench is so strong I gag.

I cover my nose. “You need help.”

“Probably.”

He throws out another body, and I step over it so I can help him. I don’t want to. Touching the rotting corpses we killed yesterday makes me want to puke. But I know Axl is going for the guns, and he’s right. We need them.

He climbs in and stands on top of the mass of dead so he can pull them aside. He has to move three before I catch sight of the bag. I grab the strap and tug, but it barely moves. Axl grunts when he yanks one more corpse out of the way. This time when I pull, the bag comes free.

I stumble back, almost tripping over my feet. The bag flies out at me, and it’s so heavy that I’m one hundred percent sure it will knock me down. I brace myself to land on my still sore ass when hands wrap around my forearms, stopping me from falling. I let out a sigh of relief a split second before my eyes focus on the fingers. They’re female. The nails are neon pink and pointy.

“Whoa there, honey. You almost ate it.”

I cringe and shake her hands off. “Thanks.”

I push my matted hair out of my face as Axl jumps out. He lugs the bag up and jerks his head toward the car. “Let’s get a move on.”

I turn around and come face to face with a corpse so rotten his skin is practically dripping. He chomps his teeth and reaches for me, but I’m ready. When I swing my knife around, it sinks into his eye socket. His mouth drops open, and his body slumps to the floor, taking my knife with him.

“Let’s go,” Axl says, grabbing my arm and attempting to pull me toward the car.

I shrug him off. “My knife!”

I pull on it, but the head comes up too. So I put my foot on his forehead and press his skull to the ground while I yank harder. The blade slides out, and what looks like brain matter is stuck to the knife. I wipe it on the zombie’s clothes before turning to follow Axl.

More bodies stumble our way. My mom swings her bat, and it connects with the nearest head. Black goo sprays out like a sprinkler, dotting us all in the foul-smelling liquid. Axl steps in front of me when a woman in a lace nightie lurches for us. He stabs her in the head, then grunts when he pulls the knife back out.

“Let’s go!” he yells, shoving me toward the car.

I jog toward the Nissan with sweat dripping down my back. Angus’s face is bright red, and the vein on his forehead is visible through the windshield. The door is still open, and Axl pushes me in the backseat of the car before climbing in after me. He tosses the bag of guns in the back and scoots over to make room for our new addition. My mom gets in behind him and pulls the door shut just as Angus puts the car in gear.

“That was dumb as shit,” he growls. “What was so important that you had to run back there after all that? You barely make it out one night and you think you gotta throw your life away?”

Axl rolls his eyes. “Guns, Angus. Just drop it.”

He exhales, then a big smile curls up his lips. “Damn, it’s good to see you! I knew you’d come.” Axl leans forward and slaps his brother on the shoulder.

Angus grunts and presses down on the accelerator. Guess he’s still pissed.

Nathan, showered and clean shaven, is in the passenger seat. I expected Winston or Trey. But not him. It’s a wonder Moira let him out of her sight.

He turns and gives us a tense smile. “I’m glad you’re alright. What you did for us yesterday—” He shakes his head and looks away when his eyes fill with tears.

Angus makes a sound that resembles the word pussy, masked inside a cough.

I roll my eyes at Angus, then pat Nathan on the arm. “We just wanted to make sure those kids had a chance to get out of here.”

Nathan nods and he looks like he wants to say more, but he’s clearly too choked up to talk about it. The thought of losing your wife and child will do that to a person. Especially when you’re one of the few people left in the world who still has something to hold onto.

“You guys cause that explosion yesterday?” Axl asks.

Nathan clears his throat and nods. “Winston pulled over as soon as we were on a less crowded street. Trey, Jhett, and I held them off while he got a fire going at a gas station. It took out the station and a couple of cars parked by the pumps.”

“It saved our asses, that’s what it did,” Axl says. “Couple seconds later and we woulda been nothin’ more than blood splatters on the inside of that car.”

“You pick up a straggler?” Angus asks, looking over his shoulder.

His jaw is tight, and that little vein on his forehead pulsates. Guess he doesn’t like talking about how close his little brother came to death. It’s moments like these when I find myself almost liking the guy. Almost.

“Grabbed her on the way out,” Axl says. He twists in his seat so he’s facing my mom. “Didn’t even catch your name.”

Angus’s head practically turns all the way around so he can get a better view. His gaze zeroes in on her chest, and I fight the urge to hurl. He’s actually checking out my mom. I guess it’s understandable. He doesn’t know it’s my mom, and she still has a decent body. Plus, she’s wearing tight, revealing clothes. Sure she’s splattered in zombie blood, but she still looks good. Well, she looks like an aging showgirl, which is probably exactly what she is. She and Angus are even close to the same age. She’s only thirty-seven, and he can’t be much younger than that…

I shudder. The thought is just too disturbing to entertain.

“Darla,” she says. “And thanks for helping me out. I thought that there was the end for sure.”

“Couldn’t just leave you,” Axl says, glancing my way.

He introduces himself and Angus and gives her a brief rundown of where they came from. Fear prickles up my spine after he’s introduced Nathan. My turn is next. Will she make the connection? It’s not really something I want to deal with right now. Or ever, really. I wish she’d stayed behind. No way I could have walked away and let the zombies get her, but I don’t want her here. Not in the shelter, trapped underground with me where I can’t get away. Where I’ll never be able to escape her stupid face and her smug smile and all the memories of how awful my childhood was and how lost I felt when she walked out.

I blink when Axl starts asking her questions about where she’s been and what she’s seen. Skipping me altogether. He glances toward me, but his expression is blank. He knows something is up, but he’s giving me space. How does he always know when there’s more to the story?

I lace my fingers through his while my mom—Darla—tells us all about her career as a topless dancer at Bally’s. Axl stares down at our hands, then up at my face. His stormy eyes search mine for a few seconds before he looks away. He squeezes my hand, and something I’ve never felt before pinches my insides. Trust, maybe?

“Well, ‘bout three years ago I kinda hit that point where things weren’t quite as perky as they used to be, so I had to switch jobs.” She grabs her boobs and I cringe. Angus is watching in the rearview mirror, and I swear he drools. “The hotel’s real good ‘bout keeping us girls on though, and I was able to get a job as a waitress in the casino. Serving drinks to the people playing poker and blackjack. That kinda thing. The tips are real good. Were real good. Guess it’s all gone now.” She sighs and shakes her head like it’s the saddest thing in the world.

My face heats up, and I have to clench my jaw to keep from screaming at her. The forlorn look on her face when she talks about losing her precious career in Vegas is insulting. Maybe I should have left her ass to get eaten.

“You and Blondie back there’ll have a lot in common. She danced around in the nude too.” Angus’s eyes lock with mine in the rearview mirror and he wiggles his eyebrows.

I give him the finger, which only seems to make him more excited. Sicko. I wonder if he’ll stop making suggestive comments after he finds out Axl and I are together. Doubt it. He knows about the sauna, so I’d be willing to bet he assumes we screwed in Vegas.

Darla leans forward and looks me up and down. She has a big grin on her face. Shit. I look exactly like her. How can she not see it?

“You work at a casino, sweetie?”

“No.” It’s all I can get out, and even that sounds strained.

Angus looks back, and his eyes zero in on Darla’s cleavage. “She was a stripper in Kentucky. Not nearly so glamorous.”

“Shut up, Angus,” Axl barks.

Darla frowns and shakes her head, wrinkling her nose at me. “Oh, no. That’s not the same at all.”

She’s actually looking down on me? Like she’s better than I am! A woman who left her ten-year-old daughter alone with an abusive man thinks she’s better than me. I glare at her and squeeze Axl’s hand tighter, digging my nails into his skin. He winces and yanks his hand back. He’s staring at me, but I can’t focus on anything except Darla and her stupid face. I want to punch her so hard all her teeth fall out. Maybe she’ll swallow a few. Choke on them.

I can only hope.

I try to block out her constant chatter, but it’s impossible. She talks the whole freaking drive. Even when Angus is trying to get details from us about where we stayed and how we got out of the car, she’s blathering on. She asks us nonstop questions about the shelter and tells every little detail of her life. Well, almost every detail. Her childhood, her marriage at a young age to an abusive man, how she ran off and left him. Every moment of her life in Vegas since then. The only part she leaves out is how she abandoned her only child. She glosses over it like it’s nothing. Like
I’m
nothing.

By the time we get back to the shelter, I have a headache from listening to her, and I’m so angry I’m about to explode.

13

THE SIGHT OF THE SHELTER LOOMING in the distance should thrill me, especially with Darla’s constant chatter and my overwhelming desire to punch her stupid face. But it doesn’t, for two main reasons. One, it’s still surrounded by a mob of undead. Two, the Sam’s Club truck is parked outside the fence. It’s clearly too big to fit inside. Something that never even occurred to me when we were loading it up at the store.

              Darla is still talking, I don’t even know about what, but like me, Axl is focused on the truck. “How much did you get inside?” Axl asks, totally cutting Darla off.

“Not much,” Nathan says. “Trey and I managed to unload a little while Winston held them off, but things were just too crazy. Between the zombies, you two missing, and people coming out of the shelter to see what was going on, it was…tough.” His face is tense, and he avoids looking at Angus.

Angus, of course, was the one causing the problems. I’m sure his reaction to them showing up without us was colorful. Well, without Axl. I doubt he cared much about me.

“We’ll take care of it. Wasn’t a priority before,” Angus says.

“So what’s the plan?” I ask. “How are we getting all that stuff in?”

Nathan shakes his head and glances toward Angus like he’s afraid to say anything. He’s nothing like the confident, in-control man who made me strip in Sam’s Club. He looks like he’s intimidated by Angus.

“Let’s just get inside, then we can figure it out. ‘Kay, Blondie?”

When I roll my eyes, Axl gives my hand a squeeze. I could prove myself to be the most useful person in our group, maybe even save Angus’s ass or something, and I’d still just be the blonde, trailer trash stripper to him.

I give Axl’s hand a quick squeeze in return, then reach for the door. “I’ll get the gate.”

“Here,” Angus says as he tosses a key to Axl. “Found us a lock inside so we don’t hafta use them ties no more.”

Guess Axl is coming to back me up.

Angus pulls up to the fence, and I jump out before we’ve even come to a complete stop. The back of the truck is to my left, and most of the dead are hanging around the front of it. We have a little time before they make it to us. Axl hands me the key, and I head over to unlatch the gate while he stands guard.

The dead come at us within seconds. They don’t run, but they’re not exactly slow either. It’s more like they stagger toward us. The movements aren’t fluid, and there’s nothing about the way they walk that could be mistaken for human. Their arms hang loosely at their sides, as if they have a mind of their own. They occasionally reach out mindlessly, their hands clasping at the air while they walk. They claw their fingers and chomp their mouths, letting out moans and shrieks. Sounds I’m sure no human has ever made.

My heart pounds and beads of sweat break out on my forehead, but I do my best not to pay attention to them. I focus solely on the fence and getting that lock open. My hands shake just a little, not making it easy in the least. But the fear isn’t for me. With my eyes focused on the lock, I have no idea what Axl’s doing, but I can hear and smell the dead getting closer. Their presence invades my senses, and my entire body tingles and screams at me to turn around and help Axl. I don’t like having my back to him, not knowing if he’s okay. Everything is different now that I’ve admitted to myself that I’m in love with him.

After what feels like an eternity, the lock comes undone, and I shove the gate open so Angus can drive through. He looks pissed. The vein is even bigger than before. He was probably cursing my slowness the entire time I was trying to get the gate open.

Axl and I jog in behind the Nissan. He helps me push the gate shut, then takes out a body that gets too close for comfort. With the last bullet in his gun. The one he had saved for himself. The realization hits me so hard I have a difficult time filling my lungs. My legs shake, and if it wasn’t so damn hot and smelly out here, I’d lay down on the ground. But at least we’re safe. Both of us.

Without thinking, I throw my arms around Axl and kiss him.

“Guess you two had more fun up on that roof than you’re lettin’ on,” Angus says when he climbs out of the car. “Hope you didn’t knock ‘er up. We don’t need no more apocalypse babies.”

Axl leaves his arm around my waist and pulls me close as we walk toward the shelter. I bury my face in his chest. I don’t want to give Angus the satisfaction of replying. It doesn’t matter to me what he says or what he thinks. I’m just happy Axl and I are alive.

“You’re an ass, Angus,” Axl says.

There’s something light in his tone that makes me look up. The corner of his mouth is pulled up just a bit, and his face is softer than usual. I glance toward Angus. His expression is almost exactly the same. God, it’s crazy how alike they look sometimes. I guess that was just playful banter between brothers? It’s hard to tell with these two sometimes.

Nathan has already disappeared inside the shelter. Probably in a hurry to get back to Moira. Darla stands by the door awkwardly. She looks suddenly scared, like it just occurred to her she got in the car with four people she doesn’t know and let them take her out in the middle of nowhere. Her uncertainty doesn’t help lessen the bitterness eating away at my insides, that’s for sure.

“Come on,” Angus says, waving her over. “I’d call ya Blondie, but we already got us one. Gonna have to think of something better to call you…” He stares right at her tits. I’d be willing to bet he has a few dozen things going through his head that he’d like to call her. All of which would make me vomit.

We head down, and the second we reach the first level we’re surrounded by people. Everyone must have been waiting in the control room for us to get back.

Hadley swoops in before anyone else has a chance, giving me a big hug. I pat her back awkwardly. I’m not much of a hugger and we don’t know one another
that
well, and this is our second hug since we met. She steps back and swipes her hand across her face. She isn’t crying, but her expression is pinched. Like she’s trying to hold back the tears. She must have been really worried about us.

“Thank God you got back! Angus swore that Axl would get you guys to a safe place, but when Winston and Trey were talking about how crazy it was and how many zombies were on the Strip I just—” She swallows and shakes her head.

“Sorry we couldn’t get back to you,” Winston says. His left eye is slightly swollen, and there’s a long, dark bruise going from the corner of his eye to midway down his cheek. Angus must have really lost it.

“We did what needed to be done, an’ so did you,” Axl says, shaking his hand and patting him on the arm. “Nobody needs to be sorry. You saved our asses by startin’ that fire.”

Angus stares at the ground. His face is bright red, and the vein on his forehead is even more prominent than before. What the hell went on when they got back without us?

I’m filthy and too exhausted to focus on Angus, though. We’ll have to deal with it later. Right now, all I want is a shower. Too bad we have all that shit to unload from the truck.

“So, what’s the plan for unloading the supplies?” I have to raise my voice over the talking—a lot of it being Darla’s since she’s busy recounting her days as a topless dancer to Hadley.

“We’re going to have to get as many people out there as we can and get rid of the zombies,” Winston says.

He’s stating the obvious, so it shouldn’t feel like he’s reading a death sentence. But it does. And why wouldn’t it? He very well could be for a few of us.

“We got an idea how many of them bastards is out there?” Axl asks.

James sits at the desk in the control room, and just like the first time we came into the room, he pushes his chair out and spins it around. He crosses his arms over his chest as we all stare at him. Guess he likes being important. It’s probably a new thing for him.

“I’ve been watching them. There’s about thirty out there right now, give or take. The numbers keep growing. For every one we kill on our way in or out of the fence, two replace it. They’re stumbling in from somewhere off in the desert. My guess is they’re drawn here. Maybe the building is giving off some sort of electrical hum or something that we can’t hear and they can.”

“So you’re tellin’ me they got super-hearin’ now?” Angus asks, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes like he doesn’t believe James.

Winston rubs his eyes and shakes his head. He looks exhausted. “Like a dog or something?”

James just shrugs. He doesn’t talk, and neither does anyone else. The room is so quiet we would be able to hear a mouse fart. I’m not sure if the silence is from disbelief or fear. Hell, there are a thousand emotions going through me right now, and everyone else is probably feeling the same thing. But mainly the news just makes me tired. Deep down in my bones.

“I hate to say it,” Winston says. He’s looking right at Axl. “But it makes sense. Think of how many were roaming up and down the Strip. Of all the buildings and places in Vegas, those hotels are most likely to have generators in them. Maybe just small ones, but still. Could be people hiding out in some of the hotels, trying to take them back and using the generators.”

My brain somehow surfaces from the fog of exhaustion surrounding it. What he says explains a lot and makes perfect sense. It’s what we did when we got to the hotel in San Francisco, so why wouldn’t another group get the same idea? A hotel’s a good place to hide if you can clear out the bodies and get the power going. It’d have everything you’d need to live on.

“We didn’t see no lights on the Strip after dark,” Axl says. He shakes his head and purses his lips, but he thinks Winston’s right. I can tell.

“The generators would probably be programmed for minimum electrical use. Just the inside of the hotel, not the lights outside. It would save electricity and keep things within the city’s fire code in the event of an emergency.”

“You know, now that you mention it, I did notice some activity down by the Monte Carlo. There wasn’t no lights or nothing, but I saw men go in and out a few times,” Darla says. “I thought ‘bout going over to see who it was, but you just can’t trust people these days. They’ll leave you high and dry first chance they get.”

I let out a bitter laugh and then quickly cover my mouth. A few people stare at me, but most are too busy thinking or asking questions. Axl narrows his eyes on my face, but I just shake my head. I’ll talk to him about it later.

“Let’s just get this over with,” I say, once again interrupting everyone. I want a shower.

Winston nods and glances around. We’ve got a good-sized group: me, Axl, Angus, Winston, James, Trey, Nathan, and Hadley. Maybe even Darla, although I have a feeling she’s a pretty useless person despite the fight she was putting up in the bar when we found her. But we can always use more.

“Let’s round up as many people as we can and get armed. We need guns and knives. I want to try and save as much of the ammo as we can, so I’d like for people to go in with knives first.” Winston pauses, then turns to Angus. “That good with you?”

Angus nods and puffs out his chest like he’s trying to make himself taller. Winston has never deferred to that racist bastard’s opinion before. It reminds me of how timid Nathan was in the car.

Angus is standing off to the side by himself. No one but Winston, Axl, and I will even look at him. And Darla, but she doesn’t count. What the hell happened while we were gone?