Broken Dreams (45 page)

“Don’t worry. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“I hope so. I love you, Claire.”

“I love you, too.” She gave me another quick hug, and they headed out to the truck.

“I’m going to walk them out,” Nick ran out after them. I watched from the front porch. He went to the passenger side and opened the door for Claire. They stood and spoke for a few minutes, and then they embraced. He kissed her on the cheek. She smiled, and looked to be somewhat embarrassed. He helped her in and closed the door for her. Sophie started the truck, and they drove off.

When Nick came back to the porch, I met him at the top of the stairs. “What?” he said with an innocent smile.

“Unbelievable.” I had my hands on my hips.

“What?”

“You!”

“What did I do?” He had a ridiculous smirk on his face.

“You have the hots for Claire, don’t you?”

He brushed past me and into the house. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Nicholis Cooper! You better tell me what’s going on!”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He plucked a book off our dad’s bookshelf, sat down on the couch, and began to sift through it.

“Nick! You two had sex, didn’t you?”

“Shh, baby sis. I’m reading.” He smiled and chuckled, knowing he had information that I wanted.

“Ugh!”

I stomped off through the kitchen, only to find Henry standing in front of the fireplace, looking at our family pictures. I lingered in the doorway between the kitchen and the family room, enjoying the view of the beautiful man in front of me. When he realized I was there, he said, “You had a beautiful family, Elaina.”

“Yes, I did.”

“It pains me, knowing what has happened to them.”

“Me, too.”

“I hope we can have a family someday.”

I smiled. “That would be amazing. I think you would make a fantastic father.”

“Really?”

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Yes. But we need to talk about this a bit more.”

He frowned. “Right.” He turned around, sounding disappointed.

“We can’t have a baby any time soon.” I tried to keep my voice down so Nick didn’t hear our conversation.

“I agree.”

“So, we’ll have to be careful.”

“Ahh, yes. That.” Realizing where the conversation was going, he said, “Right. Of course.”

“Good, I’m glad we’re on the same page.” I nestled my nose into his neck. Even his funk smelled good to me. He kissed the side of my neck and moved up to my ear, licking and nipping. My nerves were dancing all over my body. I started touching him, caressing his cool, battered body. Then I pulled away with a gasp.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“We can’t.” He looked annoyed. “Did you forget the conversation we just had a few moments ago?”

“Hmm…yes. I must have some sort of short-term memory loss. Too many concussions, you know.” I rolled my eyes at him, and he winked at me.

“Plus…I have some questions.”

“About?”

“You, and what you are.”

“Alright.” He guided me over to the sofa. “Ask away.”

“Sophie’s kids... They aren’t like you?”

“I don’t know exactly. I can’t imagine he would have lied about that.” What he said made absolute sense, but I had more questions.

“If you’re infected, wouldn’t you infect me?”

“Like I said before, there has to be a blood/saliva mix in order to contaminate you.”

“So the injection that they forced into you was made with saliva?”

“A small amount of the virus was mixed with saliva, then injected into my blood stream.”

“So the full blown injection was made with saliva, as well?” I was disgusted.

“Yes, but it was highly concentrated.”

I chewed my cheek for a second. “Right.” I paused again. “I’m just worried, you know, if I get pregnant…”

“I’m sorry. I wish I knew how it all worked, but that was never explained to me. But, like I said,
that
fluid is clean.” He looked at me in a bit of a sinister sort of way. Then he wiggled his eyebrows up and down. I had to ignore his advances. He sighed when he realized it wasn’t working.

“Is it safe to assume Roger is not infected?”

“Correct. He is not infected. He would never allow it. We were his guinea pigs for this virus.” He tucked my hair behind my ears, and sat there smiling at me. “You do know that no matter what, I will love you always.”

“Even if I kick you in the tomatoes?”

“Hmm... That might be the deal breaker.” We laughed a little, and held one another while leaning back on the sofa.

“How did I manage life before all of this craziness?”

“That’s simple, my love…” He tapped me gently on the nose with his index finger. “You’re mental but, now, so is everybody else and no one notices it as much.”

“Henry!” I punched him in the shoulder. He jerked away and hissed. I had forgotten about his ribs. “Oh no! I’m so sorry!”

“No biggie. Just a bit of pain. Nothing I’m not used to,” he grumbled.

Chapter 26

ophie pulled out of the driveway as Claire was staring out the window at Nick waving goodbye. “Looks like Nick has a new crush.” Claire’s icy glare could have cooled a volcano.

“That’s none of your concern.” She wasn’t ready to give up any information about her and Nick yet.

“Right.” Sophie chuckled as she turned onto the main road, suddenly noticing something interesting. “Well, would you look at that?” She seemed excited. Thomas and Claire looked and saw a black Tahoe, identical to hers and Henry’s, parked at the takeout window of a fast food restaurant.

“Is that…?” Thomas started to speak, but Sophie interrupted.

“Yes, yes, I do believe that is…I mean, was…Kellan’s truck. Let’s go and investigate, shall we?” She pulled up beside it.

“Why wouldn’t he bring it to the house?”

“I have two suspicions. Number one, he was trying to lay low. Or number two, he ran out of gas.” Sophie opened her door and said, “Let’s be aware, please.” She hopped out, Thomas and Claire following. Sophie tried the handle, but it was locked. Claire looked in the back window.

“There’s a trunk back here!” She was feverishly pulling on the handle. She hoped that they would find everything they needed in Kellan’s trunk, and they could get back to the house sooner rather than later. It took her a couple of seconds to realize it was locked.

Sophie and Thomas came around to the back. Claire was looking around for a rock or something with which she could break the window. She heard the glass smash and turned around. Sophie was pounding out the driver’s side window with the butt end of her Sig. She reached in and unlocked the truck, Thomas pulling open the liftgate.

“How are you gonna open this? You don’t have the code, do you?” Thomas asked.

“There is an override keypad underneath. Tip it back.” He did, as Claire stood and watched for undeads. Sophie pushed a series of buttons, putting in the code. “I’m not supposed to know this. I discovered the code when I was snooping in Roger’s office one night.”

“Snoopin’?” Thomas looked a bit shocked that Sophie would even take that risk. “Weren’t you afraid of what would happen if he caught you?”

“What did I have to lose?”

Thomas shrugged. “Nothin’, I guess.”

“Exactly. In the middle of one of his special ‘training’ sessions with me, there was an emergency in the complex that he had to respond to so he left me alone in his office for a bit. I used it as an opportunity to snoop.” Sophie pressed one more button on the keypad and the trunk unlocked.

“Yes! Get down. Just in case it is rigged.” Thomas jumped out of the back of the truck. Sophie carefully opened the lid of the trunk. She didn’t seem all too worried about her own welfare. “Motherfucker…” quietly rolled off her lips.

“What?” Claire was standing on her tiptoes, trying to see what was in the trunk.

“Empty,” Sophie muttered. She got out and leaned over to the gas tank, tapping on it. Empty. “That arse! He left us with nothing! Where did he hide all the weapons? Fucker!” Sophie spent the next several minutes tearing apart the truck, looking for anything they could use for supplies.

Claire spotted a small herd of undeads staggering toward them. “Sophie. We have company.”

“Shit. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Sophie jumped out of Kellan’s truck and got into theirs. She started it up and threw it in gear just as Thomas and Claire closed their doors. She took off back to the main road.

“Shouldn’t we take care of them? What if they wander toward the others?”

“I don’t think they will make it that far. They’ll get sidetracked before they make it down that way.” Claire was uneasy about leaving them wandering, but Sophie was the boss when Henry was not around. She didn’t want to cause any waves so soon in their trip back to his apartment.

Sophie drove like a maniac back to the highway. It was the proverbial white knuckle ride. Everything looked the same as it did when they had passed through there the first time not all that long ago. Across from the convenience store, where they found Thomas holding Henry hostage after he bit Nick, was the off-ramp. Sophie decided to get on the highway by going up the ramp.

“What are you doing? This is the off-ramp!” Good ol’ Claire. Always trying to walk the straight and narrow.

“Do you think that I
don’t
know that?”

“You can’t go up this! It’s against the law!”

Sophie cackled. “Against the law!” She howled. “Who is going to stop me?” Claire just let out a noise of frustration. “I’m going to get on the highway, and cut across the median between the north and south lanes.”

“Great.”

“What are you worried about?”

“Getting hit by another car!”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “I don’t think we’re going to see anyone, Claire.” Then she pulled up onto the highway and drove a little ways down until she found a division. She drove the truck onto the opposite side of the highway and began to head back toward the city.

***

It took most of the night, but they finally made it to the exit to get to Henry’s apartment. There were a few traffic jams that they had to push through. There were some moments scarier than others, but for the most part, things went well, considering the circumstances.

The nighttime was always eerie. With nothing but the moon and their gore-covered headlights lighting their way, it was difficult to see. Thomas and Claire hung out the windows of the truck, looking for any signs of life…or unlife. The chilly autumn air was cutting through them.

Slowly, Sophie navigated through the city streets, dodging several herds of staggering undeads. Finally, they made it to the street Henry’s apartment was on. It looked just as they left it…corpses rotting in the streets, cars pushed aside, and that limo parked right in front of the building.

When Claire saw that the limo was still there, she flashed back to Marc getting bit at Elaina’s wedding. She went into a zone. Her mind was flashing through all their moments together. Everything from the day they met, until his very end, until the end of them.

She felt guilty giving herself to Nick, wondering if she had properly mourned Marc. It had been only a few weeks since his true death, but it seemed like an eternity.

After she met Marc, Claire had envisioned a life with him. She had given up on her fantasy about Nick and her…for the most part. It was always alive in the deepest parts of her heart. She wanted to marry Marc, she wanted to have his children, she wanted to have a happy life doting on the very man who saved her from falling into a deep depression when her parents died. If it hadn’t been for him, she would never have gotten out of bed again.

Then, suddenly, she flashed forward to the moment that Nick first kissed her. It made that flicker of life stir deep in the pit of her stomach. She always had a crush on him.

Claire and Elaina became friends in middle school. The first time she went over to the Cooper’s, Nick was lounging on the couch, playing his guitar. She remembered being lost in his rhythmic movements. He was singing with his eyes closed, not knowing he had drawn in the audience of one girl, who quickly became smitten with her friend’s older brother.

She would never forget the song:
Going to California
by Led Zeppelin. Nick played it with such ease, such talent, and such grace. When the song ended, Claire softly applauded and he was jolted out of his somber trance. He looked at her with a soft smile. Then Elaina grabbed her arm and pulled her upstairs to her room so they could do what fourteen-year-old girls do best…gossip.

From that moment on, she had a yearning for Nick, but she couldn’t confess her feelings, fearing that he would reject her. Every time she saw him with his next fling, a jealous streak would run through her body. Claire could never understand why Nick only saw her as Elaina’s friend and never as much, much more.

After Nick’s graduation, he went away to college. Claire’s feelings simmered down when she wasn’t seeing him several times a week. Then, in her senior year, she ran into Marc…literally. She ran into him with her car, bumping into him in a parking lot. Once he saw how beautiful she was, he forgave her.

They began dating and, a few years later, she stood up at the front of the church for Elaina and Henry’s wedding…daydreaming. She was hoping that Marc would ask her soon. Then Pastor Jones staggered out and tore Marc’s throat open, taking all of her hopes and dreams with him. Claire let out an ear piercing scream.

“What! What is it?!” Sophie yelled, while shaking her shoulder. Claire realized she had been in her own world, reliving one of her worst days. She was crying and shaking all over. “Claire! What’s wrong?”

“Marc… I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Who is Marc?” Thomas asked.

“Claire’s boyfriend…well… Christ. He’s true dead now,” Sophie mumbled. They sat in the truck in silence for a moment. Thomas decided he wasn’t about to ask any more questions. “Claire, you have nothing for which to be sorry.”

“I do!” she shouted with excessive emotion.

“No. No, you don’t. You did what you had to do.” Claire wondered what Sophie knew. She wondered if she knew everything. She was sure that Henry must have mentioned what happened to Marc. How could he not?

“You don’t understand,” Claire muttered.

“Me? I don’t understand? You
do
realize what I am, right?”

Claire nodded, but then said through her river of tears, “I betrayed Marc’s memory.” She put her face in her hands.

“What could you have possibly done to betray his memory?” Sophie was trying hard to be kind and understanding, which wasn’t exactly her usual M.O.

Claire looked at Sophie, trying to relay the answer without having to say it out loud. If she said it, then it would true. It was like her parent’s death. If she doesn’t acknowledge it, it never happened.

“Ohhhh, right. I understand.” Sophie took a deep breath.

“Please don’t say anything to anyone.”

Sophie nodded. “You can trust me.” She touched Claire’s cheek with her icy hand. Claire never imagined she would bond with Sophie. “Now, come on. Wipe those tears away. We need to get up to Henry’s flat.”

“How do you do it?” Claire whispered.

“Do what?” She wasn’t sure what Claire was talking about.

“Watch Henry and Elaina.”

“Ah, yes. That. Quite frankly, it
is
rather difficult. I loved him, and I still carry a torch for him. That’s obvious. But I have to step aside. I originally thought that once we reunited, he would forget about Elaina and he would be mine again. Henry is amazing, and we were great together. I know there’s a picture of him next to the definition of insane in the dictionary, but there have been some extenuating circumstances. Now I have to wonder if maybe we had just fallen together because of our situation. We could relate to one another. Convenience, yeah?” Sophie took another deep breath. “Anyway, enough about that. We should go.”

They all got out of the truck, scanning their surroundings. Since Sophie had the only fully loaded gun, she went first. Claire and Thomas followed closely behind.

They made their way up to the third floor, not a single undead in their path. Sophie scanned the floor through the little window before opening the door. She put the key in the lock and, before she turned it, took a deep breath, readying herself for anything that could be waiting for them. Then she opened the door to Henry’s apartment. She quickly scanned the front of the apartment and everything looked the same as when they left.

They all breathed a sigh of relief. Sophie stalked off and cleared the rest of the apartment. She came back and met both Claire and Thomas in the living room.

“Look, I’m tired. I’m going to get some rest. When daylight hits in a couple hours, we will pack up.” Sophie walked back toward the bedrooms, leaving Claire and Thomas in her wake to fend for themselves.

“Well, where should I sleep? Here?” He pointed at the couch. Claire nodded, and he grabbed the blanket that was thrown haphazardly on the floor. She headed back to Henry’s bedroom, ready for a few hours of sleep herself. She was exhausted.

Claire lay down and snuggled up under the bedding, wishing she could snuggle up to Nick. Sophie was right. She had to move forward. When she and Nick talked about Jenna and Marc, they both thought they would have wanted them to move forward. They could understand what the other was going through so maybe they could learn to cope with it together.

It was chilly in the apartment. She took a mental note to grab some of Henry’s winter clothing. Oddly enough, she hoped they could head south shortly after they got back to the house. Staying in the north would just make matters worse. The snow would arrive soon, and they were ill-prepared for it. Heading south just made sense.

***

The sun came streaming in the window. Sophie groaned. She wasn’t ready to get up and was thoroughly enjoying her sleep. She rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head, opting for more rest.

“Sophie?” Claire peeked into the room, and she groaned again. “Sophie, come on. Thomas and I have got nearly everything packed up.” She jumped up out of bed, forgetting that she was just in her bra and panties.

“Why did you not wake me up?” She was racing around, getting dressed and packing at the same time. Claire saw how fit she was. She had some serious abs, and her arms were cut, as well.

“I thought you could use the extra rest.”

“I don’t need extra rest!” Sophie snapped at Claire. Instead of a rebuttal, she just turned around and stormed out of the room. “Claire! Shit…” Sophie finished grabbing all of her possessions and quickly walked down the hallway.

“Claire.” She was a little out of breath. “I’m sorry.” Claire just looked at her with disdain. “I’m sorry.”

“Whatever, Sophie. I thought I was doing you a favor, but I see now how silly I was.” She was irritated. She thought they had bonded the day before so to get attitude from Sophie wasn’t what she expected. “Anyway, what should we pack from Henry’s room?” While waiting for a response, she searched the hall closet for a couple more pieces of luggage and duffels.