Broken Dreams (52 page)

“Claire…” He grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look in his eyes. “I understand why you would feel that way, but it’s different with you. I feel like it’s supposed to be. You are amazing, and this should have happened ages ago. Hence why I never settled down. Don’t you see? We are supposed to be. The first time we were together, I knew in my heart that you were what was missing in my life. I knew you were the only woman I wanted to ever be with again. It’s you, and that’s it. I can’t imagine feeling that magic with anyone else.” Claire thought about every word Nick said. “What brought this on?”

“I don’t know. It’s just something I feel that is hanging over us.”

“Well, you put away those fears. As long as I’m alive, and you’ll have me, I will be here and only here.”

“I needed to hear that,” she whispered. Nick pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “We should work on this mess. I have no idea how we are going to fit all of this in Henry’s truck.” Nick grumbled because he had other things in mind besides reorganizing.

“We may have to leave some stuff behind.” Nick stood looking at the mountain of supplies, pushing his hands through his hair.

“I have no idea what we could do without. The good thing is we’ll only have to worry about gas for one truck.” Nick and Claire sat down on the floor, elbow deep in supplies.

***

Henry stood just outside of the doorway, staring at Sophie’s truck. “I don’t know why I look at this truck as an extension of Sophie. It’s a company-supplied vehicle. It’s not like it was actually hers.” I didn’t say anything.

He walked to the vehicle while watching the surroundings. Thomas leaned against the house, covering us. Henry opened the driver’s side door, and immediately stepped back. I stood strong next to him.

“I can do this if you want.”

“It’s just hard. I feel like she’s just going to come around the corner, you know?” He continued to stare at the driver’s seat.

I reached in and began checking every compartment and place that she could have possibly hidden things. Henry walked around to the back and opened the liftgate.

There wasn’t much in the truck, just a few needles and a couple rogue bullets. Both would be useful. We didn’t find any personal effects. I think Henry was hoping to find something he could hold on to besides the one piece of luggage with her clothes, and her pack. Something that would always make him think of, and feel, Sophie.

“I’m sorry we didn’t find what you were looking for.” He didn’t say anything, but got in the driver’s seat and started the truck, checking the gas gauge.

I watched him work diligently. He shut every emotion out. Every move he made was methodical. It was sad to see that he was still so programmed. I don’t think he would ever be able to just relax and let his guard down.

Once he finished, he put both sets of keys in his pocket. Henry then grabbed my hand and we went back inside. I opened the door, and found Claire and Nick on the floor organizing supplies.

Claire looked up and frowned. “Elaina, I have no idea how we’ll fit all of this in one truck. It’s nearly impossible. We need to decide what to weed out.”

We all sat down and went through everything until we had our supplies paired down enough to fit in the truck. I was surprised when Henry said we should leave Sophie’s clothes behind.

Once we were satisfied that we could fit the supplies that we wanted to take with us, we loaded up and got the hell out of there. I didn’t want to spend another minute in that townhouse. It was just one more place with bad memories.

With a deep breath and a calming silence that filled the inside of the truck, Henry safely navigated back to the highway. We continued forward to our destination, where I presumed we would make more bad memories.

Chapter 33

-December 2014-

t had taken us well over a month to get to Virginia. There were a few times when I didn’t think we were going to make it between coming close to running out of gas, the undeads, congested roads, and other survivors trying to take our supplies. Henry got into a few fist fights with other survivors. The last fight, I had to have Nick pull him off of the douchebag before he killed him.

We spent about half of our ammunition. Henry was worried that we wouldn’t have enough to get us to Gunther. The meeting point was supposed to be at one of the ports in North Carolina.

I was almost hoping that Gunther wouldn’t be there. I didn’t think I could handle another Kellan situation. I had already seen Henry and Gunther duke it out once, and it wasn’t pretty. Gunther was bigger. Henry’s speed did give him a run for his money, though. I snapped out of my thoughts when I realized Henry was pulling the truck over to the shoulder of the highway.

“Nature calls. Nick? Thomas?” They both decided to go with him. I looked back at Claire, who looked worried.

“Don’t worry. They’ll be back in a minute.” I was trying my best to be comforting. I wasn’t very good at it, but I had to keep trying.

“Oh. Yeah.” She fiddled with her fingers. I could see there was something really wrong.

“Claire, what’s going on? Did you and Nick have a fight?” She shook her head. “Tell me. I can see you’re upset.” There was a long silence.

Just when I thought I was going to die from curiosity, she said, “I think I might be pregnant.” Her voice was so quiet that I thought I misheard her.

“Pregnant?”

She nodded. “Even through all this bullshit, I’ve been on time. I was supposed to get it two weeks ago.” I didn’t say anything. Frankly, I didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know what to do, Elaina.”

“You have to tell him.”

“I know, but we can’t bring a baby into this crazy, fucked up world! We’re barely surviving ourselves.” The tears flowed down her cheeks. She put her face in her hands, and I reached back and rubbed her knee.

The three men came back, relief written all over their faces. Nick opened the door and saw Claire crying.

“Claire? Hey. Hey. What’s wrong?” He pulled her close, and she pushed her face into his chest. “Claire…?” He looked at me with his eyebrows raised, asking me what was going on.

“She’s just worried.” I turned around and faced the front. I took a deep breath, hoping Nick wouldn’t ask me anything.

“Claire…tell me what’s going on. Please. You’re scaring me.” I knew he had to be truly worried because he would never admit to being scared. She shook her head. Nick opened the door. “Let’s go outside, and you can talk to me in private.” He guided her out of the truck and walked her to the back.

***

“We’re alone. Sort of.” Nick grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes. “Whatever it is, I want to help you. I love you. Now, please, talk to me.” Claire leaned up against the bumper of the truck. She looked at Nick with such sadness, tears still running down her face.

“I think…” She had to take a deep breath. “I think I might be pregnant.” She stood in silence, wiping her tears on her sleeve. Initially Nick was stunned, but began pacing moments later.

“Are you sure?”

“No, I’m not one hundred percent sure. But I’m two weeks late, and I’ve been feeling sick to my stomach for the past couple days.”

“Shit…” He stopped in front of Claire and put his hands together in front his mouth. After a couple of deep breaths, he stepped closer to her and pulled her into him. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this.”

“The baby will be a burden on the group,” she cried.

“They will just have to accept it.”

“I’m sorry. We should’ve been more careful.”

“Well, we can’t turn back time so we just have to move forward. Okay?” He pulled her chin up and wiped her tears off her face. He smiled. “You are an amazing woman, Claire. I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else.”

“It’s going to be tremendously difficult. I don’t know how we’ll clothe, or diaper, or even feed the baby. I can’t imagine I would produce enough milk with the lack of nutrients I’m getting.” She was breaking his heart. Claire always wanted to be a mom, but not under those current circumstances.

“I know. We’ll take it day by day, one step at a time.” He rubbed her shoulders. They heard the truck door open, and Henry rounded the back.

“Ahh… Sorry. I hate to break this up, but we need to get moving. It’ll be dark soon, and we need to find a place to stay.” He was trying not to intrude. Claire wondered if Elaina said something to him.

“Yeah. Sorry. Come on, babe.” Nick gingerly guided her back to the truck.

***

“Are we all set?” Henry asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Nick held Claire, who was still sniffling, close to him. Thomas and Henry had both decided to just be quiet and not ask any questions about what was going on.

“You know, we’re close to a military base. I heard rumors before all this mess began that there is a massive cache of weapons at this particular one.” Henry waited for someone to respond. It didn’t look like that was going to happen. “Fantastic,” he quipped. He was really catching on to my sarcastic ways.

“Yes…fantastic, Henry,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I don’t think it’s a great idea. It’s military.”

“Correct,” he replied in a rather cheerful tone. “That means they have bigger guns and bigger ammo.” He grinned. I had no idea why the thought of weapons made him so giddy. It was kind of creepy.

“I don’t know, Henry. It just seems too risky. What if they are still in operation and we try to steal from them? We’d all be undead food. Besides, the military has to still be in operation with the bombings up north.”

“If you hadn’t noticed during our small expedition, there have been bombings here, as well.”

“Henry… I just don’t see this as a good idea.”

“We’re running low on ammo, and I want to be sure I have enough to take out Gunther and whatever army he has gathered.”

“I understand that. It just seems dangerous.”

Henry laughed. “Look around us, love! It’s dangerous everywhere.”

“Don’t be an asshole,” I grumbled.

Nick spoke up. “Maybe we could just drive past it and see what it looks like.”

“I guess that would be fine,” I mumbled. “I just want us to be careful.”

“Love, have you forgotten with whom you are riding?” A wide grin spread across his face.

“Oh, my god, Henry,” I groaned.

“Oh, love, I know you enjoy me thoroughly, but to call me a god? That’s a little excessive, don’t you think?” I crossed my arms and looked out the window. I was suffering from a range of emotions: anger, embarrassment, and irritation.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Mr. Daniels,” I growled.

“Oh! Burn!” Thomas yelled with a laugh. Sometimes I forgot that we weren’t alone.

“Shut up, Thomas!” Henry quipped. There was an eruption of laughter throughout the truck. Even Claire laughed. “We’ll just have to see about that next time, my love.” He put his hand on my thigh and squeezed it. A loud sigh escaped my throat.

“Keep it up, Mr. Daniels, and there won’t be a next time.”

“I better shut up then.” He chuckled.

***

As dusk arrived, Henry pulled the truck up to what looked like an abandoned farmhouse. The formally white, now grimy gray paint needed refreshing, the porch was tilting to one side, and some of the windows had cracks in them.

It was a chilly night. The south had been somewhat warmer than the north, obviously, but it was still pretty damn cold.

“Thomas, come with me. Nick, take care of the women.” Henry and Thomas checked their guns, then headed to the house. I saw the curtain draw back a little bit.

“Nick, there’s someone in there.” I rolled down the window. “Front left window!” The curtain fell back across. “Nick, what if they get hurt?”

Once again, my nerves were taking over. My stomach cramped when I saw Henry knock on the front door. I hid my face. I couldn’t bear to watch him get shot…or worse. Sometimes having faith in Henry just wasn’t good enough. Nick reached up and held my hand.

***

Henry acknowledged the yell from the truck with a wave. He approached the house carefully. He held his arm out, indicating to Thomas to stay behind him, then knocked on the door.

“What do you want?” came a woman’s voice from inside.

“Ma’am, my name is Henry, and this is Thomas. My crew and I don’t want to hurt anyone. We just need a place to stay for the evening.” There was a long silence.

“I don’t have enough food and water for everyone.” He could hear the contemplation in her voice.

“We have food and water. We can give you some of our supply as payment for allowing us to stay.”

There was another long minute before Henry heard the click of the lock. A worn, middle-aged woman stood before him. “Hello, ma’am. Thank you. I appreciate this tremendously.”

“I didn’t say you could stay yet.” She glanced past Henry and looked at the truck. “How many are there?”

“Five in total.”

“I have one spare room. The rest will have to sleep on the sofa or the floor.”

“That’s fine, ma’am. We would be grateful just to have a roof over our heads. It’ll be just for one night. We’re traveling to North Carolina to meet family. Well… hopefully meet family.”

“Your family?”

“Yes. Extended.” She looked at Henry and Thomas, debating on whether or not she should take them in for the evening. “Like I said, we won’t hurt you or use any of your belongings.”

“Can I meet everyone first?”

“Certainly.” Henry jogged back to the truck.

***

“She wants to meet everyone first. Proper behavior please…Elaina.” He raised his eyebrow at me. I snarled. I couldn’t understand why he would say that to innocent little me. The three of us got out and walked up to the front porch. Nick watched our surroundings.

“This is my fiancée, Elaina; her best friend, Claire; and that’s Elaina’s brother and Claire’s boyfriend, Nick.” We all put on our best smiles. She looked all of us up and down several times.

“You’ll be gone around daybreak?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Henry was really working his charm.

“Okay then. But I assure you, I can defend myself.”

“Without a doubt.” Henry smiled again. “Can we bring in all of our belongings? We can’t afford to have any of it stolen.”

“Yes.” She stepped back from the door and waved us in. Claire and I went inside, but Henry, Nick, and Thomas went to unload the truck.

“Thank you for allowing us to stay the night. We are so very grateful.” I looked at Claire, wondering if she was impressed by my wonderful words. She raised an eyebrow at me.

“Yes, thank you. I didn’t catch your name.” Claire was as sweet as pie.

“Addie.” She was curt and all business. I could tell she wasn’t pleased with us being there.

“Well, we should probably help the boys get our things.” Claire turned to head back out the door, and I grabbed her shoulder.

“Why don’t you sit down? I’ll help.”

“I can help.”

“I just…” I noticed Addie was watching us. “Okay.” We both went out to the truck, only for Nick to pull Claire aside and whisper to her.

“Stop treating me like I’m helpless!” she growled.

Nick grabbed her arm before she could turn away from him. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself or the…”

“Let…go…of…me.”

“Just let her help,” I said. “There’s no sense in fighting her and getting her all riled up.”

“Fine.” He let go of her arm and handed her a couple blankets.

It took us about fifteen minutes to unload everything and bring it into the house. Addie had directed us to drop our belongings into a corner of the living room. Henry opened the box containing our dwindling food stock, handing her a couple jars and bottled water.

“I apologize that I can’t spare more. We haven’t had much luck finding more food as of late. We hope that, once we get settled somewhere, we’ll be able to plant a garden.”

Addie hesitated. “Why don’t you keep these then? I have a garden out back. I also have a couple chickens, and by the looks of y’all, I think you could use a nice meal.” My mouth watered.

“Oh, that sounds fantastic!” I couldn’t control myself.

Henry glared at me. “Now, love, we’re asking a lot from her already. Let’s not put her out any more.”

“No. No. It’s fine. I insist. I miss cooking for a crew.” Addie smiled at us for the first time. “Would one of you girls like to come with me and keep an eye out while I slaughter the chicken?” I shuddered.

“I’ll go.” Thankfully, Claire volunteered or I might have thrown up. I had been getting used to the blood being passed around in front of me, but I really didn’t think I could handle slaughtering a chicken.

“Alright. Follow me.” Nick handed Claire his gun. Addie grabbed the supplies she needed out of the kitchen, and they went out the backdoor. I was a little nervous with Claire out there by herself. I wasn’t sure if Addie was packing some heat, besides the giant butcher knife she took with her. I stood there chewing my lip, keeping an eye on the situation. I felt Henry’s presence behind me.

“She’ll be fine,” he said in a hushed tone as he wrapped his cool arms around my body. He nestled his face into the side of my neck and laid soft kisses on it, letting out a groan that tore through my body.

“Henry, stop!” I swatted at him.

“You tease me all the time. The way you walk when you know I’m behind you. The way you flip your hair. The way you purposely bend over in front of me. It kills me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten hard just watching you.”

I smirked. “I would never do that.” I tried to sound as innocent as I could. He was swaying back and forth. He kept moving his hands up and down my sides in a sensual manner.

He groaned again and whispered, “I want you so very badly, my black-haired beauty.”

The rasp in his voice could make me buckle at the knees. His tongue traced up my neck to my ear. His cool breath made me shiver. He pressed his hips into my lower back, and I felt his arousal. I had to pull away before I dragged him somewhere and released my pent up tension.