The Last Legacy (Season 1): Episodes 1-10 (32 page)

I gagged, but the eater shuffled closer towards me, the blow not even the slightest deterrent. I couldn’t focus—my mind on the smell of her decaying body and the disturbing stream of red that poured from the gash in her neck.
 

With my knife pointing up, I jabbed it through the bottom of her chin, using all of my strength to lodge it into her head. The blade was long enough, and within a moment, her groaning ended and her body fell forward. The weight of her body knocked me backwards, and I landed on a hard rock. My entire back vibrated with pinpricks.

Jim reached down and lifted me by my elbow.
 

“Let’s get rid of this eater body,” Jim said as he bent down.
 

Jim grabbed the eater under her armpits and lifted her torso up. I grabbed her ankles, and we dragged her a few feet away from the fire and placed her under a shady oak tree.

She looked worse than any other eater I had seen thus far. Her hair glued down across her face, bald spots where black hair used to be. Her white skin sagged over bare bones and her naked stomach. Her clothes barely qualified as clothes, since they were so destroyed, the colors muted.

“It felt easier to kill her,” I told Jim as I stared down at the eater woman.

“What do you mean?”
 

“Her bones and skin were easier to break through. Like she’s decayed more or something.” Jim leaned down and put his hand on her bicep, pulling at the skin. I turned away and shut my eyes, resting the urge to vomit.
 

“You’re right,” Jim said. I glanced back as he wiped his fingers on his cargo pants, his nose wrinkling in disgust. “They must not be eating as well. Or maybe it’s just because two weeks have passed.”

“Jim!” Scarlet yelled from the fire.
 

Jim’s eyes met mine and grew. We sprinted the short distance to the fire where Scarlet held Kev down to the ground as he shook again. He cried now. But these weren’t normal tears. His eyes clouded with redness as blood pooled and dripped down his face.

“Kill him now,” Jim commanded as he drew his gun out of his holster. Kev continued to shake as more blood poured from all of the holes in his face. I bit my tongue to stop myself from crying. All I could do was watch in horror as he changed in front of our eyes.

Scarlet let go of Kev and pulled out her gun. She pressed it right at his temples. Her hands shook, the gun unstable, as her tears fell onto Kev’s face, mixing with the blood. I wanted to hug her, erase her pain, but I remained rooted in my spot.
 

She pulled her hand back, about to end his life, but when she got close, she dropped the gun onto the ground. She couldn’t do it. I shoved Jim forward with urgency. I didn’t want him to change and kill Scarlet, too. This had to end now.
 

“I can’t,” she sobbed, shaking her head as she stepped back away from Kev’s shaking body. All of a sudden, Kev froze, the seizures ending. His eyes sprang open, moving wildly. I could even see them shaking from where I stood.
 

Scarlet gasped as he began to reanimate. His fingers started to move, just barely bending and releasing. He rolled his head to the side and tried to sit up but ultimately failed.

Jim stepped over the fire and knelt in front of Kev. “Gabe!” Jim yelled and waved him closer. He stood back, observing, his brows pinched. “Is he turning? What’s happening?”
 

Gabriel ran to Jim and knelt on the other side of Kev’s head.
 

“The human Kevin is gone. He’s completely taken over by the infection now. Look at his eyes.” Gabriel pressed the back of his hand against Kev’s forehead and then pulled back. I turned, I didn’t want to see him different. “You have to do it.”
 

Jim nodded, not saying a word. Jim stood over Kev’s body and aimed the gun at his head. I clutched my sides and said a prayer to whoever would listen. Please, let Kev be at peace. He didn’t deserve to die this way. He didn’t deserve to die at all.

The single shot exploded in the otherwise silent day. The noise echoed beneath the trees, birds scattering across the clear sky. Tears trickled down my cheeks as I heard the kill. Jim turned away from Kev, his eyes catching with mine. He held me there, and I was thankful I didn’t have to see any more.
 

Scarlet flew off the handle. She screamed as she collapsed to the ground. I covered my mouth with my hand as Gabe grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up. She kicked and punched, completely unhinged. Gabe and Mike wrestled her to the ground to calm her, her face only inches from a Kev’s body.

I ran to her side, shoving the guys off of her. “Stop!” I yelled as I cradled her head between my hands. “Leave her alone.” I held her. Her eyes squeezed shut, her chest rising and falling in rapid succession. Her breathing became erratic as sobs choked her.

“Scarlet, calm down.” I too was crying now, unable to stop my emotions from spilling out. I brushed her red hair off her forehead, threading my fingers through her strands in what I hoped was a soothing way. I shushed her until her breathing evened, her arms loosening their grasp on me.
 

“He’s dead,” she muttered, her eyes still pressed shut.
 

“We didn’t have a choice.”

“But he’s just gone.” She slowly opened her eyes. They were like golden fossils, glowing in the reddish sun. They contained fear and anger. I softened, letting go of her. We both sat up against the logs. I wiped my face of my salty tears.

“You’re going to be okay. You have all of us, and we’re going to find your sister.” I grabbed her hands and held them in mine, locking my eyes with hers.

“Do you promise?”

“We’re going to do everything we can to find her. I swear to you.” I glanced around and noticed Kev’s body had been removed. The guys had dispersed while I dealt with Scarlet.
 

“Do you think Jim hates me?” she asked in a small voice.

“Why would he hate you?”
 

“Because I attacked him, kind of.”

“I think we all understand what you’re going through. You and Kev got close. It’s hard losing people. You have every right to be upset, Scar. And I’m really sorry that you had to go through this.” Her eyes filled with tears again and slowly started falling down her face.

“I just thought we could’ve had a future. After my husband passed, I didn’t think I’d meet someone I could relate to. Someone who understood me. And Kev did. And now…” she said as she reached forward and hugged me.
 

Biting my tongue was easier than telling her what I knew. None of us had a future. We were living by the day, or hour, or minute. We could all be wiped out at any moment.

Silence hung in the air as we all packed our tents. Jim said that we only had about two hours left of daylight and that we just needed to find a cleared house to squat for the night.
 

“I’ll get it,” Jim said as he took the backpack from my arms and threw it over his back. Since Jim didn’t have a tent anymore, I guessed he decided to carry ours. I took his smaller bag filled mostly with clothes and strapped it over my back.
 

“Are we ready to go?” Jim asked as the group of us congregated around the fire. Scarlet sat on one of the stumps. She stared into the fading embers with no emotion on her face.
 

Margaret had her arms crossed over her chest. The kids were on either side of her, both with plastic bags. She caught me looking and scowled. She made a display of turning away from me and hugging Marcus to her side. Mike had both bags and their tent over his back, listening while Jim spoke.
 

“Where’s Gabe?” I asked.

“I’m not sure.” Jim rummaged around the fire, stomping it out and covering the embers. It was like he looked for something. He gathered dirt in his hands and piled it by the rocks.

“I’ll go look,” I said as I set my bag on the ground. I walked a few feet out in the woods near our camp. “What the hell?” I muttered when I saw him. I ran the final distance to Gabriel as he looked over his shoulder, noticing me.
 

“Lana, be quiet.” He crouched down in front of Kev’s dead body. Kev’s shirt had been cut off his body, most of the lower part of his pants gone. Gabe fucking dissected him, an array of tools laid near his feet.
 

“Why are you doing that to him? What is wrong with you?” I covered my nose with my sleeve, the distinct smell of death engraining in my head. I’d never forget it now.
 

“Don’t you want to know what happened to him?”
 

“I do, but…” My thought died because Gabe was right. But I knew this wouldn’t fly with the others. They would lose their shit. Probably Jim, too. “You have to hurry. They’re all ready to leave.”
 

Gabe pulled out a syringe from his plastic bag and stabbed it into Kev’s neck. With one hand, he pulled the plunger back, the clear glass filling with blood. I gasped but quickly slapped my hand over my mouth so nobody could hear. I checked our backs to make sure nobody followed.

“We can’t experiment here. But who knows, it may be useful later,” Gabe grumbled to himself. “We’ll need electricity to look at anything. But we’ve discovered a lot by watching Kev. You know, it took three days for him to become fully infected from his bite.”

“What’s that mean?”
 

Gabe took a scalpel in his hand and began skimming the skin on Kev’s calf off. He shoved a strip that looked like hairy bacon into a plastic bag and tied the handles so it wouldn’t fall out. I turned away and resisted gagging.

“Well, the strain took three days to kill him and change him. So, that’s the good news.”
 

“Good news?” I huffed, because if that was our good news, we were in serious trouble. He scraped bone, like a handsaw to rock.
 

“At least there’s time to say goodbye. Although, poor Scarlet couldn’t come to terms with it. Anyway, it has me wondering if that’s a blanket time or if it was just Kev. Nothing we can do now.” He shrugged as he gathered all his tools and tied the plastic bag shut. He hooked it around his elbow.
 

“Are you going to tell everyone what you found out?” I asked him as we walked back towards the fire. He didn’t answer me, just stomped ahead towards the group.
 

“Hey,” Jim said as I stopped next to him. I smiled and wrapped my arm around his midsection. “We’re going to go up the highway another exit or two and then find shelter,” Jim announced to everyone. “Follow me.” He reached down, grabbed my hand, and then led the way.
 

The cracks between my toes ached. My lower back burned, and my knees felt like they’d been whipped with a crowbar. I figured my discomfort came from more than just the walking. Emotional baggage weighed on my shoulders.
 

“Feeling okay?” Jim asked, his hand squeezing mine. I nodded, not trusting my voice. I knew he’d hear the pain. Jim didn’t want to walk too far off the highway, so we stayed on a two-lane street that connected to a smaller neighborhood of townhouses.
 

Someone cried from beside me and I glanced towards the sound. Scarlet’s arms wrapped around herself, her face shadowed by the setting sun. I walked over and hugged her, pressing her head against my shoulder.

“Just think of your sister,” I told her, hoping that would fix her broken heart. She clutched me harder as we paused. My legs straddled the two yellow lines of the road as we waited for the men to find a safe house. Margaret and the kids stopped with us, Margaret’s back to me.

A strange sense of de-ja-vu washed over me as I remembered how Jim found me in the first place. How many girls before me did they steal? How many did they rape or kill? I swallowed the lump in my throat, pushing the thoughts out of my head. I knew the more I thought about it, the more upset it would make me. And dwelling on the past did no good to anyone.

Gabe ran down the steps of a yellow house and waved us over.

“We’ve got a cleared house. Nothing in the middle floor or top, not much food, but it’s safe. Let’s move,” Gabe said. We walked up to the steps. Gabe reached forward and took Scarlet’s hand. I pushed the small of her back forward a bit and let Gabe help her up since she was so lost in her own head.