Affliction Read online

  I smile and lean up onto my tiptoes to place a kiss on his stubbled cheek. “Just promise me you won’t get yourself killed before I can give you a proper thank you for being such a stubborn ass.”

  A wide, sexy grin stretches across his face and he pulls my hips into him so that there isn’t an inch of space between us. “Well, hot damn! How can I refuse something like that?”

  I laugh and reach out to run my hands through his hair. The texture is so soft against my fingertips. “I do need you to promise me something else, though. If I do ever become dangerous, either to you or to anyone else, I want you to-”

  “No.” His jawline sets beneath my hand. “It won’t come to that.”

  I swallow back my sharp retort, understanding that his denial is as much for his own peace of mind as it is for mine. “But if it did—”

  He places a finger over my lips. “I won’t let it. I promise you that no matter what happens, we will find a way to make this right. I’m not going anywhere, no matter what. You can sniff me all you want but I’m not for eating.”

  I laugh, feeling the pleasant sensation ripple deep into my belly. It feels good to laugh.

  “How do you always know how to throw me off guard when I’m trying to have a serious conversation?”

  He leans forward and places a kiss on the end of my nose. “Because I’m a survivor and you, my sweet, beautiful, hard headed Dumbass, are my biggest challenge yet.”

  “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

  He tilts his head to the side to pretend to think it over. I hit him in the shoulder and he stumbles back, laughing. “Okay, okay! It was a compliment.”

  I nod and place a kiss quick on his lips but feel the happiness diminish almost as quickly when I let him go. I wish that I could be as positive and hopeful about our future as he is.

  “Are you about ready to go?” He lowers his hand and takes ahold of mine, squeezing it once before letting go.

  “I’ll follow you this time.”

  Nox’s face brightens and I know that he senses a double meaning to my words. Standing beside him now I know that I would follow him anywhere, and do anything to keep him safe, but it’s time to let him guide me for a while. To let him know that I trust him above all else.

  As Nox calls to his men to circle up for the final time, I know that he’s all too aware of the fact that I don’t actually need his protection. Sure, he is skilled with a gun, but when it comes to a physical battle, I can top him in an instant. But being in a partnership, even an unspecified relationship without official boundaries or designated borders, is about letting yourself be weak sometimes so the other person can be strong.

  Nox needs to lead and so I will follow him...for now.

  SIXTEEN

  Flynn and Liam walk beside me two days later as the sun begins to drop below the trees and the mosquitoes hang in a thick black cloud in front of our faces. The sounds of the birds welcoming the night before they bed down to rest should be a peaceful one, but I am on edge. I have been since we broke camp this morning.

  Something feels off about the woods but I can’t quite explain why. Maybe it’s because we haven’t heard any more gunfire since we entered. The silence that followed the nearly two hour long battle felt ominous. Almost like the calm before a very big and nasty storm.

  As I walked that first evening and lay staring up at the stars as the others slept, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of Cable’s zombies the Raiders managed to take out before they were overrun. They never stood a chance against such a force, just like we won’t if we don’t stay ahead of them.

  The second day of walking, I noticed Liam’s pace had slowed. Despite his attempts to hide his growing exhaustion I could see the journey was wearing on him. I should have found a way to force him to return to the base with Hope.

  Walking from sunup to sundown has been tiring on all of us, but I know that it is easiest on Flynn and I. I watch him as he moves, his confidence in his body far more pronounced that it ever was before but I have yet to have a chance to get him alone long enough to ask him about it. Part of me thinks that Nox is orchestrating that. Another part feels like Flynn is hiding from me.

  As I walk, I keep my ears tuned to the movements in the forest. Apart from the odd random Withered that we find wandering in the woods we have yet to come across any that are not easily dealt with. Kira has proven to be an excellent marksman though I’d rather suck on a bag of lemons before I tell her that.

  “Care to tell me what’s on your mind?” Flynn asks as he makes his way over to me. The group is fanned out with Nox, Fletcher and Bo at the front and Gentry and Cyrus coming up at the rear. All of us are on guard but none are quite as jumpy as I am.

  “Come on. It’s never a good thing when you’re this quiet,” Flynn says as he maneuvers around a downed tree. Its trunk is nearly as wide as his shoulders and four times his height. He kicks at the center of it with the toe of his boot and the hollow wood crumbles into a pile of rotting flesh and termites.

  “How would you know that? We haven’t exactly known each other all that long, remember?”

  Flynn shakes the swarm of bugs off his boots and speeds up to match my pace as I move on without him, hoping to avoid this subject. I would rather keep my fears to myself until I have a better understanding of exactly what it is that I am sensing.

  “Because back in that lab under the hotel, when things got bad and I knew we were in real trouble, you still talked. Even when we were walking down that creepy ass hallway with the dude dragging his guts behind him and Flesh Bags all around us you were Chatty Kathy but for the past couple of hours you haven’t said a word. That means one of two things: either you’re pissed off about something or you’re worried. I don’t really see how either of those bode well for us.”

  “Or maybe there’s a third option and I’m just tired.” I tug at the bit of fabric that I’ve tied over my face to try to help shield the sun. Stabbing pain hides behind my eyes as I try to keep my gaze focused only on the ground, watching each step that I take instead of constantly searching the trees.

  Flynn snorts and brushes his hands over the bark of a towering tree as he passes by. I wince at the grating sound and then the crack as a chunk falls off and plummets to the ground. Closing my eyes, I focus on my breathing, loud and steady in my ears. This newfound sensitivity is still hard to get used to but with each day I feel like I may be starting to control it a little better. I just have to concentrate really hard and that in and of itself can be exhausting.

  “Or maybe there’s a fourth option and you’re still plotting a way to get rid of all of us,” Flynn winks.

  “You would think that, wouldn’t you?” I open my eyes once more to look a few feet over to see Liam smirking like he’s in on the joke as well. “That’s actually what I should be doing, but I’m not. You guys won. I threw up the white flag two days ago. If you want to serve yourself up as a shish kabob then I can’t stop you.”

  “I wonder if zombies prefer ketchup.”

  I snort and shoot Liam a quizzical look. “What? I used to put that stuff on everything. I had to. My dad was a terrible cook.”

  “Well if they could find ketchup, I’m pretty sure it would just ruin the flavor,” Flynn grins as I stare at him completely dumfounded. Are these two really joking around about being eaten? And after all of that crap Liam suffered at Flannery’s homestead.

  “Oh, look. We’ve shocked Avery.” Liam laughs. “Relax. I’m fine. Flynn is helping me to see how humor can help with dealing with the bad crap that’s happened to me.”

  “I see.” I swat at a fly buzzing next to my ear. “Well, then in answer to your question, no, they don’t need ketchup. You would taste fine just the way you are.”

  Liam stops walking and looks to Flynn. “She’s joking right? Why doesn’t she look like she’s joking.”

  Flynn claps h
is friend on the shoulders. “Dude, she’s just pulling your leg.”

  Oh, how I wish that were true.

  I fall silent as I rub the hairs along my arms and continue walking so that they can’t see that my smile doesn’t reach my eyes. The hairs on the back of my neck stand tall and alert but not in the same way that they do when a Flesh Bag is near.

  I hold my breath as I attempt to stretch out my senses for the hundredth time since breakfast and sense something moving in the distance, but I can’t pinpoint it. Using my abilities is not an easy thing to do considering that I don’t actually know how to do it in the first place. It’s like trying to move something with your mind when you’ve only accidentally done it once or twice before. It’s a total guessing game and I feel like no matter what I do, I am going to lose.

  “Seriously,” Flynn steps closer, keeping his eyes on Nox’s back as Liam resumes his former position off to our left. “What is going on? You’re starting to freak me out and that comment back there was a bit too ‘blatant honesty’ for my liking. If you don’t spill the beans then I will be forced to tell Nox and we both know that you don’t want to worry him.”

  Nox and Fletcher continue to keep a steady pace nearly one hundred feet ahead of us, a distance in close enough range to react if an emergency but not so close that I have to worry about Nox overhearing Flynn’s statement. I glance back over my shoulder and see that Cyrus has pulled a bit farther away than he should. The ongoing stress on his twisted ankle hasn’t been good on him but he has yet to complain about it.

  “Tell me again why I like you?”

  Flynn shoots me a toothy grin and loops his arm through mine. “It could be my boyish charm, or my raging sarcasm, but I like to think that you have just come to not only appreciate but also rely heavily on my stellar personality.”

  “Nope.” I shake my head. “I’m pretty sure that it’s none of those.”

  Flynn smothers a laugh but then pokes me in the side. “I was serious about telling Nox.”

  With a heavy sigh, I pull back on his arm. “I know.”

  Keeping my voice low, I lean in toward him and see Liam change his path to draw in closer. The kid wasn’t lying when he said that he has an insatiable need to eavesdrop. “Just keep your eyes open as we walk. Something isn’t right out here and it’s messing with my head.”

  “Do you think it’s the zombies?” Liam sends a worried glance back over his shoulder but I already know there’s nothing behind us. Whatever it is seems to be flanking us.

  “No. It’s something else.” I turn my head to my right and breathe in deep. “There is a scent on the air that I can’t quite place and it’s getting closer.”

  “As in, it’s tracking us?” I give Flynn a hard look and he goes pale. “Right. I meant hunting us. Of course that’s what it’s doing. Do you think it’s human?”

  Flynn lowers his hand to come to rest on the weapon at his hip.

  “I can’t be sure.”

  Noticing the quivering in Liam’s hand, I get the distinct feeling that he has probably never held a gun before in his life. The way he holds it limply worries me.

  Grabbing a hold of it, I use my thumb and flick the safety. “You’re going to need this off if you want to be able to shoot.”

  “Right,” Liam swallows hard. “I knew that.”

  “I’ll stick close by him,” Flynn vows.

  “Good.” I glance back to my right again before moving on. “And I’ll stick with you two.”

  “Don’t you think I can take care of myself?” Flynn puffs up his chest.

  I laugh at the not so subtle insult in his tone. “I locked you in a room back at the hotel for a reason, Flynn. Not because you couldn’t handle yourself, but because I wanted you safe. I’m not about to let you go out all guns blazing this time either.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed I’m not the same kid you left behind.”

  “Oh, I’ve noticed.” I turn to glare at him. “Trust me that conversation is coming, buddy.”

  “What about Nox?” Liam jerks his chin toward where Nox has crested a rise ahead of us. “Are you going to try to save him too?”

  My back teeth grind together as I force myself to shake my head. “No. He can take care of himself.”

  “But who is going to take care of you?”

  I turn back to look at Liam. “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” he trudges on ahead with steps that are becoming increasingly labored. Soon enough, he will be walking back with Cyrus. “It just seems like you’re so busy worrying about everyone else that you’re not stopping to consider that you are still a bit out of it. I mean, come on, you just woke up from a freakin’ coma or something two days ago. You’re still not totally stable on your feet and you’re obviously not completely right in the head right now, no offense. I’m just wondering, who will be watching you back while you’re watching everyone else’s?”

  I hate to admit that the kid has me pegged, and judging by the knowing grin on Flynn’s face, he knows that I’m had.

  “One of you was plenty to handle before. How’d I get so lucky to be stuck with the chuckle twins on this delightful vacation?” I rub at the puckered skin between my eyebrows where a headache has taken up residence. It began not long after we left this morning. I also can’t help but note that it started not long after I began to sense danger approaching in the woods too.

  I hate to admit that Liam is right, but I don’t feel back to my full health yet. I should be resting instead of traipsing up the side of a mountain, but my life never seems to slow down long enough for me to do the right thing. According to Nox’s map and our current speed heading down into the foothills, I estimate that it will take us nearly two more days to reach Atlanta and perhaps another one on top to locate the Safe Zone. That is three days too many.

  If Wiemann and Cap’s group didn’t run into trouble, they could already be at the Safe Zone. That not only puts us at a serious disadvantage, but also numerous more lives in harm’s way.

  “I was wrong before. I think you should tell Nox about these feelings you’ve been having,” Flynn speaks up sometime later.

  I blink and it dawns on me that I have been lost to my thoughts about my hate Wiemann for far longer than I realized. The sun has sunk down lower in the sky and long shadows have begun to form along the ground. I blink several more times as I feel the strain on my eyes begin to lessen and sense clarity of vision starting to return.

  “Don’t worry,” I grin as I remove the wrap from around my face and breathe deep the cool night air. It feels soothing after so much time spent recycling my own hot breath. “I promise that I won’t let anything get you in the middle of the night.”

  “At least you will be able to see it coming,” he grumbles and swats a mosquito feasting on his arm. “I won’t even know it’s there until it’s already chewing on my leg.”

  Liam sends me a questioning glance but Flynn is the one to answer, “She’s got night vision, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah! That is so wicked!”

  The topic instantly launches the two boys into a debate over just how cool it is that I can see at night. Right about the time they begin to question if I will eventually develop an animalistic night shine or adopt the freaky all white eyes of the Withered, I push on ahead so that I do not have to listen.

  Less than an hour later, Nox calls for us to set up camp for the night and I’m forced to bite my tongue against my natural instinct to protest. If I were alone, I would push through, travel hard and fast to make up for lost time, but I am not alone. Nox knows his men better than I do. I have to remember that they tire far easier than I do now, even at this painstakingly slow pace.

  I watch as his soldiers respond instantly to Nox’s command, each with their own pre-planned role to play out. Even Flynn and Liam seem to instinctively know to begin collecting firewood while I stand
in the middle of the small clearing feeling like I’ve been passed over.

  “Anything I can do to help?” I walk up to Nox as he kneels down to check the scope on his gun. With each day that we get closer to our destination, I notice he has begun to use this tell as his sign of growing distress.

  “Nope. We’ve got it all under control for tonight.”

  “Is that so?” I cross my arms over my chest.

  Nox looks up and lowers his weapon onto his knee. “Is there something wrong?”

  “You tell me. Cyrus and Fletcher have gone off to try to hunt for dinner despite the fact that Cyrus is limping badly. Kira is god knows where and if I had my way would stay there. The other three are working on setting up a security perimeter around camp and even Flynn and Liam are gathering firewood.”

  Nox pushes up to his feet and rests his gun against his shoulder. “I’m not sure that I’m seeing the problem.”

  “The problem is that I’m the only one who hasn’t been given a job and you know it.”

  Nox blows out a breath and then offers me a wry smile. “You feel left out, is that it?”

  “Don’t patronize me, Nox. You know damn well I can carry more weight than anyone here. I can run faster, hunt better and hear a cricket a mile away. I’m the one who should be hunting for food not standing here like a freakin’ useless waste of space.”

  “Hey,” Nox places a hand on my arm and slowly tugs me toward him. “I know all of that, Avery, and I swear that I’m not trying to make you feel useless. I’m just trying to let you regain some of your strength. None of us know how that second bite has really affected you yet and I want to be sure that you are ready to be back in the game again before I start placing expectations on you.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “Is that really the only reason?”